In the Arms of the King

by Heather Killough-Walden

  He was in too much pain. And so was she.

  He turned his head, found the blue line beneath the skin of her thigh – and sank his fangs in deep.

  Adelaide screamed, her tortured bellow echoing off the walls at this new and particularly painful assault. But Nicholas knew it wouldn’t last long, and as her blood once more caressed his tongue and the taste of it sent him to Cloud Nine, he was proven right. Addie settled down in his grip, her scream turned to a moan, and her body shook under its fifth orgasm.

  You are going to be so sore after this, he thought with an inner grin. The monster in him was not a nice beast. It was a sexual beast. And it was starting to get mean with its own unsatisfied need. So without pause, Nicholas withdrew his fangs from her tender taut thigh, and turned his head to the other one.

  His arm snaked underneath, wrapped around tight, and held her fast as his teeth ached, and his body throbbed. He zeroed in on the major artery that ran the length of her creamy thigh and placed a kiss upon it.

  “Nicholas, just do it!” Adelaide suddenly cried, her voice nearly completely hoarse, her words desperate. She sounded so beautiful.

  Nicholas’s claws sank deep – and his teeth sank deeper. The climax swept over Adelaide at once this time, claiming her completely as Nicholas drank deep, and his magic unfurled within her. Sweet, soft sounds filled the chamber, clawing at Nick’s reason, stripping away the last remaining vestiges of his lucid being.

  He withdrew his fangs, turned to Addie with burning, hard determination, and moved over her lithe, bound body one last time. As he did, his gaze scored into her. He took in every mark he’d made, every small and not so small signature he’d created upon her form, and he knew they’d branded their way into her soul.

  He braced one arm on either side of her head and claimed her beautiful amber gaze with his own as he lined himself up one final time – and plowed into her with all he had. She clutched at him hard with frantic hands as she squeezed him down below with her tightness, and dug her nails into his back with abandon. A smug satisfaction rode him as hard as he rode her, and he fed the Nightmare at last, his thrusts swift and deep and merciless.

  He embedded her to the hilt every time, over and over again, and relished in the sight of her body as it danced beneath him. He savored her small sounds, each gasp, each moan. His claws dug into the satin sheets, tearing them with their razor grip. His teeth were bared. His body was on fire, as painfully taut as a bow string.

  Adelaide felt like a blessing around him, a promise beneath him, and that promise came true as his release exploded upon him like a supernova. He threw back his head and bellowed to the Cosmos. On either side, his wings hit the walls, breaking pieces into rubble that cascaded to the floor below.

  Sound went away. A numb ringing took over his ears, and stars swam in his vision while he emptied himself into his sweet queen, who came one long, last time along with him. Her muscles clutched at him again and again as if her life depended upon it, and her arms grew slack with exhaustion, releasing their clawed grip on his back to fall to the bed in surrender.

  Nicholas rode the waves out. They went on forever.

  Finally, he lowered his head and tried to breathe. His form was enveloped in such sweet paradise, there was actually a part of him that was afraid he’d died during the night, expired in the experience. It was too good to be true.

  But one look at Adelaide in his bed, at her glowing eyes, at the subtly showing tips of perfect white fangs on her lower lip… and truth became blessed reality.

  The Dragon King,

  The Kings, Book Twelve

  Calidum looked up from the blood that pooled so heavily between them. It was too red. His fangs pricked at his bottom lip. They throbbed in his gums, and his vision was locked in predatory contrasts of white, black, and crimson.

  When his gaze fell on the woman across from him, it zeroed in, noticing and absorbing every tiny detail.

  She was staring at Arach’s head. Then her gaze slipped to the blood.

  Her heart was beating rapidly, but strangely, as if it were weak. He caught her scent and focused. She was still injured, and low on blood. It pumped softly through her veins with little pressure. Her dragon scales covered her entire body, giving the world the outward appearance of scale mail armor, well fitted and beautiful. She looked like a warrior princess, ripe from battle, glorious in the skin of her kills.

  But in reality, she was bleeding somewhere underneath. And even as he moved in, somehow knowing exactly when it took hold of her, Evangeline began to fall. He caught her easily, lifting the lightness of her precious form into his arms to hold her tight against his chest. Her eyes slipped shut, and in a flash her armor was gone. All remaining remnants of her transformation-driven strength vanished, leaving her stripped bare and gravely wounded.

  Cal took in the injuries, the stab wounds, the bruising, the snow-white color of her skin, and he knew they were mortal wounds. If anyone other than Arach had harmed her the way he had, Eva would be dead. She’d spent herself entirely on her battle with the Nomad. She’d lost. And then he’d tortured and drained her of her blood.

  If that hadn’t been enough, she’d shifted at long last into her true dragon form. The act had given her temporary and life-altering strength – but it had taken it from her as well.

  The toll was upon her now like a death knell, and as Calidum blurred them both out of the wreckage and into a transportation portal, he lowered his lips to her ear.

  “I know what you need,” he said. “You’re safe now, Eva. I’m going to take care of you.”

  He moved them across the world, never once taking his magic off her. It raced around them, a protective shield, a healing stream, a directional shove through the tunnels of space and time. It sank gently beneath Eva’s abused flesh to the broken body underneath, and there it healed her from the inside out, mending bone, sinew, organ tissue, and muscle to make her whole again.

  The two tell-tale bites Arach had made upon her throat – those, Calidum left alone. He had other plans for them.

  Less than a full minute had passed when the Dragon King stepped through the portal’s exit to carry his queen into his home. It was one of many homes he owned. He was thousands of years old… over time, homes were something to be collected like everything else.

  Eva stirred against him, her long, lithe frame curling into his warmth. He found his bed, and with arms that flexed with their need to hold her longer, he tenderly laid her at its center. Then he stood.

  The charcoal gray sheets were satin and would be gentle against her skin. It was why he’d chosen this place over the others. But looking down at her now, her naked body vulnerable against the darkness of those sheets, her head slowly turning as his magic continued to flow through her veins… he knew it was not the only reason he’d brought her here. His intentions were anything but noble.

  This has to be done, he assured himself. Until it is, they will keep coming for her. Arach was dead, but that was temporary. The Nomad would be reborn. He won’t stop until Eva is his queen.

  Unless you make her yours first.

  On the bed, Eva bent one long leg, moaning softly. Calidum’s entire body went hard, and his fists clenched. With a thought, his armor was gone, freeing him from any further barriers between them. Without taking his eyes off his prize, he raised his right arm to his mouth, bared his teeth, and bit down hard. At once, his blood began to pour, crimson rivulets of power that he wasted no time in using.

  He knelt with one knee beside Evangeline, and gently cupped her face in his other hand. “Eva,” he said softly, using his magic to curl into her mind and force obedience. She was just weak enough that it worked, and he had to smile at her inherent will.

  Her long, thick lashes fluttered. She opened her eyes and looked up at him. They were the lightest purple, the softest hue of lavender coloring irises that glowed in unnatural beauty. His heart stopped. It literally stopped for several beats – then started up again hard and fast, painf
ully urging him on. Easy… He bore down on himself, reining in his need; it was already nearly too much to bear.

  “Drink.” He placed his wrist to her lips and willed them to open and let him in. She blinked – and then she obeyed, and his cock throbbed at the sight as she parted her lips and placed them to his arm. His blood stained her crimson as she swallowed, and when she did, her lilac eyes flashed with renewed power. It was instantaneous, infusing her at her core, where it mattered most.

  Sustenance was essential to any living being, but dragons burned through theirs with incredible speed, much faster than humans. In turn, they were able to absorb that lost energy just as fast and from more sources than humans. Sugar was their favorite source of strength… most of the time. There was another one they turned to with anticipation and delight, in times when two needs came together as one.

  Blood. Dragon blood. It was infused with elements of all three hearts, and hence pumped everything a dragon required. It was quickly absorbed and struck home at once, transferring from heart to heart in a literal sense. It was also extremely – exquisitely – pleasurable to exchange blood for a dragon. It could not get more personal. You could not give anything more meaningful to another.

  Calidum was the Great Gray, a Legendary, and he was the Dragon King. There was no blood more powerful than his in the Dragon Kingdom. Dragons dreamed of it, but very, very few had ever tasted the blood of a king, much less a Legendary. Those recipients were the rare chosen, the precious, held as beloved by the most powerful dragons in creation.

  Evangeline slowly took his very essence into herself, and she made soft sounds, helpless sounds, as his blood no doubt infused her system with building pleasure, bringing her to life in a way she could not have imagined.

  He watched her, and his eyes ignited painfully, lighting a bonfire fueled by a mounting hunger of his own. She moaned against his forearm, and most likely overwhelmed by sensation, she attempted to pull away. But he held her there, his hand on the back of her head to keep her mouth to his wound. “No, Eva” he commanded softly, leaning in to place his lips to her ear. “Keep drinking.” You’re going to need it.

  She began to move beside him, and his eyes roamed down the length of her long, lithe body. Her legs slowly bent and unbent, her torso flexed, her back arched, and she writhed.

  Holy fuck.

  When the bucking began, he moved his body over hers to straddle her, and his head nearly exploded with the sensation of being skin on skin with her. His cock brushed her abdomen. He was so hard, the contact was nothing but blissfully agonizing. Eva was now flushed with heat, her heart was hammering, and tiny rivulets of fresh blood began to form at the wounds Arach had given her.

  Now is the time.

  Calidum removed his wrist from Eva’s lips, and her head tossed to the side. He could hear her thoughts, knew what she needed. His blood had made her crazy inside. Her right hand ran down the length of her own body, aimed for the sweet spot between her legs. She was desperate to see to her own needs. But he was about to fix that.

  As gently as he could considering her renewed strength and fresh agitation, Cal grasped Eva’s wrists and held them to the bed on either side of her. “Eva,” he said, attempting to draw her attention once more. But she looked away, her eyes shut, her teeth biting into her bottom lip with cruel abandon.

  Calidum’s rippling, pain-wracked body urged him on, bringing him to once more send forceful magic into her mind. Look at me.

  She thrashed against him now, willful anger joining her carnal hunger.

  Now! he commanded, nearly out of patience completely. Eva, do as I say.

  Gradually, as if coming awake from a dream, Evangeline opened her eyes. Her movements slowed beneath him, and Cal had never seen a sexier creature in any realm. He growled low, his own teeth bared, his eyes burning right through his skull as Eva turned her head and met his gaze at last.

  He had to do this now. There would never be another time – he wouldn’t live that long, would not survive the night, he was sure, if he did not make her his then and there.

  “Eva, I need you to say it,” he said, his voice shaking, his body aching because his muscles were flexed so hard. I need you to tell me, he thought, his eyes pleading. Tell me you don’t blame me. Tell me that you forgive me. Tell me you will grow to love me… the way I love you.

  Evangeline stared steadily up at him as her chest rose and fell, and her perfect breasts glistened from her exertion. He expected a play of emotion, another struggle perhaps, even tears – maybe. What he didn’t expect was that she would simply say, “There’s nothing to forgive you for, Calidum.”

  Her voice was so beautiful, so melodic as it filled the space of his master chamber, sweet and pure. Her words rode through him like a blessing. But they shocked him.

  “Please erase him from me,” she said next, and he knew she was referring to everything Arach had done, the way he’d bitten her, the things he’d taken from her. She knew what Cal planned to do. Either she was instinctively reading his intent, or she was just that smart. Or both.

  Claim me.

  Calidum, the Dragon King was shocked for approximately a second and a half longer. And then he recovered fully.

  *****

  When she’d first met Calidum in that mall, Evangeline had been overrun with emotion. When she chose to be honest with herself, she realized that most of the pain she’d felt was the pain of duplicity. Because she’d been attracted to him – fiercely so – when she shouldn’t be.

  But everything she’d once held to be true was false, and things were not always as they seemed. She was on fire right now. The blood moving through her veins and pumping through her heart was hellishly strong, burning her up in a way that could not be ignored. He straddled her, holding her down in her descent into madness, grounding her in the magic he had given her. He was so tall, larger than life, his revealed body the very essence of male domination. In another lifetime, he was the monster in her mind. And he looked every bit the part right now.

  A beautiful, alarming monster.

  All was not as it seemed. And the truth was, the strong, sculpted, dark angel of a man above her was terrifying and magnificent – and she was utterly lost to him.

  She always had been.

  She had never mated with another dragon. Not in all her many years. But she’d been around long enough to know how it was done. Arach’s marks still pulsed sorely at her throat; Calidum had left them alone, allowed them to continue to hurt, and even to bleed. But she knew why.

  They ached for a new set of teeth; they were a slightly cruel reminder that she could either keep the marks that throbbed there, or allow another pair of fangs to claim them as their own. In the end, he’d known what she would choose.

  He had her.

  Again – he always had.

  Claim me.

  It was a simple thought, two short words. They were breathed through her mind, a surrender of absolute submission, and they were a plea. For his blood ran through her veins, and the longer it did – the closer she came to a kind of oblivion. That, too, he had planned. She had needed sustenance, true. She’d desperately needed to replenish the strength her battle and Arach’s torture had taken from her.

  But the Dragon King had thoroughly detailed her demise when he’d chosen to give her that much needed sustenance in the form of his blood. From the moment he’d laid her atop his sheets and opened up his vein, he’d executed his ultimate plot with a single-minded and calculated ruthlessness. Like a Legendary would.

  Eva knew he’d heard her two simple words, her basic surrender, when he went completely still above her and she felt his power swell around him so strong and so thick, it was nearly physical where it brushed along her damp skin. She shuddered.

  And then he was releasing her wrists to run his hands down along the length of her arms and finally place his hands on either side of her face. He held her lovingly, leaned in like the angel descending, and Eva held her breath. Her heart raced painful
ly.

  “Are you certain, little one?” he asked across her lips, a mere hair’s breadth away. His voice rolled over her, sexy as hell, deep and rumbling, and fanned the flames his blood had ignited within her. It was hopeless, and he knew it, and he was only rubbing it in. His control over her was like a blissful delirium Eva could not, and would not, fight.

  She parted her lips to answer, but he touched them with his thumbs, ever so softly, just a brush of his fingers, controlling and promising. And when he moved, his cock grazed her inner thigh, so hot and so hard, it felt like an iron brand. Eva’s only response to his question was a helpless moan.

  Calidum moved in and swallowed that sound with his kiss. He parted her lips impatiently, opening her up once more for him, and delved deep. Eva couldn’t help but arch against him, wanting to be nearer as his tongue laid waste to her own and claimed her mouth as his. It was hard and deep and driven by so much passion, her head swam. He kissed her like he was hungry, like he planned to eat her, as if there was simply not enough of her to satisfy the need riding him hard.

  And when she was beginning to feel light headed from the lack of air, he drove into her, his thick, firebrand of a cock piercing the tight, slick core of her like a battering ram.

  Eva screamed against his lips and felt him once more take hold of her wrists to secure them to the bed. He was immense, and she was so tight. She broke their kiss, tossing her head to the side, her hair flying, teeth clenched in wanton suffering. Once he’d breached her defenses, he slowly pressed into her, relentlessly claiming her inch by tight, hard inch, until the world threatened to explode behind Eva’s eyes.

  Oh gods! It hurt so much – and it felt like heaven, like candy from the devil. He was a terrible, wonderful dream that could rip the last shreds of your humanity from someone with mind-blowing ease and leave them quivering, stripped down and empty and only wanting more.