by Meg Xuemei X
“The humans don’t know Lysandra is a black witch and that she works for the dark Fae Queen,” Rosalinda said. “They don’t know she’s been using mind control on them. I believe she has eliminated the ones who could resist her power. Among the six cities, two mayors who are loyal to the Dragon King are missing. Lysandra nominated two new mayors, both her minions, to replace them. There aren’t any dissentients in the High Council anymore. She controls all of them now. She promotes those who call the dragons the monsters.”
Iokul snorted. “Some dragons might be monsters, but humans always forget to look at themselves. Humans can be the cruelest monsters. They do evil, twisted things that no real monsters can match up to.”
“What about the Fae race?” I chimed in.
Dragons and Fae were immortal enemies. The feud probably started at the beginning of time. And here I was—I had two Fae allies, and according to Elvey, there were many more, who were loyal to me. I wondered why; I was only half-Fae after all.
“Rosalinda is one of my intelligence agents in the human cities,” Elvey said. “It’s hard for Fae to stay among humans. They Fade quicker and eventually lose their Fae magic, but I can’t let her go yet.”
“As long as that bitch queen rules us in terror, I have no home to return to,” Rosalinda said, eyes dimming. “I have to make the human realm my dwelling place now. It’s not on you, Elvey. It’s never on you.”
Elvey’s eyes darkened as if he’d carried all the burdens for too long. He looked at me. “Will you let the black witch have your dynasty and your people? Won’t you protect your own?”
“The witch has become their idea, their symbol.” I sighed. “Humans—”
“Some humans are redeemable,” said Elvey. “You’ll open their eyes, unveil the witch’s true colors, and shatter the false symbol. You’ll force them to see the hard truth. And if they still decide they don’t want you, then let whatever befall them be their fate.”
I laughed mirthlessly. “Elvey, how am I going to do that? I was a spoiled, ignorant teenager when I was in the realm, and then I was three beasts in a savage jungle for nine centuries. I just got rid of my curse and came back to a broken home. I had no idea that the world had evolved so quickly. It has become completely alien to me. I’m not as powerful or useful as you think, and you’re looking for some savior who isn’t there.”
“So, you’re just going to give up?” Rosalinda demanded.
“No.” I sighed. “I’m trying to think what I can do, but we all need to be realistic.”
“You’re what I’ve been looking for, Daisy Danaenyth,” Elvey said. “Even though you don’t see it. All I’m asking is whether you’re willing to fight the evil, defend your realm, and protect your future people.”
I swallowed. “Anything. I’ll do anything, but I don’t even know where to start.”
“You have us,” Rosalinda said. “You have Elvey.” She gave Iokul a glance. “You have your three dragon princes and their powerful forces. You have many more supporters whom you don’t know in the Dragon Realm, in human cities, and in the Fae realm.”
Iokul grabbed my hand and pressed it against his heart, and Elvey watched us. I didn’t see jealousy in his eyes but longing, as if he wanted to belong to me as well.
“You have me, love,” Iokul said. “You have my brothers, our warriors, and the Oslanian army.”
My heart warmed, and I fought back the tears stinging my eyes.
What had I done to deserve such loyalty, even from the friends and allies I hadn’t met?
“It’s not what you did, but what you’ll do,” Elvey said softly.
And again, I was an open book to him, and to them all.
“I think I’ll have an idea where you can start,” Elvey added with a smile. “It won’t be easy.”
“Bring it on,” I said, returning his smile.
I didn’t care how tough the tasks would be. I wouldn’t let down those who depended on me.
And I was glad that Elvey was going to be around for a while.
CHAPTER 7
Once Iokul regained his strength, we flew back to our base in Mistress.
At our approach, the castle loomed in like a white aspiration with smudges under two crescent moons. The stains were the burn marks of King Daghda’s fire.
I landed in a small garden at the east wing, surprised that the dragon fire hadn’t touched this part when it had swept over the main garden and scorched everything in it.
Had my grandfather spared the jasmine because he knew it was my favorite flower? The jasmine garden had access to the side of my old chamber.
Tiny white jasmines shone like small stars, their fragrance bringing back fond memories. It made me feel like I was a stupid, fun fifteen-year-old again.
I shifted to my Fae form, plucked a blossom, and inserted it behind my ear.
The silver dragon unfolded his massive wings, his bright silvery-blue scales glittering in the moonlight. He scanned the golden palace, ensuring no threat lurked in the shadow at the moment, before he fixed on me and shifted beside me.
I smiled at him, held his hand, and led him down a path. “Come and see my old room.”
Iokul kissed my lips softly. He placed himself slightly ahead of me, his free hand twitching, ready to defend me with his ice magic.
I’d seen how he’d turned his ice to blade and impaled the demons in the arena on Pandemonium.
“We’ll have this place all to ourselves tonight,” I said.
I hadn’t had a chance to visit my old chamber after Segomo’s attack. I wanted to see if it still existed.
The wood and glass door slid open automatically at my magical signature. At least that hadn’t changed.
We entered the room.
My breath caught. It was just as I’d remembered—ivory white bed with blue quilt, fluffy chairs, polished floor with a rug of scarlet and blue mosaic, like the colors of my scales in a dragon form.
It was exactly the way it had been, as if I’d never left.
Someone had gone through a great deal of effort to keep it that way. Someone had wanted me home badly. A thin layer of dust on the chestnut vanity seemed recent, which meant the caretaker had only left after the king’s dragon fire had forced everyone to abandon the castle.
It meant the king, or someone, had clung to the hope that I would return one day, and that nearly brought tears to my eyes.
I let go of Iokul’s hand, moved to my bed, and climbed onto it.
As I lay on my back, the thick, soft quilt sank and reformed around my shape.
I stared at the high ceiling adorned with blue gemstones, and a tear escaped my eyes.
I was home. I was truly back, free from my curse.
Iokul lay beside me, his cool mouth tracing on the column of my neck, his ice magic caressing me. Shivers of pleasure ran down to my toes, and liquid fire pooled between my thighs.
Ice was Iokul’s element. It could cool or burn.
His one hand threaded into my hair; his other hand unbuttoned my shirt, slowly and sensually, until my breasts were fully exposed. He cupped my breast, and a deep moan rumbled in my throat. Maybe it was because of that small noise of mine that prompted Iokul, who usually preferred a slow burn, to fondle and knead my heavy breast in urgent need.
When his mouth crashed against mine, I unbuttoned his shirt and traced my palms over his cool, smooth, hard chest.
The tight muscles on his massive shoulders flexed as he shifted to press against me. His hand moved from my breast, trailing down to the apex between my thighs, leaving a shiver in its wake.
He deepened the kiss, his tongue sweeping over my hard palate.
I whimpered in need as his large hand slipped into my pants, and palmed the tender flesh between my thighs, his deft fingers slipping between my folds and rubbing at the wet heat my sex produced.
My skin burned.
My blood heated.
He broke the kiss and stared down at me, lust dancing in his eyes. He always liked
seeing my reactions when he played with me, and I liked to see his, too. Pure, male lust twisted his masked face. Fire and ice merged in him and I gasped against his lips as a fiery need coiled in my belly.
“Iokul,” I whispered his name, my breath rasping.
I needed him.
I wanted him.
His hand left my pussy. Before I could protest, he stripped me of my pants. When they hit on the floor, he’d undressed himself.
His large cock, silky and hard, shot upward as he stood beside the bed.
“I’d have savored you inch by inch and for hours if we were in the ship,” he said. “But here, I’ll have to fuck you fast and hard.”
My mind didn’t land on the fast but the hard part that my mate promised.
“Fuck me hard,” I breathed out. “I’m yours.”
He gripped my thighs and dragged me to the edge of the bed, his silver eyes flaring on my bare pussy. A groan—so erotic, so filled with need—rumbled in his chest. His dragon was more than excited.
My own dragon purred, daring and enticing him to come and play.
Iokul held my legs apart and pulled them over his shoulders.
My hips lifted, my back flat on the bed, and I wiggled my ass with eagerness.
My mate’s lips curled up with a hint of sensual amusement, and he took a moment to appreciate my naked body, his eyes roving over every inch of me.
But his dragon wasn’t as patient as he was. It urged him to fuck me now.
He obliged and positioned his hard cock at my slick entrance. I moaned, needing him inside me. With a wicked grin, he licked his fingers, then brought them down to my clit, circling my pulsing nub with slow, torturous movements. I wasn’t sure whether it was his cock jutting at my entrance or his fingers flicking at my clit that elicited more moans and shivers from me.
I lifted my hips, urging him to enter me. I was crazy with need, my chest heaving from my heavy breaths.
With one smooth thrust, his cock drove deep into my core.
Fire coursed through my veins, but his ice soothed me.
The ice dragon pulled back and rammed into me, repeating the strokes until I screamed, every move expected and unexpected at the same time, sending intense pleasure to my nerve endings.
His mighty cock slid in and out of my wet pussy, every thrust igniting more heat in me.
His eyes were full of desire that threatened to combust me.
“This sweet pink flesh is for me to fuck,” he announced and picked up speed, hunger and possessiveness in every hard thrust.
His cock plunged into me, filling me and seeking my depth. I would give him anything he wanted.
I tried to move against him. Tried to grind against him, but he pinned me there, dominating and uncompromising, and pounded between my thighs relentlessly and savagely.
Pleasure rocked my every fiber as he slammed into me again and again.
I moaned deeply and hoarsely. My hands grappled the satin quilt beneath me, my hair damp on my forehead.
I wanted more.
He growled, his silver eyes darkening to gunmetal gray, his unbridled lust bursting alive.
Mine! his inner dragon roared.
Mine! my dragon echoed.
While my mate plunged into me with rapid thrusts, I was glad that our coupling wasn’t as quick as he’d originally stated. I didn’t want this to end.
I wanted him to fuck me this hard until the end of time.
The pleasure prolonged and amplified. This was what I needed, especially after learning that my nightmare accorded to what I’d learned about Arianrhod. The dream was still vivid in my mind.
I’d seen the realm burning under the red sky in that dream before it’d happened in reality, and before I’d woken up in a cold sweat, a menacing voice warned me that if I ever dared seek the goddess, I’d lose my three mates.
I clung to Iokul, my nails digging into his muscled legs.
He pressed me tightly against him, needing me as much as I needed him. It was a trying day for him as well, and my realm’s future seemed bleak.
His next sequence of thrusts into my heated channel dragged me back from my thoughts, and I was completely with him. And stayed with him.
Flesh slapped against flesh, fast and hard. My lustful moans and Iokul’s rough groans ricocheted off the otherwise deadly quiet night.
Carnal bliss washed over me as his cock kept thrusting into my pussy.
My breathless moans pumped more fuel into his thrusting. My fingernails raked across his thighs when his next thrust brought me to the edge.
He chuckled in amusement.
Iokul’s usual self was more conserved than his brothers’, but not at this moment. Blaze had said Iokul hadn’t liked touching anyone, but from the day he’d met me, he’d wanted to touch me everywhere, all the time. The ice dragon often restrained himself, but the heat was always in his eyes, burning through his ice.
He often lost the battle. Just like now.
Peering deep into my eyes, he thrust into me deeply and stayed there for a second.
“Iokul,” I moaned as I exhaled, which only spurred him to plunge into me savagely.
Right now, it was just him and me, and we had all night and the whole world for us.
“I want this to last forever, just you and me,” he growled as he rocked his hips against me. “Just me fucking you.”
His large cock grew harder and bigger, filling me, stretching me, molding me around him.
The pressure building inside me was unbearable, yet it kept building as his rapid thrusts became erratic. He could no more control himself than I did.
At his next brutal plunge, tidal waves took me under, and my pussy clenched his cock and milked him violently.
He opened his mouth, wanting to roar, but shut it with rough groans and clamped a hand over my mouth as a scream tore through me.
We had to be relatively quiet since we weren’t exactly safe here.
He pulled my ankles from his shoulders and wrapped my legs around his waist while he thrust through my orgasm hard and fast.
His large hands held my buttocks, his thrusts not halting. After a few more powerful pumps, he found his own release, his hot cum spurring into my womb and inducing another wave of my orgasm.
My head lopped on his shoulder, my lips licking his cool skin as I bit into his neck.
He shuddered and held me against him.
“I want to fuck you like this every night,” he murmured.
He dressed me and put on his own clothes, while I lay there, grinning at him like an idiot, boneless from the orgasmic pleasure he had taunted out of me.
Laughter sparkled in his beautiful eyes that were no longer icy.
“Come.” He led me to the garden where the bushes of jasmine shone under the crescent moons.
“Should we go back to the ship now?” I asked, though I wanted to stay here a little longer.
He only pulled me against his chest and led me into a slow dance.
Something cold and fluffy fell on my lips. I looked up. Snowflakes cascaded down, not on the whole castle, but on the garden.
The world above us was pure white and beautiful beyond measure.
My ice-dragon mate was giving me the flowing snow as a gift and danced me to love.
I gazed at him with adoration, but I was also worried.
“You were spent earlier, Iokul. Shouldn’t you reserve your energy?”
“I’ll reserve nothing for you, love.”
We swayed in rhythm, my head on his shoulder, my hands sliding around his waist.
“Will your snow hurt my jasmines?” I asked.
He chuckled. “It won’t snow the whole night.” He tucked my head back under his chin.
“This feels nice, Iokul.”
“I thought I would always be the unfeeling ice,” he whispered, “but you melt my ice. You make my ice burn for you. The world starts to have colors when I can feel. I’ll never let you go. Even if you drive me away, I won’t go. And I�
��ll always come back to you, no matter what.”
“And why do you think that I’ll ever drive you away? Why do you think I’ll ever let you get away?”
The wind stormed around us. The snow twirled violently. Wings flapped in the air. When they tucked away, a deep growl rose from the edge of the garden.
My other mates had come.
Iokul and I were so indulged in each other that we’d forgotten the whole world.
The ice dragon snapped his head at the indignant noises and rolled his eyes.
Blaze glared at him. “You should have known better, Iokul. This is a dangerous time, and Daisy is no safer than before. What if the enemies snuck up and hurt her when you let your guard down like this? Have you forgotten your duties and responsibilities to our mate? She isn’t only your mate!”
Lately, Blaze was all about lecturing others and me. Knowing I’d had sex with his brother before his arrival hadn’t improved his mood. Even Rai, the reasonable, level-headed one among us all, stared hard at Iokul.
Iokul, for the first time, looked chastened and didn’t retort.
I also felt guilty for stealing precious moments with Iokul, though I shouldn’t be ashamed spending time alone with any of them.
I knew my mates were all alpha dragons and they couldn’t help being dominant, though they’d all tried to tone down their dominance when they’d first courted me.
Now that we’d mated, I wondered if they believed they’d secured me so that they wouldn’t need to work on our relationship.
I loved them all, but I wouldn’t allow myself to be taken for granted or being lectured like this.
Not all of them act like that, part of me reminded myself.
Right, only the fire dragon was at odds with me. Maybe I needed to snuff out the spark before it became wildfire, before all his brothers started acting the same.
But where did my insecurity come from?
I avoided looking at Blaze but gazed at Rai. He held my eyes, and the anger in his stunning sapphire eyes dissipated. He reciprocated the same longing and hunger. He read how much I wanted him, too. I craved to go into his arms, to feel his powerful heartbeat and taste his masculine lips.
