Dragon Splendor (Immortal Dragons Book 3)

by Ophelia Bell

  His cock throbbed with the need to feel it all again—to slide deep into her hot, tight depths while Calder filled him up in turn. He was already poised with Calder’s hand resting on his hip and the other man moving to position himself when a voice called from the other room.

  Nicholas recognized Assana’s clear tone and growled as Calder left with a pat on his ass.

  “You go ahead and start,” Calder whispered. “I’ll see what she needs and be back in a minute.”

  Aurum’s strong legs wrapped around his hips, emphasizing the request, so he obeyed, swiftly sinking into her. She let out a soft cry of pleasure and arched into his body as he began to fuck her. He went slowly, not wanting to get too far into it before Calder rejoined them.

  “Guys?” Assana called. “Hey, you two!” Her voice was closer, but Nicholas was too busy to acknowledge her. Aurum’s legs tightened around his hips, indicating she wasn’t ready to stop for anything, either.

  Assana came into view on the opposite side of the bed and bent down with an irate look on her face.

  “I never thought I’d say this, but would you two just stop fucking for two seconds? We have an emergency.”

  Chapter 34

  Calder

  Calder paced the room, repeatedly scrubbing his face and raking his fingers through his hair in agitation.

  “I should have known this wouldn’t be easy. We can’t risk letting Nicholas meet her now. Not when we just spent the last twelve hours in the deepest three-way meld I’ve ever been in. Fuck, the only one I’ve ever been in. Mother will smell both me and Aurum all over him. Assana, we should have let you meld him once to start with …”

  He knew the second the words were out that they were the wrong thing to say. Assana glowered at him.

  “I love you, brother, but I’m not going to meld a guy I don’t love just to save your ass. There’s got to be a way to fix this. To at least nullify your vow so you can properly mate each other. How many times have you three melded already?”

  “Just twice,” Calder said. “Well, just twice for all three of us … Nicholas and I could mate now, if it did us any good.”

  “You have to have a female ready to impregnate for it to be legitimate by Haven standards,” Assana said. “I wish we were more like the ursa … open to shit like that.”

  Calder stopped and frowned at her. “Except the ursa males never mate each other. The females are the alphas in their power structure. The males pair up out of necessity, but don’t actually mate.” He looked at Aurum, his entire body buzzing with excitement over the plan that was beginning to form. “The dragons, too … With human mates, the males and females are equals, but the females always rank higher than the males in their race’s hierarchy. I don’t need to mate anyone.”

  He stopped and stared around at the others, the solution to their problem sparking in him like lightning.

  “Aurum, it’s all you. You need to mate us.”

  Aurum gave him a skeptical look. “But you will be mated when it’s over, like it or not.”

  Calder shook his head vigorously. “It doesn’t matter. It’s the letter of the vow that matters. I vowed that I would not take a mate until Meri is found and made to pay. I won’t take you as a mate … either of you. You will take us. And as a member of the Dragon Council, Mother won’t be able to argue the mating isn’t legitimate. The immortals have always made the rules.”

  “She won’t like that a bit,” Assana said. “You’re literally going over her head on this.”

  Calder let out a derisive snort. He loved his mother, but she’d been in denial too long.

  “The Dragon Council has taken the brunt of the criticism for what happened with the Ultiori all these years. Aurum’s sister was the one everyone blamed, when we know it was one of our own who was behind it all. It’s time for Mother to own up to that fact.”

  Aurum rested a hand lightly on his arm, warmth flooding into him. “If this is going to cause a rift between our races, perhaps we should wait.”

  “How long are you willing to wait? I don’t see a way to convince Mother unless we can force her to face what she’s been in denial over all this time. We are the ones who have to find Meri and put her down. This mistake is on us, not the dragons or any of the other higher races. The real Ultiori leader wasn’t the man Belah loved all those centuries ago. It was the vile bitch who controlled him. Now that I believe we have a way around my vow, there’s no way in hell I’m willing to wait for a chance to make my mother see the truth.”

  Surprisingly, Aurum looked relieved.

  “Good,” she said.

  Frowning at her, Calder said, “Why did you even suggest waiting if you didn’t want it?”

  She sighed, her full bosom rising and falling as she lifted her shoulders and let them drop.

  “I don’t want to wait because I don’t want to lose you now that I’ve found you. That, and …” She lowered her eyes, her lips quirking into a pensive frown. Pursing them tighter, she lifted her gaze to his.

  “My siblings and I were sent dreams of our mates … mates that are all members of the higher races. I sought you out because of these dreams, but not just for love. We’re all focused on breeding, now more than ever, to ensure our numbers are strong to resist the Ultiori forces. Fate’s messages suggest that interbreeding among the races is key. I need to bear your children soon, if we are to win. And make no mistake, I must mark you myself in order to ensure I conceive. That isn’t up for debate.”

  Nicholas moved to stand beside Aurum, pulling her into a sideways embrace and kissing her on the top of the head. “I, for one, am one hundred and ten percent in favor of putting babies in you, Sunshine. And the sooner, the better.”

  “Then I guess it’s settled,” Assana said with a worried look. “We’ll just have to hope Mother’s in a sane mood when we tell her.”

  Chapter 35

  Aurum

  Aurum stared toward the back of the cave with trepidation. She rubbed her bare arms in an attempt to get rid of the goosebumps that had risen up in the cool air behind the curtain of the waterfall.

  “The Diviner is only going to watch, right?”

  Calder rested a hand comfortingly at her lower back. “She’s the only witness who my mother will have to believe unequivocally. Plus, she’s the one who will know I didn’t break my vow. I’d rather not find out afterward that it was all for nothing.”

  Nicholas gripped her hand, squeezing it. His excitement was contagious, but Aurum still found herself staring in awe at the drastic change in his appearance. He was the embodiment of the ursa from her dreams now. Every inch of him was perfect.

  Something about the nearby thrum of power set her teeth on edge, though. There was a familiarity to it that she couldn’t place, and she felt like she should know it.

  She took a step forward, then turned back. “Are you coming too?” she asked Assana, whose large eyes were even wider than usual with anxiety.

  “I’ll just stay out here. Don’t want to risk what almost happened last time I took my primal form.”

  Aurum furrowed her brow at the nymph. “What could be so bad about letting your inner wildness out once in a while?”

  “You don’t understand,” Assana said. “I never let it out around males I don’t want to mate because I might accidentally do it anyway. Mother kept me away from males my entire life, so my primal soul doesn’t quite know how to behave. If I go into her chamber, I have to go in my true form. Last time I did that … well, Calder, you tell her.”

  Assana’s cheeks flushed a bright pink that piqued Aurum’s interest. She looked at Calder expectantly, unable to glean any detail from their mental connection, even though they’d completed their necessary third melding only moments before coming here.

  Calder grimaced. “An untried nymph only wants one thing when she’s in her primal form,” he said, then cleared his throat. “She’ll go for the nearest cock if there’s one at hand … regardless of whether it’s attached to her brothe
r.”

  “Ohh …” Aurum said, and chuckled. She gave Assana a teasing smile. “I had no idea you were a virgin, Assana. And about the brother thing, don’t feel so bad. I have a brother and sister that gave into those urges once. It was weird, but not the worst thing that ever happened. Calder is a tempting specimen.” She gave her soon-to-be mate a gentle pat on his fabric-clad backside.

  “Shall we?” she said, gesturing toward the darkness of the rough stone corridor ahead of them and mentally bracing herself for the unwelcome confinement of the space.

  Assana pouted. “I’m not a virgin … I’ve just never had sex with a man before, that’s all. But at least that’s what finally convinced Mother to open up the Haven to the ursa. Nothing like threatening to fuck your own brother to prove how badly you need a proper mate. It worked, but I don’t envy you guys the task ahead of you. I’ll just wait out here until you’re done.”

  Calder and Nicholas squeezed Aurum’s hands on both sides and Calder moved forward, leading their trio into the darkness. The strange buzz of energy grew stronger as they went. With each step, something nagged at the back of Aurum’s mind—she should know this power. She knew of the Diviner, but only as the Oracle of the Haven—a kind of priestess who helped guide the nymphaea and whose words were practically scripture.

  If Aurum didn’t know better, she’d swear that the energy that permeated the air down here so strongly she could taste it actually belonged to a dragon.

  A warm glow began to fill the darkened corridor, growing brighter as they drew closer. Finally, Calder stopped just before a final turn. He faced her and Nicholas with a resolute look.

  “We must approach in our true forms,” he said. “There will be room for us to shift around the corner, but be prepared.”

  Nicholas wasted no time. He let go of her hand and dropped to all fours, his body simultaneously shimmering and growing into a huge bear. His previously snowy white fur was now a luxuriant, shining black.

  On her other side, Calder took a few steps forward, and just as he rounded the corner his clothes fell away and his body grew, his legs changing shape and his bare feet turning into huge, cloven hooves. Aurum gasped at the beautiful transformation into his satyr shape, complete with horns, whose majesty was only matched by the enormous erection that jutted out from between his thighs.

  Then he was gone, leading the way into the Diviner’s chamber.

  Nicholas butted his furry head against her hip.

  “I need a little more space,” she said, and called on her true form, focusing her power as she moved forward. She started small so as not to fill the space too quickly, manifesting her horns and scales first, then allowing her body to follow.

  By the time she caught up to Calder, she was completely shifted. And when she reached the cavern beyond the corridor, she finally stretched her wings and let the magic loose to push her to her full size.

  It was in this shape, towering above the wide, circular pool in the center of the cavern, that she realized who the Diviner really was.

  “Welcome, sissster,” the strange, soft voice whispered in her mind. “I have often wondered when I would get to meet one of the children our Mother and Fate produced.”

  “Who are you?” Aurum asked, replying to the telepathic greeting in kind.

  She still couldn’t completely see the creature whose power had invaded her mind. She tilted her head, trying to gain a clearer view past the hazy beam of sunlight that filtered down from a gap in the ceiling of the cavern high above, but only saw hints of a green scaled tail. She took a few steps closer, her height allowing her to peer farther out over the water. Beyond the mist that filled the cavern, she made out more scales and the shape of a second tail that slithered along the stone.

  A long, slender hand reached through the fog, and an arm and torso followed. Then a beautiful face with big, swirling eyes in a deep blue shade peered directly at her. The creature smiled.

  “I am your half-sissster, Aurum.” She reached out and rested a hand on Aurum’s scaled head. “I wish there was time to become acquainted, but it seemsss we have a mating to get on with, don’t we?”

  Aurum stared at the strange creature in surprise. “I don’t understand. Mother never told us there were others …”

  “There are many reasonsss the higher races were discouraged from breeding before,” the Diviner said. “It was too sssoon, the bloodlines not diverssse enough. Now is the time for all to be known. I am the product of the Mother Dragon and Mother Earth. Dionysssus himself lent his seed to their shared womb to create me. I bear witnesss to the nymphaea unions, but your presssence is a signal that my true purpose is at hand. You are here to take a sssatyr and an ursa mate, to bind the four elementsss into one. I have been waiting.”

  The Diviner’s aura swelled with proof of her eagerness, and Aurum was humbled by the strength of power that infused the glow of energy around the creature. The half-sister she had never known of, part dragon, part primal earth, part god of revelry and fertility.

  “Go, little sissster,” the Diviner said, caressing Aurum’s long snout. “Your matesss await you. I will witnesss and give my blesssing. You may take your matesss in any fashion that pleases you, so long as they are bound to you at the end.”

  Aurum darted her tongue out in what passed for a soft kiss from a dragon, tickling the Diviner’s cheek. Then she pulled back and shifted, preferring to make love to her mates in a common size they could enjoy together.

  At the edge of the pool in her human form, she met the curious looks of the ursa and the satyr. Whatever fashion pleased her most … She smiled to herself. This was going to be fun.

  Turning to Nicholas, she said, “I want you in your human form, zhrihiva coro.”

  Then to Calder, she said, “But you … I think I prefer you like this.”

  Striding toward him, she stretched up on her toes to press a kiss to his lips. The size of him enthralled her. She’d never been with a male so much larger, or one with horns. If she’d ever had the urge to bed a male dragon, she supposed she could have had something similar, but it was even better that this particular male was the one she intended to make hers by the end.

  Calder let out a rumble of approval and dipped his head lower, sweeping his tongue between her lips and capturing her mouth more fully with his. She wrapped a hand around his thick cock, rotating her palm around his girth. He was so big her pussy ached to feel him thrusting deep.

  “I can’t wait to fuck you,” he growled when he pulled away. “But I’d like to watch Nick fuck you, first. I want to feel his essence coat my cock when I’m inside you, and feel his cock rubbing against mine at the same time. When you mark us, I want to know you’re as full of his seed as you are with mine. We have a promise to keep to Fate, after all.”

  He hoisted her up against his chest and plunged into the water up to his belly. Motioning behind them, he beckoned for Nicholas to come.

  Aurum’s dark-haired dream man stood at the edge of the pool, his face a mask of pure need. He dove in and swam to them, coming out of the water just as Calder moved to rest his backside against a smooth, round shape that mysteriously rose out of the water behind him.

  His hips were just above the water now, and he lowered Aurum to rest on one thigh. Slight movement in the water behind him made her look more closely. The dim shape of the Diviner’s torso was visible not far back in the shadows—just enough to see. Extending out from her hips were a dozen long appendages that Aurum realized were identical to a dragon’s tail in both strength and agility. They had woven together in a kind of throne for Calder to rest upon.

  His fingers found her knee and slid up her thigh, probing deep when they reached her core. Nicholas joined him in teasing her, his large hand now dwarfed by Calder’s.

  The satyr griped her by the hips, shifting her until she sat straddling his thighs with his massive erection pressed between her ass cheeks. Only the root of his shaft pressed against her, he was so large, but the swell of his balls ti
ckled at her folds.

  She leaned back with a soft moan of pleasure when he cupped her breasts and pinched her nipples. Nicholas had lowered himself in the water and was now lapping eagerly at her core, his tongue dipping down to caress Calder’s sack and kiss each ball with reverence before delving between Aurum’s folds again.

  “Fuck her now, Nicholas,” Calder said.

  Nicholas obeyed.

  His cock in hand, he wasted no time thrusting it deep, and her muscles clamped around him instantly. The sensation of being spread so wide by the giant of a satyr who held her drove her wild, and she bucked her hips, simultaneously craving deeper friction from Nicholas and loving the way Calder’s hot shaft rubbed against her ass.

  Nicholas dug his fingers into her hips, his entire body moving with the power of his punishing thrusts. She tangled her fingers into his hair and kissed him, biting madly as his fucking sent her into flight with a wild cry. Hot jets of his semen filled her, along with the glorious, fertile magic that always followed.

  Aurum bent her head to his neck, darting her dragon tongue out, elated that she could finally do this thing she’d barely managed to resist for so long. With swift sweeps of her forked tip, she etched her mark into his skin in an elaborate pattern beneath his ear.

  Nicholas clung to her, his cock still hard inside her and gently pulsing with the aftermath of his orgasm. Huge hands lifted her up, and a massive, blunt shape pushed against her already filled opening. Nicholas stayed tight against her, adjusting to the shift in position in the need to stay deep within. She spread her legs wider, bracing her heels now on Calder’s huge thighs, almost squatting to accommodate both men.

  “Use me,” Nicholas said, placing her hands on his shoulders. She gratefully shifted her weight, leaning into him. The tilt of her hips allowed Calder better access. When she looked over her shoulder, she caught his primal gaze fixed on her backside and her spread ass cheeks. Both his hands cupped her ass, his thumbs spreading her folds as he slowly worked to push himself into her.