“Give me more of that tongue and you’ll have more than enough of a taste.”
His promise caused an almost uncomfortable ache to bloom inside me, that may have been attributed to my diminished reserves of energy, but felt more like it originated in that deeper core of my being where the fragment of Rohan’s soul resided now. I loved Keagan’s raw honesty, so tinged with desperation there was no question how deep his need must be.
I kept my fingers wrapped around the base of his shaft and grazed my lips along his underside, darting my tongue as I went until I reached the pair of velvet covered balls between his thighs. He was fully beneath the shower, blocking most of the spray from me, but the water cascaded down him, trickling off his skin. I lapped at the warm, clean flow, teasing the underside of his sac until he emitted ragged pants and widened his stance for more. While I licked him I began stroking his length again.
Keagan let out a soft curse and his body tensed. I moved back to his cock and slipped my lips over his tip, once more sucking and stroking, eager for him to give in.
“Deva, oh fuck!” He rested his palm against my cheek, fingertips digging into the flesh behind my ear as his hips jerked and his cock spilled salty-sweet fluid into my mouth. His energy flooded me like before, adding a layer of delicious sensation to the water flowing over my body, but the taste of him was more than pleasant. His essence tingled on my tongue and along my throat as I swallowed every drop. When it hit my belly, a flood of warmth cascaded outward as though pure sunlight had exploded inside me. I slipped my lips off him with a gasp.
“Sundance,” I murmured, my eyelids fluttering closed. “I didn’t expect that. Is that what I think it is?”
His hand gripped my elbow and pulled me up. I opened my eyes to his amused smirk. “I was lucky enough to carry that gene,” he said. “You’re the first thing close to an ursa female who’s ever tasted it.”
“I read about it, but the books in the Rainsong library say the power of the Sun only appears once in a full cycle of the ursa seasons, which can take hundreds of years, and we’re barely at the start of a new cycle now. How are you not a Miteradoro?”
He turned and flipped the lever, killing the shower. “Gaia’s granted her gift three times in the past year already. I doubt she has any urge to give it to me too.” He stepped out and grabbed a towel, but rather than dry himself he turned around and draped it over my shoulders. He took another towel from the shelf and knelt in front of me, gently beginning to dry me from the neck down. His eyes were shuttered, as though his only care was the task of drying my naked body.
I touched his wet head. “Keagan, those gifts were given in a time of war, I don’t think it counts. Besides, Silas, Bekim, and Theron are all mated to immortal dragons. I think their status earned them the gift too. You’re entitled simply by having the gene. Do you know how much power you’d be capable of if Gaia gives you her gift?”
“I think you read too much, princess,” he said in a subdued tone. “There’s nothing special about me besides the fact that my jizz gets you a little drunk.”
“Do you know who else can do that?” I asked, looking down at his bowed head as he lifted each foot to carefully dry between my toes. I had to rest my hand on his shoulder for balance and squeezed for emphasis. “Dionysus. The gene was his gift to Gaia when they were lovers. His power can manifest in a male ursa but only if Gaia herself activates it. You’re more connected to the bloodline than you think. Or you could be.”
He rose and pressed two fingers to my lips, giving me a serious look. “The only thing I care about right now is you, Deva. My whole life has just been waiting for this moment. Having an ursa princess make me hers is more than I’d ever wished for. I don’t need anything else.”
I nodded, clasping his hand in mine and threading my fingers through his larger ones. “I’m not really much of a princess you know. Neha is the Rainsong heir, not me. Vrishti was only my surrogate mother. My biological mother was the daughter of an immortal dragon’s pet. A slave, Keagan.”
“You’re more than that and you know it.”
I took the towel from my shoulders and stepped close, pressing it to his wet body and drying him with as much tenderness as he’d shown me. “I am trying to be, but right now I’m not much more than a Gold dragon’s mate.”
“Don’t let us define you,” he said, scowling down at me. “If that’s what you think you are, I’m walking away. If after we do this, you ever say you’re just my mate—”
I laughed. “Poor choice of words. I’m sorry,” I said and the fierceness in his gaze softened a little. “Fine. You and Ro are mine after today. Not the other way around. Are you all right being known as the chimera’s mate?”
“It means I’ll be yours,” he stated so matter-of-factly that I knew it was the end of the conversation.
14
Deva
“Sorry about your hair,” Keagan said, tentatively grazing fingertips over the dark tangle framing my face. He winced.
“Is it that bad?” I asked. I reached up, feeling the matted mess of wet curls tangled in near dread-locks around my face. The water hadn’t done me any favors.
I pushed magic through my fingertips, willing the water out and untangling in the process. After a moment, I shook my head, the ebony cascade sweeping softly around my shoulders and falling over my breasts just far enough to obscure them.
“Better?”
The look in his eyes startled me. Where I’d seen simple chagrin before—mild regret over messing up my hair—now his eyes were filled with something close to fear.
“Keagan?” I stepped closer until the damp, fragrant heat of his body enveloped me, inundating my senses. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m afraid I’ll fuck it up somehow. That it won’t work because I’m not good enough for you. Because there’s no fucking way in hell I am.”
“Why would you say that?” I reached up and touched the tattoo on his chest, grazing fingertips over the slightly upraised pattern of the mirrored Fs, then the spiral in between. I resisted the urge to mark him right there, but knew he wanted me to claim him in the ursa tradition.
He raised a hand to cup my cheek and tilted my head back, fingertips digging into my scalp. His gaze was deep and earnest, brimming with intense sincerity. “Because I’m not strong enough to protect you the way Rohan can. I’m not even finished with my pilgrimage. I’m a child by our kind’s standards. What you are . . . what you could become . . . deserves strength and power I don’t have.”
His confession surprised me with its depth. I stepped close enough for my breasts to brush his chest and reached up to press my palms to his stubbled cheeks, fingertips brushing the thick, soft edge of his sideburns. The shower-damp hair on his chest tickled my nipples, causing them to harden. I leaned up and pressed my lips against his, savoring the frisson of awareness that sparked in his aura as it flared around us both. The magic of his essence still tingled on my tongue, seeping slowly into my blood and heating it once more. He had far more power than he was willing to admit, if that taste was any indication.
With a soft exhalation of pleasure, I pulled back and met his gaze. “Keagan, I barely know who I am yet. I think we’re both due to learn our true potentials. I’d like to share the discovery with you. We can help each other learn what we can become.”
His eyebrows twitched, and he looked like he might object again. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him hard, hoping to make it clear there was no way in hell he was backing out of this, not after how hard he pushed to get me on board. He didn’t push me away. Instead, he groaned into my mouth, opening up to my exploring tongue as he encompassed me in his big arms.
He slipped his hands down my back until they cupped my ass and squeezed, lifting me until I had no choice but to sling my legs around his hips. He kneaded my backside gently, the pressure spreading me open and exposing me to the cool air of the room. His hard length throbbed hotly between our bodies as we kissed and he turned us, walking acr
oss to the big bed in the center. A bed, I realized, that was made for our kind, and could easily fit three or four bodies comfortably, more if we were tangled together.
I only let that fantasy flit through my mind for a second. This moment was about me and Keagan, about expressing my desire for him beyond the need to make up for taking his lover away. I still felt unqualified to have them both, to even entertain the idea of having more, if the others were willing and I could convince them somehow. But if that wasn’t meant to be, I intended to savor this moment.
Still holding me tight, Keagan climbed onto the bed, walking on his knees until he reached the very center before he leaned down to release me into a mound of soft, downy pillows. He released my mouth slowly, drawing out the kiss with little nips and sucks that only enhanced the sensation of his hard body pressed between my thighs. I arched my hips up, my soaked core sliding along his length, and enjoyed the groan of pleasure he emitted into my ear.
“You drive me wild, Deva. I want to make this last.”
He pulled back from me, propping himself on one arm, but he kept his hips pressed tight between my legs, undulating in a slow rhythm to match the movements of my own.
His gaze fixed to mine, his scruffy face awash in pent up need. With the tenderest touch, he brushed fingers down my cheek and across my lips, then down to rest lightly against my throat.
“Will you sing for me again?” he asked, almost hesitant, like he feared I might deny him.
My eyelids fell closed with the pleasure that question gave me, hitting far deeper than the physical friction building between us. “Always,” I said, and began to sing.
As the first note filled the air, he exhaled sharply as though surprised, his face changing, filling with a deeper, more sublime ecstasy than the need he was gripped with. His gaze remained locked on my face, but his hips shifted lower, the thick hardness of his cock slipping down along my sensitized folds.
He dropped a hand between us to position himself at my entrance, his other shoulder flexing from bearing his weight. I only faltered once, my breath escaping me with his slow slide inside me, the friction of that first thrust sending explosions of pleasure through every limb. When I caught my breath, I picked up the song again as he picked up his rhythm, resting on both elbows over me.
I met every thrust with a lift of my hips, my voice rising and falling in tempo with his breaths and the rising waves of pleasure each thrust sent through me. The ecstasy grew so intense I lost focus, the words to Keagan’s song somehow flowing from me of their own accord, as though all I had to do was open the door and the music would come.
His gaze never strayed from my face, and so I saw the flash in his eyes when something more powerful took over. His body tensed above me, his thrusts slowing and growing more violent. When his mouth opened as if he might speak, I let the song trail off.
“Deva, oh Gaia please let me be worthy of you.”
I slipped my hands up his back, raking my nails lightly as I went, and combed them through the thick, damp hair at the back of his head. He dipped his forehead to mine as his body began to shudder and before my eyes his green-gold aura fractured. The energy of his climax tore through me, launching me to my own glorious finish, my thighs involuntarily tightening around him as I arched into his body with a cry that echoed through the room. Yet when I came down, the energy he’d poured into me left me with a strange warmth in my core that I’d never felt before. When I opened my eyes I was met with the eyes of a different man.
It was still Keagan, of course, his big body shuddering and his cock still pulsing inside me as he emptied himself into my depths. But the tortured look had vanished, replaced by one of utter wonder and elation.
This time, I knew without looking that it had happened. The same gentle tugging sensation at my center told me that if I were to look down between us, I would see the thread of the bond. And if I looked at his soul, it would be healed, save for the perfect void in the middle from the piece he’d sacrificed to me.
But the most telling was the vibrant awareness that threaded throughout my body like a million tiny roots sinking in, binding my cells and threading deep into the earth. When the power from that connection hit, I gasped and arched into Keagan again, as if seized once more by pleasure. Power bloomed within my mind and with it the understanding that I possessed the magic needed to fully awaken my ursa nature.
I opened my eyes and met a worried gaze that eased to satisfied smugness. With a slight nudge from me, Keagan slipped out of me and rose, shifting back to rest on his haunches. I followed and faced him on my knees. I lifted one hand, focused my attention on my fingertips and simply willed the claws into being.
Despite knowing I was fully capable of the transformation now, I was still giddy with surprise when my hand shifted, elongated and swelled into a furry paw with deadly hooked claws emerging where my fingernails had been. It had been the same way when I’d first experimented with my dragon shift the day before, yet still astounded me that it was happening.
“Enjoying yourself?”
I tore my eyes away from my hand to meet Keagan’s handsome, smirking face. His eyes were heavy lidded with renewed lust, yet the anticipation shivered through his aura. I still couldn’t help but giggle a little at how amazing the experience was.
“Yes, I am,” I said smugly. “Are you ready for this?” I swiped my claw through the air just before his face and he grabbed my wrist, pulling me close to him until his lips brushed my ear.
“You know I am, princess.”
He pressed my claw to his right pectoral, opposite the tattoo. My smile faltered as my claws broke skin, and the instinct to mark him took over. I rose up higher on my knees and pressed harder, part of me hating the idea of causing him more pain after all he’d endured, yet still drunk from the understanding of what this would mean.
A sound bubbled up from my chest and before I knew it, I released a roar of conquest, swiping my claws across his flesh until my nose filled with the scent of his blood. Brief horror struck but Keagan grabbed me before I could back away, holding my bloodied hand in one fist while he dipped his other hand between my legs.
“Let me finish it,” I said, finally regaining my senses. I slipped my hand down, replacing his and gathering our combined essence on my palm and fingertips. With the fertile mixture coating my hand I swiped it across his wounds, four jagged lines flowing red with his blood. Green light flared when the magic took hold, sealing his wounds with our merged essences until all that was left were four upraised lines. No cleaner scars than I could have ever imagined marked Keagan as mine.
As we sat admiring my handiwork, a tickling awareness nudged at my mind and I reached out mentally. “Rohan?”
“I didn’t mean to interrupt,” came the hesitant reply.
I glanced at the door, biting my lip in thought.
“Is he there?” Keagan asked. “Do you want him to come join us now?”
“Only if you’re ready,” I said.
“Ready?” He let out a melodic laugh that surprised me for how genuine it sounded, and I realized that I hadn’t yet heard him laugh since we met. He toppled me backward and kissed me, then called over his shoulder, “Come in jackass! She’s ours now.” Looking back at me with nothing but utter adoration in his gaze, he said, “All ours.”
15
Deva
The door clicked open and I looked past Keagan’s shoulder. Rohan leaned in the doorway with his arms across his chest and a smile on his face. “Fucking beautiful,” he said. “Seriously man, I hate it when you sulk because somehow you’re immune to my magic. I’m glad she could put a smile back on your face.” He cleared his throat and glanced over his shoulder into the outer room then back at us. “Not to be presumptuous but is there room for two more in there?”
Behind him, Bodhi came into view. He gave Rohan a shocked look. “Dude, I told you earlier I’m not ready for this. Not yet.”
Rohan’s eyebrows lifted and he glanced down at Bodhi’s crot
ch. Bodhi cupped himself and shrugged. “I can differentiate, all right? My dick doesn’t call the shots.”
“Suit yourself,” Rohan said, stepping into the room with a smile as bright as the mid-day sun. Bodhi chuckled and shut the door behind Rohan with a “you kids have fun!”
Rohan’s clothes faded to nothing as he sauntered toward us, his gaze flitting between me and Keagan. An incongruous uneasiness settled in my belly as he climbed onto the bed and crawled up to us, insinuating himself in the middle like a big, affectionate cat until his face was inches from ours.
Keagan laughed. “Dude, way to fucking horn in.”
“Admit it. You missed me,” Rohan said, peering into Keagan’s eyes with a smile. My stomach lurched and I pressed my hand over my belly, irritated by the inconvenient discomfort and confused by its sudden presence.
Keagan’s smile faltered and transformed into pure, desperate hunger. He grabbed Rohan by the back of the head and claimed his mouth. The dragon’s muffled laugh melted into an equally needy moan.
The discomfort inside me twinged with an unexpected, nausea-inducing pain. Watching the pair of them kiss felt more than right. But when Rohan released Keagan’s mouth and took me in his arms, a piercing slice of agony tore through my middle.
Physical agony, like a blade buried in my heart.
“Deva?” Rohan released my mouth when I didn’t respond, too overwhelmed by the pain to kiss him back.
“S-sorry. Something hurts.” I gasped and opened my eyes, trying to force an apologetic look and failing miserably.
“What is it, princess?” Keagan asked. He gave Rohan a slight shove and the dragon shifted across my body to lie on my other side, leaving me between the two of them. Keagan touched my face and I jerked back with a cry when fire seemed to sear my skin. On my other side, Rohan’s gentle caress down my arm felt like a million tiny bees stinging me at once.
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