As if reading her mind, Llyr shook his head slowly and said, “It won’t be making love, Deva. Not when my primal nature takes over. Just remember that. I will make it up to you once I shift, if that is what you want from me. But for this, it will be a wild rut. You’ll enjoy it, of that I have no doubt, but you may regret it. Satyrs are beasts at heart, after all.”
“Am I not a beast at heart too? Four beasts, in fact, though I haven’t yet learned how to unleash mine. Maybe your beast can speak to my beasts and help me figure that out.” She tightened her legs around his waist, rubbing her sensitive core against his cock.
Llyr licked his lips and tilted his hips into hers. “Perhaps,” he said, his voice taking on a richness that vibrated through the water and sank deep into her. He rose up slowly, pushing her along the surface until they reached a deeper section where it came nearly to his shoulders. “Hold that branch behind you.”
When she had braced herself on a length of wet tree root, he bent over her and latched onto her nipple, teasing and sucking until her core filled with fresh heat. Horns slowly emerged at his hairline in front of his temples and he grew in size. His hands at her back spanned wider, his torso pushing her legs farther apart, and within a few moments the water barely covered his hips as he towered over her, a hungry glint in his eyes.
Yet for all the change into his beast, she could still see Llyr. His face had grown more angular as though the skin was tighter across his bones, but his lips were just as full and his hair still the luxurious mop of curls cascading over his shoulders.
His cock had remained in perfect proportion to him and was now a frighteningly massive weight sliding along her inner thigh.
Llyr’s lips curled into a wicked grin. “This is your last chance, Deva. Do you want me to fuck you?”
Her body was alive with wild energy, the urge to scramble out of his grasp and run almost irresistible. But at the same time, her core ached for the solid, thick mass of flesh to fill her up.
“Don’t hurt me,” she said, holding the root above her head until a knotty protrusion jabbed into her palm.
Llyr’s gaze traveled down her torso as he slid his hands over her hips. They were wide enough for his thumbs to graze close to her core as he moved lower and inward, catching her lower lips with his thumbs. Deva gasped and bucked upward when he pressed one pad to her clit and rubbed, then pushed his other thumb inside of her.
“You have the sweetest, most accommodating cunt I’ve ever had the pleasure of fucking. I wish I’d been the first to test your limits, but there’s no way you were a virgin. It will not hurt at all.”
She shook her head, irritated by his repeated insistence that she’d made love to someone else. “I promise you’re my first. Please, Llyr. I need you.”
He pushed his thumb deeper and twisted it, rubbing the pad inside her against a spot that made her entire body flash hot with pure need. Tightening her hold on him, she dug her heels into his ass to draw him closer, but he was stronger and held back just far enough to continue tormenting her with his hands.
“I would give anything to understand what makes you tick. Why you make that claim when I know it’s a lie. Do you genuinely believe it to be true? You can trust me, Deva. Your pleasure was awakened by another. I would bet my life on it. Just admit it.”
Deva closed her eyes. She may have wished for one for the past year, but Ozzie had never come to her despite her unbearable desire to see him. She would have happily taken him to her bed, but that chance had never been given to her. Until today, the entire concept of making love was only a fantasy, despite how vividly her body seemed to feel every aspect when she brought those fantasies to mind.
“Just fuck me,” she growled, at her very limit when he replaced his thumb with the tip of his thick cock and began to rub her clit in tiny circles with it.
Llyr chuckled and grabbed her behind both knees, holding her legs wide. “As you wish,” he said, and slammed home.
It was all Deva could do to hang onto the root for dear life while he pounded into her. He was right, though. It didn’t hurt. Not one bit. All it did was flood her with intense pleasure, and though she reveled in every stroke and jolt of excruciating ecstasy that flooded her, she missed the tenderness he’d shown her before. This wild, primal Llyr was dead set on one thing: fucking her to oblivion and finding his own pleasure in the process.
But it wasn’t love that powered this spell, and she knew it. As much as she’d absorbed the intense emotions of today’s ritual along with the magic from all the participants, she knew it was the magic, pure and simple, that she needed. The love that flowed with it was just a bonus.
She bit her lip around moans of pleasure, forcing herself to remain in control and fixated on the bloodline despite Llyr’s steady thrusts, the teasing strokes of his thumb at her clit, and his fingertips grazing her nipples. She wanted to be ready to cast the spell to finish the ritual the very moment she had the power to do so.
Llyr’s grunts grew ever louder, his cock a glorious pounding weight between her thighs, rubbing against every inch of sensitive flesh inside her. With half her focus, she kept track of his pleasure and her own, keeping the incantation on the tip of her tongue for the moment when she would need it.
The magic built with every rough plunge of his cock into her. Soon it was all she could do to withstand the pressure, unlike any she’d experienced when bringing herself to the edge and over.
As if by reflex, she opened her mouth and started singing. The song had no words, was only a melodic cry of pleasure to the heavens, released because she could no longer hold back. Llyr roared, his big hands tightening around her spread thighs, fingers dinging in hard enough to bruise. His crazed fucking and wild eyes awakened an understanding in her of what the difference was between what she imagined was possible with Ozzie and what a creature as wild and relentless as Llyr could give her, and she loved them both even more for that stark difference.
Rapture consumed her at that revelation, her cry rising in volume and pitch as their shared orgasms tore through her. The dam holding the tide of magic in check for the past few hours finally broke, all the power she’d absorbed so far paling in comparison to the infusion that came from Llyr’s powerful climax, as well as her own.
The orgasms she had in her dreams were like this, and Sweet Mother, did she wish they all could be just as intoxicating. Her voice caught and hitched with the force of Llyr’s final thrusts and she tightened her legs around him to prolong the pleasure. While the final spasms rippled through her body, she closed her eyes once again and refocused on the bloodline.
All the threads were there, even brighter than before, and she finally found the limit of their connections. Every last bright star of the constellations that made up Dion’s bloodline was within her reach.
“I see them all now. I can reach them! Hold me, Llyr. Don’t let me go until it’s done.”
She distractedly registered his immense arms wrapping around her and cradling her close to his body, his length still hard and pulsing inside her. Oddly the presence of his cock didn’t distract her, despite how good he felt. The steady thrum of his pulse matched the pulsing glow of the bloodline and she realized as she studied it that it was because he was a part of it. She had known that, abstractly, but now it was clear. She could touch each and every mind including his with this power.
“I feel you,” she sent to him as a test.
“I have always felt you, since the very moment Meri placed you in our care. You are so much more than you think, Deva.”
“I can feel them all,” she said out loud, marveling at the way each glimmer responded when she reached out her power to it.
“It is time,” Llyr urged.
Bracing herself, she gathered all the power she had absorbed. With the incantation in her mind, she pushed the magic forth, carrying the words she had spent the last day rehearsing.
“We are the higher races, and we are not a lie or a hallucination. We are real. We are ursa,
turul, dragon, and nymphaea. You are of our blood and under our protection. Our secret is now yours, and we must all protect the truth to keep our shared world safe.”
Along with the message, she delivered the spell itself—the one passed down through generations upon generations of dragons and used to secure unbreakable loyalty and secrecy from the humans who shared the bloodlines linked to them. They would be linked to her now, and to Dion, whose blood they all were touched by and whose powers would potentially manifest. Now these humans would know to keep their secrets close, but would also know they were not alone, that the higher races existed and were there to protect them all.
“You did it,” Llyr rumbled, his big hand stroking up and down her back. Beneath her, his body gradually diminished as he returned to his human size, yet he felt no less present inside her, his rigid cock a tangible, pulsing weight that kept her core heated with need for him. It also strangely helped keep her focused on the bloodline, and she couldn’t help but keep observing now that the message had been delivered to see if she could discern any type of reaction.
Llyr squeezed her shoulder. “We can stop, Deva. You succeeded.”
“Not just yet. I want to see how they respond.”
She was only half-aware of Llyr’s tension, but with her eyes closed and her focus fixed on the network of souls connected to her, everything else was just background noise. It took several seconds before she saw the flickering glimmers she interpreted as the revelations hitting each of the tiny lights. They occurred in a beautiful, multicolored cascade from the point of origin—her—outward to the farthest edge of the bloodline she could reach.
“Oh!” She marveled at the beauty of the light show, her heart swelling with love for all those who were no doubt awakening to a changed world now that they’d been given the key to their respective truths. Even at the farthest edges, they shone even brighter now than they had a moment ago, and the feedback of awe and wonder warmed her down to the depths of her being. If she had a soul, it would be rejoicing now.
“Deva . . .” Llyr said, touching her face. “We need to move before they come.”
“Just a second. It’s so beautiful! Can’t you see? All of them are so beautiful.”
“Yes, and we can go meet each and every one if you want, but we need to go.”
She sighed and nodded, but just needed one more survey of all the beauty she had been a part of creating.
But her wonderment was shattered by a bellowing roar. At the same instant, one of the lights went dark.
“Get your goddamned hands off her!” It was one of her fathers—Nikhil, judging from his choice of words. But his arrival worried her far less than what she’d just seen.
“Fuck. Deva, we’re in deep shit.”
Another light went out and Deva clung to him. “Something’s wrong. Don’t let me go!”
Two more lights blinked to darkness. Dozens of others flickered and dimmed.
Llyr grabbed her arms and lifted her away, pushing her back into the water with a splash. Her eyes flew open just in time to see him surge out of the water, thrown back by some invisible force. He hit the Silas tree with a heavy thud and grimaced.
“Daddy, don’t! There’s something wrong with the bloodline. I need Llyr to help me figure out what it is!”
Nikhil didn’t even acknowledge her, instead pointing a finger at Llyr who struggled against an invisible force that held him to the tree. “You were sent to guard her, you son of a bitch! What gave you the right to fuck my daughter?”
“The ritual . . .” Llyr groaned. “Needed more power.” Finally whatever force kept him upright disappeared and he slumped down and pressed the heel of his hand to his forehead. “Fucking hell, that was unnecessary.”
Deva swiftly exhaled a breath and covered her body with what she hoped were more opaque garments than she’d worn earlier. She clambered out of the pool and over the roots onto the patch of grassy earth beside Nikhil.
“Daddy, stop. I needed him. He isn’t lying. I still need him. Will you listen to me? Something happened to them!”
“I don’t give a fuck. He had no right to touch you!” He still didn’t hear her. His eyes were filled with rage, his hands alight with brilliant red fire. He extended his fingers toward Llyr’s head, flaming arcs dancing between them.
More figures came running up the path. Belah let out a cry of dismay, her other mates cursing as they reached them. Behind them were Neph and Aodh and Vrishti, followed closely by all the others.
“What the hell happened?” Neph yelled.
Llyr’s brows contorted and he gave Deva an agonized look, then turned to Neph. “I am sorry. I failed you. I failed my duty, but if it gives me any reprieve, you must know that I love her. I would die for her, so if he wants to set me on fire, let him.”
“Nikhil, stand down,” Neph said, though his aura was no less filled with dissonant colors of anger and disappointment. Deva ached with worry that any of that might be directed at her, but perhaps reason would return now that Neph was here and she could explain to them what she saw once they settled down. “Llyr, explain to me why you blatantly disobeyed my order. You were to guard her, nothing more.”
“And I did. I only did what was necessary to ensure the success of the ritual. That was my intention all along. But when she sang . . . Gaia and Dion forgive me, but when she sang, there was no going back. It would have happened one way or the other, but it needed to happen today for her to complete her task.”
“Bullshit!” Neph yelled, his eyes swirling wildly with anger. Deva flinched and let out an involuntary gasp as his stature swelled into its true primal shape, every bit as glorious as Llyr’s had been, but far more terrifying for the rage that bloomed in his eyes when he was full-size. “You were to tell us what was needed. We had reserves to tap into. Other participants. Zorion and his sister had yet to add their power. Dion could have given even more. What you were not to do was take it upon yourself to seduce my daughter.”
“Didn’t you hear him?” Deva jumped in, her body alive with anger at their repeated accusations. “It was my song! I sang him a mating song. It’s my fault, not his!”
Neph snorted. “That song is a poor excuse. We all know your powers have yet to hold any potency. The only potential power you possessed was your virginity, which was clearly too strong a temptation for him. Did you enjoy the conquest, Llyr?”
Llyr pushed himself up to his feet, muttering under his breath. “She wasn’t a virgin, so I gained no boon from being the first to make love to her.”
Deva’s skin grew cold, her chest tightening. How could he still say that? She hadn’t lied to him.
“What did you say?” Neph and Nikhil both snapped.
Llyr lifted his head and speared both men with a whirling aqua gaze. “I said, she was not a virgin. She had no wellspring of power a virgin should possess when she first makes love. So either she was born without it, just as she was born without a soul, or someone got to her before I did. But I swear to you, I was not her first.”
“Deva, is this true?” Nikhil said, confusion now a sparking addition to the crazed lights that flashed in his aura.
“No! I swear. Llyr was my first!” She turned to Llyr, tears springing to her eyes. “Why would you even say that? I have no reason to lie!”
“Don’t you?” Llyr asked bitterly. “Would it be a lie to say you loved someone before me, that you sang a different mating song before the one you sang to me? Perhaps that one was answered too, and you are just ashamed that you were ultimately rejected.”
“Deva,” Nikhil said in a low voice. “Is what he says true? I will defend your honor at all costs.”
“No!” she yelled, panicking at the accusations. “Ozzie didn’t reject me. He just couldn’t come . . .” Tears streamed down her face now and she hated herself for the display of weakness.
“Was Ozzie the one who did this?” Nikhil snapped. “I will destroy him.”
“No, Daddy, Ozzie never touched me, I promise.�
�� She shook her head and clenched her eyes shut, her heart aching at how much she wished those dreams of hers were true. She wished even more that he were here, because at that moment, nothing but his music could have soothed her.
“Deva, that’s a lie and you know it!” Llyr yelled.
With a flash of raw anger, she turned to him. “What the hell does it matter? All I know is that I can’t trust you enough to protect me. Not when you won’t even believe what I say. I had no reason to lie to you. But I have every reason now to never want to see you again!”
The Source beneath her feet flooded into her as though summoned, its power setting her veins on fire. A split-second later she let it pull her under, not even caring where the current took her.
Chapter Ten
Agony tore through Llyr at Deva’s abrupt departure when he realized his mistake. He had been too harsh, allowing his fear of Neph and his need to defend himself to cloud his judgment. It didn’t matter one bit to him whether Deva had loved Ozzie first, or whether she still did. She had a heart big enough to love them both.
A heart that he had just succeeded in breaking.
“Where did she go?” Nikhil yelled, charging at him and slamming him back into the tree with a hand around his throat.
“I don’t know! All I know is that she doesn’t want me or any of us to go after her.”
A worried Vrishti appeared at Nikhil’s side. “We should let her have her space. All of you should be ashamed of yourselves for what just happened. She wants nothing more than to know who she is and where she fits into our world. This ritual was her chance to do that. I take it she succeeded?”
“Yes,” Llyr said, his voice breaking over the lump in his throat. He longed to go after her and tell her he was sorry, tell her he didn’t mean any of it, and ask her to sing for him again.
But he had been linked to her mind at the end, witnessed the web of lights which comprised the bloodline as Deva sent her power out to reach every last person and deliver the message. He smiled to himself, though he was near tears now. She had proved herself despite having no power of her own aside from what he could draw from her with his touch.
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