Kings and Sirens (The Blood Falls Book 2)

“Georgiahana says the DNA has been corrupted beyond repair in several of the samples. However, in the rest she was able to identify the same unknown component found in the prisoner from the House of Axl known as Ryddyck.” Leena stood at the front of the main tent giving a full report to Layla and Hex, confirming every one of the Doctor’s worst fears.

She seemed upset. Almost scared. She kept referring to a piece of paper in her hands as she spoke. I couldn’t wait for the meeting to end so I could hold her and tell her I wouldn’t let anything happen to her. She would never become a Salishan or a Ryddyck. Then I would make love to her until she forgot there was anything to worry about.

It was a solid plan.

One that would reassure me as well.

“What do we do?” Hex said. “Kill the poor bastards and put them out of their misery? Or is there something they want from us that we’re not understanding? Doctor, is there anything that can be done to return them to their original state?”

The Doctor stepped forward to stand beside Leena. “No. I’ll continue working, of course, but my current opinion is that with the DNA altered the way it is, there’s nothing in our current abilities to save them.”

“Do you agree?” Layla asked Leena.

She nodded. “I do. I’m not the expert that my sister is, but from everything she explained to me, no. This is what they are now. Whether that is a bad thing or not, remains to be seen.” She rushed on, sounding nervous and unsure. “I’d like to take a team to study them. Perhaps a mix of Wren and Heida. My siblings and I are half Gatlin, as you know. We all have some form of psychic gift and as the Doctor explained, there seems to be some sort of psychic component to their transformation. Perhaps we can communicate with them or at least understand whether they’re in pain or what it is they need.”

Layla held up her hand to stop Leena’s babbling. “That’s enough. I understand your meaning.” She glanced at Hex who nodded once. “Put a team together. We’re not going to rush up there. We’re going to be careful and take every precaution. But…you’re right. We need your help to come to a resolution.”

Leena half bowed and returned to a seat out of the spotlight.

The whole rest of the meeting was logistics and planning. Shit neither of us needed to be there for. Hex would tell me what he wanted me to do. In situations like this he took his role so seriously he couldn’t see straight. It was fine with me. I knew what I wanted and where I belonged. When I sat in his seat I’d worry about the things I needed to worry about and not a moment before. I itched for the rest of the meeting to get to Leena. There was a sadness that surrounded her I didn’t understand but needed to.

All the festivities attached to Midnight Dreams were canceled and we were requested to stay in camp until a solution for the Salishan was found. Yes, we were a single target, but no one would be ambushed alone in the forest either. That meant everyone would mostly retreat to their tents to make love and fuck under the cosmically aligned full moon. Undoubtedly there would still be a show or two to watch, but by and large this would be the most somber Midnight Dreams of my life.

And I was very pleased with that. Leena and I would retreat to my tent and stay there until we were released from the spell.

When the meeting finally—finally—broke up I had to fight to get back to her. Everyone wanted to talk about something. No one seemed to understand I didn’t give a fuck about anything. When I finally got to her she didn’t reach for me. It was like all the fight had left her.

The meeting must have been draining. Plus the stress of traveling home and being an ambassador of such bad news.

“Come. You need to rest.” I finally took her small hand in mine.

“No, Atsila. I need to go back to Blood Falls.”

“Not tonight. You’re tired.” I wrapped an arm around her and began guiding us out of the tent, attempting to use my large size to hide her.

“I am tired, which is why I should go straight home. I can sleep in my own bed and begin putting together a team first thing in the morning.”

“Hex won’t be ready to take a team out past the Line tomorrow. Maybe not even the next. He’ll scout and plan before he lets you across.”

She tried to shrug out of my arm, which I found very confusing. “What are you doing?”

“Going home.”

I came to a complete stop as everything finally sank into my thick bear skull. “You don’t want to be with me.”

“It’s not that.” She took my hand and shook her head, but didn’t make eye contact.

“I’m just…I’m overwhelmed.”

“Which is why you should come to my bed.”

She shivered. A good response. “Atsila, I—”

“Whatever excuses you have can wait until morning. After food and sleep.” I wrapped her back up and moved faster toward my tent. I didn’t know why she was being so resistant to me pampering her, but I was determined to push it aside for now.

She kept babbling and squirming all the way to my tent. It wasn’t until I had her pinned under my weight and a grape in her mouth that she finally relaxed. “See? You’re hungry.”

“Aren’t I supposed to be the one in charge?”

“My strongest instinct is to protect you. You’re tired and hungry, and since you resist the idea of taking care of yourself, it falls to me.” I moved to sit with my back at the pillows and Leena cradled between my legs. I fed her, encouraged her to drink a mug of beer, and then slowly began to pleasure her.

First between her legs, but then she was gasping for air and I didn’t want her to choke, so I slowed down until she was only sipping from the mug. Then I began to play with her nipples through the fabric of her shirt. “You never chose to wear any of our jewelry.”

“That’s because I’m only interested in you. Even when you wouldn’t have me.”

“I like that very much.”

“You’re selfish,” she teased me.

“I am. I want you all to myself. My brothers enjoy sharing, and perhaps I enjoyed having fun as well—when there were no stakes. This is different.”

She grew quiet so I set the mug aside and pulled her clothes away. “Give control to me.”

“No wait.” She twisted in my arms to straddle my lap. It was inconvenient if her goal was to make me wait. I was already hard and my patience was thin at best. “We should talk.”

“Talking is the last thing I want to do.”

Emotions radiated out of her. Her eyes wandered the tent as she tried to find the words. She was so upset I couldn’t stand it. So I took her face in my hands and kissed her until she was breathless, her breasts heaving against my chest and her fingers digging into my arms.

“You’re safe with me, my love. I will protect you from them.”

“Oh!” Her eyes blinked open in surprise.

I liked the change so I went on. “They won’t hurt you. I won’t allow it. And whatever this rift is, I will keep you from that too. This is what I’m made for. It’s what I’m best at. Protecting those I love is my reason for being.”

“Oh, Atsila.” Her hands found my face too.

“Let me love you. I can see how much you need it. Tonight, the moon is nearly full. Lose yourself to it.”

She shuddered again. Then nodded.

I spun her back around, one hand between her legs, skimming through slick arousal, the other over her breast to her nipple, finding new and fun ways to tease and clamp it. She writhed against me.

“Fuck. Yes. More! How…how are you doing that?”

My fingers made a V around her nipple, gliding and squeezing. “You like?”

“I like.” She arched backward, sending more of her luscious tits into my palms. While my Leena was a tiny thing, her breasts filled my large hands. I found it enormously sexy and satisfying—even if she was using some of her mind games to fuck with me.

Sure enough they swelled under my hands. Her perfect breasts grew several sizes. I played with them, marveling at the way they managed to feel real even though I knew it was a trick for my eyes. “They feel real.”

“They are real,” she moaned as I tugged.

“I don’t understand and I don’t care.” I slid out from behind her, letting her lay flat on the bed while I climbed between her legs, lapping up the arousal like it was goddamned cotton candy. She was hot and swollen for me, her now enormous tits heaving as she panted, the nipples moving like a target to be found. “You ready for me, Leena? I want to be inside you.”

“Fuck yes,” she moaned, then gasped when I moved over her like lightning, pressing the head of my cock where my tongue had just been. Her breasts felt like pillows between us and I rubbed my chest against her nipples.

“Suck. I want you to suck.”

“Not until I’m inside you.” I pressed slowly inside, sighing with relief when all her wet heat surrounded the head of my throbbing dick. I took a moment to simply enjoy how good it felt to be squeezed in the world’s softest glove. Then I dipped down and licked one swollen nipple into my mouth.

It was heaven. Soft and hard, supple. But even better were the moans of approval. “Yes. Like that!”

I palmed her other breast, moving it around, confused and delighted by how real they felt. So I decided on a little experiment. As I slid deeper inside Leena. I massaged her breast, bringing it up to her lips. Somehow…it worked. “Can you make yourself feel good?”

She grinned up at me, very much drunk on the high of the eclipse. Her eyes were more dilated than usual and she had a lazy smile. “Sure can.” Then she licked out with her tongue, teasing circles around her own nipple, her channel squeezing me tight, before she wrapped her lips around it and sucked herself between her lips.

I couldn’t look away, so I didn’t. I moved very slowly back to her other nipple and massaged it in my hand, perking it up for my lips. My dick sank deeper and deeper while we each teased a nipple. I lost control a little, my instincts taking over. Tonight would be a struggle but I didn’t think either of us minded.

I began to pump into her, thrusting harder and faster. I couldn’t hold back. What I was doing—what I was watching and listening to—were too erotic. The relief of orgasm swept over me and out, crashing into Leena who sighed with satisfaction. I pulled free and cleaned up, and when I returned with the cloths that would get us through the night, my tiny Leena had returned, almost purring like a kitten on the bed.

“I know how I want you next,” I growled. Then I pulled her to the edge, facing away from me. “This won’t do.” I picked her up and walked across the little room to the table. I set her down there just as she was on the bed. On her knees, her feet beneath her ass holding it up in the air for me, her tits out. “Much better.”

“Please, Atsila? Please?” There was that fear again. Fuck she was scared for some reason. Maybe she learned more than she said when she was away. Whatever it was, I would fuck it right out of her. “Just remember you asked for this.”

I slid back inside like I’d never left. Home. Groaning as she squeezed me tight, and then milked at my length, begging for more. “You keep doing that and you’re going to wind up with more than you can handle, little Wren.”

“I can handle a lot more than you think.”

I gripped her thighs and thrust hard and deep. She yelled out and asked for more. Greedy little thing. So I complied, fucking her just hard enough to watch her now smaller breasts bounce. I loved being able to see over her shoulder. There were perks to having a smaller mate. Especially since Leena loved to take her time. She could ride my dick for hours it seemed. Tonight was no different. She rubbed herself all up and down my erection, begged for me to massage her clit. Sat up straighter and moaned louder when I put my thumbs inside her. Everything was so hot and wet tonight. Everything felt so good.

We were still going at dawn.

Leena on her back, my dick in her ass. Leena on top of me riding me hard. Between her breasts. Her mouth on me, mine on hers, it wasn’t enough. Her emotions were still wild and nothing seemed to calm them.

I sank back down between her thighs, licking while I fingered her everywhere. “What’s wrong little Wren?”

“What makes you think there’s something wrong?” She looked away and I knew whatever it was, I’d been wrong this whole time.

Maybe she was scared, but it was something else. “I can see it. Tell me.”

She moaned as I pressed deeper and licked. Then sucked. “I think I’m falling in love with you, Atsila.”

That was wonderful news. I pulled myself up over her until we were nose to nose. “I think I’m falling in love with you, too.”

She whimpered. “I ruined it.”

“How?” I pushed back her damp hair and ran a thumb over her cheek.

She licked her lips and looked away. “Just, hear me first, okay? Hear my words.” She waited until I nodded. Meanwhile my heart had begun thumping so hard in my chest it hurt. “I felt something the day we met. Something wonderful. I didn’t know what, but I liked it. The more we spent time together, the more I liked you.”

“I feel the same way.”

She half smiled and looked over my shoulder. “I fell for you hard. You’re a good Heida. Strong, caring, and the very best protector in the world.”

I balked at that. I had too many losses to ever win that title.

“No, listen.” She went on quickly. “I don’t know what happened before we met, but…”

“But?”

“But what happened at the Line? That wasn’t your fault.”

I knew that. The Salishan attacked. There might never be a good reason. “You’re scaring me, love.”

“I love you,” she whispered, tears pouring out of the corners of her eyes, “but the attack was my fault. They came because of me.”

I felt cold. Cold and surprisingly weak, so I rolled to the side and sat up. I was caught somewhere between terror for Leena’s safety and anger for an attack I didn’t understand. “Explain.”

She sat up against the pillows, pulling her knees up under her chin, hiding her nakedness from my eyes.

Or protecting herself.

Fuck.

“I went past the Line.”

A roar echoed through the tent. It took me a moment to realize it came from me.

She cringed. “I wanted to help. I thought I could sneak up there and get information—which I did. But I’m pretty sure they tracked me back to the Line.”

The tent was suddenly far too small. The walls caved in and choked me until I couldn’t breathe.

“I’m so sorry, Atsila. I never meant to hurt anyone. I was careful. I hiked far away from where we were before I ever shifted. I was small so they wouldn’t see me, but—”

“But?” I needed to tear something in half. The bed would do. Perhaps the tent. Maybe I’d go out into the square and destroy some benches.

“But their psychic energy is strong. They must have known I was there. And they must be powerful enough to track through the Plane.”

I couldn’t absorb this useful knowledge because rage had taken hold. It controlled every inch of my body. “They could have killed you, Leena. And I wouldn’t have been able to do a damn thing about it. I wouldn’t even know what happened to you!” The same helplessness I felt after the attack on my family wracked me now. I needed her to understand she couldn’t do this to me. I wouldn’t survive losing her too.

“I realize that now.” She sobbed as she clambered off the bed and grabbed her clothes. I didn’t understand why until it was too late. “I’m sorry, Atsila. I’m so, so sorry I did this to you. I know how much you’ve already lost and what it cost you. It’s unforgivable that I was the one who brought death to your doorstep again.”

She slowly came closer to me, then went up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to my cheek. I couldn’t move. I was paralyzed by anger and fear. Her kiss felt good though. Right.

“Goodbye, Atsila.”

“No!” My arms grabbed at empty air. The place where Leena had just been was now only swirling air molecules. I felt my love move through the Plane to the edge of Heida land. Then a moment later, further and further away until I could barely feel her at all.

Leena left. And my heart went with her.