by Ophelia Bell
“You are a fast learner.” The wistful look was back in his dark eyes, in spite of the smile on his face.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “You keep looking at me like I might die.”
“I’m not worried about you dying. We have very long lives and are extremely hard to kill.”
“Then what are you worried about?” She worried enough herself about giving in to him so completely. But who else was there for her in the world?
“You still have a lot to learn, my love. Don’t worry, I mean to teach you everything.”
The sad look was quickly replaced by one of playful determination. He gripped her by the ass and lifted her up.
Rowan laughed and responded by wrapping her arms and legs around him, letting him carry her to his bed.
Chapter Five
Two nights later Rowan awoke from the sweetest dream of making love to Rafe. The bed beside her was empty, but she heard the creak of a step followed by the clinking sound of glass. Rowan sat up abruptly in the dark and looked around, but he wasn’t in the bed beside her, or anywhere else in the room. There were no lights on and the heavy curtains were drawn closed. She could still see clearly, having learned to adjust her dragon sight to the lack of light.
She climbed out of bed, listening. There were definitely voices coming from the first floor. A pair of male voices.
She threw on one of Rafe’s shirts that was about three sizes too big for her and nearly reached her knees. It smelled delightfully of him. She crept to the door and opened it slowly.
The sounds of their mingled voices became as clear as if they were standing outside the door.
“…exist outside the purview of the Council. How do they not know about her? She’s just a baby. My parents kept me in human form until I was sixteen. Most broodlings have to wait longer before they are allowed to unleash their true form. She’s twenty-eight already, with no one to teach her who she is!”
“Rafe, friend. We’ll figure this out. We always knew the Council couldn’t be infallible. She’s the proof. We can use her presence against them. Leverage to get us what we want.”
“But what do we want? To mate with whomever we choose? We always both agreed they made the right decision on that. There are too few of us still—inbreeding would destroy the race.”
“What we want is to abolish the sleep. It puts us at a weakness. The next generation shouldn’t be at such a disadvantage. Her presence proves it’s pointless. She’s at full power, you said?”
“Sweet Mother, yes. She’s more powerful than Geva. Only a purebred would be that powerful.”
“Yet another reason to confront the Council. If there are other dragons outside the Brood that have bred while we slept, inbreeding wouldn’t be a concern, particularly if they are as pure as she is.”
“The Council won’t see it that way. The law is the law to them, unless we convince them to change it, but that’s one law that has stood for the last six generations.”
Rowan sank down against the door jamb in the dark of the bedroom. Her gut tightened at everything she was hearing. They were talking about her. Rafe had called a friend to talk about her. Was he another dragon, this nameless voice below? He must be. None of the rest of it made sense, though. What was a Geva? It sounded like the name of a god, for all she knew.
“As long as she’s better behaved than Geva, she’ll be fine. She’ll be free to find a human mate like the rest of us.”
The sound of breaking glass made Rowan jerk in surprise.
“You don’t understand, Kol. I have to have her. Not a human.”
“You’re in love with her.”
“What? No… she’s just… she’s pure. Tell me why we shouldn’t be able to breed?”
Tears streamed down her face and she swiped them away roughly with the cuff of the shirt she wore. She only half heard the talk that followed. Quiet words of comfort from the friend. More talk of bloodlines. But all he wanted her for was a broodmare?
“I love you, Rafe. But I can’t do this.”
She only hoped he heard her. She found a pair of sweat pants and a shirt, then grew frustrated with how they hindered her movement. The burn in her belly grew and she remembered the magic. If she could conjure her hands, she could conjure an outfit.
“Rowan wait!”
The door swung open and Rafe stood there, a larger, darker man behind him. She stood by the open window, clad in the red leather outfit she’d succeeded in conjuring for herself via some serious concentration and a lot of deep breathing. She was ready to jump out and see if she could actually convince herself to fly. Rafe had told her dragons could fly in their true forms, at least.
“I’m leaving. You and your people clearly have some issues to work out. I don’t want any part of it.”
“Rowan, stop.” The deep, commanding voice of the other man actually pulled her back into the room. Jesus, it felt like a pair of hands were holding her, actually turning her around. She was helpless in the invisible clutches of this stranger.
He squeezed past Rafe’s large figure in the doorway and came to stand in front of her. She had to crane her neck to look up at him.
“Sorry, I don’t like having to do this, but I needed to be sure you wouldn’t leave. Please stay and listen. We won’t hurt you.”
Rowan squirmed in the invisible grasp and finally nodded. “Fine, I’ll stay.” She shot a flaming look at Rafe, oddly satisfied when he ducked his head in response.
“My name is Kol,” the man said. “I’m what you might call the head of security for the Dragon Brood. I care about keeping everyone safe. Every dragon. And every human bonded to us.”
“Please let me go. I’m not going to give away any of your secrets. I just want my life to be my own.”
The man’s lips twisted ironically. He was impossibly pretty, even prettier than Rafe, if she had to quantify it, and his deep voice seemed to vibrate at a frequency that made her nipples hard. Yet the invisible grip on her body remained.
“We all want that. That’s what we were talking about downstairs. What you heard. Freedom is what we all want. I want you to help us. Help our children be free to live.”
“Why should I?”
The man glanced back at Rafe, who nodded at him. He turned back to look at her. His eyes were even deeper and blacker than Rafe’s if that were possible. The hold he had on her finally released.
“Because even if he loves you, according to our laws, the two of you will never be allowed to mate or breed.”
“Does he love me?” She glared at Rafe again. “Or am I just a vessel for his perfect babies?”
Kol looked uncomfortable. “That’s not how it works with us. I promise. Rafe knows better than to mate another dragon. That’s why he called me.”
Rowan shot a look at Rafe, trying to discern any emotion in his placid expression. Did he love her, or was that just a ploy for Kol to get her to do what he wanted? “He called you because he wants to mate with me?”
Marriage, let alone children, had never been on her radar. She’d begun to think of Rafe as a potential partner. The potential for more than that wasn’t something she’d thought about until now. Looking at him now, her gut twisted. She wanted it. And she wanted it with him.
“I want to,” Rafe said. His dark-browed eyes seemed so forlorn. “There’s more to mating than just intercourse. It requires specific intent and verbal consent, both to mate and to breed. Nothing we do is by accident. I could feel how much you wanted it the entire time, Rowan. And believe me I wanted to…”
“What would have happened if we did?” She directed her look at both men.
“You would mark each other. The mark binds you for life.” Kol seemed oddly apprehensive and shot a look at Rafe. Rowan was sure they were hiding something by the sag of Kol’s shoulders. “But our laws are clear, and part of my job is to enforce the laws, which I will do, if I have to.”
“Why do I get the sense that you don’t really enjoy your job?” Rowan asked with a t
ilt of her head. Kol was starting to grow on her a little.
“Because your existence proves what I’ve always suspected. The Council has been lying to us for centuries. Millennia.”
Rowan looked at Rafe. “What happens if we try to be together? What will they do?”
Rafe’s voice was strained, his face drawn with worry. “Likely they would take you and force you into hibernation for the next five centuries. When you woke up, I would be dead. It’s their way of controlling our breeding cycle. Rowan, I’m already halfway through my life. I don’t have five hundred years to wait. I’m expected to find a human woman to bond with, like the others, but you’re the woman I want.”
“You want me to breed with. So why the hell should I stay if it’s just to be his broodmare?” She directed the question at Kol, but Rafe was the one who answered.
“Rowan, I don’t care if we never reproduce. That’s not why I want you. Did the last two days not tell you as much?” He started to step toward her. Kol held his friend back.
“Of course it is your choice,” Kol said. “Leave and live as a human if you wish, but you can have no further contact with other dragons or I would have to turn you in to the Council. You’ll be safer if only Rafe and I know you exist.” He paused and stepped toward her, placing a large, warm hand on her shoulder. “Or stay and help us confront the Council with your existence. We have other friends who will help. As long as we stand together, I believe we can make a change.”
Rafe seemed to lean toward her, intent on what she would say. She wanted him more than she’d wanted anything in her life. The past weekend had been overwhelming and enlightening and oh, so beautiful. Every lovemaking session had been even more spectacular than the last. Every waking moment when they weren’t entwined had been spent with her asking question after question and him answering eagerly and honestly. At least she’d thought so. That first night she had known she would fall for him, and she had. Hard. But the thought of having an entire race—and her own happiness—dependent on her decision was an impossible situation, especially when his feelings for her still seemed so uncertain.
Her eyes welled with tears as she looked at him. Her gut knotted with anguish. “I’m sorry, this is too much for me to decide. Please forgive me.”
Before they could respond, she looked back towards the window. Fly or die. She leapt out, caught the strong gust of cool Pacific wind, and flew.
Epilogue
One week ago…
Rafe ran a shaky hand through his hair, cursing himself for his nerves. The red beauty was at the club again, for the third time in as many weeks. His club. This was his sanctuary, and one of the few assets from his inheritance that gave him true joy. Like every Shadow dragon, he was prone to dark moods, and lately they were brought on by his as yet unmet need to find a human mate.
The club was his father’s gift to him, intended to help facilitate that very thing. Except none of the human women he’d met and seduced had interested him enough for more than a single night. They were beautiful, of course, and fulfilled his particular needs for fresh energy when he took them to his nearby penthouse and made love to them. They never left wanting, but Rafe himself was increasingly frustrated by the lack of a deeper connection with any of them.
Then she walked in one night, so vibrantly beautiful with her brilliant red hair and perfect shimmering skin, his heart nearly stopped. He watched her from the shadows that first night, disbelieving his eyes that a red dragon so exquisite could exist. The other dragons who frequented his club didn’t seem to register her presence, and she seemed equally oblivious to them. It was the strangest thing to watch – as though they had selective blindness to each other.
Was she somehow charmed? If so, how was he able to see her for what she was when the others weren’t? She wasn’t from the recently ascended brood, that much he knew, which meant she’d been born outside the purview of the Council’s laws, and was likely only exactly as old as she looked. If she hadn’t hibernated with the rest of his brood, she may only have been born within the last few decades, while the other dragons in the place, himself included, were all at least half a millennium old.
That thought worried him. If he could see her for what she was, then whatever magic left her nature invisible to the other dragons must be weakening. If anyone with a need to earn praise from their autocratic Council discovered what she was, she would be in danger of losing her powers as punishment for simply being born outside their laws.
He’d observed her from afar for long enough, and had learned as much as he could about her without actually approaching her. She needed his protection, but he needed to know more about her than the fact that she had a preference for the most expensive tequila the bar stocked, and an equally discerning preference for the wealthiest human men – and occasionally the women – who frequented his establishment.
Tonight the atmosphere in the club was particularly charged, and the tequila was flowing. The wealthier residents of San Diego who had chosen to forego a trip to Tijuana in honor of Cinco de Mayo enjoyed the festive atmosphere at Rafe’s Latin-themed club, the Fuego Nocturno. Energy was high, and escalated to an almost frenetically sexual pitch after she arrived, her aura pulsing with a particular craving tonight that Rafe recognized as the distinct aura of a Red on the hunt.
Around the Red, men and women gravitated toward each other with lust-filled gazes. One couple even disappeared into one of the dark alcoves that existed around the perimeter of the large room, tangled in a passionate embrace. It was only a semi-private spot that the other humans wouldn’t be able to see into, but Rafe and any of the dragons in the place could easily view past the shadows with their preternatural senses.
The lovely Red’s attention turned toward the couple with both amusement and arousal.
“Now’s as good a time as any,” Rafe muttered, steeling his resolve to step within the potent cloud of her seductive aura. He ignored the surge of lust that caused his entire body to flush from the close proximity to her. Sweet Mother, she was a powerful Red. Did she not know what kind of effect she had on the entire crowd? Briefly he was reminded of another Red he was well acquainted with. One of the young Court dragons, Geva, had once incited an orgy on the streets out of a misplaced sense of rebellion just before their generation went into hibernation five hundred years earlier. Not many reds were powerful enough to affect huge crowds into such profligate behavior.
He moved onto the bar stool beside her and his cock twitched and hardened, aiming in her direction like it were a dowsing rod seeking out the surest source of power. Out of the entire club, she was definitely the locus, and he marveled that none of the other half-dozen dragons had gravitated toward her. No doubt they were reaping the benefit of this young Red’s overflowing energy, though. He glanced around and saw one of the other female dragons dancing in an almost lurid embrace between two human men. Another male dragon was seated in a booth with one woman writhing on his lap and two others flanking him while both his hands disappeared up their skirts.
Taking a deep breath, Rafe signaled the bartender who pulled a bottle of whiskey down from a high shelf and poured without having to be told what Rafe’s preferred drink was. Rafe was idly grateful for his idea to make sure the staff was magically guarded against dragon magic, otherwise business would suffer on nights like tonight.
When he lifted his glass, the ice clinked and the woman’s posture shifted, her awareness honing in on him with interest, though she didn’t turn. She remained facing that steamy alcove with her elbow on the bar, one hand caressing the tumbler of amber liquid in front of her. She took it neat, he observed, appreciating the aroma of the exquisite añejo tequila, one of his own favorites, though not the best. The tequila was only the best he chose to invest in for the club – his personal collection included the true pinnacle of the liquor but it was too rare by far to share with the drunken masses.
Rafe directed his gaze to the scene unfolding in the dark alcove across the club. The woman’s he
ad was tilted back as she panted in ecstasy beneath the man’s urgent touch. He squeezed her breasts while his tongue trailed up her bared throat and his mouth crashed down onto hers.
“A round of drinks says he’ll fuck her right there,” Rafe said, leaning close enough to capture a full lungful of his Red’s delicious, spicy scent.
His Red? What was he thinking? Dragons couldn’t interbreed. Except in very specific circumstances, it was the law. Humans were their mates of choice and had been since the very beginning. No, this Red could not be his, but he could at least entertain a brief game with her in the hopes of learning more about her.
“Two shots of tequila says he goes down on her,” she replied.
Two shots of tequila if you let me go down on you, Rafe thought, intrigued by her counter-challenge and struggling even more to maintain control of himself. He ached to simply touch her, believing that if he did her skin might sear him, and he would love it. Instead, he reined in that urge, opting for a more casual reply.
“Oh, darling, that’s cruel. To yourself, I mean. A man never goes down on a woman unless he loves her.”
She let out a melodic laugh, turning her head slightly as though to look at him but not quite actually daring to do so.
“That is patently untrue,” she said.
Rafe didn’t argue the point. She was right, though he suspected that any man who’d had a taste of her must have at least left the encounter completely enraptured, if not actually in love. He shifted slightly closer so he could speak in a lower tone and still be heard over the pulsing music that surrounded them. His Red seemed to lean back ever so slightly as though gravitating toward him.
“You’re right. I’d go down on you in a heartbeat and I don’t even know your name.”
