The temptation to use this power to push at the serpent before me is a yawning cavern. Instead, a whisper filters through my mind—a song. And I’m reminded I’m not down here because of these snakes. The serpents had no hand in this. I’m down here because of the silvers, because of the prophecy they seem to think I have a connection to.
An eerie feeling comes over me, the similarities of my own findings back in Haven, of a song that could be sung to save us all—the same song that will save Fury and ultimately my people.
There’s so much to be angry at within this moment. It makes me seize up, contemplating.Can I blame these people for following the prophecies of their own God and lands?My hands are aloft in front of my floating form, an inch off the ground, my hair whipping in a breeze of my own making.
Hurting these creatures wouldn’t be right. Hurting an innocent for being placed in a situation that isn’t of their own doing feels sacrilegious. A wolf once gave me clemency when I found myself in the same predicament. Now, it’s time I do the same.
So, instead of using the Godly power at my fingertips, I sing.
thirteen
Gideon
Iwassosureshewas going to blast those snakes out of that pit, the power radiating off her unmistakably Fury. His power flows effortlessly through my songbird’s fingertips, but instead—Gods—she sings.
At her lyrical prose, the vast cavern is silent, the transcendence of Dove’s voice radiates with God power. Chills shoot all the way from my feet through to my cock. Even though we are surrounded, I want to jump into that hole and ravish her naked body.
When she first jumped into the snake pit, I was one movement from following straight after her. But when I saw her power, I knew tohold my ground. I recognised when I wasn’t needed. And though I want her to need me, I can’t stop my heart from expanding when I see her grow into the woman she was always meant to be.
Haven had sucked the life out of her. She was beaten down until she was a shell of herself.
Witnessing Dove step into her strength, knowing it was always within her, is like watching the sunrise. She is utterly magnificent. I cannot tear my eyes away, the Goddess’s song more potent than ever before as she soothes the tower of snakes before her—a horrifying force not even I have observed in my rhythm line. The sinister hisses from the immense form do not deter the human female I’m growing more and more territorial of.
Slowly, as the power-filled song progresses, each interconnecting smaller creature falls off the larger body it has built, the long, slithering animals dropping into slumber on the dirt below. This is not what I expected from the Goddess’s song, and I’m starting to wonder if it has more to do with the woman herself than the lyrics.
With Rivern’s upper body half-exposed, the fae starts pushing through the falling creatures still holding him hostage. Once the last of the song is uttered from Dove’s lips, he’s finally free, a collective gasp going through the silvers.
Finally, Dove’s feet hit the floor, and she runs into Rivern’s arms, lips locking in a naked embrace. I’ve noticed many of the silvers don’t wear clothes themselves, so I surmise they are unaffected by the two naked beings in the pit. Me, though, not so much. My wolf itches to claim the powerful woman wrapping her legs around her bonded’s waist. The kiss we are all witnessing is deep and endless.
I grapple with the idea of shifting back; being in my human form around the songbird is too much to bear. Before, when she straddled my wolf form in the pit, I could feel how it affected her when I gripped her arse firmly in my clawed paws.We can never be.Wolves mate for life with one person. Dove is technically already mated to two others. We could never be a possibility, as much as my cock might want it. I refuse to see inside the fissures of my heart—that is another matter entirely. I know that once I touch my hardened skin against her soft curves, I won’t ever be able to stop or let her go.
There is a real possibility I could go feral with my need for her, especially if she denies me going back for more, because once would never be enough for me.
Fates, have mercy.
Striding away from the suggestive display of affection in the pit, I find myself looking at an unexpected sight; a vast body of water stretches just beyond the snake pit, cloaked in darkness.
A lake?
Twinkling from the centre of the water catches my eye—a small island littered with clam shells, a pearlescent glow emanating from the space.The jewels.This must be where the silvers used to harvest their treasures before they mysteriously started to disappear.
I stand, looking out at the glittering water for what feels like an eternity before the smell of vanilla-scented honey wafts past me. My snout twitches, knowing she’s just behind me. I clench my fists tight, claws scraping against the roughened pads of my palms.
“That is where the jewels should be,” Dove answers my unasked question from beside me. I nod, acknowledging her. I don’t dare look her way. My body already calls to her, knowing she’s nearby, her scentan aphrodisiac that’s already testing me. “Moyrie said this space fills with water each night and drains in the morning, leaving enough serpents in their pit to milk for their tonic.”
Gods.I don’t want to think about the tonic that had my blood alight with unexplored need for the woman beside me. During the darkness, I was so close to pushing the fae who was giving Dove untold pleasures away to give her pleasure withmycock, my wolf wanting to claim her, bite her. A low rumble moves my chest. I take a step away from her.
Soft fingers reach into the fur of my forearm, prickles sweeping my skin. I am holding on by a mere thread. The songbird doesn’t realise she is movements away from being stolen from all of her bondmates and spending the rest of her turns barricaded in a cave, bearing my pups.Fucking Gods, I cannot think of such things.With the seed implanted in my mind, a naked and knotted Dove is all my wolf can picture.
Her nails dig in. I pull away from her, racing for the stairs that will lead me away from the woman who has inadvertently inlaid herself into my psyche.We cannot be.Unable to control myself, a growl rips from my lips.I remind myself to breathe, to focus on finding wide open spaces for my wolf to run this out. It’s a need that is hard to break now. Either way, wolf or man, I’m done for. There’s no respite in my want for her.
Would Fury even allow such a thing?Me and her?The songbird and the dyre wolf shifter. I saw the way he sought to possess her. He is a God. He has already won.
fourteen
Dove
MystomachfallsasGideon runs from me.
