by Meg Xuemei X
The runes of ancient Earth and Olympus must be engraved on the blade with a mixture of our combined blood.
“Hephaestus will jump up and down with cheers at the chance to make the only weapon that can kill the gods, including him,” I said in a sarcastic tone, unable to conceal my resentment.
Their death also meant mine, but my mates could never know that.
The whole thing sucked.
I wanted to delay this task a little longer. I was selfish. I wanted to have a bit more time with my mates.
I’d been out of the cage for only a few months. I’d just found home with my mates. And soon, I would have to head to my eternal death.
But then, if I stalled, there’d be graver consequences. Any day the gods could find us. Apollo and Ares knew exactly how to hit me the hardest. By taking out my mates first.
“He might,” Alaric said. “Hephaestus is one of the most mistreated gods in the history of Olympus.”
Lorcan nodded. “Everyone knows that his parents, the King and Queen of the Gods, tossed him out of Mount Olympus and crippled him because he was ugly.”
“Then Zeus forced the Goddess of Love and Beauty to marry Hephaestus as a punishment,” Pyrder said. He was in a competitive mood. He wanted to take part in teaching me the history of the Olympian gods as well. “Aphrodite wasn’t pleased, so she had an affair with Ares and bore him three bastard children.”
Alaric gave my fae mate a look. He was Hephaestus’s half-brother, and many had called him Zeus’s bastard son. “Abandoned, abused, and cuckolded. That’s Hephaestus’s life story,” said the demigod, staring at the scroll spread across the long table. “He still hates them for his eternal humiliation. He’ll take our order. All we have to do is find him.”
After the meeting, Alaric wasted no time in finding the God of Blacksmiths and Fire. He often took Celeb with him. My mates took it in turn to accompany him while two of them would always stay with me.
Days upon days, they hunted for Hephaestus, until they found his secret residence in a ramshackle castle. They waited, but Hephaestus didn’t return.
Alaric then assigned his team to wait for the blacksmith and came home to me. I was grateful to spend more time with my mates.
Then one night, Gaea showed up in my dreams.
I eyed her warily. I wasn’t exactly thrilled to see her, especially after I’d met the cold-blooded her from the past in the Court of Ice and Wind.
I felt like a lamb that would be led to slaughter soon.
“My true daughter,” she greeted.
“What is it you want this time?” I asked. “I’m busy with my mates, you know.”
“They’re asleep,” she said.
In my dream, I couldn’t see my mates, but I knew they all sprawled around me in bed.
“I want to give you more time,” she said, sorrow tainting her musical, earthy voice. “But time isn’t on our side. You know where the blacksmith is. You can find him, as you can find anyone on Earth.”
“Whatever,” I said, suddenly finding myself standing with the Goddess of Earth atop the cliff, overlooking the crashing black sea. I slouched on a large rock nearby. I was tired. She made me tired. “Why don’t you just make it simple and tell me where he is instead of making me work so hard?”
“When you expand your mind and search for the alien forms, the powerful ones,” she said, unmoved by my sarcastic, hostile tone, “you’ll find all the gods. You’ll know which one is the God of Blacksmiths and Fire.”
“And then I’ll use the weapon he forged to kill the gods and myself, right?”
“Death isn’t the end, Cass.”
“It’s easy for you to say,” I said, tasting the bile in the back of my throat. “Death will separate my mates from me. And they’re all I have.”
Tears flowed down my face as I thought of my final fate.
“You carefully bred me just for this,” I said. I wanted to smash her, but I knew it was useless. “You forged me as a weapon. After I’m used, I soon will be discarded, erased, and forever forgotten.”
“I care for you, my flesh and blood,” she said in grief. “If I could go in your place, I would. I’ve been weakened for too long. I’m still not complete.”
She waived in the icy wind, and then she was gone.
I fluttered open my eyes, lying still for a long moment. Then I centered my mind, letting it expand and search.
A strong pulse made of alien fire and metal glowed amid billions of other life forms. The God of Blacksmiths and Fire stood out in the matrix of the Earth’s web.
He was waiting, but he wouldn’t wait forever.
My throat was parched.
Instead of joy, it felt like doom, a destined doom, and I couldn’t lift it off me.
My inner sight turned away from the smith god. My gaze focused on my mates, tracing each one of them in bed with me, around me.
They watched me, wondering why I’d put a shield around my mind ever since we’d returned from the collapsed Court of Ice and Wind.
“I’ve found Hephaestus,” I breathed out, forcing a smile. “I know where he is.”
19
__________________
“Good morning, sunshine,” Lorcan grunted in a sexy, sleepy voice.
The High Lord of Night usually slept alone in his own chamber when I wasn’t with him, but lately, he had joined us more and more often in our vast common bed.
He no longer needed to slumber at high noon, as other vampires had to, since with my blood coursing in his veins, the sun couldn’t burn him.
He could now watch the sunrise with me, and he deemed it one of the most precious gifts I’d given him.
I’d shrugged, though I couldn’t hide my smug grin. “That’s what a mate is for.”
He also no longer considered it beneath him to fight for a spot sleeping next to me. So there he was, snuggling his dark head against the hollow between my neck and shoulder.
Sunlight bled into the room, offering a sense of bright morning serenity. But there was no safe place so long as the Olympian gods were hunting us. The concealment spells Alaric cast on this location wouldn’t go undetected forever, and the ward wouldn’t stop the gods when they got here.
I turned to smile at Lorcan, then at Reys on my other side, his muscled arm draping over my hip.
I hoped I could have them forever.
In the morning, my males looked all refreshed, sexy, and less edgy. I wanted to start the day with my scent coating them, declaring to the whole world they were mine.
Mine, no matter for how long.
I threw the blanket off, until all of my mates’ naked forms were exposed for me to relish. The only one who wasn’t in bed was Alaric. The demigod lounged on a big sofa he had dragged to the corner from the other room.
Pyrder groaned on the other side of his twin.
“It’s chilly, Cass baby,” he said. “In case you don’t know, Australia is near winter now.”
“You have furs,” I said.
“You wouldn’t let me get in bed the last time I was in my panther form,” he complained.
“Because you were wet.”
“Was I? Or you just enjoyed bullying me?”
“I don’t want to start the day fighting, baby,” I purred. “I want to—” My eyes roved over the hard muscles flexing and rippling over my mates’ cut chests and powerful legs.
Every one of them was incredibly beautiful to me, yet formidable to others.
My gaze dipped to their huge erections, and my face flamed in excitement. Lust swirled alive in me, raging in my blood.
Lorcan’s nostrils flared, hunger for me darkening his eyes to storm gray. He’d scented my arousal, as did my other mates.
Pyrder chuckled in approval.
On the sofa bed, Alaric let out a curse. He must be cursing himself for not getting a spot beside me last night.
My lips parted, my eyes flashed darkly, and my heart pounded.
I couldn’t tear my gaze away from my mate
s’ cocks. They were all mighty, gorgeous, and steel-hard, all of which promised great pleasure.
I wanted to taste them all, licking them, sweeping my tongue over their hard length, and grazing my teeth over the thick rings of their crowns.
I bit my lip, feeling torn. It was never easy to decide which one of my mates to go to first.
“Dulcis,” Lorcan said, leaning to me, his voice laced with desire darker than night, despite dawn’s light fluttering on his lush lashes.
Before I reached for him, I was lifted off the mattress. Then I was straddling the fae heir, my ass sitting on his thighs.
Lorcan growled, but he soon let it go. My mates, all alphas and fearsome and difficult, fought each other sometimes, but they always worked it out.
And the High Lord remembered that my other mates had all let him be the first to claim me.
Reys’s lips claimed mine, raw and hard. His hand cupped my breast, his other hand wrapped around my waist to secure me. His erection pressed all the way to my belly.
My breath hitched in my throat, and heated blood raged in my veins.
I kissed him back with a bruising force before I pulled away, whimpering against his sensual lips. “Reys.”
“I know what you need, woman,” he said roughly. His desperate need for me boiled off of him in waves. His cock throbbed against me, its heat burning my skin. I heaved up my hips, placing the tip of his cock between my plump folds.
Lust twisted his face, unmasking his beastly fae side, which turned me on even more.
Reys propelled up and thrust into me.
I arched my back at the blunt force, at his need, savoring every inch of his that stretched my inner muscles. Reys let out a growl as he pushed deeper into me, until his large, hard shaft was fully embedded within my sheath.
I was a bit sore from my fierce coupling to all of them last night. I’d jumped on them—any and all of them—whenever I spotted them, whenever I had a chance, since I’d returned from the diminished Court of Ice and Wind.
If my mates had noticed the difference in me as I was desperately living my last moments, they hadn’t felt alarmed. My obsession only made them grin, and they doted on me even more.
“Our little mate is insatiable,” Lorcan said with a smile when I kept them up all night.
“It’s the mating fever.” Pyrder agreed with a chuckle. “She’s our true mate, and we mated only recently.”
They didn’t have the urgency I had.
Right now, as Reys’s hard girth stretched me, pleasure sparked, even though I also felt a slight burn. I didn’t know where one ended or the other began. They meshed as one, which only highlighted the pleasure and made me cherish my limited time with my mates more.
The weight and hardness of Reys’s shaft in me was so delicious I wanted to sob in joy.
But I didn’t sob. I heaved my hips up and down, riding his rigid length, and slamming back down to his base. The curve of my ass slapped against his tightened balls.
Reys gasped and groaned, yet demanded more.
Through our mating bond, I could feel his pleasure rippling into me, but I couldn’t open my bond to him completely.
For the first time, I held back a little, dirty secret.
I had to, or they would never let me go. And then they would all die because of me.
Reys thrust up into me, into the depth of my heat. The alpha in him would only let me hold the reins for a while.
His hands gripped the cheeks of my ass, lifting me up and pushing me down, faster and faster, while his pelvis propelled up with immortal strength.
He thrust into me, long and deep and hard.
My pussy clutched his every inch, pulling him into its sweet place and trapping him there forever, as I wanted to trap all my mates in eternity and never let them go.
It was but a sad, beautiful dream now.
“Sweet pussy,” Reys groaned. “I’m fucking my mate’s sweet little pussy.”
Pyrder pressed against my back, his hard cock rubbing my ass.
I knew what he wanted.
“May I have your permission?” he whispered into my ear.
I pushed Reys down as I still straddled him, my palms planting on either side of his shoulders.
Pyrder knelt behind me, his finger sliding into my back hole to test it. I let out a gasp at a different kind of sensation. Pyrder then inserted two fingers into me, thrusting in and out.
I moaned.
“I need to fuck you now, Cass,” Pyrder said as he aimed his cock at my back entrance, his voice full of heat and dark lust.
Then he glided in, one inch, then another inch.
I let out a sharp breath.
He withdrew slowly and pushed into me again, invading further.
I moaned as pleasure rolled in me, all the way to my nerve endings.
Beneath me, Reys increased his pace and thrust into me mercilessly, driven by the lust he could no longer rein in.
My breasts bounced heavily as my body rocked to the rhythm of his thrusting, and I moaned again and again.
Pyrder thrust harder behind me.
The three of us growled as we fucked like wild beasts.
The bed squirmed and cracked under us.
“We’re going to destroy another bed,” Pyrder groaned.
Alaric watched us from the bedside, his massive cock in his hand, his eyes burning with fiery lust.
My twin fae mates were pushing me to the edge.
“Fuck me,” I whispered breathlessly. “Fuck me forever.”
I was closer and closer to the peak.
Lorcan, who leaned beside us, stared at our movements and pumped his massive cock.
“Dulcis,” he said. “I need to drink from you.”
Let him join. The more the merrier.
While Reys pumped into me relentlessly and Pyrder drove into me from behind, I arched my neck, exposing the vein for the High Lord of Night.
Lorcan’s eyes turned all dark. His fangs protruded, grazing over my neck, sending shivers all over me.
Then the vampire pierced my skin.
The pain was sharp at first, but then intense pleasure washed over it the next nanosecond.
I gasped and moaned, and before I knew it, I exploded over Reys’s cock.
My inner walls milked his every hard inch, gripping him with hungry passion.
“Fuck, oh, fuck!” Reys let out a string of ancient fae curses. “Your hot little pussy is unmaking me, baby. You’re killing me, baby.”
Lorcan drew a mouthful from my neck before he sealed the tiny wound in my skin. “I need to fuck you, dulcis, soon,” he promised.
My fangs also came out. I leaned toward Reys and pierced his skin at the base of his neck.
Roaring, Reys pumped his bountiful hot seed into my depths. Yet, the fae heir wasn’t done. He kept thrusting in me, as if he would never let me go, either.
When Pyrder found his release, I trained my fangs on him, letting his rich, sweet, and spicy blood coat my tongue.
What happened after that became a blur of chaos, as I took my mates’ blood and let them drink from me to solidify our mating bond.
Their scent was in my veins along with their blood, as mine coursed in theirs.
Our bond was so strong that, for a moment, I believed that not even death could break it.
Death—
I wouldn’t dwell on it.
After the sex feast and then breakfast, we would go find Hephaestus, and we’d threaten, force, or trick him into making the indestructible weapon, with the runes of our mixed blood inscribed on the blade.
“Now it’s my turn,” Lorcan said, scooping me up from the bed toward the bath chamber. “And it’s bath time.”
He put me in the warm water, washing me with a sponge. After he cleaned any trace of blood and sweat from both of us, he picked me up and placed me on the marble counter.
The High Lord of Night slid between my thighs, his gray eyes shining silver, a lock of dark hair brushing his noble, squ
are jaw.
His face was no longer the cold, hard marble that I’d first laid my eyes on. His features were all bright and warm like sunlight. The gift of sun and fire I’d given him emitted out of his every pore, making him the sexiest vampire. And he was my vampire.
He traced along my eyes, lips, my breasts, before dipping his gaze to the valley between my thighs. I was doing the same, my eyes roaming on his cut chest, powerful legs, then his beautiful, proud, hard cock.
“Dulcis,” he whispered.
Dulcis meant beloved. I loved how it rolled off his tongue.
The dominating vampire landed his lips hard on my mouth. His fresh, minty breath and scent of pine and fine wine enveloped me. I inhaled, drinking him in. I could never get enough of him. As I nipped his bottom lip with my teeth, his last control slipped.
He snapped.
“I can’t be gentle,” he grunted. “I can’t wait any longer. You’re driving me out of my mind.”
He lifted my ankles, placing them on his shoulders, and drove into me with one thrust.
I cried out at the blunt force and blasting pleasure.
“Is this too much for you, little mate?” He growled his challenge, his eyes the darkest stars.
“Never too much, vampire,” I hissed.
A sound rumbled in his chest at my challenge.
He pulled out an inch or two before ramming back into me. My back was slammed to the wall behind me. He looked concerned for a second, but my wild scent of arousal muddied his mind, spurring him on.
With each thrust of his hips, his cock penetrated my heated pussy vehemently, soaking me with pleasure.
“Keep fucking me, vampire,” I moaned. “This is so good!”
“I’m fucking you. I’ll never stop fucking you!”
My hands inserted into his thick mane, my fingers twirling to grab a few strands to anchor myself as he drove into me brutally.
I threw my head back, slutty moans escaping the back of my throat.
My pussy became his instrument, and the High Lord of Night played it expertly. But I would let him use me however he wanted, fuck me as he desired.
I would let him, let all of my mates, do anything to me.
Lorcan growled. He released my ankles from his shoulders and had my legs wrap around his waist. He leaned in to kiss me, bruising my lips, thrusting his tongue into my mouth to claim me in every way, as he pounded into me so harshly and lovingly that I cried my pleasure against his lips.
