Ice castles…
Before the sun had even considered rising, Dario had awakened to Jaeger’s whispered words. Sleepily, he’d scrubbed at his eyes before realizing they were in Gator’s room in the hospital ward. Flashes of what had just happened flew at him, along with the memory they’d nearly lost Gator. “What did you say?” he’d asked Jaeger sleepily before turning to rest a hand on Gator’s chest to reassure himself the man still breathed.
“We need to go,” Jaeger had said.
Too tired and sleepy to argue, Dario had helped Jaeger carry Gator outside. Once they’d been out in the cold, he’d turned to Jaeger, suddenly more awake. “Where are we taking him?”
“Home,” Jaeger had said before shifting into his dragon.
Dario had thought the man big. The beast was infinitely bigger. He’d seen a hint of Jaeger’s true form through the hole in the rec room’s wall, but at a distance he hadn’t truly understood the width and breadth of the dragon. A hint of fear flowed through him—before the realization he was safe with Jaeger settled in his gut. The dragon grabbed each of them in a back claw before rising into the darkness high above the facility.
They rose higher and higher, the air growing colder as they moved. Once they were high above the clouds, Dario lifted his head and marveled at the stars blanketing the inky blackness overhead.
Here, Dario had an unabated view of the heavens. The Milky Way lit the sky, the colors more vivid than from the ground. They pulsed. The radiant glow was almost too much.
A breath caught in his chest. He was awestruck by the sight.
Jaeger pulled his hind claws closer to his body, warming Dario some before he took off with great speed. Dario felt as if his head was spinning—but the sensation was all over his body. Everything around him moved in a blur of lights and a few minutes later, they landed on a mountainside.
After the dragon used his tail to brush snow away, Jaeger released his hind paw and deposited Dario to his feet. He then lifted a still-sleeping Gator into a forepaw. Dario gazed around them, taking in all there was to see.
A steep cliff jutted out beside them, rising a good hundred feet into the sky. They were surrounded by evergreens almost as tall as Jaeger’s dragon. The scent of pine was familiar. It was all around them in Bear Mountain and the outer edges of the mountain range. Yet here, the trees seemed to grow even higher. A thick blanket of snow covered everything.
Wherever they were, it was daylight—the sun was high in the sky. They had to have traveled much farther than he first realized.
“Where are we?” he asked Jaeger.
Jaeger lifted one of his forepaws, and a swirl of snow and ice swept around his hand and flew against the side of the rock face of the mountain.
A door emerged—one made of pure ice. Intricate patterns swirled over the surface. The doors opened, showing a crystalline room within. Jaeger shifted back into his human form—completely naked—and lifted Gator’s sleeping body into his arms. “Welcome home.”
Dario stood there, stunned for a moment. His gaze trailed over Jaeger’s muscled form, heat filling him. He felt his cock thicken, especially when his stare moved down and saw that Jaeger was fully erect. His mouth was open as he stared at it all. He licked his lips, suddenly starving.
It was the first time in many months he’d felt true lust for anyone. The need nearly consumed him.
Jaeger walked inside, carrying Gator’s big, lifeless body easily. “I need to get him somewhere warm. Come in.”
“Warm? This place is made of ice.” Dario walked in and the doors began to close on their own.
“I have a bed upstairs. The furs should keep him warm.”
Dario carefully followed Jaeger up a curved staircase, afraid he would fall. Everything looked like glass inside. While he felt slightly cool, he wasn’t freezing for some reason.
And the ice wasn’t slippery. Somehow, it was if he walked on regular ground. Once he felt safe he wouldn’t fall, it gave him time to admire the perfect, muscled ass ahead of him.
“How is this place real?”
Jaeger chuckled.
After walking down a long hallway, two doors opened on their own. Inside was a grand bedroom. A huge bed took up one corner. Across from it, a towering fireplace roared to life.
“Won’t that melt the ice?”
“Not with a little help from my magic,” Jaeger said as he bundled Gator beneath a mountain of furs. He rose to his full height and turned toward Dario, grabbing another fur from the bed. “That should keep him warm until the medicine wears off.”
The doctors had given Gator something to help him sleep—to help his neck wounds to heal faster.
Jaeger walked closer and wrapped the light fur around Dario.
He shivered, but it wasn’t from the cold. “Where exactly are we?”
“My castle,” Jaeger answered as he moved to one of the room’s windows.
Dario followed. He gasped as he looked outside.
A whole garden made of ice spread out around them like some crystal version of Versailles.
Not that he’d ever been to Versailles, but he’d seen pictures.
“Where exactly is your castle located?”
“Siberia,” Jaeger murmured.
Dario’s eyes widened. “Siberia? We only left the base a few minutes ago.”
“One of my powers is speed. I can be anywhere on the globe within minutes—when in dragon form. And I move so quickly, no one can see me—not even human radar. A momentary blip might appear, but fades away and is considered a malfunction.”
“So you’re slow as molasses as a human.”
Jaeger nodded, dragging him closer. The dragon chuckled. “I think I could keep up.”
Dario lifted his stare to Jaeger, craning his neck. The dragon shifter chuckled before waving his hand toward the floor.
A stool made of ice appeared. Jaeger dragged it closer with one foot before urging Dario to step up. Dario sighed and climbed the stool, taking the hand Jaeger offered. Once on it, he was a little closer and had to crane less.
“Aren’t you going to put some clothes on?” Dario asked, feeling a bit overdressed. Jaeger’s clothes had ripped apart when he’d shifted, and he didn’t seem interested in changing that situation.
“Only if you need me to.”
Dario shrugged. “If you prefer being an exhibitionist, who am I to argue?” The view was rather amazing.
Jaeger inched a little closer. “Does seeing me nude make you uncomfortable?”
Dario let his stare roam down and back up. “Yes,” he hissed slightly.
“Oh,” Jaeger said, moving away.
Dario stopped him, placing a hand on the man’s broad chest. “Uncomfortable… in a very good way.”
A smile formed on Jaeger’s lips.
Dario lifted his other hand and pressed his palm against Jaeger’s chest. Under his fingers, he could feel the steady beating of Jaeger’s heart. He lifted his stare and met the glowing blue of Jaeger’s eyes. They were a little darker than his pale, iridescent scales had been—nearly the color of a sunny, summer day.
“You’re beautiful,” Dario whispered as the fur slid from his shoulders and pooled around his feet.
Jaeger leaned down to grab it.
“I don’t need it. I’m warm enough.”
Jaeger straightened and pressed his hands on top of Dario’s. “I noticed how warm your hands were. I didn’t expect that.”
“I suppose my fire is keeping me warm.” He looked over his shoulder at the bed. Gator had no elemental power to heat him from within. “Will he be warm enough here?”
Jaeger frowned. “We’ll need to check him. Until he’s claimed, he won’t be able to handle the extreme cold here.” Jaeger turned to the fireplace, and the flames grew higher.
“You can start a fire with your mind?” Dario asked.
“I can turn the knob on the gas with my mind,” Jaeger said with a humorous twist to his lips. “I cannot control fire—unless it’s cold fire.”
“I saw some of your handy work with the… the beast.”
Jaeger frowned. “You can say it…the child. I murdered a child.”
Dario cupped Jaeger’s face in his hands. “He was no child. I saw the creature he became—a vicious beast who nearly killed Gator. He was controlling those children and attacking everyone. You had no choice. He had to be stopped.”
They’d learned that three shifters had died in the melee—and two of the young—and there was no confirmed count of how many had been wounded. The hospital wing had been full when they’d left.
Had Jaeger not intervened, it would’ve been worse.
Much worse.
“He was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. A monster hidden within something to fool you into thinking it was innocent,” Dario added.
“You should’ve heard the evil spouting from his mouth before the fight began.” Jaeger shook his head, his stare growing blank. “He wanted me to help the children kill everyone in Bear Mountain—or he’d kill you and Gator.”
Dario forced the man to look at him. “The fact you feel remorse for killing what you saw as a child… that speaks of who you truly are. But like I said. He was no child. He was a true monster.”
Jaeger held Dario’s gaze. “And what about the monsters of yours?”
Dario drew in a breath. “What of them?”
“You can’t ask me to forgive myself without being willing to forgive yourself.”
Dario leaned forward and pressed his forehead to Jaeger’s bare chest. The dragon wrapped strong arms around Dario, running a soothing hand up and down his back. Dario slid his hands around Jaeger’s body and onto the man’s back.
His fingers moved over smooth, unblemished skin.
Dario reared back, stunned. “Turn.”
Jaeger spun around slowly, giving Dario a show of the perfect, unmarred flesh.
“How?”
“Shifting into my dragon form can cure many ills,” Jaeger said before turning back around to face Dario. The dragon drew him closer again, a low animalistic growl coming from deep in his throat. “It also reminded me of what I need. You and Gator…” Jaeger glanced at the sleeping man. “Almost losing him… it nearly broke me.”
“You’re not still mad?”
Jaeger turned his attention back to Dario. “Disappointed in him, yes. Mad? No. How could I be after last night? Any of us could be gone in a moment. We have today and only today… we need to make the most of it because tomorrow may never come.” The dragon cupped the side of Dario’s face. “You no longer cringe or pull away from my touch.”
“Perhaps I learned that same lesson last night.”
Scales skittered over Jaeger’s skin as he smiled a brilliant smile. The air around him formed tiny ice crystals around his head and shoulders. They fell lazily to the floor as the room turned colder.
Dario created a small ball of fire in his hand to warm himself. It illuminated the space all the more. All around him, he saw the shine of what appeared to be crystal. It was even more beautiful. “Wow.”
“That’s nothing,” Jaeger says. He twisted his hand and created intricate patterns along the walls, floor and ceiling. The spirals danced in the light of Dario’s fire.
“Where am I?” a voice croaked. They both turned, the dance of fire and ice coming to an end. Gator stood at the edge of the bed, watching them. His lips were blue, his teeth chattering even with a fur blanket wrapped around him.
Dario moved closer, and Gator dragged him even closer. “Merde, you’re warm.”
Jaeger growled from across the room, but Dario sensed it was not a growl in anger, but in lust.
“I know something that will warm him. Follow me.”
* * * *
A little heat…
Jaeger led the men to the underground warm spring in a cave not far from his castle. Gator had clung to Dario, seeking the human’s warmth. Once they arrived, he and Dario helped Gator to remove his clothes and sink into the water.
“Ahhh, that feels good,” Gator said with a sigh.
Jaeger knelt at the side of the small pool. “It’ll not only warm you, but work on some of those sore muscles.”
He lifted his stare and saw Dario stripping down to his briefs. Lust tore through Jaeger at the sight. The elemental slowly slid into the warm water.
Jaeger lowered one leg into the water.
“You’re getting in?” Dario asked.
He paused midway. “I was.”
“But you’re an ice dragon.”
“Warm isn’t my favorite thing, but I can handle a little heat,” he murmured, knowing he was past ready for their heat.
“No one has told me where we are,” Gator said. “The last thing I remember is…” He frowned. “I remember a scream…” He looked away, as if searching his mind. “A boy… covered in blood.”
“One of the children. He nearly killed you,” Dario said. “Had it not been for Jaeger, he might’ve been successful.”
Gator looked confused. He turned his stare to Jaeger’s. “I thought you hated me?”
“How can I hate my mate?” Jaeger eyed Gator. “I was angry. Upset. But I didn’t hate you.” I need you.
Gator’s look of confusion faded some.
Dario moved a little closer to Gator. He pressed his body against the Cajun’s, wrapping one arm about Gator’s shoulders. “For a moment… you were gone…” Dario turned to eye Jaeger. “Until Jaeger—”
“The fire.” Gator’s head whipped to Jaeger. “Blue fire. It wasn’t hot… but ice cold.” Gator’s narrowed his lids. “The cold felt good.”
“I kissed you… and gave your body the energy it needed to come back to us,” Jaeger murmured, holding Gator’s stare.
“It filled me completely,” Gator said, a longing note to his voice. “It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.”
“I long to share it with you again,” he said, lust creeping into his tone. He turned slightly to Dario. “With you both.” When he claimed the men, he’d pour his fire into them, burning them from the inside out and marking them as his. It wouldn’t harm them, quite the contrary. It could give them the added strength they needed to survive within his world.
He eyed them both, the two of them holding on to each other in the pool. Their naked chests pressed together at the side, their hands gripping tightly. Jaeger moaned, his lids falling heavily as he leaned against the opposite side of the pool.
Jaeger propelled himself forward in the water and knelt inches from them before grasping the back of Gator’s head and capturing the Cajun’s lips. Hungrily, he took all he could before blowing a little taste of that fire into his mate. Gator groaned as Jaeger pulled away, his eyes darkened with lust.
But Jaeger couldn’t ignore his other mate. He eyed his Dario and held the human’s gaze until Jaeger was sure the man wanted him as much he did. Jaeger lifted a hand and dragged Dario closer until their lips locked.
Dario’s arms wrapped around his neck as the human greedily took from Jaeger. He allowed the man to lead the kiss, knowing Dario’s past still haunted him. In time, those memories would fade as they made knew ones, the three of them. Until then, he would still need to be careful not to be too aggressive with his sweet Dario.
When he pulled away, they turned to eye Gator. The soldier’s breathing had quickened, his pupils completely dilated. His lids drooped in his lust—never before had he looked any more erotic. Dario slid from Jaeger and into Gator’s arms. The two humans shared a kiss, just as Jaeger had shared one with each man.
Dragons being of a greedy nature, he paused, waiting to see if his animal side would show offense. He felt nothing. Seeing the two of them together only ratcheted his own desire.
He was allowed to play the voyeur for a moment and watch his mates seek their pleasures together. The heat began to overwhelm him. Jaeger drifted back and rose from the water, and the cold immediately encircled him in its loving grip.
“Where are you going?” Gator asked, disappointment in his gaze.
“Nowhere,” Jaeger murmured. “I only needed some cold. You two keep yourselves company while I watch.”
Dario moaned at the comment, seconds before Gator captured his lips in a fierce kiss. Jaeger felt his cock thickening as he allowed his gaze to take it all in. He sat on the ledge, facing the two as they feasted on one another’s flesh. Their mouths danced over their lips, necks, and shoulders, their bodies melting into one another.
When Gator reached below the water to stroke Dario’s cock, Jaeger held on to a gasp, the air in his lungs burning as the Cajun’s hand worked up and down the length. Not to be outdone, Dario reached down and took Gator into his hand. Their mouths came back together as they both sought the other’s delight.
Never before had he seen a more erotic sight. Jaeger looked down at the thick cock jutting before him, begging to be touched as well. He wasn’t done watching the two men together, so he wrapped a palm around the base and caressed the hard length himself.
A moan escaped Jaeger’s lips as he stroked his shaft in time to their movements. He stroked up to the tip of his cock and watched as a pearl of fluid eased out from the slit. It dripped along the angry, purple head and slid down the length. His fingers spread it over his erection, lubricating his stroking.
He reached down to squeeze his sac on the next downward stroke. Jaeger’s balls were full, ready to fill both his mates and mark them as his.
Jaeger hated that he couldn’t see under the water clearly. He wanted to learn every inch of them—but until he’d claimed Gator, they wouldn’t be able to be naked together unless within the pool.
He could wait no longer. Slipping back into the pool, he moved behind Gator and brushed his front against the man’s back. The skin-to-skin contact made his dragon roar with need. After breaking his kiss with Dario, Gator looked over his shoulder, a hungry look in his eyes. Jaeger rubbed the head of his cock against the man’s brief-covered bottom. Gator rubbed up sexily against him, his hips rolling with ease. “Yes,” the Cajun whispered huskily.
Jaeger dragged the briefs down. Gator lifted his ass to Jaeger, offering it like the prize that it was before he turned back to kiss Dario again. Jaeger moved a fraction closer and pressed the head of his cock between the man’s cheeks.
Gator moaned and pressed back, forcing Jaeger inside a tiny bit. Jaeger’s head fell back, the tight bud blossoming to accept him inside was more than he was ready to handle. Little by little, he pushed—until he passed the tight band of nerves. Gator cried out slightly as his body yielded to Jaeger.
Withdrawing a bit, he then surged forward a little more. Slowly, carefully, knowing he was going in dry. Jaeger had no patience to leave the two and get something to aid the passage. He needed to claim Gator so he could move them both to his bed.
He needed to see what was his.
He needed to explore their beautiful bodies, inch by glorious inch.
Gator’s body would never survive the cold long enough for that to happen.
Unless he surrendered to Jaeger.
Jaeger slid a hand up the front of Gator’s chest as he paused, allowing the Cajun’s body to fully yield to him. After a moment, Gator began to rock slightly, his body urging Jaeger to move.
So he did.
They both cried out on the first stroke.
The second already teased Jaeger’s release.
By the third they moved as one.
“Wait,” Gator cried before spinning Dario around.
The soldier pulled Dario’s ass to his cock, just like the position he and Gator were in.
“Yessss,” Jaeger hissed, as he closed his eyes briefly. Knowing Gator’s cock filled Dario… as his filled Gator… it was almost too much to handle.
At his height, he could see over the Cajun’s shoulder. Reaching around Gator, Jaeger tugged down Dario’s briefs and exposed the man’s tight, round butt. Jaeger gave it a little spank, a little sad he wouldn’t get first crack at it.
But this way was better.
He could pour his cold fire into both of them at once.
They’d be locked together, three made one.
Jaeger watched the head of Gator’s cock as the man rubbed it along Dario’s hole. Using the same care, Gator slowly filled Dario’s body. He reached past Gator and gripped Dario’s arm when the elemental cried out in pain. Lending the human his strength, he felt one of Dario’s hands slide on top of his.
And then they were locked together, all three of them bound by flesh.
For a second, they remained still. Jaeger sensed their bodies hesitated to break the spell he felt wrapping around them. But the second Gator moved, they all groaned, the pleasure so incredibly intense.
He wasn’t sure why he’d been so blessed by the gods. To receive two mates instead of one… he almost didn’t feel worthy of such a gift.
But the greedy dragon that he was, he would surely take it and make it his.