Sanctuary With Kings (Tempting Monsters, #3)

by Kathryn Moon

I was still in my nightgown, but he peeled the sullied fabric up out of the water as he set me on my feet, and it slapped roughly against the stone, landing behind us. We paused, facing one another in the water, and I had the rare urge to cover myself. Not that Laszlo hadn't already had enough of a view of me or that I hadn't seen my fair share of him. He was just so intimate, his gaze so focused and determined. That was something I was very out of practice with.

His cock jerked against my belly—monsters were never done with fucking, as far as I'd learned—and I thought I might rise to my toes, invite him into me, when he stepped away. "Wash," he said, and I was offended at how steady his voice was. "I have plans for you." "Plans that can't start here?" I asked, no longer concerned with covering myself. "They start here by us cleaning up," Laszlo answered, one sharp feather-tipped eyebrow lifting. I snorted

"How did you get a sea beast here to the castle?" I asked, thinking of the delightful blush Laszlo had worn when Hywel mentioned the tryst. "They came up from Hywel's dreaming sea," Laszlo said. "Once, there was even a strange ship from another time that found its way to the castle. It took weeks to convince Hywel to send it back again." I smiled at the exasperation in the gryphon's voice.

"How did you meet Hywel?" I asked, biting my lip and letting my eyes fall shut as Laszlo dug his fingers into my hair, lathering the strands with whatever strange bottle he'd been holding. I caught a sigh from his lips and tried to turn to find his expression, but he pushed my head to face forward once more. "I suppose it's better if I tell you. He's insufferable when he tells the story. He…rescued me." I grinned. "Rescued you from what?" "Another dragon."

I waited, but Laszlo wasn't adding to the story. "I suppose I'll just have to wait for Hywel to wake up to get the details." "Another dragon was trying to…acquire me. For her hoard. I had a good nest, with a great deal of treasure. I thought I'd kept myself fairly well secret, but dragons have a nose for gold." I pressed my lips hard together to keep from giggling. Laszlo was exceptionally golden.

"I offered her a few choice objects, but she was going into a mating cycle. She wanted me included. Hywel is older, and he managed to chase her off. Sent her to a wealthy orc den north of me." "And then he claimed you for himself?" "Not…exactly," Laszlo said, starting slowly again. He was thorough in his work on my hair, and he guided me back into the water with a steady hand on my shoulder, rinsing me clean as I stared up at the ceiling. "He accepted a fe...

"He did. He brought me gifts from his own hoard. Very rare from a dragon. I suppose he knew in the end that he'd be getting them back, and all my own in the bargain," Laszlo muttered. "But I do like his castle. Our home." "Do you know what happened to the female dragon?" I asked, standing again. "I heard she feasted and fucked her way through the whole den for several months," Laszlo said lightly. "I believe she might even ...

He stepped away slowly, and his back was to me before I could turn and catch his mouth with mine. "Would you do me a favor?" "Of course." "Tending my wings is tedious on my own. But I can give you instruction." I gaped at the broad spread of his wings, stretched to keep themselves out of the water, the ends just barely submerged. "I'd be…happy to." Honored was a better word. Feathers were a tricky business from the little I knew, and even my incubus hadn't allowed me the opportunity to groom his.

"The edges will be the worst, and up at the joint usually needs tidying. Cut any ragged ends. Pull out ones that are turned at odd angles. Polish what's dull," Laszlo instructed. "Will it hurt if I pull out your feathers?" "I'm used to it. Just warn me," he said, glancing over his shoulders. He drew his knees up and rested his forearms on them, hunching forward so I could reach the undersides of his wings too, where there were more ruffled spots.

I paused, taking in his wings, noting the different areas of issues he'd mentioned, the places that needed trimming; the broad middle that wasn't shining quite as brightly, probably harder for Laszlo to reach. I planned my movements and then reached for the blade first. "I've missed this the most," Laszlo murmured. "Even more than sex with him. I've missed having my mate awake." I didn't ask if he'd had any guests do this for him. I knew the answer. I just didn't know why he offered me the privilege. I wasn't sure if I was ready to know, so I set to work silently.

"If we are at war, you must learn to fight," Laszlo said. My calm evaporated immediately. "No," I said, stumbling back from him, my throat squeezing tight. "I'm not asking you to step onto the battlefield, dear one," he said, turning to face me, his arms crossed over his chest. "But you've been captured once. Mistreated. I will do everything in my power to avoid seeing such a fate befall you again, including arming you and teaching you to fight."

"It won't matter," I said, my head shaking, heart slamming wildly in my chest. "I'm not strong. Not strong enough. I have one gift, and it's—" "You have many gifts," Laszlo said sharply, glaring at me over the edge of his glasses. "They are not up for critique. And you may not have more than human strength, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't train what you do have."

All the heady warmth of the past few hours cooled to ice. I wanted to return to Hywel's nest, tuck myself against his scales. But Laszlo and Asterion and the others were waiting for Hywel to wake, and I wouldn't be able to sleep and dream calmly next to him when he went to war. "I don't want… I don't—" Laszlo walked forward. Unlike Asterion, he knew better than to read my flinches and winces and draw away from them. His arms unfolded and his ...

"First, we fit you in armor," Laszlo said, reading my surrender. He stepped to my side, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. "It's perhaps trivial of me, but I've set aside some of the armor Hywel and I have collected from the great female warriors of history. Boudicea should be just your size, I think. Although perhaps Artemisia's might be more…optimistic," Laszlo mused, his brow furrowing as he slid away toward a large armoire. "Were you a warrior?" Laszlo threw open the doors of the cabinet, his wings shrugging. "On occasion, when it was necessary."

"My father was a warrior. He trained me from when I was a hatchling. But that was a very long time ago." Laszlo dug through the armoire, pulling out a pair of kid leather leggings and a long dress, slitted for movement. "I prefer scholarly pursuits now, so training will likely be good for us both."

"If not for Asterion," Laszlo said, eyes glancing over the edge of his glasses to me, "Hywel and I may not have heard of any concerns at all. The minotaur is quite a champion of goodness." He struggles to find it in himself, I thought, but that was Asterion's business, so I kept it to myself.

Laszlo passed me the garments and then surveyed the room. "Now we must choose a weapon for you. A sword, I think. You'd look just like a valkyrie." "No," I said, shaking my head. "No, not that, please. I don't want to be the woman who guides souls off a battlefield." I don't want to be the reason you or anyone dies fighting Birsha. Laszlo blinked through the shine of his glasses. "You're right. An Amazon's spear then. Hippolyta was about your height." "You have Hippolyta's spear?" I asked. My mother had told me stories about the queen of the Amazons, daughter of the god Ares. She was a divinity too, like me. She'd married Theseus, who stabbed Asterion.

“You have to remember she is nearly human," Asterion snapped. I whimpered as his hands dug into my shoulders, but he misunderstood the sound, starting to pull away. I reached back to grab at him, and my shoulders protested that motion too. I groaned and Laszlo huffed, watching us from his armchair. "She is no such thing. She is out of shape," Laszlo said, and then added after a beat, watching me scowl through the ache of every little movement, "Tomorrow we will only stretch."

"She doesn't need to know how to fight." "Of course she does. All of us must know how to defend ourselves. And because she is weaker and a daughter of Hedone, she will be coveted." "She will be protected," Asterion growled. Laszlo gifted the minotaur with one of his sharp, dry glances. "Says the man who runs out of the room at the first opportunity." I choked on a laugh.

I used to laugh loudly and often, I thought. I missed Conall. He could still make me surprise myself with the sound of my own laugh. It hadn't even been a full day, and I'd been...

Asterion returned to working the knots out of my shoulders. There was no needless caressing, sadly, but he was skilled with muscle, and I was grateful that he'd joined us for dinner and noted my stiff movements. Laszlo had made me work with the spear for hours, lunging and balancing, thrusting and swinging and block...

"I am concerned about her nightmares." "Nightmares? What nightmares?" Asterion asked, sitting up. "She shouldn't have—" "I'm right here," I murmured, too tired to put up more of a fuss. "I agree. She should be safe here. I think they are Birsha's doing," Laszlo said. "She shouldn't sleep alone." ...

"I would recommend Hywel's hoard, but he might roll over and crush her," Laszlo said lightly. I snorted, but Asterion's hands tightened on my shoulders, drawing a pained grunt from me. He snatched them away again, and I was too weary to argue. "You can't force her into your bed so Hywel can have her later, Laszlo!" Silence struck hard and I stiffened, turning to glare at Asterion, who flushed and looked away. "I'd like to not sleep alone," I said. "Good, it's settled," Laszlo answered as Aste...

Asterion reared back as Laszlo lifted me from the floor, a brief whine of protest escaping my lips. I caught a glimpse of Asterion on the couch as Laszlo carried me away. His hands were braced on the cushion and arm, fingers digging into the plush stuffing, face turned away from us. He was tense, apparently struggling to hold himself in place. I sighed and reste...

"Do you mind that I stole you away?" Laszlo asked. "I like that you don't make me coax you," I said, lifting my face. His smile was brief, cast in the glow of moonlight, and then his head ducked down, offering that same simple slotting of our lips together, an easy fit. His nose nuzzled against my cheek as he pulled away,

"You don't mind bringing me into your nest?" I asked as our ascent slowed and twisted. Laszlo's nest had its own smaller balcony, not overlooking the terrace but down directly to the rocks and sea. His wing beats relaxed, and we dropped elegantly down to the stone. "I would've liked to bring you here sooner," Laszlo said, and before I could ask why he hadn't, he opened the door and carried me inside.

Laszlo's nest was not like Hywel's, and though there were a great many curious items arranged on shelves and tables—revealed by gleaming brass candelabras generously decorating the room—it was all arranged with a meticulous attention to detail that suited the gryphon I'd come to know. Books lined shelves in a tidy order, the tops of their spines matching neatly, and I knew at once they must be Laszlo's favorites. On another shelf was a careful display of small statues, objects of idolatry. There was no fireplace, but the walls were shrouded in a deep blue velvet and the floor was heavily layered in carpets, these in better condition than the others around the castle. A massive bed, larger than any I'd ever seen, was built out of the far corner of the room. Sheer curtains shrouded its high platform, the fabric stretching high up to the vaulted and beamed ceiling. In the left side of the room, near an open cabinet filled with polished bottles and small decorative boxes, a large steaming tub waited, a water pump poised near its edge. Laszlo carried me in that direction, and I patted his shoulder for him to put me back on my feet, exhausted as they were.