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“Wait.” The word was out of his mouth before he thought better of it. The Elites turned to him in unison. Marius’s heart constricted as they looked at him like he was going to slap them.
They have really
been tiptoeing around me, haven’t they?
He was going to have to make up for that.
“What is it, Marius?” Axis asked, brow furrowed.
“I don’t need a ritual to tell me.” He looked at his nephilim lovers.
“They’re ours, aren’t they?”
Levi grinned. “Yep. Erik saw it, I feel it, you feel it. Ours.” Marius nodded. “I don’t want to agree to this because I’m getting redemption out of it. If we’re going to be together, I want it to be because we want to be together.”
“It would alleviate your fears if you did this, Marius,” Jade said softly. “We understand your need for reassurance.”
“My gut tells me the same thing it did about Levi and Erik.
You’re right, I don’t trust angels. But I trust you all, and my instincts haven’t steered me wrong yet.”
“Then grant us the intimacy of your redemption,” Axis rumbled, pleasure painted across his face. “Let today be the day we start over together.”
“Is that all right with you?” The question was directed at his nephilim. They nodded, smiling brightly. Erik looked relieved, and Levi looked pleased as punch. Pleasure blossomed in Marius’s chest.
Yeah. I think I finally did something right
.
He stripped off his own clothing and tossed it outside the candled circle. The other Elites were a bit neater with their uniforms, but soon all of them joined him inside the flickering light.
“Gents, wings out,” Axis commanded. Immediately the Elites dropped their charms, and wings of the most unique hues Marius had ever seen came into view. Axis’s wings were black edged in a vibrant, almost neon green, Jade’s were bright yellow with streaks of orange throughout, Brax’s were dark navy blue with ice-blue tips, and Keer’s were probably the most unusual. They resembled peacock feathers.
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Marius uncloaked his own wings and the vibrant white and pale green seemed to fit with the others nicely.
“Whoa! It’s like a rainbow of awesome!” Levi said from the couch, laughing.
“Very beautiful, guys,” Erik echoed Levi’s sentiment in an amused tone. He was the one with the wing fetish. Marius grinned.
The others wouldn’t know what to do with Erik. The nephilim loved to touch and caress angel wings. He just adored the reactions that Marius gave when they were stroked.
“This is the most unusual redemption I’ve ever been to,” Marius muttered as three of the Elites took up a triangular position inside the circle and extended their wings so that they touched and formed a wall of feathers between Marius, Axis, and the rest of the room.
He looked into Axis’s pretty green eyes and watched them fill with heat. “Relax, Marius, this won’t take hardly any time at all.”
“I’m not worried.” He wasn’t. He was relaxed and curious but not anxious, not anymore. The conversation he’d had with Michel what seemed like weeks ago ghosted up through his mind. He’d wanted security, and he’d wanted his nephilim to be better protected. Maybe he’d also been a little jealous of the love and obvious adoration that was shared between Michel and his five other lovers.
“Hmm, that’s good.” Axis stepped forward until their chests touched. The naked skin on his own made Marius’s body jerk in appreciation.
“No fair!” a slightly breathless voice exclaimed from outside the triangle of feathers. “We want to see.”
“Levi!” Erik’s voice hissed. “Stop interrupting them!” Marius and Axis shared a chuckle. Their nephilim were too damn cute.
“Their” nephilim? Huh, well, I guess that’s right.
“This part will only take a minute, boys, patience,” Axis said. The twittering immediately fell silent. The other Elites started silently laughing as well, betrayed by the slight shaking in their shoulders and
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wings. Axis rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. “I think this is the least formal redemption I’ve ever been to.”
“Were unconventional,” Marius said, leaning his forehead against the Elite commander’s. “Do me, Axis.”
A low growl sounded. “You are temptation, Marius.” Their lips met for the second time in less than an hour, and this time, Marius didn’t let himself get tripped up over the whys and the what-ifs. It felt good to kiss Axis, better than good. It felt fantastic. Their tongues touched, and an energy in the form of a soft blue light began to pour into Marius’s mouth, startling him. He tried to pull back, but Axis was having none of it, his hands like vise grips on Marius’s waist.
“
Just let go, sweet Marius. You don’t have to fight anymore. I
have you.
We
have you
,” Axis’s voice echoed in his mind.
Marius’s heart pounded as the kiss stretched on and he began to see and feel the connection forming first between him and Axis and then between him and the rest of the Elites. He could really “see” them for the first time. He saw Brax’s awkwardness over his nerdiness, Keer’s vanity as a mask for his insecurity about his exotic looks, Jade’s fear of being alone, and Axis’s bone-deep need to nurture which had been denied all these months that they’d been a part of Marius, Erik, and Levi’s lives and yet separate from it. In that moment they saw him as well.
The part of him that was fallen, tainted, began to burn. He whimpered in fear. He wasn’t good enough, wasn’t strong enough, wasn’t—
“
Shhh, Marius, let it go. You’re an Elite now. No longer fallen.
You belong with us and we with you. Nothing can take that away
.” He clung to Axis’s voice, needing it to be an anchor point in the storm of his heart.
“
Look at our nephilim
.” The command was easy to follow as Keer and Brax each lifted back one of their wings and let him look on Erik and Levi, who were tearing one another’s clothes off on the couch.
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They were lost in their instincts. It was beautiful. Marius broke the kiss he was sharing with Axis and just looked at them.
He could watch over them always now. “
Yes
,” Axis said. He’d never fear falling in battle because the others would watch over them always. “
Yes
.” Peace unlike anything he’d ever felt before wound its way into his soul.
Yes
. He was home. The last bit of his fallen self burned away, leaving only angelic energy in its place. The storm had passed. He was free.
The angels surrounded him, touching him, soothing away the hurt from the past few months.
“Is it over?” he asked, his voice hoarse for some reason.
“Not quite yet,” Jade murmured, licking a path up the inside of his arm to the bend of his elbow. Axis did the same to the other side while Keer and Brax kissed the back of his neck. He felt a sharp pinch on both of his arms and looked down to see both Axis and Jade withdrawing small ornate knives from his flesh. His blood ran in two tiny rivers from the cuts.
“Your blood,” Axis said, the words seemingly part of the ritual.
“My blood.” He nicked his wrist with the blade and pressed it to the wound he’d created. Fire radiated from the place where their blood mingled, causing Marius to gasp.
“Your blood,” Jade echoed, “my blood.” He did the same to the other arm, and Marius squirmed. It wasn’t painful per se, but it sure as hell wasn’t pleasant. His idiot cock thought it was though, stirring hard and hot against his thigh.
“Your pleasure,” Keer spoke, winding his arm around Marius’s waist to take up the now burgeoning erection he had there. Marius’s hips bucked, suddenly on the edge of orgasm. “Our pleasure.” As the last word sounded, the edge fell off and he careened headlong into pleasure that nearly had his balls turning inside out. The sticky liquid splashed against Jade’s torso as he stood in front of him. The other male groaned before wiping his hand through the sticky mess that Keer milked out of him and used the spunk as lube to jack his own
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hard length. Marius shuddered, his eyes crossing. Distantly he realized that Keer had also come. The liquid heat had splashed against the swell of his ass and was currently making a path down its curve.
“Your pleasure,” Brax’s voice rumbled, his hand snaking around to take Marius’s cock from Keer’s grip. His flagging erection swelled instantly.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. I can’t come again. Fuck. Shit
! The Elite pressed a kiss to Marius’s neck before whispering the words that Marius was anticipating in his ear. “Our pleasure.” Marius groaned as cum shot out of his tip, decorating Axis’s lower stomach and cock with its offerings. Like Jade had done the moment before, he used Marius’s liquid as lubrication to masturbate his weeping dick. The only sound in the room was their soft panting.
Something was building inside of him. He could feel it from his toes through his entire body as if he were a teapot about to boil over.
Every nerve ending tingled, and every inch of skin that the Elites touched seemed hypersensitive. He cried out, his body unwilling or unable to deal with the insanity that was going on inside his flesh. The impossibility of an unflagging erection was a reality as he was posed on the razor’s edge of pleasure for the third time in a row.
“Forever,” Jade groaned, shooting his heat onto Marius’s groin.
Marius whimpered.
“Forever,” Axis rumbled, jerking his pleasure over Jade’s. Marius lost it, his whole body seizing as the third orgasm in so few minutes ripped him from his earthly body and spun him off into the stars. He might’ve screamed, he wasn’t sure, but all he knew was that the Elites were there throughout it, anchoring him to this plane of existence so that he didn’t drift off into eternity.
Awareness flickered in his chest as he looked into the pleasured faces of the Elites.
Mine
.
All mine
. Axis had been right. He knew that they were his. His mates. A foreign element had taken up residence in the most instinctual part of his soul. He examined it for a second and got the eerie impression that it was looking back at him. It nodded to
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the connection between them, showing him irrevocably the bond between each and every one of his mates.
“That is your animal,” Axis whispered. Why he was whispering, Marius didn’t know. But it seemed appropriate. “We’ll teach you how to call him out of you later. Until then, get to know him. He’s yours forever.”
Erik and Levi stepped into the circle and dropped to their knees in front of Marius. Their eyes seemed too shiny, too dilated, still overwhelmed by instincts that they didn’t understand. Levi leaned into his body, lapping up the sticky pleasure that decorated his skin and groaning at the taste. Erik did the same, and all the Elites groaned. It was a hell of a sight, the two nephilim contributing to the ritual in their own way.
Once he was cleaned to their satisfaction, they sat back on their heels, smiling up at him. Marius reached out and petted both their heads, loving them more than he ever had before. It seemed by accepting the taste of the others, they were accepting the relationship between them. It pleased Marius to no end.
“I need a shower,” Marius rumbled, helping both of his nephilim lovers to their feet. The others looked at him expectantly. “Join us?”
“It is our pleasure,” Axis said.
“I want to come together with you all,” Marius added as Axis waved his hands at the others who busied themselves by blowing out the candles. “I need it.” I need to solidify whatever this is between us.
Axis’s green eyes darkened. “We would like that.” Those eyes went to the nephilim. “Are you two all right with that?”
“Yes,” Levi all but panted. “Please.”
“What he said,” Erik said, absentmindedly rubbing his own hard arousal against his thigh. The nephilim had only come once as far as Marius could tell and once was never quite enough for them, especially with all this stimulation. Marius was pleased with their agreement.
Good
. All his mates needed to be together. Marius especially needed them all together.
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Axis nodded. “Go start the water. We’ll be there in just a minute.”
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Levi felt like he was on a cloud as they climbed the stairs to go to their massive bathroom that Marius had thoughtfully had installed.
His once-fallen lover seemed like he was finally on the same page as the rest of them, and the feral light in his eyes told him irrevocably that there was going to be some much-needed physical release just as soon as they stepped into the spray. Levi’s body had no problem with that, it was still weeping from earlier. Erik and he had taken the edge off with their frantic coupling, but Levi had learned a long time ago that a nephilim’s appetite for sex often boggled the minds and libidos of lesser men.
“Good God, little one. What happened to your back?” Brax asked as the Elites caught up with them on the stairs.
Levi flinched, and Erik stepped between him and the Elite who’d spoken. “Don’t talk about his back. It bothers him.”
“Who the hell did that to him?” Keer snarled, trying to step around Erik on the stairs. Levi felt tears flood his eyes.
No. No. Don’t
look at them. Don’t, please, ugly. They’re so ugly
. Marius’s arms wrapped around him, cradling him to his chest as Levi began to shake. He’d grown so used to being around Marius and Erik that he hardly thought of the scars anymore. Insecurity swamped him.
Will
they think I’m ugly
?