Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Get her to the ship!” Preston snapped.
Wayne picked me up with an arm beneath my legs and behind my back, let his wings out, and flew up into the air.
“No!” I yelled. “We can’t leave them!”
“They’ll be fine,” he assured me. “Zeke has some anger about their restraints to let out.”
On cue, Zeke roared behind us and I felt a bit of warmth from the flames he was already using.
“Scout, support!” I shouted.
Scout chirped their confirmation before zipping out from behind my ear, expanding into their full-sized drone form with guns drawn, and raced back to help them fight.
“They really don’t need the help,” Wayne assured me calmly.
“It makes me feel better to know for certain and to see them,” I said as I watched through my display from Scout’s camera.
Wayne was right, of course, the Dragonkin princes were demolishing the Exostalon soldiers.
Especially Zeke. He was tearing arms off and burning them to ash with a fury that was slightly terrifying and extremely sexy.
Wayne landed at the ramp to the ship and waved one of the soldiers over. “The princes are fighting Exostalons five blocks east of here. Go assist and clean up.”
“Yes, sir!” the soldier said and grabbed a few of his fellow Dragonkin soldiers to do as Wayne ordered.
“Let’s put the food in our room,” Wayne said, completely unconcerned, as if we hadn’t been attacked twice.
“Wayne, do you think you could help me with some upgrades to Scout?”
His eyes widened and his mouth parted slightly, a mixture of shock and excitement crossing his face. “You want me to help you make improvements to Scout?”
I nodded. “I want to improve some of the coding I did and I know you enjoy working on tech things.”
“Who told you that?” he asked.
“Preston, explained that your territory is known for its technology and that you enjoy it, but I saw you working on the ship’s controls and your tablet a few times, too.”
He rubbed the back of his neck, looking embarrassed. “I’m not the best with weapons, but I’m willing to look at it, if you’re okay with me seeing your code.”
“Well, we are mates, right? Going to be a ruling quintet? I think sharing my code is the least I can do.”
He chuckled.
“We’re fine, pet. Heading to the ship now,” Preston said while looking at Scout and brushing off dirt from his shoulders.
“Scout, return,” I ordered.
Wayne and I returned to Preston and my room, putting our newly acquired snacks into a cabinet that we kept locked.
“I think from now on, at least one of us should stay in the room at all times. We have cameras up, but I wouldn’t put it past someone to sneak in here and poison our snacks.”
“I don’t think they’d try to poison us.”
My frown turned into a scowl. “Wow.”
“What?” he asked.
“You just said that they won’t try to poison you guys, just me.” While it might be true, I didn’t appreciate the abruptness of his statement or the reminder that I was seen as less than them.
“I … I didn’t mean it like—”
“It’s fine, you’re right,” I admitted and ran a hand down my face. “I’m just grumpy from getting attacked multiple times today.”
“Totally understandable,” Preston said as they joined us in the room.
Gage turned me around while inspecting me. “Did you get hurt at all?”
“I’m fine. What about you?” I asked and turned to Zeke. “Are you hurt, Giant?”
His lip twitched, but he held back from snarling. “I’m not hurt.”
“Can’t say the same for the Exostalons.” Gage chuckled.
“You’re always such a handful,” Preston said with a dramatic sigh as he plopped down onto the bed near me.
“Sorry that I did whatever was possible to survive,” I griped and put my hands on my hips.
Zeke sat down in one of the chairs at the small table and pulled me down onto his lap. “We’re very grateful that you survived. We just wish it didn’t end with you having so many enemies that are constantly after you.”
“Hmph,” I grunted and relaxed into his chest. Something sticky touched my hand and I glanced down to find blood. “Zeke!” I screeched.
He looked down with a frown. “Interesting.”
I stood off of him and pulled his shirt up to expose his skin, but it was completely unblemished.
“Must be from one of my kills,” he said calmly.
“Go shower and change,” Preston ordered him.
“I’ll come with you,” I said immediately.
“Shower here instead,” Wayne said. “We shouldn’t allow her to be in such a vulnerable place.”
“Being with me is vulnerable?” Zeke asked and immediately started growling.
“Being naked with you, also naked, in a shower, alone, is definitely vulnerable,” Wayne explained.
Zeke continued growling, but said, “You’re right. Just let me wash up real quick,” and headed to the attached bathroom without arguing further.
“She needs to shower, too,” Preston said without looking up from his tablet. “You got blood on her.”
Looking down, I realized he was right, my shirt had blood on it. My nose scrunched up as I said, “Eww.”
“Come on, let’s get cleaned up so we can eat our snacks,” Zeke said. He turned and pointed at Wayne and Gage. “Do not eat any snacks until we return.”
Gage smirked, while Wayne scowled.
I pointed at them, too, then said, “Scout, stay here and watch them.”
Scout slipped out from behind my ear and hovered near the bathroom door, facing the rest of the room, and gave a confirming chirp.
Preston laughed, amused by my antics.
After grabbing a pair of sweatpants, underwear, and a tank top, I joined Zeke in the bathroom where he was adjusting the temperature.
While he was doing that, I allowed myself to appreciate the view.
“You’re staring,” he mumbled and his deep voice vibrated around the small room.
“Just enjoying the view,” I said as I began to undress. I tossed our bloody clothes out the door and asked, “Can someone please have these cleaned?”
“On it!” Gage answered.
Zeke pulled me into the shower, which was deliciously warm.
“Aren’t you dying in this heat?” I asked.
“You like it, so I’ll deal,” he said, tilted my chin up so my hair got wet, and started massaging my scalp.
“Oh, yes,” I moaned.
He chuckled. “They’re going to think we’re doing other things if you keep making sounds like that.”
“You were really sexy taking out your rage on those Exostalons,” I said and set a hand on his chest to keep my balance as he began shampooing my hair, pressing his fingertips to my scalp hard enough to make my bones melt.
“You may think it’s just posturing, but I mean it when I say that I will destroy anyone who threatens you. I will scorch the entire universe if I have to, to keep you safe.”
Linking my hands behind his neck, I jumped up and wrapped my legs around his waist. His hands immediately went beneath my butt to secure me. “Were you mad at them for holding you hostage with those non-shifting bands?”
“Yes, but when I see them, I can’t stop thinking about that snake of a prince they had and what he’d said he was going to do to you.
” His eyes shifted into slitted pupils and the air seemed to grow heavier, like it was thick with smoke despite none being around us.
“If your parents hadn’t broken your engagement to him …
” His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down in a thick swallow.
“I want to destroy their planet like they did yours, but I don’t think that’s enough of a punishment. ”
Pressing my lips to his, I tried to feed all of the emotions I felt into the kiss. He was upset that they’d wanted me as a broodmare. He was upset that someone would have mistreated me. It made my desire for him increase tenfold.
He kissed me back just as passionately, pressed my body against the wall of the shower, and before I realized it, was pressing inside of me.
“Yes!” I screamed and arched back.
He gripped my upper thighs, giving him more access and began to pound into me in slow, steady thrusts. I resumed our kissing, matching our tongue strokes with each stroke of him inside of me. The ridges on the edges fluttered against my walls, making me shatter.
He swallowed my scream with a growl of his own, that turned into purring as he came the next moment.
“I should feel embarrassed about finishing so quickly, but I can’t help it when you’re so tight,” he whispered as he leaned his forehead against my shoulder.
“No reason to feel embarrassed,” I replied immediately. “Besides, we both know that if you had knotted me, I wouldn’t be able to walk for a few days at least.”
He chuckled and pressed a kiss to my temple before letting my legs drop down, though he kept an arm around my waist to ensure I could stay standing.
After a quick body wash, we got dried off and dressed.
As soon as I stepped out of the bathroom, Gage held up a picture of one of the royals. “Pop quiz. Who is this?”
“Prince Garron Rhyx, second child and second son of King Torvek Rhyx, and Zeke’s brother.”
“How do you greet him?” Preston asked.
“What’s crackin’, bro?” I teased with a wide smile.
Preston’s lip twitched as he held back a smirk, while Gage sighed.
“Xoe,” Gage reprimanded.
“Fine. He’s the same level as me, so I’d just greet him casually. ‘Nice to see you again, Prince Garron.’ Or if it’s my first meeting I suppose it would be, ‘A pleasure to finally meet you in person, Prince Garron.’”
“‘A pleasure,’ might be a bit too much,” Zeke said. “He’s a little shit.”
“Her response is fine. She’s trying to get on their good sides in the beginning, remember?” Preston said as he held up another image. “Next.”
“High Queen Seraphyne Vorthal, your mother.”
“Greeting?”
I curtsied, pretending to hold out the side of a dress. “An honor to meet you, High Queen. The rumors of your beauty pale when viewed in person.”
“Oh, she’ll love that,” Wayne said with a scoff.
Preston shot him a look and Wayne resumed whatever it was he was doing with a tablet that was emitting the occasional blue spark.
“Snack time?” I asked hopefully.
“Since you got the quiz questions all correct, I suppose I will allow it,” Preston said and waved his hand, like a king dismissing a commoner.
Rolling my eyes, I gave him a deep curtsy and said, “How magnanimous of you, Your Highness.”
“Now that …” He stood, purring loudly, crossed the room to pull me into his chest, and pressed his lips against the shell of my ear, dropping his voice to a whisper. “… was the perfect response, pet.”
“Snacks first,” Wayne said as he and Gage set the bags we’d purchased onto the table.
Preston gave me a look that told me that we would resume this later, which I was totally looking forward to.
“Tomorrow, we’ll work more on your obstacle course preparation,” Preston said as he returned to his seat.
My lip twitched as I fought a smile when I saw him adjust his erection in his pants, but when he raised his eyes to mine, I gave him a carefully blank expression. That made him narrow his eyes in suspicion.
“Sounds fun,” I said and sat in the chair next to Wayne. “Which snack should we try first?”
“This one!” he said enthusiastically as he opened a bag of chips labeled, “BBQ.”
As we ate snacks, Preston randomly asked me more questions and showed me more royal pictures. It was one of the most fun evenings I’d had in a long time.
When we pulled the blankets over us that night, I was snuggled between Preston and Gage, each with an arm around me.
“When we arrive, will I be forced to have chambers by myself?” I asked softly.
“You will be given your own chambers,” Preston answered sleepily. “Why?”
“What … What if I don’t want to sleep alone?” As much as I hated to admit it, I didn’t like the idea of being alone. Now that I had them, I didn’t want to sleep by myself, without their warmth around me. Without their arms a protective weight on me.
“If you don’t want to sleep alone, you are more than welcome to come to any of our beds,” Gage replied and nuzzled behind my ear.
“Once our ceremony is held, we will be given a room that has a bed large enough for us all to sleep on,” Preston explained. “Don’t worry, pet, we won’t leave you alone. Especially not in a new, unfamiliar, and potentially hostile place.”
“Promise?”
He kissed the tip of my nose and whispered, “Promise. Now, go to sleep.”