Page 17 of The Dragon Queen #3

I was a dragon, I was a woman, and my brain fought to reconcile those two things. I whirled around as my mates clustered closer, roaring my challenge, but then my view shifted and I was standing in the king’s suite. I didn’t notice the fine drapery or richly brocaded counterpane, because all I wanted, needed was them. I sucked in breath after breath, chest heaving, as they drew closer, my eyes, my hands not knowing where to land first.

Ged.

He pushed forward with a swinging gait, all the power, all the confidence in the world in that movement, a cocky smile spreading across his face, right before he kissed me. His hair felt like the finest of velvet as I rubbed my fingers through it, then tugged his head down, forcing him to deepen the kiss. His tongue thrust into my mouth. Yes, that’s what I needed. My own flicked out to tangle with his in a vicious kiss, right before I was tugged away.

Flynn’s grin was as bright as the sun, his eyes like a summer sky, which made for a strange contrast as he stroked the side of my face with another man’s blood dried on his hand. I pressed a kiss into the palm, consecrating that act of vengeance, but that was never going to be enough. The traitors had been revealed, our enemies locked away, and so now there was only him.

His breath sucked in through his nose as his mouth slammed down on mine, sure to leave my lips bruised and swollen later. But right now I was where I wanted to be. A blue dragon surged forward, twining his neck with Cynane’s, and for a second I thought it was Glacier, but that would never be the case. The dragon was as committed to Glimmer as the man was me, Flynn drawing back for just a second to stare down at me in wonder.

Right as Soren stepped between us.

“Be sure that this is what you want, lass.” He fought to make the words out, his hands betraying him. They slid across my shoulders, his touch feather light, but then dropped lower, finding my breasts beneath the gown. I arched up into his touch, my body feeling swollen, heavy with need. “I’ll keep them off you if that’s what you need.”

“Don’t you dare.”

I stared into his eyes for a second, seeing the blue dragon get clawed away, and with a scrabble of raking claws and snapping jaws, Hadrian pushed forward. For just a moment, he threw his wing over the writhing Cynane, making clear she had his protection, now and always.

But that wasn’t what she needed.

When the mating fever hit, she needed more than her constant companion could give her, and would exhaust him and all the other dragons that had proven themselves worthy, a reality he had long faced. She pulled free of him, then wrapped her neck around his. I could feel their scales sliding together as my fingers went to Soren’s jacket. I was well practised in undoing the toggles, my fingers not able to relax until they smoothed across his bare skin. Soren’s control shredded, I saw it in the way his jaw clenched, and a low growl escaped him, the perfect counterpoint to the dragons’ roars. His hands jerked up, wrapping themselves around my wrists before I was spun around and pressed into the wall.

My body was forced to stretch as he placed my hands above my head .

“Letting yourself be put in such a vulnerable position, cadet?” Soren shook his head. “Have I taught you nothing?”

“There’s nothing vulnerable about me.” My hips moved forward, pressing into his, and that resulted in his thigh pushing between them as my backside hit the wall. My body moved of its own volition in a great wave, my nerve endings screaming at every point of contact. “I’m right where I want to be.”

“That’s my queen you’re manhandling.”

Draven’s sly drawl had us both turning to see him settle against the wall beside us. That same mocking smile was there on his face, but there was a hungry edge to it that I only got to see sometimes.

“Our queen.” Draven’s smile faltered, and we all stared as Brom grabbed the king’s shoulder and spun him around. “My queen. My wife.”

“Oh, so you’re willing to talk about that now?” Draven’s voice held all the deadly threat of a dragon. “And while we do that, your drill sergeant will thrust his cock into your wife’s hot little cunt.”

There was a part of Draven that was like an animal caught in a trap. Even when its steel jaws were prised from his leg, he couldn’t stop himself from falling back into the same responses, snarling at anyone that dared to come close. He’d bitten Brom many times before, I could see it in my husband’s eyes.

But not this time.

Mating fever broke everything down: control first, then finer feelings, then it obliterated the hierarchies we existed within. When the queen dragon rose, any male that thought himself worthy could rise with her, strive to prove he was worth mating her. Perhaps that’s why Brom’s hand rose, only to slap Draven across the face.

It was as if someone had doused my head with a bucket of ice water. I blinked, gasped, and resisted the urge to splutter, even as I pulled away. Everyone drew closer, just like the other dragons did as Hadrian mounted Cynane. We would be witnesses to this.

“Not talk about it then.”

Draven had weapons all over his person, but right now the only ones he used were his fists as drew them up, ready to strike .

And his words.

“How does it feel, watching Pippin stand beside me as my queen?” Draven asked, circling Brom.

The rider shook his head as if to dislodge a thought, but Brom’s famous control deserted him. His eyes flashed dangerously dark as he raised his own fists, all his balance on the balls of his feet as he prepared to meet Draven’s strikes with his own.

“Worse than anything I’ve ever felt before.”

“Brom…” I took a step towards him, which had him lowering his guard for a second. Draven took advantage, his fist colliding with Brom’s chin. “Draven!”

My cry went unheeded. Brom shook his head, then grinned, spitting blood on the floor, barely missing the king’s boots.

“You always punched like a bloody prince.” Brom’s voice dripped with scorn. “Not a rider.”

He moved like lightning, as if a dragon leant him the strength to step back then use that momentum to drive his fists forward, one into the king’s jaw, following that up with another to his nose. Draven’s eyes went wide as if he couldn’t believe what had happened, but he rallied fast. As blood dripped down his face, he grinned through it, making the expression a gory thing.

“And you never got this vicious when you found me with Ada.”

I knew the two of them had history with the woman who tried to poison me at Brom’s family estate, but the exact details hadn’t been discussed.

“I never cared a jot for her, something you knew.” Brom’s fists dropped down for a second. He frowned before jerking them back up again. “Nor her for me. We were each just a means to get to you, but…” He stepped back, as if about to turn away from this ugly scene. “Not Pippin. Never Pippin.” The change in plan was abrupt, his hands planting on Draven’s chest and shoving him backwards. “You had your chance. She was given to you like a pound of meat and you rejected her.”

“Because my mother?—”

“And I was there. I was there when this boy herded pigs over for the dragons to eat. I watched him move, and my eyes couldn’t look at anything else. I was there when we finally found Lady Pippa, when her family’s deception was revealed. I was there when she bonded with Glimmer.”

They were nose to nose now, each man bristling with anger.

“That was when I knew my heart was lost. I didn’t even know her, and yet… I was completely and utterly transfixed. On some level, deep in my soul, I knew I would always, always serve at her feet.” He dared to look at me then, and it felt like he was stabbing right into my soul. “She is my queen, and you…” Brom shook his head slowly. “You’re just the bastard who’s trying to take her away from me.”

I leapt forward, unable to take any more. I ached and ached and couldn’t even tell you why. Just that everyone I cared about was hurting and I was hurting too when I wasn’t kissing Brom. His hands went to my hair, mine to his neck, and I clung to him. His mouth brushed against mine, but that would never be enough. I pulled his lips down, claiming them as mine.

“Pippin…” He mumbled my name between kisses. “My Pippin.”

Somehow we found ourselves on the bed. When I started clawing at his jacket, he shot me a shy smile and then turned us over until I was lying on the bed. Ged landed on the bed beside us, stroking my hair, then moving to unlace my bodice as Brom pulled his jacket off. His pale skin, the breadth of his shoulders, even the small scar across one bicep, every single detail was well known, well loved by me. He shot me a cocky smile when he saw how he held my attention. Flynn crawled up beside me, naked now, Soren coming close behind him. Hands, hands were moving everywhere to strip me bare. I couldn’t bear this dress or these boots one moment longer. I was done pretending to be something I wasn’t.

And now I needed to claim the role that belonged to me.

Brom’s wife, Flynn’s lover, Soren’s cadet, and Ged’s girl, it felt like there were too many me’s in the bed with us, while also not enough. Each one of them kissed me and before I could even register who, he was moving on and another took his place. My hands reached, stroked, caressed hard bodies, unable to get enough until one set of hands grabbed mine and held them in place.

“The dragons serve their queen tonight,” Brom said as the room came back into focus. “We do the same.”

“Your queen…” Draven looked too pale, the bones in his face standing proud as he surveyed the lot of us. “And mine.”