Returning to the apartment was a quiet affair. Zoey drove, though not her personal vehicle, which wouldn’t have fit all of us, but an official black sedan with aggressively tinted windows. I didn’t catch the make or model, too exhausted by the day for that level of detail. It was like I left all of my energy in the hotel, and when we walked out, it faded from me. I did notice that she drove much more cautiously than she did the first time I was in the car, with Zenya in the passenger seat and me sandwiched between Beth and Sam in the back seat, the three of us barely fitting. In a way, taking up more space than there was in the seat was a good thing because the only positive feelings I had came from the plentiful contact.

  Cynthia didn’t join us immediately, having to return to her office to handle an official report of what she observed. It was just as well that she didn’t, not merely because we didn’t have enough space (though, if we had needed it, I’d bet that Zoey would’ve taken a different vehicle) but because, though my annoyance had faded once the source of my true anxieties was resolved, Sam was still bristling at her mother.

  “I just don’t like it,” the rubenesque redhead complained once the doors were shut. “She’s got one foot in the door of our family and one foot in the door of her job. It doesn’t feel right to have her observing and reporting on what we do.”

  Zoey grimaced in the front seat, but only I caught her guilty scowl in the mirror. Sam continued, “I get that someone has to do it, but I hate that it’s my mom. I know that it’s the most convenient to have her do it since she’s already acquainted with us and was available since it’s her job to work with you, but I hate it.”

  I rubbed her back where I could in the cramped conditions without responding. Coming to the realization that her mother wasn’t perfectly aligned with her and that Cynthia had loyalties that didn’t perfectly mirror Sam’s was something personal to her. It was a painful enlightening that she needed to experience herself, just like Beth needed to have her eyes opened and her hopes dashed by her mother’s reintrusion into her life.

  When we arrived at the apartment, Zoey dropped us at the front door before taking the car to the lot. She had it for the whole weekend, which was reasonable, given that I wasn’t initially sure how long the meetings would last. On the way up the stairs, Sam asked what my plans were for both the night and the rest of the weekend.

  “I have no idea,” I answered honestly. “Today was both a lot less stressful than I imagined it could’ve been and, simultaneously, fucking exhausting in the most soul-draining way. I’m kinda depleted, to be honest. I’d just like to crash and forget magic exists for a while, you know?”

  Sam shared a look with Beth, who stared blankly back. Sam whispered something, to which Beth looked nervous and less subtly whispered back, “I have no idea; it’s not like I ever got to do one.”

  “But do you want to?” Sam asked. “I didn’t either, and we can now.”

  “I guess?” Beth responded before continuing more confidently as her emotions settled, “Yeah. Yeah, I would, Sam.”

  Sam smiled glowingly before turning and unlocking our door, holding it open for the three of us to follow her in.

  “Go shower with him. Get his clothes off and get the residue of today off of him,” she commanded Beth. When the auburn-haired girl eyed me hungrily, Sam decreed, “No funny business. Well, a little is okay. But don’t take an hour. Clothes will be on the bed when you’re done, and we’ll be set up out here.”

  “Clothes?” I asked, really not interested in going back out. I wanted to crash. My body probably didn’t need sleep anymore, but my mind absolutely needed a break.

  “C’mon, James,” Beth said, tugging my arm towards the master bath. “Trust us?”

  That I was definitely capable of doing. The bond made it easier, but that was more because I usually knew what they were planning. When they hid it from me, like they were now, I grew nervous. Or maybe I was just seeing ghosts after a day of dealing with dragons.

  Beth stripped me, herself, and then tugged us both into the shower. The water ran, and she ran her hands over me. For once, I was out of it enough to just let it happen, a passenger rather than a participant.

  “What’s wrong, J?” she asked at one point.

  “I’m just tired, Beth. Dealing with everything took more than I realized, and it’s hitting me now. Or, maybe I just missed you and Sam. I don’t know. That’s the issue, actually. There’s so much I just don’t know anymore. I want — I don’t know what Sam’s got planned, but if it has any more magic than her cooking, I don’t know if I can stomach it tonight. I’m tired of foundational elements of my life being shrouded in secrecy to protect powerful individuals I’ve never met, and I’m tired of having to figure things out on my own, and I’m tired of walking on eggshells everywhere.”

  Beth cocked her head, “There might be magic, but it should be fine.”

  “I trust you,” I stated. She smiled and led me out of the bathroom.

  In the bedroom, I was surprised by the selection of clothes laid out on the bed. A cotton pair of pajama bottoms for me; a pair of pink and black cotton shorts and a black t-shirt with a red dragon decal on it for Beth. She pulled her clothes on, I did the same, and then we both meandered back out to the living room.

  Where I found that Sam had rearranged the entire living room. The couches were moved back against the walls, making space in the center of the floor where she had constructed what could only be described as a nest. She had somehow brought a mattress into the living room and set a ring of pillows around the outside, blankets splayed across them. The television had been adjusted on its mount, pulled out and angled down to make viewing comfortable from the newly assembled viewing area. There were three pizzas and a two-liter bottle of soda on the kitchen counter, and there was a stack of paper plates and cups beside them.

  Sam looked incredibly cozy in her fuzzy green robe, smiling patiently at Beth and me as we arrived. Beside her, Zoey wore a pale white tank top and grey shorts, already munching on a slice of what could only be meat lover’s pizza. And standing cautiously by the dining room table, Zenya lingered, wearing a full set of jet-black silk pajamas, looking as though she wasn’t sure if she belonged.

  Sam stepped up to me as I took in the scene and said, “We’re having a slumber party. You’re the guest of honor.”

  “I suppose that’s not a position I can refuse,” I mused, not particularly interested in following through with my idea, more trying to understand Sam’s intentions.

  “Nope,” she replied swiftly, a smile and a shake telling me she had no intention of leaving me alone for the evening. “Now, if you’d take your place at the center of the slumber palace so that the rest of the guests can take their positions around you.”

  “Slumber palace?” I asked with a smirk.

  “Yup,” she confirmed as I lied down in her makeshift bed. When I found a comfortable spot, adjusting one of the pillows so that I could see the television without straining, she continued, “Now, your wings, please.”

  I sprouted them, spreading them across the mattress under the blankets. They stretched the entire width with me in the center, going another foot and a half beyond my outstretched arms in each direction. Sam then turned and motioned the other three women to her. There was a hushed conversation that lasted only a few seconds before Zoey was lying down against me.

  “Hey,” she whispered as her legs tangled with mine. “She decided I should be first.”

  “First?”

  “In your arms. She’s putting mindless movies on, and we each get one in your arms. To relax after today.”

  Just as Zoey explained, Sam, Beth, and Zenya each took a space on the makeshift viewing bedding, wrapping themselves in my wings. The TV turned on by itself — or, at least, that was how it looked, because Sam was using force projection to manipulate the remote from across the room — and a movie came on. I snorted when I recognized the opening — the CGI just as unmistakable as Smash Mouth’s All-Star playing was. If Sam was shooting for lighthearted, empty-headed movies for the night, this one would undoubtedly hit the mark.

  Beth handed me a plate with a piece of plain cheese pizza on it as the movie started — which Zoey promptly picked up off the plate and held for me.

  “Huh,” I mumbled through my first bite of the forgettably generic, greasy takeout slice. “Didn’t think you’d be inclined to do this.”

  “Feed you?” Zoey confirmed.

  “Yeah.”

  “Why?”

  “You feel too feisty to me. It doesn’t strike me as something you’d want to do. Too mushy, overly romantic.”

  She blushed, “It’s a bit deferential, isn’t it? Doesn’t that fit?”

  “Sort of, but only if I were making you do it.”

  “Well, Beth got to earlier today.”

  I smirked. “Getting competitive over it is absolutely you, Zo.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked harshly, and I realized how she could’ve taken what I said.

  “That, when you want something, you go out and get it. Strangely, the thing might be me, but that means that when you see Beth or Sam doing something, you’ll do it, too, because you want to. And you’ll do it well, too, because you’ve never done anything poorly. I can’t imagine you’ve curled up on a makeshift bed with your girlfriends, ate pizza, and watched silly movies. The girl I knew in the past didn’t relax; she chased what she wanted until she got it. It didn’t help you physically in school — you can’t exactly chase grades, and when your brother gets them effortlessly, people think you should, too — but it seems to have served you well everywhere else.

  “And I’m sorry,” I concluded.

  “What? Why?”

  “Because I should’ve realized that earlier today. You spent the entire meeting working without getting paid.”

  “I got paid with nothing going wrong today,” she asserted.

  “I should’ve thought about it, though. I should have realized that you wouldn’t be able to be in that situation without running risk assessments and trying to minimize the threat to me, and Beth, and Sam, and Zenya, and Cynthia.”

  “But I wanted to be there, James. I want to be around you, even if it means my training kicks in, and I’m mentally working for hours.”

  “I should have at least discussed it with you, Zoey. That’s not a very high bar.”

  After feeding me the final few bites of the pizza, she nodded, “Reasonable.”

  “Thank you,” I whispered, setting the plate behind me on the ground and wrapping my arms around her. She settled against my side, leaning her head on my shoulder to face toward the television, notionally watching the fantasy creatures on the screen on their quest.

  I leaned down and kissed the top of her head when I was struck with an impulse I hadn’t before, at least in these circumstances. I whispered, “Good girl,” as I placed a second kiss on the crown of her head.

  I was promptly aware of two fluffy white wolf ears wiggling against my face and a tail rubbing against my legs. Zoey turned her head and tried to whisper but failed and whined instead, “James! You can’t just say things like that unless you’re going to follow them up.”

  I nuzzled my face against her head, her ears buffeting my cheeks as I did.

  “I am following it up. I’m snuggling with my good girl and relaxing with her after a day that fried both of our nerves.”

  Zoey fidgeted. “Teasing me isn’t playing fair.”

  “Shh, little wolf. Let your friends enjoy the movie,” I ordered as my hands wrapped around her hips, holding her against me firmly.

  The snow-white ears and tail remained for the entirety of the movie, just as Zoey’s fidgeting did. My occasional kiss, brushing my face against her hair as I whispered to her, and my fingers along her skin, rubbing along and just a hair underneath the hem at the bottom of her shorts on her thighs, were completely unrelated. It was fortuitous that the movie was such a familiar one for both of us because I spent most of my time focused on Zoey, and she spent all of her time split between the sensation I spurred inside her and trying to hide her reaction from everyone around us.

  When the movie ended, Sam nodded. Zoey shifted, reluctantly swapping places with Beth, and Sam started the second film. The dark opening, with the main character’s dry introduction to the setting before suddenly revealing dragons raiding the town, caught my attention, mostly because I hadn’t seen the film before. I was reasonably sure which one it was from the introduction (there are only so many Dreamworks productions, after all), but I had to pay attention to be sure.

  Which was fortunate, because Beth whispered, “Oh, this one’s new,” as the movie started. She also hadn’t seen it before.

  She ended up conflicted when it ended. She liked the connection between the main character and the lead dragon and especially enjoyed the idea of riding one. She wasn’t a fan of the main character’s hesitance when confronted by the unmistakable existential threat, as much as the risk to his friends might be, and she hated the way the main character reconnected with his father in the climax of the movie. She detested how forced and predictable it was. Admittedly, for a happy-ending guaranteed animated film, it had more depth than most, as all of the main characters came out with scars from the ordeal, but there was no way Beth could stomach the reconciliation that occurred over such a short period. Given how much doubt had seeped into the relationship and how much trust had been damaged, it didn’t feel fair to fast-forward back to happiness.

  I wasn’t surprised when Sam nodded again and Beth moved in response. I wasn’t even surprised when it was Zenya who ended up against me. She had been present for the entire time: throughout the morning meetings, handing all of the dragons just as much as I was, and now through the first two movies. I wasn’t sure if she was going to end up with me, but I wasn’t surprised that it happened, either.

  I did whisper to ask, “Are you okay with this?” as Sam switched the movie. Zenya nodded, her midnight black hair splaying out around her and onto my shoulder and arm as she settled against me. It was one of the few times she had let it down completely that I had seen, and it made her look a lot more relaxed than usual. She seemed relaxed, too, which was overwhelmingly rewarding. I wasn’t sure if it was simply the stress from the day draining out of her as it had for me or if there had been some progress between us, but I was happy, nonetheless.

  I was surprised by the movie in a couple different ways. The CGI at the start told me it was old, not that it was poor for its time, but I was surprised Sam was familiar with the movie, given that it must’ve been released before we were born. As it explained itself, I wasn’t shocked to see that it was a children’s film — as the previous two had been, too — but I was intrigued by the narrative placement of the main character reading a story and seeming to experience it as the characters he read about did. There was only one other film I was familiar with that did this so obviously, and the resemblance was striking, as they were both cult classics released in the same time period. I audibly gasped when I first heard the name of the lead character of the inner story because I was familiar with the name, but only as that of one of my favorite bands rather than a hero in a storybook inside a movie.

  Given how the previous two movies had gone, I was expecting a dragon to interact with that character at some point. I wasn’t exactly sure if Sam had picked the movie knowing Zenya was the one who would be in my arms when it played, or how much she and the vampire had talked. It felt presumptive to place our relationship as comparable to that of the one in the movie, though it did feel like Sam was making intentional decisions to align each film with the woman I was holding.

  The dragon saved the inner main character from the swamps of despair, a literal, physical presence of depression and hopelessness that nearly defeats the boy. He almost succumbs to the depths of his own emotions and to the beast chasing him in the swamp before the dragon finds him and pulls him back toward his quest. One of the dragon’s lines felt like it could have been directed at any of the four women on the bed with me, and I could only imagine that Sam had made the decision to have Zenya beside me when the fluffy, white dragon on screen said it for a reason.

  “I haven’t done this before,” Evgenia whispered as the movie entered its final arc and started breaking some of its own established rules, like allowing the characters to blend the lines between the story and the ‘real’ world.

  “Watched a movie?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “Lied in bed with a man of my choosing.”

  I hesitated for a moment because of the concerning implication of her wording. “You’ve laid in bed before with me,” I eventually settled on.

  “Not with you, though. I was there, yes, but you were performing a service for me. I was not relaxing against you with the explicit encouragement of your betrothed. I was an employee receiving payment, not a friend receiving comfort. No, hush, James,” she insisted as I opened my mouth to object. “I know you never felt that way. It was merely the best way to describe the relationship at the time. I was unsure, but you were patient.”

  A few minutes later, she continued, “The last time I shared a bed with a man was with my first master. Regional aristocracy in a time and place where that meant he was untouchable unless you were even high up the food chain, especially for a poor peasant girl whose parents were busy feeding her dozen siblings.

  “Amusingly, in retrospect, he wasn’t the one I needed to be worried about. He had the name and the family connections and the public status, but he wasn’t the one with the power in his household. That was his wife. She was the vampire. He was a ghoul that she kept on her leash. I began working for them as a household servant as a teenaged girl because my parents couldn’t keep enough food on the table for all of us. Not enough, anyway. If I went and worked there, I ate there and slept there and lessened the burden on my family.

  “I don’t know which of them took a fancy to me, but she ordered me into a meeting with her and turned me. The next six months were a blur where I was kept close at hand for her, both to keep me from getting away and doing anything to expose her and to keep me available as a toy for her and her husband. He’s the only man I’ve ever been in a bed with, and it most certainly wasn’t by choice.”

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “Is there anything you can do? Anything you want to do? Is there anything I can do to help?”

  She shook her head. “Nothing more than you’ve already done. Showing me you aren’t them. They died in the chaos of the first world war. Took a trip to the capital, presumably to try and understand what was going on with the war. I don’t know if they were caught up in the revolution or if someone with a grudge came for them specifically, but they never returned to the manor where I worked.”

  “And that was in 1914?” I asked.

  “November, 1917. Called the October Revolution because it was in October in the calendar we used at the time. Not that I knew any better. I kept working until March with no word from them, terrified that on any day, they would return and make my life a living hell again. I spent most of my days working while imagining what punishment would befall those of us who remained because of the ones who had fled.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “You caused none of it, James.”

  “And yet I feel I’ve failed you regardless. I couldn’t stop it, I couldn’t help in the aftermath, and there’s nothing I can do now.”

  “Shush, boy,” Zenya whispered, the edge in her voice coming out more assertively than I had ever heard it. “There is nothing you could’ve done at the time — not only were you not born for another ninety years, but there were still dragons, then. Petty, angry, possessive dragons seeing their empire being ripped from their claws, who would’ve reacted to your young, impressionable, naive face popping up where it didn’t belong by ripping your throat out and leaving you worse than me. They did not care for me, but you trying to would’ve been interfering with their territory.

  “And there is plenty you’ve done now. You’ve given me a chance here. The first time I’ve had a home, a family, a purpose in a hundred years. And you’ve let me come to you when I needed. You haven’t pushed. Not beyond letting me know you would be there if I needed it.”

  My mouth wobbled as I opened it without a response ready. After a moment of silence, as I struggled with what she said, Zenya continued, “I know, James. I’ve watched and waited and listened. Leave my past in the past. Let’s move on with the here and now because, for the first time in my life, the here and now looks bright.”

  I swallowed the words I couldn’t form anyway. “I’ll try.”

  “Thank you,” she whispered.

  The ending of the movie played out with Zenya nestled comfortably against my chest, seeming far more relaxed than I was after our talk. Cynthia entered as Sam was setting up the final film, raising an eyebrow at the developing scene in the living room. Beth said hello to her, having gotten up to dish out the ice cream Sam had declared was the mandatory conclusion to every meal in the slumber palace.

  She brought only one bowl back — the one for herself — and I was confused for a moment, only until Sam finished finding the movie she wanted and floated the four remaining dishes to us. Spoons were lifted from the drawer and followed a moment later, one settling in each of our dishes.

  The redhead shrugged in disappointment after her first bite, exchanging positions with Zenya at the same time. “It’s just regular stuff,” she said with a sigh. “A bit nostalgic for me, anyway, though.”

  I looked down at the ice cream, trying to place the faded pink coloring speckled with crushed peanuts and chocolate chunks. Thankfully, Sam explained a moment later, whispering into my ear, “It’s the flavor Beth got me before I climbed into your bed for the first time.”

  The five of us ate the underwhelming (relative to the other treats Sam had concocted) dessert as the beginning of the final movie played. It became clear very quickly that it was some kind of comedy adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, given that the male lead had a pun name and the female lead was simply Juliet. It played out in a fairly uninspired, predictable way, with even fewer consequences for the main characters than the earlier films, but it was lighthearted and amusing even so. For the fourth movie in a set of four before we went to sleep for the evening, it was perfect.

  “No dragon in this one?” I asked when it was almost entirely through.

  Sam shook her head. “I wanted to do Romeo and Juliet straight up because it felt the most fitting. But ending on that note would suck, so I wanted a version with a happy ending that still had the two characters overcoming the barriers between their worlds, you know? Felt like that could be the story of my life at this point.”

  “You put a lot of thought into who got which movie.”

  “I tried. Zoey’s was uninspired, even if finding a dragon lover in an otherwise banal job fits her really well, and mine doesn’t have a dragon. It was tough to find things where dragons were depicted positively. Even more so if I didn’t want to do just animated things from the last few years. Some exec somewhere must have gotten the idea that dragons could be cool, too, because there’s a whole bunch of counter-stereotyping going on recently.”

  “Well, I appreciate it. I appreciate all of this. You did it on a whim, so quickly coming up with a way to unwind, relax, and get back to the world I used to know, if only for an evening. Could’ve just tossed whatever on, but you tried to tailor each one to whoever was closest to me without getting too serious. You struck the balance perfectly.”

  Sam blushed under the praise, her fair skin matching her hair even in the flickering, dim light from the television screen. She didn’t say any more, not as the movie ended, nor in the minute afterward.

  In fact, no one did. They simply remained there, nestled into each other, lying atop my wings in the makeshift bed. After several minutes, I whispered, “Are we staying here?”

  “Wouldn’t be much of a slumber palace if we didn’t slumber, would it?”

  ~*~*~*~

  I was vaguely aware of both Zenya and Zoey getting up at some point in the morning. Zoey left very early in the morning — she had mentioned going for a run and then stopping back at her apartment and to message her if we were going to do anything. I told her I had an idea that I’d want her present for, and she said she’d be available. Cynthia came and made breakfast quietly, and I could feel with my draconic senses that she left some made for us before she left.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  I slipped back to sleep once the movement in the room stopped, settling back with the thought that I was really glad dragons could still sleep, even if I probably didn’t need to. It was something to ask Arjun about, but I was pretty confident. Lying in bed between Beth and Sam was too gratifying to give up, though, at least in normal circumstances.

  Another hour passed as the three of us nestled together on the mattress in silence. I drifted in and out of sleep, watching the sunlight change slightly in the room as the morning light inevitably invaded our space. Sam got up at some point, quietly going to her room before returning a few minutes later.

  And then I was nudged into wakefulness. Beth and Sam were whispering to each other, which caught my attention, but what actually woke me was Beth’s hand on my hip. She grabbed the pants I was wearing and began tugging them down even as she continued whispering to Sam.

  They eventually realized I was awake and closing in on alert when Sam glanced over and saw my open eyes.

  “Hi,” she whispered.

  “Why do you look guilty?” I asked.

  “She wants to do something for you,” Beth answered far more confidently. “Something she hasn’t done before, so she asked me for help.” Beth then put her hands on her chest and looked down before continuing, “Unfortunately, it’s something I’m not exactly equipped for, so I don’t have any experience doing it either. We’re just going to wing it and figure it out as we go. Sound good?”

  “And it requires my pants off?”

  Sam nodded and Beth said, “Yup. That’s the best part.”

  “Here? In the living room?”

  Beth shrugged. “Not like Cynthia’s coming back anytime soon.”

  “But, it’s Saturday,” I said dimly as Beth continued wiggling my pants further and further down my legs.

  “She was called to assist Aisling in a meeting with one of the dragons. Didn’t sound like she knew what the meeting was about, but given that she’s spent so much time with you and then got to sit in the meeting yesterday, she’s the region’s foremost expert on draconic behavior. As if you were anything like them.”

  Beth shrugged again. “So she won’t be coming back anytime soon. And if Zoey comes back, what’s the big deal?”

  She had wiggled me entirely out of the pajama bottoms at that point and tugged back the blanket so that I was completely exposed. Before I could respond to what she said, Sam shocked me by leaning over and taking me in her mouth. I wasn’t fully hard yet, but the hints that Beth dropped had me leaning that way. Sam took the sparks that had been accumulating and lit me on fire — almost literally. She somehow used her meticulous control over her magic to warm her saliva even more than her mouth normally was, and as her tongue collided with my skin, I cried out. Not in pain, but in surprise at how good she felt.

  “Holy fuck, Sam,” I moaned. “How did you do that?”

  She didn’t answer me verbally, continuing to hold me in her mouth, her tongue toying with me as I reached as hard as I possibly could. “Practice,” she whispered telepathically.

  She spent a few more seconds playing with me, her bright blue eyes fixated on mine as she bobbed slightly, taking as much of me as she was comfortable with in her mouth.

  Then Beth cracked open a plastic bottle cap, breaking the trance that Sam and I were in.

  “Yeah, she’s good at that, now, isn’t she?” Beth asked, a hint of pride coming through. She had spent a lot of time teaching, encouraging, and coaching Sam, a large chunk of which was trying to translate my scattered thoughts and piece them back together to give Sam any kind of meaningful feedback. After all, it only took one look at Sam’s face as she put her heart into pleasuring me to turn my mind to mush — Beth had to take my jumbled thoughts and piece them together for Sam to learn from because there was no way I was ever going to be capable of it.

  In the moment of distraction, Beth had stripped all of her clothes off and neatly set them off to the side. The bottle she had grabbed was massage oil, and she was dripping some onto her hand, watching it pool and flow a hair’s width from her skin. She glanced up, looking expectantly at Sam, who started expectantly shedding her own sleepwear. In just a moment, I had gone from being the only one nude to being just one-third of the naked assembly on my living room floor.

  Of course, that didn’t seem to be exactly what Beth was after because she sighed, then leaned over and kissed Sam’s now exposed nipple, drawing a surprised “Oh!” from the redhead.

  “The oil, Sam. Warm it up and get used to it,” Beth explained.

  “Wait, you haven’t done this before?” I asked.

  “Not on skin. She tried some on the shower floor the other day. Got too hot right off the bat, but she got it under control eventually. Which is why I’m holding it to start. If it burns me, we can go talk to Antonin about it.”

  Sam focused, and I could see the liquid on Beth’s hand continue to move, even though Beth’s hand stayed perfectly still. “That’s probably good,” Beth said, watching the liquid carefully. “James, how’s it feel to you?”

  I held my finger over her hand and, when I didn’t feel it obviously boiling hot, dipped the tip of my middle finger in. It was warm, warmer than it should’ve been, warmer than oil usually is, even when it’s rubbed between your hands as you use it.

  “Good. Could probably be a little more.”

  Beth pursed her lips and replied, “Let’s see how it feels to Sam, first,” and then, in one smooth movement, cupped one of Sam’s breasts and began kneading and playing with Sam’s skin.

  Sam bit her lip and groaned, but otherwise let Beth rub her entire body, the brunette’s hands covering everywhere on Sam’s chest from her neck to her navel. Sam eventually spoke, “No, it needs to be a little warmer; you were right, James.”

  “You didn’t want to conjure something from scratch?” I asked.

  Sam shook her head. “Get the temperature right first. Then, I can recreate it in the future. If you like it.”

  Beth smirked. “As if there’s a chance he wouldn’t.” She squirted another dollop of oil onto her hands, spreading it liberally over Sam’s chest, before getting a final little dab and rubbing it along my shaft. Her small fingers explored me for several seconds, ensuring the lubricant was spread evenly over me, just as it had been over Sam.

  And then Sam was kneeling just off the bed, bent over me. Beth wiggled behind her, wrapping arms around the redhead’s body. Beth’s fingers dug just slightly into Sam’s soft skin as her hands glode smoothly with the oil. Her hands slowly moved underneath Sam’s bust, cupping and lifting Sam. Both girls’ eyes were locked on mine as Sam lowered herself further, her hands gripping the base of my shaft and tucking it between her chest. Beth pushed Sam’s breasts together, surrounding me with her warm, soft, bountiful body.

  “God, Sam,” I whispered as Beth began rubbing me with Sam’s body, “You feel amazing.”

  “We haven’t even started yet, James. Not really,” Beth answered for Sam, leaning over her shoulder.

  “And I’m not doing this alone,” Sam added.

  “I know, but —” I started before Beth interrupted me.

  “Shh, James. I know. It’s Sam’s body, and it feels fucking amazing wrapped around you. It feels amazing in my hands, too. She’s so soft and full. She’s a woman. She’s your woman.”

  “You using her to pleasure me is unbelievable.”

  “Why don’t you just sit back and enjoy her, James?” Beth asked rhetorically.

  So I did. I settled back down onto the bed and let the sensation overtake me, simply enjoying the feeling of Sam’s body enveloping me. Beth started slowly, her hands overflowing with Sam’s flushed skin, gently dragging the two of us together. It wouldn’t be enough to get me to explode, not in any reasonable amount of time, but it felt like heaven. There wasn’t a rush, no pressure to chase a release, and no desire to do anything besides enjoy Sam’s body. Simply feeling my two lovers working together to do this for me was overwhelming. My mind was empty of anything besides the warm, wet, hot contact between Sam’s body and mine.

  When I opened my eyes and glanced at her, Sam’s eyes quickly locked with mine. Her body was giving me pleasure, but she wasn’t the one doing the work. She just positioned herself and let Beth take over, spending her time feeling me between her and watching me, sharing the experience. Despite doing the actual manipulation of the two of us, Beth certainly wasn’t complaining, either. She finally had a reasonable excuse to get her hands all over Sam in a way that Sam found palatable.

  Perhaps more than palatable. Sam moaned lewdly as Beth took advantage of the situation and rolled Sam’s nipples between her fingers. Beth drew her hands forward, cupping Sam’s breasts so that her index finger and thumb could play to their heart’s content with Sam’s bright pink nubs while her other fingers still supported Sam’s breasts, stroking me off with them. She was playing with Sam as she used Sam’s body to play with me. I wasn’t even a little surprised when Sam let out a surprised squeak between her breathy groans, opening my eyes to see Beth nibbling on Sam’s neck. Not as harshly as Beth would’ve wanted herself — just enough to pass my growing lust onto Sam. Her green eyes remained fixated on mine.

  I lost track of the time as Beth used Sam’s body to pleasure both of us. It could’ve been only a couple minutes, or it could’ve been an hour that Beth toyed with both of us, bringing both of us to a simmer with her expert touches. I wasn’t conscious of it while she was doing it, my brain far too muddled to make sense of any intention, but I realized afterward that she slowly stopped teasing Sam, focusing most of her effort on me. She took one of Sam’s hands and moved it between my legs, gently encouraging Sam to rub my balls. Sam needed little encouragement, quickly coming to stroke the part of me not encircled by her breasts with the same rhythm as the part of me that was.

  Beth then moved Sam’s other hand between the redhead’s own legs, keeping hold of her hand to guide one of Sam’s fingers inside herself.

  “Why’d we even bother with the oil, Sam?” Beth asked huskily.

  “Fuck,” was all Sam offered in response.

  Beth continued manipulating Sam’s hand, pushing her finger in and out of her slick channel with the same tempo as she rubbed Sam’s breasts against me. “You’re drenched, Sam. You’re dripping. Why didn’t we just have him tease you for a moment? Spread you open, fill you, cover himself in you. You’re wet enough that he could probably be lubricated enough to get off with my chest. Can you imagine that? Might have to do it, now that I’ve thought of it. Have you on standby beside me, ready to soak him as he rubs himself all over my body. Getting him slippery enough with your love that he can use any part of my body to get off. Could you handle that? Getting filled for just a second so that he can spread your needy juices all over me?”

  “No,” Sam eventually whimpered in response.

  “No? You’d need more than just a taste of him filling you? Fucking you into a love-drunk puddle before I even get to feel him against me?” Beth asked as she replaced her hands on Sam’s breasts. I could hear that Sam’s hands stayed where they were placed, though. There was no mistaking the sounds of her fingers stirring her insides desperately, even over the sounds of our skin impacting from Beth’s more aggressive strokes.

  “Yes,” Sam moaned. “I wouldn’t— I wouldn’t be able to let him go.”

  “Yeah,” Beth replied smugly. “I don’t think I’d be able to let him go once he was in me, either. Feeling him holding me, owning me, taking me however he wanted, knowing that I was his. Would wrap my legs around him and make sure he never got away, not until I got what I needed.”

  “Yeah,” Sam replied vacantly, her eyes hooded with desire.

  “There’s another way we can share him, though, Sam.”

  “How?”

  “Get him to blow. Get him to pop, to cover your fucking perfect tits with his seed. Get his intoxicating dragon magic to make us cum our brains out along with him as he sprays you. All of us going all at once.”

  I was just as enraptured by Beth’s words as Sam seemed to have been. The tiniest bit of brainpower I had remaining after Sam’s breasts consumed the majority was merely able to get inflamed by Beth’s words, stoked beyond the fire I was already feeling into a raging inferno. After having kept the oil warm the entire time, somehow concentrating enough to keep the magic going despite the overwhelmingly alluring distractions, Sam seemed to falter. Her magic started leaking. I could feel her lust, her desire, her need for me dripping out of her mind. She wasn’t doing it consciously, but as Beth gave her final suggestion, Sam pushed mana back at me, a magical aphrodisiac I wouldn’t have ever needed with her that blurred the lines between real and fake.

  And then she dropped her mouth forward and took my head into her mouth.

  Just like it was before, her mouth was unnaturally warm. Unlike before, her tongue wasn’t content with merely teasing me, and I was in no need of being gradually warmed up. She bobbed in time with Beth’s dance, somehow every part of our connection pulsing in the same rhythm. Her velvet lips wrapped around my shaft, and her inquisitive tongue hungrily lapped at my most sensitive spots as her blue eyes stared up at me, watching me, devouring me just as much as her mouth was. Beth must’ve done something different because Sam moaned, but the vibrations from her mouth obliterated any senses I had remaining.

  Beth sped up. Sam’s mouth matched her, and both of her hands followed suit. Her magic wasn’t far behind, a compounding cycle where she took my existing lust for herself, added hers, and then sent it back to me.

  “Fuck, Sam, Beth, Sam!” I groaned inarticulately.

  “Yes, J?” Beth whispered, somehow calm in spite of the storm I felt I was at the center of. “Are you going to do it? Give it to us?”

  “Oh, god, yes,” I moaned back. “Soon. Soon. Now!”

  Given how intoxicated with need I was, and how affected Sam seemed to be as well, I wasn’t sure if she was going to let me go or if she was just going to take all of me into her mouth. I wasn’t sure how, given that my mind was effectively blanked as she pushed me over the edge, but before she joined me, she must’ve used her connection with the oil on her chest to pull it all off of her. Beth let go of Sam’s breasts, her hand instead grasping the base of my shaft and aiming me at Sam’s chest.

  I exploded. Fed with Sam’s infusion of lust, I pulsed and came for what felt like an eternity.

  When I finally started returning back to my senses, Beth was slumped against Sam’s side, her eyes finally closed as she focused on catching her breath. The redhead was still leaning forward, one trembling arm held out against the mattress as she panted.

  Her chest was absolutely painted with my cum.

  When Beth opened her eyes (and finally released her grip on my shaft), she inhaled sharply. “Holy shit, J.”

  Sam didn’t immediately open her eyes, and she made it clear why when she was back enough to speak. “Yeah,” she said, thinking she was agreeing with Beth. “You kinda missed. Could you get me a towel?”

  Beth and I raised our gaze and saw that, indeed, two spurts had made it all the way to Sam’s face. One dribbled on her cheek as the other dripped from her eyebrow down onto her closed eyelid. “Please?”

  Beth glanced around the room before responding bluntly, “Nope. Unless you want the blanket, my legs aren’t working anywhere near enough for me to go find a towel. But…” she trailed off, leaning over and licking Sam’s face. She was careful as she licked the glob from Sam’s eye, looking like she was kissing her eyebrow, before then scooping the streak from her cheek with her tongue.

  “Well, that wasn’t something anyone should have to experience by surprise,” Sam espoused as she opened her eyes. “Oh, holy shit. You didn’t miss. You just overflowed everywhere.”

  “His first shot was a lot harder than I was expecting, given that someone gets some from him almost every day,” Beth said.

  Sam wiped her hands on the mattress and then brought her hand to her chest, dragging it through the coating, collecting a visible amount on her index finger. She licked it off sultrily before cracking, laughing at the absurdity of her performance.

  “So, shower?” she asked after her chuckle.

  “Wait, we’re not going to just waste it,” Beth replied, appalled, before leaning over and kissing Sam’s nipple unashamedly.

  “There isn’t even any there, Beth,” Sam sighed.

  “Oops,” Beth giggled. “Just missed. Let me try again.”

  Beth proceeded to spend several minutes giving Sam’s chest the most attentive of tongue-baths, chasing all of my release down and then continuing afterward kissing and licking and nibbling on Sam’s chest. Getting a chance to appreciate Sam’s body was something Beth really enjoyed doing, but it still made Sam a touch uncomfortable. The redhead really only wanted to have one-on-one time with me. Thankfully, she was still worked up just enough from the entire experience earlier that Beth’s attention was pleasurable, even if it wasn’t quite what she desired.

  I nudged Zoey mentally while Beth capitalized on Sam’s momentary acceptance of her sapphic desire, asking the werewolf if she was done with her run or was otherwise still busy. The double negative she replied to me with made me ask if she wanted to come back and shower here before getting lunch, since I had a few things to talk about with my mates and wanted her to be there.

  She answered by telling me that she could be here in ten minutes and to get the water running because whenever Beth was in control of the temperature, it needed five minutes to cool down enough for people without dragon scales or weird magical barriers.

  Sure enough, she joined us a few minutes later, her mesh shorts and tank top drenched in sweat. Even though it was December, she barely needed any clothes to run through the streets. It didn’t get quite as cold here as it did back home, and she was a wolf anyway. Even if she were standing guard instead of sprinting, she’d be warm enough.

  If she was surprised to find the three of us naked on the mattress, she didn’t show it.

  “Nice,” was all she managed to say between deep breaths, having clearly only ended her run at our front door. She dropped her shorts instantly and then pulled off the damp top even as it clung to her skin, flinging the two garments onto one of the couches. “Is this what we’re doing today?”

  “No,” I managed to say as the statuesque blonde stalked us. I could see the hunger in her eyes, and it made me wonder if Sam’s magic had affected her, too. Or, perhaps, it affecting me had leaked to her through the bond. “I really did want to shower and then talk.”

  “Well, that’s fucking lame,” Zoey groaned.

  “You can pick where we eat?” I offered.

  “I’d rather go pick something up and have Sam cook it here,” she replied. “Or,” she said, the hunger in her eyes coming back with a vengeance, “you know, we could—” she cut herself off by kissing me, but I knew what she was hinting at already, and I was on board.

  Beth and Sam took a shower first, though it took them several minutes to even get in. Beth turned the handle all the way to hot, sending out practically boiling water. In response, Sam conjured a second shower head around the one we had entirely of ice, forcing the dangerously hot water to be rapidly cooled before it was released and sprayed. Their stalemate was summarily settled when Zoey yelled that she was going to coach them both for the next two weeks if they didn’t stop fucking around and hurry up. She was hungry, in more ways than one.

  When they eventually finished their shower, Zoey handed Sam her debit card and a scribbled note of instructions and then waved goodbye before tugging me into the shower. Evidently, being naked and available when she walked through the door was something I was only to do if I was going to follow through with my werewolf mate. She complained that she didn’t get me enough. I pointed out that she still wasn’t living with us, which would help. She pushed me against the shower wall and fell to her knees.

  I’d say she got the points in that debate, even if her throat was full and she didn’t actually say anything. And then afterward, she made a lot of noises, but I’m not sure any of them were words. There were a couple “Fuck,” “Oh my god,” and “Harder, James,” tossed out as the water flowed over us and I filled her.

  Sam and Beth were back by the time we finished actually showering, both of them already working in the kitchen. The surprising part wasn’t just that they weren’t using any of the implements; it was precisely how they bypassed using implements.

  Sam was telekinetically holding a puddle of oil in the air in the middle of the kitchen and heating it until it was sizzling audibly. Beth was carrying a bag of chicken wings — evidently one of the things Zoey had requested for lunch. I didn’t fully understand what I was watching until Beth took one of the chicken wings out of the bag and stuck it in the floating oil.

  With her bare hand. Just out of the bag and straight into boiling liquid.

  “What?” my auburn-haired mate asked when she saw my eyes. “We don’t have a fryer here, and buying them already made means Sam doesn’t get to imbue them with her mana. Your mana? Whatever it is that makes everything delicious.”

  “My magic; his mana. Together,” Sam replied, though it was clear she was concentrating. “Can you hold it so I can focus on getting the temperature right to cook them?”

  “Uh, yeah, sure,” I answered, still baffled that I had just watched Beth stick her arm into what was essentially a floating fryer. “Wasn’t it hot already?”

  “It’s warm,” Beth replied plainly. “It’s not unpleasant to me. Warm. Feels kind of like your arms around me.”

  “That looks like it would take my skin off in seconds,” Zoey said.

  “Well, I don’t think anyone else should touch it, obviously,” Beth said shyly. “It’s just not really bad to me. Someone went and put a massive, impenetrable barrier around me. I can feel that it’s warm, but it doesn’t hurt.” She emphasized her final statement by leaving her hand in the sizzling oil for ten seconds, holding it there as she talked.

  “I understand the shower now,” Zoey muttered.

  “Anyway, James, you wanted to talk to the three of us?” Sam asked.

  “Yeah, I did. First, I wanted to thank Sam for the quick thinking last night. It was really nice to forget, at least for a couple of hours, that I was in an entirely different world than I was six months ago.”

  “Zoey helped me set it up,” Sam deflected. “And Zenya got the food. And Beth made sure to comfort you long enough that we had time to get ready.”

  “But it was your plan. They deserve credit for helping, certainly, but without you, there’s no plan to help with.” When she nodded and accepted the praise, I continued, “First, I wanted to ask for your thoughts on Evgenia. It wasn’t something I had considered before yesterday. Not seriously, anyway. And then both Sam and Beth basically gave me a green light.”

  “That’s what I’m needed for?” Zoey asked. “An opinion on the vampire?”

  “I don’t know where I stand. A door seems to have opened that I wasn’t aware existed. It’s not the most important thing I wanted to talk about, but I needed to ask if you have an opinion or not. I’m not going to do anything without your blessing.”

  Zoey shrugged. “You’re a powerful male. I didn’t think I was ever going to have one. Sharing you now isn’t an issue. My wolf would care if adding her meant you couldn’t properly care for me, too.”

  “You did just say you weren’t getting enough of me,” I replied glumly.

  “Yeah, and you were right, James. It’s because I’ve dragged my goddamn feet on moving in with you. I don’t know where I stand with my job. I’m about as compromised an asset as I could possibly be, except I’m no longer supposed to be an asset, except maybe I’m getting reinstated because of you, pending the tests over the next week. My loyalties are to you first, they should know my loyalties are to you first, I know they know, but they haven’t done anything about it. I haven’t been given any clients at the gym. None of the recent VIPs got tasked to me. They talked about my performance potentially reinstating me for field work, except then they said I wouldn’t actually have any availability for field work. I thought keeping my own apartment was a turning point for them.”

  “Sounds like we’re in the same position,” Sam said.

  “How?” Zoey replied exasperatedly.

  “My job is just to assist James. Given that I’m one of his mates, I’m getting paid to do something I already would’ve. I don’t even want the job, but quitting when I have no real duties seems foolish. I mean, the duties are just to live with him and make sure he adjusts to this world, which I’d be doing because I wanted to. It sounds like you’ve essentially been tasked with being his bodyguard, Zoey.”

  “Well, it would be nice if they would fucking let me know,” she sighed. “All I’m saying is that I don’t really care, James. She doesn’t seem to like me, and I don’t get what I did, but I don’t have any issues with her.”

  “She has an issue with wolves, actually, not you specifically.”

  Zoey cocked her head. “Why?”

  “Dunno. Hasn’t explained. Did explain that she was forcibly turned before the first world war and that she hated the vampire and the husband who had the mundane power. That’s all I’ve gotten, and there was no explanation for her distaste for wolves.”

  “James, the silver,” Sam prodded.

  “What about it?”

  “Silver’s a pretty common anti-were tool,” Sam explained. “I didn’t think about it before, but if she hates werewolves for some reason, it could be connected.”

  “What happened?” Zoey asked.

  “Her back was covered with scars. In them were little flakes of silver. Her entire back, thigh to neck, was flayed at one point and had silver embedded in it everywhere.”

  Zoey cringed. “That sounds barbaric, but for some extreme crimes, weres will be forced to suffer through something like that. The silver numbs our senses, makes us nauseous, inhibits our abilities, and stops our natural regeneration. I don’t understand, though. She isn’t were, and silver does nothing to vampires. She could’ve used her blood and been fine.”

  “She has a thing with blood, too. Refuses it. Cut herself once. Was how I learned how my saliva works, actually. She let me just dribble on her hand. I licked her back until the scars were gone and the silver was expelled. Was a really mentally draining experience.”

  “And you don’t have any explanation why she didn’t just feed and restore herself?”

  “Nope.”

  “Wild. Doesn’t change my opinion, though. Take her if you want her. You’re already providing for her, so there’s no threat to my status. And despite my complaining, you could definitely handle another lover. The fact that you get us all when you pop makes me wonder if it’s normal for males to have harems. Keeps me satisfied, at least reasonably, even if I’m not the one getting filled.”

  “That was my next question, actually,” I stated.

  “Whether it was normal or not for dragons to have harems? Or if you could fill me again?”

  I opened my mouth to answer, but Beth picked up a plate and then snatched the twenty wings out of the oil one at a time, setting them on the plate. They continued sizzling for a few seconds, still cooking from their time in the oil before Beth handed the plate to Zoey, who thanked her.

  “What do I do with the oil?” I asked, bypassing Zoey’s question for the moment.

  “Let me have it back,” Sam said, already cooling it to room temperature. I let her grasp control of it again, and she funneled it back into the plastic container it had come from. “Easy enough to do that when I can cool it instantly.”

  “Yeah, I suppose so. Uh, no, Zoey, my next question wasn’t either of those; it’s just related to the first one: how much should I tell Arjun on Monday?”

  “I don’t see the connection,” Beth said.

  “Well, do I ask about the shared orgasms? Or anything else, for that matter. Do I ask him about things that may or may not be draconic? Do I tell him about things that aren’t draconic? Do I tell him about the other thing in me?”

  “I wouldn’t tell him anything,” Beth said. “There’s no reason to give him any of that information. Just puts you at risk.”

  Surprisingly, Zoey disagreed. “At risk of what? The old dragons don’t have anything to gain from abusing James’ trust and everything to lose by irritating him. With how Aisling is treating him in comparison to their Seats, everything is in their best interest to support James and assist him in growing into a beneficial force in the world. They should want him to understand himself so that he can best be an example for every other power that dragons can be trusted with their independence. They should want to work with him so that he can, in turn, say that they are worth giving second chances to.

  “On top of that, there’s no way to not tell Arjun at least some things. If James wants answers, if he wants information on dragons, he has to ask questions. In asking the questions, he has to share his perspective. There’s literally no way to get information without at least setting the framework for what he’s experienced. That’s not a downside. It’s payment for his expertise. It’s a connection.”

  “But what if—” Beth started before being cut off by Zoey.

  “But what? What could Arjun possibly use to exploit James’ strange third part?”

  “What if Arjun recognizes what James is?” Sam asked as she dished out the potato salad and baked beans the rest of us were going to eat.

  “Then we get informed? At worst, we renegotiate payment for the information.”

  “What if there’s some death star exhaust port type weakness in whatever James is?” Beth asked, surprising me that she knew what that meant. Then again, she did seem to have some familiarity with older films, so Star Wars shouldn’t have surprised me as much as it did.

  “Then we’d probably want to know, huh?” Zoey replied instantly.

  “I think we’re jumping at shadows here,” I interjected. “Do we have any reason to believe that Arjun would benefit from exploiting whatever I share with him? Not really, especially when he’s been almost entirely pushed out of the magical world to begin with. When even Antonin doesn’t have any idea what my third part is, do we have any reason to think Arjun would? Not really. If he does, do we have any hints to suggest that there are weaknesses lingering for us to discover? Also no. I’m not saying we should tell him everything outright, but I think the risk — which I believe to be quite minor, given the circumstances — is well worth the reward of answering questions about what I am.

  “Of course, I am a little biased here. I want to know. I could just be inventing reasons to ignore the risks. Which is why I wanted to talk to you three about it. You share the risks but only share the upside in the possibility that my learning something helps you.”

  “I’ve said my piece,” Zoey stated. “It’s not fair that you don’t know how you work. It makes sense to me.”

  “I agree with Zoey,” Sam said. “I think the risk is minimal. Not zero, but, honestly, closer to it than working with Antonin.”

  “But we don’t even know Arjun,” Beth said. “I mean, I agree with Zoey that it’s not right you don’t know anything about yourself, or the barrier you’ve put on me, or anything about the world and how you can make your way in it. But Antonin, at least, is here. He’s around. You know who he’s loyal to and where he’s going to be next week. Arjun’s going to be on the other side of the planet in a few weeks, and we’re likely not to see him again for a while.”

  “Which means we should get all the information we can from him while he’s here, especially if it’s part of a negotiated deal that buys his discretion with the information,” Zoey suggested.

  “I guess,” Beth conceded.

  “Do any of you want to be there when we talk? Zenya will be, as will Arjun’s lawyer, I imagine.”

  “Absolutely,” Zoey replied instantly.

  “Yeah, obviously,” Beth added.

  “Yes, James. All of us want to be with you whenever possible,” Sam concluded.