Chapter 456: LET. GO. OF. ME.

While two kings fought for a lane, Kael took the open one, ripping Guinevere off Nicholas’s lap. Nicholas didn’t register the loss. He was still on the step where her venom had dropped him, head relaxed against the white stone, breathing slow, the gold water warm around his waist.

Kael sat with her on his own lap. Her back pressed against his chest, still trembling from Nicholas, and Kael’s hand slid between her thighs. He started moving rapidly back and forth, fingers dragging over her clit with every pass.

"This is mine. You hear me? Mine. Not his. Not anyone else’s. Mine."

Guinevere’s hand flew back, grabbing his hair, as she started to writhe.

"Kael... that feels so good."

He kept the quick, relentless motion, palm grinding, fingers stroking hard and fast while he spoke against her skin.

The pressure began to build. Right as the orgasm rose—

SMACK.

Kael pulled his hand back and smacked her clit.

The sting rewired her. The orgasm that had been climbing arrived sideways, ripped through her at an angle she hadn’t braced for, one vicious pulse that locked every muscle and released them all at once. The sound that came out of her was closer to a sob than a moan and it surprised both of them.

Before the pulse faded, he gripped her hips, dragged her down, and shoved up into her in one brutal thrust. She sank onto him reverse, back to his chest, and he immediately started fucking up into her, hands locked tight, refusing to let her go.

Her body recalibrated, matching his. Every nerve ending that had been firing at random suddenly organized around the pressure of him inside her and the organizing felt like a fist unclenching, like a fever dropping one degree, like the first breath after being underwater.

"You want to call him Nick? Fine. Scream my name louder."

"Kael," she gasped his name as her body started to spasm around him.

"Say it again."

"Kael."

"Again."

"KAEL."

Her voice hit the pool at a volume that stopped the fight the way a starting pistol stops conversation. Maddox froze with his hand on Landon’s chest. Landon froze with his shoulder against Maddox’s. Both heads turned.

She was on Kael’s lap. Reverse. Arched. His hands on her hips. His name on her mouth. Three times. Each one louder. Each one a nail in the coffin of whatever Maddox and Landon had been fighting about because the fighting had accomplished exactly one thing: giving Kael an empty lane and a head start they were never going to recover from.

Maddox released Landon. Landon released Maddox. The untangling was instant, the fastest coordinated movement they had produced all evening.

They cut through the pool from opposite angles, arriving at her at the same second.

Maddox ripped what was left of the front of her dress open, fabric tearing under his hands. His mouth closed over her nipple, sucking hard enough that her back arched off Kael.

Landon caught her wrist and dragged her hand down between her thighs. He pressed her own fingers against her clit and moved them for her in quick, rough circles.

"Rub your pussy. Right now. Use your hand. Play with yourself while he fucks you," he ordered, keeping his hand on her to guide the pace.

Landon’s hand over hers controlled the pace, faster and rougher than Kael had been a moment ago. Her fingers didn’t cool anything. Only their skin did that. What her fingers did was add pressure to a body that was already on fire.

"Landon..."

Maddox’s mouth stayed locked on her nipple, a rough growl rumbling out of him as he sucked harder.

"Say my name. Not his," Kael snarled, the sound low and vicious against her back.

"Kael."

Kael picked up the pace.

Neither of them reached for Landon’s hand. They just growled, furious and continuous, while Landon kept forcing her fingers to move and her body started to shake.

Then Maddox sank his fangs into the top of her breast, exactly where Nicholas had earlier.

Another dose of venom hit her bloodstream. Landon kept forcing her fingers to rub while Kael drove up into her. The triple sensation tore a scream out of her.

"Fuck. Kael. It feels so good," she cried as she started to orgasm around Kael.

All three of them felt it slam through the matebonds at once.

Kael lost it. A rough, broken roar ripped out of him as he started pumping himself into her as Maddox’s fangs stayed locked in her breast and Landon’s hand refused to stop moving hers.

He was still cumming, still buried deep and throbbing, when Maddox’s patience snapped.

Maddox released his fangs and hauled her straight off Kael mid-thrust, the emptiness hitting her like a slap. Heat rushed back in where his cooling had been. Their touch was the only thing keeping the burn from eating her alive.

But before the loss could multiply, Maddox filled it. He fucked her hard on the step, rhythm brutal and unrelenting.

Six feet to their left, Nicholas was still on the same step, head back, eyes closed, breathing like a man at a spa. The venom had taken him somewhere peaceful. He looked, objectively, like he was having the best night of anyone in the pool, and he was unconscious.

Landon lunged for her, enraged.

Kael was off the step and in the water before Landon moved, putting himself between the wolf king and his brother. His arm shot out, palm slamming into Landon’s chest to hold him back.

He hated that Maddox was the one inside her, stolen from his lap and now she was moaning for Maddox. But he hated Landon Solveil more than that.

Was it exactly what Nicholas had done to Kael so Landon could finger his mate? Yes.

Was Kael doing it exactly for that reason? Yes.

Was Kael temporarily siding with Maddox just to spite Landon Solveil? Yes. Fuck that guy.

At the current moment, it was wolves versus dragons and no one was going to pretend otherwise.

Kael held the King Of Light, letting him watch Maddox take her.

"Maddox," Guinevere gasped. "I’m going to ..."

"Yes. Cum all over my cock, baby."

"Give her to me," Landon roared, straining against Kael, chest heaving. His hand had lost hers when Maddox pulled her off Kael and now he was watching Maddox fuck his mate on the step, and the watching was dismantling him.