by Alisa Woods
Leksander’s growl for the man’s retreating back was contained deep in his chest, but Lucian still heard it. His brother finally turned to him. “Yes, the active hunt for shifters has seemingly ceased, at least in Seattle. But the anger and the loathing run deep in humans. It may be tempered, but I doubt it has disappeared.”
Lucian cocked his head as Erelah approached. Leksander quickly turned to face her. He was so reactive around her, so obvious. Why couldn’t she see that and put his brother out of his misery? At least grant him an acknowledgment of his obvious desire for her, even if she chose to keep chaste. Or at least, chaste from him.
Lucian managed to keep his sigh inside. “Did you sense anything about the demon’s origins before you smote him with your heavenly sword?” he asked her, barely restraining his sarcasm.
“Oh, Lucian,” she said, her smile still bright from her twin ecstasies. “You should know I couldn’t keep from helping that poor man! His demon side was nothing but a torment. Endlessly. You should have seen the stories I glimpsed in his mind as he claimed his fully human self. So many terrible things he couldn’t help from doing, driven by that odious daemonus.”
“Yes, I’m sure he would have been a prince otherwise.” Lucian loved humanity, but not with the blind intensity of an angel. And he was certain that the female half was far superior to the males, in any event.
She scowled at him, but lightly. Then she laid a delicate-fingered hand on Leksander, and his brother’s reaction would have been clear to anyone with eyes to see. “Tell your brother, Leksander. Humans are but angels in disguise.”
“Some of them.” Leksander gave him a pained look.
Lucian held in his laugh. “All right, slayer,” he said to her. “But let’s have an understanding, shall we? If you find one that’s demon-infected, can you stay your blade for a moment or three? It’s important to stop this resurgence or whatever it is. I suspect it is more than a fomenting of odious spirits.”
Some of the gleeful haze in Erelah’s eyes faded. “You suspect the fae are involved. Leksander told me. I regret I didn’t have time to sense the demon’s origins to help further that cause.” The angels’ natural enemy—the fae, conjurers and keepers of the demonic forces, at least in the Winter Court—tended to bring out the warrior side of any angel.
“We’ll find it in time. If you can work with me and restrain yourself, that is.” Lucian was being as polite as he could manage while still being direct. Nuance tended to be lost on angelings, just like the angels that spawned them.
But she seemed to understand. At least, she nodded. It was difficult to parse what a slayer knew, what they sensed, and what they didn’t. “You are spelling Leksander’s patrol, are you not? I wish to stay. I’ll hunt with you now.”
Lucian winced as his brother struggled to keep the hurt off his face. Lucian really needed to have a talk with him—and soon—about the futility of this crush. He’d gone longer than Lucian in not partaking in human female company. It was time. Perhaps Leonidas could help find someone to capture Leksander’s attention, if even just for a short while.
Lucian sighed. “Why don’t we split up?” He threw a meaningful glance at his brother, whose eyes had sharpened. “You and Leksander take the southern half of the city; I’ll take the northern part. I won’t slay anything without you, as long as you promise the same in return.”
“Deal!” she exclaimed, the smile wide on her face. She was truly, breathtakingly beautiful, just as all children of angels were. It wasn’t much of a mystery why his brother was smitten. It was just terribly unfortunate.
Erelah’s wings unfurled, and she lifted from the ground in a gliding way that spoke of her power, not her wings’ ability to beat the air into submission.
Lucian watched her go, seeking out more demons to ecstatically slay. She must be as drunk on that as he was leaving Arabella at his lair. Then he dropped his gaze to his brother, whose look of longing was almost painful to see. “Chasing angelfire will only get you burned, my brother.”
He lingered on her quickly rising form until it cloaked. “You’re right.” Then he brought his gaze back down to earth and smirked. “But it will be glorious while it lasts.”
Lucian shook his head, stepping back as Leksander shifted into his silver dragon and went after her, cloaking a half heartbeat later. And in truth, he could hardly blame his brother—Lucian had his own tempting angel back in his lair.
And loving Arabella just might burn him to ash as well.
Thank God, she was on the pill.
She’d been on birth control ever since that night with her ex, regardless of the status of her relationships. Not that there were any. But she didn’t want to accidentally end up carrying the spawn of some asshole, and rape happened way too damn often in the world. This thing with Lucian was anything but that… but it had come on so suddenly… and Arabella never had a man come inside her so much in a single day.
Twenty-four hours of sex and sleep and sex and more sex. After the fourth or fifth round—she’d rapidly lost count—Lucian had explained that dragon libido was enhanced like every other ability. Holy shit, he wasn’t kidding about that. And the things he did to her… she was still buzzing from all those orgasms hours after he’d flown off to patrol Seattle, leaving her alone in his lair. Somewhere in the middle, he’d also explained she didn’t need to worry about pregnancy or disease—that pregnancy could only occur after sealing, and shifters didn’t have diseases, not ones that were communicable to humans, anyway. It was part of the whole immortality thing. Of course, he could totally be lying. But she was inclined to believe him—if it were that easy to get pregnant, he wouldn’t be searching so hard for a mate.
A mate. Was that where this was headed? She was so dazed by their time in bed, by the sweet caring of a man who felt the pain of her trauma then helped her get past it—not just once, but again and again and again—it was like he was making up for all her lost time. And all that sexual energy bottled up inside her came spilling out… right along with her heart.
It was possibly the most intimate and kind gift she’d ever received, and dammit, she could feel it—she was falling in love with him. Because Jesus Lord, he was hot and kind and an incredible lover. What was not to love? Except for that whole dragon thing. And the fact that she’d just met him. And, hello, that he had basically kidnapped her and was still holding her prisoner. Maybe. She wasn’t really sure about that part anymore, given she had free run of the House of Smoke in his absence. Presumably, she could bop down to the garage, snag a car, and leave.
Only that was the last thing she wanted to do.
Her head could argue all day about how falling in love with Lucian Smoke was the height of irresponsibly crazy foolishness… but her heart was already long, long gone. And her lady parts were in some kind of nirvana they didn’t even know existed. Like literally. She had no idea her body could feel this sated.
Not that she wasn’t sore. She hurt in parts of her body she didn’t know she owned—like she’d been possessed by someone who tried to win an IronMan Extreme Decathlon where all the events were staged in Lucian’s circular bed. Her legs and arms and everything were one big limping soreness… all except the parts between her legs. Or anywhere else Lucian’s magical-healing wet kisses could reach. He said all his bodily fluids had restorative powers—like he literally leaked immortality—and she believed it. Her lady parts were already raring to go again, even as her back was considering traction. But the buzz of uncountable orgasms won the day with a resounding worth it! finishing any and all arguments.
She couldn’t wait for Lucian to return.
Oh, God, she had it bad for him.
What she really needed was to clear her head and sort this out, which was how she found herself wandering the hallways of the House of Smoke. The keep was like a small city on top of the mountain. Lucian had given her a cell phone with his number programmed in, plus a built-in GPS so she could find her way back to his lair, and then said she would b
e safe anywhere she chose to explore. He’d given some kind of command to everyone in the keep to watch out for her… although no one had shown their face so far.
The keep had common areas, like an amazing swim room that was a sparkling lake built into the side of the mountain, complete with waterfall. And a domed observatory that grew out of the top and gave a 360-degree view of the gorgeous mountain scenery at dusk. The keep itself was sprawling and huge, a series of gorgeous, luxury apartments all connected by a common walkway. She was slowly mapping out the maze with the GPS app on her phone and her leisurely wandering.
She didn’t know how many dragons were in the keep, but they seemed to be staying in their lairs. Or perhaps they had left the keep entirely. What did dragons do all day beside lounge in their opulent apartments? Lucian had given her the coordinates and phone number for Leonidas in case she needed something. What she could possibly need that wasn’t provided in Lucian’s well-stocked lair or the entertainment of the miniature surround-sound theater or any number of other pastimes within the glass castle in the sky, she couldn’t imagine.
Except she did—she needed someone to talk to about all this.
Rachel wouldn’t be much help—she knew as much about dragons as she knew about men—but Leonidas was Lucian’s brother. A prince and a dragon as well. Maybe he could help her understand what all this was really about. Because she was falling in love with a dragon prince who was looking for a mate, and the idea of that just turned her head inside out.
When she arrived at the coordinates for Leonidas’s apartment, the entrance was unmarked, except for the extravagant, carved brass dragon in bold relief that draped down the edges. She knocked but nothing happened, and there wasn’t a doorbell. Lucian’s apartment was enormous—maybe Leonidas just couldn’t hear her? She was about to dial his number, when suddenly, and without a whisper of sound, the door slid open.
Leonidas stood in pajama pants, bare-chested with bare feet and tousled hair that looked like he’d just gotten out of bed. His brilliant blue eyes glittered with a metallic shine, and a smile slowly crept on his face.
“Arabella,” he said, and it was like he was tasting her name. Or, more likely, her. Which gave her a shiver she tried to cover up.
“I hope I didn’t interrupt—” But she stopped when a drop-dead gorgeous girl appeared behind Leonidas, peeking and biting her lip. Her long, black hair was likewise mussed, and it was obvious that Arabella had interrupted something. “Oh. I’ll, um… I’ll come back later.” She was already backing away from the door.
Leonidas scowled, then glanced back and tilted his head.
The girl slipped out of sight.
He whipped his attention back to her. “If you leave,” he said, a faux look of distress on his face, “my brother will have my hide for a lampshade.” He stepped back and swept his hand toward the interior. “Please come in.”
Arabella hesitated, but the girl had vanished completely, probably hiding out in Leonidas’s bedroom. Arabella had already interrupted them—she would just make this quick and then get out fast. She shuffled inside, heat crawling across her cheeks as Leonidas ran his gaze over her, checking her out. The short entryway opened into an expansive great room, not unlike the two-story affair in Lucian’s lair, only this one was even warmer in color, with rich bronze trim and copper vases interspersed with white furniture and thick white carpet. It was spotless and neat.
Arabella saw the back of the girl disappear into a room down the hall to the side. The door closed. She stopped and turned to face Leonidas, who was following her with curious eyes.
“What can I help you with?” he asked. The front door slid silently closed behind him.
She folded her arms tight over her chest, wishing she had just left. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to keep you from your… human.” Lucian had told her that some dragons “kept” humans, and now that Arabella had experienced dragon libido for herself, she understood why Leonidas’s “kept woman” wore a smile on her face. She was far from a prisoner. Some people would consider this a kind of heaven.
It just wasn’t for her.
Leonidas lifted one eyebrow and stood face to face with her. “My bedmate probably needs a rest, anyway.”
Arabella felt the heat flood her cheeks. She dropped her gaze to his bare feet, then darted it away to the furnishings of his house. God, she was a grown adult. She really should be able to look a man in the face while he talked about sex. She forced herself to meet his gaze.
A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
“Look.” Arabella unlocked her arms and lightly tapped her fist against her open palm. It helped a little. “I’m sure having a kept human works for most dragons. And I’m sure she’s enjoying it. It’s just not for me.”
Leonidas frowned a little but mostly seemed entranced by her words. He flicked a look at the closed door, then back to her. “I see.”
The heat was back in her face. Had she just insulted him? “Lucian just said that…” She gestured helplessly at the door. She was only digging herself in deeper. “Whatever. It doesn’t matter. I shouldn’t presume. Is she your mate?”
A breathtaking grin broke out over his face. “No.” He seemed to be holding back a laugh. “But then I’m not exactly looking for one, either.”
“Oh.” She grimaced. “So, that’s not something all dragons want?” Didn’t Lucian say it was? Now she couldn’t remember through the haze of all the sex.
“Oh, they do. Most of them, anyway. The ones with any sense.” His eyes narrowed, studying her. “Lucian is definitely in need of one.”
“In need of?” She returned his frown. “You mean because he’ll die soon if he doesn’t find a mate.” He definitely said that—that his days were numbered unless he found a mate and spawned a dragonling.
Leonidas tilted his head. She guessed that was agreement.
But something didn’t add up. “You’re triplets, right? I mean, if Lucian’s biological clock is running out, doesn’t that mean yours is, too?” She flicked a look to the bedroom, but the door remained closed. These dragons may be five hundred years old, but they had the stamina of a twenty-year-old mixed with the skills of a very experienced man. She could see them living that for all it was worth, right up until the end. Whatever the end was for a dragon who lived for hundreds of years but still looked hotter than sin.
“It’s different for Lucian.” Leonidas’s face was pinched, examining her. “He’s the crown prince.”
“So he has to carry on the line?” she guessed. It made sense, but that seemed kind of less important than, you know, not dying. Plus, didn’t they have contingencies for this sort of thing? She wasn’t an expert on human royal houses, much less dragon ones, but it seemed a little fraught with problems to rely on one guy to provide the sole heirs to the dynasty. Especially when there were two other brothers.
“So to speak.” Leonidas pulled in a breath, and his face opened. Less suspicious, or maybe just relaxing. “Lucian needs a mate to fulfill his duties, and for our own particular reasons, neither Leksander nor I will be taking mates. But I doubt you’re here to find out why I’m bedding my females instead of mating with them.”
She flushed again. The way they put things sometimes made her shiver—direct and yet phrased in a way that made her wish to be in Lucian’s bed again, having him lavish her with that sexy language as well as earth-shaking orgasms.
“I’m here because I think I might be falling in love with your brother.” She pursed her lips after saying it, watching Leonidas’s face open even further in surprise.
Then his surprise collapsed into a pinched look. “But you’re unsure.”
Arabella lifted her hands. “I’ve only known him for a few days!”
“That’s something easily fixed.” He was examining her again with that calculated look.
“And I don’t know anything about being the mate of a dragon.” For some reason, her complaints were sounding less reasonable when she said them aloud
. But it was true—what did she know about these strange, sexy men-beasts?
He gave her a small smile. “And I’m not the one to tell you. These are things you should be discussing with Lucian, not me.”
Arabella flushed again. He was right. If there were to be anything between her and Lucian, she would have to trust him to give her straight answers to her questions. And just spend time with the man. Get to know him. None of that was accomplished by sneaking off to talk to his brother. What did she expect? That Leonidas would spill Lucian’s secrets for her?
She pulled in a breath. “You’re right.”
He smiled wide again, then gestured to the front door. “When he returns from Seattle, I’m sure he’ll answer any questions you have.”
She frowned at the way he was hustling her out, but she had interrupted what was likely some very hot sex. He probably wanted to get back to it. “Well, thanks for listening, anyway.” She hurried toward the door.
He activated it by waving a hand. She had to open the doors manually, but Leonidas and Lucian seemed to have some magic they used instead. Even that small thing nagged at her—there was so much she didn’t know.
Leonidas leaned on the edge of the doorway as she stepped outside and turned back to say goodbye. The humor was back in his face. “Stop by anytime, Arabella. And if things don’t work out with you and Lucian, you know where to find me.” He gave her a crooked grin before sliding the door shut in her face.
What the fuck? Did Leonidas just offer to have sex with her? After she told him she might love Lucian? Her mouth hung open as she stood in front of the door, gaping at it with disbelief. But heat was rushing to her face again, so she forced herself to turn and march away.
What was she thinking? These men were hundreds of years old, they had amazing magical powers, and they were dragon royalty on top of everything. What made her think she could understand anything about them after having spent a few days and one twenty-four-hour sex marathon with Lucian? And yet… she couldn’t help feeling something for the sexy man who was also a golden dragon. Something more than just lust, although there was plenty of that.