Cool sheets moving against her skin gradually brought Avaleigh out of a deep, deep sleep. She had been bathed and returned to the bed, complete with the shackle on her ankle. As she gained more and more clarity, she became aware that Lurin sat in a chair beside the bed.
“Good morning, Dragon’s Mate,” he said to her as he checked her pulse on the wrist he held in his hands. “I think that maybe Slatterly over-dosed you on that cup of tea. You took too long to wake, and I was worried.” Lurin smiled a sleazy used-car-salesman smile at her. She was too afraid to move. This was some kind of creature that could change into a snake, and she fucking hated snakes. Add on top of that this was a MAN who could fucking turn into a snake, and she was sure that she had lost her ever loving mind. And if she hadn’t, she hoped to soon, rather than have to endure another moment with this thing.
“The proper greeting, female, is Good morning, dear Lurin,” he held her wrist a little more tightly.
“You were a snake,” she managed to whisper to him with tears in her eyes, too afraid to remove her hand from his grip.
“I am not a snake!” he snapped at her, “I am a Dragon, and you, you are a Dragon’s Mate.” He increased the pressure on her wrist until she thought that surely the bones would snap.
She realized that he was watching her intently, waiting for what he considered the proper response, “Good morning, Lurin,” she offered very quietly, not meeting his eyes.
He released some of the pressure on her wrist, “It’s not perfect, but it’s close enough for your first try. You will have to learn to do better, else you anger my Dragon. We are a fantastical creature and deserve the utmost respect from our Mate. Do you understand, female?”
When he began to increase the pressure on her wrist again, she hurried to answer, “Yes, Lurin, I understand.”
“Very well. Slatterly is preparing a breakfast for you. You will eat it. Every bite. He is also bringing you a stronger brew of the tea you have been given. You will drink it, every drop. Am I clear?”
“I’m not very hungry, but I will eat what I can.”
“You will eat every bite; you are breeding now. You will feed my younglings well, they will be born, and you will lovingly raise them.”
Her heart fucking stopped. Her mouth bobbed opened and closed like a fish’s, adrenaline rushed her system making her lightheaded, “What, what do you mean?” Horrified she waited for his answer.
He stood to leave the room, smiling that sleazy smile at her again, “You are my Dragon’s Mate. You will provide us with younglings. You will raise them lovingly.”
“I am not a Dragon’s Mate,” she rushed to get out through her tears, “I’m just a woman — please, just let me go,” she begged.
He turned on her, hissing and snarling before he reached the door, “Allow me to clarify things one last time for you, female. YOU. ARE. MY. DRAGON’S. MATE! You will birth my younglings, and you will be sure that they are loved. Or, you will die. And since you are already carrying my young, you’d best find a way to mother them properly,” he spat at her before he slammed out of the room.
Avaleigh stared at the door after Lurin left the room, stunned. Unbelieving of what she’d just been told. She placed her hand on her stomach and felt herself gag with the revulsion she felt at the thought of little snakes crawling around in her womb. She ran from the bed and made a break for the bathroom, making it just in time to throw up all over the tiled floor. She sobbed until there was nothing left inside her. Slatterly came in with her food and helped her get up and back to the bed. He told her she’d have to take better care of herself and the little ones she now had to think of. She started sobbing again and turned her face into the pillows. He sat beside her and waited not too patiently for her to finish her breakdown. “Here now, you need to stop that and eat, so I can get back to my own life. I can’t leave your room until you eat all this and drink this tea.” She realized that if she was going to get rid of him, she would need to do exactly what he said. She drank some of the tea, which was indeed more bitter. Then she ate most of the food. “That’s all I can hold right now,” she told him. He seemed satisfied with that, or more than likely was just ready to get back to whatever he was doing before he had to tend to her. “You’d get a little more freedom if you would just cooperate. You just don’t realize how good you got it. A male like Lurin, choosing you to mate. Stupid bitch, you ought to be kissing his feet. Instead, you sit here whining like a little bitch. And I ain’t cleaning that mess you made in the bathroom, either. You better clean that shit before your Mate comes back to your room. He don’t like messes.” The door was opened almost before his last word, “My female will not clean anything. She is breeding, you idiot. She will be treated as the vessel she is. You get on your hands and knees and clean it now!” Lurin shouted at Slatterly. “Yes sir, right away, sir. Apologies, sir.” Slatterly shot her a hate-filled glare as he rounded the foot of her bed as he moved toward the bathroom to clean up after her vomiting fit. “And do not look at my female like that!! Do not upset her, do not treat her as anything other than MINE!” Lurin added as he threw a vase at the now scurrying Beaver-man. “And clean up that fucking vase before she cuts herself on it!” Lurin leaned over to where she was shackled and unlocked her ankle. He reached out his hand to her and indicated with a nod of his head that she should take his hand. She had a decision to make here. Take a stand and refuse to comply with his wishes or take his hand, play his games, and look for a way to escape. She was a lot of things, but stupid was not one of them. She reached out and placed her hand in his. He moved it to his arm, smiled his sleazy smile and wrapped his hand over hers where it lay on his arm. “Exercise is important for a breeding female. Come, walk with me, allow me to show you your new home.”
Chapter 2
Over the next few days Avaleigh took daily walks with Lurin. She had decided to play along, earn his trust so that he would let his guard down, and she could find a way to escape. On her first walk around the grounds, she had seen the Bear. He had sat up, seemingly truly interested in seeing her come out of the house. He’d paced close to the bars of his enclosure and watched her closely. She’d stumbled a few times and almost fallen, and the Bear seemed as anxious about it as Lurin had been. She was so clumsy the last few days, and she had no memory at all, and that truly disturbed her. She remembered waking up in the cell he used to keep her in, but everything before that was foggy and unclear. She couldn't focus on a single thing or even enough to make a portion of a memory. Lurin had told her that it was due to the traumatic way in which she forced him to acquire her that her memory had been compromised. She was sure that it hadn't helped, but didn't believe that it was solely responsible. She couldn't dwell on that now though. She would worry about it later, once she was free. The Bear released a low growl and a chuffing noise, bringing her back from her reverie. She raised her attention to the Bear. Lurin had assured her that the Bear could not get to her and that she had nothing to fear. He’d told her that he was a man-eater and was being punished for it. She had asked why they didn’t just put him down if he was a man-eater, but Lurin had gotten angry and told her he needed to be punished. Didn’t make any sense to her, punish a wild animal? But Lurin had just hissed at her and snarled at her for questioning him. Okay, he didn’t like to be questioned, so she wouldn't question him. She needed to gain his trust, not piss him off. Several days later, she and Lurin were sitting by the small pond just across from the Bear’s enclosure. He held her hand in both of his and kissed her wrist just before his snakelike forked tongue flicked out to taste her. She couldn't help herself, she shivered and reared back from his touch. This enraged him. In one smooth motion he stood from the chair he was lounging on and slapped her so hard across the face that she was knocked from the chair. Then he set upon her, kicking her and shouting at her about proper behavior for a Mate. As he continued to rain blows down on her, she suddenly turned from curled on her side to spread out on her back, exposing her stomach to him. Lurin took fu
ll advantage as he adjusted his blows to her tender middle where they could do the worst damage.
Bear roared and shifted in his enclosure, and the sound and movement caught Lurin’s eye. Bear sat up as it unfolded in front of him. Hmpf, this is new, he thought, the female doesn't like him after all. He couldn’t stop himself — he tried to take Lurin’s attention from beating the female. He smirked at Lurin. Even on Bear’s face the smirk was apparent. Lurin’s rage cranked up a couple of notches at that smirk, and he hissed at Bear. Like Bear gave a big rat’s ass! What were they gonna do, lock him up? He snorted to himself, been there, done that! So he continued to smirk at the asshole before him until Lurin snatched the female from the ground, threw her over his shoulder and stalked toward the house bellowing for Slatterly. “You didn’t fucking give her enough. If you can’t do it right, I’ll do it my fucking self,” Lurin bellowed as he cracked Avaleigh on the ass to stop her from struggling. All it did was piss her off more and cause her to struggle harder. Ah, he thought, they’d been drugging her. Bear thought that if she hadn’t been so clumsy from whatever they’d been giving her, she may have been able to break away, to at least try to make a run for it, based on the amount of fight she was putting up. Slatterly came running out of the house with a syringe in one hand and a glass of the tea in the other. Lurin knocked the tea from his hand and snatched the syringe from him and jabbed it in Avaleighs’ ass. “I need the pure blood, the tea isn't working as well anymore!” Lurin shouted at Slatterly. “But her memory, sir,” Slatterly started. “Fuck her memory! I will be her fucking memory!” Lurin interrupted. She screamed as the syringe stabbed into her ass and arched her back to throw herself upright in a last ditch effort to free herself from Lurin’s shoulder. Her eyes met Bear’s and seemed to plead for help in the last seconds before she slumped over Lurin’s shoulder, out cold. “Stupid bitch will learn her place if it’s the last thing I do,” Lurin shouted at Slatterly as he crossed the threshold into the house, and Slatterly closed the door behind them. Bear let out yet another roar and cursed everything. He couldn’t help her, he couldn’t even help himself. He hated. He hated that any female would be treated like this. He hated that he couldn’t help her. He hated the fucking Beaver, and he hated Lurin. He especially hated Lurin.
Avaleigh woke with her mind feeling heavy and murky. She hurt. Her stomach was clenching, and it felt like something was clawing its way out of her womb. Something wet and cool wiped across her forehead, and she turned her face toward it. Lurin smiled at her and swiped the damp cloth across her brow again. “You frightened me, Mate. I thought that you were beyond all hope, but you are stronger than I thought. You persevered. You have done well.” She just looked at him as tears silently slipped down her cheeks. “We have lost our first batch of younglings. You made me lose my temper and you needed to be punished for your lack of respect, but I will forgive you for this. As soon as the bleeding stops, I will breed you again. You will be more careful this time, won’t you?”
Her will to live had just about run out. She had managed to place herself under his blows so that most of them rained down on her stomach. And she had been successful. She had miscarried his young, but it did her no good. She lived. And now he was going to breed her again. And what did it say about her that she was glad her own children were lost. They were hers, weren't they? They were her eggs, but they were fertilized with creatures like him. She thought of them as creatures, not children. And she truly believed she was right. She just didn't want to think about it anymore. She wanted to stop all things, time, thought, breathing. Everything.
“You didn't answer, Mate,” Lurin prompted.
“Yes, I will be more careful,” she quickly replied.
Over the next weeks while Lurin waited for her to heal so he could breed her, he allowed her to roam the house freely. He had warned her that all the doors and windows had electrified beams across them, as did the border to certain areas of his property, so she stayed inside the house just where he wanted her. She sat for long hours in the living room, and on more than one occasion saw Slatterly torturing the Bear. They rarely fed him, and once when they did, she had seen the little bastard piss in Bear’s food before throwing it through the bars of his cage to him. Slatterly would wet him down and turn up the velocity on the electrified bars, or they would prod him with a cattle prod while laughing as he accidentally pressed himself against the bars and electrocuted himself while trying to avoid the prod. It broke her heart to see the way he was treated. Once while sitting in the living room staring out of the windows, she realized that Slatterly did not disengage the security system or even touch the key pad next to the glass door before he went out. He walked right out of the door without an electric shock to himself. That let her know that she could go to and from that door without being electrocuted. So she formulated a plan. She would sneak food out to Bear each chance she got. She had now snuck out more than once and given him food and water. She cried when he took the food from her and wolfed it down. He was starving, and she just couldn't stand by and watch him die. She had to try to help him. She wasn't left alone often, but occasionally Lurin would go to town for a couple of hours on business, whatever that meant. She’d wait until Slatterly was preoccupied and sneak out to quickly give some food to Bear. Each time she did, she’d promise him that she was going to find a way to get them both out of here. She knew he couldn't understand her, but it made her feel better to say it anyway. She had a new mission now — she was going to save Bear. She didn't really have much will on her own, but Bear’s survival depended on hers. So she had to find a way.
Then, finally the night came that Lurin decided that she was healed enough to endure another breeding. She asked Lurin if he would provide her with something to knock her out because the pain of his breeding hurt her so badly. He just smiled at her and told her that her pain was what made her so irresistible to him. He took her in his arms as he shifted slowly, wrapping his snake’s body about hers, sinking his fangs into her shoulder to hold her in place. She tried to contain her terror, knowing it gave him pleasure, but she lost her battle. She screamed and sobbed and begged, and he got harder and more determined, panting with anticipation at each move she made to free herself. Finally, thankfully, her terror won, and she slipped into darkness before he forced his way inside her to fill her again. But it was done. She was bred.
Avaleigh woke knowing it was done. She was once again laying in her bed, bathed, dressed in a silk gown, a tray over-flowing with food, and the strong tea at her bedside waiting for her. She rolled away from the tray and sobbed into her pillow. She had no hope now. The door opened and Lurin entered her room. “Ah, you have awakened, my Dragon’s Mate. Good. My younglings need sustenance. Come, female, let us take our dinner by the pond.” She rolled back to face him as he lifted the tray from her bedside.
She didn't want to go outside. She didn't want to do anything, but lie here.
“I don’t want to, I’m afraid to go outside, Lurin.”
“Why would you have fear of your own home?” he asked.
“Because there are beams all over the place to keep me in, and I’m afraid that I will stumble into them if I don’t see them. I have seen what they can do to the Bear…”
“The beams are not to keep you in, Mate, they are to keep encroachers out. You are safe here and may go any place in our home that you would like.”
“I don’t want to get electrocuted.” She cast her eyes down like a good little girl at this last murmur to him, hoping he would fall for her new persona. In her quest to save the Bear she had found Lurin’s one weakness, vanity. He believed himself so perfect and so much more intelligent than anyone else, that any woman would be thankful just to be in his presence, so she played the part, gaining his trust. Lurin chuckled darkly, “Female, you do not even realize that you are immune to such things, you carry my guarantee of safety inside you.”
“I don’t understand,” she replied.
“Of course you do not. These are not
the things of women’s minds.” He decided that he would brag a little to his female. Show her that she was lucky to have a male such as himself. “The electric currents are supplemented by my Dragon’s Fire, my blood is immune to them. As long as my blood is inside you, you cannot be injured by my Dragon’s Fire or the beams they travel on.”
She felt weak as she digested the words, and suddenly she knew the answer before she even asked the question. “But, I’ve never taken your blood. I’ve never bitten you, never marked you. I don’t understand. How would I have your blood inside me?”
I'm Not A Dragon's Mate! Page 2
