Authors: Ophelia Bell
His lips pressed together tightly as he took in the three of them, all their marks clearly visible and glowing.
Skye grimaced at the obvious displeasure in the elder’s gaze as it passed over him and Garen. The golden eyes softened when they fell on Melody.
“You found your dragons, I see,” he said, stepping toward her and reaching out a hand to lightly brush the mark that covered her shoulder.
“I think they found me,” she said. “Thanks to you.”
“I’d hoped they wouldn’t resort to breaking laws to make you happy,” he said. “But what’s done is done.” After a moment studying her face, he asked, “Are you happy, Melody?”
Skye tensed for her answer, and was minutely aware of Garen doing the same beside him. Her answer could condemn them.
“I will be, once we figure out what to do next,” she said. “I guess we’re rebels now. Like you.” She bit her lip, clearly trying to hide a smile. Her demeanor was so different with Alec, it mesmerized Skye. Like the pair of them had some little secret that no one else could comprehend without being in their heads.
He could read only a small bit of Alec’s emotions—only the pieces the Gold was willing to make visible—but in those he sensed the unbreakable love and pride for the girl whose mother Alec had marked. The girl Blessed by the Gold. And the love was clearly returned by the daughter he’d never had.
Alec’s expression clouded, and he turned to Skye and Garen. “I had a feeling this would happen. A premonition, more than anything, considering my connection to her. The Council won’t like it.”
Knowing he should defer to his elder’s wisdom Skye inclined his head slightly. “What would you have us do?”
“Come with me. The place I’ve taken Julia to is the safest place for Melody. And for you. The Council has no issue with my presence now, so I hope my seniority can influence them. I will go speak for you.”
“Alec, please don’t do this for us,” Skye said. “We can take it. You’ve earned your peace after the last twenty years in exile already.”
Alec fixed his eyes on Melody for a moment, then on Skye. “This is what I have to do. It’s what her mother wants, too—I shared my worries with Julia before I came back here. Melody’s happiness is what matters most to us both. Whatever they do to us, we can endure now that we have each other again. My request for the two of you is to take her where I tell you to and keep her there until I return.”
“Dad, no! You just got back!” Melody said, surging into Alec’s arms. “What about Mom?”
“Don’t worry, she’ll be fine. She won’t have to wait as long as before, I promise.”
The despair that washed off Melody’s body, small in Alec’s embrace, made Skye ache for her. A child’s love that profound was something he wished for, something he’d always felt for his own mother, but never properly expressed. It had always been difficult for him to let his emotions out, as confused as he was about them his entire life. At least until he learned that most of the emotions he felt weren’t his own.
At the moment, he wasn’t sure which emotions were his own, until he worked to separate them all and realized that he, Garen, and Melody were all feeling the exact same thing. The combination of hope and sadness was too bittersweet to bear.
He took a hard swallow and stepped close to Alec. “Thank you, Father,” he said.
Alec smiled, his mood far too bright in contrast to the general mood. “Make my girl happy and I’ll gladly be that to you. You, of all people, need it most.”
He wrapped Skye into a hard embrace and held him there. Skye pressed his face into Alec’s shoulder, finding it difficult to hold back a bout of tears at the man’s selflessness. He’d have objected, but it was a matter of honor for a dragon to comply with the wishes of their elders. That both of Melody’s parents wished this made him hold his tongue and silently pledge to see it through.
“Where to now?” Skye asked.
“Pack your things,” Alec said. “These aren’t dragons you’ll be staying with. And I hope you like living rough.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
M
elody’s breath quickened with every bump the Suburban took over the treacherous rocks up the mountainside. Eventually, Alec stopped with the truck canted at a frightening angle, and they all climbed out and donned their backpacks.
Only the barest hint of a trail was visible amid the early fall leaves that had fallen, but she followed, confident in her father’s sense of direction. She was reminded of childhood days spent traipsing about the woods closer to home, imagining the mystical creatures that lived among the trees.
It was all too real now as they climbed higher.
“Is this where you took Mom?” she asked.
Alec didn’t answer, only holding his hand up to silence her. After that, she didn’t speak again.
Finally, they reached the summit and came out through the trees onto a sheer stone rock that overlooked the entire valley. Nothing but trees and mountains were visible below her.
Alec led them across the sun-warmed rock to the edge of a gap that faced another peak, the walls so close the sun barely found the crevasse in between but too far to jump.
Melody looked across. Another ledge was on the other side, an outcropping of rock that almost matched the one they stood on now. There were a few scraggly bushes, but the image on the other side wavered, then transformed into figures. Four of them … three large men and one small woman. It threw her off until she recognized it as a reflection of their small party.
“What’s over there?” she asked.
“Safety,” Alec said. “Your mother’s there. And Anya and Viki, too.”
“How do we get there?” She couldn’t see a bridge, or even a path around.
Skye and Garen stepped up behind her simultaneously, hands gentle on her arms.
“I’ll give you one guess,” Garen said in a whisper against her ear that made her entire spine tingle. The little mini-dream she’d had when Skye had opened his mother’s box had lingered, leaving behind a deep longing for precisely this. A need to fly.
“Which one of you do I get to ride?” she asked, looking between them both.
“I’ll carry you both,” Garen said. “No sense both of us expending the energy for the shift, right?” He raised his eyebrows at Skye, then looked back at Melody with a wicked expression. “Besides, I’ll need replenishment once we get there.”
Skye snorted. “You’ll get it from me, and I’ll happily give it.”
“What’s on the other side?” Melody asked, anxious and gravitating to the man who she’d always felt safest with. Alec wrapped a warm arm around her and hugged her.
“Friends,” he said, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “People who are happy with whatever choices you’ve seen fit to make. They only care that the love you have doesn’t hurt them.”
“Not dragons?”
“No, baby. Friends who have tried to help us learn to live truly peaceful lives. Even as old as we are, we still have a lot of work to discover our biggest truths. I think you have a discovery of your own right now.” He gestured behind her.
She gasped when she turned and saw the huge white-scaled shape that monopolized the entire rock beside them. Garen’s white, horned head craned around and his tongue darted out teasingly from his smooth snout. Hot breath gusted out of his nostrils, blowing her hair back behind her.
His head was the size of her torso, and she couldn’t help but reach up a hand to slide it over the ridge of his long, scaled brow.
“You are beautiful,” she murmured, stroking the scaled contours and moving her hand up to the smooth, translucent horn that rose above. His horns shimmered with inner light, just the way they had when she’d first seen them attached to a more human-looking head. She slid her palm up along its curled length, mesmerized by the smooth texture of it, until his head pressed against her chest and a deep, resonant groan emanated from within his massive chest.
Alec cleared his throat behind her and she turned, surprised by the flush in his cheeks.
“What is it?” she asked. “You have horns, too, don’t you?”
“I do,” he said, matter-of-factly. “But touching them in public is generally frowned on. They’re very …” He cleared his throat again and stared at the sky for a second. “They’re very sensitive when the right person touches them. Weapons in some circumstances. And boy does it feel good to shove them through a man’s heart, but we rarely do that with them anymore.”
“Oh,” Melody said, reluctantly drawing her hand away from Garen’s horn. She was all too aware of the needful look his huge white eye gave her just before he turned and lowered his great, scaled bulk for her to climb onto. The promise in his gaze made her quiver with longing for them to be in a private spot again.
Skye climbed on behind her and wrapped his arms around her tightly.
As an afterthought she pulled out of his grasp and climbed back down, slinging her arms around Alec. “Thank you,” she said, kissing him hard on the cheek. “Be safe, okay? Come back to us soon?”
“I’ll do everything I can to do so, after I know you three are safe.”
She thanked him and climbed back up, using Garen’s foreleg as a step and accepting Skye’s hand for assistance. She settled back against his body and held on to the ridge of spine in front of her just as Garen spread his massive wings and caught the wind, launching himself across the void that separated them from their sanctuary.
Chapter Forty-Nine
T
he Turul were an odd race, happily living in an elaborate Enclave near the peak of the mountain, like a troop of mountain climbers close to reaching the summit but deciding to just stay put a day’s hike shy and savor the anticipation of completion for an indefinite period.
The camp itself was set up in a huge clearing around a small lake. The only permanent structure in the area was what appeared to be an ancient, rambling, multi-story stone lodge, built into the slope of the hillside so long ago it appeared to be part of the mountain itself. Most of the members of the Enclave lived in tents in small family units scattered around the edge of the lake and used the lodge itself as a community center of sorts—taking occasional meals there, having daily meetings, and finding their entertainment when they congregated.
Melody felt like she’d walked into an anachronism. Anya and Viki were there, and no different than before. There were still plenty of signs of the modern world within the lodge itself—enough to remind her that the modern world still existed—including a heavy-duty generator and a satellite uplink, but electricity was only used for food preservation and only the highest ranking members took advantage of the satellite. She learned that the majority of their race lived among the humans, but they had a rotating schedule of members who stayed on-site to help govern and maintain their refuge during the seasons when they were here. For the winter months, all but a skeleton crew would fly or drive to a similar Enclave near the Equator.
Spending time with them was refreshing. Melody’s mother was every bit in her element among them. Everyone collectively worked toward the entire group’s sustenance or entertainment, and the camp’s upkeep, depending on what was required at any given moment.
Garen and Skye were treated like kings, and she a queen. Even more so when the Turul learned the three of them were a mated trio and that Melody was pregnant. They were given a huge, comfortable apartment in one wing of the lodge, and catered to like honored guests until the three of them insisted on being given some kind of task in exchange for their sanctuary.
After the hike to the camp, the three of them were exhausted and fell asleep without even paying attention to where they lay. All Melody cared about was waking up with them both, their warm, naked bodies flanking hers, hands roaming languidly and lips pressing with rough urgency against her skin. She didn’t have time to worry about how Alec fared, in the midst of all the attention.
The unwavering need for her mates never ceased, only sinking to a slow burn in between. It was a week before she began to recognize the difference between her own need and the hunger of the tiny life growing inside her. The realization happened suddenly in an afternoon when she was helping Anya harvest apples from a nearby grove. Garen wandered by, stopping for a second to kiss her before moving on. The kiss was nothing notable in itself—he’d done the same thing countless times—but this time the sudden ache in her core was so pronounced it couldn’t have risen from her desire for him. Not that swiftly.
Anya gave her a quizzical look. “Need a break?” she asked.
“I need something …” Melody said, shaking her head at the ground. The craving hit her hard and fast. So hard she doubled over and nearly retched.
Anya’s hand rubbed at the center of her back. “Dragon babies are greedy little things. Don’t ignore it if it’s asking for something.”
The words struck home, and for the next few moments she moved in a daze, so hyperfocused on what she needed—what her baby needed—she was oblivious to where she was or who was watching when she found Garen.
She snagged the collar of his shirt and pulled him down into a kiss, his eyes wide with surprise. He may have been mid-sentence in a conversation with a Turul friend he’d made. She may not have given a shit when the friend let out a laugh and backed away while Melody insinuated herself between them.
Garen didn’t object, or push her away. He only pulled back slightly with a smile down at her. “We taking our time now, or going for broke?”
“I don’t care. Call Skye. I need you.”
The expression on his face transformed, and with it every feature shifted from sweet, lovable, gentle Garen to hungry, passionate, magnificent dragon Guardian. He didn’t even try to hold back the subtle transformation of his features that only seemed to happen when he was abandoning himself to his need for her.
He lifted her effortlessly and she wrapped her arms and legs around him, hips grinding reflexively, her need a steady, throbbing ache between her legs. His eyes shifted as he carried her, as though he were suddenly conscious of something outside their little bubble. Melody knew what it was, and loved that he called silently to Skye every time they had one of these trysts. Skye did the same thing, so there were very few moments where she was solely alone with one or the other.
Skye appeared when they reached their rooms, as though he’d only been a few steps away, and held the door open. He followed Garen in and closed the door behind them. Wordlessly the pair undressed first her, and then themselves. Their actions had a businesslike quality to them, but their body language spoke pure heat and lust, as did the subtle transformations she’d grown to love.
Garen pressed his fingers hard between her thighs while his tongue plunged into her mouth, taking her measure from both ends. Both ends needed a little more than he gave, but he paused, looking at her to gauge exactly what it was she might crave today.
All Melody knew was that she needed true affirmation of what they were and what the child she carried was. It was as though the tiny being growing in her womb was seeking validation of its true nature.
“Outside,” Melody said, grabbing their hands and urging them out the doors that opened onto a stone patio and a spacious, landscaped yard that overlooked the expanse of the autumn-tinged mountains and valleys beyond.
“Why here?” Skye asked, looking perplexed. His horned head turned back to look at the big, comfortable bed they’d left behind.
“I need true dragons today,” Melody said.
Skye raised an eyebrow, his eyes dropping to her abdomen. There wasn’t much to see yet—her stomach was still it’s usual semi-rounded bulge that she’d always wished was flatter. Except for once, she was finally looking forward to having a bigger stomach. There was no mistaking the presence that existed inside her now. It would transform her over the next few months into something entirely different. But what that presence wanted most at the moment was to absorb the energy its fathers had to give in their true forms.
Melody had no sense of the baby other than the subtle cravings it gave her. It wasn’t a coherent thought, but more of an instinct that suggested it knew she was not like it, and it sought comfort from more of its own kind.
Garen wasted no time shifting, and she watched in delight as he moved around the yard, pale tongue flicking out and broad, magnificent wings flexing. She had to restrain a laugh at how he pranced like a proud cock showing off for a hen. Skye made a huffing noise on the other side of her and the air contracted and then expanded, puffing through her hair as he changed shape, his beautiful, naked body shimmering for a second before morphing into a brilliant blue dragon, slightly smaller than Garen, but no less glorious.
She’d already seen Garen’s form once, when they took the flight across the valley to reach this peak, but she’d never seen Skye’s before—only the small hints of it from his scales and horns that, since she’d been marked, were ever present when they made love.
They watched her, both sitting back on their haunches, long tails still aside from the very tips, which twitched impatiently.
But the truth was, she had no clue where to start. Both of them sported huge erections. Large, but not so large she couldn’t imagine what to do with one.
As though sensing her indecision, Skye slouched down onto his forelegs and slid around her, serpent-like, letting his hot breath brush over her skin, the tip of his tongue barely reaching her with each flick, his wings folded against his sides with their tips dragging along the grass.
“You don’t know what to do with us now, do you?” he asked, his tone playful and deeply resonant. “The child wants our power, which means you have to draw it from us. You’re a creative girl, Melody.” He made a half circuit around her and paused, his snout gently nudging the back of her shoulder, tongue tickling the side of her neck and making her skin tingle.
She looked at Garen, hoping he’d offer some idea, but all he did was reach out and hook a huge claw around her hip, drawing her closer to him. For all their razor sharp edges, he was exceedingly careful, and the touch was the sweetest caress because she sensed how easily he could tear her to shreds if he tried. She shuddered under his touch at the understanding, eyelids closing when he bent and flicked his tongue out over her bare breasts.
He tugged her a little closer, until she found herself between his huge thighs, the molten heat of his arousal mere inches from her skin.
“The trick is to want it enough,” he said in her ear, though his voice vibrated through her entire body. “Your enjoyment is all I need beyond your touch.”
With a sigh, she sank into him, pressing her hands against his chest and lifting her face to kiss him, only he couldn’t kiss her now. Instead, he exhaled a gust of pure white breath.
“No, don’t do that,” she said, alarmed. She didn’t want to fall asleep.
“My breath has multiple qualities, this time it’s simply to relax you.”
And it did. After a second, her tension eased, replaced by sweet euphoria and longing for him, and she could focus on what she wanted. She reached out and gripped his long, thick shaft with both hands and stroked. He shuddered under her touch, his wings extending and fluttering like luminous white sails on either side of him.
A warm breath hit her back and she glanced over her shoulder to see Skye avidly watching. “Climb on and ride,” he said, as though the cock she held in her hand were some kind of carnival feature. But she did want to feel him.
Christ, she wanted him. It may have been the need of the life inside her that propelled her, but she was sure at least half of it was her own desire. With Garen’s large talons to guide her she climbed up, found purchase on his huge thighs, and pressed her body against his chest.
The tip of his cock twitched, the entire shaft brushing of its own accord along the crease of her wet slit. It lodged itself at her pelvis and she shifted, her heart pounding.
She wrapped her arms around his scaled neck, reveling in the new feel of him, but in her mind’s eye he was still Garen. No matter which form he took, he was still gentle and solicitous. Even the tiny nudge of the talon that slipped between her thighs to spread her wider was enough to let her know he was no different now than he had been every other day since she’d met him.
With that tiny shift, his cock spread her open and she slid down its thick length, a harsh moan escaping her lips at the heavy fullness of him stretching her even more than the pair of them together had the first time she’d taken them both at once.
The giant shape that held her trembled, his magnificent horned head bobbing slightly. He wanted to be deeper, so she repositioned her legs, feet planted solidly on his thighs, and pressed down harder, every new inch of depth sending her pulse racing harder.
When she tried to take him deeper, his taloned claw gripped her hip and stilled her.
“Just move.”
So she did. She gripped his shoulders for leverage, kept her feet on his thighs and moved. The first stroke was heaven, and every one after that exponentially better. His own large hips shifted up to meet her strokes.
On the third, a new sensation was added to the mix and she looked down to see a long blue tongue lashing out, wrapping itself around the base of Garen’s cock and stroking the part that Melody couldn’t accommodate.
A moment later Garen shuddered, his movements becoming erratic. Skye’s tongue became more determined, teasing at them both in succession.
And for all the control she attempted to assert, it felt way too good for her, too. She tried to hold it back, but his cock was rubbing too perfectly at the sensitive inside of her channel, and Skye’s tongue teased at her from behind.
None of it mattered when Garen convulsed, his wings extending wide as his hips shot up into her. She squealed at the invasion but it only served to make her own climax more intense.
His energy shot into her with a hard burn at first. Her back arched and the first thing that went through her mind was how fucking
pure
it was when he wasn’t hiding behind his human shape. There were no barriers here, least of all his hesitance to truly love her.
She felt all of it in that second, the heat and driving need of Garen’s love, the wish for the moment to never end, and the longing to share the same moment with Skye.
Garen didn’t give her the chance to worry about the last part. He pulled his thick cock out and she was bodily turned the other direction before she could object.
She spread her legs, ready for her other lover, and he didn’t hesitate. His cock penetrated her with a slow stroke, his big, dragon visage peering down at her with eyes too large and too human, but perfectly proportioned in a face graced with its heavy, jewel-colored brows and long snout. The tickle of his tongue was a caress at her neck and breasts, but all she could feel was his cock sliding into her, fucking her. And all she wanted was to feel him come. To feel that rush of energy when he did and have it twine with the tendrils of Garen’s energy that flowed through her now, settling deep in her womb.
Tomorrow she would make it up to them. Because she truly did love to see their faces when she gave back. Now was not the time, though.
Now, she and their child needed everything.