“My tribe lives in stone dwellings carved into a cliffside south of here, above the desert, but we do not even number one hundred, much less thousands. Not even counting our sister tribes we trade with.” She let out another soft sigh. “It does not even seem possible that there were thousands of humans in the whole world, especially not in one place.”
“Not one place. There were many cities. Your kind has always vastly outnumbered mine, and even now I fear that holds true—more so than ever, perhaps. I have encountered few dragons in recent centuries, and based on their accounts, only males have been hatching from eggs. As that ratio between males and females has increased, the males have become increasingly aggressive when the comet is overhead. Many male dragons have killed one another over their desire for a dragoness, and often those females are harmed or killed during those struggles. It seems there are not enough dragonesses to replenish our kind.”
Elliya flattened her palm on his shoulder. “This has been since the Red Star?”
“Yes. It is a result of Dragonsbane’s curse.”
“We have birthed fewer and fewer males. We have but five males in our tribe, two of whom are old and likely not long for this world and two who are too young to sire children. At least one of those boys will be traded to a sister tribe once he is of age to sire.” She searched his blue, blue eyes. “That is why my people have chosen to view the Red Star as a boon rather than a curse. We have had stories passed down from our ancestors telling us that our brave huntresses may venture out to claim dragon mates beneath the Red Star, bringing prime males to the tribe who will revitalize our bloodlines and protect us from the desert’s many dangers.
“They—you—are our only hope.”
His brows fell, a deep crease forming between them. “I am no savior for your people, Elliya. There is no saving either humans or dragons from this slow decline.”
“But what if—” Elliya sealed her lips and looked away before she could voice the rest of those words.
No. Dragons and humans would not come together, not when there was such a cost. Not when there was such hatred.
“Is it so horrible to be human?” she asked instead, unable to meet his eyes. “To be with me?”
“However I appear, Elliya, I am not human, and my views of your kind were shaped long before now. But you have challenged those beliefs.” Falthyris slipped his fingers into her hair, cupping the back of her head, and guided her eyes to his. “Being with you is many things. Horrible is not amongst them.”
As if to demonstrate this, he lifted his hips, slowly pushing his cock deeper inside her, stretching her anew.
A soft moan escaped her, and she bore down on him as her lashes fluttered closed. A small smile curled on her lips. Falthyris growled. The hand on her back slid down to grasp her ass, holding her firmly and forcing her to grind against him. He was buried so deep, and yet he was never deep enough.
“Your pleasure only makes you more beautiful.” He lowered his hand from her hair to curl his fingers around her throat, his thumb sliding up and brushing along her lower lip.
Elliya opened her eyes and met his gaze. Lust burned in those bright blue orbs. She couldn’t know for sure whether it was Falthyris himself lusting for her or the effects of the Heat driving him, but there was a certain clarity in his eyes, a deliberate focus, that made her believe this was all him regardless of the Red Star’s influence.
Either way, Elliya didn’t care at that moment, not when he was looking at her like that. Not when she felt so wanted. She dipped her head and claimed his mouth, caressing his lips with hers.
Falthyris groaned. His hold on her throat tightened, but it caused her no pain—it only heightened her excitement as he took control of the kiss. He slanted his mouth over hers and kissed her harder, deeper, thrusting that long, dexterous tongue past her lips to stroke hers as she had taught him to do.
Elliya’s hips undulated in time with his shallow thrusts, each of which was more urgent and desperate than the last, each of which sent pulses of pleasure through her. She broke the kiss, pushing up with her hands upon his chest. Their eyes met briefly before his gaze trekked down her body, over her bouncing breasts and the flat of her stomach, finally settling on the place where his cock was pounding into her sex.
The heat in his eyes intensified. He growled and clamped his hands on her hips, granting her movements strength as she rode him harder, faster, slamming her down to take him as deep as she could. Her breathless moans and his guttural grunts echoed off the cave walls.
They’d mated not long before, and her body had not yet cooled. His ministrations now were like gentle breaths across glowing coals, coaxing them back to flame—but it was no modest fire that sparked within her now. It was a roaring inferno, a blaze big enough to reach right up to the sky and set it alight. Falthyris’s lips peeled back to reveal his sharp, clenched teeth, and he quickened his pace.
Her fingers curled against his chest as the firestorm within her grew, and she did not stop. She could not stop. She spread her legs wider, needing him deeper, needing everything.
Ecstasy erupted within her core, ripping through Elliya and tearing her asunder. She threw her head back and cried out against the overwhelming pleasure at the same instant that Falthyris roared. Her sex spasmed, clamping tight around his cock.
He squeezed her hips tighter, and his hips moved faster still. His shaft thickened and burst, sending a bloom of heat deep into her core that triggered a second eruption, this one hot and forceful, shaking her from head to toe. Falthyris slammed her down upon him and held her firmly in place.
Her dragon snarled and huffed, grunting as stream after stream of his seed filled her.
Elliya panted, waiting for her senses to return as her body thrummed with pleasure.
Falthyris’s hands slid up from her hips until his rough palms were over her breasts. His fingers stroked and kneaded her skin and caressed her nipples, moving with a gentleness and worshipfulness she wouldn’t have thought him capable of before today.
She lifted her head and looked down at him. His eyes blazed, and that fiery glow in his chest had spread to suffuse his shoulders, biceps, abdomen, and neck, pulsing faintly as though with the heartbeat she felt through his throbbing cock.
Elliya ran her fingertips along his glowing, orange veins, but her eyes didn’t leave his. “My dragon.”
Falthyris dropped his hands to catch both her wrists. He tugged her arms apart, pulling her down atop him. She had only time enough to release a playful yelp before her chest was flush against his.
He snarled and lifted his head, turning his face into her neck, nipping her shoulder with his sharp teeth. Her breath hitched. The pricks of pleasure-pain sent tingles all along her skin. His tongue flicked out a moment later to soothe where he’d bitten. She giggled as it tickled her skin.
When he was done, he tucked her head beneath his chin and wrapped his arms around her. He lifted his wings, which had been spread across their nest to either side of him, and curled them over Elliya, blanketing her in their warmth.
She smiled and closed her eyes as she rested her cheek upon his shoulder. His heartfire remained visible as a warm, dim red glow through her eyelids, fading a little more with each heavy beat of his heart.
Elliya refused to let her doubts surface during those moments, choosing instead to focus upon her contentment, her dragon’s warmth, the sense of fullness he offered her—not just of body, but of soul.
13
A torrent of blood flowed into Falthyris’s lair, covering the sand bed, sweeping away the nest his mate had fashioned—sweeping her away. He swam against the crimson tide, straining to reach her, but Elliya only drifted farther and farther away. His body was too small, too weak to reach her. His heartfire blazed, burning so hot it would undoubtedly consume him from within, becoming a desperate, impotent inferno that could not save her.
Elliya’s head dipped, and she vanished below the surface.
Falthyris woke with a jolt,
sitting up and throwing his hands out to feel for Elliya. All they encountered was the blanket and the grass mats beneath him; she was gone.
His racing heart quickened further, but even its thunderous beats were nearly inaudible over the roar of his heartfire. The Red Heat was thick in the air around him. He felt it pushing down on him, pushing into him, its warmth sickening and uncomfortable. His cock was already extruding from his slit, throbbing in hunger and dripping with seed. That Heat-induced arousal was in direct conflict with the leaden ball of dread seated in his gut.
Eight days had passed since he’d first tried to make a real connection with her, since he’d realized that she could be so much more than a vessel by which to relieve his urges. In that time, he’d come to cherish her smiles, her laughter, and the brilliant light in her eyes when she was happy. He’d discovered just how much he had missed by treating her as beneath him.
And Dragonsbane’s curse had strengthened during each of those days.
This human shape had already felt barely capable of containing his heartfire, and the intensifying Heat only made that sensation worse. He often felt like he was about to burst—and not merely by releasing his seed.
Falthyris let out a ragged, snarling breath and shoved himself onto his feet.
He swept his gaze across his lair, so large and empty now that he was in this shape—so large and empty because his mate was not here with him. The torches were extinguished and cool, and though Elliya’s scent lingered in the air, it was not immediate enough to satisfy him. He wanted to smell it directly from her skin, directly from her essence.
Tail flicking restlessly, he strode toward the tunnel leading to the cave’s mouth. Afterimages from his dream drifted through his mind’s eye. The dread in his stomach grew heavier. Dragonsbane would not take Elliya from him, it could not—he wouldn’t allow it. That dream, along with these overwhelming urges to mate, were the extent of the comet’s power. It could do no more.
And in ten days it will be gone. In ten days, we can truly determine what life we shall share…
But that thought, as uplifting as it was, could not make up for the fact that Elliya was currently missing.
He narrowed his eyes as the end of the tunnel came into view, allowing them a moment to adjust to the daylight streaming through. She was not in the lair, was not in the tunnel. Where had she gone? How had he slept through her departure?
The mating bond coiled tighter and tugged him onward.
Falthyris stalked toward the exit, wings flat against his back and claws curled against his palms. The world outside his lair was dangerous and unforgiving, especially for a lone human armed only with sharpened sticks and a little bone knife. Especially as the heat was reaching its apex.
When he emerged from the cave, he hesitated only long enough to scan the area immediately in front of it—a rocky slope that he would have preferred she not traverse on foot that bottomed out and led to the rocky cliffs and standing formations closer to the river.
She was nowhere in sight.
Falthyris bunched his leg muscles, leapt into the air, and took flight. He followed the pull of the mating bond, knowing instinctually that it would not lead him astray.
He rode the air currents toward the river, eyes moving ceaselessly for any sign of her. The blast of relief that struck him when the river came into view nearly made his flight falter—Elliya was there, naked and standing extremely still in the water with one of her sharpened sticks in hand. Alone and exposed.
Falthyris growled and angled himself down, stomach lurching at the harsh change in trajectory. He landed heavily on the shore behind Elliya just as she thrust her stick into the water. She started, whirling to face him with wide eyes, and raised the stick defensively.
An impaled fish wriggled on its end.
Her expression brightened with a sudden smile, and her body relaxed. “You are awake!”
That smile very nearly cut through his anger and concern, but it wasn’t quite enough to cool him.
“Why are you out here alone?” he demanded, stalking closer to her. “You should not have left by yourself, Elliya.”
Her smile faded, and she arched a brow. “Why not?”
He threw his hands out in a wide, sweeping gesture. “Because it is dangerous! Tenfold more so with the Red Heat at such intensity.”
She lowered her stick slowly, took hold of the fish, and tugged it off the stick. “I see.”
“You see?” Falthyris strode into the shallow water, clenching his fists. “That is all you have to say? What if you had been attacked by a hungry beast? What if you had been attacked by a pack of them? You might have been harmed, you might have been killed, your tender human flesh left to rot in the belly of some ravenous creature! You are but a weak, defenseless, fema—”
She swung her arm with more speed than he’d thought her capable. The fish’s tail struck Falthyris’s cheek, producing a wet slap. Though he felt only the faintest sting and a trickle of water down his scales, he could only stare at her in shock, any words he’d meant to say having died on his tongue.
Elliya held his gaze as she stepped closer. “Dragon, you did not just call me weak and defenseless. I am a huntress. I have hunted and slain the beasts of this desert since I was young. And this”—she raised the limp fish she’d struck him with—“is meant to be our morning meal.”
He pressed his lips into a tight line, nostrils flaring. “You slapped me with a fish.”
She smiled wide, flashing her white teeth. “Who knew a fish could serve dual purposes?”
“Striking me with a trout does not nullify the danger in which you’ve placed yourself, Elliya.”
His mate sighed. “Falthyris, I am fine. I climbed down from your lair and followed the ravine straight here. I was not in any danger that I could not handle.” She looked down at the fish in her hand. “I simply wanted to surprise you with a fresh meal when you awoke.”
The earnestness in her explanation pierced deep into Falthyris’s chest. His little huntress had sought to provide him with food. That was not the way things were meant to be, but he couldn’t help finding it endearing. Of course, he didn’t have to be happy about that.
“You are forbidden to place yourself in danger for my sake, Elliya,” he said with a growl, reaching forward to cup the back of her head and force her to look at him. “How can I protect you if you are not at my side?”
Her brows creased. “I am not as weak and defenseless as you think, and I cannot always be by your side.”
“I will concede to your first point. You are not weak and defenseless, at least by human standards. But on your second…where else would you be but with me?”
“I can hunt.” She shook off his grasp and walked past him to the riverbank, where she dropped the fish into a crude basket she’d woven from grass—a basket already filled with fish.
Falthyris followed her, flicking water from his tail and the bottoms of his wings. She’d called him stubborn more than once, and he could not argue against it, but she could be hard-headed enough to match him. “And we are not speaking of your capabilities, Elliya. We are discussing should and should not, not can and cannot. You should not venture out alone, regardless of your skills.”
“I traveled to this canyon alone, beneath the Red Star.” She dipped the tip of her stick into the river, rinsing it, before bending forward to wash her hands. “I faced you alone. And I am still here to tell the tale.”
A little over a week ago, that reminder would’ve irritated him. Now, all he could do was recall her courage, her confidence, and take pride in it. “There are no other creatures in this world that will be overcome by a simple touch, Elliya.”
Elliya stood and turned to face him. “It is the females of my tribe who have provided for many, many generations. We take pride in our strength, our skill, and our selflessness to do so. If I cannot do this, then what use am I? Am I to be nothing but a breeder?”
Falthyris closed the distance between them and cradl
ed her face between his hands, staring deep into her dark eyes. “Your value lies within you, not within what you can provide. You will never be anything less than Elliya, and you are already priceless.” He stroked his thumbs over her cheeks. “I am not commanding you to stop hunting. But if you wish to hunt, to fish, to do anything, do so with me.”
She raised her hands, curled her fingers around his wrists, and smiled softly. “Thank you.”
He leaned closer, closed his eyes, and pressed his lips to hers. Her scent filled his nostrils, and he breathed it in deeply. Even though his sense of smell was diminished without sampling the air on his tongue, he detected something different about her scent, something subtly altered. It had taken on a new hint of sweetness. It bore a fresh allure, but rather than simply fanning the flames of his desire, it fueled his possessiveness, his need to protect her.
He shifted one hand to the back of her head and dropped the other to her back, leaning forward and lowering her into a dip as he deepened the kiss. Her stomach bumped his shaft, sending a torturous thrill through him.
Elliya made a startled sound that became a muffled laugh against his mouth as she threw her arms around his neck. When he brushed his tongue against her lips, she parted them willingly.
Falthyris could taste that tiny difference, too. He groaned, clutching her a little tighter.
My sweet, delectable mate. Mine.
“Is my dragon in need?” she whispered against his mouth, nipping his bottom lip with her blunt teeth.
He ground his pelvis against her; it was the only response he could provide at that moment apart from a low grunt. His want for her never lessened, and the Heat already had him worked up, but it was that new aspect of her scent clouding his mind now, driving him to take her, to hold her, to never let go. It was her scent, but it was more.
“I wish to do something new,” she said, trailing kisses along his jaw and twirling her tongue around his jaw spikes until she reached his ear. “I wish to taste you, as you have tasted me.”
To Tame a Dragon (Venys Needs Men) Page 12
