by Alyse Zaftig
Olivier stopped kissing her and moved up her body, his knees going on either side of her shoulders.
“Open up, mate,” Oliver told her. He gripped her chin in his hand before guiding his cock into her open mouth with his other.
He tasted so good, so salty, but he was also way too big for her mouth.
“Breathe,” Olivier told her. “Just breathe.”
She tried to breathe around his cock, but she felt like she didn’t have any room.
Olivier’s hands were in her hair now as he slid even deeper into her mouth. Her head was held in place by the mattress and all she could see was Olivier above her.
He began to withdraw, and she thought that he was letting her breathe. But he was soon pushing himself right back into her mouth, filling up every available inch and then some. She sucked on him the best that she could, trying to taste his essence with her tongue, but he kept pulling out.
She got frustrated enough to pull his hips with her hands, pulling him towards her as hard as she could.
“You want more?” Olivier pushed into her as deep as she could go. She felt him touching her throat.
Now his hands were on the mattress. He ground into her mouth again and again. She tasted a shot of precome, and then she felt his seed coming out in several pulses, filling her mouth. She swallowed as much as she could.
And then Olivier was done and pulling out of her mouth. Phuong caught her breath then, her eyes closed from the intensity of giving oral while on the bottom.
“You aren’t done yet, my dear.” While Olivier had ridden her face, Gahariet had slowly been loving her below.
But now that his brother was off of her, he pulled her thighs even wider.
“Are you ready, darling? Do you want it?”
“Yes,” she moaned.
He slid inside of her.
“Perfect fit,” Gahariet said. “You’re our perfect mate.”
“Oh,” Phuong said, her head tilted back. “Big.”
“So tight,” he praised. He pulled her legs over his shoulders as he began to piledrive inside of her body, taking her hard enough to hit the headboard against the wall over and over again.
Phuong felt like she was in a turbulent storm. She couldn’t hear or see anything while she was this close to an orgasm. She cried out as her body pulled her over the edge and she free-fell into oblivion.
She was distantly aware that Gahariet was loving her even harder now, until he grunted and spilled himself inside of her body, filling her up.
Then he got off of her. She was still struggling to breathe after her orgasm.
“Do you feel warm?” Olivier asked, as if that had been the main point of their loving. His hand traced over the curve of one soft breast before going down to her waist.
“Very,” Phuong told him. She leaned over and bit his shoulder gently. “Thank you.”
Gahariet was behind her. He positioned himself so that he was spooning her from behind while Olivier was right in front of Phuong.
“Rest,” Gahariet commanded. “You’ve had a big day, and your body isn’t done with the transition.”
Phuong could have protested, but she was getting sleepy after they had gotten wild.
She couldn’t stay awake any longer and drifted off.
35
Seer’s Visit
Gahariet
Gahariet woke up when somebody knocked on Phuong’s door. He looked at the discarded clothing on the floor, which was still wet. He grimaced. He went to Phuong’s closet and grabbed her dressing robe. The Draka didn’t mind nudity, but their Yore servants sometimes did.
He went and opened the door. “Yes?”
“There’s somebody here to see you. She says that she knows you.”
“Who?”
“A Yore seer.”
Gahariet looked down at himself. He was dressed in a woman’s dressing robe.
“I have to go to my room to get some clothes, but I’ll be downstairs in five minutes, okay? Just tell her to wait. I want to hear what she has to say.”
Gahariet ran into his own room, one hand keeping the dressing robe firmly shut. He threw on some of his loosest clothing before heading downstairs. He didn’t look like a prince at the moment, but he didn’t care.
When he got downstairs, he stopped and froze.
The Yore seer was the one from the market, the one who had told Olivier about his mate.
Raising one eyebrow, Gahariet said, “To what do we owe the pleasure?”
She didn’t answer his question, instead asking her own. “She’s come, hasn’t she? I can feel her.”
Her eyes were slowly turning silver, first around the edges and then in the middle. Gahariet wanted to be careful. She could be one of the Yore who could pull mind tricks. Even if she didn’t like the Drakan Thrones, Gahariet knew that she seemed to be emotionally invested in Phuong’s well-being. Stars, she’d predicted Phuong’s arrival, hadn’t she? Gahariet tried to ignore what else she had predicted.
“Why don’t you come upstairs with me? We need someone to watch over her, and you might be a good choice. Do you have any references? Any experience?”
“Just watching after my own family, that’s all.”
“It could be enough. Come.”
Gahariet went up the stairs as the Yore seer followed him slowly behind. They could both hear the creaking of her joints.
Gahariet didn’t know why, but his instincts said that he could trust her. Something about her made him confident that she wouldn’t hurt Phuong.
“It’s okay if you don’t have any experience. The other personal attendants can bring you up to speed, and it’s a unique position anyway. Come see her.”
They were at Phuong’s door. He abruptly realized that his twin and his mate were naked.
“Hold on. Stay out here for a little while.” The Yore sank gracefully and sat on her heels while Gahariet ducked inside of the room.
Phuong was still asleep, but Olivier was awake. He was tracing the edges of her barely visible scales with the tips of his fingers.
“The seer is here.”
Olivier turned. “The seer from the market?”
“Yup. Get dressed.”
Olivier went to Phuong’s closet and chose one of her dresses unabashedly. It was a simple tunic, and it looked unisex. Gahariet wished that he’d had the luxury of choosing whatever he wanted. Olivier looked like the clothing belonged to him, while Gahariet was sure that he’d looked absolutely ridiculous in the pink dressing robe.
“We have to get Phuong dressed, too.”
“What?” she asked sleepily. “What’s happening?”
“Just put on a dress,” Gahariet said. He went to her wardrobe and grabbed one. He pulled the covers off of her and she yelped.
“Cold!”
“Put on a dress. There’s someone waiting outside who wants to meet you very much.”
Phuong stilled and stopped trying to pull the covers back. She took the dress that Gahariet offered and shimmied into it. It was purple, indigo, and green with hints of blue in several places.
“Who is it?”
“She’s a Yore seer. She foretold that you would come to us. And now that you’re here, she wants to meet you.”
Phuong looked confused. “She knew that I’d be your mate?”
“Yes.” Gahariet could have explained more, but it was a little more complicated than that. “Everybody is fine now, right?”
Phuong and Olivier nodded.
Gahariet went out to the door to bring the Yore seer into the room.
When she got into the room, she immediately got to her knees at the foot of Phuong’s bed.
“Are you okay?” Phuong said. “Gahariet, help her up.”
“I don’t need to be helped up, my queen,” the Yore seer said softly. “I am not quite that old.”
“Queen? I have no crown, no throne. At best I thought that I was a princess.”
“Your parents are gone, my dear. That means that you asce
nded to the throne. You and your brother are quite close in age, but you’re the eldest child. And in Yore culture, it’s an absolute monarchy. It doesn’t matter that he’s a boy. You have the right to the throne.”
The dragon twins looked at each other. What she was talking about was pure treason, but they wanted to hear more.
“My family thought that I had finally gone crazy. I saw that a lost Yore royal would mate with two Draka at the seat of royalty. Such an alliance would change the balance into Yore favor. They said that it seemed too far-fetched. But I knew the whole time that my visions never lied. I’m descended from what should have been the royal advisory. If the Yore still ran this world, I would be on your council as a voice of spiritual guidance.”
“That’s a whole lot to process,” Phuong said weakly.
“She’s a queen?” Gahariet asked. “But she hasn’t had a coronation ceremony.”
“The royal children were lost years ago. We’ve been searching for them for a long time, but the men who killed their parents must have felt merciful towards small children. And now they are full-grown adults. Where is your brother, Phuong?”
“Xuan? He’s in hiding.”
“Now that you’re safe, you can call him out.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Phuong shifted uncomfortably on the bed. “He’s not going to be very happy that I mated two Drakan Thrones.”
“Nonsense,” the seer said. “Perfect nonsense. This is the only way.”
“Well, you are hired now,” Gahariet said. He liked the seer’s style, even though he still didn’t know her name. “You can be Phuong’s personal attendant.” From the smiles on both of their faces, it was a good choice.
36
Empty Bottles
Marc
Marc poured the rest of his current bottle of wine into his glass. There were five empty bottles on the table next to him.
Lucien said, “Snap out of it. Whatever happened, it’s not worth drinking this much booze. Dragon metabolisms are magical, but not that magical. You can still kill your liver. Honestly, you’ve been moping around here for too long.”
“Not long enough. Not if I can still remember.” Marc drained the glass in one gulp.
“If one plan fails, we’ll just try something else.”
Marc didn’t say anything in reply. He could feel Phuong now, just like he felt other Draka. The twins had won yet again.
It was unfair that, just by being born, they were always going to be on the winning side.
He heard a boom and his face snapped up to look at his brother, whose fist was on the table. His brother’s eyes were flames.
“Finish what you started, Marc. There are enough of us to take down two baby royals who don’t even wear their crowns.”
Marc stood, not too steadily. “I don’t like your tone, Lucien.”
His brother put his hand in the center of Marc’s chest and forced him to sit down again.
“Get off of me.” Marc knew that his eyes had burst into flames.
“Look at you,” Lucien sneered. “The head of the wealthiest auction house on Vestra and it doesn’t mean anything at all. Our mother would be ashamed.”
Marc tried to stomp on Lucien’s toe, but somehow it felt like he was doing it in slow motion. He’d had a lot of alcohol.
“Sleep it off, brother,” Lucien said as he stepped away from Marc’s attempts to hit him. “Tomorrow, we’ll make a plan.”
37
Questions
Phuong
Phuong felt much better than she had felt the day before. She felt more like herself. After Gahariet had brought food up from the kitchens for the four of them, she got started on a barrage of questions.
“Did you know my parents?”
“In passing, not very well, my dear.” The seer turned and looked at her mates. Phuong got the impression that even if she did know a lot about the dead royals, she wouldn’t say it in a room with two Draka. That was a shame. Then Phuong realized that she didn’t even know her new attendant’s name.
“What’s your name? You already know mine, which means that you knew about me.”
“My name is Hoa. Yes, we did know about you, but Phuong is a common name, so we couldn’t find you by asking about little girls named Phuong. That could’ve gotten you killed. Your parents named you Phoenix because they knew that you would bring the Yore back to greatness.”
Phuong shook her head. “I can’t bring the Yore back to greatness. I’m just an orphan.”
“You’re our queen,” Hoa said simply. “You must. It is your destiny.”
Phuong felt the burden of her responsibility to her people settle like a physical weight on her shoulders.
She didn’t know how to be a queen. She didn’t even know how to be a princess.
38
New Beginnings
Gahariet
Gahariet had noticed that the seer, Hoa, had looked at him and his brother before cautiously answering some of Phuong’s questions. Phuong was full of a million questions, but Gahariet wasn’t paying that much attention. He looked instead at Hoa’s body language. She’d been deferential, a Yore in a Draka castle, but now that she was with a woman that she called queen, her whole posture was different. Yes, she was kneeling on the ground, but her face was full of light and hope.
Interesting.
Could Phuong really be the girl that they were looking for? Time would tell, he supposed.
Hoa was careful enough to make Gahariet feel good about keeping her close to Phuong. Her cautiousness made Gahariet feel like she was safe and unlikely to be paid by Marc to lure Phuong back into his arms. Marc had quite a bit of money, which talked eloquently, especially when the Yore had very little.
Phuong was their mate now. Nothing could break that bond. However, Marc could start a war if he became fixated on their mate. He said that she belonged to him, even though she didn’t. Phuong wasn’t a spoil of war. She was a precious princess.
The whole time, the four were eating, three of them seated on the bed, the older Yore on her knees on the ground. There were clearly empty chairs in the room, but she didn’t move towards any of them.
Gahariet interrupted their intense conversation to say, “You can sit in a chair, you know.”
“I don’t want to,” the seer quickly replied. “This is the proper way to address my queen.”
Gahariet shrugged and let it go. Far be it from him to violate royal Yore protocol. He had a feeling that it was nothing like the royal Draka protocol.
When there wasn’t any food left, Phuong poured out four glasses of wine from the small bottle that Gahariet had brought upstairs.
“I’d like to propose a toast.” Phuong passed out each glass of wine.
“To new beginnings and old revelations.”
“Cheers!” The four of them clinked their glasses, Hoa still kneeling on the ground.
“This would be perfect,” Phuong said, “if my brother were here.” She sighed before turning to look out of her window.
Simultaneously, Olivier and Gahariet looked at each other. They had searched far and wide for her brother. They’d used their normal investigators, but her brother was a ghost. They knew that she knew where he was hiding, but she wasn’t telling them. And if they couldn’t find her brother, they were going to have to hope that Marc would also be unable to find him.
“Excuse me,” Phuong gasped, quickly putting her wineglass down. She jumped out of bed and ran to her bathroom. Gahariet could hear the sounds of her retching into the toilet.
The Yore seer got to her feet and sprinted into the room, holding back Phuong’s hair as she emptied the meal that she’d just eaten right back out.
39
Acid
Phuong
Phuong spat the taste of acid out of her mouth. She got to her feet and rinsed.
“I’ll go get you some fireweed tea and maybe flatbread. Your stomach can’t handle much right now.”
Hoa was so obviously
concerned about her that Phuong had to admit it was nice for someone to care about her well-being so much.
Hoa ran downstairs and came back up with a pot of tea, a teacup, and flatbread.
“Is she okay?” Gahariet asked Hoa. “She’s drunk our blood, so she’s turning into a dragon, but I don’t think that it’s normal to vomit during the process.”
“Her vomit has nothing to do with transitioning into being a dragon.”
“Tell me what it means, then.” Phuong crossed her arms. “What are you talking about?”
Hoa looked straight at Phuong’s lower stomach.
“I can sense the children inside of you. You’re having twins.”
* * *
Phuong rolled over for the eighth time that night, but she just couldn’t get comfortable. “You’re having twins.” Hoa’s words echoed in her mind over and over again.
Being pregnant with baby dragons was an overwhelming prospect, but she knew that she already loved the children who were growing inside of her. She still missed her brother, and Marc still had it out for her. But her dragon mates were protective, and she knew that the overprotectiveness would escalate while she had babies.
She’d asked to sleep alone tonight, which meant that she was alone in her cold room. She walked to the window.
Hearing something, she turned her head. Her hearing was sharpening. She saw a flicker of shadow in the corner of her eye, then she heard what sounded like an army of flapping wings in the air.
40
Another Attack
Olivier
Olivier rubbed his eyes. It was late at night, and the Assembly inquiries were just too boring. He wasn’t in the mood to deal with all of them.
