by Alicia Banks
“Tell me another one.”
Her voice was adamant. Cassandra was done being left in the dark.
“You’re pregnant.’
“You said that before. I know it’s a possibility.”
“No, you are pregnant, and they are going to be like me.”
Cassandra stopped and stared. “What?”
“My dragon mated with you and that guarantees it. You’re mine now, and you’re claimed. No one can touch you. Our kids will be here soon.”
“Kids.”
“Probably more than one, but we can talk about that later.”
Cassandra was starting to feel lightheaded. A dragon was one thing, dragon lover, another. But to think of herself having a bunch of dragon kids was too much. She saw black and felt Antoine’s arms around her, right before she fell down.
***
Cassandra came to with Antoine looking down at her, concern on his face.
“Are you alright?”
She smiled and sat up, rubbing her head. “You would not believe the dream I just had.”
Cassandra looked around and quickly realized that she was exactly where she had left off in her dream. Which meant that it wasn’t a dream at all. She hadn’t made it up. It had really happened.
Immediately, she sat up completely and wanted to know if what she thought was real, was real. Was he really a dragon? Had all of it really happened?
“You’re a…”
“Yeah, I am.”
“And I’m…” Cassandra touched her stomach and looked up at him. She couldn’t actually say the words out loud. She didn’t want to. Cassandra couldn’t believe that she could actually be pregnant or that he was a dragon. It was all more than she was prepared to handle.
“Yeah, you are. We really need to get moving. We can stay with Nathan tonight. I thought we got them all, but that’s what happens when you don’t take care of all of them.”
“That was Gill?”
Antoine agreed. “We need to get out of here.”
“Wait, I need a minute, Antoine. This is a bit much to process, so you’re going to have to give me a little time.”
“Sorry, I know this is a lot. I was so worried about what you would think of me when you found out. Tell me that you think we can still be together. I have to know.”
“You talked like I didn’t have a choice.”
“Of course, you do. You should know that I would never do anything to hurt you, ever.”
Cassandra agreed. “I know. I actually dreamed about you for weeks now, like that, you know, your dragon or whatever.”
His brow went up. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.” Cassandra didn’t know why she was bringing it up all of a sudden, but she was so turned on.
“Do you want to know what happened?”
He agreed. “I think that I do.”
“Well, you would turn into your human form after I rode you, though I could never see your face. Then, you would come over to me and you would make love to me for hours, until I’d wake up and ruin it.”
“Nice.”
“Yeah, it really was. I have woken up so worked up because of that dream. I can’t even say how many times I’ve had it. A lot. That’s all I know.”
“Is that what you want now? Do you want me to ravish you on this mountain?”
Cassandra liked the words he was using, and they made her shake inside. Yes, she needed a ravishing.
“Would it be so bad if I did?”
Antoine growled and leaned in for a kiss. She was still on the ground where he’d laid her and he mounted her body, wedging himself between her thighs. She was ready and wet for him, while he was hard and ready for her. To Cassandra, it was even better than the sexy dreams that kept her up all night.
Antoine was not gentle with her that time and Cassandra didn’t want him to be. She was full of need and desire and light lovings wasn’t going to do it for her. She needed something strong, that would take her breath away.
He slammed in quickly and rutted to keep her at the top of her desires. Cassandra exploded several times, thinking about the dragon and the ride. All of it was more than she could imagine, but it was all happening, right in front of her.
Antoine wanted to kiss while he slid in and out of her. Cassandra had to push away, not able to get air. She was suffocating from his attention and she needed some air.
“You’re too much, Antoine.”
He grinned and promised that he would make sure that she always felt that way.
“I want you to always feel like you might not make it.”
Cassandra laughed, until he started to move faster, and her eyes closed with the pleasure of it. She was on the brink in seconds, and then falling down a chasm of wonder almost immediately.
Cassandra couldn’t help but beg for him to come. She remembered well how he would swell and stretch her beyond her limits, but she wanted to feel it so badly. She had to feel it.
When he started to grow inside of her, Cassandra gripped him tightly and she had to hold her breath, sure that she wouldn’t be able to handle it that time. It was impossibly big, too big, but she somehow was able to take all of him. When he filled her full of his hot seed, she was reminded of his other secret. She was carrying his children. Was that how?
Cassandra meant to ask him, but somewhere along the line, she’d passed out in his arms and didn’t wake up till a while later, and it was completely black by the time she sat up. Her stomach was rumbling, and their circumstances started to hit her. They weren’t very good, not by a long shot.
“So, where are we going tonight? Your house is gone. All those pictures.”
He grinned solemnly. “I guess we will have to have another session so I can draw you.”
Cassandra looked away. “How can you joke at a time like this?”
He shrugged. “What more can I ask for? I have you by my side, so if I had to give up my house, I don’t mind. As long as we’re together, our family, that’s all that matters.”
Cassandra got up. She wasn’t quite ready to hear about their family. Not yet. She was going to need a bit more time for that.
“Do you not know where?”
“Nathan is going to put us up. I was just waiting for you to wake up. You looked so peaceful.”
“Peaceful is the last thing I would call myself right now.”
“While that may be true, when you sleep, you look positively radiant, and it’s hard for me to take my eyes off of you.”
“Maybe it's that pregnancy glow doing it, you know, from multiple babies.”
Cassandra was just being facetious. It wasn't like she didn't believe him, but it was kind of hard to do so. She still wanted to think that she had some say in the things that affected her life. At the moment, though, it really didn’t feel like it. Currently, it felt like other people were running her life and Cassandra didn’t approve of what they were making her do.
She got up, even though she didn’t want to. She knew that it was too cold to sleep outside like that. It was blissful there, a moment of happiness found in the midst of chaos.
“Are we going to talk about what that was even about? I mean, it seems like you have a lot of people that want to kill you.”
He shook his head that they wouldn't talk about it right then. “Let's just say that this is a bit more of Nathan's problem coming back to me. He is the one they want to kill.”
“Is he?”
Antoine agreed. “Yeah, he is the one they want. I’m just his friend, along for the ride. I’m sorry you keep getting dragged into this.”
“It’s okay.”
“Well, it’s not.”
Cassandra changed the subject and shook her head in disbelief. “I can't believe that you guys are dragons. I thought that they were mythical creatures. I had never heard of them actually being humans, too.”
“I'm not human, Cassandra. And Nathan isn’t a dragon.”
“Then, what are you? What is he?”
“I'm a dragon, and I'm a man
. Nathan turns into a wolf. We are what are called shifters. We shift from one form to another.”
“Like a werewolf?”
“Sort of. Shifters can turn into anything, and I just happen to turn into a dragon. I know some that turn into bears, panthers, or lots of other things.”
Cassandra just couldn't believe it. She did have a million questions to ask, but it wasn't the right time. She’d had enough for the day. Between their lovemaking and the attack, the dragon knowledge, it was all just too much. Her brain was fried and all she wanted to do was lay down and go to sleep, for a very long time.
“I'll answer anything you want to know, Cassandra. All you have to do is ask. I can’t imagine how shocking all of this is to you.”
“Maybe later, Antoine. I just want to lay down somewhere and go to sleep.”
“Do you keep thinking that tomorrow everything will be different?”
Cassandra didn't want to admit it, but maybe that was the case. Maybe the reality that she found herself in was so overwhelming, that the idea of it all being a dream was starting to sound better and better. What if she could just wake up the next day and everything would be different and better? What if Antoine would be a man again and they wouldn't be running for their lives, narrowly escaping being burned alive, twice? Would that be so bad?
Chapter 14
Antoine
They got to Nathan’s, and Cassandra basically passed out as soon as he showed her where the bed was. Nathan kept apologizing, but Antoine wasn't really listening to him. He was more worried about Cassandra and how differently she was acting. She seemed out of it, and when Antoine said something to Nathan about it, he just explained that it was probably her way of dealing with it.
“You overloaded her human brain. She is definitely taking it better than I have seen some people take it. It's a lot to find out that everything you thought you knew, was wrong. I would imagine it's going to take a little time for her to get used to the idea of it. You're just going to have to give her time.”
“What if I don't want to give her time?”
“It doesn't really matter, does it? The fact is that she needs it. Just go slow with her and try to keep her out of this chaos.”
“Well, if I would stop being attacked, it probably would help things out. That's twice now she's almost been burned alive. I don't really know how to spin that into something good. Do you?”
“No, not really. I do know what you're going through, though, really I do. You seem to forget that I went through something very similar not too long ago.”
“I know, but it was easier when you were going through it, Nathan. It was worth it, though, wasn't it?”
Nathan agreed immediately.
“I wouldn't change any of it for the world, but there were definitely some moments that I had to consider if I was making the right choice or not. It was not an easy path.”
Antoine shrugged. “It doesn't matter if I've made the right choice or not with her. She is mated to me now. We are together for life. You know how that works.”
“Is that what you want, though?”
Antoine agreed that it was, without any hesitation. He wouldn't have let it happen, let his dragon take over, if he had been against it. There were ways to fight it, he could have left her there. He could have done a lot of things to stop it, but Antoine let it happen.
“So, you really did mate with her? I thought you were just going to bang her?”
“My dragon took over and did it for me. I am not going to say that I didn’t have a choice, but I was urged very strongly toward Cassandra.”
“That doesn't happen very often.”
“No, it really doesn't. It just told me what I already knew. I knew the first time that we were together that she was going to be mine. It was just a feeling I had, like we were meant to be together. That's how I feel now.”
“Get out of here with that, man. Stop overthinking it.”
“That's easier said than done.”
Nathan agreed. “Yeah, sometimes it can be. It’s really hard when you have a girl that is messing with your head.”
“Are we going to talk about what happened tonight?”
“Changing the subject?”
“Yeah, I don’t need any more of your love advice.”
“You know who did this?”
“I think, it is Gill.” He said but wasn’t one hundred percent sure that it was Gill, but it felt like it. He hadn't been able to get close enough and even that night, he hadn't been able to take him out.
“So, what do we do?”
“What we always do, take care of the problem. That’s the only way. We tried letting him live.”
Antoine tightened the grip on the beer in his hand. He was done with the war that wasn't even his own. He wanted to help Nathan, that's why he was doing it to begin with, but it was just pulling him and Cassandra from one bad situation to another. And now, Antoine didn’t even have a home. That was a particularly hard blow to soften.
“You know you owe me for a house, right?”
Nathan grinned. “We will get you set up somewhere else. For what you have done for me and my family, I would buy you ten houses. I hear I have the money now.”
Antoine told him that he didn't need ten houses, just one. “You're also going to put me up in a nice hotel until that house is built.”
Nathan agreed. He would have never had the money to take care of such things, running a shifter training school for a friend of his, but now that he was king of Fire Island, he had more money than he knew what to do with. The people they were fighting, however, did not have the moral high ground, but more of an asset-rich one that they didn't want to lose.
Antoine wanted to go to bed, but he didn't know if he would even be wanted there. Cassandra was acting strange again, looking like she was debating if she wanted to even be around him, let alone be his lover. Antoine worried about things between them. He worried about her reaction to everything going on. She had been taking it surprisingly well, but maybe it was too well. How could Antoine imagine that she would go along with such things? It really didn't make any sense, which told him that it might not be the truth.
“I'm telling you, Antoine, you just need to get out of your head. You didn't want to take my advice before, but you did. You got your head right and you just need to listen to me again.”
Antoine tried to take his friend’s advice, but it didn't do much good. He couldn't forget about Cassandra and wipe the whole situation out of his mind. He wanted her again, even as he just previously wore her out. It wasn't enough for Antoine. He was starting to wonder if it would ever be enough. She was just too perfect in his arms.
He went to lay down with her and had to resist the urge to do more than pull her in for a hug. He had to refrain from doing what he wanted to do, which was make her scream over and over again. There had been a few moments where he thought he would lose her, when she had almost been burned again, and he knew that he could never live without her. It wasn't just the strength of the mating bond. It was something else. There was something deeper between them, and Antoine would spend the rest of his life making sure that she was happy.
***
Cassandra woke him up a few hours later, moving around and kicking in her sleep. He had to settle her down with a kiss, and finally he asked her what was the matter.
She sighed and fell back into the bed.
“I just had the worst dream.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, it was horrible.”
“What was it about?”
She paused for a moment, hesitating, and Antoine knew that he had to press her on the issue. She had already dreamed about him and their midnight ride. He wondered if she was like some humans, carrying powers that she didn't even understand. A seer would start out with dreams, some dreams coming true and being so vivid that they stayed with them the rest of their lives. Cassandra had those type of dreams, and he wondered if there was more to it than just the current chaos pre
senting itself.
“It was about that dragon that attacked us yesterday.”
“How do you know it was the same one?”
“He had the same eyes, and you were right, it is Gill. Just like when you are in your dragon form, you have the exact same eyes. Gill’s haven't changed, either. He got really close to me a couple of times, so I got a good look at him. I am almost positive that he is the dragon.”
“So, what happened in the dream?”
Antoine wanted to reassure her again that she was safe, but he was far more interested in what happened in the dream. Why did he feel like it was going to give him some kind of clue that he was going to need to know? Stranger things had happened, of course.
“Well, he was at this place. It was so strange, but it actually glowed like all around with fire. It looked like the whole place was on fire, and I saw Gill there. He slowed down and started burning everything. It looked just like a fire at first, but obviously, it was more than that, though. He burned everything in his way. You could hear screaming; it was horrible. I don't think I've ever been that scared in all of my life. It was like I was watching it happen and there was nothing I could do about it. I felt so helpless.”
Antoine immediately knew that if the dream was correct, then Gill was on his way to the Fire Islands to wreak havoc. Nathan had been ready to move there with Lauren, his wife, but they were just plans for now. Soon they were supposed to move for good, even though it was so far away from London where he worked.
“How would you feel about staying here with Lauren?”
“I don't really know her all that well, but she seems nice enough.”
“She is. I think the two of you will get along just fine.”
“Is she a human, too?”
Antoine disagreed. “No, but she actually thought that she was a human for most of her life. She just recently found out that she's a shifter.”
“How do you find that out?”
Antoine told her that it was a long story, and he would tell it to her when he got back.
“You better come back.”
Antoine kissed her.
He promised to come back. “I guess that I will stay here and get along with everyone, waiting for you. Don't make me wait too long, Antoine.”
