Chapter Twenty-Seven Zara

By the time Ronin finally stops shaking with grief and shock, it's after midnight.

Not that I'm wearing my dive watch or anything, because that battery-powered shit doesn't work in Avalon. But Lucius packed an antique pocket watch that winds with an old-fashioned key, so we can keep track of the passing time here (because finals).

Anyway.

Ronin.

I've got him tucked up behind me in the soaking tub in Zephyr's luxe Unseelie bathroom. Ronin and I are immersed to the chest and floating in piped-in water from the hot springs under this volcanically active island. Pale lotus petals cover the tub's steamy surface and obstruct the view down under.

But I can feel that my warlock's finally stopped trembling against my back.

Thank fuck.

I tilt my head back against Ronin's slick chest and lift my gaze from the sea-green frescoes of mermen and krakens swirling over the walls so I can check out the dome overhead. Through the ripple of thick volcanic glass, strange constellations revolve through an indigo sky, sliced by a sickle moon.

"Feeling a little better now?" I say softly.

"Gods, I dunno." Ronin still sounds raw, but he loops his arms around my waist, settles me more comfortably between his corded thighs, and rests his chin on top of my head. "It's a lot to wrap my head round. I took his eye for nothing. Be lucky if that Seelie bloke of his doesn't knife me in the face tonight while I'm down for a kip."

"Ash would never do that," I say as firmly as I can. "He'd never attack someone—especially one of us—while we're sleeping."

Even though there's no hiding from a telepath like Ronin that (at least in this specific case) I'm not one hundred percent sure.

Zephyr and Ash have been gone for hours, working through all this shit (I hope). Ronin filled in the blanks from his convo with Zephyr for the rest of us. My other warlocks are holed up in the royal bedroom next door. Judging by the cadence of Lucius' patient murmurs and Max's halting replies, my headmaster's quizzing my dragon to help him prep for the written part of our finals.

Their words are too muffled to make out, but the whiplash crack of Vasili's biting intervention makes me wince. Neo's soothing murmur in reply makes me smile.

Thank fuck for Neo.

Tonight we're all on edge.

We could all use a little sweet bookworm love.

"Hardly blame him if he does." Still stuck on the subject of the vengeful Ash, Ronin heaves a sigh that makes the water quiver. "Fuck me. Can't believe Zeph's even letting me stay. If not for you, love, and all this succession rot, I'd be tossed out of Avalon on my arse. And I'd bloody well deserve it."

I'm totally limp and boneless in the heat, muscles and sinews al dente , like overcooked spaghetti. But Ronin has a warrior's survival sense, and I trust his instincts.

Hearing his misgivings, I stir in the slippery tub with a twinge of unease. "Zephyr knows the truth now about what happened. You both do. I'm hoping you'll find some way to forgive each other. Or at least, you know, tolerate each other."

Now it's my turn to heave a worried sigh.

I really don't want one polycule in Icarus and a totally separate Fae ménage here in Avalon.

I don't want two warring bands of warlocks hating and distrusting and sniping at each other across the miles.

I want all of us together.

That's what I've always wanted .

For tonight, I guess, I'll have to settle for no one getting knifed in their sleep.

The bathroom door swings open with a creak. Because the new arrival doesn't bother knocking or asking if maybe we want privacy, I'm not surprised when the cool hiss of my snake's stealthy approach slithers through our mating bond.

"Maybe knock next time first, bad boy," I murmur, because it's never too late to learn basic manners. "Ronin or I coulda been peeing in here."

Vasili spares a scornful look for the quaint gravity-flush toilet in the corner that makes Ronin snicker.

"I certainly knew Ronin wasn't." V sneers. "He pisses with the door wide open."

This is true, and an unfortunate reality of living with multiple guys is that half of them don't bother closing the door when they pee. I've had to lay down some pretty firm boundaries to stop those guys from barging in on me or Neo or Lucius (the modest ones in this harem) while we're doing our business.

"Knock first next time, okay?" I repeat. Just because you're sociopathic doesn't mean you can't learn basic bathroom etiquette. "But c'mon in now, I guess."

I mean, since he's already in anyway.

"Thank fuck." V closes the door pointedly on Max's struggling recital of the timeline of the two Witching World Wars. That's the last time the Horn of Ceres was at large—in some private Nazi art collection—before the witching world magicked it back. Then the artifact vanished into the Academy Vault.

Now, apparently, it's out again.

"I literally can't tolerate another syllable of that tedious Witching World History," Vasili pouts, "without turning actively homicidal."

"Poor love." Ronin gives him the affirmation he's looking for, even when V's being a pissy prick who's been mocking Max all night.

"Hmm." Vasili still looks cross. "Well, if you don't like having me in here, you can blame Lucius. He practically ordered me out of the bedroom. Says Max doesn't do well with me listening."

"Can't imagine why," I murmur. Poor Max.

"Nah, we don't mind. Let's have a kiss," Ronin suggests easily. "Been missing you. "

The Goblin King hums and prowls over the swirling vortex of the maelstrom mosaic floor without a single apparent shit for the ancient fae artistry of our surroundings. He rears over the tub to peer down on us. He's carrying an open wine bottle without a label carelessly by the neck.

When he reaches the tub, he lifts the bottle for a casual sip, then swipes his tongue over his glistening lips.

Simultaneously, he takes one look at my pierced tits bobbing among the lotus petals and purrs at the sight.

Just the sound of that purr makes my nipples tighten.

"Hiya, bad boy," I breathe.

My gaze and Ronin's drift over our mate in unison. V's long lean body looks scrumptious in the silky sleep pants and lace cami he lounges around in at night. He's like a male ballet dancer, sculpted and sleek—and already hard. His impatient length juts against the thin fabric in a way that makes my heart pound and my skin heat. Under his tousled punk-rock shag of silver hair, he's all dewy-faced from the moisturizing goop that's part of his bedtime beauty routine.

I lick my dry lips and reach for that wine bottle he's toting. His eyes, blue as glaciers, lock with mine.

"Gimme," I say softly.

His lips part and one fang slips into view. He hisses in a breath and passes me the bottle. Without breaking his shimmering stare, I lift the bottle to my lips and take a swig.

I swear to fuck, the Fae make the best wine. V's already drunk half of it, but this vintage tastes like honeysuckle and wildflowers and something tart like blackberry. It's fizzy and fermented and more like medieval mead than modern wine.

I lick the potent fizz from my lips and take another slow swallow.

Ronin reaches for Vasili's hand and gives a playful tug.

"Darling." Our snake swoops down to give Ronin the kiss he's demanded, all domination and hunger and an electrifying flash of tongue. That's his way of taking care of Ronin and soothing his grieving heart.

Ronin wraps an arm around V's neck and gives a throaty moan that vibrates with raw need.

I tilt back the bottle again, because this honeysuckle wine is addictive, and let the vintage slip down my throat. Faerie wine is potent shit, so I'm already feeling warm and floaty .

Then I turn my head lazily against the curve of Ronin's arm to watch.

Up close and personal, the caramel-and-vetiver wallop of my snake's Mogadon mating scent—laced with fuck-me-now pheromones—hits my already-intoxicated senses like a freight train. Vasili's tall supple frame radiates heat like the domus furnace (I mean, when it's working). His high cheekbones are flushed and his glacial eyes glitter like that iceberg must've done in the moonlight right before the Titanic went down.

Long story short?

Our Goblin King's not really rooted in his clever coldblooded mind tonight.

He's sexed way the fuck up.

And even though this Avalon moon isn't full enough to boost me into full-blown mating heat, I am here for it.

V has one hand braced on the tub for balance and one hand fisted in Ronin's man-bun thingy that our mate rigged to keep his hair out of the water. (Because there aren't any blow-dryers in fairyland. And long hair takes forever to air-dry.)

This choreography gives me all the leeway I need to prop the wine bottle on the floor, slip my fingers under the hem of Vasili's cami, and start peeling the creamy carnation-pink lace up the supple length of his torso.

Ronin helps me while those two deepen their kiss, and V helps too (for once) by slipping his sleep pants down his narrow hips. His long pretty cock pops into view, flushed and twitching and very erect in the pearly moonlight that's our only source of light. Silver steam twines from the tub and beads all those sleek inches with tiny glittering jewels of moisture.

Fuck. Me. Sideways.

Just the sight of that cock.

It's shifter dick. It's his dick.

That first glimpse of Goblin King dick makes my greedy pussy clench right up.

I reach for another swallow of wine, then lean forward to lick a slow cool stripe up his shaft from his balls to his tip.

V's breath spills out on a gasp. His hand clenches hard in the careless knot I've twisted my curls into. His other hand grips his shaft, gives himself a leisurely pump, then feeds me his length.

"Better get your pretty ass in this tub, Goblin King," I breathe against his cockhead, not giving him what he wants, but tonguing his slit to tease out a few drops of precum. "I want you to fuck my face. But we're doing this my way."

"Oh, fuck yeah." Ronin leans forward intently to cradle my tits and thumb my nipples, already tight and tingly from the foreplay. "This shit's just what I need tonight. Take my mind off things a bit, yeah?"

"Hmmm. The two of you seem to forget who gives the orders," Vasili breathes. "And contrary to popular belief, it's not that pointy-eared tyrant with the dragon. But I like where you're taking this, so I'll allow you the privilege this once."

Graceful as a ballerina, V smirks at me and lifts one leg into the tub.

I can barely hold off long enough to let his foot find purchase between my entwined legs and Ronin's before I'm on him. My hands wrap around V's tight little ass. My mouth seals around his cock.

Then, I swear, I go down on him like a cheerleader on prom night.

His hard shaft fills my mouth and his delicious musky spice spreads over my tongue. He waxes like a stripper, so I can bury my face in the smooth vee of his Adonis belt and breathe in his spicy mating scent. I hollow my cheeks and suck up and down his shaft till his breathless moans bounce off the walls. He grips my head and bucks into my mouth and it's amazing he doesn't fall right into the tub.

But, you know, he's Vasili.

When he nudges the back of my throat, I wrestle my gag reflex into submission and swallow him down. Then I back off his glistening length and do it again. I give all those inches he's packing a real throat massage.

"Oh, little queen, I swear," he breathes on a velvety moan, "you give the most delicious head."

Ronin curses and tips a trickle of cool wine down the side of my neck, then leans in to lick it off. He mouths his way down my neck and shoulder with slow sucking kisses that send tingles racing down my spine.

I can feel the play of his lips and tongue all the way down to my clit.

When he finds the twin punctures of Lucius' mating bite, nestled in the junction where my neck meets my shoulder, Ronin sucks hard enough to make me whimper, because my scars are super sensitive .

Meanwhile, Ronin slides a hand down my tummy between my thighs to explore my slippery folds. I part my knees wider and wiggle impatiently till he finds the hard nub of my aching clit. When Ronin hits exactly that right spot, I cry out around V's cock.

Ronin lets out a sound somewhere between a winded chuckle and a starving groan.

While he runs slow teasing circles against my happy button, his rapidly thickening boner nudges into the crack of my ass.

This is a promising development, because this water's slick with bath oil. The scent of lotus and sex perfumes the steamy air. While I massage the throbbing underside of Vasili's shaft with my tongue and tease his perineum with my fingers, I writhe under Ronin's touch and notch his rock-hard dick right up against my pucker.

"Bloody hell," Ronin groans through gritted teeth.

In the background, the soothing drone of Max's history lesson abruptly switches off.

Vaguely I realize we must be getting kinda loud.

"Hush, darlings, do ." V sneers around a genteel sip of wine. "You'll disturb Maxim's history tutorial. God knows, he needs it."

Sad to say, I'm already too far gone to focus on Max's academic needs right now. Besides, our growing arousal ricochets through our mating bond in a way all our mates have to be feeling.

Um, babe? Neo whispers through our bond, sweet as fuck. Lucius' fangs are out and Max is half-shifted out here. Would you three mind, like, company?

Vasili picks this right up, because he's bitten Neo and they're bonded.

You should know there's a queue for her cunt, my snake volleys right back at him. And I'm first.

He's so awful Ronin starts laughing. It's the wild unhinged kinda laugh that's the reason half the school calls him a psycho.

But I'm so thankful to hear Ronin laugh (even like a psycho) after the shit he's been through tonight. I disengage from V's cock with a pop! and give my horrible alpha a coy upward look.

Vasili gazes down at me through hooded lids. His pupils are all dilated to swallow the cool blue of his irises. A hectic flush rides his elegant cheekbones .

"Don't be a brat, Goblin King," I warn him with a wink that makes him snarl. "Better hurry if you want first pussy."

In a blink, this tub (which really wasn't built for three) is full of slippery punk-rock warlock. My alpha's crouching between my legs with water splashing around his thighs and lotus petals clinging to his tummy. I lean in to tongue the neat punctures of Lucius' mating scars on his sinewy inner thigh.

"Naughty queen," he growls. "Don't tease."

Then the velvet fist of V's telekinetic witchcraft plucks my dripping body right out of the water and—holy fuck—impales my needy pussy balls-deep on his dick.

Whoa.

Vasili's normally a foreplay-first kinda guy. He likes to sample and nibble and graze before he feasts.

But tonight, somehow, he's starving.

His possessive arms close hard around me. He shoots to his feet with me spitted on his dick and fused to his body by the force of his witchy gift. I yell and wrap my limbs around his slippery frame to find some kinda leverage. My cunt clamps around his cock and pulses with hunger for all those eager inches. His face hardens with ruthless intent and his mouth opens on a feral growl.

He lunges for my kiss. My mouth fuses with his honeyed heat. I lap the taste of Faerie wine off those sexy fangs he's always hated.

Vasili snarls and grips my ass and pumps into me, setting a hard desperate rhythm that makes me see stars. The tiles echo with the slosh of water and the carnal slap of flesh on flesh.

Behind me, Ronin coils to his feet. His hot feral body winds around both of us. His impatient dick rides the crack of my ass, the smooth ring of his Prince Albert slick with oil. I'm really slippery back there, and he's both skilled and motivated. He works his way around Vasili who's currently hogging me, our snake's hands simultaneously engulfing my ass and spreading me wide.

"Mine," Vasili growls at both of us. "This is mine."

"Yeah, I know, love," Ronin moans. "We're both yours. Not gonna challenge you for her cunt while you're rutty."

Cheese on toast. Is that what's happening?

Is this my cool, aloof, inscrutable alpha—the guy whose only shifter genes are recessive, who literally needed the biochemical hit of Lucius' bite to trigger his first shift?

Is Vasili going into rut?

V's eyes open and he gives me a sly look. "If I am, darling, then lucky you."

Well, shit.

That's all three of my shifter guys in rut.

Clearly, Ronin knows how to placate a rutting alpha. Vasili subsides into short slow thrusts while Ronin fits his pierced dick against my pucker and starts working his way in, inch by tortuous inch.

His mouth meets Vasili's over my shoulder in a scorching kiss.

I like ass play and I get lots of it in this harem. But I still whine at the burning pressure of Ronin's cock filling my ass. My head falls back on a gasp. Vasili wraps his telekinesis around our abandoned bottle and drizzles a trickle of honeysuckle wine between my breathless lips. I gulp and swallow the cool fizz.

When Ronin bottoms out deep inside me, we all moan and shiver. Now I'm the bacon in a warlock sandwich, pinned between their hot slippery bodies, filled to bursting with warlock dick in all the best ways.

"Sweet Jesus," I whisper. "I love you guys."

These two together. They've always been lethal.

Lethal to my self-control.

Even more lethal to my heart.

Vasili's savage stare locks on mine. "Say it again. Just for me."

I know what he needs to hear. "I love you, Vasili. You're mine."

He shudders hard all over, then pumps into me deeper.

" Fuck ," Ronin groans from the heart. "Gods, love, I can feel that. He's so hard. And you're so tight."

"Uh huh." I twine my arms around Vasili's neck and our tongues meet in a slow hot glide. V's eyes are closed and his brow is furrowed. His cock pulses against my core.

He's barely holding off his big O. But I want him to spill inside me.

Then my Brit rocks inside me, which drags his Prince Albert against Vasili's shaft through the thin membrane that separates these two dicks inside me.

And V… he… loses it.

An animal howl tears from his throat. His dick pulses inside me and heat spurts against my inner walls. He pumps into me fiercely, Ronin matching his pace, their two dicks pistoning into me fore and aft in a relentless rhythm that makes hot cum leak past V's still-erect cock and trickle down my thighs.

Under this kinda attention, my magic moment shoots me into the stratosphere like a goddamn rocket.

I scream in a vibrato that makes a fork of purple lightning zigzag past the glass dome.

Ronin grips my hips and buries himself deep in my ass with a shuddery groan like I'm killing him. When his dick kicks and jets inside me, he slays all three of us.

Pinned limp and twitching between them, all of us trembling and slick with sweat and oil, I'm shattered.

They're both still pumping me through the aftershocks when the bathroom door flies violently open. Max shoulders in, with a feral-looking Lucius and a wide-eyed Neo crowding in behind.

Max peels his shirt off with one arm and leaps halfway across the room in two bounds, with the other two right behind him. Then he stops sharp—so sharp the other two pile right into the back of him.

"Hi, guys," I gasp with a loopy grin.

I'm high on endorphins and shifter biochemicals from Vasili's jizz injection. I'm drunk on Faerie wine and the potent spice of my own mating scent.

But I've still got enough left in the tank to give all my guys a ride tonight.

Max gives the air a hard suspicious sniff. His slitted pupils telescope wide.

"Saint Sergius guard us," Max growls. "Vasili. You are fertile."

"What's that, love?" Ronin slips his spent dick out of my pucker and nuzzles a satisfied kiss into the side of my neck.

"I said, Vasili. He is fertile," Max grates in his gravelly voice. "He is… ready to be filled with eggs."

"Well, darling, that would be a bit difficult," Vasili pants, smirking into my muddled gaze. "Since, the last time I checked, I don't seem to have a uterus. Have a peek under my nonexistent skirt, why don't you, and see for yourself."

"Not in this form." Max is so guttural I can barely make out the words. "As warlock, you are male. But your dragon is… both. Sometimes, in your shifted form, you are female."

My head and Ronin's snap toward Max in unison.

"Merciful Christ." Looming at Max's shoulder, Lucius' fangs drop and he literally falls to all fours like a dog.

His wolf will be out any second.

"Oh my gosh," Neo breathes, eyes huge behind his glasses. He clutches Max's hand and almost vibrates with excitement. "Max. Are you saying V's dragon is, like, non-binary?"

"Don't be ridiculous," V says shortly.

"That is what I am saying." Max draws his free hand across his mouth. I wonder if maybe he's drooling.

"Wow, V!" Neo grins at all of us with his eyes shining. "Why didn't you tell us? That's so awesome."

"Hold on a sec. I'm not sure I'm tracking." Carefully I start to wiggle off my snake's still impressive boner so I can think.

But V hisses and tightens his grip on my ass. Clearly, he's not finished. Definitely a rut situation going down with him (in addition to whatever else). And I'm certainly not opposed to accommodating.

Okay then.

While Ronin sinks down into the tub like his rubbery legs won't hold him up, then folds his arms over the rim and stares at Max, I wrap an agreeable arm around V's neck and look expectantly toward our dragon.

"You were saying?" I prompt.

"In his human form, Vasili is very male." Max's fangs (which are bigger than Lucius') drop prominently into view. The orbs of his dragon eyes pulse with fiery heat. "But his dragon form… is both. Both male and female. I have always known this."

My brain expands to wrap around this whole concept. I'm not turned off by any of my guys expressing every aspect of their identity. The concept of a gender fluid dragon in the polycule doesn't seem to faze my dragon queen either.

So far, V's flying snake has always presented to my dragon as male. But I feel like maybe my dragon's open to other options.

And, Jesus, the thought of V and Max together like that…

"Wow," I say, low and husky .

Vasili is silent, but I'm guessing it's occurred to him before that his shifted form is polygender. But he's still wrapping his complicated Goblin King head around it. It's totally his private thing to share (or not) when he's ready.

It's the other piece of what Max just said that's hitting him so hard.

"Explain yourself… if you can," V says shortly. "About the eggs . Lucius, pet, I can barely hear him over your growling."

Lucius sits back on his haunches with an apologetic look. But he manages to throttle back his wolf's lusty rumbles.

Guess I'm not the only one who's having a reaction to the thought of a gender fluid Vasili—even if he's only non-binary in dragon form—in our harem.

"If your dragon rises tonight," Max says slowly into the resulting silence, "in that form, Vasili, you are fertile. You can carry eggs. I can smell it. Sweetheart… my God… will you let me—?"

"No," V snaps. Color floods into his face. "Are you insane? Obviously , no . Dear fuck. The last thing this harem needs is me coiled up in a nest somewhere for months incubating , with you in dragon form brooding over me."

"Zara will be with us in the nest," Max says darkly, giving me a look that smokes with purpose. "I will breed her first. You will both carry my dragonets."

My tummy flutters and my cunt clenches.

It shocks the fuck out of me to realize I'm not totally opposed, for my own self, to this whole breeding and nesting scenario. Max and Lucius have both wanted this forever (except, in Lucius' case, his fantasy leans toward dens and packs and wolf pups).

Either way, we've got Cleo and Messalina and maybe even this insurrectionist demon Mordred to deal with first.

"Well, you can leave me out of that little fantasy." Vasili sniffs with absolute disdain. "Now you just come over here, Maxim Rasputin, and feed that impregnating dick of yours to Zara."