Desire is an unquenchable flame. Bards half-jokingly claim that a beautiful woman is the downfall of all powerful nations. The joke is not far from the truth.

~Taliesin, God of Rhapsody

Crow took out some of his precious water and used it to wipe Nin’s body clean. He was mindful of her wounds and removed the scraps of clothes that still clung to her body. She wasn’t tall like Mara, maybe even smaller than an average woman. Exposed like she was, Crow couldn’t help but stare and found that the curves of her breasts, butt, and hips were carefully sculpted to match her body. She was the image of a perfect woman. Even the emerald-green hair and the flash of metallic scales beneath her nearly translucent skin only added to her beauty.

Knowing that his breath had turned ragged, he quickly dressed her wounds so he could wrap her in a robe. Thankfully, it was nothing serious, and the abrasions were superficial. Crow assumed she was more exhausted than hurt.

Unable to resist, he reached out and stroked her emerald hair, expecting the metallic sheen to be coarse, but it felt like fine silk. His fingers trailed across her cheek and even poked the pliant flesh and found it no different from his own. On the surface, other than the color of her hair and the golden serpentine eyes, she looked human. The scales beneath her skin were usually not visible, and he could only assume they surfaced because she was injured.

“Big pervert. Wait until I tell my daddy,” she muttered without opening her eyes. Her face turned slightly to press into his hand, and a massive grin adorned her face. “I knew you couldn’t resist me, and since you took advantage of me, you definitely have to marry me.”

Her golden eyes snapped open before Crow could reply, and her hands reached out to encircle his neck. Her palm rested on the back of his head, and using her inhuman strength, she pulled his face towards her. Soft, fiery lips pressed against his, and nothing short of brawling could stop her. Even if he wanted to stop it, they both knew each other’s feelings after their bonding. Resistance was impossible because it just delayed the inevitable.

When she finally pulled back so they could catch their breath, his lips felt raw. She wasn’t graceful, like Song Lin, nor was she sensual like Mara. If he had to describe her way of kissing, it was primal—like she wanted to devour him. She lacked the feminine charms of the other two but made up for it with passion and unfiltered emotion.

Crow stood up, trying to distance himself, but Nin wasn’t letting go, so while he stood there, she hung from his neck. Her pert little tongue licked his cheek.

“What happened to you?” Crow asked, curious about why she was in the shape she was. Her golden eyes stared into his, and she held herself up, so she was at eye level. Even Crow would feel the strain of holding himself up that long, but her arms didn’t even shake. He suddenly felt like prey and forgot he was staring until he saw red, flushed skin spreading across her neck and face.

“I did it!” She exclaimed excitedly, but he did not know what she meant. Her hand on the back of his head clenched, and his hair grabbed tightly. A slight tug, and his head was under her complete control. Nin wrapped her legs around his waist, but the robe slipped up, and he could feel the wet heat from her forbidden area through the thin shirt he wore when he cultivated. While his mouth opened in shock, her head darted forward, and she slid her tongue into it, wrapping around his own.

The more she toyed with him, the more the fire within him grew. Not the normal fire of desire, something more base—something he couldn’t control. It felt like the day he opened his Sacral Chakra and took Song Lin—his sexual drive was slowly slipping out of his control.

Nin pulled his head back, and her cheek slid next to his until her lips were against his ear. He could feel her warm breath tickling sensitive parts.

“I’m in heat, which is why the dragon blood I shared with you is turning into a raging inferno inside you. This is only something a female dragon can do for the one she has chosen to mate with, but only if you accept me. If you agree, I can never mate with another. If you die, my death won’t be long after. A female dragon’s soulmate is eternal. Do you… accept me?”

Crow couldn’t accept and couldn’t walk away either. No, it wasn’t that he couldn’t accept it, but that he felt it unfair to her. Crow wasn’t even an actual dragon, so he didn’t have the immutable commitment she did. They shared parts of their soul, and he was naïve at the time, thinking it was fine. But he never considered the consequence of such a bond for her.

There was no way he could take her because she already gave too much. More than that, he was still feeling really guilty about taking on multiple lovers—even if it was inevitable. He spent years living under the belief that Song Xue was the only woman for him, and now he felt she was the most wronged of all.

Song Lin gave him a body cultivation method focused on fire and passion, which awoke sexual desire and urges that one woman could never satiate. The fire in him was too much, especially combined with his Soul Burn, Night Flame, and now the Dragon Blood within him. Opening his Sacral Chakra gave him a fire that could only be quenched in the yin energy of a woman. Their virginity—the vital yin—was the only way to temper that fire as the chakra continued to grow.

Suddenly, he thought about the Sluagh. Its only real advice was to avoid lying to himself. Every part of him wanted this, but only his mind was rebelling. It was the only place the guilt existed, and Crow had to wonder if that damned entity knew this was coming. He hated feeling that loving Nin was somehow a test.

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“Do you want me to stop?” Nin whispered, and he could feel the hurt in her voice.

“No,” Crow finally said after realizing, test or no test, Nin was already with him. She was already part of his family.

“No…?”

“I accept you,” Crow growled from deep within his chest and descended upon her like a dragon. He pressed her down against the bed and ripped the robe from her body so his hands could freely explore those perfect curves. His fingers slid inside her wet hole, and his other hand roughly pinched her nipple. Crow didn’t take her like the timid teenager he was. Instead, he was like a beast king that had already claimed its mate. Nin met him in the same way, like a queen taking her king, and her body arched upward onto his fingers, taking them deeper inside her.

Both their souls yearned for this intimacy, and she gave herself to him with complete trust. Minds linked even as they savaged each other, and Nin ripped off his clothes, leaving his muscular body exposed and pressed against her. His manhood was already swaying like a viper, ready to strike.

“Do it,” she growled. The royal bloodline of dragons inside her echoed in Crow’s mind as she commanded him to take her—the viper did just that. Crow entered her, pushing past the resistance and snatching away her precious vital yin. While he still had the presence of mind to care for her, he bit her lower lip to distract her from the pain of losing her virginity.

Her legs squeezed him tightly, her heels pressed against his butt cheeks, and with her overpowering strength, he couldn’t even pull out to thrust in again. Nin’s nails dug into his back, leaving gouges, and her mouth tore the flesh off his shoulders. All he could do was push harder into her, even lifting his hips with her attached to him and bouncing her butt against the ground so that he could use their soft flesh to gain movement or depth.

An angry roar escaped him as he tried to claim her—to take control. But he lacked the strength to do so, which frustrated him. In desperation, Crow grabbed her emerald-green hair and pulled hard, exposing her neck. His teeth pressed against her throat, and she relented—submitted to her alpha, and surrendered to him completely. As her control loosened, he pulled away and thrust into her again and again. Moans and growls escaped her throat as she could no longer control her rising orgasm.

After climaxing, she tried to pull away, but he wasn’t about to let her off that easily. He stood with his member still deep inside her and wrapped his arms up under her legs before pressing her back against the wall. With her legs up over his arms, Nin’s forbidden area was spread so that he could enter her deeper than before. He could feel the tip pressing against her insides, refusing to go further. Her entire body shuddered in pleasure every time he thrust. Once more, her moans reached a high, and she buried her face into his neck, trying to regain her sanity, but he still had not released.

Crow laid her down on her side and took her from behind, but he was soft and gentle this time—in control of his bestial desires. His hips pressed against her buttocks as he slid his manhood into her throbbing wet hole once more. Crow’s hands massaged Nin’s breasts and roamed her body while kissing her neck and shoulders. Her climax wasn’t as loud this time, but her soft moans drove him over the edge, and he finally let loose inside her. The madness both of them had been under had finally cooled.

“No more,” Nin whispered. “I—can’t.”

Crow chuckled and nibbled at her ear.

“Sleep,” he commanded, and before he even finished speaking, her eyes had already closed.

While she slept, he cleaned her up and wrapped her in another robe. He practically had a clothes store inside his Vortex Pin because of his clothes—he didn’t even want to think about it.

Looking at his body, he realized he had more wounds on him than she did. However, he couldn’t clean the ones on his back, so he could only take care of the ones he could reach. Lily flew in front of him, but she didn’t look happy. She took a small damp cloth from him, and he could feel her gently wiping the claw marks on his back. Once done, she threw the dirty cloth at his face.

“Are you mad at me?” Crow asked quietly, not wanting to wake Nin up. Lily nodded and then pointed at Nin before tilting her chin toward the sky and looking away. He couldn’t help but smile at the way she was pouting. While Crow didn’t fully embrace his new truth, accepting it released a burden from his soul. For him, a relationship like his parents had was impossible, which meant he needed rules—boundaries. There was no way he’d accept anyone into his family, and seeing Lily’s actions, he wasn’t sure how she figured into his new awareness.

“Are you jealous?” Crow asked with a smile. It had never occurred to him to think of Lily as a woman. Maybe it was her diminutive size, but that was a silly reason to not see her as a woman. In hindsight, Fae were celestial-like creatures that could invoke the base desires of even the most staunch men and women. He didn’t know if that was just part of their nature, but he had never treated Lily that way. It really was hard to think of her that way because she was so tiny. However, she had the body of a mature woman, and maybe the feelings of one, too.

Grinning mischievously, he scooped her out of the air and brought her to his face before lightly kissing her. The problem was, his mouth covered half her body. After letting her go, he couldn’t help but chuckle at the way her entire body turned red in embarrassment, and she collapsed onto his palm.

She sat there stunned, startled by Crow’s actions. It took some time, but eventually, she lost her dumbfounded stare and stood up just to stamp her feet on his palm. Lily bared her teeth in anger while pointing toward his face as she scolded him.

Crow thought she was adorable at that moment and couldn’t stop himself from laughing.

Lily froze and then put her hands behind her back and looked down. Her foot slid forward and rubbed his palm in a circle, and he found her sheepish side to be too cute. While distracted by her antics, she caught Crow off guard by suddenly flying up and placing a kiss on his top lip. A jolt of electricity hit him, and while she flew back, he absently rubbed his lip. This time, she was laughing at him.

“Fine, I’ll stop teasing you,” Crow said, but his fingers were still touching his lip.

Lily flew up in front of his face and pointed at herself. Her two hands pressed together, and they slowly came apart as one hand went up and the other down. Then she pointed at Nin and the bed. Crow blushed right away, realizing she wanted him to make her a woman once she gained enough electricity and became human-sized.

“Alright, but don’t regret it,” Crow said but avoided confirming what she wanted. It would be a lie to say he wasn’t somewhat aware since they bond similar to how he and Nin were. Changing the subject since he wasn’t totally comfortable with this conversation, he asked about Nin.

“Nin said she ‘did it.’ Do you know what she meant?”

Lily nodded and then waved her hand for him to follow. The two of them exited the cave to find a Machaeridia lashed to a tree—it still had its saddle. Since Nin tied it to the Fireheart Oak by lashing it down by its chitinous shell, it couldn’t get free. The heat from the tree also weakened it, making it even less likely to escape.

“Damn, that woman is fierce,” Crow muttered and looked over to see Lily laughing. “What is so funny?”

She pointed toward his worm, and he realized he was naked.

Sigh.