by Delta James
She tugged against his strength. “I’m not anything for anyone’s taking.”
He chuckled again. “Ah, but you are, and I will be the one doing the taking.”
Kellan brought his hand up to cradle the back of her neck in his strong grasp and drew her forward. Forgetting her modesty, she brought both hands up to push ineffectively at his broad chest.
“Let go,” she said, her voice gaining in determination.
“No,” he said silkily as he drew her into his embrace, his cock pressing against her and seeking the entrance to her core of its own accord.
His mouth descended as he caught her parted lips in a fiery kiss that turned brutal as she renewed her struggles. The hand that was not holding her by the neck swept down her back and cupped her buttocks to pull her more tightly against him. His tongue pushed past her teeth and swept through her mouth, tasting and exploring. Gods, she was sweet and untried unless he had badly misjudged her. Kellan considered the fact that she was a virgin and reined in his lust. If she was to be his mate, he would prefer that she welcome his possession. As he relaxed the hold he had of her body, the female dragon reared back, butted her head in a fierce blow to his nose as her knee came up to connect in a less than loving manner with his balls. Kellan staggered back from the unexpected attack.
She wrenched herself from his grasp and turned to run from him. Before he could react, she had called forth her dragon, shifted, and was beating her wings in order to take flight. But Kellan was faster and far more effective as both a fighter and a flier. She had barely cleared the edge of the island than he was above and slightly in front of her. He grasped her by the shoulders in his powerful back claws and dove toward the sea. He submerged her under the waves for a moment and then pulled her back up sputtering and cursing. Kellan banked back to their home, for he had determined she could only be his true heart and deposited her on the ground.
Surrounding her in a ring of fire, he roared, “Shift!”
He wasn’t sure if it was obedience or merely being surprised by the speed with which he had recaptured and overpowered her, but she reverted to her human form and he did the same. Kellan advanced on her and she blew a stream of fire at him, nearly hitting her target. He sidestepped the flame and rushed her, knocking the wind from her as she hit the ground and his body fell on top of hers. Kellan’s mind registered the fact that he had a beautiful, naked female beneath him and responded accordingly. It would be so easy to simply pry her legs apart and take her maidenhead as he claimed her as his mate.
But his pride was stinging, and he thought she needed to be taught the first in what he felt would be many lessons in obeying him. Kellan rolled off her body and up onto his feet, pulling her up with him. He glanced toward the rubble of the walls and spotted what he was looking for... a flat rock upon which he could sit and take her over his knee. He dragged her kicking and screeching toward the stony bench. He idly wondered if her backside was as virginal as the rest of her. Kellan had to admit he liked the idea of being the first to discipline his mate almost as much as the thought of being the first to part her thighs and sink into her wet heat. He sniffed the air and was rewarded with the knowledge that her arousal had spiked.
Sitting down, he pulled her across his hard thigh as his cock began to rise, trapping her legs between his. “Now, mate, I will see to your lesson in obedience before I teach you what it is to be bred by your lord and master.”
“No,” she wailed as the palm of his hand made its first impact with her ivory backside.
He smiled at the rosy pink halo that surrounded his first strike. Kellan pressed her down across his lap as he began to apply his hand to her bare bottom in the same way his ancestors had disciplined their mates. Female dragons were notoriously difficult to tame and rule. They were fearless and, in many ways, equaled their male counterparts—they could fly and were often, due to their smaller size, more nimble and aerodynamic; they could breathe fire; and they were courageous and bold. But Kellan meant to make the woman he held in place yield to his mastery as he spanked her.
Kellan’s hand came crashing down on her bottom. He intended this first spanking to be memorable and harsh enough that she thought twice before misbehaving again. Although, truth to tell, he rather admired the fact that she possessed the courage not only to resist him, but to attack him. He heard her inhale sharply as he landed repeated swats that covered her entire backside. Kellan was certain that the spanking was painful, especially for someone who, he suspected, had never received one. The trick was in finding the middle ground that would establish his dominance and inflame her already present desire.
His mate kicked her legs and tried to squirm away, but failed miserably. Kellan peppered her backside until he was quite certain it would be as red as the sunsets that often streaked across the western sky when he finished. He longed to feel her heated globes in his hands as he allowed his cock to pummel her pussy, driving both of them into a frenzy of lust. He’d forgotten how much pleasure and arousal could be found in spanking a woman’s bottom. Kellan could tell that not only was he inflicting a sufficient level of pain to be effective, but he was able to fan the flames of her desire, which he sensed were beginning to burn out of control. He wasn’t particularly angry but was determined to keep her pinned in place while he punished her backside.
“Stop! That hurts! Please stop,” she cried.
“Nay, mate, not until I think you’ve learned your lesson and admit you are my true heart.”
Kellan knew as he spanked and scolded her that she was not just another woman to fuck, not just a female dragon to be taken to mate and breed, but his true heart. Was that what awaited him when he finally woke from his slumber—his true heart... his eternal mate?
The dream was the only thing that disturbed his rest. Time and time again, it would replay over and over and end just shy of her capitulating to his mastery. Finally, Kellan’s mind ascended from the depths of darkness that had been his rest. When the last four dragons—Gideon, Duncan, Seth, and himself—had beseeched the sorceress, Elspeth, to send them to their eternal rest, Kellan had assumed that she was simply going to allow them to go to sleep and then to slip into the abyss of death peacefully. Kellan had argued with Gideon that they should make a last, suicidal attack on those who had hunted them into extinction, but Gideon had been adamant that it would do no good and that innocents might be killed. Kellan had cared little for and doubted the existence of innocents. But for all his fury, Kellan valued the last of his brethren and when the other three had opted to find their final rest in the caves at Dunnet Head, he had acquiesced and joined them.
As he came fully awake, the rage with which he had gone to sleep, and the lust that had been ignited by his dream, rushed to the forefront of his mind. He roared in both fury and anguish, sending a burst of fire all along the ceiling of the cave. The chamber in which he’d slept was sealed by a crystalline wall. It was the color of the sea and shattered when blasted with a focused torrent of flames into its center.
Kellan called back his humanity and rose to his imposing height. The tallest of the four remaining dragon-shifters, he had black curly hair and startling blue eyes. He walked into the main cavern and looked at the other three chambers—two were sealed, Gideon’s was not. He located the small chest into which he’d placed his last belongings alongside his sword and war ax. He stretched as he picked up the casket and placed it on the flat stone at the center of the cavern. He quickly slipped into his leather breeches, silk tunic, and armored jerkin. He donned the carrier for his ax that allowed it to rest diagonally across his back and attached his sword belt with its scabbard.
He walked to Gideon’s chamber and examined the remains of the crystalline structure that had sealed it. It too had been blasted from the inside. It would seem Gideon had been the first to wake. Knowing Gideon to be the planner of the group, Kellan began to methodically search for some clue as to where Gideon had gone and some explanation as to why he, and the others, were awakened.
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br /> Kellan checked the hollow in which Gideon had slept... but slept for how long, he wondered. There was evidence that Gideon had been there, awakened, and shattered the barrier that sealed his chamber, but nothing else. As he searched the larger cavern, he could see where Gideon had found his cask of clothing and personal items as well as his sword. Kellan continued searching until he found what appeared to be a small, hidden altar of sorts. There were two notes as well as pen, ink, and blank parchment.
He unrolled the scroll that had Elspeth’s handwriting:
If you are reading this, then one or more of you have awakened. I know you charged me with sending you to your eternal rest, but that I could not do. Duncan was mate to my sister and I cannot allow myself to believe she died in vain.
The four of you survived for a reason, what that reason is I don’t know, but I have to believe it was for the good of us all.
The spell I cast was to allow you to rest and awaken only when you were needed, either by your true heart or because our land was in need of its greatest protectors, the dragons of the elements—earth, sea, sky, and fire... Gideon, Kellan, Duncan, and Seth.
Elspeth
Bah, he thought. Sorceresses were not to be trusted. Their power was limited but they believed they knew best. They were wrong. He shook his head, wondering why he’d allowed Gideon to talk them into trusting her. Like most females, sorceresses needed a strong mate who could curb their headstrong ways with a combination of discipline and hard loving. Kellan had always believed that a woman was at her best when she had a well-spanked bottom and an oft-fucked pussy. He chuckled as his cock stirred at the thought of providing one or both to a female in the not too distant future.
Of the four of them, only Duncan had been blessed with a mate, his true heart. Neeva had been Duncan’s turned mate and had died trying to protect the last clutch of eggs and thus the future of their species. He picked up Elspeth’s note again. If his true heart had revealed herself, where was she?
He picked up the second parchment and immediately recognized Gideon’s bold hand.
My brothers,
So, it would seem Elspeth crafted a flaw in her spell to give us rest. How very much like her sister, Neeva, she is... or was.
I am the first of us to wake. I do not know how long we slept. I would ask that we each leave a note for those who remain as to where we have gone. I believe we should return each year at the summer solstice to ensure the safety of the others.
My first breath brought the scent of my true heart so perhaps Elspeth possessed knowledge that we did not have. I feel called both to my mate and to Cornwall. I am heading south to find both. I would welcome you joining me, but if you are called to your own home, I will see you here at the summer solstice.
If Elspeth is right, the revelation of our true hearts must mean that we were spared to reestablish a dynasty of dragons. Perhaps this age will see our species and our world returned to peace and prosperity.
Gideon
And bah again! Gideon had always been a romantic dreamer, always believing the best of others. Kellan trusted very few other than the three he called brothers and even fewer outside their own kind. He took a deep breath. He did long to smell the ocean breeze of his native western Eire. He would honor Gideon’s request to return to the cavern at the summer solstice, but first he meant to return home. He hoped Elspeth was right and that his true heart awaited him, but regardless he meant to find a female, turn her, and breed her.
Kellan had no desire to remain immortal but had an almost overwhelming need to plant his seed in fertile ground and welcome his offspring into the world. A world their sire would remake so that if it did not embrace their dragon lords, then those in it would fear and serve them. They had tried it Gideon’s way, to be the protectors of a just and harmonious world. In return, they had been hunted almost to extinction. Kellan meant to see that dragons reclaimed their dominance and their world. He would not make excuses like Elspeth nor would he leave a note of romantic drivel; instead he penned a short note to be left for Duncan and Seth.
Seth and Duncan,
I’ve seen the notes from Elspeth and Gideon. I have awakened and am going home to Raicleach. I intend to rebuild Raicleach and find a mate to breed and sire offspring.
I suggest you each do the same. We can, as Gideon suggested, meet back here at each of the summer solstices.
I wish you well.
Kellan
He picked up the small cask and removed his clothing, putting it and his weapons inside. He called forth his dragon. Standing at the edge of the cavern, high above the great northern ocean, he took in deep lungfuls of sea air as he spread his wings. Feeling the strength returning and coursing through his entire body, he picked up the reticule and fell forward, allowing the wind to catch and hold him aloft as he began to beat his wings to gain altitude and speed. Kellan soared above the clouds and then banked sharply into a steep dive heading straight for the water. He tucked into himself, making his body more streamlined as he dove under the waves, the frigid cold washing away the last ravages of sleep. As he broke the surface, he began to flap his wings so that he cleared the water and allowed the brilliant sun to dry and warm him, causing his metallic green scales to glisten.
Kellan turned southwest to head for his former, ancestral home... the castle at the headlands of the Cave of Tears. It had been Kellan who had sealed the cave after Neeva’s death and the destruction of the eggs. Duncan’s mate had fought bravely, but the odds had been against her and by the time he and Duncan had joined her, she was mortally wounded and the eggs destroyed. Duncan had lifted her body in his great claws and taken her home. It had been left for Kellan to see if any of the eggs had survived. When he saw the hunters had ensured their destruction, he sealed the cave, first with sea glass and then with molten rock he fashioned by searing with fire. When cooled, it became a hardened shell, forever sealing the remains of the eggs in their burial chamber.
As he flew across the northern sea toward his homeland he brooded about what might have caused him to stir. So Gideon had picked up the scent of his true heart? Kellan snorted. Gideon always did wax poetic about his romantic notions. His brothers had always believed in and waited for a true heart, the one female that would complete his soul. Kellan wasn’t convinced such a thing existed outside of myth and fairytales. If he had been awakened to help reestablish dragons in the world, would it not be better to mate with as many females as he could? If he was to give up his immortality to sire offspring, why limit himself to just one?
Kellan breathed deeply as he flew close to the water, skirting the land mass that was Eire. He expected nothing more than the familiar and comforting smells of the sea. Instead, he caught the faintest whiff of something different, an earthy scent of moss, clover, and wisteria. He shook his head to clear both his thoughts and his olfactory senses. Inhaling again, he had to admit that he had not been mistaken—his nostrils flared and filled with her heady scent. It had to be her, his true heart. No other scent could have overridden the salty tang of the sea.
With a newly found sense of urgency, Kellan propelled himself down the coastline toward home. It seemed to him his first task was to reclaim his land and his people.
Chapter Three
The Cave of Tears on the Western Coast of Ireland
Míorúilt had awakened the next day with a new sense of purpose and determination. Her parents had raised her not to dwell in the past or wallow in things that caused her pain. Instead she had learned to take the lessons she needed from the past and apply them in such a way that she created a better future.
So, she was a dragon. While disconcerting, it certainly wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to a girl. After all, she’d been able to avenge her parents’ deaths and fight off a rogue pack of wolf-shifters. She was intelligent and capable; surely her newly discovered skills could serve her well.
The first thing she needed to do was to find a more secure place to sleep and to set up a place for herself to
call home... or at least if not home, then a place to stay until she figured out her next move. The island, while somewhat protected by the surging seas, offered little in the way of true protection. It also did not seem overly hospitable in terms of cultivating food or a community. As the thought of community rolled across her brain, she realized the idea of living alone for the rest of her life was not appealing. She knew she would have to build her own village, so to speak, and realized that while she might be the only dragon, she could not be the only person displaced by the band of rogue wolves or just without a group of people to belong to.
Míorúilt looked down and stifled a laugh. The first thing was not finding a place to make a home, but rather was to find additional clothes. Being a naked dragon might be acceptable, but most people found it more comfortable to be interacting with a human who was wearing clothes. She stretched, stood, and called her dragon forward, shifting effortlessly into that new form and lifting off from the earth to fly. Why, oh why hadn’t her parents told her she could fly? It was the most magical feeling in the world to soar and glide along the air currents at one with the spray and the clouds.
As she flew toward the mainland, a twinkle in the rock caught her eye. Feeling emboldened by her ability to fend for herself, she turned toward the spot where she had seen something sparkle and found the entrance to a large cavern. Could this be the cave among the cliffs where her parents had first lived? She landed at the mouth of the opening, stumbling a little as she did. At least this time she neither somersaulted herself nor caused herself to shift. She peered into the darkness and strained her hearing but could detect no sound other than that of the sea below.
Sending a blast of fire up toward the ceiling, she illuminated the large main portion of the cave. The light confirmed for her sight what her hearing had told her... she was alone, and given that there appeared to be no easy path to get to the opening, she allowed herself to revert to her human form. Just inside the mouth of the cave, she found a hand-held torch and breathed just enough fire to ignite it. As it lit the darkness in her immediate vicinity, she giggled. Being a fire-breathing dragon had certain definite advantages.
