A Court of Fire and Metal: a Reverse Harem Fantasy Romance (War of the Gods Book 2)

by Meg Xuemei X

  That was why my four mates had sought me out in the first place.

  “So, you’ve been practicing without telling anyone, rookie?” Sir Louis asked severely, as if he’d just caught out a liar.

  “Cass never touched a bow or a spear in her life,” said a voice with amusement.

  My heart stopped a beat.

  Pyrder strode toward us. Where did he come from? What was he doing here?

  “We aren’t going to train her like the others,” Pyrder continued. “We are to bring out her true potential. The others will adjust to her training and learn to fight at her side.”

  What?

  This was outrageous. Why did my mates always blindside me?

  I tossed the crossbow aside and strode toward Pyrder, and he smiled at me, all nice and doting and hot. And he knew the effect of his smile on me.

  I tugged his sleeve and pulled him to the side. He dipped his head, ready for a kiss.

  I willed my stupid heart not to flutter. “Pyrder, you can’t be here,” I said in a hushed voice. “This is a serious training field for soldiers. You must leave.”

  Sir Louis stalked toward us, and I stepped before Pyrder, wary and alarmed.

  “Instinctively, you want to protect me, Cass baby,” Pyrder whispered in my ear with a low chuckle.

  “Maybe I should let him have you.” I huffed.

  “Sorry to interrupt, Your Highness,” Sir Louis said, bowing to Pyrder before sliding a glance at me, then back at Pyrder. “Should I know the rules of this special training?”

  “Just carry on as usual, Louis,” Pyrder said. “I’ll improvise as I see fit. Right now I’ll just observe. I might remove my charge from the field early. She won’t be limited to one class. She’ll train in all the fields, in all sorts of skills.”

  Sir Louis nodded, sparing me another unreadable glance. He collected his trainees to practice shooting, adjusting their postures with yells, punches, and kicks.

  I winced and turned back to my mate, and a light sliced through my thoughts.

  When Sir Louis asked Pyrder about the rules, the prince said he’d be improvising. He didn’t exactly know how to train me. None of my mates knew, yet they didn’t want me to know that they didn’t know.

  They didn’t exactly know how to kill the gods either, but they were confident that I could do it. All they needed was to call out that unknown, latent power in me. So they put me on the training field, let me run wild, and see what clicked.

  They were trying to find the trigger in me.

  By now, we all agreed that I had the blood of the Olympian gods—mostly from the God of Death. It was the other half of my heritage that baffled them. They could find no clue. They’d been doing a lot of research and tests to figure me out. It frustrated them to no end that they hadn’t made any progress while time was running out.

  My males tried to hide their frustration from me, but it didn’t work, because I was their mate.

  I didn’t blame them. If we didn’t figure out my power soon, I’d be in a world of hurt when the gods got their hands on me. My mates’ and my survival might just depend on whether I could reach my potential in time.

  So I went along with their program, but still I didn’t roll over easily since it wasn’t in my nature.

  I glared at Pyrder. “Now you singled me out, professor? Do you know what that will do to me?”

  He grinned. “I love it when you’re fierce, Cass baby.”

  Maybe I should kick him in the balls one day and see if he truly loved me fierce, even though he was my mate. Then I realized that he was the only one I hadn’t had intimacy with.

  What would he do when we came to that? Would he be like Reys? My face flamed at the thought, and I gave him another slanted glance.

  He was dashingly beautiful. Even though he was much older than me, he still had a boyish charm, especially when his turquoise eyes smiled with wicked delight and his sensual lips tugged up. He knew he had a killer smile, but now might not be the best time to dwell on it, because I couldn’t help myself and had already dipped my gaze to his well-defined cut chest covered by his black T-shirt. I really wanted to remove his clothes and run my hands over his taut muscles.

  My eyes roved over the tattoo of the golden panther on his corded upper arm. It turned me on. The other half of the panther was inked on his chest. He promised to show me one day, and we hadn’t gotten to it.

  Heat burned my skin, tracing a path up my thighs.

  A pull tugged me toward him.

  It didn’t matter that we were in public. The mating call had risen.

  Pyrder felt it too, because he sucked in a breath.

  We gazed at each other, wanting to have our hands all over each other’s body, wanting to mate right here right now. We were losing the battle.

  I shouldn’t have started all this by ogling him like he was the only delicious male on Earth.

  “Run, Cass baby,” he purred hoarsely, his eyes burning molten gold.

  I turned and bolted.

  Pyrder chased.

  Okay, so this was another tryout then, probably to test my speed, strength, and stamina.

  The military was into all that shit.

  Then I realized that Pyrder had just turned me into prey when I ran. I completely forgot that he was also a panther.

  But running was my forte. The hunter was so going to lose.

  The students and instructors blurred as I passed by them. Stunned faces loomed as they watched me, but soon fell behind.

  I heard a roar behind me and chanced a look over my shoulder.

  Shit, Pyrder had shifted to a golden panther, and it was nearly on my ass. My butt could almost feel its hot breath.

  I sped up, sprinting straight.

  The panther roared again.

  I turned my head to scold him, only to realize that I’d bumped into the most dangerous field—the magical practice ground. All other groups gave it a wide berth.

  At my speed, it was too late for me to change course.

  Fire blasted my face as the wielder pushed it with the wind. Great! I had no time to talk to Earth to let me eat the fire element. I tore through the rings of fire and wind, hearing the panther’s warning growl ten yards behind.

  Heat fanned my face, and I expected my hair to blaze up.

  I would hate to go bald like Mellissa but, once again, Earth fire didn’t harm me. Huh? I didn’t even need to give Earth a heads-up?

  I should just trust that none of the Earth elements would go against me, unless the magical practitioner added nasty spells into the Earth magic like those Jezebel had used on me.

  I tossed out my icy wind and snuffed out the fire behind me, just to show the wind wielders how it should be done.

  I heard surprised and awed gasps and more roars before I zoomed past the edge of the training court.

  I’m that fast. I thought in glee and kept running.

  I went up a trail that seemed seldom traveled in this lonely part of the Academy’s town. The bushes and trees on each side blurred as I raced by and reached a clearing. A sparkling, lilac lake blocked my path ahead.

  Where was the panther?

  I halted and looked around.

  He quit. He hadn’t followed me up the trail. When I returned, I’d shame him to no end.

  Just as I was jogging toward the pond, I glimpsed a blur of gold.

  Fuck!

  Before I turned and burst into a run, the golden panther leapt at me, faster than the wind, and pinned me down.

  Stealthy bastard!

  I rolled, but his weight had me. He realized that he could either squash me to death or shift, so he shifted.

  Pyrder gazed down at me with a grin and liquid fire in his pure, golden eyes.

  “Hello, baby,” he purred.

  I struggled beneath him, but his big powerful body pressed tightly against me, trapping me. I was obviously at a disadvantage.

  “Wait,” I whimpered. “My belly hurts.”

  “You’re hurt, bab
y?” He immediately lifted his weight off me, concern in his eyes.

  I bent my knee swiftly and drove it toward his groin.

  He groaned and rolled off. I jumped on him astraddle, with a grin. “Got you, bad boy!”

  “You got me, baby,” he said, thrusting his hips up, his huge bulge hard against my butt.

  But I just knelt on his nuts.

  “What are you doing?” I hissed, my face flaming. “Stop!”

  Maybe I didn’t want him to stop. He’d just caught me by surprise.

  “Too late to stop now,” he said, and flipped me over before I could see how he moved.

  I bet all of my mates had trained long and arduously in wrestling. So, naturally, I was underneath his weight again.

  “Don’t tell me any part of you hurts again,” Pyrder warned. “It won’t work the second time.”

  I thrust my groin toward him and rocked against his hard body. “Here hurts.”

  He cursed, and his molten gold eyes burned with unbridled lust. The heat scorched me all over, and my panties were soaked the next instant.

  I writhed beneath him, my lady bits rubbing his erection.

  “If you don’t stop, Cass, I’ll have to fuck you right here.”

  I rubbed against him harder. “You sure you want me to stop?”

  His large hand rubbed my pussy roughly through the wet spot on the fabric. “I want to fuck you this instant, but I have to control my beast. I won’t chance anyone seeing my mate bare, and I must punish you before I fuck you.”

  He jumped up and threw me over his shoulder, all in a fluid move.

  I raised my upside down head, just in time to see Noah watch us leave, rage and lust burning in his green eyes. I blinked, and then he was gone like a fleeting shadow.

  Had I imagined that? No, I didn’t have double vision, and my sight was superior.

  I swore it was him.

  But why had the high mage stalked me?

  18

  Pyrder soared with me through the wild country part of the Academy. Trees, bushes, and the field grew vague behind us. Then the fae prince sifted into the air, light and shadow and color spinning around us, and alighted on the roof of his twin’s mansion at the edge of the school.

  Pyrder’s teleport was different than Reys’s and mine. I’d done Reys’s sifting once, and it made you feel like stepping into deep space with stars twirling. Mine was all whirlwind in the sky. Pyrder’s was all about bright, swirling colors.

  He’d chosen Reys’s mansion because he wanted me all for himself while the others were at his suite in the center of the Academy. Reys’s mansion was completely warded and glamoured, so no one could see or hear us.

  Pyrder stalked to the outdoor garden and put me on his lap as he settled in a cushioned chair. Through the purple wisterias, we could see the vast courtyard of the Academy.

  His erection pricked against my butt.

  “Pyrder,” I whispered, pushing my groin against his hard length.

  He found my lips, his tongue invading my open mouth and sweeping over my hard palate before mating with my tongue.

  A low moan escaped from my throat.

  His large hands tore open my top, baring my breasts, and cupped them roughly.

  Tingling pleasure spread across my skin.

  “Fuck me, Pyrder,” I whimpered.

  He dragged down my pants. Heat radiated from me.

  Every fiber of me wanted him.

  He spread my legs wider and stared at my pussy, lust thicker in his golden eyes.

  “It’s the most exquisite pussy I’ve ever seen,” he said hoarsely. “I wonder if it’s hot and tight inside.”

  My nipples hardened at his erotic words, and my lady bits tightened in aching need.

  “Why don’t you stick your cock inside and feel if my pussy is tight enough for you?” I purred.

  “You want my cock, don’t you? But not so fast. I have all the time in the world to play with you. And I’ll let you taste slow burn as you’ve always done to me. Of all your mates, you bully me the most. Boss me around. Walk all over me whenever you can. Batting your eyelashes and using your sweet, sultry voice to make me do your bidding. You have your female wiles, but I have a big, hard cock. So no. Today you won’t wrap me around your little finger. Today I won’t go easy on you, and you’ll learn how to be my woman.”

  Pyrder spoke in a thick southern accent when he was ridden by lust, which made me even hotter for him, but he wanted to play a dominance game right now. I thought of not obliging him, until his fingers slid through my soft curls and brushed my sensitive nub, not so gently.

  My legs jerked at the erotic sensation, and before I recovered from the pulsing pleasure, he thrust a finger into my sleek heat, stroking my center.

  I moaned, the walls of my tight passage clenching his fingers. He thrust in and out, watching my reaction like a big cat on a mouse. No matter, the tension built up, and I was at the edge and at his mercy.

  He pulled out his fingers when all I needed was a few more thrusts to reach the peak. Frustration rained down on me. But he lifted me up and dropped me on the chair. “Touch yourself for me while I undress.”

  Unable to resist his command, I moved my hand to my swollen clit, my thumb rubbing it in a circle, slowly first, then quicker.

  Fire burned in his golden eyes as he watched. He took off his T-shirt, his pants, the belt, then his briefs.

  His massive cock sprang free, its beautiful blunt head jerking before my face.

  I wanted to taste it. I wanted to suckle it. I wanted to have its whole length in my mouth, though it was a big ambition, given its size.

  “Touch yourself harder,” he commanded.

  I licked my lips, and pinched my clit. My eyes rolled back at the pain and pleasure. “I need you, Pyrder,” I cried. “I need your big cock in me.”

  I parted my folds to show him the pink inside.

  He growled.

  “Turn around and kneel on the chair,” he ordered.

  If surrender was the only way to get fucked, I could play along. After that, he’d still be mine, and I’d still walk all over him.

  I knelt on the cushion, my bare ass in the air.

  “How badly do you want me to fuck you, Cass?”

  “Badly enough to kneel, baby,” I said, concealing a smirk. I loved to play bedroom games.

  “Will you do anything to have my cock in your pussy?”

  “Yes, anything, baby.”

  I wouldn’t do anything, of course, but I would say anything to have him fuck me and make him mine.

  I swayed my hips. “Is this submissive enough for you?”

  He spanked me. “You lied, and bad girls should be spanked.”

  The slight pain came with pleasure. I wiggled my ass vehemently. “What about good girls? Will good girls get fucked?”

  I was so wet. Lust and hunger inside me grew unbearable.

  Pyrder couldn’t take it anymore himself. He knelt behind me on the large chair, between my widely spread legs, the blunt of his thick head aiming deliciously at my entrance.

  My pussy ached. Its depths called for my mate.

  A huge, hard cock pounded into me, pushing in further and further.

  I threw my head back and screamed at the pleasure.

  Pyrder let out a string of curses as he pulled out a little and thrust back in harder and faster. There was no slow build. “Your pussy is so hot and tight, just as I fantasized. It’s made for me, Cass baby. Your pussy is destined for me to fuck. And I’ll fuck you to eternity.”

  If we could have eternity. If we could survive the war against the gods.

  He fucked me so raw and hard that tears of pleasure floated from my eyes. I’d thought Pyrder was less dominant than my other mates, since he seemed more playful and less mature, but I’d been wrong.

  Judging by how he’d fought the gods and how he fucked me now, alpha was in his every fiber. He just always had a huge soft spot for me.

  But now there was no softness
about him as he rode me in mating frenzy, driving me into the thick haze of lust that promised no return.

  The chair under us broke apart. We fell to the ground with Pyrder still thrusting into me savagely. Fortunately, I still had the cushion under my knees.

  His hard flesh slapped against my tender loins, the erotic sound making my blood heat like no other. In and out and in. And in the process, he managed to break two chairs nearby as he fucked me brutally.

  Before I knew, I exploded in waves of pleasure, an orgasm threatening to break me apart, and Pyrder roared thunderously as he emptied himself in me.

  The mating bond between us snapped into shape, radiating in bright blue.

  “My forever mate,” Pyrder whispered, then he started pounding into me again, relentlessly.

  19

  “Which one of your mates will teach the magic class today?” Amber asked.

  “I have no fucking idea,” I said, as we jogged toward the courtyard where the magic class would be held. “They don’t tell me everything and they like to keep it that way. I don’t mind. I have my own mystery masquerade in place.”

  Amber gave me a sidelong glance. “You do?”

  “I doubt all of them will show up in one place. They have different training methods, and they like to compete with each other in every possible situation since each one has an ego in spades. And they’re all very opinionated.”

  “How can you handle all four of them? They’re hot as hellfire. They’re formidable, as every one of them is a legend. And they’re impossibly powerful in every way.”

  I gave her a sly look and grinned. “The trick is not to handle them and not get behind any one when they fight, and then constantly remind them of humility with my badass attitude.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” she said. “I can see your bad attitude miles away, but I don’t think you carry more humility than them to remind them of it.”

  “Aren’t you the new comedian on the block?”

  “I’m typically intimidated,” she said. “But do you even know what impact they’ve had on the mortal and immortal worlds over millennia?”