by Ophelia Bell
Evie laughed softly and Marcus took the hint. He wrapped his other arm around her and went to move off the man beneath his back, but both Ked’s arms tightened around them.
“No, let me enjoy this for a moment. She’s still having little tremors with you inside her. It’s sending aftershocks of energy through you and into me. Can’t you feel it?”
“I feel too many things right now,” Marcus said. “My body’s nothing but aftershocks.”
But when he settled back and closed his eyes, he gave Evie a little thrust of his softening cock and she moaned and clenched around him.
Finally, she opened her eyes and gave him a look of mild regret before sliding off and falling to her side on the pillow beside him.
Marcus winced a little as he extracted himself from Ked and lay beside her.
She gazed up at him with her big brown eyes, her long hair was a rat’s nest and her cheeks were flushed, and she’d never looked more beautiful.
“I’m glad you’re not dead,” she said.
“Never again,” he replied.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Ked
Dragon Monastery, Sunda Islands
Present Day
The pair gravitated toward each other in the aftermath so effortlessly, Ked took the opportunity to step out and clean up. The bathroom of the bungalow was carved out of the mountain to access the hot springs that bubbled up from beneath. Unlike the separate bathhouses higher up the mountain, this space resembled a grotto with its dark, steamy alcoves lit with the comforting magical lights he was accustomed to. It was one of the few buildings at the monastery that actually had hot running water.
Standing under the shower, a slight tremor passed over him that made his knees shake. He braced himself against the stone wall and let it pass. The sensation was not unpleasant, but made him dizzy, and his inner ears pulsed so loudly he couldn’t even hear the beat of the water on his body. Was it some kind of feedback from Marcus? The man’s orgasm hadn’t felt the same as the energy Ked was used to from other partners. When Marcus and Evie had climaxed, Evie’s orgasm had inundated him in a refreshing, airy cloak that sank through his skin.
Marcus’s, on the other hand, had felt like a… A tangle with a dragon more powerful than you, Ked thought to himself. Another tremor passed through him and his dick hardened with a fresh flood of desire.
If this residue was any indication of how powerful the man had been as an Elite, it was good that Ked hadn’t met any of them at full power during his mission.
But now that power burned in him, left him lightheaded and short of breath, both sensations utterly alien to him.
“Sweet Mother, what is he doing to me?” He pressed his hands against the rough-hewn rock and bent his head under the hot stream of water, letting it beat on the back of his neck. His mind kept replaying the moment he penetrated Marcus and the intensity of pleasure and emotion that accompanied that surrender by the other man.
No other emotion had existed for Ked, which in itself was unusual. That was the effect he had on others. At first he’d thought it was simply Marcus’s impressions bleeding into his mind, but as he fucked deeper and deeper, it became painfully apparent that the elation highlighted like a shining beacon in his mind was his alone.
No one else had that power over him—the power to lay one feeling bare and raw like his chest had been sliced open and his beating heart lay there on display to the exclusion of every other feeling.
No one but Marcus. And of course, the Elite Hunter who had been created from Ked’s blood might have the same powers as he had himself. Once filled with the energy of Marcus’s Nirvana, Ked’s own frequency was enhanced to the point of distraction.
He wanted more—so much more—but feared what would happen if they exchanged power in that manner again. As the submissive party in the encounter, Marcus had accepted more of Ked’s power than he believed he was capable of giving. The magic didn’t simply flow through him in the normal fashion. A piece of his very soul had been given up to Marcus, too.
As he struggled to regain his bearings, soft, gentle hands began rubbing over his back, slick and fragrant with soap.
“You left us,” Evie said just loud enough to be heard over the sound of the water. “We missed you.” Her lips pressed against his back and her arms slipped around his waist, hugging him.
Ked sighed, but didn’t let himself relax. The disconcerting pulse of his body kept him on alert. He turned his head to look over his shoulder at her and caught sight of Marcus leaning in the opening of the carved-stone shower’s alcove.
Their gazes locked and Ked’s cock pulsed harder. He needed to fuck something soon, but feared another exchange with Marcus would destroy him.
Marcus’s green-eyed gaze swept over him as potently as a red dragon’s might. The same level of interest blazed in those depths, too, albeit tinged with a sweet shyness that endeared him utterly to Ked.
With a sideways smile, Marcus stood up straight and spread his arms out in the archway, gripping the rock on either side until his arms and shoulders flexed.
“You fixed me. And who knew that would be so fucking amazing? Did you know?”
Ked laughed, but was unprepared for how disarmed and nervous he now felt in the other man’s presence. Evie’s light touches were a pleasant anchor for him. Fated for each other, she was his because he was undeniably hers, but he hadn’t yet granted her the mark that would bind them.
Marcus, on the other hand, had the mark on his back to prove he belonged to Ked. Yet the dark aura spilling out of him like smoke said so much more as it filtered through the steam and coiled around Ked’s lower legs. His own aura reached for it greedily, just as dark and thick.
“Sweet Mother, I need you,” Ked said.
Marcus’s smile disappeared, growing grave and determined. “You don’t look so hot. But after a fuck that great? How can you not feel as invincible as I do?”
“Because I gave more than I intended. Your submission was so complete, I wasn’t prepared for how much you would take of me. My willingness to give everything you required left me with a deficit. But not of my usual—I have plenty of that. I gave up a piece of the essence that sustains my soul, because your body needed it.”
“I don’t understand,” Marcus said.
Evie’s pretty face slipped into view. “We’ll give you whatever you need,” she said. “Just say it.”
Ked cupped her cheek and kissed her, grateful for her contact and her willingness to please him. He still needed to mark her, too, and the overwhelming urge to do so captured every bit of his attention for a moment. But would the same thing happen with her? Or was Marcus’s nature the reason for that shift of magic?
First things first, I need to be inside someone, and it can’t be Marcus again until I figure out how this happened.
He hooked his arm around Evie’s waist and hauled her up in front of him. She let out a little yelp followed by a laugh as he pressed her against the wet stone beneath the streaming water. She hooked one leg around the back of his thigh.
“What I need is to fuck you,” Ked said, kneeling down and spreading her fragrant folds with his forked tongue. He slid his tongue into her, tasting every inch of her tight channel, savoring the salty-sweet taste of Marcus lingering deep inside her. The flavor galvanized Ked, making him surer than ever of what he needed.
He pulled back and stared up at her, licking his lips. “And while I fuck you, he needs to fuck me.”
“I need to what?” Marcus blurted. His eyes widened and he paled slightly.
Remaining on his knees, Ked did the one thing he never imagined he would do, in all the thousands of years he’d lived—he begged for the honor of submitting to another.
“Please. Fuck me. Fuck me so hard your soul meets mine when you find your Nirvana.”
“How do you even know it will work?” Marc
us asked. He’d regained his composure and stood with his arms crossed, eyeing Ked skeptically. His hardening cock betrayed his interest in the idea, however.
“Just look at our auras, Marcus. The way yours clings to me like iron shavings to a magnet. Your energy wants inside, your soul commands your aura’s behavior, but tell me you don’t feel that need already.”
Marcus’s eyes closed and he dropped his hands to his sides again. He let out a rough, shaky sigh.
“God, yes. I need more. I don’t think I’ll ever stop needing more. Just tell me how you want me.”
“Well, hard like that is a good start,” Ked said, enjoying the other man’s hesitance. “The blue jar on the shelf there will have the other thing you need.”
As if preparing for what was to come, Evie pulled away and rested on the smooth stone bench that was carved into one wall of the shower. She simply sat with bright eyes watching, mouth parted and chest rising and falling. Her potent arousal met Ked’s senses as thick and pungent as the fragrant soap she’d lathered his back with, and her aura glimmered around her, pulsing in time with the rapid beat of her heart.
Ked stood and moved to stand over her, then fell to his knees again, greedily burying his face between her thighs. He needed to bare himself to Marcus, but craved her essence as foreplay. Under his tongue, her delicious flesh fluttered and throbbed, her panting breaths growing to melodic cries that increased in volume until she spread her fingers through his wet hair and fell back onto the bench, her hips bucking into him and her song tingling in his ears.
“I’m going to mark you now,” he said. Just as she got the syllable of affirmation out, his tongue darted out and swiftly traced a mark about the size of his palm into the creamy flesh over her womb. The pattern matched the one he’d given Marcus, and glowed with dark violet light.
With a swift, fluid movement, he hooked his arms beneath her knees and wrapped his hands around her behind, lifting her and standing just enough to lay her back down while he rested a knee on the edge of the bench.
“Not yet,” Evie whispered, pressing a hand against his chest when he moved to mount her. He pulled back and looked down at her quizzically. “Take him first. I want to watch without the distraction of needing to come again.”
Marcus hovered close behind, his anticipation thick between them. Evie rose to a sitting position and clutched at both sides of his face, stroking gently as she urged his mouth onto hers. Sweet Mother, the woman was as much an antidote to his darkness as Marcus was a reflection of it. Acquiescing, he let her embrace him and bent low to rest his head on the tops of her thighs, spreading his legs so that there could be no mistake that he was ready.
“I submit to you,” he said in the old language and that aching void in his soul seemed to throb with need.
To his surprise, Marcus replied in the same language. “You are mine.”
Then, without any teasing or foreplay, not even a lick or a stroke, Marcus pressed his lubricated cock against Ked’s ready opening and slid deep in with one long, glorious stroke.
“Jesus Christ, I didn’t believe you could take it, but I could feel your need so deep I didn’t want to disappoint you.” Marcus dug his fingers into Ked’s ass cheeks and pushed a little harder, as if testing to determine whether he was all the way in.
Ked wrapped his arms around Evie’s waist and groaned with pleasure at the slight movement. His need must be as transparent to Marcus as Marcus’s own elation was to him.
“Bite me while you fuck me,” Ked growled over his shoulder.
“My pleasure.” Marcus twisted his hips in a slow circle as he pulled out, every increment of movement sending a continuous current of pleasure racing up Ked’s spine and then back down to settle in his cock and balls. The thrust back in forced a soft grunt out of his chest and his cock twitched hard against his belly. Blood rushed to his head and his temples pounded in contrast to the gentle stroking of Evie’s fingers.
Marcus bent over him, the wetness on his chest lending a slick warmth that mimicked the slippery feel of the cock buried inside him. Larger fingers threaded through Ked’s hair, tightened, and tugged, pushing Ked’s face down into Evie’s lap. He chuckled to himself at the way the motion almost mirrored what he had done to Marcus, and snaked his tongue out to tease between Evie’s thighs.
Hot breath gusted against his ear. “You want it here, right?” Marcus asked before nipping lightly at the back of Ked’s neck in that sensitive spot that a dragon only gave up to the one they considered their superior in every way—to the master they chose to serve.
“Yes,” he gasped against Evie’s fur-covered mound. His entire body screamed to have that part of him claimed by this man, to have his teeth sink into him and ignite that instinctive surrender. Marcus was more than just the host of Ked’s essence, more than a simple Blessed human who needed to be marked by a dragon. He was the piece of Ked’s soul that had been missing for much longer than the last hour since Ked had surrendered that magic up to the man. The void had existed for far longer.
And when Marcus’s teeth sank into that tender flesh, the truth of his state crashed over him like a tidal wave as sweet and hot as Evie’s juices flooding over his tongue. Her knees bent on either side of his face and her hands clung to his head, holding him against her core as he devoured her. Together, they claimed him, and between them he became whole again for the first time since the day he’d lost himself.
There was no denying when his life had shifted. It had been the day Ked executed her. Benedetta, the Elite Ultiori hunter who had first carried his essence. She had been so far under Nik’s power, there was no saving her, in spite of the love Ked had for her. She’d been the first Blessed he’d encountered and his need to mate her had been so strong he nearly lost himself.
Ked had carried the regret of that death for centuries, along with the piece of himself that had died with her final breath.
This was his penance. Letting these two possess him, use him. Falling at their feet was barely enough to assuage his shame. He needed to bury himself deeper beneath them. No others would ever see him this way, but Marcus and Evie were elevated in his mind to a status that rivaled his Mother. In their hands, he could be broken down to nothing and reborn.
One way or the other, he’d be released of his burden through them.
Marcus’s teeth held on, his hot tongue probing the spot between. His cock slid out and back in again and again, each time a little groan escaped Marcus’s mouth, his breath flowing over Ked’s neck.
The sweet taste of Evie’s snatch wasn’t enough anymore, he needed to be inside her.
“Stay with me,” he said, and rose up, supporting himself on one hand. He scooped Evie in his free arm and let her slide down his torso.
She let out a little laugh as her arms wrapped around his shoulders. “Fancy moves,” Evie said smiling.
Marcus rose with him, his cock remaining a hot, welcome pressure inside Ked’s ass. His arms wrapped around Ked’s torso and his mouth laid kisses over Ked’s shoulder.
“Jesus, you feel amazing. I’m enjoying fucking you too much to stop.”
“Don’t stop,” Ked said. Meeting Evie’s gaze, he said, “You ready for the fucking of your life?”
Her aura pulsed and she simply kissed him with a surprising hunger. Her lips pulled longingly at his and he returned her kiss, sliding his tongue into her mouth and savoring the sweet flavor and soft heat within.
He shifted his cock between them, let her slide down onto him, closing his eyes at the exquisite combination of sensations that overwhelmed him in that moment. Her tight channel engulfed his cock and squeezed, the feeling a counterpoint to the steady, almost violent thrust of Marcus into him from behind.
He held tight to Evie’s hips, said, “I’m sorry for this,” and did the thing he’d craved. He lifted her petite frame off his cock and pushed her back down. Lifted her up again, and
slammed her down again, each time moving quicker and more urgently.
Evie clung to his shoulders and whispered in his ear over and over, “yes, yes, yes” each time he filled her up.
Pleasure more exquisite than he’d ever felt built at the base of his spine, flooding slowly through his lower extremities and upward. Each stroke of Evie’s pussy on his cock matched the deep, hot friction of Marcus inside him until a balloon filled with every sensation seemed full to bursting. Ked emitted a resonant growl when he could no longer contain himself. Twisting his torso, he gripped Marcus by the back of the neck and hungrily captured his mouth, then did the same with Evie. Their faces stayed close to his, their mouths coming together in front of him, then parting. All three of their breaths mingled and their cries of ecstasy merged.
Ked could no longer contain his orgasm, and it erupted from him with a violent surge. His cock shot hotly into Evie and she clung hard to him, her entire body shuddering with her climax. Marcus grabbed both of Ked’s ass cheeks and squeezed, spreading him open to take his final, urgent thrusts until Marcus, too, came hard into him.
“All I am is yours,” Marcus murmured into his ear as the dark waves of energy flowed between them, converging in Ked’s core along with the feather-light energy of Evie’s Nirvana.
Ked closed his eyes and savored the way it fit, filling him still, even as Marcus slowly extracted himself. There, at the very core, was that bright, glowing piece. Not quite his own, but a piece that fit so perfectly it was far better than what he’d given up—a perfect hybrid of them both.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Evie
Dragon Monastery, Sunda Islands
Present Day
Waiting to find out whether or not her baby survived was the worst kind of torture for Evie. The not knowing haunted her even worse than the pain of having her wings ripped off.