by Ophelia Bell
She pivoted her hips, grinding her pussy into the mouth of the hunter who lay flat beneath her. With her hands splayed on his chest, she ground her pelvis harder against his lips. He let out a muffled groan, tightening his grip around her thighs, but he was a good boy who knew to lick harder and faster, even if he was smothering.
Her other two hunters were at the foot of the bed, one bent over with his hands braced on either side of the hips of the hunter whose tongue was buried inside her snatch. The other hunter nailed him from behind for her entertainment.
They’d been uncertain about her commands at first—no doubt their brothers who’d had the pleasure of a night with her had left out the part about how much she enjoyed ordering them to play these kinds of games. She deliberately chose men at the far left end of the Kinsey scale to serve her, just so she could indulge her own secret fetish of making them act outside their comfort zone.
By now they didn’t care anymore; their libidos had taken over, and all they were after was yet another climax, but she still loved it when she caught a glimmer of disgust in one man’s eyes when he remembered he had his dick buried in another man’s ass. They wouldn’t be able to look at each other for weeks afterward, but they’d still get hard and secretly jerk off to the memory every night, thanks to the steady flood of praise she fed their malleable minds during the process.
She let her mind wander as her climax drew near and could almost picture two different men before her. The blond who was bent over before her wasn’t as big, but he had similar fine features to a dragon’s and was just as bulky in the shoulders and thighs. The dark-haired man behind him was almost a dead ringer for her other old lover, aside from his static brown eyes. And he didn’t like what he was doing any more than the man he was doing it to, which was exactly how she wanted it.
“Fuck him harder. Don’t fucking close your eyes. Look at me.”
Both men obediently lifted their faces. The blond soldier’s eyes pleaded with her as he clung to the bed in front of him, pointedly avoiding glancing down to the erect cock that bobbed mere inches below his face. He had to have guessed what was coming next.
“Take that dick in your mouth, you fucking dragon whore. You’d better make him come if you want your own prize after. You’re getting filled from both ends before you’re done here.”
The man beneath her slowed his licking for only a second, but he wasn’t new to this scenario. She always rewarded the men who endured her demented fantasies with the coveted role as her personal toy for a month after playing out this particular one well. The fact that his cock was stiff as a fucking obelisk was proof enough that he at least enjoyed being her favorite for the day.
Meri was nothing if not appreciative of a good performance. All three would get to have their way with her when she had satisfied her need for petty imaginary vengeance.
“That’s right, you little slut. Suck him all the way in. Work his cock like a lollipop. I want to see both cocks shoot their sticky spunk into you at the same time, so get busy.”
The blond gritted his teeth at first, then opened his mouth, gingerly darting his tongue out to swipe it around the purple mushroom head of the cock in front of him. He looked like he was about to take the most vile medicine, but they always looked that way at first. True to her expectations, once he wrapped his lips around it and started sucking, it was like he was born for it. Hell, he even looked like he enjoyed it.
To top it off, he lifted his gaze to her while he pumped the cock with his mouth and fist, his wide blue eyes begging for her approval.
“Oh, fuck yes, baby. Just like that.” She leaned over to give him an approving pat on the head, which spurred more enthusiastic pumping and sucking. The man beneath her groaned, his hips surging up forcing his cock deeper.
They were close, their impressionable human brains no longer caring a bit that they were all straight men engaging in the most depraved scenario they could have ever imagined. And the closer they got, the more she enjoyed herself. The hands gripping her thighs slid around to her ass, fingers prying her farther open for the talented mouth to devour her more fully. The added contact sent a spark of fresh ecstasy through her, and she gasped as her core tightened and heated.
Her eager attendant seemed to sense her impending climax and buried two fingers into her channel while his tongue picked up the pace on her clit. A steady, rising growl rose from his throat, his hips now thrusting wildly up into the blond’s mouth.
Meri rode his mouth harder, clutching at her breasts and tweaking her nipples to push herself all the way over. It came in a rush like it always did when the scenario had played out that perfectly. She threw her head back and yelled into the air, her voice soon joined by a clear male voice as the dark haired stand-in for one old lover spilled his seed into the blond’s ass. The man beneath her followed shortly, his groans of release muffled by her soaked snatch where she still slowly ground into him as she came down from the heights of orgasm.
This had to be it. Of all the orgasm’s she’d had, this one had to be the one to inspire her to find the answer. Her mind had always worked best when flooded to the gills with dopamine—that funny little chemical humans had only just discovered within the last century.
She eased off her attendant’s face and leaned back against the pillows behind her. Nothing came to her but the same circular thought pattern she’d had all day. She had to take the baby with her to the Haven, but it wouldn’t survive outside the tank. But the baby was her entire reason for getting back into the Haven to begin with.
“What the fuck do you want?” she snapped when she realized her three hunters were watching her expectantly. The man who’d been beneath her dipped his head in deference.
“Mistress, Ryan performed well. His reward …”
“Fuck his reward. You think he deserves it, you take care of him yourself. In fact, both of you take care of him. I have more important things to do, but when I get back, you’d better have gotten him off at least five times.”
He blinked at her, then nodded. “As you wish,” he said, then shifted around on the bed to make room for a bewildered Ryan to climb farther on and lie down.
Their third partner, the Neph lookalike whose name escaped her, shot her a withering look that he tried to cover up, but wasn’t quick enough.
In a flash of pure rage, she narrowed her mental focus to a pinpoint and burrowed into his mind, easily taking control as though his body were her own. His consciousness was forced to the sidelines as she moved him onto the bed between Ryan’s thighs and used his hands to push Ryan’s knees to his chest. Then she bent with demented glee until his face was mere inches from Ryan’s reddened opening, remnants of his own semen still coating the other man.
“I can make you tongue his ass while Carter gets the much more savory job of simply sucking his cock. You want to taste your own cum coming out of him, or are you going to behave?”
“Behave! I’ll behave!”
“Good,” she said and released Ryan’s legs, along with her hold on the Neph lookalike’s mind, her consciousness shifting back into her own head. She was gratified to see the hunter eagerly go down on the other man.
They were still taking turns when she drifted out after dressing again. The image of the dark-haired Neph lookalike going down on the man she’d chosen as the dragon’s stand-in left her oddly unsatisfied despite the pleasant tingle still present between her thighs. She normally left those scenarios in a much better mood, but she was too antsy about her dilemma for her enjoyment to last.
She pictured the temple ruins in her mind, one of her favorite places to go to think when she was home. The hope of what she would soon accomplish there somehow helped calm her mind. At the very least, she could time her drifts between the Haven’s locked portal and her lab, and maybe the passage back and forth would help knock some idea loose. It was her version of pacing when stressed, she supposed, but she
needed to do something, and clearly sex hadn’t been the answer.
* * *
Meri opted to begin on the island where the ancient temple ruins were nearly overrun with lush vegetation. The Nile flowed north on either side, the current’s power as discernible as a strong breeze to her nymphaea spirit. She remembered the temple when it was still a whole structure. The gardens here had once been a favorite meeting place for her old lovers, when they’d still entertained thoughts of making her their third. And when she’d been expelled from the Haven, one of the resident priestesses had pulled her half-drowned body from the waters of the river. The river had been her enemy that day, following the Dionarchs’ twin commands to bar her passage and never allow her to travel within its waters again.
Decades had passed before she reclaimed her power, but her nymphaea body had not lasted. Deprived of her connection to the life-sustaining magic of the Source, she’d withered and would have died if she hadn’t discovered that the life’s blood of every other living creature on Earth could serve as a substitute to the Source, if only temporarily. As long as the creature whose blood she drank still lived, she could be sustained. It had only taken a few tests for her to determine that once blood-melded with another creature, she could easily assume control of their weak minds, allowing her transient spirit to take up residence for as long as the new body lasted.
This was how her child was being kept alive—with regular, constant infusions of the satyr blood. Theirs was still imbued with power from the Source itself, so was the closest she could get without being inside the Haven. But the satyrs were not immortal, and the irregular brain activity she’d seen in Nereus’s readouts meant she could not rely on them forever. If one died she’d lose that supply; or—Gaia forbid—if one awoke, she would have no choice but to kill him.
Now she was so close to succeeding in regaining access to the Haven. At midnight tonight, she would begin the ritual to force open the portal and send Nyx her message. If only she’d known who she had all those years before she let Calder escape the first time. He’d only been a child when she left the Haven. So when she’d captured him centuries later, he had feigned unimportance, claiming she may as well kill him for all the use he was to her. And in truth, he’d looked like one of the less notable satyrs she’d known—the bastard had disguised his resemblance to his parents, or else she’d have known him instantly.
The second time around, she’d had the power to force his true face and had known who he was. Thanks to his blood, her child was now even more powerful.
She could repurpose one of the satyrs as a surrogate womb for her baby. Once again she wished she still had her own nymph body with its life-sustaining blood. Her current mutant human vessel with its cocktail of blood from the higher races was powerful, but still couldn’t sustain a life within its womb. Even a satyr’s body cavity would be preferable—and more likely to work.
Unfortunately, they’d be a burden to carry unconscious, and she didn’t trust them enough to allow them any shred of consciousness, even with her melding controlling their minds.
Frustrated by her lack of an ideal solution, Meri wandered toward the water, aiming to revisit the portal gateway before drifting back to her lab to make preparations for her last resort. The satyr only needed a heartbeat for a few hours—she could remove any part of him that made transport unwieldy. Calder would be the ideal subject with his half-immortal blood. She might even let him keep his cock.
The sun was too low in the sky for her to waste more time agonizing over a better solution. That would simply have to work.
She’d reached the sandy beach at the edge of the gardens and stopped, frowning down at the set of footprints in the sand. Her hunters knew the spot, but she hadn’t requested anyone scout the place. If her enemies were watching, she didn’t want to clue them into her plans. The dragons should not have been aware of this particular location—it was an ancient Haven portal, unused since her own expulsion. None of the living generation of dragons knew of it.
But there was one dragon who most certainly would have remembered, as this had been one of their favorite places for a tryst. And Dion’s balls if that very dragon didn’t just rise up out of the water in front of her.
Meri blinked, sure the sight was a mirage. His wet hair was darker from the water, his naked body bronzed by the golden light of the setting sun. Her heart lurched into her throat at the sight. That body had been hers once, in all its immortal magnificence. She’d have happily kept a male body if she’d been able to hold onto his.
Gritting her teeth, she reminded herself that he was the reason she’d been expelled from her home to begin with. Her desire for his body had ruined her life. But that old connection still existed. Her small taste of his blood all those eons ago sparked to life with a vengeance.
Chapter Forty-Three
Aodh
Aodh’s head whipped around, his pale eyes glowing fiercely as he scanned the gardens for the disturbance. It hadn’t been a sound, exactly, just an oddly disjointed sensation, as though he’d forgotten something. Then he saw the movement near the path and a tall, dark-haired woman stepped out of the shadows.
She wore a filmy black kaftan over a similarly sheer gown that looked like it could have been conjured from dragon smoke. Something in her eyes sparked recognition, but that disorienting sense of being split kept him rooted in place, undecided how to act.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“Don’t tell me you don’t remember. You and your champion tongue were my favorite toys, once upon a time. Did you come for one last fuck before I destroy your world?”
Recognition flooded him with icy dread. “She’s here,” he shot quickly to Neph. Vrishti and the satyr had to be close behind him, but he didn’t dare turn and betray to Meri that he wasn’t alone. Forcing a more casual expression, he still couldn’t bring himself to actually fake a smile.
“It’s been a long time, Meri. The gardens here aren’t what they used to be, but your presence certainly adds a certain sinister effect it never had before.”
Meri chuckled and took a step closer. He could scent the distinct aroma of sex that clung to her, so familiar and once so arousing. Now it only made him ill, and he hoped once again that Neph heard him and was keeping Vrishti clear until they figured out what to do.
“You were always shit at telling even polite lies. But I have no illusions. I’m going to fucking destroy the Haven tomorrow, once I secure the Source for myself. You … perhaps I will keep you just for fun.”
A dark chill slithered into his mind, the cold blackness of it searing like a blade and causing his vision to darken for a second. He stood paralyzed. The old sensation of that first time she’d taken control of him was something he had never forgotten, but this was far worse. His consciousness rippled and split as her power asserted itself, like a face plunging just past the calm surface of a pool to peer into the depths beneath.
He silently called to Neph, but received no reply.
A second later, the sensation receded, and Meri looked up at him with her head tilted.
“You’re holding out on me, sweet, feckless dragon. Whose lovely essence is it that’s filled your well today? She’s left you practically glowing with all that power. Have you fucked a nymph? Where is she now?”
Meri’s eyes flashed with greedy glee, as though she’d just stumbled upon an unexpected sensual feast. Within the depths of his secret soul, he shouted a message he knew only Neph would hear, if the satyr were even listening now. “Keep Vrishti away! Get her out!”
Just as the last syllable filtered through the ether, he saw them both appear, drifting in behind Meri. Neph’s eyes widened, and he bent to grab Vrishti’s arm as she pressed her hands to the ground and began her chant to call the power up from the earth. Vrishti ignored Neph’s word of warning, too engrossed in her magic. Vines erupted from the earth around Meri’s feet as the woman turned.<
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The vines swiftly writhed and twined in knots around Meri’s legs and up her body, catching her off guard and cocooning her lower half within seconds. Meri let out a yelp of surprise as she glanced down, then her gaze shot to Vrishti and she stared.
“An ursa female, and so powerful.”
Vrishti bared her teeth and laughed. “You have no idea.”
Aodh’s chest warmed with pride at the blast of pure power that filled Vrishti’s aura. She pressed her hands harder against the ground beneath her. The earth rippled in waves between her hands and Meri’s feet, and a fresh wave of vines burst forth, wrapping entirely around Meri’s body.
He and Neph would have to recreate their temporal barrier here to trap her while Vrishti’s magic held her. The satyr rushed forward, his hands already glowing with the prepared spell, and Aodh sank to the ground tracing the circle around Meri’s feet. She seemed oddly fixated on Vrishti, completely ignoring what would be her downfall within moments.
“Oh, my dear, I am sorry. You are the one who has no idea how very, very perfect you are.”
Aodh’s ears popped and a rush of air blew past him. The vines where Meri had been collapsed inward, tightening around each other in a sagging column now that they had no structure to bind to.
He blinked, disoriented for a second. Prickling shock flooded him when he saw her reappear a second later behind Vrishti. She pulled back a fist and a glint of shining metal caught the waning light as her blow hit the back of Vrishti’s head, and the pretty ursa sagged limply to the ground. A split-second later, they were both gone.
“No!” Aodh yelled, racing to the spot where they’d been. Neph let out a curse and followed him, then popped out of sight.
“She can’t have gone far with a passenger,” Neph said. “Split up and search the island.”
“We should never have fucking brought her. Sweet Mother, why didn’t I sense the bitch?”