Page 28

TYPHOS

“ F uck!” Either Camillia couldn’t hear me, or she was too stubborn to listen. Maybe it was a mixture of both, but if she didn’t stop this, she was going to die.

I erased the distance between us and pulled her into my arms, then shoved the Source’s energy back into her chest.

But the little brat pushed it right back, refusing to accept my power. Refusing to siphon it. Instead, she was giving all of herself to the Hell Fae Realm.

Sacrificing herself for my fae like a queen should.

My jaw clenched. “We need to get her back to the palace,” I said before issuing a command to my Hellhounds to return the dazed Nightmare Fae to their realms. Then I vanished and let Camillia’s mates follow us back to my chambers.

The teleportation only took seconds, but in that brief time, Camillia’s skin had turned ashen and cold, her soul barely thrumming with life.

“You and I are having a long talk when I finish reviving you, little one,” I growled.

A talk that involved a shift in methodology.

Because I was done playing the role of a slow and patient teacher. Camillia De la Croix needed a firm hand. Otherwise, she was going to end up dead.

And I refused to let that happen.

“She’s not breathing,” Az said as he appeared beside me, the scent of ash and fire heavy in the air.

Ajax arrived next, the Midnight Fae a little winded but otherwise mostly recovered, thanks to Camillia siphoning the Virtuous Fae spell off of him. Unfortunately, it was that act that had pushed her over the edge, Vivaxia’s powerful magic having created a surge that had sent Camillia spiraling.

“I can’t hear her,” Ajax said, clearly more focused on his mate than on his lingering injuries.

Melek appeared right behind the Warden, his agonized expression stabbing me through the chest. He quickly masked it, but not quickly enough.

Fuck, that tormented look would forever be engraved in my mind. I never wanted to see it again. Although, something told me my own face would rival his if I didn’t find a way to fix this.

Camillia had given everything to protect my realm, to protect me . Just like at that Interrealm Fae Ball.

This female was the opposite of a threat. She was a fucking beacon of hope. A Godsdamn queen . And I’d wronged her in so many ways.

Including in our training. I’d gone too slow, too soft , when I knew better. With Vivaxia as a threat, there was no time for gentleness.

Camillia needed to master her power. And she needed to do it now .

“She’s rejecting my power surge,” I said, irritated not only with Camillia but also with myself. I couldn’t help feeling that her rejection was founded on distrust. But we’d address that after she survived this. Setting her on my bed, I focused on my Commander. “Azazel, I need you to?—”

He pressed his hand over her heart, and electricity thrummed through the air, the Phoenix Fae inside him already charged and ready before I even finished my demand. Power rippled out of him, the palpable energy taking my breath away.

The pale quality of Cami’s skin diminished, leaving behind a creamy glow. Thank, fu ? —

The color faded before I could finish the thought, my soul warming as a roar of fire hit my Source with a vengeance.

And Cami went back to resembling death.

I growled.

And Azazel tried again. “ Fires ,” he hissed when the same thing happened after a handful of seconds.

Well, at least this isn’t about rejection, then, I thought, some foreign part of me momentarily relieved. But I swallowed that temporary reprieve because we still had a big fucking problem.

“We need to drown her in power,” I decided, voicing the solution as it formed in my mind. We didn’t have time to think, only act. “And we need to distract her—to give her something else to focus on—so she can’t just shove it all back into my realm.”

Then, once she woke up enough, I’d take control and show her how a king tames a queen.

Azazel’s hand still hovered over her chest as he asked, “What kind of distraction?”

“Anything that takes her mind off the energy coursing through her,” I told him. “She’s hyper-fixated on redirecting the power right now, even while unconscious. If we can shift her attention to something else, I should be able to help ground her.”

My Commander nodded, then looked at Ajax. “Bite her.”

The Warden arched a brow. “You want me to feed on her while she’s weak?”

“I want you to make her body come alive while Typhos, Melek, and I flood her with power,” Azazel said, taking charge.

Ajax gave him a skeptical look. “You think that’ll be enough?”

“After what I experienced back there in that dungeon?” Azazel’s gaze lit up with twin flames of golden lust. “Yes. Yes, I fucking do.”

In the chaos, I hadn’t realized what had transpired between the two of them until now—they’d deepened their connection. “Ajax bit you.”

“Twice,” Azazel said without looking at me.

“Now bite Cami, Ajax.” He ripped her tiny tank top clean off, exposing her bra—a bra that went up in flames in the next second as he seared it right off of her.

“Arouse her. Make her pant. Drive her so fucking wild she can’t think about anything other than our cocks being inside her. ”

Ajax was already moving before Azazel finished, his palm landing on one tit as his mouth sealed over the other. Azazel burned off the rest of her clothes, leaving her naked, a sight I would have enjoyed if she didn’t resemble a fucking corpse.

Godsdamn it, Camillia , I thought at her, furious that she was sacrificing herself. But a part of me was also fucking aroused, which was really discombobulating.

I shouldn’t want to punish her. Not like this. Not right now.

And yet, all I wanted to do was pull her over my knee and redden her pale ass until she screamed.

I grabbed her throat, my thumb pressing against her waning pulse. Melek joined me, kneeling on the bed by her head and threading his fingers through her hair. Then he leaned down and blew air into her mouth.

Air laced with power.

I felt the heat of it on my palm as I added my own brand of energy to his efforts.

Then Azazel placed his lips to Camillia’s inner thigh with a low snarl that echoed through the bedroom suite. Energy hummed all around him, the Phoenix inside him building a surge that would burn us all. But I didn’t fucking care so long as it overwhelmed the female lying lifeless in my bed.

“On my count,” Azazel ground out, parting Camillia’s legs to rest between them.

His mouth shifted higher to the apex between her thighs, his touch hovering over her sweet little clit.

A vision of him biting her there assaulted my mind, the desire to hear her scream an intrinsic need that had power rippling through me.

She’d deserve the sting.

Little temptress , I thought. You’re hurting your mates by playing the role of a sacrificial lamb. They’d better make you pay for that, Camillia. But if they don’t, I sure as fuck will .

Not that she could hear my threat.

We weren’t bonded.

A fact that had me feeling a little out of sorts as I watched her mates combine their powers to revive her. I would be able to help as their Hell Fae King, but I could help so much more if I were Camillia’s mate.

My jaw tensed. That’s not going to happen. Even if she’s the perfect queen.

And not because I didn’t want to bond her, but because she definitely didn’t want to bond me. She didn’t trust me or like me, something her body and soul had made apparent by rejecting my rejuvenating essence.

Unless… unless she’s only rejecting me because she can’t control it.

I shook my head, my musings devolving into a spiral of rhetorical nonsense.

Camillia De la Croix needed to fucking breathe.

Then I could… figure everything else out.

Flames erupted down Azazel’s spine, burning through his shirt and sending tatters of fabric into the air.

He ignored it, his Phoenix still building an inferno of cataclysmic vitality.

It was unlike anything I’d ever seen from the Commander, his magic swirling in a way that appeared to be bolstered by his new Midnight Fae connection.

Violet and golden sparks danced around him, his hands running up and down Camillia’s legs. He met my gaze from between her thighs, his expression borderline feral. “ Now ,” he said.

No countdown.

No warning.

Just a command, one I adhered to without hesitation.

A whirlwind of heat blossomed between the five of us, the maelstrom of electricity causing all the hairs on my arms to stand on end. Fire followed, the violet flames engulfing us in an inferno that should have burned yet didn’t.

Because I countered it with my own power, tempering the fire and ensuring our safety while Azazel emptied every ounce of power into his mate.

Melek groaned.

Ajax growled.

And I basked in the glow of our circle.

It was intense. Beautiful. All-consuming. Perfection .

Fae , I wanted more. To feel this every fucking day for eternity. To exist in this bubble of fiery embers, lounge in the flames, and create a new throne for all of us to share.

Including Camillia , I realized, my heart racing as I felt her starting to filter that power back into my Source. But there was too much for her to balance, too much for her to consume and send on, too much for her to siphon .

Because all of us were flooding her veins with life, forcing her to rejuvenate, to wake the fuck up .

Those big eyes of hers opened as her lips parted on a scream, the sound so fucking delicious that I wanted to shove Melek out of the way and claim her for myself.

But he was already there, already breathing into her lips, his essence a decadent kiss that turned her screams into moans in a heartbeat.

Or maybe that was because of Ajax and Azazel. Perhaps a combination of all of the above.

Our Warden had switched breasts, leaving traces of blood behind on her opposite nipple. And our Commander had fully settled between her legs, his lips having sealed around her clit as he’d shoved all that power into her body.

Now he was driving her wild with his tongue, forcing her to focus on the sensations and ignore her siphoning powers. All while we pumped her full of our magical essence.

If only it was our seed, I thought, my hand threatening to clamp down harder on her throat. I wanted to see her bathed in cum, marked by all of her mates. And me…

Fuck, that was an unexpected desire. Or perhaps not unexpected at all.

I’d meant to deny this forbidden pull, to leave her to Melek and the others, but watching her come undone beneath her mates had me panting with need.

Me. The Hell Fae King… fucking panting.

It was unheard of.

Melek knew how to taunt me, to make me harder than obsidian granite and crave his hot mouth. But this was a whole different level of lust. It was a calamitous yearning that ensnared me in a sensuous web that threatened my sanity.

I had to maintain order.

To be in control .

To dominate this female’s power.

Yet her scent was invading my every pore, and her moans were the only sound I could hear. I’d wanted to drown her power, and now all I desired was to drown in her.

Fucking fae… I couldn’t look away from the sinful feast unfolding before me. Power swirled, passion beckoned, and carnal needs flourished.

Camillia was awake now and drunk on the energy giving her life.

Not only that, but she was also distracted by her mates. Lost to their touch. Eyes closed once more. Indulging in Melek’s kiss while fisting Ajax’s hair as she held him to her breast.

All the while, Azazel licked .

And I… I watched. Captivated. Held in place by my hand around her throat. Leashed to the decadent display of uninhibited debauchery.

“Fuck, little warrior,” Azazel groaned against her wet pussy. “I need to be inside you.” His clothes were gone, his fire having eaten through them. And his cock was hard. Ready. Roaring with need.

Ajax released Camillia’s breast, his gaze fixating on Azazel, his jaw tightening.

The Commander and Warden stared each other down, some silent conversation happening between them that had Camillia grabbing the sheets on either side of her hips in expectation. Melek finally released her mouth, causing her thick eyelashes to flutter open. But it wasn’t my prince she looked at.

It was me.

Twin storms of intensity drilled into mine as a cyclone of energy whirled between us.

“If you push any more power into my Source, I’ll choke you,” I warned her. “And it won’t be with my hand. It’ll be with my cock down your throat.” Because I was done playing nice. If she needed sex to focus on, I’d give her that. Fuck, I’d give her anything .

Her swollen lips parted, the reaction one I longed to interpret as an invitation. However, I suspected it was actually a reaction to my threat.

Only it wasn’t a threat at all, but a promise.

Because right now, I wanted nothing more than to fist all that golden-brown hair and guide her mouth to my aching dick.

But we weren’t ready for that yet. Fuck, I wasn’t sure if she was ready for any of it.

Although, that didn’t stop me from squeezing her throat and leaning down until we were eye to eye. “Test me,” I dared her. “See what happens.”

She swallowed against my palm.

Melek hummed in approval, his fingers skating over my hand before trailing down to play with her abused nipple. “Ty doesn’t make false promises, little angel. But it could be fun to tempt him, hmm?”

Her eyelashes fanned across her reddening cheeks, her pupils dilating as she continued to hold my gaze. A war danced in those pretty eyes. A war between obedience and defiance.

Oh, she’d stopped flooding my Source with power.

But now she was considering doing it just to spite me.

I could see it in her expression and hear Melek’s amusement as he read her thoughts.

“If you want my cock, ask for it,” I told her. “Don’t piss me off just so I’ll fuck you.”

Her gaze narrowed. “Maybe I don’t want it.”

I arched a brow, my thumb dancing along her now-thundering pulse. “Then what do you want, little temptress? For me to watch Azazel fuck you?”

I leaned down, wanting to be the only one she could see.

“Or maybe you want all three of your mates to fuck you at the same time,” I continued, my mouth so close to hers that her breath kissed my lips.

“Ajax in your ass. Melek in your mouth. Azazel in your slick cunt.” I studied her features, saw the way her nostrils flared.

“Mmm, you do want that, don’t you, sweet queen?

To have all three of your holes filled while I watch. ”

The way she shuddered in response confirmed my every word and had my lips curling as I slowly sat up again.

“All right, then,” I murmured, meeting Melek’s gaze before glancing at Azazel and Ajax. “Show me what I’m missing. Make me jealous. Better yet, make me beg .”

It seemed like a good punishment.

A way to atone for being a fool all these months.

Maybe Camillia would forgive me in the end.

Or maybe she would spend eternity making me regret my choices.

And forever be… my forbidden fruit .