by Meg Xuemei X
My dragon swept her scaled tail. She didn’t want both of us lost forever.
“Now, yank the core of yourself and return to us, Cass baby,” Pyrder said after planting another kiss on my lips.
“We’re right here waiting for you, dulcis,” Lorcan said.
Shift and return to my mates, I commanded, yanking the fire in my core, as I was made of fire.
I didn’t shift.
I was wading through the burning dark sea.
I couldn’t shift.
Fire and darkness roared in my mind. Soon I’d be lost.
I felt a tug in my very soul.
A glimmer of starlight, strong and steady, pierced through the black sky.
It dawned on me that the starlight represented my mating bond to all of my mates. And that was my anchor and my way out.
I heard them calling me in my dragon world of endless fire and darkness.
If you return to your mates, great pain will accompany you again, a voice warned.
There’d be great joy, too, to be with them. And for them, I’d take any pain.
I shoved away the seductive promise of sweet oblivion and infinite fire that burned in my dragon heart.
I leapt toward the starlight, reaching for my mates.
But my strength wasn’t enough, and I fell.
Our strength is yours. All we have is yours, my mates’ voices, full of love, devotion, sorrow, rage, and determination, whispered in my soul.
I leapt higher, and the starlight reached down toward me, connecting to me.
Take all that we have and come back to us, Cass baby.
And with that, the veil in my mind dropped.
I remembered me. I remembered my mates. I remembered us.
I was Cass Saélihn, a tribrid goddess.
I was Earth goddess, Death goddess, and Dragon goddess.
I was bred to be a monster, a weapon to kill the gods.
But this monster chose to protect the world.
Because I was mate to the heir of Sihde, Prince of Sihde, High Lord of the Night, and King of Hybrids.
The starlight expanded in me, infinite, pure energy from the combined strength of my mates filling me and feeding me.
A naked woman stood where the dragon had been, in front of my three mates.
“What the fuck!” I cried.
Why was I even naked?!
“I was supposed to shift back fully clothed, like Reys and Pyrder do!” I shouted. My hard gaze landed on Pyrder. “What did I do wrong?”
Joyful tears glinted in his beautiful blue eyes.
“Mate is back,” Alaric said in a choked chuckle. “Along with her attitude.”
“Dulcis is back. Stop complaining,” Lorcan said, tenderness, joy, relief, and grief all churning in his storm-gray eyes.
And then I was wrapped in his trench coat, his earthy scent of fine wine and pine enveloping me. My three mates each fought to carry me, and I ended up in Pyrder’s strong arms.
My fae prince carried me toward our cabin, my legs wrapped tightly around his waist. Lorcan and Alaric flanked us, each of them holding my hand, as if terrified that I would vanish into thin air.
The God of Blacksmiths trailed after us, but Alaric slammed the door in his face.
Our world behind the door belonged to only my mates and me.
CHAPTER 3
My mates fed me mouth-watering cakes. And then they bathed me, their large hands all over me, and I giggled in delight.
I’d made the right decision in choosing to shift back.
When Pyrder carried me out of the bath toward his room, I saw the same burning need for me in Lorcan’s and Alaric’s eyes, but they didn’t stop my fae prince. They put their bonded brother’s need before theirs.
Pyrder had lost his twin to Hell, and I’d lost my Reys. From what I’d learned, Pyrder had never parted from his twin before. At least not like this.
We needed some moments alone.
Pyrder laid me in the center of the bed.
He kissed my tears away, and I tasted his. Then his sensual lips traced down my neck, my shoulder, and to my breast. He suckled my reddish nipple so hard I arched my back and writhed at the sensation.
While he sucked my other nipple, I whimpered. “I need your cock inside me now, Pyrder.”
He raised his boyish, handsome face that was now twisted by beastly, carnal need.
“I need to taste you more,” he said coarsely. “I need to lick the sweet juice from your pussy.”
He kissed me all the way down my belly, until his head was between my thighs.
He licked the peak of my swollen clit, and my leg jerked at the sensation that his lips, followed by his teeth, brought me. I could come just from that sensation alone. But my fae prince wouldn’t allow me to come that soon.
His wicked tongue thrust into my heated passage, meeting the liquid fire inside.
I lifted my torso and grabbed his thick golden-red hair. My free hand traced along the inked golden panther that rippled on the taut muscles of his hard chest.
Pyrder raised his head, lust ablaze in his dark turquoise eyes. He pushed me down, heaved up my hips, and dragged me toward him. His massive cock, hard as steel, aimed at my entrance. Then, with one powerful thrust, he embedded himself deep inside me.
I moaned, pleasure bursting in me, and my moans made my mate wilder.
He pounded into me, withdrew a little, and drove into me deeper.
My legs wrapped around his thighs while he thrust into me relentlessly. The prince adapted to long thrusts, pulling back all the way to the edge and pounding all the way back, his speed never slowing.
“Do you like me fucking you like this, Cass baby?”
“Yes,” I moaned breathlessly. “Fuck me. Always fuck me like this!”
“Soon my twin will join us, and we’ll fuck you together. We’ll fuck you until you’re hoarse. Until you keep screaming our names, not knowing exactly who’s fucking you.”
“Will one of you watch?” I purred, lifting my hips higher to get his cock even deeper inside me.
“Yes, my little slutty mate, we’ll take turns watching as the other fucks you, and then we’ll fuck you together.”
He slammed into me again and again, and my pussy gloved his cock perfectly.
The weight of his granite-hard cock inside me was delicious and addictive. I’d never let him go. And soon I would have his twin’s equally hard cock filling me and stretching my inner walls.
“Your cock belongs to me,” I declared as I propelled my hips toward him, meeting each of his plunges, “as does your twin’s.”
“Take what’s yours, mate,” Pyrder said, his face distorted by ecstasy and lust.
He drove into me harder and faster until his movements blurred.
I erupted, waves of my blinding orgasm flooding through me, and he pumped his bountiful seed into me with growls only a panther could make.
My fae prince then made love to me. After that he fucked me again.
And I fucked him in return, exploding on his cock over and over.
“I told Reys I loved him,” I offered.
“I know,” Pyrder said quietly.
“I haven’t told the others the same.”
“I understand. My twin is worthy. I’ll live up to the high bar he set and gain your love one day.”
I pressed my palms against his gorgeous face. “You never need to gain anything, my Pyrder. I love you just the same. I love you as much as I love Reys. I love all of you the same and equally, yet differently.”
Tears glinted in his beautiful cerulean eyes, and they lightened like the bluest ocean under sunlight.
Then he laughed. “Cass baby, this is between you and me. You don’t need to tell Lorcan and Alaric this deep feeling of yours.”
I smiled at him slyly. “We’ll see.”
Pyrder brought me to the common room and didn’t even fight for the spot when Alaric and Lorcan slept on either side of me.
My fae mate was gracious
for the first time.
I rested my head on Alaric’s warm chest, and Lorcan draped his hand on my waist.
“Thank you for not eating us in your dragon form, sweetheart,” Alaric said with a chuckle.
I blushed with morbid embarrassment.
“Don’t tease her, demigod,” Lorcan hissed. “Mate is still recovering from trauma.”
“We should be grateful that we were able to entice her back to us at all,” Pyrder said, slouching on the sofa where Alaric used to sleep.
I braced a hand on my hip. “You should have more faith in me. I’ll always come back to you, to all of you.”
No, you won’t. In the end, you can’t come back to them. A dark voice whispered in my mind, but I shoved it down.
I’d pay any price to save my mates, my friends, mortals, and immortals, but I wouldn’t allow any negative thoughts and emotions to darken my remaining moments with my mates.
And I had plans to make to get Reys and Amber back.
It was time to go see my father, the God of Death.
CHAPTER 4
The Blade of Five Elements had been forged in the river of lava by the third Gate of Hell, by the hands of the God of Blacksmiths and Fire.
Hephaestus’s signature magic hovered over the godly steel for two days in the form of maroon light.
The twenty-eight inch sword with a gold hilt now lay on the table, blood runes etched on both sides of its blade.
We’d thought we didn’t have Reys’s blood to mix with ours, but somehow, Hephaestus had managed to collect some of my fae mate’s blood that had been shed outside the Hell gate and offered it to Alaric to make the runes.
The warriors gathered in our cabin, admiring the blade, but I’d be its sole wielder.
I would thrust it into the Olympian gods’ black hearts and pay the final asking price with my own death, as foretold by the prophecy, to save my mates, my friends, and the world.
That was the endgame mapped out by Earth Goddess Gaea eons ago, long before I was born.
My mates, all of them excellent swordsmen, would need to speed-train me with some sword fighting techniques. But at least Alaric wouldn’t demand I do horse stance again, since we were running out of time.
I picked up the glorious sword, and it warmed instantly in my hand, the runes glowing.
Hello, Cass, it said in my head.
“What the fuck!” I cried out, dropping the blade onto the table as if it had burned my hand. “Did you hear the blade talking?”
Alaric snatched it, narrowing his rich brown eyes at the blade.
The glowing runes faded.
“It seems normal to me,” he declared.
Lorcan took the blade from the demigod, listened, and shook his head.
Pyrder did the same out of curiosity and courtesy.
I bit my lower lip and lifted the blade again.
We aren’t going to have fucking fun, but we’re certainly going to have killing fun, Cass, the blade purred in my head. Just you and me. And we’re going to kill some evil gods.
“It’s fucking talking,” I insisted, flaunting the sword in a clumsy way, and several warriors jumped back. “How can you not hear its loud voice?” I scanned everyone’s grave expressions. “Have I ever lied to you?”
Everyone just looked at me, and I hissed. Did they think I lied all the time?
“Dulcis, we’ll figure it out,” Lorcan said, tender understanding blazing in his gray eyes. “You’ve been under a lot of stress lately.”
Hephaestus stared at me from the far side of the room with great interest. The elite fae warriors, Hector, Ambrosia, and Rainer, were busy keeping the god away from everyone.
My gaze skimmed over the cadets—only three of them remained since Victor and Luke had perished along with Xihin and Celeb in the battle against the demons and wraiths. Deep grief swept over me once again with the thought.
The God of Blacksmiths was allowed to be among us only because he had sworn fealty to me, and he was supposed to accompany us to the Underworld soon to bust out Reys and Amber, as he was the only one of our group who had travelled to Hell.
“I believe Cass didn’t lie this time,” Hephaestus said, beaming at my glare. “She didn’t imagine it, either. The sword has become sentient in her hand, and it answers to her alone. I could feel its whisper, though I could not hear its words. What did the sword say to you, Cass?”
“It wants to lick blood,” I said.
The blade chuckled in my head.
I dropped it again.
“Hephaestus,” I commanded. “You need to make me a sheath, so it won’t talk and laugh when I’m not in the mood.”
I didn’t like anyone, except for my mates, to whisper in my mind. And I was definitely not fond of some alien, foreign thing joking in my sane head, either.
Yet somehow, despite my protests, I felt a slight kinship toward the Blade of Five Elements.
It was forged to kill the gods, just like me.
We were bonded to be a weapon together.
Hades would be our first kill.
Let’s kill the evil death god and spill his guts, said the blade.
CHAPTER 5
Before we set out for the Underworld, my mates received a call from the other Council members. The generals of the human armies had called for an emergency meeting and demanded my mates present me.
“They have no right to demand Cass’s presence,” Pyrder said. “We won’t expose her to the public eye.”
“What do you think, dulcis?” Lorcan prodded as he turned to me.
I smiled at him for seeking out my opinion.
“We need every woman, man, and army behind us, right?” I asked.
“If you don’t want to meet the generals, you don’t have to,” Alaric said. “They’re usually a pain in the butt. We don’t give a fuck what they want.”
“I can’t hide forever,” I said. “I’m at the center of the war against the gods, and you know it. So, it’s time for me to step up to the leadership role.”
Alaric chuckled.
I glared at him. “What? You think I can’t be a good example?”
Alaric laughed harder. He was really happy that I’d shifted back to this Cass. His cabin wasn’t large enough to host a dragon, and my fire would certainly burn down his house, even though my dragon tried to restrain herself from blowing fire here and there.
The demigod inserted a spoonful of religieuse cake into my mouth and kissed my temple.
The piped vanilla cream melted on my tongue, so my glare toward Alaric softened a notch. Plus, I knew that the demigod had never behaved in such a domestic fashion toward any woman before, let alone fed her a spoonful of cake.
“You’re the perfect role model, sweetheart,” he cajoled. “Our enemies call you a foul-mouthed brat.” At my renewed hard stare, he added in amusement, “But I like when you talk dirty.”
My face flamed. He was referring to our bedroom talk.
Pyrder gave me a knowing smile, evidently reminiscing about our own wild lovemaking last night. Lorcan sent me a doting, expectant look. I would be his tonight. My mates had somehow worked out a new schedule.
I braced the hand that wasn’t busy hoarding cake on my hip. “I don’t talk dirty!” I argued. “If you guys don’t support me and boost my morale, how can I live up to my part as the world leader?”
“We support you, any time, any place.” Pyrder chortled.
I needed to make them take me more seriously, but this was also nice—strong morning coffee, cakes, and my mates joking around me. We would soon get back Reys and Amber, and then everything would be perfect.
So after breakfast, we went to the Swiss Confederation, the nation known for a history of armed neutrality. However, Switzerland could no longer maintain its neutrality in the era of the alien gods. The Olympians hadn’t touched the Confederation, since Athena was protecting the city, but the rampant fire would eventually reach this country of peace, beauty, and prosperity, reducing it to rubble.
Alaric refused to go to the United Nations Office in Geneva. He claimed that the UN had been infiltrated by the gods and their pawns. So he demanded the world leaders meet us in a warded, gated building in Bern, the federal city, instead, in order to guarantee my safety.
He told other world leaders bluntly that it was either that or they wouldn’t meet the new Goddess of Earth at all.
The war leaders all showed up at this last-minute notice grumpy, but Alaric didn’t give a damn. My mates were all unashamed of their protectiveness towards me.
All of a sudden, I had status as the Earth Goddess. I didn’t feel like a phony this time, for I actually was a goddess. However, I wasn’t comfortable sitting at the head of the marble table in the vast conference room, where Lorcan and Alaric sat on either side of me and Pyrder next to Alaric.
All of the Council members from the Academy showed up, plus a dozen generals and high-ranking officers from many different countries. Most of them appeared solemn and self-important. Maybe I should turn up my nose skyward, too, and look the part of my role.
The gentlemen all wore suits, except for my mates, and the high ladies were clad in formal dresses.
My mates would have worn suits, too, on an occasion like this, but now they chose their outfits based on how I dressed. I picked for myself a blouse and washed-out jeans, but at least I didn’t put on flipflops. I wasn’t exactly making a fashion statement, but I didn’t care for this society’s propriety and would always insist on having my own style.
So Alaric and Pyrder wore jeans and jackets. Lorcan, however, wore a dress shirt and a trench coat, as he always did.
I surveyed the room. The only familiar faces I saw were the shifter alphas I’d met in Moonshine.
I grinned at Dustin, Wyatt, and Cadmar, and they bowed to me. I looked at Dustin, an eager question in my eyes. He nodded at me with a confirmation, his brown eyes sparkling with warmth and amusement. The shifters brought cakes and Moonshine brew for me.
Now I couldn’t wait for the meeting to be over.
Thank goodness, it finally started once everyone was seated.
Alaric made an opening statement. Damn, my demigod mate was as eloquent as the High Lord of the Night. Among all of my mates, Alaric was more acceptable to the mortals, as his mother was once a mortal queen. My other mates didn’t have much in common with the mortals, particularly my vampire mate.
