Chapter Twenty-Eight Maxim

My impregnating dick is fully on board.

Since my sovereign has now abandoned that maddening regimen of shots and hormones she deployed to prevent us from breeding, her mating scent has been changing. She smells sweeter. More enticing. More erotic.

In a word, her scent is… riper.

Her body is hotter.

Her lips and breasts are lusher.

Her skin glows with all the tiny biochemical changes occurring inside her body.

My Zara smells and tastes like a ripe peach drizzled with honey.

Now my Vasili too is entering his fertile time, with a deep note of birchwood threading through his caramel-and-vetiver scent that is new.

My dragon is already wild with rut.

Seeing my two mates entwined in the bath, with his possessive hands gripping her ass, his dick buried inside her, and his copious spend dripping down her thighs, my self-control shatters.

I growl, pop the button of my jeans, and drag down my zipper to release my weeping shaft.

"Wait," Lucius says roughly. His taloned hands flex around my naked hips.

My dragon snarls at the restraint.

But this is Lucius.

I trust him.

For my headmaster's sake, I push out a harsh breath and lace my fingers through his savage grip .

"I will… share her with you," I promise. Christ, my voice is gravel. Already I am half-shifted. "I will share Vasili too—if he will have us. But, for all that is holy, I cannot wait."

"I'm merely saying let's take this to the bedroom." Even half-shifted, Lucius is a steadying presence against my back. Still fully clad, he rubs his whiskery muzzle into the side of my neck to scent me. "We'll all be more comfortable in a proper bed. That will be better for Zara."

That is the one thing he could say that my raging dragon will accept.

"Go," I say harshly to Vasili. "Take her. We will follow."

I know Vasili will not relinquish his claim on her delicious pussy. He is in rut, but his dragon is also fertile. He is a treacherous landmine of yo-yoing hormones and mating instinct.

Rather than climb from the tub, Vasili levitates.

His witchcraft lifts them both effortlessly, entwined and dripping, into the air. Zara gives a throaty laugh and an approving murmur. She is impressed with his control.

I too am impressed.

But his ego is not the part of him I intend to stroke.

My Neo is casting aside his own clothing left and right, but he rushes back to hold the door. With Zara wrapped tightly around his body, Vasili sails past me through the air, with a sort of imperial majesty and a sidelong smirk at my exposed dick.

"You're not coming near me with that dragon dick of yours tonight," he murmurs as they float past. "Where I'm concerned, you can forget about fucking."

"Sweetheart, I intend to fuck you senseless," I vow with a dragonish rumble. "And I swear you will like it."

"Unlikely," V snipes over his shoulder. He zips into the bedroom with Zara and vanishes.

"That does not mean impossible," I mutter.

"Bloody hell, love, sign me up for that." Ronin scrambles out of the tub, collects the bottle of wine they are sharing, and gives me an appreciative grin. His swept-back hair bares the savage lines of his face.

I cannot breed Ronin, but I can surely fuck him. The twin barbs in my randy cock quiver with anticipation.

But Ronin too stalks past me. He heads straight for a hopeful-looking Neo .

Those two are not in rut, but they are beautiful. Ronin with his broad shoulders and tight ass and sleek golden skin glistening with oil. Neo with his fair skin flushed and his purple curls tousled and his eyes shining and eager behind his glasses.

"Love you, Red. You're so fucking sweet, you slay me." Gently Ronin plucks off our bookworm's steamy glasses and leans in to kiss him. It is a slow sensual kiss that makes Neo blush.

"I love you so much, Ronin." Neo sighs happily. "I just love all of you so much."

These days, our Neo is easy to please. He is bitten and claimed and bonded. We are giving him everything he needs. In truth, we all spoil him.

Still, seeing him so happy makes my chest ache with love.

Ronin snickers at whatever besotted look I am wearing on my face, then nudges Neo into the bedroom with wicked purpose.

Lucius utters a wolfish growl and pulls me with him after our mates.

It is strange to me, this soft yielding I feel for my alpha. His wolf is no match for my dragon. I am the Sagittarius prince. Yet I yield to the pull of Lucius' hand and follow obediently where he leads me.

The Unseelie's octagon bedroom with its glass walls is awash in stars and moonlight. The round bed shimmers, rose and violet, in this eagle's nest that crowns the high tower. The X-shaped silhouette of the St. Andrew's Cross divides the vast horizon of the Avalon sea.

Neo is already eyeing that cross with a bashful interest that makes my balls clench and my dick jolt.

But it would not be proper to use Zephyr's toys without his consent. And the Dark Fae King—Vasili's deadly rival, and therefore mine, even if Zara does not know it—he and the winged Seelie remain absent.

While Ronin whispers filthy things to Neo between more of those slow hot kisses that make our bookworm blush and shiver, my gaze shoots past them to my sovereign.

Zara is kneeling on the bed with her hands on the glass, peering through the window at the endless sea. She is, just barely, levitating. The air around her shimmers with mating heat. Her teal curls—lustrous and shining with fertility—have fallen from their restraint to spill down her back and graze her tiny waist. The flare of her hips beckons me like a siren song.

Every curving line of her succulent body speaks of longing . All too clearly, she is searching for the dragonrider and the winged one. She is longing for them. For her two Fae lovers. She is longing for them to join us.

But she is mine tonight.

She is mine .

As for Vasili (who is also mine), he has temporarily vacated her delicious cunt. He is rampaging, twitchy with impatience, through an assortment of jars and potions that clearly belong to Zephyr. Just as he opened and consumed Zephyr's wine without asking. In short, he is causing chaos in Zephyr's orderly home.

Vasili will never admit this behavior is occurring because he is nervous.

In the end, I am what will soothe him. But he is prickly with rut and he is wary.

Because of the eggs.

If I try for him now, he is more likely to slap my face for my impertinence (which he has done before when I offend him) than to welcome me.

He wields a vicious backhand. Just the memory of that backhand makes my eyes water.

Clearly, for now, breeding him must wait.

Tonight all of me is for Zara.

"My queen," Lucius growls, with his wolf in his voice.

My headmaster pushes me into the bed with a roughness that ignites me, then scrambles in himself with lupine ease. His clawed hands tear the shirt from his shoulders with an impatience that shreds the cloth.

He is unleashed.

I snarl through my fangs at him.

I love Lucius. I love him. He is my mate, he is my teacher, he is the father I never had. But in this moment, he is a rival alpha for my female.

He bares his fangs in response to my threat. His eyes pulse wicked red in warning.

Zara's head turns toward us. Her wild mermaid hair swirls around her shoulders. Purple fire spills from her eyes. In the starlight, her glowing orbs burn like pinwheels.

"C'mon over here, Teach," she says in her throaty sex voice. "You too, big guy. You've been waiting for this."

She means that we have waited to breed her .

Trapped in the shell of my human skin, my dragon spreads his wings and bugles.

I cannot shift here or I will injure my mates. But I drag my jeans roughly down my legs so I am naked. Then I leap across the bed and launch myself at her— my mate, my sovereign, mine— while my beast mutters and paces in the prison of my skin.

My hands lock around the lush swell of Zara's hips. My lips find her succulent mouth. Her taste is drenched with honeyed sweetness from the wine. Her skin is silky and burning with heat. She exudes that velvety note of peaches that is so new in her creamy mating scent.

I swear, I am drunk with her. My senses are swirling and my head is spinning.

My barbs are flaring and my dick is dripping.

Every cell in my body is consumed with need.

I will not waste a single drop of my seed. I will spill inside her or I will burn.

The feral scent of wolf and alpha invades my senses. My scarred back is vulnerable. I can abide no one behind me. My nostrils flare and my dragon snakes around to peer at this intruder with suspicion.

At my side (where I do not mind him), Lucius is lurking. He is watching. He is protective.

But he is always so careful not to trigger me.

He is relentless. But he is also patient.

With infinite care—so careful I can take no offense—his tender claws sift through my braid until my hair spills loose around my shoulders. Tenderly Lucius nuzzles my cheek, his goatee rasping against my stubble. Soothed, my dragon rumbles at him.

Lucius swigs wine from our shared bottle, then leans past me to claim Zara's smiling mouth in a savage kiss.

"Mmmm." She moans with pleasure and reaches for the bottle herself. "Can't believe we haven't finished that yet."

"Well, you see, the bottle is enchanted." Lucius passes her the wine and shucks his trousers at ferocious speed. But he pauses long enough to lecture. "Faerie wine never runs dry until those who savor it have drunk their fill."

A furrow appears and vanishes between Zara's teal brows. There is something she is thinking. But she tilts the bottle back and drinks deep .

As for myself, I have no patience tonight for talk or lectures, even from Lucius. I hover impatiently at Zara's back and barely wait until she has satisfied her thirst before I am reaching between her legs.

Saints of the northern steppes defend me.

Ronin and Vasili.

Of course, they have both already had her.

Ronin's ambergris musk lurks in my nostrils. His milky spend still trickles between the pert rosy globes of her ass. Meanwhile, her thighs are sticky and her pussy is slick with Vasili's seed.

The hot suck of her cunt closing around my fingers nearly makes me spill all over her.

"Yeah, V got in here before you," she breathes, arching her back and spreading her thighs to welcome me deeper. "But there's plenty of me to go around, Max. You gonna give me that thick dragon dick?"

"Yes." My lips skim back from my fangs. "I will fill you and breed you, my Zara, until you carry my dragonets."

"Not sure the shot's worn off." Now, surely, she is teasing.

If she is not already fertile, judging by the erotic richness and spice of her mating scent, she will be fertile very soon.

When I withdraw my fingers from her cunt with a snarl, Lucius is waiting. He pounces on my drenched hand like the wolf he is, wraps his hot mouth around my fingers, and sucks my queen's juices and Vasili's cum from my fingers.

Now, truly, I am destroyed.

While Lucius moans and mouths my fingers (the way I hope he will one day mouth my cock), I fumble one-handed to fit my swollen dick against Zara's dripping core.

Her hot slippery folds envelop my cockhead with an audible suck that is heaven. I sink deep into her slick heat on a ragged groan.

Zara whimpers and yields, inch by inch, to my invasion. Her alluring pussy clenches hard around my shaft and pulses. "Oh, fuck, Max. That's so good. Need you to fill me up with your dragon spunk—"

Deep in her core, my twin barbs shoot out and engage. She breaks off on a shuddery gasp. Now we are locked together and she cannot escape me.

She is mine .

I flex my hips, ass clenching, and pump into her with a dragonish bellow. My beast roars in primal triumph .

Ours our mate she is ours we will breed—

As I pound into her in a frenzy, Zara fumbles to grip the ledge below the window and knocks over the wine. The green glass bottle tips over with a thunk! A torrent of golden wine spills out—far more wine than any bottle should hold. The vintage splashes over our legs and drenches the air in potent fruit.

Lucius fumbles to right the bottle (which it seems is still not empty). Then he watches us fuck, with his corded thighs spread and one fist wrapped around his ruddy dick. Sinew flexes in his arm and shoulder as he pumps. His face is savage with intent, brows thick and lowered, jaw elongating toward a muzzle. His knot swells and flushes purple against the dark thatch of his pubes.

Later, he will knot her. And I—I will yield her cunt to him.

Later.

But only because he is Lucius.

Now it is my turn.

Already my balls are drawing tight to my body and the base of my spine is tingling. Braced on hands and knees with her head hanging low, Zara is pushing into my cock, meeting and matching my every thrust. Violet light spills from her eyes, purple lightning forks in the sky, and lavender shadows writhe around us. I am grunting with effort, surging into her divine heat, my hips slamming into her sweet ass with every thrust, barely holding my dragon at bay.

Later, when we nest, I will have her and Vasili both like that. As dragons. Nothing can prevent this. We will breed and we will nest.

We are already linked, my queen and I, so she is sharing these thoughts.

Now, lost in the grip of our shared fantasy, Zara flings back her head and cries out. My climax rears up and blazes through me like dragonfire. I roar and spurt deep inside her, giving way to spasm after spasm of trembling release.

I fill her sweet pussy full with gout after gout of my potent seed.

My thick fork bottles every drop safe inside her.

Kneeling beside us, Lucius arches his back and bays at the moon. He pumps himself so roughly I fear he will do himself damage. His creamy seed splashes Zara's hips and thighs. A few hot jets splash over me, which prolongs my own pleasure .

With this tribute, he honors me.

I am deeply, ferociously pleased.

Behind us, Ronin is doing something that makes Neo moan and plead, while Ronin voices a husky chuckle. Both my non-shifter mates are well pleased and their pleasure too satisfies me.

Vasili is lurking somewhere, keeping himself well out of my reach, but he is here.

Now, suddenly, the stairwell door flies open. A cool wind that reeks of dragon rushes through the heated musk of our mating chamber, followed by the sharp hiss of an indrawn breath.

"By the moon." Zephyr's startled voice pierces the sex-drenched night. "Why in the world are you all drunk and swimming in enchanted moon wine?"