Rather than fire, my dragon blasted me with lust.

I burned with need. All the feeding and touching and sleeping in a big sweaty hot pile was well and good…

But Shara had only fucked me that one time.

One. Fucking. Time.

It was all I could do not to scream :fuck me, fuck me, fuck me!: every time I touched her bond. I was going to lose my mind if she didn’t take me again. Or at least allow me to take someone.

I really wanted to fuck Daire senseless and see how good that purr felt with my dick inside him. But I wasn’t picky. I’d fuck any of her Blood. Hell, I’d even beg hung-like-a-horse Guillaume to fuck me. Or the bear. Ezra hated me. I didn’t fucking care.

As Blood, the utmost peak of pleasure would always be found with our queen, so the last thing any of us wanted was two more Blood. We’d have even less time with her. Though these two clowns might be entertaining. They kept eying Rik’s broad back like they had a snowball’s chance in hell of taking our alpha. When I, Leviathan, king of the depths, had surrendered.

Utter nonsense. But it would be fucking hilarious to watch Rik snap them both like twigs.

The Zaniyah queen led us up a grand staircase. Pausing at the top, she gestured to a pair of double doors to her left. “My main quarters.” Then a matching pair of doors on our right. “The guest quarters.” She nodded to the two wannabes who’d followed us, and they pushed the doors to the guest rooms open. “I hope you find everything satisfactory.”

“I’m sure we’ll be quite comfortable,” Shara replied. “Thank you. Dinner was wonderful.”

Mayte smiled but clutched her hands together before her. “Our pleasure. Please let us know if you need anything.”

“I will. Good night.” Shara started toward to the French doors, where the two men silently watched with a tight, resigned look on their grim faces. Hoping she might change her mind at the last minute…

Snickering beneath my breath, I watched as Daire and Xin slid in tight on either side of her. Naturally, Rik had her back. Guillaume paused before her, blocking the way, and yeah, the hard-ass motherfucker stopped her within arm’s reach of them on purpose to torment them. “Allow Nevarre and Leviathan to scan the room first to be safe, my queen.”

She nodded and I stepped around them with Nevarre. The guest suite was nice enough and our bags had already been delivered. A private sitting room with comfortable-looking leather couches and chairs. A small bedroom for the consiliarius, a decent sized full bath, and a large bedroom.

With a sadly lacking bed. If it was even king sized, I’d eat Rik’s ass while Guillaume fucked me.

A double set of French doors led out to a balcony that overlooked the plaza, still lit with the colorful party lights. Music filled the night, but since the queens had retired, the musicians played soft ballads and folk tunes rather than dancing music. I opened my senses fully, letting my dragon perk his head enough to seek anything amiss.

:Outside access to the plaza,: I told Rik and Guillaume in the bond. :The room is empty.:

“All clear, my queen,” Guillaume said aloud, dropping his arm and stepping aside.

She swept into the room without a second glance at the men asking to join her Blood. Even though one of them inhaled loudly as she passed and groaned beneath his breath.

“I’d best not find you lingering out here.” Guillaume produced a foot-long knife from somewhere on his person. He tested the edge with his thumb. “Or I may see if I still have the right touch.” He looked up at the nearest man and smiled. “It takes a smooth, yet powerful, stroke to behead a man with one swipe of even the sharpest blade.”

The twins bowed deeply. “We hear and obey.”

I snorted. “Sure. Sure.” And I fucking slammed the door in their faces.

Gina’s phone rang. “Excuse me, Shara. I’ll be in my room if you need anything.”

I muttered, “I hope that room is soundproofed.”

“Doubtful,” she laughed, shaking her head. “But not to worry. I brought headphones, and I have several calls I need to make to London. Good night.”

“Good night, Gina.”

With the doors closed and the strangers gone, Shara let down the facade she’d held all evening. Weariness weighed heavily in our bond. And yes, oh, yes, need. She burned almost as badly as I did.

As we all did.

She took the crown off and handed it to Nevarre. Her hair was falling down from the complicated twists and knots the hairdressers had done in Dallas. She tried to comb her fingers through it, but the heavy strands were too tangled.

Rik rummaged in his bag and pulled out a hairbrush. “Allow me, my queen.”

Tiredly, she nodded, reaching behind her to tug at the zipper of her gown. Daire closed his fingers over hers, kissed her fingertips, and took over for her. The gown slipped to the floor and she leaned back against him with a sigh.

Of course the little fucker started up that damnable purr that she loved so much.

“Change, please, everyone. Get comfortable.”

Daire voiced what we all wished to say. “Or strip?”

She smiled and moved toward the bed. “If that’s your wish.”

Rik shrugged out of his coat and hung it in the wardrobe. “Xin, make your rounds and see what you can find. Guillaume, Ezra, Nevarre, you’re on first watch. Keep a close eye on the twins. When our queen’s desire and blood are in the air, they may not be able to resist.”

“Then they’ll be dead,” Guillaume said coolly. “Nevarre, you take the balcony. The bear and I will take the front room. Your raven has better sight and will see anything trying to approach from a distance.”

Nevarre tossed his coat to Rik, yanked his shirt off over his head, and unbuckled the leather belt that snugged the heavy cloth of his kilt about his hips. In seconds, he was naked and dropped the folded kilt on top of his bag. Feathers sprouted down his back as he strode to the balcony door.

Rik hung up Nevarre’s coat and his pants, and then moved to join Shara on the bed. Leaning back against the headboard, he opened his thighs wide and she settled against him, wrapped in his heat. He fucking took up the entire width of the bed.

Shara laughed softly as he carefully brushed out her hair. “I guess she wasn’t expecting a visiting queen to take more than one Blood to bed at a time.”

“They’re in for a shock then,” Rik replied. “You know they’re going to hear everything we do.”

“She wanted to join us.”

“Yes, she did.”

Shara was quiet a few moments and then laughed again. “If I decide to take her, I hope to Isis that her bed is bigger than this one.”

I stripped off the tailed coat and hung it beside Rik’s. Daire threw his pants at me, slapping me in the face with material that smelled like him.

Sassy, purring cat.

I gritted my teeth and hung his suit up too. Very deliberately refusing to look at him. Not until she said whether or not I could have him.

“What do you want tonight, my queen?” Rik’s low rock troll voice rattled the floor boards.

“Can you fuck me while I watch Daire torment Mehen?”

“Finally,” Daire growled, trying to sound put out but we all heard the tease in his voice. “I thought I’d have to steal his dragon hoard to get his attention.”

Rik chuckled. “Your wish is our command.”

I closed my eyes a moment, breathing deeply to settle my control. Yes. Thank the goddess. “There’s no hoard of gold, D.” I slammed the wardrobe door shut and dared to look at him. “Only teeth and claws.”

He stood beside the bed, his back to me, his fine, rounded ass a blatant invitation. He winked at me over his shoulder. “Promises, promises.”

My fingertips burned, dragon talons threatening to burst free. I made myself breathe deep and held it for a count of five. Controlling the beast wasn’t something I had much experience with. Not after living as Leviathan for centuries. I hoped the little fucker was up to the challenge of wrestling with my dragon.

Daire’s bond rumbled inside me, winding inside me like a cat twining around my ankles. :I’ve got teeth and claws too, my friend, and I’ve had years of playing with our alpha. I hope you’re up to my challenge.:

I shuddered. Goddess. That incessant purring was going to be the death of me.

I was tempted to borrow one of Guillaume’s knives to cut the sexual tension hanging thick and raw between my two Blood. It was crazy to think that Leviathan—or rather, Mehen—hadn’t been with us very long at all. Days. Not quite a week.

And while I tried to see to everyone’s needs…

I couldn’t fuck them all every single day.

Multiples at a time helped, but with all the planning for this trip and growing the grove and repelling Skye’s ant attack, I’d been too tired to take too many to bed at once. And yeah, dealing with Mehen could be… exhausting. He was so demanding, so strong, so out of control. I was tempted to throw a noose around his dragon’s neck in our bond, but I didn’t want to make him think I didn’t trust him.

I focused a very light touch on only Daire’s bond. :Are you okay with this? Even if he gets rough?:

He rumbled louder and started toward me. If he’d been shifted to his warcat, he would have flipped his tail from side to side. :No worries, my queen. I’ll love it. He won’t find me as easy as he expects.:

I'm glad he warned me, because as soon as Mehen laid a hand on his shoulder, Daire snarled and whirled, dropping into a crouch as he made a swipe across the man's chest. Those weren't fingernails that left bleeding scratches in Mehen's skin, either.

With a roar, Mehen lunged for him on the floor. Daire crashed up into him, clawing and biting.

My heart pounded. I watched as they wrestled and tumbled across the floor. Someone slammed into the foot of the bed with a grunt. Now I couldn't see them, but I could hear their labored breathing. The bed thumped. Again. Hard.

Nuzzling my neck, Rik closed his hands around my waist and lifted me up into his lap. Hard dick beneath me, the sound of a struggle nearby. Goddess. I was so wet as he slid back and forth, tormenting me. Tormenting us both. His breath caught against my ear as he slowly eased just the tip of his dick into me.

It was so strange to not be able to see him. With me facing away from him, the angle was weird, yet oddly exciting. He closed his thighs, giving me something to brace against as he filled me. With agonizing slowness, he finally settled me back against his groin, fully inside me.

"How does that feel?"

I groaned, tightening my muscles on him. "Incredible."

Shifting my weight forward a bit, I braced my hands on his thighs. He smoothed his hands down my back, his fingers and thumbs kneading my muscles. Goddess, I loved his hands, the slow, steady, firm stroke of his fingers. He knew exactly how to touch me. Hard, firm, but then gentle and slow. The punishing strength of a giant. My alpha, with enough power in his big body to hold down a dragon so I could fuck him.

Yet so incredibly tender when he touched me.

"Motherfucker," Mehen growled, his breathing loud. It sounded like they were almost underneath the bed.

"Cocksucker," Daire snarled back.

"No, that's going to be you, you little fuck. You're denying our queen her viewing pleasure."

With a loud heave, Mehen surged up back into my line of vision and slammed Daire onto his stomach on the edge of the bed. Mehen gripped a handful of Daire's hair and had his other arm locked around his waist, using his weight to hold him down.

"There's not enough room for you two up here," Rik said in a mild rumble. "Especially if you're going to wrestle."

Both of them were bleeding, and ironically, it looked as though Mehen had taken the most damage. He had wide swaths of claw marks on his shoulders and chest, and a nasty-looking bite on his right forearm that wasn't entirely human looking and certainly not two neat Aima punctures.

"I don't need a lot of room," Mehen growled, bearing down harder on the other man.

Daire writhed beneath him like a slippery eel and managed to break Mehen's grip on his waist. Claws unsheathed with a fierce growl rattling in his throat, Daire slashed at the other man's face.

I gasped. I couldn't help it. I could all too easily envision torn flesh, skin sagging down in strips. I'd seen what kind of damage Daire was capable of. For all his purring and playful cat personality, he'd not hesitated one second when Ra's skeletons had attacked us. He'd charged in and ripped the lead skeleton's arm completely off. Even when he took a sword through the chest to protect me.

Mehen twisted his face aside at the last minute. "Good. You turned around for me."

He wrapped his hand deeper into Daire's hair and jerked his head sharply to the side, throwing him off balance. Which made it easier for him to pin Daire between the aggressive weight of his body and the mattress behind him. He stood over Daire, his thighs locked on either side of his body, squeezing the life out of him until Daire finally ceased struggling, though his body still vibrated with tension.

"Open your fucking mouth," Mehen growled, giving his head another jerk.

Daire stuck his tongue out and then clamped his lips shut firmly. :Make me.:

Mehen punched him in the side hard enough that Daire's breath whistled out on a groan.

I stiffened, afraid this struggle was getting out of hand. But Rik soothed me with his hands, settling me back against him. :They're fine.:

:But his ribs...:

:He's fine.:

And Daire was. I felt his rising lust in the bond. The meaner Mehen got, and the harder he hit him, pinned him, the more Daire struggled. That was his favorite part.

I remembered our first night with all three of us together. How Rik had pinned Daire’s arms for me so I could torment him while Rik fucked him. The harder he struggled, the harder Rik had squeezed him. Daire had blooded him too, but Rik had only laughed.

Mehen wasn't laughing. But his bond raged with emotion. Lust I expected. The mighty dragon had made it clear he'd fuck anyone, or let any of us fuck him. Hundreds of years trapped in a dragon prison would do that to a person. His desire sharpened with a rabid hunger that made him borderline dangerous.

Which Daire fucking loved too.

Mehen punched him again, making him grunt through tight lips. Again. "Open that fucking mouth, D. So I can stuff it."

Daire glared at him mutinously. So Mehen smacked him right in the mouth. Drawing blood.

I quivered and started to fight free of Rik's arms myself, but he held me firmly, murmuring softly in my ear. "Look at him, Shara. Really look at him."

Panting, I watched as Mehen bent and licked the splatter of blood from Daire's shoulder. His tongue swiped over Daire's chin. The corner of his mouth. Across his lips. Licking, rumbling, Mehen coaxed his lips into softening enough for him to sink his tongue deep into the other man's mouth.

Oh. My. Smoking. Hot. Fuck. Alert.

Mehen pinned Daire's head back at a painful angle, using his whole body to crush Daire against the mattress. He shoved his tongue deep into Daire's mouth. Tongue fucking him. And Daire melted against him like a cat settling in to lick up a bowl of cream.

Lifting his head, Mehen looked up at me, his eyes glittering emeralds. "There, my queen. Now the real show begins."