Page 1 of Queens Ride Horny Dragons
Chapter One
Six Days until the Coronation
I stayed at the dragon shifter castle—for about ten more minutes. Long enough for my harem to make my little brother, Asa, a part of their treasure trove. And then? Well, I’d get to that, one step at a time.
We wound our way through the empty hallways, the lush carpets in this part of the castle thick and silencing, the wooden walls carved in intricate dragon details and polished until they gleamed. I tried to keep track of all the turns and doorways we passed, but it was no use. This place was a maze.
“Ah-ha.” Tavis smiled over his shoulder at me, the candlelight from a nearby wall sconce flickering across his blue hair and dancing in his bright blue eyes. He stopped and opened a set of double doors. “This will do.”
With Asa’s hand gripped tightly in mine, we followed my harem into a beautiful room with red silk panels draped from the high ceiling to the floor, and in between those hung paintings of gorgeous women inside gilded frames. Queens, I realized. All dead. There must have been at Léast fifty of them. Briefly, I wondered which one was my harem’s mother.
Tavis turned to Asa. “What have you got in your pocket, big guy?”
Frowning, Asa fished a familiar-looking folded white card from his pocket and held it up. “Asa Parmstone. Is this like a reminder in case I forget?”
I glided my hand over his silky dark hair. “It’s for protection, so don’t lose it, okay?”
“And what’s in your sister’s pocket?” Calhoun strode toward me, his black hair hanging in his dark, cunning eyes, and something about the way he looked at me, so hungry and possessive, roared the dragon fire awake inside me.
“This dress isn’t cool enough to have pockets,” I said, and my voice sounded like a purr.
“How unfortunate.” He came closer, and I licked my lips as I ticked my gaze toward Asa. Luckily, Tavis was redirecting his attention elsewhere from his combusting sister.
I fisted my hand in Calhoun’s black Henley as much to drag him closer as to keep me upright with the absolute need twisting through me. His muscled forearm grazed my elbow as he wrapped it around my back, triggering a shiver to my toes, and then grabbed my ass and roughly pulled me against him.
I tried not to moan, was mostly successful, but damn. Even without the dragon fire lighting me up constantly, he would be impossible to resist.
He rocked me against him, the heat of his hard cock making me gasp, and his dangerous gaze dipped to my lips when a smile fluttered across them. “Guess what, sweetheart? I found a pocket.” He whipped a white card out from behind me with Asa’s name on it. “So you have one too.”
“The card itself is indestructible, fire-proof, water-proof,” Vance said, coming up from behind me to touch his warm fingertips to my shoulder. “And this room is now our trove.”
Just as he said it, the neat rows of treasure arranged on shelves I’d seen at their house came into view around us, faint like seeing them through a gauze curtain. Next to the pocket watch I’d stolen from them sat another Asa card, but no Asa, of course, since he was free to move about. The shelves faded, and the room looked just as it did when we’d come in.
“Your card and Asa’s is to put your minds at ease.” Vance trailed his fingers down my spine, making me melt into him.
Still wrapped up in Calhoun, I gazed up into Vance’s almost translucent eyes and reached up to cup his scruffy jaw. “Thank you, guys. This does help me feel better.”
A bit, at Léast. I still had several hundred doubts.
Vance leaned in to graze his lips over the shell of my ear. “Thankyou, My Thief.”
My dragon fire flared through my entire body once again, centered between my legs in hot pulses where I'd first spilled it. Not on purpose, but it had almost killed me. Now, though, it made me want to squirm against Calhoun, fuck Vance with my mouth, and Tavis could join in the fun any way he pLéased. All somewhere not around Asa, of course.
Calhoun let out a low groan as if in agreement and ground against me. Vance angled my head and swept me up in a deep kiss. From my periphery, Tavis's blue eyes sparked brighter as he turned to stare, making sure Asa was firmly planted in front of a painting with his back facing us.
Loud knocks from somewhere in the castle scattered my idea quickly.
"Who's that?" I asked, reluctantly pulling away.
Vance took a step backward and adjusted the impressive bulge in his jeans. "Shifters wanting to see their queen."
"Can't we tell them I'm not here?"
He smiled and smoothed the sleeves of his white flannel. "No. Despite what happened last night, we need cooks, workers to keep up the castle and to help prepare for the coronation. I'll spend the day sorting through them."
Despite what happened last night… He meant the full-moon ritual, the table laid out with food here at the castle, some of which was poisoned, some of which Asa had almost eaten. My body went rigid, and a strange sound escaped my throat.
Vance flashed to my side again and took my hand. “Asa’s safe, Yara. Nothing will happen to him as long as we’re alive, and Tavis will teach you all about poisons.”
