Chapter 3

Three pairs of eyes met mine, lust-filled and hungry and demanding. They tracked lower, their gazes like a hot caress down the length of my naked body.

My breaths came short and fast while I ground my thighs together. “Please,” I begged. “It…it’s the dragon fire.”

The dragon shifter with pale eyes and even paler hair came closer, close enough so I could see the scruff of facial hair around his strong jaw, close enough for his white flannel to drag along my peaked nipples. His body heat sank into me, and when he reached out to cradle the back of my neck, I melted into his touch, panting.

“You took something from us,” he said, his lips grazing mine.

I went to crush my mouth to his, but his fingers tightened into a fist around my hair, holding my head in place. The rest of my body bowed toward him, my hips seeking his, and found that he was already hard behind his jeans. His pale eyes flamed as I rubbed up against him.

“I’ll give it back. I promise,” I said. “Just please…come inside.”

Next to him, his heated gaze never leaving my face, Calhoun lifted his hand and thumbed my lower lip. “Fitting choice of words, sweetheart.”

On the pale shifter’s other side, Tavis, who somehow wore a yellow T-shirt with a blue pineapple on it when he’d been shirtless before and his house had burned down less than an hour ago, touched my bare shoulder. His bright blue eyes filled with wonder as he sparked a shiver down my whole arm. “Sorry about your vacuum, but I bet Isbon employees get amazing discounts.” He winked. “Right?”

I sagged, too overwhelmed that the three of them were here, too filled with the potent mix of dragon fire that was slowly killing me.

But the three of them caught me before I dropped. With the pale shifter’s hand still fisted in my hair, they pushed me backward into my apartment and slammed the door behind them. I should’ve been terrified, but I couldn’t feel anything else through my desire.

That…and my inability to keep my feet underneath me, to keep my eyes open…

“She’s fading,” Calhoun said, his voice tense.

Fingers weaved through mine, the grip at the back of my head released, and then a warm breath grazed between my breasts, all a blurry, vague build-up to what happened next.

The pale shifter dipped his head and wrapped his lips around one of my taut nipples. Calhoun bent to my shoulder and kissed and licked while his hand smoothed down my stomach. On my other side, Tavis turned my head with a firm grasp on my jaw and then claimed my mouth with his in a deep, sensual kiss.

I moaned loudly as the sensations running through my body threatened to overwhelm me. Tavis drank it in and wrapped his arms around me.

Calhoun’s wandering hand swept between my legs, and he answered my cry with a groan buried in my neck. “She’s so ready.” He rocked his hips into my side, his hard cock pressing into me through his jeans. “I don’t know how much longer I can wait.”

The pale shifter hummed around my nipple, the vibration pushing me almost to the edge, and then released me, his heavy breaths cooling my soaked breast. “The dragon fire won’t quit until you’ve had each of us, or you’ll die within twenty-four hours.”

Had them. All three of them. Excitement lit through my body, eclipsing the hatred I had for their kind, and woke me right the fuck up. It burned out all other thoughts including the why behind his statement.

Calhoun touched his thumb to my lip again, and I sucked it into my mouth, my gaze locked with his dark bedroom eyes. Tavis ran kisses down my throat, his blue hair tickling my chin. The pale shifter—I didn’t even know his name yet—stood up tall in front of me, grasping my hips and rocking me into his straining pants.

“We share, but not all at once,” he said, his voice rough. “Choose one to begin with.”

I wanted all three of them, but I found myself reaching for Tavis. Not because I wanted him more than the other two, but because I needed to make my decision quickly. I wrapped myself around him as he devoured me with his lips once again.

The other two faded back some, but not so far away that I would forget they were here. Tavis’s heated body pressed me back toward the bedroom, his arms snaking around to my ass to hold me firmly against the rigid length inside his jeans. The living room blurred by, and before my bedroom door slammed, I was bouncing onto the bed, his mouth still claiming mine from on top of me. He kissed me like I was his life source, more important than the air funneling into his lungs, more valuable than the blood pumping through him.

And I kissed him back the same way. He wasn’t even inside of me yet, but already his closeness, along with the other two’s proximity, lightened my chest with a little bit of relief. It was the rest of my body that begged for a taste of that feeling.

“Tavis,” I groaned, not recognizing the growl that came out too.

“I’ve got you.” He unzipped his jeans and peeled them down enough to spring his thick cock free. With a gentle sweep of his knuckles across my cheek, he leaned back, his bright blue eyes warm with…admiration? I didn’t know what it was, but it snagged my next few breaths.

“I promise this will make more sense soon,” he said.

“That’s nice.” I pulled him down for another searing kiss and shifted so he nestled oh-so-nicely between my thighs. I was sure there was a fascinating explanation to what was happening—one I most definitely needed to hear—but the only thing my fevered brain could focus on was the dragon shifter whose cock nudged where I needed him the most.

He spread my legs wider and began to sink slowly inside me, inch by delightful inch. I opened myself up to him body and soul, our gazes locked, my moan feathering the ends of his blue hair against his jaw. When he filled me completely, he grinned, his eyelids heavy with lust.

“You have no idea how long I’ve waited for this,” he breathed.

No clue what he was talking about since he’d only just met me, but I was too distracted to care.

We began to move together, not fast and desperate like I wanted, but a slow, steady climb to the top. He rolled us onto our sides, my legs wrapped around his waist, and cradled my face like I was the most valuable thing he’d ever touched. His expert tongue licked and explored my mouth at the same tempo he thrust his hips. He fucked like he kissed, with passion, without any kind of reserve, pouring his whole body into pleasuring me. One of his hands trailed down my arm and around my back to my ass where he pressed me harder against him. I cried out at the added friction where I rubbed against him. The angle was perfect, the sensation rippling warmth to my tight bundle of nerves.

“Are you close?” he asked with the slightest tremble. “You feel so good. I can’t last much longer.”

I jerked my head and curled my fingers into his shoulder. More than close. I was dangling off the edge toward sweet relief, much more potent than my fingers or a vibrator could ever be. And then I fell, hard, spinning out of control and into his hands as he continued to fuck me through it. I clenched around him, so tight the tendons in his neck pulled. I cried out as I held to him, burying my hands into his blue hair, and moaning into the smoothness of his cheek. He came right after with a great bellow, his hips going wild and then slowing, slowing, until we both lay almost comatose and panting.

“Fuck yeah.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle since truer words had never been spoken. My limbs felt like liquid, the ache between my legs stalled enough for me to focus, and sharply.

“My brother has been taken as a sacrifice for your damn species’ full-moon ritual tonight.” My voice pitched higher with my panic.

“Ah, so that’s why you needed the pocket watch,” he rumbled against my chin.

“Yes.” I pushed away from him so I could disentangle myself, but he held fast. “Please, I have to go. Time’s running out.”

“Relax,” he said, nuzzling my ear. “You say the word, and we can help you get your brother back, Your Majesty.”