by Eva Chase
“I’m all right,” I said. “Come on, let’s get inside.”
The front hall was fine. The front hall was gorgeous. The pale moss-green walls I’d seen in my vision now snapped into clarity. A crystal globe dangled from the ceiling, that I knew could beam with light when darkness started to fall outside. The swooping doorways opened into wide, airy rooms with huge windows that would be letting the sunlight pour in.
My feet carried me farther into the house as if of their own accord. And maybe that was my mistake. Not bracing myself. Not watching for the first hint of horror so I could pull myself back.
Or maybe there was no way I could have avoided it.
My ballet flats squeaked on the polished floor, and my stomach lurched. Like the squeak of my sisters’ feet as we’d dashed this way—like the strangled squeal that had burst from Verity’s throat as the rogue’s jaws clamped down on her.
I whirled, trying to pull myself away from the memories, but my gaze stuck on a spot on the wall. A perfectly even green spot—they’d washed it and painted over. But I could see clear as anything where the splotch of blood had been, just beyond that door. Where it had dribbled across the floorboards to where my wolf father had slumped.
My lungs seized up. I threw myself down the hall faster. “Ren!” Kylie called out. Like my mother, in my memories. Faster. We can’t let them catch us. Oh, please, Ren, stay with me.
A sob had choked her throat. A moan had carried behind us. One of the rogues had stepped into the hall behind us with his rifle. It all rushed at me, faster and faster: the click as he reloaded. His mocking chuckle bouncing off the walls. Another puddle of blood. The smear of fingerprints across the baseboard.
I spun again—and crashed into a broad, solid chest. Nate’s arms came around me. “Ren,” he murmured, dipping his head low. “I’m here. We’re here. All that is over now.”
I pressed my face into his shirt, but my pulse rattled on. More memories bubbled up and burst in my head. My mind was spinning. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t breathe.
“Let’s get her to her room,” West said, somewhere behind me. “There wasn’t any fighting there.”
“Hey.” Aaron’s voice, always so measured even with its faint rasp. “Here we go, Serenity. You just need a little time to settle in. You were right. This is still your home. Hold on to that.”
Was it? How could this place be mine when the rogues had painted it with my family’s blood?
Chapter 12
Marco
I knocked on Ren’s door softly, not wanting to wake her if she’d fallen asleep. When we’d brought her to the master bedroom a little more than an hour ago, she’d been shaking, her skin turned sallow. It had wrenched at me to see her so affected by this house’s past, but when she’d ordered us to leave so she could collect her thoughts, she hadn’t offered any room for argument.
I hoped she’d been able to let her awful memories of the attack here fade rather than falling deeper into them.
“Come in,” my mate said without asking who it was. Well, she must be able to sense my presence as well as I could sense hers through the bond between us. It had only strengthened when she’d finally made that last connection with West. Good to know wolf boy wasn’t completely hopeless.
Ren’s voice sounded steady enough. When I eased open the door and slipped inside, she was sitting up on her bed, on top of the covers. Her back was straight, but her face still looked paler than usual, stark in contrast with her dark brown hair. The light in her amber-brown eyes didn’t hold quite the fire I’d have liked to see.
She smiled at me with just half of her mouth. I understood her well enough by now to read what she was feeling then. She was embarrassed by how she’d broken down. As if any of us who’d been with her when she’d gotten overwhelmed would judge her for it.
I ambled over to the bed as if nothing at all were amiss and sat down at the foot, reaching to take her hand. “How is my Princess of Flames?”
She scooted closer. “Not feeling very regal,” she muttered. “I’m not going to accomplish whatever I’m supposed to do here if I can’t walk down the hall without getting buried in memories.”
“They’ll fade,” I said, stroking my thumb over the back of her hand. “It’s your first time back here. Of course they hit you hard. I have no doubt you’ll be back to your usual regal ass-kicking self in no time.”
She gave me a fuller smile at that remark, but her eyes still looked a little weary.
“Is something else bothering you, princess?” I asked.
She leaned her head against my shoulder. My whole body lit up in an instant, with desire and affection. A week ago, she might have hesitated to get even this close with me. The fact that she was now my mate in every possible way felt almost miraculous.
I was very much looking forward to experiencing that miracle again and again.
For now, I suspected affection was going to be more what she needed than desire. I slipped my arm around her waist, and she sighed.
“The way the memories hit me, how much they shook me up… I’m just worrying about all the kin waiting for us back on the other estates,” she said. “I thought I was going to find answers here. What if the past has clouded my mind too much to see where I have to go?”
“There are only so many doors in this place, big as it is,” I pointed out. “I’m sure we can manage to find the one.”
“The vampires could attack again in just a few hours. We don’t have much time.”
I pulled her closer to me. “Our kin fended them off before. The strategy you came up with is sound—and it worked just fine in the places that didn’t have a dragon shifter on hand last night.”
She rubbed her mouth, frowning. “It won’t be enough if the vampires keep at us. There are ways of getting past regular fire, putting it out… I wish I could be everywhere at once. Burn them all up. Just end this.”
Oh, my dear mate. I dipped my head to kiss her temple. “It’s been a long, hard journey here, hasn’t it? You deserved a much more peaceful welcome.”
“Maybe I didn’t. There was nothing peaceful about how I left.” Her laugh sounded a bit choked. She twined her fingers with mine, looking down at our joined hands. Her voice dropped. “It felt so good for a little while there. Having my bond confirmed with all of you. Like everything had fallen into exactly the right place. But now I can’t help thinking about how easily I could lose all of that.”
The last four alphas had fallen here too. This was where her mother had lost her mates and Ren her fathers.
Ren’s other hand drifted to her belly, so instinctively I wondered if she even noticed the motion. How much of her fear was the echo of the little girl she’d been—and how much the connection to the dragon shifter who’d come before her, who’d lost children and mates? Who’d lost everything to save Ren.
Some of both, I thought. All tangled up together. Maybe my mate needed more than affection after all. She needed to feel every bit of her power—the power she held inside her, and the power we generated between us.
I tugged her onto her feet. A full-length mirror, the glass bright within its ornate gold frame, stood against the wall across from her wardrobes. I guided her over to it. She raised an eyebrow at me.
“Trying to distract me with the horror of my bedhead?”
I chuckled. “No. Just look at yourself.”
I stood behind her as she gazed into the mirror, my hands resting on her waist. Her hair wasn’t actually all that mussed, falling in its loose waves halfway down her back. The casual dress she’d picked hugged her curves gently, but no less appealingly than if it’d been a silk gown.
“That’s not just a princess looking back at you,” I said, holding her gaze in the mirror from over her shoulder. “That’s a queen. A queen who’s taken every bit of bullshit anyone’s thrown at her and soared above it all.”
“Yeah?” she said.
“Oh, yeah. Look at those eyes. I’ve loved the fire in them since the fi
rst moment I saw you. That was all I needed for me to know you had it in you to take on whatever the world threw at you.” I swept the fall of her hair to the side so I could kiss the crook of her jaw. “And that stubborn mouth. Never letting anyone off the hook—unless they deserve a second chance. Because a queen knows when to be merciful too.”
I brushed my thumb over her soft lips. Ren’s eyes glimmered. She let her lips part, teasing the edge of her teeth against my thumb. Just like that, I was hard.
I ran my fingers over her arms next, down to the sensitive skin inside her elbows. “The strength in you, anyone can see it. Never backing down from a challenge. Always ready to defend your kin.”
My hands slipped beneath her arms and up her torso to trace the undersides of her breasts. Ren’s breath hitched, her eyelids dipping. “And I haven’t even mentioned how fucking gorgeous you are. I could look at nothing but you for days and still be enjoying the view.”
“Go on,” she said, her voice roughening. The color was coming back into her cheeks, a lovely rosy flush. I kissed my way down the side of her neck to her shoulder. My hands rose to completely cup her breasts. She leaned back against me as I stroked the peaks, making her nipples pebble against the fabric of her dress. Heat radiated between us.
“We both know how much passion you’ve got in this beautiful body,” I murmured by her ear. “Keep watching. See what a woman you are.”
Ren
I shivered with pleasure as Marco continued to caress my breasts. Each flick over my nipples sent a fresh quiver of electric bliss through my body. And somehow seeing it in the mirror—the rising flush in my cheeks and neck, his lithe fingers working over my curves through the dress—turned me on even more.
I watched him lower his head a second before his mouth found my earlobe. He gave it a light nip that made me gasp. When his eye met mine again, they were hooded and dark with his own passion.
Marco’s hand trailed down my side to the hem of my dress, just past my thighs. I pressed back into him instinctively, my ass brushing his cock, already at attention in his slacks. An even deeper tremor ran through me—and a knock sounded on my door.
Aaron’s voice carried through. “Serenity?”
My mind was so muddled with desire an answer popped out automatically. “Come in.”
Marco arched his eyebrows at me in the mirror. Oh. Er… But Aaron was already stepping inside.
He stopped on the threshold of the bedroom, the door thudding shut behind him. His bright gaze took in the scene: Marco and me standing together in front of the mirror, my cheeks pink and nipples poking against the fabric of my dress, one of the feline alpha’s hands still molded over my breast. I could almost feel the thump of Aaron’s heart speeding up, the heat emanating from his skin at the sight of us.
“If I’m interrupting something…” the eagle shifter said, his tone mild even though his eyes had lit with interest.
Marco shifted a little to one side, dipping to kiss the other side of my neck, as if to indicate there was plenty of room to share. My pulse raced a little faster. Of course it didn’t matter if another of my mates saw us. He could join us.
“Definitely not,” I said, a little breathless. “At least not if you want to stay.”
The eager sound he made in his throat seemed to answer that question. Aaron crossed the space between us in an instant, sliding his arm around my waist.
I turned my head to kiss him. As the avian alpha captured my mouth, Marco slicked his tongue up my neck. Heat flooded me from both sides. Aaron teased his thumb over one breast as Marco continued to fondle the other. My panties had already dampened, but I had the feeling they were soaking now.
I reached up to curl my fingers into both of their shirts. No, that wasn’t what I wanted to be feeling. I jerked at the collars. Aaron smiled against my mouth. He gave me one last kiss, tilting his head to deepen it. Then he eased back just enough to pull his thin polo over his head.
Marco followed suit, undoing the first two buttons of his linen dress shirt and then yanking the whole thing off, rumpling his jagged black hair. I glanced over at him, wanting to see him beside me and not just in the mirror. My fingers traced over the fading scars in his tan skin where the tiger shifter who’d challenged him had wounded him. I kissed one mark on his shoulder, another on his jaw, then brought his mouth to mine.
Marco kissed me hard and hungry. His eyes gleamed when he pulled back. His fingers gripped the hem of my dress insistently. Aaron grasped the other side, and they pulled the cotton sundress off together.
The avian alpha immediately bent to suck my bare nipple into his mouth. His steady hand caressed the curve of my ass. Marco claimed my lips again, his hand slipping between us. I trembled as his fingers glided over my sex to the nub of my clit. Pleasure sparked from my core. I moaned against his mouth.
Marco’s thumb swiveled over my clit, drawing another whimper from me. Then he yanked my panties down and slid his fingers down over my hot, slick opening. My hips canted toward him of their own accord. Yes. Yes, please. I clutched the hem of his slacks with a determined tug. He chuckled and eased back to chuck them off.
Aaron took the opportunity to trail his lips down my body until he reached my sex. I gasped as he pressed his mouth to my core. The tips of his teeth grazed over my clit, and a full-out cry broke from my throat. I rocked into his touch, needing more.
Marco brought his body up against mine from behind again. His hands slipped over my hips. The hard length of his cock rubbed over my ass and between my legs. I edged my feet apart to give him better access, tipping forward to rest my hands on the mirror’s frame.
Aaron kissed the planes of my stomach as the jaguar shifter nudged my opening with the head of his cock. Marco pressed forward, and I whimpered as the solid length of him penetrated me. “Fuck, princess,” he muttered, his fingers tightening around my hips. “You’re the best thing I’ve ever felt.”
He drew back and plunged in even deeper, sending a rush of bliss through my nerves. Aaron ducked back down to lave my clit. My body swayed with each of Marco’s thrusts, pressing my mound to Aaron’s mouth. He rocked with us, gripping my thigh, his tongue swirling over my nub until I was outright shaking with the rising pleasure.
“Look,” Marco murmured, leaning over me as he adjusted his angle. I moaned, bucking faster to meet his pace, chasing that peak of bliss I’d almost reached. At the same time, I lifted my gaze.
My reflection looked back at me, flushed and wild. I’d never seen my eyes so bright with emotion before. Emotion and power. I had one man groaning against my shoulder as his hips jerked to meet me, another devouring my sex from the outside. Aaron’s golden head didn’t miss a beat as he unzipped his jeans to stroke his cock in time with our love-making.
He nipped my clit, and Marco thrust even harder. Ecstasy swept through me. I shattered between them with a sharp cry, my hand dropping to squeeze Aaron’s shoulder. Marco’s breath shuddered against my skin as my pussy squeezed tight around his cock. He spilled himself into me. Aaron groaned at the same time, giving me one last swipe of his tongue as he spent himself in his hand.
I stayed there between my mates as the crash of pleasure ebbed, my legs shaking. Aaron let me hold onto him. He pressed a tender kiss to my inner thigh. Marco hummed happily as he softened inside me, and nuzzled my shoulder.
I looked at the wild, sated woman in the mirror—a woman who had claimed her four mates. A woman who’d overcome rogues and fae. Yes, that was who I was now. The tragedies of years ago didn’t matter, not when it came to fulfilling my role.
I wasn’t that little girl anymore. I was a woman. I was the dragon shifter. And I would unearth whatever secrets my estate was keeping hidden.
Chapter 13
Ren
A couple of West’s kin had already gotten to work in the kitchens, which was a good thing. None of us had eaten anything resembling lunch, just a few snacks that’d been stashed on the plane. Feeling a lot more grounded than I had when I’
d first walked into the house, I ambled into the dining area, found a platter of stuffed rolls ready and waiting, and grabbed one to chow down on while I wandered farther.
My memories hadn’t faded completely. Now and then my eyes twitched to a doorway a rogue had left from, a spot where I’d heard an agonized cry. But my mind didn’t spin off into the past like it had before. I focused on the firm floor behind my feet and the heady warmth of the bonds between my mates and me. It seemed to have grown even more solid during that interlude with Marco and Aaron.
The strength in this body and the strength of those bonds held me here in the present. I had so much more to do here. Maybe a victory against the vampires wouldn’t make up for what had happened in the past, but I could hope that victory would send us toward a much brighter future.
The rooms in the east wing were all familiar. I’d spent most of my time in those when we’d been living here—when I wasn’t roaming around outside. When I entered the west side of the house, a prickle ran down my back.
Mom had taken me this way a couple times to show me something she was working on. But mostly we’d steered clear. It had been her domain as the ruling dragon shifter.
I swallowed the rest of the sandwich and treaded farther down that hall. I was the ruling dragon shifter now.
I wasn’t expecting to hear a patter of footsteps coming toward me. Kylie hustled around a bend, her face lighting up when she saw me. “Ren!” She twisted her hands in front of her with a slightly guilty expression. “I know you’re exploring this place on your own, but I couldn’t help being curious… I found a door like the one you described, the one from your vision. Do you want to, like, find it on your own or is it okay for me to show you?”
Trust Kylie to have already scoped the whole place out.
