by Eva Brandt
The simple word—our shared pet name for our beautiful soulmate—was barely understandable due to the rasp in his voice. It dropped into a hiss that almost made him sound like he was speaking in our own native tongue. Cassia shivered, although it certainly wasn’t because of fear or the chill she herself had created. “Yes,” she hissed back. “Claim me.”
The slight sibilant tone of her words wasn’t the sole modification in her demeanor. Her hand landed on Raijin’s arm and I noticed that it was now clawed once again, just like it had been the day before, in the healer’s wing. I’d always found that sexy, but the circumstances of the occurrence had been such that we’d never explored the potential of this new development. It seemed like that was no longer the case.
My wyvern responded to the sight and my fingernails curved and sharpened, mimicking the icicle tips that now protruded from Cassia’s elegant digits. Emmerich had even less of a chance to control himself than I did, and his no longer human-looking hand reached for Cassia’s face and cupped her cheek with a tenderness that belied the threatening glint of his claws. A scattering of dark red scales already covered his arm, but Cassia did not seem shocked by it. Instead, she nuzzled his palm, and then, much to my surprise and explosive arousal, took one of his fingers in her mouth and sucked.
We had always known that Cassia acknowledged and accepted our bestial natures, but at the same time, we’d been aware that there were very clear cultural differences between us, which was part of why we’d kept butting heads in this situation with Snegurka. At that moment, whatever lingering doubts we might have experienced dissipated like smoke in the wind, and something inside me melted away as well.
Seeing her like this, having her so close to me... It reminded me of how easily we could’ve lost her, of the moment when she had shattered in front of us. She was safe now, and we were here, together, but my desire to feel that she was real had never faded, not for a moment. It flared brighter, consuming every other decision I’d made and every thought I could hope to have. And as I started to viciously pound into her, I knew that if anything tried to take her away from me again, I would tear the whole world apart in her name.
* * *
Raijin
It never failed to astonish me how well matched Cassia was to the three of us. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise—she was our soulmate, after all—but some days, I still felt that we did not deserve her.
Even so, as I took in the sight of Emmerich and Kerryn loosening their control over their beasts, I mimicked them. In the end, we were dragons, and our greedy and possessive natures always unavoidably shone through. She had almost been stolen from us, and as much as I had wanted to provide her with the comfort she had requested, I could no longer contain the innate, natural savagery of my true self.
When it all came bursting out, I let it happen. Emmerich moved first, replacing the fingers she had been sucking on with his cock. She moaned around his shaft, and her clawed digits gripped his hips as he started fucking her mouth with abandon. Blood dripped down his skin, and he growled, her display of both dominance and submission making his motions even sharper and faster, almost violent.
I bent over Cassia’s body and licked the droplets of crimson fluid that had slid over her breasts. Blood had never been one of my kinks in the past, but there was a savage beauty in tasting Emmerich’s when I knew that our female had spilled it due to her desire. In it, I could sense every ounce of the lust that burned so brightly and fiercely between us. I could taste our combined magic, Cassia’s yearning for us and our shared need to claim our beautiful female in every possible way.
It was easy, so very easy to allow the power I always kept leashed to flow into her. Ryūs had a reputation for being kinder and gentler than other species of dragons, and while this was not precisely inaccurate, our nature was as ever-changing and fluid as the element we were aligned to. Our ability to channel mystical powers didn’t always combine well with the water that governed our souls. But what was water if not another form of ice, and what was magic, if not a manifestation of our will, of our destinies?
As I ran my fingers over our female’s bare skin, I reached into her with my magic, finding the water in her flesh and making it pulse and vibrate with the echoes of that knowledge and that deep and desperate desire. Cassia screamed around the cock in her mouth, the stimulation of every inch of her body too much for her to contain. Her second orgasm erupted through her, and in response, the already wild manifestations of my fellow dragons’ abilities went completely out of control. Kerryn thrust inside our female one more time and came, and as he fell over the edge, a noxious gas filled the air, combining with Cassia’s perfume in a strangely intoxicating, pleasant scent. If anyone had told me a few weeks ago that I would one day find a wyvern’s poison breath in any way pleasant, I would’ve laughed, but there it was.
When his cock left Cassia’s body, I could catch a glimpse of Emmerich’s fire magic sliding into her pussy, as if it had physical substance instead of being a creation of his elemental skills. I had not known Emmerich could do that, but I guided it along, letting my own essence sweep over her mound, flick over her swollen clit, thrust into her channel.
A single tear trailed down Cassia’s cheek, froze when it reached the corner of her lips, then melted. Emmerich withdrew his dick from her mouth and slid away, all the while brushing his claw over her cheekbone and silver hair. Cassia shivered and panted, her eyes still glazed and unfocused due to the aftermath of her orgasm. “It’s all right, treasure,” he murmured, his words still curling into a hiss. “We’re here, and we’ll always give you what you need.”
She nodded and somehow managed to provide a reply. “Give me what you need. I don’t think there is any difference.”
None of us could have argued with that, and Emmerich followed the softly spoken command to the letter. He rolled onto his back and pulled Cassia on top of him. She easily went along with the motion, moaning when his erect cock slid into her, taking Kerryn’s place. I leaned over and pressed my mouth to hers, swallowing the addicting sound into my kiss. Her clawed hands landed on my shoulders, raking over my skin, and in response, I bit her lower lip so hard I tasted blood in my mouth once again.
I wanted to be inside her properly too much to linger on our coppery-tinged kiss, but even so, as our tongues dueled, I felt the same high as before, the same togetherness that had reached out to me from Emmerich’s blood. Cassia’s life essence sang with magic more potent than the strength of the gods themselves. It went beyond the timeless power inherent to Chronikos, beyond the skills she had been granted at birth, and later, by her parents. It was our entwined magic that made all the difference because nothing could ever be as powerful and as absolute as the connection between soulmates.
I pulled away from our lip-lock, my heart racing so quickly I feared it would burst out of my chest. Pursuing the instincts I could no longer hope to control, I took up position behind Cassia. Kerryn gave me room, sliding to the side and watching us with fierce, poison-green eyes.
Emmerich was already rocking into Cassia, and seeing his shaft disappear inside her aroused me more than I had expected. He fell into a gentle, almost lazy pace, but the elemental magic I’d noticed before did not vanish. I took advantage of the slow rhythm to push her down and sweep my hands over the full globes of her ass, reveling in the soft feel of her skin under my fingertips and the way I could still sense our shared essence vibrate underneath the surface. When I parted her cheeks and thrust my tongue into her puckered hole, I found her body flashing between fire and ice, both hot and cold, balancing on a tightrope that could easily snap any moment now. It was all right, though, because we wouldn’t let her fall, or if she did, we would make sure she would more than enjoy it.
I swirled my tongue around the rim of her anus, occasionally taking the time to stab it into the tiny hole, stretching her most intimate place and preparing her for my intrusion. Cassia jerked in my hold, seemingly torn between trying to ride Emmerich’s coc
k and fuck my face. Emmerich and I steadied her, trying to keep her from growing too frantic. We didn’t encounter much success. Despite the nature of her wintery magic, in moments such as these, Cassia lost her patience and her self-control pretty quickly, as her innermost self—the part of her that was always a nymph—craved our proximity as much as we craved hers.
When we attempted to contain the pace, icicles came into being, sliding against my skin without harming me, not drawing blood, although they certainly could have. She struggled with the sensations overwhelming her body, flailing and desperately begging for more.
“Ah... Raijin, please... Please... I can’t...”
“Of course you can, treasure,” Kerryn rumbled in my stead. I lifted my head, only to find that at one point when I’d been distracted, he had moved to the top of the bed and his cock was now inches away from Cassia’s beautiful mouth. He was already hard again, but how could he not be, considering the beauty of the female who had so generously agreed to share her body, soul, and lair with us? “You are ours, just like we are yours, and together, there is nothing we cannot do.”
Maybe Cassia would’ve wanted to reply, but Kerryn and I didn’t give her the chance. We shared a look, and in his green eyes, I saw the same need and awareness I myself experienced. As I positioned my cock against her anus, Kerryn gripped our female’s hair and rubbed his dick over her lips. She let out another gasp, and we both embraced the opportunity to claim what was ours.
We thrust into our female, bringing the sole being that we secretly were together once again. For a few seconds, my fellow dragons and I all stilled inside her, something made necessary by the fact that we would have all otherwise come. The tightness of Cassia’s body alone was enough to make me feel like I was about to explode. Emmerich let out a choked growl, wrapping his arms around Cassia so fiercely I wondered if either of them could breathe. Kerryn should have had a little more luck in holding back since he had just climaxed, but judging by the tightness on his face, his previous orgasm would only earn him a mild reprieve.
I started to move first, sliding my cock in and out of Cassia’s ass, unable to control my strength or my desperate need for her. The angle we were in meant that Emmerich could not do much except occasionally rock into her, but his magic more than compensated for that. Kerryn, on the other hand, mimicked my approach and started fucking Cassia’s mouth, his hold on her hair now so tight his knuckles had gone white.
Cassia embraced all of it. Her flesh yielded to my invasion with ease, even if I hadn’t provided her with too much preparation. Her muffled moans held only pleasure, and if she had trouble breathing due to Kerryn’s actions or experienced any pain, she did not show it.
Before long, the pleasure that had already been building up for what seemed like forever increased to nigh unbearable proportions. Spots danced in my vision, the hypnotizing dance of our combined magic threatening to blind me with its intensity. Her heat, her strength, her presence, her acceptance, her vulnerability, her kindness—everything that Cassia was—seduced, enchanted and enthralled me to the point where I didn’t even know where I ended and she began.
When I climaxed, it was still because of something unexpected. Cassia lost herself so much in the moment that she blindly made a grab for Kerryn and buried her claws in his calf. Kerryn’s eyes widened, and in an almost identical repeat of what had happened earlier, he came with an inarticulate cry.
His orgasm tumbled all of us into the unavoidable avalanche of our shared pleasure. Either because of the taste of Kerryn’s seed or due to his swelling magic, Cassia followed him over the edge. Her body clenched around me and Emmerich, shattering the last, barely there remnants of our self-control.
I fell into the same wellspring of ecstasy that had swallowed up my soulmate, and for a few seconds, or perhaps, for an age, I thought I would drown in it. The visceral rawness of the moment reminded me of the natural savagery of Terra Dracones and the harshness of the frost-covered lands of Tou Cheimóna, but also of the intrinsic strength of a flower that fought its way past the ice and emerged victorious from the ground. It was not something the body of a sole being could contain or resist. I tried, wanting to prolong the moment, to cling to my soulmate and our bond for as long as I could, but in the end, much to my embarrassment, I was knocked out.
When I came to once again, I found myself on my back, with Cassia curled against my chest and Emmerich and Kerryn next to us. I didn’t remember moving, so someone else must’ve helped me lie down.
None of us spoke immediately, too busy catching our breaths and processing the experience we’d just shared. I probably would’ve been happy to stay like that forever, to just enjoy the sensation of what we had found without having to think about words at all.
My fellow dragons chose a different approach. “Well, that was interesting,” Kerryn said, his voice somewhat raspy and raw. “I feel like we’ve all been holding back in our relationship a little bit.”
Emmerich chuckled. “Your calf, Raijin’s shoulders and my hips definitely agree with you.”
“For what it’s worth, I didn’t actually mean to hurt you,” Cassia answered, a hint of apprehension drifting into her voice. “I can always be more—”
“Treasure,” Kerryn cut her off before she could finish the sentence, “you don’t need to be anything else but what you already are. You were perfect. In fact, I don’t know about the others but I found your claws really sexy.”
“Don’t be embarrassed about losing control,” Emmerich added. “It goes both ways. Gods only know I was really out of it for a while. I had no idea my magic could even do all that.”
“And I’ve never actually tried to use mine in bed like this,” I replied. “But you know, we learn new things every day.”
The easy exchange soothed Cassia’s obvious nerves. “Yes,” she whispered. “I suppose we do.”
The soft smile that graced her lips said more than her words ever could. We had all learned so many new things about one another, and we would continue to do so, probably for as long as we lived. We’d keep clashing and surprising each other all the time. But that was all right because I was more than willing to adapt to any surprise Cassia threw at me.
As I pulled her closer and stole a look at her now normal fingernails, I knew our female was thinking the exact same thing. We’d built something special together, and no matter how many challenges we had to face, we would always cherish it and protect it.
Twelve
Epilogue
Cheimon
“February, former Third Lieutenant of Tou Cheimóna, ambassador between The Realm of Eternal Ice and The Realm of Eternal Youth, I declare you guilty of two counts of high treason, attempted regicide, causing the senseless deaths of thirty-two citizens of our homeland and inflicting grievous injuries to fifty-three. The penalty for your crimes is death, and will be delivered at once.”
From his spot on the floor of my throne room, February stared at me in paralyzed horror. He opened his mouth, perhaps intending to protest. The words died in his throat when Terry squeezed his shoulder so hard I heard his bones creak. For the first time in many years, I was reminded that Abby’s younger brother could truly be as terrifying as his name suggested.
Terry’s past issue with Abby had vanished, as evidenced by the fact that they were now standing side by side and displaying no sign of hostility toward one another. However, the price had been steep.
Terry’s own mate had been seriously wounded in the attack. The nisse had managed to get to her before she bled out, and it was then that we had learned the reason for her strange behavior. She had been with child. Unfortunately, that was no longer the case, and the loss of the new potential member of their family had hit both Terry and Abby hard.
February let out a choked gasp of pain, but said nothing, nor did he attempt to argue with me again. Nobody did. Everyone had known that there could be no other ending for my lieutenant, not after all the damage he had inflicted upon us. Had his crimes been agai
nst me alone, I might have attempted to be more merciful, if only because he had served the realm since before I had become queen. But the blood that now stained the snow of Tou Cheimóna cried out for revenge and would not allow me to make any different choice. I suspected that despite his display, even February had realized it, long before I’d uttered the words.
My dragons shot me a telling look, wordlessly asking for permission to handle February’s punishment. I appreciated the thought and the silent offer, but this was something I had to do myself.
I walked up to February, the sound of my footsteps echoing far too loudly in my silent throne room. Upon my cue, Terry and Abby forced February to stand.
The most complicated part of this whole process was not February’s sentence per se, but rather, the position it would place me in. Every monarch of the four realms had three lieutenants, one for each month of the year. That was the way it had always been, and I couldn’t change the rule established millennia before my birth just because it was inconvenient for me.
None of the lieutenants were irreplaceable. They were merely incarnations of the months, and the magic they commanded would survive their physical deaths. I was not all that thrilled with the concept of finding a replacement for February, but I didn’t have much choice.
Icicle claws that mimicked the physiology of my dragons manifested from my fingertips, the very same ones that now appeared when I had sex with them or lost my temper. February probably deserved to suffer more for his actions—my soulmates certainly believed that he did—but there had already been enough suffering, and I had more important things to worry about than coming up with ways to torture him.