“You are the only one being destroyed today, and your pretty little nymph, when I find her.” Dezo advanced. “And I will find her. I can smell her gold.”
Gold stalagmites erupted from the earth and impaled the two ghouls.
“Nice trick,” Dezo said, and then lunged for his throat.
Ondrej caught him, but saw out of the corner of his eye one of the ghouls had freed himself and darted toward the trees—and Krysanthe.
He used the last of his Alpha fire to incinerate both ghouls.
“Tapped out, aren’t you?” Dezo snapped his teeth. “I’m not. I have endless Alpha fire.”
Ondrej grabbed Dezo’s jaws and held them open, but he’d need the strength in his back legs to crack them.
They rolled again, but Dezo managed to free himself and the air smelled of dragon fire.
Dezo was going to burn him again and he had no counter fire.
But the fire never touched him.
Krysanthe had clawed her way up onto his shoulder. She caught his fire somehow and used her power to turn it to solid gold. Seemingly, the whole stream, all the way down his throat.
Dezo gagged, fell onto his back and tried to pull the gold out, ripping out with it, his ability to make fire.
“I’ll kill you,” he gasped.
“No, you won’t. You’ll never touch anyone I care about.” She hopped down from Ondrej and ran to Dezo where she lay both of her hands on him.
It started on one scale, a tiny bit of gold shimmer. Until it grew ever larger, spreading all over his whole body like a kind of cancer. He howled and roared, but when his bottom half was solid gold, he couldn’t get away from her. He couldn’t move.
She gasped and screamed as the power flowed from her in a torrent. Ondrej knew from the way her veins stood out on her neck, the sweat pouring from her, she was in physical distress.
He immediately Changed and ran to her, taking her in his arms, but she wouldn’t, or couldn’t stop.
So he opened himself, he allowed her magick to take from him anything it needed to sustain her, to sustain itself until it had been spent. He could feel his life-force flowing away, but he did nothing to stop it.
She was his mate, his always, his forever.
It wasn’t acceptable for there to be breath left in his body if there was none in hers.
Only when Dezo had become solid gold did it stop, and then the earth opened up in a giant chasm and swallowed the golden dragon whole. Then, to his most singular horror, Ondrej crashed to the ground.
“What did you do?” She sank down next to him and pulled him into her lap.
“What it is my honor and my responsibility to do.”
Her fingers were cool on his face and brought some relief to the places where Dezo’s had burned him.
“I should be exhausted. Broken. Even bleeding from what I’ve done and I barely feel like I’ve climbed a flight of stairs.” She looked down into his eyes. “Ondrej.”
He was wracked with spasms of pain so violent he couldn’t hold in his reaction as his bones cracked and splintered.
“How do I fix this? How can I help you?”
“Get to Woolven.”
“Not a chance in hell I’m leaving you on this mountain alone.”
“I’ll heal,” he groaned. It had started already. He could feel his wounds knitting themselves back together even as he lay there. “And when I do, you need to be far, far away from me.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Mating Fever. My dragon has recognized you as my mate, and if you don’t want that, you need to be as far away from me as you can get.”
“You wouldn’t hurt me,” Krysanthe said with surety.
“No, I wouldn’t. But the fever, you’d want me too, and damn the consequences. It’s biological. We can’t fight it.”
“We’re not even the same species.”
“Doesn’t matter. How else do you think I was able to give you my strength, Princess? It’s because my dragon thinks you’re mine.”
“We barely know each other.”
“Yet, you were willing to fall into to bed with me.”
“That’s one night. What you’re talking about is forever. It’s damn the peace accord, damn the Remus, and damn everything but what we want.”
“Yes.” He nodded. “That’s the way of the Fever. So you need to go.”
She pursed her lips. “Whatever happens, I couldn’t live with myself if I left you here. Especially since we don’t know if Dezo was working alone. We don’t know where everyone else is and if they’re okay.” Krysanthe shook her head. “No. I won’t do that.”
“I’m healing even now. Just being close to you is giving me what I need.” He reached up a hand to touch her face. “I bet you can start to feel it. Can’t you? Aren’t you thinking about kissing me? About me pushing you down in the grass and tasting all of you?”
She blushed. “I’ve been thinking about that since I first saw you.”
“And now, here we are alone, under a sky full of stars after trauma.” He stroked her cheek with his thumb. “With a biological imperative to mate.”
She swallowed hard and then wet her lips. “What if we just have sex? Can’t we enjoy each other like we discussed and finish the mission?”
“No. Not now.” He found the strength to raise his head and touch his lips to hers, and that same electricity sparked between them, a visible snap in the dark night. “Now, if we mate, you’ll be mine and I won’t be able to let you go.”
She kissed him again. “That’s not fair. Your lips are like a drug. I can’t get enough, but I know if I don’t stop…”
“I mean it, Krysanthe.” His hands did something completely different than what his brain told them to. He was peeling her jacket from her, touching her silken skin.
“It hurts to stop,” she said as she pulled back from him.
“I know.”
She raised her arms to help him remove her tank.
“Your burns are healing.” She ran her fingers over the newly formed skin, and up to where his scales made a kind of armor for his human skin. “I have to see how far that goes.”
He took off his shirt, all of the pain receding as it was replaced by pleasure from her touch. She followed his scales until they gave way to flesh on his pectorals.
“I’m entranced. Why do you only have it? Is it an Alpha thing?”
“Yes. Do you like it?”
She pressed her lips to them. “I do. This is why you smell like gold.”
“So do you.” He twined his fingers through her hair. “You smell like gold and chocolate. I want to devour you.”
“I think I’d like to be devoured by you, said the maiden to the dragon.” She laughed. “And you smell like the wind, too. I didn’t think it could have a smell. I thought it was my imagination until I was on your back.”
“Krysanthe, you need to be sure. We can’t do this if you’re not willing to make it forever.”
“I don’t know if I want forever, but I can’t stop.”
He forced himself to pull away from her and she gave a small, bereft cry at the separation. “I am more than my dragon,” he growled, more at himself than at her.
“But I’m not.” She crept closer to him. “Part of me wants to surrender and then wants you to take away my responsibility. Say you stole me like dragons in the days of old. But that would bring war to your door.” Krysanthe kissed his cheek. “Our door.” She shook her head. “I haven’t even experienced all of you yet and I can’t imagine giving that up for Remus. Or for anyone. What kind of selfish shit am I?”
“You’re not selfish. It’s how it works with our kind. He has to understand the Mating Fever. Werewolves have it, too. Some of them may not call it the same thing, but they have True Mates. It’s a show of strength to take your True Mate and damn the consequences.”
“I can’t bear another nymph death to be my fault.”
“It won’t be.” He turned his face into hers. “Now you have an alliance wi
th the dragons. Which means you have an alliance with the Woolvens and the Rommulus. You’re not standing alone against the Remus anymore.”
“I like it when you talk politics.” She straddled him. “Are you still in pain?”
“Only my belt buckle,” he teased.
She laughed and kissed him again. “Let’s see about easing that pain, shall we?”
He wasted no time in easing her down onto her back. Ondrej was amazed at how quickly his strength returned and his body healed by being close to her. It was a biological imperative, he supposed, the need to mate and protect. He couldn’t do that if he was broken and bleeding.
When he peeled her out of those white leather pants and she was naked under the moonlight, he was struck but the sheer perfection of her beauty. She didn’t look golden at all, but like a fey creature made of starlight.
This beautiful creature belonged to him.
This female had fought by his side, stood with him against darkness. Now she’d traded what she thought was the right path for a future with him.
“You’re staring,” she said, looking worried.
“Only because you’re more beautiful than I ever imagined a living thing could be.”
“Flattery will get you everywhere.”
“Good. Because that’s where I want to go.” He kissed her mouth and her hands pushed leathers down his hips.
“I’m so wet. Gods, I wanted you to do all those things to me we talked about, but right now, I just want you to fuck me.”
“Hell yes.” He’d meant to take his time with her, meant to seduce her, to literally be the dragon devouring the maiden. He’d wanted to make her come before he was inside of her, but neither of them could wait.
She wrapped her legs around his hips and he pressed his forehead to hers, eyes open as he entered her.
He watched the different play of emotions on her face from the dark, hooded look of desire, to her widening eyes as he filled her, and then her gasp as he began to move. The walls of her cleft tightened around him, keeping time with his thrusts.
She was his perfect match in every way.
“Tell me what you want,” he whispered. “Tell me how you like it.”
“Like this.” She arched up to meet him. “Just like this.”
He moved slowly, with purpose and intent—trying to remember all the things to do that would take them both higher. But the Mating Fever wasn’t to be denied. It wanted culmination, claiming. It demanded its due.
Ondrej fought to hold himself back, stiffened as the tsunami of pleasure threatened to overtake him. It was his pride that saved him. He refused to spill into her after a few thrusts like some untried youth. That’s not how it was going down.
“Don’t you stop.” Her nails dug into his shoulders and the slight sensation only turned him on more. “I feel you holding back.”
“If I don’t, this will all be over.”
She clenched around him again. “It won’t be over. We’ll do it again.”
He groaned and thrust again, but harder this time, and picking up the pace.
“Gods, just like that.”
Who was he to deny his mate what she wanted? Ondrej drilled into her, and clawed at him and arched her back, squeezing him and pulling him deeper.
He was so close and when she whispered into his ear, “You’re mine,” nothing could stop his orgasm.
“I plan on repaying you for that one,” he said.
“Oh really?” She gave a languorous stretch. “Right now?”
“Yeah, right now.” He knelt between her thighs and pressed his mouth to her mound, and two fingers inside of her.
She sighed with pleasure.
His tongue darted out to lave at her clit. He could taste himself, the mix of their mating, and he didn’t care. In fact, he liked it. He loved knowing he’d marked her with his body. She was his. This was his.
It wasn’t long before she writhed beneath him, bucking her hips up to meet his mouth and fingers. He instinctively knew where to touch, how to move his tongue that kept her on the edge, but not quite pushing her over.
Ondrej wanted her to go higher and farther than she ever thought she could. That’s what mates did for each other in bed, and out of it.
He loved the taste of her—of them. The sounds she made, the way her body responded to his ministrations.
She was so close.
He decided to grant her mercy as much for her as for himself. Ondrej wanted to be inside of her again.
He needed it.
Ondrej tasted her orgasm before her body convulsed and she cried out. He withdrew his fingers and rose above her, “Taste us.”
She didn’t hesitate. She took his two fingers deep into her mouth and the sensation of her hot tongue flicking over his skin was something he’d store up for when he was alone.
His dragon roared inside his head, nearly splitting his skull.
She was his, yes. But it was why he had to let her go, if that’s what she wanted.
She was his mate, and it might kill him to let her go, but mating with him shouldn’t be a sacrifice. She shouldn’t have to choose between her people and him.
His mate before himself in all things.
He was more than his dragon.
He was all the things he demanded a Drago Knight be. This was honor. This was bravery.
This was what humans would call love.
Chapter 6
“Where did you go?” she asked, breathless.
Krysanthe knew some dark thought had intruded in their idyll.
“I’m here with you.” He pulled her forward so that she straddled him while he sat upright, his cock hard again.
She descended, taking him deep. This was position was a new sensation, probably because he was so big. The sensation of being utterly and completely filled was almost too intense, but just when she thought she’d have to cry mercy, his big hands on her hips lifted her and slid her back down slowly.
“You’re so strong.”
“Flattery will get you more of the same.”
She gasped with the intensity, but from that tight place inside of her, bliss unfurled languid and warm. Krysanthe took over, bracing her knees on the ground and moving at the pace she desired.
He thrust up to meet her and she was seeing stars again. It had never been like this with something. She’d never wanted to touch all of them, taste all of them. She’d wanted to be a good lover, but with Ondrej, their bodies seemed to already know each other.
Fucking him was so much better than dancing.
This could be her forever. Gods, she wanted it so much.
She couldn’t think about that, not while she rode this tide of ecstasy. Krysanthe was over the edge again so fast she hardly knew what hit her. All of her nerve endings were alive and sending symphonies to her brain.
“I didn’t know it could be like this,’ she said after the storm had rocked them both.
He held her tenderly and leaned back in the grass. “I’d heard. I mean, I’ve had some pretty good sex, but nothing like that.”
“We’re bonded together now forever and it’s so strange that I feel I know everything about you, but nothing at all.”
“The only thing that’s missing between us is our history. The small anecdotes that make up pieces of a life. We know the core things that matter.”
“That our bodies fit together?” she teased.
“That’s secondary. Our hearts know each other’s. As do our subconscious minds. We just have to wait for the rest to catch up. I can prove it to you.”
“How?”
He pulled her close. “When I think you, Krysanthe, I see a princess who lives her life for her people. I see your honor, your loyalty, your truth. I see the love you have for your family, you people. You’ve never once taken your position a princess lightly, nor have you ever been spoiled and self-centered. I see someone willing to sacrifice for something greater. That’s all I need to know when I think of what I value in a mate.”
“Then what more do you need than these things? We’ve already proven we’d die for each other, so living for each other the best part.”
“Then why do you sound so grim when you say it?” she asked.
“I know this wasn’t what you’d planned for your life. If there is really no other way to save the Orlaith, I can do no less than make the same sacrifice you’re willing to make.”
Something inside of her recoiled as if she’d been slapped. Her primal self didn’t want to hear those words, but to her logical mind they were a balm for all that hurt. All that she feared.
“Doesn’t it hurt to be parted from your mate? Can you take another?”
“Never. I wouldn’t want to.” He held her tighter. “Don’t worry about the pain. I’ll do what I must so that you can do as you must. That’s my prime directive as your mate.”
“I’d always heard that you shifters were so possessive. That you’d do murder and worse to keep a mate by your side.”
“Rest assured, if it was required, I would.”
“I also heard that for a mating to be true, you’d have to try and Turn me.” This was her deepest fear.
“For wolves. For some dragons. Not for the Knights.” He kissed her forehead. “And not for us. You’re perfect the way you are. If it was something you wanted, we could see if it was possible, but I don’t feel that’s what you want.”
“I don’t. I love your wings, and I loved flying with you, but being a gold nymph—the old stories aren’t too kind to nymphs who try to change their spots. I’ve seen it with the nymphs who’ve been bitten by wolves. It’s a dark and horrible death.”
“I don’t want to change you, Krysanthe. I only want to keep you.”
“I wish we could stay here on top of this mountain forever. I wish that things were different for us.”
Ondrej Page 5
