Ondrej

by Saranna Dewylde

  She pulled back from him. “You’re not wearing a belt.”

  Chapter 4

  Krysanthe couldn’t believe she’d just blurted that out like a complete idiot. It hadn’t been a belt buckle digging into her back on the bike. It had been his… erection. Even thinking about the word made her blush.

  Which was stupid. She wasn’t a virgin by any means.

  But thinking about how big of a male he was, it would make sense that his cock would be, too.

  Her cheeks heated.

  “No, Princess. It wasn’t a belt buckle.” He smirked. “My apologies.”

  “Don’t apologize.” She leaned into his broad chest again. “It’s normal biology. It happens.”

  “It is normal biology, but I’m not going to try to say it just happens. You’re a beautiful woman, Krysanthe. It’s you. So if that means you don’t want to ride with me—”

  Heat suffused her at his words. So he was as affected as she. “Why do you keep trying to push me off on someone else?”

  “I don’t want you to feel unsafe.”

  “Oh my gods, Ondrej. I’ve never felt safer.” She leaned up on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear. “But don’t tell Voshkie that.”

  He laughed.

  She liked the sound of his laugh. She liked everything about him. So she decided to be honest and confess. “You felt it, didn’t you? That electricity?”

  “I did. It almost knocked me on my ass.”

  “Has it ever happened to you before?”

  “No, and I don’t know that I liked it. It could make things more dangerous for you.”

  “Me either. But I did like it.” She pressed herself against him. “I liked it a lot.”

  “What do you want from me, Princess?” It was a simple question with not so simple an answer.

  “I don’t know.” She shook her head. “I’m supposed to marry a male I don’t know. Be his wife. His mate. I guess I’d like to experience you before I do. I want to know what that spark means.”

  “We can do that, Princess. But not here on the dance floor.”

  She bit her lip. “Why do you keep calling me princess? My name is Krysanthe.”

  “Gold nymph princesses aren’t for dragons. We know that ends badly. I have to remind myself.”

  His hands were around her waist and all she could think about was getting them on the rest of her body. “Fine, not on the dance floor. In the bathroom?”

  He laughed. “Gods, woman. No. When this happens, it’ll be in a better place than a roadside bathroom.”

  “I heard that,” Gram said as she danced past them.

  “No offense to your bathroom,” he called.

  “None taken. Condom machine is empty anyway,” her voice carried above the crowd.

  All Krysanthe could do was laugh. The old hunter was definitely a trip.

  Voshkie shot her a look around Mikolas’s shoulder.

  She grinned and leaned in to Ondrej, enjoying the sensation of his arms around her. She’d casually decided to have a night of hot sex with a dragon she barely knew. And it was so easy to just tell him what she wanted.

  She wondered if it would be like that in bed with him, too.

  No awkward fumbling, like her last lover. No strange morning after with different expectations.

  Just experiencing each other and the pleasure they had to share.

  She bit her lip again, that spark flickering through her like a fireworks display.

  The hard ridge of what she’d thought was a belt buckle was pressed up against her again. “Mm, are you sure you don’t want to take me up on that bathroom visit?”

  “Yeah. Tonight you’re going to soar,” he whispered in her ear. “I’ll take you higher than you’ve ever been before. First on my back, since I’ll be doing the flying. Then on yours.”

  Her body responded to his words, his nearness. She started having the dirtiest fantasies about fucking him on his bike. Krysanthe knew that wasn’t very realistic, but what about this was? Absolutely nothing.

  “Maybe not,” she taunted back. “Maybe I’ll still be riding you.”

  His arms tightened around her and she was dizzy with him, all of her senses filled with this male. The way he smelled, the heat of his body… hell, the heat between them.

  She was jolted from her dreamy haze by Dezo’s voice. “Look, we need to move. There could be ghouls tracking us right now.”

  Ondrej nodded. “All right. Let everyone know we’re heading out.”

  “Vosh, we’ve got to go.”

  She broke away from Mikolas. “It’s been real, it’s been fun, but it hasn’t been real fun.” Voshkie patted his shoulder.

  Mikolas arched a brow. “Same to you, Legs.”

  She followed them out the door and to the bikes, where she swung her leg over Ondrej’s and put on her helmet. Krysanthe had to reconcile that she might not be having any good times with him tonight because she was so sore from the bike.

  At least until he got on behind her and that “belt buckle” was quite prominent.

  She squirmed in the seat against him until he locked an arm around her waist. “You behave, Princess.”

  “I don’t think I can. I didn’t know how much fun it was to be bad.”

  His hand slipped underneath her tank top, the motion masked by the edge of her jacket. The bare skin to skin contact made her squirm even more. She settled against him and tried to quell her desire. At least until later.

  Darkness had fallen and as the bikes roared toward that ribbon on asphalt, her need turned to something else. Something in the darkness watched them. Something wrong. Finally, after they’d been on the open road for an hour and a half and they neared the campsite, she said, “I don’t think we should stop here. Something’s not right.”

  “It’ll be alright.”

  “Ondrej. It’s wrong.”

  “I know. You’re sensing the dark magick in the ghouls. We need to draw them out.”

  “So, we’re not sleeping? We’re making ourselves a mark, then we’ll go to a hotel and sleep?”

  “If that’s what you want to do.”

  She didn’t want to say into the mic what she wanted to do, everyone could hear it. Then she realized everyone had heard their conversation about his “belt buckle.” Krysanthe took a deep breath. She refused to be embarrassed. After all, if they disappeared together tonight, it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what had happened between them.

  “I’ve just never seen a ghoul in the flesh. Their presence feels like something rotten in the ground. Tainted.”

  “Being an elemental nymph, it makes sense they’d feel so wrong to you.”

  They took the exit to the park where the shadows seemed to only get longer and darker. Krysanthe had never been afraid of the dark, but tonight she feared what was in it.

  Driving deep into the park, she saw that this one even had a few trees and a pond; it seemed they were out of the badlands. When the bikes rolled to a stop, they parked them in a circle, almost like a wagon train.

  Everyone got out their bedrolls, and Voshkie tossed hers to her.

  “Thanks,” she mouthed, both for the bedroll and for not making a big deal about where she bedded down.

  Voshkie rewarded her with the I-Don’t-Approve, But-What-Do-I-Know face.

  “Wanna see something cool?” Imre asked.

  “No, no one cares that you can breathe fire, Imre.” Mikolas lay down on his bedroll. “We can all do it.”

  “I can’t,” Voshkie said. “Show me.”

  Imre didn’t Change, he kept his human form, and he shot fire out of his mouth to the small pit in the middle of their little circle and a fire blazed and crackled.

  “That is cool, Imre.” Voshkie smiled at him.

  Mikolas rolled over, away from her.

  “I’ll take the first watch,” Voshkie offered then.

  “Have you ever fought a ghoul?” Ondrej asked her.

  “Sure. I slice off their heads.” She twirle
d her knives.

  “These are different. One of these bit my brother, Jakob, and it Turned him.”

  “Like zombies on TV?” Voshkie asked, her tone skeptical.

  “Yeah, just like that. But they weren’t lumbering fools. They were smart, coordinated, and fast,” Ondrej said.

  “Okay, so maybe Fabian comes with me.” She shrugged. “I know I can’t do it all.”

  “You got it.” Fabian hopped to his feet.

  She rummaged around in her bedroll. “Damn it. I should’ve brought a flamethrower.”

  Fabian walked over to her. “Looks like that’s the one thing you didn’t bring.”

  “I try to be prepared.”

  “Be careful, Voshkie.” Krys didn’t like this, not at all. The idea of Voshkie out there alone when faced with this kind of threat frightened her. She knew this was what Voshkie did, part of who she was, but Krysanthe hated it when she was in harm’s way.

  “You too.” Voshkie grinned. “Hey, I got this. Remember when I went to the front? I took many werewolf heads with these little knives and they never got in a bite. A ghoul’s not going to stand a chance.”

  Krysanthe put her hand over her heart and Voshkie did the same, then with a nod, she and Fabian set off into the darkness.

  They all lay quietly in the dark for a long while, no one sleeping. Krysanthe looked up at the sky and wide splash of sparkling stars. This wasn’t a view she got very often, even in all of her long years of living. She spent much of her time underground, but now suddenly saw the appeal of living topside. How amazing it would be to look at this every night.

  “What was that?” Imre sat up straight.

  The whole group was immediately on alert and Krys could feel the tension in the air, it was so thick, she could almost reach out and touch it.

  Something rustled down by the water.

  “That’s bigger than a squirrel,” Mikolas said.

  “It could be a bobcat. There are plenty of them out this way. Probably just getting a drink,” Ondrej said, still looking out toward the noise.

  “That’s not a bobcat.” Imre leapt toward the sound.

  When he emerged from the darkness, it wasn’t any kind of creature in his grasp. It was Aranka.

  Her stomach dropped like a stone. “You can’t be here. Oh my gods, what are you doing?” She grabbed her sister and held her tight, but then shook her. “It’s dangerous.”

  “You’re dangerous. You trying to rattle my eyes out of my head?”

  “I’m trying to rattle some sense into it. How are you even here?” Krys asked.

  Aranka grinned. “Gold. I can travel through the veins of gold like Father. Pretty cool, huh?”

  “I—” Krysanthe wouldn’t say it wasn’t cool. It was actually pretty cool, as she’d said. “That’s great, but Aranka, you have to go. They’re ghouls hunting us.”

  “I want to see one.” She pursed her lips. “Maybe from a distance.”

  “Does Father know where you are?” Krys asked.

  “I left him a note.” She turned to Imre. “Are you going to carry me around some more? I’m tired from following you guys.”

  Voshkie and Fabian burst back into the light—sweat soaked and bloody. “Take to the air, boys. The shit has hit the fan.”

  Behind them, a horde of ghouls followed. Too many to fight. Or so Krysanthe thought.

  Ondrej leapt into the air, Changing as he flew, and put himself between his charges and the slavering, mindless horde.

  Oh gods, it was a beautiful thing to see. He’d done it without hesitation and when sprays of fire shot from his mouth, he was all the more majestic. He was just like every fairytale dragon she’d imagined. His wide wingspan, his noble head, and the scales on his body were just like the ones she’d seen on his arm. That same shifting aurora borealis of colors.

  “Let’s move. He can’t keep that up forever. It takes a lot out of him to breath the Alpha fire,” Mikolas said. “Our fire doesn’t kill them. Only his. See?” He shot fire at one and while it burned, it still kept coming.

  Voshkie stabbed and slashed, but even after she cut off their heads, they got back up again, the heads growing a new body and the bodies growing new heads.

  Voshkie yelled at her. “Get on his back, for fuck’s sake. I need you in the air now.”

  “Got it.” She looked to Mikolas who knew what she wanted.

  “Hold on to my neck, Voshkie.” When she seemed to pause, he said, “Just do it. I’ll get you both safe.”

  Voshkie had to drop her knives to do it, but after a second’s hesitation, she put her arms around him and he Changed—his long tail swiping at the ghouls.

  Krysanthe was held securely in his claw and Mik eased her to Ondrej’s back. The view from so high up was both beautiful and terrifying. Terrifying because the ghouls just kept coming. They dug themselves up out of the ground… Aranka!

  Imre had her clutched in his claws and had taken to the sky. She was safe.

  With several strokes of his great wings, they were airborne. The wind rushed through her hair, and she realized this was why he smelled like the night wind. He was part of it.

  The carnage on the ground below was a horrible thing, but this… it was unadulterated bliss.

  “Hold on.” His voice was so loud and thunderous, deep.

  She found it strange that this amazing beast was the male she’d spent the day with. She understood the duality of shifters, but it was something else to actually see it. Krysanthe didn’t feel this kind of wonder when she saw werewolves transform, only revulsion. Perhaps because she’d never had to slice a dragon’s throat because he was intent on killing her.

  He soared higher. “I said I wanted to take you flying, but I didn’t mean like this.”

  She laughed. “It’s wonderful. Everyone is safe, so I’m going to enjoy it. It’s such a rush. It’s like I can touch the stars.” Krysanthe held her arms out until a gust of wind almost knocked her off. But even then, she couldn’t bring herself to hide against his neck.

  Suddenly, that dark feeling returned. “Ondrej?”

  “Yeah, I feel it too.”

  She turned to look behind them and another dragon was gaining on them. “There’s another dragon behind us.”

  “Who is it?”

  “I don’t know. It doesn’t look like Mikolas or Imre. I didn’t see Fabian or Dezo Change. But he’s gaining fast and he doesn’t look friendly.”

  “Hold on.” He circled before landing on the top of the mountain with a small clearing. “Get to the trees, Krysanthe.”

  She didn’t want to leave him, but if he had to fight, she understood he didn’t want to worry about her.

  “We’re in the Ozarks. If something happens to me, find Blake Woolven, this is his territory. He’s the Woolven Alpha and he’ll help you.”

  Ondrej leapt back up into the sky, leaving Krysanthe alone in the darkness.

  But she wasn’t alone, not really.

  Krysanthe thrust her hands down into the dirt and felt for the warm, flowing streams of gold. She called it to her like an old friend and its energy filled her, warmed her.

  She had the feeling she was going to need it.

  Chapter 5

  Ondrej’s rage overtook him and although he’d already used his Alpha fire, he summoned it again.

  Whoever this dragon was meant him and Krysanthe harm.

  Gods help him, because no one else would be able to.

  Only the rage died in his gut when he saw who it was who hunted them—and there was no mistake, this dragon wasn’t coming to offer aid. He was hunting.

  It was Dezo.

  He’d already had to put down one of his men, he didn’t want to do this, but Ondrej always knew the day would come when Dezo would challenge him for Alpha status. Dezo wasn’t meant to be a soldier, but he’d been a rogue all alone when Ondrej had found him.

  He just hadn’t thought it would be like this.

  Ondrej had made the mistake of thinking it would be an hon
orable fight. A challenge issued brother to brother.

  But the curl to Dezo’s lips, his baring of teeth and the smoke coming from his nostrils did not note any trace of brotherhood between them.

  They clashed midair, Dezo biting and snapping, and breathing Alpha fire.

  The scales on his chest burned, but Ondrej found he still couldn’t summon his own Alpha fire. His grief and his love for Dezo was too strong.

  Until he thought of Krysanthe.

  And what Dezo must intend for her.

  Then he realized she was in bigger trouble than either of them imagined. Granger’s behavior around Voshkie—his inability to control his Change. Ondrej’s own inability to get his body to comply. Mating Fever.

  His dragon had recognized Krysanthe as his mate.

  It had been a slow build until she’d been put in immediate danger.

  Now, the fire built and raged and he breathed the volcanic spray all over his enemy.

  Dezo howled in pain, but continued to slash and tear at him, trying to clamp his teeth around Ondrej’s throat. If he managed the death roll, no amount of fire would free him. He had to do it first or Krysanthe would be dead.

  He managed to clamp his own teeth around Dezo’s throat and rolled, taking them down to the clearing where they crashed into the ground hard—hard enough that it would register as a low level earthquake to anyone in the near vicinity.

  They thrashed together in the small crater their impact had made and has he tore open the other dragon’s throat and tasted his blood, it was dark and sour.

  Just like the ghouls had smelled to him.

  Fuck, had he been infected?

  He immediately released Dezo and the other dragon scrambled to his feet and squared his stance, his wings splayed wide. The ground sizzled where his blood dripped down and two ghouls dug themselves up out of the ground.

  “What happened to you, my brother?”

  “I am not your brother.” Dezo shot another bolt of fire at him.

  “I don’t want to fight you. Tell me who did this to you and we’ll destroy them together.”