The Divine Gambit

21. End of an Era

Inside the apartment, Zoey grabbed a bag I hadn't seen earlier and told me she had to freshen up, politely suggesting I do the same. Then she whispered into Beth's ear, the brunette's eyes lighting up with each word. My firebrand pixie must've been doing her best to obscure what she had been told from me, because I could only sense fuzzy images of Zoey without any specifics. Beth whispered into Sam's ear, continuing the game of telephone that I was on the outside of. Sam nodded her agreement to whatever plan had been hatched and then grasped my hand, tugging me along into the hallway.

I followed Sam into my regular bathroom as Zoey and Beth walked towards the other, still conspiring. I stripped and stepped into the shower, with Sam following after me. She slapped my hands away from the bottle of shampoo that I went to grab after slipping under the stream, then picked it up herself. Once she started massaging my scalp and working the shampoo, I understood why the two of them loved our shower ritual so much. Having someone else focus their effort on me like this was pretty heavenly.

When she rinsed all of the soap out of my hair, replaced it with conditioner, and then began lathering up my chest and underarms with body wash, it raised a question.

"Sam, what's going on?"

"This is my time with you tonight, at least until we have to figure out sleeping arrangements. They asked if I wanted to join them and explained what Zoey was planning. I didn't want to participate, and I don't enjoy watching like Beth does, so the compromise was that I got to shower with you for as long as I needed."

"With me? Seems to be more showering for me."

"Well, that's what I want, so shush and let me wash you."

I did just that, and she got rather explorative with her hands. She washed everywhere on my body, her hands running over every inch of my skin as though she were intent on mapping my body from memory later. It was a strange reversal of roles, though it didn't feel quite perfectly mirrored. When I washed Sam, it felt as though it was something I wanted to do -- something I was doing because I enjoyed touching her body. Now, with her washing me, it still felt as though I was the one in control. She was washing me because she thought it was something I wanted. She seemed to enjoy doing it because it was something I enjoyed, which was certainly a mindset I understood.

Still, despite her thoroughness, Sam eventually ran out of body parts to wash. She slipped out of the shower first, handing me a towel and telling me to take my time drying off and then to brush my teeth. When I was halfway through cleaning my teeth, she returned and handed me a pair of silk boxers I hadn't seen before.

"Here," she said, handing them to me, "Beth got you these to wear. Zoey liked them, so put them on."

"They're quite tight," I said, pulling the surprisingly revealing garment on.

"That's what she was hoping for."

"Oh," I said, as though it wasn't evident that was the desire from the start. "You're alright with this?"

Sam rolled her eyes. "Obviously," she said dismissively. "It would be quite hypocritical of me not to be, given that I did exactly the same as Zoey with much less justification."

"Emotions aren't always logical."

If anything, she rolled her eyes even harder at that, letting out a huff, before realizing how melodramatic she was acting and apologizing. "Sorry," she said, moving close to lean against me, "I don't mean to minimize what you're doing. I appreciate the check-in. But yes, I'm perfectly fine with inviting Zoey into our family, even though I don't want to participate tonight. I thought we were clear on that."

"It being okay in a conversation a week ago and okay now that it's happening this minute in a room next to you are different things."

"I'm good, James. Really, I'm better than I've ever been. While you're in there, figuring out if you can prevent binding with her or not, I'm going to make a little dessert. Beth didn't use all the ingredients yesterday, so I want to give Zoey some of hers and then some when I've spruced it up. Are you alright if, at some point, I try stuff with meat for her?"

"You don't need to ask for permission, princess. You have the authority to do as you wish in our kingdom."

Sam shrugged with a blush, "Didn't feel right bringing it into the apartment without asking."

As she replied, there was a knock on the door, and Beth poked her head in. "J? Zoey's ready if you are."

"Sure, as ready as I'm going to be for how suddenly formal this feels."

Beth laughed, "That'll be shattered in a moment."

I kissed Sam, who slipped into her robe and headed towards the kitchen, before following Beth to my bedroom, wearing just my new boxers.

Which is where I found Zoey and understood what Beth meant.

She was sitting regally on the bed, reclined confidently against the pillows. Her knees were together, her long legs bent and tucked under her as she leaned against the wall to her side. On them, she wore a pair of ash grey stockings and a surprisingly minimalist pair of black heels. I was also surprised to see that she had shifted very slightly, a pair of bright white ears adorning her head and a full, fluffy tail curling around her waist. She was running her hand through her soft fur absentmindedly, a bored, disinterested expression on her face, at least until I entered the room. Her blonde hair had been let out of the lazy ponytail she wore to dinner and replaced with an ornate braid that encircled her head before falling behind her in a single elaborate tail.

I was so enamored with her sheer presence that it took me a second to realize that the stockings were the only piece of clothing she wore. The bright pink nubs I had spied in the pool pointed directly at me, suggesting far more emotion below the surface despite her feigned disinterested appearance. Of course, when I glanced back at her eyes, I could see the hunger there. As much as she was holding back, she was ready for me.

I crossed the room quickly, ignoring Beth sliding into the chair behind me, and kneeled on the bed. Without giving Zoey a chance to react, I kissed her. I clasped her face with my hands, my fingers reaching up high enough along her head to stroke the sensitive folded skin of her wolven ears as our lips met. She inhaled deeply and then caught me by surprise when I withdrew by placing her face in the crook of my neck and inhaling deeply again. From there, she pressed her face against my chest, her nose nestled into my underarm, and took another deep breath. Looking up at me afterward, the haughty propriety she had once worn was gone, her dignity replaced entirely with want.

"It's so fucking hard to be your trainer," she whispered. "You smell so good. Every time we're done in the gym, I want to drag you back to the physio room and wash your body with my tongue. My wolf doesn't even argue. You earned it with the work you did, and the sweat is just the icing on your cake."

"Shh, little wolf. You don't have to hold back any more. I'm here to give you what you want."

Zoey impatiently ran her finger down my abdomen, tugging at the waistband of the boxers. I took a second to step off the bed and remove them, sliding them down my legs and smiling as I heard Beth's hungry inhale. When I looked back up, Zoey was kneeling away from me, her head turned back over her shoulder to make eye contact. Her tail was tossing back and forth as she wiggled her hips temptingly at me.

"See anything you like?" she asked. When I nodded affirmatively, she responded, "Better take it, then."

I moved directly behind her, my hand running up her sculpted thigh, nudging her just slightly to position her legs where I wanted them. I held my shaft and brushed against her, drawing a needy whine from her lungs. She pushed back against me, grinding herself along my length.

"Just do it already. Stop wasting our time," she hissed out needily, her tail wrapping around my hips to urge me forward.

So I did. With a momentary flash of pressure, I pushed my head inside her, spreading Zoey open around me and feeling her warmth encapsulate me. That was the first thing I noticed as I sunk easily into her and she pressed her hips back hard until they met mine -- she wasn't just noticeably warmer than anyone I had been with before, she was boiling. It wasn't uncomfortable, especially as my dragon perked up and took notice; rather, it was captivating, drawing this response from her and sharing the energy of the moment.

Next, I noticed that she had allowed her face to drop to the bed, where the pillows muffled her breathy whimpers. They weren't noises of pain or discomfort, but Zoey planted her face on the bed and released a constant stream of little chattering squeaks. Her sheath fluttered around me, doing its desperate best to pull me deeper inside her, and her hips continued moving.

I was surprised to feel that, a millimeter or two before I would have bottomed out from my length, I filled her entirely, bumping against her inner limit. I froze, initially certain that I had hurt her in my haste to join with her, but she kept wriggling and moaning even more needily than before, grinding herself on me frantically at that point. She reached back to grab my hips with one hand, pulling me as firmly against her body as I could, to the point where the pressure was painful for me as she wiggled her hips slightly, grinding her sensitive insides on me.

Eventually, her sharp whines faded out, and she stopped forcing herself so strongly against me, slumping forward and gasping for breath. After a moment of panting, she angled her head up without lifting her slumped shoulders, just giving her face enough room to speak.

"Fuck, that was wild. Why'd you stop? Could've rolled me right into the next one," she asked, a dreamy expression on her face.

"Are you alright? I didn't hurt you bottoming out, did I?"

"Hurt so good," she replied, a dreamy expression on her face.

"What?" I asked, not understanding what that could possibly mean.

"James, my wolf wants you to put her in her place. A little bit of pain is just fine with me. Go out of your way to only hurt, and we'll have issues, but I don't mind if you get a little rougher with me, alright? Now, are you done and we're just killing the mood here, or can we get back to it?"

She asked the final question while shimmying her hips back and forth, and I instinctively started thrusting again, admittedly slower than she wanted. Still hesitant to fully embrace her guiding words, I wrapped my hands around her waist. There, from the feeling beneath my fingertips, I gained some clarity that would help me fulfill her request.

Zoey was, for lack of a better description, solid. As my fingers gripped her tanned skin, they didn't sink in but a millimeter. Her firm muscles pushed back against my fingers. The strength and durability undeniably evident beneath my hands gave me the confidence to give her what she wanted. After all, she wasn't the soft, precious thing Sam was. And she wasn't the petite, fragile thing Beth was.

I was letting my mind wander from my goal, though. Zoey's vocalizations told me that she was very enthusiastic about my firm grasp on her and the powerful assault my hips were driving. Once I was sure she was enjoying my more robust attention, I focused my mind inward.

With Sam, right at the end of our first time, I had felt something creep up suddenly and overwhelm me, pulling Sam into me in the process. It caught me by surprise as I finished with her, intertwining our releases and connecting our souls. With Sam, at that moment, it was beautiful, and I didn't regret it for a heartbeat, even if I wished I had more control and understanding.

Now, my body was on autopilot. The dragon was at the wheel there, using my form to grind Zoey's pleasure center into nothingness, overloading her mind and forcing her shoulders against the bed with each slapping contact of our thighs. He was perfect for that job -- an unyielding, avaricious beast who wanted Zoey to experience so much tonight that she would need us in the future. I did happen to notice that I had to urge him forward before he could take control. I had to ask for him to step forward and offer him the reigns. Unlike the third entity during my extraordinary first night meeting Beth, the dragon couldn't simply eject me and take over. I had to invite him to share my body.

I watched as my hand moved up and gripped the base of Zoey's braid, lifting her chiseled torso from the bed and forcing her to lean against me. Her whines were replaced by a stream of expletives, a sentence that started out trying to chastise me for using her so abruptly that melted into a series of 'Oh, fuck, blessed Luna, yes!' and 'James, harder, deeper, more please' as the dragon mercilessly worked her insides with my untiring body.

Inside me, as I carefully observed what transpired, I could feel something brewing. Examining closely the tethers I had to Beth and Sam, I could see a third node at the base of my soul. It was a diminutive little nub, a swelling of the soil not yet having breached the surface. As my body continued pummeling Zoey into euphoric submission, releasing her hair after pulling her arms behind her and pinning them to my chest, I watched this growth develop into a sapling, lifting up and reaching for the light above it.

It breached the surface slowly and quietly, and I understood why I hadn't felt it with Sam or with Beth. Breach was entirely the wrong word. The surface of my metaphorical conglomerate of soul pieces expanded with it, stretching and elongating into a thick tendril. They unfolded themselves, stretching and reaching out into the ether. The connection wasn't a thing I was conjuring -- it was a literal part of me reaching out and grasping someone who I wanted to hold. I hadn't noticed it happening because it was something I wanted to do, consciously with Sam. With Beth, if the consequences had been clear, I probably would have hesitated, but my intentions left me no choice. I certainly didn't regret it -- as she said, she could feel how happy I was when I thought of her as mine and me as hers.

Since it was unequivocally me who was reaching out and tying my lovers to my soul, it was simple to stop the process. Surprisingly simple, actually. I thought about halting the tendril's progression, and it froze where it was. I wanted to prove that I didn't have to bind someone to me, and my soul listened.

What I didn't do, however, was completely retract them. I watched them. I inspected the blend of soul fragments extended towards Zoey, trying to understand what part of my draconic development had made it possible. What I found was surprising at first, but it really shouldn't have been.

It had nothing to do with the dragon.

He hadn't brought it up, and I had simply assumed rather than asking, but it wasn't his power that tied Beth and Sam to me. He reveled in establishing that degree of unity with our prized mates, but he didn't understand how it had happened. It was a thing that occurred and was beneficial for him, though he didn't elaborate why there either. He had thought it was something to do with me as a late-blooming human rather than something innate as a dragon, not that he actually had any reference points to compare to.

It was actually the third resident in my soul that was responsible for this. The strange entity that had shared a dream with me and had spoken to me several times now was the one that enabled my soul to permanently bind my lovers to me. It had told me I would need them. I didn't like the sound of that -- the implication that, potentially, even with Zoey, I wasn't yet done. Its meddling had damned me and all those it was inclined to bind with me to a life of interesting times; that much was certain.

It didn't offer any explanations now, either, as I willed the branches back to myself. Still, based on my knowledge from the dream, it had obviously taken much effort and care to merge with me. It had a goal of some kind in doing so, but it couldn't actually articulate what was going on in a way I could fully comprehend. All that I could tell was that it wanted me to be powerful, surrounded by those I cared for, and well-supported by the world. What kind of challenge would something no one had ever heard of require a well-loved, well-backed, mighty dragon as the best possible solution? What kind of struggles could that formidable dragon still have a dismal chance of accomplishing? The hedonistic pleasures I had enjoyed felt sour when I admitted to myself that there would be a reckoning at some point. I was a tool, seemingly a last-chance roll of the dice by something that had otherwise lost hope, and I didn't even know what I was being built up for yet.

With confirmation in my mind that the tendril had reduced itself to a swollen lesion on the surface of my soul, paid for and ready for activation when I wanted it, I released myself into Zoey right after she peaked for the third time. It immediately pushed her into another, and her sweltering sheathe forced me out of her, clenching so tight she practically vibrated, drips of my seed forced out immediately after I was. I took back control of my limbs and let go of her body, allowing her to collapse onto the bed, her twitching legs stretching out nearly as long as mine did as her muddied mind worked to make sense of what had happened, back-to-back peaks making everything a blur.

What hadn't happened was the momentary stasis. Zoey never stopped breathing, and her pulse never halted. She kept letting out whines with each exhale, her hands holding her face, her tail wiggling, gently shaking the bed. After several minutes of wordless breathing, Sam entered the room, carrying a washcloth and a cup of water. She looked at me questioningly, mentally asking if my experiment had succeeded. I nodded as she began wiping away the sheen of sweat Zoey had built up, lovingly brushing the blonde's face and neck before moving on to more sensitive areas. Zoey sat up when Sam was done, taking a long drag from the glass of water.

When she set it back down on the bedside table, she exclaimed, "Damn, James. Yeah, I think you'll be fine at keeping three girlfriends satisfied. My legs are more rubbery than after the most intense volume leg day, and all I did was take it. You're a beast. That was amazing."

Sam turned between a very flushed Beth, a panting Zoey, and me still on the bed to announce, "I ran the bath, if you'd like to relax for a bit now."

Zoey moaned at the idea and explained as she slid her heels off, "My flat's only got a tiny little shower. I haven't had a proper bath in years."

Beth giggled, Sam nibbled on her lip with a smirk, and I smiled at her. "Well, I hope this one is to your liking. Not that I had much input on it."

In the bathroom, Zoey exclaimed, "Fucking hell, this is palatial," before stepping over the edge of the full basin, shattering the still surface of the water as she slid into the tub. Beth and I stared at her in surprise for a moment before Beth asked, "Zoey? Your stockings?"

Zoey had closed her eyes and sunk into the bubble-coated warm tub up to her shoulders. "Don't care. They're self-cleaning, and I simply can't be assed to roll them down now. I'm still feeling the buzz from James, and my hands are still shaking, but the water is wonderful. It's a problem for future Zoey to deal with. She's good at handling my messes."

Sam had stepped out of the bathroom before returning with four bowls, each with a spoon. She handed one to Zoey, one to Beth, and then two to me so that she could strip and join us in the tub before taking it back.

"I made pudding," Sam informed us as she slid into the water. She watched Zoey take a hesitant first bite, the blonde shrugging with a contemplative smile as she rolled over the pudding in her mouth, then took another spoonful.