Chapter 18
MEHEN
Ifelt the heat of my queen’s gaze like a smoldering iron pressed to my ass. Naturally, I sauntered and swayed as much as possible. Making my dick swing. My ass cheeks flexing. I didn’t have to pause for dramatic effect or send a taunting, flirtatious wink over my shoulder.
Shara fucking Isador owned every fucking scale making up this dragon’s hide, and she fucking knew it.
The purr machine sat on the edge of the tub, though he was still dressed.
I didn’t spare him a second glance as I climbed into the water.
The giant tub was almost big enough to dive into, but I didn’t want to risk sloshing water over the edge.
Rik would chew my ass if she slipped on the tiles, and if anyone was going to eat my ass—
He thumped me in the bond. :She’s listening, motherfucker.:
I watched through slitted eyes as she entered the bathroom. :Good.:
Maybe it was the bite she’d allowed me to take in Galveston.
Or just having an openly flesh-eating Blood among us.
But I wouldn’t mind if she took a bite of me.
Not at all. I owed her, for one thing. Remembering the taste of her skin on my tongue, sliding down my gullet, made my eyes roll back in my head.
Almost enough to make me waste a fucking load before she even got her fangs in me.
Though I felt like shit every time the tender scar pulled in the crook of her arm. I didn’t want to cause her lingering pain. My only other regret was the sad reality that I couldn’t hold that bite of her inside of me forever. Not like Vore. That was some seriously cool shit.
She pulled the dirty sweatshirt over her head, and Rik steadied her while she stepped out of her jeans. “We should just burn these clothes. I don’t think the stench of the mud is ever going to come out.”
“We’ll see to it, my queen.”
The fucking bear rushed through the door like a bumbling grizzly crashing through trees and underbrush. “Sorry,” he panted. “I was checking something.”
Rik narrowed a hard look on him. “What?”
“I dunno exactly. I smelled humans.”
I damn near strangled myself fighting to keep a straight face with my mouth firmly locked shut, while watching Rik’s face darken with fury. For once, the alpha wasn’t pissed at me.
“And you didn’t think to report it?”
“I was going to but then I got tagged for bed duty.” Ezra shrugged and gave him a sheepish grin. “I forgot everything else.”
:Xin—: Rik started to order but the wolf replied immediately.
:Already on it.:
“I mean, it’s probably nothing, right?” Ezra shrugged again. “Why would humans be out this far from town anyway?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Daire rolled his eyes. “Maybe the Dauphine’s human servants are doing reconnaissance during the day for a master thrall?”
Ezra gaped at him. “They didn’t smell like trouble.”
“But you were curious,” Daire replied, waiting for his nod. “You always have a nose for shit happening behind closed doors, or people being where they shouldn’t be.”
Ezra’s jaws worked and his shoulders slumped, his gaze dropping to the floor. “Fucking hell. Want me to go back out and make sure? Alpha?”
“Don’t ask me,” Rik growled. “Ask our queen.”
“Shara?” Ezra gulped at the even more furious glare our alpha shot at him. “Your Majesty?”
She stepped out of her panties and dropped the bra to the floor before responding.
“You’re here now, Ezra, and you’ve passed the alert on to other Blood who are imminently capable of also checking out a threat.
Your only mistake was in not immediately notifying Rik, which I can understand.
” She laid a consolatory hand on Rik’s chest, instantly melting his ire.
“The whole reason I asked for you and Daire is because I know how much you miss and need each other. Of course you forgot in the heat of the moment.”
Ezra’s cheeks flushed and he fought the urge to look at Daire. “I think it’s mostly one sided, my queen. But I appreciate the gesture.”
I waited for the sassy warcat to flirt or mouth off.
He was always up for a good time. We all knew that.
I’d certainly enjoyed the hell out of him in the past. He was the purr machine.
A cuddler who loved a puppy pile. A tad too needy and mouthy but never too serious.
Nothing a good rough manhandling couldn’t fix.
Except now, evidently. Because without a single snotty comment, he walked over to Ezra, wrapped his arms around his waist, and pressed his mouth to his.
A shudder rocked Ezra’s shoulders. He clamped his arms around the other Blood, nearly squeezing the life out of him.
Drinking his mouth down like he would die of thirst if he came up for air.
Which only made me thirsty. But not for him or Daire or even the motherfucker. Only Shara would do.
I surged up out of the water, bracing my palms on the tiled edge. “I miss and need too, my queen.”
Her gaze snapped to mine, and I wasn’t prepared for the tenderness gleaming in her eyes. Maybe for Rik or Daire, her first two Blood. Or even the knight. But not for me. Not the asshole who broke her arm. Who’d fully intended to kill her to escape my prison.
Only to realize she held the key in her pretty little hand the entire time.
Yeah, I’d been trapped for over a thousand years but still. I would’ve killed her, if she wasn’t Shara fucking Isador. And I’d still be fucking trapped and helpless without her, while denying the world this light. This love that burned in her heart that I didn’t fucking deserve.
She came to me and cupped my face in her palms. Her fingers lightly stroked my cheek. Her thumb rubbed across my bottom lip. While that unbearable softness shone in her eyes. “Me too, my dragon.”
And she pressed her mouth to mine.
SHARA
All the lust for destruction and hatred burning in his heart melted at the first touch of my lips to his.
His hunger would never be satisfied. His dragon heart burned for all time, flashing from ire to desire in a heartbeat.
He locked an arm around me and fell back toward the water, dragging me over the edge and on top of him.
Without ever lifting his lips from mine.
His tongue snaked into my mouth and stroked the roof of my mouth, tracing the tip around my fangs. Nicking himself so I’d taste his blood on our kiss.
Stirring my hunger to a fevered pitch. Exactly as he intended.
I lifted my head enough to turn toward Ezra and Daire. “If you want some alone time, I understand.”
That brought Ezra’s shaggy head up, his narrowed gaze searching my face. Looking for the trap. “Really?”
“I don’t mind. You could go in the other room to my bed, or even take the night off, with Rik’s approval of course.”
He looked back at Daire, his gaze dropping to his full, pouty lips. “What do you think, fur ball?”
“You know I love you too, Griz, but we both love our queen just as much.”
He huffed out a laugh. “Damned straight we do. How about we warm up your bed for you, my queen? But I won’t let him have the hook until you join us.”
A needy groan escaped Daire’s throat, making us both grin. “Then I’ll definitely take my time.”
Ezra clamped his big hand on Daire’s nape. “Let’s go warm up our queen’s bed, warcat.”
I turned my attention back to Mehen. Lying against his chest, I traced the shiny emerald scales popping up out of his shoulders like precious jewels.
Waiting for him to look back at me. His gaze followed the two Blood for a moment, then checked Rik’s location.
My alpha stood against the wall adjoining the bedroom.
Just watching as unobtrusively as possible.
More importantly, not joining us in the tub.
Which meant the dragon had me all to himself, as much as I could make it happen without asking Rik to leave entirely.
Mehen focused on my face, his eyes as guarded as Rik’s stoic, braced-for-anything posture. “What’s this?”
I doodled my index finger across his throat. “I believe this is what humans would call a bath.”
His upper lip curled in a grimace. “Just me?”
“Is that what you really wanted to ask me?”
His eyes flared wide before he could hide his reaction.
My grumpy dragon thought he was so secretive and aloof.
Even though his heart was wide open to me.
He hesitated, his mighty beast sure there must be a hidden trap.
Plumes of smoke flowed through his bond.
Leviathan’s shadow wound through him. Twisting himself up into a knot.
Trying to decide whether he should ask or not.
He didn’t want to appear weak. Even—especially—to me.
With a long sigh that sounded more like a hiss, some of the simmering tension eased in his body.
“I don’t want to lose the bite you gave me.
” His jaws flexed. “I ate plenty of queens in my prison. I don’t want…
” His lips curled in a snarl. “It’d be a fucking waste to lose any piece of you in a refuse pile. ”
“Let’s see if I can do something about that then. With your permission, of course.”
Scales rippled beneath his flesh but he nodded.
“I’ve never attempted to do something like this, so it might hurt,” I warned before I dipped my awareness into his body.
“Good. You know I’ll love it.”
He loved rough sex, whether giving or receiving.
I normally didn’t enjoy hurting anyone but he’d love every moment, especially if it was me doing it to him.
Closing my eyes, I allowed my mind to sink into him.
Not just his bond but his physical body.
Leviathan’s claws skittered against his spine.
Sinuous dark ribbons of scales writhed in bliss at my touch.
Leviathan bulged, though couldn’t escape the bounds of Mehen’s body. Not without my permission.
My first idea had been to cut a slit in his stomach and find a place to lodge the bite of my arm elsewhere in his body. Wrapped in my power, hopefully I could protect it inside him. Vore’s beast had a special stomach that would never dissolve that bite.
Could I make something like that in Leviathan?
I shifted my focus to the dragon. Even though the dragon was confined in the much smaller space of Mehen’s body, I could sense Leviathan’s anatomy.
One stomach for eating. Another stomach-like pouch where chemicals mixed to create his fire.
The second stomach didn’t attach to the rest of his digestive system. Only his esophagus to spew flames.
I fucking loved the idea of my flesh fueling his flames for eternity.
:Me too.: He pressed his mouth to my temple, trailing his lips down my cheek, nuzzling me. :My queen. My fire. One for all time.:
I shifted my focus to his stomach. A bit of skin and muscle floated in digestive juices.
He’d already absorbed my blood, fueling up his magical systems like all my Blood.
I imagined a thin sharp knife slicing his stomach open just enough for my will to reach inside and pull that bite of meat out.
Then I used my power like a lick to seal his stomach shut once more.
A soft groan escaped his lips. His back arched a little, pushing up against me. An involuntary roll of desire. His breath came faster against my cheek and throat. His face hot against my skin.
I tightened a mental fist on the flesh, pressing it smaller.
Squeezing. Wrapping it in magic to make it as small as possible.
Compressing it with my blood. My love. My rage at the thought of anything ever hurting one of my Blood.
Hurting him. Touching him. My dragon. Mine.
Letting his possessiveness stab through me too.
The ball shimmered inside him like a captured red star, glowing with undying fury and love. Then I shoved it into his dragon’s chemical stomach.
His breathing caught on a guttural grunt.
He arched harder, his arms and legs wrapping around me.
Rolling me beneath him in the water like a crocodile taking his prey into a death roll.
His jaws locked on my throat. Hard enough my blood filled his mouth.
Scales poured up out of his skin, shimmering in an emerald wave.
I tightened my will on Leviathan, refusing to allow him fully out of Mehen’s body. :No.:
Every time the dragon sucked in great gusts of air to fuel his fire, he’d taste me. My blood. My flesh. He writhed inside Mehen, clawing him. Thrashing. Not to escape the cage of his body or to break my hold but simply lost in the throes of lust and bliss.
:Please,: Mehen panted in our bond. :Someday. Let me fuck you as Leviathan.:
Before I could answer, Rik said, :No, absolutely not. You’re too big. You’ll damage her body. It would not be pleasure for you, my queen.:
:Let me fuck the wyvern then. Or even the cobra queen. The knight did until Xin cut off his head.:
Rik laughed. :Good fucking luck.:
:I can take it.:
I wasn’t sure if he meant he thought he could take on my cobra queen—or take whatever punishment she—I—dished out.
I couldn’t remember much when I shifted to my other forms, especially the cobra queen, but snippets of past transformations fluttered through my mind like jagged pieces of paper.
Stained in blood and venom. Damaged walls and floors.
My beloved Blood tossed about like broken dolls.
I shuddered. :Not tonight. I don’t want to risk opening that door until my reserves are well and truly full.:
:Not tonight.: He agreed as he ceased rolling us in the water—so he could get inside me. :This is for me. Not Leviathan. Though I’d love for you to take a bite out of me and hold it inside you too.:
Normally the idea of chewing off an actual hunk of flesh from one of my Blood would’ve repulsed me. Before Vore. Before Leviathan. Now they both held a piece of me inside them. Proudly. A special, secret key, adding more magic to their already magnificent beasts.
I loved to bite. I loved the pressure on my fangs. The taste of skin and blood on my tongue. Muscle and flesh in my mouth. If I could slide a piece of him somewhere inside me, where would I put it?
:Any fucking place you want. Take a bite of me, Shara, my queen. Keep it inside you forever.: