Her Dragon's Keeper

by Suzanne Roslyn

  Emily leaned up on one elbow while she caressed him. “And what makes you think it’s a him?”

  “I’ve waited a long time for this moment, woman.”

  She laughed. “And if it is a girl?”

  “Then we will make another.” He cupped her face. “And another.”

  She wrapped her fingers around him. “We couldn’t. The counsel…” All the blood in his body went south. “I’ll deal with the counsel. You don’t stop.”

  Her fingers flicked across the head, teasing him. “Oh? You like that?”

  She’d grown bolder since their union. Their nights of love making had changed that.

  He cupped her neck, clenching his jaw at the way she continued to run her lips and fingers over him.

  He tugged at her bikini top, working it up so her swollen breasts sprang forth. She pulled him closer.

  He stared down at her. She leaned back, giving him better access to her breasts. Her grip adjusted, pumping him softly, he growled with pleasure.

  She worked him from base to tip. He rocked against her hand, digging his toes into the sand beyond the blanket. Enclosing his fist around her hand, he showed her how to go faster. “Don’t stop,” he instructed her, he could feel his dragon pulsing inside him.

  He couldn’t help grinding against her, a little harder each time.

  He palmed her breast, his thumb rubbing over the sensitive nub. He alternated between rubbing and tugging it until it hardened.

  “Come for me my dragon…” she sang, softly.

  He was close. He dug his fingers into her hair at the back of her neck.

  “Come. For. Me.” She worked faster.

  “Emily!” Hoarsely, he shouted her name. Slowly, the tension she’d built drained from his body.

  She took her time letting him go. His little thief underestimated her skill, because when his eyes found hers, they were filled with hunger.

  His dragon raged inside him, lustful.

  “Don’t stop now. You need to finish the song.”

  “But you...”

  He leaned close, his tongue tracing a hot path down her exposed neck. He pushed his tongue into her mouth and she softened for him. Leaving her panting for air, he said, “What kind of mate would I be if not to return the favor?”

  Gently, he pushed her back onto the blanket. Reluctantly, she released her seductive hold. He bent, flickering his tongue across her nipple.

  She gasped, her fingers tangling in his hair, pulling him closer. He obliged her, suckling her greedily. She whimpered her sweet noises like his favorite song, loud and unrehearsed. He loved the changes in her body these past two weeks, her skin glowed, radiated with his fiu attached. And her breast had filled, firmed, swollen with milk to feed his child.

  Melsunia had never been his true mate.

  After nearly a century he didn’t know if he could ever let Emily go. If he could ever get close enough. If he would ever feel this way again. Dragon blood or no, she was his forever.

  Blake always assumed dragons mated out of necessity, arranged couplings by the counsel to keep their bloodlines from going extinct. He had always assumed if he emerged himself in the human world, became more of them than dragon, the rules would not apply to him. Maybe the dragons and their riders were meant to mate. Maybe that connection between them needed to grow stronger. And maybe, like everything else in the world, they had been the ones who severed the trust and promise between them.

  Blake slid down beside her, turning her on her side. He pressed his renewed erection against her bottom. She didn’t protest as he slipped his arm beneath her head to cradle it. He kissed her shoulder. He slid his hand down her arm, lifting her wrist to where she bore his mark.

  Did she know how deep their connection could go?

  Open for me, my love.

  There would be time to share that with her later.

  Sensing his thoughts, she lifted her leg, hooking it back over his. He kissed the mark on her wrist, releasing her hand; he found her slick between her folds. Her breath caught and she pressed herself back against him.

  “Wider.” He nudged her leg further back and scooted himself a little further down. He squeezed the inside of her thigh, holding her open for him. She reached up for him and he nuzzled her neck.

  “Blake,” she whimpered. “Please.”

  He would never get enough of her. In so short of time he was ready, so hard it hurt.

  He thrust deep inside her. Clutching the blanket, she pushed back to meet his pleasure-filled assault. His hips pumped hard and fast, driving himself into her over and over.

  Emily cried out, fisting the blanket. Her thighs quivered in his hold. He fit inside her so perfect. It was if Freya, the goddess herself, had ordered this perfect specimen of a woman created for him.

  His other hand spanned down from her breast to the egg. Mindful of the precious life attached to her. He penetrated her deeper, probing for the spot he knew would make her sing.

  Consumed by her tight, wet, heat, he drove them over the edge. She screamed, crying out as he held onto her. His face tucked against her throat, he lost control.

  His breath harsh and uneven, he felt her body shudder against him. He let her leg down, wrapped his arm around her, and vowed to never let her go.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Later, after she’d washed the island’s sand off her body, Emily found Jacques packing in his room there at the manor. “I still don’t understand why you need to leave.”

  He stuffed a rolled-up shirt his back. “Didn’t think I’d stay here while you sucked faces with the Lord of the Manor, did you?”

  Emily detected a spoonful of bitterness in his voice. She walked over to the dresser. “I never knew you thought of me that way.”

  Jacques snorted. “Just like since we were kids. You can ride me all you want when I’ve got my dragon suit on, but you don’t get my heart.”

  That was her Jacques. Deep down, he was the dreamer-awaiting true love’s first kiss. Like most dragon born, there came more truth than fantasy in finding love at first sight. Or first kiss. Dragon, like man, was never created to live alone. Unlike humans, they were more patient. They could wait to find that one perfect mate created to become one with them.

  Emily’s heart ached for him. As much as she loved him dearly, her heart belonged to Blake. She’d known the first time she’d laid eyes on him, her heart beating wildly in her chest as he walked towards her on the smoke laden stage. She’d sung for him. A dark sultry song she’d heard on the radio. She’d practiced for months, made Jacques fly her to the auditions while her foster sister Ash remained at the hatchery with their parents.

  Little did she know it would bring her more than a gig on stage. His eyes never hid his yearning for her. Scared, she’d held him back. She belonged to Blake then, and she belonged to him now.

  She could see that same yearning in Jacques eyes. It pained her never-the-less to have him leave. “I still love you,” she told him.

  He smirked. “I know.”

  She gave him a light punch in the arm, trying not to let the sadness swirling inside her leak out. She cried too often. She blamed this egg. How could her body betray her like this?

  “I always knew you had that maternal instinct. Too bad your father had to wait this long to see it.” He zipped up his pack.

  “Is that where you’re going? Will you make sure Father is safe?” Emily couldn’t bear thinking of anything happening to her father. Engrossed in his work, the poor old fellow didn’t have a clue what went on around him most times.

  “Too risky. I’m flying out at sunset with Sigurd. He’ll show me the way to the flat in Rainsburg and I’ll direct him to the hatchery to fetch your father.”

  Emily gripped his arm. “Fetch? You mean bring Father here?”

  Jacques slung his pack over his other arm. “Your mate thinks Sigurd can convince him to move here to the island. It’s protected territory per their treaty with Britain, Romania, and a few other countries I c
an’t remember.”

  That wasn’t important, not so much as having her father here. And Ash? What would happen to Ash? She would stay at the hatchery. She belonged there, but the thought of getting her father to leave made her laugh. “Can you see Sig asking father to pack up and move to the island? And can you see Father telling Sig to fly off without him?”

  Indeed, he could. He laughed along with her and then shook his head. “It won’t be easy. Maybe Ash can help, but Margaret’s got her caught in her web, too.”

  “Not Ash.” Emily couldn’t imagine anyone forcing her foster sister into doing anything she didn’t want. Three years, Emily’s senior, Ash had quickly taken to bossing Emily around when her parents took Ash in as one of their own.

  “I bet Margaret had her parents eliminated when they were no longer of use.”

  With Ash at her father’s side, always helping him at the hatchery, always stepping in front of her, and always an afterthought, Emily’s father never noticed when she didn’t hang around. “It’s not all that bad. And you shouldn’t talk like that. You make Aunt Margaret out to be some sort of…of,” Emily couldn’t say it. For all the bad things, her aunt may have or not have done, she couldn’t speak badly about the woman.

  “There are things that if I would have told you, she would have killed me. It’s why Blake is setting me up in Rainsburg for a bit. Lay low. Sooner or later Margaret’s nest will get rattled and she’ll come out with teeth bared and claws striking not caring who she harms.”

  “I can’t believe it.”

  “You are always the one to believe the best in everyone, but let me assure you the faith you have in our dear leader of the Dragon Keepers is misplaced. She is not what she seems. Believe me.”

  Emily bit her lip, contemplating what Jacques said. By the look in his eyes, she knew she had become a pawn in some terrible plans her Aunt made.

  “Are you sure you want to go? I’ll talk to Blake. He can’t make you leave. Not if this place is like a haven for the dragon-bred.” She didn’t want him to go. All these years, he’d known these things. They told each other everything. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G.

  But he hadn’t told her this. His dark eyes turned onyx. He did it to hide his emotions from her. He could never fool her. She couldn’t smell fear as he did, but she sensed it.

  She held enough fear inside her for both of them, so much, it caused the little dragon between them to bump against her from inside its protective shell.

  “She knows where this place is. When she figures out we’re not delivering the egg to her, she’ll send Drake or whoever is handy. Blake will protect you. She’ll come looking for me first.”

  His jaw clenched. So, this was the way of it. This became part of the price for finding love, for giving into her heart’s desire. No wonder the dragons feel cursed by the past. She’d sacrificed who they were to be with the ones they loved, only to become deceived so they could be robbed of their treasure, rights, and lives.

  Emily felt her body trembling. From anger or fear she didn’t know which.

  Soon she would have to face the circle of the keepers. Already, she knew, Blake had been summoned by the dragons of old.

  Jacques put his arm around her. He kissed her head. “Your mate is a powerful pendragon. One of the last sun dragons known. No one would dare to come here or try to harm you under his protection.”

  How soon he forgot what brought them here. No wonder the egg was so valuable. Although, she had her suspicions of the true origins of the egg, she kept them to herself.

  “And you? Who will protect you?”

  He walked her out the door. “I’ve got a band of dragons at my disposal.”

  She followed him downstairs. She could hear the squalling guitars as Jacques pulled open the door to the basement studio. They would play until sunset, and then he’d shift into his black night fury form and fly off the island.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “No. No. No.” Sigurd said, and said again, “No.”

  “It’s been decided.” Bogdan played with the keys of his keyboard.

  “What about Stonehenge? What about the band?” Sigurd spread out his arms. “The show must go on!”

  Blake slapped his comrade on the back. “Sigurd. I hear you. It’s a break. Go off grid for a bit, regroup, rename, and be back in business when this mess is all over.”

  “But Stonehenge was to be our last before the break,” Sigurd said.

  “We do this every midcentury. New name. New generation. New songs.” Bogdan explained to Jacques getting up from behind the drums.

  “But we’re a real hit this time! More famous than ever. What about our fans?” Sigurd looked at Blake, gripping his guitar by the neck.

  “We’re one-decade wonders.” Bogdan powered down his keyboard.

  “How will you explain to your fans when you don’t age like they do?” Ten to a hundred-year ratio did cause some complications when it came to fitting in with humanity.

  Blake had his doubts about the young fury, but Sigurd knew better. After these many centuries, they always came back and regrouped. They never strayed far from their pendragon. And they always retired to the island to drop off the humans’ radar.

  “But Stonehenge! Really?” Sigurd fisted his hands.

  “Come on, Blake. Give the man one more concert. You know he only gets laid when we have a concert,” Bogdan said.

  “Why is that?” Jacques asked.

  Sigurd scowled. He put down his guitar. “I’ll have you know the ladies love me. Can’t get enough. Where ever I go.”

  “Then you’ll have no problem fitting in amongst the natives in Harghita.” Blake crossed his arms.

  “There aren’t many. Government issued security, Uncle Istavan, and when I was last there, Ash, for assistance.” Jacques flipped the drum sticks in his hand. “I’d be careful though, Margaret didn’t send Ash there without an agenda of her own.”

  “What? You’re sending me to solitary confinement? No concert. No women. And you’re sticking me in an ovulation tank.” Sigurd put his hands on his hips. Any other time Blake would have had more patience with his friend’s sputtering tantrum. Not tonight. With the counsel summoning, the egg still attached to Emily, no word from Edmund and Naomi still gone, concerts and Sigurd’s sex life was the least of his worries.

  “It’s almost sunset. You two need to head out. Bogdan, you’re on watch tonight with Garth down and Edmund on the hunt.”

  Bogdan saluted him. “No one gets past the red zone.”

  “Nothing more than a horny, green-scaled, fireball is all he is.” Sigurd picked up his pack and Jacques handing it to the dark-haired rookie. No more than his mid-twenties, even in dragon years, the younger man was still a babe in dragon years. For both Emily and Jacques sake, sending him to Rainsburg had been the best choice.

  “Better than a blue snout mouth treasure hoarder,” Bogdan shot back at him.

  “Antiques. I can’t help I enjoy a few antiques here and there to remember the century by.” Sigurd slung his pack on and walked past Bogdan.

  He’d adopted this misfit band over the years, having so few of his bloodline left in this world. Herds stuck to their own kind, but Blake had welcomed the outcasts. First, saving Edmund in the streets of London after crossing territories. Then Sigurd, lost and lonely clung to him for friendship and guidance. Then Bogdan, a gift from the Italian republic during a treaty deal with the counsel. Garth, Naomi, and Olaus were the last of his herd to serve and watch over the island. Now Jacques. What a sorry sad state they had become, but he’d take them all in and call them brother in a heartbeat if he had to do it again.

  “Don’t be stopping for a souvenir. You go. You bring Emily’s father back. Pronto.”

  “Stonehenge?” Sigurd’s brows rose, hopeful.

  “We’ll see if you all make it back in time.”

  Sigurd did a fist pump. “Yes! I knew it. I knew you couldn’t let Stonehenge go.”

  “Get going, you haven’t got all night.
Fury here can’t hold onto his wings in the day light.” Bogdan gave Sigurd a shove.

  “What? You can’t fly by day?” Sigurd asked Jacques as Bogdan pushed them out the door and up the steps out of the music studio.

  Bogdan waited for him in the upstairs entrance of the manor. “How long before you have to answer the summons?”

  “Before the tides turn.” Not much time. Summer winds would change direction in a few months. He couldn’t put them off longer than that. By then, he hoped his fiu would hatch.

  “It’s not like Edmund to go without word for so long,” Bogdan said. Blake could see the concern in the other dragon-shifter’s gaze.

  “If he’s hooked up with an American then he’s bound to be gone longer than usual.”

  “Doesn’t feel right. Split’n us up like this. We’re usually tight. You know?”

  Blake did know. Too many things threatened to separate them. They needed to stick together now more than ever. People like Margaret Moldvan needed stopped and the dragon breeds brought together to live in peace. For too long they had been caged and forced to hide by those cursed old laws and human governments.

  One day it would change. With the hatching of his fiu, he would see the ancient laws lifted and humans and dragons living in harmony. He heard it then, Emily’s voice singing in her sweet sleep-husky voice. He envisioned her cradling his fiu, all of his fiu, rocking them, singing them to sleep. They were to become a family.

  “It won’t be long now. I’ll relieve you at first light,” Blake said, Emily heavy on his mind.

  He turned and went up the stairs. Humming the lullaby, he heard her singing. He heard her singing! Blake’s heart skipped a beat. He could hear her! Their bond had grown stronger.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Emily’s eyes popped open with a start, or was it a pinch? She groaned and tried turning on her side. Serve the little bugger right for keeping her awake for most of the night. Sun dragons weren’t nocturnal, except no one had told this little one any different. She grimaced again as it kicked her. “All right. Enough.”