by Ava Benton
I roared again, or the dragon did. Maybe we both did. It was impossible to separate us now.
I decided to make it easy. Rather than leaving her to have a one-sided conversation, I shifted back to my human form. Soon, we were face-to-face.
“Oh, wait a second.” She held her hands up to her face when she realized I was completely naked.
“I’ve already seen most of you, so don’t worry about seeing me. Aren’t we beyond this point yet?”
She lowered her hands slowly, but I noted the way she didn’t dare allow her eyes to drift lower than my chest. “I didn’t know you would be out here.”
“Obviously. Well done, sneaking out the back like that. Where we would be less likely to spot you. Don’t you know one of us is out here at all times?”
“Yes, I knew that. I thought I could get into the trees before whoever was on duty caught sight of me.”
“Why are you doing this? After everything we talked about—”
The color rose in her cheeks. “Yes. Yet another example of how you don’t listen, Pierce. Just because there’s something between us, you think it erases everything else. Nothing exists except you and what you want. That’s not the real world—at least, it’s not the world I live in.”
“This is what you want. Isn’t it? Don’t deny that we’re what you want, because I feel what’s happening to you. I feel the conflict.”
“There’s more to life than what we want, Pierce. There are sacrifices, too. Isn’t this a sacrifice?” She gestured to the cave. “Living here all these centuries, cut off from the rest of the world. You have a duty. Right? I know that means something to you, or else you wouldn’t be here.”
“Of course, it means something. It used to mean the world to me, before I met you.”
Her shoulders fell as she sighed. “Pierce. I wish I could make you understand. I have a duty, too.”
“That doesn’t absolve you from trying to run away without saying a word. Could you have lived with yourself if you got away from me?” I closed the distance between us and saw the way her body trembled harder with every step I took.
She wanted to run—I could smell the fear all over her, but there was another scent. Just as strong, maybe stronger. I had smelled it earlier, in her room. Desire.
“I didn’t want to,” she whispered. “You have to believe that. I thought if I took myself out of the picture, you could go on without me.”
“That could never happen. The sun would burn out, the mountains would crumble, before I would ever be able to go on without you.”
I cupped her face, and she tilted her head to lean it against my palm with a tiny whimper.
“This is already complicated enough. Please, Pierce. We can’t make it worse.” Her body told another story.
The desire built until her scent surrounded us both, wrapping us in a cloud of deep, primal need.
I could almost hear her heart pounding as I stroked her warm, flushed cheek with my thumb. The end was inevitable.
I only waited for her to admit it.
“Pierce?”
“Yes.”
“I need you.”
16
Jasmine
I didn’t care anymore if it meant upsetting my uncle or the clan. I didn’t care about going back home.
Leaving the cave had been the hardest decision I’d ever made—and I was glad he caught me.
It wasn’t until he did that I realized how much I’d wanted him to. I didn’t want to leave him, not really. I only wanted to make it easier for all of us.
It didn’t matter when he stood so close to me, touching my face and staring into my eyes. It didn’t matter when every instinct pushed me closer to him. Some much deeper need existed in my soul, a need I hadn’t known existed before I met him. A need only he could fill.
“I need you,” I whispered again, and I wrapped my legs around his waist when he lifted me in his arms.
It felt so right, wrapped up in him like that. I held his face in my hands and kissed him hard enough to make my lips sting.
He growled in response, forcing them apart to thrust his tongue inside as he had earlier. And just like earlier, a flood of warmth spread between my thighs and a delicious ache sparked there.
His hands cupped my butt as he carried me back into the cave, to the cells where I had first stayed.
My fingers dug into the muscles of his shoulders and back—he was so big, so beautifully thick and hard as the rock all around us. But warm, moving, breathing.
His body was carved perfection, and just as massive in its human form as it was when he was the dragon.
He didn’t let go of me. Instead, he lowered us both to the blankets and stretched out on top of me.
I wanted my clothes off. I had to touch all of him with all of me.
He peeled off the sweatshirt, the t-shirt, the oversized pants from his closet. His hands slid over my body, and every inch he touched sent me closer to the edge of utter bliss. I closed my eyes, letting my head roll helplessly from side to side as he swept me up in passion.
“So beautiful,” he growled, his lips skimming my curves.
My thighs, my hips. My stomach. His mouth closed over one nipple, drawing it up into a point before biting it playfully. Or not-so-playfully. The dragon wanted satisfaction, too. It didn’t matter who did it because my body responded just as strongly either way.
I arched my back, giving him more of me. All of me.
His mouth left my skin, and his eyes met mine. Even in the almost total darkness, I could just make out their gleam. Or were they the dragon’s eyes?
“I want you. Now.”
I barely recognized his voice. It was like being in the cell with an animal. Instead of frightening me, the thought sent fresh wetness flowing between my already swollen, tender folds.
“Yes,” I gasped, letting him roll me onto my knees.
The power in those muscles of his, the strength. He maneuvered me like it was nothing. I barely made out the sound of tearing cotton as he shredded my panties. His hands gripped my hips as something wide and hot and hard slid through my slick cleft.
I let out a cry of pure, unbridled lust when I felt that blessed pressure, a cry which turned into a scream of pleasure as he pushed his way inside me. Instantly, my body clenched around him as an orgasm washed over me, leaving me gasping and moaning even as it surprised me with its speed.
He didn’t wait for me.
It was just as hard and fast and urgent as he had promised. His fingers pressed into my hips and held me steady as he pumped in and out, ramming his length inside me until our bodies slapped together in a furious rhythm.
I gave myself over to it. All my passion, everything in my soul, all of it. I let go of myself and stopped thinking of anything but what he was doing to my body. And the deepening connection of our souls.
It was like the dragon was in the cell with us.
A roaring filled the air, overlapping with my grunts and squeals of pleasure. He filled me so completely, almost to the point of pain just like the way he held me so tight was almost painful. But not quite. And I liked it.
My body responded to it. So did the deeper, darker part of me that he unlocked.
I threw my head back and cried out louder than ever as another orgasm hit me like a tsunami, making my sheath grip him tighter than ever.
“Yes… yes, Jasmine…” His voice was a hoarse growl.
The dragon’s voice. One of his hands left my hip and trailed down my back, and somewhere in there, I thought I felt the sting of claws against my sweat-slick skin, but I had to be imagining it. He took my breast in his palm, kneading it, pinching the nipple until I cried out. Not for him to stop, though; I wanted more.
He pulled me up on my knees, leaning my body back against his.
One of his arms snaked around my waist and tightened like a vice, and he used it to move me up and down his impossible length while the other hand slid its way over every inch of me until it found my clit. I h
owled in almost mind-bending, unthinkable pleasure when he made contact, coming again.
It went on and on as he played with me, still fucking me like the animal he was, growing and building and wiping every inch of the old Jasmine away until I was sure I would die in his arms because nobody could stand that much. It would kill me.
But it didn’t.
I screamed until my voice broke, but it didn’t kill me.
And when his grunts got louder, faster, his thrusts harder than ever until he nearly broke me apart, I knew he was coming to the end. I welcomed it—not because I wanted it to be over. I wanted it to never end. But even more, I wanted to know I had brought him to release.
“Mine!” he roared in my ear, his breath as hot as his cock. “Say it!”
“Yours!” I gasped, letting my head drop back on his shoulder. “Yours, Pierce!”
He roared again, wordlessly, before latching onto my shoulder and biting down. It didn’t hurt. It surprised me more than anything else.
And it was all wrapped up in his final thrust, slamming me down on him as he slammed up into me, and my core clenched one more time as I came along with him. His arm tightened around me, and I dug my nails into his thighs until the spasms passed.
I opened my eyes only to see the darkness of the cell. Everything had changed. I wasn’t me anymore. I was myself and his mate at the same time. I would never be anybody else’s.
“Jasmine…” he breathed, touching his forehead to my shoulder.
I cupped the back of his neck in my hand and held him there while I fought to catch my breath.
“My Jasmine.”
“My Pierce,” I whispered.
It sounded good and felt even better. My Pierce. There was no question of ever leaving him. It was an impossibility. I raised myself from his lap and eased myself down until I was stretched out on the blanket.
“I’m sorry about your shoulder. I didn’t think. It came over me too fast.” He touched it with gentle fingers. “Your bad shoulder.”
“It’s all right. I’m all healed up anyway, and it didn’t hurt. What was it all about? Your way of marking me?”
“Something like that, yes.” He stretched out, facing me. He was still breathing a little fast. “I had no idea it would be that good, or I might have thrown you to the ground earlier.”
“I’m glad you managed to hold off,” I whispered, “or else I might not have wanted it as much as I did.”
“But you did want it.” It didn’t sound like a question, though I knew it was one.
He was too proud to admit his uncertainty—and the fact that he was uncertain at all told me what I needed to know.
He loved me.
For the first time, he worried whether somebody else was happy and satisfied.
I decided to make it easy for him. “I did, and I will again. Soon, if possible.”
“How soon?” He took my hand and guided it.
He was already hard again—and even though I should’ve been exhausted past the point of even thinking about it, my body responded with a fresh rush of warmth.
“I’m afraid this might kill me,” I smiled as he rolled me onto my back, settling himself between my legs.
“But what a way to go…” he growled softly before brushing his lips tantalizingly against mine.
Epilogue
Jasmine
Smoke looked glad to see us when we returned—until his expression changed to one of knowing. And disappointment.
We had made a point of walking around to the main entrance, where Pierce had left his clothes before shifting.
If he showed up buck naked with my hand in his, it would look a little suspicious. I was still shy enough to take steps to hide our activity.
It didn’t matter.
“I see.” Smoke stared heavily at Pierce, who only shrugged. “You’re lucky I found something, then, since you barged ahead without waiting for me.”
“You found something?” Pierce nearly ran after him.
I followed them to the library, where a massive, leather-bound book was open on a table far too small.
Smoke pointed, and Pierce bent to examine the words on the ancient, weathered page. “I can barely make this out. I haven’t read that language in centuries.”
“I’ll help.” Smoke read aloud. “If a blood oath is made, only the altering of the blood involved may break it.”
“The altering of the blood involved?” I asked, looking from one of them to the other. “I don’t understand.”
“I do.” Pierce was beaming from ear to ear when he straightened up. “It means that when I mixed my blood with yours, it changed your blood from what was used to make the oath. You’re no longer the same as you were when your father promised you.”
“The composition of your blood has changed,” Smoke explained. “All your sister did was treat the toxic effects of dragon’s blood. But see, here,” he added, pulling out another huge volume, “when a dragon’s blood is mixed with another creature’s, it alters the composition. You’ll always be part-dragon, even if it’s a very small part.”
I was glad for the presence of a sofa behind me, because my legs buckled at the knees and sent me down onto it. “Holy shit,” I whispered. “Do you think this will work?”
“It has to. Unless…” Smoke trailed off, cutting his eyes in Pierce’s direction like he was reluctant to voice his thoughts.
“Unless what?” I prompted.
“Unless you feel an emotional bond with the man you’re promised to.” He grimaced, waiting for the potential fallout.
There was no reason for him to worry. “Oh, no. I can’t stand him. I never could. We’re oil and water.”
“You’re sure?” he asked.
“She’s sure. I can feel it.” Pierce’s relief was evident.
Then again, so was mine.
Smoke cleared his throat before leaving the room—I made a mental note to thank him for all his hard work as Pierce sank down beside me and wrapped me in his strong arms.
“There’s no reason for you not to stay now,” he whispered, stroking my hair.
I rested the side of my face against his chest and could hear the steady beat of his heart. It was like music. “Good thing, because I’m not going anywhere.”
“Not ever?”
“Never, ever. I meant it when I said I was yours. You know I am. Forever.” I straightened up, looking him in the eye. “There’s no getting out of this. I hope you don’t regret it.” I’d have to figure out what to do about my clan later, but my heart knew where it belonged.
“How could I ever regret being with you?” He kissed my forehead, my cheeks, then my lips.
I melted against him, sinking into his kiss like I would into a feather bed. I could still feel him on me, in me, the effects of what we did in the cell still fresh. My body sang with him.
“I love you, you know. Even if you inadvertently almost killed me.”
He rolled his eyes. “While I was trying to save your life for the second time. You tend to forget that part.”
“And I always will,” I teased.
“You’ll never let me live it down, will you?”
“No. Not ever.” I giggled at the look of mock pain on his face.
We both turned in surprise at the sound of footsteps.
Alina looked elated and stricken all at once. “You have a way to break the oath to Bradley?”
When I nodded, grinning, she barely choked back a sob.
I rose, with Pierce behind me.
“What is it?” I asked.
Smoke entered the room, frowning deeply.
And there I was, deluding myself into thinking the others would be happy for us simply because we were happy. Was I selfish to assume they would be?
“This loophole only covers one of you.” Smoke nodded at me. “You. Not your sister.”
I closed my eyes briefly as the truth sank in. Of course. There was no reason for Alina not to go back. Especially since I was staying.
>
They couldn’t get away with keeping the both of us.
“It would open a whole new world of trouble,” I murmured when it was all clear.
My sister looked heartbroken, and I understood why because I felt the same way.
We had spent our lives leaning on each other, trusting one another when there was nobody else we could trust.
We were each other’s secret keepers. The best of friends. And there was no way we could be together once she was gone.
“I don’t want to leave you.” She took my hands and squeezed hard, searching my face with anxious eyes.
“I know. I don’t want you to leave. I don’t know what life is like without you.” I looked at Pierce, who deliberately looked away.
I knew I was putting him in a bad position by even hinting that I wanted him to do something about it. I didn’t want to press.
Smoke did the talking. “If you don’t go, it would mean extreme danger for you, your sister, and the rest of us.” He sounded like a man convicting himself to death.
Only his sense of honor was strong enough to send Alina away. The deep attraction between them was obvious. I wondered if they were fated mates, too. Stranger things had happened.
“I know that.” Her big, luminous eyes filled with tears. “It’s just that I’ll be alone, and I’m not looking forward to it.”
“I thought you had an uncle.” Pierce didn’t sound unsympathetic, but his dragon had what he wanted.
His dragon would advise Pierce to keep his nose out of any further conflict. How I knew that, I’d never be able to explain. Something about mating with him had unlocked insight into his thoughts. It was unnerving and exciting all at once.
Alina and I both rolled our eyes. “He’s our uncle by blood, but there’s no affection,” I explained. “He and Papa never exactly got along. He was the tight-fisted one, the one who would rule the clan with an iron hand if he ever managed to get his hand around it. And he has now.”
“If anything, we remind him of Papa, and he hates it.” Alina shuddered, rubbing her hands over her arms. “He gives me the shivers. Not in a good way.”
