by Tara West
“Maybe you’re just what my heart needs,” he murmured and nibbled her earlobe.
She grasped his shoulders and melted against him. “Thaddeus, are you sure?”
“More than sure.”
Cupping his face, she kissed him, and not with the tenderness of love’s first bloom, but the desperation of unbridled desire.
He laid her down on her bedroll and untied her robe. “I need to be inside you.”
“Yes, Thaddeus!” she said and tore off his shirt, revealing a beautiful tanned chest with a smidgen of dark hair, thick, rippling muscles, and an angry, circular scar where his heart monitor had been. Leaning up, she feathered her lips across it. “Make love to me.”
Pushing open her robe, he took her breast in his mouth, devouring it like he was inhaling a scoop of ice cream, sucking before licking the tip and then repeating the motion with the other one. She raked her nails down his back and pressed his head into her. He released her nipple and trailed kisses down to her navel.
She’d never made love before, and the first time might hurt, but she didn’t care. She needed Thaddeus so badly. Her breath hitched when he traced hot kisses down to her mound. She was thankful she’d bathed, but this still felt strange and awkward. What was she supposed to do?
He gently pressed her thighs. “Open to me, Violet.”
She obeyed, letting her legs fall apart. “Like that?”
He nuzzled her heat, then dragged his forked tongue across her most private area.
“Oh, Thaddeus!” She nearly flew to the ceiling as pleasure burst through her.
He continued licking her while swirling his finger around the tender spot outside her labia. A sea of ecstasy swept her under, and she was powerless to do anything but say his name.
She came hard and fast, exploding like a firework in his mouth. He laughed, licking her as if her essence was manna from Elysan. By the time she floated back to earth, she was as limp as a wet noodle.
He climbed between her legs. “Did you enjoy that?”
“You know I did. I’ve never felt anything so magical.”
He brushed his lips across her brow. “Here’s to many more magical nights.”
She swooned, not caring if he perceived her as weak. She was too caught up in the pleasure of his kisses and his touch to care.
At some point he’d removed his pants, and his thick cock pushed against her mound, probing the entrance. With a shudder, she opened her legs, welcoming him.
He leaned over her and kissed her. She tasted her essence and opened her mouth when he probed deeper. She gasped when his cockhead slipped inside her, stretching her tight entrance.
“Relax,” he said. “Let me love you.”
“I’ve never,” she whispered against his mouth.
“It’s okay.” He placed delicate kisses across her jaw. “I’ll be gentle.”
The pleasure was exquisite, more intense than his tongue gliding across her clit. Wrapping her arms around him, she quivered when he surged all the way in, still kissing her tenderly.
“Am I hurting you?”
Raising her hips, she ground against him. “No. Please don’t stop. Please.”
He moved, sliding in and out of her, brushing her sweet spot and building her need to reach that pinnacle with each gentle thrust. Chest heaving, she clawed his back, crying his name between each shallow breath.
It felt so wickedly wonderful being filled by him. His solid chest pressed against her breasts, rubbing her nipples into hard peaks; his lips claimed hers; his cock was buried deep inside her, filling her completely, making her his in every way. She’d always belonged to him. She’d known it since her freshman year of high school. Now he knew it, too.
“I won’t be able to hold back for long,” he said.
“I’m going to come again.” She dug her fingers into the tight globes of his round ass.
“Let’s come together, my love,” he said while panting.
“Yes, oh yes!”
The orgasm swept through her, squeezing her sheath with pulsing contractions. He claimed her lips in a heat-searing kiss, moaning into her mouth while he pulsed deep inside her. Overwhelmed with love for him, she locked her legs around his waist and stroked his back.
This magical moment made her captivity worthwhile. Anything that brought her closer to this remarkable shifter was worth the hardship.
He rolled her over, holding her in his strong arms, peppering kisses across her face and forehead. “That was amazing,” he whispered.
“Totally.” She was too spent and sated to say more.
“Thank you,” he murmured against her ear. “Until this night, I thought I’d forgotten how to love.”
Placing a hand on his heart, she tenderly kissed his nose. “You certainly haven’t forgotten.”
His gaze softened. “I mean with my heart, not just with my body.”
Her chest warmed at his admission. Did this mean he loved her as she loved him? She hoped so. Not knowing how to answer him, she kissed him, long and hard, pleased when he returned the kiss with equal passion.
They held each other for several heartbeats, kissing and stroking and working each other into a frenzy until she was primed and ready for more. Rolling her back over, he rocked into her, banging that sensitive place between her legs until she was singing his name, surrendering herself to him, body and soul.
Chapter Thirteen
“MERLIN’S BALLS!” THE muffled voice echoed through the cavern. “You two could wake the dead.”
“Damn.” Thaddeus chuckled, his face buried in Violet’s generous cleavage. “We should’ve muzzled him.”
Heat raced through Violet’s cheeks. She shouldn’t have cared what Periwinkle thought of her, but she was still mortified that anyone listened to their lovemaking. “I gave him the entire flask of scyllshade.”
“Can someone untie me?” Periwinkle called.
“Guess it wasn’t enough.” Thaddeus got up on his elbows and tapped her nose. “Not everyone brews potions as well as you. You should have let me turn him to ash.”
She rolled her eyes when Periwinkle started sobbing.
“He has valuable information.” She sat up, grabbed her robe, and wrapped it around her. “Besides, you need to save your strength.”
His ashen cheeks reddened. “You don’t think I can do it, do you?”
She thought about what to say next so she wouldn’t sound patronizing. “I didn’t say that. Can you shift?”
“I don’t know.” He hung his head, his long dark hair falling over his eyes. “The last time I tried, it didn’t work.”
She ached for him. Katherine and her father had brought this once powerful dragon low, and she loathed herself for helping them. Now that she was free, she’d do everything in her power to help him recover and shift again.
She squeezed his hand, smiling when she felt the familiar spark. Could he be her fated mate? If so, did that mean his brothers were, too? The thought sent a trill through her. “You only need some time.”
Periwinkle hollered for help, and Thaddeus pulled away. “Until then I’m useless.”
She gave him a soft smile. “Not to me.” He'd given her too many orgasms to count, not to mention he made her feel so alive. Leaning into him, she said, “You’re everything to me, Thaddeus.”
He touched noses with her. “And you’re everything to me.”
“Really?” She could hardly believe how quickly their relationship was escalating. Not that she’d do anything to stop it. Thaddeus and his brothers had been her dream for many years.
“Violet,” he asked hesitantly, “you understand my mate will also be my brothers’ mate?”
“I know.” A swarm of butterflies fluttered in her stomach at the thought. What if his brothers didn’t like her? Would she lose Thaddeus then?
“I want you to be ours,” he said, stroking her lower lip and making her libido spring back to life.
“I’m already yours.” Draping her arms over his shoulde
rs, she looked into his deep brown eyes, wanting to lose herself in him forever. “But what if your brothers have already found someone else?”
“They haven’t,” he said confidently.
“How do you know?”
“I just do.” He nibbled her ear. “They will love you as much as I do. I know it.”
Her heart hammered so hard, it was practically doing backflips. “You love me?”
He nuzzled her before pulling back, looking into her eyes. “With all my heart.” He grimaced. “Whatever’s left of it.”
She wanted to tell him she loved him, to, but guilt washed over her when she remembered of her role in weakening his heart. Why hadn’t she fought the blood bond sooner? Why had it taken her so long to finally confess to Thaddeus? She recalled how often she’d found him and Katherine tangled in bed together. Sometimes she’d accidentally walked in on them fucking, Katherine roaring like a lion and riding her shifter like he was a bucking broom. He had been so wrapped around Katherine’s claws, Violet thought he wouldn’t listen if she tried to warn him, and she would’ve been tortured by the blood oath for nothing. She would also have risked Katherine punishing or even killing her.
“What’s wrong, Violet?”
She bowed her head in shame, tears stinging her eyes. “I’m so sorry.”
“For what?”
“For poisoning you.”
He sat up and forced her to look at him. “You have no reason to feel ashamed. You were blood bound to that bitch. If you hadn’t risked your life to fight the blood oath, I’d probably be Goldenwand’s prisoner by now or worse.”
Her throat was so constricted, it hurt to speak. “So you didn’t love her?”
“Love Katherine?” He snorted. “What we had was far from love. She used me, and I used her.”
“Oh.” She looked away, the memory of their loud and violent fucking permanently engraved in her mind. She wished she could forget those images. “How do you feel?” she asked, not just because she was genuinely concerned about him, but she desperately needed to change the subject.
“I’m fine, sweetheart.” He brushed his lips across her collarbone. “Making love to you—establishing our bond—was just what I needed.”
A trill raced through her, making her swell with need. After their long lovemaking, how could she be ready for more? She’d had no idea she’d love sex so much. She wouldn’t mind being mated to three virile shifters, who could feed her newly awakened, voracious sexual appetite. Hopefully his brothers would want her, too.
“When I return to my apothecary,” she said, shaking her head and trying to clear her head from lust’s fog. “I can make potions that will help heal you faster.”
He made a face. “No more medicine.”
He could’ve stabbed her in the chest with a blade, and it would’ve had the same effect. But she didn’t blame him for losing trust in her after what she’d done to him. “I won’t hurt you. I promise.”
Threading his fingers through hers, he raised her knuckles to his lips and brushed them with a soft kiss. “I know you won’t.”
They jumped at the sound of a loud snap outside.
Her eyes widened. “What was that?”
“Periwinkle must have gotten loose.” He jumped to his feet and slipped on his jeans with surprising alacrity. “Stay here.”
“No way.” She reached for her wand.
“I don’t want anything to happen to you.” Grabbing her shoulders, he squeezed her too hard while searching her face with a desperate look in his eyes. “You mean too much to me.”
She shook off his grip. “And you think you don’t mean everything to me, Thaddeus? I’ve already proven I’m good with a wand.” Refusing to back down, she turned up her chin. “I’m coming.”
His eyes narrowed. “Stay behind me.”
Knowing they didn’t have time to argue, she nodded. If there was danger, she wouldn’t hesitate to push Thaddeus out of the way to protect them both.
PERIWINKLE WAS STILL tied up, a big wet bullseye on his crotch.
Thaddeus ripped off the witch’s hood and flashed a fanged grin. “Couldn’t hold it?”
“Fuck you.” Periwinkle struggled to sit up.
Thaddeus took great pleasure in kicking the witch’s head so hard, blood splattered the wall behind him. The sound of his jaw cracking was loud in the morning quiet. The witch fell, unconscious. A shame. Thaddeus wanted him awake, so he could relish the witch’s suffering.
“Don’t kill him,” Violet admonished. “He has valuable information.”
“So you keep saying,” Thaddeus drawled as he secured the hood back over the witch’s head.
When they heard another loud noise outside, Thaddeus instinctively shielded Violet, ignoring her protests as he crept to the cave entrance and peered over the ledge. Below a man was building a fire. A peculiar golden carriage was nearby, drawn by two restless, winged horses who fought against their ropes, their silver manes glowing in the moonlight.
“Easy,” the man said to his horses and dragged the limp body of a woman out of the carriage.
“Who is he?” Thaddeus whispered.
She narrowed her eyes. “He’s fae.”
The man laid the woman face-down beside the fire, next to a small child. Why weren’t they moving? Were they dead?
The man set a basket beside the fire. There appeared to be three grapefruit-sized eggs in it, nestled in a blanket.
Thaddeus tensed when the fae stumbled, nearly dropping the basket in the fire. “Those look like dragon eggs.” Though he’d been just a boy when his younger brothers had hatched, he remembered their shiny, bronze shells. They looked like the eggs the man carried.
“What’s he doing with them?” Violet asked.
“I can’t tell.”
The fae went back to the woman and flipped her on her back, tucking her long, auburn hair behind her. “Forgive me, my child,” he sniffled, wiping his eyes. “I have no other choice.” He stood, whistling a happy tune as if he had not a care in the world.
Violet sat up, risking exposure. “Great goddess!” she hissed. “I recognize her from the papers.”
“Who is she?” Thaddeus asked, though he suspected he already knew. She looked like the Goldenwand heiress he and his brothers had once tried to kidnap.
“Serah Goldenwand,” she said on a rush of air. “Nathaniel Goldenwand’s granddaughter.”
“The Goldenwand heiress? Why’s she with a fae?”
“No idea,” she said. “She’s your younger brothers’ mate.”
Thaddeus’s heart stuttered. “They’re mated to a Goldenwand? Impossible.” His brothers would never betray his family. There was bad blood between Nathaniel Goldenwand and their grandparents, because the former tried to eradicate the shifter race.
“Her grandfather tried to have her killed last year and framed your brothers,” she said. “They saved her and then she saved the entire shifter race by disabling Goldenwand’s army with her siren voice.” She squinted at the wicker basket. “Do you think those eggs are theirs?”
Time slowed to a near stop as Thaddeus processed what Violet had just told him. If the Goldenwand heiress was indeed his brothers’ mate, then those eggs were his family.
“Who else could they belong to?” he said through a low growl as his inner dragon came to life, his roar stronger than he’d heard since before he’d been struck by the curse. “Something’s not right.” Not caring if he was seen, he stood and scanned the sky. “Where are my brothers?”
But there was no sign of them. The fae went behind a bush to relieve himself.
Violet stood and pointed at the girl. “Her wrists are bound, and she has a tau stone around her neck.”
His fangs and claws extended. “Son of a siren. I’ll kill him.”
“Wait!” She grabbed his arm, trying to pull him back as his dragon clawed at his skin. “Fae magic is more powerful than ours. You can’t attack him.”
“Like hell I can’t. He’s not hurting
my family.” He shifted, feeling reborn as he broke through his mortal skin. He leaped off the ledge and pounced on the fae as he pissed, flattening him to the ground with a heavy paw.
“Please don’t kill me!” the man cried, voice muffled as he struggled under Thaddeus’s weight.
The Pegasus horses neighed and fought their restraints, rising a few feet into the air, but their carriage was anchored to the ground, and it kept them from flying too far.
“Why do you have my brothers’ mate and their eggs and a girl child?” Thaddeus demanded, lifting his paw a couple of inches to give the fae room to answer but not turn over so he could aim his magic at Thaddeus. Fae didn’t need wands. Their magic flowed easily through their hands. Fae were tricky by nature, and this one had to be even more so to kidnap innocent girls.
The fae pressed his palms into the ground, his hair matted and caked with dirt. “I mean them no harm. They’re my daughters.”
Thaddeus looked at the girls. One had hair as red as fire, and the other’s was copper-colored. Nothing like the fae’s pale curtain. His attention snapped back to the fae, who was trying to wriggle out from under Thaddeus’s talons. “Then why are they unconscious, and why does the heiress have a tau stone around her neck?”
“I had no choice,” the fae cried. “Goldenwand has my son.”
Thaddeus pressed his talon into the fae’s back, thinking how easy it would be to kill him. “You’d give your daughters and the eggs to that madman?”
“He won’t harm them.” The fae panted while trying to break free. “He’s Serah’s grandfather.”
Flaming gnome turds! What kind of sick, narcissistic troll was this guy? “He’s already tried to kill her,” Thaddeus growled, his patience a thin thread that was ready to snap.
“He promised he wouldn’t kill her.” The fae sniffled, his voice rising several octaves.
Thaddeus would just as soon let a Leprechaun watch his gold than trust Goldenwand’s promise. “And you believed him?” He didn’t try to mask his disgust.
The fae wriggled like a worm on a hook. “He has my son!”
Fire raced through Thaddeus’s lungs as his vision tunneled. “And their lives are worth less than his?”