by Ophelia Bell
Thinking nothing of his ardor, she kissed him again and left, following Belah up the long path. Before long, she realized their destination must be Kris and Issa’s temple-like home near the summit.
They reached the exotic, flower-flanked entry to Kris and Issa’s residence, and Belah pushed the doors open. It was Evie’s first time here—usually she only interacted with the others around the grounds or when they would come to visit her. The monastery tended to inspire quiet, introspective solitude more than energetic activity, except for the sexual variety, anyway.
Inside was a large, jade-tiled room with high windows and several doorways leading off to other parts of the residence. It didn’t strike Evie as a large place from the outside, but it was more opulent than any of the other buildings she’d been in at the monastery. Built from stone rather than wood, it was imposing in its beauty. The doors were massive constructions of luminescent jade, with windows that were made of the same stone, cut so thin that ethereal light filtered into the room.
Belah led her to one of the doors and out onto a landing that overlooked a huge garden area with a pool in the center.
When the door opened, a cheer erupted and several female figures stood, applauding.
Evie blinked, then laughed. They were all there, even women she didn’t recognize, but who she knew must be connected to her somehow. Some were even visibly pregnant.
“It’s too soon for a baby shower,” she said, pressing her hands over her midsection. Even after a couple weeks, she could sense the life growing inside, but it was still so small.
“Not a shower,” Belah said. “Just… a powwow, of sorts. It’ll be good for all of us.”
Evie’s skin tingled, and she realized that she wanted this without even realizing it. Her gaze flitted over the figures gathered below. All of them were there. She recognized Ked’s sisters, Numa and Aurum. Rowan and Issa stood nearby. Beyond them, she saw a collection of human females who she thought must be the mates of the other Court dragons. One of them broke away and made her way forward
The pretty, dark-haired woman was visibly pregnant, but not far along. When she reached Evie, she stretched out a graceful hand.
“I’m Hallie,” she said. “Your mate is my mate’s mentor.”
“Mentor…Is that what you call it?”
Hallie shrugged. “Any other designation would take too many syllables. Kol reveres your man, and that’s worth acknowledging somehow. Come sit with us.”
She followed Hallie to a collection of benches in the garden, and found herself surrounded by human mates of dragons. The oddest sensation came over her then. That of not belonging but still wanting to fit in. They were human. They weren’t turul or dragon or any other higher race. Yet they were mates to dragons just like she was.
She felt a little ashamed to by her awkwardness, as though she didn’t quite belong with them simply because of her race.
Yet they all accepted her without question. One of them moved over and made room on the bench for her to sit.
“I’m Camille,” the pretty blonde said. “Not pregnant yet. My mates are still arguing about it. That’s… oh, you already met Hallie. She’s fucking the hottest dragon and is knocked up, in case you couldn’t tell. That’s Erika…” Camille’s grin widened. “She’s our leader and always swore she’d never have kids but, check it out, she’s pregnant, too. I guess it takes a hot red for her to let her sacred eggs get touched.”
Camille paused and Evie’s greetings fell silent. She looked at the two other females propped on the edge of a chaise. One dark-haired and petite, the other a leggy blonde.
“I’m Thea, not pregnant. And this is Jill… Not sure what you are anymore.” She pointed at the blonde.
Evie raised an eyebrow.
Jill, the perfectly coiffed blonde, smiled just enough that on the surface she could appear put together, but Evie saw through every inch of her deflection. “I’m pregnant, too,” she said. “But the circumstances are complicated.”
The piercing cries of infants rang through the air, and every single woman’s heads rose to attention. A moment later, the sounds stopped.
A soft touch pressed against Evie’s back and she turned to see a beautiful, lavender-haired woman standing behind her.
“Issa!” Evie turned and hugged the woman, thrilled to see her.
“I’m so sorry about the noise. The boys are relentless. They want what they want, when they want it.”
“By the Winds, don’t worry. I love everything about today, babies and all.”
Behind Issa, the other women came.
Rowan she knew, and hugged affectionately. Ked’s other sisters she treated the same. Though she didn’t know them as well. Beyond the one day of sharing, she hadn’t seen them much. They intimidated her with their beauty.
Belah she was more comfortable with, even though her dark hair and pristine features were as surreal to Evie as her sisters’.
Belah’s sisters were disconcerting to look at. Numa had dark-green tresses that looked black in most light, and green eyes that seemed to see more than Evie wanted to share. Aurum was easier to deal with, at least. Her golden hair was almost metallic in appearance, as was her skin, but it merely caught the light in an unusual way, making her glimmer magically.
They seemed oddly deferential to her, which was even more confusing. They’d been mothers before, she knew as much from the talk they’d had, but now…
“They didn’t know the extent of your connection to us,” Belah explained softly in her ear when her sisters wandered down to join the rest of the group. “Our brothers’ energy is potent. If it were only Ked, they might not blink, but all three…”
“The baby needs all three,” Evie said.
“Yes…” Belah said and gripped Evie’s hand. “But we’re a competitive family. They don’t like the idea of being left out of what the boys do. I have my own distractions, thanks to your brothers, but Numa and Aurum are itching to have their moment. Our brothers have had you to occupy their time outside the glade. Until my sisters find their mates, they will be restless.”
Evie watched the pair of women as they moved around the group, talking with the others. They were affectionate and familiar with all of them, carrying themselves with grace that Evie always hoped she pulled off but never quite believed it. She admired them deeply and it hurt a little to think they considered her any kind of rival.
“If it helps, it isn’t because I don’t find all of you amazing and enticing. The baby craves what it craves. Your brothers are part of that.”
“It’s no matter,” Belah said. “They’ll come around. Now, come down and relax with us. Food will be served shortly and I believe all the women brought gifts for you.”
“I thought you said it wasn’t a shower?”
Belah smiled. “I lied.”
The next two hours were a whirlwind of activity. Their attention made her feel whole again in a way that the attention of her mates hadn’t. Among these women, she was more than just a counterpart to her mates’ male needs, even if those needs extended to making sure she was happy. She was a woman who hadn’t realized how much she needed the company of other women until today.
When another pretty red-haired woman showed up, she instantly recognized Zamirah, who had only arrived at the monastery the day before and had barely shown her face after locating Sterlyn and holing up in a bungalow together. Evie looked for Neela, but didn’t see the dark-skinned beauty anywhere, nor had she heard anything about Naaz in several days.
The other women showered her with attention, deep conversation, humor, and feminine wisdom. They gave her gifts, but the gifts were secondary in her mind to the camaraderie she felt being with all of them.
In the middle of the festivities, a shadow darkened the sky and a gold-winged leviathan bore down on them. Evie stared up in awe at the beautiful beast as it hovered ab
ove, wings flapping and claws extended as it lowered down into the courtyard. When it landed beside the pool, a petite figure slid off its back and the dragon quickly transformed into a pretty blonde who clad herself in a wisp of a conjured dress before following her passenger around to where Evie sat. Evie hadn’t met the golden dragon, but knew her when Evie’s new friend, Thea, walked to her and they shared a warm embrace followed by a tender kiss.
Evie stood swiftly when she recognized the dragon’s passenger, who walked toward her with purpose. Her throat seemed to stop working and tears pricked at the corners of her eyes.
“Nanyo!” she called. She broke into a run and was in her grandmother’s arms a second later. Her tears came unchecked and her grandmother held her, shushing her softly and stroking her back. She had so many questions after all the years apart. “Why?” was the least of them, but Evie already knew the answer to that one.
“It was because of them,” she finally said, answering her own unspoken questions. She gazed into her grandmother’s wizened features. The older woman nodded.
“Yes. They were your destiny. If I’d known the ordeals your path would lead you through, I would have done everything in my power to change the course, but that wasn’t for any of us to know. Now I’m sure you have nothing but happiness ahead for a long time.”
Abruptly her grandmother pushed her back and gripped her arms gently in her paper-soft hands. “Granddaughter, you aren’t the only one I came to see today. Dreams have haunted me the last few nights, I need to see the green and golden females of your mate’s blood. Will you take me to them?”
Evie blinked and wiped the stray tears from her eyes. “Follow me,” she said, leading her grandmother around the pool to Ked’s sisters, Aurum and Numa.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Evie
Dragon Monastery, Sunda Islands
Present Day
Evie’s grandmother bowed to the pair of dragons when she reached them, then began to speak in a language Evie had never heard before. Numa and Aurum stood, graceful as ever, and listened silently. Evie could only catch nuances of the meaning of what her grandmother said to them, which was frustrating. She should have been able to understand any language, but this one was something different. The dragons understood it well enough, at least. During the course of her grandmother’s story, their expressions shifted across a spectrum, from surprise, to cautious understanding, to excitement, then determination.
“We must call our brothers,” Numa said, finally speaking in a language Evie understood. “If your visions are true, we need to take action now.” She closed her eyes for a moment, and within the span of a breath, more winged shadows darkened the air above them.
Ked and his brothers landed, with Lukas and Iszak close behind. Marcus slid off Ked’s back and made his way toward her as the others shifted to their human forms.
Ked’s mood didn’t seem pleasant and grew less so when he started talking to his sister.
“Do you know what’s going on?” Evie asked, moving away from the crowd to talk quietly with Marcus. “I’m still not quite sure, but it seems like a big deal.”
“I don’t know much either,” Marcus said. “But whatever it is, it means we’ll be heading back to the Ultiori facility sooner than we’d planned. I think maybe the trap they set has been sprung.”
A sudden chill crept over Evie’s entire body. “No fucking way.” She stalked to Ked and stabbed a finger into his chest. “You are not going back there now! You said you would wait! What if that … thing … takes over your mind?”
“Evie,” her grandmother said, laying a gentle hand on her back. “My visions don’t lie. They were given to me by the Winds, and I told them in the Dragon Tongue to prove their truth. This is as it must be for them.”
Ked pulled Evie into his chest and pressed his lips to the top of her head. “We’ll be safe, angel. It’s time for me and my siblings to stop hiding from our problems. It isn’t just the enemy we’re hoping to find. My sister’s mate is out there, and we need to go find him.”
“Then I’m going with you,” Evie said. “You two said yourself that you can’t leave me while I’m pregnant. Either you stay, or you take me.”
Ked’s grip on her tightened and she shivered again when the darkness started creeping into her mind. As swiftly as it began, it retreated. Marcus came to stand beside them and squeezed her hand.
“I’m going, too. Now that I’m healed, I can at least be an asset. If Sterlyn’s along for the ride and Naaz meets us there, we should be able to overpower anyone who tries to fight us.”
With a grumble, Ked said, “We are all going. I can’t convince my sisters otherwise. But the second anything goes bad, you all have to leave. The Ultiori can’t chase you through the air easily. We leave tomorrow.”
* * *
It felt like the eve of the apocalypse that night, the wind carrying with it all the whispers of final words of love and regret. Secrets between lovers were so plentiful, Evie eventually let them wash past with the breeze.
All the Court were there, with their mates, invited for what was meant to be a celebration of the life in her belly, but had turned into something entirely different.
The humans would remain behind, but the dragons would be joining the excursion back to the cursed place she and Marcus had been prisoners for so long.
Evie’s body was alive with the need for contact, as though the simple presence of the new life inside her had lit an unquenchable fire that either needed fuel to burn brighter or water to cool her from its incessant flames.
She needed to burn tonight and paced restlessly around the bungalow while Ked and Marcus plotted and planned with the others.
When she heard footsteps, she dropped her robe to the floor and went to meet them.
So perfect, they both were, simply greeting her naked presence with deliciously hungry expressions and not asking questions or even speaking. They just undressed right in the doorway, tossing their clothing to the side and accepting Evie’s single comment as though they’d expected it.
“I need everything tonight.”
What “everything” meant, she didn’t know, but she was confident they would figure it out.
Marcus came to her first, his warm, soft skin brushing against her. Her skin came alive from his heat and her nipples pricked into hard peaks. He slid a hand up her arm and cupped her jaw, tilting her head so he could taste her lips. His tongue teased slowly between them and she opened with a sigh as Ked’s anise-scented body enveloped her from behind.
Ked’s hands rested at her hips, holding her tight against his erection like he just needed to feel her for a moment, then slid up to cup her breasts and tease her nipples.
Wet heat pooled between her thighs, accompanied by a painful ache. Just as she thought she couldn’t bear the discomfort, they acted together. Ked pulled her back against his solid chest and lowered her to the floor, holding her against him.
In front of her, Marcus knelt and slid his palms up her inner thighs, spreading her knees as he bent between them. He kissed slowly along the sensitive flesh around her core and finally pressed his mouth to her swollen, throbbing clit and gave it a long, slow lick.
Evie moaned and spread her thighs wider, leaned back against Ked’s shoulder and gratefully accepted his mouth when it found hers.
This place she found herself in, between the two of them, was nothing short of heaven. Ked’s warm body supporting her, his hands on her skin, and Marcus giving her languid pleasure as though they had an eternity to make love, were all she needed in that moment.
The hard weight of Ked’s erection against her back incited a fresh craving. Evie twisted in his arms, forcing Marcus to lean away and watch her. Evie came up on her knees between Ked’s thighs, her mouth already watering with the thought of her intentions.
Ked’s cock felt thick and so very present in her
hand, like this was how and where he was meant to be. She stroked him slowly, loving the way his dark eyes closed and his head fell back. He could be so severe sometimes—so broody—but now he exuded nothing but pure need for what she could give.
She shifted lower and licked at his tip, tasting the salty moisture that had seeped from inside him. Ked twitched a little, then threaded his fingers into her hair, keeping his hand at the back of her head.
Evie bent again and wrapped her lips around the tip, then encompassed his length into her mouth, tasting every hot inch as she went. She loved the flavor and scent of him. Sweet and musky, and like no other man she’d ever known. He smelled like the darkness he exuded and she craved another taste of his essence.
Between her thighs, a hot, slick teasing began again. Marcus’s tongue went to work, distracting her from her rhythm on Ked’s cock, but in the best way. Her clit throbbed with his licks, his tongue delving deep into her and then pulling out to flick repeatedly over the sensitive bundle.
Ked’s hand clutched her tighter, pushing her head down onto him while his hips rose up until his tip hit the back of her throat.
Evie’s eyes watered with the need for relief. For a breath or for an orgasm, she couldn’t decide. She needed something.
Ked’s hand gripped her head and pulled her off his cock. She watched him, her swollen lips still wet from her saliva and his residue. The lustful look in his eyes told her what he needed and she moved. She spread her thighs to straddle him and sank down, closing her eyes as his massive girth stretched her.
Behind her, Marcus shifted close again, slipped his fingers between her thighs and encircled Ked’s cock as it slid into her. He stroked her spread lips, teasing her clit in tiny circles while his tongue found her puckered opening between her cheeks and teased.
She moaned in encouragement. She wanted that. She wanted everything, just like she’d told them.