Royal Pride

by Zelda Knight

  He had loved her since forever.

  Muted tones and soft notes of what Zihao knew at once wasn’t jazz music poured out from the makeshift band, but country. It interrupted his musings. Hints of whispers punctuated the heavy scents of alcohol, perfumes, and cheese fries. Despite the non-smoking sign, a haze hung over the place. Wooden planks walls smelled of mold, fungus, and polish. The place reeked of old grease and age. Humans couldn’t smell those subtle scents, but as an earth dragon, Zihao could.

  Sonya walked ahead of him; the gentle sway of her full hips tugged on his attention and trapped his focus. He balled his hands into fists, feeling his nails bite into his palms and the pain forced him to stop daydreaming. He scouted the surroundings. Sonya had a way of making him weak and snaring his every sense like a fly on flypaper, capturing him with her smile, her voice, her smell, and her touch. Her grin disarmed him, her kindness bespelled him, and her grace had saved him. Saved him from the dark cold of grief that trapped him in the wake of his father’s tragic death.

  He remembered her seated behind her parents’ chairs at the funeral. His father’s human form lay on the funeral pyre. Ryuu stood along the dock outside the keep. The lake extended as far as his human eyes could see. Once the trumpets had finished blowing their musical goodbyes, Ryuu, the firebreather, blew a stream of azure flames onto the pyre. Once lit, the roaring flames, encouraged by the kindling and strong winds dipping down into the valley, burned his father to cinders. It nearly broke him. Sonya had placed her hand on his shoulder. So beautiful, kind, and lustful, Sonya did not know what her parents had in store for her, but he knew that he wanted to be with her forever.

  He knew without certainty, she needed protecting. And he would do it.

  With all his heart.

  “Here.” Sonya sat down at a tiny, circular table for two.

  Arranged in a semi-circle around the dance floor, the tables were all accompanied by two chairs. On the dance floor a few couples line-danced to the band’s song. Zihao couldn’t smell any other dragon shifters amongst the crowd, but he also noticed that he and Sonya didn’t represent the dominant ethnicity. Dragon shifters typically didn’t tend to care about outward appearances, but more importantly what the dragon’s abilities and clan were.

  Zihao had done enough research and lived in the human world long enough to know that he and Sonya did not fit in. Their differences caused some fast whispering and curious glances from some of the patrons. His dragon rose alert and suspicious.

  “Oh, excellent, they’re switching to a slow song!” Sonya’s face relaxed in pleasure. The table candle’s soft light cast warmth onto her cheeks and gave her entire visage a glow.

  “You look beautiful.” The words had left his lips before he could stop them. “Thank—”

  “Can I get you two something to drink?” interrupted a brash waitress.

  Zihao shot of the seat and had locked the waitress’s arms into a hold before he realized just what had happened. Her fast movements, had taken him off guard. Zihao had pinned her to table. He couldn’t let anything hurt Son, and the waitress had come at them wrong. Reflex.

  “Sir?” The woman’s wide, dark eyeliner, blue eyes, and thin, fear-laced tone made him feel even worse that he had attacked her. His father’s murderer had never been found. The elder’s words came rushing back to the forefront of his mind. The Gathering was upon them.

  Zihao quickly released her. “I. Uh, sorry.”

  Sonya swiftly added. “Sorry, he’s just home from the war and quick movements make him jumpy.”

  The waitress nodded, a little too much, but she swallowed hard. Her face paled and she stepped closer to Sonya. “You ain’t from around here?”

  Sonya gave a nervous little laugh. “Tourists.” She eyed them. “Uh, huh. Drinks?”

  “I’d like a glass of chardonnay.”

  Zihao shook his head when the waitress looked in his direction. The poor woman couldn’t bring herself to actually make eye contact with him, though the color had come back into her face. He forced a smile to help her relax, but it only seemed to frighten the woman more. She squeaked at his attempt to smile, and walked to the other side of Sonya, out of his reach.

  “Uh, listen, lady, we don’t have chardonnay. We got beer, soda, and bottled water.”

  “Bottled water,” Zihao answered.

  His voice caused the waitress to jump, and she used the pad to protect her chest. Zihao didn’t like how the place smelled. The environment made him jumpy. He didn’t want Sonya partaking of anything not already sealed before it entered the place. He generally liked Anchorage, but found humans not to be as accepting of his kind as his

  kind seemed to be of them. Overall, he liked very few people. Ryuu’s wife, Dr. Brown and those like her who helped the clans and who practiced tolerance, sure, but very few others.

  “Z!” Sonya gaped at him. She nodded at the waitress, gave her a reassuring grin, and then leaned close to him. With her telepathy, she reached out to him.

  You don’t like this place, do you?

  No. It does not smell safe. It does not look safe. We should go.

  There you go again. Always on alert. Just once I’d like for you to let go with me. We’re alone here. You and me, like always.

  Zihao broke the connection, shutting down the link between them. He knew that line of thinking, and he knew how his body responded to it. Especially when she wanted him like this. They’d been very close to breaking his vow, his blood bond, when alone together. He preferred public places, because it gave him more opportunity to be distracted, to take out his frustrated rage on others, if necessary.

  “Oh, hell, yeah! It’s Dolly Parton’s ‘I Will Always Love You!’ Come on!” She snatched his hand and jerked him to the dance floor.

  “No! Son!” He tried to hold her back, but she tugged harder.

  “I really like the Whitney Houston version better, but this one is good too. The Bodyguard is such a good movie…”

  Sonya hadn’t heard a word. Too late to use telepathy. Zihao shut his mouth as she dragged him onto the dance floor. The band had taken a break, and in the interim, they played music from the jukebox. If he didn’t do something to stop the people around them from eyeing them suspiciously, he’d just draw more attention to them. After the incident with the waitress, he needed to blend in because now he and Son really stood out. When pegs stuck out, humans liked to pound them back into place.

  Not only humans.

  He conceded that point to his inner self as he swept Sonya into his arms and whirled her about in time to the slow, seductive grind of the mournful song. The overall mood of the music leaned toward mournful, but he felt anything but. Pressed close to

  him, Sonya smell like lavender and expensive perfume. Her blouse’s soft fabric hugged her curves, showed off the taut body underneath. Dragon shifters’ metabolisms kept them lean, but somehow Sonya managed not to be a stick figure. Real, dangerous, and fine curves made her very attractive to a lot of different species’ males.

  Growling, he held her protectively. “Oh, that’s nice…” Sonya laughed.

  For the briefest of moments, Zihao let himself feel. Sonya put her head against him and hugged his waist tightly. In his arms like this, Zihao felt Sonya belonged there. As if they’d been molded from the earthen clay as one and separated by the hands of fate, only to be reassembled like this—as one whole.

  He could feel her smile against him and it made him grin too.

  Almost instinctively, he dropped the grin and took in the room. No one appeared to be paying them much attention now; their novelty had faded. Outside the windows revealed only dark occasionally illuminated by streetlights and vehicles’ beams. He wanted to return to the keep, but when he glanced down at Sonya, nestled against him, her eyes closed, her lips split into an ear-to-ear smile, he hesitated. So few moments brought her any pleasure now that she had reached her mating age.

  I can feel your breathing pick up. What’s wrong? Sonya’s thoughts inte
rrupted his musings.

  You are safe.

  Of course I’m safe. I’m with you. That’s not what I asked. What’s wrong?

  Zihao heard the applause as the song came to a close. People started moving off the dance floor. When Sonya let go of him, a large man gone to seed, with a bulging, overlapping belly and hairy forearms, slammed into her with such force she stumbled and fell with an “oomph!”

  Zihao’s hands moved, as if with a mind of their own. He caught the rude, offensive man by the throat and hoisted him up off the ground. With his dragon rising, Zihao took the man and with one hand slammed him down to the floor beside Sonya. Gurgling and spurting, the man clawed at his throat, trying to make Zihao release him,

  but the room had been stained scarlet by the rise of Zihao’s dragon. Heat sprouted across Zihao’s skin, rushing with the prickle of an approaching shift. The man’s eyes bulged and drool raced down the flabby folds of his face.

  “Do not ever touch Sonya Gou!” Zihao heard the sound of his dragon’s voice threaded with his human one. Coarse, animalistic, base. It boomed above the music, which as a result had come to a screeching halt. Screams, crying, and the cocking of a gun caught his attention. Zihao let go, and the wall of a man pushed himself up to a sitting position, coughing and rubbing his throat.

  “Zihao!” Sonya screamed.

  He heard the bullet long before it reached him, and he dodged it by dropping to the floor. Again, his mind on autopilot, he pulled out two Ninja stars from his belt and whirled them at the source of the shot. At the bar, a young man no older than Sonya dropped the gun with a clatter to the polished wood surface, his hands up above his head. The stars had landed within inches of his face, embedded in the wooden shelves behind him.

  “Anyone else want to test me today?” Zihao growled.

  A bunch of humans had gathered by the band, but he couldn’t really be sure. All had been dipped in red, and his vision threatened to drop further into infrared mode where all he would be able to see were points of heat. Then he would shift into his full dragon and lay waste to the entire little dive.

  It would be what they deserved for mistreating Sonya.

  At the thought of her name, he felt her hand on his neck. “I’m all right.

  Calm. Soft. Heaven. His dragon bucked in disagreement to her comments that all was well. It caused Zihao snatch away from her.

  She swallowed so hard he could hear it and sucked her teeth. “Don’t be that way,” she whispered. “I’m fine. Calm yourself. Remember the treaty.”

  “Get out. We don’t like your kind here!” someone shouted from the throng. “What kind would that be?” Sonya shouted back, whipping around to face them

  so fast, her hair hit her in the mouth. “You are right out of a damn movie scene cliché!”

  Nothing. Zihao eyed the crowd of cowards, but no one would step out and approach them.

  But they would send a beer bottle sailing over. It crashed at Sonya’s feet. “Figures. You don’t have enough range. Here, let me show you how it’s done!”

  Sonya grabbed an abandoned bottle from a neighboring table and sent it like a fastball. It smashed above the band, showering shards onto the some of the people below. Most fell directly into a trashcan.

  Cowering for cover, the people all appeared confused and unsure. Or maybe those expressions were fear. He had no idea, but the brave person who heckled them said no more.

  “Uh oh,” Zihao said, his dragon settling back down.

  The whirling of lights appeared and sirens echoed. The police had come to settle the disturbance, but Zihao didn’t think the settlement would swing their way. He scooped Sonya into his arms as she was still telling the establishment patrons about themselves and their bigotry.

  Time to go, Son.

  With the room still partially washed in red, Zihao had a hard time determining the route to the back exits. So he made his own. With a tap of his foot, the flooring cracked open and a hole appeared in the earth. He jumped in, carrying Sonya with him. She pressed her face against his chest and held her breath as they’d done many times before when traveling underground. The dark earth covered them and he shifted into dragon form, a much larger body to move the dirt and tunnel out. He moved fast because Sonya could only hold her breath for so long. As a seadragon, she had very large lungs capable of holding her breath for a while, even in her human form, but he didn’t like to risk it.

  Give me a few minutes more. I think we’ve avoided the street and other pavements. Okay, just hurry up! There’s dirt in my hair. You already know how much I hate that.

  He smiled, and with a heaving shove, pushed through the top layer of earth. Hoisting Sonya onto his shoulders, he pushed her out into the air and then shifted back into his human self. When he crawled out of the hole, he found only darkness.

  “Where are we?” Sonya asked.

  Zihao looked around and then up at the sky. “Judging by the constellations, we’re about a mile outside of town, north.”

  “Oh, damn it. Mother’s going to have a fit. It’s already late and it’s going to take us even longer to get back to the keep. We left Pax, Hax, and the helicopter in Anchorage.”

  Zihao sat down on the grass, hearing her voice, but not able to see her face in the deep dark. The twin dragons, Pax and Hax, probably had bar-crawled across the entire city. He closed his eyes and listened to the annoyance in her tone and her feet stomping around on the grass. He wasn’t sure where they’d ended up, but it seemed like a park of sorts.

  It brought back memories of the times they used to run away to play in the Alaskan wilderness. There wasn’t a time when Zihao didn’t love Sonya. She had always lingered in his outside circle while growing up in the keep, but she never infiltrated his inner group. At times, he’d been thankful for it; other times not so much. He’d long wanted to tell her, but the pressure to confess his feelings had proved to be a difficult thing when they were kids. One of the downfalls of being a dragon—telepathy. Even though he hadn’t communicated it to her, they had managed to acknowledge their chemistry, their connectedness when they had learned enough words to be able to describe it—at fourteen.

  Looking back, Zihao considered himself fortunate. His father adored Sonya and, as her bodyguard, took her protection seriously. Nevertheless, he had managed to pair his son with her at all events. Even when there had to be separation between them due to social positions at dragon events, he found a way to make eye contact with her or talk to her. The memories still made Zihao smile and warmed his heart.

  Yet his father’s passing had changed all that. It seemed as though Sonya’s parents and Elder Gou had taken notice of his and Sonya’s chemistry, whispers about their friendship, and budding love. It didn’t take her mother long to turn the innocence of love into a painful reminder of the distribution of power within the dragon society.

  Just then the wind shifted, sending Sonya’s scent directly into his nostrils. His phallus roused, stirred by how wonderful she smelled, and the memory of how wonderful she felt in his embrace. He adjusted what was left of his pants to ease the pressure on his cock. It failed. Not for nothing, he’d become used to the condition. Guarding Sonya kept him teetering on the brink of desire to the point it became painful, twisting his pain and pleasure into one hard knot of yearning.

  Wincing at the memory, Zihao pushed it away and put his attention back on the current task. Protecting Sonya. He scanned the area. Farther away, he saw the yellow glow of streetlights and the dark pavement that looked like the outer loop of some walking path. Sonya switched on a flashlight, a tiny one she kept in her purse. She tried dusting off her jeans, but gave up as puffs of dirt kept rising at her actions.

  “Shit. Your clothes.” Her eyes grew round as she took in his outfit.

  Or lack thereof. His shift had destroyed his clothing, and he stood in front of her without much covering. He watched her look him over, and she came closer to him. She reached into her oversized purse and pulled out a rolled-up pair of swe
at pants and a T- shirt. Over the years, they’d learned to carry an extra outfit for Zihao on the off chance he shifted.

  Like tonight.

  “Here you go,” she said, her voice full of heat. Her fingers brushed his knuckles and lingered. “Z…”

  So close to the mating heat, Sonya could end up mated to anyone. Hell, no. She could end up mated to him. They had to be careful. Not that it was a bad thing, being mated to him, but his blood oath had been to protect her. Too close to be mated to her, but he longed to be hers. . He’d be emotionally comprised. Still, Zihao’s inner dragon

  rose at the husk in her voice and uncoiled at the scent of her arousal. Throat closing with longing, he hastily took the clothes from her.

  Zihao croaked out a hoarse, “Thank you.”

  Bare feet didn’t bother him. Dragon shifting demolished shoes. He turned his back to Sonya and removed the tattered remnants of fabric. He’d shifted out of the body-skimming button-down shirt and jeans. He’d done so many times before, and stood before her nude just like now. Zihao could feel her eyes on him anyway. Nudity didn’t usually bother shifters, but somehow knowing she watched him made his cock hard all over again. Damn it. She’d given him sweatpants. Now there would be no hiding his horniness.

  “Can you kill the flashlight?” In the darkness, she wouldn’t be able to see his hard-on.

  “Sure.” She sounded much too close. Closer than she’d been moments before.

  Her fingers lightly fluttered along his nude back. Nails raked across his spine and sent a sheet of pleasure across his skin. Then her palms glided in slow circles across his muscles. He moaned, his head dropping back. He should tell her to stop, but when she wrapped her arms around his waist, all logical thoughts winked out.

  “Son…”

  She kissed his back and his cock bobbed in gratitude. Her hands moved up his abdomen and up to his pectorals. Without a shirt, his torso remained open to her manipulations. With each kiss her feather-soft lips planted onto his hot flesh, his cock hardened more. Her nails raked gently across his nipples, and he groaned deep in his throat. Unable to stop himself, he turned around and found her in the dark. Clutching her hard to him, he bent his head down and claimed her mouth. Tasting her sent his dragon forward. His tongue explored her and deepened the kiss. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him back with equal intensity. Heat prickled across him. When he broke the kiss, Sonya whimpered, “Z, please…”