CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
IT'S BEEN A COUPLE DAYS of royal duties and I’m bored.
I need a break, so I’m currently listening in to a meeting with Ravina and a few of her mother’s advisors.
I can tell from the bond that she’s frustrated and stressed with all the menial things they have her doing while the realm is at war.
We should be hearing back from our spies any moment, since today is their deadline, but I know she’s ready to be getting into some action, just like me.
My magick swirls around me as I create an illusion to hide me from everyone in the room, including my mate. She can’t know what I’m up to. Not yet, but it will definitely distract her from the advisors she can’t wait to replace.
A smile stretches across my face as I stride into the room and head for the table, crawling underneath it.
“The satyrs should be paid more for their wares,” Ravina argues. “And the Nulls should be allowed to have more options available to them for jobs instead of staff and servants.” She sighs.
“But Princess Maeven, that’s not how things are done—”
She cuts off the snooty male. “My mother wanted equal rights for every being in the realm and I will make it so. Everyone deserves to be treated fairly. My answer is final. Now what’s next on the agenda?”
They grumble something and move on, but I tune them out, focused on my task in front of me, my smile widening as I see she’s wearing the gown I picked out for her earlier. I made promises and I’m about to deliver.
I scoot on my knees, being careful not to bash my head against the table while getting as close to my mate as I can. When I’m in position, I reach out through the bond. “Don’t jump, do not react. Be a good girl for me.”
“Jesper what are you on about? I’m in a meeting.” Her legs twitch as I reach under her skirts and run my hands slowly up her legs, pushing them apart as I go. “Jesper…” she warns.
“Better stay quiet. You wouldn’t want your snooty advisors to know what a bad girl you are for your mates. You may want to cast an illusion so they don’t smell your delicious scent.”
“I’m sorry, what were you saying?” she asks them.
I grin, knowing I have her distracted. I slip her underwear to the side and slowly swipe my tongue up her center. “You taste even better than I remember, Temptress.”
Her breath stutters quietly and her body tenses as I continue my ministrations. My tongue swirls around her clit as I gently suck it into my mouth before slipping two fingers into her tight wet cunt. Fuck, she’s soaked for me. I think my mate loves the idea of almost being caught at any moment.
I curve my fingers and hear a cup slam a little too hard on the table.
“No, I think that’s a good idea,” she states with her voice raising a pitch before she clears her throat.
“Are you okay, Princess Maeven?” someone asks.
“Yes, sorry. I haven’t been sleeping well. Please continue,” she murmurs.
Oh, I will continue alright. Her legs begin to shake as I continue using my tongue to tease her. My fingers slip in and out slowly. I want her to feel everything I’m doing to her.
“Jesper,” she groans. “I’m getting close and I don’t know how much longer I can stay quiet.”
I don’t stop. “Well you better pray to the Fates, because I want you coming all over my face and fingers. I want you to know that I will worship you anywhere, anytime. I don’t care who’s around, but if they hear you come, I may just have to kill them.”
Her channel flutters and I know she’s going to fall apart any minute for me.
Her hands slam down on the table and she clears her throat again. “I need to call a short recess. Let’s reconvene in fifteen?”
Movement shuffles around the room and when the heavy doors slam shut, Ravina moans, spreading her legs to give me more access. “You’re a menace,” she says breathily.
“Your favorite menace,” I respond back in her mind, too busy with my mouth to stop. Needing to taste her more, I slip my tongue into her and she grabs my head, her fingers threading through my hair, and she holds me in place, moaning.
“Fuck Jesper,” she gasp. “I’m going to—” Her breath hitches as her whole body tenses.
She explodes, her thighs clamping tightly against my head, making me suffocate in my favourite place. If I’m to die, then please let this be how I go.
I lick and suck her clit through her orgasm, and when her body relaxes she slides back to glare at me under the table. “Jesper Verlice,” she hisses, but there’s no malice in her tone.
“Yes, my lovely Queen?” I grin, feeling like the cat who got the canary or in this case, the dog who got the pussy.
Her eyes narrow more, but just as she opens her mouth the door slams open and Aemon announces, “Rav, the scouts are back. Why are you looking under the table? Is everything okay?”
I pop out from under the table, my face still damp from our activities. “I was helping our mate de-stress!”
She adjusts her skirts. “During a meeting with my mother’s advisors. I almost came in front of them!” Her face reddens.
I pull her towards me. “Don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy the possibility of us almost getting caught. You were such a good girl staying quiet for me.”
She sighs. “I did enjoy it, but next time give me some warning, please.”
“We will see.” I wink. “What were you saying about the scouts?” I ask Aemon who is watching us with raised brows and amusement dancing in his eyes.
“The scouts are back. Everyone is gathering in the war room. We tried to reach you but your mind was blocked. So I figured you were sparing us from boring business with the elders.”
She grins sheepishly. “Well I was. I forgot to unblock and I didn’t feel your knocking. Well let’s go. I’ll call Nero from his hunting; I know he won’t want to miss the planning.”
They walk ahead of me and I follow, noticing our mate seems more relaxed. I definitely need to do this again… Maybe I can do it when she’s sitting on the throne…
ONCE WE GOT the reports, we decided to head out straight away. Tisur shifts under me in anticipation. “Vasari will take back the keep without any problems,” he states confidently as we sit perched on a rocky outcrop below the Dreki Mountains.
We are waiting impatiently for nightfall, to enter the cave system that goes throughout the Dragon Keep and below the academy where we caught my Little Beastie training. If everything goes as planned, by sunrise, Phixmery will be taken back from the lords and under our control again.
“We still don’t know how many of them have been compromised with the Soul Stone,” I remind him. “And what if there’s too many dragons for us to deal with?”
“We can handle this. We have come too far not to,” he grumbles.
Ravina and Vasari walk up beside me, my mate's skin practically glowing in the golden beams. She sighs, “Should be soon, the sun is almost set. It’s beautiful—it makes me almost forget our task tonight.”
I smirk over at her. “Fuck the sunset, it doesn’t compare to your beauty.”
She reddens and rolls her eyes, but I know she loves it. “Thank you, Jesp. Are you nervous?”
That’s when I really look at her and notice how tense she is.
“Always.” She glances over at me like she wasn’t expecting a serious answer.
“But that’s what keeps me going. It’s how I keep myself alive.
As confident as I seem, it only takes one little mistake for everything to come crumbling down.
Nairiden Woods was a good reminder of that. ”
“Yeah,” she whispers.
Tisur holds out his wing as a bridge to Vasari and swings his neck around, gesturing for me to go over to her. “I was already planning on jumping over there, but thank you for the lift.”
I run across the boney part of his wing and jump in behind Rav, holding her close and breathing in her scent. “I swear that I will do everything I can to make sure we all walk out of there—and every other fucked up situation we get into—alive.”
She leans back against me and we watch as the realm melts into darkness. “Let’s do this,” she whispers.
THE SEVEN OF us on top of our dragons crawl slowly through the tunnels, deeper into the mountain.
Vasari and Ravina lead the group of us with Rozen and Ember pulling up the rear with Killian.
As much as we didn’t want our mate in the front, we understand that the dragon Queen is her bonded dragon, and dragons respect a show of strength, so her hiding behind all of us would not have fared well.
Tisur explained to me earlier that Vasari was well respected before but mostly kept to herself, only stepping into situations when the dragons couldn’t resolve them on their own.
Now? She’s taking up the mantle her mother has laid out before her.
But first is putting the brainwashed dragons where they can’t hurt anyone.
Roars and scuffling get louder the closer we get. Talons scraping on stone echo through the cave system.
“We are getting closer, prepare yourselves. We don’t know how ugly this is going to get,” Rav murmurs through the bond, and a wisp of Szellemi magick coats the earth with damp air as she makes sure Roz and Ember have the warning too.
We appear out of the tunnel into a cavernous space, filled to the brim with dragons of all colors except white. The only white dragons currently in this room are Evisdor and Ivna.
Vasari walks toward the center of the room where a large stone dais is sitting.
Dragons move out of the way, most dipping their long necks toward the ground as she passes.
A few stand there uncaring, almost like there’s no one home upstairs, and one of them snarls, snapping its teeth at her.
The large red dragon is only slightly bigger than Vasari, but I can’t help holding my breath.
Tisur tenses but doesn’t move. “I trust my mate can handle this. She is the most powerful dragon alive. Relax, rider,” he says with ease, but I can sense he’s nervous.
“We will always be nervous when our Queen is in danger, but this is for her to handle. Your mate too, if she is to be respected as Queen. Remember this.”