Dragon Vanquished: A Reverse Harem Fantasy Romance (Dragon Gladiators Book 4)

by Zara Stark

  He exhaled at me again and brought his face even close to mine. His tail squeezed around my legs and waist even tighter. I gasped, feeling him squeeze the air from my lungs.

  “I kind of need to breathe. Champ,” I wiggled in his tail, trying to loosen myself from his grip.

  He opened his giant mouth again and brought it down on me like he was going to eat me. Warning sirens went off in my head. Cobalt was seriously going to eat me. It was at that moment, I realized my Strength card was still active.

  Crap, crap, crap.

  I clenched my eyes shut and punched out as hard as I could. I heard a crack and my eyes flew open, I had knocked out one of his gigantic white and gold teeth but he still wasn’t stopping. I grabbed the sharp tooth like a dagger, it was curved but as long as my arm was from fingertips to elbow, ending in a dangerous point. I gripped it with both hands and stabbed down through his forked tongue and through the bottom of his mouth. He howled in pain and I took his distraction as a chance to break free.

  I pulled myself free from his tail and made run for it, stumbling out of the destroyed building. My heart hammered in my chest. That mother trucker tried to eat me! He had seemed so playful and grumpy like the real Cobalt for a second, I hadn’t thought he would actually try to eat me!

  Could I use two tarot cards at once? Just like any muscle, magic was a skill that needed to be built upon with practice. I had gotten very good at using multiple cards with my metal deck. It was worth a shot. Leaving the Strength between my teeth, I willed my deck to send me the card I needed. I felt the arcane power of the tarot bubble forth as it sent the card I needed to the top of the deck. My fingertips had barely brushed the wooden edge of the card when Cobalt let out a deafening and very pissed off roar.

  "Oh great," I huffed. My stabby incident apparently had only angered him more.

  If I didn't think of something fast, I was going to be Dragon Chow.

  I couldn't believe that I had survived so damn much just to get eaten by one of the men I loved while he was a mindless monster. Death by eaten out, I could deal with. Literally being cannibalized was a different matter.

  "Fuck," I snapped through my gritted teeth and roughly pulled the top card from my deck. My thumb scraped the wood grain of the card and My blood soaked into the wood. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a large circle and two wolves baying at it. The Moon card.

  An icy chill leaped up from the card and ebbed slowly into my fingers.

  The giant dragon reared up, ready to bear down on me, jaw wide, ready to swallow me whole. I wanted to clench my eyes shut from terror, I didn't

  The wave of intense cold, not just the chilly desert night air but the subzero wind chill of the midwest in the winter blasted out of the card in a wave of swirling blue. The cold hit Cobalt and froze his giant dragon's body into place.

  His stopped leaping at me when his jaw was less than a few inches from mine.

  My whole body shook.

  "Did that just happen?" I gasped. "I froze him."

  I poked one of his giant golden fangs. A layer of ice made the tooth sticky to the touch.

  My finger bled but I still squeezed the card in my hand. I had expected him to remember me and transform back, I didn't expect him to not remember me and try to eat me multiple times!

  "What do I do now, Coba?" I asked him, peering into the giant dragon's maw and looking at where I had stabbed him. "Are you serious? It's already healing. So not fair."

  I heard a creaking sound. Like frozen ice breaking on a lake.

  The ice covering Cobalt began to shatter and I reared back, ready to fight again. Ice continued to chip and chip until it was all gone and then the scales began to burn away, his form getting smaller.

  I watched in awe as his scales began to recede beneath his skin and tanned skin took its place, dark hair sprouting from his scalp.

  Cobalt rose, his skin red and raw from his transformation. He was completely naked but he didn’t seem to notice or maybe it was that he didn’t give a damn. The later was probably right. His red eyes locked onto mine, still draconic slit, instead of terrifying they only seemed to add to his savage body. His hair hung down his back, longer than I had even seen it weeks ago.

  “Coba,” I whispered, letting my eyes drink him in. It hurt, it hurt like hell to see him alive. I thought he was dead, everyone told there was no chance I would ever see any of them as a human ever again. I had proved all those naysayers wrong. I proved myself wrong because I had started to give up on myself.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” Cobalt croaked, his voice a barely human growl.

  “Like what?” I whispered, feeling the tears burst free and roll down my face.

  “Like you never thought you would see me again, like you doubted I would return to you,” Cobalt closed the distance between us in a few long strides of his powerful, muscled legs. He forcefully grabbed me and pulled me close against his naked body.

  “I was starting to lose hope, everyone told me there was no chance,” I whispered, drinking in the sight of him. My gaze traveling all over his face, taking in his features and memorizing them all over again.

  His rough hand reached up for my face and cupped my cheek, his large thumb wiped the tears away. I closed my eyes and leaned into his touch.

  “How dare you?” Cobalt grumbled and my eyes snapped open and I glared at him.

  “What?!” I asked.

  “How dare you think I wouldn’t. We wouldn’t come back to you. Every single one of us would walk through hell and black to get to you. We would move mountains to be with you, we’d destroy worlds just for a chance to be with you.” Cobalt squeezed me tighter, almost painfully so.

  “What was I supposed to think? After you all shed your skin and flew away, abandoning me in the arena to face the Concilium by myself?” Something about Cobalt pushed my buttons, it took him less than thirty seconds to get me riled up.

  “I didn’t realize what I was doing, you know that look,” He ran his hands up my body and then wrapped them around me once more. “You survived, my strong warrior queen. You survived and defeated me, turning me back to human shape. You’re stronger than ever.”

  “Don’t ever leave me again,” I stared at him, willing anger into my eyes. It wasn’t a heartfelt plea, it was a warning.

  “Tavia, don’t you realize? Our enemies could slash me to bits and burn the evidence and I would still force the wind to carry my ashes to you. I’m never leaving you, ever again,” He growled. His garnet eyes burning into mine.

  I wanted to believe him. I truly believed he didn’t want to leave me ever again but things weren’t always in our control were they. In fact, our lives seemed to be one long lesson of others forcing us apart, that horrible lesson drilled into our heads time and time again.

  “What’s this?” He asked, his fingers gripping the feather in my hair.

  “It’s called a feather,” I joked, trying to lighten the mood.

  Apparently now was not the time to joke I realized as I took in his grumpy expression.

  “Just an SOS in case I’m in danger,” I whispered, searching his eyes. He didn’t seem genuinely mad but maybe possessive.

  “You didn’t use it when we were fighting,” He commented, his voice scarily neutral.

  “Didn’t need to,” I smiled at him. “I know you would never purposely hurt me.”

  “You have more faith in my humanity than I do,” Cobalt whispered, his voice softer than I had ever heard it before.

  “Faith in you and faith in my own powers, tarot cards are a pretty insane power up,” I shrugged trying to play it nonchalantly. I gestured at my new wooden deck at my hip. “If you legitimately tried to kill me, I think I could take you down.”

  He yanked me closer to him like he expected me to run. I breathed in his scent, so much sharper, more beastly than I remembered it to be. I wondered just how much more in control the dragon was than the man then. Happy tears, tears of relief streamed down my face. He was still my Cobal
t. I had my Cobalt back.

  I didn't have to wait long for my answer before he knocked us to the ground, pinning me with his hips to the ground. He was already hard as a rock, his cock proud and erect, flat against his muscled abs. I looked up in his eyes and found his pupils dilated, black almost overcoming his irises until only a small line of ruby lined his eyes. I moved my hips up to brush against him and he growled.

  "Stop, just stop," He growled and I froze. I realized what he needed me to give him. Complete submission. It was like our first time all over again after so much time apart but instead of a battle for dominance, he desperately needed me to give him submission. He needed me to trust him not to hurt me, that he could be more man than beast. Cobalt was going to fuck me right out in the open, right on our battlefield. He was going to take me in the middle of the ruined marketplace of Alexandria, where terrified, hiding citizens were probably watching from the shadows. He wanted to claim me for all eyes to see.

  He gripped my wrists and slammed them above my head and he held them in place with one of his hands. His other hand went to his mouth where he bit off his long, sharp claws.

  "You may have defeated me on the battlefield but in this, I reign supreme," He growled at me, his intense black and red gaze pinning me in place. He didn't stop the eye contact as his free hand roughly yanked up my dress. Underwear wasn't really easy to come by so I was bare underneath my dress. He yanked it up, snagging the fabric until it pooled in a silky pile on my rib cage.

  He teased my folds with rough fingers and I moaned against him.

  "Who does this belong to? Who won this?" He growls to me, teasing me by slipping one thick, rough finger inside me, curling inside of me at just the perfect angle until I'm biting my lip to not scream out.

  "You," I tell him breathlessly. He rewards me with another finger inside me, he spread his fingers inside of me. I look down at where his deeply tanned skin meets my freckles, flushed flesh, at the perfect contrast of us.

  "You like this? You like being finger fucked by a monster?" Cobalt growls to me. My eyes travel up and down his body, down his muscled chest and abs to his aching cock leaking precum.

  "Look me in the eyes, Octavia, I want to see your eyes as you come on my fingers," His thumb comes up to circle my clit in the perfect counter-clockwise motion that never failed to make me release.

  I look up at his eyes, his pupils are dilated but have sharpened into their draconic shape.

  He's panting hard against me as his fingers continue to work inside me in perfect tandem with his thumb on my clit. It doesn't take me long to come hard, my orgasm blinding me with a white light like an atomic bomb went off in my head.

  "I love the way your pussy flutters against my fingers," He growled in my ear, he pulls them from inside of me as soon as my clenching stops and brings them up to his mouth, licking them clean of my juices. His eyes shut and he moans in ecstasy like I'm the best thing he's ever tasted.

  "Fuck," I whispered under my breath but Cobalt heard me all the same.

  "Yes," Like he was answering a question for me. "If you think I left you by choice either time then you need to be taught a lesson."

  "What kind of lesson?" I asked.

  "In who you belong to, in how we will never let you go," He growled, his free hand traveling up to pull the layers of my dress open, revealing my makeshift bra. The Romans sure had beautiful dresses but they were definitely lacking in the underwear department.

  His hands went up to pull the fabric not out, in a surprising gentleness from my most savage dragon. Freeing my breasts, he gripped my right one with his hands, kneading the pale freckled flesh in his rough hands. It felt so amazing, all of our love making had been so rushed between us before. Once outside of the stadium and one in his open smith. I was starting to think he had a kink for public sex.

  In all of our other rushed times between battles, he never took the time to finger me or touch my breasts, he just got right down to fucking me. But right here, after shifting back to human form and a month apart, in a destroyed open area where people were certainly watching he was being shockingly tender.

  I couldn't help the thrill that ran through me, thinking of all the people watching as Cobalt claimed me. Damn, maybe I was just as kinky as he was. Ciardha had been right, I was a total exhibitionist.

  His hand left my right breast and went to my left. He leaned down to take a nipple in his mouth. His tongue snaked over it, sucking it until I thrashed against his hands. The sensation was insanely powerful, sending shockwaves of pleasure to my brain and my sex.

  "You like that," He growled, again it wasn't a question. I could tell the dragon was more in control than the man and all I could do was nod and let out a small mewling sound. He sat up again and caressed my body from my breasts, down my rib cage and belly to my core, circling his middle finger over my clit. "You want me, don't you? You want me to fuck you in front of all of Alexandria, claim you as mine, to fuck you into the dirt until my name echoes from your lips all through Egypt?"

  "Yes!" I shouted. "Just stop teasing me!"

  "Teasing you?" He growled. "You think I'm teasing you?"

  Chapter 11

  His fingers left my clit as he began to trail kisses and nips down my body.

  "Oh Gods," I yelled out.

  He lifted his head up. "The Gods have nothing to do with this Octavia. Call out for them again and you will be punished. Now, who is touching you right now?"

  "Cobalt," I shivered against him.

  "Who?!" He snapped, inserting one thick finger inside of me, I bit my lip from the sensation.

  "Cobalt!" I screamed.

  "That's better, now don't make that mistake again, alright?" He crooned, gently curling his finger inside of me, the tip of his finger rubbing against my G-spot.

  "Oh Cobalt," I threw my head back. Holy crap, more than a month of no sex and my body practically had air traffic controllers waving glow sticks telling Cobalt I was ready to go.

  He continued his trail of kisses until he came to my center. His finger still working inside me he twisted his tongue around my clit. He kept the perfect motion of his tongue as his finger continued to pump in and out of me. His other arm curled around my thigh as he yanked me closer to him.

  All thoughts of shame or embarrassment fled my body, all thoughts of the people hiding all around us gone. All that was left was me, Cobalt and the pleasure between us.

  My hands snaked into his hair, threading into the thick braids and twists, my nails scraping his scalp. He moaned against me and I looked down to see his cock so hard and straining.

  "Please Cobalt, please, I want you," I moaned against him.

  "Fuck, Octavia," Cobalt growled against me, one of his fangs gently grazed me and it was the final thing that sent me into a mind spiraling orgasm. I screamed his name to Ancient Egypt, my voice echoing in the oddly silent and destroyed city.

  Cobalt didn't wait for me to come down from my orgasm, he roughly knelt up and lined up his cock and sank into me. He groaned as he bottomed out inside of me. He slammed one hand down next to my head to hold him steady and the other he snaked around my lower back. I anchored my heels behind his back and locked my arms around his neck as he began to pound into me. It was animalistic, raw and savage as if the dragon was still more in control than the man. His claws dug into my back as he continued his onslaught, slamming into me roughly. I had never had sex as rough as this, as punishing. I might have won on the battlefield but in this Cobalt was letting me know that he reigned supreme, he was in control.

  I don't know how long we continued to fuck on the ground in the middle of Alexandria but slowly the darkness and twinkle of starlight began to ebb, replaced by the earliest streams of morning light. Cobalt came into me as he nibbled at my neck, a low rumble of growl releasing from his chest. At the same time, another orgasm hit me and I threw my head back with a moan as Cobalt lazily thrust into me.

  When we were done we collapsed side by side into the dirt. I hadn't realiz
ed how late it was. From the way Cobalt began to look around, I realized he was in the same predicament. I turned my head to look into his eyes, finding his gaze a lot calmer now. Gentler even. What we had done all night had apparently made him himself again. Sex saved the day. I saved the day. Yipee.

  "I'm so glad you're back, Cobalt," I smiled at him.

  "Me too," He smirked.

  The merchant can't even look me in the eyes as I ask him questions. I held the World card in one hand, the last major arcana card thrumming in my hand as it translated his words. I should be embarrassed, I tell myself as I realize that he is probably one of the people that witnessed Cobalt and I fuck in the middle of town. Okay, I am a bit embarrassed but not a bit ashamed. Technically, he could have looked away if he wanted to, he could've left. I refused to feel guilty for the wild reunion I had with Cobalt.