Into the Dream [The Arcadians] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Laurie Roma

  Another smile played across her lips as she remembered their bonding ceremony last night. She shifted her legs on the silken sheet and was pleasantly surprised that she was not the least bit sore after last night’s activities. Her eyes drifted open, and her smile turned into a frown as she realized she was alone in bed. She sat up and looked around the room.

  Where were her mates?

  They had been so zealous about being with her every second of the day that, especially after last night, she would think that they wouldn’t leave her side. No, they wouldn’t leave her. Not without a really good reason. She closed her eyes and concentrated, opening up the bond between her and her mates to find out where they were.

  Her eyes snapped open.

  To anyone looking at her, she was a vision of fury. Her icy-blue eyes glowed so bright with anger it outshone the light of the crystals in the room. Her skin glowed with a golden sheen, and her pale golden hair floated around her unnaturally, as if lifted by a breeze only she could feel.

  So, her mates left her sleeping while they went outside to take care of the mating challenge?

  Stupid, stupid males.

  They would learn that there were some things that she would not tolerate as their mate, and trying to leave her out of something important like someone challenging their mating bond was pretty fucking high on the list.

  Oh yes, they would learn that she was not some simpering female, and they would be lucky to escape her wrath once she got a hold of them.

  * * * *

  Allie stormed out of the palace doors, stomping down the stone steps until she reached the courtyard, where several warriors stopped in their tracks to gape at her. Driven by instinct, she had put on her leather pants Tynan had given her when she had first arrived on the planet, and chose to wear them with a matching leather vest she had found among the clothes they had left in the trunks of clothes in her room.

  She was dressed for battle and ready to kick some ass.

  “What?” she snapped out at the closest warriors. “What the hell are you staring at?”

  “Forgive us, Princess, but your eyes…they are glowing.”

  Crap. Another random Silas change that she hadn’t been warned about. She shook it off, prepared to deal with that later. Her gaze tracked over to a trio of warriors riding the hover-cycles, heading for the entrance of the palace gates.

  “You there! Stop!”

  The trio of warriors turned, and their eyes widened as they took in the sight of her. In truth, she looked like a muted-down version of a goddess, and they seemed shocked by the sight, just like everyone else in the courtyard.

  Unaware of the awe she was evoking in those surrounding her, she hurried over to the warriors on the hover-cycles. “Do you know where my mates are right now?”

  “Ah….aye, they are at the challenge circle out in the desert. It is a located at the oasis about two clicks south of here.”

  “Take me there,” Allie commanded.

  “But, Princess—” one of the warriors began.

  “Take. Me. There. Now!” Allie snarled, and the warriors gasped as her white-blonde hair began to glow.

  “Aye, Princess.” The warrior gulped as Allie got on the hover-cycle behind him. He silently prayed that his princes wouldn’t tear him to pieces when they saw their mate holding onto him. Offering up a plea to the Gods, he revved the motor and took off.

  Allie held on to the warrior as they flew across the sands. She wanted to open the link to her mates and command them to wait until she arrived, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She was so angry at them and didn’t think she could talk to them without screaming. How the hell could they set up a fight to the death and leave her sleeping in their chamber?

  There would be no challenge for her.

  None.

  She was not some fucking possession for them to trade among themselves when they felt the desire to do so. Oh no, this bonding challenge shit was going to end and be shut down tight. Just thinking about any other males even considering challenging her mates for the right to fuck her made her vibrate with rage.

  Allie squinted her eyes as the oasis came into view then realized she could see it perfectly as soon as she wanted to see it better, even from a distance. The oasis was a large circle of hard sandstone surrounded by pillars of stone, decorated with carvings of dragons on each of the large megaliths.

  Allie could see Tynan, Cael, and Ryder standing on one side of the circle, joined by their chiefs of security, Aeron, Jasyn, and Braden. On the other side of the circle stood Gregor, Arven, and Timor, the idiots who had issued the challenge during the festival, joined by another trio Allie had never seen before. Also with their group stood Vanya, the rabid female that had dared to lust after her mates. At the far end of the circle sat King Arik and King Falon on matching stone thrones.

  It made Allie sick to see hundreds of warriors surrounding the circle, watching the scene unfold. Off to the side sat so many hover-cycles it looked like a fucking convention for the damn things. Anger surged through her, making her entire body tingle with energy. She felt strange, as if her very bones were aching and shifting beneath her skin.

  “You were coming to watch the fight, weren’t you?” Allie asked the warrior driving her, through gritted teeth.

  The warrior hunched his broad shoulders in shame under the weight of her question. “Aye, Princess.”

  “Punch it, bucko.”

  “What? My name is Xavier. What do you want me to punch?”

  “Haul ass, Xavier. Get me there now!” Allie screamed over the roar of the wind, and the warrior driving pushed the hover-cycle as fast as it would go so they flew across the sand.

  Allie jumped off the hover-cycle before it completely pulled to a stop. She made her way to the outer ring of warriors watching the spectacle going on inside the circle and came to an abrupt halt when she saw Silas leaning against one of the large pillars with his arms crossed over his massive bronze chest.

  “Shit.”

  “What is it, Princess?” Xavier asked as he and his two brothers came up beside her.

  “Is that anyway to greet me, human?” Silas cocked an eyebrow up, amused.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I came to be entertained,” Silas said with a grin.

  Xavier exchanged a look with his brothers before responding. “You asked us to bring you here, Princess.” He spoke slowly, as if she had trouble understanding his words.

  Allie looked at Silas then back at Xavier and sighed. “You can’t see him, can you?” At their blank look, she gestured toward where Silas was lounging, and the three warriors shook their heads in confusion.

  “See who, Princess?”

  She sighed again. Damn it, now she looked like she was talking to herself. These guys were going to think she was going crazy. Grumbling under her breath, she walked forward so the God of the Sun was towering over her as she stood next to him. “Why can’t anyone else see you?” she asked in her head, well aware that he could hear her without speaking aloud.

  “Because I do not want them to,” Silas said simply. “They cannot hear me either.”

  “I kind of noticed that,” Allie replied dryly. “Why do I get the feeling that you being here is going to end badly for me?”

  Silas snorted out a laugh. “You are probably right.”

  “Why is it that you seem to get a perverse sort of pleasure by messing with me?”

  “Probably because I do. It has been a long while since I have interacted with the mortals on this planet. I had forgotten how amusing they can be. You are small, yet highly entertaining.”

  “Gee thanks,” Allie groused. “How is it you can be here right now? I mean, I thought Lunaria could only take form in the Crystal temple and you in the Sun Temple or whatever you call it.”

  “I aided my Goddess in bringing you here, but that does not mean I am bound by the same limitations as she. Lunaria wastes her magic trying to help the mortals of this planet too often
to be at full strength, while I, on the other hand, do not. Plus, it is midday, and I am at my strongest when the sun is at its zenith.”

  Silas pushed off the pillar, his corded muscles flexing beneath his taunt golden skin. Yeah, he was strong all right. There was something dangerously beautiful about the golden God, but Allie knew that dangerous was the key word about this particular being.

  Ah well, his explanation made sense. Still, it seemed like the God’s appearance here was more than curiosity. Allie looked over at her escorts there and barely held back a groan. The three warriors she came with were looking at her like she was nuts.

  Fan-fucking-tastic.

  They were going to think their new princess was bat-shit crazy.

  She opened her mouth to give them some sort of excuse to explain why she had been staring into space, but her voice was drowned out as the warriors around her cheered. She couldn’t deal with the damn God now anyways. She had more important things to take care of.

  Speaking of which, her eyesight sharpened, allowing Allie to see through a small crack between two large bodies of warriors watching the center circle. She watched as a bare-chested Tynan, Cael, and Ryder stepped forward, coming to the center of the circle, facing off with their opponents. Tynan let out a vicious growl, and claws sprang out from his hands.

  This was so not happening.

  She gritted her teeth together as the God chuckled. Something rippled under her skin again, making her heart pound in alarm. Her eyes narrowed as she glared up at Silas. “What is happening to me?”

  “You know.”

  “Damn you, for once can you just answer me? What the hell is wrong with me?”

  Silas heaved out an aggrieved sigh and pushed off of the pillar to stand up straight. “Your anger is starting the change.”

  “The change?”

  “Aye. Brace yourself, little dragon. What you are feeling is the call of your dragon form,” Silas informed her. “Soon you will be able to teach these warriors a lesson or two.”

  The God waved a hand and, to the surprise of the crowd, cleared an opening through the crowd with nothing more than a flick of his wrist. Warriors cried out in shock as they flew through the air, clearing a wide path to the sandstone circle.

  The warriors turned as one, staring back at Allie in surprise. She flicked an annoyed glare back as Silas, who simply shrugged. Xavier and his brothers gaped at her but followed closely as she stalked forward through the open path to edge of the circle.

  Her mates had been oblivious to the chaos going on in the crowd, their focus solely on their challengers. All three of them had their claws extended, as did their opponents, and they were preparing to launch at each other in battle. King Arik called out, and snarls filled the air as the six combatants attacked each other in the center of the circle.

  Allie wanted to scream out in warning as Cael barely missed a vicious swipe of Gregor’s claws. She saw Ryder kick out at Arven, lifting the other warrior off the ground so he flew back several feet before crumpling to the ground. Timor jumped out of the way as his brother flew back and launched another attack at Tynan. It took Tynan only seconds to take the slightly smaller male onto the ground. Tynan raised his claw in the air, ready to bring it down for a killing blow.

  Stupid, stupid men.

  How dare they fight over her like a piece of meat?

  She was a doctor, for Christ’s sake! Did her mates really think she wanted them to kill these men just because they were following some stupid archaic tradition? Anger coursed through her, and the crowd around her gasped as she began to glow with a golden light. She looked down to see what they were gawking at, and her mouth dropped open.

  What the fuck?

  When the hell did she start glowing like Tinker Bell?

  Silas appeared beside her again, appearing out of thin air, making her yelp. Damn the man, he had to stop doing that! Allie heard his laughter echo through her head.

  “The glow is from the magic running through you. Now go, entertain me. What is that saying from your world? Go kick some ass.”

  Yeah, she’d get right on that.

  Allie launched herself onto the sandstone circle, but a hand on her arm stopped her before she jumped between the fighting men. Xavier looks down at her with worry glowing in his warm golden eyes. “Princess, you cannot enter the circle once the fight has begun. You will be hurt!”

  Ryder let out a vicious roar, but it wasn’t directed at the loathsome trio fighting her mates. It became clear it was directed at Xavier when Ryder stalked toward them. “Get your hands off our mate!”

  Xavier released her and stumbled back, bowing his head in contrition. “Forgive me, my prince. I did not mean to give offense. She was about to enter the ring.”

  “The outsider is here, and I challenge her!” Vanya screamed out. She was forcibly held back by a pair of warriors before she could lunge into the ring.

  Oh, that bitch was going to get hers.

  “Cease the fighting!” King Falon called out from the stone throne. “Bring the princess here.”

  Cael came forward and gripped Allie’s arm, pulling her gently up into the circle. “What are you doing here, Allison? How did we not know you had awaken, that you were here? And why in the name of the gods are you glowing?”

  “Trust me when I say you do not want to know what is going on in my head right now. What am I doing here?” She lowered her voice. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

  Cael’s mouth tightened in anger, but she could also see the guilt in his glowing eyes. Tynan gripped her arm gently, being careful not to prick her with one of his sharp claws. “You should not be here. This will be finished soon. Go wait with our fathers.”

  Not be here…?

  Oh, hell no.

  Allie ripped her arm out of Tynan’s grasp, only gaining her freedom because he was caught off guard. The sweet scent of her blood filled the air, but she didn’t look down to see the scratch on her arm. She could feel it rapidly healing even as she stood there glaring at her three mates.

  “I shouldn’t be here? How dare you do this behind my back? How dare you decide what is going to happen with my future without even telling me!”

  Gregor, Arven, and Timor chuckled from across the circle.

  “We will not lose, Allie,” Tynan growled out in warning. “You have nothing to fear.”

  “Don’t you use that tone with me!” Allie raged. “You left me sleeping in bed while you came here to fight those assholes? I’m a damn doctor. Do you think I want you to kill someone over me?”

  “You need to watch your language, female,” Gregor growled.

  “We shall have to teach her some manners when she becomes our mate,” Timor called out, making Tynan, Cael, and Ryder snarl furiously.

  Allie had had enough. She let loose a ferocious snarl of her own that had her mates staring at her in disbelief. “That will never happen! You are lucky I just stopped my mates from killing your stupid asses!”

  With eyes narrowed, she swung her head to glare at her mates. She lowered her voice to a low growl that they could barely hear. “You three have a lot to make up for...”

  “Something is wrong,” Cael growled. “Allison, why are your eyes and skin glowing?”

  “We are doing this for you—” Ryder began to say.

  “No, you aren’t doing this for me. You’re doing this for you. This”—she waved her hand to encompass the crowd—“is all for you. It’s all about your fucking egos. All you males, challenging each other to try and take a mate even if she doesn’t want you? It makes me sick. This shit ends now!”

  Allie’s heart was pounding so fast she thought it would beat right out of her chest. The rage coursing through her system made it feel like her entire body was on fire. Instead of trying to rein it in, she let it flow freely. Giving in to the primal urge, she stepped back away from her mates as her form began to shimmer.

  “Allison!” Cael called out in alarm.

  “Stay back,” Allie growled o
ut. She turned her head and focused predatory eyes on the three males challenging her mates. She must have been some sight, for the males paled and took an involuntary step away from her.

  “Allie!” Tynan, Cael, and Ryder cried out as one as they lunged forward. Allie held a hand up and held them back with an unseen force she would have thought was awesome if she could think beyond the anger guiding her actions. She never looked away from the interlopers that were trying to destroy her happiness with her mates.

  How dare they!

  They would learn that she was no one’s prize to claim.

  Allie felt a wrenching pain as the change began. Her body shimmered into pure white light, and stars bursts behind her eyelids, blinding her. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. She was held at the precipice of agony, struggling to keep hold of herself even when she felt like she was being torn into a million different pieces.

  “Relax,” Silas whispered into her head. “Relax and give into the change. You will still be you, only more…”

  Allie tried to do as he said as she stopped fighting the feelings flooding her. She had feared that if she gave into the magic flowing into her, it would overwhelm her and take her over completely, but it didn’t.

  Instead, Allie was infused with power.

  Suddenly the pain was gone. It was as the God of the Sun said, she was still herself, but more. She felt an ancient power merging with her spirit, binding itself to her so they became one.

  It was like being reborn.

  The spirit of the beast had no gender. It was simply a combination of knowledge and raw strength, an untapped source of power that made Allie more than she ever thought she could be. The magic had seeped into her, altering her very spirit to become one with the very essence of the land she stood on. She felt the rhythm of the land’s heartbeat in her blood and instinctively sensed the life force of every living creature for miles around. In her dragon form, she was a guardian, a protector, and defender of this land.