The Fae Queen's Warriors

by Tara West

  A heavy weight settled on Doris’s chest. Athena knew how much the school meant to her. How could she expect her to just walk away? She fought to keep the edge of panic from her voice. “But this has been my dream.”

  A look of pity flashed in Athena’s eyes, making Doris’s heart sink to the pit of her second stomach.

  Athena shook her head, snickering. “Even after Resolution 424 passes?”

  Doris gritted her teeth. “It won’t pass.” A nagging voice in the back of her head told her it would, though, and then what? Would she shut down her school rather than violate her one golden rule? Mandatory Goldenwands for all students assured her they’d never learn another thing.

  Athena’s black eyes hardened. “Goldenwand owns everyone. Now he owns you.”

  Doris stiffened. “Nobody owns me. He told me his granddaughter was not to spend her first night in detention, but did I listen?” Even Goldenwand’s goon who’d delivered the check had insisted that the heiress wasn’t to serve detention. Doris simply scowled at him but refused to give him an answer.

  Athena tilted her head, that ridiculous pink bow flopping sideways like an extra set of ears. “Really?”

  “It’s just a semester.” Doris’s voice sounded small even to her ears.

  Athena cocked a brow. “She must pass.”

  “She will.” She had to. Doris was not prepared to give back that check.

  Athena’s heavy brow lowered over her eyes. “A girl that pretty doesn’t care about education.”

  A surge of jealousy flooded Doris’s chest. “You think she’s pretty?” she snapped, unable to keep the hurt form her voice.

  Athena rolled her eyes. “I’m not blind.”

  Doris had known when she’d fallen for Athena that the troll had a wandering eye. How could she not, after her relationship with the beautiful Miss Bubblebosom, whose curves and wavy hair reminded Doris so much of Seraphina Goldenwand?

  A slow smile spread across Doris’s face when an idea occurred to her. With a flick of the wrist, she moved her wand over her body, reciting the transformation spell. She gasped when she shrunk a good foot and had to look up at her lover. When the pearl buttons popped off her shirt, she smiled at her generous cleavage and smoothed her hands over curvaceous siren hips. No wonder the little tramp couldn’t keep her legs closed. She had a body made for loving.

  Athena arched a bushy brow. “What are you doing?”

  Doris zapped the lock on the door. She shrugged out of her jacket and threw it across the desk. Athena’s eyes widened when she slipped off her shoes and unzipped her pants. When Athena broke into a lusty grin, steam pouring out of her nostrils, Doris hoped she’d won. If not, there was nothing to be done. The school came first. Athena had known this when they started dating.

  Chapter Two

  Serah was pulled through the thin, slightly sticky film that made the bubble. It looked nothing like what she’d seen from the outside. It was ten times bigger and a total bachelor pad, with a tiki bar at one end, a flat-screen television on the other, and a round, crimson velvet sofa in the sunken center of the room.

  “I’m Teju.” Boxer Shorts adjusted his wire glasses and slapped his chest. “And this is my brother, Draque.” He gestured to Bearded Guy, who was casually leaning against the translucent wall, sipping a beer.

  When Draque tilted his bottle toward Serah with a wink, she thought her knees would buckle. He was sinfully sexy. Something about the way he mentally undressed her with his eyes told her he’d be an amazing fuck.

  Teju pointed to the crimson-faced guy in sweats, who was going around the room, shoving empty beer bottles into a bag. “And our other brother, Ladon.”

  Ladon’s cheeks flushed even brighter. “Sorry about the mess,” he said. “We weren’t expecting company.”

  “I don’t mind.” She shrugged. “Beats that hellish island.” She rubbed her arms when chills raced across her skin.

  Ladon dropped his bag, snatched a blanket off the sofa, and wrapped it around her. “Come sit down,” he said and led her down shallow steps to the sunken area.

  She hugged the blanket tightly and smiled at him as she sat. When his fingers brushed her skin, her chilled flesh burst into fire. “Thanks.” She looked into golden eyes that sparkled like gems, then was drawn to his full, sensual lips.

  He flashed a dimpled grin. He had the longest, thickest black lashes she’d ever seen. “My pleasure. We didn’t catch your name.”

  “Serah,” she answered.

  “A pleasure to meet you, Serah.”

  He licked his lips as if the sound of her name made him hungry, and there was no mistaking the fork in his tongue. Witches didn’t have forked tongues. Was he a shifter? She wracked her brain, trying to remember which ones had forked tongues and wishing she’d paid more attention in her Anatomy of Magical Creatures classes. Her mind wandered to all the naughty things he could do with that tongue.

  “Would you like a hot cup of tea?” he asked.

  His irises contracted into long, narrow slits before changing back again, and she had no doubt he was a shifter, which meant his brothers were, too.

  She eagerly nodded. “Yes, please.”

  “Okay. Be right back.”

  Licking her lips, she sighed when Ladon disappeared behind the tiki bar. She could’ve gotten lost in those golden eyes of his. When his brothers sat beside her, she scooted back against the plush cushions, casting a cursory glance at the pile of pillows on the floor. Had they brought other girls to their bubble or was she the first?

  The thought of being in a shifters’ den sent a jolt up her spine. Shifters were considered the black sheep of the magical world, and the more dangerous the beast, the more taboo the immortal. Teju and Draque also had golden irises. She closed her eyes as the image of a golden-eyed dragon with a forked tongue flashed across her mind. Her grandfather loathed all shifters, but he especially hated the dragon race, which made her want them more.

  Moisture flooded her underwear at the thought of all the fabulous things three forked-tongued shifters could do to her. Merlin’s balls!

  You can’t take them home to dear old Granddad, but you can have some fun, her siren hissed.

  Though Serah’s siren was considered part of her, she had conversations with that part of herself. Thelix, as her siren preferred to be called, was short for Thelxinoe, an ancient ancestral name, since inner-sirens were basically recycled ancestors.

  Shut up, she whispered to Thelix, unnerved when she was answered with a laugh.

  She peered over Teju’s shoulder; their bubble hovered in the air as if it was suspended on a string. She made the mistake of looking down. The earth moved beneath them as they floated to the top of the cavern, over a wall, and into another cavern. “You guys sure this is safe?”

  “Relax.” Draque chuckled. “We do this every detention.”

  “How many detentions have you had?”

  “Meh.” He shrugged. “Usually one a month.”

  “And you use that time to party in a bubble?”

  Teju popped the top on a beer. “Pretty much.”

  “How many girls have you brought in here with you?” Serah couldn’t deny the jealously that twisted a blade in her heart at the thought of other girls sharing the dragons’ den.

  They froze like deer in a broomstick’s high beams. When they shared dark looks, she knew they were telepathically speaking to one another, as was the way with most shifters if they were in the same family. She and her siren mother and grandmother had been able to telepathically speak, too.

  “Only one other,” Teju answered, averting his eyes and pushing up his glasses.

  Liar. Oh, well. She shouldn’t have cared anyway. It’s not like she was interested in anything more than a good time from these three studs.

  No, Serah, she chided herself. You can’t sleep with them.

  Yes, you can, Thelix argued.

  Draque brushed his denim-clad leg against hers. “But she wasn’t nearly as pretty as y
ou.”

  “Oh.” She bit her lip, batting her lashes and feigning innocence. Carefully cultivated expression drove men wild.

  What was wrong with her? Why was she capitulating to her siren so easily?

  Because you need to get fucked, Thelix chuckled.

  “What brings you to the Academy for Misfit Witches?” Draque asked, as he not-so-slyly draped an arm behind her.

  She turned into him, “accidentally” brushing her knee across his thigh, though she knew she was playing with fire. “I got expelled from my other school.”

  Draque’s full lips pulled back in a feral smile. “Us, too.”

  “What did you do?” Laden asked as he returned and handed her a steaming cup of tea.

  She was pleasantly surprised that he’d also included two sugar packets on the chipped, porcelain saucer. He wasn’t such a brute, especially for a dragon. Her grandfather had told her they were all fire and no finesse.

  “Got caught in a compromising position.” She blew steam across her tea, looking up at him with an innocent air. “You?”

  His nostrils flared and his gaze flickered to her breasts. “Burned down the boy’s bathroom.”

  “Not on purpose,” Teju said. “Draque was trying to smite a rat.”

  Ladon nodded. “The school was infested.”

  “Why are you allowed to bring your wands to detention?” She glanced at the long stick poking out of Draque’s jeans.

  “We’re not.” Draque slipped a wand from his pocket with a grin. “Teju knows every concealment and enchantment spell there is.”

  “He’s the smart brother.” Ladon tapped his forehead. “His mind is like a Goldenwand.”

  “Nice.” She shifted uncomfortably at the reference to her grandfather’s invention. People were always talking about the revolutionary wand that had the features of a cellphone (an electronic communication device used in the human realm) and the memory of a seasoned witch. It was the perfect blend of technology and magic. It was also seldom used by shifters, and she didn’t know if that was due to their animosity toward the Goldenwand or the wand’s hatred of them. Either way, she had a sinking feeling these shifters wouldn’t be impressed if they found out she was the Goldenwand heiress.

  “What kind of compromising position?” Draque asked with a hint of mirth.

  She watched the steam rising from her cup, feeling as if he could see into her soul with his penetrating eyes. Smiling softly at the memory, she said, “Me bent over my professor’s desk and him bent over behind me.”

  Panting heavily, Thelix perked up to see their reactions.

  “You screwed your professor?” All three brothers said simultaneously, their jaws dropping.

  “Just one, but if you listen to the rumors, I’ve fucked between ten and ten thousand.” Though she was a siren, and naturally sexual, she did have standards. Even though he’d offered, she wasn’t about to sleep with Professor Slugstack for a passing grade. Periwinkle had been too tempting to resist, though. It was almost as if he’d cast a spell on her libido.

  “Why did you sleep with him?” Teju asked.

  Though she wasn’t always attracted to men in glasses, she couldn’t deny Teju looked adorably sophisticated. The round lenses kept sliding down his nose. She studied his eyes and saw no judgment there, just a sense of wonder.

  “It was a lot more fun than studying.” She bit her thumbnail. “Professor Periwinkle wasn’t just my teacher; he was my tutor, and we spent a lot of time together after school.”

  “Periwinkle, huh?” Draque chuckled.

  She supposed his name was odd. There was once an infamous witch named Pressy Periwinkle, who’d been accused of shrinking her former lovers’ testicles.

  She eyed Draque coolly and then caught the thick scent of their desire. Thelix clawed at her, demanding to be sated. Serah refused to surrender to her siren, no matter how badly she wanted to bang the shifters.

  Teju cleared his throat, shifting his legs and not-so-inconspicuously adjusting the bulge in his jeans. “The teachers are all women here.”

  She instinctively licked her lower lip, instantly regretting her action. Before Grandfather had taken her from Siren’s Cove, she’d enjoyed the sexual company of two girls her age. They’d helped Serah unlock the secrets of her body. But she wasn’t about to sleep with a professor again, even though the girls she’d been with had pleasured her far better than Professor Periwinkle.

  “Most of them are trolls,” Teju added.

  She blinked at him, thinking of Lady Hoofenmouth with the unibrow, wide nose, and a face that had been struck a few times by a really big ugly stick. No offense to trolls, but they were the most unattractive race in the magical world. “Really? Most of them?”

  “Everyone except for Miss Bubblebosom.” Ladon chuckled. “And they’re all loyal to Doublewart.”

  Holy dragon dong! She didn’t think she could stomach sleeping with a troll. No wonder Grandfather had insisted she attend this school.

  “If you need tutoring,” Teju said, “I’m happy to help.”

  “Thanks, Teju.” Heat flamed her cheeks when she looked into his piercing eyes. She had a feeling his idea of tutoring would be much like Periwinkle’s. “But as soon as my detention’s over, I’m calling my grandfather to come get me.” He wouldn’t want her to stay here after he learned Goldenwands were forbidden. Sure, he was often hard on her and not very affectionate, but he cared enough to see that she got a decent education, didn’t he?

  “You signed the contract, right?” Teju asked.

  “Yeah.” She shrugged, but Grandfather could get her out of it.

  Draque gave her a forlorn look as if he’d accidentally eaten her puppy. “It can’t be revoked.”

  She sat up straighter. “Excuse me?”

  “Dame Doublewart owns your ass until graduation,” he said.

  She tossed long, wavy hair behind her shoulder. “I’m sure I can get out of it.”

  “I’m sure you can’t.” Draque snickered. “Doublewart’s never lost a student. She prides herself on her record.”

  She slumped in her seat. “Fuck.”

  Ladon gave her a sympathetic look. “What year are you?”

  “Twelfth.” She should’ve finished school last year, but she’d gotten a late start.

  “You only have a semester to go.” Teju’s enthusiasm sounded forced. “You’ll get through it.”

  “How long have you been here?” she asked them.

  “Three years,” they answered simultaneously.

  “We’re twelfth years, too,” Ladon said.

  Merlin’s dirty buttplug! “How have you survived that long?”

  The brothers shared sly looks.

  “We’ve managed,” Teju said.

  And by “managed” she suspected they’d seduced every wayward witch in the school.

  “We had no choice,” Ladon said. “We should’ve graduated two years ago, but no other schools would take us.”

  “How old are you?” she asked.

  “Just turned twenty.”

  Hmmm. Triplets. She thought she’d read once dragon eggs hatched in threes. They looked older. Then again, she’d heard dragons were usually mature beyond their years. These guys didn’t act too mature, though.

  “You?” Ladon asked.

  Thelix purred when he flashed those sexy dimples. Hot damn, he was cute. She wondered if he’d meant to turn her on or if he was genuinely sweet and sexy.

  “Almost nineteen,” she said. “I’m a year behind.” Not that she was a dummy. Grandfather hadn’t taken her from Siren’s Cove until she was sixteen.

  Teju puffed up his chest, looking far too sophisticated and sexy as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his Roman nose. “We’ll help you get all caught up.”

  Yesss, please, Thelix begged. More tutoring sessions.

  “Thanks.” She didn’t have the heart to tell him she wasn’t staying. Contracts could always be broken with enough payoff.

  “Our pleasu
re,” Ladon answered, his cheeks flushing so red, she feared he’d catch fire.

  “What is it, Ladon?” she asked.

  He looked at her with big doe eyes, and her heart melted. “You’re the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen.”

  She swore she heard Thelix faint. “Uh, thanks.” She forced herself to look away.

  “Sorry.” He leaned into her, getting so close she could smell him, a blend of heat, magic, and tempting pheromones all his own. “I hope I’m not making you uncomfortable.”

  She fought and the desire that coursed through her when she spied the bulge in his jeans.

  Grab it! Thelix commanded.

  “I’m quite comfortable, thanks,” she answered him while ignoring Thelix. She knew she was attractive, with her wavy, auburn hair, luminous violet eyes, and generous curves. She was built like a siren, after all. But even she knew the power of the siren’s call. Her mesmerizing voice was meant to lure sailors to their deaths, tricking them to fall so madly in love, they completely forgot their imminent danger. Kind of sucked for her at times, because she never knew if men were attracted to her or simply bewitched.

  “I’m sure you get loads of compliments,” Teju said, leaning closer, too.

  Rip off their clothes! Thelix wailed. Or let them rip off yours.

  She should’ve been alarmed that she was being squished into a stud sandwich, but she gloried in it.

  “I do,” she said, “and I’m sure you’ve met prettier girls.”

  “We haven’t,” they said in unison.

  They want you. Spread your legs, already.

  She would’ve been flattered if not for the fact that her pheromones were so strong. She wiped a bead of sweat off her brow, knowing her glands were reacting to the scent of three virile men.

  “Listen,” she said, clenching her hands into fists as she braced for their reaction. “I have to be honest with you. I’m part siren. You’re reacting to my pheromones. All men do.”

  Don’t tell them that! Thelix scolded.

  They froze like gnomes caught in a trapper’s net.

  Draque shared wide-eyed looks with his brothers. “Seriously?”