Rake My Lust (Dragons of Blood and Bone #3)

14. Mates

14

MATES

I t feels like we’re right back where we started, but in far worse straits, as Strom, Bjorn, and I collect ourselves in Strom’s apartments. It’s way past late now, all of us exhausted from the magical shenanigans our careening power has put us through in the past hour, and the night isn’t over yet.

Strom can finally stand on his own as we return to his rooms, but it’s Bjorn who exhales hard now as he flops into a seat at Strom’s glass dining table.

Strom only blinks at him, confused and still not back all the way from whatever he just experienced. I continue to feel like I have the flu from the blistering heat still searing inside me, thanks to whatever my power’s doing with Aesa’s stone.

Through it all, Bjorn has been our rock, both magically and physically, as he kept Strom and me from raging wild as our beasts. He’s exhausted now, however, reaching up a trembling hand as he runs it through his wild golden locks.

Our magical shenanigans shared too much through our bonds.

“Bjorn. Are you alright?” I ask at last, knowing he’ll never say a word about how much the mickey has been taken out of him, even when he’s on death’s door.

“I’ll be fine.” Bjorn flashes me a tight smile, but I can see what he’s hiding—pain, from trying to control the shitstorm of magic that blitzed through me, then Strom, just now.

Bjorn fighting to contain all of it through our bonds.

“Well, that was a major fuckup.” Strom is wry now as he sinks to a seat at the table as well. We’re all naked from shifting, but none of us is in a sexy mood now, as I join them at the table.

Sinking into my seat.

“What the fuck is happening?” I wonder aloud as I glance down, tracing Aesa’s silver stone on my chest. It’s ceased to burn with the incredible power it had before, but it’s still warm, like it’s somehow pushing this strange fever inside me. I feel better after the cold plunge in the ocean—it was smart of Strom to think of that—but I still feel fluish, in a way I haven’t for ages.

The product of this strange resonance between Aesa’s stone and my Bloodwalker power.

“I should try to get rid of it, shouldn’t I?” I say now as I look up from the stone at my drakes. They’re both watching me, though Strom has a strange faraway look, as if he’s still not all the way back yet from that vicious storm of hidden memories he just experienced.

Gone now—just like they were before.

“It’s doing something to your Bloodwalker power, Rikyava.” Bjorn’s gaze flicks to the stone. “Something Strom and I can’t contain. And you can’t, either.”

“It’s pushing me, and making my Blood Magic superheat in a way I’ve never felt before.” I nod, as my fingers peruse the silver stone, quiet again in my chest. “It used to be just my Bone Magic that went out of control, before. Now, my Bone Magic can’t rise high enough to tame whatever’s happening with my Blood Magic and wrestle it back. They can’t balance anymore… not like the way we were all balancing after I bound Strom. ”

“It was too good to last, wasn’t it?” Strom chuckles now as he rakes a tired hand through his hair. His eyes still look haunted, though I can feel how the memories that blitzed through him are just as gone as before.

They’ve left a dark imprint, however, as he shakes his head, trying to clear it.

“Strom?” I ask him, feeling his inner distress from having been pummeled by his lost memories before they vanished again. “What’s going on? Talk to us.”

“It’s just… they just rushed me.” Strom glances up, and that anguished look is still in his eyes. It comes with a vulnerability I rarely see in him, but exists deep beneath his rakish exterior. “When I tried to raise my Bone Magic to soothe whatever was happening between your Blood Magic and Aesa’s stone, I got hit with a crazy backlash, Rikyava. It was like… alchemy. Like a disastrous truth serum hitting my system. It broke wide open whatever magical locks were put on my memories from my time in Copenhagen. For a moment, all my memories from when I was ensnared to those Bone Mage thieves had hurricained back. After I passed out, it was like everything was relocked. Now, all I feel is echoes… the memories gone again.”

“The thing that rests in Rikyava’s chest is called Aesa’s Truthstone,” Bjorn rumbles as a deep and thoughtful look takes him. “Could it be that it’s causing some resonance with both your magics that is unveiling a hidden truth… something you both know, deep inside, but still need to discover consciously?”

“That makes sense.” Strom looks less shaken, thanks to Bjorn’s wise words. “All my memories from my youth are still locked away, inaccessible to my conscious mind. It would make sense that Aesa’s Truthstone produced some kind of resonance in me, opening up my deepest hidden memories—suppressed all this time by whatever Bone Magic locks are on them.”

“I could see that,” Bjorn says, as we mull it over. He looks at me. “But what the fuck was happening to you? ”

Even as he says it, however, I feel the Truthstone warm upon my chest. Mates , some powerful instinct whispers deep inside me as brimstone red flashes deep within. You need more mates for your power to be complete…

“Mates.” The word drops from my lips before I realize I’ve said it.

“Mates?” Bjorn watches me, alert. “Are you saying that something about you getting heated with us caused the stone to resonate with your power, in a way that revealed something to you about mates?”

“Rikyava needs more mates. Fuck. I should have seen that coming.” Strom closes his eyes as he gets it. He opens them, pinning me with his gaze. “Aesa was a Bloodwalker, the sister of your ancient ancestor who created the Black Dragon. She would know the feel of a Bloodwalker similar in power to herself, who was still immature in her ability to raise and control that power thanks to a lack of mates. Don’t you see? Aesa’s Truthstone provoked your Bloodwalker power to go haywire, right when we were all about to fuck. It’s reminding you that no matter how strong Bjorn and I are, we’re not enough—not if we’re going to dragon up and face what’s coming. If we’re going to hunt the Black Dragon and face off with it, not to mention whomever’s controlling it, we need more firepower in the mix. We need more mates, Rikyava. You do… to build our fortress strong, in the face of annihilation.”

Even as Strom says it, I know how right he is. Every instinct inside me roars as a towering wave of brimstone-red magic surges through me now. As the entirety of my Bloodwalker power roars, I feel both sides of my power twist together hard, uniting as they demand food .

I haven’t done enough for my power yet, haven’t fed it even a fraction of what it needs to be fed, to be as strong as it can be. Strom has been a nice enough meal to help me train and stabilize the first level of my massive Bone Magic, while Bjorn has done the same for my Blood Magic.

But they aren’t enough—and everything inside me knows it as Aesa’s Truthstone and my own united Bloodwalker power rush up into a blazing dark-bright firestorm inside me once more.

Because even Aesa and the Black Dragon Knights, my ancestor, and all her mates who created the Black Dragon weren’t enough to control that bastard the first time—much less kill it and put it to its final rest.

Something we need to do now.

Even as I have that realization, all at once, I understand what’s happening with Bjorn. One of my initial worries about my Bloodwalker magic was that it would drain my mates to death to power it if I wasn’t careful.

That’s happening to Bjorn now, I realize, as I watch him rake a shaky hand through his unbound hair again. With all his Blood Magic, he’s been trying to stabilize this roaring resonance my Bloodwalker power is having with Aesa’s Truthstone.

And it’s devouring him—to the max.

“Fuck.” The curse slips out of me as I plop my face into my hands. My voice is muffled as it comes out through my fingers. “I don’t want more mates. Managing you two is complicated enough. But I don’t want Bjorn to die.”

“I’m not going anywhere, Rikyava. I swear it.” Bjorn has come to me as he senses my distress. He settles upon one knee before me, taking my hands in his, warm and strong, and good. “Everything that’s happened today has just made me tired, that’s all. I’m not dying.”

“Hey, Bjorn and I come with baggage, and anyone else you might mate will, too.” Rising from the table, Strom moves behind me now, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and setting his cheek to mine. “We’ll figure it out, though, Rikyava. You mean that much to us. And this hunt does, too.”

“We love you, Rikyava; we’d do anything for you,” Bjorn says now as he holds my hands, squeezing them. “I hate the idea of you taking more mates just as much as I hated you had to take Strom as a mate, but I understand. We can’t take the Black Dragon down alone—not with how righteously it’s fucked some insanely powerful dragons and armies on its rampages in the ancient past. We need an army to bring it down once we find it. And if that army starts with a strong foundation of mates, all life-bonded to you…”

“Are you saying you’re in?” I lift my head now, some part of me still astounded by this new, calmer, and far more practical Bjorn.

“I’m in.” His gold eyes blaze with the power of his drake. His hands are scalding on mine as he holds me, but in a good way. “I’m all the way in. You know I’d die for you… a thousand times over, loving you with my very last breath each and every damn time.”

“I love you, too.” I grip Bjorn’s hands, feeling tears well in my eyes from his utter sincerity. “But I don’t want to hurt you more by taking additional mates. Or kill you, from some accident of my magic going ballistic with Aesa’s stone.”

“I don’t think it can be helped, not any longer,” he says as I get that beautiful, quirk-of-the-lips Bjorn smile. “But you can mend the hurt by loving me. To the ends of the earth and back… just as much as I love you.”

“I do.” I reach out, cupping his cheek with my hand. “You know, by all the gods, I do.”

“I do.” He nods, smiling a little more as he presses his cheek into my hand, then kisses it.

As Strom kisses my neck now, quiet and letting me process all this, I realize what a rock he is for us. He never pouts, never rages, never lets his rash nature get the best of him when it matters, other than engaging in pissing matches with my other drake.

It reminds me of the strong, righteous, but caring nature I saw in his great-grandfather tonight, the Jarl with the massive family who all love him. Strom could be that partner for me, I know, if we ever had younglings.

Our family growing kinder, wiser, and more sweetly teasing, generation after generation.

“You’re a good mate,” I say now, watching Strom over my shoulder. “Do you know that?”

“Rikyava. You’re making me blush.” Strom chuckles, as he really does blush at my praise. I’ve hit the nail on the head, though; with a wry twist of his lips, Strom pulls away, heaving the chair next to me around and straddling it. He’s pensive as he folds his arms across the back.

Pensive and scared, as his vivid green eyes flick to me.

“I need to figure out these memories. Stat.” That haunted look takes him. “I fear I can’t ever truly be the mate you see in me, that you need me to be, until I know what’s in them.”

“We’ll get your missing memories back, Strom, I promise you.” I reach out, taking his hand and gripping it.

“Aesa’s Truthstone has been the first thing to break the curse of Bone Magic that holds my memories hidden.” Strom nods to it in my chest. “When it resonated with your Bloodwalker power, Rikyava, it thrust into me like a sword. Snapping that magical lock… and letting everything tumble out.”

“How about we find a way to get your memories back a little more calmly?” Bjorn chuckles now, though his look is serious. “That was a firestorm, what Rikyava and I felt from you when you shifted. We need you in more control than that, Strom, if you’re going to be any use to us fighting the Black Dragon.”

“I know.” Strom sighs, running a hand through his short, tawny hair, which looks dark in the midnight hour now with streaks of brighter blond. “But whatever Aesa’s stone did to me tonight, along with Rikyava’s own power, was a start. I think I need to work with it… try to figure out what’s next.”

“We can experiment with it over the next few days.” I’m supportive as I squeeze Strom’s hand. “Until then, I think we all need to take a break and get some rest. I don’t know about you two, but now I’m the one who’s fucking beat… and we have a lot we’re up against. Even more than before.”

“Rikyava’s right. We need some sleep. Now,” Bjorn rumbles as he rises. Extending a hand, he helps me up as Strom pushes up from his chair as well .

“Separate bedrooms? Or together?” Strom asks warily as he looks at me.

Lifting a hand, I set it to my chest—but I only feel Aesa’s Truthstone quiet now beneath my palm.

“I think we can risk all sleeping together,” I say, meaning it. “Aesa’s stone seems to be giving me a break, now that we’ve realized what it was trying to tell us about my magic.”

“I’m not feeling anything from it, either.” Strom glances at it. “Just a slight humming sensation through our bond. Nothing that’s scorching me, or lancing at me. Which is a good thing right now, I suppose.”

“You need a break just as much as the rest of us.” Bjorn extends a hand, indicating Strom’s bedroom. We all go, for the second time in as many hours. A weird feeling of déjà vu takes me as we all enter and I see our clothing from earlier, including my plum dress, discarded on the floor.

“No funny stuff, just in case,” I say now. I flop down to the soft coverlet on Strom’s massive bed and crawl up to the pillows, shimmying down under the duvet and soft silk sheets. I yawn; sleep is already coming, and I’m there for it, three sheep counts from falling over the edge.

“No funny stuff,” Strom agrees with a chuckle, going to what I assume is his regular side of the bed, and crawls in. He instantly moulds to me, however, pulling me back into him and spooning me as he gives a pleased growl to feel our naked flesh connect.

“No funny stuff,” Bjorn says with a rumble, more as a warning to Strom as to anyone else.

Bjorn rakes back the covers on the other side of me and rolls on in. As he cuddles close to my front, his big hand envelops my waist and we kiss. It’s sweet kissing, not my usual with Bjorn, meant for us to simply say goodnight.

But all our missing time together these past few weeks comes rushing back, now that we’re all in bed. As I heat all over again, though it’s far more tired now, it comes with none of Aesa’s strange resonance. It’s just me, horny, needing my two drakes .

As they cinch closer in bed—running their hands over me.

“Didn’t we just say something about no funny stuff?” Strom chuckles as his hand strokes my thigh. I can feel him, hot and hard already, his massive cock pressed up against my ass as he grinds closer.

“Shhh…” I admonish him now as I press my ass back on him, rubbing his cock between my cheeks as I lift to kiss Bjorn. Bjorn gives a sleepy, all-male rumble as we kiss. He pulls close now, close enough that I can feel his big erection also, as we press hips-to-hips.

Hard, and ready for what comes next.

There are no words now, as Bjorn, Strom, and I find a slow, deep rhythm together. As Bjorn kisses me, I’m already wet; sliding a hand down, he lifts my leg up over his hip, then palms my ass, hauling me close. Pressing me with his tip, he works his thick way deep inside. I struggle deliciously in his hands, unable to escape how he just suddenly takes me.

And then I give in—loving the way he slowly pounds into my flesh.

Strom lets us fuck for a quiet while, as Bjorn and I rut, and grunt, and catch our breath together. But then Strom’s hands find my nipples; pinching and rolling them, he reminds me he’s still here, still a part of this trio and wants in on things.

I want him in on things, too, as I arch back now, breaking my kiss with Bjorn to find Strom’s soft lips over my shoulder. Bjorn’s thick girth is still inside me as I change position slightly to offer Strom my ass. He sandwiches me with a tight grip, pressing in hard at my nether opening.

And slides right in.

I gasp as Strom enters me, so full and hard, sheathing himself deep inside my ass as Bjorn buries himself inside my front. It’s a towering feeling to be shared by these two drakes; as Strom thrusts subtly inside my ass now, I go wild with sensation, every possible feeling I get during sex heightened by how thick and stretched I am by them both.

It’s ecstasy; I shake and shudder between them, heating like a bonfire now as I mewl and keen, my sounds devoured alternately by Strom’ s and Bjorn’s lips. They find a rhythm together, taking me at the same time, again, and again, and again.

At last, I come hard between them—catapulting me up to the skies as my body spasms in our spontaneous fuck. Strom and Bjorn come too, at the same time as I do.

I feel it as we all spiral together, metaphysically creating that strange ouroboros I keep seeing inside my mind’s eye when we fuck. But our triune power is quieter now, sweetly blazing through us all as we settle into our afterglow.

We’re so done, our dragons spent from everything that’s happened these past weeks. It just feels good to cuddle in a tangle of warm, exhausted flesh now.

I sleep, held by my two drakes as their cocks soften inside me.

And I don’t move the entire night.