by Lee Savino
More soothing whispers in an alien language, the words almost musical in their cadence. My body melts against his, my core molten with heated desire. Shockwaves radiate from the place he penetrates me. My legs scramble against him, trying to pull him closer even though I can’t reach around him.
“Kadir?” My voice is a hushed whisper. “Um, you can move. If you want.”
He draws back to study my face. “Is that what you want, Alice?”
Is that what I want? I’m seconds away from begging him to please fuck me. “That would, um, be good. Slowly.”
“Slowly.” His grin is wicked enough to make my womb clench.
And so, he moves. Slowly, like he promised. The shockwaves spread, grow in strength. My muscles tighten and grip his cock. I rub my breasts against his chest, lifting my hips to meet his every thrust. Our gazes lock. His face is etched with feverish need, the same hot desire that’s running through my blood. This feels right. Kadir is an alien warrior, and I am a human woman, but I’ve never been so in sync with anyone in my life.
17
Kadir
Alice’s thick lashes flutter as I penetrate her. She’s so tight, so wet. The feeling of sliding into her is like nothing I’ve experienced in my life. I clench my eyes shut as her muscles squeeze my cock. “Alice,” I whisper. The scent of her arousal is in my nostrils. My ears are filled with her gasps, her sighs, her murmured moans. My entire body is attuned to her.
Slowly. I have to force myself not to drive my cock deep into her body. Slowly. I pull my cock out until only the tip sits at her entrance, straining towards the warm and welcoming sheath. Slowly. I reverse directions and glide forward, and I’m rewarded when her inner muscles squeezing my shaft until I am drunk on pleasure.
The blissful hum of my dragon fills my ears. I’m shocked she can’t hear it. In her arms, the sharp teeth of the rathr cannot hurt me. In her arms, I am no longer a mindless warrior, a weapon in hands of the Empire. In her arms, I am home. And I am free.
I drink in the sight of her. Her beautiful face, contorted with need. The curve of her neck as she throws her head back. Her full breasts. Her nipples, erect and swollen.
She is perfect. I never want to let her go.
Ours, howls the dragon. Forever.
I push my cock into her slowly, steadily. Her breath catches, and she grips my biceps, her nails digging into my skin. She bucks under me and moans my name. I can feel her desire and taste her need, and it is irresistible.
I thrust into her. I drag my cock in and out of her slick channel. I reach between her legs and find her engorged clitoris, and I stroke her there. Her moans grow louder. “Kadir,” she cries as I grind against the cradle of her hips.
I open my eyes to find tears glittering in hers. I freeze. The dragon roars. “Have I hurt you?” I ask softly.
“No,” she whispers. “It feels amazing.” She wraps her arms around me. “Make love to me, Kadir.”
The translator explains her meaning, but I hear only one thing. Love me.
Yes, Alice. I will.
I squeeze my eyes shut and grit my teeth, and I drive deeper into her soft warmth. She came to me for comfort. She wanted one night.
I wish it were that simple. I wish I didn’t want more, but I do. This changes everything.
18
Alice
He told me this would change everything. I shrugged it off, but now I know what he meant, and it’s too late. I’m addicted to Draekon dick.
Or maybe I’m addicted to Kadir.
My mind shies away from that thought. I lift my hips, arch my back. He thrusts deep into me, tucking his hands under my ass and holding me close as he fucks me. He’s so deep…
He slides out of me and snaps his hips, slamming into me with a delicious impact. Pleasure detonates, radiating from my clit, so intense it verges on pain. I claw Kadir’s back, pressing my face to his chest as if he’s my only tether to reality. There’s a rumbling coming from deep inside him. It’s the weirdest thing.
Kadir’s no longer holding back. His thrusts are hard enough to bang the headboard and knock me off the bed. There’s no danger of that though; he holds onto me, his lips at my ear and his hand clamped on my neck.
I wrap my legs around his hips and hang on for dear life.
His cock trips a trigger deep inside. I freeze as my climax rushes over me. Fireworks detonate in my lower belly, the inferno roaring and spreading through my limbs. Kadir keeps thrusting, drawing out my orgasm while driving me to another.
I grip his shoulders. He pumps deep, grunting fiercely, his thrusts no longer smooth and controlled. For one glorious moment, he rests his full weight on me, and the heat of his alien body sends me into orbit another time.
“Fuck,” I gasp. My whole body twitches. How many orgasms have I had? I’ve lost count. A lot.
Kadir pulls away from me and lies down at my side. His cock is still hard. “Wait... did you come?” I ask.
He grins. “Not yet.” His fingers stroke my hips. “Climb on. Ride me.”
Seriously? “I want to be able to walk tomorrow.”
He raises an eyebrow. “It’s all right, Alice.” His voice drips false concern. “If you are too tired, I will take care of myself.”
Oh, you jackass. Of course, he’s not being sweet. He knows just how to goad me.
Aww, what the hell. “Walking is overrated.” I climb onto him. My legs shake as I straddle his hips and lower myself down onto his cock. He’s so big, it takes a minute for me to fully seat myself. He’s so big, his girth stretches me to the point of pain. The best kind of pain.
When I slide down the last few inches, my eyes roll back in my head. I tremble from head to toe, my muscles clenching around his thick shaft. My limbs feel boneless. Only his hands prop me up.
Kadir’s forehead creases. “Alice…”
“I’m fine.” I catch my breath and take a moment to let myself stretch and get comfortable. I tentatively rock on his cock, shivers running up my back. With each shallow movement, he invades every corner of me, not just my pussy.
The rumble in his chest is back. I lean forward and capture his lips. His kiss is soft and gentle. I sigh into his mouth before raising myself back up.
His grips my hips. “Let me?”
I nod and brace myself. He thrusts upward, driving his cock deeper into me. Lights spark behind my eyes and I fall apart. He fucks me harder and harder, the muscles in his golden chest rippling with each movement, mesmerizing me. I dig my nails into his shoulders and scream through my unending climax.
Kadir seems to sense that I need a break. He lifts me off his cock, and I flop beside him. “Alice?” he murmurs, stroking my sweat-slicked hair back from my face. “Are you all right?”
“I’m great.” My body is one live wire. My pussy feels puffy and sore, but his cock is still hard. Still. Hard. Unbelievable.
I start to climb onto him again and he stops me.
“You’re going to come,” I vow. “If it’s the last thing I do.” It just might be.
“Stubborn,” he growls.
“That’s right.” I jut out my chin. I probably look ridiculous—sweaty, weak from nonstop pleasure. But he cups my chin, his eyes searching my face, and he looks at me like I’m beautiful.
“Very well,” he says finally. He arranges me on all fours, placing a rolled-up blanket under my hips when I slump forward. “Are you sure about this?” he asks, pressing the head of his cock at my entrance.
So sure. I’ll pay for my greed tomorrow, but I want Kadir to fall apart because of me. I want his orgasm.
“Do it.” I brace again, but he’s gentle, rocking in and out of me. His big hands close around my waist to steady me. The bundle of cloth under me catches my clit, and I tumble into pleasure. He pops a finger in my ass again, and I’m too blissed out to protest.
My pussy clenches around his cock, hard, and he roars, speeding his thrusts. And then he erupts, my name on his lips. Hot liquid spurts deep inside me.
/> That was amazing.
He pulls out and cleans me up, and then stretches out next to me. His muscles are slick with sweat. His skin glows golden. Sexy and unbearably tempting, and I don’t want to leave.
“I should go,” I blurt out. Staying the night is a big step, at least on Earth. I don’t know Kadir’s stance on cuddling, and I don’t want to risk rejection.
His hand moves to rest on my stomach. “Stay.” He turns on his side. His dark eyes sparkle as they rest on me. “Your nightmares, remember? I have to protect you from them.”
He gives me a wicked grin that tells me he sees through me. I flip him off and then realize he probably has no idea what the gesture means. Aggravating alien. Exceedingly good in bed, though. I’m going to be sore as hell tomorrow. Not sore enough that I’m going to stop doing this, of course.
Is that a good idea, Alice?
I dismiss that voice and snuggle closer to him instead. Common sense belongs to the day. This is the witching hour of midnight, when all things are possible.
“You called your friends earlier than you usually do. Was it the dead Draekons, or was it something else?”
He gives me an affectionate look. “You noticed that.” His expression turns serious. “The men had been clawed to death. They were murdered by a Draekon.” He sounds pensive. “There were six of us at the start. I told you First was gone?”
Dread runs through me. “Yes, you did.”
“In the warehouse, I sensed First’s presence.”
“Oh, Kadir.” I stare at the alien, my heart breaking for him.
“Everyone is terrified of us.” He doesn’t look at me. “There’s a reason for that, Alice. You saw it today.”
Nope. He’s not going to do this to himself. I’m not going to let him. “Stop it,” I demand. “I’ve been your shadow for almost five days. I’ve never seen you kill anyone who didn’t deserve it. Your buddy did horrible, terrible things, and that totally sucks. But you’re not him.”
There’s a ghost of a smile on his lips. “You’re very fierce for your size, little human. Maybe you’re right. Maybe you’re not.”
He calls me little human, and my insides turn to mush because I’m a fool. I want to continue this conversation, but something in his eyes warns me not to poke this particular wound. “Okay, different topic. In the alley, right before Olivia showed up, you told me to climb on your back and hold on. Then, just now, you said a Draekon had killed the people in the warehouse. They’d been clawed to death. Explain.”
There’s a second of silence, and then Kadir speaks, his voice resigned. “Draekons were made from a mixture of genes. “I have two forms. This one, of course. And when I need to, I can shift into a dragon.”
My mouth falls open. “What?”
“You heard me.” He’s watching me, his expression inscrutable. But something lurks in the corners of his eyes. Hang on. He’s nervous about my reaction.
“So you have wings? You can fly? You were going to fly out of Kosagash with me on your back?”
“Yes.”
Holy crap. Kadir’s right: I’m probably in shock because I’m not freaking out at all, and I should be. A dragon shifter, I whisper to myself.
I’m in space. On an alien planet. And the guy I just slept with—best sex I’ve ever had, by the way—just told me he’s a dragon shifter. “That is so freaking cool.” I snuggle closer to him. “Olivia also said I should ask you the real reason you came to look for us.”
“Oh, that.” Kadir rolls his eyes, his tone dismissive. “She thinks we were blackmailed into taking on this mission.”
I push myself up on an elbow. “Blackmailed how?”
“The scientist, Raiht’vi, injected a toxin into each of us. The antidote is back at the Rebellion. If we cooperate, we will receive it.”
I bolt upright, outrage shooting through me. “They poisoned you? That’s why you came here, because you had no other choice? Are they insane?”
He tugs me back to bed and tucks me at his side. “Alice, the five of us have only known death. When the scientist poisoned us, Fifth was ready to let go. He wasn’t the only one. An end to the rathr. An end to the endless wars, the endless pain, the endless death. The scientist didn’t know what temptation she dangled before us.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I don’t know if Kadir understands what he’s revealed. Under his arrogant, infuriating, bossy facade, the real warrior lies revealed, and he’s badly hurt. “Why did you search for us then?”
He shrugs. “I’ve been imprisoned,” he says simply. “I didn’t want that happening to anyone else. So, we took the mission.”
He doesn’t appear to care about the toxin in his blood. Fear stabs me. Is he ready to die?
I want to cry out in protest. Don’t do it, I want to say. Live. But for what? For me, after one night of mind-blowing sex? I don’t have a magic pussy. I’m not capable of that much hubris.
My skin feels cold. Clammy. “You promised to help me find Tanya.”
He tightens his grip on me. “I keep my promises, little human.” His eyes close shut. “It’s late. Go to sleep, Alice. I’ll answer the rest of your questions in the morning.”
Cuddled by the dragon, I feel safe. But it still takes me a long time to fall asleep.
19
Kadir
My eyes are closed, and my breathing is even, but late as it is, I don’t fall asleep. Alice is curled up next to me, her body soft and sated. Her warmth seeps through my skin, banishing the rathr.
When I touch her, the pain disappears. I still don’t understand why.
Mate, my dragon purrs sleepily. Our mate wipes away the pain.
What? I sit up in bed. Alice mutters something in her sleep and throws her hand across my thighs. I slide back down under the covers and hug her on instinct. Mate? I don’t understand.
She’s our mate, my dragon repeats, as if what he’s saying is perfectly obvious.
The idea that there is one perfect person for you. A person you recognize instinctively in your heart as part of yourself. It’s an old, old concept, lost in the mists of time. Generations ago, it was bred out of the Zorahn. How are we susceptible to this?
Every warrior instinct should protest this weakness. I was controlled by the Supreme Mother from the moment I came into being. The concept of having a fated mate, determined by destiny, should make me bristle.
And yet.
My mate is Alice. Alice, who punched my jaw when I tried to rescue her. Who stubbornly refused to let me search for her friend alone. Who defended my reputation to the innkeepers in Akan.
Alice, who had a choice to depart with Olivia Bucknell to the rebellion headquarters, but who instead choose to stay with me. Alice, who had laughed under her breath in delight when I told her I shifted into a dragon.
She’s brave. Loyal. Smart. She’s my mate. Joy surges into my heart, and contentment fills my soul.
Then I remember the warehouse filled with butchered Draekons. I close my eyes, and I’m there again. My nostrils fill with the acrid, metallic odor of blood. I step on a torn limb, and I hear a sharp crack as the bone shatters under my weight. I see the dead, bloody and dismembered, their bodies clawed, their intestines hanging in grotesque clumps.
Clawed to death by First.
I didn’t know the Draekons in the scientists’ laboratory. But they hadn’t been soldiers. They hadn’t been trained for combat. They were just people, held captive by the scientists, forced to participate in their macabre experiments.
Claimed by the scientists, their lives must have been filled with endless misery. To the Zorahn scientists, they were animals to be studied and dissected, not sentient beings who deserved to live their lives out in peace.
They hadn’t deserved to die the way they did, brutally murdered by one of my own.
Just yesterday, I’d hoped for a future, one without war. That dream evaporated the second I walked into the warehouse, and my subconscious made the connection I hadn’t wante
d to acknowledge. First needs to die, and it’s my responsibility to make that happen.
What had made First snap? What had made him attack the caged Draekons? Would I, Kadir ab Usora do the same thing one day? Am I a danger to everyone around me?
The rebellion already doesn’t trust us. They poisoned us partly to control us, but also because the thought of us rampaging unleashed around the galaxy filled them with terror.
Alice is very sure I won’t snap. I’m less confident. Even if she’s right, when the rebellion discovers that First was responsible for the death of those innocent Draekons, I’ll be tainted by association.
People have called me a monster my entire life. I can live with it. But what sort of life can I offer my little human?
You can’t keep Alice.
She cries out in her sleep. Another bad dream. I press against her and kiss her forehead. “I’m right here, Alice. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
“I know,” she murmurs, not completely awake. She rests her head on my shoulder and falls back asleep.
When morning dawns, she’s missing. My heart hammers in panic, and then I notice the door connecting our rooms is open. I stalk into her chamber. The water is running in the refresher, and Alice is humming softly behind the closed door.
I wait. She comes out, water beading on her skin. When she sees me there, she yelps, grabs a towel from the bed, and wraps it around her body. “Kadir, I’m naked.”
Not anymore. I frown. Alice was naked last night. I’m intimately familiar with the curves of her body. Why is she hiding from me this morning?
“We’re going to look for Tanya today, right?” she continues, avoiding my gaze. “We should probably get going.”
