“You’re not backing me up because you still haven’t really forgiven me for leaving.”
“It’s been fifty years! Why bring this up now?”
Xado waved a hand and as promised, he did set Perinor’s hair on fire. The shadow demon immediately put it out, but his red eyes bored into us both.
“Watch yourselves, boys,” he said.
“We can’t get into arguments amongst ourselves at such a time,” Xado said in a low voice. “Any moment now, Dakota will become truly ours and we will take her home and claim her. She needs to trust that we love one another as much as we love her. Our bonded days will truly begin.”
“I know that,” Hiron said. “I don’t want to fight. Rafe’s the one who never seems satisfied with what we have to offer. I suppose the magical life pales compared to all the wild and corrupt pleasures of the Fixed Plane.”
“Yeah, that’s how you really feel,” I said, shoving my hands in my pockets. “Wild and corrupt pleasures. That’s all you think it was.”
“I’ll admit, you made quite a sacrifice for me. It’s been a long fifty years,” Hiron said, with a faint laugh. “But maybe we’ll have some wild and corrupt pleasures back at the castle now.”
The doors to the Symposium swung open. “You may return back to the chamber,” an attendant said.
As soon as I came close enough to see Dakota’s tear-streaked face, I knew it had gone wrong.
Xado looked crestfallen and then angry at the demons sitting in judgment of her; he surely took responsibility. “I don’t understand, little mate…you were superb at home.”
“It’s obvious that she is skilled at magic!” Hiron said. “We can feel it, and so can you. Give her a second chance.”
“You know that’s not how it works,” said Braegon, the head of the Symposium. “Yes, she has skill, but if she doesn’t have enough discipline to cast something so simple before us now, how can she possibly cast a spell when she is in actual danger? There is something in her that is too conflicted. For now, she is your bride, but also your captive. She isn’t ready to be a part of this world yet. Don’t forget that. We will cast protective spells on her that will keep her close to you.”
“Does that mean I can’t go home?” Dakota grabbed my jacket. “You all said—“
“You can go home, but we have to accompany you,” Hiron said.
“Why? Even in the Fixed Plane? But Edie never needed anything like that!”
“You’re not like Edie,” I said, dreading that I had to tell her the truth.
Hiron jumped in where I was reluctant. “It seems your friend married demons who live partially in the Fixed Plane. In marrying us, you are going to be a part of the Sinistral Plane. It’s a vulnerable position for a human. We have to make sure that no one can steal you away. If you were named a witch, it would be a different matter. You’d be a part of this world and not just a human captive, and the Witch’s Council would offer you additional protection.”
“I don’t want this!” Dakota sobbed. “I need to see my mom!”
“We’ll go with you to see your mom,” I said. “We’ll go to Disney World.”
We will? Xado mouthed, looking alarmed.
The Symposium seemed impatient to get us moving along. They had other business to take care of, no doubt. “Come closer,” Braegon said. “All of you. Come, Maid Dakota.”
Dakota was trembling all over even as we all put a hand on her in support. The poor girl had been more brave than anyone would expect from a human, but we all had our limits. Her fate had been decided and she was helpless against it. Soon, she would have to find a place of resignation and then, hopefully, happiness.
“Dakota is a strange name,” Braegon commented. “What language is that? You’re of European descent, yes?”
“It’s a state in America,” Dakota said, sniffing. “Or, like, a territory that became two states I guess.”
“I much prefer that to all those Patiences and Charitys the Americans had when I started,” said Amira, the only woman on the Symposium. She had been there for three hundred years. Most of the demons on the Symposium were of the highest class, serving tenures that outlasted our lives. The better to intimidate the rest of us, but I tried not to let anyone intimidate me just because they happened to live for four hundred years. If you asked me, that just made your thinking turn stale.
Of course, Dakota probably thought the same thing about us.
“Maid Dakota.” Braegon held a hand over Dakota and sparks of magic rained down on her. When the sparks made contact with her skin, they seemed to melt just below the surface and dance along, toward her wrists and ankles, where they solidified into bands of light. She tried to shy back like she expected them to burn her, but we stood behind her and kept her from going anywhere. We didn’t have a choice.
“Now, Maid Dakota will not be able to walk more than ten feet away from you. They are laced with witchcraft so they work even in the Fixed Plane, to a lesser extent. There, they will not hold her but she will feel sick if she leaves the safe radius. This will assure her safety until she is ready to become a witch.”
“Wha?” Dakota sputtered, clawing at the bands of light, but the light faded away, vanishing to become a part of her. Hiron put a hand on her shoulder.
Anyway, what was done was done. Some part of me wasn’t sorry to keep her close for the next year or two.
I’m not sure Dakota fully appreciated just how precious she was to us. How long we had been waiting. How much we yearned to get lost in her touch, her scent, her very presence.
But she would surely appreciate it soon enough.
“And your bindings, good sirs.” Braegon lifted a hand and three small wooden boxes sailed down from the counter into our hands. “May you have many children and renew the blood of your house, Lord Hiron and bond-fellows.”
“We are most grateful, Lord Braegon,” Hiron said, with a bow that was nevertheless stiff. We might have some disagreements, but we all knew Dakota deserved to become a true witch and the Symposium’s rules had become as stagnant as their well-preserved old hides. When they were young, brides expected to be ruled by their husbands in any event, but it was a lot to ask of modern girls to be bound to us.
We walked by Perinor, who smirked at us one last time.
I really wanted to set fire to him like Xado did, especially since my fire magic was stronger. But right now, we needed to get our mate home safe and sound. “Jealousy doesn’t flatter you, Perinor,” I said.
“I have a wife of my own and she’s not a silly human maid who must be shared.”
“You think it lessens ones pleasure to share?” Xado retorted. “I’ll bet you have to work a lot harder to see your wife pushed to the limits and there’s nothing better than that.”
“But then, can you imagine Perinor getting along with anyone well enough to have a human bride in the first place?” I asked.
“Enough,” Hiron grumbled, pushing us along. Once we were out of earshot, he said, “Look how flushed our mate is. She’s endured enough already.”
“I thought it was our goal to make her flush,” Xado said. “She won’t like you if you grow too soft, will you, Dakota?”
“Um…”
“I’m in a bad temper, anyway. It was all such a sham,” Hiron growled. “They know she could pass. They feel the strength of her talents. The only thing troubling her is her mother’s illness.”
“They did say I had power,” Dakota said. “But…I am conflicted. That part is true. But I don’t want to be a prisoner!”
“Nor did we want such a thing,” Hiron said. “But the rules are there for your safety in this world.”
“I just want to—to— Well, if I can’t go home, I want to forget about all this. I want you all to…” She turned such a face at me, her eyes soulful and rimmed with red. It would melt even the cruelest demon’s heart.
“Yes, we must claim you,” Xado said. “Tonight.”
“Be tender with me,” she said. “Please. Hol
d me. I know you need me, whether or not you love me, but at least try your best to convince me that you chose me…”
“We do love you, Lady Dakota,” Hiron said. “Of course we do. You’re ours.”
“That’s not what she wants,” I said. “Humans don’t think of love and duty as the same thing. It has to grow and build, and she’ll never believe in it until we take the time to show her. But we can start tonight.”
Just thinking about the pleasures to come, and I imagined all of us claiming Dakota at once, her helpless joy. But we would have to restrain ourselves tonight. Even Xado. She was vulnerable right now, and we had to adjust to the spells.
Still, by the time we’d made the walk home, I noticed I wasn’t the only one with a stiff cock. Clearly all of our minds had shared the same fantasies. As soon as we shut the castle doors, Xado pressed her back against it and lowered his head to kiss her. She responded with a desperate eagerness, reaching for his face and his chest, fingers exploring his skin, even as tears still streaked her cheeks.
She wanted us too.
Chapter Seventeen
Dakota
Just a PSA to all the kids out there: Never ever burn a candle and ask for demon husbands.
Going to the Symposium had left me so shaken and scared of what I’d done to my life that now I just wanted the guys to reassure me in any way they could. To show me that I hadn’t made a terrible mistake. Only time was really going to do that, but at least for now, they could show me how good it was going to be.
At least I was finally going to get my fantasy. Three men who were all way more into me than I could have imagined.
The more I kissed Xado, the more deeply he responded, making a low sound of satisfaction as I ran my hands over his muscular body. Believe me, the pleasure’s all mine, buddy.
I felt his cock pressing into me. I’d never had such an effect on guys before that they were rock hard before we even started kissing. I mean, being a natural blonde didn’t hurt, but my personal confidence relied on having the right clothes, the right makeup, and the right hair more than I cared to admit.
I was totally removed from those things now. They’d grabbed me all unkempt and sweaty during my morning run, and this dress was gorgeous but they looked like they wanted to tear it off me.
Hiron urged us away from the door and he started to unbutton the dress. Rafe unfastened the clasps of his own jacket. And my hands were already working off Xado’s shirt…
“So…so what’s in the boxes?” I asked. “How does this binding spell work?”
“Let’s get you to the bedroom first,” Hiron said. “Unless you want to get to it on a cold stone floor, which I doubt.”
“Yeah, let’s not do that,” Rafe said. “C’mon, darlin’.” He swept me into his arms and carried me toward the stairs.
“This must be like Christmas for you guys…” I gasped. “Do I still get to have Christmas here? Is that like…forbidden for demons?”
“We can have Christmas if it makes you happy,” Rafe said. “I like Christmas. Well…I like presents, anyway.” He grinned.
He brought me into a room with three tall windows that looked out over the village and the forest, and a massive bed with a gorgeous embroidered bedspread with a pattern of entwined flames breathed from the mouths of dragons in the corners. It was built like an old-fashioned canopy bed in a castle, but I’d never seen an older bed large enough to accommodate four people. This one easily would.
He put me down in the middle of it—quite a reach—and they all climbed up beside me. Xado took over from Hiron in stripping off my gown, pulling it over my head. Rafe hung it up inside of a wardrobe. They worked together like parts of a clock, hardly needing a say a word to each other.
My naked skin tingled with anticipation now, as they all pulled off their boots and jackets and unbuttoned shirts, trousers unlacing and unbuttoned to ease the strain on their stiff manhoods.
“I hope you’re ready,” Rafe said. “You might have forgotten, but we’re not quite human. I’ve always heard it said that making love to a dragon is an exquisite pleasure for a human, but I’ve never had the chance to test it until now. In this world, we could only make love to other dragons, and in the Fixed Plane, I couldn’t tap into any aspect of my dragon nature.”
“You’re not going to like, become…dragons?”
“Not too much,” Hiron said.
Am I really ready for this?
Hiron handed me his box. “Open it,” he said.
Inside, two thin silver rings rested in velvet. The edges were inscribed with tiny symbols which I supposed must be the spell work.
“One goes at the base of my cock and the other just below the head,” he said, as he finished wrestling out of his trousers. “Put it on, Lady Dakota…cherished bride, who will share my house, my holdings, and my family name.”
The circumference was quite wide, definitely large enough to fit over his cock and then some. They were all reasonably well endowed, but not inhumanly so, not even beyond what I’d seen before. I couldn’t help but feeling some excitement as I lifted one out of its case. This felt like an honor. It also felt naughty, in a really good way.
I slid the first ring over his cock, down to the base, and once it was there, it immediately constricted around his skin tightly. His fingers dug into the bedspread. “Mmph…”
“Oh no—am I hurting you? Do I need to do something differently?” I tried to pull the ring up but it wasn’t budging.
A sheen of sweat broke onto his brow but he looked at me with desire positively blazing in his eyes. “It only hurts at first, they say, before it adjusts. But it’s a good kind of pain.”
“It’s…kind of like my first time,” I said. Huh. This was kind of cool. I hated losing my virginity. For me it hurt, and he was fine. It seemed fair to give the guys a little pain for once.
Of course, in this case, Hiron didn’t look like he was losing any of his mojo like I did at the time. “The other one,” he said.
I slipped the other one over the head and it immediately started tightening around him. He ran a hand over his cock, as if trying to soothe the pain. I put my hand there and stroked him. I was getting surprisingly turned on, seeing him suffer for me and lust after me at once.
He wet his lips. “Dakota…”
“He needs to claim you,” Xado said. “It will ease the pain.”
I gave him a look of invitation, but remained a little coy.
He grabbed me and pressed me into the pillows, kissing my neck, his beard tickling my skin. “Ah…please…what torture…,” he murmured. His stiff rod nudged at my slick folds, and I spread my legs wider as he found my entrance. I ran my hands along his back, his skin as smooth as the muscles beneath were hard.
Rafe and Xado were watching my face as Hiron pushed into me. I shut my eyes and moaned, feeling a little embarrassed, only to have Rafe’s lips meet mine. He kissed me. “This makes it all worth it,” he said. “The long wait for you…” He gave Hiron’s shoulder a little pat.
“What, to see me suffer? It’ll be your turn next.”
“Ha, no, not to see you suffer although I am enjoying that…”
I wondered if they’d long had an agreement as to who would have first crack at their bride. They didn’t always get along perfectly, but it was super impressive.
Hiron panted with some relief as he sunk into me up to the second ring. He let his cock rest inside me a moment and I felt it swell inside me.
“Ahh…” I had never felt a sensation like this before. He was getting bigger while he was inside me, tickling every inch of my passage with stimulation. Hiron found my hands and clutched them, a groan turning into almost a cry of both pleasure and pain.
“Watch yourself,” Xado warned. “Don’t turn into a dragon.”
“Oh no, please don’t do that!” I cried.
“That will not happen by accident,” Hiron said, sounding annoyed that we had even asked. “But I suppose that’s the other reason we have t
o wait so long to have a human mate. We learn—control…mm.”
“We would never crush you,” Rafe said. “Even if we lost control, we would have a second to shift our weight off your body. It’s the part that’s inside you that is harder to move quickly. That’s why we have the bindings. So that in any form, we wouldn’t hurt you.”
Hiron moved carefully inside me, beginning to pump in and out as his cock filled me completely, and not only did it seem bigger but, holy crap, some sort of texture was starting to stimulate me on the inside. He looked like a man on the outside but he felt like a beast on the inside. He seemed to keep inching larger and larger as he fucked me, and I groaned as I was stretched and stroked by his ridged cock.
“She’s sweating.” Xado stroked my forehead. “Mm, little bride, you look quite overwhelmed…”
“I’m at my limit,” Hiron said. “The bindings are holding me back now. This is as much as Dakota can handle.”
“Is it good?” Rafe asked.
“Very.” Hiron grinned, breathing hard.
“Ahh…Hiron…” I felt split open by him, but no one had ever filled me like this. So perfectly, hitting multiple sweet spots at once, ones I had hardly known were there. “What is this I’m feeling?”
“We learn to control our shape shifts,” Hiron said. “But I couldn’t resist giving you a little taste of dragon…”
“Oho.” Xado grinned. “And now the bar has been set. Hurry and finish.”
“Nah, take your time and break her in,” Rafe said. “Maybe I’ll end up with a bigger cock than yours.”
“Okay guys, not cool,” I breathed, chewing madly on my lip as Hiron did take his time, now sliding in and out of me slowly, getting me used to his size. As he settled into a rhythm, the other guys started caressing me and kissing me at my hands, up my arms, my neck, my face. Xado finally leaned in to take my mouth.
“Yes,” I said. “Mm, yes.” I kissed him as Hiron was hitting my g-spot and pretty soon I was having such an intense orgasm that my legs spasmed. He finished about the same time.
Captured by Dragons: A Reverse Harem Paranormal (Brides of the Sinistral Realms Book 2) Page 10