by Ophelia Bell
Nicholas panted into her ear, his body shaking—from exertion or pleasure, she wasn’t sure of until he put words to his lips.
“Fuck, is that tight. So fucking good, I think I might come again.” He shifted his hips, pushing himself deep before pulling out. When Nicholas’s cock moved out, Calder’s massive length slid in, the ridged head finally clearing her opening with a little bump that sent a shock of glorious sensation through her entire body.
“Sweet Mother, yes!” she cried, digging her nails deeper into Nicholas’s shoulders, unable to resist the manifestation of her horns with all the primal magic of Calder’s aura encompassing her.
At the same time as his cock pushed deep, one of Calder’s fingers slid back from the edge of her pussy and pushed into her ass.
Aurum cried out louder and clung to Nicholas for dear life while the pair of them fucked her into oblivion. Her climax built swiftly, and in the back of her mind, she remembered why they were here. Frantically grasping at reason in the midst of the mindless pleasure, she grabbed Calder’s free hand and brought it to her lips. Grazing her mouth down to his inner arm, she swiftly marked him, finishing the delicate pattern just in time for her climax to consume her.
Their shouts of shared ecstasy echoed through the cavern, the pair of cocks inside her throbbing against her core as the two men shot their seed deep into her.
With a rough groan, Calder relaxed, pulling her against his chest and leaning back, the support of the Diviner’s woven tails giving slightly against his solid weight, but supporting them easily.
Aurum sensed a slight shudder course through their makeshift hammock, sending a series of ripples outward across the surface of the water.
In her mind, the Diviner said, “Thank you, sissster, for the gift of your Nirvana.”
Out loud, Aurum asked in a lethargic voice, “So it’s done, then? We’re mated and Calder’s vow is intact?”
“It isss done,” the Diviner said. “Though I regret that I could not have a deeper tassste of this luscious ursssa. Thank you for sharing the mating with a lonely immortal.”
One tail-tip rose out of the water and traced a wet caress down Nicholas’s water-drenched chest. He stirred sleepily, cozying up to Aurum and sinking deeper into Calder’s huge, protective embrace. His hands still rested against her hips, and Aurum was happily sandwiched between both men with the ursa’s cock gradually growing limp inside her.
Calder remained hard, however, and after a moment, he nudged her gently, then lifted her off him. “I must shift or I’ll want to keep fucking you forever in this form. And trust me, I have the stamina to do it, now that we’re permanently bound by your mark.”
Aurum sighed as she gently washed her abused and tender pussy in the clear, cool water. “I think I can settle for a man-sized cock for a while,” she said, eyeing the more than satisfying manhood the human-shaped Calder sported once he shifted again.
A deep frown etched itself into Calder’s face as they made their way out of the cavern and back out toward the waterfall-concealed exit. He found his clothes, and he and Nicholas dressed while Aurum conjured a fresh outfit for herself—one that more closely mirrored the spare shifts Assana and the other nymphs favored.
“You could pass for one of us, if it weren’t for that glow you have right now,” Assana said with a huge smile.
The nymph’s smile faded when she looked at her brother. Calder was staring out toward the path with a grim look of determination on his face.
“I guess now is the moment of truth,” he said. “Let’s go see what Mother has to say.”
Chapter 36
Calder
“How dare you disobey me? Is it not enough that our race is struggling to survive? Now you have ensured our pure bloodlines will diminish and die!”
Nyx paced in front of her throne, waving her arms and ranting. Her reaction was about as awful as Calder had expected.
“Uncle Neph still hasn’t …” he began, and stopped short at his mother’s derisive snort.
“Your uncle is impotent. He couldn’t sire a child if the Diviner herself decreed he do so. The nymphs who have been with him all reported the same experience.”
She turned her enraged gaze back on the three of them while Neph simply stared at the spectacle, offering no words of his own.
“Dragons are not welcome in the Haven. Not as long as the enemy has any leverage over them.”
“Mother, they aren’t doing anything wrong,” Assana said. “They love each other, that’s all.”
“Love?!” Nyx yelled, turning her wild, spinning eyes at her daughter. “Love? There is no such thing! If love existed, Nereus would still be alive! I have tried to keep the Haven safe! I was a fool to think the ursa could be trusted. Too bad we need their males so badly. It’s a shame I will have to kill you, pretty boy.” She paused her pacing in front of Nicholas and stroked his cheek. “You are no good to the nymphs if you are already mated to a dragon.”
“Mother, you’re insane if you think I’m going to let you touch a hair on his head!” Calder yelled, stepping between his mother and Nicholas, whose nostrils flared with his own barely checked rage.
His mother reeled back. “Let me? You can’t stop me! I would kill all three of you, if I could. I’m only saving you for your sister’s sake, and your whore of a dragon can’t die.”
In his mind, Calder felt the anger of both his lovers, but urged them to hold back. Aurum’s normally light and joyous mood had become dark and dangerous. She was ready to shift and tear Nyx apart. The only thing holding her back was the same thing keeping Nyx from attacking her: His mother was just as immortal as Aurum.
“Thiasoi!” Nyx yelled. “Take this stinking ursa away. He’ll be executed shortly.”
A dozen nymphs in their full primal shapes came through the doors at the far end of the hall and advanced toward them, their eyes wild and swirling with lust. Nicholas wasn’t a small man, yet in their true shapes, the nymphs towered over him by a foot. They seemed more than just in the throes of their true forms, though. All of them moved with odd, jerky strides as though being controlled by some unseen force.
Turning to his mother, Calder saw her hand outstretched, her gaze unfocused, as though she were lost in the midst of a melding.
“Gaia’s tears, Mother! What have you done?” Turning to his uncle, he saw the man staring with equal horror at Nyx’s actions and the approaching throng of mind-controlled nymphs.
“No!” Neph roared, his surprise transforming into pure rage as he threw himself forward.
He barreled into Nyx, but she didn’t budge. The Thiasoi nymphs kept coming down the long stretch of the great hall toward them. Neph’s robes fell away as his lean human shape transformed, his feet growing hard and round with cloven hooves, legs covering with thick fur. His entire body bulked until he was three times the size of any of the nymphs coming at them, with massive coiled horns atop his head.
But instead of charging the nymphs as Calder expected, he suddenly found himself grabbed around the waist by one massive, muscular arm as his uncle spun around and placed his huge body between the three of them and the oncoming Thiasoi puppets.
Neph pushed all three of them together and wrapped them in his arms, bowing his big head as though shielding them.
“Hold on,” Neph said. “I haven’t done this in about three thousand years.”
Aurum yelped and Nicholas grunted as they were squeezed together in the huge satyr’s embrace. The rushing sound of water filled Calder’s head, and abruptly, the violent press of the River propelled him forward.
The dark coolness enveloped him and he gave himself over to it, relaxing in his uncle’s strong grip.
What had begun as a comfortable wetness Calder was long accustomed to turned icy after some time. The cold pricked his skin, then left him numb to his core before light hit his closed lids. Finally, his head broke the surface of whatever body of water his uncle had drifted them to.
He heard gasps for air and
two retching coughs, one deep and the other higher-pitched. Cold, stony ground hit his back and he opened his eyes.
Neph’s giant satyr body loomed over them with a troubled expression.
“I must fix this,” he said in a deep, booming voice. “Nyx has blood-melded the new squadron of Thiasoi. The Haven is in danger. Please do not attempt to return until I can fix this. I will try to come back with news, if I can.”
He turned on his hooved feet and dove back into the icy river, leaving the three of them shivering on the bank, terrified but hopefully free.
They certainly weren’t anywhere in the Haven, as cold as it was.
Ice crystals poked at their bare feet as they climbed the river bank. Above them, a snowy forest stretched, nothing but leafless trees visible for hundreds of yards. At the top of the bank, Aurum stopped him and Nicholas. With a breath, she had them all clothed in warmer garb, complete with boots suitable for hiking through the snow.
“Where are we?” Calder asked. “This river is unfamiliar.”
Nicholas looked around with a deep frown. “Not inside the Sanctuary, that’s for sure.” He inhaled deeply. “It smells a little like the exterior of the prison, but different. I smell woodsmoke … Can you hear that noise?”
“Give me a moment to orient to the sky,” Aurum said, then closed her eyes, but before she could provide an answer, Nicholas spoke.
“We’re not far from the Stonetree portal. Outside the portal … how the hell …?”
Calder grunted with wry amusement. “Uncle Neph took us out. It figures he out of anyone would know how to escape the Haven.”
Nicholas had already begun walking, leaving deep tracks in the snow and heading off in the direction of the rhythmic sound echoing through the forest.
“Where are you going?” Aurum called after him.
“I know where we are!” he said. “These are the woods where my sister and cousins grew up. I know them as well as I know the Sanctuary itself, thanks to my mother’s memories.”
Aurum ran after Nicholas and Calder followed, their breaths coming in little puffs of steam. After half an hour of walking, they crested a hill and found a worn path that led down into a hollow protected in the crooks of two peaks. The sound they followed grew louder, each beat accompanied by a cracking sound, like something being broken.
Soon the path brought them out of the trees, and they saw a figure several hundred yards away, clad in only a black shirt and dark blue trousers. He raised an axe above his head and brought it down with a ferocious thunk into a massive piece of wood. The wood split, two halves flying. The man picked up one half and placed it back on the block in front of him, raised the axe, and brought it down again.
Calder recognized the man immediately and was running down the slope at the same second Nicholas seemed to register the figure’s identity.
“Nikhil!”
The man looked up and immediately dropped the axe, running toward them.
Chapter 37
Aurum
Aurum couldn’t believe her ears. “You’re saying Aodh planned to get you into the Haven all this time? How the hell did he think he was going to do that?”
“I don’t know … I kind of hoped he’d be able to come up with a way,” Nikhil said. “He told me to wait for him out here, that he’d meet me when he figured it out. I have to meet these Dionarchs if I’m going to understand how to beat the bitch who did these things to me. I need to know everything they know.”
Aurum turned to face the lit fireplace, letting the delicious heat soak into her chilled body. The cold wouldn’t have harmed her, but she still preferred warmth.
Her crazy brother had made his promise in the hope of getting himself into the Haven, no doubt. She was sure he’d meant well—it would certainly improve their chances against the Ultiori for Nikhil to have all the information he could get. But she knew Aodh well enough to see through to his true motive. He missed his lover, and no doubt wanted a reunion with the old satyr.
She wondered if Neph had any idea the lengths her brother was prepared to go to for love.
“He can’t leave the Sanctuary,” Nicholas said. “Not unless a Windchaser accompanies him out, and not until Spring Equinox. They’d risk the integrity of the barrier to try to come any other time.”
“He wouldn’t take that chance,” Aurum said. “Not after the effort we put into repairing the damage we did going in.”
Nikhil cursed. “So you’re saying we’re stuck waiting here until the middle of March?”
“There are worse places to be,” Nicholas said, lounging comfortably on a nearby sofa and looking like he was about to fall asleep at any moment.
Aurum saw through the look of desperation in Nikhil’s eyes. His need wasn’t just about getting even with the creature who wronged him.
“Belah’s nearby, Nikhil,” she said gently. “You’re allowed to see her, even if Meri’s still out there.”
Calder nodded. “Seriously, brother. You didn’t make an unbreakable vow not to be with her until after you beat the enemy.” After a beat, Calder added, “Did you? Because if you did, you’re a goddamn fool, trust me.”
Nikhil regarded Calder with a dark expression. “I promised myself that I wouldn’t go to her until I was worthy of her love again. That means bringing her glory the only way I have ever done—by destroying her enemies.”
“If she loves you, you’re worthy now,” Calder said. He held up his arm and pushed his sleeve to his elbow. “You see this mark? I have it in spite of the vow I made. And you know what? I know better now. I don’t regret my promise to find that bitch and destroy her, but I do regret thinking I had to forsake Aurum’s love to do it. Now that I have her mark, I know I can’t do this without her. We’re all in this together. Love is not a weakness. Let yourself have it, and I promise you won’t regret it. I don’t. Not for one second.”
Nikhil sank onto a barstool next to the polished wood countertop, a look of pure confusion on his face. “Have I completely lost sight of what matters after all this time? Fuck. I’ve been struggling to find ways to win. But I’ve had this nagging feeling at the back of my mind that I’m doing it for the wrong reasons. If it isn’t to win her love, what is it for?”
Aurum moved toward him and rested a hand on his arm. “She never stopped loving you, not once. If you want something to fight for, it’s to hold onto that love and everything that comes after, but we have to fight together.”
Behind her, the warm, welcome presence of both her mates appeared, two strong arms sliding around her waist from either side.
Nikhil stared back at the three of them. “Is it really that simple?” he asked.
Aurum laughed. “Simple? Yes. Easy? Definitely not.” She slipped her arms around both her mates’ waists and pulled them closer, reveling in the way their auras merged like a protective bubble around her. “But worth it. So worth it.”
Epilogue
Nikhil
Despite spending weeks so close to Belah he could feel her under his skin, Nikhil hadn’t been able to bring himself to seek her out. Now that he’d learned he’d have to wait three more months to even find out whether he could gain access to the Haven, the need to do something—anything—besides sit in that isolated cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains finally drove him to make a move.
Except he couldn’t drift directly to her. He tried—the link they shared meant he could sense her within his reach. Her blood still ran in his veins, so there was no denying their continued connection. He thought the drift would take him to her the way it had delivered him to the dragons’ monastery, when he’d finally released all the Ultiori captives from their Canadian facility and went to prove he could keep his word to take her to her children.
The drift dumped him at the top of a mountain in the middle of a snowstorm instead. At the edge of a cliff, no less, with a huge, gaping chasm just inches beyond. If he’d gone another foot farther, he’d have plummeted to the bottom of a deep ravine.
He sat, sh
ivering and seething in the snow, staring across the chasm, glaring at whatever invisible barrier existed there that kept him away from her now that he’d finally given in and committed himself to seeing her again, despite his inclination to the contrary.
Through the snow, he thought he caught movement on the far side of the chasm and abruptly stood, leaning in as though a few extra inches would help him see better. Something was out there, but he couldn’t make out what it was. A bird? No …
His heart lurched and he nearly lost his footing and fell. It was a dragon. The closer the shape came, the surer he was. There was no mistaking those huge wings and that long, swaying tail. Blue scales glinted in the gray light of the snowy day. Not just any dragon, either.
It was her.
Nikhil stepped back from the edge and waved his arms in the air, almost jumping with joy and laughing out loud at the sight. He ran farther back, leaving room for her to land, but as she drew closer, something didn’t feel right. The sense of her—the part of himself that allowed him to be aware of her proximity at all times—didn’t check out. His gut told her she was no closer to him now than she’d been when he arrived.
The huge, blue shape continued barreling through the windy flurries, kicking up fluffy cyclones when it arrived. The force of its wing-beats were nearly strong enough to push Nikhil over.
But this dragon wasn’t her.
When the dragon landed, its huge, horned head dipped down low and stared at him, tilting side to side with forked tongue darting out as though tasting the air.
Finally, the dragon snorted a puff of hot air that blew Nikhil’s knit cap off his head and instantly melted the collection of icicles that he’d accumulated in his beard.
“Belah was right,” the dragon said in a deep, sonorous voice. “You’re no threat anymore, are you?”