Destinies of Diamond: A Reverse Harem Sci Fi Bully Romance (Chimera Academy Book 3) Read online

  To his credit, he wasn’t using his claws, not yet, at least. When our bodies collided, he tried to pin me down, but his fingernails remained human and the blow wasn’t as powerful as it could have been. I felt my ribs protest, but nothing cracked.

  I responded with a similar amount of force and punched him in the face. His nose didn’t break, but it was a close call. He was stronger than me, but I was more limber and more agile. Taking advantage of this, I danced out of his reach, avoiding his second attack.

  He wasn’t dissuaded, but I didn’t expect him to be. Knox had never been a quitter, and a temporary defeat encouraged him. When it came to the two of us, this sort of thing wasn’t just a battle. It was occasionally foreplay, and I was half-worried we’d end up making out on the training field.

  With the corner of my eye, I caught sight of my partners fighting our other opponents. Ernest wasn’t faring very well against Scott, so I took advantage of the space between me and Knox to give Ernest a hand. Since Argyle was distracted, it was a piece of cake to grab him from behind, knock him out and throw him at Knox.

  Under different circumstances, Knox would have just ducked and let the body fall. But despite his current problems, he understood that was a bad idea while in class. He caught Argyle and gently placed him down, making sure the other man wasn’t too wounded. He was as fast as always, but not fast enough.

  In the process, he was forced to drop his guard and I lunged at him, directing a kick straight at his head. I wasn’t surprised when he caught my foot mid-air. “That was a dirty trick, Your Highness. Then again, you always were dirtier than you seemed.”

  “Indeed,” I replied.

  Through the contact between us, I manipulated the tachyons coursing through our bodies, my power reaching into him like a claw. He instinctively recoiled, letting go of my leg.

  If I’d been anyone else, he would have snapped my bone before moving away, but he didn’t. Unfortunately, this gave Ernest the mistaken impression that my lover was vulnerable and he could mimic my attack.

  You’d think someone Ernest’s age would be aware enough of himself to realize his power output couldn’t compare to that of the Cerberus’s tamer. But most of the students at Chimera Academy weren’t all that self-aware, so it stood to reason that when Ernest collided with Knox, Knox crushed him.

  It wasn’t a physical thing. Knox could have shattered every bone in Ernest’s body had he so desired, but he knew better. Still, the beast inside him was ravenous today, especially after that earlier exchange with Selene. He used his tachyon manipulation skills to slice straight into Ernest’s core.

  It was cruel and brutal. Ernest screamed in pain and terror, and the sound echoed over the training ground, almost obscenely loud. Vincent cursed, but didn’t try to intervene. He must have been able to tell that he’d be no help. At least someone here could follow instructions.

  Once again, I jumped to Ernest’s defense. Knox’s aura hurt me too, but Typhon compensated for that. Even if he hadn’t, my skills were polished enough to hold Knox at bay. Knox dropped Ernest and faced me once again.

  The excess of tachyons in his bloodstream made him both faster and more violent. He lashed out against me, grabbing my arm and throwing me to the ground like I was nothing more than a puppet.

  Pain exploded through me, but on the bright side, nothing broke. Typhon was there to cushion the blow and mend my wounds. “I do wish you engaged in a safer mating ritual, hatchling,” he muttered.

  I ignored him, my attention still completely on Knox. Knox wasn’t really trying to hurt me anyway. He let go of me instead of pinning me down, and I took advantage of this to shoot to my feet and launch my counterattack.

  I got a few good hits in before Knox decided to take things further. He intercepted my fist and finally buried his claws into my flesh. It hurt, but I didn’t flinch.

  Blood trickled down my arm from my wrist. I tasted copper and lust in my mouth and grinned savagely. “Now who’s the one playing dirty?”

  He stared at me and blinked several times. Slowly, his eyes started to clear and his sharp grin softened into a more human expression. His hold on me loosened. “I suppose both of us are,” he answered.

  Just like that, he crushed his mouth to mine. I kissed him back, the familiarity of his taste comforting and arousing at the same time. These past couple of days had been tense and dreadful, since Selene had been giving us the cold shoulder. We all needed to let out some of our tension.

  Unfortunately for me, we hadn’t chosen the best time and place for such activities. The sound of a cleared throat interrupted us before we could do much more than kiss.

  We broke away, only to see Commander Trevor now standing next to us. “Well, this is an example on what… not to do on the training field. Usually, you don’t make out with your opponents, Flight Lieutenant Alexander.”

  “Of course not,” Knox replied without missing a beat. “I wouldn’t use such a method on my enemies.”

  “This is a unique case,” I added just as calmly.

  “A unique case?” Commander Trevor repeated with a scowl. “What do you mean?”

  “I’m clearly an undercover agent and he was verifying my credentials.”

  Commander Trevor stared at us like he’d never seen us before. To be fair, the whole conversation had gone entirely off the rails. I couldn’t believe I was saying these things either.

  Maybe Knox wasn’t the only one whose sanity was slipping. I hadn’t been dealing with things all that well either after that whole business in Eos. Mercifully, Commander Trevor didn’t seem to find the whole exchange as out of character as it was.

  “I’m dealing with children. Just keep it in your pants, Prince Brendan, or I will find a way to forbid fraternization between students.”

  I barely managed to suppress a flinch. That was a pretty useful threat, since the school’s policy on relationships had always been a somewhat scandalous topic for debate. It always tended to get shelved because most people didn’t deem it as important as the budget for shuttle repairs, but Selene’s arrival and my relationship with my lovers could change that too.

  “Sir, Yes, Sir,” I replied. Secretly, I wondered when Commander Trevor had become someone I was supposed to fear.

  Commander Trevor nodded jerkily and left us to finish our sparring session. The rest of our teams went back to their fight as well. They’d been distracted by our little display, but now, the show was over.

  Knox and I didn’t actually settle our match, since the class ended before either of us could win. It didn’t bother me. Instead, as we left the training yard, I studied Commander Trevor again.

  Yes, something was definitely not right with him, and I had to find out what it was. I couldn’t afford to take any chances. I was already risking and hiding too much. If I wasn’t careful, everything might blow up in my face all over again and Selene would pay the price for my recklessness.

  Private Affairs

  Selene

  The evening after the announcement, we all received our assignments, just like Commander Trevor had promised. We reviewed everything together, in our dorms, curious to see if we matched in any way.

  As he flipped through the file he’d received, Brendan let out a deep sigh. “Looks like I’ll have to report to my uncle throughout this time. This won’t end well. What about you guys?”

  “Me too,” August said. “I have an assignment with the dean, although it’s not clear what I’m supposed to do.”

  “I’m with Professor Achebe,” Knox muttered. “Why in the world did they assign me to him?”

  Pollux huffed in irritation. “Consider yourself lucky. I’ll have to run errands for Lord Welton. Selene, who did you get?”

  “Commander Trevor,” I said. I actually felt a little relieved. He’d supported me ever since I’d arrived at the academy and had taught me a lot of things, without looking down on me or making feel inadequate. Maybe I’d finally had a stroke of good fortune.

  Silence fe
ll over the room. For some reason, it felt ominous and I temporarily abandoned studying the hologram in favor of looking at my lovers.

  They were all staring at me with strangely intense expressions on their faces. I frowned, wondering what in Gaia’s name they were hiding now. “What is it?” I asked, not bothering to suppress my irritation.

  The frustration in my tone snapped them out of their trance. “It’s nothing,” August said quickly. “We’re just a little worried, that’s all.”

  “Worried? About what?”

  “I just noticed some strange behavior from Commander Trevor,” Brendan explained. “I admit it’s nothing specific I can identify and I dislike making unfounded accusations like that. But in this particular situation, it’s better to be on your guard. It’s not paranoia if they’re really out to get you.”

  I bit my lower lip, musing over Brendan’s words with care. I hadn’t noticed anything different about Commander Trevor and I’d have chalked Brendan’s attitude up to overprotectiveness. But it would be stupid to not consider at least the small possibility that a teacher at the school might have a secondary agenda.

  “What do you propose? It’s not like I can skip the assignment.”

  “Maybe not,” Pollux agreed, “but at least be careful. And talk to your mother when you see her again. We can’t trust a medic here to monitor your pregnancy. We’ll have to rely on her to make sure nothing goes wrong.”

  I’d already planned on doing that, but it still meant a lot that he’d said those words.

  “All right,” I replied. “I promise I’ll be careful. But I’m not the only one at risk here. Personally, I find it very suspicious that Dean Chimera would want to take August under his wing.”

  August was an excellent fighter and under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have questioned the choice. But now that we knew August was part apsid, we had to assume that a lot of our leaders’ choices were related to that, at least to a certain extent.

  “I’m not too concerned.” August shrugged. “They’ve known I’m an apsid for decades and nothing’s happened.”

  “Things change, August. The attack at the tournament targeted you in specific. I can’t imagine that’s a coincidence.”

  “That may be true, Selene, but I’m not the priority right now. You are.”

  Looking into August’s fierce eyes, I realized he completely meant the words. It wasn’t that he didn’t realize the fact that he was at risk. He simply didn’t care about it as much as he cared about me. And the others were no different. They’d cared about one another very much before I’d shown up and that hadn’t changed. And yet, their relationship had obviously been affected. They were throwing themselves into their connection with me, even if I couldn’t help but put a barrier between us.

  Was it just guilt over the incident with Jared? Was it another side-effect of the battle against the apsids? I didn’t know. Either way, I wanted them to stop. My emotions were still all over the place and they weren’t helping with their insistence to indulge me like this.

  Things were made worse by the constant sexual tension between us. I still lived with them, so it wasn’t like I could avoid looking at them while they changed. And then, there were the showers.

  As if reading my mind, Knox waved away his hologram and got up. “It’s getting late. We’re due at the showers.”

  I nodded and mimicked him, wordlessly shutting down my own device. We all grabbed our toiletries and left our quarters together. The tension between us was so thick it rivaled a cloud of tachyon emissions.

  By the time we got to the bathing room, the Harpy Squad was already present. Today, they decided not to taunt us, which was a nice change, if suspicious. I tried to not let it get to me. Maybe they were just focusing on their assignments too and had no time for petty conflicts.

  When we headed into the lockers, I went through the regular motions, ignoring all the men around me as I took my clothes off. By now, I was nowhere near as shy as I’d been when I’d started the academy and I didn’t really care if they stared. Because they all still stared and still got erections. It wasn’t as bad as it had been in the beginning, though, and no one made any unpleasant or lecherous comments.

  The real problem showed up when we were in the actual showers. I was no longer comfortable having my lovers shield me from view, but it was worse to just stand there and wash myself while everyone was staring. And if I started acting differently, the Harpy Squad tamers would catch on, just like Argyle had in the mess hall.

  Well, there was nothing I could do but go along with it. Studiously trying to not steal a peek at my lovers’ naked bodies, I waited for the showers to start. When the familiar robotic voice announced the beginning of the washing cycle, I relaxed. I just needed to focus on the process and everything would be all right.

  It wasn’t. The moment the water began to fall, I knew something was wrong. As the liquid trickled over my body, my stomach did a funny leap. My nipples felt so sensitive, far more than before. My head started spinning and every inch of me began to vibrate.

  I swayed and ended up leaning against Knox. “Selene?” he whispered against my hair. “Are you all right?”

  “Mmm… Never better,” I muttered as I rubbed my face against his naked chest.

  He was so warm, his virile strength so comforting. Why had I ever been mad at him? I couldn’t remember. It was such a waste to stay mad, when we could do far more interesting things with our time.

  My pussy throbbed with the need to be filled, but when I felt Knox’s shaft nudging my hip, I decided against taking what I wanted.

  He was only half-hard. That was unacceptable. When I was naked in his presence, he needed to be fully erect. Unless we were coming off five orgasms, of course, but today, that wasn’t the case. I couldn’t excuse him.

  With the corner of my eye, I stole a look at my other lovers. They were all frowning and didn’t seem to be paying attention to my breasts at all. Why? This was all wrong. They’d always liked my breasts. Was some other Terran sliding her way into their affections? Or worse, had they found a Chimera noble to take my place in their bed? That Penelope Welton bitch had seemed awfully interested in Brendan and lately, she had been more cooperative than before.

  Torn between frustration and arousal, I dropped to my knees and took Knox’s cock in my mouth. He released a choked sound of surprise and desire. “Selene, what…?”

  The words were barely comprehensible, but he’d managed to utter them, which again, was unacceptable. I squeezed his balls and he forgot all about whatever he’d been trying to say. Grunting, he buried his fingers in my wet hair and started to fuck my mouth.

  I wanted to feel him come, to taste his spunk on my tongue, to drain him dry of every ounce of semen he could offer me. But I didn’t get the chance to fulfill my plan. The others joined us, and before I knew what was going on, Brendan grabbed me and pulled me away from Knox’s dick. Knox didn’t protest, and I’d have felt a little slighted had Brendan not lifted me in his arms, supported me against the wall and buried his dick inside me in one single thrust.

  My world went white around the edges and fire licked over my skin, evaporating the water still flowing over us. Steam rose in the bath, so thick it was almost suffocating. But no one seemed to mind, nor did they have trouble seeing me because of it. “Holy shit!” I heard an unfamiliar voice say. “Look at the Terran go.”

  “Man, I want a turn at that pussy.”

  “You and everyone here.”

  Once, I’d have been repulsed at the words, but today, all I felt was arousal. I enjoyed the fact that they found me beautiful. I enjoyed them looking at me, craving me, even if they knew they could never have me. My cunt rippled around Brendan’s dick and I buried my fingernails in his shoulders, needing to draw him in deeper, always deeper.

  “Do you want us to give you to them, Selene?” Brendan hissed in my ear. “We could, you know. They’d line up to fuck you in an instant.”

  “M-Maybe,” I stammer
ed. “But you wouldn’t share. Not with everyone here.”

  “I might,” he answered, still maintaining a punishing rhythm, pounding me like I was nothing more than a hole he could use for his pleasure. “I’m Chimera royalty, you know. It behooves me to be generous with my subjects.”

  As he spoke, his hand traveled down my body and tweaked my nipples. A mix of pleasure and pain erupted over me when he touched the sensitive nubs. I moaned and writhed, torn between seeking more of the sinful caress and pulling away from it.

  I didn’t get a chance to choose. Brendan made the decision for me. He changed our position, flipping me around with almost laughable ease. In the process, his cock left my body, and I whimpered in protest at the loss. But Knox was there to give me a hand, and he thrust inside me from behind. Meanwhile, Brendan supported me from the front and shoved his cock into my mouth.

  I ended up squatting awkwardly, sandwiched between the two of them, with no chance of escaping. It was a difficult, uncomfortable position to hold, and I’d never been more grateful for all the exercising I’d done at the academy. They weren’t being easy on me, and if I hadn’t been a trained soldier, I might have had trouble holding my balance.

  Instead, I surrendered to their domination, breathing through my nose as Brendan fucked my mouth and enjoying the familiar feel of Knox’s dick gliding in and out of my needy pussy. Brendan tasted like me, and the flavor of our mixed juices made the wicked fire inside me blaze even brighter. Knox’s claws nudged my sensitive skin, threatening to slice me open. I was so close to coming I felt like I was about to explode. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t beg for more, but I tried to reach out to them anyway, to lure them closer.

  Tartarus’s Gift responded to me in an unexpected way. All of a sudden, I could see the bright cores of diamond that shone so clearly within everyone here. Hungry for more, I sucked harder, using my lust to feed their need for me.