Page 65 of Beautiful Beast

No. I didn’t. And that was what terrified me.

Not only that Lena was unravelling us from the inside out, but what it meant for us, for her, and the rest of the world. Zovai knew more than he was saying. I felt it, and I couldn’t care because Lena was coming to us, and I was so fucking tired of doing nothing for my own desires.

Three centuries I’d been bound by someone else’s will, and though I told my brothers the truth and I did not regret the actions that brought me here, I was tired.

Lena was as good as dead to the world. Gleira and Craisos could safely assume she’d died, because it was what they thought of dragons. That we were only meant to take, consume, and destroy.

If they tried to find her, we would beat them back. But they wouldn’t. Not all of them. Human forces hadn’t crossed into dragon territory in large numbers since the war. For good reason. If they sent someone, it would be a small group, and my dragon smiled at the thought of getting to wipe them off the face of Viria.

They wanted to drag Lena back to a life of nothing but servitude? Then they would meet the stars before their time. Simple as that.

I shifted a few feet from the platform, dropping into a crouch to absorb the impact. Sirrus and Zovai followed, the latter catching Lena through her shriek of surprise.

“You might have warned me,” she said.

“Where’s the fun in that?”

He led the way to his quarters, and we followed. Any of our rooms were large enough. We always knew if we took a shared mate that we would rearrange things, but we’d never been interested. Until now.

I stilled in the hallway outside Zovai’s door. Was that what we wanted? To mate her?

Yes.

The resounding confirmation flowed from my dragon first and then to the rest of me. No part of me cared that she was human, and therefore fragile. Mortal. I only wanted her. Damn all the consequences.

Z set her down beside his bed and Lena looked at us. Her cheeks were flushed, both with arousal and embarrassment. I could scent both in equal measure. We needed to be careful with her. Despite the urge to pin her down and take her until she screamed my name, we couldn’t.

Not yet.

That would come in time.

Until then, I would thoroughly enjoy every inch of her.

I stepped the rest of the way inside and closed the door behind us.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

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KATALENA

Iwas alone with three dragons.

Three naked dragons.

“Do you go one at a time? Or…”

Sirrus laughed softly, amused. But his eyes shone with joy and not derision. “For now, I think we go slowly.”

“Why slowly?”

“Because we’re not ruining you,” Zovai dropped his head and kissed the top of my shoulder. “We’re savoring you.”

“Oh.”

The word was wholly inadequate. “Like I said, I know enough, but not that much, and?—”

Sirrus stepped into me, tilting my head back and kissing me for the first time. A gust of his magical wind curled around us, and all the words shivered out of my head. “So eager, Princess.”

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