by Ophelia Bell
Assana cupped his face in her hands, and he had the oddest sense of plunging into deep, cool water as she slid her palms over his bare shoulders, down his chest, and dipped beneath the waistband of his cargo pants.
She drifted her lips across his, caressing his cheek with the barest brush of silken skin. She inhaled as she went, and he realized she was scenting him, her nose brushing the edge of his jaw, the side of his neck, and her mouth leaving cool, wet kisses as she went.
“He’s all over you,” she murmured in an almost hungry tone. “Seeping from your pores.” Her tongue darted out and licked at his pulse point, which only made his heart pound and his cock rouse to painful stiffness again.
She gripped his hips just beneath his waistband and turned him, sliding around his body as she pushed him against the wall. Her gaze heated with avid interest and she continued her deliberate exploration of his body, like every inch she touched was more fascinating than the last.
“He kind of was all over me for a few minutes before you got there,” Silas said, his breath quickening when she brushed her palm down the ridge of his erection through his pants.
“You swallowed his Nirvana. You’re filled with his energy. His power will be tricky to mask, but I think I can manage it.”
Assana’s mouth moved back to his and she plunged her tongue between his lips, the power of the kiss enough to make him weak. He drank her in as she continued to touch, her hands still roaming. She unfastened his pants and pushed them down until they slid past his thighs and pooled at his ankles.
How she could feel so deliciously cool and smooth, yet make him so hot made no sense. Her touch seemed to leave a sheen of icy wetness on his skin that soothed and aroused at the same time, like she was skimming ice cubes over his body. She released his mouth and slowly slid down, trailing her tongue along the center of his chest, down over his stomach to his navel. His abs tightened in anticipation and his cock kicked against her chest when the tips of her breasts grazed his thighs. The hard peaks of her nipples pressed against his flesh through the gauzy wisp of her dress.
“Please, yes …” he moaned, tangling his fingers in her hair.
Assana’s cheek brushed along the length of his aching cock, her eyes wide and almost fearful. She hesitated as he stared down at her.
“Are you afraid of something?” he asked. “It’s just my stupid dick.”
She swallowed and shook her head. “I’ve never been this close before … allowed to touch, to taste.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Was his scent just an excuse for you to touch me? Not that I’m complaining … You just had to ask.”
“No, I … well, maybe.” She lowered her gaze and her cheeks flushed.
He touched her chin, urging her to look up at him and struggling to keep from groaning in outright lust at the sight of such a beautiful creature on her knees with her lips mere inches from the tip of his cock.
“You’ve really never been with a man … and you’re how old?”
She swallowed again and licked her lips, leaving a sheen of moisture that made his mouth water.
“I was twelve when my brother and his squadron of Thiasoi soldiers were captured by the Ultiori. That was more than two thousand years ago. Mother didn’t let me leave the Haven after that. By the time I was old enough to learn about sex, the only male left in the Haven was my uncle. I’ve never melded with a man before. Never touched one like this.”
The significance of the moment made him pull back. “Assana … we shouldn’t be doing this here. Not in a fucking hallway. I thought you just needed to—I don’t know—magic his scent off me somehow with your watery essence.”
She smiled. “That’s one way to put it, but I need to meld with you to do that. We don’t have time to make a big production of it. I need your essence first.”
“Won’t it seem suspect if you go in there smelling like me, though?”
“Not if I tell them I’ve chosen you for my mate. They already know I’m looking. May I …?”
He stared at her, confused until he realized she was asking fucking permission to suck his cock. It was such a contrast to the way he envisioned nymphs, not to mention to his recent experience with the dragon he loved and Gavra’s rough, wordless insistence only a little while ago. He could still feel the dragon’s fingertips digging into the back of his neck as Gavra forced him to take his huge cock into his mouth—could still taste the spice of the other man and the hot pulse of his semen as it shot into the back of his throat.
“Fuck, Assana, you don’t fucking need to ask. I’m yours.”
Her cool hand cupped his balls and he threw his head back against the wall with a groan. The first tentative lick around the head of his cock had him struggling with all his might to maintain control.
“Gaia, I can’t wait to fuck you,” he said. “When we get Gavra out of this bullshit, and we get to share each other … the three of us … I want to taste him on you. Can you taste him on me? Does it taste good?”
She held his cock with one hand and slowly slid her tongue along his length. “You taste good,” she said.
Then her mouth was on him completely, her lips wrapping around his tip and sliding down his length. If she hadn’t so earnestly just confessed to her inexperience, he never would have believed her. She expertly stroked and sucked, and within seconds had him at the edge and flying beyond, his entire body in ecstasy as she drew his essence from him in long, deep swallows.
He was so dazed he mindlessly obeyed her command when she stood and shoved him down to his knees.
“You’ll taste me now,” she said without a glimmer of hesitance, as though she were accustomed to being in command. “Hurry.” She lifted one foot onto his shoulder and grabbed him by the head. Her glistening folds parted before him, beckoning. The sweet, swollen bud of her clit was poised inches from his lips. He didn’t need to be told twice what she wanted.
With a hungry groan, he grabbed her ass and tilted forward, relishing her cry of pleasure when his tongue parted her flesh and her tangy essence washed over his taste buds. He remembered how responsive she’d been to his touch, how her clit had hardened with just the slightest caress of his fingers, and he did the same with his tongue. As much as he would have loved to take his time, to bring her off slowly and repeatedly, her urgency drove him to speed things up.
“Ohh, Silas!” she cried, and her flesh quivered and pulsed against his mouth. Again he drank her in, this time the gush of liquid over his tongue more plentiful than the energy he’d absorbed before—and he was grateful that his extremities didn’t grow roots again.
Before he could stand, she dug her fingers into his temples and jaw, and he stared up at her, enraptured while the surge of her power flooded not only his body, but his mind as well.
In that moment, his entire being awoke with a strange awareness of his world, as though he’d had another set of senses he’d long forgotten and they’d just been revived.
“It is me you sense,” Assana said, her voice clear and strong, though her lips didn’t move. “My awareness is yours, now that you’ve tasted my essence. And yours is mine. I can feel Gavra’s power inside you. It’s been there for some time … I didn’t know you bonded with him before today.”
Something in her tone sounded hurt and she seemed to falter, to withdraw. Silas reached out with his consciousness as he rose to his feet and met her gaze directly.
“Yes, we were together one time before … that was when he told me about you and made the promise that the three of us would be together. I intend to hold him to that promise.”
He opened his mind to her more, marveling at the intimacy of this sharing of consciousness, but more than that, he was overwhelmed by the awareness of how significant a step this was. Within that simplest of connections, he sensed all her fears and desires, and above all, her determination to keep her family together at all costs. It
left him feeling small, meaningless, and insignificant.
“Oh, Silas, you are everything,” she said, her eyes widening as she absorbed the unchecked emotions that flooded from him.
He gave her a sad smile and shook his head. “No, I’m nothing, but that’s okay. I have no idea what I did to have Fate smile on me … I don’t deserve the love of the two of you, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to let it go.”
She nodded and he knew she understood. What they offered was everything he’d always wanted and more, yet his connection to her now afforded him the first peek into the trials they might face in order to keep what they had only just found.
“You smell like me now,” Assana said with a smile. This time her voice reached his ears instead of echoing inside his head. “At least enough that the clan leader is unlikely to notice the dragon on you. Shall we go?”
She took his hand and they approached the great hall with its warm teak arches and carved wood columns. The roof above sported lantern windows that let in the sunlight, and his heart skipped with joy at being home again in spite of the circumstances surrounding his return.
Upon a dais at the end of the hall sat the clan leader, Sathmika, her long black waves cascading over a deep turquoise gown shot through with golden strands. Upon her head rested a crown of flowering vines, and the room was awash in the fragrant summery scents of jasmine and wildflowers. Not even her intent, watchful gaze could destroy Silas’s happiness. The world might have gone mad within the span of a few weeks, but he had found his mates, so he knew he could deal with whatever the woman threw at him.
“Assana, have you contacted your mother yet and let her know we’ve seen to her demands? When will she restore the Source?” Sathmika’s question sent a cold reminder of their plight through him. He mentally kicked himself for his internal celebration.
“I’m afraid she’s added to the demands. I must return to the Haven at midnight tonight and bring the two male dragons with me.”
“To what end?” Sathmika asked. “We’ve already imprisoned them in bonds they can’t break free of without expending all their power. If she wishes us to send more males, she only needs to ask.”
“She does want more males … two of them,” Assana said.
Sathmika gave Silas an appraising look. “And what of Silas?”
The question made him blink. The fact that she even knew his name astounded him. He was one of dozens of Guardians and had spent the better part of the past decade outside the Sanctuary.
“What of me, mistress?” he asked.
Sathmika shook her head in exasperation. “You’re covered in Assana’s essence. It’s clear she’s chosen you, but it takes more than a few hours with a nymph for her claim to be complete. Do you plan to claim him fully, Assana?”
Silas frowned at Assana, confused. “What does she mean? I thought what we did … the melding …”
“It was just the first of three,” Assana said. “Sathmika is right …” She turned to face his clan leader. “Mother does not want more ursa males for the Haven yet, but it is still my right to choose a mate from among the males here. I have chosen Silas to return with me as well.”
“What, pray tell, will change your mother’s mind, then? Two dragons … immortal ones at that … may make good mates for her nymphs, but she’s effectively allowing all the living females of her race to become the treasures of another higher race. If she intended to give the dragons that much power over the Haven, she didn’t need to cut off the Source to do it.”
Sathmika rose from her carved wooden throne and descended the dais to stand at eye level before Assana. “We don’t need this breeding pact. Our males are more than content with each other. They’re satisfied with the intervals they’re allowed to venture on their pilgrimages to mate with human females, if they choose. We make those allowances for their happiness when ursa females are as scarce as they have been of late. What is it Nyx hopes to gain?”
Silas watched Assana closely, and though her face remained still, her eyes merely reflecting the room around her, his connection to her was still strong. She was as still as a placid pool on the surface, but beneath her calm appearance churned a desperate need to maintain her mother’s reputation while still keeping the peace.
“They are not for the nymphs,” Assana finally said, and Silas caught the hint of a careful lie forming inside her mind. A small part of her awareness focused on him, and he sensed an apology in that mental touch as she completed the lie to his clan leader.
“Mother and my uncle have quarreled and she knows he loves the white dragon. She wants to form a stronger alliance with the dragons—to appease my uncle in the hopes that he will return to the Haven once she shows that she can co-exist with the man he loves. She wants to do this by offering herself to … to his brother. Her methods were regrettable, but she was struck by grief when my uncle left. These aren’t fresh demands, but a compromise. You know my mother was never very good at asking for help.”
Sathmika regarded Assana silently, though her expression was far more transparent. She didn’t believe a word of what Assana said, and Assana’s panicked mind scrambled for more excuses. Using his presence in her mind, Silas silently urged her to stop, a break to her rising flood that diverted the emotion, controlled it, and let her gather herself.
It wasn’t much, but it gave Sathmika time to draw her own conclusion. He met the ancient elemental’s gaze and felt it drilling into him, plotting something he wasn’t sure he would like. Finally Sathmika returned her gaze to Assana.
“The nymphaea are still our allies, and while I cannot speak for the ursa as a whole, I know what our reigning queen’s wishes are. We will comply with your mother’s demands under one condition, which is for you to agree to, Assana. Something we ask that you keep from Nyx unless Neph is by her side when you return.”
“Whatever must be done, I will hear it.”
Sathmika’s steady gaze fell on Silas again, raked over him slowly. An uneasy sensation filled his gut, replacing the earlier elation at having a female like Assana choose him.
“This male you have chosen … he is ripe for the blessing of Gaia. A boon we have the option to bestow on only a few males in each generation. We don’t often grant this blessing. It’s rarely necessary. But we will grant it to this one before you return to the Haven.”
Silas’s jaw fell open. Gaia’s blessing was a myth, or so he’d thought.
Sathmika chuckled. “Don’t look so surprised, Silas. The fact that you’re a single male who is fully capable of channeling the power of a female as strong as Assana is what makes you perfect. You’re the lucky one who gets to take advantage of the gift.”
“I don’t understand. I’m nobody.”
“When I’m done with you, you’ll be the only male in the Sanctuary who can use the divine magic you channel, rather than simply giving it back to Gaia. You’ll be a Miteradoro.”
Chapter Eight
Silas
Assana gasped beside him. “The roots … it isn’t something other males can do, is it?”
Sathmika shook her head. “Very few show the signs of ripeness for Gaia’s gift. Silas is one of those few.”
Confused, he glanced between the two females. “I never realized it was such a big deal. It first happened on my pilgrimage. I met a dragon …” He gave Assana an apologetic look. “It was just for fun, and she was much older than I was at the time.”
Assana didn’t seem fazed by his confession. If anything, she looked amused. “I am much older than you, Silas,” she said. “So you lost your virginity to a dragon … I could be so lucky.” She gave him a secretive smile.
Silas cleared his throat. “Yes … well, it didn’t exactly happen like that. We didn’t fuck. Like I said, she was much older. She’d outlived her mate and was lonely and simply wanted company.”
He frowned, recalling the lovely female with
sea-blue eyes who had asked if he minded her horns and tail being visible while she pleasured him—said she needed them for balance, which hadn’t made sense to him at first until he’d experienced her very particular desire to have him caress her horns while she penetrated him with her tail. The sex had been so good, he almost hadn’t noticed when it was over that his lower limbs were rooted to the floor, thick woody tendrils wrapping around her bed frame and sinking into the floor beneath the bed.
The dragon herself had been excited by it, exclaiming how lucky she was, that after bedding him she needed to find a new mate because this meant she would get pregnant easily—that it was a good omen to the other races if they shared their Nirvana with an ursa male who rooted while they coupled.
“How do the dragons know about it if I don’t? It never happened when I serviced females with Raj … only when I was alone with one.”
“Only when you were alone with a female of particularly strong power,” Sathmika said. “It manifested with Assana today, didn’t it? I felt a surge in Gaia’s power not long ago. Multiple times, in fact … shortly after Assana went up to speak with the captive.”
Silas stilled, hoping she hadn’t noticed Gavra’s energy lingering on him somehow, but she’d focused her attention on Assana again.
“You wish to mate this male, Assana, daughter of Nyx, granddaughter of Dionysus?”
Assana took a shaky breath and gave Silas a bright-eyed glance that was filled with the truth of her feelings.
“I do,” she said. “What is it you ask of me?”
“That you allow your new mate to carry out a task for me. One that must remain secret, even to your ears.”
Silas felt a chill settle into his gut, replacing the warm glow of elation at Sathmika’s acknowledgment of his new status.
“No secrets,” he said, his voice catching. “Not from her.”
Assana’s face had turned stony, his link to her mind making clear the shame she felt over everything that was happening.
