by Bianca D’Arc
“Young?” Jared was clearly upset. “I’ve already lost a wife and son.” His voice broke on the words as his emotions threatened to overtake him. “Or did you forget?”
“No, we can never forget them. Nor will you.” Kelzy had calmed in the face of Jared’s sorrow.
Adora went to him and took him in her arms. “Nor should you, Jared,” she said. He held her fiercely.
“I don’t deserve you, Adora.”
“Now that’s the first sensible thing you’ve said since we got here.” Kelzy’s tone was teasing in all of their minds.
Jared kissed Adora deeply then, as if he needed to feel her in his arms, grounding him in the changing situation.
“We have little choice, I’m afraid. We’ve been outmaneuvered by generals greater than ourselves.” Jared smiled briefly up at the dragons.
Darian gave Jared and Adora a lopsided grin, his eyes somewhat uncomfortable. “I can hear them in my head.”
Adora chuckled and reached out, pulling Darian into the embrace as Jared shifted her around in his arms.
“And so you should, Sir Darian.” She kissed him soundly. “Sandor couldn’t have chosen a knight who couldn’t hear him speak, now could he?”
Darian shook his head, smiling faintly. “I guess not. I still don’t quite believe it. Or understand it.”
“All you need to know for now, Darian, is that by choosing you, I’ve fulfilled the Mother’s design for us all. It was fated that you three join and that by doing so, reunite me and my mate.” Sandor’s deep voice was wise and gentle. “The rest will come to you in the fullness of time, my friend. I believe you still have a role to play in protecting our world from King Lucan. He threatens to upset the balance of Nature with his evil plans and the Mother of All must have some purpose for you left to fulfill. Believe in that, believe in yourself, and believe in me. You will never be alone again, Darian, as long as any of we five here now live. We are a family.”
There was a mating feast, of sorts, held that night in the great hall of the Lair. Many were still injured from the battle and many others were on patrol. The merriment was low-key, but the congratulations were heart-felt from most of the revelers. Some still eyed Darian with suspicion, but most of the younger dragons had been trained by Sandor or Kelzy, or both, and trusted in their judgment. With encouragement from the dragons, most of the younger knights were willing to give Darian the benefit of the doubt.
Surprisingly, Darian was familiar with the traditional mating feast dances from his years spent as ambassador to Draconia and was able to dance easily with Adora and Jared. It was Adora who had a tough time keeping up with her newly claimed men. Certainly, she had seen her daughter learn the steps to the odd three-partnered dances favored between the mated sets of knights and their ladies, but she had never performed the steps herself.
At the beginning of the dancing, when the patterns called for her knowledge and input, she stumbled, but either Jared or Darian was always there to catch her. As the night wore on though, the dancing got hotter and the men did most of the work. By the time they got around to the traditional mating dance, she had little to do—and little to wear—as the men tossed her around between them, holding her close, kissing her deeply, and fondling her nearly naked body.
She was all too ready to leave for their suite when the dragons took to the sky in their first mating flight in years. She knew Kelzy and Sandor were eager to renew their relationship and her men were even hotter than they’d been the first time the three of them had joined in passion. That first time had been a catharsis for Jared and even for Adora in a way. They’d worked through all their old pains and offered them up on the altar of passion, wiping away past hurts and forging new ties that were stronger and deeper than anything any of them had known before.
This time the joining would be joyous. This would be a mating, a claiming, a joining of pure hearts and souls. There would also be the frenzy of the dragons, influencing the men and probably Adora as well, as closely bonded as she was with Kelzy, not to mention the unpredictable influence of her own royal blood.
The closer they danced, the higher their passions rose, and when Kelzy and Sandor trumpeted as they took to the sky, Jared picked Adora up bodily and made straight for their bedchamber, Darian following close behind. Other mated pairs and threesomes headed out of the main area as well and Adora had only a glimpse of her daughter and her two mates leaving before she was out of the great hall.
Jared was kissing her even before he placed her in the center of the large bed in their suite. Darian undressed her and himself in between biting kisses to her backside and her hips. For her part, Adora pulled at what remained of Jared’s clothing, removing the loincloth with eager hands as she began to feel the echoes of the dragons’ passion through the bond she’d formed at a young age with Kelzy and the bonds that were even now strengthening between herself and her chosen mates.
Darian was nearly beside himself and she knew he would find this night the hardest to deal with of the three of them. He had only bonded to Sandor hours before and hadn’t had any time to get used to the dragon who now shared a connection to his soul. Jared had been partnered with Kelzy for years now but had never felt the intense mating heat two grown dragons could create. He would have a little more chance of tempering it, but Adora knew she was in for a wild ride that night.
She wouldn’t have it any other way.
Darian looked at his new lover and realized she was his home. Adora was comfortable in a way he had never before experienced. The moment she touched him, he’d known that she was the last woman he would ever desire and the only woman he would ever love. It was that sudden, that harsh, and that true.
“It’s like that for knights,” Sandor had told him earlier that day when his thoughts turned once again to Adora. “Lest you doubt you are truly a knight, you should know most knights recognize their mate the moment they lay eyes on her. It’s part of being a knight and joining with my kind. We too know our mate the moment we see her and for us, there is usually only one mate for all our many years.”
Sandor’s words came back to Darian as he looked at Adora now. She was it for him. He was certain of that as he had never been certain of anything in his life before. This was love—plain and oh, so simple. There would never be another woman for him. Only Adora.
He couldn’t get enough of her. He couldn’t get close enough and couldn’t seem to control himself when he touched her. He felt her fire, her steam, her desire as if it was his own, but then perhaps it was the dragons’ fire he was feeling. Darian shook his head to try to regain some sense of normalcy, but it would not come.
He was linked to the soaring dragons as they circled and dived, climbing higher in their joy before joining and taking that dangerous plummet to earth as they pleasured each other, only to separate at the last possible moment of freefall. To do it all over again.
Adora was on the bed now. All three of them were naked and wanting. Darian tried to cool his ardor to give his beloved Adora a chance to catch her breath. Struggling for control, he sat back, but she would have none of it. Adora rocketed up, grabbing him by the ears so that he had no choice but to follow where she led.
“Come into me now, Dar. I need you and Jared both.”
“I don’t want to hurt you. I’m just barely in control here.” The admission was ripped from his soul, but her smile made everything all right.
“I don’t need your control tonight, Darian. I need you. I need your passion, your lust, your cock. And your love.”
Freed by her harsh gasp of excitement, Darian watched as Jared pulled her back onto the bed, mounting her swiftly. He moved in time with the dragons Darian could feel in the back of his mind.
Jared’s hard cock slid home as he rolled beneath her, pulling her ass cheeks apart, making room for his partner in this strange marriage. Darian prepared her, entering slowly but steadily, using the special ointment Adora had placed on the nightstand before they even left for the feast. She�
��d apparently known what to expect from this night and she was getting it in spades, he realized as he slid home within her.
When they were both seated fully, Darian met Jared’s eyes over Adora’s shoulder, pressing deep within her. With a nod, they began to move, slow at first, then getting longer and stronger as the frenzy grew within them all. Dimly, he heard Adora’s panting cries of ecstasy as she came to peak after peak between them. Darian felt the powerful contractions of her orgasms around his hard cock, but he couldn’t come until the dragons did.
Higher they flew, the dragons and the humans locked in coital bliss. As the dragons began their freefall, so too did their human counterparts, both knights spurting their come deep into the woman they both loved, adored and cherished with all their hearts. She was claimed—filled and marked for all time by the hard, merciless loving. As she smiled lazily at them, Darian knew she loved every minute of it.
The dragons rose again, only an hour later, searching for the stars as their bodies joined, beating wings into the night. First though, the men treated Adora to a long soak in the heated tub where they teased her mercilessly. They lifted her out, stepping free of the huge tub and drying her inch by precious, tantalizing inch, licking her flame higher.
Darian caught Jared’s eye as they brought Adora back to the bed. Both men could feel the dragons taking off for the stars and they knew their time of rest was almost at an end.
“Are you up for something a little different, my love?” Darian whispered in her ear as he ushered her toward the bed, his legs right behind hers. He rubbed his chest against her back, his arms caging her breasts as she giggled like a young girl.
She turned in his arms to place a teasing kiss on his lips. “Anything you wish, Master.”
Darian growled. “Mmm, I like it when you call me that.” He nodded to Jared as the other man finally noticed the cords Darian had left out before joining them in the bath. “Have you ever been tied, Adora? Will you trust us to see to your pleasure completely? Will you let yourself be helpless in our arms?”
She looked uncertain at first as her gaze moved between the two men, but then she smiled and the twinkle in her eyes brightened his soul.
“I trust you.”
Darian kissed her deeply, backing her onto the wide bed as Jared prepared the soft ropes Darian had scrounged earlier from elsewhere in the large suite. While Darian held her arms up, Jared tied them tightly together above her head, using one rope to secure her to one corner of the large bed.
Darian lifted his head to survey the work and nodded with a broad grin. Jared had done this before, he could tell. It amazed him that they were alike in this way, but he didn’t question his good fortune. He had work to do before the dragons took him beyond reason and into their own brand of wild lust.
Adora lay diagonally across the wide bed, hands bound together, then secured to one corner. They could maneuver her easily into just about any position either of them could dream up.
Darian flipped her over onto her knees and elbows, positioning her just so as he surveyed the enticing sight her spread, wet pussy made against the bedclothes. Jared slid beneath her upper body, seating himself within easy reach of her mouth. Darian realized Jared was letting him have her pussy for this round and thanked the other man with a sly grin as he slid his fingers into her slick well.
The dragons rose now, their passions echoing through the knights as both his and Jared’s rods stiffened beyond bearing. The level of arousal he felt was inhuman. It was but an echo of the immense desire filling the dragons and influencing their bonded knights to be more than men in those moments. It was humbling and invigorating at the same time. Darian saw the incredible need he felt reflected in Jared’s expression and knew they were both caught up in their dragon partners’ lust.
“Suck him, Adora. Take Jared in your mouth and swallow him down.”
That she complied so eagerly pleased him. He liked directing her actions in this way and would heartily enjoy it when Jared and he reversed their roles, he knew.
He lay down on the bed and pulled her down slightly so that her pussy rested over his mouth. He used his tongue to sink deep within her tight hole, licking upward, spreading their combined moisture and making little circles around her sensitive clit. He felt her tremble against his mouth and he knew she was close.
So was he for that matter. The dragons neared their zenith and he just had to be inside his mate before the passion overtook him completely and drove him mad. With a growl, he lifted her hips, rose up, turned and sank home within her in one smooth but forceful motion. If she could have screamed with her mouth stuffed fully with Jared’s cock, he knew she would have in that moment. As it was, she made a sound deep in her throat that both knights enjoyed.
Darian knew from Jared’s gasp and the way he clenched his fist in Adora’s auburn tresses that her vocalization had reverberated through his shaft. For his part, Darian just enjoyed hearing the proof of her enjoyment as they both possessed her.
He began shafting in and out, his rod harder and stiffer than it had ever been before. Darian began to realize just how fully the dragons affected both he and Jared in ways he never would have imagined, allowing them both to bring Adora to peak after peak before coming themselves.
But this wasn’t one of those times. This time was hard and fast, harsh and earthy. Darian plowed into her, slapping her ass just once as she tightened on him, coming for him nicely before he totally lost control as the dragons did. After that, he lost all rational thought, driving home within his new mate the only goal.
“Adora!” he shouted as all of them neared the stars with the dragons.
Darian’s eyes shut hard and every muscle in his body tensed as he joined with Sandor in a hard, long release inside the warm welcoming depths of his mate. He felt what the dragon felt in that moment, sharing in the glory that was the physical expression of love no matter the species. He felt the pleasure multiplied through him and Sandor and through Sandor to Kelzy and to Jared, magnified and sent back to him. It was a true sharing, a completion and a new start for them all.
Darian realized in the aftermath that he was linked with Jared through the dragons, but Adora had a direct link to him as well, somehow. It was a phenomenon he vowed to explore further now that he’d decided to make his home in this land and among these people.
This was his home now. Wherever Adora, Jared, Kelzy and Sandor were. Without all four of them, he would no longer be content or complete. They were his family.
As he came down from the fast, hard high, he realized the dragons were plummeting to earth in the freefall of their spent passion, their wings outstretched at the last moment to prolong the pleasure and allow them to glide on the wings of love for a long, satisfying moment. They were basking, as he was too, in the glory that was his mate and his new family.
Chapter Seven
As leaders of the Lair during a time of war, there was no long honeymoon for Darian, Jared, and Adora—or the dragons. They were back to work the next day, yawning a little, but with wide, satisfied grins as they went about their business.
As a previously mated pair, Kelzy and Sandor were better able to manage their frequent urges to couple, though they did catch their human partners off-guard a time or two over the next few days. Each time, though, the men raced to their suite, throwing off clothing as they ran, only to find Adora waiting for them already naked on the bed. She welcomed them both with open arms…and legs. They varied their positions, but the love between them never varied, never altered, never changed, except to grow deeper and surer with each passing day.
Darian was a novice when it came to fighting from atop a dragon but proved himself an able student and an innovative strategist as he trained with Sandor. His added insights into the workings of the Skithdronian army were invaluable as they prepared their defenses. Darian had spent most of his younger days as a warrior before becoming an ambassador, so fighting and training was nothing new to him. Nothing, that is, except flying
on the back of a huge dragon. Now that was new and absolutely thrilling.
Sandor was a great teacher and Darian learned as much and more from just watching the way Jared and Kelzy worked together. The four of them were a fighting team now, since the dragons were mates, and would fight side by side. They trained together, lived in the same suite, and shared the same wife. It wasn’t as Darian had always expected his life to work out. It was much better than that, actually. Though he still believed in the gods of his culture, he had to admit this “Mother of All” his new family believed in certainly did know what She was doing when She brought them all together.
Still, Darian felt his years when he returned to the suite late at night after a full day of riding patrol and drilling with Sandor, Kelzy and Jared. Jared just laughed at him and shook his head, but Adora was more sympathetic. She went to him while he soaked in a hot tub of water in the bathing chamber. She had an herbal mixture for his bath and later gave him a rubdown with a warm, fragrant massage oil she’d prepared to relax his overstressed muscles.
After such delicious treatment, he was ready for the dragons to take off for the moon and drive him and his mate to a frenzy of pleasure. Darian positioned himself under Adora this time, where he wouldn’t have to put any extra stress on his already abused muscles, but when she took Jared and him both into her beautiful body, he forgot all about his aches and pains. The only ache he felt was one at the center of his heart for this lovely, giving woman who had become the center of his universe.
The skirmishes continued over the next few days, but the reconnaissance reports indicated the Skithdronian army was massing just over the border. They were waiting to start the second wave of attack, Darian surmised, for something…or someone.
The answer came the next day when their patrols reported movement on the border. Skiths slithered across the already destroyed fields and farms, heading for the few villages that remained populated after the first round of attacks. Jared was a sight to behold as he decisively took charge of the Lair’s fighting forces, marshalling the knights and dragons to mount an effective defense against the renewed attack.