by Meg Xuemei X
I unraveled my fingers from Elvey’s and sprinted toward the sounds, as if I could stop something bad from happening, or reverse time to stop it from ever happening.
My heart pounded in icy box, my blood roaring in my ears as I raced until I saw what was in front of me.
White lilies floated on the pond and a pink lotus rose elegantly from the water. The air smelled of sweet blossoms.
Tianna lay half-naked on her stomach on a cushioned spa table at the head of the pond.
To my utter mortification, Iokul was using some sort of magic to massage her, caressing her everywhere, and making her moan. Even though he wasn’t really touching her, the magical massage was intimate enough.
I hadn’t known he had that kind of magic, since he had never applied it to me. I had only experienced it when Elvey was intimate with me, but Iokul couldn’t have Elvey’s magic.
My heart turned to ice, and before it fractured. I averted my eyes from tightly engaged Tianna and Iokul and flicked my gaze to my two other former mates, hoping they would do something sensible and stop Iokul.
They glanced at their ice dragon brother with envy.
Blaze and Rai stood on either side of the Fae/demon bitch, flirting with her and laughing. They praised her unmatchable beauty and confessed their affection and loyalty to her. As I listened on, something died inside me.
They pleaded with her to confide her innermost secret to them.
“The day you earn it, boys, you’ll know everything I know,” Tianna said with amusement between her moans as Iokul’s intimate magic fondled her pleasure spots.
“Haven’t we shown enough affection and loyalty?” Blaze asked, pouting. He acted like a pussy, and he’d never been a pussy before.
“You know how much we adore you and worship you,” Rai said. “We’re all devoted to you, as we’ve never been devoted to any other.”
I half-closed my eyes as searing pain stabbed my guts. My insides twisted up. I controlled myself, willing the bile pushing its way up into my throat to settle back in my stomach. They’d all said the same thing to me a few days ago. And now I’d been completely replaced. They only had eyes for the viper, my fatal enemy.
How had this happened?
I couldn’t clearly see their facial expressions since they were covered by their masks. But their eyes showed fierce loyalty and adoration toward the evil queen.
I tasted acid and rusted metal in my throat. I was almost certain I was going to vomit blood. It took every ounce of my will to swallow it back.
“You’ll have everything I have when you bring me the dragon whore’s heart,” Tianna said.
“We would if we could,” Rai said bitterly. “But the rules of the Challenge forbid it.”
“Find a loophole!”
“Of course, lovely queen,” they murmured in unison.
They were seeking my demise. There was no deeper betrayal than that.
Elvey stepped up to me, his hand sliding around my waist to support my weight as my knees buckled.
A new wave of magic tossed out from Iokul, stroking Tianna and making her moan deeply with maddening pleasure. Then the intimate magic held back to tease her.
“More, please!” Tianna begged. “I need more, Iokul, my beautiful dragon prince.”
A rasped breath escaped my scorched throat, and hatred arose in me, riding every ounce of my being. I’d thought no matter what Blaze, Iokul, and Rai had done, I’d always be able to forgive them and love them.
I’d firmly believed that my love for them would never die. I was wrong. It took only an instant for love to turn to hate, and often the line between the two kinds of emotions was surprisingly thin and exceptionally easy to cross.
Tianna and my ex-consorts snapped their heads toward me. A sadistic, awful smile spread across Tianna’s face. She’d seen my expression. She’d seen part of my soul withering. She’d also seen the pure hatred I had for them all.
The dragon princes stared at me, shock flitting over their masked faces. For a second, I believed that they appeared ashamed and wrecked, but I must have imagined it. Their faces were stony the next second. There wasn’t even the slightest hint of warmth, tenderness, or remorse in their eyes. There was nothing there but callousness.
I would not suffer them. I would not suffer this. I broke free of Elvey with a burst of strength. I didn’t care about the rules of the Challenge anymore. I didn’t care that Tianna couldn’t die by my design. I wanted to take her death. I wanted to bleed her. If I had to be damned now rather than later, so be it.
All I could see was red.
The bitch needed to pay for every blood debt she owed.
I charged, faster than an arrow, wicked twin-daggers in my hands, and I plunged my blades toward the bitch’s fucking golden head.
A flash of white dashed by, then a blade, no, two swords, blocked my daggers.
I’d forgotten how fast the dragon princes could move. They were as fast as Elvey.
Rai and Blaze blocked me, and Elvey locked his blade with Iokul’s.
“You’ll not harm Her Majesty Queen Tianna, impure hybrid,” Rai spat. “We’re her shields now. We’re her second skin. If it weren’t for the rules of the Challenge, we’d end your pathetic life, right here, right now.”
He might as well have just driven his blade straight into my heart.
Tianna turned on her spa table, not even bothering to sit up. She lay sideways, maintaining her sexy, seductive, and revealing posture, as she watched us.
The bitch had the audacity to giggle.
Blaze pushed his sword forward against mine, the impact sending me staggering back.
“Get the fuck out of here, Danaenyth,” Blaze said, disgust dripping from his voice that had once sounded like a lover’s rich honey in my ear.
A dagger in heart, I tried my last attempt to kick some sense or conscience into them, my voice trembling. “How could you do this to me?” My words sounded broken and distorted. “Where’s your vow to me now?”
“How could we do this to you?” Blaze sneered. “Ask your fucking self, Danaenyth. You broke your vow first. While you were fucking us, all you wanted was the demigod’s big cock.”
As if he knew how big Elvey’s cock was!
“How dare you insult me?” I screeched, a wave of red rage spurring me on.
“Now you know how we felt when you pined for Elvey,” Blaze continued. “We want you to feel the same pain and humiliation.”
Elvey and Iokul kept crossing blades near the pond.
“So, this is your version of revenge?” I asked, icy rage dripping off every word.
“No, we found someone better,” Rai said. “We mistook you as the one true mate for us, but you aren’t her. You’ll never be able to give us what we’ve wanted for centuries—to get rid of the damned mask on our faces, but Queen Tianna can. She offered us an opening, because she’s the real deal. She’s more of a woman than you can ever be. Give it up already, Danaenyth.”
I’d thought I couldn’t bleed any deeper, that the pain they’d inflicted on me couldn’t get worse, but a thousand needles punctured my heart, and blood oozed in rivers from the wounds.
Tianna giggled like a little girl with her high-pitched, gleeful voice.
“You don’t know who the fuck you’ve associated yourselves with,” I said vehemently and venomously. “You don’t know to who you’ve given your loyalty and souls. You have no idea who she really is. No greater evil than this bitch has ever existed.”
I’d planned to tell them the truth about Tianna and what I’d seen in her temple, but Elvey had talked me out of it. I couldn’t reveal the truth to the princes while the Challenge was under way. There was no way around it. I had to keep the princes in the dark. And Elvey had made me promise not to violate the rules and fail him and the rest of our people.
“Daisy!” Elvey warned, his sword meeting Iokul’s again with a sharp clang, and then he kicked the ice dragon prince into the pond.
Water and dirt sp
lashed all over us.
Rai and Blaze cursed Elvey and wiped at their masks, their icy, intense gazes still on me.
A cold smile coated Rai’s eyes. “You fucked him,” he said. “Was he worth it?”
“Bastards,” I said, swaying back.
If I stayed in their presence a second longer, I’d throw all the lethal magic I had and incinerate them.
Elvey was at my side in an instant. He grabbed my hand. “Let’s get out of here. This place fucking stinks.” He pulled me away with him and I leaned my weight on him, allowing him to drag me out of the Lotus Lounge.
He was my first mate and my last.
I’d lost my three other mates in the game of fate.
I had no idea how I’d gotten to our suite in the Red Palace. My mind was a blur after my confrontation with the dragon princes.
I must have looked like the dead. Rosalinda and Zembyr hadn’t asked anything but silently stood guard outside our chamber as if they felt my pain.
I curled into a ball on the bed, my mind unable to wrap around what had really gone down.
But I’d underestimated Tianna.
My immortal enemy was way more devious, powerful, and evil.
She couldn’t put me down, so she stole my princes away. A master at seduction, she used every trick she had cultivated for ages to seduce them, and they failed to see the rotten core of her glamoured beauty. She deceived them by offering what they wanted the most—being completely free of their curse and making them believe she was their one true mate.
No matter how I tried to win back my ex-consorts, she always had an effortless, counter move. And worse, even though my exes might see how evil she was, they still chose to stand by her.
Elvey pulled my back to his hard chest, holding me as I silently wept, his fingers circling my stomach in comfort. With him, I could be all raw emotion and vulnerability.
“Don’t lose hope, beloved,” he said quietly against my ear. “You’re still here aren’t you?”
I jerked to full awareness. Something chimed in me.
Elvey was right. Why was I still here instead of being reduced to Furies if my exes had betrayed me?
I probed inside me. My mating bond to the three dragon princes—though faint—still pulsed there.
Which meant, they didn’t truly belong to the evil queen, despite what had appeared to be and what I’d believed.
How could it be? I didn’t understand. I’d seen with my own eyes how much they adored Tianna and how they worshiped her. They’d raised their swords against me to defend her!
I didn’t understand anything anymore, my mind a muddy mess. I turned in Elvey’s arms to face him and touch his face. Without him, I’d be utterly lost.
My hand traveled from his beautiful nose to his square jaw, along his neck to his chest. He let me explore him slowly and sensually.
My need turned urgent, and fire burned in his star-blue eyes. He rolled me over, pressed me flat on the satin sheet, his mouth finding mine hungrily.
Our passion accelerated, lust a frenzied heat that pulled us together.
He lifted his hips and drove down between my thighs. When his massive hard cock buried deep inside me, my heart didn’t ache much anymore.
He moved inside me, faster and harder, the sensation all-consuming.
His cock plunged into my wet pussy with abandon.
Pleasure rippled through me as I wrapped my legs around his gorgeous-as-sin ass, spurring him on to fuck me harder, to fuck me until I forgot the pain of the day.
Elvey was mending my heart as he fucked me, but I couldn’t stop the tears leaking from the corners of my eyes, and I couldn’t stop the shattered pieces of my heart that wouldn’t quite fit in place.
Deep down I knew I’d never be the same. I would never feel complete without all my mates by my side.
18
At some point, I drifted to sleep in Elvey’s solid, warm arms.
Suddenly, a blast of icy wind hit my face. I found myself standing by the window, looking into the shadows of the deep menacing night. We were surrounded by evil and our enemies. I needed to guard my brothers.
Guard my brothers? I blinked. I had no brothers. I was an only child.
Where was I? Why wasn’t Elvey by my side? I wasn’t in bed.
Was I dreaming?
My need for her is insufferable. My heart aches for her so much—
That wasn’t my thought.
Who’s her? Why did I ache for—?
“Princeling,” Tianna’s voice purred from the doorway.
I wheeled around, my gazing falling on Rai and Blaze sprawling on the cushions. They barely slept. Tonight, I forced them to rest. I was my brothers’ keeper.
I blinked into the reality. Gods, I was in Iokul’s head!
Somehow our bond had opened and I had traced it all the way here. Now I was seeing everything through his eyes.
It was the first time I’d unconsciously slipped into the mind of one of my mates’ mind. Maybe my soul still longed for them deeply, even though they’d broken my heart and my trust.
My bonding magic could grant me access to those who were bonded to me. While I was on Pandemonium, I could easily slip into Sybil’s mind and spy on the aliens in the City of Nine. But I hadn’t thought I could also get into the heads of my mates through our bond.
I’d thought the bond had been severed, but it was still intact.
“Your Majesty,” Iokul said, turning to face Tianna. “The night is deep. You should be resting. I’m here to guard you. No harm will come to you.”
Oh, how considerate! How fucking sweet! But I couldn’t sneer in his mind. I could only watch and sizzle in anger and in silence.
“Instead of guarding me, you can share my bed,” Tianna said.
The fucking bitch was wearing nothing. Her big tits were taut with lust and her lady bits were dripping with arousal.
How disgusting! I clenched my fists, yet I wasn’t able to punch her to death.
Iokul gave her nudity an appreciative look. But I didn’t feel heat from him. The heat that he’d had for me had always burned through his ice.
“All three of you can share my bed,” Tianna added, swaying her hips.
Oh gods, I was going to puke.
Don’t do it, I begged in Iokul’s mind. Please, Iokul. You’re the last defense. You’re always a glacier of ice and steel. You’re the reason and logic. You don’t like touching anyone except me. Don’t touch the viper. Not for my sake, but for yours and your brothers’. She’ll consume you.
But Iokul couldn’t hear me. Or could he? I was in his head only. I was but an observer who couldn’t interfere.
“You won’t regret it,” Tianna said. “I’ll give you pleasure beyond this world, beyond your wildest fantasy, and the three of you will sate me like no other ever has or could.”
Iokul’s eyes flicked to his brothers’ sleeping forms. Rai and Blaze seemed to tense for a heartbeat, but they remained still.
Tianna moved to Iokul, rubbing herself against his armored body. A wave of nausea twisted my insides and moved up my throat. Iokul stepped back, sucking in a breath, which made me wonder if he was aroused or repulsed.
“We want this more than anything. You’re a sex goddess,” he said.
Oh really? Now I wanted to punch his teeth out, just so he would shut up.
“But we can’t share your bed, Tianna,” he continued. “Not yet. And you know that.”
Confusion and displeasure at being rejected danced in Tianna’s dark, horny eyes. “I know what?” she demanded.
“I thought you knew,” Iokul sighed as if pained. “We can’t fuck you because Danaenyth still grabs the other end of our mating bond and refuses to release us. It’s the same as how you once held captive the demigod. The bond won’t allow us to truly touch you until we break it. Danaenyth is nasty, possessive, and violent. But you know that already.”
“That little bitch! I’ll strangle her,” Tianna hissed.
“I w
ant to do that more than you, believe me,” said Iokul. “My brothers and I want to be free of her more than anything. None of us can share your bed while we’re chained to her. Only you can help free us, Tianna. Just as you promised you’ll break our last piece of curse and remove this damn mask.”
“Cut off her head, and you’ll get rid of your mask.”
“The thing is, Tianna, we still won’t be able to fuck you. You don’t understand this mating bond. Even Danaenyth’s death won’t break it since our bond was forged in a blood ritual.”
But our mating bond hadn’t been forged that way. It had snapped alive when the three of them claimed me. There had never been a blood ritual, unlike what Elvey and I had gone through.
“Unless—” Iokul pondered.
“Unless what?” Tianna asked, her red lips parting in thick desire.
“Unless we can find the one woman who can truly replace her.”
“But you have the woman right in front of you,” Tianna said, her cat-like eyes growing predatory.
Iokul traced his bottom lip with his thumb, a trail of icy air streaming out of his mouth. I could tell that Tianna was most enthralled with the ice dragon among the three of them.
Her eyes glued to his sensual lips.
“You don’t trust us,” Iokul said. “That’s why our intimacy with you isn’t progressing as we desire. Until you trust us with your deepest secret, we’re going nowhere. Only your ultimate trust will break our mating bond to Daisy Danaenyth. We want to sever it more than anything, but the hybrid bitch is more relentless than we expected. She wants every man devoted to her, even though she’s fucking Elvey. She won’t let us go. Only you can defeat her and free us once and for all, so we can fuck you hoarse and sore. Give us your secret, and you won’t regret the carnal pleasure unlike anything the three of us will bring to you.”
I blinked in confusion. The mating bond was almost like a mythical thing. But I didn’t think our mating bond could prevent the dragon princes from cheating on me if they really wanted to. Iokul seemed to have it backwards. He could break the bond permanently by truly choosing another female.
Why was he twisting the truth?