It was sluggish.
Maddox’s grunt of sound seemed to echo my own thoughts.
“Fin.” Worry speared through me, but Fin ignored that and dragged me in for a kiss. Tears sparked in my eyes at the first brush of his cool lips over mine. Where I’d once tasted laughter and mischief, all I found was cold iron and ash.
Worse, deeper as his tongue stroked over mine was something more acrid. The blood from his broken lip flooded my mouth, and I jerked backward. It tasted wrong. Something darker slid through his veins.
He let out a mournful sound as I pulled away, and I turned him, trying to get a better look at his back.
“Gheall mé duit, Álainn,” he murmured. “Tá mé ag fanacht le fada leat.”
As beautiful as those words were, I had no idea what they meant. The marks on his back were dark and deep. They were radiating out in little black lines. Maddox let out another huff as he snaked his head around us, and there was a sickening crunch of bone and a meaty tearing of muscle and flesh.
I grimaced. Even as covered in blood as I was, that sound turned my stomach. “Something is wrong with him, Maddox…” I knew it. “And I love you, my dragon, but you’re gonna remember the rules about kissing.”
He huffed a laugh at me and then nudged me toward Fin as he moved to wrap around us both, then his wing slid over us like a shelter in the storm.
My dragon would watch our backs, and I cradled Fin to me as he staggered. Turning his face to my throat, I slid my fingers through his hair.
“Drink, Fin,” I whispered. “You’ve lost too much blood.”
Cradling him close, I didn’t miss his mumbled words as he mouthed a kiss against my pulse. “I could die happy here, Beautiful.”
Thank fuck that was in English.
“You’re not dying,” I told him. “Do you understand me? You are not allowed to die. I did not come all this way to save you, only to have you die. You promised to put balm on my ass after Alfred and Rogue tan it, and what will Maddox do without you?”
The dragon let out a rumbling growl that verged dangerously close to a purr, and I smiled as I leaned into his side, even as I stroked Fin’s hair. Even in the gloom cast by the shelter of Maddox’s wings, I had no trouble seeing my damaged druid.
I was going to tear whoever did this to him apart.
Fiona… Nightshade and death goddess. There is no saving me. It’s already locking up my magic. But you’re here.
You don’t get to die, Fin. You promised me.
I’d beg if I had to.
Please, my love, please drink.
Your love?
Yes, you impetuous fool, I love you, now drink…
Your throat… You don’t like your throat touched.
You can have my throat. They all could. I trust you.
The hard strike of his teeth was instantaneous, as if those words unleashed the beast within my druid. The first hard suck had me shaking all the way down to my core. The fact he worked his hand right into my pants and had two fingers pumping into me registered distantly. All I could feel was Fin inside me, stroking me as though desperate to bring me to orgasm, wrapped around me like a cloak of the sexiest fur. My whole body shuddered as he sucked and pulled and stroked.
Fuck me, I was going to come right here, and the release when it exploded out of me… I shuddered as I rolled my hips up to meet his hand, while his thumb kept pressure on my clit, and the pleasure just spiraled. When he dragged his head upward, the eyes shining down at me held mischief as he pressed his lips to mine, and I tasted my own blood in his mouth.
Drunk on the feel of him, I tore at his pants until I could wrap my hand around him and then began to stroke his stiff cock. The huff from Maddox registered distantly, as did the heat of fire and the screams of the dying, but I shut them all the fuck out as Fin tore my pants. Then he pushed into me, and I had my legs wrapped around him.
I sank my teeth into his throat, and he growled, a deep, fully bellied growl that was so like Maddox, I laughed. The acridness in his blood was a tang on my tongue, but I wouldn’t be deterred. If the poison was in him, I wanted it out.
Nothing was allowed to harm him.
He dug his fingers into my ass as I drank and ground his cock deeper, even as he triggered another wave of orgasm with the pressure of his cock striking deep.
Lifting my head back, I screamed as I came, and then his teeth sank into me again. The light show around us left my eyes dazzled, but the heat of his seed shooting into me did something else to my insides. Molten fire in my belly spread out, like sunshine suffusing every single cell, and it was Fin crying out against my throat as his hips jerked, and I swore he came again.
We collapsed together against the surging side of Maddox’s scales.
Shaken, I looked up as Fin pulled the bloodied strands of hair from my face, and then he kissed me so fucking sweetly, my heart melted.
“Mine,” he whispered against my lips, and I would deny him nothing. “My perfect goddess of flame and spring.”
“Yours,” I agreed, and fuck if I could catch my breath.
“My blood angel,” he added, and I laughed at his poetry before I fisted his hair and dragged him down for a kiss.
This time when his blood touched my tongue, it was cleaner, earthier, and tasted of Fin and not poison. “You’re mine,” I reminded him.
“Always.”
I stretched out a hand to run along Maddox’s side. I hadn’t forgotten him.
My dragon.
My druid.
Mine.
Chapter 4
“We need the tonic of wildness.” - Henry David Thoreau
Maddox
He canted his head at the next rush of guards and exhaled the fire he’d been holding in for the last several days. The whole point of their incarceration had been to learn more about which of the Seven were in league with the warden—the bastard who kept putting his hands on Maddox’s mate. Puffs of smoke and fire erupted from his nostrils as the dragon swung his gaze around.
The warden had fled before Maddox made it all the way in here. Fucker had better run. But he would find him. He was never touching her again, even if she had scalded him so beautifully. Triumph and pride twined within him. His mate had grown far more powerful during his absence.
That absence left an aching hole within him. He’d felt her approach to the prison in his soul. Every step she’d taken, he’d been torn between scolding her for risking herself and the savage sense of rightness that his mate would fight for him. His brothers had, but now his mate—their mate would.
The smell of sex wafting from beneath his wing had him grunting. He could taste her pleasure and Fin’s, but at least his brother’s scent had changed. His kitten had been right to feed him her blood and to pull the poison from him. For just a moment, Maddox had hesitated, but her scent hadn’t changed when she drained the poison. It didn’t touch her, and that was enough for him.
For now.
The stroke of her hand against his scales urged him to lift his wing to glance down at them. They’d shredded their clothing, and he had to snort at that. Fin hadn’t even pulled out of her, but her jewel-like green eyes locked on his and a pulse of love flashed along the bond.
He spared Fin a look. His brother’s color was no longer ashen, and the wounds on his back had all closed.