by Jasmine Walt
He pulled away, and for a moment, Dareena was so furious she thought she might actually attack him. But then he surged into her, burying himself to the hilt, and stars exploded behind Dareena’s eyes as she was catapulted into an orgasm. She screamed his name as she came, barely noticing when he grabbed a fistful of her hair and pounded into her from behind.
“Fuck,” he panted as the sound of flesh slapping against flesh reverberated through the room. “You’re incredible.” He leaned forward and bit her shoulder, sending another shock of pleasure-pain through her. “I don’t care who else you want to fuck,” he growled in her ear as he continued to thrust into her, “when we’re in bed together, you’re mine.”
“Yes,” she agreed, fisting her hands in the coverlet to keep her balance as the bed shook beneath them. Right now, in this moment, there were no other men. There was only Lucyan, and she was giving herself to him. “Yours.”
He groaned loudly into her ear as he spilled himself into her, and Dareena came one more time.
“LUCYAN,” she said much later as they lounged in the bed together, snacking on a platter of cheese and grapes. They’d made love three more times before Dareena had finally begged off, hungry and exhausted. “Do you think there’s something wrong with me?”
Lucyan raised an eyebrow. “If I did, do you think I’d have spent the last three hours buried deep inside you?”
Dareena rolled her eyes and threw a grape at him. “I don’t mean physically,” she said as he grinned at her. “I mean…shouldn’t I feel guilty about sleeping with all three of you? I know my reasons for doing it, and yet…if any woman from the realm saw me now, she would call me a whore. She would say I was cheating.” She swallowed against a sudden lump of dread in her throat.
“But you’re not cheating.” Lucyan wrapped his hand around hers. “You’re not cheating, because all four of us agreed to this, together. I know I let my jealousy get the better of me earlier…but that was less about me being upset with you sleeping with my brothers and more about me being annoyed that Drystan got to do it first.”
Dareena laughed. “Well, you did give me my first orgasm,” she said, plucking another grape and popping it into her mouth. “So you can be proud of that.”
“Did I really?” Lucyan’s eyes lit up with another one of his grins. “Why didn’t you say so in the first place? This entire encounter would have started off much differently.”
Dareena snickered. “You’re incorrigible.”
“Really, though,” Lucyan said, sobering up, “despite my initial reaction, you needn’t feel guilty about sleeping with any of us. We all agreed that we would do whatever it took to win you, and if that means seeing to your needs, the three of us are happy to oblige.”
“Does that mean you really would bring one of your brothers in here if I asked?” Dareena teased.
Lucyan cocked his head. “Is that what you really want?”
Dareena hesitated. “No,” she finally said. “I don’t see the point.” She couldn’t deny that the notion intrigued her, but if she could only choose one of them, it seemed cruel to invite more than one into her bed at a time. They would never be allowed to keep up that arrangement once she was officially mated.
She reached for Lucyan again, and he swept what remained of the cheese platter aside, then rolled on top of her for another bout. There was no point in wishing for what could never be, she decided as he slid inside her once again. She might as well spend that time enjoying what she had.
25
Lucyan and Dareena were happily dozing, snuggled together in her tangled bedsheets, when somebody pounded on the door.
“Oh, for gods’ sake!” Lucyan grumbled loudly, burying his head beneath a pillow. Dareena moaned, pressing her face against his back. “We’re a bit busy here!”
“Well get un-busy,” Drystan called through the door. “This is important!”
“Drystan?” Dareena called sleepily, lifting her head. She looked like sin incarnate, with her long hair mussed, her green eyes lidded, and her lush lips still swollen from his kisses. “What’s going on?”
“Hang on a bloody second,” Lucyan snapped, slipping from the bed. He yanked on his trousers and stormed to the door, then opened it a crack. “You two had your day with Dareena already,” he snarled. “Why are you interrupting mine?”
“Because we need to speak to you both,” Drystan said impatiently, shouldering his way inside. Alistair followed in behind, though at least he had the grace to look apologetic. “Together,” Drystan added.
“Together?” Dareena echoed, her gaze flitting between the three brothers. Lucyan sucked in a breath as he realized she was wearing nothing—the sheet had slipped to her waist, exposing her gorgeous breasts.
“Er.” Drystan cleared his throat. “You may want to toss on a robe, my lady.”
Dareena blushed. “Does my nakedness bother you? I didn’t think it mattered since you all have seen me like this now.”
“If any one of us were alone with you, it wouldn’t,” Alistair said, his gentle tone belying the hunger blazing in his eyes. “But seeing you like this…it’s going to make it very difficult for us to focus on the conversation at hand.”
“Very well.” Dareena pulled the sheet up to her chin, then propped some pillows up against her headboard so she could recline against them. “What is it that is so important you two decided to break the rules?” She arched an eyebrow at them.
Lucyan grinned at the sheepish expressions on his brothers’ faces. His little minx acted as if she were royalty and they were her subjects, rather than the other way around. He had no doubt she would have all three of them wrapped around her finger, if it hadn’t already happened. All three of them would likely do anything to make her happy.
“Alistair and I were sparring earlier today,” Drystan said as he took a seat in one of Dareena’s chairs. “Both of us ended up needing to be seen by the healer.”
“Both of you?” Lucyan rose an eyebrow. “Did you really come here to tell us that the two of you beat the shit out of each other like you do every week?”
“That’s the thing, though,” Alistair said, looking troubled. “At first, I was winning the fight. Drystan could barely hit back, and he looked like he was about to faint. Then suddenly his eyes glowed, and he sent me sailing across the room with a single punch.”
“A single punch?” Dareena gasped. “Do you two normally hit each other that hard?”
“No,” Drystan said grimly. “The three of us are strong, but we have never been capable of such strength before. I cracked two of Alistair’s ribs, and so we called the healer to check both of us out. I was feeling very strange, tired and hot, like an old woman with hot flashes or something.”
“Of all the ways you’ve described yourself, that is certainly a new one,” Lucyan said dryly. “So, what did the healer tell you? That you shouldn’t drink wine before a fight?”
“No,” Drystan snapped. “He told me that dragons suffer similar symptoms right before their first shift.”
The room went dead silent. “Your first shift?” Lucyan demanded. “What are you talking about? None of us are old enough to shift, not until we…”
He trailed off, looking at Dareena.
“What?” Dareena asked, looking worried. “Is it something I’ve done?”
“No, darling.” Lucyan perched next to her on the bed and stroked her hair. “Nothing on purpose. But traditionally, the only way for a male dragon to shift before his fiftieth birthday is if he mates. It is the gods’ way of ensuring that we reproduce in a timely manner, I suspect.”
“If…what?” Dareena’s mouth dropped open, and her gaze snapped to Drystan. “Does that mean the two of us are mates?”
“I…I would like to believe that,” Drystan said, scratching his head. “But the truth is that I don’t know. Now that you’ve bedded all three of us, the same thing could happen to Lucyan and Alistair as well.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense.” Dareen
a bit her lip. “All three of you can’t be my mates. Surely the gods would only make it work for one of you, wouldn’t they?”
“I’m not sure,” Alistair said uneasily. “I’m feeling a bit strange myself. Nothing like Drystan, but my body temperature has risen some.”
Lucyan stared. “And when were you going to mention this?”
“I just did.” Alistair folded his arms. “That’s why Drystan and I insisted on talking to the two of you now.”
“One thing is clear,” Drystan said before the two could launch into an argument. “There is more to Shalia’s Curse than we know. First, three of us were born when there has only ever been one dragon son in the last nine hundred years. Next, Dareena comes along, and somehow, all three of us have managed to stand here in this room with her while she’s naked without tearing each other’s throats out.”
“I had thought about tearing your throat out when you knocked on the door,” Lucyan pointed out.
“Yes, but I’d wager that was more about us interrupting your cuddle time, was it not?” Drystan asked pointedly.
“Face it, Lucyan,” Alistair pointed out. “There is something very odd about all of this.”
“You said there is more to Shalia’s Curse than you know,” Dareena said, drawing their attention back to her. “Might we find out more if we take a trip down to the library? Perhaps there are some old scrolls or texts that could illuminate things for us.”
Lucyan nodded. “That is an excellent idea,” he said. “We’ll start tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” Drystan planted his hands on his hips. “Why not now?”
“You two are certainly welcome to get a head start,” Lucyan said, opening the door. “But it is still my day with Dareena, and unless the lady wishes to go down to the library, I plan on staying right here with her.”
The three brothers turned toward Dareena as one. “Well?” Drystan demanded. “Are you coming?”
Dareena bit her lip as she looked between them. “I do love visiting the library,” she finally said, her gaze resting on Lucyan. “But I made love to your brothers multiple times during their days. To truly test this theory Drystan brought up, it seems that we need to go at least a few more rounds.” She arched her back, and the sheet slid down her body again, baring her torso.
All three brothers sucked in a sharp breath.
“You heard the lady,” Lucyan said, grabbing Drystan by the elbow. “Away with you.” He shoved his protesting brothers out the door, then locked it behind him. True, he might not be jealous that they were eyeing Dareena as if she were their favorite candy, but that didn’t mean he wanted an audience while he fucked her.
“Now,” he said, turning back to face Dareena. She reclined against the pillows, a broad smile on her face as he joined her back on the bed. “Where would you like to begin?”
26
Dareena and the princes spent the next week down in the archives, poring through manuscripts and scrolls for anything that might hint of a way to break the dragon curse. They couldn’t stay down there the whole time—the princes had their own duties to attend to, and it would have looked suspicious if they were always down in the library—but they came whenever they could do so safely, and with the princes to help her, Dareena rapidly improved her ability to read dragon runes.
It turned out that Lucyan was right about Dareena’s sexual appetites. Though they tried their best not to spend all their time having sex, Dareena found herself on her back with her skirts rolled up at least once a day—sometimes in the library itself, other times in bed, and once even in the stables after she and Alistair had come back from riding. Now that everything was out in the open between them, making love with the brothers was as natural to Dareena as breathing. And the brothers didn’t seem to mind sharing, though she’d yet to bed more than one at a time.
“I found something interesting here,” she told the brothers as they sat in the library together. “Something that concerns the three of you.”
“Oh?” Lucyan lifted an eyebrow. “And what might that be?”
“There’s a passage here,” she said, tapping the page of the book she had open, “that talks of King Lyrion, one of the early dragon kings. He was only thirty years old when he took the throne, but he was already a full-fledged dragon?”
“He could shift?” Alistair asked, astonished. The brothers all leaned over her shoulder to peer at the manuscript. “But how?”
“It turns out that mating with his Dragon’s Gift unlocked his ability to change into dragon form,” Dareena said with a sly smile. “It didn’t happen instantly, as he was mated to her for a few years before his father passed, but he was able to shift.”
“I wonder if it has anything to do with how often we make love,” Lucyan said, giving her his familiar eyebrow waggle. “Perhaps we should be tossing up your skirts more regularly, my little minx?”
The other brothers rolled their eyes as Dareena giggled. But none of them growled when she leaned in and took Lucyan’s mouth in a steamy kiss. “Perhaps we shall,” she suggested, trailing a finger down his chest. His nostrils flared, and she knew that he would take her right here in the library if she asked. “After we’re done with our research for the day.”
The brothers grumbled but acquiesced, returning to their scrolls. They spent the rest of the afternoon searching, but other than that one tidbit, didn’t find anything fruitful.
Later that night, Dareena slipped from her bed, unable to sleep. She left Drystan sleeping soundly and returned to the library to have another look at the archives. Something in her blood told her that she had stumbled upon the right trail—she had already discovered that important bit about King Lyrion. What else might she find?
“Huh.” She frowned as she perused yet another tome nearly two hours later. It was a collection of prophecies concerning the dragon kings, handed down through the ages, that she’d found in a remote corner of the library. Some of them talked about things that had already come to pass, while others were nonsensical gibberish that had likely been spouted by a pretended soothsayer rather than a real one. But toward the end, Dareena found one that was oddly specific:
Three together, four as one,
The dragons’ curse may be undone.
Three fathers’ babe will hold the key
To renewed fertility.
Dareena frowned. Renewed fertility? The dragons’ curse? Her heart began to race as she considered the words. Could this be the secret to undoing Shalia’s Curse? It certainly seemed to be a direct reference to that. But what was this about three fathers’ babe? How could three men father one baby?
Perhaps it’s metaphorical, a voice whispered in her head. There must be some deeper meaning.
Dareena puzzled over the prophecy for a few more minutes, then gave up with a shake of her head. Grabbing a piece of parchment and a quill, she scribbled it down, then tucked it into the pocket of her robe and gathered up the reading materials she’d taken out. There was no point in going any further—her brain was growing fuzzy with tiredness. Better she come back to it in the morrow, when she was fresh. If she wasn’t careful, she might accidentally knock her candle over and burn down the whole library.
Yawning, she returned the last of the scrolls to the shelves, then picked up her candle and prepared to head back to her room. But as she took a step forward a scroll fell to the ground from the top of one of the shelves that was far too high for her to reach. It landed directly in front of her feet, and she forced herself to a halt before she accidentally crushed it with her slipper.
Curious, Dareena bent to pick it up. As she held it up to the candle, which she’d placed back on the shelf, it became obvious that this scroll was different from the others—the parchment was a mottled red, rather than the usual yellowish-white. A tingle ran down her arm as she touched it, and she opened it to see strange, glowing runes inside that she couldn’t read.
“Dareena?”
Dareena clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle the invo
luntary shriek that tore from her throat. Spinning around, she found Drystan standing at the other end of the row.
“By the gods,” she gasped, placing a hand against her pounding heart. “You scared the living daylights out of me.”
“Sorry.” He gave her an apologetic smile. “I woke up to find you missing, so I tracked you here. You couldn’t sleep?”
Dareena shook her head. “I came down here to see if I could find anything else about the curse.”
“What’s that you’ve got in your hand?” Drystan pointed at the scroll she was holding. “That’s some odd-looking parchment.”
Dareena held it out to him. “I’m not certain,” she said as he took it. “I…I think it might be magic.”
“You’re bloody right it is,” Drystan growled as he studied it. “This is a warlock spell.”
“A warlock spell?” Dareena stared. “What is something like that doing down in the archives.”
“I don’t know. But we’re damn well going to find out.”
“WELL?” Drystan demanded. “What does it say?”
“Hold your damn horses,” Lucyan groused as he held the scroll a bit closer to the candlelight. Drystan and Dareena had woken up Alistair, and the three of them had gone to Lucyan’s room to see if they could get him to identify the scroll. “It’s two in the bloody morning and you’ve woken me from a dead sleep. My brain needs a little time to catch up.”
Drystan grumbled a little, sitting back in his chair. Dareena came around behind Lucyan and rubbed his shoulders as he squinted at the scroll. “Mmm,” he said, rolling his neck a bit. “See, that’s the kind of attitude we need around here. More helpfulness, less whining.”
Alistair raised his eyebrows. “You want us to give you back rubs, Lucyan?”
“Will you stop twisting your neck around and read the scroll?” Drystan demanded. “I want to know what it says.”
Lucyan let out a long-suffering sigh, then returned his attention to the scroll. His shoulders tensed as he read it, muttering quietly under his breath. “This…this isn’t good.”