by Meg Xuemei X
“Aren’t we enough for you, Daisy?” Blaze kept at it. “You already have three mates, and we each get only one. We don’t seek other women for pleasure. We were all devoted to you.”
He used the past tense. Had I lost him already? My heart tore.
“How many men do you want?” he demanded, his voice lashing out at me like a slash of a blade. “I understood when you couldn’t choose between us because of your curse. Now your curse is gone, and you still pine for another man.”
I shut my eyes as pain rammed into me.
I shouldn’t want Elvey. I shouldn’t make my mates unhappy. They all wanted me and cherished me, and they met my every need.
But Elvey—my heart yearned for him. I’d tried to fight his pull, but if I didn’t have him, I would never feel complete.
He drew me in just as equally strong as my other mates.
Before Sphinx confirmed that Elvey was also my fated mate, I’d thought it was my fault that I wanted him. I’d scolded and berated myself whenever Elvey slipped into my mind.
I didn’t feel this kind of attraction toward any other male, just for my three mates and Elvey.
When Adrian, who had been my first crush, had returned, my mate had been tense since they’d heard about Sphinx’s riddle and had speculated that Adrian could be my final mate.
I’d missed Adrian for centuries and loved him fiercely. But when I saw him again, I hadn’t been drawn to him in a romantic way. Not anymore. My feelings toward Adrian became that of a dear friend, and I trusted him with my life as he was my Captain of the Guard.
The one last spot I had in my heart was reserved for Elvey.
All three pairs of eyes that belonged to my smoking hot, gorgeous mates stared at me, pain, hurt, and confusion in each pair.
Their pain hurt me, but I also had to be honest with myself and come clean with them. Then I’d wait for them to decide what to do with me and accept the consequences.
I licked my lips, my throat dry, and my heart drumming. “I do have feelings for Elvey,” I said.
Devastation clouded their eyes.
Rai looked like I had truly betrayed him, and he didn’t want to believe it. Blaze lifted his lips in a silent snarl. Iokul looked distant, as if he couldn’t care less and wouldn’t care any longer.
“It’s as strongly as I feel for you, all of you,” I continued. “I didn’t and don’t want to feel for him, but I can’t help it. Elvey is also my destined mate, just like you are.”
“I’ve had enough of this bullshit,” Blaze shouted. “You have three of us loving you. We try to satisfy you in every way possible. Yet it’s never enough. We’re never enough.”
“That’s not true,” I said, tears in my eyes.
“I don’t believe you,” Blaze said, his jaw set. There was so much hurt in his eyes that I could no longer defend myself.
As the silence extended, Iokul said, “Daisy is trying to be as truthful to us as to herself. We all heard of the Sphinx beast’s riddle. Fate arranged for her to have four mates instead of three.”
Rai drew a sharp breath and sighed. “The Fae can be tied to her as much as we to her. Sphinx announced, ‘It’s not one, not two, and not three. Only when you find the missing piece of what heart desires will you finally find your way home.’ If that’s what Fate wants for our mate, I don’t think we can fight it.”
“I won’t accept it,” Blaze said. “It’s him or us. Choose, Daisy.”
My face grew hard. “Don’t make me choose. I won’t go to him, but if he comes to me, I can’t deny him. I won’t. He’s part of my soul, just as you all are.”
“Then you’ll have to let me go,” he said.
Blaze stormed off, pulling the door open and slamming it shut. It hammered my heart harder than anything.
My throat burned from unshed tears.
CHAPTER 18
Blaze threatened to break the bond with me. If I accepted Elvey, would Rai and Iokul also break up with me?
Sphinx’s riddle about the consequence of choosing between Elvey and my three dragon mates echoed in my mind.
I wouldn’t choose, just as I’d refused to choose between my three mates on Pandemonium. My heart bled at the prospect of losing them. But what if Elvey pushed the matter and came to me? How could I choose my three mates over him?
But how could I not accept him?
So far, Elvey hadn’t made a move, but the pull between us grew stronger every minute and would keep growing until the day I caved in. The mating fever between us had made me forget myself and every danger in the world. If Blaze hadn’t stopped me, I would have thrown myself into Elvey’s arms and kissed him fiercely.
I’d have gone further than that.
Perhaps I should stay away from Elvey, but the mere thought burned my stomach.
Elvey was stronger than anyone, I told myself. He knew how to take care of himself without me. He hadn’t had me for an eon. Yet, a stone-cold voice said, If he’s that good at taking care of himself, why did he become a blood slave to the dark Fae Queen?
I’d had a glimpse of his vulnerability that he wouldn’t show to anyone. My heart ached for him so much, and I couldn’t even comfort him.
I had never comforted him.
All I’d ever given him was a dance and a kiss in a glamoured virtual reality.
In the back of my mind, I realized it might not be up to me to choose or not to choose. Fate wouldn’t let me keep this balance forever. Hadn’t Sphinx said that if I refused Elvey, his bones would be shattered?
No, don’t let me go there.
Right now, I needed to find Blaze. I wouldn’t leave our quarrel like that. I couldn’t let him be hurt like that. I couldn’t let him go. But what if he’d made up his mind and was done with me?
My heart plunged into icy water.
I tracked the fire dragon, following the thread of our bond. My heart pounded in gratitude that it was still there, that it hadn’t broken.
Rai and Iokul trailed after me to guard me, in respectful distance. For the first time, they didn’t push the matter or crowd me with their alpha male presence or demands but gave me space.
What if it wasn’t space but the distance growing between us?
The snow had stopped falling, yet the chill was in my bones. I trekked on the path of ice and snow until I found Blaze standing behind the rail at the guards’ post, staring into the distance. His gray cloak flapped in the wind.
I stalked toward him.
I wanted to say sorry—not sorry for wanting Elvey, but for hurting him.
But I couldn’t get the words out, Instead, I listened to the harsh sound of the wind.
I invaded his space, got into his cloak, and slid an arm around his firm waist.
Blaze didn’t move. Didn’t say anything. A half minute passed, which felt like an eternity, before he sighed and wrapped his cloak around me to shelter me from the wind and coldness.
He pulled me against his chest tightly and tucked my head under his chin.
I clasped my hands behind his neck. “Blaze,” I whispered, gazing up at his masked face.
His eyes burned with pain and desire for me. As his gaze dipped to my mouth, I stared at his sensual lips. They parted, full of need for me. I freed a hand and brushed my thumb over his bottom lip.
Despite the frigid weather, his lips remained warm. That was the benefit of being a fire dragon. And my Blaze was the hottest one.
My hand moved to trace his mask. I could picture how beautiful, how perfect his face was under the mask.
How badly I wanted to get rid of the mask carved on his face and to see him completely naked, from head to toe. We’d talked extensively about the remaining half-curse on my mates. I would turn every corner over and search the cure for them after we secure our dynasty and home. But they insisted they would need to keep proving that they were my worthy mates for the masks to drop off.
They thought this trial would help them to prove themselves.
They were wrong. They’d already proved
they were worthy of me in every aspect. But was I worthy of them?
Blaze grabbed my hand and moved it away from his mask. Without a word, he crashed his mouth onto mine.
The kiss was so fierce and hungry it burned me all the way to my toes, and fiery lust rose to meet its demand. I clung to him. I couldn’t get enough of him. His tongue thrust into my open mouth, teasing my teeth and challenging my fangs to appear before sweeping over my hard palate.
A moan escaped from the depth of my throat, but his deep kiss stifled it. His tongue thrust against my tongue, mating with it.
My pussy became slick with need and want.
I broke the kiss and whispered against his hot lips. “I won’t choose, Blaze. I won’t choose Elvey over you.”
From the corner of my eye, I caught a shadowy figure pulling away from under a white tree and fading off into the mist.
Elvey.
His pain rippled to me. He didn’t know it magnified ten times in my heart.
Blaze pulled me against him, leaving no space between us. His huge, hard bulge strained against my belly through the fabric.
The liquid fire that pooled between my thighs licked my tender flesh. It needed to be sated.
He sniffed, his nostrils flaring, and his eyes brightening. He scented my arousal.
“You want me, too, honeybee,” he said.
“Yes, very much. I always want you,” I said.
He ground his hips against me, his cock granite hard.
“I need to fuck you, babe,” he said. “Right here. Right now.”
His eagerness made my blood race faster.
“Not here,” I said breathlessly. “We don’t want to cause a scene. But I know a place.”
A slice of memory flooded into my mind. Unlike humans, we dragons could trace our memories to even infancy.
I believed that when the second Fae princess Aine had teleported me out of Tianna’s grip, she hadn’t shifted me to the palace but here. Very few people had known this place that was guarded by a handful of selected Dragon Guardians.
I’d been raised here until I was four, when King Daghda had deemed it safe for me to be moved back to the Dragon Realm and to be introduced to our people.
By faint memory, I led Blaze toward my childhood chamber.
Iokul and Rai were no longer in sight. They were giving me time alone with their brother. I remembered how they’d fought against each other and competed for me a month ago.
It wasn’t that they wanted me any less, but my mates had learned to support each other and share better.
Our relationship had evolved, even in such a short time.
We would have been content and enjoyed our equilibrium if Elvey hadn’t reemerged.
As we moved some distance away from the guards’ post, I felt a tug of my bond from the other princes. I threw a backward glance and saw that both Rai and Iokul had taken over the post to stay guard. I smiled at them in gratitude.
We made a few turns in the hallway and stopped before a golden and blue door.
I pushed the door open, but Blaze strolled in first. He wanted to make sure there was no ambush. When it came to protecting me, my mates were borderline paranoid. I’d given up fighting them or reminding them that I was also a lethal warrior.
Now I just let them, and the guards, do their job and be happy.
I stepped into my old chamber after Blaze and watched through the crystal door. The snowflakes started whirling again in the garden, the sky silent and pure white.
I returned my gaze to the interior of the room.
Cushions littered the floor around the bed. There weren’t any toys, because dragons didn’t believe in raising cubs with toys.
Blaze also took in the surroundings, the lust in his eyes never wavering.
“So, this is where you were raised?” he asked.
I gazed up at him through my thick eyelashes, my heart pounding in anticipation.
When we walked all the way here, ice and snow crunching under our feet and the chilly wind slamming into our face, the thick lust flowing in our veins had never lessened.
We were alone now.
Blaze stared at the rocking chair in the center of the room, and I knew what was in his mind. He wanted to bend me down on it and fuck me.
Silently, he started to undress. He untied the cloak first and tossed it to the ground without care.
His heavy-lidded eyes never left mine.
When his black armor dropped off, he still had a shirt on and his pants hanging low on his hips. A trail of golden hair trailed down below the waistline.
My breath stilled in my throat. My blood heated.
He unbuttoned his shirt with no hurry, yet the hunger in his beautiful golden eyes only grew hotter.
My gaze roved over him, from his smooth chest to his sexy six-pack, caressing every thick cord of muscle. He flexed his biceps for my benefit, his eyes sparkling at my devouring look.
Flashing me a wicked smirk, he whipped off his pants and stood completely naked in front of me. His huge cock jerked forward aggressively.
Yet he didn’t come to me.
“Your turn,” he said roughly, his voice husky and dominant.
Usually undressing me was my mates’ job, and the three of them worked together efficiently.
But this time, Blaze wanted to see me strip.
I bit down on my lower lips. My face flushed at his intense gaze. I didn’t know why I suddenly felt shy. He’d explored every inch of my skin with all of his brothers.
This was something new for us. It was incredibly intimate to watch each other undress.
I dropped my clothing slowly, one item after the other, until I was only left standing in flimsy red panties. I stood in front of him, feeling vulnerable for leaving myself at his mercy.
Like a flash of wind, he was in front of me.
“You’re mine,” he said.
“Yes, I’m yours,” I whispered.
“Mine to fuck.”
I swallowed. “Always.”
“And I want to fuck you very hard now,” he said. “I want to bury my cock deep inside you and make you scream my name over and over.” The lust in his eyes burned hotter than his dragon fire, and my pussy grew slicker.
I swayed my hips and breathed. “Fuck me as hard as you want.”
“But I have to relish you first.”
He dropped to one knee and put his face against my crotch, rubbing my sex and my panties, and sniffing my scent.
“You smell so good, babe,” he murmured. “I can smell how ripe you are for me.”
I moaned. “Then what are you waiting for?”
“I want to spend the time alone with you as long as I can,” he said.
Meaning, he wanted to take it really slow and torture me out of my mind.
“You can fuck me first, and then we’ll cuddle,” I offered a solution.
He looked up at me with a wicked, dark smile. “That’s not what I have in mind.” He slipped a hand into my panties. His rough hand palmed my pussy, rubbing it, his finger grazing over my folds.
His touch made my skin burn, and his hungry gaze promised to devour me and do all sort of wicked, dirty things to me. It heated my blood like no other.
With every stroke of his fingers, more wet heat pooled in my sex.
“Please,” I moaned.
“Please what?” he asked hoarsely.
“Please fuck me now, Blaze.”
“Not yet,” he murmured, and pulled my panties down roughly—not all the way down as I wanted, it still covered half of my mound.
He stared at my pussy, lust filling his eyes. “It’s lovely. Who does it belong to, Daisy?”
“It belongs to you.”
“Say it again and say my name.”
I swayed my hips impatiently. I needed his cock inside me, needed his thickness and length to fill me.
“My pussy belongs to you, Blaze. Please fuck me.”
“I’ll fuck you soon and hard. I’ll fuck you harder tha
n you can take. That’s a promise I won’t break. But as I said, I’ll take my time with you today, my lusty mate.”
He had my folds between his knuckles and pulled, not so gently, and pain and pleasure shot to my nerve endings.
“More, Blaze!” I moaned. “More.”
“I like when you moan my name,” he said. “Soon, you’ll scream my name and beg me not to fuck you so hard, but I won’t stop. Consider yourself warned.”
I gasped at the promise.
His thumb moved to circle my clit, and I propelled my groin toward his hand. Before I knew, he had two fingers inside of me, thrusting in and out.
“Your pussy is so tight and hot, my favorite pussy,” he said.
I moaned as I rode his fingers, reveling in the pleasure he ignited in me.
As his hand moved, his fingers thrusting in me, the heel of his palm stretched my panties.
Pressure built up in me. My orgasm would wash over me soon.
Sensing my urgent need for a release, Blaze withdrew his fingers.
“No, please,” I protested.
“Not yet, my feisty mate.”
“Please, Blaze,” I groaned. “Give it to me.”
“You’ll come when I say you can come, and not a second sooner.”
He was torturing me.
He gripped my ass, securing my body.
He regarded my pussy, then tore my panties off, the rip of the fabric echoing through the room.
Just as the cold air hit my skin, his hot mouth pressed against my bare sex. His tongue lapped at my swollen flesh, his teeth nipping it. Pleasure rocked me wave after wave, rendering me mindless. When he had my sensitive nub between his teeth, I jerked and moaned his name like a feline in heat.
He cursed, the vibration of the word sending tingles through my slick pussy. I looked down at him and his eyes burned with scorching lust.
I trembled as he feasted upon my pussy.
His ravishing me only made me crave more. I wanted all of him.
A long, wailing moan ripped from my throat.
“You want my cock badly, babe,” he said, his voice slurring. “You want me to fuck you so terribly. Tell me what you want.”
I moaned. “I want your cock.”
“Beg harder.”
I begged shamelessly, rocking my hips against his face.
