My Dragon Master

by Alisa Woods

  “Oh, yes.” His hands slide into my hair. “Especially the part where you came undone around me, my Queen.” Then he pulls me in for a deep and sensuous kiss.

  It unlocks something inside me. Something pure and good. Like the first time we kissed when it opened up a part of my soul I didn’t know existed, this sensual kiss in the midst of our love-making is unlocking a part of my heart I’ve kept hidden away, protected from a world that seemed full of lies and hidden pain. I can trust Akkan. He’s laid open his heart, time and again, stood by me while I was injured, giving his own blood to heal me, and now, taking this insane leap into the unknown, willing to transform everything he knows for me.

  I can safely give him what I’ve given no one else. My heart.

  He finishes the kiss and rolls me over. We’re still connected, still intimately twined, but now he’s in the position for pounding, and I’m splayed out on the bed at his mercy.

  “Are you ready for more, my love?” he asks, a smirk playing across his face.

  I touch my fingertips to his lips. He’s so beautiful as a man. He was amazing and powerful as a dragon. I wonder what he’ll look like in his Elven form.

  “I’m ready for all of it,” I say.

  He frowns and grinds into me. “You already have all of me, Daisy.” Then he gives me a tender look. “My heart included.”

  “And you have mine.” My hand cups his cheek. “Make love to me, Akkan.”

  He closes his eyes briefly, and his lips move in silent prayer. I’m not sure what he’s asking from the Universe, but I feel like we already have everything, right here, in this bed.

  When he opens his eyes and peers into mine, he says, “You complete me, Daisy. Your soul is my soul. Your heart beats with mine. You are the greatest treasure I will ever have.”

  “Is that your prayer?” I ask.

  “It’s my promise.” Then he pulls out and strokes in, and it forces any other words from my mind. He quickly picks up the pace, pounding into me and setting my already-electrified nerve endings on fire. He’s panting as well, no longer the controlled breathing of before, just raw, passionate energy that’s driving into me. He grabs hold of the headboard, angling deeper and gaining more leverage. I’m whimpering and holding onto him, bracing for the orgasm I feel gathering deep inside, quivering me right down to the depths of my soul. It grows in force and strength, then suddenly, shoots up from the depths, a volcanic eruption of pleasure that possesses my body. Akkan growls out some erotic stream of a language I don’t understand, and I can feel him hot and hard within me, very much releasing that seed he fought to hold back. But it’s okay because I know his words hold true. We are one soul, one heart, bound forever. I feel the heat of it, the elation, as our souls meld as tightly as our bodies, as thoroughly as our hearts. It burns through me, clearing away any doubts that might remain.

  I am Daisy and Aerendyl. I am Akkan’s soul mate.

  The Universe opens in a brand-new way. The magic of it runs through me and fills me. If I had my cards, here in the throes of our climax, with my head thrown back, my eyes closed, and Akkan sunk deep inside me, I wouldn’t draw The Lovers. Or even the Empress, although I feel as much a Queen as Aerendyl ever did. No, I would draw the World. Completion and Joy. The end and the beginning. Akkan and I have traveled the world and found our way here—in an otherworldly realm that was always our destination—and the Universe approves.

  I revel in the afterglow of our success. Our pleasure. I sink into the bed, eyes still closed, utterly complete. Akkan’s breathing hard above me, still deep within me, but I feel his energy spent and his body supine with pleasure. I know we have many more moments like this ahead of us—eons filled with them—but this one is the first.

  I open my eyes and am unsurprised to see Akkan transformed.

  His eyes are still squeezed tight, pleasure wrenching them shut. I reach up and gently trail my fingers along his ear, starting at the tip. He shudders with pleasure. I’d forgotten the erotic potential of the Elven form. So much for us to explore.

  When he finally opens his eyes, he gasps and raises up from where he lay across me. “Daisy. You’re… her.” He means Aerendyl.

  “I’m me,” I say with a smile. “And you’re still you.” I run my fingers up the length of his ear again and watch his eyes fall half-closed as he shudders.

  “What is that?” Then his gaze sharpens. “Wait, can I…” He works a hand free to caress my ear as well—it goes straight to somewhere in my brain, a whole new pleasure center wrapped up in magic.

  “Oh, yes,” I breathe, eyes half-closed. “I remember that.”

  “You need to teach me all about this.” His heated look is followed by the hardening of him inside me again. That true mixture of dragon stamina and Elven magic is devastating in bed.

  I have every intention of teaching Akkan everything I know. In bed and out of it. About the Elven world and how the magic will keep us safe and strong. I have so much to tell him.

  But he’s already moving, making love to me once again.

  The Universe can wait.

  Ten

  Akkan

  Holy hell, Daisy’s Elven form is hot.

  She’s on her knees before me, taking half my length into her mouth while working the rest with both hands. That’s hot enough, but this position allows me full access to her ears, which I’m working all I can. A sort of massaging stroking motion across the full length, with a small flick at the tip, has her moaning and whimpering even as she tries to pleasure me more.

  I think I’m winning.

  Her gasp and release of me, suddenly burying her head in my hip and shaking head to toe, tells me I got her there first. Ear-orgasms are fucking amazing, and I just love watching them take Daisy apart. She slumps against me as it passes, her mouth open and gasping against my thigh. But I’m nowhere near done.

  I’ll never be done with her. Something that almost stupefies me when I think about it. A thousand years. Two. We won’t be making love every second of that, but if I had my way…

  I pull Daisy to her feet then quickly bend her over the soft couch we’ve had brought to our room. We’re still in the Elven hideaway that Giullis constructed, all those years ago, to protect the Elves who had remained faithful to the Queen. To await her return with all the hope they could muster. I’m endlessly grateful for his service now, in ways I can’t even count.

  This couch for one.

  It’s cushioned, so as I pound into Daisy, it doesn’t discomfort her, yet strong enough to hold up to the abuse we’ve given it. Right now, it braces her hips as I plunge into her from behind. I lean forward and grab hold of those ears—they’re sensitive but also tough as hell—and use them as reins to hold Daisy up while I drive into her. She cries out. This is her absolute favorite position—the combination of hard-driving dragon sex and Elven ear-magic makes her wild. She’s already screaming out with the pleasure of it, begging me for more.

  I give it to her.

  I’d give her anything, including the Elven children I know she hopes will form every time my now-Elven seed pumps deep inside her. Which is about to happen because holy magic this position is my favorite, too. Daisy screams and quivers and shakes as I ride her, and that tips me over the edge. I groan and slam deep, emptying into her while I stroke the last bits of pleasure from her ear-tips. It lasts a while, and I enjoy every second of it.

  When we finally slump together, falling into the soft cushioned embrace of the couch, we’re a happy mess of post-orgasm haze and sloppy smiles. We snuggle for a while in our mated bliss. It’s everything I’ve always heard and more—none of my dragon brothers mated with an Elven Queen, after all. I am absolutely smug about that.

  “Queen Daisy,” I say as I wind a long strand of her hair around my finger. “Should I order up some of that bug juice, or are we heading back to the bed?”

  “It’s ambrosia, and it comes from Universal energy, not bugs.” She gives me a look, but I just grin. I’m as Elven as she is now, a
nd that’s apparently what we eat, but it’ll be a while before I forget what hamburgers taste like. “And we need to clean up,” she adds, which puts a serious damper on my fun. “Isn’t Niko expecting us soon?”

  “He can wait.” I move in to kiss her, but she disappears, leaving me alone on the couch.

  Damn teleportation. I take a guess and teleport to the bathing room. There she is, gliding into the water, her beautiful body sluicing through and creating a gentle wake behind her. I wade in, hopeful that we’re not actually cleaning up, but she shoos away my attempts at an embrace and heads back for the sponges. The pool has magic woven into the water—it would heal us like it did me before—but it also does a fine job of rinsing away all traces of love-making. If that’s something that’s desired. I do not, in fact, desire it, but apparently, Daisy’s ready to move forward with what this means.

  You’ll have to let her be who she is. Alice’s words come back—she was more right than she knew. Or maybe she did. As Daisy says, we’re all connected.

  I relent and allow Daisy to wash me with actual seriousness and not a prelude to love-making. Once we’re both clean, and she swirls up some magic to dry us—I’m a complete neophyte at Elven magic; that’ll take some time to learn—we teleport back to our room. Giullis has stocked the place with all kinds of clothes, and thankfully, Daisy picks out something less revealing than typical Elven attire. It’s still gossamer and white, but her dress is regal and somewhat modest with its many layers cascading down her body and dragging along the floor behind her. She remains barefoot, as do I—it’s an Elven custom.

  I put on the least-revealing thing I can find, essentially a heavier-duty toga than the one I had before.

  “You’ve explained the situation, right?” she checks.

  “I’ve prepared him as best I can.” My phone was lost in the initial attack of the Vardigah in the cottage on Hydra, but Giullis went back for it. I explained everything to Niko as best I could via text. Something Giullis also had to ferry back to the real world. No cell service in the Elven realm. “The biggest shock will be simply seeing us.”

  She nods but doesn’t seem concerned. “Ready?”

  “More than Niko, I imagine.” But I give her a smile.

  “Let’s stop at the cottage.”

  I nod, and a moment later, we’re there. Giullis has cleaned up, and he’s already brought what few things Daisy wanted—mostly her cards—back to our room. He’s busy readying the true royal residence for us, but he’s apparently got the entire Elven realm at his disposal now that the Queen has returned. This stop at the cottage is just for me to check messages.

  I scroll through a series of questions from Niko as my phone catches up since it was last in cell tower contact. “Nothing that you can’t explain in person,” I say to Daisy.

  “Good. Tell him we’ll be right there.” She’s drifted in her royal Elven dress to the window. The sea is sparkling with the afternoon sun. I couldn’t begin to say what day it was without looking at my phone.

  “Okay, he’s ready for us.”

  She takes a moment longer, looking out the window, then she turns to me and smiles. My soul mate was gorgeous before our mating, but Elven magic has taken her beauty to new levels. Or perhaps love and my own Elven eyes see her differently now. It doesn’t really matter which. But her long-limbed form and pointed ears don’t belong in this world anymore—I’m eager for us to return to our realm.

  She strides over to take my hand—not strictly necessary for Elven teleportation, but a custom among the light elves, nonetheless—and a moment later, we’re standing in Niko’s office.

  I’ve known him a long time—only distantly in the Athens lair, given he was still a boy when I left, but more so recently. He’s only partially hiding his shock.

  He steps away from the desk he’s leaning against and extends his hand. “Congratulations are in order, I imagine.” He’s even more dazzled by Daisy. “To you both.” Then he leans back, scouring my Elven features—longer, more slender, and of course, the ears. “Damn.”

  “I’m sure you have questions,” Daisy offers.

  “Yes. Your majesty?” He scrubs a hand across his face. “Did I get that right?”

  She laughs a little then eyes the couch. “May we take a seat?”

  “Please.” Niko pulls up a chair opposite as we settle in. “I guess the most important thing is the Vardigah. You said in your text that they’re no longer a threat, but you hedged on why. Or how. I’m assuming you have them all in custody? I’d like some kind of reassurance before I tell the dragon world their scourge is gone.”

  “Understandable,” Daisy says. “And I can give you that reassurance, but first, you need to understand that the Vardigah and the Dhogerthu are the darkness and the light of the Elven world.”

  “I can see that much.” He gestures to us as if it’s obvious.

  I exchange a look with Daisy, but it’s clear he doesn’t really understand. “They’re not different species, Niko.”

  “Well, I can see the resemblance.” He tips his head to Daisy. “The light side is much better looking.”

  “The Vardigah are what happens when the darkness within us takes hold,” Daisy says.

  But Niko’s puzzled expression means he’ll need it spelled out, just like I did. “Our lore speaks of them as two different races,” I explain, “but the reality is more complicated. There is only one Elven race. They are called the Dhogerthu. Being in the light, in brightness and harmony with the Universe, is their natural condition. They’re connected to each other and to the human and dragon worlds through the magic that binds us all together. But if something goes wrong, if one of them succumbs to the darkness inside, then it causes a chain reaction of sorts.”

  “If I’d known,” Daisy says, “I could have stopped it. The Queen is the restorative force. The spirit that draws the Dhogerthu toward the light and keeps them working and living and loving together in harmony. But one of the Dhogerthu succumbed to that darker impulse—we’re still not sure who or why, but we do know what they did. They killed my mate. And thus me. Or rather Queen Aerendyl.”

  Niko’s shaking his head. “Okay, it’s still freaking me out that you have all these memories inside you.”

  Daisy nods. “It can be a little unsettling. But I have a pretty good idea who I am.” She takes my hand and smiles, and that moment is one of those I’ll hold in my heart until the end of my days. To Niko, she continues, “When Queen Aerendyl died, it set off a cascade. That one act, because it was so vile, devolved that particular Dhogerthu into what you think of as the Vardigah. It’s a shrinking of spirit and magic that shows up on the outside. They appear ugly because they’ve literally been drained of all the natural goodness inside them. Even their language changes. It’s almost incomprehensible to the Dhogerthu still in the light. We know this because we’ve fought this battle in the past. It’s something we always have to guard against. But in my waning years, I guess I missed the signs that this darkness was stirring in the Elven peoples.”

  “So the Vardigah are the Dhogerthu.” Niko’s brow furrows. “What happens now that you’re back?”

  “That’s the good news,” Daisy says, squeezing my hand. “Once the Queen’s power was embodied in me—once we were mated—the restorative force rippled through the magic realm where all Dhogerthu and Vardigah are connected. Before that, many Dhogerthu had devolved into Vardigah. That’s how they were able to launch an attack on the dragons and nearly destroy you. It’s how they were able to capture the other soul mates and torture us. They were after me. They didn’t know which soul mate I might reside in, so they tried to destroy us all. And they almost succeeded with me.”

  “But now that you’re back, they can’t harm you.” I turn to Niko. “Or anyone else.”

  “I still don’t understand,” he says. “Why not?”

  “Because the Vardigah no longer exist,” Daisy says, simply. “Once the restorative force was applied, the Vardigah either returned to th
e light, turning back into Dhogerthu, or they perished. The ones who were too far gone into the darkness were not able to make the transition back to the light. It’s unfortunate—I would have rather welcomed them all back into the light—but some simply couldn’t bear it.”

  “I hate to ask, but… do you have some kind of proof?” Niko cringes.

  “It’s all right. I understand.” Daisy rises up from the couch in all her queenly splendor. “You may remember this particular Vardigah.” She waves her hand, and suddenly a body appears on the floor of Niko’s office.

  Vardigah. I rise up quickly from the couch. She didn’t tell me this part of the plan. I don’t recognize him, but I can tell from Niko’s scowl that he does.

  “Do you remember him?” she asks Niko.

  “Yeah.” He looks disgusted. “He’s the one who attacked us when we were rescuing Cinder.”

  “Yes.” She makes the body disappear again. “He’s also the one who captured Alice and forced her to help them capture the soul mates. He, and several others who participated in the torture, were unable to return to the light. You can assure your dragons and their soul mates that these ones have paid the ultimate price for their crimes.”

  Niko nods and seems satisfied.

  I’m slightly in awe of my mate. She’s had only a couple ten-minute meetings with Giullis to accomplish all this. I know because the rest of the time, she’s been in our bed.

  “What now for you two?” Niko asks, his smile returning.

  “Honeymooning,” I say quickly.

  Daisy smiles wide. “Yes, honeymooning.” She turns back to Niko. “And then you will not see us for at least a thousand years.”

  “What? Why?” Niko stands a little straighter.

  “Because our realm is not yours, and yours is not ours,” Daisy says. “Our people are connected, but the balance is better kept when we remain in the worlds to which we belong.” She turns to me. “I might want to say goodbye to Grace and Jayda first.”