The Hawk Lord by Amy Sumida

Chapter Fourteen

The Hawk Army rushed forward cheering when they spotted Dal and me flying in. Soldiers swarmed the landing pad near the training yard. As I was shrugging out of my rig, Raeshal pushed his way through the crowd and hurried over to me with a look of relief on his face. That expression changed to shock when he got a good look at me.

He stopped short and gaped. “Ravyn?”

“Hey, Rae,” I said with a sheepish grin. “There's been... uh, some, uh...”

“We have a new Valorian!” the Hawk Lord declared in a loud voice as he stepped up beside me, already shifted back and dressed in his war robe.

There was an awe-filled silence and then wild applause, roaring cheers, and a few hawk shrieks.

Raeshal looked from me to Dal and back. “A Valorian? You gave him a piece of your soul?”

“And the Beasts and Goddess accepted him.” Dal put a hand proudly on my shoulder. “You were right, Rae. Ravyn is exceptional. In many ways.”

A look passed between the men, and Raeshal sighed. He turned to smile at me sadly but with understanding. Then he pulled me into a hug.

“I'm happy you're one of us, my dark bird,” he whispered in my ear. Then he pulled back and amended, “Well, I guess you're not mine anymore.”

“I'm sorry, Rae,” I said gruffly.

“Not necessary.” He grinned. “But thanks for caring. You look good as a fae. It suits you.”

“Thank you,” I grinned.

“Is it true?” General Faron asked as he came striding up with General Harvis—the man in charge of the human portion of the army.

“Look for yourself.” Dalsharan waved a hand at me, then swept by the Generals and cheering soldiers. “Come along, Corporal.”

I nodded to the Generals as they gaped at me, then hurried after the Hawk Lord.

“My lord!” General Faron chased after us. “Did you retrieve the amulets?”

“We did,” Dalsharan said sharply. “Assemble the officers, Faron, there is much to discuss.”

“But, my lord.” Faron rushed past me, casting me another look of amazement as he did, and caught up with Dal. “The Lion Lord and Coyote Lord are here.”

Dalsharan paused to glance at him. “Good, they should hear this too.”

A few Lions and Coyotes roamed around the perimeter of the Hawk Lord's tent. Above them, the Hawk Lord's Guard circled. Two of the massive Hawks landed and settled into their posts to either side of the tent entrance just as their lord strode through it. They made the timing look effortless, but they both cocked an eye at me, widening it as I passed by. I grinned to myself; shocking the Hawk Lord's personal guards was a feat I'd never thought to accomplish.

“Brothers,” Dalsharan said as he stepped into the main room of the tent.

Two men were seated at the central table. I recognized only one of them—the Lion Lord. He was thickly built like Dal, with skin the color of dark topaz and blue eyes that seemed even bluer because of his skin. His long, golden-brown hair hung wild around his shoulders. Strangely enough, the shade of the Lion Lord's hair was nearly an exact match to the color of the second man's eyes. This man, who I assumed was the Coyote Lord, was slim, elegant, and had a cunning look to his features. His ebony hair was pulled back tightly into a club bound with leather, and he was draped across his chair indolently. Both men rose to greet Dalsharan.

“Dal!” the larger man boomed, coming forward to hug the Hawk Lord. “Well met!”

Betrayal, someone whispered. I jerked around, nearly smacking into Rae.

“Are you all right?” Raeshal asked.

“Yeah. Sorry.” I chuckled. “I thought I heard something.”

“Well met, Hadrian.” Dal grinned at the Lion Lord as he backed out of their embrace. His grin faded a bit when he stretched out a hand to the slimmer man. “Brendallen, well met.”

“Well met, Hawk Lord,” Brendallen drawled, his eyes roaming Dal's body before settling on his face. “Nice robe.”

“I've just returned,” Dal said in a chiding tone and walked away, heading behind a partition. “Give me a moment to change,” he called back to them. Then he shouted, “Corporal, attend me!”

I bowed to the warlords as I hurried past and then slipped around the partition. I had a brief glimpse of a bed before strong hands grabbed me and yanked me forward. I smacked into Dalsharan's chest and his arms wrapped around me as his lips found mine. I held back my groan as his hands slid possessively over my body, squeezing me through my clothes—the muscles of my back, my ass, my arms. His tongue lashed mine as if to remind me who I belonged to, then he pulled away and looked me over slowly.

The Hawk Lord stepped back. He was naked, his robe cast over a chair. The space we were in was a third of the size of the main room but lavishly appointed, especially for a tent. A real bed, not just a cot, took up most of the room, its frame made of intricately carved wood and its mattress piled with blankets and pillows. Dal strode around it to a rack of clothes and selected a pair of pants. I waited, watching him step into them, then buckle on a belt. He slipped on a tunic next and lifted his hair out of it, spreading the brilliant strands over his broad shoulders. A comb lay atop the chest at the foot of his bed. Dal snatched it up on his way past and handed it to me.

“Put the satchel down and help me with my hair,” he commanded.

I shrugged the satchel off and dropped it on the ground as the Hawk Lord settled into a heavy chair, his back to me. I started combing his hair out. Dal winced.

“Have more care!” he snapped. “Haven't you ever brushed your hair before?”

A snide chuckle came from the other room. I could hear the shuffling sound of numerous people gathering. Great.

I leaned down to whisper in his ear, “Are you seriously having me brush your hair while two warlords wait outside?”

“They deserve to wait,” he whispered back. “Those fuckers lost their soul stones.”

I laughed softly and drew my cheek along his as I eased back. His hand whipped out quickly and caught the back of my neck before I straightened completely.

He drew me back down and bit my lip with a light growl. “As soon as this meeting is over, I'm having you in a proper bed.”

“Yes, Hawk Lord.”

He made an approving grunt. “Braid my hair. Be gentle and quick or I will punish you later.”

“I really think you're secretly a sadist,” I muttered as I braided.

“Have I hurt you?” He kept his voice low.

The sounds of conversation came from the other room. Only a few feet separated us from all those people and yet, he was risking an intimate conversation with me.

“No,” I admitted. “But you can if you want to.”

The Hawk Lord inhaled sharply and cast a look at me over his shoulder. “I think it's the other way around, my bad bird. You are a masochist.”

“Nah.” I grinned at him. “I just like my ass bit every once in a while. Maybe spanked.”

The Hawk Lord rose to his feet and turned to face me. A muscle ticked in his jaw. His stare raked me possessively as he grabbed my throat and pulled me forward by it. His fingers shifted into claws before I could process it, their deadly tips scraping my skin but not slicing. Only the most powerful Sidhe could manage a partial shift like that, and Dalsharan had done it in a moment—a casual display of terrifying talent. If he was trying to intimidate me, it worked.

Dal's head lowered and he breathed me in as I shivered, one hand pressed to his broad chest. A brush of lips over mine, then a flick of his tongue, and I was hard and aching again. Dal breathed in deeply again and grinned.

“That's how I want you,” he whispered as he squeezed my throat just a little. “Rock hard and desperate for me. Remember that you are mine when we go out there. The Coyote Lord and I are not on the best of terms. He will try to seduce you merely to get under my skin. And Ravyn,” he growled low and dangerously, “if you let him get under my skin, I will beat the beautiful new skin on your ass until it's red instead of white. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, Hawk Lord,” I said in a strong voice, so everyone outside could hear.

Dalsharan grinned. “Good bird. Now fetch the soul stones.” He swept past me and into the council room, saying something to the gathering that I couldn't hear over the pounding of my heart.

I looked at his massive bed and trembled in excitement, then looked down at my erection with a grimace. I couldn't go out there like that. My pants held my cock down a little but hardly enough to hide my hard-on.

“Jiggling boobs and wet pussy,” I whispered urgently as I fetched the stones from the satchel. “Jiggling boobs and wet pussy. Come on, go away, cock.” I turned around and came face to face with myself—my reflection in the mirror on Dal's dresser. “Holy fuck balls,” I whispered as I stepped up to it.

I was still me... mostly. But in addition to my pale, baby skin, my bone structure had shifted slightly—cheekbones angling up higher, along with my brow bone, giving me a distinctly fae look. My lips were fuller and my hair gleamed as if it were polished onyx. And my eyes... I leaned closer to the mirror to stare at them. They'd been blue before, just a normal sky blue. Nothing special. But now they had a sparkling iridescence that could only be attributed to one thing—magic.

My cock went limp instantly.

“I'm a fucking faerie,” I whispered. The enormity of that sentence hit me suddenly. I was immortal. Not invulnerable, but still, I'd live forever if I didn't manage to get myself killed. That was kind of a big deal.

“Corporal Ravellar!” The Hawk Lord shouted.

“I'm coming, Hawk Lord!” I shouted back and hurried around the partition.

If only, I thought to myself.

Then I stopped short. Everyone was staring at me, including the other warlords. The room was utterly quiet as I walked warily toward the Hawk Lord, who had claimed his seat at the head of the table. The Lion Lord and Coyote Lord flanked him in chairs to either side, but both were turned to face me. Their stares followed me across the room.

“My lord.” I held out the amulets to Dalsharan.

We have been betrayed, the whisper came again.

“What?” I hissed.

“I said, you fucking took long enough, Corporal,” Dal growled.

“Oh. Sorry, my lord. I was looking for the stones,” I muttered. “You know how the satchel likes to mess with me.”

Dal snorted.

“He truly is Valorian?” the Coyote Lord whispered as he looked me over. “How magnificent. You must be so proud, Dalsharan.”

“I am indeed overjoyed that my choice pleased the Beasts and the Great Mother,” Dal said as he handed the amulets back to their owners. “Corporal, attend me.”

Attend me? I frowned at him. What the fuck did that mean?

“Stand behind me and wait on my commands,” Dal whispered to me in irritation.

Help, the voice whispered. I stumbled as I went to stand behind Dal.

The Coyote Lord laughed low and sensually as he secured his amulet around his throat. “Don't be such a brute, Dalsharan. The boy has just been promoted from human to fae and to your...” he lifted a brow at Dalsharan in question.

“Consort, yes,” Dalsharan declared and gave the Coyote Lord a firm look. “He's mine.”

I gaped at the back of Dal's head. Fuck me, did he just claim me as his consort in front of a roomful of people and two warlords?

As I mentioned, the Army and the Fae, especially, are completely comfortable with every kind of sexuality, so I wasn't shocked that Dal would announce that he swung like that. However, warlords rarely took consorts. They had lovers, who enjoyed a certain status, but that status wasn't the same as a consort's. A consort was a step away from being a husband or wife. In a war camp, it gave me clearance to hear whatever he did. He had just basically handed me an invitation to any meeting I wanted to attend and a say in them. From the looks on the faces of the officers gathered in that tent, they were even more shocked than I was.

I lifted my chin, crossed my arms, and smiled broadly. I could very well be falling in love for the first time in my life.

“Consort, eh?” The Lion Lord asked as he glanced at me. “Were you two together before this mission?”

“Are we going to discuss my sex life now, Hadrian?” Dal smirked at the Lion Lord.

The Lion Lord chuckled, gave me a long look, and then said, “Only so I might offer my congratulations. I'm happy you've finally settled on someone.”

“For now,” Dal murmured.

Something shivered in my chest and my previous happiness vanished. For now? Why did that scare the fuck out of me? I had never cared about how long a relationship lasted. Why did it matter if the Hawk Lord saw me as temporary? He'd just handed me a title that I hadn't expected after giving me a piece of his soul and the immortality that came with it. I should focus on the positive—there was a shocking amount of it.

Help me, the voice came again.

My stomach twisted as I suddenly recognized the voice. It was one of the beasts. I stared at the warlords before me. Was one of their stones speaking to me? Asking me for help? No, it couldn't be. For one, they were safe now. For two, I wasn't touching any of them. I had to touch the Hawk Soul before I could hear it. Which meant that my mind was playing tricks on me. Maybe I was remembering what the beasts had said—all those whispered words that had eluded me. That would make more sense. They had been stolen, so maybe they had been asking me to bring them safely back to their warlords. And now that I had, I was remembering. Weird. But I probably had a very long life full of weirdness ahead of me.

“We have other things to discuss,” Dalsharan went on crisply. “Is everyone here?” he asked General Faron.

“Yes, my lord.”

“Good. I made an unsettling discovery in Alantri,” the Hawk Lord declared, and everyone went quiet. “The first fortress was breached easily and the Corporal retrieved the Lion Soul without issue.”

I bit back my surprised snort just in time. Without issue is hardly how I would have described that shitshow. But it was probably best not to tell the Lion Lord that I'd tried his necklace on.

“But he was captured in the second fortress,” Dal went on.

“What?” The Coyote Lord sat up straight. “You rescued the boy?”

“He is not a boy, Brendallen,” Dalsharan drawled, “and it was the other way around.”

That was met with astonished silence.

“It was a trap. They were waiting for me to fly in and attempt to save him,” Dalsharan said. “They had iron nets and an amulet hook. They removed the Hawk Soul from me before I could access its power.”

“Fuck,” the Coyote Lord whispered.

The Hawk officers—from the Generals down to Captains—all cursed furiously.

“It was Gremara,” Dalsharan said to his fellow warlords. “She didn't care about the stones. She tossed mine to Corporal Ravellar carelessly.”

“But... I don't understand,” the Lion Lord said. “Why steal them if she didn't want them?”

“It was an elaborate plot to get one of us to go after them,” the Hawk Lord explained. “She...” He cleared his throat and started again, “We did not destroy all the creskas fields as we thought.”

“We didn't...” the Coyote Lord frowned and then comprehension lit his features. “By the Moon! She didn't use wild-rot on you, did she?”

“She did. But not to torture me,” Dal said grimly. “Gremara tried to have intercourse with me. She wanted to conceive a child.”

“What?!” The Lion Lord roared.

“They have found a spell that will permit a fae to breed with a Farungal,” Dalsharan announced. “And supposedly, this child—a child born of a Farungal and a Sidhe warlord—would break their curse.”

The whole tent erupted into shouts and cursing. The Hawk Lord let it go on for a few minutes and then lifted his hand. He didn't have to do anything more than that to shut them all up. They went quiet and stared at him as if he had all the answers.

“We need to send forces to Alantri and find those creskas fields,” Dal said. “And we need to burn Gremara's fortress to the ground.”

“Send forces to Alantri?” the Coyote Lord drew back with a pensive frown. “That's risky. Almost as risky as you going there with only a human corporal.”

“And yet that corporal got me out of Gremara's fortress, even as the wild-rot took hold of me and left pieces of me behind,” the Hawk Lord said in a steely voice. “That human corporal tended me and refused to give up on me. And when I gave up, my stone spoke to him and showed him how to save me. That human corporal risked everything he was to make me whole again. So, Coyote Lord, maybe it wasn't so risky after all. Maybe it was the Goddess guiding us.”

The Coyote Lord snorted. “It was luck, Dalsharan, and you know it. You chose the right man for the job, I'll grant you that.” He slid me another lusty look. “But you shouldn't have risked yourself. I think we should stay the fuck away from Alantri for the time being, especially us warlords.”

“How did you resist the wild-rot?” The Lion Lord whispered to Dalsharan.

“I used the lessening spell,” Dal murmured back.

“Fuck, man,” the Lion Lord whistled. “You accepted the rot.”

“It was either that or impregnate Gremara and help to destroy our race,” Dalsharan gave the other warlord a grim look.

“Admirable, my friend.” The Lion Lord smacked Dal's shoulder. “But, fuck! I wouldn't have had the balls to... well, to give up my balls. You are more man than I.”

“So I've heard.” Dal grinned at the Lion Lord.

The Lion Lord burst out laughing. “That was one time after too many glasses of sharani, and she had no business squealing to you. That beautiful, evil tart.”

“That evil tart is your wife,” Dal chided.

“I know.” Hadrian grinned broadly. “And I wish she had never befriended you. You two are vicious together.”

“If you two are done reminiscing, could we discuss our plans?” the Coyote Lord asked sardonically.

“We can make no plans without first speaking to the other warlords,” Hadrian declared. “I will summon them here, Dal, and we can decide together what we should do about that vicious bitch.”

“Very well,” Dal agreed.

“If you would pardon my ignorance, Hawk Lord, would you mind explaining what the wild-rot is?” General Harvis asked.

“Of course, General,” the Hawk Lord said. “It is a potion that was originally created to rape men. The creskas flowers, when made into a paste and applied, give an immediate erection despite whatever that man is feeling. The Farungal loved it for that alone; it meant they could capture males of my kind and force them to participate in their own rape. But then they discovered that the magic fed on the energy of sex and that if they applied the paste and didn't touch the man, the potion would feed on his body. It eats flesh, rotting a living person as if they were a corpse. Another name for creskas flowers is corpse flowers. We believed that we had destroyed all of them, but it seems we were wrong. Gremara kept some in a hidden greenhouse.”

“Dear God,” the General whispered.

“God will not help you if you are unlucky enough to have that shit rubbed on your dick,” the Lion Lord said. “Only sex appeases it and without sex, you're as good as dead. Unless, it seems, you have a guardian Ravyn.” The Lion Lord grinned at me.

I smiled awkwardly back.

“He's good looking,” The Lion Lord said to Dalsharan.

Dal laughed. “Thank you for trying, but you don't have to make that kind of effort, Hadrian.”

“Oh, thank the Goddess. I'm bad enough at complimenting women, much less a man. Still, congratulations, Dal.”

“Thank you.”

“Before we leave you to enjoy your new consort,” the Coyote Lord drawled, “I'd like to give you both my sincere gratitude for rescuing the Coyote Soul Stone.”

Dalsharan went serious. “You're welcome, Brendallen.” He looked back at me with a prompting lift of his brows.

I flinched and said, “It was my honor to retrieve the soul stones, Coyote Lord.”

“So brave,” the Coyote Lord murmured. “A Valorian. How wondrous. Your king will be eager to meet him, Dalsharan.”

Dalsharan tensed. “I haven't spoken to His Majesty yet, but I'm sure he'd prefer me to stay with the army.”

“I don't know about that,” the Lion Lord said apologetically. “A new Valorian is miraculous, Dal. They'll see him as Goddess-touched. A Beast Champion. They'll want him trained and they'll want you beside him.”

Trained? I frowned at the back of Dal's head as if I could push my questions into it. I could see his shoulders bunching.

“He's needed here, as am I,” Dal growled.

“Dalsharan,” the Lion Lord said gently, “I know your army is important to you but this is even more important. He's a Valorian. There's only been one other and he—”

Dal made a hissing sound to cut the Lion Lord off. “You know that is not to be spoken of in mixed company.” Dal looked pointedly at the human officers in the tent.

“Of course.” The Lion Lord straightened. “But you know what I was going to say and you know I'm right. You must speak with the Hawk King as soon as possible. Your consort could bring untold blessings to Varalorre.”

“What about the war? Shouldn't his blessings be used here?”

“You argue with me as if I am your king,” Hadrian said. “If it were up to me, I'd tell you to do as your heart compelled you. But we are not kings, Brother. We are their swords, and we must go where we are swung.”

Dalsharan nodded grudgingly and stood up. “Dismissed!” he shouted to the room. He hugged the Lion Lord again, then nodded to the Coyote Lord.

The Coyote Lord stood up but instead of going straight past me, he stepped behind my back and around me. As he passed by, he trailed a hand over my ass and whispered in my ear, “Such a pretty bird. I'll be here one more night if you're inclined to leave the nest. I promise to make you scream.”

I swallowed roughly and straightened uncomfortably, but didn't say anything. What could I have said to a warlord? “Fuck off” didn't seem appropriate. The Coyote Lord grinned knowingly at me over his shoulder and sauntered out of the tent.

When everyone was gone, and I was finally alone with Dalsharan, he turned to me and growled furiously, “What the fuck did I tell you?”