Chapter 17

Chapter

Seventeen

EMBER

" W hat--" Storm's eyes fly open, too, and we dip in the air.

Clinging to him, I laugh, full-throated and free. I'm not going to pretend that having sex with him fixed everything between us, but consummating our bond opened up our wounds and gave them a dose of healing magic.

It also opened up our elemental magic, it would seem.

"Yeah," a dry voice says from behind me. "That happens sometimes."

I look over to find Rafe standing just inside the open door. Fire burns in his eyes, and I hide my face in Storm's shoulder. Deep inside, fresh wetness blooms in the place where Storm and I are still connected. My pussy flexes and pulses, and my other mates' hunger erupts into our bond. Gasping, I curl my legs around Storm even more tightly, reveling in the flushes of warmth shooting through my body.

Storm gathers me close, his cock softening, but the desire in his side of our connection isn't weakening at all. "A little privacy," he grumbles.

"Sorry," Jianyu says, following Rafe into the room. "Not really a thing in this group."

"Like I said." Malik brushes past them both, his bright eyes lit with passion. "It takes a little getting used to." He reaches up to brush a hand over my thigh, and I shudder as a ripple of aftershocks rock my core.

"Ember--" Storm starts.

I kiss his questions from his lips. I want to help him adjust to this new dynamic--he never had to share me before.

But I've been fantasizing about having all four of my men together with me for days, and now that the floodgates have been opened, there's no holding back the tide.

The brilliant silver light that twined me and Storm together grows in brilliance, but they're not alone. New tendrils of radiance begin to grow from my very center, each leading to another mate, and I feel as if I'm going to fly apart into a thousand pieces. Like I need them to touch me and hold me, to complete me.

I need them. In the most carnal, visceral, physical way possible.

Hot need sparks deep within me, and I cry out, suddenly desperate for them all. It doesn't matter that Storm just made me come at least three times. I'm ravenous and flailing wildly in an abyss of desire. My mate-bonds demand satisfaction, but it's more than that.

Dark billowing clouds of purple smoke fill my chest as my dragon rises from the void. Lightning cracks across my vision, and my ears fill with a deafening roar.

Storm and I spin through the air, dropping back to the bed in a rush of Air Dragon magic that sparkles through my blood. Cool water erupts through my veins as Malik reaches for me. I feel the solid stone of Jianyu's presence; the power of the very ground, somewhere far below our feet. Rafe inserts himself behind me, miraculously already naked, because of course he is. He cranes my neck backward, and I laugh into his kiss, but the laughter dies away. Fire eclipses my soul before melting into that black shadow surfacing within me.

A prickle of terror claws at me. There's no mistaking the tenor of the shadows now--the call of my very nature. Every part of my being cries out for me to give in and embrace my power, but its dark seduction still makes me shiver.

I don't have to wander in the darkness alone, though.

I throw myself into Rafe's embrace, pulling at his fire magic to light the way when blackness threatens to envelop me. He's an inferno against my spine, breathing flames of need into all my dark and wanting places.

As Rafe pulls me into his arms, Storm slips free with a wet gush, and I let loose an anguished cry, flexing around the sudden, unbearable emptiness.

"I got you," Rafe promises. As he turns me around to face him, he slips his fingers into me, and I'm so open and swollen and slick. I gasp as he presses against that perfect spot along my inner wall, his thumb rubbing at my achy clit.

Jianyu is at my back, naked now, too, his hard cock pressing against my ass. I arch into him, practically presenting to be fucked. It would be so easy--he could just bend me forward and slide inside, but Rafe is still knuckles-deep. Malik reaches into the tangle of our limbs to steal a kiss, and I give it to him freely. His hot hand curls around my breast, rubbing at my nipple, sending sparks of hot pleasure racing down my spine.

But it's still not enough. I need to be taken--held down and thrust into. I need them all, their hands, their kiss, their cocks. If I can't have them, it feels like I'm going to fall apart.

Storm lets out a strangled sound, and I break the kiss with Malik. Our gazes connect, and in a flash, I remember the innocent girl I was when we first met. I was angry and alone, isolated and abandoned.

Over the course of our relationship, I became utterly, completely his.

And now I'm here. Naked and dripping his come in a pile of men who are each a missing piece of my soul. He has every right to feel betrayed.

Instead, realization lights his beautiful, silver eyes. It's as if he never understood the true meaning of my multiple matings, right until this very moment.

Relief floods me, and my vision threatens to blur as he shifts onto his knees. He runs a hand down my side, sending waves of pleasure in his wake.

"This is real, isn't it," he asks. "You're..." His throat bobs. "You're the one we've been waiting for."

And I don't know what he means--if he's talking about the crazy prophecy about my future ascendency to some mythical throne, or if he's talking about my place as his mate. The mate to all four of these incredible men.

But I nod, and he cups my face. My other mates part for him, and he inserts himself into the fray, capturing my lips. Brilliant sparkles of magical, sexual energy burn through the darkness that threatened to ruin everything, just moments before. My shattered pieces are knit together. For the first time in my life, I feel whole.

And all I want is more.

Even as I'm losing myself in Storm's kiss, Rafe is pulling his fingers free of my pussy, only to slip them lower. I groan as he grazes my back entrance with slick fingertips.

"What do you think, gorgeous?" Rafe asks. "Want to see how many of us you can take at once?"

Just the suggestion sparks a sharp pang of pure need. My insides spasming, I nod wildly. "Yes--God, yes--"

"Wait." Storm's eyes fly wide. "Do you mean?"

"Wait until you see her," Jianyu murmurs, sliding a hand up my quivering side. "She's magnificent."

"Now--come on," I beg, tilting my hips.

Rafe hears my silent plea and presses just past the tight ring of my ass, and I cry out.

"Holy shit," Storm murmurs.

Malik gives my nipple a harder tweak. "I never imagined it would be like this, either."

His tattoos ripple with energy, and I squeeze down around the emptiness in my pussy. Shifting to the side, I press my mouth to his, gazing into his eyes. While he's had me plenty of times and in plenty of ways, alongside my other mates and alone, I have yet to take on more than one man at a time with him.

Malik was always the most resistant to sharing. But based on the sheer hunger in his gaze, he's more than ready to give it a try now.

Jianyu steps away for a moment, only to return with the little bottle of lube we picked up at some point along the way. In a show of just how far the two of them have come in terms of working together as a team, he drips a generous puddle of it into Rafe's waiting hand. Rafe pulls his fingers free, but when they return, they're warm and slick and probing relentlessly into my deepest places.

I whine against the discomfort of the intrusion, but my body knows how to do this now. How to open up for my mates; how to trust them and let them in.

"That's it," Rafe breathes. "Good girl."

My breathing ramps up even further, the panting noises coming out of me rising in pitch.

Even as he opens up my ass to be fucked, my pussy is gaping and unfilled. "Someone," I babble, shifting restlessly against Rafe's invasion. "I need--"

"I know," Malik growls. He slips hot fingers into my dripping opening. His thumb finds my clit, and I cry out with pleasure, but it's not enough.

I shake my head. "More--please--"

"Be still, beloved," Malik commands, and I might have a miniature orgasm just from the deep timber of his voice.

I look up at him with wide eyes, my mouth hanging open and my body on fire. The cool liquid of his magic soothes the burning ache as he presses his fingers in deeper before letting them slide out.

He makes eye contact with Rafe. Rafe relents for a moment, holding still, and I tremble, scarcely breathing, utterly at their mercy.

They don't let me down.

With absolute confidence, Malik maneuvers me into his arms. His enormous length grazes my abdomen, and I shift my hips, desperate to get him inside me. I need his thick cock, need to feel him thrusting deep into me, need him ...

"Malik," I whine.

"Shh." He settles back into the bed as if he has all the time in the world, while I'm spiraling into a panic attack born of pure sexual frustration.

I allow myself to be moved right along with him. I end up astride his muscular thighs, hovering over his gorgeous cock, and I try to sink down on it, but the angle isn't right. Groaning, I try again, my tight breasts scraping against his pecs, but his hands are iron on my hips. He kisses me, slow and irresistible, pulling the breath from my lungs.

Only then does he take himself in hand and line himself up. I rub my swollen clit all over the fat crown of his cock before shifting forward. I could cry for relief when his cockhead nudges up against my opening, his tip parting my slick, swollen folds.

"Go on, then," he encourages me.

When I slide down onto him, it's like coming home.

And it doesn't matter that I rode Storm to oblivion mere minutes before. The stretch of Malik's perfect cock blinds me, filling me to completion, only I still need more.

"Rafe," I groan into Malik's mouth.

"Greedy," he teases, but he's moaning as he rubs his lube-soaked fingers all over my rear opening.

When he presses inward this time, it's even more intense. I'm already so full from Malik's cock, but I know I can do this. I rock on Malik and will myself to open for Rafe, and it's so good, feeling them both.

"Fucking hell," Storm breathes.

Jianyu skates a hand over my side, kneeling on the bed beside me. "Just wait," he says darkly.

"Come here." I pull at Jianyu, dragging him closer. His enormous cock is painfully hard, dripping at the tip, and I drool with desire. I get a hand around his girth and give it a slow stroke.

"Ember," he groans.

"Come here ," I repeat.

He obeys, shifting closer, and I bend forward. I lick a broad stripe along the length of him, and it's an awkward fit, but I don't care.

"God damn ." Rafe squeezes another finger into my ass. "Just when I think you can't get sexier."

Just watch me , I think, but my mouth is full of Jianyu's thick cock. I think they all get the idea anyway. Malik begins shifting his hips up into me, giving me a little more room to move myself over him. He presses up against all the best parts inside of me, and with just the right angle, I rub my clit against his pubic bone, sending lightning shocks of pleasure racing to my tits and up my spine and all the way down to my toes.

Even as desire is gathering within me, Rafe is stretching me wider, though, until the fullness is sharp. I grunt around my mouthful, tilting backward, but Rafe is unrelenting. He presses another finger inside, and it's still not the width of his huge cock, but it feels like too much.

Determined, I squeeze my eyes shut and will my body to adapt. Another few aching thrusts of his fingers into me, and suddenly the hints of pain melt into pure pleasure, and I moan long and low.

"That's it." Rafe gentles me with soft strokes along my back. Every touch is magic, lighting me up. Nothing can hurt me now--except their distance.

I look up, and my gaze connects with Storm's. His silver eyes glow with need. There's a nervous energy to him. He's overwhelmed, surprised, turned on. He also fucked me hard and filled me with his come mere minutes ago.

But his erection is reviving already, and I need him, too.

I plead with him with my eyes, and his chest rises sharply. For a second, I think he'll turn away.

But no. He moves around the bed to my other side, and rainbows erupt in my vision as I get my hand around his lengthening cock.

He lets out a low sound of pleasure as give him a slow stroke.

"Incredible," Jianyu murmurs, and his praise is pure endorphins zinging through my soul.

Softly shifting his own hips, fucking into my mouth, Jianyu threads his fingers in my hair. Something melts within me, any possible resistance melting away. It's like I'm made of pure light--pure magic and sexual energy. I was put on this earth to connect with these four men, and nothing has ever felt better in my life.

My dragon growls, her wings beating in my heart, and yes--there's still the gathering of shadows somewhere deep in my soul. I'm meant for more than being shamelessly taken by four gorgeous men, but that's hard to remember right now.

Rafe's fingers withdraw, and I have barely enough time to whine in protest before he's kneeling behind me. His thick cock is a brand against the cheek of my ass.

"Ready?" he breathes.

I pull off of Jianyu's cock with a wet slurp and nod. I go back to my work, sucking on Jianyu's hard flesh. Rafe fits himself to my rear entrance, and I clench my eyes shut tight.

A harsh grunt is punched out of me as Rafe pushes past the resistance. Fire races through me. He's so big, and I'm already so full, but I can take it. I can take anything.

Black smoke rises in my lungs. I open my eyes and see thick purple clouds of crackling magic, rising like a veil over my vision. Panic wants to claw at me--I still don't trust my true nature.

But there's no time.

Rafe forces his way into my ass, invading me on the basest, most forbidden level. I'm already stretched to the limit around Malik, my mouth dripping sweat and pre-cum where my lips are pursed around Jianyu. Storm is so thick in my hand, and yet Rafe is still driving in, in, in.

I scream, and the magic swirls and shifts, bright streaks of white light breaking apart the darkness, and I don't know what the fuck any of that means, but I'm helpless. Lost to pleasure, surrendering utterly. A love too deep to contain floods my senses.

I love these men. I love their dragons, and I love the feeling of giving myself to them like this.

I love every part of it, and I'll take it all. The scary destiny and the weird, inexplicable magic.

I'll take the Shadow Dragon lurking in my soul.

A sob escapes me as Rafe shoves in to the hilt. It feels like tearing and breaking and the most perfect, impossible, unimaginable ecstasy.

"Incredible," Storm babbles, his hand curling around mine. "Ember, you're amazing--"

More light bursts through my heart, healing anything that was left that was still hurt or shattered. Storm belongs here with me, like this, among my men. His hot desert air and the cool breeze of his magic, and the steady, deep rhythm of his voice.

The absolutely massive heft of his cock, pushing into the curl of my fist.

Pleasure wells up out of nowhere as Malik and Rafe begin to set up a rhythm. I can barely manage to stay half-upright between them, bent over to keep sliding Jianyu's cock deeper and deeper into my throat. Hot shocks of spiky pleasure zip through me, Malik and Rafe's cocks surging upward into me as one before retreating, only to thrust together right back in. I'm stretched to the max, shattering between them. Jianyu's cock is hard steel and musk and velvet flesh on my tongue, and Storm's is unbearable heat in my palm, and just like that, I'm there .

I scream, my vision blanking as the first wave of orgasm sweeps me to another universe.

"Holy shit," Rafe breathes.

"Beloved--" Malik's voice is strained as my body pulses around him, my pussy squeezing him, and it feels so good .

"You like this," Storm marvels. "You love this."

I nod the best I can, lost in shuddering waves of ecstasy, gagging on Jianyu's cock. Malik and Rafe show no mercy, fucking me harder and faster. I'm being torn apart, and it's amazing .

I moan and writhe, my breasts heaving as I'm bounced up and down and back and forth between the two cocks impaling me. Malik's hands race all up and down my sides, taking in my curves. Rafe skates a hot palm down my spine before slipping it around my hip.

"Come again, gorgeous," he dares me. "Let us feel it."

I've barely returned to earth after the last orgasm, but I swear the next one follows his order without question. I explode into limitless pleasure, Malik shuddering again. He's flexing his powerful thighs, fighting for purchase, fucking up into me hard and fast. Rafe shoves in deep, and the rhythm of their assault is broken, and I don't care. I gasp and choke and drool, just trying to hold onto Storm as he fucks my fist.

And then Malik's hands go to iron on my waist. He holds me in place and batters his enormous cock into me at a punishing pace, hitting the deepest, best places within me, and there's no room. Rafe is so hard in my ass, and I'm melting, suffocating, coming .

My third orgasm barrels into me, and Malik soars over the edge right along with me. His searing come shoots into me in powerful jets, and I shudder and quake and laugh in relief. He pumps me full to bursting.

He's barely finished before Rafe is helping the others to lift me. Jianyu slips out of my mouth, but Rafe is still somehow buried in my ass, even as I'm pulled off of Malik's softening, wet cock. Thick come gushes out of my battered pussy, and I gasp, clenching helplessly around nothing.

And then Rafe is leaning back, and I'm sitting on his cock, speared, my ass screaming. My open thighs are splayed and limp, and Jianyu spreads them further. He rubs his huge, wet cock through the mess of my pussy, through Storm and Malik's come, before slipping inside.

I shudder in another mini-climax. Fuck --he's so big, but he slides into my pussy alongside Rafe's monstrous bulk, still thrust in to the hilt in my ass. I'm fucked-open and sloppy, the perfect vessel to be pounded into, over and over again, and I love it. I love being with them like this, love giving myself over to the raw, filthy pleasure of their love.

"You're unreal," Jianyu marvels, moving within me.

Malik is at my side, still boneless in the wake of his orgasm, but he touches my leg to remind me he's there. Storm slides in closer, and I turn my head to the side and open my mouth, searching for him.

He still tastes like me as he drags himself over my tongue. I suck at him sloppily, grunting as Rafe and Jianyu move me over them. I have no leverage at all, and I'm riding high on absolute bliss. Rafe rocks up into my ass, and Jianyu takes me at a leisurely pace that belies the urgency in his gaze.

All around me, the energy is our bond is pure sex, and I revel in it. It reverberates, hitting a resonant frequency that's almost unbearable in its intensity.

The desperate need within me slowly begins to gather again. As it does, Jianyu's restraint fades away. He quickens his pace, which only moves me faster along Rafe's thick cock. Rafe grunts and hisses, every muscle in his body strained until all at once, he explodes.

I nearly gag on Storm's cock, taking him to the hilt just as the first jet of hot come bursts into my ass. Rafe leaves fingerprint bruises on my hips as he unleashes, unutterable curses flying from his mouth as he buries his face in my hair. I release Storm and laugh in triumph, flexing around Rafe and Jianyu both, and they feel so good.

"Go on, then," Rafe groans, pulling out. I spasm, my laughter cut off by the shuddering emptiness and the soft leaking of his seed from my body. "She's yours."

"Damn right she is," Storm agrees.

He manhandles me and Jianyu to the mattress. We end up lying on our sides, my thigh hooked over Jianyu's hip. I groan at the new angle and the perfect pressure on my clit. Storm's hot palm runs up my leg, opening me wider for him.

"Can't believe someone else got to have you like this first," he murmurs.

I reach back for him, fumbling, nearly boneless with pleasure. "You got all my other firsts."

"As if I could forget."

And then he's sliding in, in, into my ass, and it's so perfect. I'm so full--so complete.

"Fucking hell, Ember," he groans, panting into my neck. His hands race up and down my front, and I tip my head back in pure ecstasy.

Jianyu rocks into me from the front while Storm sets up an opposing rhythm from behind. When one man retreats, the other presses forward, so I'm always full. I curl an arm over my head, holding onto Storm, while with the other arm, I reach for Jianyu. Malik and Rafe are right nearby, and their collective energy is a swarm of swirling light igniting all four of my mate-bonds.

As I crest again, the four separate strands of connection weave together, and my hands and body glow with a magic too big and powerful to contain. Dark purple and black waves of energy cascade through me, and I erupt into delirious rapture, roaring out my love and my triumph.

Jianyu slams home a half-dozen more times, losing the cadence, but it doesn't matter. With a groan, he thrusts in impossibly deeply, his cock kicking, his hot come pouring into me in streams. My orgasm spirals higher, and I milk him for all he's worth.

Storm reaches a hand around to drum at my clit, extending my high, and he lets go of any restraint. Over and over, he drills into my ass until his breathing goes ragged.

"Love you," he breathes into my hair.

My body pulses with a final, blinding wave of unutterable pleasure as he comes in my ass.

"Mates," I cry out, and they're all there. I'm surrounded by their flesh, their hands, their breath. A deep well of blackness opens up within me, and it's the solidity of stone, the heat of fire, the cool flow of unseen waters, and the bright clarity of a high desert wind.

The roar I let out this time isn't just pleasure, though. It's deeper, hotter.

Darker.

My dragon's wings soar past the boundaries of my ribcage as something unlocks within my very soul.

My eyes snap open, my vision clouding with deep violet clouds of Shadow Dragon magic. Fear prickles my skin.

I breathe out harshly.

I'm still human.

But the very air in my lungs tastes of dragonfire and ash.