Page 53 of Gemini Wicked

He is earthbound. But I will not leave him behind. My free arm snakes around his leg like a vine. My dragon exhales a soft keen of yearning.

We are his.

“Well, aren’t you full of surprises tonight, dragon?” That is my sweetheart, my Vasili, lurking near, who is sounding so disgruntled and so spiteful. “You won’t bend for me. But you’ll bend for Lucius?”

I press my brow harder into Lucius’ thigh and close my eyes.

By Christ, I am trembling.

Lucius’ taloned hand curls tenderly around my head, as though he will protect me from these jeering words. Still, I take no offense.

My sweetheart is vicious because he is jealous.

I am trying to think how to answer. I am not like our mates, I do not bend. I am alpha.

But I am lost in a strange confusion. The words will not form.

“Take it easy with him, Goblin King,” Zara says softly. “He’s trying to figure his shit out.”

She nestles into my side—so hot, so ripe, so succulent—then reaches to draw Vasili close.

He is sulking, but he comes.

“If we end up deciding we’re doing this, you know, for real?” Snuggled up against all three of us, Zara hesitates and looks up at me. My heart thunders as though it will burst from my chest. By this, she means breeding. “Then we’re all gonna need to be… careful. With each other.”

We all grasp her warning.

Lucius mutters in agreement and strokes my hair. I rub my bristly jaw into him—daring to scent him, just a little, near his groin—then nuzzle the hot hairy stretch of his thigh for reassurance.

In a typical shifter harem, the alphas would fight and kill for the privilege to breed their queen.

In our unconventional cobbled-together polycule, we will defy centuries of shifter instinct if we breed her together.

My dragon should be bathing in our rivals’ blood. Yet the thought of harming any of them fills me with a frenzy of distress.

“It’s okay,” Zara breathes in my ear. “There’s enough of me for all of you. That’s the only way we’re doing this. I mean, if we’re doing this—”

If?

There will be no if.

Brutally I drag her into me and twist to find her mouth with mine. The hot sweet suck of her lips burns through me, as though she has wrapped her mouth around my cock. She moans and winds one silky arm around my neck. Her lush breasts, pierced by her silver rings, press into my chest. Behind my briefs, the sensitive barbs of my dragon dick chafe and jut.

The rumble of my dragon’s need is a continuous echo that fills my head and crowds out all reason.

Breed her breed we must breed…

I groan and sway and cling to Zara and Lucius as though I am drowning.

I sense Ronin’s potent heat pulsing through my blood, because he is so powerful a telepath, and I know sweet Neo too is near. But I cannot abide anyone, not even my mates, too near my horribly scarred and tortured back, my Achilles heel that has always been so vulnerable.

So my mates are giving me this space.

It’s okay, big guy, Zara whispers through our mating bond. No one’s gonna hurt you. Not ever again. We’ll all get through this together. You wanna help me make Lucius feel good?

Lucius is the pillar we all lean against. Even now, he is the physical scaffold that holds our joined bodies upright. Always, he takes nothing for himself.

“Yes, my sovereign,” I growl against Zara’s eager mouth. “I want that.”

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