by Ophelia Bell
“Shh. I know. It’s just one of the guys. Do you want to put something on before you meet him? I can tell him to wait.”
He kept stroking me, one finger lightly toying with my clit now. I didn’t want him to stop for anything. In fact, I desperately needed him not to stop. But my heartbeat raced as the steps moved higher up the stairs to the second floor. This was one of the five men Gray hoped I’d hit it off with, who might share me with him. Was I ready for this? Was he?
“He’s like you, right? A dragon?”
The footsteps paused somewhere beyond the doorway, at the top of the stairs, I guessed. I sensed he was waiting out there for me to agree to see him. But I wasn’t exactly in the right state of mind to entertain a guest.
“Yes. He’s here for you, April. To help you, to service you. And if you want him, to be even more.”
I squirmed, desperate for more, but he kept his touch restricted to my clit and my nipples. “If I say yes, will you hurry up and fuck me?”
Gray huffed a laugh against my neck. “I was going to fuck you anyway, but I think you’ll enjoy it more if he’s here. We’re nothing if not dedicated to pleasing our partners. You need this more than we do.”
“I want to see him now.” The words came out before I realized it. I couldn’t believe I was turning into that kind of girl, who was so desperate she’d invite a stranger to watch her get fucked. But then Gray wasn’t much more than a stranger, was he? What difference did it make who this new arrival was as long as Gray trusted him and he was willing to help?
The footsteps resumed. Through the open bedroom door, I caught a glimpse of a tall frame and the side of a pale, muscular shoulder with wet, dark blond hair brushing the top of it. He came fully into view several feet down the hall, and my breath caught. He was completely naked, as tall as Gray, and just as lean with smooth, rippling muscles completely devoid of body hair. But instead of dark hair and skin, he was fair with blue eyes, and he had a faint line of a scar that slashed across his chest just beneath his collarbone.
“That’s Murdoc,” Gray whispered when his friend paused in the doorway and waited. His blue eyes flashed with white fire for a second, and he licked his lips. His nostrils flared as he took me in, gaze fixing briefly where Gray’s fingers teased between my legs before his eyes lifted and met mine again.
Slowly, he dropped to one knee and bowed his head.
“I am at your service, mistress,” he said in a low, rumbly voice. Between his legs, his cock stiffened, stretching thick and long against his thigh.
“I changed my mind,” I said, my body heating with a fresh wave of pure, wild need.
Gray’s voice quavered slightly, his disappointment unmistakable. “Oh.”
“I want him to fuck me. Now.”
Murdoc’s head snapped up, his eyes blazing. Gray barked out a laugh. “In that case… Murdoc, get your ass over here.”
Murdoc rose to his feet with a wicked grin and stalked close, closing the distance in only a couple strides until he hovered over me. When he was close enough to feel the heat of his wet, naked body, I knew with utter certainty that Gray had been right. I felt the same connection, the same sense of unmistakable rightness about being near him.
He slipped a big hand behind my neck, tilting my head back so I was staring straight into his sky-blue eyes. “Tell me again, my sweet little morsel. Tell me what you want me to do.” He dipped lower until our foreheads met, and his lips brushed feather-light against mine.
His proximity stole my breath even more than Gray’s gentle, almost distracted strokes.
“Please fuck me,” I begged. His mouth spread into a delighted smile, and I felt his aura expand with pure happiness. Then his mouth was on mine, tongue pushing in, and he fell to his knees, hands gripping my thighs and hauling them up and around his waist.
His cock was incongruously hot when it rubbed against my folds. I bucked into him involuntarily, and he chuckled into the kiss, but he didn’t waste time with teasing. He shoved in hard and fast, grunting into my mouth, then releasing an agonized moan as he paused and held me tight against his hips.
Gray’s warm, solid body bracketed me from behind, his hands still holding my breasts, thumbs lightly teasing my nipples. Murdoc released my mouth with a sigh, pressed his forehead against mine again, and held perfectly still, his breathing shallow and fast.
“Sweet Mother, you are perfect.”
I hooked one hand behind his neck and with the other reached back and grabbed hold of Gray’s neck for leverage, lifting my hips to take Murdoc as deep as I could. His eyes flew open, and another half-smile pulled at the corner of his mouth.
“You are a hungry little thing, aren’t you?”
“Just fuck me already.”
In a smooth motion, he slipped his arms around me and stood, then turned and planted himself on the edge of the bed beside Gray. I sank down fully onto his cock with a gasp.
“Take what you need, sweet thing.”
My body was already moving, desperate to quench the ache. I combed my fingers through his wet hair as I rocked my hips, then pulled him into a savage kiss. He squeezed my ass with both hands, his grip slowing me and urging me into a steadier rhythm that he met with hard thrusts of his hips.
Beside us, Gray leaned close, lips grazing my throat, one hand stroking my back from neck to ass. He dipped his head down, and Murdoc leaned back to make room, lying flat on the bed as Gray took one nipple into his mouth and sucked. Murdoc kept hold of my hips, dictating the rhythm of our fucking. His thick shaft rubbed so perfectly against my sensitive channel I gave in and closed my eyes, surrendering to his control and to Gray’s hungry, sucking mouth.
When Gray slipped one hand between my thighs to tease my clit, my need ratcheted up. Then he teased his other hand down my ass crack, testing my limits with seeking fingers. I let out an incoherent moan and threw my head back, unable to tell him yes but hoping he was reading my mind as always. The second he sank a finger into my ass, I lost it, my orgasm blasting through me hard enough to see stars.
Murdoc sat up, capturing my mouth in another kiss, then Gray was there, offering his mouth next. I kissed them both as I rode out the pleasure with Murdoc’s cock pulsing in my pussy and Gray’s finger pumping into my ass.
When it began to fade, Gray held my gaze, watching intently. Murdoc lay back again, breathing hard and staring up at me with an awestruck grin.
“That was an unexpected greeting,” he said. “Your power tastes like a female ursa in estrous, but you aren’t ursa—your aura’s got too much dragon. What the hell are you, sweet thing?”
I was panting too hard to give a clear answer but tried anyway. “I—I guess I’m a bit of both?”
He glanced at Gray, but Gray refused to take his eyes off me. “I think she’s another Chimera.”
Murdoc’s brows shot up, and he stared at me again. “You mean like Deva? But surely she has a soul.”
“It was Deva’s breeding that made her what she is, not her lack of a soul. Can’t you taste the ursa and dragon power together in her? How strong it is?”
Murdoc cupped the back of my head again and leaned in, nuzzling my neck then giving it a light lick. “Mmm. It’s coming out of her pores.”
“I’m right here,” I said, pushing gently at Murdoc’s chest. “Gray thinks I’m in estrous. Like an ursa female. Except I’m Bloodline.”
He pulled back and looked into my eyes. “You were what Gray meant by a convergence of earth and fire. You’re the thing Chaos is after.”
“First, I’m a woman, not a thing. And second, it isn’t like I chose to be what I am. This is all new to me. I don’t even know why I’m interesting enough to have a person like Chaos after me. Or what a Chimera is, for that matter.”
I slipped off his lap and stood, ignoring the odd pull of some invisible force that seemed to stretch between us when I moved away. Pausing a couple feet away, I closed my eyes to try to get my bearings and to marvel at the sensation of connection I had w
ith both these men. Strange as it was, I liked it, and would gladly surrender to its tug, but as long as my body was behaving enough to allow me some semblance of control, I intended to take advantage of it.
“Not a lot is known about the nature of Chimerae,” Murdoc said, sitting up and leaning his elbows on his knees. “Deva Rainsong’s the first one the higher races have encountered, at least in recent history, and recent for us goes back around five thousand years. What we do know is that they are likely a product of hybridization due to mixing the right ratio of human blood with that of the higher races. Deva was human when she was conceived, but she carries the perfect mix of all four higher races’ DNA to display powers from each of them. If you’re indeed in estrous, that’s enough evidence of strong ursa magic. Have you seen evidence of other power?”
Gray huffed. “You could say that. Show him your aura sight, April.”
This time when I shifted my vision, it happened almost effortlessly. Murdoc’s aura sprang into view, a slightly golden halo around his shape compared to Gray’s more silver-blue. Then, with a little more effort, I projected a thought at him.
“Test your fire on me, cutie. I can take it.”
I stepped close and held up a hand a few inches in front of his mouth. He took hold of it gently with both hands, pressed a kiss to my palm, and shook his head. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I know you have the power to heal. If you succeed in burning me, you can fix it. Try me.”
He shot a look at Gray, who smiled and nodded. “She’s immune to normal fire. I’d like to see what happens with dragon fire.”
Murdoc caressed my palm, drawing a circle in the center with his thumb, then pursed his lips. A tiny flicker of white fire shot out, intense heat tickling the center of my hand. The sensation was more surprising than painful, and I snapped my hand closed and pulled back, holding my closed fist to my chest. Murdoc shot to his feet, reaching for me.
“I’m sorry! Let me see how bad it is. I can fix it.”
The heat persisted within my fist, so intense it should have hurt, but really only tingled and throbbed like I’d grabbed hold of a living creature with its own intense inner heat. Perplexed by the sensation, I raised my hand again and slowly opened it.
“Sweet fuck,” Murdoc said when a single flame danced atop my palm, flickering joyfully as if happy to be granted air again. I stared, wide-eyed, not sure what the hell this meant.
Gray laughed, a loud, joyful peal that made the fire creature on my palm dance faster. He jumped up and slipped an arm around my back, resting his chin on my shoulder to watch the show. “Tell me she isn’t impressive,” he said, shooting a challenging look at Murdoc. He lifted a hand and touched the flame with his index finger. It curled around his fingertip, then disappeared into his skin.
“How did I do that?” I asked, still staring dumbfounded at my open hand.
“I have no idea,” Gray said, urging me back to the bed where he sat me down beside him. “Murdoc, do you have any thoughts? Dragon fire’s a pretty powerful thing, but I’ve never seen it behave that way. As if you gave it life.”
Murdoc clapped his hands. “That’s it. It has to be. If you’re experiencing a true ursa estrous, that means you’re overflowing with power from the Source. The power of life. It comes from Gaia herself and controls the cycle of the seasons. Somehow you must have channeled it to give life of a sort to the fire I provided. I’d love to see what you can do with true living things.”
I absently rested my hands over my lower abdomen, revisiting the sense of fullness that kept increasing ever since I’d climaxed. But in the moment the flame danced on my palm, that swelling sensation had ebbed. After hours of sex with Gray in the dark of early morning, I’d recognized the pattern of sensations: the swelling pressure grew until it became unbearable, sometimes too fast to let me think, then he would fuck me into a stupor until the sheer quantity of orgasms finally depleted that building energy. But the second we stopped, it always started to build again.
“What are you thinking, sweet thing?” Murdoc asked, touching my chin with a finger. I looked up into his blue eyes, relaxing with a smile at how tender his gaze was.
“Just stopping to enjoy the relief. I feel like I can breathe for the first time since this started last night. Thank you.”
“I don’t think it was me,” he said, gesturing to my hand. “Offloading the power the way you did probably relieved more of the building magic than fucking did. That isn’t to say I wouldn’t readily service you again if the need arises.” He grinned, and my cheeks flushed at the suggestive glint in his eyes.
“That makes sense. But what really doesn’t make sense is why I’m only just discovering this now. I’ve worked in a glass studio for years, and trust me, I know what it feels like to get burned if I’m not careful. Why am I immune all of a sudden if I wasn’t before?”
The pair of them exchanged a look, and I had a feeling they had a silent mental conversation before Gray turned back to me. “The power you have wasn’t active at all until about two years ago. It likely would have been too weak to notice at first, and simply strengthened over time. So it’s not a surprise that it’s taken a while for it to become strong enough to notice.”
“It’s also possible it took a night with one of us to truly awaken it,” Murdoc added.
“Do you think it’ll get stronger? Am I in for any other crazy surprises like this? I’d have loved a little warning about all of this, you know. Not that I don’t love all the amazing sex. I just have an aversion to being that out of control.”
“It’s possible, but time will tell. We’ll be with you every step, if you’ll have us,” Murdoc said.
I sighed and squeezed his hand. “Thank you. I appreciate it even though I’m guessing I might not have a choice.”
“Either way, we should take advantage of the lull to feed you,” Gray said. “And, Murdoc, is there any chance you brought a cell phone? I don’t want to call from the landline, but we need supplies, and if the others are on their way, I want to have them stock up before they cross the water.”
15
April
The bedroom closet was filled with women’s clothes, and when I walked in, I was bombarded with memories from childhood of hiding in here among all the soft things. A faint jasmine scent was almost entirely overpowered by all the cedar, but I could still smell the floral hint. It evoked images of my mother’s lovely face before she disappeared from our lives and we had to move away. I stood unmoving in the center of the room, surrounded by racks of clothes, not sure if I could bring myself to wear any of it. But I didn’t have my own, and I didn’t want to ask Gray or Murdoc to dress me every day. They’d probably appreciate some real clothes too, and I thought some of Dad’s old things might still be around here somewhere.
Diverting my attention to a search for men’s clothes, I shifted focus, scanning the racks of delicate fabrics and pretty, feminine prints until I spied the denim and plaid shoved back to one corner. Dad wasn’t a small guy, but I still wasn’t sure if his things would fit my two new friends. It was better than nothing though.
I pulled out a couple pairs of jeans and flannel shirts, found socks and underwear to add to the stack, and set them on the bureau outside the closet. Then I chose jeans, a tank top, and a pastel flannel from my mother’s things, stomach fluttering at the idea of putting them on.
The men’s voices carried up from downstairs, along with the delicious aroma of roasting meat and baking bread. I’d have been enamored of those two just by their bedroom skills alone, but discovering they could cook practically sent my head into the clouds. I got dressed and wrangled my crazy hair into a thick braid, then headed downstairs with my offerings held in my arms.
Both men looked up with welcoming smiles when I reached the kitchen, their sheer beauty nearly knocking me back.
“Christ, men should not be allowed to be as pretty as you two.” I set the clothes on the end of the counter and pinched myself. “Nope, n
ot dreaming.”
Murdoc laughed. “I wouldn’t think being forced into hiding would factor into a good dream if this was one.”
“Dreams have never been logical for me. You never know. Anyway, here’s some clothes that might fit on the off chance you guys get tired of making your own. Dad liked oversized things so…” I shrugged, shoving the stack toward them.
“Thanks, April,” Gray said, coming around the counter to give me a sideways hug and a kiss on my forehead. Murdoc gave me a squeeze from the other side, making a soft noise of approval.
Both were wearing nothing more than conjured pajama pants that resembled white silk, but the second they reached for the clothes, their pants seemed to melt away entirely.
Confronted with the sight of them in all their glory took my breath away, and the subdued ache in my womb flared and twinged. I stumbled back with a sharp breath. “Okay, I think I need you guys to not be naked as much as possible. I mean, as much as I’d love to let you ravish me nonstop, I also need to feel like a thinking human being on occasion and not just a hole to be filled, and those…” I waved my hands at their groins, “…those definitely don’t leave room for rational thought.”
“Got it! Sorry,” Murdoc said with a sheepish smile, grabbing a pair of boxers and shoving Gray behind the counter.
I let out a sigh of relief. “I’ve never exactly been a nympho, but you two kind of bring it out of me, I guess.”
“You aren’t a nympho,” Murdoc said, slipping into one of the flannel shirts and buttoning it up over his broad chest. The shirt and jeans just barely fit them both and left little to the imagination, but at least they were covered.
“What else would you call this constant need?”
Gray peeked into the oven, letting out a waft of warm, bread-scented air that made my stomach growl. He glanced back over his shoulder, then stood. “What he means is that nymphomania is a real thing, but one that only afflicts actual nymphs. You’re a mix of ursa and dragon, so what’s going on with you really is just an ursa estrous. If you were a nymph, it would mean you were pining for a lost love, but for ursa, it’s just a normal part of your fertility cycle. Nothing to do but service you through it.”