by Ophelia Bell
Rowan had only a vague idea what needed to be done. Recharging the artifact could have meant all kinds of things, but the more understanding she acquired about the nature of her race, the more she realized there was really only one way that would happen. They must have been transported into some kind of magical parallel world, or a tiny pocket of one. The Council’s magic swirled thickly around them, arousing her to the point that the other dragons’ power seemed like faint background noise by comparison. When the first pair of orgasmic cries resonated through the air, Rowan looked up from the distracting kisses and caresses Rafe and Aurum were sharing with her and watched, mesmerized, as the bright green light sailed through the air from Numa and Roka and sank into the center of the pedestal. The Verdanith remained brightly lit for a moment, before subsiding back to its low, pulsing glow.
With disconcerting synchronicity, the six immortal dragons disengaged from their activities, leaving behind baffled looks of mild frustration among the others.
“It’s time,” Aurum whispered to Rowan. “Don’t fret, my dear. We will be gentle.” With strength far beyond what Rowan was capable of resisting, Aurum clutched both her wrists, twisted them behind her back, and urged her to walk forward into the water. Steps led down into the cool, waist-deep pool, then up again to the flat, circular island in the center.
“What the hell?” Rowan looked back at Rafe, alarm bordering on fear.
Rafe’s eyes widened briefly, then he seemed to come to some silent understanding. He looked back at her, resigned. “We broke their laws. Therefore they must administer punishment.”
“Punishment? For falling in love? Rafe! I didn’t even know it was a law when I fell for you. And I thought you said my presence would make them change it!”
“Darling, the only thing to do now is to accept it bravely. When it’s over we will be able to make our arguments.”
Belah moved to Rafe’s side and Rafe nodded, holding his hands behind him for her to restrain and drive him forward. They weren’t the only ones, Rowan soon became aware. They were joined in the center by Aurin and Aurik, who both looked as chastened as Rafe.
“What did you guys do?” Rowan asked under her breath.
In a sardonic tone, Aurik murmured, “Fell in love with the same human. Two dragons aren’t allowed to mate and mark a single human at the same time.”
“Well, that’s news to me, too.” She eyed Rafe from across the platform, finding it hard not to be as amused as she was irritated. “Too bad you didn’t give me a legal lesson when we met, baby. Is Trevor going to be alright?”
“He’ll be fine. No doubt he’s enjoying himself more than we are at the moment. Camille is nothing if not attentive.”
The fact that Rafe and the others didn’t seem worried or even afraid let Rowan relax a little. The four were positioned at the four cardinal points of the platform. She and Aurin faced each other, with Rafe and Aurik to either side of them.
The immortal Shadow, Ked, stood just outside their circle where the water lapped at its edges and gestured for Kol to move to the opposite side. Both exhaled deeply, their dark breath quickly fading to nothing as it left their mouths. Air currents that hadn’t existed before moved around Rowan, tickling her skin. A second later, the sensation of invisible silk bindings coiled around Rowan’s wrists and tugged her arms up in front of her and over her head. The others’ movements mirrored her own. Similar sensations coiled around her ankles, tugging her legs apart so she stood spread-eagled. The magic ties held her snugly enough that she could let her weight hang entirely from her wrists without any give, if she chose to.
Rowan had to crane her head around her arm to see Rafe. His dark beauty took her breath away, particularly with the slight shimmer of his scales appearing along the surface of his skin. She recognized it not as a need for power, but the simple response to intense arousal. The presence of his shining horns as well as of his erection were obvious signs as well. The Twins attracted similar swirls of magic. Rowan wondered if they enjoyed misbehaving for the simple sake of enduring the punishment. In spite of her own humiliation at being disarmed so, she found herself growing just as aroused at the prospect of what might happen next.
“It seems like you’re enjoying this, so how the hell does it count as punishment?” she sent to Rafe.
“Most dragons prefer to do the tying rather than be tied. Our pride suffers, and the magic of the dominating dragons will linger like a bad hangover. We will have to submit to the others to satisfy the Council.”
“Even to my brother?”
“That is up to the Council. It’s possible.”
Before she could voice her objection, Ked spoke, his voice so deep it sank into Rowan’s gut, leaving her with a pleasant buzz. “Geva shall secure Aurin’s submission, Racha will secure Rafe’s, Roka will secure Aurik’s, and Kol will secure Rowan’s. When each of you has submitted to your peers, you will submit to one of us.”
“That’s it? I can just say I submit to Kol and it’s done?”
Rafe didn’t answer and before Rowan could turn her head to look at him, a large hand twined in her long hair and yanked her head back severely.
“Ow!” Rowan cried out and jerked her head forward again. The hand slipped around, fingers clasping loosely around her neck. The gesture was only a vague threat, but sufficient enough for Kol to make his point. She was at his mercy now.
Kol’s voice seeped into her mind, a cool, languid suggestion that crept like the dark predator she’d learned a Shadow could be. “I daresay I might enjoy this as much as I enjoyed disciplining your brother, if you are as hot-tempered as he is.”
“What does your mate think of this?” Rowan shot back.
“She would assist me, were she here now. Ask her later—or ask your brother now to confirm the story.”
Rowan trained her eyes across the circle to where her brother stood behind Aurin, his large hands sliding down her sides. He met her gaze, then his gaze shifted past her shoulder to Kol and he grinned. So much for family loyalty.
“It’s your fault we’re in this circle, you know,” Rowan said to Kol. “You should have told me the truth even if Rafe couldn’t bring himself to.”
She tried to turn her head but Kol still held tightly to the back of her neck with one hand. She could only catch a glimmer of movement of his dark head and the free hand that reached around and slid up her stomach. When he finally answered, the words were accompanied by his thumb and fingers spanning both breasts and teasing her nipples into achingly hard peaks. The pleasurable distraction made it nearly impossible to focus.
“I should have bound you like this and showed you the truth that night. Instead I was too lenient and let you leave without truly understanding the stakes. I’ve since learned my lesson.”
“The only thing at stake for me was love and honesty,” Rowan gritted out through her teeth. “You as much as promised Rafe and I could never be together under current Dragon Law. I will not submit until the laws are abolished.” She raised her voice, the words hanging in the air as all the others paused, their attention fully on her.
Kol chuckled and pinched her nipples lightly. He nipped at her neck with his teeth, the light contact causing delicious trickles of pleasure down her spine. “The longer it takes you to give in, the more fun it will be for them when they take you. However, I did not lie to you Rowan. You are crucial to our cause. You couldn’t be doing better if we’d rehearsed beforehand.”
“I could have done better if I’d known this is how things would go.”
“If I had known, I would have prepared you.”
He released her neck and continued his playful nips over her shoulders and neck. With one hand he pushed her hair up, carefully coiling it on top of her head and binding it with a tiny breath that wove itself into her thick locks.
She shivered at the light brush of his lips over her neck at the base of her skull. Heat flushed through her from that point outward, as though he’d found a sleeping ember and fed it enough
fuel to become a blaze. His large bulk of warm muscle and skin pressed against her from behind, his erection searing hot along her spine. Both hands cupped her breasts this time, teasing her nipples relentlessly, the light swirl of his tongue against the top of her spine never letting up.
After a few seconds more of it he paused and whispered in her ear. “Do you submit now, Princess?”
“No.”
“Then you shall get to witness how the others give in and take their own punishment.”
Chapter 7
Kol reached up and tugged lightly at Rowan’s wrists. The bindings seemed to give but tightened again when he had her arms repositioned so that her elbows were bent at ninety degree angles. It gave her a better vantage to either side, and allowed circulation back into her arms.
“Thank you,” she sent to him.
“Don’t thank me yet, I’m just taking my time for emphasis. You will submit when I’m ready for you to.” He nipped more deliberately at the back of her neck, the sudden contact causing more wet heat to flood between her thighs. The his caresses grew idle, almost comforting as she watched the other three endure their own ordeals.
Rafe’s entire body was taut from strain against his bindings. Racha rested on her knees before him, her mouth wrapped around his cock, sucking with slow, steady motions. The magic churned around him, and the second Rowan was sure Rafe would come hard in Racha’s mouth, the Queen abruptly stopped and stood, leaving Rafe’s wet cock standing like a solitary pillar, his tip weeping.
“Submit,” Racha whispered in his ear.
“No,” Rafe said, the word coming out in a strangled groan.
Racha only nodded and stepped to the side, wrapping one arm around his waist and caressing him in a less arousing fashion but never ceasing contact.
Aurin looked across the space at Rowan with a secretive smile. The pretty blonde shared a glance with her brother as Geva’s large hands teased her. Rowan’s Red brother followed Kol’s example, teasing Aurin’s nipples, then nibbling at her neck. Only he went one further and slid a hand between her thighs, dipping his fingertips deep into Aurin’s glistening, bare pussy.
Aurin moaned and tilted her hips into his touch. Her eyelids fluttered halfway closed, but her gaze still held Rowan’s.
“Submit,” Geva said, his lips brushing against her ear.
The bound Gold turned her head, her eyes seeking out her tormentor. Geva clutched her chin with his free hand and captured her mouth hungrily with his own in a tangle of lips and tongues. When they pulled apart a second later, Aurin simply said, “Yes.”
She nearly collapsed when her bindings released, but Geva caught her and lowered her to the ground until she rested on hands and knees in front of him. His wicked smile grew broader, his red eyes glowing when they met Rowan’s.
Rowan had barely known her brother for two days, but had the distinct impression that he was showing off for her. She’d have been lying if she said she wasn’t impressed. He let his thick cock nestle along the cleft of Aurin’s ass and leaned over her smaller body whispering in her ear.
“This is only the beginning, love,” he said, and sank his teeth into the back of Aurin’s neck.
Aurin cried out and pressed her hips back against him in urgent invitation. He chuckled and tilted his hips back far enough to gain entry. Both dragons let out sighs of enjoyment when he plunged to the hilt into her with a smack of hips against her ass.
Rowan’s pussy ached in sympathy. The base of Kol’s cock still brushed hotly against her own ass, the soft velvet of his balls pressed just close enough for her to make out their pendulous contours. His hands rested at her hips now, holding her tighter against him as they watched their siblings begin to fuck.
Out of the corner of her eye, Rowan sensed movement. The tall bulk of Gavra, the immortal Red, moved past into the center. His massive cock stood thick and nearly perfectly erect in spite of its size. His thighs flexed as he lowered himself to one knee before Aurin.
Aurin’s wide golden eyes looked up at him reverently as Gavra caressed her cheek and tilted her chin up with one fingertip.
“Are you ready for more, little one?” he asked.
Aurin’s eyelids fluttered closed, and she whispered the word “yes” and opened her mouth. She raised both hands to clutch at desperately at Gavra’s thighs as he slid almost his entire thick length deep into her throat.
Rowan swallowed and breathed deeply, wondering how the delicate, beautiful golden girl could take all that. At the same time, her mouth watered at the very idea of such a glorious cock being shoved into her own mouth. She hazarded a quick look at Rafe and their eyes met. His dark eyes flashed with the same lust she had seen the first time she’d allowed him to fuck her mouth like that. While Rafe watched, Kol’s hands slid back up to her breasts and lifted their heavy weight, teasing her hard nipples for her mate’s benefit.
“If you submit next, you can let him watch while I shove my cock into you like that. I know Rafe. He would enjoy it.”
“I want to hear him tell me he wants it.”
“Very well,” Kol said.
A split second later, the vivid image of her very memory of the taste and texture of Rafe’s cock blazed through her mind, along with the sensations that accompanied that first experience. For a moment she was no longer in the glade, but in Rafe’s bedroom, with his palms on either side of her face, his hot length sliding between her lips and along her tongue. When she returned to the present, Rafe was watching her and smiling.
The scene in the center escalated, the threads of magic that permeated the air in the Glade clinging to the three participants like sticky webs. Rowan’s ears buzzed with the increasing volume of the men’s lusty groans, and Aurin’s muffled moans. Her mouth slid off Gavra’s cock and she abruptly cried out, bucking back hard against Geva’s steadily pistoning cock. Rowan’s brother let out a yell and rammed into her, his entire body quivering with his climax.
The glimmering threads of magic sank through them as though seeping into their pores until they both glowed from within. In the span of a breath the floor beneath them where they made contact with it shimmered with red and yellow light that surged toward the center. The Verdanith glowed brightly again for a moment, then subsided, but its pulses remained more luminescent than before, shining along the underside of Gavra’s still erect cock and casting a dark shadow against his belly.
Rowan’s arousal had her almost too dizzy and distracted from pleasure to follow events after that, but soon enough, the center was filled with writhing bodies again. This time it was Aurik, who obediently submitted to Gavra. Rowan blinked several times before she realized it was no longer Aurin in the center, but Aurik with Roka’s cock his throat and the immortal Red, Gavra, sliding his cock deep into Aurik’s ass until all three of them came with loud yells.
“It’s your turn again. Second chance,” Kol said. He drifted a hand down her belly and cupped her cunt, sliding his fingers along the soaked lips and drawing his hand back up to hold it before her. “You need to come so badly you can taste it.” He slid one glistening fingertip along her lower lip. Her own heady scent wafted into her nostrils at the same time Rafe’s moan hit her ears. His gaze was fixed on her mouth and he licked his lips as though wishing she would do the same. No thoughts reached her from him, but the intensity of his desire nearly overwhelmed her.
She restrained herself from even tasting her own juices, though it took all her willpower.
“No! I want promises before I do.”
“What promises?” The immortal Gold, Aurum, appeared before her again, as quietly as before. “I can promise you pleasure beyond your wildest dreams.” Aurum bent to her knees and snaked out a forked tongue that tickled at the top of Rowan’s pussy. The twin points of it slid further, parting the slick, swollen folds, moving slowly and sensually as though Aurum intended to taste every inch of her. The tongue slipped deeper, pressing into the dark, place Rowan desperately needed to be filled.
The pleasure
was maddening. Rowan tried to pull away otherwise she feared she’d lose her mind. She knew from the proceedings so far that she would have no release until she submitted. But she needed guarantees, first.
“Promises…” she gasped. “That Rafe and I can stay together, that the Unbound will be freed, that our children…our families can enjoy a full life the way h-humans do.”
The incessant teasing ceased, and Kol loosened his grip on her slightly. His breathing grew silent, his body tense, waiting for the other shoe to drop, she guessed.
Aurum stood. “We heard your petition during the assembly, Princess. Yet you keep restating it. Your submission is not a condition of your request being honored.”
“I have no reason to trust that you will follow through, I guess. So, if you want my submission that badly, you’d better honor my request, and all the other ones that were made.”
It wasn’t precisely anger that flashed through Aurum’s eyes, but something like intense frustration. Frustration not unlike what ached deep in Rowan’s core at the moment.
“You do need my submission, and badly, don’t you?” she asked.
“Yours and your mate’s, yes.” The Gold’s gaze heated when she looked at Rafe. “His love for you is what is keeping him from giving in. If things change the way you hope them to, this generation will need strong guidance from someone familiar with the new world we live in.”
Aurum seemed sad when she turned back to Rowan. “We always encouraged bonds of love for all dragons. We knew some would follow out of a sense of obligation, but most would be happy with the humans who woke them. We chose the ascendant teams so carefully. The team that awakened this generation was perfect. Each human an ideal mate for a single dragon among the Court. It’s the first time we’ve been so lucky. We finally had hope that our work would bear fruit. But then the matings didn’t go as we intended. The Catalyst wasn’t meant to choose a mate from the Court, yet he did. The Guardian was meant to have a single female mate. The Twins were meant to be a choice for the young Dimitri to make, yet he somehow succeeded in waking them both.”
