Wicked Souls: A Limited Edition Reverse Harem Romance Collection

by Rebecca Royce

  The Void’s magic became thicker as I drew close, and I couldn’t help but wince and send a silent prayer to the Mother. He made a deep sound of dismay.

  “I apologize,” he said. “I expected to greet her. Not a mere Shadow.”

  Oof, that stung. I forced myself closer, then bowed in greeting, keeping my gaze on his feet. “She’s waiting until I tell her it’s safe.”

  “She’s an Elite who carries my blood. What does she have to fear?”

  I raised my eyes and met his, then frowned and looked at Cassandra. She tightened her jaw. “We felt it prudent to approach the matter with caution. She wasn’t herself when she died. We don’t know whether she’s still corrupted. Our hope was to keep her contained until you and General Nikhil could weigh in, but my security team seems to have had other ideas.”

  Ked’s eyes narrowed, and I wasn’t sure whether he was mentally criticizing Cassandra’s actions or ours. He shook his head. “Benedetta’s mind was clear when she died; my fire saw to that. It was the moments leading up to her death that were the most damning of her character, but in those moments, she was still fighting Meri’s thrall. I need to see her to know whether her soul is her own or not. Nikhil will know her well enough too.”

  “So you promise not to take action until she can tell her story?” I asked, glancing around at all the others, silently pleading that they let her remain free. Cassandra remained silent, her eyes darting to Nikhil and Ked, who I gathered would be the final arbiters on the matter.

  “If she’s not herself, we will put her down again,” Ked said, his tone unequivocal. But seeing my worried look, his expression eased. “My son, if your love is any indication, I believe you. The darkness that tainted her before was strong enough to compel loyalty and obedience, but never the level of devotion I see clearly inside you. But we can’t make any promises until she shows herself.”

  “Understood,” I said, then closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and sent my message to the others. “They’re ready for her. They’ll listen.”

  Salem

  “We can run away. Somewhere they’ll never find us. We can keep you safe, Benedetta. You don’t have to do this.”

  She stood at the mouth of the cave, clad in a flowing gown of translucent black that Razik and I had conjured for her. The bodice cut deep, all the way to her navel, revealing the glowing, fiery marks between her breasts, but not even the visible reminder of that bond we now shared could calm my agitation.

  Shaking her head, she reached out to touch my arm, her searing heat comforting to me though it was hot enough to melt stone. “I’m ready. It’s time for my journey to come full circle so I can move on with my new life with you. I need to see him.”

  Razik took her hand and kissed it. “We’ll be right there with you. Are you ready?”

  I dug my heels in. “How do we know he won’t turn on you again? What if he’s jealous? What if he wants you for himself? He’s a fucking Immortal!”

  Razik snorted. “Dude’s got two mates he adores. Mates who Fate sent to him. And there were already fate hounds involved in us finding Benedetta, so I think we’re safe on that count. She’s ours now. Not his.”

  “You don’t know that we’re not just Fate’s stepping-stones to get her back to him,” I argued. I didn’t want it to be true, but the Void was a powerful bastard who could take her away with a breath if he wanted. He’d taken my parents’ power from them for two years before they regained it. It was painful to witness the two most important people in my life unbound from their magic and forced to live like humans for all that time. How could we know he wouldn’t steal Benedetta on a whim?

  She seemed to sense my worries and cupped my face in both hands. Her irises flickered with deep-purple fire, and she smiled a comforting smile. “It will be okay. I have to believe he’ll see inside my heart and know that I love the three of you with all that I am. Ked never marked me when we were lovers. Our bond was never consummated in that way, and the bond I did have with him has been no more than ashes on the wind for more than a thousand years. If there was still something there, he’d have never moved on.”

  Razik stepped beyond the mouth of the cave and shifted, dipping his head for Benedetta to ascend to his back. Despite her conviction, I was still uneasy as I shifted and joined them in the air a moment later, following them back toward the house.

  The enormous crowd that encircled the tree gave me pause, and I made a loop through the air above, trumpeting my displeasure, but Benedetta only patted Razik on the shoulder and aimed him down toward the ground. I couldn’t do a thing but follow, gritting my teeth the entire time as Benedetta dismounted, and Razik and I both shifted and clothed ourselves with our smoke.

  I didn’t know what the hell to expect, but Errol’s optimism helped when he came to greet us each with hugs.

  “You better be fucking sure about this,” I muttered into his ear.

  “I think it’ll turn out okay. Just try to stay positive, got it?” he whispered back.

  Benedetta had slipped away from our little group, and the nearby crowd had gone dead silent by the time Errol finished hugging me. My heart dropped into my stomach when I looked up to see her face to face with the two scariest motherfuckers in the world.

  She held her head high, constant cascades of purple flames dancing down her body. Both Nikhil and Ked merely stared at her, as if disbelieving her very existence.

  Ked nodded once, the slightest indication of his approval. Then his emotionless mask broke, and he let out a shuddering breath, closing the distance to envelop her in his arms. I took a step, but Razik held me back with a warning look and a small shake of his head. Mentally I heard, “Let her have this to herself.”

  Gritting my teeth, I made myself stay rooted to the spot and watch. He couldn’t take her away. She was ours now. He had his own mates, his own family, already. He owed me this. He owed me this. I kept the mantra running in my head just to calm myself, to keep myself from challenging the old bastard to a duel I would never win, but I’d do it anyway for her.

  Finally, he released her and pressed a chaste kiss to her forehead. “Mother has blessed you, it seems. Welcome back.” Her face relaxed into a half-smile, which grew when Nikhil began to laugh.

  “Holy shit, it really is you, isn’t it, Detta?” Nikhil crowed, pulling her into his arms. Half the group behind him tensed when her flames flared around them, then relaxed when he stood back with her at arm’s length, no worse for having just hugged a phoenix.

  “How the fuck can he do that? He isn’t a dragon,” I said.

  “Only Belah’s fire can harm him,” Razik explained. “And I think he gets off on it.”

  Behind them, Neela let out a happy cry and pushed to the front.

  “It’s really you! Oh Benedetta, sister, it’s so wonderful to have you back. And I must say, you are more beautiful than ever. I should know.” Her own fiery wings flared out from her shoulders as she leaned in and embraced Benedetta with the happiest smile. The two women spun around in a whirl of tangled flames that flared so hot I worried they’d set fire to the house even from this distance.

  “See,” Errol said. “It’s all good.”

  But his smile fell when Cassandra held up a hand. “There’s just one more thing to settle before we can call the issue resolved.”

  “What now?” I asked.

  Then Deva, the petite, dark-skinned beauty whose reputation had grown to epic proportions over the past few years, pushed to the front of the crowd, pausing to offer warm greetings and hugs to the men at the front. I wasn’t sure whether her presence was good news or bad news.

  “We already marked her,” Razik said in an irritated voice, loud enough for everyone to hear. “Does it matter what Deva thinks?”

  Deva shook her head. “My input isn’t going to change things, true. But I think you all are owed an explanation, and I’m here to offer that.” She waved a hand in an arc around her, and six enormous glowing purple beasts appeared out of thin air. Thei
r tongues lolled and their tails wagged as she reached down and scratched the nearest one behind the ears.

  I recognized two from the ferry the week before. One of the pair met my curious look and lifted its snout in the air, as if acknowledging my interest.

  “When I assigned two of my hounds to the island, it was mostly to help guide members of the Bloodline here who possessed burgeoning powers they may not yet understand. But there was a subtext to my order, which was to see that every soul on the island was also guided to their soul mates. They tend to be very literal creatures.” She gave the small pack of magical creatures a warm, indulgent smile.

  “But after some time with April’s tree, I’ve determined that it’s developed a connection beyond the Source. Just as its branches reach to the sun, to life above, so do its roots seek out the underworld below. It’s linked to both life and death, to the Source, to the Sun, as well as to the Earth and to the realm of Ashes itself, where dragon souls go when they die.

  “None of us could have known that there was a soul there wishing to return. Benedetta wasn’t even a dragon, yet she did have dragon blood in her when she died, and she was killed by dragon fire. I imagine after what happened to her, and to my mother, we might need to reexamine how the realm of Ashes works. Which souls get sent there, and which are allowed to return. I don’t suppose you Immortals have any ideas?” She glanced at Ked and Belah, who shared a bemused look.

  Ked shook his head. “The last thing I wanted to do was kill Benedetta back then, but I had to protect the higher races too. Mother must have heard my wish and sent Benedetta’s soul to the Ashes for safekeeping. I have no other explanation to offer.”

  Deva stepped forward and placed a hand on the trunk of the tree. “If that’s the case, then thanks to this tree, the Mother Dragon finally had a way to safely return her soul to the world, to a place where Fate couldn’t assert its agenda, and Benedetta could make her own choice.”

  I raised a hand. “Wait, are you saying the hounds didn’t mark us for her?”

  “They did, but not the way you think. My hounds don’t create a soul link between people who are not already right for each other. They simply match up souls who it’s clear will fit together. They were already on the lookout for an ideal match for Benedetta, and when you three came along, they merely nudged you all together. At any point, all four of you could have said no. But I’m here now to tell you that yes, you do belong together. You are right for each other. If you hadn’t been, she wouldn’t be standing here today, as resplendent in her new life as my mother was when she was reborn.”

  Neela proudly stepped close, pulling Deva into a sideways hug and kissing her on the top of her head. Her kiss left behind a patch of flame, and Deva laughed as she swiped it away, but it didn’t leave a mark.

  Benedetta came to us then, fiery wings hovering at her back and her smile brighter than ever. “You see? We belong together.”

  “Of course, we do,” Razik said, hauling her close and kissing her full on the mouth.

  “I never doubted it,” Errol said.

  When she stopped in front of me with an uncertain look on her face, it nearly broke me. I pulled her into my arms and stared deep into her eyes, needing to make sure she knew the truth. “Sweet Mother, I knew from the second I saw you that I had to have you, ashes and all,” I said. “Don’t you ever think otherwise, got it?”

  “Never,” she said, and kissed me.

  Benedetta

  Things were still somewhat complicated now that I was alive again. Trust wasn’t an issue, since the others embraced my existence easily, thanks to already being familiar with Neela’s rebirth.

  Ked introduced me to his mates and their young son, and I got to spend the rest of the afternoon getting reacquainted with all my oldest friends, the mood lighthearted and free of worry. It felt like waking up after a long sleep, feeling more refreshed and alert than ever, but also without the burden of a brutal master’s orders to weigh me down.

  On the contrary, I felt more love and acceptance than ever from the group, even the new friends I made. A short while after our reunion, the new arrivals came, the human members of this so-called Bloodline that Deva had sworn to protect. I learned that I had, in fact, been one of their numbers before what I’d been was burned away and I was reborn in dragon fire.

  That was the complicated part. When the guys invited me to come back to their rooms with them later that night, the objections were quick and unanimous. Under no circumstances should I step foot inside the house, or any other of the wooden structures of the school, at least not until I learned to rein in my fire. Neela was still learning to control hers and it had been more than three years since her transformation. So for the first night, the four of us retreated back to our cave, where the guys spent a considerable amount of magic conjuring more comfortable furnishings for us to temporarily make the place our home until something more permanent could be arranged.

  Ked, Nikhil, and my other friends departed the next morning to return back to their lives, but before they left, Salem had a few minutes alone with the dark-eyed Immortal. He left their meeting thoughtful but relaxed, and told me that his parents were going to be very happy with how things turned out, though he wouldn’t elaborate on how. All he said was, “I guess he really isn’t all that bad after all.”

  Later that day, Cassandra and I had a long, private conversation about my role at the school. She suggested that she would be willing to let the guys go if they decided they’d rather move to the Dragon Glade, where I could fly free with my fire unchecked. But I knew how much they valued their work. I valued it too, and missed having a similar job to focus my time and skills on. But the place was so very, very combustible, so that limited my options.

  I wound up taking a security shift that would keep me in the air during the day and returning to our cave at night, where two of my three men were always present and happy to cater to whatever desires I had. They were more than enough to make me happy, but I had always been a social creature and longed for a stronger sense of community.

  The only places at the school I was comfortable visiting were the glass studio and forge, which were built to contain fire, with their furnaces and crucibles constantly burning.

  So while my mates collaborated with April’s six mates on a build-out of the cave to make it more of a home, I concentrated on learning from April all there was to learn about glass and metal.

  Within a year, our home was complete, a small but beautiful stone castle built up from the cave at the end of the island, with polished granite floors and walls crafted from the very stone it was anchored in.

  April and I collaborated on a set of stained-glass windows that evoked the seasons, which were set in the windows of a tower, from the top of which my mates and I could launch into the air to begin our shifts to protect the island. Our home was also equipped with a small studio with all the necessary tools and materials for me to do my own intricate glasswork and jewelry making, which I also began to teach to a constant flow of students.

  My creations were nothing to the scale of April’s tree or the numerous huge, ambitious pieces of glass and iron she and her mates created. Mine were tiny, delicate beads, infused with little purple flames. My own small homages to the glass globe where my soul had once lived, before my three Shadows found me and breathed me back to life.

  The End

  Thank you for reading “Thieves of Fate”! If you loved it, please visit the retailer and leave a review!

  But wait, there’s more! Ophelia Bell’s dragon world is immense, with five completed series and more in the works. You can get a FREE taste by subscribing to her newsletter, or click here to go straight to the reading order for all the books!

  About the Author

  Ophelia Bell is the author of the super steamy Sleeping Dragons series. Ophelia loves hot alpha heroes, especially if they’re dragons, but believes the world needs more alpha heroines, so has made it her mission to make that happen. Ophelia grew
up on a rural farm in North Carolina and now lives in Los Angeles with her sexy tattooed alpha husband and five-and-a-half attention-whoring cats (one of them is exceptionally large and might actually be a dragon in disguise).

  If you love dragon shifter romance (or anything equally hot), you are welcome to come join Ophelia’s Dragon Beasties fan group on Facebook!

  Frightful Beginnings

  C. R. Jane

  About Frightful Beginnings

  Something is watching Eva from the shadows. Will her mysterious stalker ruin Beckham, Mason, and Damon's plans for Eva? Join Eva and her men for Eva's first Halloween in New York City. A sexy, fun short story set in the Fated Wings Series world.

  Untitled

  “First of all, it was October, a rare month for boys.”

  ― Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes

  Prologue

  I saw her first. I was the first person she turned to for friendship. I was the one who first saw her for the miracle she was. When I first saw her in that hallway, my whole world shifted on its axis. There was no before that moment. Only after. Her smile was what kept me going. The flowery smell that follows her everywhere, haunts my every thought.

  Eva is mine.

  Eva

  October in New York is a special thing. The air is crisp and cool. Leaves crunch under your feet as you walk through Central Park. The air is alive with excitement over football, Fashion Week, and the holiday season. It’s intoxicating.