Litochoro, Greece
Mount Olympus
Rough stone chafes my hips and belly and pebbles clatter to the ground as I cling to the boulder in front of me. Geva nuzzles my ear, pinching one nipple while he yanks my pants down from behind and lines himself up between my cheeks.
“You’re so fucking wet,” he says, his cockhead probing between my thighs.
“I know. Hurry up, we don’t have much time. I need you.”
“Every fucking time,” he says, letting out a chuckle before finding my opening and pushing deep with one perfect, hard thrust. I have to bite my lip to suppress a cry of pure pleasure. Every fucking time. But I can’t help it if unearthing ancient hidden temples makes me too horny to fucking think straight.
“I need more,” I breathe.
He groans a protest.
“Just a little bit, please! You can conjure new clothes.”
“But I like these clothes.”
I tilt my head back and give him my best puppy dog eyes. He growls and captures my mouth in a brutal kiss, then his body begins to grow. His shirt seams rip as his torso swells to nearly double, his skin erupting in dark red scales. He pulls out for the briefest moment amid my angry protests, shoves his pants down farther, then lines himself up again. When he shoves into me this time, he’s twice the size he was before, and I clamp my knuckles between my teeth and bite down to keep from crying out in ecstasy.
“Is this what you wanted?” he murmurs into my ear. “You want a big, thick dragon cock spreading you wide open, don’t you? You want to be used. Fucked raw into the side of this mountain. You want my seed flooding out of your tight pussy when I’m done.”
“God, yes. Fuck me harder, you beautiful beast. Come inside me. Put a baby in me again.”
That elicits a deeper groan, and I know he’s lost—making babies is what gets him going. He wraps both arms around me, buries his face against my neck, and ruts against me hard enough to make lewd smacking sounds echo through the campsite.
Somewhere on the other side beyond our tents someone turns up music, but not before I hear a loud wolf-whistle from someone on my team. Thankfully Gabby’s a sound sleeper. As the child of an explorer, being able to sleep wherever and whenever she can is a necessary skill.
I reach up behind to clamp my hands at the back of his neck, holding on for dear life while he slams into me, my body clutched to his in the vise of his arms. He lets out several deep, bone-shaking grunts, then spills inside me, his enormous cock pulsing so hard I feel it up to my diaphragm.
“Mmmsorry,” he mumbles, half-coherent. “Didn’t mean to finish first. I’ll fix it.”
He only takes a couple breaths before pulling out and spinning me around. He drops to his knees and hooks both arms behind my thighs, shoving me up against the rock again and pressing his mouth to my flooded pussy. I grab hold of his horns and hold on for the ride.
His talented tongue plunges into me, every bit as filling as his cock was, but even more agile. He tickles my cervix, then pulls out and laps at my clit before sucking it between his lips.
I arch my back with a stifled cry and grab my breasts, tweaking my own nipples while he finishes me with swift, slapping lashes of his tongue that send me into spasms of bliss.
I’m a spent mess when he’s done, grateful that he remains on his knees supporting me as I lay back against the rough, angled rock and catch my breath. He continues to lick me clean, then sighs and peers up at me from between my legs.
I gaze down with a satisfied smile, eyebrows rising when I see his attention fixated on the glowing dragon mark pulsing just below my navel. His hopeful look slays me, and I thread my fingers through his thick red hair.
“It’ll happen,” I say. “Gabby’s been begging for a sibling, so we all want it. And since Gabby’s done so well on these digs, we already know it won’t interfere with work.”
His hopeful look turns to a frown. “I wish you would stop long enough to give birth, at least.” He releases me carefully, standing again. Once upright, he shrinks back to his human size and pulls up his pants, then examines the torn tatters of his shirt before shrugging out of it and tying it around his waist.
“Gabby came a week early; I’d have been in a hospital otherwise. You know I wouldn’t have willingly chosen to give birth in a tent on the edge of the Sahara Desert. Plus dragon babies are durable.”
“They are at that,” he concedes, a smile gracing his full lips, betraying his adoration for our six-year-old daughter who is asleep inside our tent right now.
The music has been turned back down and faint voices reach us from the center of camp as we stroll hand-in-hand through the shadows. Thea, Camille, and Eben sit by our campfire, chatting. Their three dragon mates are taking turns standing guard at our dig site or patrolling from the air. The ornate marble and gold door we unearthed just before dusk is far too valuable to risk some treasure hunter finding and looting it, not to mention whatever lies beneath the mountain behind it. Tomorrow we’ll find out if we can open it, though having dealt with other magical temples over the years, I’m sure it won’t be straightforward. I’m prepared to have to embark on another quest just to find the key, but the search is half the adventure. I already have a few leads to follow up.
I’m mentally preparing a retort to whatever lewd comment Eben’s bound to make when a loud trumpeting fills the air. The others’ eyes go wide and they tilt their faces to the sky.
“Aurin’s sounding the alarm,” Dimitri yells. “Someone’s at the dig!”
I turn to run the other direction and Geva grabs my arm, scowling at me. “Gabby,” he says. In a panic, I look between him and our tent.
“I’ll stay with Gabby. You guys go!” Thea yells.
Shooting her a grateful look and a nod, I sprint down the path to the dig. Before I get ten yards, stones clatter behind me and thunderous wingbeats sound overhead. The next thing I know, my upper arms and shoulders are clutched in giant dragon talons and I’m sailing over Mytikas Peak, around to the dig site.
“What if the trespassers are human?” I yell up to him. It wouldn’t be wise to have a bunch of dragons swoop in if it’s just a few harmless treasure hunters who don’t even know dragons exist.
“They aren’t. Not if Aurin sounded the alarm from the air.” His voice resonates inside my mind as he holds me tight and circles without landing so we can scope out what’s happening below.
Bright light fills the excavation, but the brightest source is not the floodlights, which I’m sure we turned off when we left late in the evening. A standoff is under way below us, involving what looks like four large men trapped between two enormous dragons—golden Aurik and the huge white Guardian, Roka. Aurin lands nearby to flank the intruders, gilt fire flowing from her mouth as she lifts her wings threateningly.
The source of the light appears to be one of the men, whose skin is glowing so bright it nearly obscures his entire shape.
“Put me down!” I yell, smacking at Geva’s claws.
He descends in an arc, carefully depositing me on the dusty wooden platform just above the excavation where two darkened floodlights aim down at the scene. I flip the switch, shining them below while Geva lands, caging the trespassers in even more.
“This is a private dig site!” I yell. “You have no business here. Leave now, or I’ll have them tear you to shreds!”
The glowing man in front turns to me, his brilliance fading enough that I can make out his features, as well as those of the trio standing behind him. They’re each as handsome as gods, their stature nearly head-high to Aurin, the smallest of the four dragons. This puts them at nearly eight feet tall.
And they’re fucking ripped, their simple tattered gray loincloths leaving very little to the imagination. Now that the lead man isn’t blinding me with his light, I can tell the glow emanates from an angular symbol in the center of his chest. Each of the other men carry similar symbols. They spark a memory that makes my stomach turn a flip.
“This place belongs to me and my brothers,” the man says, his voice resonating enough to carry all the way to where I stand about a hundred yards above.
“The hell it does. It belongs to Greece. It’s been buried for thousands of years!”
Footsteps pound up the path and Camille, Eben, and Dimitri arrive, skidding to a stop at the platform before slowly joining me by the railing. “What the fuck?” Eben mutters under his breath. I dart a look at him, silently pleading him to keep quiet.
“You have no idea what you have uncovered, do you?” the glowing man asks.
I glance around at the dragons. Does he even see them? He doesn’t seem surprised by their presence, but he hasn’t tried to fight back. If these men are who I think they are, they should be powerful enough to beat a few dragons. And the very presence of said dragons should clue him in that I know exactly what I just dug up.
“Who the hell are you?” I yell.
“We are the ones who built this place. We are the ones who spawned the so-called gods who usurped us, imprisoned us, and claimed Mount Olympus as their seat of power. I am Hyperion. These are my brothers, Coeus, Iapetus, and Crius. We are the Titans. Where are your gods now, little human? Don’t tell me you worship these scaled creatures even more generations removed from the former residents of this mountain.”
His voice booms up at me, the vibrations making my teeth hurt. Geva eyes me, his voice clear in my head. “If what he says is true, we may have a fight on our hands.”
“If you are really Titans, why haven’t you already put us in our place and claimed this temple?”
Twin puffs of flaming smoke rise from Geva’s nostrils. “Don’t taunt the fucker.”
“Don’t give him any ammo, Erika,” Dimitri warns.
“Have it your way,” Hyperion says.
The three other Titans move quickly, and all four dragons roar and let loose fire into the center of their circle. An explosion rocks the air as the Titans blast the dragons back against the sides of the excavation.
Aurin’s back cracks against the heavy support posts of the platform, making it shudder. Eben grabs Camille and Dimitri grabs me, pulling me off the platform onto solid ground as a skirmish ensues below. The dragons are stunned for a moment, but shake it off, charging back in, each leaping atop one of the Titans.
It’s impossible to follow, but I keep my attention glued to Geva, who has Hyperion grappled as he snaps at his neck with fiery bites. Hyperion swings with a fist to Geva’s jaw and slams a knee into his gut, making him scrabble back. Geva wheezes and shakes his head before charging again, sharp talons extended and fire spewing from his mouth.
The long-suffering look on Hyperion’s face worries me, as if the dragons are merely an unforeseen annoyance. His fist glows brighter when Geva reaches him, and this time the punch is harder, sending Geva sailing up into the air, wings twisting before crashing onto the platform in front of me with a sickening crunch.
“Geva!” I cry out in alarm and run to him. Dimitri yells a warning, grabbing hold of my arm, but I’m not about to let him keep me from my mate. Too late I hear the crack of wood as the beams beneath the platform splinter. The world tilts, and I grab hold of Geva’s neck as the platform collapses with a jolt that makes my stomach fly into my throat.
When the platform settles, it’s quiet, but bright as day. My stomach is upside-down when I kneel at Geva’s side, skittering my hands over his big, red-scaled face. His eyes are closed and he’s completely, heart-wrenchingly still.
“Baby, wake up. Don’t you dare fucking leave me!” I’m dimly aware of Dimitri, Eben, and Camille yelling their dragons’ names while they frantically climb down the broken staircase and run to their unconscious mates.
Gritting my teeth, I stare up at the source of the sun-bright glow above us. All four Titans hover in the air high above, Hyperion’s light nearly blinding.
“If you killed him, or any of them, I will hunt you down and destroy you!” I yell.
“They’re merely unconscious, but that can change if you fail to give me what I want. Give me the key to those doors and they will live,” he replies, gesturing toward the gleaming golden doors that my team and I recently uncovered.
My gut twists and I shake my head. “We just discovered them. We don’t have a key.” It’s not a lie, but I won’t make this easy for them if I can help it.
The black-haired one named Coeus floats forward. “You’re hiding something. You know there is a key, but have yet to acquire it, don’t you?”
My nostrils flare. Fucking precognitive fuck. “Fine. Yes, I have a lead on the key.” I ponder for a moment and tilt my head. “But if my research about the Titans is correct, it isn’t in a place you’ll want to go. I have a better chance of getting it myself than you do.”
Hyperion makes a subtle gesture to the silver-haired Titan beside him. Iapetus nods and floats lower, spreads out his hands, and crackling bolts of lightning shoot out of his fingers in four directions, hitting each of the dragons.
I yelp and jump back, as do Camille, Eben, and Dimitri. But shock stuns me nonetheless, because where Geva lay unconscious a moment ago, there now rests a giant red-scaled egg. The other three dragons have disappeared as well. Where the twins rested are a pair of golden eggs, and where Roka lay is an enormous white egg.
“Don’t worry, your mates live,” Hyperion says, a hint of humor in his voice. “But if you want them returned to their current age, you will acquire the key for us. You have one week before we return to claim what we seek. If you fail, my brother will age your mates to the opposite extreme.”
All four of them disappear in a clap of thunder and blast of light that leaves my ears ringing and my eyes burning. The concussion and resulting shift in air pressure causes the cloud cover over the mountain to let loose, and we find ourselves drenched in torrential rains.
“Erika, what the fuck do we do?” Dimitri calls, his voice pure agony where he stands between the pair of eggs containing his twins. The two dragons saved him from the brink of suicide seven years ago when we first discovered the ancient dragon temple on a Sumatran island after months of hunting.
Camille clings to Roka’s egg while Eben rests a hand on her shoulder. The two of them pined for each other from afar until Camille awakened the big Guardian and he claimed them both as his mates.
I’m torn between grief and rage. “We still have them. They’re still alive. But I’ll be damned if I let those Titan fucks get away with this. Eben, stay with them. Dimitri, Thea needs to hear about what happened from you. Camille, we have some calls to make. We’re calling in every goddamn higher races favor we can to help figure this out.”
Dimitri is stone-faced as he helps me and Camille climb out of the dig site up the rickety stairs. Camille swipes tears from her eyes, only for them to be replaced by raindrops.
“Did either of you know the Titans were real?” she asks, trudging up the muddy path back to camp.
“Yes, they came up a few times in our research,” Dimitri says. “Thea knows more, but what I know is that they’ve been imprisoned since before the dragon race was born.”
“So they’ve escaped, and they want what’s inside the temple,” I say. “Whatever it is must be big for creatures as powerful as them.”
“Big enough that we probably shouldn’t let them have it, right?” Camille asks.
“Not a fucking chance.” I clench my fists, steeling myself for the conversation I’ll have to have with my daughter about what just happened to her father.