Winter's Wrath: Bringer of Winter Book Two a M/M/M fantasy romance

2- He's Back

987 LEAGUES FROM WAL'YAH, IN THE DEEPEST DARKNESSES OF THE KENT FOREST

"Dear gods," Elias muttered, rolling his eyes as he straightened to his full height. He gripped the axe in his huge, calloused hand tighter, but made no further move towards the three figures who walked towards him. The wolf at his feet, content with lying in the faint sunlight that filtered through the clearing and onto its thick black fur, rustled up only enough energy to glance towards the newcomers, but otherwise stayed lying on its belly, panting in the mid-morning heat.

Elias was tall, heavily built, and had the musculature and stance of a trained warrior. The scars that covered his hands, both bare arms, and his chest and back, spoke to a life of hard living. And that had all been before his immortality took away his body's need to form scars. Not a single new one had marred his skin in over four centuries, but each one bore testament to the life he had lived before he fell in love with an immortal who had shared his soul, and his immortal life, with him.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Elias growled, huffing in irritation when the three men continued forward, none even glancing at his axe. He was a threat to only one of them, he knew, because the other two were the brothers of his mate and he knew they could end his life, even his immortal life, with the snap of their fingers, but it didn't matter either way. He would be glad to see them if it weren't for the circumstances. They were family, after all.

But showing up on the day of a full moon, when they had only just visited a month before? Something was wrong, and they were the omens that warned of danger to come. Soon, if the look on Pem's face was any indication.

Pem was short and petite, his back straight and his head high. The brothers had been raised together under the same roof, all with the same mother teaching them about their magic, their power, their destiny. But somehow all three had come to adulthood in very different ways.

Pem was gentle, quiet, pure. He deferred to his brothers most of the time, though he was the one they both turned to if they sought wisdom. He spoke only when spoken to, and usually even then his words were said with the utmost care and were scant and quietly spoken. His features were androngynous, pixie-like, cut and sharp in some places but soft and round in others. And yet, according to both of his brothers, he actually had the deepest wells of power inside of him. Endless, if they were to be believed. And with everything Elias had seen of his mate was any indication, that power must be vast, indeed.

Deino and Pem were as similar as two brothers could be. Quiet, softly spoken, and contemplative, Deino and Pem could actually be seen as brothers if it weren't for their opposite physical appearances. Where Pem was androgynous, small, and soft, Deino was thick, heavy, hard, his muslces wiry from years of sword training. He had been a holy knight of a monastic order before he met his mate, Keen, and his staunch moral compass was one even Pem thought too staunchy.

Deino's mate, the man at his side as they sidled up to Elias and the wolf at his feet, was brash, loud, a warrior through-and-through. Deino had lived the life of a warrior monk, virginal, pure, never taking part in drinks or the pleasures of the flesh, before he met his husband, and his husband had lived the life of a rake before he was tamed by the holy, virginal Deino. Keen drank and swore like a sailor, and had the body of a pirate— huge, covered in scars, and with his left eye taken from him in a fight he insisted was a bar fight over a paid whore. His hair was a deep, rich brown and hung around his shoulders in sea-swept waves, and the eyepatch he wore was often covered in some form or another of adornment. Whether it be encrusted with some kind of jewel, painted by an artist, or sewn by a master tailor. It was a point of fascination and amusement for those who knew him how very many of the patches he owned.

"Nice to see you, too, Eli," Keen muttered as he reached forward and took Elias's hand, grasping it familiarly in greeting.

"You know why I'm upset to see you," Elias replied as he took his brother-in-law's hand but never turned his eyes from the brothers of his mate. "What's going on?"

The weight of the wolf against his thigh had Elias turning to look down at it. When their eyes met, Elias took a deep breath and nodded.

"Yeah," he said, petting down the wolf's head and scratching at its ear. "Yeah, babe, I know."

The wolf huffed out a breath, then turned to the three men who stood before it, its head cocking to the side as it fully met the eyes of the youngest sibling as he spoke.

"I'm afraid I bring terrible news," Pem whispered down to his brother.

Elias rolled his eyes and dug his fingers into the fur of the wolf, seeking some kind of support and safety in the storm he knew, had known since he took Enyo as his own, was coming.

In between one breath and another, the wolf at his feet was gone. Replaced by a man who barely reached his chest in height. Petite, fragile-looking, with black hair that hung down his back to just below his ass, Enyo stared up at his younger brother, possibly the only person in the world, besides children who had yet to reach puberty, who had to look up at Pem.

Enyo wore a simple, translucent shirt, tight black trews, his feet bare and his hair unadorned. The gray skin of his face was offset by the dark circles around his eyes, and the pure blackness of the depths of those eyes. The whites barely showed through as he glared his brothers down, the black tips of each finger lengthening as his claws curled at the sense of danger his family brought to his home, where his mate was supposed to be safe.

"Speak, Pem," Enyo grumbled, his voice low and warning, his eyes flashing with magic as he moved liquidly to cover what he could of his mate's body with his own. "What brings you here, now?"

"Moros is back. He's back, and he's going after the Eye," Pem whispered, flinching back when he said the words because he knew what reaction the words would bring to Enyo.

And he was right. Though no animal or human was harmed by it, the explosion that rocked the forest, nearly felling young and weak trees for leagues around, alarming hunters and hedge witches and other denizens of the forest, knocking many of them off of their feet, rocked from Enyo's body at the pain that knifed through his heart at Pem's words.

He's back, he sent into his mate's mind, seeking out Elias's hand. Seeking out the strength of the male he loved.

And we'll put him back down again, just like we did before, Elias replied, his expression set in stone as he pulled Enyo's hand to his lips and pressed a kiss against it. Remember? Nothing, not evil, not good, not death herself, nor the end of the worlds. Nothing will ever tear us apart.

Nothing, Enyo growled silently, a snarl reaching his mouth as he yanked Elias down to him, his fingers gripping the much larger man's hair as he pressed their foreheads together and took in deep breaths of the scent of the man who shared his soul. No matter what, nothing.