A flash caught her eye. Virdi's green form burst through the trees, chasing after them. She couldn't move her arms but her hands were still latched over the egg. Without even thinking, she unrolled it from the sling she'd made her shirt into and let it drop. Her only thought was getting it away from the Dragon who had her in its grasp.
Virdi caught the egg and wheeled around, shooting away. The huge purple Dragon tightened his grasp on her. With a roar that shook her bones, it flipped itself around. Tucking its wings against its body, it hurtled towards Virdi and the egg.
Chapter Four
Virdi
Dominique's scream followed him as he dove towards the ground. The egg was cool and ashy in his mouth, dangerously delicate for something that held such importance. He knew that Alom wouldn't dare attack him if it might damage it. As long as he had the egg, he was safe. The question was if Dominique was. She continued to scream but it sounded fearful, not like she was in pain. Once they were closer to the ground, Virdi knew that Alom wasn't going to drop her. Did he know that the egg had bonded to her?
It didn't matter. If he wasn't going to kill her, Virdi had to concentrate on keeping himself from being torn to pieces.
The green Dragon dodged between the trees, working his way into the thicker brush until he heard a roar behind him and a glance back showed that the foliage was too close together for Alom to follow. Virdi dropped to the ground, shifting as he did so. The king Dragon followed suit and pushed Dominque forward while Virdi cradled the egg. The tattoo on her breast was covered. Good. He had a chance to get her out of this and to his clan territory, where he'd present the Mother of the Emperor to his grandfather's court.
The human's eyes were wide as Alom pushed her to her knees. "What do you think you're doing?" she shouted despite her obvious fear. "Get the egg away from here!"
"You're more important," Virdi said, inflecting his voice with emotion. "Dominique, my love… I can't let him hurt you."
Her jaw dropped but, fortunately, she didn't call out his bluffing. Alom chuckled, gripping her by the hair. The king's eyes glittered, locked on the egg.
"Hand over the egg, boy. Your clan doesn't deserve the honor to have the emperor born to them. Give it here and I'll let you have this human. Better yet, why don't you join my court? I always thought that your mother stopped you from reaching your true potential. I have an opening in the Sky Hawks that could be yours."
If Virdi actually believed Alom would, in fact, give him such a position, he would have been tempted to take it. But it was doubtful that the king would actually give him such a lofty position. He had never done anything that indicated he thought Virdi was worth anything before now. Besides, even a place with the Sky Hawks wouldn't be as good as the power he'd get in his own clan by bringing the Emperor to them. The egg was next to useless at this point; Dominque was what was important.
"Just give me the girl," Virdi said, adding a plea to his voice to sell it. "Please. I love her."
Dominque's eyes narrowed. Any other time and he would have played it up a little more, just to see how she'd react, but now wasn't the time. He inched forward, holding the egg out to Alom. The king dragged Dominque up by her hair, making her cry out and tossed her to one side. He held one hand out for the egg.
"No!" Dominque shouted. She launched herself between them, punching Alom in the face with one hand as she grabbed the egg with the other. She clutched it to her chest, glaring at the two of them. The torn strip of her tank top fell open, revealing her tattoo. "You're not touching this egg!"
Alom's gaze fixed on her breast. He cursed. "The Emperor's Mother. Very clever, Virdi."
He lunged for Dominique. Virdi threw himself forward, ramming the bigger Dragon's side. Alom's grasping hands scraped over Dominque's wrists and she shrieked, stumbling back. Virdi wrapped an arm around Alom's neck, squeezing as tightly as he could. He clung on while Alom grappled with him.
"Run!" he shouted at Dominque. "Get out of here!"
She turned on her heel and fled through the thick green underbrush. Virdi grunted in satisfaction but his distraction cost him. Alom drove his knuckles into Virdi's stomach. Pain ruptured through his body, the breath driven from his lungs. He released the king Dragon and stumbled back, struggling to draw in air.
"This does not have to end with your blood spilled, boy," Alom said, flexing his muscles. "Your glory will come to you if you are in fact the Mother's mate."
Her mate?"
Alom's eyes narrowed. "Unless you were just saying that you loved her."
Oh. Right. Virdi pulled in a deep breath, pushing aside the ache in his lungs. He straightened himself and rolled his weight to the balls of his feet. He was well-trained and was young, fast and strong, but Alom had decades of experience. He was still strong and he had more control over shifting singular parts of his body than anybody else Virdi knew.
"Well, boy?" Alom taunted. "Do you really love her, or are you just hoping to increase your power by delivering her to the ungrateful wench your mother is?"
Virdi threw himself forward. Alom swept out an arm, shifting it into a wing as he did so; the green Dragon dropped into the foliage, letting the wing roll him along the ground. It swept him behind the king Dragon and he leaped back to his feet, attacking from behind. He punched the king in his kidneys, driving him to his knees.
Alom grunted. He swiveled, grabbing Virdi around the waist. Virdi threw himself forward, driving his elbow into the back of Alom's neck. The king released him and swayed. Virdi grabbed a branch from the ground and swung it hard at the king. Alom crumpled.
Panting, Virdi backed away from the king, watching him carefully. The older Dragon didn't move, his chest barely rising and falling. A frown creased Virdi's brow. Had it really been that easy? He moved forward cautiously and checked Alom's pulse. His heart beat strong and steady but after some careful probing, Virdi was certain that he was unconscious. He'd have a nasty headache when he woke up.
The Dragon winced, hoping that he hadn't done permanent damage with his blow. Alom's clan was strong and the last thing he wanted was to have its wrath come down on him. They may be his mother's rivals, but she certainly wouldn't help him in this case.
He shook his head. If it came to that, he'd have to find a way out of it, like he always did. The king was unconscious and it would give him and Dominque time to get somewhere safe. He covered the king's body with scrub brush to protect him from predators and followed the honey-jasmine scent that was Dominique.
The world was pitch-black by the time he got to her. Howler monkeys bellowed in the forest and twice he heard a jaguar scream. She sat in a thick tangled bunch of philodendron vines, utterly still. If Virdi's eyes weren't enhanced by his recent shifting and the scent of her wasn't so strong, he would have walked right by her and not even known she was there.
She gasped when he sat beside her but relaxed when he identified himself. "What happened to the other one?"
"I knocked him out. Don't worry, I don't think we'll be hunted at night."
"Dragons can see in the dark."
Virdi nodded. "Yes, but they'll know that if they keep hunting us when it's this dark, you'll be at risk of hurting yourself or the egg. They won't want you to accidently get hurt. Alom knows that you're the Mother now. Soon everybody will know."
Dominque snorted. "And instead of being the chubby girl that men don't look at, everybody is going to be trying to get me. But not because of me…"
She trailed off. Virdi considered her words. Nobody looked at her before this? It was hard to imagine but if he was right in thinking she was a virgin–he wouldn’t have thought anything of her Virgin Mary crack, except she looked so flustered afterward–then it was probably true. Which was ridiculous. She was a gorgeous, sexy woman. Any man attracted to women would drop his pants if she so much as crooked her finger at him. She was all curves and had a delicious wiggle to her ass when she walked that he found nearly irresistible.
"They'll want to be your mate but it
doesn't work like that. You're human, which is unexpected, but that doesn't really matter. Once I get you to the Temple of Heaven, your mate will be revealed to you."
She shivered and he moved a little closer to keep her warm. If he tasted her, would she taste like the honey and jasmine that she smelled like? He licked his lips, imagining it. Perhaps it was the darkness and their proximity but he found himself imagining running his hands up and down her thighs, feeling the softness of her skin. He imagined her moans and stirred to life. It was a good thing it was dark. Given his naked state, he wouldn't have been able to hide how his thoughts were affecting him.
"But you don't want to be my mate," Dominque said slowly. "Even though it would mean that you were the Father of the Emperor."
Virdi considered the question for a moment, then shrugged. "Yes, I'd like that. Being the Father of the Emperor. But having a mate? No, thank you. I like my freedom, being able to fly where I want when I want, taking any pretty girl who catches my eye out into the jungle."
"You're disgusting," she snapped. "You're such a man."
"Oh, I'm very manly. Maybe I'll show you just how manly I am."
"Ew! Stop talking." Dominque shifted away from him, then yelped as a jaguar screamed in the distance. She shuddered and he moved closer to her again. "I heard that Dragons mate for life. Like, not just being paired off monogamously while both are alive, but a Dragon will only have one mate their whole life."
Virdi nodded before he remembered that she couldn't see him. "Yeah. They say that once mates meet each other, they don't want anybody else. It's a draw neither of them can resist. Dragonesses can only get pregnant with their mates' babies."
Dominque snorted. "Ridiculous. Biology doesn't work that way. It sounds like an excuse to me to make women stay with men they don't love, maybe not even like."
Virdi rolled his eyes. She was just like all the other humans, putting too much of her own culture into his. Not that he necessarily believed that 'mates' were always destined to find each other. It seemed like a pretty hard knock to him, to bump into somebody and then see nothing but them for the rest of his life. It certainly hadn't worked out for his parents.
But then, there were dozens of other examples where it had worked out just fine.
"People don't stay in love forever," the human whispered. "It just doesn't happen."
"Maybe."
He breathed in her scent again. Ever since he first smelled it, he hadn't been able to get it out of his mind. He kept going back to the dig just to get a whiff of it. If she wasn't so prickly, he'd have taken her out to the jungle already and her scent wouldn't be such a draw to him. It wasn't like it was the first time this had happened. He found himself shifting even closer, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
"What are you doing?" Her tone was like ice.
"Well, I'm just thinking… you have a point. Dragons usually don't sleep around. It's common practice for mates to stay virgins until they meet one another. Maybe if you and I pretended to be mates, they'd leave you alone."
Dominique stiffened. "What are you saying?"
Her voice, rather than angry, was breathless. Her honey scent increased and Virdi felt himself stiffen. He repressed a groan.
"I think you know what I'm saying," he whispered, pressing his face into her neck.
Chapter Five
Dominque
Tingles ran up and down her spine as Virdi kissed her neck. Dominique's heart hammered. She knew this was one of those situations where she should pull back. Maybe even slap him in the face. She didn't even like Virdi. He was rude, arrogant and only ever concerned with himself. She didn't want her first time to be with a man like that…
It would be awful. It would probably hurt more than it needed to and he probably didn't even know what a clitoris was. Why would she want to be with a guy who had slept with dozens of women in the last three years? She knew that Dragons didn't get STDS and couldn't even be carriers, but that was hardly the concern at the moment. They were on the run, thrown together by chance. Why would she give him something she hadn't given the few guys she'd dated before?
But as his strong, muscular arms wrapped around her and pulled her closer to him, she couldn't stop a moan. Heat spread through her core, reaching out to her fingertips. Her body drew her towards him, ignoring what her mind had to say about all of this.
"Stop," she blurted before he could change her mind–or rather, her hormones could change her mind. Her face felt flushed, her heart pounding as hard as though she had just run up ten flights of stairs. "Stop that."
Virdi gave her earlobe a little nip that sent thrills through her before he moved back. She wanted to pull him back and throw herself all over him. Even though it was too dark to see his face, she could sense his cocky grin and tried to remind herself how much she hated that. At the moment, though, the memory of that grin made her want to kiss it.
"What's the matter?" the Dragon whispered huskily in her ear. "Is it because you're a virgin?"
"Shut up," Dominique snapped. Whatever else he was, he was annoying and she despised annoying men. She tried to shift away from him but his arms locked around her wouldn’t let her budge.
"I can be gentle."
Dominique pushed his face away. "I said shut up."
It wasn't like being a virgin was something she especially liked. Throughout high school and university, she devoured every romance and erotic story she could get her hands on. There were times when she thought about going to a party, pounding back a beer and going home with a perfect stranger. But she was always too nervous to do that.
Or maybe it wasn't nerves at all. Dominique had a hard time seeing men that way. For a time she wondered if she was gay because of it, but women were even less appealing to her. In the end, she just decided that she had more important things than sex to worry about and put it from her mind altogether.
"You're breathing in my ear," she complained to the Dragon.
He laughed, the sound vibrating through her body. She elbowed him in the chest, making him release her. Dominque ran a hand through her hair, teasing it to its ends. He was always luring women into the forest and they came back giggling and blushing, their hair all messed up. But he never went with the same woman twice.
"There was a guy like you in high school," she said. "He tried to seduce the whole grade. When he asked me out I thought it meant I was special but all he wanted was to use me for sex. And that's what you want to do, isn't it?" she cried, coming to a realization. "Not the sex but the power. I'm bonded to the egg, you want to increase your power and prestige by getting closer to me."
Silence fell between them but the dark wasn't quiet. The forest was alive with the sounds of insects and nighttime prowlers.
"Was there any question of that?" Virdi sounded genuinely confused. "But it's for you, too. Dragons are big into virginity and you'd lose half of your over-eager 'suitors' if you weren't a virgin. But of course, if you don't want to that's up to you. It's not like they'll hurt you or force you to do anything you don't want to do."
He moved away from her and Dominique bit her lip to stop herself from crying out from the loss of his warmth. She wrapped her arms around herself but it wasn't the same as having him hold her. She tried to tamp down on the hormones crying to her to just throw caution to the wind and throw herself on him. She was a grown woman who made decisions with careful thought, not how wet her panties were.
Wait, could he smell that? Her face heated even further. It was said Dragons could smell if women were fertile or not–he had to know what sort of effect he was having on her. Dammit!
"So the guy in your high school," Virdi said abruptly. "The one you said wanted to use you for sex. What happened? Did you decide you didn't want him?"
"I decided that I didn't want to throw away my virginity on a man who would move onto the next girl by morning," Dominique said coldly. "That wasn't to say I wasn't tempted. I'm not a prude, I have a very healthy fantasy life. But that doesn't mean I'm g
oing to sleep with some random dude, no matter how attractive he is or how aroused I am."
A moment of silence answered her and Virdi shifted closer again. His spicy scent hit her hard. "I understand."
Dominque glared at the slight glitter where she thought his eyes were. "You're just saying that to make me change my mind."
"No, I'm not. I know what you think about me but it's not like I sleep with every woman I see. I can see the fury on your face whenever I take a girl into the forest. But I'm not sleeping with them." He actually sounded embarrassed to admit it. "We're just flying. I've been used before, too. There were a couple of women. One was a human who wanted to brag that she banged a Dragon. The other… she was a low-ranking Dragoness that convinced me that she was my mate and used me to get closer to my mother. As soon as she secured her position, she left me."
The raw emotion in his voice killed whatever sarcastic reply she had. It didn't seem possible but as she considered what he was saying, Dominque couldn't help but believe it was true. She moved closer to him, sighing as his warmth encompassed her again.
"I'm sorry."
"Yeah. Well, I learned my lesson. I thought I buried those desires long ago. But whenever I smell that jasmine and honey scent of yours…" Virdi pressed his face into her hair. "I'm actually a little glad you hate me."
"I don't hate you," Dominique replied weakly. "I just think you are a little bit disgusting."
Virdi laughed. "Is that supposed to be better?"
"No. I just… How can I believe anything you're saying?"
"Maybe you can't." He kissed her neck again. "Like I said, it might help deflect some unwanted attention, but it's not like they'll throw you in a tower and force you to mate them."
The Dragon's Secret Baby Page 3
