by Sammie Joyce
“You know, I was thinking about that.” Wendy put her plate aside. “There may be an easier way. What if Jade and I went back? We could say we went on a spontaneous weekend away or something. All we’d need to do is catch Maria and cure her. Once that’s done, she’ll see to the rest of the coven. It may take some time, but she’d get them all eventually.”
“That would be risky, though, trying to catch and cure her on your own. If you’re caught, it won’t go well for you. Maybe I should come too. I can at least use the necklace’s power to help.”
“No offence, Rose, but I think any of you coming will just make matters worse. If any of your faces are spotted, the coven will be put on instant lockdown. If Jade and I go, we’ll be able to slip Maria a sleeping potion. There are enough power aids in the coven for us to work the ritual fine on our own. We’ll have her cured in the forest before you’d even be able to sneak in.”
It was a good argument, Rose had to admit. She glanced at Asher, who was nodding slowly. “We’ll need to set up an emergency signal. If you run into trouble, you can send for us, and we’ll be there to rescue you as fast as the wind can carry us.”
“It does seem the least risky option,” Mace admitted. Annabelle nodded reluctantly. Rose knew that they all felt the same as her—they would rather not send their friends off alone on a risky mission. But they had to be logical about this.
“Are we all agreed, then?” Jade looked rather excited at the prospect of a solo mission. Rose just hoped that excitement didn’t blow up in her face.
“Agreed. As long as we set up the emergency signal.” If her friends got into trouble, Rose didn’t intend on spending hours flying there—she’d teleport herself and her dragons in.
“It’ll be fine, Rose. We wouldn’t do this unless we were sure we could.” Jade spoke with such confidence that Rose found herself believing her.
As soon as Dane woke up and checked them over, Wendy and Jade left. Mace flew them to a safe distance from the coven, from where they took a taxi.
Jagger woke up last, just as Mace returned, to much cheering and groaning from people who had won and lost bets.
Rose grabbed Mace’s shirt, pulling him close. “I believe you have lost a bet. Something about oral sex?”
“Well, I never was one to go back on my word. Though ten is a hefty number. Perhaps I could enlist some assistance?” Mace glanced at Asher, Jagger, and Gavin.
“Gladly.” Jagger came up behind Rose and started kissing her neck.
“We’ll see you guys later.” Annabelle grabbed Dane’s hand and quickly pulled him from the room, shutting the door just as Asher managed to get Rose’s shirt off.
She held onto Jagger’s shoulders for support as her four dragons undressed her, licking and kissing every inch of free skin. “You know the rules. If my clothes are off, so are yours. And the first one to get undressed is the first to have their dick—”
She didn’t need to finish. Her dragons were lost in a flurry of movement as they raced to get their clothes off. Jagger was first. He caught her mouth in a heated kiss, walking her back to the bed, pushing her down so that she was sitting on the edge.
“I’ll claim my prize now. Only fair, seeing as I won your bet for you.”
Jagger knelt down smoothly and started licking her clit. Rose moaned under his tongue. Her legs dangled off the end of the bed, and she let her torso fall back onto the mattress. Jagger teased her clit expertly with his tongue, bringing her to the tingling edge of release.
Mace and Gavin came around the other side of the bed, and started doing to Rose’s breasts what Jagger was doing to her clit. She quickly became breathless under the triple assault. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Asher pumping his cock, slowly at first but then with increasing urgency as Rose writhed under the attention.
“Don’t come,” she warned him. “You’re next.”
“You torture me,” Asher groaned, his hand tightening on his cock. The sight had Rose panting all the harder.
Jagger grabbed her hips and pulled her a few inches forward. Rose could feel the tip of his cock pressing against her wet pussy. Her clit was throbbing angrily, protesting the removal of his mouth, but Jagger didn’t give her long to dwell on it.
He thrust into her, pushing her whole body back with the force of his hips. Asher moved forward to brace Rose’s shoulders down, holding her in place. He took the opportunity to kiss her, stealing her gasps as Jagger quickly got into a rhythm.
Rose had to break away from the kiss to gasp in air. Her short, choppy cries of ecstasy filled the room on Jagger’s every thrust. Gavin changed positions, pushing Jagger a little more upright so that he had space to lick Rose’s clit.
That was enough to throw her over the edge. Rose screamed as she came, her back arching off the mattress. Jagger and Gavin didn’t stop until she was limp and drowsy with release. She realized that Jagger had come too, though she’d missed the exact moment in the apex of her pleasure.
Rose lay there, breathing hard.
“That’s one.” Jagger looked extremely pleased with himself.
“It doesn’t count, brother. I assisted, remember?”
“It counts!” Jagger insisted. Rose chuckled as Gavin made a teasing response. She stopped that short by taking Gavin’s cock into her mouth.
Four months later
Asher wiped Rose’s sweaty hair out of her eyes before kissing her. “You did it.”
“We did it.” Rose looked down at the small bundle in her arms, her heart swelling with love.
“Have you decided what to call her?” Mace reached out to touch a tiny hand that was waving out of the blankets.
“Hope.” Rose glanced around to check that the doctors and nurses had left the room. “She’s the first half-dragon, half-witch baby to be born in over two decades. She represents a new hope for both of our species.”
Gavin took Rose’s free hand and kissed it. “Hope is perfect.”
“Perhaps we should reserve that hope until we figure out whether or not she has Gavin’s genes.”
“Of course she has my genes, you idiot! We’re brothers—which one of us fathered her won’t make a difference to that because we share the same genes.”
Rose chuckled as Jagger made a teasing response.
“Shall I remove them?” Asher spoke loudly enough for Jagger and Gavin to hear, but that didn’t deter them.
“No.” Rose smiled as they continued to bicker. “Let them talk themselves out.”
Mace shoved Gavin out of the way to get a place next to Hope. “Have you thought about when you want to take her back to the coven?”
“Let’s give it a month or two. Maria should have gotten the last few by then.” Rose looked down at her daughter, wondering who she would grow up to be. As Rose’s heir, the Areva coven was Hope’s birthright. She would be coven leader someday… but that was a long way away.
Jagger and Gavin finally ran out of insults to throw at each other and crowded in around the bed. Though she was exhausted and would kill for a shower, Rose had never been happier than in this moment. She’d thought that when she found her mates, she’d reached peak joy, but Hope had shown her that there was always more love to be found.
Rose knew that her daughter would light the way for the future. Raising her should be an intimidating prospect, except with her dragons at her side, she couldn’t feel anything but excitement for the future.
4
Chapter One
“Are you sure about this?” Asher was tense and twitchy. Rose knew that if she said she had even the slightest doubt, he would shift back to his dragon form and whisk her away.
“I’m sure. It’s been six months. A solid month since Maria cleared the last of Hellith’s influence. We’re safe.”
“Come on, brother, Hope is two months old! She needs some fun in her life.”
Asher frowned at Jagger. “She has five people waiting on her hand and foot. What more could she want?”
Annabell
e cleared her throat. “I believe the number you’re looking for is seven.”
Everyone chuckled at that. Annabelle and Dane were basically a second set of parents to Hope.
“I mean she needs a little chaos. What better than living in a coven of witches and dragons?”
“You know, that’s probably not the best argument to convince him.” Gavin rolled his eyes, but Jagger ignored him.
“Mace?” Rose asked quietly. When she’d first known him, Mace had been shy and easily overlooked. He was still shy, but he had a strategic side to him that she had learned to pay attention to just as much as Asher’s leadership instincts.
“Wendy and Jade report that everything is fine. A few people are still nervous about Hope’s future—she is the first witch-dragon hybrid baby since Hellith, after all—but none of them show any hostility toward her. I believe this will be good for her. She will be loved here, and she’ll grow up knowing her family.”
Though they weren’t related by blood, the coven was a family of sorts. Rose was beyond excited to be back, though she did retain a little anxiety because of the way they’d left. That hadn’t been the coven’s fault, though. They had been bewitched by Hellith.
“Let’s do this.”
After taking a measure of the resolve on everyone’s faces, Asher nodded. They were hesitating in the forest outside the coven. Asher had wanted to approach from cover, so that they could retreat if needed.
Rose was holding Hope, while Gavin, Jagger, Dane, and Mace carried their suitcases. They’d left the coven with nothing, but since Hope had been born, they had bought a lot of baby stuff. Their own clothes and toiletries took up relatively little space.
Hope was sleeping peacefully for now. Asher had originally rigged up her current carrier so that Rose could fly safely with her. It held Hope securely to Rose’s chest with multiple straps. They’d tested it with a loaf of bread, and it was secure even when Asher did an upside-down loop in midair, though none of them were willing to do that with Hope in the carrier unless they were in a fight for their lives.
It turned out that Hope adored the snug carrier, and Rose had taken to wearing it even when they weren’t flying. It made Asher happy because it meant that they could make a quick escape if necessary without having to take the time to secure Hope. His protectiveness sometimes edged toward paranoia, but Rose didn’t really mind. She could hardly be angry with him for wanting to protect his daughter.
“How’s she doing?” Gavin moved the fabric of the holder slightly to check on Hope. “The flight didn’t make her sick, did it?”
“I’ve told you, she loves flying. It makes her sleep.”
“That’s when you’re flying with Asher,” Gavin muttered. “Put her on Jagger’s back and she’d be screaming for hours.”
Jagger shoved Gavin as they walked. Rose brushed off his negativity. It was just the way Gavin was, but she loved him anyway.
“What about you, brother? I bet you’d drop them.”
Jagger knew just how to bait Gavin, and he wasn’t disappointed. “I would NOT drop them!”
“You would,” Jagger teased. “I’d have to fly underneath you, ready to catch them.”
“When have I ever…”
Rose tuned out their bickering, trying not to smile. They never failed to raise her spirits, but admitting as much would just open her up to teasing from Jagger. That more often than not ended up in her kissing him to shut her up.
Then clothes started coming off, and his brothers got involved… all in all, it was a pretty pleasurable experience, but not something to be done in front of Annabelle and Dane, nor when they were supposed to be meeting the coven for the first time in months.
Rose didn’t think that it would make a good impression if Maria found her naked on the ground with her four mates fucking her senseless while Annabelle and Dane held Hope and looked away in embarrassment. Not that Maria hadn’t seen it all before, but still, she wanted to at least pretend to be dignified and responsible.
“Dignified and responsible my ass,” Mace muttered, aiming a kick at Jagger. Rose seldom forgot that her dragons could read her mind anymore. It was just part of how things were with them.
“If you’re worried about your ass, I could take a look.” Rose leaned close to him and spoke quietly, but it didn’t do much good. Annabelle was the only one who couldn’t hear them, what with dragon super-hearing.
“Perhaps it’s yours I’m worried about.” Mace swatted Rose’s ass, and she squeaked in feigned indignation.
“Not now.” Asher didn’t sound very resolute. Rose could hear his mind following along Mace’s train of thought. After all, they hadn’t said exactly what time they would be arriving. No one would be any the wiser if they stopped for an hour or so…
“No way.” Dane shoved Asher. “Not in the forest. Gross. We’ll be there in ten minutes, you can wait until then.”
“Too bad, Rose. Unless you want to help us out, Annabelle? Distract him a little?” Jagger winked at Annabelle.
She stuck out her tongue at him. “Dane is right, you can wait ten minutes.”
“Only if you agree to take Hope for an hour when we arrive. You know she’s going to start screaming the moment we step inside.” Jagger had a point. Their sex lives had definitely taken a hit since Hope had been born, though Annabelle and Dane had helped. It would certainly be good to have an entire coven available for babysitting.
“No,” Asher snapped. “She stays with us. It’s safer down in the basement.”
“I’m not sure about that, Asher.” Rose looked down at Hope’s beautiful little sleeping face. “I love our rooms down in the basement too, but there are no windows down there. Don’t you think she should be somewhere with more sunlight?”
That brought Asher up short. “I—uh, I don’t know. Do babies need sunlight?”
“Everyone needs sunlight, you idiot.” Only Jagger could call Asher and idiot and merit nothing more than a scowl.
“We’ll make fake windows.” Mace looked between Rose and Annabelle. “That’s possible right? You could attach illusion spells to the walls, and have magical sunlight come in at certain times of day.”
“That’s just what we need—our daughter growing up to be some kind of mutant that feeds off magical light.”
“Shut up, Gavin, she’s not going to be a mutant!” Rose’s voice was slightly higher than usual, and she clutched Hope closer to her chest. The truth was, none of them knew much about Hope’s future. They’d originally had to leave the coven because Maria and the others feared Hope would turn into a monster like Hellith.
“Of course she’s not.” Asher put an arm around Rose, giving Gavin a death glare that had him backing up a few paces.”
“I didn’t mean—sorry. You know she’ll be perfect, Rose.”
Rose forcefully banished her doubts. “She will be.”
Their group paused at a break in the trees. The coven’s mansion was in sight. Wendy, Jade, and Maria were waiting for them. Rose squared her shoulders and stepped up to the front, with Asher by her side.
Wendy and Jade rushed forward to hug them. They cooed over Hope, who they had only met twice before. Rose was glad to see her friends again, but her attention was on Maria.
“Welcome back.” Maria embraced them, peering down at Hope. “We’re all so excited to meet our newest coven member.”
“Are you?” Gavin kept the belligerence in his voice to a bare minimum, at least.
“We are,” Maria said firmly. “I won’t pretend that some people aren’t worried about her future, but we wish her nothing but the best. We’re all here to help you and Hope. We’ll make sure that she grows up to be everything we know she can.”
Rose saw nothing but sincerity in Maria’s face. “Thank you.”
“Everyone is dying to meet you, but I’ve told them they’ll have to wait until dinner. I’m sure you all want some time to settle in.”
“That would be welcome.” Asher’s tone was formal, but Rose c
ould see that his shoulders were a bit more relaxed than before.
“Before you meet with everyone, we should all have a talk. I’m sure they’ll have questions about coven leadership, and we need to figure out what to tell them.”
Rose gulped. She hadn’t expected this the moment she walked in.
Asher stepped in. “How about we all meet an hour before dinner? We can decide on things then.”
“Of course.”
The next few hours passed in a whirlwind of activity. They moved back into their basement rooms, and spent a while setting up Hope’s room and things. Maria helped them with fake windows, after assuring Gavin that the magical sunlight was perfectly natural and wouldn’t harm Hope.
Rose was exhausted, and just had time for a nap before Hope woke up and decided she wanted feeding.
Mace shook her gently awake. “Rose. It’s Hope. I think she’s hungry. Do you want me to pump?”
Her dragons were insistent on her getting enough sleep, so when Rose wasn’t on night duty, they used a breast pump to get milk for Hope. Rose barely woke up for it anymore.
“No, it’s okay.” She dragged herself upright. “I need to be up for the meeting anyway. Bring her here.”
Mace hurried out and came in with Hope a minute later. Jagger, Gavin, and Asher were also napping, so Rose brought Hope through to the living room to feed her.
She stopped crying quickly enough as she suckled. Rose handed her off to Mace when she was done so that she could take a shower before going to the meeting. Flying on a dragons’ back was awesome, but she always ended up dusty afterward.
By the time they were all ready, Hope had fallen asleep again. Rose tucked her into the chest carrier. She was already getting used to the familiar weight, and would be a little disappointed when Hope got too big to carry around this way.
Maria was waiting in one of the smaller offices, but she had arranged the chairs in a circle rather than staying behind her desk. Rose sat between Asher and Gavin, facing Maria.