child, it seemed like I was always being told to simmer down. Stop overreacting. “Control yourself, Sanka,” were my mother’s favorite words. Usually while she was dragging me around to every high society gathering so she could show off her powerful progeny in the hopes of one day selling me off to the highest bidder.
Wouldn’t want anyone to realize that the demon blood that gave our family such amazing abilities also came with things like anger issues and a penchant for unseemly outbursts when we got emotional over something.
Having my found family—my clan and court, my alpha, my lovers, my brothers and sisters—attacked had set me on edge. And the fact that Ruya was missing. That the kind, amazing, vulnerable woman was out there somewhere in the hands of strangers, with barely any understanding of the real world….
Even I knew I was being more reactive than usual. But I just couldn’t help it. It felt like there was a monster inside me, trying to rise up and enjoy a nice bloodbath. As if that would help. As if blaming my clan mate and begging him to fight me would bring Ruya back to me. I knew better. And so…here I was.
I loitered in the hall until Dusek came out, headed upstairs to take his shift monitoring the wards and the security team. We were being extra careful these days. Especially with the front of the theater blasted all to hell. Plywood and wards were great and all, but there was something a lot more comforting about a nice stone wall.
The bubak finally came out of his room, pulling the door shut behind him. He tensed when he saw me leaning against the wall. “Sanka.”
I wanted to growl at him, but I swallowed it down. “Dusek.”
He looked down his aquiline nose at me, the tall, lanky bastard. His dark eyes gave nothing away. I couldn’t tell if he was about to murder me or ignore me. “Look,” I said, my voice still far too angry and sullen. “I know you didn’t mean to let Ruya get kidnapped.”
Not the greatest way to say that. But it was all I had. “And I shouldn’t hit you for it,” I added as an afterthought. Great hairy demon uncles, I was bad at this sort of thing. And part of me just wanted to hit him again for that calm, superior look on his lean face. I couldn’t bring myself to say the words I meant to say. Things like, “It’s not your fault,” or “I’m sorry I attacked you.”
Dusek crossed his long arms over his chest, his expression blank. “No, I didn’t mean for it to happen. But negligence is still failure,” he said flatly, his deep voice sending a reflexive chill of fear through my body as his magic seeped out around us. “And I’m more than capable of taking a few hits from a mere sorcerer in a rage.”
I ground my teeth together. “Well. Glad that’s settled then.”
See? I’m a bastard. The demon blood was burning in my veins, insisting we needed to go get our omega back. Being a beta meant I was more easygoing than the others, generally. More nurturing and shit. But my protective instincts were every bit as strong as the alphas and gammas around me. Unfortunately, it made me that much worse at dealing with the violent impulses when they arose. I knew none of this was Dusek’s fault. But still… I needed an outlet for this anger and helplessness. And we hadn’t even figured out who had Ruya. Dusek was just an unlucky target by proximity.
“Anything else?” the bubak asked dryly, moving to walk past me toward the elevators.
I glared after him, hating both of us at the moment. “Maybe pay attention to security this time so no one else gets kidnapped.”
His shoulders were tense, but he didn’t turn around or respond. Which just pissed me off even more. I was spoiling for a fight, but the bubak refused to give it to me. He just stood there and took my verbal abuse the same way he had allowed me to hit him before.
Disappointing.
I watched him get on the elevator and disappear, my mood even more sour than before.
I didn’t consciously make the decision to visit Robin’s room, but I found myself there anyway. The restlessness inside me was maddening. I wouldn’t be at ease until all my people were back here safe.
“Are you just going to stand there in the way?” Yukio’s pointed comment brought me back to my senses and I realized I was just standing there blocking the doorway.
“Maybe,” I huffed.
The pixie stepped up close behind me, slid his hands up under the hem of my t-shirt to smooth over my back and around my ribs, then downward to my lower abdomen, just above my waistband. Then…he sent a cold, sharp burst of frost across my skin, making me jump and swear.
Obstacle removed from his path, he opened Robin’s door and walked on in, leaving me there rubbing my frozen midsection and muttering promises of retribution.
“Sanka?” Robin’s husky voice said, full of suppressed amusement. “Stop glowering. In or out, but either way, shut the door.”
I sighed and went in, kicking the heavy, intricately carved wooden door closed behind me. “You sound like you’re in a good mood,” I said sourly. Didn’t she even care about Ruya’s welfare at all? After the witch had healed her and helped keep her alive long enough to break the curse that had nearly killed our princess?
“Oh, Sanka,” the dragon shifter said, flipping her long red-gold braid over her shoulder and leaning back against the arm of her velvet-covered fainting couch. “Come here and sit.”
I huffed, but did as I was told, sinking down to sit beside our princess. “Did you learn anything new?” I asked, looking down at my interlaced hands as I bent forward, elbows on my knees. I felt restless. I needed to move. But there was nothing to do. “When are we going to go get Ruya?”
Robin’s warm hand settled on the back of my neck, giving a squeeze before smoothing downward to rub between my shoulder blades. “Sanka?” Robin said, voice deceptively soft as she scooted closer to me, alpha aura making me want to believe she’d make everything okay. “Do you trust me, sorcerer?”
I whipped my head to the side to stare into those beautiful honey-brown eyes that had stolen my heart the moment we met. “What? Of course I do. You know that.”
Robin tilted her head, lifting one perfectly shaped eyebrow. “Then trust me when I say I will handle this. We’ll move when the time is right and not a moment before. Have I ever been wrong?”
I let out a long exhale. “No.” Robin had never let me down. She had never failed at a single one of her countless schemes and plans. It was just that none of our other problematic interactions with the syndicate had mattered so much to me. They hadn’t ever made my heart ache this way.
Robin slipped her long arms around my waist, and I looped an arm over her shoulder as she snuggled in. She rubbed her smooth cheek against my neck, drowning me in the sexy incense and cinnamon smell of my alpha. “I’ll take care of you, Sanka,” she promised. “Every bit of you. Even your heart.” She chuckled softly. “It’s my duty as your princess, after all.”
I chuckled too, surprised I even had it in me with how wound up I was these days. “I know,” I said, turning my head to press a kiss to her temple. “But I’ve never been the patient one, you know.”
She smiled faintly, the expression colored with the memory of all we’d been through since way back when we were just a couple of lost teenagers. “I may have noticed that somewhere over the last fifty-some years.”
She released one arm from around my waist to reach up and cup my cheek. Her skin was, as always, just a bit warmer than average—even compared to a sorcerer with fire abilities. Even just that casual, comforting touch had me recalling the warmth of her body. And the flaring contrast between her heat and Yuki’s cold. Robin must have read my mind, because her smile grew sly, a bit of danger and mischief sneaking in around the corners.
“Yukio,” the dragon shifter said, her eyes growing less brown and more gold by the second. “I think Sanka needs a distraction.”
I broke out in goosebumps as Yukio sat down on my other side, the chill of his icy aura brushing mine. “Oh? Poor baby. I’m not so sure I’m in the mood, when he’s pining over someone else.”
I disentangled myself from Robin to look at my pixie lover, concerned that he really was angry this time. But my shoulders sagged with relief when I saw his face and realized he was just being a brat. “You know I still love you,” I told him, his cold, haughty expression making me smile a bit despite myself. “There’s plenty of me to go around, pixie.” I waggled my eyebrows just for good measure.
Robin slid a hand up my thigh, the touch hot even through my pants. “Sanka, we’re all adults. Neither of us is going to tell you that you can’t love anyone else.” She shot a glance at Yukio, for some reason. “And we’re both secure enough to know that doesn’t mean you love us less.” She chuckled, looking back at me, bending her fingers to rake her long nails up my leg. “How could you love us less, when we’re both so perfect?” She shot a hot glance toward Yukio. “Right, my frosty darling?”
Yukio winked at her. “Listen to your alpha, sorcerer. She’s powerful and wise.”
His tone was still teasing, but his voice was warm in a way it never was with others. Robin smiled, nearly purring under the praise, silly dragon. “I am. And I say that since we have little else to do at the moment besides wait for word from our contacts, we should find some way to amuse ourselves and relieve some of this tension.” She squeezed the rigid muscle of my thigh in illustration of just how tense I was.
Still…how could I possibly just carry on fucking around with my other partners while Ruya was out there somewhere, scared and alone?
“Sanka,” Yukio said, a cold, strong hand gripping my jaw and turning me toward him. “Shut up.”
I arched my brows. “I didn’t say anything.”
He rolled his dark blue eyes. “No, but you’re thinking so loud that you might as well be shouting.” He leaned closer. “So. Shut. Up.” Then he kissed me, hard and sharp.
All guilt aside, I could never resist Yukio or Robin when they wanted something. Especially when that something was me. My hand rested on Yukio’s hip as I kissed him back, our tongues dueling for dominance as I drank in his biting peppermint flavor.
Robin raked a hand through my hair, destroying the crazy, tight coils that she loved so much, as she leaned in to press hot, sucking kisses to my throat. I groaned into Yukio’s mouth when a hot hand stroked my rapidly hardening cock through my pants.
Then Robin was gone from my side. Moving with that quick, slinky grace that was all dragon. She knelt between my knees, running her palms up my thighs before she set to work getting my pants undone. By the time my cock sprang free, I was so hard I felt like I might explode at the first touch. It had always been like this with these two. I’d never felt such strong, immediate lust, so much passion, with anyone else. Except Ruya. My mind readily imagined her here with us, maybe kneeling beside Robin, trading kisses as they took turns sucking my dick.
I moaned and broke from Yukio’s kiss, my head dropping back against the foot of the bed as Robin’s scalding mouth enveloped my cock. Her tongue had gone slightly forked, and she flicked it over the head when she withdrew. Gold eyes sparkled up at me, and a sly, predator’s smile graced her face before she leaned in again, swallowing around me like she was made for it.
I reached for Yukio, my hands fumbling and graceless as Robin drove me mad without letting up. The pixie unknotted the tie that held his t-shirt in place, and let it slip off around his wings, revealing his taut, muscular body. He was smaller than me, not as bulky. But he had all the power and strength of a deadly marital artist carved into his frame. The pixie arched his dark brows at me as he undid his pants and pulled himself free, giving his cock a suggestive stroke. His silky black hair was coming free from its bun, and he looked like an invitation to rough debauchery. I brushed his hand aside and got a fist around his cock, about all I could manage with Robin touching me.
Yukio thrust into my hand as I tangled the other hand in Robin’s hair, destroying her thick braid. She fondled my balls as she sucked the fucking soul out of my body. Those gold eyes were fixed on mine, and it was my absolute undoing. I had known Robin since we were both lonely, rebellious, hurting teenagers. It hadn’t taken long for us to grow into lovers. And this amazing woman knew my body better than I did myself. She knew every sensitive spot, every like and dislike, and she saw every wound and desire in my soft, mushy heart.
“Robin,” I breathed, wanting to tell her. Wanting to say something to let her know that I treasured her more than any dragon treasured its hoard. But my brain short-circuited, and I forgot how to make words as orgasm crashed over me.
I curled forward as the dragon shifter licked me clean. She was toying with me with that supple, forked tongue of hers, and I twitched and moaned. “Stop it and come here,” I growled, grabbing her round the waist and heaving her up onto my lap.
She straddled my legs, smiling like she had just won some prize. “Yukio is going to feel neglected.”
I glanced at the pixie to find him lazily stroking his own cock as he watched us, a dark, wicked sort of pleasure on his face. “Yukio likes to watch,” I said to Robin, my eyes still on the pixie.
Yuki shrugged lazily. “I would if there was anything to watch.”
I chuckled and took the hint, pulling Robin down into a kiss as I smoothed my hands up under her blouse, unfastening her bra. She rarely suffered from the dysphoria anymore, but I paused out of habit and respect, never wanting to assume. When her body language stayed relaxed and open, I slid a hand across her chest to tweak her sensitive nipples while the other slid up her long thigh, pushing her skirt out of the way. I grinned against her lips when I realized she wasn’t wearing underwear.
“Were you planning this?” I growled against her soft lips.
She just smirked and scraped her sharp nails against my scalp as she tugged at the hair near the base of my neck. “Predicting the future is part of my alpha power,” she snarked.
I huffed. Anticipating every single need that her pack might have, was more like it. But I wasn’t about to argue. I gently slid my fingers along her pouch, teasing the slit. Robin just narrowed her eyes at me, clearly not in the mood for gentleness. Usually, she reveled in foreplay more than anyone I’d ever known, in teasing touches and building the tension until we were coming unraveled at the edges. But sometimes, the opposite was true. Maybe she needed this outlet just as much as I did. Maybe she was a bit more upset about things than she was letting on. Typical.
I loved this woman so fucking much.
Dipping my fingers into her pouch again, I slid them against her in a teasing way, before pulling her hard cock free of her pouch. She growled at me impatiently, and I stroked the slick length, pulling Robin back down into a biting kiss as she rocked into my hand, my other arm curling around her back, holding her close. She came almost as fast as I had, and I held her while she shuddered in my arms, her scalding cum painting my t-shirt, and wreaths of smoke curling from her mouth as she moaned. She was so damned beautiful.
Apparently, Yukio appreciated the sight too. A burst of cold washed over the room and he groaned as he got himself off to the vision of our princess coming in my arms.
Robin tucked herself back in, her dragon anatomy making it uncomfortable to just dangle outside her pouch like that. I kissed her chin, and she straightened and slid off me with that reptilian grace of hers. Looking down at me and Yukio, she smirked, the expression part pride and part exasperation. “Is that all it takes to turn you two into useless puddles?”
I forced myself to sit up and shuck my ruined t-shirt. “All your fault, princess,” I reminded her.
She held out a hand to each of us. “Come on. I heard the com chime a few minutes ago while you were both distracted. We should get cleaned up and see if there’s news from the network.”
I immediately felt guilty for fucking around when we should be looking for Ruya. But Robin was right. A good fuck had taken some of the edge off. I wasn’t feeling quite as keyed up as before. Oh, the anger was still there, but it was simmering, waiting for the appropriate time to be unleashed.
I took Robin’s hand and stood. “Your hearing is getting better,” I observed, stroking a hand over her head, smoothing her rumpled red-gold hair.
She narrowed her eyes at the implication that she had ever been less than perfect. But eventually she nodded.
When she was cursed, she had lost most of her shifter strengths and abilities. But when she was at full health, Robin could hear remarkably well, even for a paranormal. And she could do other freaky, valuable shit like sense vibrations in the earth. I shuddered to think how much more powerful she would be once she came of age and came into her full dragon powers. She’d be unstoppable.
And the syndicate would be wiped out, crushed like bothersome mosquitos. People were going to die. Too many of them. Robin’s rage and vengeance were the only things that had kept her going when her family was slaughtered. I had long ago learned not to try to talk her out of her plans. But I sometimes wondered if I’d be able to live with myself after she achieved her goals.
I took Robin’s hand and kissed the back, bowing over the appendage like I was in some old-school, outdated paranormal court. “Lead on, your majesty.”
Yukio chuckled. But Robin just touched my shoulder in benediction and glided off to make herself presentable. Even if we were only going to talk to Dusek and Martina, our alpha would insist on looking like a queen.
Yukio clapped me on the back as we both turned to find the spare clothes we always kept stashed around Robin’s lair. “It’ll be okay,” the pixie said, surprising the shit out of me. “We’ll get her back, Sanka.”
I looked down into his blue eyes and he seemed to register my surprise at his caring words. He blushed and looked away, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck. “Not that I fucking care. But I’m sick of seeing you mope.”
I ruffled his silky hair, thoroughly destroying what was left of his bun. “Aww…you’re such a softie, Yuki.”
He snapped his sharp pixie teeth at me and whirled away to rummage through the dresser. “Fuck off.”
But I couldn’t stop smiling. Yukio cared more than he let on. Robin was calling in favors from her treasured network of shady underground contacts. And Martina and Dusek were both a given, seeing as how they were both clearly crushing on our witch. Ruya would be okay. We would get her back. She wasn’t forgotten. I just had to trust that Ruya was strong enough to get through whatever situation she was in right now. She might seem soft, and vulnerable, and naive, but she had a steel core. Yukio was right. It would be okay.