The Guardian watched the two men with something like confusion in his pale blue eyes. His huge form invisible to them as they lay in each other's arms, their breaths synced, their bodies sated from their lovemaking— if only for the moment. The pearl contraption on the back of the young human kept the Guardian from seeing too much of the knot, or the young man's ass, but he kept his eyes on their hands and faces anyways. The way they watched each other, the way they met to kiss every few minutes, in between breaths of rest, had the Guardian's chest tightening with desire. Want. Need.
Not for either of the men. No, he had never felt that for men. Nor for women, really. Not for anything physical. At least, he didn't think so. He had given up on a mate a millennia before, and without that bond he didn't understand the need for sex or even physical pleasure. He had assumed a long time before, despite his mother's protests, that a mate wasn't in his fate. That one hadn't been made for him.
"They will come when it is time, my sweet Marlin," she would say, and he would wait. Forever, he would wait, if only to feel even a glimmer of what the bear shifter and his mate obviously felt, if the way they held each other was any indication.
"You know, mortals tend to frown on others watching them during, or even post, coitus. Whether the voyeur is divine or not, I don't think it really matters."
The Guardian looked up and met the eyes of his mother— the eyes of the Goddess of Beasts, Ravin.
Her dark eyes sparked with amusement and affection as she glanced at the two men, laughing together quietly, their hands rubbing up and down each other's arms, necks, backs, the bear shifter grabbing his mate's pearl-clad ass every few moments, to the absolute delight of his younger mate.
"I didn't..." Marlin began, rolling his eyes as his skin heated with an embarrassed blush. "I didn't watch them. I came in... after."
"I mean, I wouldn't judge you," the goddess replied with a shrug and a wink. "The boy can fill out a skirt, can't he? And did you see that line of kohl? I want to ask him how he got them so perfectly even. He's a treasure."
"I still don't see their significance," the Guardian murmured with a frown, watching as the two men began to rock against each other. The bear's knot was still swollen, but it seemed to matter not at all to either of them as their moans and gasps began to fill the space of the small suite of rooms.
"They are... They are small, compared to the others you're keeping an eye on. The others you are using to free... him. Why them?"
"The greatest heroes in history didn't become legends alone, dear Marlin," she replied with a small smirk and an uplifted brow as the men's cries began to rise and Marlin's cheeks darkened with each noise. "They received help— from friends, from family, from lovers. Those two men will see a time of great change and movement. They may only be the protectors for the legends, but they are just as vital because they will save the lives of my chosen leaders countless times. And the ripples of their relationship will reach him, and in a way I can't explain yet, they will be instrumental in freeing him."
"And the spirit witch?" Marlin asked, holding his hand out to Ravin, pulling her away from the men, out the door, still completely unnoticed by the two men. He led her through the halls of Swyer, then in one step they were in another place, another country, another continent. They watched, unseen by the mortals they viewed, as a young woman, a teenager, still a child, really, laughed boisterously as she leapt into the arms of a man not much larger than she. She wrapped her legs around his waist and tears filled her eyes as she clutched the tunic at his back in her fists and breathed him in.
"Mem, my dear sister, I'm so glad you're here," the man murmured, holding her just as tightly, his own face pressed up against her neck as if he could breathe her in as well.
"Re!" the young woman yelled, right up against his ear. A darker-skinned man, huge next to the small, younger man and the teenage girl, and a tall, regal, golden-skinned woman with hair the shade of the night sky without any stars stood to the side, both watching the exchange with amusement and affection. The big man chuckled, and the teenager let her brother go, dropping to her feet and glaring over at the bigger man.
"You could have explained that you weren't a monster, you asshole," the girl hissed up at the man that was nearly three times her size, and then, before he could reply, Marlin stepped again, and he and Ravin stood in a cottage just big enough for a bed, a fireplace, and a bookshelf covered in bottles, plants, and clothes.
"You're alright, dear Asa. Please, dear boy, I'm here. I'm here, my dear boy."
Two men lay in the bed while a blizzard roared outside the window. Though the window had no glass or cloth covering it, and there were visible cracks in the wooden walls of the cottage, no wind or cold came into the room. The fire crackled and bit against the stone of the hearth, no wood used to light it or keep it lit. The room was scorching, but one of the men, only the slightest bit smaller than the older man in whose arms he lay, shivered as if caught in the snow outside with no protection. Both lay bare, their skin flush against each other, and the smell of sex permeated the room.
Though no sound escaped his lips, the smaller man's lips moved as if he screamed, cried, bleated out his distress as he sobbed in the bigger man's arms. His breaths were the only sounds he made, his terror visible in the darkness of his huge, heavy lidded eyes. He clutched at the other man, who looked near tears himself, as if he fought against him. But Marlin knew, as well as Ravin did, that it was not the man who held him that had him screaming out in mute terror, but the monsters in his mind.
"What about the spirit witch?" Marlin repeated what he had asked before leaving the bear shifter and his mate. He kept his voice quiet, knowing that unlike all the others they had viewed that night, the man who held his mate to his chest on the other side of the cottage would be able to sense them, hear them, if they weren't overly careful. "He'll return to Swyer eventually, you know this. He has to— to find Mem. To find his mate. Whether he likes it or not, he'll have to go back there. How comfortable will you be having him around your chosen again after what he did to them the last time he was there?"
Ravin shook her head and took a step towards the two men, huddled together as they fought her sweet Asaling's nightmares together. But with one step, the wood creaking beneath her bare foot, the spirit witch froze and glanced up, his eyes hardening as they flitted around the room. His mouth opened as he recited a silent spell, but Ravin's magic held and Marlin was grateful she had put hers up just in time.
His wouldn't have held up against the man's. The man was the second-most powerful spirit witch on Nefiir, preceded only by the witch that had recently taken up residence outside of Akar, and Marlin's spirit magic didn't hold up.
Ravin took a deep breath, visibly wanting to reach out to the men, to comfort them, but unable to do so. She shook her head again and turned to smile up at Marlin.
"You worry too much, my son. Give the man a little bit of credit. Even the worst, most vile monster in the world would bow in the face of a matebond."
"And you would bet everything on that? Even the lives of your family? Even his life?"
"I would give my soul for it," she replied with what looked like a carefree shrug, but Marlin knew differently, because he knew her better than he knew anyone. Even himself. "He'll prove himself before the end."
"You have more faith in mortals than I ever will," Marlin murmured, watching as the spirit witch turned his mate in his arms and tucked him up against his chest as the man finally began to calm from his night terror brought on by the evil the shifter had endured throughout his short life.
Ravin chuckled, her eyes dancing as she backed away, reaching out to grip Marlin's arm and tug until he followed her, each of their steps taking them farther from the cottage and the broken men inside it.
"Oh, poor Marlin. So ancient, but still so stupid," she teased, tucking his arm in hers and leading him through space until they were again before the teenage girl, the third the spirit witch would fight against with every breath until he had no choice but to accept her and all she was, and then Ravin was moving past her and her family, into a forest, through the trees, until they reached a dilapidated tower. It looked as if it had been built centuries before, with the stone crumbling with age, and the forest taking it back into its folds with vines and trees growing along its edges and right through it in some places.
With each step, she spoke, until they were at their destination. "Come, favorite child of mine. I have someone I would like you to meet. He lives just on the border between Akar and El'kahr, near the Sungrass tribe, and I've waited for his birth for nearly as long as you have."
Marlin stared in awe at the tower, his nostrils flaring as he caught the scent of... something. Something that smelled like... Like home. Like peanut butter and lemon drop candy. Like feathers and flight and air. Like freedom.
Marlin's ears perked at the sound of laughter and joy just as two boys playing among the crumbling rocks came into view. Neither was human; one was teenaged, nearly a man, and had the magic of death in his soul. The other was just a child. A child who ran after the elder with as much enthusiasm as any his age was capable, but with the limitation of a length of wood under each armpit, dragging along legs that were twisted and thin and moved only awkwardly, jerkily, as if they had formed wrong somehow. Not straight, not strong, but just barely enough so that they could carry his weight only with the assistance of the crutches. A child with wings and feathers and the sweet cry of a predator in his soul.
"Oh dear gods," Marlin murmured, taking two steps forward and falling to his knees as he watched the child cackle happily to his brother, who stopped and reached back to pull the younger boy up onto his back. He began to run, much to the delight of his younger brother, and their laughter echoed against the stones around them.
Marlin's entire being focused on the boys, on the way the small child's entire face lit up each time his brother dipped down and jumped back up. On the bright sound of their laughter, and the sweet sound of their words called out to each other in play.
Ravin's chuckle faded out as she disappeared in a whiff of musk and earth, her final words fading with each syllable until he had to strain his ears to hear them.
"He's not yours yet, my sweet son, won't be for at least a decade of years, but I trust you to keep him safe until then, and for the rest of your lives. He is my gift to you, and you my gift to him. You deserve each other more than I'm able to articulate. Love him, Marlin. He was made just for your big heart."
Just as Ravin's echoes faded, and Marlin was able to pull his eyes from the child who smelled like family and home, safety and love, he met eyes so dark a blue they were nearly black. Set on a stunning face, honey skin and full lips, a curvy, stout body, and hair as white as a swan's wings, the most powerful spirit witch in existence watched him with recognition, wariness, and acceptance.
Eyes that bore into him and seemed to see everything he didn't wish to lay bare.
Eyes that promised retribution if he harmed her charges. Her sons. The two boys who were now, and forever more, his family.
*****I hope y'all liked this one! Stick around for Asa, Hark, and Mem's story (coming soonish), Ash's (the woman at the very end) story, then Marlin's and a bunch more haha So much writing to do, so little time 😭*****