by Meg Xuemei X
“Well, that’s the price to pay for resurrection, right?” I surmised.
Pluto shook his head. “I have a theory.”
I spread my arms. “Be my guest, but I need to return to my mates soon. You know how they get.”
Pluto smiled in amusement. “Do you know you’re expecting, Cass?”
“Expecting? Expecting what?”
He sighed as if I were the most obtuse person in Hell.
“I sense live forms pulsing inside you—quadruplets, to be precise.”
“What the actual fu—?”
Shock hammered into my chest like high-voltage lightning.
Then, suddenly, I felt them, too, now that Pluto had mentioned it.
“How am I going to handle this? Fuc—”
I immediately clamped my mouth shut. Maybe I should quit cursing from now on. I didn’t want my kids running around as foul-mouthed as me.
“But why do I keep coming back to the Underworld?” I demanded.
“Both Earth and the Underworld are yours, Cass. Plus, I think your babies are curious about Hell.”
“Of all the places, they have to be curious about Hell?”
Pluto’s smile broadened. “When are you going to tell your mates?”
I opened my mouth, and before I could answer him, I shimmered out of Hell and reappeared in the vast bedroom I shared with my mates. Once again, our unbreakable, radiating mating bond yanked me back to them.
My mates instantly charged in, all yelling at once, on high alert.
“Need to fix this! Can’t let mate disappear again.”
“I’m fine, guys,” I said, still shell-shocked from the news of “expecting.”
I sank onto the edge of the bed, since I thought I really needed to sit down.
“Dulcis, you look pale,” Lorcan said, squatting in front of me, his thumb tracing my cheekbone in concern.
Alaric had started inspecting me to make sure I didn’t have any cuts or bruises.
I waved at hand at them. “You guys might want to sit down as well.”
“What’s the matter, Cass baby?” Reys asked, and Pyrder held me as well.
“I’m expecting!” I blurted out.
“Expecting?” My mates blinked in confusion.
I opened my mating bond to them and placed their hands—one, two, three, and four—over my belly. And then as one they felt the four pulsing lives in my womb.
Their sensual lips parted, and more confusion coated their eyes of different shades and colors.
My heart lurched. What if they didn’t want the children—
I started shaking. I was going to faint, I believed.
My mates just froze there, like time had stopped. Then they started trembling, too, and tears began to flow from their gorgeous eyes that brimmed with great joy.
I let out a pent-up breath as relief washed over me.
“Yeah, you all are going to be dads,” I grunted.
They laughed with such happiness that my heart ached and rejoiced at once. I’d never seen them like this. Never seen them swept away by such wonderful contentment and bliss. For the first time, they were going to be fathers. They’d waited for this, waited for me—their mate—for an eon.
Then four pairs of lips attacked me, landing on me everywhere, kissing and tracing up and down, while Lorcan, the calmer one, warned the others to be extremely careful and gentle with me, as if he was afraid that even a kiss might hurt me.
All the kisses were pleasurable, so I enjoyed them for a few more seconds before I shouted, “Wait a second. Wait a fucking second!”
My mates only backed away from me about an inch.
“Cass baby, that is the greatest news ever!” Pyrder exclaimed.
“I didn’t plan for this,” I cried out. “I’m only twenty-six in human time. I’m too fucking young to have babies and raise kids. I should have waited until my late forties, after I’d had all the fun in the world!”
“You can still have fun, love, every day,” Reys coaxed. He excelled at coaxing.
“We’ll make sure you’re cherished every second, sweetheart,” Alaric said.
“Your happiness means everything to us, dulcis,” said Lorcan, trying to assure me.
“Nothing we can’t handle.” Pyrder smiled broadly.
I eyed them with suspicion. “Who’s going to change diapers?”
“Alaric,” the twin fae said at the same time.
The demigod only grinned, as if he’d just received a promotion and got the best job.
“We’ll all help, beloved,” Lorcan said. “There’ll be four babies, one for each one of us.”
My mates moved in again, crowding me and competing to press their hands against my belly.
“I think the babies just kicked me,” Pyrder said in awe. “They’ve got some strength.”
I rolled my eyes. “They’re less than two weeks old. They don’t have legs yet.”
“They will soon,” Alaric said in confidence.
Fucking goddess, that was how men behaved when they realized they were going to be fathers?
I suddenly wanted to sob, so I wiped away a small tear that just came out. “I’ll be hormonal. I’ll cry for no reason. I’ll have a short temper!”
“We’ll take it,” Alaric assured me, and my other mates nodded in vehement agreement.
“Will I still get to dance in the popular clubs?” I asked.
“We’ll throw everyone out, so the whole dancing floor will be yours,” Reys said.
I looked at him in horror.
That was exactly what I was afraid of. What fun would it be to dance alone in an empty club? The whole idea of going to the club was to get drunk and stir shit.
“No alcohol for dulcis from now on,” Lorcan said authoritatively. “We’ll monitor mate’s diet meticulous and scientifically. And we must cut back her consumption of cakes.” He gazed at my crazed look and hesitated. “Well—” He leaned in to kiss me.
I wiggled free.
“Wait a fucking second—” I started. I wasn’t going to roll over and show my soft belly just because I was going to be a goddess mom.
Without warning, I found myself stripped bare, surrounded by four incredibly sexy hunks. When a hot mouth pulled my taut nipple inside it and suckled, pleasure lit my every fiber. All coherent thoughts left my mind.
When I finally collected myself and had a moment of clarity, I ground out a whimper. “I’ll be big!” As if that was all my mates’ fault.
“You were enormous in your dragon form, with huge fangs,” Alaric said, lifting his head from between my thighs, and added gently over my glare, “Yet you’re still the most beautiful and fiercest thing in the universe.”
“You’re the only woman for us in the past, present, and future, dulcis,” Lorcan said.
“No matter what form and shape you take, Cass baby, and no matter your size,” Pyrder said, “nothing will ever change how we feel about you. And we’re crazy about you.”
I should bargain for more, but I lost all the chips when the demigod’s wicked tongue thrust into my moist heat.
“Fine.” I managed to find a word and braced a hand on my hip. “Let’s have kids then. What could fucking go wrong?”
And my beloved Reys’s hot mouth seared my lips.
A Court of the BEGINNING AND THE End:
A Bonus Novella
A CASS Bonus Novella
Chapter One
Where were we?
Right, I was expecting in a month, hanging out at our home on the fringe of Sihde the Spring Isles and downtown Sydney. I was huge now, since I carried quadruplets. I walked funny, waddling like a duck, but none of my mates laughed at me.
On the contrary, they showered me with affection and indulged my every whim. I bet every new father was like them. So, it didn’t come as a surprise to me that they let me run our house in my usual wild style, mixing chaos with reasonable craziness. We were just all excited as soon-to-be new parents.
Sometimes I felt
sorry for my mates, who hadn’t had a moment’s break since the babies started growing in me. In fact, they hadn’t had a break since the day Lorcan and Reys set me free from that magical cage, and then Alaric and Pyrder defended me against the God of Terror and beheaded two minor gods in the Twisted Misery bar in New York City.
My mates were the strongest males walking the Earth, so they didn’t mind me being a bit high-maintenance, which I discovered during my pregnancy. I had a lot of needs, and my mates made sure every one of them was met. Like right now, they were busy giving me oral pleasure. They’d listened to the God of Blacksmiths—the only Olympian god who I’d allowed to roam my Earth—and believed his words that a pregnant woman was particularly horny.
My mates had utterly forgotten that Hephaestus had a history of pretending to be a specialist and leading us into deep shit. But I didn’t refute the god’s statement when a wicked tongue thrust into my slick heat.
I raised my head, wanting to watch, which was no longer easy to do because I was eight months pregnant. Secondly, I wasn’t in bed but in the air, with Reys and Pyrder supporting me on either side. Their identical lips pulled my nipples into their hot mouths and suckled, sending waves of pleasure to my nerve endings.
Hadn’t I said that the twins were the best kissers?
Lorcan half-knelt in front of my wide, spread thighs, licking my aching, needy flesh. My ankles rested on his broad shoulders and back, and my legs jerked in turn as he thumbed my swollen clit in slow, tortuous circles.
“More!” I cried. “Vampire, more!”
Instead of giving me more, Lorcan withdrew his swirling tongue from inside my heat. I protested, but then he rose and aimed his massive cock at my entrance, probably wanting to show me who was in control.
When I got sexually excited, I sometimes had a loose tongue. I didn’t mean disrespect by shouting “vampire” at him. He should cut me some slack since I no longer called him a fucking bloodsucker ever since we mated.
I was in the late stages of pregnancy, so my mates were extremely careful with me. They were so afraid of hurting the babies that they invented this mating style—always with two mates hoisting me in the air and a third mate either fucking me from the front or from the side so their weight wouldn’t press on the babies by accident in their wild passion.
My mates took every precaution. They also didn’t penetrate me all the way to my depths.
I craved raw and hard fucking, but they wouldn’t budge. Well, one month after the babies were born, I’d go right back to being the Cass I was more comfortable with.
“You can enter mate now,” Alaric instructed from beside Lorcan while holding my buttocks with his large hands. “Be extremely careful, vampire. And go in slowly.”
Lorcan glared at the demigod with a hiss, but when his gaze returned to me, it was all warmth, tenderness, and lust.
The High Lord of Night slid into me inch by inch, his body trembling from the effort of his restraint. I knew he wanted to pound into me just as hard as I wanted. He wanted to hit my molten core badly and to explore every inch of my depths.
He stopped halfway and withdrew an inch or two, then pushed slowly into me again.
“That’s right,” Alaric commented, monitoring everything to make sure the mating wouldn’t get out of control. “You’re doing all right. There’s no need to rush. Little mate is ours for eternity.”
“Shut the fuck up, demigod!” Lorcan cursed for the first time, losing his cool. It was already hard enough for him not being able to claim me the way he wanted without Alaric giving all sorts of instructions.
Reys and Pyrder ignored the tension as they played with my breasts, humming with enjoyment, their hands groping all over me, setting my body on fire. Reys moved from my nipple to claim my lips.
With the fae prince blocking my view, I couldn’t see how Lorcan was fucking me, except that he thrust in and out of my heat carefully yet powerfully but never filled me completely with his delicious length.
The pleasure was still great. Ecstasy rocked me at his every thrust.
It was heaven to have the hottest, most powerful males cherish my every inch. I moaned against Reys’s lips with contentment.
Reys deepened his kiss, eagerly thrusting his tongue into my open mouth, and Pyrder grunted—his beast wanted more than just my breast.
“I’ll make it up to you, dulcis,” Lorcan said, thrusting into me carefully, mistaking my groan as a complaint. “I’ll fuck you hard enough after the babies are born.”
“That’s a logical thought,” Alaric said. “We’ll all fuck mate until she screams after the babies are safely delivered. Right now, we all know what’s at stake. This is the time to test our discipline, strong will, integrity—”
Pyrder raised his head from my nipple and barked, “Shut up and let Cass baby and us enjoy ourselves! If you can’t handle it, leave the room.”
“Like hell I will let mate out of my sight for even a second,” Alaric snapped.
The demigod had transformed into a different person ever since he learned about my pregnancy. I understood his mentality and anxiety as a first-time father, so I half-closed my eyes and let him do his control-freak shit. If it became too much, I’d just band together with my other mates and put a stop to it.
After all, I was the one who carried the children. He didn’t get the right and privilege to be more nervous than I was.
“Get your shit together, Alaric,” Pyrder said. “You’re guarding Cass the wrong way. Stop spoiling her fun.” He shook his head, his red-golden hair falling on my jaw before he buried his face in my breast again.
Reys broke the kiss for a second and offered some advice. “Alaric, I can get you enrolled in a parent training program.”
“I sat through a class, which I’ve never done before in an eon!” Alaric said. “I’ve read all the parenting books ever printed!”
Lorcan snickered as he thrust into me. “That doesn’t make you an expert in women’s health and pregnancy.”
“The so-called experts are only good at screwing up,” said Pyrder dismissively. “You know that already!”
I wanted to offer my opinion, but Reys had descended on me again, his tongue mating with mine, sending blissful pleasure to every part of my body, and Lorcan’s large, hard shaft moved in me relentlessly, pushing me closer and closer to the edge.
His skillful fingers caressed my clit as he drove into me faster and harder, yet he wouldn’t go any deeper.
“It’ll be my turn to fuck mate next.” Alaric watched our coupling, his voice laced with harsh male lust.
A series of moans rumbled from the back of my throat as Lorcan’s thrusts kept hitting my G-spot.
I loved all of my mates’ cocks and could never get enough of them. The good thing was, I now had eternity to fuck them and ravish them in every way. One more month and we would fuck each other however we wanted.
Lorcan thrust into me a bit deeper, but no more than that. I opened my legs wider, and Alaric sucked in a breath. I could feel the heat from him as he stared at my bare pussy.
“I’m the one who’s fucking mate,” Lorcan snarled. “Don’t get in the way, demigod. She’s milking me so hard. Mate has no break, and I love it!” The vampire groaned roughly in pleasure, and when he delivered a few more powerful, rapid pumps into me, I exploded around his cock, riding his orgasm.
Our mutual climax mirrored each other’s. It was so awesome and overwhelming that I broke the kiss with Reys and burst into tears.
Lorcan stilled in me, rock hard still.
“Pull out of mate now!” Alaric clenched his teeth. “You’re hurting her.”
Lorcan tried to withdraw, but my legs clamped around his perfect ass to stop him from leaving. He was going nowhere. None of them were going anywhere. They were all mine! And I liked any of my mates’ cocks staying inside me for a while even after we both found our release.
I sobbed, “You didn’t hurt me. I don’t want you to leave me.”
“Never l
eave you, dulcis,” Lorcan said fiercely and slowly moved in me again, knowing that I liked just that.
“Then what’s the matter, sweetheart?” Alaric said, caressing my bulging belly. “Do the babies kick too hard?”
I was thankful that my babies were well-behaved and courteous. They seemed the opposite of their obnoxious mom. They were like their decent, considerate dads. Whenever mommy and daddies were having sexy time, they stayed quiet, as if they were all covering their eyes and hiding behind the curtain.
Other times, they kicked a lot, which only convinced my proud mates that our children would be more powerful than them, though they also felt sorry for me since I had such horrible morning sickness because of our hyperactive babies.
My mates often took turns murmuring to the babies against my huge belly, coaxing them to jolt gently and prohibiting them from fighting each other in my womb.
“Our babies often go to sleep when we make love to Cass,” Pyrder murmured, his lips leaving my nipple momentarily.
“Talk to us, Cass baby,” Reys coaxed. “What’s troubling you?”
“I don’t know,” I sobbed as I tried to get my rollercoaster emotions under control. My tears flowed like a faucet, streaming down my cheeks, driving my mates out of their wits. “I wasn’t supposed to be so fortunate, yet I get to have you all. On some nights, I watch all of you sleep and I can’t believe all I have is real. Sometimes I feel I don’t deserve to have this beautiful life while many people still struggle and suffer so much. And sometimes I can sense evil, terrifying forces lurking in the shadows, ready to snatch away all we have. They say all good things will come to an end, and I don’t want my life and my time with all of you to end.”
Pyrder chuckled. “That’s an unfounded fear, Cass baby. Our good life won’t end. We’ll make sure it lasts forever and you feel loved every second of the day.”
I lifted my face and gazed at my mates through a mist of tears. “You think so?” Then I cried harder over Pyrder’s sweet promise of, “I know so.”
“Dulcis, don’t cry. You’re breaking my heart,” Lorcan said. “We’ll give you everything. Name anything you want. Do you want to check the money in your bank accounts?”
