by Ophelia Bell
Her wings.
He drew back, staring, then fell onto the pillows wanting a fuller view. Evie kept moving on top of him, drawing out her orgasm and singing the most beautiful song he’d ever heard while her wings spread behind her, sending soft, velvety gusts of air over his sweaty body.
It only took a few strokes for him to rouse again, but this time he gave into her, letting her fuck him and simply taking in her beauty while she used him to find her pleasure. This was what she was. Maybe not an angel, but perhaps the closest a man like him would ever get to one. In those moments, he finally felt redeemed. What happened after, he didn’t care about, as long as she got out.
He held her close when she finally collapsed against him with a sigh. The small blanket barely covered them both, but they were already warm enough.
“I’m glad you came tonight,” Evie said. “I just wish it’d been sooner.”
A few hours later, Marcus had the same wish.
* * *
All he remembered now was the rage of his master that led to Marcus strung up with a gash in his leg and his blood spilling onto the floor. And Evie… oh, God, Evie. Her own blood spilled and those beautiful wings…
Nothing could have prepared him for the intensity of the regret and pain of those moments when his master found them and unleashed holy hell on them both.
“You will wish for death tonight,” the man said as Marcus’s life ebbed away. “But you will not have it. You are mine. You follow my rules.”
But the man had left abruptly. All Marcus remembered was a subtle curse and something about an itch and ringing ears and not being able to concentrate. The next thing he remembered was Evie’s shaky hands releasing him from his bonds and her slight body barely dragging him to the bed, finally holding him as well as she could and whispering how she would rather die with him than go on the way they had. In his fevered state, somehow he managed to make love to her again, believing it would be their last time.
That wasn’t what was supposed to happen, but he didn’t have the strength to tell her that someone was coming for her.
God, why couldn’t they have come sooner?
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Marcus
Dragon Monastery, Sunda Islands
Present Day
“You should have left me behind,” Marcus said to the shadowy entity still lurking in a dark corner of his mind.
He sensed Ked rousing to his communication and the male’s voice replied, “The two of you are a package deal, at least where she is concerned. And you intrigue me. I killed the last Ultiori Elite created with my blood, and it has haunted me ever since. Killing you would destroy another piece of my soul.”
Perhaps if Ked felt that strongly there was hope for him. Especially if the dragon was entertaining the idea of saving Marcus for Evie’s sake. The prospect of living sparked a glimmer of energy deep inside him and Marcus forced his eyes open, blinking into the dim room. Once his eyes adjusted, he was greeted with the scowling looks of Evie’s brothers yet again.
The pair of them would definitely prefer it if Marcus disappeared, but he cringed at the idea of being sent away. His master was not the type of man to forgive and forget. Evie had been the female that showed the most promise for his experiments, and Marcus had proved to be every bit as effective a soldier as his brothers—more so, in many cases. The three of them as a team were impossible for any quarry to avoid or escape. Marcus’s betrayal would not be taken lightly
“If I agree to stay, I want your word that I’ll have sanctuary. I can offer my knowledge in exchange. Your kind fears me and my brothers, but believe it or not, the most terrifying person on earth isn’t you and your siblings—it’s our master. You know him as Nikhil, but he has always demanded we call him Sayid.”
Ked’s essence shifted in Marcus’s mind, as though he’d become more alert. “I am aware of his methods. My own sister was in similar straits as you and Evie when I rescued her from him eons ago, and that was before he fully embraced the monster inside. But I need more from you than your knowledge. You are far too valuable to simply give safe harbor to.”
Marcus closed his eyes again to block out the scrutiny of the two men he regretted displeasing the most. Perhaps if he acquiesced to Ked’s demands, he could find some way to regain Lukas and Iszak’s trust. He would do anything.
“What is it you need me to do?”
“The same thing I must do: be a father to your unborn child. Without its parents’ energy, the baby will die.”
Marcus sat up and opened his eyes wide. He struggled to rise from the bed and Lukas and Iszak both snapped to attention, stepping in front of the doorway that led out of the bedroom.
“I need to get to her!” he said, swaying on his feet as he scanned the room for clothes. He spied garments hanging on hooks along the wall beside a large, wooden bureau and stumbled toward them, the room swimming as he walked. His vision blurred and he stumbled, flailing forward. Two pairs of large hands grabbed his arms and held him upright with vicious grips.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Iszak growled. He turned Marcus back toward the bed while Lukas snagged the garments from the wall and followed.
“Evie, I need to see her. Just… talk to Ked.” How in the world it had happened, he couldn’t begin to fathom. He and Evie had only had the one night together. That a child could have been conceived in the midst of the horrors Marcus and Evie had endured was beyond his ability to comprehend. Besides, he really didn’t want to be the one to tell her overprotective brothers that their sister was knocked up.
His savior arrived in the form of the brothers’ mate. Belah opened the door and came through, followed by a man Marcus had never met, but who definitely carried himself with the same regal stature that most dragons possessed. The man was shirtless, clad only in a wrap-around sarong, his torso covered in the most elaborate tattoo Marcus had ever seen. A huge dragon wrapped all the way from the tops of his shoulders down to disappear beneath the top of the sarong.
While Belah had a quiet word with her mates, the man scrutinized Marcus so closely, Marcus shivered and reached for the clothes, his hands trembling as he struggled to dress himself. The man’s eyes were unlike any dragon’s eyes he’d ever seen, but it took him a moment to grasp exactly why.
When he did, his head shot up and he stared, open-mouthed at the man.
“You’re a Prismatic,” he said, dumbfounded. He’d only heard of the existence of Prismatics once or twice—whispers from their prisoners or dragons he and his brothers eavesdropped on when they were hunting. In all his years as a hunter, not once had he encountered a prismatic.
Marcus managed to get the lightweight drawstring pants pulled up to cover himself before Belah turned to face him, though his modesty was far from preserved after the unraveling power of the man’s gaze.
“Marcus, this is Kris. He’s going to help you regain enough energy for me to take you to Ked and Evie. Ked wants you conscious. He says you can be trusted, which my mates may not yet believe, but I have learned not to doubt my brother’s opinions of people.”
“Did he tell you?” Marcus croaked, glancing between Belah and Kris, still marveling at the swirling spectrum of Kris’s eyes.
Belah smiled and Kris raised an eyebrow.
“Yes, but my mates don’t know yet. I will acclimate them into the idea when the time comes.”
Marcus heaved out a sigh that eased one worry but left behind the true anguish he’d been seeking to let go of with his death. Fuck him for wanting the easy way out. He knew better.
Kris knelt before him. “I have to touch you for this to work. You might feel a little aroused when it happens, but that’s natural. Save it for her.”
Marcus nodded. He wanted this as much as the shadow did. The shadow tickled at his mind, impatient for his presence.
Kris’s hands gripped his
thighs and squeezed. Kris didn’t move his hands, but a surge of energy pulsed into Marcus that made his dick instantly spring to attention.
“Fuck!” Marcus blurted, but gripped the bedsheets behind him while the man closed his eyes and let more power flow between them. Within moments, Marcus felt entirely energized. He stared down at Kris, confused by the desire he had to kiss the man—and not in platonic gratitude, but to take his mouth and plunge himself inside with his tongue, devouring him to the point he begged to be fucked.
He closed his eyes to suppress that urge. Fucking dragon magic. When he opened them again, the urge hadn’t gone away and he clutched his fingers hard to still that need. He felt the mattress underneath his hands rip until his fingertips punched through the woven barrier.
“You’ll want to take care of that,” Kris said, smiling and pointing at Marcus’s raging erection when he stood to leave. “I would, but I have my orders. You should have enough power to make it through a bonding.”
Marcus had never felt more alive in all his life. He reached between his thighs and cupped his aching cock. After the torture session he’d endured, he didn’t believe he’d ever perform again. He had been thankful that his last lovemaking with Evie had probably been his best performance ever.
But he had a bigger mission now.
Evie…
He had energy now, and used it. He threw on the rest of the clothes he had, and burst out the doors, thankful that the North brothers were absent. He found his way to her in a blur, his instincts carrying him.
Evie. Our baby. Ours.
When he reached her he just stood there, all the strength draining out of him at the sight of her in the arms of his creator.
They were actually in bed together. And fuck, the man had to know he was coming.
Evie’s arms were wrapped around the man’s neck, his head bent to whisper in her ear. And whatever it was she said in reply made him smile.
It took every ounce of Marcus’s control to stop and wait.
Abruptly the scene flew away, as if a breeze had blown through and his vision were feathers.
What was left behind was a pale, haggard woman, and a huge man with a look more tortured than Marcus’s own soul. Evie’s slight body was dwarfed in the man’s arms, but she clung to him like her life depended on it.
“You tricked me,” he said. “What the hell was that image I just saw?”
“It’s what she wanted you to see, but she’s intent on hiding the truth. I disagree.”
Evie’s eyes met his and he ached to touch her. She only watched him from the arms of the man who held her.
“You look like shit,” he said to Ked. As surprising as it was, the man really did look like he hadn’t slept in days. His strong face was drawn with worry, dark circles under his eyes.
“Sorry,” Ked said. “Looks don’t matter when we’re dealing with Ultiori torture.”
Marcus himself had done this. He’d been reckless enough to wish for one night with her before she was saved.
“Her wings…” he whispered, venturing closer. “God, he was so brutal.”
“Her wings are restored,” Ked said, brushing a hand over her back.
Evie shivered under Ked’s touch and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “You guys like talking about me like I’m not here? If that gets you off, I’m game… Unless we’re talking about the baby.”
Marcus’s eyes shot to her midsection and then up again.
“You pregnant with my baby does a lot more than get me off.”
Evie grew still, moving her pale forearms to lay across her abdomen. “He happened in there.” She had a haunted look on her face which he studied. He knew the truth of all the pregnancies. All the losses and heartbreak that occurred afterward.
“And he’ll be raised out here,” he said, aching to tell her how much he wanted exactly that. To have their child raised in a good place. Maybe it was foolish of him to wish for, though.
“All the others died,” she said, finally looking at him with tears in her eyes.
Ked shifted with her movements, releasing her from his arms
“This one won’t die,” Marcus said. “We won’t let it, will we?” He looked at Ked and the man nodded.
Marcus bent to his knees before them and opened his arms. “I’m not letting this baby go without a father. Trust me.”
Evie sank into his arms with a harsh laugh and he let her fall into him, reveling in the familiar contact. They’d done this so many times. This back and forth of planning for their offspring’s future. Before, it had been a fictional child they planned for, but now it was so very real. But only if she let it keep being real.
“Love this baby with me?”
“You bet.” He said it as his skin prickled with the presence of their savior.
Ked’s dark eyes bored into his when he looked up. A wash of darkness and doubt overtook him, stripping away all his senses, all his emotions, but the one thing that mattered. He was of this man, so he knew exactly what he looked for—the truth about whether Marcus still wished to die.
He fought back, flinging a hand out and gripping Ked’s arm. He threw his own power at the intrusion.
He gave himself over then, willingly submitting his every desire to the man who had invaded his mind. But he would take the same if he could.
Ked’s mind was less willing, but when Marcus’s secrets seeped in, he felt the barrier weakening. Soon enough, he saw everything and what he saw staggered him. In the blink of an eye the full scope of Ked’s and his siblings’ pasts were revealed, including the origin of the man who had created Marcus and his brothers, and who had been indirectly responsible for the child he and Evie had created mere days ago.
“You’ve seen my darkest secrets,” Ked said. “There are no more secrets between us. Let me mark you. It will keep you alive. It’s the only way, save giving you my blood, but to shed our blood again would be to give tacit acceptance to his ways.”
“If the mark will work, I’ll do this, but you need to tell me what it means for the baby that I have the blood of three dragons running through my veins.”
Silence.
He stared into Ked’s face, waiting for an answer, but the man simply stared back. Evie finally broke the silence.
“Guys, this is a little uncomfortable. If you can’t actually talk to each other, I am going to go take a walk.”
Marcus grabbed her arm in desperation as she walked past. “I just got you back, baby,” he said, though missing her was only half the reason he panicked at the idea of her leaving the room. He cast a sidelong glance at the large, black-clad man still seated on the bed.
“I’m not going far,” she whispered to him, and kissed him gently. “You two need to work this out,” she said.
Left alone in a room with the man who’d saved him shouldn’t have felt uncomfortable, but it did.
Ked didn’t smile. He didn’t do any of the things Marcus expected a man might do to encourage him to mate a dragon. That was part and parcel of receiving a dragon’s mark, he knew at least that much, and he would do it if it meant allowing his and Evie’s child to live, but that didn’t mean he’d enjoy it.
“I’m not going to mate you unless you ask me to,” Ked said, standing and moving to the bureau at the side of the room. He poured a cup of water from the ewer and drank, then poured another and offered it to Marcus, who licked his lips and accepted the glass. “But you should know that the power Kris gave you is only temporary. If you want to live, you need my energy. Nik bled you nearly dry, and without enough of my magic running through your veins, you will remain too weak to provide enough energy for the child. Your powers will eventually fade, your humanity will return, and you will grow old and die within a matter of weeks. I can sense the power already fading from your body as it regenerates the blood you lost with your own, human blood.”
&nb
sp; “I know. I can feel my body failing even with the magic Kris gave me. You just have to understand that as much as I may be a part of you now, I am not like you. Not that way.” Marcus leveled a steady gaze at Ked, and the man only stared back without blinking.
“Evie’s child is ours,” Ked said. “Both of us created this baby. You, with mine and my brothers’ blood in your veins, and your seed in her womb that night. You have a responsibility to follow through.”
“I’m not a deadbeat,” Marcus said.
“Neither am I,” Ked said. “And fixing you means…”
“Fucking me,” Marcus concluded.
“It won’t be as distasteful as you seem to think,” Ked said, his deep voice resonating with suggestive, velvety smoothness that mirrored the heat in his dark eyes.
Ked still kept his distance, but Marcus was acutely aware of the change in tension in the air between them. His skin tingled in a not unpleasant way and he forced his gaze away from the other man, staring fixedly out over the railing beyond the half-open sliding doors that served as one wall of the room.
“Your brothers are part of it,” Marcus said, redirecting the conversation back to his earlier request. “Did I catch that right?” He swallowed thickly, throwing that detail back at Ked in an effort to delay the inevitable. “Does that mean what I think it means?”
Thankfully the observation shifted the focus of the tension, Marcus’s comment distracting Ked from what felt like a single-minded need to seduce him. He hazarded a glance only to see the other man smiling sardonically.
“Yes, thanks to the little cocktail of blood that made you what you are, there’s also a small part of their essence inside the child. And yes, it means exactly what you think, but to a far lesser degree of need than the child has for your essence or mine.”
“Does Evie know this?” Marcus asked, his ire rising at the thought that this man who was supposedly Evie’s soulmate would pawn her off to his own brothers so casually.
