Chapter 14 Ready #2
Because I was one second from combusting in just the same way the Black Dragon’s diseased oilslick Bloodwinds can combust, and how Baldur nearly did earlier. Producing an all-burning fire that keeps going, like phosphorus.
As it snuffs everything else out.
I heave hard breaths now in Mikkel’s arms, as my other drakes and Laerke finally come back to the chaise. Thankfully, Baldur was not harmed in my sudden hurricane of wrath; unfortunately, his bed is wrecked, and even his clothing is singed, as Bjorn and Strom hastily pat everything out.
It makes me the biggest liability among us now, however, as I feel how much the Black Dragon’s curses push me to go dark through my Fourth Drake. It’s not only Baldur they’re harming, but all of us, as they push us to descend into our deepest darkness.
Me most of all—since I’m no longer completely stabilized by my brightest Fourth Bloodmate.
“We need to try this group sex. Now,” I say with no hesitation whatsoever, anymore.
“Laerke, stay here and heal Baldur as much as you can. Bjorn, get Baldur a new bed, make him comfortable so Laerke can work. Mikkel, we need sustenance from the kitchens; bring it all back to my room. Strom… walk with me. I need to hash some things out.”
No one gainsays me, as I bark orders now like a war commander. Because that’s the mode I default to when shit really hits the fan; though my drakes are all alphas, they just nod, squeezing my hand or briefly kissing my lips to do as I’ve asked, and get this show on the road.
All of us stew in our darkest places, however, as Strom and I exit the library hall. We walk fast with our magic torches down the luminous corridor, not quite a trot, but close to it.
I don’t even know what to say, as too many thoughts churn inside my head. Glancing at me, Strom is there as he clears his throat.
“Are you ready for this, Yava?” He asks, as we walk fast towards our destination.
My bedroom, where the next part of this craziness is about to go down.
“Fuck no.” I shake my head as I lay it on him, needing to process this, though I don’t even know where to start. Which is why I asked him to walk with me, because if any of my drakes know how to help me through this massive cluster-fuck of a situation, it’s Strom.
“But I have no choice, do I?” I glance at him, grim.
“If it were up to me, I’d take my time getting to know each drake in my bond, getting to share time and energy before we rammed up against something like this.
But Mikkel and Laerke are right: we’re out of options.
It’s do or die time. So, some doing needs to be done. So we don’t all die.”
“Nice one.” Strom chuckles, though his energy is still tense and watchful, as he talks this out with me.
“You don’t have to approach this like you’re a piece of meat, though.
Though you’re the epicenter of this Bloodbond, we all have to bond with each other—and should do so in our group sex—to make our bond the strongest it can be, complete. ”
“Tell Bjorn that.” I shake my head as worry devours me, that us even trying to do some all-together nookie is going to be a fucking shitshow.
“Doing this with four seriously alpha drakes is not like doing this with Courtiers and Courtesans of the Red Letter Hotel Paris. Egos are going to get bruised; tails are going to get stepped on. I just know it.”
“We’ll figure it out. We have to,” Strom says gently as we turn down a different corridor, heading back towards the dormitory hall.
“Even despite his serious jealousy over sharing you, Bjorn knows that. He’s a good warrior, and a good drake, Rikyava.
He knows he needs to figure out his jealousy so he can play ball with the rest of us. ”
“If we just had more time…” I sigh hard. “But we don’t. And I just worry that us pushing this all too soon, under such duress… is going to make us fall apart, rather than come together.”
“Just do what you encouraged Baldur to do earlier, Rikyava,” Strom stops me then, pulling me around by the shoulder to face him, serious but calm.
“Stay in your emotions as we do this; stay in your heart. Get real with what you’re feeling and don’t hold back confronting it right in the moment.
If you feel something from the rest of us drakes, confront us as well.
Because a truly elevated time with a group can’t happen if anyone’s holding on to shit.
Much less hiding how they feel from the rest of us. Including you.”
“Sounds like a therapy session, rather than sex.” I chuckle, though it’s grim.
“In many ways, it is.” Strom nods, before setting our torches aside in the hall and putting his arms around me, pulling me in. I avoid his gaze, feeling too much conflict. Gently, Strom sets his fingers on my chin, encouraging me to look up.
His grass-green eyes beam at me, kind.
“Hey. Don’t hide from this.” Strom kisses my lips.
“Remember that you are a furious, ball-busting beauty of a drakaina, and all four of your drakes are madly in love with you. Not just that, but you care deeply about us, as well. We all want this to go well, Rikyava; we need it to. Not just because we need the power to heal Baldur, but also because we each feel a basic need to be accepted, to be loved—and by the more people, the merrier.”
“Who made you the group’s Love Guru?” I chuckle, but it’s sweeter now as I wind my arms around Strom’s lean waist, referencing a quirky Mike Myers rom com.
Nuzzling his chest, I run my lips over his skin at his open collar near his heart.
“I know you’re right. I need to put aside my fears about all this and stay present in my heart.
It’s so hard when everything inside me keeps tipping black, though; about the Dragon of All Souls, about the extreme danger we’re in…
and about possibly losing all of you. Just when this was getting good. ”
“Use that in the bedroom.” Strom cups my face tenderly in both his hands, devouring me with his brilliant emerald gaze.
“Use all that emotion you feel for us, your fears and your deep love, to power this once it gets going. Because just like when we fight on the battlefield, that fear of loss makes this one moment we have so very precious. Blood Dragons never know when any one of us will die. So we celebrate the moment with our togetherness. And the fleeting preciousness of being together… even when everything else feels lost.”
As I gaze up at my amazing Second Drake, I know he’s right. And he is our Love Guru, as an incredible sensation fills me now—a vast gratefulness for Strom and everything he is, inside and out.
That gratefulness lifts me up as I place my lips on his. We kiss, long and decadent, as a beautiful fire fills me now, rather than a terrible one.
Lighting me up from the inside out.
Ready for this, at last.