by Ophelia Bell
“Was Racha in on the Rafe thing? Does she know?”
Erika shook her head and expelled a breath. “You’d have to ask your tall, dark, and yummy man. But she is the Queen and he’s loyal to her. I bet she knows. In fact, I’d bet my life on it, especially if that baby Jill’s carrying matters to her. God, you should see Corey now. He’s in hog heaven with those women.” She let out a snort. “You and I together could’ve snagged him, if we’d tried. Can you imagine how fun that would have been? I watched you with Kris and Kol during the ritual. Damn.”
“I have no regrets,” Hallie said, sipping her wine.
Erika’s gaze grew soft as she stared into her glass. “No. Neither do I.”
“I watched, you, too,” Hallie said, unable to avoid the images that invaded her mind of the night of the ritual. “I think you and I probably know more about each other than most women do about their friends.” In a lower voice, she said, “It’s too bad Geva and Kol hate each other.”
Their meals arrived, distracting them from conversation, but she caught the raised eyebrow Erika gave her and the more appraising look.
In spite of how invigorated Hallie had felt all afternoon, she was ravenous and dug into her food without thinking more about the topic It might have been a side effect of how intimately she knew her friends, but she felt more comfortable with them and their mates than with anyone she’d ever know, even her own family.
She was polishing off her hamburger when the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She took a quick sip of her drink and turned to look behind her, but saw nothing odd.
“Dude was checking you out a second ago,” Erika said. Hallie turned back and raised her eyebrows. “Oh? I missed it.”
“He was just leaning on the rail over there, talking on his cell phone, but his eyes were all over you. He was hot, too, but he wasn’t your type. I mean, if you were looking for a third wheel…” Erika’s smile grew suggestive and she lifted her gaze from her lunch to meet Hallie’s eyes.
“Oh? And what do you think my type is?”
“Not him. He looked…” Erika wrinkled her nose. “For lack of a better term, he looked like he belonged in the mafia, all slick and slinky. Our boys are more diverse, at least. I mean, Kol looks like a teddy bear in spite of being a fucking monolith on legs. And Geva’s filled with Viking blood. He’s too red. And don’t even get me started on the others…”
Erika prattled on about the dragons and the other men in their tight-knit group, but Hallie’s skin had grown ice-cold. She’d never told anyone but Kol any significant details about David. She’d only mentioned an abusive ex from New York to Erika once they’d established a habit of honesty after the ritual. She knew there was a possibility he was still in Boston, and she hoped like crazy that she was only imagining things, but she’d only ever gotten that feeling when he’d been around.
“Can we get the check?” she asked the waiter when he came back.
Hallie blessed Erika for not asking questions or making comments after that. They paid their bill and left. It wasn’t until they were on the road again that her friend said anything.
“You want to tell me what that was about? You don’t strike me as the kind of girl who gets nervous when a hot guy checks her out.”
“I had a bad experience in Boston before I met you.”
“The baby, yeah, you told me that.”
Hallie shook her head, leaning hard against her seat and staring up into the cloudy sky beyond the Jeep’s roll bars. “No, that wasn’t the only thing. The father of the baby was mafia. He followed me from New York to Boston. Turns out his family has ties here, too. He might still be here.”
“It probably wasn’t even him,” Erika said. “You didn’t see the guy, right? Let it go, sweetie. You’ve got nothing to worry about, I promise you.” She paused for a second, then added, “Well, depending on what we have to look forward to when we get back, you might have nothing to worry about. Now I’m second guessing leaving those two alone together in the state they were in.”
“They won’t hurt each other,” Hallie said, grateful for the distraction. “Kol said dragons are more likely to fuck than fight if they’re upset.”
“Yeah…” Erika drew the word out. “That’s what I’m worried about walking in on.”
Chapter 4
The room had grown small around Kol, even though he managed to maintain his human form. He couldn’t quite say the same for Geva, who he still held subdued in an invisible binding. Only the Red was far from subdued.
“You knew where my sister was and you didn’t say anything?” Geva yelled.
“You red fuck, I told you I didn’t know she was your sister. Your duty was to tell me the fucking truth.”
Geva snorted. “And for what? So you can use her to satisfy your own agenda?”
“Sweet Mother, are you daft? My agenda is no different from yours.”
“And yet you lord it over me.”
Kol’s head spun with the idiocy of the dragon before him. He had the oddest sense of energy swirling around them, but it wasn’t quite like the pleasant yet powerful swells that surrounded Hallie when she was aroused. This stuff just made him hot with rage. Rage he’d like to ride to its logical conclusion, but he’d been trained for this as a Shadow and knew how to channel it. The alternative was always preferable.
“Is that all this is for you?” he shot at Geva. “Is it a test of my power versus your own? Because I assure you, keeping this information from me does nothing to give you the upper hand or even to redeem yourself.”
“From the atrocities I inflicted, right? Because giving humans a taste of pleasure is so much worse than leaving a human woman you love to a fate worse than death. I am still better than you, Shadow.”
The taunt shouldn’t have affected Kol. He’d left those ghosts behind. But he reacted just the same. With invisible hands, he flung Geva to the floor before the large fireplace.
“You’re a weakling, always have been,” Geva taunted, his voice muffled by the carpet beneath his face. “You couldn’t even fucking mark the woman you loved.”
Kol’s rage became a pinpoint, focused entirely on the bastard Red who dared to question his honor. The event Geva referred to had been an impossible decision, and a choice Kol ultimately didn’t have. The brood was on the verge of their hibernation. Marked, Eveline would have died the moment he entered hibernation. The Council refused to let him bring her, so the mark was nothing more than a death sentence. This taunting Red had no right to question his decisions.
“My fucking past isn’t in question here,” Kol gritted out. “I’m your superior, Brother, and you will answer to me.” It had only been a few hours since the events inside the plane with Melody and Hallie, and his blood still sang with the power both women had given him. More than that, he was alive with the clarity of what it meant to hold the position he held among the Court.
Geva laughed into the rug, but he’d given up struggling, seeming content to use verbal abuse instead. “As superior as your mother was, letting a man compromise her the way she did? Their father. Your fucking loudmouth siblings. I’m actually sad they won’t get away with their little threesome, but it pays to keep your secrets.”
First his mother, then his stepfather and brother and sister being lambasted by the ass on the floor below him. He wanted to smash the fucker’s face into the floor, but his cock raged hard, pushing him to an alternate course of discipline.
It was less a decision than instinct when he knelt and straddled Geva’s prone form. He manifested a sharp talon and ripped clean through Geva’s clothes from collar to ass. Smooth, pale skin stretched over taut back muscles and round buttocks that clenched when the cool air hit them. He gripped the sides of Geva’s torn pants and ripped them off in a violent pull then tore his shirt the same, flinging the scraps aside. Geva quivered slightly in the aftermath, then grew still again, only his head turning and craning over his shoulder to try to see Kol. The invisible bindings of Kol’s brea
th held the other man solidly to the floor. Kol stood up, panting and gazing down at the pale, muscular body beneath him.
“Anything else to say before I teach you a long deserved lesson?”
“Fuck you.”
Kol took his time, slipped off his shoes and socks, stepped barefoot around to Geva’s head as he unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it off, draped it neatly over the back of a chair near the fireplace. He braced his palms on his knees and bent down to look into Geva’s eyes. “That’s precisely what I’m going to do, because clearly you won’t be convinced to obey me any other way.”
The light in Geva’s eyes flickered with uncertainty, but the bastard had the audacity to smirk. “You won’t do it. Of all the Court, you and your brother were the only males who never showed an interest in branching out. Too wrapped up in love, the others said.”
“My brother’s come to his senses, and so have I. But don’t confuse this with love. Fucking your virgin ass is the burden I have to bear to get you to accept me as your superior.”
Kol stood up and shed his trousers and briefs. He gazed down at Geva thoughtfully, trying to decide the best way to begin. He’d never have taken this course if it hadn’t been for the tryst on the plane. At best he’d have blustered at Geva, then ended the argument feeling even more of a failure at his role.
The effect of Melody’s sweet submission had done more than arouse him. It had made him understand that he’d been a poor excuse for a First Shadow since he’d awakened. If he were to maintain the safety and security of his race, he had to be ruthless and direct. He had to command respect. The skills were innate in him, yet he’d kept them at bay all along, believing they compromised his ideals too much. The encounter with Hallie and Melody made him realize that he could give generously at the same time as commanding that respect and keeping his subordinates in line.
What he was about to do was one of his race’s most ancient practices. Mated dragons avoided sharing their energy outside their mated bond, but in certain situations, such as this one, it was required to reassert the hierarchy. They weren’t truly a violent race at all, preferring to channel every emotion to the singular purpose of procreation, or at least mimicking the process. He’d considered the practice of asserting dominance this way barbaric when he learned about it during his training, even knowing it would ultimately be enjoyable for both parties. He’d always been an idealist, believing he should hold his love sacred and only share himself with his chosen mate. Hallie’s enthusiasm for sharing him with Melody had changed his outlook. This was who he was. A dragon. And when a dragon misbehaved, it was the Shadow’s duty to bring him in line.
The Red’s gaze rested solidly on Kol’s erection, a pink flush spreading over his skin from forehead to shoulders. Geva’s horns and scales had subsided during their conversation, so the contrast with his fair skin was striking. His muscles tightened in an effort to free himself from his invisible bindings, but Kol was the best at what he did. Once someone was caught in his grip, it was nearly impossible to get free without disabling Kol entirely. Kol stroked his cock once for emphasis of what was about to transpire and quirked his lips into a smile.
Geva swallowed thickly and blinked up at him. “Is this really necessary? Let me up and we can have some fun when the girls return.”
Kol shook his head and took a step to stand midway down Geva’s prone form, then knelt to straddle Geva’s backside. Leaning down, he let his cock brush against Geva’s back and pressed his lips against the Red’s ear. He recited the words in their native tongue. Words that would leave no room for misinterpretation. You will submit to me. Geva bucked beneath him, letting out a curse in the same language. Along with the words he emitted a gust of swirling red breath that hit Kol’s nostrils. The power held in that breath was enough to daze him and he nearly lost control.
“Let me go,” Geva’s voice resonated, the power in it taking hold of the breath that seeped into Kol’s mind.
Kol’s will was stronger. He responded by sinking his teeth into the back of Geva’s neck, targeting the pressure points that would induce compliance. Geva went limp. Kol lingered with his mouth on Geva’s neck, tickling the center of his bite marks with his tongue, aware of the effect it was intended to have on his victim—an effect not unlike what Geva had intended with that breath—to confuse and incapacitate with a driving sexual need.
“It will take more than a breath to deter me,” Kol said. “But by the time we get started, you’ll be begging me for more.”
He stood again and stepped backward, then knelt between Geva’s legs, pushing them both gently apart. As much as it was a disciplinary situation, it didn’t need to be torture, and with Geva relaxed now, it would go much smoother.
Geva’s sac rested heavily on the carpet, his ass cheeks spread just above it. He shifted just enough to display the uncomfortable erection that pressed into the floor beneath his hips. Kol brushed his palms down both ass cheeks, pushing them apart to graze his thumbs along the sensitive, puckered flesh between. Geva groaned.
Kol chuckled. “You have a reputation, you know. You fuck, but you’ve never been fucked. It’s time, Brother. Time for you to accept your role among us, to fall in line and serve the Court. If you want to be accepted, this is a necessary step. I blame myself for not doing it sooner.” He slid one hand between Geva’s thighs and cupped his balls, grazing the pad of his thumb up and down the sensitive patch of flesh between testicles and asshole. Geva’s hips twitched.
Kol drew in a breath, loosening the invisible bindings that held Geva. The Red lurched up as though to escape, but Kol tightened the snakes of breath around wrists and ankles, holding Geva in place on his hands and knees. Geva glared over his shoulder at Kol.
“You’re enjoying this too much, I think,” Geva said. “Since when have you ever shown an interest in taking control? This isn’t like you.”
“I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect to enjoy it. But seeing you incapacitated like this makes my blood hot. You can’t hide that you’re enjoying it on some level, either.” Kol gave Geva’s balls a gentle squeeze and slid his hand farther to stroke the Red’s hard cock. The nearly scorching heat of it surprised Kol and he gave the cock another slow stroke, enjoying the silken texture against his palm. A few droplets leaked from the tip and he slicked his fingertips along the small slit, spreading the moisture down the underside of Geva’s shaft. Kol’s own cock spasmed in sympathy.
His head buzzed with power even stronger than he’d felt having Melody comply with his small commands. Having the powerful Red tied down and nearly ready to give into him gave him a greater rush than he could have imagined. He had to tease Geva enough that the Red begged to be fucked if he wanted to leave an impression, however. It would be more pleasurable for both of them that way.
With one hand still gripping Geva, stroking him, he bent his head to swirl his tongue around the smooth, pliant skin of his balls. Geva’s thighs quivered in response when Kol sucked one orb gently into his mouth, toying with it on his tongue. He released it with a slight “pop” and took the other in his mouth.
Geva’s hips tilted back when Kol pulled away. The Shadow leaned back with his palms resting idle on his thighs, enjoying the way the Red had begun to sweat, his chest heaving from Kol’s attention. He met Geva’s pleading gaze over the Red’s shoulder.
“Do you want more?” Kol asked. He slid a palm up the inside of Geva’s thigh, brushed it against the back of his balls and slid higher. He pressed his thumb at the center of Geva’s asshole. “Maybe you’re ready to get fucked now, or maybe I need to tease you a bit more until you beg me for it.”
Kol leaned in, replacing his thumb with his tongue, twisting the thick, agile appendage just a little deeper before withdrawing and teasing around the opening until it was slick with his saliva. The Red was uncommonly tight, but he supposed it was largely nerves. Kol had never allowed anyone but Hallie beyond his own barrier, not that he’d had many opportunities to since the ritual. The pair had withdraw
n from the final step of the ritual as soon as they’d made their contributions.
He gripped Geva again in his fist, stroking harder than before. Geva’s cock was slick from escaping fluid, but Kol had no intention of letting Geva reach Nirvana until Kol was ready himself. He pressed his middle finger against Geva’s slickened opening and pushed. Geva groaned at the invasion, his cock jerking in Kol’s hand.
“You need to submit, Brother. Admit that you’re under my power, that you accept my dominion over you and I’ll let you finish, but not until then.” He released Geva’s cock again, drawing back to caress the back of his balls while pressing a second finger into Geva’s ass.
In a harsh voice Geva asked, “Are you going to share with me or just take?”
The desperate tone of the Red’s voice caused a surge of sympathy to well up. Kol smiled to himself. “That depends on how badly you need it. There’s only one way you’ll be getting it, though.” He pressed his fingers deeper in emphasis, leaned in to swirl his tongue around, ensuring Geva was lubricated enough to accept more. He pushed a third finger in to join the other two, fucking slowly into Geva and beginning to stroke the Red’s cock again. Kol’s own cock thrummed between his thighs, alive with the need for attention he was presently giving the other dragon. He’d be ready for Geva once the Red finally gave in.
The swirling eddies of magic that had been steadily building around the two of them shifted at the same time Kol sensed the crumbling of Geva’s will. The magic tasted like hunger, the Red’s bone-deep need to be fucked hitting Kol hard enough that he had to pause for breath.
Geva’s voice lowered and he craned his neck to look back at Kol. “Shadow, I am yours to command and will answer to you. My every secret is yours to do with as you see fit. I submit. Fuck me, please.” As he said it, red smoke curled out from his nostrils and his skin shimmered with a reddish glow. Kol inhaled what Geva had offered, wary at first, but grateful the Red was honest for once. The power in the breath was the true promise to Kol, more so than Geva’s words had been. The message this time was not an effort to counter Kol’s control, but was in fact an oath of obedience.