Chapter 42
Aurelia
Iusher my four treasures into our nest. My wolf sighs deeply when he returns to the familiar rooms, the sound of a tired male coming home. I allow them only a moment to appreciate this before bustling everyone into the bathroom to ensure they clean themselves properly in the shower.
They can look after themselves. They can clean their hair and wash their bodies, but I cannot stop my need to oversee it and take care of them.
While they finish up with fresh clothes, I clean up the nest—changing out the sheets and fluffing out the pillows.
I even spray the eucalyptus oil I found in the cupboard because I know Savage likes the smell and it calms Lyle’s animus.
I place a glass of salted water on Scythe’s side because I worry he’ll dehydrate, and I even find Xander’s stash of cigars and put them by the single bed he used to sleep on.
The rest of the academy is quiet, with only snores and occasional coughs sounding on the levels beneath us.
Yet my blood is agitated. I step from foot to foot as my mates file out of the bathroom, and I only stop a moment to inspect their condition before nodding my satisfaction and heading back out to the roof.
Enemies may try to find us. Enemies always seem to be after us.
With the death of one enemy, others may follow, and this nest, filled with so many of my other charges, might not be safe.
The wall around the academy is strong, filled with my own energy, but there are always many strategies, many ways to attack a nest.
“Regina.” Scythe’s quiet voice stops movement, his eyes tired but alert on me. “Where are you going?”
“Patrol,” I say simply, climbing up the stairs to the roof.
He follows. “You need not do that. The guards will keep an eye on the sky and road.”
The night is cold on my skin, the smell fresh in my sinuses. All is quiet, but I need to make sure it stays that way. I turn around to find they have all followed me out here. They need to understand. “I am responsible for them all now. This place is mine.”
Lyle steps around Savage. “What do you mean, angel?”
He thinks he is guardian of the school. Perhaps he can still be guardian of the education of the students. There are lots of beasts here who need him and his teaching after all. “Celeste Agnis is gone,” I say clearly. “I am appointed guardian now. The school is loyal to me.”
Understanding comes over them, especially my mate with the glowing eyes. Impatient now, I step away from them and shift into dragon form.
My wedge-tailed eagle form will always be my favourite, but there is something in my spirit now that craves the draconic power.
The covetous, greedy for blood and hungry for flesh part of me still calls to my anima.
Into the night again I fly, the wind no longer cold on my scales, but instead something like an invigorating bath in the sky.
Rather quickly, I sense a second presence join me, and it is not Beak, like I’m used to.
I ignore him at first, executing my usual circumnavigation around the academy as I survey the roads leading in and out of the area.
Nothing unusual moves between the trees that speckle the land between the human-made paths.
It soothes my heart a little to see all is safe and the rapid racing in my chest slows down.
The black dragon with the glowing eyes follows my movements like a monstrous shadow, and at times, over the past few days, it’s been hard for me to believe he is one of my treasures.
That a beast of such power and heat belongs to me.
I make an abrupt turn, rounding on him. He mirrors me, and it’s like a dance where we perform in a tight circle.
I break away, tucking my wings and shooting towards the ground.
He pursues me. Metres before the tree line, I snap my wings out and glide over the highest branches, before angling my nose upwards and beating powerfully to gain height.
Xander chases me, copying my every wing movement and following my climb towards the stars.
But he gains height faster, and now we’re both vertical, belly to belly with our wings beating downwards.
We twine around each other, and having never done this before with a mate or other avian, I’m mesmerised.
It’s a delightful new dance. And maybe, a new hope.
“I dreamed of this,” he says, breathless in my mind.
I veer away, blinking hard, shaking my head as the open sky suddenly seems like a new thing altogether.
Pointing my nose toward the nest, with its magical lights only I can see, my blood heats up, but not in the same way as before, and a tingling in my chest makes me take a deep breath.
I come to land just outside the academy gates, stretching out my right leg as I do.
Xander lands behind me, the ground trembling in fright under his heavier weight. I tuck my wings in and turn to look at him. A stunning creature made of night, his eyes are like the glowing stars themselves. Like he’s a piece of the puzzle of midnight, and in his eyes, I see one simple wish.
I stalk forward and he meets me, lowering his head to mine like he’d done once before while I sat on the academy wall.
I raise my long neck to meet his face and gently press my snout to his.
A low, gravelly rumble resonates from his chest, soft and yet hard.
Like rocks groaning under the ancient earth.
He slides his snout against the side of my face, and it’s so warm on me.
He nuzzles down the slope of my neck, and I chuff in response to the sensation.
But there’s something sad in his movements.
Something that still feels like loss. “You will be okay,” I say to him. “We will all be okay.”
He doesn’t reply, instead stepping away from me and shooting up into the night as if he weighs nothing at all. “You rest, regina. I will patrol until dawn.”
It’s a true weariness that drags at my bones. I haven’t rested in some time, and I should check on my other mates. In a pensive silence, I shift into eagle form and make my way up to do a final check on the guard-towers—just to make sure the guards haven’t been slacking off in my absence.
It’s then that I see the roiling shadow travelling towards the animus dorm.
With a sharp cry of protest, I shoot toward him, beak at the ready like a spear.
The shadow reaches the open window of my pack’s dorm, pausing just outside.
I pummel right into him, snapping a piece of shadow and tackling him into the dark room beyond.
He shifts into human form on the floor, and I clamp a sharp claw around his neck.
“And just where the fuck do you think you’re going? ”
“I go where the fuck I want, snakelet,” he drawls, the paint on his face glowing white in the low lights of the room.
My mates leap out of bed and surround us, but I wave a wing at them. “Not here, you don’t,” I tell him, snapping my beak at his red eyes. “Get out.” I shift into human form and climb off him, pointing to the window.
“And what if I don’t? Are you going to fight me?” Ghoul asks, extending himself to his full height.
I laugh darkly. “Without hesitation.”
Savage cackles. “I love this so fucking much!”
“I thought we shared a moment before.” Ghoul turns to my mates and says over my shoulder. “We shared a few moments in your absence, actually.”
Savage gasps dramatically. Lyle growls under his breath. “Did you hear about your friend?” I ask sweetly.
“I saw Katerina’s head sitting on your academy gates, yes,” he says smoothly. “Impressive work, I must say. Such style.”
“Thanks,” I say. “Now you must leave before I hurt you.”
He puts a hand over his heart, the shadows parting to allow his hand. “Who, me? You’d never.”
“We know what serpent court is doing,” Lyle says. “We know Mace is out for our blood.”
“But the snakelet and I have an agreement,” Ghoul says evenly. “She made me a promise.”
“The thought of leaving my mates now makes me want to murder someone,” I say through gritted teeth. “And I will. Don’t test me.”
He scratches the corner of his mouth as if thinking. He takes a step to the right, and I mirror his movement. “So protective,” he hisses. “And all they had to do was be weak enough to get caught?”
“I’m detecting a little jealousy,” Savage pipes as I register the same.
Ghoul’s red eyes flash behind the swirls of darkness. “Do they know you’re carrying my offspring? Do they know you’re my fiancée?”
All the males in the room go still.
“Oh, stop it,” I snarl. Turning to the others, I reassure them. “He’s just joking. I’m not pregnant. I wouldn’t do that with him.” But it doesn’t seem to help. Scythe’s eyes have gone navy. Savage’s mouth is suddenly full of canines, and Lyle is stalking towards me, his amber irises blown out.
Ghoul cackles. “Wonderful.”
“No,” I say, holding my hands up to Lyle.
“Smell me. I’m not pregnant. And I’m definitely not engaged to a general of my father’s court!
” But Lyle doesn’t stop his advancing, and I have no choice but to step in front of him and block his path with my hand on his chest. “Stop this,” I say. “Listen to me.”
But now Scythe and Savage are advancing forwards, and to my great concern, they are lethally silent. No growl, no snarling. Only deadly focus.
“We’ve fought before,” Ghoul says lightly. “They barely won. Even three against little old me.”
I huff without looking at him. “You’re not helping. What did you come here for anyway? You need to leave.”
“We had an agreement,” the basilisk lord says. “You need to come with me.”
I let out a short laugh. “Not tonight, buddy.”
“Want to know what’s funny about this?” Ghoul says darkly. “You’ll be begging me by the end.”
“What?” I swing around to confront the bastard, but he’s already gone.
Savage, Scythe and Lyle rush towards the window, sniffing and growling in the wake of the shadows.
Lyle tries to leap out of the window in pursuit, but I lash my own power around him, shoving him backward into the room.
“Don’t mind him,” I say quietly. “I…had to pretend to be his pregnant fiancé to get the heat serum, but it was all just a ruse.”
Savage rounds on me, his nostrils flaring, his eyes purely wolfish as he gets on his knees and sniffs at the apex of my thighs and my lower stomach.
Instinctively, I bury my fingers in his hair, until both Lyle and Scythe come on either side of him and wordlessly do the same.
I sigh up at the ceiling because I thought I was the one under the spell of the treasure haze, but if I’m feeling irritated, then it must be fading away…
only to be replaced by my three mates crashing out at Ghoul’s taunts.
Lyle presses his face into my side, inhaling deeply.
“See?” I coo. “There’s no hatchling in there.”
It’s odd to see Scythe on his knees, rubbing his face into my side in a way that tickles.
But when he looks up at me, any giggle, any response to being ticklish fades away.
Those navy eyes, dead serious, bore into mine.
He gets to his feet, the other two following.
I take a step back at the fury in their eyes.
The sheer possession. That all-consuming hunger.
My breath catches as they stalk me, my heart racing with anticipation.
I get the urge to run. To be pursued by them.
Oh yeah, the treasure haze has well and truly worn off.
Then the entire building shakes with the force of a dragon slamming into the roof, and it only takes seconds for a naked Xander to cut off my exit from behind, his eyes lighting up the room. “Tell me it’s not true,” Xander snarls, smoke streaming from his nostrils.
I turn around. “I—”
But that’s all it takes for Scythe to seize me by the waist. He takes me to the pack bed. Setting me down, he pushes my thighs apart to look at my core. All four of them gather at the end of the bed to stare down at me. My four towering, angry giants.
“Ours,” Scythe’s shark whispers, before giving me one long lick from ass to pussy. I cry out at the abrupt pleasure. “Ours to suck,” he says before nudging my labia open with his lips and tonguing my insides in a way that makes me arch my back.
My lion appears by my side, a firm hand around my throat as he whispers across my lips. “Ours to fuck.” He claims my mouth with scorching lips and tongue, the combination of both lion and shark’s mouths on me nearly forcing me off the bed in my writhing.
My wolf’s fingers find my chin and force my mouth against his. “Ours to play with,” he growls before nipping at my lower lip.
Xander appears at the head of the bed, and I’m lifted up, completely off the bed, a tangle of limbs around me as the dragon buries his hand in my hair and tilts my head back, dragging his lips up my neck. “Ours to possess,” he snarls softly.
I come with a simpering gasp, gushing onto Scythe’s face. But they’re not nearly done with me—not for hours more.