Page 66 of The Dragon Queen Complete Series Collection

Chapter 65

“You married the big, handsome dark-haired fellow, then?” Nadia asked me, not long after we arrived at my family estate.

We’d come for my honeymoon with Brom, or at least that was what we had told everyone. But had any other couple ever brought three of their closest friends on such a trip? We had, and for quite different reasons than we could safely divulge. My staff had rushed out at the sight of dragons, fussed over Glimmer until she retreated up on my shoulder, watching her admirers warily, and then Cook had announced everybody needed to hop to and gather ingredients for a feast. One of the footmen had carried my bags up to my father’s old room and, after I’d set them on the bed, Nadia had landed beside them in a flurry of skirts, leaning over to pick up my hand and inspect the ring on my finger.

“Which one?” I’d asked her, as I moved to set Glimmer down on the bed. She eyed the two of us then before nestling down on the bedspread to sleep.

“Well, it couldn’t be the drill sergeant,” she said, consideringly. “He’s a man in his thirties and much too old…” She paused then, to look at me sheepishly. “It’s not him, is it?”

“No, Soren is not my husband,” I told her confidently, even though I still felt his hands on my skin, heard his huskily whispered words of encouragement as he schooled me yet again, this time in the art of taking four men together as my lovers. “It’s Brom, the wing commander.”

“So tall and muscular.” I smiled at the swoony tone of her voice, watching her sigh and then flop back onto the bed. “An officer as well.”

“And a good man,” I told her, knowing that to be true in my heart.

“Do you love him?” Nadia’s tone was rising with her excitement as she flipped to lean on her elbow and look at me. “Was it love at first sight when you saw him here? Were you sneaking around when that bloody prince arrived? And what happened to him ?! Why aren’t you queen-in-waiting anymore?”

I wanted to answer her honestly, I really did. Nadia was as close to a sister as I’d ever had, so holding back information from her felt wrong. But as I opened my mouth, Glimmer cracked open one eye and stared at me.

You are a dragon queen in a world that has forgotten what that means , she told me. You cannot share these details, not until people are willing to accept them.

“That’s a very long story, or a short one,” I said with a rueful smile. “The queen rejected Glimmer and therefore me. I was told to join the royal dragon riders and a husband was found for me.”

“So it’s not a love match?”

I watched all the light drain from Nadia’s eyes, but I shook my head slowly.

“Love?”

I found myself looking within then, reaching for what I felt about Brom and feeling unsure of what I found there. Affection, need, desire, gratitude, frustration, anger had all raged within me at some point in response to my husband, but now… My thighs clamped together as my last memory of him arose. Standing over me, cock in hand, working it hard and fast right before he… I shook my head.

“I’m not sure if we’re there right now,” I replied, “but there is real affection between us. It’s no hardship, being married to Brom.” What would’ve been perfect was if the priest had allowed me to marry all four men. Tied to each other in the eyes of the gods, we could’ve explored things at our own pace, fanning the flames of desire and tenderness that burned between all of us. “If we aren’t in love right now, I think we will come to be.” I smiled. “I will, anyway.”

I thought about that, later that evening as all five of us came to sit down to eat the sumptuous feast Cook had prepared. I’d changed out of my riding leathers and back into one of Father’s suits, but each rider stood by his chair, bowing low when I arrived. It was the customary sign of respect shown to a lady in her seat of power but, still, I was not dressed in the ordinary manner of a lady. Flynn’s eyes danced as he bowed with a flourish, then his gaze turned hungry, making me wonder what was to come once night fell. Soren nudged him when he wouldn’t stop staring. Ged went to pull out a chair for me beside him but Brom moved to the head of the table, pulling out the seat of honour, and then pushing it in beneath me as I sat down. His hands landed on my shoulders for just a second, squeezing them before moving to take his own seat.

“This all looks delicious,” Ged said, eyeing the spread before us.

“And you’ll wait your turn before digging in,” Soren growled. He nodded to me, his expression instantly softening. “Our queens serve themselves first.”

Glimmer crawled down from her perch on my shoulders. She was now getting too heavy to stay there for long. Once she was on the table, she sniffed experimentally at the dishes before turning to me.

They’ve ruined perfectly good meat by cooking it and dressing it in all these damned sauces , she grumbled.

“Cook sent me in with this, milady.” A maid I didn’t recognise rushed into the room then stopped herself, eyeing Glimmer before bobbing a curtsey. “Just in case the little queen… I mean, dragon didn’t find any of the dishes to her liking.”

“Thank you…” I paused, not knowing her name.

“Lettie,” she said, flushing and glancing around the table. “I’m Lettie. I just recently started my service here. I…” She plonked the bowl down in front of Glimmer and then sketched another curtsey before rushing out.

“Must’ve seen your face,” Ged told Flynn, with an evil smirk.

“Why? Because it’s a helluva lot prettier than your horse’s?—”

“Enough.” Brom’s tone was even, but definite. “I want to make a toast to our queens.”

I felt suddenly shy and dropped my gaze as they all looked at me, a ridiculous reaction considering what the five of us had been up to, only a night ago, during Zafira’s heat. We’d been as intimate as any people could be. Even so, I had to force myself to lift my head and look each of them in the eyes, and I couldn’t hold the gaze of any of them for long. Would I always feel this way? My cheeks flushed despite myself, the attention feeling exactly what I needed but too much, all at the same time. Whatever had happened at the ruins, it’d unlocked something inside me, something naked, vulnerable and wanting, and that’s how I felt when I stared finally at Brom as he gave the toast.

“To my wife.”

Gods above, if he used that passionate, possessive tone every damn day of our marriage, I’d consider myself a happy woman. I found I couldn’t look away from the warm hazel depths of his eyes; it was as though I could feel the warmth of his regard for me. He met my gaze head on for several moments, eventually turning to the others.

“To our wife,” Flynn added, the hectic light in his blue eyes dancing as he held up his glass in defiance. “You might have the piece of paper to legitimise your relationship, but every single one of us knows she’s as much ours as she is yours.” His focus shifted to me. “Perhaps even more so.”

“To Pippin,” Soren and Ged said, joining Brom in his toast. But as Brom’s hand slid across the tablecloth to take mine, his thumb rolling the too loose ring he’d given me around my finger, Ged spoke up.

“And you’ll need to be damned careful about making that obvious.” His attention shifted to the doors. We were the only ones in the room, but it was clear he knew to be cautious. “If you’re working class, there’s nothing you like more than snooping on your ‘betters’.” He turned to me, his eyes creasing. “I don’t know how we’ll do it. We have to find a way. We have to?—”

A queen must have her mates , Glimmer said, even as she buried her muzzle in the bowl of meat.

And she was right. I couldn’t do it, slip away to my room with one of them, not without the others. It’d been bearable before, because what burned between us had been unacknowledged, buried deep under regulations and compliance. But now? This was my estate, my lands, and I wanted to insist that every person on it acknowledged and supported my relationships—or get the hell off it.

But then, even as I burned with justifiable anger, I remembered the woman on the stage. As was often the case with new regimes, Queen Gloriana’s downfall had marked a determined effort to discredit and devalue polyamorous relationships, somehow connecting what went on in her bedroom to her inadequacies as a ruler.

“We’ve all been on covert missions before,” Soren said. “This won’t be any different. The room beside yours, Pippin. It has an adjoining door to the bedroom next to it?”

“It was Mother’s old room, then my stepmother’s,” I replied with a nod. “If two of you are comfortable bunking down in there?”

“But we won’t be sleeping in there.” Flynn’s gaze sliding over me was like a physical caress, and I gasped as my body responded. “No more pining away in our single beds. Promise me that.”

I wanted to. I wanted to walk around the table and put myself on his lap, settle against his body and let him feed me delicious morsels even as his scent filled my nose. I wanted that closeness, that intimacy, with each of them, but I also had to consider other things. I looked at Brom, feeling a terrible yearning before I spoke.

“Brom? In theory, this is your wedding night.”

“And perhaps we should be honouring that,” Soren told Flynn. “There’ll be plenty of time for… other things.”

“Like Pippin’s hot lips wrapped around your cock,” Flynn said in a low mutter. “Like her cunt?—”

“She’s more than that and you know it.” Ged’s voice was sharp, but his hand grabbed mine and gripped it hard. “Flynn, you want to try and pretend it's just a physical thing, but it's far more.” He glanced at me then. “Least it is for me. Do I want to sleep with Pippin tucked up under my chin, her whole body pressed against mine?” Ged nodded sharply. “There was nothing more beautiful than watching the sun rise this morning, seeing it reveal you by increments until it felt like my bloody heart would burst.”

Silence fell over the table, the only sound coming from Glimmer and her bowl. Then Ged’s attention shifted to Brom.

“But you want to have that experience too, don’t ya, mate?”

Brom stiffened, glancing between the two of us before replying.

“Just give me tonight,” he said, asking them, asking me. “You know I’ll never use the gift I’ve been given—the legal recognition of our relationship—to keep you away from her. But tonight?” Ged let my hand go as Brom’s thumb brushed back and forth over my knuckles. “Just one night, that’s all I ask.”

“We can give the commander that, can’t we?” Soren asked. Ged nodded. But Flynn was not so composed. His jaw tightened, his eyes flashed before he gave us his grudging approval.

And so a tense dinner was had. Dishes were passed around the table, with little other conversation ensuing, but their silence didn’t fool me. My every movement was followed with hot eyes, as if the way I clasped my wine glass or knife and fork was inordinately interesting.

And I understood why, for I felt the same.

There was something greedy, possessive, in me as well, as I watched them work through their food and I took in the flex of Ged’s thick forearms, the messy fall of Flynn’s blond hair, Soren’s perfectly upright posture and the sweep of his broad shoulders. And then there was Brom. My wing commander—my husband. He was mine, mine, mine and yet I knew him the least.

I found myself pausing more than once to watch him eat, taking in his finely shaped fingers, the shift of his long dark hair over his shoulders, the way his full lips pursed as he sipped at his wine and then there were his eyes. They’d always been cool, responsible, reliable, filling me with a confidence I’d never felt, until now. He looked up from his plate and caught me staring again, and he smiled. I blinked, as his eyes heated and amusement coloured his entire expression. The knowledge behind his eyes had my focus shifting abruptly back to Cook’s fine food. My heart raced and I feared that the effect he had on me would show in the shake of my hands, so I gripped the utensils tighter.

Not all males fly fast and hard to catch their mate , Glimmer told me. The one who lags behind may fool his rivals and his queen that he has lost heart. Then, when the others have exhausted themselves flying in pursuit, he uses the reserves of strength he has kept back and swoops in to claim his queen.

Is that what’s happening? I asked. You seem to know a great deal about these things.

My role is to find my mates, weld them to my side and then bring forth the next generation of dragons. I fought back the urge to snort as the small dragon stood tall on the tabletop, speaking with such self-assurance. Which is why I will sleep amongst my mates tonight.

What? I frowned at that, imagining all sorts of scenarios, but she just sighed.

We are two halves of a whole , she told me. But part of you will always belong to your men, just as mine will be with my mates . And with that she flicked open her wings and gracefully glided down from the table to the stone floor. Bind your ‘husband’ tightly to you, because we will need each one of your men in the fight that’s coming, just as we will need their dragons.

I wanted to ask questions, to interrogate her as to what the hell she knew, but she folded her wings, then turned and trotted out of the room like a dog that had other places to be. No doubt she was off to do exactly what she’d said—find her own consorts, the male dragons that were resting out in one of my fields. I half-rose to my feet to follow her. Even though I knew she was going to become more and more independent, I wasn’t ready for it. As I stood up, the men all set their cutlery aside and rose too.

“Pippin?”

Brom said my name in such a way that he could have been querying whether I had finished my dinner, or asking to see if I wanted to take a stroll or sit in the library and read a book before bed. Or whether I wanted to acknowledge what this was: my first night as his wife. I straightened my spine, ready to face this challenge head-on, like I had done with everything else. Even when I stood tall, he towered over me. Brom shifted slightly closer, and I became heart-thumpingly aware that he was not just tall, he was so much broader than me. He was also much more experienced and I felt a sudden desire to give everything up and give in to him.

“Should we—?” I began to ask, but he moved in, sweeping me up and into his arms and then carrying me from the room.

“Yes. I’ll always say ‘yes’ to you.”