5. Quintus

5

QUINTUS

I gulped. Aghast. And yet…

I had the taste of her venom in my mouth.

I had tasted a goddess.

I had drunk from the source of life, only one step removed from Mother Earth Herself. Something I had never even dreamed of. No Aima warrior had for generations. We Aima were now so far removed from the Mother that our queens couldn't even conceive heirs any longer. We were a dying breed. The world had no use for us other than killing.

Evidently this goddess still had use for me.

I had died in her arms, but I still remembered her words. She wished to sire an heir this very night.

A goddess wanted me to give her a queen.

My cock wasn't the only thing standing at attention. Every hair on my body quivered at the power streaming from her. The air was thick and heavy with her magic. The twins she'd called curled around her, still in their new two-headed form, but the other snakes and scorpions had withdrawn.

Too many emotions crashed through me. Exultation that I'd finally been called to be Blood, to a goddess no less. Terror that I'd fail to meet such esteemed expectations. Awe for the beast into which I could now shift. Incredible strength hummed in my veins, vicious joy at the thought of chopping enemies with my massive pinchers or stabbing them with my tail so I could watch them die slow, agonizing deaths.

But most of all, desperate thirst. I burned for more. More of my queen-goddess's blood. Or venom. Better yet, both. It wouldn't kill me this time, and I craved that bitter, exquisite sensation of poison flowing through my senses.

It was all I could do not to shove my way through the coils of her basilisks to make room between her thighs so I could feast at will. Panting, I dragged my gaze away, forcing myself to focus on our surroundings.

We were in some kind of chamber that looked like it'd been carved out of obsidian. The walls glittered, reflecting the soft glow of dangling strands of lights. I could feel the sheer weight of tons of earth above us, but it was surprisingly bright in this underground chamber, providing me plenty of light to look upon the goddess who'd called me.

In her presence, I couldn't not gaze upon her. Every cell in my body resonated with awareness of her, burning to please her. Protect her. Aid her in anything she wished. Though what use could a goddess have for an old Roman soldier?

She stared back at me, her eyes dark, bottomless pits. Her body was lush and rounded with full hips and glorious breasts, but she was far from soft. I remembered the feel of her beneath my lips and hands. She didn't have skin. Not exactly. She didn't have a flesh-and-bone body. I'd seen her snake-fingers feeding on the twins.

She was goddess incarnate. She could probably make a child out of thin air and moonlight. She didn't need mundane cum and sweat to make her heir.

Letting out a throaty sigh that made my heart pound, she reclined backward on her basilisks. "Oh, but I do, dear one. I want the cum and sweat very much indeed. Though I could certainly spark a queen from moonlight, it's not nearly as pleasurable as having a man inside me."

In a heartbeat, I was on top of her, though I didn't remember taking a step. Her scent drove me mad. Earthy musk mixed with the scent of pure moonlit magic. Sparkling and yet heavy and warm, going straight to my head as if I'd guzzled an entire keg of ambrosia.

Barely, I had just enough sense to try and pull back a moment. No woman wanted a man to just fall on her and fuck her before making sure she was thoroughly pleasured first. Let alone a queen.

Very much the goddess of snakes, she wound around me, drawing me closer like the ceaseless tide. I had a moment of clarity, my gaze locked to hers, and then I was falling into her eyes, tumbling head over heels. Flying ever faster. I sank to the hilt inside her and shuddered, fighting the instantaneous surge of crazed lust. A goddess. I had to remember. To honor her. Not rut like a mindless beast.

Still falling into her black, shining eyes, I gasped and shuddered again. I'd never had an issue with controlling myself before. But then I'd never fucked a goddess either.

Her fangs scratched my earlobe, a sharp warning that helped cut through the swirling tides sucking me under. I concentrated on my body, fighting to remember who I was. Every nerve ending in my skin hummed with energy. Time seemed to slow. I had forever to think in between the beats of my heart.

Her hair floated about her head, sliding over my face and shoulders as if it had a mind of its own. Soft as spider silk and pure ebony, shining like spilled ink. Perhaps a spider had given her its web to crown her head. After what I'd seen this night, anything was possible.

She flexed beneath me in a sinuous move that flipped me on my back before I could even blink. "That's better. Now remind me why I was a fool to sleep for so long, when I could have had you inside me."

Swaying above me, she moved like a cobra, and I was just as mesmerized as prey held captive in her seductive dance. She twisted and writhed, squeezing me so tightly that I couldn't breathe. I didn't want to breathe. Nothing mattered but giving her what she wanted. Staying hard as long as possible. Giving her every last drop of my blood. Cum. Sweat. Whatever she needed.

"Yesssss," she hissed against my lips. "You, Quintus Bellonae, now sire the first Titanes queen in more than four thousand years."

My cock exploded. Indeed, it felt like my entire body gushed inside her. She drank me down, wringing every last ounce from my body. If a barbarian horde suddenly descended on this cavern, I couldn't have lifted a finger to protect her.

She pressed a tender kiss to my forehead, her lips surprisingly soft. "You will never be alone again, Quintus. Lay down your sword and rest now, safe in my arms."

My chin trembled, my eyes wet. Surely not with tears. Not me, the undying Roman soldier.

With one last tender kiss, she rolled over onto her back on top of me, her head thrown back beside mine. "Now, my twins, complete what my alpha has begun. Three ancient lines blending together inside me. My heir will carry you all."

I wrapped my arms around her, nuzzling my face into her silky hair. Through her bond that blazed inside me, I knew the other two Bloods' names. Drazhan and Dalibor of House Lada. Certainly an ancient and renowned line that I'd have guessed gone from this earth before the Call had rocked through me.

They didn't speak. But with the new Blood bond forged inside each of us, I knew their thoughts as my own. Sheer terror tore through our bonds. They couldn't act independently. They needed to move together, at the same time. So double penetration wouldn't be possible. They couldn't work in tandem. They must work in unison .

Sitting up with our goddess in my arms, I supported her back against my chest. Even better than I, she knew exactly what they needed. She didn't hesitate or question their limitations, but simply wrapped her hands around their cocks. Her fingers remained fingers this time, at least. Though I don't think they would have objected if she'd wrapped snakes around them.

They sucked in a hard gasp exactly the same way, hips arching helplessly into her caress. I didn't have to see her face to sense the small, knowing smile on her lips as she ever so slowly leaned closer, letting her breath flow over their straining flesh.

"I wonder what will happen if I take one of you into my mouth? Will you both feel it?"

:Forgive us, Goddess, but once your lips touch us, we will be finished.:

"Good," she drew the word out into a soft sigh as she closed her mouth over one of them.

I wasn't sure which. I couldn't tell them apart. They weren't apart or different, at least in the bond. They shuddered, a raw sound like ripping silk echoing in the chamber. Their heads fell back, necks and shoulders straining as they climaxed.

With her mouth locked over one's cock, she drained him down as surely as she'd fed earlier. The other man's cum splattered over her breasts, though she quickly absorbed every drop through her skin. Mine too, because yes, I'd climaxed again, unable to hold back as her pleasure flooded my senses.

With a pleased sigh, she drew the twins down with us so we all lay tangled in an exhausted heap, but I couldn't sleep. I didn't want to ever sleep again. Not while I finally had a reason to live.

She turned on her side, her face against my throat. Her bond snaked inside me, a dark, poisonous tunnel that remained open to the goddess's innermost self. Humbled with reverence, I sank deeper into her, watching as her magic melded three Aima lines with the deadliest venoms of the world.

A pinprick of brilliant starlight burned in her stomach. Too bright to look upon, it slowly grew, swirling like a spinning galaxy. Hekate fed a thread of power into the swirling light, and it started to suck in all the magic that we'd released through blood and sex. The air buzzed, tingling on my skin as the whirlpool grew in strength.

The thread flowing into the spinning ball grew heavier. Stronger. A river. A torrent greater than the angry sea. Ever brighter, until I had to avert my attention, eyes streaming in pain. My ears popped, startling me enough that I jerked slightly, jostling our tangled pile.

"Shhh," Hekate whispered. "You'll wake her."

I leaned up so I could see down the length of her body. A baby lay on her stomach. I had no experience with children, but she—definitely a daughter—looked to be a few weeks old, not newborn. Her skin gleamed like polished ebony. Like mine.

Scrambling upright as gently as possible, I cradled the goddess and child in my arms, unable to stop looking at the baby. A queen, an heir of her line.

Aima queens hadn't been able to create heirs in centuries. Yet in one blissful night, Hekate had made the impossible.

The child opened her eyes, revealing an impossible brilliant indigo. The color of the night sky just as the sun slipped beneath the horizon.

The twins' bond echoed with reverence. :She's beautiful. She has our eyes.:

"Indeed," Hekate whispered, stroking a finger over the baby's cheek. "Belladonna Titanes, as beautiful—and poisonous—as her name. She has inherited all my gifts. All my venomous creatures. Will you help me protect her?"

I didn't have to look at the other two men to know their answer. We three Blood tightened our grips on our queen. Our goddess. And our child.

"Without question, Goddess."

We'll see more of Belladonna in the future, especially with Xochitl in the Princess Takes Academy timeline.