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“Of all the irresponsible directions you could have taken your life, you became the Dragon King’s property?

” Lilith was as enthralling as the mother of all succubi should be.

She had full pouty lips, suggestive frosty amethyst eyes, and a voluptuous body enshrouded in barely there fabric that left absolutely nothing to the imagination.

Rowan had never known her long silky black hair to know disarray.

Though, as she paced the entirety of Rowan’s kitchen, she was getting close.

She was the only other person Rowan knew to have the extra limbs of succubi, though she had four horns.

Two that curved around her head and pointed straight back and two that pointed up.

Her wings were massive, though she could call them forth or put them away with a special bit of magic her goddaughter had no access to.

When Rowan had asked why she was the only one to have the appendages, Lilith’s explanation was unsatisfying.

She supposed her mother and sisters’ lack of extra appendages was because of their lack of magic.

Most succubi held a ton of dark magic at their command.

The more powerful their dark magic was, the bigger the markers were.

“Chew!” Axel growled as she, for the third time, hit Rowan’s back to keep her from choking on her feast.

“Five days of non-stop sex.” Annabelle sighed, “Maybe your father and I are due for a vacation.”

Lilith slammed her hands on the table. “Belle, concentrate. We have to come up with a plan to rid your spawn of this dilemma!”

“I don’t think it’s a dilemma.” Lexine was happily helping herself to a small portion of Rowan’s meal. “While she was bedridden, you should’ve seen the way he looked at her through the door. It was swoon worthy.”

“That man is the bane of my existence!” Lilith hissed.

When Rowan untangled herself from what Alessandro had called the mark’s settling period—AKA five days of sex that only stopped for food, water and sleep—the last thing she wanted to do was to entertain the very irate mother of all succubi who had a past record of hating her mate.

She would have much rather phased out with her plate of protein to rejoin him in bed. But Terra had made it crystal clear that she wasn’t to return to Draconis until the ceremony that would introduce her to the Thunder as their new queen consort.

Even though Rowan and Alessandro had agreed, they did indeed need to get back to their responsibilities that morning and as such had taken down the barrier that his dragon had put up the very moment they’d phased from the hoard to Draconis.

They’d both been reluctant to let each other go through their last breakfast together.

This resulted in Rowan eating most of her breakfast perched right on his lap.

It was when he’d fed her strawberries off his plate that they made eye contact. It was the flame on her fuse. The kiss, meant to curb her appetite only made her more ravenous and soon they were making out, ready to tear each other’s clothes off.

Terra, who had the unfortunate responsibility of clearing the way for everyone else to show up, had to pull them apart. She reminded them as gently as she could, considering her skin was rolling with bronze scales, that they had things to do.

She killed the excitement by reminding them that a possible Cursed with a vendetta against the shifters was still at large. Then she led Rowan from the table, grabbing her plate of food and accompanying her all the way to the wrap-around porch of her cabin, which had yet to move even once.

After filling her in on what to expect over the next few hours, three wide-eyed dragons walked up to their King’s porch, each holding two stuffed-to-the-brim banker’s boxes.

Terra informed Rowan that they were each full of time sensitive paperwork that Alessandro hadn’t been able to get to in the two weeks he’d ignored his duties because he had been so busy dealing with her and the witch.

The cabin had changed location as soon as Rowan had stepped foot on its premises, dropping in next to her mother’s garden where Lilith and Annabelle, Lexine and Axel were in the middle of tea time.

Rowan wondered how the hell Terra had overridden her ownership to the cabin even for that little command, but she didn’t have time to mull it over as her godmother exploded into a fit of fury.

The scent of her nemesis all over her godchild had sent Lilith on a furious tirade of curses and death threats.

The mark on Rowan’s collarbone constantly dragging the violet eyes of her godmother in and igniting them with rage.

Axel passed Rowan a glass of water to help her swallow a large bite of steak.

“What exactly did he do to you?” her sister asked. “You’ve never told us the story.”

Lilith took a deep breath. “He’s a constant wedge in my relationship with Luz. If I had it my way, I’d have taken him out the first time he did it, but he is under his protection.”

Rowan highly doubted, even with all of her power, that Lilith could really beat Alessandro if he was really trying.

“He knows Uncle Luz?” Lexine gasped.

Lucifer was an eternal homebody. Rowan had seen him out of his corner of the endless hells twice in her life. Once for her sixth birthday, because six was his favorite number and on her graduation day from Spellcasters Academy.

Any other quality time they’d shared had occurred in the halls of his black glass castle in his chosen corner of the endless hells where Rowan even had her own wing.

“Not as well as I do.” Lilith snarled.

Rowan raised an eyebrow as she took the last bite of her collection. Was that jealousy she sensed from the woman? She never would’ve thought the woman even had the capacity for such a feeling.

“This was my choice, Auntie Lilith. I know it isn’t what you wanted for me, but you are still invited to my formal introduction to the Thunder if you promise to behave.”

Lilith’s magic lashed out, grabbing a blue and green vase from the countertop.

Rowan dodged, and the glass erupted into shards against the wall behind her.

That was enough. “That was an antique!” Rowan hissed as she stood to her full height, though it was nothing on the towering form of her godmother.

“Look, it’s done. The alternatives are worse than the reality.

I made a choice and you’re the one always saying we have to pay the consequences for our decisions.

You might have envisioned something different for me, but I’m not that five-year-old kid who needed you to keep me tethered to the ground when I couldn’t control my magic.

I am grown and I want you to see what I become because you were such a big part of my development.

So will you stay and see what the product of your hard work is, or will you leave? ”

No one had ever spoken like this to Lilith, especially not one of her succubi.

Her bottom lip trembled, carefully looking Rowan over, really seeing her for the very first time.

She took in the horns, wings, and tail that denoted her succubus descent, but her eyes almost always traveled back to the mark.

She held her hand out to the side. Rowan braced for impact, but instead of slapping her, Lilith summoned a small opalescent ball.

“If my lineage converges with that creature’s we’re going to make them realize how lucky they are.

This is Odin’s Eye--” She held it out towards Lexine.

“--Work on this while Belle and I gather the wardrobe for tonight. Axel, you and your father go pick out the worm’s present.

Just remember, he’s a dragon. If it shines, he’ll like it. ”

Rowan beamed at the black-haired woman as she palmed the object, warm and full of magic. “And just how do you have Odin’s Eye?”

“I won it during a poker match with the sloppy pervert.” Lilith shrugged. “Do not make me regret this, Rowan Dahl. If he treats you poorly, I will take his head. As your godmother, it is my right.”

A win was a win, right?

XOXOXOXO

“Mother, you said you would control your cousin.” Terra’s voice preceded her appearance in Alessandro’s fitting room.

Naseem worked in a concentrated flurry around him, closing the brown leather straps of Alessandro’s traditional dragon garb. Stone was polishing the black and gold crown that the Dragon King hadn’t laid eyes on in ages. Had it always been so bulky?

“I’ve taken care of it, Terra. She won’t disrupt the ceremony.” The soothing voice of Alessandro’s adoptive father was a balm to the nerves that had settled in the pit of his stomach.

He hadn’t realized how bad they’d gotten until that moment.

A part of him feared Rowan wouldn’t show up. That she would conclude that their union was not what she wanted, that she’d acted out of some insanity.

All day he’d fought visions of his dragons turning to him with betrayal in their eyes. How could he have rejected one of their own for so long only to choose someone who wanted nothing to do with them?

“Well, well, no wonder you have everyone groaning in disappointment. You make a handsome mate, son.” Phineas’ hazel eyes twinkled as he took in the splendor of Alessandro.

Decked out in soft green and cream silks that matched the silks of both his wife and daughter behind him, the man wasn’t half bad himself. There was a certain charm that the joyful man always seemed to exude, softening even the harshest of realities.

“I just need to work on being as charming as you and I’ll be quite the package.” Alessandro smirked as Naseem adjusted the final strap and stepped back.

Phineas let out a laugh from the belly and clapped a hand on his shoulder with affection, with his eyes on the mark on Alessandro’s forehead he whistled, “I half believed this was all a joke, but that’s a mate mark for sure.

Where’s your other half? I’d hoped we could get a sneak peek at her as repayment for raising you all these years. ”