Corruption, page 1
Corruption
NEON Book 2
Allyson Lindt
Acelette Press
This book is a work of fiction.
While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2022 by Allyson Lindt
Cover Art by Melony Paradise of Paradise Cover Design
All Rights Reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Contents
1. Dahlia
2. Fenrir
3. Freyr
4. Dahlia
5. Freyr
6. Fenrir
7. Dahlia
8. Freyr
9. Fenrir
10. Dahlia
11. Freyr
12. Fenrir
13. Dahlia
14. Freyr
15. Dahlia
16. Dahlia
17. Freyr
18. Fenrir
19. Dahlia
20. Freyr
21. Fenrir
22. Dahlia
For everyone who knows what lengths they’d go to for those they love
One
Dahlia
Would I ever reach the point where I could sit in front of two ancient gods and give them a look that said their opinion was irrelevant?
And mean it?
“I’d like to speak to my niece—my sister—alone.” Urd looked like a statue carved of alabaster, in the way she held herself, the dim light of the bar’s back room reflecting off her skin, and the deep stare she focused on Fenrir and Freyr.
Fen shifted his body to half-block mine in the doorway to the back room. He and Frey owned a burlesque club that was old school meets high tech—dark, hand-carved furniture and neon lights—and tonight was my debut as their headlining dancer.
My name on their marquee was supposed to attract the attention of the gods. Those who had a price on my head, not the second of two surviving dragons who were as old as dirt. Literally, as far as I could tell.
“It’s up to Dahlia to decide if she wants to talk to you,” Freyr said.
Yup, that was me—the woman related to two dragons. To be fair, Urd and her actual sisters supposedly had thousands of relatives running around in the world with no idea they were descended from dragons. I was the first one who had ever manifested any sign of my ancestry.
Like, in all of history. There hadn’t been another new dragon between when they popped into existence and now.
I wanted to tell Urd to go fuck herself. That she didn’t have a right to call me niece or sister, given that she didn’t care I existed until I started to grow scales. I’d told a number of gods off in the past—it was why there was a price on my head—but honestly, she terrified me.
“I won’t speak to you alone.” I forced my voice to remain steady. I was shit at hiding my emotion most of the time, much to the dismay of the people who raised and trained me as an assassin, but I knew how to fake I don’t give a shit how powerful you are. “However, I will speak with you.”
Settling into the seat next to Frey, I composed myself as well as one could while wearing nothing but pasties, ruffled panties, and a silky bathrobe and staring down a dragon in human form.
Fen pulled up another chair, flipped the back toward Urd, and straddled it. He rested his arms on the back and fixed a glare on her. Though his wolf was tucked away, the challenge of a predator flashed in his eyes, and a low, threatening growl rolled from his chest.
My relationship with these men was complicated. They’d become more to me than the gods I went to for sex or protection. I couldn’t imagine my life without them. But I didn’t have the kind of love for them that they had for each other.
I’d never met Urd before, but she and her sisters were responsible for a series of prophecies that had turned gods against gods, and trapped humans in the crossfire, both intentionally and otherwise. I had been one of those humans, plucked from the foster care system in my pre-teens, and trained to lie, spy, and kill, based on Urd’s prophecies.
She wasn’t one of the gods involved in my upbringing, but as far as I was concerned, she put the visions out there, for the world to do with as they would, and stepped away to let it happen, so she was as guilty as the gods who tried to mold me.
Was there some resentment on my part toward most gods?
Only an overwhelming amount.
“This bravado and protectiveness is charming.” Urd’s smile was as cool as the pearlescent sheen on her skin. “I’m not here to hurt you.”
“But it’s unlikely you would stop someone else from doing so, either,” I said.
She nodded. “That’s a fair assumption on your part. However, it’s also one of the reasons I’m here.”
“To stop someone else from hurting me?” I could make a joke about dangling modifiers, but she didn’t look like she had a sense of humor. “I’m good on that front. Thanks.” With Fen and Frey by my side, I was pretty safe.
The fact that I could shift into a dragon should help, but I hadn’t learned how to control that yet.
Urd sighed heavily. “I’m here at least in part to apologize for not being present in the past. I understand how you feel about the way my prophecies and name—”
“You couldn’t possibly.”
She raised an eyebrow at my interruption. “—and I know I need to step up and take control of the situation.”
“So you’ve disbanded the Followers of Urd?” Frey asked.
She shook her head. “We all know you don’t disband an organization of fanatics; they find their own path if you don’t give them one. I have presented myself as Urd, though. I’ve taken the reins. And I’d like the three of you—especially you, Dahlia—to join me.”
“I’m not much of a joiner.” That was part lie. I’d spent a large part of my life looking for a place where I felt like I belonged. Kept hoping it would be the campus I was raised on, or at least among the people I grew up with. These days, I knew that my best friend, Magnus, was more of a sister than the dragons would ever be. And while Frey and Fen had a love that knew no time or boundaries, I had the two of them looking out for me.
“We’ll fight to keep innocent people alive, but we won’t take sides in this ridiculous, manufactured war,” Frey said.
There were two factions, the Followers of Urd and The Order of Mistletoe—the group that had raised me—but they both seemed to pursue similar objectives. The only beings who mattered to either side were those who could help them shape the future to their benefit. “You know that, even if you stepped up to lead, FU is still killing gods, right?”
“I wish you wouldn’t call it that.” Urd winced. “That is one of the things I hope to correct. I don’t want anyone killing in my name or because of our prophecies.”
“It’s a little late for that.” It wasn’t that I wanted to be difficult just because. I’d seen so many die in this fight, all for the egos of a few gods who couldn’t accept they might not be immortal. Even worse, everyone treated the prophecies like they were set in stone, including the dragons who had written them.
I’d learned recently that wasn’t the case. The visions Urd and her sisters had were possibilities but not always a given, and if people understood that, it was possible fewer would be killed.
“Please, give me a chance to prove things will change,” Urd said.
I shook my head. “I don’t know why you need me to be a part of that.”
“I don’t. But you are one of us, and I’d rather work with you than without you.”
Funny, how that didn’t matter until I gained access to my own powers and visions. How the dragon bloodline still didn’t matter to the thousands of others like me—with a dragon as a parent—who had been abandoned over the centuries. I clucked and shook my head. “I’m going to have to say no. Good luck, though. Don’t forget to write.” I furrowed my brow. “On second thought, don’t write anything down. Pretty sure that was what started this mess in the first place.”
In a blink, Urd’s cool expression vanished. Heat surged through the room, and a soft growl cut the air. The afterimage of a dragon flashed in front of her, obscuring her human form.
And like that, the terrifying display was gone again.
My heart hammered against my ribs, as Urd stood. She gave us a short bow. “Please do reach out if you change your mind.”
She disappeared from the room, something no one should be able to do without Frey removing the magic that kept NEON hidden from most of the outside world.
On some level, I registered that Urd hadn’t left a way to get a hold of her, but overall, it didn’t matter. Her quick did I really just see that intimidation tactic had worked, reminding me I might be a dragon but I was still barely thirty, compared to her who-even-knew-how-old.
If I pissed her off enough, would she crush me and hope the next dragon who emerged was easier to deal with? I didn’t want the thought to scare me, but it did.
Two
Fenrir
When Urd let her rage slip, it took all of my self-control to not react in kind, let my wolf out, and lunge for her throat.
I wouldn’t attack her for her very wrong opinions about warring gods, but to come into our place of business—our home—and imply the kind of threat she had called for retaliation. Frey’s presence was the reason I kept myself in check. Centuries ago, I almost lost myself to the beast inside. These days, I stayed away from battle because Frey saved me from the edge of insanity back then.
Over time, I’d met a lot of people who wondered what a god of war—I—had in common with a god of sex—Freyr.
The answer was passion. Sex was a lot closer to fighting than most realized, and I knew one way to burn off this clawing sensation that didn’t involve battle.
Based on the scents after Urd vanished and the sound of racing pulses and quickened breathing, I wasn’t the only one who needed an outlet. I didn’t have the patience to vocalize it, though. When I turned to Dahlia, she stared back with defiance.
Even when she had been mortal, she wore that look. She refused to cower in the face of any god, and that was one of my favorite things about her.
I pushed away from my chair, not caring that it clattered to the ground, and dragged my nose up the side of her neck with a growl that was meant to entice, rather than terrorize.
She tilted her head, exposing more skin, and let the sides of her robe fall open. And then she did something brand new for her and held up her index finger as it shifted from human flesh to a single dragon claw. She cut a clean line down my chest that healed almost as quickly as it appeared but left the sting of pain.
My wolf didn’t know the difference between Dahlia’s dragon and Urd’s, but I did, and the mix of friend and foe raised my lust to a whole new level. “Are you trying to provoke me, Duckie?”
“There is no try. There is only do or do not.”
I’d take that as a yes.
Frey would join in as he wished, but right now I wanted Dahlia. The woman who could’ve been destroyed by half a dozen gods in the first quarter-century of her life, but still looked immortals in the eye and refused to flinch.
I wrapped a hand around her throat and raised her to her feet. Her pulse hammered against the fleshy bit of my palm, her whimper hummed along my skin, and I felt it when she swallowed. But she never blinked.
“So. Fucking. Delicious.” I was done talking or thinking. I crushed my mouth to hers.
In a blink, Frey was behind her. A sharp snick cracked in the air when he pulled the belt from her robe in a single, fluid motion. I pushed the covering off her arms, and he bound her wrists behind her back with the silk belt.
Dahlia’s gasp was delight mixed with fear and defiance, but this wasn’t the same kind of terror that Urd tried to evoke. This was high-strung anticipation for what came next.
I licked a line up her neck to bite her earlobe, and relished her groan. Next, I caught her pasties in my teeth, one at a time, and spit them aside. I wanted to taste so much of her. To lick away the sweat that mingled with body glitter from the dancing she’d done earlier. To sink my teeth into her skin until she cried out, then bury my face between her legs until she screamed.
And I couldn’t find the words for any of that. I was lost in the scents of her arousal and Frey’s. I tore away her panties, leaving a whisper of red on her hips that vanished as she healed.
“Fuck her,” I growled.
Frey smirked. He was calm and in control and infuriatingly sexy.
Hunger coursed through my veins as I watched him slip his fingers between Dahlia’s legs, then inside her. Her chest heaved with every breath, as she pressed back into his touch, unable to do much more while she was restrained.
Frey pumped inside Dahlia until she was grinding against him, her breath coming in short pants. He pulled out and pressed his fingers to my mouth, and I devoured her taste and her juices.
After dragging down his zipper, Frey freed his cock, sat, and guided Dahlia back into his lap. Her eyelids fluttered and her lips parted in a silent gasp when he penetrated her.
I watched the display with hungry fascination, as Frey spread his legs and Dahlia’s wide, putting her gorgeous pussy on display with him buried deep inside her.
Falling to my knees at their feet, I scraped my lips along the inside of her bare thigh.
The sounds that tore from her throat spurred me higher. Closer to her core. I dragged my tongue over both of them, licking along Frey’s skin and lapping at Dahlia’s juices. A few tastes weren’t enough. I buried my face between their legs, devouring the sounds they made, as greedily as I drank in the flavor.
When I moved my mouth to wrap around Dahlia’s clit, she arched away from Frey’s touch and struggled against my tongue. She writhed as I traced runes around her swollen nub. I sucked hard, loving the feeling of her grinding into my face.
When Dahlia came, it was with a string of, “Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck. Fuck me,” that rang in my ears. I didn’t pull away until she sank into Frey, her body mostly limp.
I raised my face, and with one finger under her chin, forced her gaze to mine. She stared back with a tiny smile.
“My turn.” My voice was gravel, and forming the words took effort I’d rather be using for something else.
Dahlia nodded.
When I stood, my dick strained against my jeans in protest at being caged. As I tugged down my zipper, some of the pressure was released, but not enough. Wrapping my hand around my shaft was both a relief and a promise of what came next.
Dahlia’s moan when I knotted my fingers in her hair was tasty. I lowered her head to my cock, and she took me into her mouth without hesitation. Fuuuck her lips felt incredible wrapped around me. Especially when Frey made her whimper as she rode him, and the hum vibrated through my skin.
I jerked myself while she licked and sucked. She was a gorgeous creature, especially now, with her skin flushed and her scent alone enough to seduce me. I knew when Frey drew another orgasm from her by the way she paused in sucking me off. The ecstasy that washed across her face.
And I knew when he came as well, slamming inside her hard and fast, his grunts growing louder. More punctuated.
The entire symphony combined to push over the edge. I slipped from Dahlia’s mouth as climax ripped through me, covering her face and chest with cum.
While she was still panting, trying to catch her breath, I dropped to my knees in front of her. Licking her clean seemed like the perfect conclusion to this intensity. Frey untied her and his cock slipped out of her, as I glided my tongue along her skin.
She tangled her fingers in my hair, holding me close while I licked along her chest. Her breasts. Her pussy again. Tasting myself. Her. Frey. Everything.
As need finally ebbed, the three of us moved to someplace more comfortable. Someplace where we could collapse together in a pile of warmth, and rest.
For now, the beast inside me was sated.
Days later, Urd’s visit lingered in my thoughts while my wolf paced around it with discontent. With Dahlia’s fidgeting and Frey’s snapping at little things, it was clear I wasn’t the only one the encounter didn’t sit well with. Fucking provided a distraction, but it wasn’t sating what sat at my core.
The solution was to get away and help Dahlia with her training at the same time. I could teach her some control techniques, but I didn’t know how to fly and she needed to master that as well. So we invited Magnus, who had been a Valkyrie for barely longer than Dahlia had been a dragon, and had mastered flight in that time.
The cabin we escaped to was in Norway, tucked away from everything. Frey teleported us from NEON to pick up Magnus, and then to our final destination. When we landed in the middle of the forest, the stale scent of death and gunpowder greeted me, bringing back memories of the last time I was here.
