by Ophelia Bell
Gavra chuckled. “I think it’s her turn.”
Silas’s roaming fingers teased lower down her bare mound, his thumbs sliding into her cleft and parting her. He pushed the hood of her clit back, exposing her tight, pulsing nub to his gaze, then dipped his head and gently teased his tongue along the underside.
Assana’s core flooded with heat and she rested a hand on his head, her fingers clawing into the wet tendrils of hair. She lifted her legs, placing her heels on the edge of the tub and letting her knees splay wide to open for his mouth.
Silas let out a murmur of appreciation and leaned back, eyes fixed on her.
“You’re soaked and you weren’t even in the water.”
Gavra loomed closer, tossing the cloth away from his cock that now glistened clean and wet and still hard. He gripped Silas by the shoulder, moving him to the side.
“I need a taste of her before I go. Just one more …”
Silas gave him a worried frown. “It’s almost sunrise. You need to get out of here before someone sees you.”
But Gavra was already kneeling between her thighs, clutching the backs of her legs with both hands and covering her aching snatch with his mouth. He tongued her clit, then delved that tongue she loved so much deep into her channel, teasing back and forth along the sensitive nerves just inside.
Assana’s breathing quickened and she leaned back on her elbows, dizzy from the pleasure. Silas stood back and watched, waiting his turn for another taste of her. Her ecstasy built higher and higher, but Gavra seemed to sense when she was at the edge because he stopped abruptly and pulled back with a growl.
“I need to be inside you so fucking bad,” he said. He bent to kiss her, wrapping his arms around her. He hauled her close, scooping her against his chest and sliding beneath her in one fluid motion. She rested sideways on his lap at first, her hip tight against his thick, jutting shaft as their tongues tangled.
He took her breath away with his kiss, his touch, his free hand deftly toying with her nipples before drifting lower to delve between her thighs and push them apart again so he could reach her juicy core. She eagerly parted for him, her hips tilting up into his touch.
“Spread your legs and let me in,” Gavra murmured into her ear. She did as he asked, bracing a hand on his shoulder and shifting her backside so that she straddled his lap with her back to his chest. She propped her feet on the edge of the pool again and lifted up into a low squat until the tip of his cock brushed against her opening.
The pleasure of his thick length sliding in was unbearably good, and she let out a long moan as he filled her. She leaned back, reaching up behind her with both hands to grasp at his shoulders for leverage as she began to fuck him, pushing up and down with her feet flat on the wet stone.
Silas moved back in, slipping between Gavra’s thighs and lowering himself. He tongued the dragon’s balls, his gaze fixed on her moving pussy. Gavra wrapped an arm around her midsection and tightened his hold when she was on an upswing, eager to slam back down and feel the tight push of his cockhead against her insides.
“Slow down, Assana. Let Silas have a taste of you. I’ve got you. Let me do the moving for a few.”
She held on, starving for more of them both, but trusting them to give her what she needed. Gavra continued to hold her against his chest with one arm while he braced himself with his other and shoved his cock hard up into her. As she remained poised there, open and ready for his penetrating thrusts, Silas bent again and teased his tongue along the soaked folds, starting where the dragon’s thick shaft was buried inside her.
He licked and sucked and teased her mercilessly, working her into a frenzy with his talented tongue, while Gavra buried himself in her as deep as he could go.
She was nearly outside herself with pleasure, able to experience every angle through her connections with their minds, but much preferring her own exquisite experience of the pleasure they gave her. Her mark flashed neon with her wish to have the dragon’s seed shoot into her and take root. Below her, Silas’s own huge mark lit the entire room with a red glow that rivaled the encroaching sunrise.
“No holding back, baby,” Gavra said. “Come for me. Come when I do. Let me hear you scream.”
Her voice was already hoarse from her cries of pleasure, but it rose at his command and she yelled his name when Silas’s tongue and the delicious stretching push of Gavra’s cock sent her over the edge. Gavra let out a roar of bliss that shook the entire room, and then his molten semen filled her. He kept thrusting into her for several moments, the flood of his orgasm continuing and her own climax still shuddering through her in wave after wave.
Finally, Gavra’s hold eased and Assana’s legs gave out. She sank onto his lap with his cock still solidly buried inside her and simply let him hold her. Between her thighs, Silas shifted and pushed his big arms around them both, then rested his cheek against her thigh with a shaky, satisfied sigh.
Assana stroked Silas’s head while her own rested back on Gavra’s shoulder. The dawn-lit interior of her bath glowed warmly with the pulsing magic of their marks. She’d never been so fully content and happy in her life than she was in that moment, with one mate deep inside her and the other on his knees before her, rumbling in utter satisfaction while she petted him.
“I love you both so much,” she whispered, and they responded each with a gentle kiss on the closest bit of her skin they could reach—Gavra’s lips on her shoulder and Silas’s to her inner thigh.
Her serenity was interrupted by a loud crash and an expletive in an all too familiar, angry voice.
“How could you!”
The yell pierced their comfortable afterglow with the force of a cyclone. Assana’s head shot up and she was suddenly aware of the churning of the water in her tub and the shaking rumble of the earth beneath her. Both men looked toward the doorway, Silas craning his head around to see.
Her mother advanced on them, her primal form even larger than Assana remembered. Her huge, antlered head grazed the ceiling and her eyes were a maelstrom of rage. She carried a pair of objects that Assana vaguely recognized, but didn’t have time to fully register what they were before her mother dropped them and raised her hands. She made a swift waving motion and Silas was lifted bodily out of the water and tossed to the side like a bag of wet sand.
“Mother, no! He’s done nothing wrong!”
Her mother didn’t seem to see her, though, and only raised her hands again. Assana felt her own body being lifted as though a strong current had captured her, and a second later she was tossed to the other wall, hitting hard and smacking her head with a crack that left her dazed and struggling to find her bearings.
“I should have known you and your siblings were all alike. You are thieves! You come into my home and do nothing but steal everything of value. You are no different than the other dragons, and for that you will pay!”
Assana struggled to sit, raising a hand to her mother to try to reason, but the room spun and vertigo forced her to clench her eyes shut with only a faintly muttered plea falling from her lips. Gavra stood at the edge of the bath, imposing at his full height and seeming to grow larger before her eyes.
“Your daughter was promised to me by Fate centuries ago, as was Silas. There was never anything you could do to stop our mating, Nyx. Give it up.”
Huge, crimson horns grazed the ceiling above his head and ruby scales shone all over his wet skin. Assana could only watch in awe as he grew even larger. She’d seen his sister in full dragon form, but had yet to see Gavra take that shape.
Nyx howled at him in fury. “You made me a promise, dragon! How easily you betray those who trust you. How long until you do the same to Assana? Does she know how much your kind lie to get what you want? You are here for only one reason, and I will not let you renege on your promise!”
She lifted her hands again and rotated them around each other, fingers swirli
ng in the air. The water in the bath churned higher and higher, twisting into a writhing column that split and shot out, coils of it wrapping around Gavra’s ankles and yanking. His massive body slid an inch toward the edge of the pool, but he grew even larger and his horns dug into the ceiling above him, halting Nyx’s efforts to pull him off balance.
“I was a fool to trust you, but never again!” she yelled, redoubling her efforts. Vines shot down from the ceiling above, wrapping themselves around Gavra’s horns and extending, coiling tight around his neck and shoulders.
Gavra let out an enraged snarl and grew larger still. Huge red wings erupted from his back, the sharp talons at the tips spiking into the floor and digging in. The rest of his body morphed, his horned head doubling, then tripling in size as it elongated. He reared back and his horns pierced through the wooden slats of the ceiling, splintering the wood and vines until light shone through.
“You have interfered with the balance of our alliance long enough, Nyx!” he bellowed. “I won’t allow you to continue with this fool plan of yours.”
“There is no power strong enough to stop me, dragon!”
Gavra roared and clawed at the air in front of him, advancing on Nyx until his entire huge body spanned the width of the bathing pool and his tail snapped out behind him, shattering the wall of glass that enclosed Assana’s quarters. The rush of the nearby waterfalls filled the now destroyed space, but it was nothing compared to the ruckus of conflict before her.
Silas regained his footing on the opposite side and stood back, watching the fight unfold. His fists opened and closed and Assana could sense his need to act, to do something, but she knew there was nothing either of them could do to subdue her mother.
Gavra inhaled and let out another loud roar, staring her mother down with wild red eyes. He opened his jaw and a stream of glittering opaque red streamed out, coiling around Nyx like a snake. Some of it flooded into her nose and mouth while she struggled in its grasp, coughing and writhing.
Was that going to be enough? Assana sat up, holding a palm to her temple and watching—hoping—that Gavra’s power would be able to neutralize her mother’s rage.
Nyx’s eyes flashed wide with panic for a second before her struggling arms broke free of the smoke and she clapped her hands together.
With a series of loud pops, several new figures appeared in the wreckage of the room. A dozen pairs of hands now waved in the air and vines erupted from high and low, tangling around Gavra’s winged shape. He turned his head, snapping his huge jaws at the Thiasoi maidens. Watery barriers shimmered around them, blocking his attacks.
He inhaled sharply and breathed flames at them, but the shields held. The vines tightened, constricting around his body.
“No! Mother, you’re hurting him!” Assana jumped up and threw her own power into the mix, sending a collection of vines up from the floor to push the binding ones away from Gavra’s chest, but she wasn’t strong enough to break them. Before her eyes, the vines she’d summoned only added to the tightening mass that twisted around Gavra’s huge, scaled body.
Silas ran to her and stood behind her, twined his fingers in hers and said, “Take my power, try again.”
He gave his energy to her through the center of his palms but as much as she tried, she couldn’t increase the power of her own magic enough to tear the vines away. They only constricted more and more, tightening around Gavra’s neck until he let out a hoarse, strangled sound.
Gavra finally relented, his contorted wings drew in, disappeared, and his body shrank again. When he was just the shape of a large man bound in vines and kneeling at Nyx’s feet, he choked out, “You will never have me. I do not belong to you.”
Keening in rage, Nyx snapped her arm to the side and the vines flung Gavra across the room, flattened him to the bed, and tightened in several criss-crossing bands to hold him down. Several pairs of hands grabbed at Assana and Silas, tearing them apart.
Assana yelled a protest, but could only watch in despair as her Thiasoi sisters proceeded to lash Silas to a bare post on the opposite side of her ruined quarters while the others did the same to her.
Try as she might, she couldn’t break free, nor would her magic affect the bindings that held her in place.
Gavra strained as hard at his own bonds. Nyx stood at the foot of the bed, staring down at him while her mindless thralls stood at her back.
“You will serve your purpose tonight, dragon. As soon as I complete the blood melding with my maidens, they will have their way with you.” Then she turned to Silas. “As for your precious Sanctuary, you can say goodbye to it. None of you are ever leaving the Haven again. The Source is being severed from the outside world. I cannot trust anyone who doesn’t owe their lives to the Haven.”
“No!” Silas yelled, his muscles straining ineffectually at his bindings. He rocked his entire huge body, nearly succeeding in cracking the post he was tied to, but a flick of Nyx’s wrist had him so thoroughly bound in even more vines, he could no longer twitch more than enough to draw breath.
Within another blink, Nyx and her soldiers drifted out, leaving nothing but a cloud of dust in their wake.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Gavra
Gavra bucked against the net of vegetation holding him down, but no amount of fire, breath, or sheer force of will worked. He attempted to shift again, but the vines just cut deep into his flesh without any give. He gave up with a snarl, throwing his head back against Assana’s pillows.
Earth magic. Fucking earth magic was what had trapped him to begin with, the nymphs having just as solid mastery of it as the ursa did. His fire was no match for the power Nyx had unleashed with the blood melded aid of her soldiers.
But Assana and Silas might be able to break it … They’d been able to penetrate the barrier of his cell in the Sanctuary, at any rate.
“Silas! Can you get free? We have to get out and stop her before she cuts off the Source for good!”
A muffled roar reached his ears from the east side of the room, but he couldn’t turn his head far enough to see what state Silas was in. It sounded like the ursa was buried in rubble.
He closed his eyes, focused his mind, and let his consciousness sink down into the depths of their shared space.
“Show me how you’re bound,” he said.
“Fucking all over,” Silas said. “Can’t move a goddamn muscle over here.”
“Assana?” Gavra asked. “Can you unravel the vines?”
“No,” she huffed. “Mother’s magic is too strong for me too. We have to get out. She’s going to destroy my sisters’ minds if she continues. Did you see their eyes before? They were bloodshot.”
“It won’t matter if she manages to follow through. We’ll all be trapped here,” Silas said.
“Think!” Gavra commanded. “There has to be a way out of this.”
Assana’s figure shimmered in his mind, her shape no more than an apparition made up of her glowing energy. It was like looking at an aura with the perfect outline of the woman he loved, right down to the anxious look on her face.
She stared back at them both, one at a time, her sequence of thoughts and emotions tripping over each other like her rapid heartbeats. Slowly her aura changed, along with her expression. Within those moments, Gavra witnessed her power blossom, growing and unfurling with each decisive conclusion she made.
With their minds melded, they had the deepest understanding of each other’s potential—the extent of his power was as naked to them as theirs was to him, and Assana must have been able to see everything as clearly as he did. More clearly, judging by the way her gaze grew laser-focused on Silas. Gavra directed his attention to the ursa’s presence in his mind and saw what Assana did. Silas’s deep green energy had tendrils of power that extended from his hands and feet, and a steady flow of magic coursed through from some outside source.
Assana
spoke in a clear, strong voice that echoed through the room around them as well as inside their minds.
“Silas, you have the power to break us free if you just focus. Gaia’s magic is what binds us now. I’ve seen how you siphon that energy from me when we make love—I feel how it travels through me. I think … no, I know you can absorb the magic in the vines that bind you, if you try.”
Silas’s image pulsed with recognition inside Gavra’s mind, but hesitated. “I don’t know if I can hold more than I have already.”
“Give back to her if you have to,” Assana said. “You can redirect it, can’t you? Like you did that first time you helped me.”
Silas closed his eyes, his brows drawing together in concentration. His body pulsed with ever-growing power as Gavra watched. Slowly the ursa’s feet grew thicker, the tendrils that flowed from him hardening then sinking into the ground like roots.
The magic that bound him was slowly absorbed the way the growing rings of a tree in the forest will absorb any object bound too close. Bit by bit, the constricting vines dissolved into his body until they disappeared completely.
Gavra still wasn’t able to turn his head to see what was happening, but the creaking sounds that filled the room from the direction Silas had been held were evidence that it had worked.
“I’ve got you,” Silas said, his voice now coming from the side Assana was on. Then the pair of them hovered over Gavra’s face, Assana pressing a kiss to his lips while Silas gripped the vines that held him and they disappeared.
As soon as his upper body was free, Gavra sat up and watched in wonder as Silas gripped the rest of the vines and they seemed to flow into Silas’s limbs as though they’d always belonged there.
Assana flung herself into Gavra’s arms.
“I’m so sorry! I was wrong. I know what we need to do, and we need to do it now before it’s too late.”
“What’s that, baby?” Gavra asked. “I still don’t think we’re strong enough even with Silas’s grasp on his skills.”