Page 37 of Exquisite Monster (Dragons of Viria #2)

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

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KATALENA

E ndre and I walked every part of the island. He led me through the patches of dense forest, complete with hidden, sun-soaked clearings I knew we would return to. He showed me the rocks along the north side of the island, where he first learned to fly.

“Did you fall?”

My mate laughed, free and easy. He looked lighter here. Easier. Like the Endre he was before all the cares and responsibilities fell onto his shoulders. “I fell more than I should have. It was honestly like a baby bird jumping from the nest.”

“It sounds adorable.” We continued walking on the sand, and I asked the question. “Are you bothered?”

“By what?”

“That I can no longer bear children.” They knew I couldn’t, but I hadn’t asked how they felt about it. No part of me regretted my decision. Children weren’t something I wanted, especially in a world like this one. We could change things, but it wouldn’t change my mind.

“No,” Endre said. “Not at all. None of us have ever desired offspring. Especially since the Elders were pushing it so strongly.”

A small starburst of relief popped in my chest. He felt it and tugged me to him, dancing us on the sand the way we had that night in Doro Eche. “You, my love, are more than enough for me.”

I lifted my chin, and he followed my lead, leaning down to kiss me. The wind lifted my hair and tangled it around us. The sun now sank toward the horizon, and I felt the tugging of my other mates in my chest, wondering where we were.

We’d circled most of the island, and I’d seen almost everything. Except for one very particular stretch of beach he claimed they were going to show me together.

“I suppose I should share you,” he murmured.

“Maybe.” But I was smiling. “Does this mean you’ll show me that beach?”

“Yes, it does.”

Sand shifted between my toes as we left the shore, and the soft grass of the island swept it away.

It was so beautiful here, and so green. Before I met them, I hadn’t seen the kind of greenery that existed on this side of Evrítha since I was a child.

When you were so used to something, you forgot the opposite could exist.

I tripped over the edge of the pants I wore. They were far too long, and I hadn’t thought I’d be wandering for hours when I put them on. Endre stopped my fall. “Gleym only gave me the one set of clothes. I’ll need to wash them so I’m not tripping.”

“Or we can find you more clothes.” He sighed and pulled me closer so we could walk with his arm around my waist. “If we were in Skalisméra, I’m sure Ellemar would help.”

I didn’t want to think about the outside world just yet. Not even dragons like Ellemar. Erryn was right. We needed to have a discussion. But I wasn’t ready yet. I wanted more than one day before the four of us were forced to hold up the weight of the world once more.

Sirrus met us at the entrance to the tower, gripping the top of the door frame and leaning into it. The position showed off every inch of skin he revealed by not wearing a shirt, including the shift in color, the blues fading beneath his trousers. “Where have you been all day?”

“Giving in to my emotions. Then Endre showed me around the island.”

I approached him once Endre released me, and Sirrus grabbed my hips, turning me and pressing me gently into the doorframe. “I felt it.”

Just the mention of it all had it threatening to come back up. So I said nothing and stared straight through his chest.

“I may not know what you said.” He placed his palm gently over my heart. “But I felt all of it. And I want to feel it. I want to help you hold it and heal from it.” Then, softer. “Mates were not created to hide from each other, Princess.”

“You’re going to make me cry again,” I mumbled.

“We can’t have that.” Zovai’s voice rang loud in the room. “Or we could, but I’d prefer it if you were crying with pleasure.”

It brought a smile to my face despite everything. Outside, the light turned to gold, heralding the sunset. “Endre wouldn’t show me part of the beach.”

“Good.”

I laughed. “Where are we going?”

Sirrus pointed behind me. Zovai was already on his way.

I hadn’t spotted the second door on the bottom floor of the tower that blended into the wall.

Z opened it, and it disappeared into utter darkness, the few steps I could see descending into black, the tunnel flooded with the scent of water.

It looked so much like being back underground with Gleym that my throat began to close and my vision darkened. “We’re going in there?”

Zovai wrapped his arms around me from behind, soothing me with his presence.

They could feel my immediate hesitation and fear.

“I didn’t think about the similarities. This leads down to the hot springs in the caves by the ocean.

You can walk out onto the beach from there, and you can even see the sky.

We are not going completely beneath the earth. ”

My heartbeat slowed, and I allowed myself to release the breath I’d swallowed. “Can I—” I worked through the fear and embarrassment while they waited, and I felt nothing but love. No judgment and no reason for shame. “Can I close my eyes?”

“Yes.” Zovai swept me off my feet and up into his arms. “I’ll tell you when there’s light once more.”

It smelled different from Evrítha. Gleym’s caves had smelled like water, but darker. There wasn’t wind in her caves. It was the scent of water that had gathered and stayed, not ebbed and flowed. That difference alone helped.

A thought popped into my head. “Did you see Gleym’s punishment?”

“We did,” Sirrus said. “Though we were all fairly young at the time. Because we were the Heirs, they took us with them when she was executed. Or so we thought.”

I frowned but kept my eyes closed. “Is there any way to separate a dragon from their magic?”

“Not that I know of,” Zovai said. “Why?”

“Gleym’s power controls the relationship between things. Even herself and other objects. If her power was known, and there’s no way to alter a dragon’s magic, then would the Elders know she would be able to stop her own fall, no matter if they clipped her wings?”

Silence answered me along with the sound of their footsteps on the stairs. Finally, Endre spoke. “It is my first instinct to say no, but knowing what I know about them now, it’s possible.”

“Do you think they know she’s alive?”

“Even if they do know,” Sirrus said, “they do not care. If she cannot escape herself and has no desire to return, they’ll be happy to let her rot.”

Still, something didn’t seem right. Of course the Elders would conceal their true intentions, but why let her live? The Elders were evil, but they were not fools. Not in the way Andaros was. If they’d wanted Gleym dead, they would have killed her. So why was she still alive?

“You can look now,” Zovai whispered.

I opened my eyes and gasped. The stairs in front of us were lit with the pink glow of sunset. A few more steps and I could feel the wind. See the pools that bubbled from beneath the surface of the earth, painted with that same glow. “They’re beautiful.”

Zovai set me down, and I immediately went and touched the water. It was warm. Deliciously so. It would almost be too hot for most humans. But for three dragons and their mate? It was perfect .

The sun set on the other side of the continent, so the pools reflected the pure color of the quickly fading sky. I didn’t waste time stripping off the too-large clothes and sinking into perfect heat. I groaned.

“That feeling?” Zovai said as he followed me. “It’s exactly what it feels like when our cocks are inside you.”

My body was already heating and my face still flushed. I leaned on the rocks, looking out at the ocean. This close to the surface, it felt like I was staring at where the sea met the sky. Beautiful deepening blues.

A hand stroked up my back, and sudden nerves gripped my stomach. It had been months, and I’d only really been with them twice. I didn’t know how to let go of the anger and fear enough to just be .

Zovai’s hands ran up my ribs before he lifted me, spinning my body and laying me back on the rocks.

If I tilted my head back I could still see the sky.

“All you have to do is say yes,” he told me.

“And if you’re not ready, say no, and I shall still be happy that you’re in my arms. But never doubt that we want you, and there is no need to be nervous. ”

A kiss pressed directly to the center of my stomach, and I gasped the word. “Yes.”

Through our bond I felt the sharp turn of their desire and their possession. Without words, I knew that they savored every new experience they could bring me, and they loved that I would only ever know their bodies. Their mouths and their cocks.

I watched the sky as Z’s mouth drifted lower, dragging hot kisses that contrasted with my wet and cooling skin. Until he reached the apex of my thighs. He groaned before his mouth was on me.

There should never have been any worry. The second his tongue curled around my clit, need bloomed beneath my skin. Every night that I’d spent without them didn’t matter because we were here now .

And they felt the same. The sensation of coming home streaming from Zovai nearly brought tears to my eyes. He devoured me. Consumed me. Dragged me toward brutal, bright pleasure, and I was entirely willing.

“Yes,” I said again. “Yes.”

Sirrus appeared at my side, lying across the rocks with me, taking my mouth in a kiss that could set us all on fire. Deeper than I thought possible. He traced lines of delicate heat over my skin, the mere touch warming me, teasing me, driving me higher.

It had been too long. It didn’t take much to make me fall into absolute bliss. I arched off the rocks, breaking our kiss and glimpsing the last traces of pink and purple and orange disappearing from the sky. Pleasure that left me breathing hard, but wasn’t nearly enough .

My hesitation was a dam that had been broken and now I needed more. Needed everything.

Come here, mate . Endre’s command had me shivering with desire. I went. He sat in the water, arms spread along the rocks like he had no cares in the world. But he reached for me when I approached him, arranged me over his legs where he was hard and waiting, but not yet moving.

My fingers wet his hair as I ran them through it. Endre closed his eyes, the simple pleasure of being touched by me ringing in the space between us. “I missed everything,” he whispered. “Even this.”

I swallowed, hoping all the emotions I still had carefully caged weren’t going to make another appearance.

“When we—” I shook my head. It was so much more than my outburst today and the nameless fear that sat wedged between my lungs.

The absence—the separation—right after our bonding would leave a mark.

I didn’t know how long it would take to heal, if it ever truly would.

“I didn’t even realize how much I missed you until you were back,” I said. “It was like my body and soul were suddenly able to relax, and I hadn’t even known they were tense. I missed everything too.”

When Endre moved, he brought us together slowly. I didn’t know if it was because of how long we’d spent apart, or if it would always feel like a miracle. No matter what, I savored the feeling of him entering me, shivers of pleasure both heralding more and echoing into softness.

More than anything, the feeling of completeness that flowed through our bond nearly made me burst into tears all over again.

He kissed me, taking the words and our pain and guiding me toward that breathless, writhing bliss they always managed to pull out of me. And now that they could feel exactly what I did?

My voice echoed off the walls of the cave and out over the open sea.

The color drained from the sky, leaving us in near darkness. Moonlight painted the beach, but not enough. The second I opened my eyes, I shut them again, burying my face in Endre’s neck, fear clawing at my insides.

“I shouldn’t be afraid of this. She helped me survive.”

Endre slowly pulled out of me and helped me out of the pool and into the quickly cooling air.

“Because of Skalisméra, we are used to being beneath the earth. But it will be a long time before I can truly summon my fire once more. Not without sickness soon following. If I see chains, or smell the dryness of the desert, I have no doubt I will feel the same.”

Instead of taking the dark stairs back up to the tower, we walked out onto the sand together. Zovai shifted and carried me up, dropping me just in time to catch me out of the air and sweep me back into the bedroom. “You could warn me,” I said with a laugh.

“And not get to feel the thrill when I catch you? The way your heart starts to pound?”

“Just… don’t drop me.”

Laying me on the bed, he stretched out over me, the golden eyes of his beast following every line and curve of my body. “Never,” he vowed. Then he blinked, human eyes appearing. “Can you take more, mate?”

I smiled and pulled him down to me. There was no such thing as too much. Not with them. I wanted everything .