Page 24 of Drawn by Dragonblood (Blood Born #1)

Elijah

S pent but not nearly finished, I tucked my still-hard cock back into my slacks, my attention riveted on the ropes of my cum across our female’s breasts.

Still, Dakota stared at me, her mouth parted, a hint of wonder in her eyes. “It tingles,” she whispered, finally glancing down at the mess we’d made on her flushed skin.

Feed .

I clenched my jaw. Walls had tumbled to dust between us, but I wouldn’t force more than they were ready to consent to.

My cum would give my mates what they needed to extend their human lives for longer than nature intended, and the desire for more would override rational thought until they bore my mark.

Unwanted or otherwise.

I could command Jon to lick her clean, and I expected he would. I could tell Dakota to suck my essence off her husband’s tongue, and there was no doubt in my mind she would obey.

Yessss.

My jaw clenched.

They would choose me of their own volition, not be forced by their dragonblood’s instinctive desire for more.

“Taste him.” Jon’s command—oh, how I loved his desire to be alpha if only for a moment—roused the dominant animal inside me.

I opened my mouth to stop the action, but my inner beast strangled my voice with a cackle of glee. Helpless, I could only watch as my two humans made their own decisions.

But if they knew the truth?—

Dakota smeared her finger in the cum on her skin and sucked the digit clean. The widening of her eyes, her rapid blinks, the pink flush to her cheeks incited renewed need to course through my body.

Yessss !

I whimpered against the beast roaring inside me.

Jon studied his wife swallowing our seed while I stood rooted, trembling from the effort to regain complete control once more.

“Do you like it?” he asked, swiping his own finger through the sticky mess and offering it to her.

I wanted to tell him to stop but still couldn’t find my voice.

“Yes.” She flicked her tongue out and licked some of the thick fluid from his finger.

Another cackle lit inside me.

Jon shoved the digit into his mouth and swallowed what remained.

Feed.

More .

“Fuck.” Jon’s brow furrowed as he blinked at his finger. “I can taste…goddamn. I thought you said cum was salty and gross, baby.”

“His is...”

“ Sweet ,” they both stated together.

Their alpha’s seed would be ambrosia on their tongue, and even though I’d studied biology for close to a century, I couldn’t begin to explain why they would hunger for what would bind their minds to mine and prolong their life.

Command to eat.

The damned beast didn’t have control over my vocal cords other than shutting them down.

My mates hadn’t ingested much, but I didn’t know the effects even a simple sample would have on their mostly human blood.

“Fuck.” Jon huffed and pulled up his shorts rather than falling to his knees and licking his wife clean like I’d expected. “I just tasted a dude’s cum.”

“It was hot.” Dakota breathed as though still in need of dick as Jon would say, but a rush of air deflated my lungs at their lack of falling to consume more as I’d feared.

The small bit they’d consumed hadn’t been enough to cause addiction or take away their consent.

My inner dragon muttered his disappointment and seemed to slink into the background, giving my voice back to me.

I reached for our female, but Jon beat me to it, pulling her up into his arms.

She clung to him, flushed face pressed against his neck where I couldn’t see her eyes and assure myself she didn’t regret what we’d done.

“We need to clean you up.” Jon carried her toward the stairs, and I followed on weak legs even though no verbal invite had been voiced.

I’d finally gotten my hands on our female, her flesh soft and delicious on my tongue. She was sweeter than all of earth’s natural sugars meant to assist in sustaining life.

I craved more of her, an addict clear through every cell in my body.

But would I be gifted the opportunity to gorge myself on her arousal again? Was getting my hands on my beta a possibility as well?

My inner beast rested quiet, seemingly drunk on our female’s release they’d both allowed me to taste.

“Let me get that for you,” I said, sliding past them as we neared the guest room they’d occupied. I pushed their door inward and moved across the room to open the bathroom’s as well.

Their scent had infiltrated the area, and I wanted to roll all over their sheets and add my essence to theirs.

I forced my steps toward the bathroom where I turned on the shower.

Jon set Dakota on her feet by the time I turned around.

Longing to care for them both ached through my chest, but for the first time in my life, I faltered, unsure of what to say or do.

Jon shucked his shorts and picked Dakota back up, smearing our cum across his chest. “Damn, it does tingle.” A hint of awe lit his words as he glanced at me.

Dark pupils dominated the blue of his eyes, and I pushed hard against the desire to give him more. Coat his skin with my seed. Drown him in the fluid that would prolong his life so he would never be able to abandon me as Dolyn had?—

I stepped back at the thought of my ex and the sudden sting of sorrow that accompanied it.

Why was it he haunted me mere minutes after finding release with my mates? Shouldn’t sharing intimacy with them have wiped him from my mind?

Half of me yearned to join my beta and female in the shower, to continue exploring how we might pleasure one another. The other part of me wanted to lick old wounds and sit in a dark corner while feeling sorry for myself.

But I would do neither as I wished more to move forward.

If only the memories of my ex allowed me to do so.

The empathetic area of my human brain reminded me the married couple standing in silence before me would need time alone to discuss the line we’d crossed, so I prepared myself to leave them.

Would they regret their choice? Come to the conclusion they needed to put distance between us?

They didn’t yet know about fated mates, how creating another Blood Born required three with the ancient blood.

Not ready.

I agreed with the whisper even though he’d been insistent on forcing a bond. Now wasn’t the time to reveal the truth.

“I’ll be downstairs,” I said, glancing between Jon and Dakota.

Our female’s eyes swam with varied emotions, but her lack of regret eased the tension in my shoulders.

Jon nodded in agreement. The absence of wariness in his gaze suggested he too was okay with the choice he’d made to set us on this path.

I turned away, that sense of pain ripping muscle from bone as strong as when I’d flown to New York over leaving them behind. More potent than when I’d found Dolyn gone from our home that final time.

Dakota’s flavor lingered on my tongue, the scent of Jon’s release still in my lungs regardless of where my thoughts travelled.

My body ached to return to my mates’ sides.

How much more pain would I suffer should they come to the conclusion they’d made a mistake and decide to go back to that tiny apartment neither sounded attached to?

How badly would I wish for death to finally come and claim my weary soul?

I made my way to the kitchen and grabbed a beer from the refrigerator, my heart heavy.

Telling Jon and Dakota the truth about me—and the blood in their veins—should have been a priority for me from the start, but the fear of rejection, the sure agony of being abandoned again paralyzed my lips.

Although the need to fuck them both still raged through my body, causing my dragon to shimmer beneath my skin, he finally seemed to understand the fragility of our situation.

We’d made gains in a natural connection with both mates individually as was necessary for a lasting bond, but the taste of our female’s release had softened my beast to a greater degree than I’d expected.

Fear of losing her now that we’d shared intimacy caused him to prowl beneath our skin—but he no longer demanded force.

Not once in my nearly five centuries had my inner beast shown a hint of insecurity, and his distress shook me to my core.

Help.

A hard swallow bobbed my throat at his whimper. “They need to love us of their own accord,” I murmured, my eyes clenched shut at the memory of the man who’d claimed to do so a decade ago. “Desperately, that the thought of living without us is not an option.”

But how to accomplish such a task?

Being under the same roof for four weeks would provide plenty of opportunity to strengthen our growing desire for one another. I could keep my travels to a minimum?—

The helicopter.

They might wonder how I’d returned from New York if they noticed it missing.

Another lie about someone borrowing my toy and having dropped me off ought to work should the need arise.

Lies .

“I know,” I muttered and took a long pull on my beer.

Manipulation .

I clenched my jaw over being called out when I’d denied him the right to do the same.

Revealing the beast inside me that wanted to tie our mates’ souls to ours for eternity with an unbreakable bond would send them rushing down the mountainside.

Hadn’t Dolyn left me because I’d been desperate to do that very thing with him? I’d tried to coerce and sway him into giving me what I wanted—a declaration of submission in every way even though we hadn’t been fated for each other.

Or a female I had desperately longed to share with him.

A forced triad wouldn’t stand the test of time. Each individual needed to come to their own conclusion, face and accept the fact they were meant to be shared in equal measure among the three of us.

Luscious hints of spring and fall flooded my nose, pulling me from my musing.

I glanced to the top of the stairs.

Jon and Dakota stood freshly showered with no hint of cum on either, which meant they hadn’t fucked in the shower as I’d half expected them to.

My shoulders relaxed at their proximity and the fact they hadn’t sought release without me.

A pink blush flushed Dakota’s face, making her eyes appear greener in the overhead lights I had dimmed. She led the way down the stairs, Jon close behind her, his wet hair hanging to brush over his shoulders.

He wore a pair of lounge pants and nothing else while Dakota, our sweet female, had donned yet another of my button-down shirts.

My dragon purred his delight in seeing her cloaked in material soaked by our scent.

I couldn’t help my smile as our gazes met. Dakota was the first to look away, her cheeks even redder. The usual cocky smirk on Jon’s face didn’t appear. He studied me with every step bringing him closer, a calculating glint in his eyes.

Now what , he must wonder, but I had told them the truth of my feelings, that I wanted them both, and I had no intention of rescinding my words.

Dakota retrieved a couple of beers from the refrigerator, and they both sat closer to me on the couch than I’d expected.

Jon lounged as usual to put his lean muscles on display, his arms and legs sprawled out in comfort.

Dakota perched ramrod straight on the edge of her cushion, hands wrapped around her bottle.

The flames I’d breathed to life in the fireplace while they’d showered crackled as Jon peered at me.

I held his gaze until he shifted, his focus flitting to his wife.

Once more, her nipples strained against the crisp cotton of my shirt, and I breathed deeply, catching a hint of her rekindled arousal in the air.

If my dragon had hands, he’d have been rubbing them together in anticipation.

“Thank you,” I said, my gaze on our female although I spoke to both her and my beta. “It has been a very long time since anyone allowed me to partake in such passion.”

Dakota finally glanced up at me through her lashes but not in a coquettish way. Her natural shyness around me made me want to strip her bare, body and soul, so I could feast on all that she was.

Breed .

I swallowed hard at my beast’s insistence we do as fate intended to keep the ancient dragonblood from disappearing from the earth.

Jon ran his fingers through his wife’s long, damp locks. “I would do anything for her,” he said, his voice so sincere and filled with love that my heart ached. I longed for him to think the same of me, and the honesty of my thoughts twisted my insides.

One man had taken clear advantage of my giving nature, and I dreaded a similar outcome.

But my mouth opened, spilling my truth. “I would do anything for either of you as well. Ask and it shall be freely given if it’s in my power to do so.”

Even if their desires eventually led them to leave—and doom our species to extinction.