by Lila Jean
“You’re such a tease,” she moaned.
“I guess we’re a perfect match, then.” He nipped her shoulder and rained kisses along her neck, always rubbing his cock gently across her entrance, holding her in place and refusing to allow her to shove herself down onto his shaft.
“Mean,” she said with a chuckle.
“You like it.” He grabbed her hips, his knees pressing into the mattress as he prepared himself, watching her as she got visibly wetter. Her tight entrance beckoned him forward, begging him to take her, and he waited until his dick throbbed with the need to plunge into her.
With one deft stroke, he filled her completely. She gasped, clutching the sheets like a lifeline, a few happy chuckles escaping after the initial entry. She leaned into him, taking him even deeper, begging for more.
Anthony would always deliver for his woman. Tina had but to ask, and he would obey.
He gently pulled out of her, almost painfully slow, watching as she trembled with need beneath him, and finally plunged into her yet again. She gasped once more, arching her back as she took him fully within her.
Anthony slowly built momentum, thrusting and bucking into her with everything he had, every ounce of his strength, careful to keep the driving pound of his cock steady as he lost himself in the ecstasy of her moans and pleasure.
With every thrust, Anthony felt her tighten around him. He did his best to slow her orgasm, knowing full well the longer they rocked their hips together, the more powerful her final climax would be. He played with her, running this thumb over her bud, raining kisses along her back, everything possible to build her pleasure to its peak.
When she finally tightened around him fully, she arched her head, moaning as she came on his cock. He rode out her orgasm, keeping his in check until she finished, only releasing himself inside of her when she slumped onto the mattress before him, breathing heavily, her hair a beautiful tangle of dark curls around a perfect face.
He collapsed beside her, chest heaving, and smiled as their eyes met. She grinned, radiating beauty and grace as both his and her skin began to glow in the aftermath of their orgasms.
“I love you, Anthony,” she said, eyes shut, her face blissful and happy. “I’m so grateful for you, for the way you make me feel so safe.” She smiled and nuzzled into his shoulder. “I’m so lucky that you’re in my life, that you chose to be my protector.”
“It was an easy choice.” He kissed her forehead and held her close, cradling her body against his. “And I will always love you, my darling.”
9
Draven
Draven reclined in a chair under the summer sun, sitting in some rental house he’d paid for with cash and a fake name, popping pistachios into his mouth as he waited for his father to arrive at their rendezvous.
The old fart was late. Per usual.
With a sigh, Draven rubbed his neck and looked again through the telescope he’d bought and smuggled into the rental house under the cover of darkness, far from their current safehouse where Tina and the rest of the brotherhood remained safely out of reach.
Draven wished Tina were here with him, swapping stories and perhaps sitting on his lap to help pass the time, and he found himself missing the beautiful woman to whom he had grown so close.
How strange, to miss a woman. In the past, he had always flitted onto the next fling, never lingering for long in the bed of any one of his trysts, but Tina was different. Powerful. Beautiful. Smart. And, by some blessing, his.
Through the telescope, Draven eyed the burner phone he’d left in the nearby park, far enough away that not even his father would know he was watching. The phone sat on the picnic table where his father was supposed to sit and chat with him, as promised in their brief phone call.
“C’mon, father dearest,” Draven said with a sarcastic drawl. “Let’s see if you’re really as impressed with my performance in our little duel as you said you were.”
At first, when Draven had broken the silence with his father, the dragon king had sounded excited, eager almost, at the prospect of meeting one-on-one. Their fight at Epara had apparently surprised him to no end. Impressed by Draven’s formidable skills after cooling off, the king was open to negotiation.
“We’ll see,” Draven muttered to himself, doubtful.
After hours of waiting, Draven finally spied the king, in a full suit and tie no less, walk out to the picnic table. Frowning deeply, the dragon shifter king snatched up the phone and looked around the park, eyeing nearby trees, apparently waiting for Draven to call and furious at the prospect of having to wait.
“Oh, how horrible of me, Father.” Draven rolled his eyes at the impatient king. “However could I keep you waiting?” Two other phones lay on the bed, a burner and his new one from Zane, and Draven grabbed the burner, dialing the phone now in his father’s hand.
“Where are you?” the king snapped, picking up on the first ring.
“I’m lovely, thanks for asking, pops.” Draven chuckled. “Missed you, too.”
“This is serious, Draven!”
“It always is, right?” Draven shrugged, knowing his dismissive tone would throw off his father and shake the king’s confidence, weeding out any ploys or deceptions before they had a chance to take root. He still didn’t trust that his father was here for anything good, and he wouldn’t take chances until he was entirely sure of his father’s intentions.
“Draven, damn it.” The king sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Where are you?”
“Safe.”
“Why did you drag me to the middle of Florida in this god-awful heat?” The king continued scanning the nearby buildings, none of which were even remotely close to Draven’s hideout.
Thanks, Zane, Draven thought to himself. He had to give the paranoid tiger shifter kudos since the entire trip here had been covert, all thanks to his rigorous planning.
Now, it was up to Draven to deliver them an ally, and while he was up to the task, there were certain factors he just couldn’t control. Namely, his father’s greed.
“I have a proposal,” Draven said calmly as if he were discussing the weather. “An agreement, one that will set you apart from the other kings.”
“Do you, now?” The king paused, his gaze drifting over the nearby cars, apparently still trying to root out Draven’s hiding spot.
“I do,” Draven said, never taking his eye off the telescope as he watched his father in the distant park. “A way for me to return to the throne. A way for the five kingdoms to finally have true and lasting peace.”
“Your One Queen premise, no doubt,” the king said with a dismissive snort that shot smoke out of his nose. Draven could practically see the rumbling fire in his father’s chest, just waiting for a target to destroy in his building rage.
“I’m not sure why you hate the idea so much,” Draven said, popping another pistachio in his mouth. “You never even let me explain the concept back in Epara.” He rolled his eyes. “Just ‘fire and brimstone, I am your king, you will obey,’ and blah, blah, blah.”
“Draven, my son.” Thunder rumbled in the king’s chest, the manifestation of barely contained anger clearly audible even over the phone. “Stop this. All of this. Now.”
“Tell me why I should.” Draven shoved the bag of pistachios away, his own anger building within him. “There’s no reason to say no but your own stubborn pride.”
“Pride! Exactly!” The king pinned the phone between his ear and his shoulder, shedding the suit coat as he paced the open park. No doubt a dozen snipers were on the perimeter, all focused on the king to keep him safe while he dealt with the phone call. “Have enough pride not to share a woman, for the gods’ sake.” He growled. “Come here and talk to me like a man, instead of hiding behind a phone.”
At that, Draven chuckled. “Yes, Father, of course, how cowardly of me.” He shook his head. “Come down to the open field, where you’ve set up twenty, no, wait.” Draven readjusted his telescope, counting the dragon shifters nes
tled in the nearby trees and nonchalantly patrolling the sidewalks. “Twenty-three soldiers I trained with since I was a boy. I know all of them, Father, except that blond fellow on the far end of the park. Is he new?”
The king stilled, rubbing his face in frustration as he leaned his mouth closer to the phone. His voice dropped to a deadly whisper. “Come home, son. Come home to your people, your place, and your family.”
“Mersarth is my home, Father, but Tina is my family.” Draven tensed, his shoulders aching with a barely contained shift. “She can solve everything if you would just eat your pride for a second and really listen to me. I’m offering you the answer to all our problems on a goddamn silver platter, and you’re not even considering it.”
“I grow less patient with this goddess of yours every passing day,” the king snapped. “She’s addled your mind, brainwashed you into obedience. You, Draven! She must be powerful if she’s controlling you.”
“She’s not controlling me, damn it,” Draven snapped. “I chose this. All five of us did.” He smacked his hand against a nearby table in frustration. “We love her, all of us, and even if you don’t care about my happiness, think about the political implications of a unified five kingdoms. It would solve literally every problem we have been faced with in the last hundred years.”
“I have considered the implications!” The king gestured wildly into the air, his calm breaking. “Have you? Relinquished control of our homelands. A central government that disregards our culture.” The dragon shifter paced a patch of grass in the field, fuming. “There’s no victory in this, Draven!”
“What are you talking about?!” Draven stood, his anger getting the better of him as he left his post at the telescope to yell into the phone. “Relinquished control of the—Jesus, Father, no one’s asking for you to hand over the hundreds of acres Grandfather stole from the Australian government in the Queensland Expansion of 1923!” He paced, pinching the bridge of his nose in disgust. “We’ll have separate kingdoms. I’ll spend time in Mersarth. Tina will, the other princes will. There will be a delegated ruler when we leave, and—”
“This is madness!” the king shouted over him. “I won’t give up my throne for some peasant girl, even if she’s a host to a goddess now!” A rumbling sounded through the phone, no doubt the building fire in the dragon king’s chest. “This Tina girl can give me grandchildren, and that’s all she’s good for. This little plan of yours is nothing but madness!”
“She’s not a broodmare, damn it!” Draven balled his hand into a fist, his temper flaring as his body shimmered with the threat of a shift. “You can insult me, I don’t care, but you won’t belittle her!” He paced, disgusted with his own father, his mouth moving faster than his brain. “And as for our ‘little plan,’ it’s far from madness. It’s the first glimpse of sanity you’ve seen in your whole damn life!”
Despite his boiling anger, despite his disgust that his father would stoop to such a vile low as to insult a goddess and his mate, Draven sucked in a breath at his last comment, regretting it the moment he’d said it. He’d let his anger get the better of him, just like his Father always did, but he had to control it for Tina’s sake. For the brotherhood’s sake. For his own sake, since he didn’t want to make an enemy of his king and the country he called home.
His father seethed. “How dare you—”
“Father, let’s be civil,” Draven said softly, trying to rein in the chaos that was his father’s anger. He wouldn’t apologize, not when his anger had been well deserved, but he could set the conversation back on track. “Father, there’s reason behind having One Queen. With the order she can provide, we can enact countless plans where everyone benefits, including you, if you’ll just listen and let me speak uninterrupted for five minutes. That’s all I—”
“I’ve heard enough.”
“You’ve barely let me speak.” Draven sat, peering through the telescope once more to find his father still pacing the little park. “All you’ve done is yell and rage, all in an attempt to piss me off enough to come out there to you so you can force me home.” Draven bristled at the very thought. “I’m not an idiot.”
“Draven, listen closely.” The king tapped his finger on the nearby picnic table, ironically facing in the correct direction for the first time since their call began but looking at the wrong house. “There can never be One Queen amongst the shifters and demigods. There is and always will be five races, five kingdoms, and five kings.”
With that, the king snapped the phone shut and tossed it back on the table. He stormed off toward one of the nearby black limousines, and Draven sighed with disappointment and frustration. Tina’s list of enemies kept growing, but he would do everything in his power to keep her safe, even if it meant avoiding the people and kingdom he loved most.
10
Zane
Two days after Draven’s failed conversation with the king of the dragons, Zane strolled into a quaint French town wearing a cap and glasses to hide his face. His tight tee betrayed the muscles in his biceps, and his loose jeans matched those of a few similarly dressed men he’d passed so far in their short stay in the French countryside. After their last move, Tina was sleeping off the jetlag while the rest of the brotherhood kept watch over her. Zane, meanwhile, had the rather dull task of fetching groceries, a task he would happily give back to his palace servants the moment they made their fathers see reason.
However, he did enjoy the people watching, and though most shifters and demigods paid little mind to humans, excluding their governments from any significant discussions or debates between the five kingdoms, humans had always fascinated him. No fangs, no claws, no inner animals, no magic, and yet their sheer population sizes and affinity for technology gave them a foothold in most major cities on the planet.
He had appeared from a side road, and for all intents and purposes, anyone watching would simply think he was staying in one of the many rental homes the town offered for vacationing tourists. No one would have guessed he’d run several miles in his tiger form, traveling several cities over at the break of dawn in an effort to disguise the safehouse that held the most precious things in his world, Tina and the men he had come to call brothers.
“Fresh bread!” a man by a bakery shouted in French. Zane prided himself on learning everything he could, including a dozen languages, and though Zane’s French was a bit rusty, it would serve him well enough here.
“I’ll take three,” Zane answered in French. He placed the rest of his order, bagged his groceries, and asked for a recommendation on the best local meat market. He already knew all about the only two in town and had chosen which he’d go to, but for the sake of looking like a tourist, he had to play the part.
He carried on toward a café, intent to lounge here throughout the day before hitting the market, gathering data and whatever information he could glean from the area before heading back at dusk, which would help him hide a white tiger running through the French countryside.
As he rounded a corner, he saw a man in a white shirt that had Destroy the Goddess written on it in red letters, the edges dripping like blood. Zane froze, horrified and simultaneously furious as he studied the man, who stood on a small box, preaching to a group of gathering townspeople.
“This woman is evil,” the man shouted in French. “She fosters dissent and anger amongst the shifter and demigod kings, stealing their hearts and minds, pitting them against each other for her amusement!” The crowd murmured in agreement, several of the onlookers leaning in and taking the man’s flyers as he continued to shout at them. “This war of hers will affect us, brothers and sisters! The five kingdoms’ anger will end with your children’s blood!”
“Utter horseshit,” Zane muttered under his breath, disgusted. He hovered on the edge of the crowd, wondering if he should beat the man’s head in to put an end to this nonsense, but that would only make things worse.
Zane stewed, wishing for all the world he could teach the man a lesson for speaking so il
l of the woman Zane loved. He thought about it a moment, grabbed a flyer, and scanned for the man’s name. When he found it, he smirked. One way or another, he would give this guy hell.
He changed course, retracing his footsteps back past the bakery and out of town, his mind buzzed with worry as it returned to the metaphorical chessboard of the current political climate. For anti-goddess preaching to reach a small village like this, they must have had a massive network of speakers working around the clock, visiting everywhere in the reach of their voice. There had been hints of this animosity online, and though it had begun to grow in recent days, he’d had no idea it would spread so far, so fast. Thus, one of the many benefits of people watching, he could learn things in person that simply weren’t made clear online. It seemed that this sect, running on hatred and ignorance, was particularly well-funded and quite effectively organized. Whoever was behind this, their actions were intentional, purposeful, and driven.
Someone had it out for Tina, and bad. Mind racing, he could no longer focus on his people watching. He needed to get back, change his searches, dig a bit more into this anti-goddess sentiment, see what news he could uncover now that he may have missed before.
Hurriedly, he got the last few things from the market, whatever he could fit in his pack, and returned to the edge of town, where he shifted, grabbed the back in his jaws, and bolted into the forest. He would have to change his route to keep mostly to the trees, but it wouldn’t be excessively difficult.
When he was probably one mile from the remote safehouse, the sudden rusty twinge of blood in the air hit his nose. His jaw twitched, his tiger instincts drawn to the scent, but he forced himself to pause and examine the air. From the smell of it, it was either a human body or something large, and there shouldn’t have been any predators out here large enough to even make a corpse that big.
