The Fury Queen’s Harem: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Cursed Dragon Queen and Her Mates Book 1)

by Meg Xuemei X

  In the end, we settled the meeting place at the north fringe of the forest that was opposite of the demons’ ship. I could fly there in less than fifteen minutes at high speed, or have Phantom shift me, and distance was not a concern for Elvey, since he could teleport.

  But I didn’t want to ask Phantom for a second favor.

  When I flew across the forest to the north boundary, Elvey was already there, standing under the blossoms of a row of black trees.

  On Pandemonium, there wasn’t a change of seasons. It was like autumn here all year long. Leaves didn’t fall heavily, and the black blossoms stayed on the black trees forever. It was like we were in a darkly twisted magical land.

  Even standing in the shade of the forest, Elvey looked stunning.

  He wore a white shirt that stretched over his hard-muscled chest and a pair of black pants. I suddenly wondered how he would look in his nakedness before I scolded myself immediately. I had three of the hottest men devoted to me already. Why did I keep pining for Elvey? Was it because he was unattainable?

  I frowned at myself.

  I’d scouted this place the night before and left a white flowery robe on a high branch. As I changed to my Fae form in the air, I grabbed the robe, shrugged it on swiftly, and landed several yards before Elvey.

  I took a moment to swallow the pain of my change, and Elvey gave me the moment.

  “Daisy, you came,” he said softly, smiling at me. His eyes, both young and ancient, shone with delight at the sight of me.

  As his gaze traveled up my body, I felt as giddy as a drunk, as if my every lungful of air was filled with the most delectable wine. My heart stuttered. Had he enchanted me?

  I stopped inhaling for a few seconds, but the wine was already in my bloodstream.

  He held out a hand toward me, and I strode eagerly toward him, wanting to touch him more than anything. The wind tousled his lavender curls, and he looked so fetching and harmless. His sexual appeal was harshly dangerous yet irresistible.

  I realized just how much I wanted him, the air thick with my desire.

  I believed that he knew it, too, since a smile danced like caressing fire in his bedroom eyes.

  I stopped myself halfway as a faint warning chimed in my head. Once I took his hand, I might not have my own mind left.

  How could I forget that I was facing a formidably powerful sorcerer, who might have made a career out of seducing females of all ranks?

  And I remembered how his light touch had felt on my skin. Ever since he’d exited dramatically from my chamber, I’d been dreaming of having his kiss, even though I’d kissed all the princes and all their kisses were like they’d imprinted me.

  Why did I always crave more?

  It was like I had unwisely persuaded myself to overcompensate myself for the depravity of all those centuries.

  Daisy, I warned myself sternly, don’t let your eyes wander. Don’t let your heart desire what’s not supposed to be yours. Do what you came here to do—get the information and get out.

  “What do you want, Elvey?” I asked.

  His smirk departed as quickly as the last winter sunlight, and I regretted my unkind tone. His face became serious, yet starlight still twirled in his eyes.

  I could not crush this man’s spirit.

  “You,” he said.

  I blinked.

  “You are all I want,” he added fiercely. “Nothing else and no one else. I’ve been looking for you for a very long time, longer than you’ll believe.”

  I was so taken aback that I was speechless, and heat rose to my skin, tingling all over. This time it was no different—there was unmistaken, thick chemistry between us.

  “Why?” I demanded. “Why have you been looking for me? And for how long?”

  “From the day you disappeared,” he said.

  “Did you have something to do with that? Were you in the Forbidden Forest that day? I caught a figure in the shadow before I was suddenly in this jungle!”

  “Slow down, Daisy darling.” He muffled an amused chuckle. “I don’t even know where to begin with you throwing so many questions at me so forcefully at the same time.”

  Anger swept into me. There was nothing to be amused about when centuries of my life had been spent as a slave and trapped in the Furies’ bodies.

  “Why don’t you start with the basics?” I sneered. “Do you have anything to do with my curse? Do not lie. I’ll know if you do.”

  “No, Daisy,” he said, his beautiful, rich, masculine voice a caress, but this time I brushed if off. “I’ve been looking for you as long as I could, ever since the first time you disappeared when you were a baby. You were hidden from our sight.”

  “Our? Who else have been looking for me?”

  It wasn’t my mother, who had died after she gave birth to me. Had my birth killed her, or had someone else killed her?

  “The ones who would be loyal to you until death,” he said.

  That seemed to be a long, complicated story. Elvey seemed to read my mind. “And I don’t have time to answer all the questions right now. I’m not a free man, and I’m constantly watched.”

  “Are you being watched now?” I narrowed my eyes. “And by who? The queen?”

  “I see,” he said drily. “Sybil reported everything without editing, against my warning.”

  The next instant, I was in his arms, crashing against his hard chest.

  I registered what he would do next. As if no words could express how he’d felt, he had to kiss me.

  His hand threaded in my hair, tilting my head back slightly, as he bent down and enveloped my lips with his.

  Instantly, sunlight burst on my skin, so warm and delicious that I almost cried. I hadn’t seen sun and hadn’t felt its ray for nine hundred years. I couldn’t even conjure it in my fading memories, but now it was on my eyelashes, my face, and my lips.

  I brought up my hands and pressed them to the sides of Elvey’s face, so I could have more of the sunshine.

  He kissed me tenderly and slowly, as if he had all the time in the world. But I was less patient. His scent of sunlight and sandalwood and sprinkles of spring rain drove me of my mind. I wanted all. I wanted them to belong to me, for they’d been lacking in my existence for too long.

  I parted my lips, the tip of my tongue striking out and licking his sensual, warm lips. They tasted like faint honey. I wanted more of his taste and his scent.

  At my demand, Elvey gasped, and I took the opportunity to thrust my tongue into his mouth. What other mystery and secrets did he hold? I needed to unveil them.

  His tongue met mine, dancing a languorous dance. As I slammed mine to his hard palate, he lost his casualness. He was no longer that man who had no care of the world. He took control, wrapping his tongue around mine and mating mine, more aggressive and possessive with each stroke.

  Mine, also mine! I heard his voice roar, though he hadn’t really spoken.

  Then it happened.

  Fire erupted in my veins—the dragon fire—and joy coursed in my bloodstream. My dragon had finally awoken.

  True love. Elvey was my true love! I’d sensed it. I’d felt such connection to him when I had first met him. Now, I was sure of it. The knowledge and the magic of knowing were in my blood, bones, and soul.

  Then my heart sank a little. That meant one of the dragon princes wasn’t mine.

  The exhilaration of finding Elvey and the bitterness at realizing that I’d have to let go of a dragon prince and break his heart blended into a twisted, conflicted emotion that I didn’t want to deal with now. I felt such happiness and sadness at the same time.

  Elvey seemed not to want me to get distracted, and he wanted my complete attention. He thrust his tongue into me again, wildly, possessively, and demandingly.

  Hotness burned right through me.

  Fire traced the tender flesh between my thighs before leaping higher and hotter.

  Urgent need echoed deep inside me.

  It was the mating need—not just sex
, but mating.

  A moan tore through my throat.

  My hips bucked toward Elvey, grinding against his huge bulge. I felt the heat on his skin and lips—a man’s desire, a Fae’s passion, and a demigod’s magical fire.

  I knew who he was now, by tasting him and connecting to him, by him waking me up.

  I had known him since the beginning, even before I was born. Elvey was a half-elemental Fae born so long ago that he was close to a primordial. And the ancients had once worshipped him as a god, like his father.

  Elvey was the only of his kind left.

  And he was my fated mate.

  Heat, charged with mating fever, flooded my blood.

  My nipples were so taut they ached, until Elvey’s hand, male and powerful, slipped into my robe to cup my breast and knead my flesh, one then the other, to release some pressure.

  The heaviest pressure was inside my heated passage and only his cock could release it.

  My clit had never been so heavy, full, and throbbing in need. My folds were wet and swollen.

  I wanted, needed, his cock inside my pussy now.

  “Elvey, I want—”

  “Shush,” he murmured, his velvet voice thick with lust. “I know what you want. I want it more than you, more than the world, but it isn’t time.”

  The jungle spun around me.

  Was it shifting now? Did Phantom choose this time to play the prank with me? Akem loved nasty jokes, but Phantom was usually too somber for any joke.

  I opened my eyes, and I wasn’t in the jungle anymore.

  I glided in an open great hall of marble tiles, pillars of emerald, and arching ceilings that let the light shine in. Part of hall was modern and luxury, the other part merged seamlessly with a silvery forest.

  The scent of faint blossoms and spring and sunlight floated to me.

  Elvey wrapped his strong arms around me, dancing with me in the center of the hall without an audience. There wasn’t music in the room, but I heard flowing violins in my head.

  Weren’t we kissing?

  But I wasn’t disappointed in dancing either. I hadn’t danced for a long time. Yet I couldn’t remember why. Then I realized that I couldn’t remember anything from the past beyond this point. I shook my head. It didn’t matter—the past or the future mattered no more—as long as I had such a powerful, gorgeous man holding me, desiring me.

  I was only worried that I hadn’t danced for a while, though I didn’t recall for how long. I was rusty. I’d embarrass myself if I stumbled or stepped on his toe, but I found that concern was unnecessary. Elvey was more than an exceptional dancer, and he made sure I’d never slip.

  I waltzed with him gracefully, completely in sync with the music that only we could hear. The hem of my gown twirled and flowed.

  Then I noticed I was wearing a low-cut, elegant pale green gown that showed one-third of my full creamy breasts. It was a lovely dress. Had I picked it? It went well with my sunset-red curls. My head felt a bit heavy. Then through the mirror-like glass, I spotted a diamond and silver crown atop my head.

  Why was I wearing a crown? And it wasn’t a dragon crown.

  When Elvey, smiling at me so gorgeously and generously, spun me next in his arms, I saw the throne of gold and rubies on a raised dais at the far end of the hall.

  Not the hall of my Dragon Realm.

  It was a dream. I was in a dream.

  “It’s not a dream, my dearest,” Elvey whispered in my ear. His minty breath and rich, dominant male scent made me hard to think straight. “It’s the future, if you want it.”

  I wanted it, and I wanted Elvey more.

  I needed to kiss him, as we’d done before the dance.

  I traced my thumb over his lower lip before I felt a sudden chill slicing up my spine. I got this horrible feeling whenever Akem was around. Akem? Who was he?

  My mind felt foggy, yet tiny hairs on the back of my neck all stood up as an invading, sinister force creeping up on us.

  Something was wrong.

  There was evil here, lurking in the shadows, watching Elvey and me. It was worse than Akem—a concept of horror in my psyche, though I couldn’t recall much.

  No, I needed to remember. I refused to wrap myself inside the bubble. I had to fight whatever evil was here before it devoured us.

  At my struggle, a dim light shed through my consciousness.

  I’d been enslaved by the eater of life-force for centuries.

  My name is Daisy Danaenyth, and I was cursed.

  And this hall of fairy tale, no matter how glamorous it looked, was wrong.

  Tightness filled my chest, until my breath halted in my lungs.

  The great evil here, unlike anything I’d encountered, was concealed by glamour.

  Glamour.

  That was it. The black magic swathed me, trying to drown me with it or bind me.

  I had to break it if I wanted to come out in one piece.

  But how?

  Sweat beaded on my skin. I didn’t know how.

  My own glamour magic that I used to conceal my chamber was different to this. I was naturally born with it. I didn’t exactly know how to break other powerful glamour, since I had no training in any Fae magic.

  In my panic, a light floated up from my depth. I hadn’t known that I had the light, but I was about to lose myself and everything to the dark, alien glamour, and somehow the light in me wouldn’t allow it.

  Face your pain, a voice chimed in my head.

  I’ve faced it for centuries, I sneered.

  Then use it.

  I tried to change to the Furies, but I forgot how. So, I bit my inner lip to conjure pain until it throbbed in my mouth, and my tongue tasted rich, rustic blood.

  The sting cleared my mind for a moment. My potent blood rang with magic, prying away the glamour that clenched my consciousness like iron claws.

  I threw my hands up and flung my light at the essence of evil where it was the darkest and thickest. Though I couldn’t see it, I could feel it. I didn’t know if it would work, but I prayed it would.

  My light rippled out like a ring of fire.

  The evil withdrew from the hall, faster than the arrow of shadow before my light crushed it.

  It was gone.

  My past, my suffering, and my hope rushed back to me.

  I remembered everything.

  I’d come to meet Elvey in my jungle, and then we’d kissed. I’d burned with lust for him. That was when he brought me to this realm that I didn’t even know if it was real. But he’d said it was our future.

  I thought I could trust him, but he’d enthralled me.

  I looked around the magnificent hall, while pain and rage coursed through me, diminishing the lust in my veins and the fog in my head.

  Violin rose again, flowing in the air.

  It was just Elvey and me in the hall half-enclosed by an enchanting forest.

  Elvey spun me with a triple-twirl. “Everything is fine now,” he whispered in my ear. “We can stay here forever. We never need to go back. Your misery is in the past; the curse can’t touch you here. You can stay in this lovely form of yours forever, and this realm will be yours. You can have me for eternity, and I you. From this day on, I give you my fealty, and my existence is to cherish you and pleasure you beyond measure.”

  I could hear the rest of his promises.

  It would be like I’d never been cursed. It would be like I’d never suffered centuries of misery and scars. I could wipe them all clean by staying here with Elvey, and he’d give me everything I ever wanted.

  But what about Rai, Blaze, and Iokul? They’d be stuck on Pandemonium. And what about Sybil, Henry, and the rest of my monsters, who I’d vowed never to abandon?

  “They’ll understand,” Elvey coaxed, his voice velvet rich. “You need to take care of yourself first. And let me take care of you.”

  Rage battered me. “Who do you think I am? I, Daisy Danaenyth, don’t take the coward’s way out! I do not erase my past, either, no matter ho
w painful it was. And I’ll never leave behind those who I care about.”

  As soon as I shoved Elvey away, I broke our connection.

  I was instantly back in the jungle, exactly where I had been before. I hadn’t moved an inch, and Elvey had never come to me.

  He stood a good seven yards away.

  The whole scene of kissing him and dancing with him had happened only in my mind, but it had felt more real than anything. His delicious taste, intoxicating scent, and the scorching feel of his touch still lingered.

  I licked my lips—they were full and aching.

  He’d bewitched me, and if I hadn’t broken the spell, I’d have been his mindless slave. I had been a slave long enough, and I would be no one’s bitch again.

  I’d shown my enemy my vulnerability.

  I stared at Elvey, fire and ice storming in my eyes, and snarled, “How dare you!”

  It would take time for me to change to my three Furies to toast him with my black fire and then bite him in two. I lunged at him and slammed my hands onto his chest with all I had. I might not have my Fury beast’s monstrous force, but my Fae strength was strong enough to break and kill an ordinary man.

  I’d expected Elvey to block me, but he didn’t.

  I was incredibly fast. Even if I wanted to withdraw or lessen the impact of my hit, it was already too late.

  My force sent Elvey flying several yards backwards until he crashed onto the vast trunk of a black tree and slumped to the ground, the black blossoms dangling above with shivers.

  I only got angrier that he hadn’t defended himself.

  A trail of blood dripped from the corner of his mouth, and my heart jerked achingly at the sight of him being hurt. After all he’d done to me, after he’d almost enslaved me, why did I still care for him?

  Beasts howled nearby at the scent of fresh blood, and I put a mental leash on them and warned them away.

  “You did well, Daisy,” he said, giving me a small smile that held no grudge. He sat straight against the tree, pulled out a silk handkerchief, and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth before he put the handkerchief back in his pocket.

  All I wanted was to go to him and soothe his hurt.

  But I stood where I was, trembling.

  “I’m not hurt much,” he said, giving me another guileless smile. “And I deserved it.” Weariness left his star-blue eyes as a light of hope and pride glistened in their depth. “You passed the test without any training. No one has ever seen through my glamour before as you did.”