Where There’s Smoke The Phoenix Prophecy Lex Valentine Published 2010 ISBN 978-1-59578-689-0 Published by Liquid Silver Books, imprint of Atlantic Bridge Publishing, 10509 Sedgegrass Dr, Indianapolis, Indiana 46235. Copyright © 2010, Lex Valentine. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author. Manufactured in the United States of America Liquid Silver Books http://LSbooks.com Email:
[email protected] Editor Sharis Mayer Cover Artist Anne Cain This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogues in this book are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.
Blurb A murderous father. A son with a price on his head. Zander’s year-long affair with a mysterious woman ends when she tells him that her abusive mate is the father he’s never known. The woman, a prophesy-dreaming immortal known as the Phoenix, explains that Zander has three brothers and that his father killed their mothers. Now, the Phoenix has dreamt of her mate’s death and Zander’s destiny. Voth is the Phoenix’s successor and Zander’s true mate. The two set out to find Zander’s brothers while eluding the assassins sent after them by Zander’s father. Passion burns hot between them, sealing their fate, as their journey leads them to fulfill the Phoenix’s prophecy.
Prologue The Phoenix rose from the flames, the scent of charred feathers stinging Ancelin’s nose. Darkness held him tightly, the only light coming from the eerie wavering form of the Phoenix and the fire. He tried to move his limbs. Nothing. Awareness flooded his brain as the light from the Phoenix grew brighter. “I’m dreaming,” he said. “Of course,” the Phoenix replied, although its beak never moved. “This is a prophecy.” Ancelin’s heart thundered. In all the years he had been mated to Nix, her phoenix-driven prophecies had never touched him. Every night he slept beside her and knew she dreamed of the destinies of others. Yet, not once had she dreamed of him. Tonight, the world as he knew it shifted on its axis as her phoenix—her soul—came to him as he slept. “You have no need of explanations, Ancelin,” the Phoenix told him. “You know what I tell you shall come to pass.” Ancelin might be a demi-god, but the power of the Phoenix was beyond his control. “Just tell me and get it over with,” he gritted out arrogantly, unwilling to admit fear crept into his heart. The Phoenix’s flames burned hotter, the image glowing brighter. “Your transgressions shall be the vehicle of your end, Ancelin. The pain you have caused others will turn on you. The trinity will break you, and you shall be no more. Your fate is at hand.” Ancelin swallowed hard. If he had been able to feel his limbs, he knew they would be trembling. A phoenix prophecy could never be reversed. It always came to be. The Phoenix’s voice grew cold and disdainful. “Three and three have you used for your own ends. Three times have you broken your vows. Your life force shall be the payment for your transgressions, and three hands will bring about your death. With your passing, new lives will be wrought for those whose lives you’ve torn. With your blood, the circle shall be mended. It has already been decreed.” With a start, Ancelin awoke, gasping for air. Beside him, the flame-haired form of his mate lay still as marble, barely breathing. Anger flooded him, and he wondered if he could break the prophecy by killing her as she slept. Her eyelids flickered. “You have not the ability to snuff the Phoenix’s flames, Ancelin,” she murmured, her turquoise eyes boring into his as she sat up in their bed. Rising to his feet, Ancelin yanked the silk sheet and wrapped it around his hips. He glared at his mate left sitting on the wide mattress, her naked skin glowing in the moonlight. “That’s what you think. And even if I couldn’t kill you, that does not mean I cannot change the prophecy by snuffing out the lives of those who seek to end mine,” he snarled. “I did not dream that on purpose, my lord.” His mate’s words were cool, but respectful. He stormed toward the bathroom, fury riding his heels. “You did, Nix. You knew I was unfaithful, and this is your punishment.” She shook her head, the red-gold curls tumbling around her shoulders. “Ancelin, you
know I have no control over the dreams, over the Phoenix…” “Fuck you. I always knew you were a cold-hearted bitch. Why do you think I sought comfort from others?” Ancelin sneered. He went into the bathroom and slammed the door. * Left alone, Nix rose from the bed. The moonlight showcased her perfect form as she crossed the room to an escritoire. From a small drawer, she withdrew a hand mirror with a gilded frame shaped like a phoenix. She brushed her fingers over the glass and a vision appeared in the oval. A young man with dark hair and argent eyes stared at the ocean, watching the movement of the waves. Nix touched the mirror where his arm was, and he flinched. There on his skin appeared a phoenix mark. He blinked in shock and stared at the tattoo-like artwork that swirled over his bicep. Nix swept her palm over the mirror, and the vision changed. This time, two men, obviously twins, one dark and one light, materialized on the glass. They stood in the forest gazing at the moon. Nix’s fingertip touched the mirror, over the right side of one’s chest, then over the left side of the other. Both flinched as black tribal lines, the mark of the phoenix, wrote themselves onto their skin. Again, Nix’s palm passed over the mirror. She closed her eyes for a moment, a spasm of pain crossing her beautiful features. Opening her eyes, she gazed at the image of a man with hair as fair as the moonlight, his eyes glittering like jet. He stood beside a fire, his face turned toward her. Her fingertip pressed the glass gently, as if she actually touched the side of his throat. Unlike his brothers, shock did not show on his face. Instead, his eyes seemed to bore into hers. She passed her hand over the mirror, and it darkened. Putting it away, she returned to the bed she had shared with Ancelin for the last century. A loveless bed. A loveless mating. Soon the prophecy would come true and she would be free. Ancelin thought he could break it. Nix knew it was possible under certain circumstances, but she was determined that it would not happen this time. The Phoenix would win. It almost always did. And this time, if she were to survive, it must.
Chapter One Zander loved a nice pair of thighs. His current lover had the best thighs of anyone he’d ever been with. His tongue snaked its way up the smooth skin that lined the inside of her left thigh. Her breath hitched in her throat, but other than that, she didn’t even tremble at the onslaught of his agile tongue. A chuckle rose from deep within his chest. Her cinnamon spice scent rose on the warm air, commingled with that of her arousal. Zander pushed her thighs farther apart and flicked the tip of his tongue over her hairless mons. His mouth quirked in a grin as, finally, a tremor shuddered through her. “Tease.” Her husky voice caressed him as surely as the brush of her fingertips over his shoulders. “You love it,” he chuckled and parted her damp folds with his fingers, exposing her engorged clit. Breathing in her rich perfume, he pressed forward, his mouth opening over her sensitive flesh. A choked cry escaped her, and her hips bucked. With one palm braced across her lower belly, he held her still as his tongue languidly circled her swollen nub. As always, the salty sweet flavor of her burst on his taste buds, sending his lust soaring and making his cock hard as stone. “I love what you do to me, Zander. You make me feel alive.” Her voice held a note of despair that was nearly lost in the husky overtones of arousal. Zander had heard that despair before. He knew what it stemmed from, if only in the general sense. Her mate didn’t have a care for her. Abused her and tormented her mentally at every turn. Zander wished he knew who the guy was so he could end her ties to the asshole. Then he would take her for his own. “Zander.” This time her voice was firm and businesslike, not a single note of passion in it. He raised his head and met her turquoise eyes. “What’s wrong, Nix?” She pushed herself up and away from him, scooting to the side of the bed. “You know what’s wrong. I told you to stop those thoughts.” She glared at him, her frustration plain to see in her expression. Zander’s eyes flicked over the tumble of red-gold curls, the creamy skin, tip-tilted breasts, the heart-shaped face, and gaze sharper than a razor. “He doesn’t deserve you. Let me take you away,” he urged. She shook her head. “It is not your place, Zander. He will reap what he has sown. The Phoenix has spoken. The prophecy is in motion.” A frustrated sigh escaped Zander. Now, his cock throbbed heatedly in time to the angry pounding of his head. Nix’s mate had always been a sore spot between them. She refused to tell him who the man was and refused to allow him to free her. For the thousandth time since he’d met her, he wondered how powerful her mate was. She seemed determined to protect him from the man. As if he needed protecting. “From this man, you do require protection, Zander. You cannot take him alone, and drawing his ire would bring about your death. I cannot have that,” she said coolly. The way she so easily read his mind didn’t bother him. When they’d first met it had been disconcerting, but a year later he was used to it.
Rubbing the Phoenix mark on the side of his neck, Zander rose from the bed. His stiff cock bobbed as he walked over to the huge plate-glass window of his bedroom. He leaned one forearm against it and stared out at the storm that lashed the coastline. “Nix, I care for you. What is between us is good, but this situation with your mate…” He glanced over his shoulder at her. “It can’t continue.” White teeth sank into her lush pink lower lip. Her shoulders rose in a silent sigh of acquiescence. She turned her head, looking away from him. Slowly, she rose and began to dress. Once clothed in black jeans, a black cashmere sweater, and boots, she turned, her arms raised as she pulled her fiery hair back into a ponytail. Gathering up a black leather jacket and matching gloves, she walked toward him, her movements economical, yet graceful. “You’re right, Zander. This can’t continue. I should have done this long ago, prepared you months ago, but I didn’t want to leave you,” she said in a low, worried tone. He frowned and pushed back his long, unruly blond hair. “You don’t have to leave me, Nix. Just tell me who he is and I’ll free you from his tyranny.” She shook her head. “Already you don’t understand. Get dressed. We need to go somewhere.” She turned and left the bedroom. Zander grabbed his jeans and yanked them on, buttoning them hastily. He sensed the tension in her and that surprised him. She’d shown him many sides to her personality in the last year, but she’d never shown fear or tension. He tugged a T-shirt over his head and grabbed his leather jacket, padding silently into the living room. Nix stood in the bland stainless steel of his kitchen, a water bottle in her hand. Sitting on the leather sofa, he began to put on his boots. “Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?” he asked, getting to his feet. “No. I’m going to show you something that is right.” Zander followed her to the door, and they stepped into the dimly lit garage attached to his cliffside home. Nix tucked her long hair into her jacket and zipped up, reaching for a black motorcycle helmet. Zander did the same. He adjusted the helmet so that the builtin mic was near his mouth, then turned on the radio that allowed him to communicate with Nix. He hit a button on the handlebar of the sleek black motorcycle in front of him, and the garage door rose. He swung a leg over the heavy bike and settled into the leather seat. Nix hopped on, balancing herself easily behind him. Her arms wrapped around his waist, and the visor on her helmet dug into his shoulder blade. He started the engine with a roar and backed carefully out of the garage onto his private drive. The rain had stopped, but thunderous gray clouds still filled the sky. Gravel spurted from beneath the wide tires of the bike as he put the heavy machine in motion. They sped down the winding road, moving in unison through the curves. By the time they came out on the main highway, the rain threatened once more. “Take the coast road.” Nix’s disembodied voice whispered in his ears. Her body pressed tightly to his back as the bike turned toward the rocky coastline. A huge truck rumbled past them, passing swiftly on their left and shaking them like a terrier with a rat in its mouth. Zander held the bike upright through sheer force of will. Bikers and truckers never seemed to get along on the road. He’d learned that the hard way many years before.
Turning off the main highway onto a twisting road that led to the beach, Zander felt Nix tilt her head back, looking upward, her body stiff with tension. Unable to take his eyes off the road, he had no clue what she was looking at. When they reached the road that paralleled the rocky beach, Zander stopped. The motorcycle’s engine growled loudly in idle. “Which way?” he asked. A soft sound, almost a sob, came through the speakers. Then Nix’s voice filled his helmet. “Left.” They roared south on the coast road, the wild beach stretching to their right, the surf crashing with insane abandon as the next wave of the storm approached. The shifter inside Zander ached to be released. The urge to soar through the sky with the storm fired every nerve ending he had, and adrenaline coursed through him. The elements drew him, the wilder the better, and he loved flying in them. Grounded and in human form, the freedom of his bike with its closeness to the elements was a perfect fit for him. Zander maneuvered the heavy bike around a strange rock formation that sprung up out of the sand. He glanced over his shoulder. A huge bird drifted in the sky, its feathers dull in the half-light, the long tail floating behind it like a cloak. “There.” Nix’s softly spoken words had Zander scanning from left to right looking for “there”. The bird glided closer, and Zander saw a campsite. With more rocks than sand on this part of the beach, the only area of hard-packed sand held a small tent and a fire pit. Nearby, behind a scattering of huge black rocks, stood a monster of a black motorcycle, golden flames licking their way over the fenders. Pulling in beside the other motorcycle, Zander cut the engine and took off his helmet, his shoulder-length hair blowing in the wind. Nix hopped lithely off the bike and removed her helmet, securing it to the back of the bike instead of setting it on the seat as Zander did. He looked at her curiously. Her action inferred that she would not be returning with him. His jaw clenched. Maybe it was time for answers. For a year, he’d welcomed her to his bed whenever she appeared. He would do almost anything for her and not just because he bore her mark on the side of his throat. Emotions he’d never known he had were vested and bonded to her, although he was positive he was not in love with her. Zander followed Nix to the fire pit where the flames rose a bit higher than they should have for an ordinary fire. They swelled when Nix came closer, and he realized they were responding to the presence of the Phoenix. A draft of cold air brushed his face, and he looked up, his eyes tracking the movements of the pale brown bird with the long tail as it circled the campsite. “Why are we here, Nix?” he asked quietly. Seating herself on a smooth boulder, she looked at him across the width of the fire pit. “Because it’s time for you to know the truth and meet your destiny. Your path no longer lies with mine,” she said simply. Anger poured through him in a rush and heated his cheekbones. Silently, he cursed his pale skin and hair. “I hate it when you go all phoenix on me. What truth and what destiny?” He stomped closer to the fire pit, and the flames leapt higher. The bird circling above swooped lower. “My mate is your father, the demi-god Ancelin.”
Nix’s words hit him like bullets, and he recoiled, taking several steps back from her. Cold air swirled around him and the brown bird dove toward the fire pit, the long tail brushing his cheek. As the bird entered the flames, a small explosion occurred, and the flames swelled higher, out of control for a split second. Then they calmed, burning with an eerie glow Zander had never seen before. “So you’re my step-mother.” Zander’s jaw clenched. At first, he wasn’t sure what to make of Nix’s confession. He’d always known his father was an asshole. What decent man seduced a presumably innocent girl then abandoned her once she was pregnant with his child? It didn’t matter that Zander’s mother had used her more-than-considerable shape-shifting powers as well as her magic to deceive his father into thinking her innocent. To Zander’s knowledge, his mother had never had a chance to show his father her true face. The man had simply appeared every night for a week, got his rocks off, and then bailed. Nix grimaced. “I dislike that term. It implies I’ve treated you in a motherly fashion as befits the wife of your father. My position with regard to your father is tenuous at best. When I mated Ancelin, I thought he would be faithful to me and treat our bonding as sacred. I thought he respected and cared for me a little. I suppose I was naïve, because I was wrong on all counts.” She shrugged, her slender shoulders rising and falling gracefully. “It doesn’t matter now. Ancelin’s fate has been decreed. The Phoenix has spoken to him in his dreams. He lives on borrowed time.” Zander pondered her words. He had spent the past year since his mother’s death searching for his father. Almost the entire time he’d been searching, the answers had lain in his arms. He’d been fucking Nix for a year, and she’d never told him the truth. Fury lashed him, but he tamped it down. After all these months, he knew a little something about Nix. She had reasons for her silence. Apparently, the time had come to find out those reasons. “So my father mated you and then cheated on you. Now, he’s dreamed of the Phoenix and knows his death is coming, is that correct?” he asked, drawing the words out slowly and thoughtfully. “Yes, but there is more,” Nix replied. The cool tone of her voice told Zander she held her emotions on a very tight rein. She sat as if relaxed, but her pose didn’t fool him. A maelstrom of emotions rode her hard. He walked around the fire pit and sat on a rock near her, looking into her turquoise eyes. “Tell me,” he whispered, his mind racing. So far, her revelations had been only a little shocking. Whatever else she told him couldn’t be nearly so surprising. A flicker of anguish registered on her face momentarily. If Zander hadn’t been watching her closely, hadn’t known her so well, he wouldn’t have noticed that spasm of emotion at all. “Your mother was not the only girl Ancelin seduced after he mated me.” Nix hung her head in a shamed manner, almost as if her mate’s acts of infidelity had somehow been her fault. Zander’s eyes narrowed. Why the hell would she feel responsible for what that bastard had done? Had she rejected him, leaving him to seek pleasure with another? Her head shot up, her eyes flashing fire. “Of course not!” she exclaimed. “In the beginning, I loved him. Until he betrayed me with your mother. Even then I forgave him and welcomed him to my bed. But he didn’t want me. He spurned me yet again and left
to seduce another. When his seed took root, he left her and took another lover. He stayed away until he had impregnated her as well. Only then did he return to me, bragging of the fertility of these women.” Nix’s long, slender fingers stroked her flat abdomen. “The Phoenix sometimes cannot procreate. There is always another waiting in the wings should this be so. I have no children, therefore, my successor has been chosen,” she murmured almost to herself. The flames in the fire pit swelled once more, and Zander frowned at them wondering if Nix controlled them. He knew she had the ability. Every phoenix controlled fire. It was as if they were fire. “So you’re telling me I have siblings. Brothers? Sisters?” “Brothers,” she whispered, her eyes closing for a split second. His mind tried to sort out her confessions. Three women, three sons. One prophecy. Leapfrogging from one set of ideas to another, a sickening truth occurred to him, and his eyes widened. “Fuck me,” he breathed. “Did my father kill my mother?” Nix bit her lip, then she nodded. “The prophecy said that three hands reached for his throat. He took that to mean that each of the women who bore him sons would try to kill him. So he killed them first.” A fury greater than any he had ever experienced began to grow inside him. “You knew I’d been searching for my mother’s killer, yet you kept this to yourself.” The flat tone of his words conveyed absolutely no emotion. He knew it would tell Nix just how angry he really was. “Why would he kill the women? Why wouldn’t he think it was his sons after him?” With a sigh, Nix stood and paced around the fire pit. “Your father easily believes women will betray him. In your mother’s case, she truly did, although not out of maliciousness. When he discovered the truth of who she was, her days were numbered despite the prophecy, Zander. Your father does not take betrayal well.” Irony rode her expression as she paused in her pacing. “He must always control everything and everyone around him. Betraying him in any way is a death sentence.” She shook her head a little, her long ponytail swaying. “He has no trust in women so his first thought after the prophecy came to him was that I arranged for it because of his infidelity. His second thought was that I would use the three women who bore him sons as the instrument of his death.” “He doesn’t have much imagination, does he?” Zander muttered sourly. The whole story left a bitter taste in his mouth. He knew what his mother had done in order to have him and had wondered if her deception had brought about her death. A soft bark of laughter escaped Nix. The rusty sound told him that her amusement wasn’t the pleasant kind. “Once he killed the three women, the prophecy came to him again. It was then that he began to seek out his sons. Even if he knew the truth, you and your brothers would not be safe.” She waved her hand toward him, and his skin burned with power where her mark lay. “The truth is that your father has four sons not three. One woman bore twins. You have three brothers, Zander. Already there is a connection between you in part because of Ancelin’s blood and in part because you all bear the mark of the Phoenix. I am not sure if your brothers feel this connection, but I know that you do. You have dreamt of them.”
Zander sucked in a breath. Over the past six months he’d had dreams of a merman and two werewolves. Men who also bore the mark of the Phoenix on their bodies, but in different places. The werewolves were marked on the opposite sides of their chests. The merman was marked on a bicep. His own mark was more personal, caressing the skin at the side of his throat. His gaze caught and held Nix’s. “You marked us.” She nodded. “The night your father had the Phoenix prophecy. The marks help protect you from him.” “He wants to kill us.” Again, she nodded. “I marked each of you more than a year ago. Your brother Danyl’s mark did not physically appear until I met him and touched the spot where I knew the mark lay. Your brothers, Jayce and Ryder, had their marks appear when Ancelin tried to kill them.” Zander narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. “Mine appeared the first time I made love to you. I thought you did it,” he murmured. Nix smiled. “I did. But not then.” She sat on the rock beside him. “After Ancelin killed the three women who’d borne him sons, the prophecy again came to him as he slept. Once more, it told him of three hands reaching for his throat, that his death drew near. So he knew he had not stopped anything by killing those women. That is when he decided to kill his sons.” “Why are you telling me now? Why didn’t you tell me when I met you for the first time?” Zander’s head ached from the info dump. He’d fantasized of taking Nix from her abusive mate and keeping her for his own. Now, he knew it would never happen. Best a demi-god and take the man’s mate? No way. Zander had a lot of gall, but tempered it with the wisdom to know when he faced a losing battle. “It will never happen, not because you cannot best your father, but because I am not destined to be yours, Zander,” Nix said with quiet emphasis. “Your mate is another.” Zander’s breath hissed in sharply. Her tone conveyed a gravity that spoke to him of prophecy. Yet, the Phoenix had never come to his dreams. She smiled at him, the corners of her bowed mouth curved upward with a spark of amusement. “I came to you in person, Zander, because a prophecy came to my dreams. The Phoenix is your destiny, your mate, but I am not.” He hadn’t thought she could surprise him any more than she already had, but her words stunned him. Shaking his head as if to clear it, Zander deliberately caught her gaze with his and held it. “How can that be, Nix? You are the Phoenix.” He kept his voice pitched low, hoping it didn’t give away the turmoil within him. “But Zander, did I not say that the Phoenix has come to my dreams? It has foreseen my death. The one who takes my place is your mate.” The soft cadence of her voice washed over him, and he shuddered. The finality, the surety in her words rocked his world. Nix was going to die. The reality of it made his chest ache. His lungs burned with every breath he took. His father would bring about her death. Every cell in his body knew it, and his hatred for the man who gave him life flared anew. “I cannot deny your reasoning, Zander. Ancelin does figure into my end.” Her smile gentled as she shifted on the rock, leaning forward slightly as she spoke. “We are all part
of a larger destiny, you know. Every life is entwined with another, affects others. Each act of destiny affects many. The universe is much more than the sea and shore before you. Beneath the waves lie things you have never seen, and beyond the stars lie things you cannot comprehend. Each thing is a piece of the puzzle that knits together the fabric of this universe and beyond. What your eyes see is a miniscule part. What your heart feels is a much larger, grander portion. What your soul knows is infinite.” Zander clamped down on the urge to tell her being cryptic and going phoenix on him wouldn’t stop him from trying to prevent her death. Instead, he focused on the words that had the potential to fuck with his carefully balanced existence. “Since you know who my mate is, why don’t you clue me in?” He tried to keep his words from sounding edgy with the sense of betrayal that had crept into his emotions. The fire glowed brighter, and the flames rose impossibly high. Zander suddenly wondered why the nondescript brown bird he’d seen earlier had done a kamikaze into the fire. Realization sparked inside him, and his eyes went from Nix to the strange glow in the fire. The outline of the bird appeared and morphed into the shape of a person. A man stepped from the flames.
Chapter Two Being in the flames came second nature to Voth. With phoenix blood in his veins, Voth had the ability to control fire which often seemed at odds with his cool manner. His destiny-bound future gave him a sense of self that fed that demeanor. However, his emotions burned like fire just beneath the surface. As he’d stretched his wings, enjoying his freedom, he’d felt Nix’s call and seen the motorcycle. Trust Nix to choose a lover more suited to him than to her. His thought now came back to bite him on the ass. One glance at the man who sat beside the Phoenix, and Voth’s blood turned molten in his veins. Stepping out of the pyre, he gazed at the tall man and recognition bloomed within him. His face stamped with the unmistakable features of Nix’s mate, his body nearly as big as Voth’s own, his scent that of a shape-shifter… Voth knew in an instant he was Nix’s lover, Ancelin’s son … and the man destined to be Voth’s mate. The strength of his soul called to Voth instantly. A distinctive, arousing scent emanated from him, pushing all of Voth’s sexual buttons. Even the details of Nix’s tale couldn’t hold his entire concentration. Only the man did. Brilliant eyes like the night sky met his. Nostrils flared, the man scented him. Voth’s long legs carried him to the rocks where Nix and his mate sat. Turmoil raged visibly within the shifter. Had he been in the man’s boots, he would have felt the same. Nix’s quiet voice rang with phoenix-born authority. “Zander, this is Voth. He is my successor.” She looked up at Voth, a flicker of fear and pain in her eyes. Despite the power he sensed within Zander, Nix obviously feared for his safety which was a grim sign for Voth. Zander’s gaze shifted from Voth to Nix and back again. His jaw clenched. “I’m just supposed to sit back and accept that this is how it is?” he asked, his voice low and tension-filled. Tears filled Nix’s turquoise eyes. “Please, Zander. You must understand. You are the son of a demi-god and a Vashon warrior priestess. Your parents shaped your destiny by their actions. Believe me, there is no better mate for you than the Phoenix. You must accept this. Your fate, and that of your brothers, hangs in the balance,” she said urgently. Voth stood calmly before them, knowing that to move would break the spell of the moment. Nix’s vivid emotions spilled from her deliberately. Despite the fact that releasing them unguarded might alert Ancelin to her whereabouts, Voth understood her need to show them. Zander—his mate—needed convincing. Silently, Voth urged his mate to accept what he’d been told. Eyes so dark the pupils bled into the irises, gazed up at him. Voth waited, letting his mate look him over, assess him. He knew what Zander saw—a tall warrior’s body, ripped with lean muscle, dressed in faded jeans, boots very like Zander’s own, and a plain brown T-shirt that hung untucked to his hips. The shifter’s gaze intensified, brushing over Voth’s hard, stubbled jaw in an almost tangible way, moving on to the tousled red-brown waves of unruly hair
that barely kissed the collar of his shirt. Finally, those jet-dark eyes met his own turquoise ones. “Voth.” Zander spoke the name as if testing it, but the heavens heard. Thunder rumbled in the distance. Voth’s lips moved, almost of their own volition. “Zander.” “This is not a roll call,” Nix said stiffly as she rose to her feet. “Zander, it’s not like you’ve never been with a man before. You are Vashon. Gender means nothing to you. And you know the significance of finding your mate. You know how it strengthens your power base. You need to be with Voth. We are all in danger. I directly interfered with Ancelin’s plan to kill Jayce and Ryder. I stood between him and the almost certain death of Danyl’s mate. I cannot anticipate his next move, but of a surety, it is against you, Zander.” Voth reached out and laid a hand on her shoulder. She trembled beneath the weight of his palm. Only the uncontrolled stretching of her nerves would cause such a reaction. “This is sacred ground, Nix. Despite his power, he cannot see us, hear us, or find us here unless we allow it,” he reminded her. “The blood of the Phoenix stains these sands making it hallowed soil for those of the Phoenix bloodline.” Voth’s words were for his mate’s benefit. “Then how am I here?” Zander asked, quick to comprehend. “You are the mate of a phoenix,” Voth replied. “And I brought you here.” Nix shifted out from beneath Voth’s hand. Going to Zander, she cupped his face in her palms. “I care for you more than you know. I kept my counsel and did not tell you the truth for no other reason than the safety of you and your brothers. Giving you the key to this whole sordid tale so close to the pain of your mother’s death would have been wrong,” she explained. “Your mind would not have been able to process this information logically. You would have reacted out of pain. You would have tried to find your brothers, tried to save their mothers, tried to kill your father.” She shook her head, the thick, red-gold ponytail swishing softly against the black leather of her jacket. “That was not the time for action.” “And now it is?” Zander’s voice rumbled, an echo of the distant thunder. “How am I supposed to take all of this? An hour ago I didn’t know who my father was. I didn’t know I had brothers. I didn’t have a mate. I had a life I understood.” “You still do, Zander. You’re Vashon and this situation isn’t much different than what happens within your clan,” Nix reminded him. “You’ve seen it yourself countless times. You don’t have to know Voth to accept him as your mate. And you always knew I didn’t belong to you.” Nix stood on her tiptoes and kissed him. Voth felt that kiss like a punch to his solar plexus. Zander’s scent enveloped him, urging him to take his mate, take him from Nix. Despite the hardening of his cock behind his zipper, Voth did not move. Cool heads needed to prevail, not hot emotions. Nix stepped back, her expression set in lines of determination. “This is the time for action and the first thing you must do is accept your mate,” she said firmly. Zander’s jaw clenched, his expression filled with anger. “And if I don’t?” “Then Ancelin wins and we could all die.” She stared at him and Voth felt the
fierceness of her glare even though it wasn’t directed at him. Zander’s eyes flashed with suppressed emotion. “You’re not playing fair, Nix,” he gritted out. “You think any of this is fair?” Her eyes widened mockingly. “Ancelin doesn’t play fair. And Destiny is never fair when she chooses matings. I had nothing to do with your chosen mate. You must cry to the Fates about that. Somehow, I don’t think they will pay much heed though. Matings like this are common among your kind. Why do you protest what cannot be altered? He is Alpha and brings much strength to your pairing.” Voth watched Zander pace the small area. “And if I do accept him?” Zander said finally. “When you and Voth have worked things out and settled your future, return here and the conclusion of Ancelin’s prophecy will begin.” Zander stiffened. “You mean my father’s death?” His harsh tone grated slightly on Voth’s nerves, but he understood the venom. Voth had his own set of hateful emotions regarding Ancelin as did Nix. He eyed her thoughtfully. She stood, spine straight, as she watched emotions flit across her former lover’s face. “Yes.” She took another step back from Zander. “When you are mated as your brothers are, you may return here with them. We will discuss your father’s prophecy then and only then. You must go now.” Spinning around, Nix walked across the hard-packed sand and disappeared into the tent. Zander stood staring after her for a long moment. Voth stood staring at Zander. “If I walk into that tent, she won’t be there, will she?” Voth had to give Zander credit for a lot more intelligence than most people. “No.” After a long moment, Zander let out a frustrated sigh. “She’s right. Had she told me the truth sooner, I might not have handled it well.” “It’s a lot to swallow,” Voth conceded, his gaze on his mate. The next move had to be Zander’s. What they were to each other lay unspoken between them, the air heavy with sexual tension. Humans might take their time getting to know a mate, but immortals knew fairly quickly when something was meant to be. Genetically, the pull of their natural mate called to them the instant they scented one another. The wind tossed Zander’s silvery hair. Its beauty stirred Voth, and he became acutely aware of the erection that throbbed against his zipper. Since he’d already remarked to himself on Zander’s intelligence, he figured his mate had taken note of his arousal. Keen black eyes shifted from the tent to his face. “What is there to work out?” Zander asked coolly, putting the ball back in Voth’s court. Impressed, Voth began to smile. “I can see you are definitely a worthy mate for the Phoenix.” A sardonic expression shone from Zander’s eyes, and he began to walk toward his bike. “I can see you are definitely all about being the Phoenix, starting with the fat, arrogant head.” Voth bit back a sigh and followed his mate. “I’ll admit to some arrogance, but I don’t have a fat head.” Zander snorted. The sound held a large measure of scorn, and Voth frowned. He too had wondered what Nix had meant about working things out. Now, he knew. Zander wasn’t about to just accept his mate and bend over for the mating. Excitement bubbled in
Voth’s veins. Things that came too easily to his hand were never as appreciated as those he had to work for. He would have to work hard to gain Zander, but he relished the effort he’d have to put forth. It would make Zander’s surrender all the sweeter. They stopped beside the two motorcycles. Voth admired the huge black beast his mate rode. They had similar taste in transport. He liked that. Zander slipped on a pair of black leather gloves and threw his leg over the heavy bike. He tucked his long hair into his collar before looking up at Voth. “Are you coming or what? I may not like how my hand is being forced with regard to a mate, but Nix is right. I am Vashon. I’ve been with men before.” His dark eyes skated over Voth with a cool calculation that shouldn’t have aroused Voth, but did. “And Alpha pairings are always preferred among my people. But aside from that, more than anything, I want vengeance on my father. So if we have things to work out we’d best get to them, because by the gods, I want my father brought to justice sooner rather than later,” he growled. Voth frowned again and laid a hand on his own bike. He might not be happy about Zander’s reasons for accepting him, but it would do for now. “We need to find your brothers. Nix said they must be with you when you return here.” Zander nodded briefly and pulled on his helmet. “Are you coming?” he repeated. “I’ll just get … my … stuff…” Voth’s words stretched out and fell silent when his bag appeared and strapped itself to the back of the bike. His leather jacket and gloves appeared on the seat. Nix, he thought, wanting to sigh again. A private discussion became an impossibility when you stood on phoenix sacred land and the Phoenix was only a few yards away. She’d heard every word of their conversation and anticipated his needs. A sudden grin broke across Zander’s face at the appearance of the gear. Voth’s heart crashed into his ribs, thundering madly. Heat seared him. He wondered if Zander had any idea how hot he was. Gritting his teeth, he watched Zander’s grin widen as if he could hear Voth’s thoughts. Voth roughly yanked on his jacket and gloves, preparing to ride. He followed Zander out onto the coastal road, anticipation making his nerves tingle. He decided they were going to wherever it was that Nix usually met Zander, probably a house. When the trip didn’t take that long, he found himself disappointed. Riding alongside Zander filled him with a sense of belonging. They rode up a private road, and he found himself looking forward to being alone with his new mate for reasons other than the sexual. The shifter had great power as Nix had said. Voth wanted to know what kind of power and how it would affect what would inevitably happen between them. Zander turned off the private road onto a wide, flagstone-paved drive. He powered down his bike, coasting into the big garage whose door had automatically risen. As Voth came to a stop on the drive, Zander pulled off his helmet, shaking out his hair. He cocked an eyebrow at Voth idling on the drive. “It’s going to rain. Best bring that beast in.” He gestured toward Voth’s motorcycle. “There’s plenty of room.” Voth parked his bike in the garage, and the door slid down. He grabbed his bag and turned to look at Zander, but the shifter had disappeared. A door stood open in invitation. His curiosity roused, Voth entered the house. Perched on a barely accessible rocky cliff above the coastal road, the house appeared quite large. In fact, much larger than one man—or even two—needed. By Voth’s estimate, based on the exterior dimensions he’d
briefly seen, the place probably had four or five bedrooms. Zander’s leather jacket lay on a brown leather sofa. Voth tossed his jacket down beside it and dropped his duffle bag on the floor. The scent of his mate led him down a hallway and into the master suite, where he found Zander stripping the bed. He eyed the wide expanse of glass that looked out over the cliff and ocean. The elements were wild, lightning flashing over the distant waves, rain clouds gathering rapidly, and wind tearing through the pines. Lightning flashed within him too, but it had nothing to do with weather. “This is an odd time to be doing the housekeeping, don’t you think, Zander?” Voth remarked and propped his shoulder against the doorframe. His mate threw him a disparaging glance, gathered up the bedding, and headed into what must be the bathroom. He returned with a pile of fresh bedding and began to make the bed. “Nix was here. You figure out the rest.” Voth could have kicked himself. Then possessiveness sparked inside him. His cock began to swell again. Zander was his now. The urge to push his mate onto the bed and seal the deal with one thrust grew as each second ticked past. The bed made, Zander straightened, and his eyes met Voth’s. A kaleidoscope of emotions flashed in the ebony irises, anger and frustration foremost among them. The tension in the room deepened, fueled in part by their primal need to mate. Voth held himself under tight control but saw Zander’s control rapidly fraying. “Who the fuck are you, exactly?” Zander growled, pacing the width of the room in front of the huge plate-glass window, in an obvious effort to expend his sexual and emotional frustration. “I’m your destiny, Zander. Your mate. Exactly what Nix said.” Voth tried to keep his tone even and calm, but his mate’s anger battered his senses. Zander stopped and turned, his face set in a stony expression. “Nix said you are her successor, which means she’s going to die,” he gritted out, his eyes flashing. Voth bit back a sigh and moved closer to the man who held the key to his soul. He stopped a scant foot from Zander’s heaving chest. “She’s the Phoenix, Zander. She was always going to die. As her successor, one day I will die too,” he said softly. When Zander’s eyes flashed with emotion, Voth smiled sadly. “I think you’re missing something here.” “What’s that?” Zander held himself stiffly, and Voth recognized that he was fighting their attraction. Arching one brow, Voth leaned in so that his chest brushed Zander’s. “When the Phoenix dies as prophesied, they become just another immortal. Once freed of Ancelin and her duties as the Phoenix, Nix is free to live her life,” he whispered. “So I get you and the Phoenix instead of her and a normal life, is that what you’re saying?” Zander’s words sounded belligerent. Voth figured his harshness was probably driven by the sexual tension that lay thick between them. “Are you saying you don’t want me?” Voth moved infinitesimally closer so his hips brushed Zander’s. The other man went still as stone. Voth searched his expressive eyes for a sign. It was there in the heat that lay beneath the anger. He relaxed a little. Zander wouldn’t fight the inevitable. He was just worried about Nix and how things would play out with Ancelin. Voth didn’t blame Zander for being stressed. It was a dangerous
situation. “How can I lie? You can sense my body’s reaction to you. I can’t hide the truth from you,” Zander said gruffly. Voth cupped the other man’s jaw in his palm and brushed Zander’s hair back with his free hand. “We can’t deny the animal attraction that marks us as mates,” he agreed, rubbing his lips over the sharp stubble that shadowed Zander’s cheek. “You want me as much as I want you. It’s undeniable and unchangeable. It is our kismet.” Zander’s body shook, but Voth knew it was lust not anger or fear that caused it. The same lust raced through him, setting his blood on fire. “What are you going to do?” Zander asked. Voth threaded his fingers in Zander’s silky hair. “I’m going to kiss you. Because you want it and I want it. And then, I think it will be time for us to head to bed, don’t you think?” “Fuck me.” The soft curse came from Zander at the same moment his hands dropped to Voth’s denim-clad hips. A wave of heat crashed through Voth, almost knocking him to his knees. He smiled and kissed Zander, his mouth slanting over the other man’s, his tongue slicking along the crease of his lips. “I will,” he murmured against Zander’s mouth. “Believe me, I will.”
Chapter Three Sex with either gender came easily to Zander. His mother’s people were a warrior race of shifters, a matriarchal society that thrived under the rule of priestesses who governed by the sword. Warriors mated based on skill and ability or by natural predestination. The Vashon preferred to find their natural mate because their abilities became enhanced by their mate’s power base. Raised in a society where Alpha couplings were the norm regardless of gender, finding his mate to be a man held no particular worries for Zander. Still, a thread of apprehension snaked down his spine as Voth touched him. That morning he’d been fucking Nix and now he had a mate. That shocked him far more than the fact that his mate stood a full inch taller than him with a longer reach, broader shoulders and bigger biceps. At six-foot-four, not only had Zander never been with someone larger than him, he rarely ever met someone his size. Now, he had to come to terms with a mate who seemed determined to overpower him on every level. As exciting as the idea might be in terms of sexual play, Zander knew Voth wasn’t playing. Used to being the aggressor, his warrior rebelled at being pushed to submit. So when Voth’s tongue demanded entrance, Zander’s warrior genes reacted and shoved him away. He backed toward the wide glass wall, his chest heaving. Zander stared at the next Phoenix, jaw tight with tension. “No. Nix is right. There are things to be worked out, Voth,” he said stiffly, ignoring the raging hard on in his jeans. “Starting with this: I am not your bitch.” Voth frowned, his bright eyes glittering with lust. “I know. You’re my mate. I want to mate you, Zander.” With a shake of his head, Zander backed away. “You want to mate me. What about what I want?” “I don’t understand.” Voth’s puzzled expression intensified and Zander eased up slightly. Leaning back against the cold glass, he let his gaze roam Voth’s hard body. He looked him over the way he’d look at any man he wanted to seduce. Voth hissed in a breath. “You see?” Zander murmured, his tone husky and sexual. “I want to mate you. I want to lick you and suck you and shove my cock in every hole you have, Voth. My body, my senses, tell me that is what’s right. Every urge I have is to strip those clothes off you and feast on you before turning you over and making your ass mine.” Lust, pleasure and humor warred on Voth’s face. Finally, a smile turned up the corners of his mouth. “What if I’d rather you take me face-to-face?” he asked. Zander’s body reverberated with spirals of lust at his mate’s words. Had it been only that morning he’d thought he couldn’t be more aroused than he’d been with Nix? Just being in the same room with Voth, his scent like sea foam in a storm, permeating Zander’s skin, filling his lungs, sent him into a maelstrom of longing to sink his cock into whatever orifice he could find on the man. “Then I guess I’d just flip you over and grab the lube,” he replied as a smile spread across his face. Maybe the mating thing won’t be a problem after all. Voth reached down, grabbed the hem of his T-shirt, and pulled it over his head.
Zander stared at the broad expanse of golden skin. The next Phoenix was a very beautiful man. The long slabs of muscle stood out in high-definition thanks to taut, sun-kissed skin that seemed to go on for miles. “Zander, I do not seek to be your master,” Voth said with a quiet, sure tone that sounded like silk over steel. “I seek to be your mate. Yes, I want to mate you, take you in every way possible, but I expect the same in return. I know your people thrive on Alpha matings. I would expect nothing less than the same for us.” Voth’s words hit home with Zander, soothing his tension and letting his arousal once more take center stage in his body. “You will be the Phoenix. Your power is beyond mine. I had to make sure you knew who and what I was,” he said simply. Stepping closer, Voth’s hand curled around the back of Zander’s neck, his long fingers caressing. “You have more power than you know, my mate. We will have to explore it soon.” His voice had a low, husky quality that Zander knew fronted a testosterone-driven sensuality yet to be unleashed. “Yeah, later,” he teased, reaching for Voth’s stiff nipples, tweaking them, pinching them with his fingers. A shudder went through Voth’s huge frame, and Zander pushed off the glass window behind him, pressing his body into his mate’s. The hard curves and sharp edges of Voth’s body sent waves of lust pouring through him. He ground his hips into Voth’s, feeling the thick ridge of the man’s erection press first his hipbone, then his own cock. The sound of a moan filled the silence. Zander couldn’t have said whether it was his or Voth’s. This time, when Voth’s mouth sought his, Zander’s lips opened. The rough glide of an agile tongue filled his mouth. Heat poured through him, and the mate scent coming from Voth intensified. Tangling his tongue with Voth’s, tasting him as their lips clung in a series of fevered kisses, Zander’s body came to life, fired by an urgency of his soul. Apparently, he was a lock and Voth the key. They fit together, and being with Voth unlocked a part of Zander he hadn’t known existed. “Can you feel how much I want you, Zander?” Voth whispered into his mouth. The feel of those firm, damp lips moving on his sent shivers of anticipation through Zander. Lust swamped his body, driving him incoherent with desire for Voth. He’d heard tales of couples so frantic to mate that they clawed and injured each other during mating. Zander didn’t mind rough sex, had always rather liked it that way with men, but something gnawed at the core of him, telling him that wasn’t the way it should be with Voth. Something inside him insisted that every touch, every taste, every lick and thrust be made with more than just his body. The acts he would perform with Voth this night needed the commitment of his soul. Zander let his fingers trace the hard contours of Voth’s chest. The man had sculpted planes and bands of muscle that were like and yet so unlike Zander’s own that he marveled at every unyielding bit he touched. Voth’s skin had the texture of rough linen beneath Zander’s exploring fingertips. When the pads of his fingers snagged on Voth’s stiff nipples, his mate sucked in a harsh breath. “Zander…” His name, spoken on a moan, had Zander’s cock jerking inside the tight confines of his jeans. Wetness leaked from the tip already. He licked one of Voth’s nipples, and the man shuddered. “I’m supposed to be the one who controls fire, but the touch of your tongue has
ignited flames inside me,” Voth groaned. Zander chuckled. “Well, you know, they say that where there’s smoke…” Voth looked down at him curiously. “Smoke?” His new mate probably knew very little of the Vashon, Zander thought and continued to stroke Voth’s skin as he explained. “Some Vashon clans are very powerful. I grew up in one of the largest, most modern, most powerful clans. Every full-blooded Vashon can shift to what is known as their native form. Some of us have the power and ability to shift to smoke as well. Every Vasherion can. Among Vashon, that power is highly prized and revered. I was born with that ability. Becoming ether, as we call it, is something only the best of the best can do.” Voth nodded solemnly, a lock of reddish brown hair falling over his forehead. Zander resisted the urge to brush it back. “I still do not understand the smoke reference,” he admitted. Zander grinned. “There is a saying that where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” His hands came to rest on the waistband of Voth’s jeans. He popped the button and eased the zipper down. His fingertips slipped into the opening, and he discovered Voth was commando. As he touched Voth’s hard, heated flesh, he leaned forward, stealing a quick kiss. “The two go together. I am the smoke. You are the fire. We are mates. Where you find one, you will always find the other.” Emotion glittered in Voth’s turquoise eyes. Zander noticed they were not as pale as Nix’s eyes. Their coloring marked the two Phoenixes as related, so that even had Zander not known there was a connection, it would still have been obvious. “Zander. I think we should go to bed.” Voth’s words were unsteady, and Zander felt again the rush of desire in his blood. He moved his hands, yanking his T-shirt over his head, eager to be naked. Stepping back from Voth, Zander stripped off his clothes. When he looked up, he lost his breath. Voth stood naked in the storm-darkened room, his perfect body silvered by the flashes of lightning that lit the sky and bedroom. “Gods, yes. We really should go to bed,” he whispered as his gaze slid over Voth’s chest, down to his hairless groin and the huge erection that rose proudly from between his muscled thighs. Acutely aware of the differences between them, Zander walked over to the bed and tossed the covers back. He wondered how it would feel to have that perfect, smooth body touch his. The trail of hair from his navel to his pubic bone, the hair around the base of his cock and on his balls were all different than Voth’s smoothness. He kept himself trimmed, but it wasn’t the same. A hard body, bigger and heavier than his own, slammed into him, knocking him to the sheets. Voth pinned him to the bed, rubbing his hips and thick cock against Zander’s. The sensations boiling over inside him weren’t anything like the sex he’d had in the past. And he now had the answer to his question. He knew exactly how it felt to have Voth’s perfect body touch his. “You are thinking too much, Zander.” Voth nuzzled his neck, licking the wild pulse that beat beneath his skin. More sensations rocked Zander’s body and psyche. The knowledge that he was with his mate overwhelmed him. Zander wrapped his arms around Voth, the feel of hard muscle and bone against equally hard muscle and bone drove him nearly mindless. His mouth sought
Voth’s, and their open lips clung in an urgent kiss. Zander sucked on Voth’s tongue, and his mate thrust his cock between Zander’s thighs. Friction. Heat. Hard hands. Hard arms. Hard thighs. And diamond-hard cocks. All of them slid against each other, pressing, rubbing, touching as they kissed until Zander couldn’t bear another moment of the exquisite torture. He freed one arm from their embrace and reached out to the bedside table. The cool length of the lube container slipped into his hand. Somehow he opened it and coated his fingers with the thick liquid. He tickled the crease of Voth’s hard ass, pressing his wet fingers to the tight hole his cock ached for. Zander kissed his mate with every ounce of feeling he possessed as Voth moaned into his mouth. Thighs spread wide, Voth’s knees dug into the mattress on either side of Zander’s hips. The movement gave Zander better access to the sensitive flesh of Voth’s anus. He sank one finger inside. The heat of Voth’s hole nearly seared Zander’s digit, but he sank another as deep as the first. Hard hips pressed back against Zander’s invasion as Voth’s body welcomed the thrust of his fingers. Instantly, Zander yearned for more. He pulled his fingers from Voth’s ass and, using his legs, flipped his mate onto his back. The bigger man went easily, eyes staring up at Zander with undisguised lust. Unable to stop himself, Zander bent and ran his tongue along the length of Voth’s cock, ignoring the loud moan that broke the silence. Before Voth could do or say anything, Zander slid his lips over Voth’s cock, licking and sucking his way to the base. The taste of his mate burst on his tongue with a spicy, salty tang that Zander knew was unique to Voth. He licked and sucked for a few minutes, loving the feel of the rigid organ on his tongue. “Take me, Zander.” The harsh whisper rocked Zander to the core. His heart beat so hard and fast he could barely breathe. The length of Voth’s cock quivered beneath the wet glide of Zander’s tongue. He lifted his head and their eyes met. Fire burned in the depths of Voth’s irises. Zander grabbed the lube and rose to his knees. Fisting his cock, he stroked the lube over every inch of his engorged flesh. Voth lay with thighs spread, knees lifted. He raised his hips, thrusting a pillow beneath them, putting the puckered bud of his anus on display for Zander. Limbs trembling slightly, Zander moved forward, aiming his cock for the wet, lubed orifice his fingers had just explored. The swollen head of his dick pressed his mate’s dark entrance. Simultaneous moans escaped them when Zander’s cock sank deep into Voth’s tight ass. He couldn’t remember ever having been in a channel this tight and hot. Zander fucked his mate carefully, unsure how much he could take. Then Voth locked his legs around Zander. With a shudder, Zander braced one forearm near Voth’s head and pumped his hips, pushing his cock deeper with each stroke. Their eyes remained on each other, and tendrils of love and lust spiraled together inside Zander. With his free hand, he reached between them and palmed Voth’s cock. He stroked it in time to the slap of his hips against Voth’s ass. When his balls tightened to the edge of pain, Zander thrust harder. The notion that Voth would put that huge cock inside him later had him practically salivating. The tight clench of Voth’s hot channel on his cock brought him back to the task at hand. The heated spiral of lust uncoiled along his spine, his orgasm drawing near. He opened his mouth over Voth’s, sucking on his tongue. As his hand brought Voth to
orgasm, spasms wracked his lover’s body. The convulsive clamp of sphincter muscles gripped his cock. With a moan, he came, his hot cum spurting. At the same time, he bit down on his mate’s tongue, tasting blood. A keening cry exploded from Voth and he bucked wildly in orgasm. Zander gathered him in his arms, the mating ties overtaking his body at the taste of Voth’s blood. The lovers jerked and twitched in each other’s arms, invisible bonds winding themselves metaphysically around them. Finally, Zander’s cock stopped throbbing and deflated, slipping from Voth’s ass. He collapsed on his mate, chest heaving. Voth’s arms came around him, cradling him as he came down from the best orgasm he could ever remember having.
Chapter Four Zander stood on the deck of his house, the roof overhang keeping the worst of the drizzly mist off him. He leaned on the wood rail, a mug of steaming coffee in his hands. Eyes trained in the direction of the rocky shoreline, he thought about everything Nix had told him the day before. The gods knew he loved her. Not like what he already felt for Voth, of course, but after him, she was the most important person in his life now that his mother was gone. Still, those dreams of his brothers haunted him. He seemed to know instinctively who the people in his dreams were. He saw his brother Danyl fighting Ancelin, and Nix helping a human woman who lay in a pool of blood—Danyl’s mate. He saw his brother Ryder, hanging outstretched between two evil-looking were-cats while Ancelin faced down Ryder’s twin Jayce over a werewolf female. Then there was Ancelin standing over a sleeping Nix, his expression filled with evil intent that spoke of killing her. And now, he’d dreamed of Voth. A bounty hunter behind the wheel of a big rig running Voth off a mountain road, the black motorcycle airborne over nothing, tires spinning uselessly as his mate fought free of the metal and shifted into phoenix form. The beautiful bike with the flames fell end over end to the rocky canyon below. The dreams chilled him to the bone. Destiny rode toward him with a swiftness that set his skin crawling and he wasn’t sure how to deal with it all. Nix said he needed to bring his brothers to the confrontation with Ancelin. Zander understood the significance of her words. Ancelin’s death was part execution. Those whom he had committed crimes against needed to bear witness. “I haven’t figured out yet what you are.” Zander turned and found Voth standing in the glass slider doorway, a forest green towel wrapped around his lean hips. Behind the placket of his loose gray sweat shorts, Zander’s cock stirred. One of Voth’s brows rose and his mouth twitched into an amused smile. “I am Vasherion. I thought I mentioned that last night.” He lifted his mug to his lips and sipped the fragrant brew. One muscled shoulder lifted in a shrug. “I knew your mother was a Vashon priestess. Until you mentioned it last night, I didn’t realize she’d trained you in the ways of a priest,” Voth replied, his eyes somber. Zander turned and leaned back on the wood rail. “When my mother was killed I was asked to sit as Zushen, the right hand to the Vashonne, the highest priestess. I would have been the highest ranking male.” His eyes met Voth’s. “But somehow I knew it was time for me to leave the clan.” Voth’s expression remained impassive. “You still haven’t told me what you are.” He paused slightly, then went on, “When you shift, Zander. What are you?” Zander finished the coffee in his mug and set it carefully on the railing. “Didn’t I say last night? I’m Raven Clan. When I shift, we can fly together, although I’m nothing as glamorous as a phoenix.” The forest green towel dropped to the floor, and Voth stepped out onto the deck, his nude body bronzed even in the gray of the rainy morning. “Fly with me.”
Zander’s brows rose. “In the bad weather?” he joked. Voth reached the railing and gripped it with his fingers. Zander suppressed a shudder, remembering what those talented fingers had done to him half the night. “Don’t tell me a little water bothers your feathers?” Voth’s eyes gleamed with amusement. “I’ll shift first then.” His shift to phoenix form came so fast that one moment he stood in human form and the next he was the great, golden-brown bird sitting on the deck railing with his long tail sweeping down. Zander smiled and removed his sweat shorts. He concentrated on the magic in his soul that allowed all Vashon to shift. Zander’s human form shivered. He knew that to Voth, his body appeared as a silvery wraith in the weak light. With a popping sound in his ears, his raven took form. A large, sleek, black bird with a huge curved beak, still with the appearance of a warrior, especially next to the elegant form of the phoenix. Wings spread, he pushed off the deck railing, knowing without asking that Voth had done the same. Catching a downdraft, he floated toward the shore, letting the wind do all the work for him. Buoyant and filled with a sense of freedom that permeated his soul when he flew in shifted form, Zander opened his mind to his mate, speaking to Voth in thought form. “This moment is perfect.” He turned out over the ocean, ignoring the gulls who circled near the shoreline, Voth’s presence just beyond the stretch of his wingtip. “Really? I thought the moment you came in my mouth last night was perfect.” Laughter bubbled in Zander’s veins at Voth’s amused thought. “Your idea of a defining moment is somewhat lacking, my mate. When I came in your ass, when I bit your tongue and tasted your blood, when I bound my soul to yours for all eternity through our blood promise… That was a perfect moment.” Voth flew closer, his brown feathers turning to golden fire in a stray beam of sunlight that speared through the dark clouds. “I cannot deny your words any more than I can deny your body and your heart. I have never experienced pleasure so great before. I have never had such a connection to another being.” Zander’s eyes tracked Voth’s movements as he flew along the shaft of sunlight. “Not even Nix?” Voth came up under Zander and the downdraft shifted. Flapping his wings, Zander pushed himself higher. “Not even Nix. She is like a mother to me, and we have an indefinable connection as bearers of the Phoenix bloodline, but you are what completes me. My soul sings today because I have found you and made you mine.” A mental chuckle echoed in Zander’s thoughts. “I told you, I’m not your bitch,” he teased. Voth’s solemn reply—which did not acknowledge Zander’s joke—illustrated the reflective path of his emotions. “No. You’re not. You are my destiny and the basis for my happiness.” Elation skittered along Zander’s nerve endings. “So philosophical for an early morning.” Voth turned back the way they had come, and Zander turned with him. Their thoughts became more sober as they flew above the treetops, crossing over the twisting
road that led to Zander’s house. “The philosophical thoughts are a precursor to planning. You know that we must begin our journey to find your brothers. I can’t even begin to think that this will be easy. Ancelin wants you dead. If he has not made a move yet, it is imminent.” “What do you mean, yet?” Voth drifted closer. “There have been no close calls? Little accidents? Near misses? Strange coincidences? Things you might not normally think of as an attempt on your life?” Uneasiness replaced the elation he’d felt. “No. Nothing like that. I’m a warrior. Anything like that would be evident to me. By nature, I am more suspicious than most.” “He must know where you are. You’ve taken no care to hide yourself. But he is biding his time until first strike.” Zander’s house came into view. “He won’t show his hand yet. He will send minions in the hope that I am weak enough to be taken out by them. He won’t dirty his hands unless he has to.” “That is true enough.” They turned as one toward the back deck of the house, and Zander’s heightened senses picked up Voth’s worry. They landed, shifted, and Voth instantly sprang across the deck. Lying on the wide wooden railing beside Zander’s abandoned coffee cup was a dead raven. Tension filled the air between them. “A calling card.” Voth’s deep voice held a grim, implacable note. Zander grimaced. “How can a man with so little imagination be my father?” he grumbled, hoping to dispel some of Voth’s anger. “Do not joke, Zander,” Voth said tightly. “Your life is in danger.” “I know. It’s been in danger from the first breath I took, Voth,” Zander pointed out. “Vasherion are often the targets of assassination attempts.” Voth’s jaw clenched and his expression turned harsh. “This is not clan rivalry. This is Ancelin’s calling card. He is coming for you.” Zander picked up his shorts and pulled them on. Then he snatched up his coffee cup and ignored the dead raven, heading into the house. “He was always going to come for me,” he said reasonably. He rinsed out his cup in the stainless-steel sink. Turning, he found Voth standing in the middle of the big open kitchen holding the towel he’d been wearing earlier. Desire flickered within him despite the seriousness of the moment. “No one has been here. The bird was magicked to the deck. I sensed the breach as we approached the house,” he explained. “But whoever sent it has been watching. You, me, us, the house.” Zander shrugged. He’d been under surveillance before. Voth audibly ground his teeth. “How can you be so blasé about this?” With a shake of his head, Zander walked past Voth, out of the kitchen and into the bedroom. He opened the closet and began dressing swiftly. “I’m not blasé, just unconcerned with mind games. Trying to make me nervous with stupid calling cards like a dead raven won’t work. I’m Vasherion. They could string you up and threaten to torture you and it would not affect my nerves. I am battle-hardened,” he said matter-of-factly. A low growl came from Voth. “So it would not affect you if someone tortured me?” Zander went very still. Semantics meant little to a warrior like himself, but the fine line Voth had just drawn left him balancing on a knife edge where his own words and reactions were being tested. His gaze met Voth’s. The Phoenix’s irises had grown dark
with emotion. Zander sank his fingers into the rich, red-brown waves that framed Voth’s handsome face. Drawing his mate’s head closer, he murmured, “It would affect me, but not in the way that you think. Anyone who threatens my mate signs their own death warrant and appoints me their executioner. But if they think that my care for you will weaken me, they are wrong. It strengthens me and hardens my resolve that should anyone even think to touch you they will draw my very cold, very lethal wrath.” He forced Voth’s head closer to his until he could take the bigger man’s mouth in a hard, punishing kiss. Heat flared between them, and Voth groaned against Zander’s mouth. Tongues tangled and heat became a bonfire. Chest heaving, Zander broke the kiss and reached for a shoulder holster, strapping it on while he watched Voth with grim determination. His mate’s nose twitched. “I smell silver.” Zander nodded and stepped around Voth’s bulk to sit on the bed. “The bullets are specially made. Hollow points lined with silver, dipped in a poison only the Vasherion make. Spell-laden and crafted to kill whatever shape-shifter comes at me. One of those bullets will take him down either with silver, poison, or magic … if it doesn’t blow a hole in him the size of a truck.” His fingers laced his steel-toed boots, but Zander’s eyes glanced up at Voth, noting the bigger man was still naked. With the point of his chin, he gestured toward the black bag Voth had brought with him. “Get dressed. It’s time to go. That raven might have been meant as a warning, but it’s more like a spur. If not for its appearance, I would have been content to spend the day in bed with you. Now, my mission has become primary. I need to find my brothers.” Voth nodded and reached for his bag. “As I’m sure you know, Nix is in pain and worried. It’s better that we end this soon.” “Business before pleasure,” Zander said on a chuckle. “Plenty of time for fucking when the killing’s done.” “You sound like you’re enjoying this.” Voth’s dark brows came together in a fierce frown. Zander watched his lover dress in jeans, a T-shirt, and a thin hoodie. “I don’t enjoy killing, but I do prefer action over waiting. I’m not going to sit here until Ancelin comes for me.” “Your father may not be the one who comes after you,” Voth pointed out. Zander snorted in disgust. “Father? I can’t call that monster Father. We may share DNA, but he’s not earned the name. And I don’t give a fuck if it’s him or his instruments who come. They will all receive the same reception.” He stomped toward the door, glancing back to find Voth putting on a worn black leather jacket. “Let’s go find my brothers.”
Chapter Five Voth rode his bike sitting on an ass that was slightly sore. Between two days of hard, almost non-stop riding and three nights of mind-blowing sex with Zander, his behind had taken a bit of a beating. Normally, he used the bike as temporary, short-term transportation, preferring to use his power to take him farther distances. However, since Zander didn’t have the ability to teleport and flying while carrying an arsenal was impractical, Voth found himself stuck on his bike. Their first day on the road landed them at a Vashon encampment. The Bear Clan treated Zander like a long lost brother. The half-day spent with the Bears garnered a wealth of information. One of the Bears had heard of a scuffle at a place called Honey’s, a two-day ride from the encampment. Twin wolves and a pack of were-cats had torn the place up. The were-cats were guns for hire, and the man who’d hired them had reportedly been a god who hadn’t wanted his hands dirtied. The second day of the trip brought them closer to Honey’s and to yet another Vashon camp. The Stags had no information about the twin wolves or the merman. Instead, they had information about Zander. “There is a price on your head, my son,” the Stag leader said in a solemn voice. Zander’s brows had risen mockingly. “Oh, really? I’m not surprised. I’m sure every rogue band of Vashon is now sniffing for me.” The Stag nodded, and Voth’s stomach lurched. It was one thing to think that Ancelin wanted Zander dead. It was another to have it confirmed. As the sun set, they pulled into a little motel just off the highway in the middle of the desert. While Voth stretched his legs and gathered their saddlebags, Zander got a room. All Voth wanted was a shower and a beer. After that, he figured he’d be ready to pass out … on his belly. He flexed his thigh muscles, swinging the heavy saddlebags a little to help give his tired steps some momentum. He met Zander by the motel office door and followed him to their room. Zander quirked a brow at him as he tossed the old-fashioned room key onto the chipped dresser. “You look like I feel,” he quipped. Voth grunted. “The past two days have been too quiet. I don’t like that.” Emotion flickered in Zander’s dark eyes. Voth watched as his lover laid the gun with the special bullets on the nightstand. “You’re not alone. I’m surprised Ancelin hasn’t made a move yet.” Despite the fact he was tired and cranky, Voth’s cock responded when he reached out a hand to caress Zander’s jaw. “It would be nice to get it all over with. We do have a life to start.” Zander shifted closer, his body lightly touching Voth’s. “Do we?” he murmured, his gaze suddenly intense. “Other than that first night of rushing to get the mating done because we were both so pressured by how overwhelming it was … I don’t think we’ve taken any time to explore our emotions.” Voth’s hands gripped Zander’s hips, dragging him against his muscular body. He loved Zander’s body, leaner, less bulky than his own, with an innate grace Voth knew
he’d never have. “Zander, I love you,” he said quietly. “Being mates made that emotion inevitable. But, you know, aside from that, I like you more than anyone I’ve ever met. Your sardonic humor makes me laugh. Your fearlessness is inspiring. I like the way your mind works, sorting through problems, finding solutions, refusing to panic. The way you worry about Nix and three brothers you’ve never met touches me.” Voth stared down into Zander’s handsome face, his fingers caressing the hard, stubborn jaw with its golden stubble. “I fell in love with you instantly. But every day I learn something more about you that pushes how much I like you across the border into love.” Zander smiled, a brilliant movement of his lips that fed the emotion in his night-dark eyes. He wrapped his arms around Voth, his hands smoothing over hard muscles. “Got a passport? Or are you just an illegal alien?” “That’s what I mean about your sense of humor,” Voth said with a smile. “I know there is a difference between loving someone and being in love. With mating comes one, with knowledge comes the other.” Zander gazed at him with emotion simmering in his dark eyes. When it spilled over to his expression, he leaned into Voth’s body and kissed him. As his mate took his mouth, completeness permeated every part of Voth. Fierce emotion fueled the glide of their tongues, but it was a promise of heat rather than the expression of it. They were both tired in body and spirit. Tonight would not be about the physical connection of their bodies but about the metaphysical connection of their souls. Voth broke the kiss and smiled at Zander, his hands stroking through his mate’s silvery hair. “I’m gonna shower. Is there somewhere to order food from?” Zander nodded. “The desk clerk gave me some menus for local places.” Voth stepped out of Zander’s arms and headed for the tiny bathroom. The shower’s hot water pounded his body, removing the aches. As heavenly as it made his body feel, it didn’t remove the worry from his head. Emerging from the shower refreshed, although still tired and stressed, Voth found Zander sitting at the tiny table with a couple of sandwiches and beers. They ate in near silence, and after cleaning up, Zander took his turn in the shower. Voth slipped naked between the sheets and curled onto his side, staring at Zander’s gun. Capable didn’t begin to describe his mate. Voth figured there really weren’t words that did justice to a man like Zander. He closed his eyes, his thoughts filled with tantalizing images of the man he’d fallen for. By the time Zander came to bed, Voth barely noticed. Heat and firm muscles spooned him, and he smiled contentedly. Soft, damp kisses rained down on his shoulders and back. His cock responded, filling with blood and rising to meet the banked passion in Zander’s touch. But sleep stalked him and his eyes refused to open, so he sank into Zander’s embrace and let it come. Falling asleep with a stiff cock wasn’t exactly how Voth had envisioned his evening ending. Still, dawn brought with it a solution to the ache in his balls. He might have missed an opportunity to sex up his mate, but Zander made it up to him in abundance … with a warm, wet mouth, agile tongue, and more suction than a new vacuum cleaner. He awakened to find Zander’s mouth wrapped around his cock and himself only a few strokes from orgasm. It was an awakening Voth could get used to. Because of their circumstances, Voth might have felt any number of emotions during the long road trip,
but sexually unsatisfied wasn’t one of them. After another hot shower and a hot breakfast meant to sustain them for the hard ride ahead, they were back on the road. Voth watched Zander’s leather-covered back as his lover rode slightly ahead of him on the long stretch of desert highway. Zander had made a few phone calls, but hadn’t come across any new information. However, he seemed to have every confidence that he would find his brothers. The cool desert morning alerted Voth that they would be heading into the mountains soon. They’d been riding for only a few hours when Zander stopped at a gas station. Voth knew he didn’t need gas, but he pulled up to the pump like Zander. The moment he got off his bike, Zander’s eyes met his. A warning flashed in his lover’s onyx stare, sending Voth into full alert. His nose twitched, but no scents came to him. He and Zander were alone. They topped off the bikes’ tanks, and Zander went inside to pay. Standing away from the pumps and bikes, Voth trained his senses on his surroundings. The slight rumble beneath his feet sent a chill down his spine. “Feel it?” Zander murmured into his right ear. The tension in the body that stood so close to him spoke volumes to Voth. “We’re being followed.” Zander smiled, but it wasn’t pleasant. Instead, his mate’s face lay set in harsh lines. The face of a Vashon warrior. Intense. Inscrutable. Fierce, yet ice-cold and emotionless. The expression made Voth glad they were on the same side. Zander slipped off his leather jacket and tied it to the back of his bike. Next, he removed the shoulder holster and tucked it away in a saddlebag, slipping the 9mm handgun with the special bullets into the back of his jeans. Voth wouldn’t have been surprised if Zander had a sword in his saddlebag. The look of an ancient warrior rode his expression hard. Voth tied his leather jacket to his bike and watched his mate get on his bike, leaving his helmet hooked to the back. Zander tied a bandana around his head, confining the moonlight-colored hair that spilled to his shoulders. A shudder of lust shot through Voth before he shoved it away. A battle headed their way and thoughts dominated by how much he wanted Zander wouldn’t be smart. They rode at a cautious pace toward the distant mountains. Every immortally enhanced sense that Voth had lay trained behind them. He didn’t know who or what followed them, but understood that Zander knew. Respect for the vast skills of a Vasherion washed over him. The priests were highly trained, and Zander had the added power and abilities of an immortal. Being the son of a demi-god gave him an extra boost. About five miles down the highway, the air suddenly trembled with the muted roar of a horde of bikes in the distance. Pulling up beside Zander, Voth saw the determined air that cloaked his mate. Their eyes met, and Zander turned off the highway, far enough onto the hard-packed, sand-blown dirt that they had a clear, unobstructed view of the road for miles in either direction. They got off their bikes and stood apart from them, waiting in the open for whoever followed them. The ground rumbled and the vibrations grew in strength. The engines’ roar became distinct and menacing. The group of a half-dozen bikes appeared on the horizon and grew rapidly larger, racing toward where Zander and Voth stood. “Who are they?’ Voth asked quietly, wondering just what he needed to bring to the fight, magic, weapons, or something else.
Zander’s eyes had gone flat, the irises bleeding into the pupils and giving him the look of a deadly, killing machine. “Cobra Clan,” he replied, his tone indicating that they were highly dangerous. “Rogue Vashon. Thugs mostly, but they are ruthless and deadly.” Voth pursed his lips. He’d never been bitten by a snake before, but he doubted it would kill him. However, the venom might have the ability to incapacitate him long enough for the Cobras to take Zander. Ice slid through his veins. Looking around, he found a handful of sticks and twigs. Arranging them in a pile, he blew on them, igniting the dry wood. It was a pitiful fire, but now that it burned, he could control it as needed. He wondered what barbequed snake smelled like. “We can take them.” Zander’s head turned, and their gazes met. One corner of his lover’s mouth quirked up. “Absolutely, but it won’t be pretty. Watch out for their strikes. Their venom has been genetically enhanced.” He snorted in disgust. “Trust the Cobras to experiment on themselves. Like most snakes, they can be sluggish, but in fight mode no one is quicker or more canny.” Six huge chrome bikes rolled toward them across the desert floor. A slight wind rose, swirling the little fire and bringing with it the distinctive scent of snake. The leader, a King Cobra, had a buzz cut and every surface of his neck, arms, and chest was tattooed. His forked tongue tasted the air every few seconds, scenting them. As the six bikes came to a stop, the leader grinned, showing two curved fangs dripping venom. “I think I’ve found our dinner, guys. Care for some roast bird?” he hissed. Voth glanced at his mate to gauge his reaction. Zander’s fingers flexed but other than that, he did not move. “Spencer Addington. What’s a rich kid like you doing in a place like this?” Zander replied in a cool, conversational tone. The leader’s eyes narrowed and became reptilian. “I’ve told you before, pretty boy. My name’s not Spencer! It’s King!” Zander snorted rudely. “Call yourself what you want. I know the name your parents gave you. Mongoose been around to kick your ass lately? I know how much she loves you.” Voth’s toes curled in his boots as Zander deliberately taunted the cobra leader. When the snake slithered off his bike, Voth shifted closer to the fire. Zander placed his hands on his hips, putting his fingers very close to where his gun peeped from the back of his jeans. Strategy flashed through Voth’s mind when Spencer’s gang all got to their feet. The cobras moved away from their bikes, their loose-jointed gait giving away the fact that they were snakes. Every one of the five men smiled at him, fangs dripping. Voth mentally measured the striking distance of those lethal fangs and figured hand-to-hand combat might be out of the question. Realistically, Voth knew that he could take two instantly. That left three to hold off or fight off while Zander dealt with their leader. If they tried to rush him, get in close enough to strike, he could just poof himself out of reach. Spencer stepped to one side of Voth’s little fire, headed straight for Zander. “I owe you for making sure she got away from me,” he snarled, his eyes gleaming in a hypnotic manner.
Zander laughed softly. “She didn’t need me, Spencer. She’s Mongoose. Smarter, quicker, and more resourceful than you.” Two of Spencer’s men flanked their leader, who edged toward Zander. The other three came around Voth’s side of the fire, right at him. Voth didn’t want to be the one to throw the first punch. Instead, he waited for Zander. A blur of movement turned out to be Zander’s signal as he yanked his gun free of his jeans and fired at one of Spencer’s men. The boom of the 9mm echoed in the arid desert air, the bullet exploding the cobra’s head like a melon. The dead man crumpled to the ground and Voth got a glimpse of Zander rolling out, spinning clear of Spencer’s strike zone. The cobra leader hissed in fury at losing a man so quickly. Voth’s eyes shifted away from his mate and three cobras rushed him. In a split second, he reached out a hand and silently called the fire to him. A fireball spun from his palm to engulf the nearest cobra. The snake fell to the ground and rolled to put out the fire, but the flames resisted. Pitiful screams emerged from his burning body, fire consuming him. With the stench of burned flesh in his nostrils, Voth stepped back. The fire halted the other two cobras. They glared at their burning friend, hissing. One came to his senses and pulled out a gun and the other shifted to snake form. Voth stared at the handgun and thought about shifting but never got the chance. The shifted cobra slithered across the dirt and sand toward him, looking like a thick, dirty rope. His comrade kept the gun trained on Voth. Behind him, he heard a struggle but had no idea how Zander was handling the other two snakes. The shifted cobra came within striking distance and it reared up, its hood flipping open. The flat black stare might have mesmerized most people, but Voth just teleported himself to the other side of the fire, behind the cobra who held a gun on him. He grabbed the man’s head with both hands and twisted, snapping his neck. Avoiding the venom that dripped from his mouth, Voth tossed the lifeless body into the flames. Across the fire, Zander and Spencer were engaged in a deadly dance. Spencer kept trying to get within striking distance, and Zander kept moving swiftly out of it. The cobra who’d been watching Spencer’s back rushed Voth. With a flick of his fingers, Voth sent a fireball into him and stepped back. The man staggered and screamed. Now, Voth was nearly back-to-back with Zander. The stench of cooked snake flesh filled the air, and smoke from the three burning bodies drifted around them in a black cloud acrid with the scent of evaporated venom. Prepared to send the remaining cobra to the flames, Voth stiffened as it slithered swiftly toward the gang’s bikes in shifted form. Spencer too began to back away, his eyes spitting hatred at Zander. “Your father wants you dead, Zander. Even if I didn’t have the same agenda, I woulda taken his commission. I owe you for Mongoose’s escape. Now I owe you for killing my men. You and your fire lover won’t make it far. Now that I know what he can do, I’ll be back for you.” Spencer got on his bike. “You won’t get away from me a second time.” Voth’s gaze flicked from Spencer to Zander. Other than the lifting of his brows, Zander seemed unmoved by the cobra leader’s angry words. “Your threats mean nothing, Spencer. Mongoose bested you on her own. I had nothing to do with it. As for my father, he’s not gonna be alive to pay you. You took a commission from a dead man.” He gestured toward Voth. “He’s the Phoenix, and
Ancelin’s already dreamed of him. You’re wasting your time, Spencer.” Pure hatred sparked in the evil eyes of the King Cobra as he stared at Zander and Voth. Frustrated defeat lurked there too. Even the Cobra Clan knew it couldn’t mess with a Phoenix prophecy. The stench of burning bodies proved that more than Zander’s words did. Spencer and his remaining henchman started their bikes and began to reverse. “One day, Zander, you won’t be with the big immortal, and when that day comes, my fangs will meet your flesh,” Spencer spat angrily. Zander shook his head, a grin flashing across his face. “He’s my mate, Spencer. Your chance will never come.” Fury flared in the King Cobra’s dark eyes, but he turned and swiftly rode away. Voth and Zander stood unmoving, watching until the cobra bikes were no longer in sight. Voth drew a deep breath then, grimacing at the smoke and the smell of burning flesh. His eyes met Zander’s. “Let’s get out of here.” The quiet but grim tones of Zander’s voice broke the silence, and Voth nodded. They stepped over the bloody mess of the cobra Zander had shot and got on their bikes. As they bumped back across the desert toward the highway, Zander told Voth about the dream he’d had of a big rig forcing Voth off a mountain road. They stopped at the edge of the highway’s pavement, engines idling. “Zander, they cannot kill me. These men your father hired only slow us down. Nothing more. They aren’t much of a threat.” A sigh escaped him. “Ancelin can’t be so stupid as to think they might actually kill either of us.” An expression of worry flickered in Zander’s eyes. “I don’t know what he has planned, Voth, but an attack on you seems like a pretty big fucking warning to me.” “It was a dream. Maybe it won’t come true.” Voth didn’t truly believe his words. Zander had power that hadn’t been tested. His dreams could very well come to pass. Zander got off his bike. “I’m not willing to risk the dream being only a dream, Voth.” He pulled on his leather jacket and reached for his helmet. “Give me your gear.” In silence, they stowed Voth’s bag and jacket on Zander’s bike. If the bike was going over a cliff, forcing Voth to shift, his clothes were safer with Zander. Once back on the road, they traveled in silence until they left the desert and began to climb into the mountains. A crackle in Voth’s helmet preceded the sound of Zander’s voice in his ears. “Will my brothers believe my story?” Voth had pondered that very question over the past couple of days. “Ancelin has already spilled the beans to them, so I think they will. Perhaps they are looking for you even as you search for them,” he replied. “I think Ancelin’s buying time with these little attacks while he tries to figure out how to kill you. Regardless of whether he knows I’m with you, he knows Nix provided you with some kind of protection as she did your brothers.” “I can protect myself.” Zander’s voice bristled. Voth smiled. His mate really could protect himself quite well. Between his Vasherion skills, the power he’d inherited from Ancelin’s blood, and Nix’s protection mark, it would be very difficult for Ancelin to outright kill Zander. “We will arrive at the roadhouse by nightfall,” Voth said quietly. “We should be able to learn of the twins’ whereabouts then.” Zander’s sigh filled Voth’s helmet. “When this is all over, we’ll take a purely
pleasure road trip to the volcano near my house.” “So we’re to live in your world?” Voth would live wherever Zander wanted, but he liked teasing his mate. “You think to take me to the underworld?” Zander’s sarcasm came through the helmet’s speakers clearly. “That is where you live, isn’t it?” “Truthfully, I lived there only because of Nix. She lives there only because she is mated to Ancelin. I prefer this world, and your home is near the Phoenix pyre, our sacred ground. I much prefer to be near that.” Zander’s sigh held a measure of relief, and Voth grinned. He liked knowing that their growing attachment went both ways. He glanced over at Zander’s muscular body, his Tshirt plastered to his chest in the wind. Voth’s heart ached with love for his mate. He yearned for Zander in ways that were not just lust driven. A loud horn startled them both. Behind them, bearing down with fierce swiftness, was a big rig. Despite his pre-knowledge of the attack, Voth’s adrenaline surged. In his helmet, he heard Zander suck in a harsh breath. “Voth… Voth please be careful. I-I … love you, you know.” The worry in Zander’s tone as he spoke calmed Voth instantly. It helped to know that Zander loved him too. Concentrating on the truck that bore down on them, Voth’s mind shifted into high gear. “When he tries to ram us, break left, Zander. I will break right. Double back so he cannot find you. We passed a road farther back. If the dream comes to pass, I will meet you there.” Voth’s words were firm and commanding. He and Zander both knew the dream would come true. The truck barreled toward them, air horn blaring, and Zander turned his bike into the other lane, breaking left. He slowed, and Voth lost sight of him as he and the truck raced on. In order to not be run down by the big rig, Voth accelerated, veering to the right and riding the verge. The huge rig swerved toward him, skidding dangerously. Voth’s motorcycle slipped off the verge’s pavement, and he lost control. He hurtled through the guardrail out into nothing. The bike began to freefall and Voth pushed free of it, his clothing shredding as he shifted. He drifted on a draft of air, watching his beautiful bike fall thousands of feet to the canyon below. Worried about his mate, he turned back toward the highway in search of Zander. Ancelin truly meant to slaughter his sons. The Cobra Clan already had a grudge against Zander, so using them probably seemed expedient to Ancelin. Whoever drove the truck obviously didn’t care about anything except eliminating them. Ancelin’s petty attempts to kill Zander had to be leading to something specific. His brain told him no matter what it was, they would survive it. His gut warred with his heart, though. The thought of Zander in danger set Voth’s stomach churning. He flew faster, searching for the rendezvous place. The attack had definitely shaken him, and at the moment he just needed to be with Zander. He ached to hold him and touch him and be assured of his safety. As Voth found the spot where he’d directed his mate, he saw the big black bike below, and relief flooded him. By the gods, he’d fallen completely in love with the Vashon warrior. And he couldn’t be happier.
Chapter Six The massive truck and trailer rig that threatened to flatten him and Voth didn’t unnerve him half as much as the crackle in his helmet when the radio in Voth’s helmet went dead. Zander stopped his bike in a turnout surrounded by pines on the side road Voth had directed him to. His heart thumped painfully. While he waited for Voth, he thought about everything that had happened in the past few days. His life had suddenly begun moving in fast forward, it seemed. Meeting Voth and mating him gelled a lot of things in his mind. Since his mother’s death and leaving the Clan, Zander had pondered his future. He just hadn’t come up with any answers. He’d drifted aimlessly, living only for the days that Nix came to see him. He understood now why he’d been so drawn to her. She was the Phoenix, as Voth would be after her. His metaphysical connection to Voth was why Nix had been so important to him. To his mate, Nix was family, the only mother he’d ever known. To have her be a part of their lives in the future would be no hardship, and Zander didn’t even feel awkward about the fact that he’d been her lover. If it didn’t bother Voth and Nix, it didn’t bother him. Turning off the bike, he took off his helmet and paced, antsy for Voth to arrive. Four days didn’t seem like a lot of time to have with someone, but since the Vashon believed in love at first sight and predestined mates, Zander didn’t have any difficulty accepting Voth. However, he was stunned at how deeply he’d come to care for his mate in such a short time. Before whispering the words into his helmet, Zander didn’t think he’d said them although he’d thought them. Since sex with Voth tended to end up with his brain in an unfocused haze, he didn’t know if he’d ever spoken them in the heat of passion. But danger had a way of pulling the truth from you, forcing you to acknowledge it. Boots crunching in the gravel, he paced, senses on high alert, Zander’s eyes scanned the turnout. Pine branches dipped low, giving the small area a cocooned feeling. The mountain highway didn’t seem to get a lot of traffic, and the side road he was on apparently got none. The silence closed in on him. Deep in the forest, the sounds of the animals were muted which made every crunch of his boots excruciatingly loud. His nerves wouldn’t let him relax until he knew for certain that Voth was okay. Worry clenched his jaw tightly, and his muscles bunched. Fear hadn’t crept in yet, but that was only a matter of time. Fuck! Zander ran a hand through his tangled hair. Where the hell was he? How long did it take to shift and fly here? Or maybe he’d gotten away from the truck… The cry of a bird pulled his gaze skyward. The trees were so tall only a small patch of blue was visible. But in that patch floated a brown bird with a long tail. A huge sigh of relief escaped him. He strode over to the bike and ripped off his jacket, reaching into a pocket for his bandanna. He wiped the cold sweat off the back of his neck and gazed at his hands, surprised to see they trembled slightly. The Phoenix had gotten to him. Owned him, cock and balls, flesh and bone, heart and soul, in fact. Owned him so thoroughly that Zander didn’t know what he would have done if Voth hadn’t appeared. The regal phoenix flew into the turnout and instantly shifted to the naked form of
Zander’s mate. Heart thundering, Zander moved swiftly to Voth’s side. He grabbed his mate by the biceps, noting absently that they were so big his fingers couldn’t wrap around them. “Are you okay?” he asked in a harsh, demanding tone. Voth smiled angelically, his hands coming up to sink into Zander’s hair. “I’m fine. Better than fine.” He bent and kissed Zander tenderly. “You said you loved me,” he whispered against Zander’s lips. A groan escaped Zander and relief poured through his body. He gripped Voth’s muscular buttocks. “I do love you,” he admitted. “I don’t know very much about you, but I know who you are in here.” He tapped Voth on the center of his naked chest. “And I love you.” Voth’s smile widened to a grin. “I love you too, Zander. The moment I saw you, my heart stopped. Then it started beating like a wild thing. Every cell in my body and every metaphysical bit of my soul came alive when I met you.” Zander stroked his hands lovingly over Voth’s hard body. Voth tugged at Zander’s clothes. Voth kissed him again, this time with rising passion underscored with the love they both felt. “Here. Now. I need you now, Zander,” Voth rasped, his fingers seeking his mate’s already hard cock. “Fuck. We’re in the middle of nowhere,” Zander groaned, but his hips thrust his cock into Voth’s fist. “Just get naked.” Voth’s command had Zander breaking from their embrace to stride over to the motorcycle. He shucked out of his clothes, tucking them haphazardly into a saddlebag before shoving his feet back into his boots to protect them from the gravel. When he was naked, Voth’s hands stroked over him, sending his already out-of-control libido soaring. He groaned and Voth’s head dipped, his tongue flicking over Zander’s tight nipples. Then Voth crouched on his haunches, his mouth sucking at Zander’s balls, his fist clenched tight around Zander’s thick erection. His fingers sank into the rich waves of Voth’s hair as his lover licked and sucked and stroked him. Shudders wracked him and lust and love swirled in equal parts through every molecule of his being. Voth’s hot, sucking mouth almost felt better than the heat of his ass, and Zander fought to keep from coming too soon. Just when he thought he wouldn’t be able to hang on another minute, Voth slid his mouth off Zander’s cock. “Lube. Where’s the lube, babe?” Zander blinked, his eyes unfocused and his brain a haze of lust. His need to come subsided a little, but his balls hurt like hell. His entire groin was on fire. Voth chuckled and stood, sliding his hard body against Zander’s. “Lube?” he repeated. Zander’s brain had shorted out. Voth rubbing against him just made him that much more delirious. Every inch of his skin was an erogenous zone. “I dunno,” he mumbled, staggering as he turned toward the bike’s saddlebags. Voth caught him in his arms, hugging him so hard Zander thought he heard his bones pop. “Get on the bike,” he whispered in Zander’s ear and licked the fluted edge. “I’ll get it.” Bike? Get on the bike? How could either of them fuck or be fucked on the damn
bike, he thought hazily, his ear tingling from Voth’s wet caresses. He threw one shaky leg over the bike, settling onto the wide leather seat and grabbing the handlebars for balance. He leaned forward, lying on the gas tank, the cool metal soothing his passion-fired skin. The heat of Voth’s body settled behind him and warm, damp lips trailed down his spine. “Lift up.” Voth’s soft words accompanied his hands, pulling Zander’s hips higher. With booted feet braced on the gravel, Zander locked his knees, pushing his ass into the air. Voth’s lubed fingers traced his crease, and Zander moaned, his breath leaving fog on the enameled metal tank. A little bubble of amusement penetrated his sex-fogged brain as he realized Voth was about to fuck him on his own motorcycle. The thought amused him and sent his arousal rocketing through the roof at the same time. The lube’s cool, wet glide was heaven on the heated flesh of his anus. Voth sank one finger into him, and Zander squirmed, pressing back against it. With a grunt, Voth removed his finger. “By the gods! You are already hot and ready for me!” he whispered, slicking more lube onto Zander. Moments later, the flared head of his lover’s engorged penis pressed for entrance. With a deep breath, he relaxed and Voth’s hips pushed against him, easing the head of his cock in. The slight burn of his ass just made Zander all the more aroused. He pushed back as Voth forced every inch of his large cock into Zander’s tight passage. Zander had been fucked many times in his life. He loved anal play. But until his mating night with Voth he’d never had such a long, thick organ inside him. He’d never been fucked so hard and so long that his ass throbbed for days afterward. The wide head perched at the end of a perfectly curved penis meant that every stroke pressed the ridge of Voth’s cockhead against Zander’s tender prostate. He’d howled for Voth to fuck him more, fuck him harder, fuck him faster. Balanced on the bike, face pressed to the gas tank, ass in the air and filled with Voth’s cock, he found himself again begging for Voth to fuck him. “More! I need more, Voth. Fuck me hard. Make me come!” he moaned. Like a blanket, Voth’s larger frame covered Zander from their hands on the handlebars of the bike, all along Zander’s back and over his thighs. The once-silent forest rang with the slap of Voth’s naked flesh against Zander’s and the sound of their incoherent, passion-filled moans. Zander shuddered and Voth sucked on the side of his neck where the Phoenix mark lay. His skin was especially sensitive there and had seemed to become more so after their mating. The heavy thrust of Voth’s cock in his ass burned from Zander’s tight hole through every nerve ending in his body. The stimulation of his prostate made his own cock so hard and tight he thought it would split open from the pressure. As if he’d heard Zander’s thoughts, Voth slipped a hand around Zander’s hip and grasped his cock. Groans of pleasure escaped Zander with every wet stroke of Voth’s tight fist on his wildly aroused cock. Zander’s body shook with increasing tremors, indicating his orgasm was imminent. They were a hot image in his head, spread out on the bike, hips and buttocks thrusting, muscles gleaming with sweat, the thick spear of Voth’s flesh splitting his muscled ass… Zander’s balls tightened painfully. He shook with the effort not to come. Voth nipped at the Phoenix mark, and Zander lost it. With a loud shout, he came, his hot cum spilling onto Voth’s fingers. He clamped down on the pistoning cock in his ass, shudders wracking his body. Above him, Voth
froze for a split second. Then, with a hoarse scream emerging from his throat, his mate came. Hot spurts of cum flooded Zander’s tight ass, triggering another round of sensation that shook him from its force. The scent of cum and sex surrounded them thickly as they lay on the bike struggling to breathe. Zander’s ass throbbed, but he didn’t think he’d ever felt more alive. Voth trailed kisses along his shoulders, murmuring incoherent love words that brought a smile to Zander’s face. Slowly, they came apart, sticky with sweat, cum, and lube. Voth found a packet of wet wipes, and they cleaned each other and the bike, stopping for a few leisurely kisses and caresses as they began to dress. Zander had just finished lacing up his boots when the sound of hand claps rang through the turnout. “Wonderful performance. If you’re into gay porn.” The disdain-filled voice held an icy arrogance that had Zander stiffening. Beside him, Voth froze. As one, they turned toward the speaker. Out of the corner of his eye, Zander saw recognition bloom on Voth’s features. For himself, he found the stranger to be more than familiar. Thick, dark hair waved back from a broad forehead. Sharp, dark eyes watched Zander’s every move. The eyes gave him away. They were far too much like Zander’s own. Awareness rippled through him as he straightened his spine for this confrontation with his father. He didn’t let the shock of recognition show in his expression, keeping it schooled in a warrior’s set lines. Still, internally at least, he felt a little shell-shocked at how much he resembled Ancelin. Aside from the color of their hair, looking at Ancelin’s face was like looking at his own … if you discounted the pure evil that rode his father’s features like a specter. “Have you come to kill me, Ancelin?” he asked coolly, ignoring the cautionary hand Voth laid on his bicep. Ancelin smiled, but his eyes remained malevolent. “Of course. You didn’t think I’d come to watch your pathetic fag-humping show, did you?” One dark brow rose. “I hadn’t realized I’d sired a faggot. Your brothers all like pussy. In fact, the twins like sloppy seconds. They share a woman. I’m not sure your brother Danyl knows quite what to do with a pussy. He’s rather innocent, you know. He thought he’d knocked up his human after only a day.” “It only takes once, Ancelin, as you well know,” Voth said in a scathing tone. The demi-god rounded on the next Phoenix. “I never realized you loved men, Voth,” Ancelin replied in a conversational tone, ignoring Voth’s remark. “It must be why Nix kept you sequestered away in your father’s house, away from me. She knows I can’t abide faggots. In fact, now that I know my eldest son is one, I have even more reason to kill him.” “Your son has spent the last year fucking your mate. I don’t think he quite fits your definition of gay, Ancelin.” Voth smiled back at the god. Fury lit Ancelin’s dark eyes. He glared at Zander. “You’re the man she’s been having an affair with? My own fucking son?” A crazed expression flickered across his handsome face. “So she finds no enjoyment fucking me, yet she can fuck my son who looks just like me. That thrice-damned cunt! I’ll slice her cheating pussy from her body! How dare she cuckold me with my own son!” His words ended in a roar that shook the pine trees. Zander took a slight step back, aligning himself with Voth in case it came down to a physical battle. His movement had
Ancelin’s gaze darting back toward him. “Why the fuck would she screw you? You’re nothing but a half-breed faggot. I can’t believe I sired a man who likes to suck cock and take it up the ass.” His chiseled lips curled into a distasteful sneer as he took a step toward Zander. “You’re a blight on the universe, and it’s time I did something about you.” Zander didn’t let Ancelin’s taunts get to him. If anyone was a blight on the universe, it was Ancelin. “I had hopes for you, seeing as your mother at least had some brains and power. Now, I can see that you’re more pathetic than your brothers. You all deserve to die. Since I created you, it’s only fitting that I take your lives.” The god continued to rant. Zander figured he must be working up a head of steam to gather the nerve to place his hands on the faggot in a fight. Raising his brows in a sardonic expression, he brushed back his long hair, exposing the Phoenix mark on his throat. Of course, Ancelin saw it instantly. “Argh! She marked you too? Or did your damned cock-sucking partner do it?” he raged, fury coming off him in waves. “Nix marked me. The first time she made love to me,” Zander lied, his mouth curving in a smile. “Love? You call what you do with your dick love? You don’t know the meaning of the word, boy!” Zander risked a glance at Voth. He thought his lover would be as amused as he was by Ancelin’s over-the-top posturing. Instead, fury lit Voth’s eyes. “You dare speak the word love, Ancelin? You, who use and abuse those who come to you unsoiled? If anyone here doesn’t know the meaning of the word, it’s you!” Voth thundered, his big body trembling with rage. A crafty expression settled on Ancelin’s face. “I should have smothered you while you slept, you abomination. I should have rid the world of you just as I killed your father,” he spat. Zander sensed the cold rage that enveloped his mate. He reached out and took hold of Voth’s sleeve. His lover didn’t look at him. His eyes never left Ancelin. “What do you know of my father’s death?” he asked in a deadly tone. “I killed the pathetic whiner,” Ancelin admitted in an off-hand manner. “He took your mother from me. The daughter of a god. She stood to inherit more power than either of you could imagine. She was to be mine until he interfered with his pretty-boy face and convinced her to mate him instead of me!” Rage twisted Ancelin’s handsome features. “She had no right spreading her thighs for your worm of a father! He was nothing compared to me! Then she had you. An abomination! A fucking shifter like your father! I took great delight in poisoning both of them. You were a baby, so I knew Nix stood to become the Phoenix. I thought that if I mated her, at least the Phoenix’s power would boost my own. It should have worked too! It was only logical!” Voth shook his head. He glared at Ancelin. “You show a marked lack of knowledge about the Phoenix bloodline. The power of the Phoenix works only for good. Try to use its power for evil and you get nothing. Everything you did to gain power has backfired, Ancelin.” Voth’s voice rose, and the wind rose with it. “You killed my parents, mated Nix for her power, but all of this has brought you nothing. You killed the mothers of your
sons to save your own life, but it has not changed the prophecy. You seek to kill your sons, but their deaths will not change the prophecy either. Everything you’ve done was for naught!” Ancelin’s eyes burned hot in his pale face. “If killing my sons will not stop the prophecy, then whose hands reach for me? Whose?” His scream of rage thundered through the trees and all the birds and animals ran in fear. Zander heard them go but dared not look away from his father and his lover. Voth smiled grimly, his teeth bared. “Look inside yourself, Ancelin. The answer was always there.” For a moment, Ancelin’s fury shook the very ground beneath Zander’s boots. Then his eyes opened wide in shock. “No! It cannot be!” He speared Zander with an icy glare. “Do not think I won’t kill you. I will. You’re not only a faggot who cavorts with this freak, but you are my creation and thus mine to destroy. But first, I need to kill…” Before Zander could blink, Ancelin was gone. Zander stared at Voth, bewildered. “What the fuck just happened? Where the hell did he go?” Voth’s expression grew grimmer. He turned toward the bike. “C’mon. We’ve got to go. We’re running out of time. We must find your brothers now!” Zander grabbed Voth’s arm, spinning him around. “Who is he going to kill, Voth?” he asked in a low voice, his eyes meeting his mate’s. Voth’s jaw tightened. “Nix.”
Chapter Seven The sun had barely dipped below the horizon when Zander and Voth walked into Honey’s roadside bar and grill. Instantly, the tall woman behind the bar came around the end and planted herself in front of them. “I don’t want no trouble,” she informed them in a hard voice. Zander raised his hands. “I don’t mean to make any. I just want to find my brothers.” The woman studied his face for a long moment. A tiny light of recognition lit her eyes. She had seen a resemblance. The woman knew his brothers. “It’s a matter of life and death. Their lives. Their father’s death,” Voth told her. He brushed Zander’s hair back, exposing the Phoenix mark. The woman eyed the mark then looked at Zander’s face again. “Sit down. Have a beer. On the house.” She gestured to a table in the corner and returned to the bar. As Zander sat down with his back to the corner, a waitress in a skimpy outfit pranced up and placed two long-necked beer bottles on the table. Zander handed her a tip, and she smiled at him, a lascivious light in her eyes. “Ya’all ain’t from around here, are ya?” she asked, her gaze sliding over them. “No,” Voth said in a cool, polite tone that indicated he was not interested in anything she had, from her physical charms, spilling from her low-cut top, to her inane chatter as she tried to hit on them. “We’re just passing through,” Zander told her. “Hoping to catch up with some distant relatives before we leave in the morning.” “Relatives?” The waitress studied Zander’s face thoughtfully, and Voth’s warning grip squeezed his thigh. “How about a couple of burgers and fries?” Zander asked her, catching her offguard. “Oh! Yeah, sure. Lemme get that order in for you.” She smiled and bounced off. “You’re damned lucky she’s so dimwitted,” Voth growled. “Or you would have just handed your business to her on a silver salver.” “Don’t need to. Our business just walked in.” Zander gestured toward the door with his chin. They both shifted their gazes to the man who stood just inside the doorway. The tall woman from behind the bar spoke to him briefly, before he strode across the room to their table. Zander looked up into a face eerily similar to his own. “What do you want?” the man said in a cold voice that brooked no quarter. Zander’s gaze flicked over the golden fuzz of the man’s buzz cut, took in his emerald eyes, and skated over the fitted tank top that showed off a plethora of tattoos and a very muscular physique. In fact, it was a physique very like his own, if not quite as tall. He stood, and the man’s green eyes glittered with warning. “Tell me who you see when you look at my face,” Zander asked softly. A muscle in the man’s jaw twitched. “I see a man who tried to kill me and my brother. Not you, but a man who looks like you.” Zander dipped his head in a nod. “And who looks like you and your twin as well.” He gestured toward the still-seated Voth. “Who do you see when you look at him?”
The werewolf’s gaze shifted warily to Voth, who smiled at him. Alarm flickered in his green eyes. “I see a woman who saved us. Her eyes were … just like his.” With a quick tuck of his hair behind an ear, Zander put his Phoenix mark on display. The man hissed in a breath. Slowly, he yanked up the bottom of his tank top, displaying the mark of the Phoenix on his pectoral muscle. “Who are you?” he asked, his tone implacable. “Zander Aile. Your older brother.” Zander stepped around the table, moving closer to the werewolf until he stood only inches from him. “Ancelin killed our mothers. He tried to kill you and your twin. He tried to kill me and he tried to kill Danyl. Now, he wants to kill Nix.” The werewolf’s face hardened. His eyes glittered with rage. “What do you want?” he repeated. “I want you. You, your brother, and Danyl are my only family. Ancelin’s death has been foretold. It’s the reason he initially came after all of us,” Zander explained. “Now, Nix has been visited by the Phoenix and Ancelin seeks her at this very moment. If he finds her before I’ve brought all of you back … everything in the prophesies could change.” The werewolf looked at Voth. “Is he her son?” “We are related. She raised me, but she is not my mother,” Voth replied. Taking a step back, the werewolf drew a long breath. It was obvious he’d come to a decision. “I’ll be right back.” In a show of faith, he turned his back to them and walked out of the bar. Zander sat down as the waitress brought their food. He picked at his fries as they waited for the werewolf. Voth’s hand covered his, stopping the nervous movement of his fingers. “He believes. Everything will work out, Zander,” he said quietly. Zander grabbed his beer with his free hand and took a long drink. “Fuck, Voth. Did you see how wary he was? What if Danyl is just the same? What if this all ends up fucked?” He shook his head, tension tightening his scalp. “Dear gods. He looks like me. His hair is so close to mine in color. His face…” A shudder wracked him, and he took another long drink from the beer bottle. Voth sighed and let go of his hand. “The four of you have each other now. You will prevail. We just need to get to Nix before Ancelin does,” he said, reaching for his burger. “Eat. You’ll need your strength for later.” Zander let a smile turn up the corners of his mouth, his thoughts turning wicked. “Oh, I will? Why is that?” “Because there’s still lube in that tube and I still want you.” Voth’s words were spoken in a matter-of-fact tone as he raised his burger to his mouth. Zander began to laugh. “You’re very confident.” Voth shrugged and popped a French fry into Zander’s mouth. “I am. Eat. Things will work out with your brothers. You’ll see.” They were halfway through their meal when the bar door opened and two men came in. Zander and Voth stood and the two werewolves came toward them. The twins were identical except for the color of their hair. Where the first one’s buzzed fuzz was golden, the second one’s was as dark as Zander’s eyes. Both sported emerald green eyes. The blond werewolf said, “I’m Jayce. This is my brother Ryder.” He drew a breath,
but it was his twin who spoke next. “Tell us what we need to do to save Nix.” Zander sighed in relief. He gestured for them to sit. Once seated, the twins stared at Voth with wary eyes. Zander figured it was time to see what his brothers were made of. “I’m a Vashon warrior,” he began. Jayce nodded. “Thought you might be.” His eyes met Zander’s. “Vasherion?” Voth smiled. “He’s good.” Zander dipped his head in acknowledgement. “Yes. Voth is Nix’s successor, the next Phoenix.” He watched the twins process the information, then said, “Voth is my mate.” He wasn’t sure why he thought his brothers might not be comfortable with the fact that his mate was a man. Perhaps Ancelin’s cruel words had hit home a little too much for comfort now that he was outside his own world. Ryder took a long drink from his beer and set the bottle down with a clatter, leaning forward to catch Zander’s gaze. “Dude, did you think we’d walk out of here because of that? ’Cause I gotta tell you, it would take some serious kink in your stride to make Jayce and me bail on a brother because of who he fucks. Besides, do we look stupid enough to mess with the Phoenix? Especially when he’s fucking bigger than us?” Zander let out a sigh. Voth was right. Things would work out with the twins. Now, they just had to find Danyl. As it turned out, the twins had a surprise for him. They’d already located Danyl and spoken with him. Their conversation turned into a planning session, and within a couple of hours they had a plan to converge on the Phoenix pyre where Nix hid. According to Voth, it was the only place she was safe from Ancelin. A sense of urgency rode them as they stepped out of the roadhouse. Zander turned toward his bike. In the next moment, the scent of snake filled his nostrils, and his arm was enveloped in pain as he lay on the gravel of the parking lot, the sounds of a pitched battle raging around him. “A bitch like you deserves to be blindsided,” Spencer hissed and kicked Zander in the ribs with a booted foot. It only took a moment for the Vasherion inside him to take over. His physical body dissolved into smoke, and he no longer felt the pain in his arm where Spencer had bitten him. Shifting to ether healed all wounds, no matter how severe, and the cobra’s venom dissolved with Zander’s body. He encircled Spencer, winding around his neck like a rope. A scream curdled in the cobra’s throat as the smoke enveloped him. “You’re just smoke! How can you hurt me?” Zander chuckled and wound himself tighter around Spencer’s windpipe. The cobra clawed at the smoke but ended up clawing his own skin. The smoke had no substance. “I am Vasherion. You, obviously, are not, or you would know that our smoke is very deadly indeed.” To illustrate his words, Zander tightened around Spencer’s neck until he gasped for air. Done playing games, Zander squeezed the cobra until his windpipe collapsed. Letting go of Spencer, Zander floated, watching the snake struggle to breathe with a crushed throat. Finally, unable to take in air, the King Cobra died, writhing on the gravel. Zander shifted back to his physical body and turned toward the fight. Pinned near the building, at least a dozen cobras coming at him from different directions, Voth called fireballs from a small fire near his feet, using them to take out the snakes when they drew
near. The horrid stink of burning snake flesh filled the air, and the smoke from their bodies stung Zander’s eyes. He blinked away the moisture and turned to see Jayce and Ryder hunkered down behind a truck, shooting the cobras that tried to get within striking distance. Bodies littered the gravel, and Zander’s jaw tightened. Pulling his 9mm, he skirted the edge of the lot, ducking behind cars and trucks as he watched for cobras. He paused once and saw several cobras dragging away Spencer’s body. Good, he thought viciously, let them see that their leader had fallen. He weaved between cars until he’d almost reached the twins. A hiss behind him told him he had company. He spun to his right, and the cobra’s strike barely missed him, the scent of venom sharp in his nose. He lashed out with one booted foot and caught the snake in the kneecap, sending him crashing to the ground. The cobra rolled to his feet, and Zander fired his gun, blowing away the better part of the snake’s torso. His opponent shifted when the bullet took him down and Zander was left looking at a huge bloody, dying snake. By the time he reached his brothers, some of the snakes were in retreat. Peering at Ryder’s ripped shirt sleeve, he wondered if his brother had been bit. “Just missed me,” Ryder grunted and picked off another snake. “We saw you go down. Did you shift?” Jayce asked. Zander nodded and watched the twins fire on a couple of snakes who’d shifted and were slithering swiftly toward them. “I’m gonna get over to Voth. Cover me,” he said, taking off at a run toward his mate. The sound of rapid gunfire rang in his ears and he skirted a couple of big rigs to come up behind Voth. Worried turquoise eyes met his. “I’m okay,” he reassured Voth. “Shifting got rid of the venom.” Relief swamped his mate’s face. “Look, most of them are taking off.” He gestured toward the parking lot. “The ones that are left are toast,” he growled, using both hands to send a huge fireball into the snakes. The cobras exploded into flames. A loud whoosh boomed in their ears as the fire sucked up oxygen. Clouds of acrid smoke rose from all the burning bodies. Zander coughed a little and turned away. Voth caught him by the arm and spun him around. Hard lips found his briefly, and then Voth raised his head, eyes glittering with emotion. “Don’t ever scare me like that again,” he said harshly. “I thought that fucking snake killed you with his bite.” Zander smiled. “I’ll try not to get any more snake bites,” he promised. The cobras were in full retreat from the bonfire of their dead comrades. Ryder and Jayce walked up, their faces streaked with soot and their expressions deadly. “Asshole did this.” The disgust in Ryder’s tone echoed what they all felt. Voth nodded. “I’m sure he sent them to keep us occupied while he searches for Nix. We’re out of time. She won’t stay hidden much longer, and the moment she leaves, he’ll find her. We have to get to her.” “This pyre place. How far is it?” Jayce asked with a frown. When Zander told him, he said, “I can get us there in a day. We just have to wait for Danyl to arrive.” “Which should be any time now,” Ryder added. ****
Jayce actually got them back to the coast in less time than he promised, impressing Zander. They stumbled into his house eighteen hours later, exhausted. Voth had determined that Nix was still safely at the pyre so Zander sent all three of his brothers to bed, saying they needed their wits about them to deal with Ancelin. As he lay in bed listening to Voth shower, the missing pieces of Zander’s life fell into place. He’d been without a future or a plan for one since his mother’s death, but now he had a purpose. Clearly, destiny had chosen to correct its errors. Ancelin had killed Voth’s parents, and now his son had mated Voth. The circle that Ancelin had broken was repaired through his own bloodline. The families Ancelin had destroyed were now replaced with one bonded by blood and designed by fate. Zander stood at the head of his clan. A new clan made up of his brothers whom he vowed to always love and protect. He had a mate who would stand by him through anything that came their way. A week before, he’d had nothing. And now, despite the fact they still had to deal with Ancelin, he had everything. The bed dipped and Voth slid in beside him. Zander had been so deep in thought he hadn’t heard the shower turn off. “Stop worrying.” Voth’s words were muffled in Zander’s long hair. Zander laughed softly and slipped his arms around his mate. Voth’s hips bumped his, and his erection left a wet trail on Zander’s lower abdomen. “I’m not worrying. For the first time in a long time, I feel like I have purpose.” Voth’s hands wrapped around Zander’s growing erection. “You’ve had purpose for a lot longer than you think, Zander,” he whispered. “You were always my destiny. I love you.” Zander hugged his lover, brushing a quick, hard kiss on his lips. “I love you too, Voth. I am the ether and you are the Phoenix, remember?” Voth smiled as Zander turned them in the bed, their bodies coming together urgently. “I remember. Where there’s smoke…” “Shhhhh,” Zander stopped his mate’s words by taking his mouth in a kiss that promised more than smoke, more than fire. It promised forever.
Epilogue Nix watched the new family walk toward her across the hard-packed sand. Voth came first, apart from the brothers. Flanked by Jayce and Danyl with Ryder bringing up the rear, Zander strode along with a serious expression that gave away his new position as head of the family. Nix knew it had been a fearsome task to take on and Zander had expected the twin Alpha werewolves to put up a fuss, but they hadn’t. Of course, thus far, Zander hadn’t put a foot wrong. As soon as he did, the twins would be all over him. Her gaze sought Danyl, the merman. His brothers had respected him for showing no fear at being dropped into what was a hugely alien situation for him. Oddly to them, but not to Nix, Danyl had been the one who’d shown the most eagerness to have a family and belong somewhere. She was pretty sure that when it came to stubbornness, Danyl held the family title. Even the werewolves backed down when Danyl showed his stubborn side. Nix knew that their growing pains as a family had a ways to go, but here in the early days, each of the brothers were willing to compromise a little in order to build their family. None of them had ever truly belonged anywhere until now. Zander had made the case for them to stick together, and while each of them showed some caution, beneath it lay an eagerness to belong. Voth reached her side and bent to kiss her cheek. “You’re ready?” he murmured. She nodded. “I’m tired of hiding. It’s time to let him see where I am. With all of you here too, he will definitely come. Let destiny have its day,” she said with a smile. She looked at the four brothers ranged before her and knew they would give their lives to protect her. Not that they would need to. “What you will see tonight has never been witnessed by outsiders before,” she said quietly. “The death of the Phoenix is rarely seen by any but those of the bloodline. However, this cycle of the Phoenix’s life was manipulated by outside forces, therefore, what happens tonight serves to place everything back as it should be.” Nix knew Voth would be a fitting mate for Zander. She watched him deal with the brothers even as he mentally prepared for the fire ritual they both faced. Voth’s gaze flickered over the four men. “Tonight, we will bear witness to the death of Ancelin. He will pay for his crimes against my parents, Nix, your mothers, and yourselves.” He paused as his eyes met Zander’s for a moment. Nix could feel the emotion that passed between them. Voth continued. “Ancelin will be more concerned with Nix than all of you, but he still wants you dead. He has a habit of needling others hoping they will react without thinking. Do not let him get to you.” They all nodded. Then Danyl gazed keenly at Voth. “Will you be alright, Voth? I mean, the flames and all?” Voth grinned at Danyl. “I’ll be fine. It’s like getting a new job. Piece of cake. Later, we’ll have a party,” he joked. Nix’s gaze shifted to her former lover, noting how tightly Zander held his mouth as
he stared at her. To see her die in the flames would be difficult for him. She smiled and stepped forward to embrace him, kissing him on the lips in front of his brothers and mate. “I’m going back to the life I had before I became Phoenix. Do not mourn me. This won’t hurt at all. It hurts more to live a life I was never meant for,” she whispered. Nix moved away from him and reached out to take Danyl’s hand. “I can’t recall ever meeting anyone as brave and courageous as you, Danyl,” she said softly, smiling into his solemn eyes. “Your life is now blessed, and you have the family you always wanted.” She glanced over her shoulder at the werewolves and Zander. “Well, maybe not exactly what you envisioned, but the emotion is the same.” She kissed his cheek and turned to the twins. “Jayce, Ryder, this is the pack where you belong. Where you shall ever be accepted. You are no outsiders here with your brothers. Each of you is unique and accepted openly as being so. This is a past and future you can never run from because it is a part of the soul you both share.” Nix turned from the werewolves and gave Voth a hug. “You are the son of my heart, Voth. I’m glad you will be where you belong now.” She walked away from them, her red-gold hair blowing in the wind, and the fire pit sprang to life. The flames burned with an eerie light. She sat on a rock while Voth and the four brothers stood a few yards away. The wind stuttered for a moment, and Ancelin appeared before her. He glanced over his shoulder at the four brothers and grimaced disdainfully. Anger flicked at Nix, but she tamped it down. “I never should have mated you, Nix. You’ve been nothing but a pain in my ass,” he told her arrogantly. “You’re a lousy fuck too.” Her mate’s cruel words didn’t hurt her, but she felt rather than saw Zander shift on the balls of his feet, ready to leap to her defense. When Voth’s eyes met his, he stilled. Ancelin caught Zander’s movement and his expression turned contemptuous . “Oh, it’s my little gay boy. The one who likes to take the Phoenix up his ass,” he sneered. “Do your brothers know you bend over for a cock just like a girl?” His dark eyes flicked over Danyl. “Ah, my oh-so-innocent boy. How is your mate, that human piece of shit?” Danyl jerked and would have stepped forward, but Ryder gripped his arm, holding him in place. Nix wanted to cheer at how the brothers instinctively worked together. However, Ryder’s movement drew Ancelin’s gaze next. A laugh escaped the god. “The doggy twins. Does your mate have a leash for the two of you? How about dog tags or licenses?” He opened his eyes wide in mock surprise. “Oh, wait! She’s furry too, isn’t she? Just another bitch, right?” Ryder growled low in his throat. Jayce shook his head, and Ryder went silent. The brothers stood staring at the man whose face mirrored their own. Nix knew vengeance burned in their hearts just as lethal determination filled Ancelin and the demand for justice raged within her. “Well, Nix, I can see you have your haphazard army of little bastards here to help you, but they really won’t be needed. I rather doubt they’ll want to help you once they know that everything that happened is your fault.” Ancelin strolled away from her as he spoke, pacing along the edge of the fire pit. “If you had just conferred some of your power to me, I would never have turned to those other women and these abominations would never have been born, nor would I
have had to kill their mothers.” He smiled evilly at his sons. “All this time you’ve been blaming me, when it was truly her fault.” Nix stood, stepping nearer to the fire pit. For a century she’d withstood his abuse and his hateful touch. Now was her chance to tell him what she thought of him. “You’re an evil bastard, and I should never have mated you in the first place,” she said angrily. “You don’t care who you hurt to get your way, to get power!” Ancelin looked bored at her outburst. “You know, Nix, I’ve decided that I’m tired of being mated to you. I’m just going to have to kill you.” Nix smiled at him. “I’ve decided I don’t want to be mated to you either, Ancelin,” she said sweetly and stepped toward the flames. “No!” Ancelin screamed . The realization that she intended to deny him any opportunity to kill her fueled his furious expression. “You bitch!” He grabbed her by the arm, his grip painful. Dragging her away from the flames, twisting her arm to the point of breaking it, he glared at her with evil intent. “You will not deny me this, the way you’ve denied me everything else!” Ancelin shoved her hard, and Nix flew through the air and landed with an excruciating crunch of bones against the rocks. Her vision blurred, Ancelin’s handsome face twisted in fury, becoming dimmer as pain swept over her. Dimly, she realized that Zander had growled in rage and took a few steps toward Ancelin. She tried to lift her hand to wave him back, but it hurt too much to move. “You monster! You’re going to get what you deserve tonight!” he yelled. The sneer on Ancelin’s face was pure evil. “You dare, Zander? You dare to take me on to save this bitch? Come on then! I have been waiting for an opportunity to kill each of you. Come and meet your maker!” He spat the double entendre with such venom that Nix would have shuddered had she been able to move. Golden light speared through her body, lifting the pain from her. Voth helped her to her feet as the flames roared higher. Her broken bones ground together, but they no longer hurt. Her destiny had come. **** Zander knew what had to happen next, and he and his brothers had promised Voth they would not interfere. The flames burned higher and Voth lifted an obviously broken Nix to her feet. Fear for Nix and fury at Ancelin filled Zander. However, his warrior genes took over. When Ancelin’s attention momentarily shifted away from him to Nix, Zander saw his opportunity. A low command brought his Vashon sword to hand as he stepped toward Ancelin. Voth’s eyes flared with warning, but Zander ignored him. By the time Ancelin’s gaze shifted back, Zander had already swung the sword toward his father’s head, Vashon curses flowing from his lips. With a sound of fury, Ancelin dodged the attack and raised a hand to call the sword to him. Zander’s arm jerked painfully, but the sword didn’t leave his hand. “You may be powerful, Ancelin, but there are things in this world you cannot control,” he spat out, circling back toward his father. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the twins moving away, angling themselves so that Ancelin would be caught between him and them. Zander swung the sword again and this time its tip caught Ancelin’s cheekbone,
spilling blood. A roar of fury escaped the demi-god. “You disgusting abomination! You’ll pay for that, just as your mother paid for betraying me!” Ancelin raised his hands and sent a fireball spinning toward Zander. Shifting to smoke, the fireball passed harmlessly by him, hitting a boulder and exploding the stone into thousands of shards. As the bits of stone rained down, Jayce launched himself at Ancelin. Their father disappeared just as Jayce would have tackled him. The werewolf hit the ground hard and instantly Ancelin reappeared and kicked him in the ribs. Jayce went flying, landing with a sickening thud near Danyl. Before Zander could move, Ryder shifted, a menacing growl emerging from his long snout, his teeth gleaming lethally in the firelight. He leaped, his aim obviously Ancelin’s throat. Their father threw up his arm and Ryder’s fangs sank into his forearm. The demigod roared again and shook Ryder off as if he were no more than a bug, flinging the huge wolf body away from him. Zander took shape just behind Ancelin as Danyl rushed him, his strong fingers gripping his father’s throat. Viciously, Ancelin kicked Danyl’s legs out from beneath him. “Stupid half-breeds! You cannot best a god!” he sneered. Zander stepped closer and punched him in the side of the head, the blindside sending his father staggering. He moved in closer, about to deal another blow, when Ancelin hit him with another fireball, this time catching him in the gut and slamming him backward into the twins. Anger and determination pushed every other emotion and sensation from Zander. He never felt the fireball or the thud of flesh on flesh as he plowed into his brothers. It was obvious to Zander how very much his father hated his sons and Nix. Before he and the twins could untangle themselves, Ancelin grabbed Nix in a move none of them anticipated. Shaking her viciously, he slapped her several times. Menacing growls came from Jayce and Ryder as they struggled to rise. Zander staggered to his feet, pain finally radiating through his body. Danyl hummed like a tuning fork, his eyes on Ancelin, seeking an opening to attack. Zander couldn’t read his brothers’ minds, but he knew everything they felt in that instant because each of them felt the same. Voth yanked Nix back against his body, and for a few moments he and Ancelin fought over her. She hung limply between them, obviously injured. The flames licked closer to them, and her body bowed and straightened. She stepped away from Voth, moving toward Ancelin. With one hand, she grasped her mate’s jaw and squeezed. “You deserve everything you get this night and more!” she cried out. Pain and outrage exploded on Ancelin’s face. He jerked his head from her grasp. “Fucking two-timing bitch!” he hissed. “What kind of woman fucks her mate’s son?” “The kind that has no respect for a man who would kill his own family and friends for power,” she taunted. “The kind who will beat you at your own game finally.” “No one bests me!” Ancelin’s voice rose to a roar, but the sound of the waves on the shore carried away its stridency. He reached for Nix again, but with an awkward gait that told of her broken bones, she sidled closer to the flames. “You are not going to do this.” He moved after her, tracking her around the edge of the fire pit. “I’m not stupid. I know you think to escape me by giving yourself to the flames.” She laughed at him and turned toward Voth, not the fire. He enfolded her in his arms,
and Ancelin let out a scream of rage, lurching toward them, his words directed at Voth. “You fucking punk! This is all your fault! You and that fucking bottom boy who calls himself my son! I won’t let you take this from me!” Voth shook his head sadly and stepped into the flames. Ancelin screamed again, his fury at being thwarted removing the last of his sanity. He reached into the flames to grab Nix and stumbled on a rock. In that moment, Danyl sprung at him, shoving him hard, and pitching him head first into the Phoenix pyre. The flames grew, leaping thirty feet into the air, yet giving off no smoke. Standing at the edge of the pyre with his brothers, Zander saw Nix and Voth struggling with Ancelin inside the fire. His screams of fury soon became screams of agony as the flames turned red and green, blue and gold, showering sparks that did not burn all over the area around the fire pit. A single black puff of smoke emerged from the pyre and Ancelin’s screams stopped. The fire burned wildly for a moment more, then calmed to an eerie dance of red and gold. In its center, Nix’s and Voth’s outlines melted together. With a loud whoosh, a huge bird flew from the center of the pit straight up into the air. When it burst free of the flames, they suddenly went out. In the center of the fire pit lay a small black stone about the size of Zander’s palm. He poked at it, thinking it would be hot, but it was cool to the touch. “It’s Ancelin’s heart.” All four brothers spun around to find Nix standing there apparently unhurt except that her form shimmered like a mirage. She wore the same black sweater and jeans, but now her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Zander thought she appeared almost as she had the day he’d met Voth, but with an indefinable difference he couldn’t quite put his finger on. She laughed softly. “I can’t read your mind anymore. Not that it matters. I know you too well. I can read your expression,” she said, her eyes twinkling. She smiled at Zander’s brothers. “Just so you all understand, the three hands reaching for Ancelin’s throat was only a metaphor. Three sets of people brought about Ancelin’s actual demise. Myself and Voth as the Phoenix were the hand of fate. The four of you, his sons, were the hand of vengeance, and Ancelin’s own arrogance became the hand of justice. He set his death in motion many years ago when he killed the Phoenix—Voth’s father. You can’t deny the Phoenix rebirth in the flames and expect to go unscathed. It just took the four of you seeking vengeance to bring into play the last element needed to seal his fate. I’m so sorry.” Zander’s gaze encompassed all of his brothers as they stood before Nix. Oddly, he could sense the varying emotions in each of them. It made him wonder if being mated to the Phoenix had conferred something extra onto him. Jayce shook his head. “Don’t be. It wasn’t your fault either, Nix.” “It all seems so … anticlimactic,” Ryder muttered with a grimace. “Why couldn’t we have torn him to bloody bits?” “Ancelin lived a very dramatic life. It’s very fitting that he go out with a whimper not a bang,” Nix said as a smile curved her lips. “I know it’s not exactly the closure you all dreamed of, since you each lusted to kill him with your bare hands, but you did play a part in his demise and in the end, it’s still closure. This chapter of your lives is done and a new one, a better one, beckons.”
Zander turned the stone over, ideas for its disposal flitting through his head. Before he could open his mouth and make a suggestion, Danyl took it from him and walked to the shoreline. Drawing back his arm, he hurtled the stone far out into the waves. “Wise choice, Danyl.” Relief flooded Zander. He and his brothers turned and found Nix gone. In her place stood Voth, his red-brown waves mussed and a streak of soot on his cheek. Zander rushed to his mate, and Voth threw an arm around him in a hug. “Do you think we can go home now? This rebirth stuff uses a lot of energy. I’m hungry.” “You did say there’d be a party,” Ryder reminded him. “So I did!” Voth grinned as they walked toward Zander’s truck. “This means we’re all related to the Phoenix now, doesn’t it?” Jayce asked thoughtfully. Zander nodded, his lips quirking in a smile. “Where did Nix go?” he asked his mate, unable to let go of the woman who’d been such a vital part of his life for the last year. Voth looked over his shoulder at a brown bird who drifted above them on a draft of air. “To start her life over.” “Just like us,” Danyl said on a sigh. “No,” Voth corrected with a smile directed just at Zander. “Just as the prophecy promised.” The End About the Author: Lex has been writing ever since she could hold a pencil, but wasn't published until 2009. A native of California's Central Coast, Lex has lived in Southern California since 1992. She works as a network administrator for a large cemetery and mortuary company in Orange County and lives with her long-haired, tattooed rocker significant other and her daughter, an art college student. Lex loves loud music, builds her own computers, and has a propensity for having very weird vivid dreams about Nikki Sixx. She is an EPIC author and a Covey Associate. You can find Lex all over the internet. Stop by and say hello! Author Website: http://www.lexvalentine.com
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