by Meg Xuemei X
The Dragon Queen’s Harem
The Cursed Dragon Queen & Her Mates, #2
Meg Xuemei X
Copyright © 2018 by Meg Xuemei X
All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Cover art by Andreea Vraciu
Edited by Monique Fischer
Proofread by Fading Street
Table of Contents
The Dragon Queen’s Harem (The Cursed Dragon Queen and Her Mates Book )
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Author’s Notes
Sneak Peek of Dragonian’s Witch
More Books by Meg Xuemei X
About the Author
The Dragon Queen’s Harem
(The Cursed Dragon Queen and Her Mates, #2)
One warrior queen, three pure-blood Dragon Princes, and a formidable Fae mage. A reverse harem that heats your blood with four mates!
My princes and I return to the Dragon Realm, only to find the mad Dragon King has burned half of the kingdom, and the dark Fae's army is at our door.
To defeat our ancient foes and put the broken realm back together, I must go on a quest to uncover the origin of my curse and unleash the great, terrible magic in me. But I can't leave my people to face the evil alone. In the midst of crisis, my dragon general returned. Adrian was my first crush before I vanished centuries ago. He's been searching for me ever since.
With enemies all around to ensure the extinction of the dragon race, all I can trust is my devoted princes, an old flame, and Elvey, my heart. But first, my alpha males must put their rivalry and differences aside and learn to work together, or our Dragon Realm will be forever shattered and our race no more.
CHAPTER 1
I took turns riding my three mates with unrestrained savagery before Mistress touched down.
Their delicious tastes lingered in my mouth, the memory of their big cocks thrusting inside me heated my blood, and my Fae body hummed with the remnants of my wild orgasms.
But the world around me stopped and my blood turned ice from the sight.
The sky burned red.
I sprang down the ramp of the warship following Rai, Iokul, and Blaze.
My mates and their warriors all looked stunned at what was left of the Dragon Realm, their mouths agape as they stared at the destruction all around us.
The ash-laden air smelled of spice and coal.
I wasn’t unfamiliar with the smell of dragon fire. I’d burned the arena in the City of Nine and torched the demons with my fire. But this wasn’t what I remembered of the home I had missed for nine centuries.
“What the fuck happened?” Blaze demanded. “There were green grass and trees the last time we came to answer the Dragon King’s bounty call.”
Acres of scorched barren land stretching before us and a pillar of dark flames here and there were the only answer.
My gaze swept to the stone castle. Black streaks charred its ivory stone walls.
I swallowed. The castle had been built to sustain the fire of all dragons except that of royalty, which meant my grandfather had set the castle on fire.
The only unblemished sight was a ridge of white mountains far in the background.
I grabbed a handful of scorched soil, my fist clenching around it. I took a deep breath and stalked toward my blazing home, my princes falling in step beside me.
The guards thrust their weapons against their shoulders, ready to engage in battle. We could all shift to dragons, but we didn’t want anyone to know who we were and that I’d returned. At least, not yet.
I’d known my old home wouldn’t be a safe haven when my own grandfather sent the hunters to take my Fury heads. Except, I’d disappointed him. I’d eliminated them with the aid of my mates, my monsters, and Elvey.
I’d come home free from my curse and with my three true loves, but the scorched landscape diminished my victorious feeling.
An amber-and-green dragon loomed in the distant sky. My princes tensed beside me, though we weren’t threatened by a lone dragon. The warriors trained their weapons on the newcomer. He would bring his own demise if he foolishly initiated an attack.
“Don’t harm him unless he breathes fire at us,” I said.
The dragon could be someone I knew, though I didn’t recognize him. The king might have turned on me, but I refused to believe that the entire realm wanted me dead.
Instead of coming toward us, the dragon twirled around the castle’s pinnacle, his eyes never leaving us.
He was making it clear that he wasn’t a threat to us.
Rai nodded at me. “I’ll go meet him and see what he has to say.” He then shifted into his dragon form.
The storm and lightning dragon with grey and midnight-blue scales sailed toward the apex of the castle to meet the lone dragon, a spear of lightning flashing around him in warning.
I watched him, pride and admiration swelling in my chest.
Rai was magnificent and huge in his dragon form, and the other dragon seemed to shrink in contrast. The two dragons circled each other.
We continued our march toward the castle.
“Their dance is taking too long,” Blaze said. He seared my lips with a kiss, then shifted as well.
His orange-red scales sparkled like flames in the light. The blue scales that adorned his head, spine, and one side of the tail shone even brighter. I drew a sharp breath at his powerful beauty.
The lone dragon looked wary at the approach of another dragon.
While they conversed in their telepathic dragon tongue, we walked through the half-open iron gate. I couldn’t hear their dragon talk unless I was also in my dragon form and channeled in.
I stopped in the center of the enormous, pebble-paved courtyard and surveyed the damage: charred benches, blackened façades from abandoned stores and chapels, and withered ivy vines between shattered windows.
There were no voices, no activities, and no people inside the once thriving castle.
My heart sank further, sadness washing over me. I had come back to a home that was an empty shell.
“How can this be?” Iokul asked. “It’s only been three months since we departed.”
“Destruction only takes a minute,” I said.
The three dragons stopped circling one another above
the peak and swooped down one by one. They shifted before they touched down on the ground, and my eyes flicked over their human forms. The stranger must have convinced my mate that he wasn’t a threat, or they would never allow him to come near me.
The new dragon stared at me, his gaze raking over my face before he went down on one knee, his fist on his heart. “Princess Danaenyth, Your Highness. Is that really you?” Emotion thickened his voice.
He’d detected my scent, even though we were disguised as travelers.
His face was so scarred and his nose so crooked that I didn’t recognize him at first glance. But I registered his scent as a faint memory swirled back. He was one of my grandfather’s elite guards.
“Jarrod?” I called.
The day I’d gone missing, Jarrod had followed Adrian and me. He’d seen me sprint into the Forbidden Forest. Both Adrian and Jarrod had screamed my name and tried to charge into the enchanted forest after me. I’d ended up in Akem’s jungle alone in the blink of an eye.
Nine centuries had passed between that moment and this one.
My heart pounded hopefully, and my throat grew dry. If Jarrod was here, then perhaps Adrian was, too.
“Welcome home, Your Highness,” Jarrod said, tears welling in his eyes. “We’ve been looking forward to your return for too long, and our hope failed us, until this blessed day.”
I tried to relax my stiff shoulders. I needed to ask about Adrian, though I dreaded the answer, dreaded that he hadn’t survived.
I gestured for Jarrod to rise.
“Where’s Adrian?” I asked as coolly as I could manage, but my face was tight as a whip.
Jarrod stood up and drew a ragged breath. “I haven’t heard from him for half a century.”
“Do you know where he is now?” I asked. “Do you have any means to reach him?”
I needed Adrian. I’d always relied on him. I needed my old team back.
“The day—” Jarrod paused to recollect himself, “—the day you entered the Forbidden Forest, Adrian charged after you, and I followed, but the forest just disappeared with you. We dug into the land. We stomped on fifty acres around where you vanished. Adrian turned every stone over to find you, but you were just gone. When he was sure that you weren’t in the realm anymore, he searched other realms to find you. Sometimes he was gone for a few years, and decades, sometimes a century. He used every contact he had. He tried everything. He came back to the realm only to check if fate had sent you home, and then he was off to chase you again. No one knows where he is now. He can be in any corner of the universe. He’s never given up on you. Others did centuries ago, but he never did. My lady, he is not the same Adrian you knew back then.”
My heart jerked in pain. “What do you mean he isn’t the Adrian I knew?”
“You know what you meant to him.” Jarrod sighed. “Adrian is half mad after chasing you and unable to find you for centuries, just like King Daghda. It almost destroyed them.”
I’d done this to Adrian and myself. If I hadn’t been so obsessed with searching for the other half of my heritage, he would have been fine and sane, and the curse might not even have touched me.
I was suddenly angry at him for throwing his life away for me.
“He should have gone on with his life instead of wasting it,” I said in a clipped tone. “He saw how I disappeared. He should have known no one could find me.”
“You’re his charge,” Jarrod said quietly. “You’re his future queen.”
While I took a moment to calm myself, Iokul asked Jarrod, “Why is the realm abandoned?”
Jarrod darted a glance between me and my three princes. I knew he had a lot of questions, but it wasn’t his place to ask the realm’s princess. I was still the heir to the crown.
“This is Prince Rai, Prince Iokul, and Prince Blaze,” I said.
“I know, they’re the princes from the Oslan Dominion,” Jarrod said, bowing to each in turn.
“They’re my mates,” I added. “The rest of our companions are my mates’ warriors.”
Jarrod tried not to widen his eyes at my casual mentioning of three mates, but he couldn’t stop his irises expanding. “Consor—Your Highnesses, welcome to the Dragon Realm.”
I sighed inwardly. I’d gotten used to having all three brave, gorgeous princes as my mates, in fact, I reveled and loved every minute of having them, but the realm would need time to get used to it.
However, there was no kingdom without people.
“Everyone fled after King Daghda went crazy and half-destroyed his own palace and the castle,” Jarrod said grimly.
I had suspected that the demolition might be my grandfather’s imprint. The castle was magically warded, and only the royal dragons—my grandfather and I—could do great damage.
A huff of breath left me. “So, our people live. There are survivors?”
Jarrod nodded. “Most of them survived.”
“Where is the king now?” I asked.
“He left,” Jarrod said. “I haven’t seen him ever since. His elite guards departed with him. It was like a dragon exodus. They might have gone to the mountains.”
I looked up at the distant ring of the snow-capped mountains.
Dragons usually went to the mountains to wait for the Fade.
“Last we saw, King Daghda was still sound,” Rai said thoughtfully. “Though he was difficult and vicious.”
“He turned mad two weeks ago,” Jarrod said.
I swallowed. The day I broke the curse. I wondered if there was any connection to it.
I continued on the stairs, wanting to see the overall damage, my mind reeling.
The scouts went ahead of me. Henry, my two-headed, black hellhound went with them. He was eager for a new adventure, and to my delight, he had behaved incredibly well during this trip and hadn’t been mean overall. I believed it had to do with the dragon shifters feeding him well.
Sybil, a flying lizard with an owl’s face and white wings, chirped and flew ahead, but returned to perch on Iokul’s armored shoulder, preferring him among all of my mates, because his ice cooled her.
My mates lounged around me, their shields in one hand; their swords in the other. Jarrod stayed at the front of our formation, serving as a guide, and at the same time answered humbly whatever questions the princes threw at him.
Now and then, he’d look back at me over his shoulder, as if wanting to convince himself that I was truly back. That small gesture offered me some comfort—the realm might still need me, especially after my grandfather’s destructive action.
As we made our way up the castle, I saw most of the windows were shattered, the doors and walls charred. Those could all be fixed and replaced. The worst damage, however, wasn’t inside the castle. The plants, trees, and grass were all singed and burnt beyond simple repair.
“It’ll take a few weeks to fix all of this, before we can move our people back in,” I said.
Jarrod hesitated, worries creasing his brows.
“If King Daghda returns and has a problem with that, I’ll take care of him,” I said. “He won’t cause any more trouble.”
“It’s not that,” Jarrod said. “An elite guard, a former friend of mine, told me that His Majesty was hexed. There’s a dark force dwelling in the palace.”
Alarm flashed across the princes’ faces.
“Have you checked it?” Iokul asked.
“One of the guards said he saw a smoke-like entity circle the throne,” Jarrod said. “The castle is no longer safe. There’s wrongness about it, especially in the palace. I’ve come here a few times after everyone left, but I can’t pinpoint what’s wrong.”
I paused midway on the partially-chipped away stone stairs. Was the smoke-like entity the same as the one that possessed the demon captain? The demon had used his filthy smoke to pin down Iokul and almost killed my mate in Pandemonium’s arena.
Had the evil followed us back? How had it infiltrated my old home?
Elvey had warned me that danger would follo
w me every step of the way once I left that savage planet behind.
I leaped up into the air and shifted, anxious to reach the palace sitting atop the castle.
Wings fluttered around me, and the wind ruffled at the movement. Every dragon accompanying me shifted as well. Clever Sybil landed on Iokul’s scaled back to hitch a ride as the dragons surged toward the king’s palace.
CHAPTER 2
I alighted in front of the main entrance of the golden palace. Its surrounding rose garden was withering. My grandfather had set the beloved garden of my memories ablaze.
I would get to the bottom of whatever caused his madness.
The doors—all made of crystals—were blackened, and some shattered. Three granite sculptures of the dragons between the doors stayed intact, just as I remembered, but the fourth statue had lost half of its head, and the fifth one was sheared of its left wing.
Those statues represented the guardians of the five elements.
It was a blow that even our symbols hadn’t avoided the demolition.
I shifted back to my Fae form. Jarrod shifted after me, though some of the warriors, including Blaze, remained as dragons.
If the smoke entity was still inside, Blaze would be the first one to burn it to oblivion.
The scouts, who had gone before us, had shifted at the same time as I had. They’d all joined us but left my hellhound behind. I could hear his whimpers of complaints somewhere down the castle. I wasn’t worried about him. Henry was a survivor.
Jarrod insisted on entering the palace first, as did Quintrell, Rai’s right-hand man. Quintrell had urged Rai to cut off my three Fury heads on our first encounter. He’d been awkward with me after I became Rai’s mate, assuming I held a grudge against him.
“Clear,” both Jarrod and Quintrell called.
I sighed. My days as the wild Furies were over. Apart from my mates guarding me as if I were a priceless treasure and frail glass, guards would always be around me.
I strode into the palace, my mates by my side, the warriors flanking us.
