One

Lust

I watch Moon jump to her feet as joy lights up her beautiful face, and then I watch as she falls, tripping over a log. I cringe when she knocks herself out cold from her head hitting a rock. Of course, she would.

The other two move to assist their Heart Bonded, but neither the Elven Prince Tristan nor the half-Orc half-Elf, Arlo, have the ability to heal others. Tristan was closer, so he reached her first, kneeling beside her and checking over her wounds. With black hair, magenta eyes, and striking cheekbones, he’s thinner than Arlo but still built with muscle.

Arlo drops beside Moon, frantically looking over her body, appearing nearly identical to the man across from him. His muscles are thicker and his shoulders wider, but they are clearly related.

I stand and walk over to the unconscious woman, wondering how I managed to keep her alive all these years when she’s actively trying to unalive herself regularly. She’s nothing but a baby gazelle. A tattooed, purple-haired, sexy, blue-eyed gazelle…

“Move aside,” I instruct, my voice hoarse with pent-up emotion as the two men shoot each other dirty looks above Moon’s unconscious body. I suppose Arlo’s look might be more curious than dirty, though. I’m sure Tristan is wondering why this stranger looks so familiar. Arlo knows who Tristan is to him, though. If only they could see themselves side by side.

“What are you—” Tristan stops speaking when I partially shift my left arm and pluck a red and gold feather. The wound on Moon’s head is bleeding, but I know my feather will heal her. If not for me, she’d have a concussion.

Moon is pure chaos.

She’s lying on her back in the grass, practically dead to the world. Her mouth hangs open, brows furrowed, and blood runs across her skin, making my insides twist. I hate seeing her in pain.

I kneel beside her and open the top button of her black shirt, placing the feather on her chest gently before covering it with my hand. The heat of her skin pierces my cold palm, lighting the fire in my chest brighter. I burn for Moon, inside and out. She is my flame, and she’ll never know it.

I close my eyes, will the feather to heal her, and feel it turn to ash under my palm. Moon gasps, jerking awake, and throws her hands out. An energy buzzes over her skin, and I realize she is attempting to use her magic against me, but something’s wrong. Something’s blocking her.

Her Moonstone is gone, and she feels different without it. I’ve always known she was more than just a Witch because her mother is the one who hired me to protect her, after all, but…I had no idea how much the moonstone hid. I always assumed it was keeping her powers contained, but being this close to her now, I feel like I’m as in the dark as the rest of them, which really pisses me off.

“What the fuck happened?” she groans when she realizes it’s me touching her, and she’s not in danger. As the last of my feather’s magic heals her, she sighs with relief, sinking back to the forest floor, and touches her hand to her forehead. She’s a bit disheveled, but she’ll be fine.

“Arlo arrived, and you tripped. Hit your head pretty hard,” I answer, before standing and taking several steps away from her as she rubs her head, despite the pain no doubt being gone. My ability to heal is very powerful.

Both men immediately close the distance between themselves and Moon. I’ve known her most of my life, but it’s them she needs, not me. It’s them she turns to for comfort.

“Arlo!” She smiles brightly at him, and my heart pinches as she pulls him down for a hug. I shake it off, or at least I attempt to. I’m not one of her Heart Bonded. I would feel it if I were. I care for her. I would die for her, but if we don’t sense a bond…a hollow pain eats away at my heart, as jealousy roars to life inside me. I want to toss both of them across the forest and hold her…but I’m not hers, and she’s not mine.

“I have so much to tell you, Moon,” Arlo whispers, and I suppress a scoff.

Me too, only I can never tell her any of it.

Moon

“I have a lot to tell you, too.” I cringe a bit because as happy as I am to finally have him back with me, I have no idea how he’ll respond to the things I have to tell him. Arlo is a good man. I’m not worried he’ll be angry, but will he be upset? Jealous? Hurt? His magenta eyes are focused on me, and the similarity between him and his brother reminds me just how crazy this all is.

I don’t want to hurt him with my words or disappoint him, even though I have no control over any of this. I certainly didn’t ask for his brother to be one of my Heart Bonded. That thought makes my chest pinch, though, because now that Tristan is mine, I wouldn’t change that. I wouldn't want to.

It’s not that I feel obligated to each of them, but I do have this pull to be close to them. To make sure they’re both happy. The last thing I want to do is be the reason either of them is hurting.

Arlo helps me sit up, before taking a seat on the grass next to me. Tristan is on my other side, staring at Arlo intensely. There’s tension in the air, coming from all of us. I’m tense, worrying about their feelings. Arlo is tense, no doubt nervous about revealing himself to Tristan. Tristan is tense because he’s got no damn idea what's going on.

Then there’s Lust, who’s sitting just a few feet away from us, all rigid muscles and radiating agitation.

I cross my legs and take one of Arlo’s hands, and then one of Tristan’s, and hold them both tightly. It’s instantly comforting, and I relax just a tiny bit. Both men can no doubt sense my discomfort and anxiety, just like I can sense theirs.

“You go first?” Arlo offers with a sweet, encouraging smile, and I nibble my lip. My brows pull together, and I frown. Arlo’s eyes are fixed on me, and I want to ask him to take his mask off, but I don’t want him to feel exposed or vulnerable. Maybe Arlo should reveal who he is to Tristan first, and then I can tell him I’m bonded to them both?

I chance a glance at Tristan, as he touches the scar above his right brow with his free hand. Tristan looks stressed and confused, which makes me feel worse.

“Maybe you should go first instead?” Arlo nods at my words, and even though he’s frowning now too, he doesn’t ask why I don’t want to talk yet. He helps me off the ground, and I release both of their hands, taking a seat on the log that just tried to kill me. I give the piece of wood a threatening glare, so it knows next time will be its last time attacking me.

“Who are you?” Tristan asks Arlo, remaining on the ground, understandably a bit impatient, staring at the man he probably recognizes, but doesn’t know why Arlo is so familiar. “You look so much like…but…” Tristan pushes his hand into his black hair and tugs it, before turning his attention to me. “Another Bonded, right?” he asks, but I freeze. Shit. This is already taking a shit turn up fuckity-fuck creek.

“You’ve met another besides me?” Arlo asks, and my heart starts racing. Arlo doesn’t look upset or bothered. Maybe slightly eager. But that could change once he finds out he’s sharing a hidey-hole for his trouser snake with his brother.

Fucking hell, why is my brain like this?

I feel like I’ve just fallen into a pit filled with spiders, and I absolutely do not want to be spider dinner. So small, so many eyes, so many damn legs…why do they need eight?!

“Oh, Um.” I stutter over my words and take in a shaking breath as my mouth goes dry. I’m preparing to spill the beans, but before I can, someone else beats me to it.

“You two are brothers. Your mother is alive, Tristan, and living in the Orc realm with Arlo’s father. The Bond marks you share with Moon are also identical to each other, most likely because you are brothers, but also because Moon is not what she seems,” Lust says as he starts pushing logs around with a stick in the fire he appears to have built while I was busy freaking out. He’s glaring at the flames like they personally offended him. What the hell does he have to be so pissed about?

My eyes go wide, and I look over at the Phoenix, who looks very put out by this entire situation.

“What the hell is up your ass?” I hiss, making him turn to look at me slowly, then at the other two men. His expression is bored and disinterested, but if he were truly so indifferent, would he be injecting himself into a conversation that doesn’t involve him?

“Nothing,” he grumbles, turning back to the fire. He’s such a large man, and the log he’s sitting on looks like it’s struggling to hold him up. His blond hair is a mess, and his beard looks like it needs a trim. I’m not used to seeing him so disheveled.

“How did you even know all that?” I press, but Lust ignores me, making me want to smack him with a rubber dick.

“My mother?” Tristan asks quietly, and I snap my head back around, so I can look at him. I reach my right hand out, so I can take his hand in mine, and give him a squeeze. My instinct to soothe him is so overwhelming, especially when I can feel this tug between us telling me he isn’t okay. Tristan spent a long time thinking his mother was dead. My heart aches for the heartbroken little boy inside him. Needing to be closer to him, I fall to my knees in front of him, still holding his hand in mine.

“Our mother,” Arlo clarifies. He has so much compassion for a brother he’s only met for the first time today. “Your father, he was done with her. He wanted a new wife, and our mother had already fallen in love with an Orc Chieftain, my father. The Elven King was going to use my birth to have our mother killed. But the day I was born, she sent me to the Orc realm with her handmaiden, except your father had guards intercept them. I was to be killed, but the man the King had sent to execute me couldn’t bring himself to kill a baby. At least that’s what our mother assumed since her handmaiden never returned, and neither did any of the guards. I was left in the Human realm. Our mother was told I was dead, and because the Orc realm is secluded, they had no way of knowing the truth. They tried to search for me for a while, but when they never found me, they assumed the worst.”

“Fuck,” I whisper, turning to my left, so I can face Arlo, while still holding Tristan’s hand. I place my left hand on Arlo’s thigh and squeeze. He said the words with little emotion, but I know he’s hurting on the inside.

“It’s okay, Blossom,” Arlo teases with a wink. I glare but decide to let him using my forbidden name slide, just this once.

“So my mother–our mother–is alive, living with your father, in the Orc realm?” Tristan clarifies, and Arlo nods in reply. As Tristan’s hands start to shake, I squeeze his hand tighter. “My father is a mean bastard. I wonder when he realized you lived, and how long he’s known where our mother is,” Tristan says, taking this news surprisingly well.

“I don’t know. I think the King might be the one who’s forcing me to participate in the games, though,” Arlo admits, and my eyebrows shoot up. “Goblins were attacking me in the fourth trial.”

“They were after Moon too,” Tristan adds, and Arlo nods. It seems like he already knew that.

“He may be trying to kill her because of me, then.”

“He’s not,” Lust says, still poking at the fire, sounding grumbly.

“How do you know?” I ask, but when he doesn’t respond, I look around for something to throw at his head. I settle for tossing a small rock at the man. He’s acting as if he doesn’t care about any of this, but he’s obviously listening and cares enough to correct us if nothing else.

“I’ve been protecting you since you were five, Moon. I know everything about you.” He pokes at the fire, as his shoulders go from rigid to deflated. “People have been sent to kill or kidnap you many times over the years. Ever since your Mom left.” He swallows thickly, his voice cracking. “If…anything…” Lust trails off, his head turning slowly as he looks over at me.

I stare at him for a long moment, mouth hanging open as my brain processes his words in slow motion.

The first time I laid eyes on Lust, I was nearly thirteen. I distinctly remember the preteen urge to run away from the cute older boy. He was so much smaller then. Tall and skinny with shaggy hair he definitely wasn’t washing regularly and patches of hair growing unevenly on his lower face. You know, the awkward beard boys think makes them look more manly, but just makes them look more like a child.

Even then, I was mesmerized by him. He was funny and sweet. He treated me like any seventeen-year-old would treat a girl that followed him around like a puppy dog. Like I was a kid, and he was too cool to be seen with me…but, was that just an act?

Protecting me since I was five? No…there’s no fucking way.

“I didn’t meet you until I was twelve, and you left when I was sixteen,” I say, shaking my head. How the fuck did he protect me, if he wasn’t there… “You…YOU WHAT?!” I jump to my feet, mindful of the killer logs this time, and stomp over to the dumb bird. I can feel tears stinging my eyes because it feels like my oldest friendship is nothing but a fucking lie. Like the one person I could trust and rely on, never even wanted to be there to begin with.

“I couldn’t tell you, Moon,” Lust defends, but hot tears fall down my cheeks. He’s facing me, stick now forgotten on the ground, as he looks up at me. I’m only a few inches taller than him when he’s sitting. My fists are balled at my sides, and the anger in my chest is radiating through my limbs as the pain builds.

I want to jump on his back and put him in a chokehold. Not that it would do me any good. The beast of a man would be as unfazed as Odas was in his Cyclops form when I tried to choke him out.

“You were never really my friend, were you? You were just, what, stalking me? Hired? Bribed? How do you know so much? How do you know things about us, I don’t even fucking know?!” I demand, and Lust cringes. “Why couldn’t you tell me back then, but you’re telling me now?

“I’ll explain everything when you calm down.”

“Calm down? CALM DOWN! I will not calm down! You’ve been lying to me my entire life! Was everything a lie, Marcellus?” I screech.

“Shh, keep your voice down.” Lust looks around the area before looking back up at me. The audacity of men, I swear.

“Fuck you,” I whisper, before turning my back on him and stomping away from our campsite. I need a moment to myself, so I head into the trees. I want to cry in private. “Stupid fucking bird brain barbarian bastard…” I swipe at my tears and sit at the trunk of one of the trees. Pulling my knees up to my chest, I wrap my arms around them and hold myself together as best I can.

Memories of every moment I’ve spent with Lust in my life flash through my mind. Particularly being sixteen and heartbroken. Apparently, he just hid from me but never left. Or was he gone, and just meant he was protecting me, minus those four years? My truest friendship, shattered with eight words.

I pull the necklace Fen gave me out of my boob pocket and put it back on. If I need to have a private conversation with him away from Tristan’s magical necklace, I don’t want anyone to see it. I can’t believe, all this time, he’s not who I thought he was. I’m starting to think nothing about my life has been what I thought it was.

My mother didn’t actually abandon me. My father might not be the man I thought he was, and now my oldest friend isn't even my friend at all. He’s just my babysitter. No wonder he tried to stop me from joining the games and then followed me here when I refused. I thought he was just being protective. I thought he just cared about me. Guess I was wrong. Maybe that’s why he’s so annoyed about my Heart Bonds. Because he’s basically out of a job now. They’ll protect me better than he ever could.

“Light one!” I hear one of the men shout, startling me. I jump to my feet, and when I realize what Tristan had just said, I run back toward our camp. It’s chaos.

Lust is on fire, Tristan is throwing knives at a small snake, and Arlo is stomping the ground like an elephant trying to stomp a mouse.

“Stop!” I shout, and all three men ignore me. I call to my magic, and as the chaos around me rages, I feel a tiny spark. Not enough to stop three full-grown men from trampling Silas, though.

“He’s my Heart Bonded!” I try to say it loudly, but not so fucking loud that the entire Elven Games hear me.

This works though, thankfully, and all three men freeze mid-attack.

“Who is?” Lust asks as he turns to look at me, his chest heaving as his flames burn brightly, and I point to the snake. The spark in his eyes quickly dies, along with his fire, and he turns away from me, stomping into the trees. I flinch away from his anger but don’t have time to chase after him. I need to make sure the half-Orc and Elven Prince don’t kill my Murder Noodle.

Silas transforms into his human form, and my eyes go wide.

The man really is stunning. With skin lighter than Crow’s, it almost looks translucent. White hair and silver eyes. He’s breathing heavily but makes no move to harm the other two men. He also doesn’t cover up his big dick that’s just hanging there. My eyes drop, and my eyebrows shoot up.

Feelings inside me clash and rage as I feel relief that Silas is here, but sadness over everything that just happened with Lust.

“Seriously? No wonder you didn’t want to be saved. I knew you’d have more, but…this guy?” Tristan asks, gesturing toward Silas, and nodding at his junk. I shrug.

Tristan scoffs, snaps his fingers, and his Bonded Mark appears on his neck. Arlo’s head jerks his brother’s way, and his eyes go wide.

“Holy shit.” I’m still glancing between Silas’s dick and the other two men, when Arlo removes his mask, revealing his Bonded Mark.

“What about you? Show us your mark,” Tristan snarks, and Silas just turns his arm, since ya know, he’s still balls-to-the-wall naked.

“There are at least seven others, perhaps more.” Silas nods, glares at the other two men, and then turns to me. The smile he shoots me is both terrifying and super sexy. I bite my lip as he walks over and lifts me into his arms for a hug. When he buries his nose in the crook of my neck, I shiver. “You smell like the dipshit.”

I snort a laugh and pull back. “Dip shit? Which one would that be?”

“The older one,” Silas smirks, and I shake my head.

“That’s not a very nice way to talk about Tristan, Murder Noodle.” I boop his nose, and that’s when Sweet Girl comes charging into the clearing. “Oh shit.” She spends exactly no seconds deciding what to do, and Silas only has enough time to spin, tossing me into Arlo’s body. Thankfully, the half-Orc man is strong as a brick wall and barely flinches as he catches me. “Don’t hurt her!” I shout, and Silas’s jaw drops.

“Hurt her?! She’s going to fucking trample me!” He leaps over her, and she charges straight for a tree, too big to slow down now. My panic kicks in, and I scream.

“NO!” I shout, throwing my hands up, and everyone pauses as my magic decides to finally show itself, turning the tree into a…three-foot-tall dildo? Sweet Girl runs into it and sneezes as the flaccid appendage slaps her nose, and she slides to a stop.

“What the fuck?” I whisper, as I pull away from Arlo’s arms and walk over to the poor girl. I check to make sure she’s okay before turning to inspect the tree-bark-colored peen. Its tip is green like the leaves, which shouldn’t be so damn funny, but it’s honestly hilarious. “Silas is a Bonded, please don’t maim him, Sweet Girl,” I say over my shoulder absentmindedly, as I pick up the peen.

“Seriously?” Silas asks when we all see the roots holding the dildo to the ground as I lift it a few inches. It feels like rubber, but the roots look like regular tree roots.

“So, I guess it’s still a tree?” I push it back down, securing the base to the forest floor, so it doesn’t fall over. The more I look at it, the more confused I get.

“Why was your first thought to turn it into a penis?” Tristan asks, and I shake my head.

“It wasn’t. Not exactly. When Sweet Girl charged Silas, I was thinking about how she’d probably break his dick if she rammed into him, but then he dodged her, and I was worried she’d hurt her head… I don’t honestly know how I did that. My powers haven’t been working since the middle of the first trial.” I shake my head, wondering if maybe I was wrong to take the moonstone necklace off.

My mom came back for thirty seconds, and I trusted her just because she coughed up a little blood? She could have been faking it… Although, Grams would never fake something like that.

Fuck, what do I do?