by Tara West
“I’m sorry.” Athena rubbed her face. This was so bad, so why couldn’t she stop? “It’s your perfume.”
“It was your favorite.” She batted her lashes. “That’s why I still wear it.”
How thoughtful. Doris refused to wear perfume for Athena, even though she’d begged her to on numerous occasions.
Bodicea looked at Athena as if she held the moon and stars. “This is wrong,” she said, closing her eyes.
“I know,” Athena said and kissed her.
Chapter Eight
“Make yourself comfortable,” Ladon said and waved at his big bed, which looked like an animal den carved into the stone wall. “I’m just going to clean up.”
After he disappeared behind a heavy drape, she heard the distinct sound of a stream of urine hitting the inside of a bowl.
She crawled into the alcove, smiling when her hands and knees sank into soft furs. The low cave wall acted as a cocoon, making her feel safe and secure. She fell into the bed, heaving a sigh and digging her fingers into a pillow. Ladon’s bed was beyond comfortable, with just the right amount of bounce. Piled high with animal furs, it felt as luxurious as the magically enhanced Sparklefeather bed her grandfather had purchased for her.
Grandfather had spared no expense when it came to Serah’s needs, buying her expensive clothes and jewels, and paying for the best school in the third realm—until she’d gotten kicked out. He’d never been overly affectionate, but he had always been there for her, which was why she was having trouble thinking he’d bewitched Hestia’s wand.
Ladon joined her and sat at the edge of the bed. When she heard loud voices outside, Ladon shot to his feet. Her breath caught in her throat as she strained to hear what they were saying.
“We’re not leaving her alone.”
Her heart warmed when she recognized Draque’s voice. Yeah, he was a jerk at times, but at least he was protective of her. She wondered if it was because he cared about her or if he was afraid of her grandfather’s wrath. A loud roar startled her, then Draque’s angry words punctured the air. “Shut your bird beak and let us worry about our fathers!”
Her libido sprang to life. Of all the times to get turned on!
“I’ll be right back.” Ladon shot her a sympathetic look and slipped out the heavy, wooden door, latching it behind him.
The sound of the lock turning unnerved her. Was he locking her in for her safety, or was she actually a prisoner?
She bit down on her knuckles to repress her nerves. Whoever Birdbeak was, she hoped it wouldn’t come to blows with Draque. The door opened again.
“It’s just me,” Ladon said and crawled across the bed. “Everything’s okay.”
Well, that wasn’t true. She stiffened when he grasped her shoulder.
“Can I get you anything?” he asked.
Curling into herself, she shook her head.
“Are you sure?” When he stroked her back, she fought reacting to his touch. The connection felt wonderful, and being cared for by him was a small shimmering beacon in the darkness, but his compassion almost made her to burst into tears.
“Serah,” he said in low, soothing tones, spooning against her and wrapping an arm around her. “It’s okay.”
She turned into him, feeling bad that he was being so kind to her after what she’d said to her godmother the night before.
Placing a hand on his chest, she looked at him. “I didn’t mean to agree with my godmother when she told me I’d tire of you. I just didn’t want her telling my grandfather. I knew he’d try to break us apart.”
Ladon cupped her jaw. “I understand.”
“Do you believe me?”
“Yes.”
She heaved a sigh of relief, hardly aware that she’d been holding her breath. “Thank you, Ladon.”
“We told you our instincts were good.” He gently caressed her face, his infectious smile making her feel less quilty. “I can see into your heart.”
Being held by Ladon, embraced by his scent and electrified by his touch, made her pulse with desire. She wanted to show him she adored him. She needed to hold him and feel him deep inside her. Feathering her fingers across the bulge between his legs, she was glad to know he felt the same way.
Hissing, his eyes fluttered shut when she dragged her thigh across his erection.
“What is my heart telling you now?”
His eyes shot open. “I don’t want you to feel obligated.” He grabbed her wrist when she reached for him again.
She pushed against him. “What if I want to?”
He released her wrist and laid back, pulling her on top of him. “Then I’d be a fool to stop you.”
LADON HAPPILY GAVE his lovely siren control and was not disappointed when she removed his clothes and wasted no time taking him in her mouth.
He surrendered to the mind-blowing pleasure of his cock buried in her throat while her tongue swirled around the sensitive foreskin. It was the single most exquisite feeling of his life.
He fell back with a shudder, fireworks exploding behind his eyelids. He tried to hold back, but the way her magical tongue made love to every inch of his shaft was more than he could bear. He barely managed a warning he was about to come. He was surprised when she continued to suck him. He shot off like a rocket, and she slurped his seed as if his cock was coated in chocolate. Hot damn, she was so fucking erotic.
He hissed when she pulled off. She threw off her clothes and straddled his thighs, sliding his glistening cock into her dripping mound, and he anchored her by grabbing her fleshy, round tits and rolling her nipples in his fingers.
She ground against him, gasping each time his cockhead slammed into her swollen center. When her tempo increased, he gladly met each thrust, their joined bodies slapping against each other harder and harder until she threw back her head with a gasp. Her sheath contracted, then shook with tremors that electrified him, milking him once more.
She captured his lips in a heat-searing kiss, and he moaned into her mouth. He didn’t know if she was having multiple orgasms or one big long one. She kept pulsing around him. They panted into each other’s mouths for several long heartbeats before she finally collapsed, her heavy breasts smashed against his hard chest. She didn’t seem to mind. She practically melted all over him, like warm syrup dripping over hotcakes.
Stroking her back and hair, he enjoyed her sweet mewling sounds, his cock still buried inside her.
“How are you feeling?” he asked
“Like I’ll never be able to walk again.” She chuckled. “You?”
He feathered a kiss across her forehead, tightening his hold on her. “Like I never want to let you go.”
“I don’t want you to either.” She rose enough to look into his eyes. “You have been so kind to me.” Her voice cracked, and she looked away.
His heart lurched. What had upset her?
“Serah, my love.” He rolled her over and reluctantly slid out of her, slipping his crumpled shirt between her legs.
She staring blankly at the ceiling. “You must think I’m an emotional mess.”
“You’ve been through a lot.” He nuzzled her cheek. “It’s okay to let it out, Serah.”
She heaved a shuddering breath. “I don’t want to.”
“You’re going to have to eventually.”
Latching onto his hip, she buried her face against him. “Why would he want to kill me?” Her voice was muffled.
“It’s not anything you did.” He cupped her shoulders. “He’s evil.”
Her lower lip quivered. “But he gives to charities, and he’s always been generous with me.”
“Gifts don’t make someone a good person,” he said, hating himself for having to make her see the truth.
“Ladon, he saved my life once. Why would he save me only to kill me?”
“He saved your life?” As much as he believed in Serah’s goodness, he also knew a wizard as powerful as Nathaniel Goldenwand could have deceived her with an illusion spell.
&
nbsp; She drew back and blinked at him. “When my mother and grandmother were going to sacrifice me.”
Ladon’s heart slammed against his chest. “Sacrifice you?” That couldn’t be right. The sirens had a bad reputation, but never had he heard of them sacrificing their own. “Why?”
“In homage to our goddess, Maiadra.”
Why would the sirens risk being called before the Mage Council and possibly sentenced to death? “But sacrifices were banished in all realms years ago.”
“Sirens follow their own code.”
“They’re not worried about the law?” Ladon touched his neck, a shudder coursing through him when he thought about Parliament’s brutal beheading of a renegade mage he’d witnessed when he was a boy. “Witches don’t go to Siren’s Cove. You know how they feel about shifters.”
He knew witch prejudice all too well, which made it even more puzzling that her grandfather had sired a child from a siren. Perhaps her pheromones had been too tempting to resist. “But sirens are still obligated to follow magical code.”
She let out a bitter laugh. “Who’s going to enforce it?”
Clasping her hand in his, he brushed his lips across her knuckles. “I’m sorry.” He wished he could conjure up something that would soothe the pain in her heart, but he wasn’t as gifted with spells as Teju. He reminded himself to ask him for his help.
“Anyway,” she continued in a disinterested drawl that sounded forced, “my grandfather saved me and took me home. It can’t be him, Ladon. It has to be one of his assistants or a distant relative who wants my inheritance.”
He arched a brow. “Who are these distant relatives?”
She averted her eyes. “Cousins.”
He could tell she didn’t suspect them, and she was still trying to convince herself her grandfather was innocent. He decided to play her game. She’d wouldn’t accept that her grandfather was evil until she was ready. “We’d need to see the will to see who would benefit from your death,” he added cautiously, “but he’s been looking for an excuse to start a war with the shifter race for a while.”
Sitting up, she wrapped her arms around herself. “I know he doesn’t like shifters.” Her smooth brow furrowed as she became lost in thought.
Maybe it was finally sinking in.
“That’s an understatement,” he mumbled. Nathaniel Goldenwand despised shifters and wanted to see their race destroyed. He’d said as much to his grandfathers once, and Ladon doubted such a wizard would set aside a grudge so easily. More likely it had festered over the years, a giant, oozing boil of hatred and vengeance, and poor Serah was caught in the middle.
“COME HERE, MY LITTLE mite.”
Katherine hid in the shadows of an alcove, impatiently tapping her foot as her slag slithered down the uneven wall. Not much bigger than a worm, it left a thin trail of slime behind it wherever it went.
She held out a hand, and it dropped into it with a hiss. Capturing her pet, she kissed the top of its brown, bumpy head, letting its feathery antennae tickle her lips. Then she held him beneath the lobe of her ear. He latched on, squeezing hard enough to break skin and draw blood. After feeding for a few minutes, her pet crawled into her ear and slithered its way to her brain.
There he relayed everything he’d seen while spying on the Firesbreath brothers in their den.
Biting her lip to keep from screaming, Katherine’s talons shot out, and she fell against the wall, grinding spiky nails into the mossy rock while she relived the memory of Ladon fucking the siren bitch.
She agonized over each moan and slippery thrust, biting back tears of frustration as she slid down the wall to the floor, falling on her rear with a painful thud. Time stood still as they pleasured each other, and then he held her in the cradle of his arms. When the sweet murmurs began, she wanted to rip out her hair by the roots until she heard the bitch’s dark secret. The sirens had wanted to sacrifice her? Interesting. A dark seed of vengeance took root in her mind. That bitch would pay for stealing her mates.
Chapter Nine
Draque was pleased to see their beautiful mother, Rhea, when they walked into their fathers’ chamber. The quickening of his heart reminded him how much he’d missed her. As the oldest of the three brothers, he had to put up a tough front, but he loved her gentle touch and warm hugs.
“My dear boys,” she cried, her long silvery hair flowing behind her like wisps of smoke as she ran to them. “I’m so relieved you’re safe.” She hugged Teju first, kissing his cheek while Draque awaited his turn in anticipation.
Draque stiffened when she hugged him next, relishing her affection, but refusing to show his fathers any sign of weakness. When she kissed his cheek, he quickly hugged her back before pushing her away.
She frowned. “Where’s Ladon?”
“We left him with Serah,” Draque explained. “Katherine has threatened her.”
Her frown deepened, the lines marring her otherwise smooth forehead. “We will speak to her father.”
Teju laughed. “I doubt it will do any good.”
She searched their faces, and Draque felt the discomfort of her scrutinizing gaze. As a djinn, she could practically see into his soul. “Do you care for this girl?”
“She’s not like her grandfather,” he answered, purposely avoiding her question. “She has a pure heart.”
Her obsidian eyes narrowed. “But do you care for her?”
“How can we not?” Teju answered.
She clasped her hands to her heart and smiled. “Then I will pray to the goddess to guide your hearts until your stars align.”
“Thank you, Mother,” Draque said.
She fluttered back to his dragon fathers with the grace of a butterfly. His fathers preferred to be in full dragon form when they kept court. They were more intimidating that way.
Kron was the oldest of his three fathers. Long whiskers hung over his snout, a sign of his ancient dragon ancestry. He nuzzled the top of his mother’s head, purring like a cat before taking her in the crook of his wing. As fierce as their three fathers tried to present themselves, Mother could reduce them to simpering kittens with one look. Funny, how certain women had a way of charming beasts.
Draque had felt the same way with Serah yesternight.
“So it truly wasn’t you who burned down the school?” Dagon asked, glaring at them with his one eye.
Draque stiffened, clenching his hands until nails broke skin. They’d been unruly children and deserved to be sent to Dame Doublewart’s, but it was past time their fathers viewed them as men. If only they could learn to trust them.
“No, Fathers,” he said, “and I’m insulted you still don’t believe us.”
Teju’s lip pulled back in a snarl. “Why don’t you ask our brothers, or are we still pretending they’re not fighting with the resistance?”
Draque gave Teju a sympathetic nod. Though he was close to his two hatchling siblings, he was not fond of his eldest brothers, who were first in line to the throne. They had been even worse than Draque and his brothers when they’d gone to Doublewarts, which was one reason the Firesbreaths had such a bad reputation. Though they were well past high school age, they’d yet to grow up or show any interest in inheriting the thrones and the responsibilities that came with it, which put more pressure on Draque and his brothers to conduct themselves as kings, should something happen to their fathers.
Goddess save them all should that day come.
Vepar pulled back pale lips, revealing either a jagged smile or a frown. “We believe you, sons, and we will be summoning your brothers.”
Draque felt the threat behind Vepar’s words and hoped his older brothers would be thoroughly punished for their misdeeds, for it had to be them. They’d joined the resistance against their fathers’ orders and had been wreaking havoc ever since. Though the rebel army had initially banded together for the noble cause of preventing powerful witches from destroying the shifter race, somewhere along the way their mission had become warped. Draque wouldn’t be surp
rised if they’d been the ones to destroy his school, murdering innocents in order to propel witches and shifters into war.
“Did you fornicate with the Goldenwand girl?”
Draque blinked hard at Kron, who twirled the tips of his whiskers in his talons while giving them a knowing glare.
Draque swallowed. His fathers expected them to save themselves for their true mate, which was unfair considering a dragon’s insatiable libido. “Her name is Serah, and yes, we had sex.”
His mother’s gasp filled him with dread and then annoyance. She still treated them like babes, one reason why she insisted they finish school after they’d tried to drop out.
Vepar’s pale scales colored a rosy pink. “You care so little for your people’s safety that you’d sleep with our enemy’s spawn?”
Teju cleared his throat. “We didn’t know she was the heiress until afterward. Besides, she’s not the enemy here.”
Their mother advanced on them, her face shifting several times and revealing too many faces to count. “So you just randomly take strange girls to your den?”
“No, Mother,” Draque said and sighed.
Dagon gave them his knowing look, as if his one eye was a crystal ball that could see into their souls. “Rumor is that she’s a siren.”
“She is,” Teju said. “She told us before we slept with her. She has a pure heart.”
“Did she seduce you?” Mother demanded.
Draque shook his head. “If anything, we seduced her.”
And he’d do it again if given the chance, so long as he knew her heart was theirs, and she wasn’t planning to discard them later. If only he hadn’t heard her conversation with her godmother. He’d gone from trusting her to suspecting she’d bewitched them.
Vepar crossed one clawed foreleg over the other, looking like a complacent feline overlord. “Her grandfather will not be pleased.”
Kron winked. “He will be even less pleased when we send him word that his granddaughter is betrothed to our sons.”
