Folks Of Fury (#1; Tales Of Elysia [COMPLETED])

six.

Ezra.

A terrifying coldness washed over me as I practically leaped from my bike even as it was going to crash into the nearest tree.
I didn't care.
All I could think was that I needed to get to Senoy before he was torn apart by those shadow demons... whatever they were.
Impossible fear, for the first time in the longest time, gripped me so fiercely that I could barely breathe.
Only a few minutes ago I had been at the dinner get together which my Dad had organised to put the St. Ours in a good mood after I had completely ignored them.
Three straight torturous hours of meaningless conversation over five course meal that made the situation bearable.
The food I could tolerate because Fiona and Gérard had gone all out for tonight.
Dad wanted everything perfect for our witch guests, as he had cautioned me with that familiar shine of threat in the depths of his dark eyes.
Enforcing my attendance with the power his position gave him otherwise I'd have thrown myself at a moving train to escape that dinner.
Aunt Lucie and her husband Gérard took to Dad's right at the formal dining table in Legion House.
It was after all a family affair and thank fucking heavens the Khans weren't as populated as the St. Ours family.
Johann and Sophie St. Ours had sat to the left of the dining table in the room, we hardly used, beside Fiona who was at the Dad's immediate left.
I had been catching side glances from the third individual who had come with Johann and Sophie.
I hadn't been told she would be present or I'd have been vehemently against being here.
Margot St. Ours. Senoy's younger sister...she was what, sixteen and yet she looked older, more sophiscated and there I say it- gorgeous.
My betrothed.
The kind of girl any guy would be lucky and damn well proud to have on his arm.
But not this guy. It infuriated the guys quite a lot that I was reluctant to be with her.
Margot was beautiful and charming to anyone whom she wanted something from. And it someone added to her appeal to the boys at school. But I'd fallen victim to such charisma before and I wasn't going to this time.
My denial had shocked and confused them. but they'd never understand. No one did...
Except him.
In the subtle looks I assessed her- not that I haven't already had my eye full of her at school- I could see Senoy in the merest details of she and her mother.
The fine effeminate carving of their faces except for him touched by rugged masculinity.
The sure grace in their steps- sauntering; pliant but dangerous, the cupid bow lips which Margot had worn glossy lip gloss on and smiled effortlessly at every one of Dad's dead jokes.
The daring volatility in their eyes though of different shades of brown; Senoy's that of distilled liquor and Margot an adamant caramel.
"Ezra, you haven't touched much of your coq au vin." Aunt Lucie pointed out and drew her concerned eyes to me.
I pasted the hundredth courteous smile that evening which was heavy to keep wearing. "Nerves, I think."
Margot raised a brow, obviously not believing that shitty excuse.
I never get nerves...well until recently.
Even my relatives looked skeptical enough but they said nothing. So I did.
"So if we are done with the small talk, why don't we hear about the plans you've all schemed to thrust on me since the time I could barely form words."
I met all their eyes, glancing over my father's agitated ones.
Their hesitation told me one thing; that they preferred deciding my life behind my back but I wasn't having any of it.
I took a sip of red wine, its rich taste wetting my tongue sublimely- Gérard knew his wine- and continued, "Don't let me stop you."
"Ezra that's enough."
I turned glowering eyes to my father and snapped back almost in the same tone.
"Is it? You desire to pull the strings of my life like puppeteers in the dark. I'm sure Margot is curious."
Johann spoke up. I hadn't so much as placed much attention to the man at Sophie's side.
"My opinion was to give the two of you as much time together as possible to get to know each other."
His wife continues, sliding into the speech easily.
"Meanwhile you both finish high school, yours will be commemorated with the first half of the Sanguinis knots. And at Margot's graduation, the final one."
"Well there's the wedding certainly." Margot chirped like a robin and I wanted to pluck off her wings and throw her into a bonfire.
Laughter resonated. They were all entranced by her.
"Oh dont worry, it'll an event of the century." her father pronounced with a raise of his wineglass, chocolate brown eyes crinkling.
I'd heard Johann wasn't even a witch only human but had fallen in love with one of the Fury sisters as far back since their high school days.
Yet years later, though married and a mother of three, Sophie'd had an affair with a gentry Fey and had ostracized the son she had from the tryst.
I remembered faintly the atrocious buzz it had caused here at Legion House.
And I recalled the sympathy afforded the unknown child from other Hounds even my Dad.
"The covens are harsh upon those who are born out of impure union. We wolves do not give a fuck about purity of blood especially with a newborn child." My father had wisped many nights ago.
Not unknown anymore... Senoy. I wonder what he's doing now.
No doubt searching the banks of the Allais River for some clue he thinks is still there and haven't been checked by my father and his patrols.
"So does that give you enough information, Ezra?" Fiona asked, startling me from my reverie and turning my gaze to her sympathetic blue eyes.
She was the only one who saw this as insanity and enslavement of will. Fiona believed, like her kind, in total choice and freewill especially in regards to marriage.
Or maybe it's because she's been on the receiving side of slander because of her past.
But Hounds don't usually have that luxury with their overbearing alpha.
I dropped the napkin to my plate and rose to my feet, drawing anxious eyes.
I faked a smile, the hundredth this evening and offered a hand to Margot.
"I'd like to show you around. Maybe talk on the way?"
She narrowed at me with skeptical caution. She remembered the last time I'd taken her aside to "talk".
I still got reprimanded lectures from my father for the riot it had caused.
I caught from my peripheral sight, the shared coy look between Aunt Lucie and her husband.
"Oh go on, might as well get started." Sophie perked with wine staining her smirking lips red.
Margot made a show of her supposed innocence but I knew better.
She placed her slim hands into mine.
I couldn't help but notice they were similar- dainty, long fingered but firm like Senoy's.
Though his were lined with scars and I wondered not for the nth time since meeting him, how much he had suffered at the hands of our three guests.
I clenched my grip on Margot's hand in retaliation of that thought, earning a squirming sound that almost sounded erotic.
We left the dining room and I directed her towards back end of the house, to head out into the garden Fiona had taken over from Eleanor.
The yard was as always bolstering in the crowd of Hounds singing, dancing, wrestling, drinking about a campfire. As it always was every night here in Legion House.
My chest ached to be amongst them. To share a beer and laugh till I forgot my worries.
"You want to go join them?" Margot asked softly.
I shook my head. "I doubt that scene will do well with your dress."
I ran a glance at her physique- willowy with shapely hips and long mocha legs all flattered by the violet satin wrap dress.
Her hands brushed down the length- which wasn't much- and said. "I chose it specially for tonight. For you."
I didn't doubt that it had done crazy things to my cock when she had arrived, and still did.
Blood rushing down and tenting my cock behind dress pants and briefs, just staring at how it shaped her breasts and hips.
No matter my feelings about our betrothal, it didn't stop my body from appreciating her loveliness.
We had stopped at a wooden made rotunda which was draped in honeysuckle flowers.
Margot made for it, pulling me along and sat under the open roof of the structure.
"Look Ezra, I know you don't like this arrangement. You made that clear the other day but I get the feeling it's mostly because you've heard quite a bit at school."
I turned to face her, watching the way the crescent moonlight glanced off her flawless skin- a lighter shade of Senoy's.
Her hands has clasped on her lap and staring at them for a moment before looking up at me.
For a flash of second, her image was superimposed with that of her half brother's.
I blinked off the hallucination. "You mean how you've dated almost everyone?"
"Dated nothing more and the number has been a little overestimated. I've always been one of those silly romantics, believing that love at first sight crap. But the thing is I've already found my true love for years now but he has never give me the time of day. So I thought if I went out with other guys- his friends, classmates that he'd finally notice me."
I stared at her blankly. It was difficult to look at her and not be reminded of Senoy. Maybe it's the wine.
Margot gave an amused laugh as she reached and took my hand and gave a warm squeeze. "I didn't expect you to be so oblivious."
I blinked. "Wait, me?" incredulous wasn't even close for that revelation.
She nodded coyly. "I guess my tactic wasn't much of a success. Who else would the Saints have blessed me to love? You're Ezra Khan, heir to the most powerful Legion of Hounds in the south and I'm a daughter of the St. Ours bloodline. Fitting isn't it?"
I gave an exasperated and agitated sigh. Power, that's what everything about the Agnate has ever been.
I opened my mouth to begin to rebuff her but then I heard a raven's caw.
It startled me as much as it did Margot, from her shrieking gasp, the bird had flown down and perched at my shoulders.
"What the hell?" I raised a hand to shoo it off but stopped when I saw its eyes.
They weren't the beady black of the usual ravens but this one had the shade of bright butterscotch yellow. I knew this raven.
One of Senoy's. The fuck is it doing here? I couldn't tell which of the two.
As if to answer my question, it nipped at my ear and cawed before flying to the nearest tree at the edge of the yard close to gates of Legion House.
Another shrieking call from the branches and I jolted to my feet. The bird was trying to tell me something.
"Ezra what are you doing?"
I shook my head, taking my hand from her grasp and muttering efficiently. "I'm sorry but I have to go."
Margot frowned to herself. "What, where? I shouldn't have told you...it's scaring you off."
"Margot, nothing scares much. I'll see you later."
And I was running off into the woods following the flying raven camouflaged by the night except for its gaze.
And what a sight it led me to.