Dragon Avenged: Immortal Dragons Epilogue Read online

  “Perhaps it’s because she isn’t all turul,” Ked said. “Her dragon instincts might compel her to search for multiple mates.”

  “I don’t know,” Evie said. “The reason turul are forced to wait . . . to live only knowing half a song . . . is because Fate determines our mates for us. Our soul mates.” She pressed her hand to Ked’s sternum, her eyes bright with love. “You are mine. And Marcus too, simply because he shares your blood and a bit of your soul from when you marked him.”

  Sighing, she looked between the two of them again. “But Deva doesn’t have that . . . disadvantage? Luxury? She doesn’t have a soul. So I don’t really understand why Ozzie’s so messed up over her, or why she’d even be singing a mating song to begin with. To anyone.”

  Marcus approached the two of them, hands trailing through the water and steam condensing on his skin. “Maybe it’s the blood that matters most. Those satyrs were her source of life for months.” His gaze rested on Ked and remained there as he came closer. “If she’s still infused with his blood, perhaps it’s no wonder she’s singing for him.”

  “You no longer care how Ozzie feels?” Ked asked. Though he felt his own blood link to Marcus acutely, his body itching to have the other man within reach.

  “Oh, I do. But I also know how much better things could be if he’s willing to share. I think I’d just tell him to have an open mind.” Marcus stopped in front of them, took a shaky breath, and reached out to cup both Ked’s and Evie’s cheeks. “I can’t imagine life without the two of you. If she’s capable of a love big enough for them both, I don’t think Ozzie should ever let her go.”

  Evie’s expression softened and she wrapped her fingers around his, then kissed his palm

  Ked, however, completely lost interest in the goings on outside their little bubble. The bright violet halo around Marcus’s aura betrayed the deep truth of the pure, unadulterated love that drove his words. He reached up with one hand and gripped the back of Marcus’s neck, pulling him down until their mouths met.

  Marcus moaned and kissed him back, clutching at his shoulder and settling onto the stone bench beside him. Ked’s skin tingled with the sensation of his lover’s aura flowing around them.

  Marcus was right. Love that strong should be cherished, and he meant to cherish his right now.

  The tenderness of their kiss shifted to passion, the quality of the magic surrounding them matching. When Marcus moaned again, it was less desperate, more demanding. They broke away just in time for Evie to lean in and take her fill of Marcus. Ked leaned back and watched while they kissed, his cock a stiff rod pressed against Evie’s hip. The pair clung to each other, their auras red with desire.

  He loved the way Evie’s aura always swirled around her like a little cyclone, as though she had a perpetual source of wind clinging to her wherever she went. Now that cyclone grew to encompass him, its power flowing across his skin and ruffling his hair.

  Ked could watch them for hours, reveling in the way they stoked each other’s need, drawing more and more magic to them. Marcus leaned closer, gripping the back of Evie’s head with one hand. Ked kept one arm stretched along the edge of the pool, but moved his other to support Evie as Marcus bent her backward. He released her mouth and dipped his head, capturing one of her stiff nipples. Her breasts were luscious round globes, bigger than usual, thanks to Sebestyan still breastfeeding. Impulsively, Ked leaned down and swirled his dragon tongue around her other nipple, enjoying the way Evie sang in bliss.

  Marcus slipped his free hand between her legs and she let out a little gasp. She lifted the knee closest to Ked’s hips and repositioned, her gray eyes a stormy swirl of need.

  “Make her come,” Ked rumbled.

  “That’s the plan,” Marcus said, his fevered gaze fixed on Evie’s face. He darted a look beneath the water and Ked followed his gaze. His cock throbbed hard as Marcus parted Evie’s folds and stroked her swollen pink clit with his thumb, then pushed two fingers into her.

  Evie sighed and arched her back, trusting the support Ked gave her with his arm. Her breasts beckoned and he obeyed the call, lowering his head again and sucking each hard tip in turn. She threaded her fingers through his hair, holding him down as he pleasured her.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Marcus continue to torment her, slowly swirling his thumb around her clit while he fucked into her with two fingers.

  Evie spread her legs and pushed her hips into Marcus’s hand, meeting his rhythmic thrusts with slow tilts of her hips. Each time she moved, her hip brushed along Ked’s length, stoking his own fire to an epic blaze.

  When she began to sing, the ancient language of her mating song sent an instant thrum down Ked’s spine, making his cock ache. He growled, and at Marcus’s rough chuckle lifted his head to meet his lover’s gaze.

  Marcus didn’t say a word, but his look of longing made it clear that the song affected him just as strongly. He dipped his head once more to her breast and Ked joined him, driving her to her peak in tandem.

  Ked dropped his hand and reached to cup Marcus by one firm ass cheek beneath the water. Marcus tilted his hips closer between Evie’s thighs, but he held back, intent on the task he’d begun.

  When Ked probed and teased at Marcus’s tight opening, Marcus groaned against Evie’s breast. He shifted positions, raising up and bracing one hand on Ked’s shoulder as he leaned farther over. The shift gave Ked easier access, with Marcus’s ass now out of the water.

  Ked released Evie’s breast and inserted his finger into his mouth, sucking it slowly as Marcus tilted his head to watch, his tongue and fingers still slowly working at Evie’s core.

  Evie’s song continued, the pitch and tempo rising with Marcus more intent on her pleasure, as though he were trying to make her come before Ked returned his attention to his ass. But Ked had no intention of waiting. Not when Marcus had presented himself the way he had.

  He dropped his saliva-slickened finger back between Marcus’s cheeks and pushed inside his lover. Marcus groaned, filling Ked’s cock with a fresh surge of blood.

  Evie shivered against him, her aura flaring with the swell of magic that filled her, signaling her impending end. She threw her head back and thrust her hips into Marcus’s hand, her song hitting the final note which she held in a long, clear cry to the heavens.

  Evie’s magic flooded into Ked, but he didn’t take time to savor it. Their purpose here was to draw it out for the rest of the day. He needed to have a taste of both his lovers sooner rather than later. When Evie relaxed and Marcus’s stroking ceased, Ked gently lifted her out of the water and set her on the edge again. She reached out and gave his head a lazy stroke.

  “Your turn?” she asked.

  “Marcus, and me . . .” Ked said, grinning.

  “He smiles!” Evie said, laughing. “I love it when you smile.”

  “The two of you give me a reason to. I think I like having a new memory to associate with your song too.”

  Marcus stood beside him in the water. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard her sing it quite like that. I like it too.”

  “I’ll sing it again when you’re inside me,” Evie purred. She leaned back on her elbows and lifted her feet to the edge of the pool. Marcus licked his lips when she spread her thighs, baring her wet folds to them both again. He glanced at Ked, a question in his eyes.

  Ked tilted his chin toward Evie and smiled. “She’s all yours, but you know what the trade-off is.”

  Marcus chuckled. “As if I’d complain.”

  Ked admired Marcus’s toned body and the way his immense dragon mark shimmered across his shoulders as he moved to kneel on the bench at the edge of the pool. He grabbed Evie behind the knees and tugged her close, then bent low, pressing his lips to her core and giving her a long, slow lick.

  Evie’s eyes fluttered half-closed and her mouth fell open in pleasure. She rested a hand atop Marcus’s head, the gesture making him stop and look at her.

  “I could spend all day just making you c
ome,” he said.

  “I know, but it isn’t just about me.”

  She darted a glance at Ked, who was more than happy to wait until the right moment. The longer they teased each other, the better the outcome when he got into the mix.

  Marcus glanced over his shoulder and grinned. He surged up out of the water, stretching for the bottle of bath oil, which he tossed to Ked before settling back between Evie’s legs and aligning his hips with hers.

  The moment Marcus sank his cock into her, the brilliant purple of their auras merged. Despite knowing he was Evie’s fated mate, Ked still envied the bond the pair of them had. They had loved each other long before they’d known of his existence, and in spite of the plan Fate had for Ked and his siblings.

  Watching Marcus and Evie make love put the entire ordeal they’d endured the year before into perspective. What they shared was what the higher purpose had been all along. That love was the source of the greatest power Ked had known, and being included in a ritual to share it with a large swath of humanity meant more to him than he’d anticipated. It meant he was capable of sharing more than just darkness with the world. That he had light within him too.

  What would Aurum think of him being so maudlin?

  He chuckled and cocked his head, enjoying the view of Marcus’s backside. His dragon mark blazed as he bent over Evie and thrust into her, pushing her legs up and lifting one knee onto the edge for better leverage. The shift in position gave Ked a lovely view of Marcus’s ass, his cheeks slightly spread and his balls swinging as he plunged his cock into Evie’s depths.

  Ked pulled the cork out of the bottle in his hand and poured a measure into his palm. He stalked toward his lovers and drizzled more oil at the top of Marcus’s cleft. Marcus clenched slightly, then relaxed. He slowed his thrusts into Evie and let out a low moan of pleasure when Ked bent to tease his tongue between his cheeks. At the same time, he grabbed his own cock and slicked the oil over his entire length, readying himself.

  Marcus and Evie both stilled as he stepped up onto the small bench beneath the water, resting his foot beside Marcus’s. His other foot went to the edge of the pool just outside Marcus’s, their legs brushing together. He rubbed his oil-coated hands over Marcus’s ass, squeezing and spreading, then teasing his thumbs around and around his opening.

  Marcus let out a soft curse, but before he could complain, Ked pressed his cock to Marcus’s oiled opening and thrust deep without warning.

  It was Evie who cried out then, the push of Ked’s hips having slammed Marcus into her, but when Ked slipped back out again and glanced at their auras, all he saw was a mixture of raw need, pleasure, and love, which only grew as he settled into a steady rhythm with Marcus moving beneath him.

  If there was no other sign of his mates’ feelings, he still had Marcus’s mark, which shimmered a brilliant ultraviolet beneath his skin, pulsing with each rough thrust of Ked’s cock into his ass. Ked traced the coiled scrollwork up and down Marcus’s spine and across his shoulders, marveling as he always did that this man was his—this human man who he adored, whose body he claimed, but whose mind had remained whole despite belonging to an immortal dragon.

  Ked could finally enjoy what he had, now that their enemy was dead. He could finally take his pleasure with his lovers without feeling guilty for the part his kind had played in their near destruction. For the past year he’d been careful, first letting Evie dictate the attention she received in the bedroom while she grew bigger with the baby in her womb, then for months afterward while little Sebestyan took most of her attention away from Marcus and Ked. The baby’s nature was still uncertain, having been conceived while Evie was a prisoner of the Ultiori, but so far he was merely a baby the three of them loved without limit. Today was the first day since that allowed Ked to finally focus on loving his mates without limit.

  “I love you.”

  Ked blinked, sure he hadn’t spoken the words, yet he’d definitely been thinking them. Then he realized it had come from Marcus, who was looking over his shoulder expectantly.

  “Did you hear me?” Marcus said. “I said I love you.”

  Ked’s heart lurched. Marcus had never said the words to him. Not directly, anyway, and he had never cared because Evie said them enough for them both. He felt his mates’ love daily, but knew the deeper bond was the one Marcus and Evie shared, and didn’t begrudge them what they had. But to hear it said aloud was unexpected, and a shiver of pleasure coursed through him that had nothing to do with the tightness of Marcus’s ass.

  He gripped Marcus’s shoulder and bent low, slowing his strokes as he pressed his lips to his lover’s neck and murmured into his ear. “I love you too.”

  With that small but powerful confession, his pleasure surged and he let out a cry, unable to hold back any longer. He shoved hard into Marcus, his cock erupting and his magic flooding forth at the same time.

  Marcus and Evie both let out simultaneous yells of pleasure as their own peaks hit. Ked bent over them both, chest heaving as he sought out their hands and finally found them—Marcus’s with his left and Evie’s with his right. Together his mates brought his hands to their mouths and kissed them softly, a silent acknowledgment of their shared bond.

  Not just two, but three, bonded equally in body and soul.

  Chapter 17

  “There is no need to cry, Deva.”

  The hand stroking her breast in light, hypnotic circles disappeared and a finger grazed her cheek. Deva opened her eyes to see Llyr gazing down at her with concern.

  “It’s so beautiful. The magic that they shared just now. Why was theirs different?”

  “Because of what they endured. Marcus and Evie nearly died in the Ultiori prison before your uncle rescued them. And now the Void has found light in his life.”

  The sadness in his eyes made Deva sit up. She gripped his face and looked deeper, past the swirling eddies of his power, and understood. “You endured so much for so long. I am sorry.”

  “If I could go back and change it now, I wouldn’t,” Llyr said. “What I endured brought you to me. I know Fate does not have a hold on you, but perhaps chance or chaos, or whatever power is involved in putting us together, has smiled on me instead.”

  She slipped her arms around his neck and held him close, her chest still a burning ember filled with the love that flooded into her with the newest surge of magic. Unable to contain herself, she let the tears come, cherishing the way Llyr embraced her. Gently, he gathered the wet tendrils of her long hair and draped them over her shoulder, then stroked her back while she cried.

  The warmth of his strong body sank into her as he brushed his lips against her ear, whispering words of comfort. His attention calmed her, yet he kept up the contact and whispers, voice growing rough, his need a palpable undercurrent. The caress of his lips against the outside of her ear sent a rush of longing through Deva’s body and she pushed her hips into his, even more aware than before of the heat that had grown between them.

  “Deva,” Llyr warned.

  “I want to feel what they feel,” she whispered. “You said you wanted to make me come.”

  “By the gods, yes. But once won’t be enough. Have you ever had an orgasm before?”

  Deva recalled all the private moments she’d experienced in the realm of the gods, left alone by the one person whose attention she craved most. After passing through those gates, her body had felt different, more alive and filled with an ache unlike anything she’d known. She had touched herself, thinking of Ozzie and wishing for his company. With her own hands, she’d chased that fleeting fantasy and found the briefest moments of rapture that were still a poor substitute for what she wished for most.

  Ozzie had only visited her for short periods of time during their stay there, then left swiftly as though being near her was too much of a chore. She didn’t understand his aversion to her, not after he’d been so caring and attentive during her first day of life, but it didn’t change how strongly she longed for him even now.

&n
bsp; Llyr was swiftly filling another emptiness in her. There was no substitute for Ozzie, but with this man she could finally find that pleasure with a partner. One she intended to keep.

  “Yes, but only when I was alone. It feels much sweeter when you give me pleasure.”

  Llyr smiled. “As it should.” He slid his hands around from her back and drifted his thumbs over her nipples. The light teasing had her core throbbing hot once more, an even greater ache taking up residence. With his bare shaft against her, she knew precisely what she wanted.

  She braced her hands on his shoulders and gripped his sides harder with her thighs, lifting herself up and enjoying the slick heat of his shaft as it grazed along her swollen center. Hyperfocused on every inch of flesh, she moved until the broad tip of his cock aligned with her opening.

  Llyr’s brows twitched in the briefest flash of concern through his open-mouthed hunger. “You don’t have to . . .” he breathed, then threw his head back when she sank down, taking his entire length into her.

  Deva’s body flushed with intense heat, her muscles quivering around him as she stretched to accommodate his girth. For some reason, she thought she should have feared this moment, and yet she didn’t. It made perfect sense for him to be buried inside her like this, and it made even more sense when she rose up again and began to rock against him.

  Llyr’s hands flew to her hips and he cursed loudly. “Gaia’s tears, how does this not hurt you?”

  “Why should it hurt? Does it hurt you?”

  “Not one bit, but you . . . When did you make love to a man before, Deva?”

  She was lost to the pleasure but the barest glimmer of her old fantasy flitted through her mind. The one that kept her company all those lonely nights in the realm of the gods. The one in which Ozzie made love to her. But she knew it wasn’t real. She’d only made it up to fend off the loneliness.

  “Never,” she said, then kissed him.

  Llyr sank into the kiss like he was starved, rising to his feet and bending over her, dipping her torso beneath the water once again. He kept his hips pumping into her with slow, delicious strokes, the pleasure every bit as beautiful as the magic she’d absorbed earlier.