by A. K. Koonce
“Fucking woman,” he whispers to himself as he walks off into the copse of thinning trees.
A flicker of a blaze hits the air just before Latham walks right out of nothing at all. His wild gaze searches me, his hands trembling against my tangled hair.
“You’re alright?” He lifts my hands then turns my head this way and that, pausing on the dry blood along my throat.
“I’m fine,” I whisper and swallow down the epiphany I’ve just had.
A smile still pulls at my lips, and I might never get over the fact that I feel like my best friend has finally come home to me.
It’s a strange, empowering sensation.
Wind presses downward, fanning the flames of the river before an enormous dragon touches down at my side. Thick legs are eye level with me, while his chest and body are well over two stories tall. Inky scales glint against the firelight. A swaying tail sweeps forward, and the torch at the end of it swooshes past me as the length of it curls around my hips, bringing me closer in small, inching steps. He drags me right up to him, his head lowering before dark, sliced pupils fixate on me. My own features shine in his beautiful, monstrous eyes. I lift a hand and ever so lightly run my fingertips over his chest. The ridges of his scales are like smooth leather. A beautiful armor.
Laughter hums from my lips.
“You’re the kind of beast who would hoard a girl like me away if this were a fairy tale,” I whisper quietly.
Scales shimmer brighter, and magic crackles with the scent of smoke blooming around us. His shift happens all at once, and Aric’s smooth arms wrap around me where his tail once was. But a part of his creature is still present. Large black wings take their time sinking into the flesh of his back as my hand drifts higher, sliding over the leathery feel of them before they disappear entirely. Soft skin is all that’s left, my fingers still skimming there lightly.
“Careful,” Aric warns, his words spoken so close I can feel them against my tongue. “I still might hoard you away and keep you for myself, Love.”
My heart free-falls harder than when I fell from a cliff just seconds ago. How does he do that? How has no one in my entire life ever made me feel the way this crazy killer of a man does?
The noise of someone clearing their throat rather roughly jars me, and I realize how lost I was in his fire-kissed eyes. I tear my attention away and clothing is shoved right in my face.
“How about we put a nice, safe layer of clothing on?” Latham offers me a shirt and a pair of jeans before shoving another round of clothing toward his friend.
It’s then that I realize how very on display I am.
Latham’s gaze dips low, but he looks away toward the sparse tree line.
When I glance back up to Aric though…
Ravenous hunger consumes his eyes, and that rawness trails down the length of my body before slowly meeting my gaze.
“I think we should clean up first,” Aric rumbles, his hot breath fanning across my collarbone.
Latham still doesn’t look at us, but he nods as he points toward the land where Torben is collecting full size trunks of trees over his shoulder like they’re just a bit of firewood.
“Should make camp,” Torben grumbles.
“There’s a sprite’s cove deep in the forest here,” Latham says as if he didn’t hear his grumpy friend.
“Should rest up before heading further,” Torben adds but is speaking to literally no one at this point.
My eyes narrow on the ash white trees Latham just called a forest.
“Sprite’s cove? As in a cove of water?” I ask, also ignoring Torben’s grumbles. If I’m prioritizing needs, getting clean beats shelter at this point.
Latham smirks at that question, but before he answers he disappears altogether. The fire barely has time to fizzle out before he’s back, holding my small grey cat who has now returned to normal. Including the unimpressed scowl on his little adorable face. He puts him down, and Loki shakes out his fur before trotting off to explore, fully content that I’m fine for now.
Even my cat’s a psycho now. Is this what Hell does to people?
Latham leads us after him, motioning toward the cover of trees.
“This place has been a dry wasteland since the beginning of time. Then the dark elves came, other forest creatures followed. Water nymphs and sprites. Trees grew as their magic spread here and there where it could. It drove Hela mad to see life blossoming so close to her home.” The soft tone and the smile that brightens Latham’s sharp features chases out the torment that always hides behind his eyes.
“Are sprites like pixies then?” I follow with my clothes bunched in my hands as Latham guides us past the thin, tall tree trunks.
Laughter rumbles out of Aric in a way that warms my chest.
“Not one fucking bit,” he says. “Pixies are annoyingly helpful bursts of happiness. Sprites are fucking evil.”
I look at him with wide eyes. A very obvious question falls from my lips.
“Then why are we going there?” Haven’t I been through enough for one day?
“They’re too small to attack. They’re flighty around anything larger than themselves.” Latham slips through a pair of trees, and the space around us is growing tighter by the second. Thousands of gray and white bark trees are everywhere, growing so closely together it’s hard to slip through. The forest scrapes at my thighs and back as I follow after him.
“They’ll fuck with you. But never to your face,” Aric adds.
“I don’t know how much farther I can go—” Another trunk drags roughly over my ass as I try to squeeze through a space Latham’s lithe body just disappeared into. I stagger out the other side and my mouth falls open the moment I get through.
Light patches of pale green grass carpet the ground that shimmers with sand and rock. The pebbles are a rainbow of color. Amber pinks, mint greens, deep jades, pale lavender, ruby reds, and so many more line the shore of a glinting sapphire cove.
“Oh my gods,” I whisper as the magic settles into my very soul.
A warm hand settles low against my back as Aric’s smooth chest skims against mine, teasing my nipples lightly. “Wait until you feel it,” he tells me, and a different kind of magic coils low in my stomach.
I swallow hard and try not to regard him or his sensual words.
“We can use this?” I ask cautiously while I take a safe step back from the sexy shifter to place my clothes down hesitantly over the beautiful smooth pebbles.
Latham nods, his starry eyes catching the shimmering magic in the depths of his eyes as he takes it all in. But he doesn’t come closer.
He leans against a tree instead. A calmness blankets over us here, and I understand that look in his features.
It’s peace.
No one is taunting me here. No one hates me here. No one’s chasing me or wants me dead.
It’s like Heaven snuck into Hell.
I’ll stay here in this nirvana for as long as they let me.
A roaring yell and thunderous feet trample over my tranquility, and I’m alert in a single second. I turn on my bare feet.
Just in time to be splashed in the fucking face by Aric’s cannon ball dive into the cove. Water streams down my cheeks when I glare at his head that bobs up from the beautiful, gleaming surface.
“Get in!” he yells with no concern for the little squeaks of noise I hear hiding in the shadows around us. A quick flutter of wings and a scurry of mouse-like words pass around the circular open expanse we stand in.
But I suppose Aric’s right, they haven’t attacked us.
Yet…
I turn and look over my shoulder at Latham, the true voice of reason between the two shifters. His soft smile still ghosts his lips as he nods to me. “It’s nice, like a sauna.”
His attention slides down my back and even lower before I turn away from him. Nudity has never been a self-conscious way of life in my pack. It’s natural for the most part.
Then why does it feel so tense with sexual
need even when I’m dressed for winter in the mountains around these men?
Warm pebbles caress my feet with each step I take. They’re heated from the land and soft against my skin. My toes dip into the pure blue water. The unnatural cove ripples out from my disturbance. The temperature is like a hot bath, and I eagerly wade out into it.
Aric’s attention never leaves me. His stare is just as warm as the water and sends tingles across my flesh, much like the magic glinting in the depths I’m sinking into. My nipples tighten as I hold his gaze, and I’m all too aware of the shifting of my thighs. An uneven breath pulls into my lungs. It all becomes too much.
I lower down as far as I can go and let the heat of the cove surround me as my head lowers fully under. My heart still taps incessantly against my ribs to stride through this beautiful water, swim right up to that intoxicating man, and do all the things I’ve wanted to do to him since the moment we met. Hiding below the surface, I calm my demanding thoughts as well as my lovesick heart.
As for my frustrated monster of a sex drive… that’s a loss. All women understand that we can’t do anything to fix that. It’ll rage on until I or someone else slays the beast.
I kick off from the luxurious sandy bottom and rise up from the waters. Moisture clings to my lashes as I open my eyes.
And one hell of a sexy man is standing right in front of me.
That deadly dark smile of his parts his lips.
“Told you it’d feel good,” he whispers like he’s the god of deviance and desire.
Shit.
Heat burns my cheeks.
Is it too soon to sneak back under the water again?
Droplets trickle from his fingertips as he lifts his hand to my face. He skims his palm along my jawline, down my neck, across my collarbone.
“So much blood on such a pretty face,” he says as he tenderly swipes away the remains of battle that still stain my skin.
He stands tall, the surface hitting inches above his belly button where it meets my body just over the curve of my breasts. I slink down to cover myself, feeling more intimate with Aric than I’ve ever felt with anyone in my entire life. Our reflections cast between us. Those images ripple away as he takes a single step closer. The slickness of his chest meets mine, my nipples tingling at the sensation of his body pressed perfectly against my own.
The warmth of his hand lingers along the side of my throat.
His head dips low and an ache forms deep inside me.
“Can I kiss you again?” he whispers like it pains him not to.
My wanting gaze never leaves his.
But something inside me cracks beneath the perfection of this fairy-tale moment.
“No,” I answer suddenly, and it truly does pain me as much as my voice trembles to say it.
His mouth opens as his hand slides away. With a single step he steals all that delicious desire he gave me just moments ago.
“Sorry,” he murmurs, and suddenly the cocky dragon shifter can’t meet my eyes. He can’t seem to look at me.
“I—” I breathe through the tense pressure of confused want and fear swirling between my body, head, and heart.
“Maybe we should go,” Latham calls out to us.
I turn and he’s staring up at the sky, avoiding looking at me as much as his friend is.
“Darkness falls quickly out here,” Latham adds.
“Yeah.” Aric’s tone is cutting and awkward.
With heavy steps that push at the waves of the water, he passes me. Water streams down his perfect body, licking at the tattoos along his arms and neck, cascading down the muscular globes of his ass and corded legs. Latham offers him a black towel and he presses his face into it. As the two men stand side by side, they appear as though they were made from the mystical magic that surrounds us. The hard lines of their bodies, the sharpness of their jaws, and even the stance that they hold themselves in is the epitome of enchantment.
I wade to the shore with quiet steps. Warm water slides down my flesh, but I don’t take the towel Latham holds out to me. I stare at Aric’s back. He refuses to turn around. There’s no hostility in him, but he won’t face me. It seems he’s…
Embarrassed.
Oh my gods, the psychotic dragon shifter is embarrassed.
And he’s also wrong.
“I didn’t not want you to kiss me,” I say quietly.
The towel he ruffles his shaggy tawny hair with stops abruptly. Tension lines his shoulders, yet he still doesn’t turn to me.
“I wanted you to kiss me,” I add.
Latham arches his brow and looks from Aric to me and then back again. The fenrir lowers the unused towel, shrugs quietly and magics it away with a flick of his wrist. He peers down at the dirt and blood that paints him, and with another wave of magic, he’s sparkling and spotless, distracting me slightly with his flourishes of magic.
Aric’s feet shift, and he turns casually around. A half smile tilts his lips, but it doesn’t hold any of that manic happiness of his.
It’s fake.
“You don’t have to explain, Love. I’m not fragile. I can take rejection.” He tosses his towel carelessly to the ground, and once more Latham glares at his friend and then me as he twists his hand and, with a spark of magic, he cleans up the disposed and forgotten towel.
“That’s not what I meant though,” I start, but Aric quickly cuts me off.
“It’s not a big deal. It’s fine. I’m fine. You’re fine. Fuck, even Latham’s fine. Right, Latham?”
“No, actually. I wish you two would stop fucking ignoring me during your lover’s quarrels.” Latham speaks with a calm stream of annoyance that never once hints at hostility. But yeah, he’s as pissed as I might ever see him.
“It’s not a lover’s quarrel,” Aric replies preposterously. “We’re not lovers. And that’s fine. Like I said. We’re fine. More than fine.”
“Would you shut the fuck up?” I scream, leaning up on my tippy toes to really drive my point home to my hard-headed dragon shifter. “Shut. Up.”
Both men look at me with wide eyes and open mouths.
But finally, they say nothing.
Finally.
“I didn’t want you to kiss me because this moment isn’t real! It’s a blip of beauty in my life that won’t last. This beautiful fucking fae magic will fade away by nightfall, and we’ll be back to fighting off Hell and bringing me to my mother in hopes that I find somewhere I belong.” My voice cracks as I look from Aric’s warm russet eyes to Latham’s cool blue irises. “I don’t belong with you. Either of you! I don’t belong anywhere.” The emotion is thick in my throat, and no matter how hard I swallow, the feelings won’t go away.
Quiet flits of wings settle into the silence that follows my outburst. The sprites are really settling in for this soap opera it seems.
Shit. Why did I say any of that?
“Elf,” Latham says in the quietest voice.
I blink at him in confusion.
“You said fae magic. It’s not faerie magic, it’s elfin magic. Much more powerful. Darker. Not the same.” The more Latham explains, the more his voice dwindles off into nothingness. He just stares at me like that lost look in his eyes is finally sinking in and consuming him whole. “And you do belong. Especially with us,” he whispers.
Aric prowls toward me. His confident steps eat up the space between us and he takes my hand slowly. He holds it and brings my palm up flat against his smooth chest. The strong drumming of his heart beats against my fingertips.
“I lied. You’re not something I want to hoard away, Rhys.” The way his deep rumbling voice says my name sends a shiver straight through me. “You don’t fit in because you’re not a piece of a common collection. You’re rare.” His hand tangles through my wet hair, his sweet words tangling deeper into my heart than he’ll ever know. “Don’t ever worry about fitting into a society of stones when you’re a fucking diamond.”
“Diamonds actually aren’t rare,” Latham murmurs, but his sound an
d constant logic is ignored as I lean in and slam my lips to Aric’s.
His tongue parts my lips. Fingers tighten in my locks as he drags me hard against his body, my slick curves sliding against him in the best possible way. The friction is fluid, and the motion only reminds me of how badly I want to feel him sliding deep between my thighs.
My moan hums along his tongue, and his palm that’s sliding down my hips lifts. A jerking sensation jars me against him before my back hits something behind me.
Aric pulls away just slightly as hooded eyes look from me… to something just behind me.
Warm and gentle hands slide around my waist, and I look over my shoulder to a sweet but hesitant smile.
Latham stands flush against my back, the water from my body seeping into his clothes as he stares down at me with parted but quiet lips.
They’re always so careful with me. Protective. Kind.
Even like this, they don’t pressure me.
And Latham’s about to excuse himself.
I can tell in the way he takes a platonic step away from me, his hands still clinging to my curves despite how clear it is he thinks he should leave.
I arch backward in Aric’s embrace, not fully turning to my fenrir but peering at him from over my shoulder. My arm lifts to slink my palm over Latham’s neck before my fingers slide into his soft hair.
My lips hover over his as my eyes close slowly and I whisper, “Stay.”
I never lean in. I don’t make it easy for him. But I do hold my ground with my back to his chest. I let our breaths collide in an anxious battle of wants and wills that neither of us understand but both of us need. There’s so much conflict in his eyes.
It’s like he thinks he doesn’t deserve even a second of happiness or pleasure.
But he’s wrong.
And then his lips brush over mine.
His kiss is slow as he tastes me like he never wants this single moment to pass. Sharp nails dig into my hips where he holds me tightly against him. His tongue swirls over mine as another pair of warm lips press to my collarbone where Aric teases my flesh while Latham consumes my kiss. The two of them are this conflicting, caressing, biting mixture of total sexual desire.
Sharp teeth graze my nipple before sweeping over the peak with the flat of a sinful tongue. The dragon shifter has a rougher touch. Steady, gentle hands slide down the valley of my thighs, tracing ever so slowly over my body before stopping just above my clit. Latham’s long fingers brush back and forth there, so close to where I need him, but not close enough.
