Grigori: A Royal Dragon Romance (Brothers of Ash and Fire)

by Lauren Smith

  “What if I found another way to distract you?” He backed them up so they bumped into the bed and she fell back on it. With a playful growl he pounced on her, crawling up her body to cage her to beneath him. Madelyn started to giggle, but it soon turned to breathless gasping as he lifted her sweater up and revealed her bare stomach and bra. He worked her sweater off and tossed it away.

  “Take yours off.” She reached for the bottom of his sweater.

  He sat back, straddling her waist as he pulled his sweater over his head, baring his chest. Madelyn reached up and stroked her palms over his chiseled abs, her own belly quivering in response. His skin was hot beneath her hands and it felt good. Grigori slid a hand underneath her and unclasped her bra. He tugged the white lacy cups down and made a soft throaty sound as he shifted down her body, sliding into the cradle of her thighs. Then he lowered his head, his lips gently sucking one of her nipples into his mouth. Madelyn whimpered as a bolt of pleasure shot straight through her and she arched her back, offering herself to him. They wouldn’t be disturbed . . . they were alone in the palace and the Fire Hills of rural Russia.

  Grigori laved her sensitive nipple with his tongue before biting the tender peak. The sensation was too much. Madelyn wriggled, moaning in pleasure as he kissed and licked at her breast. She locked her legs around his waist, holding him to her. He was playing a wicked game with her body, like running his fingertips along a harp in an abandoned music room. She felt every touch, every kiss vibrate deep within her, shaking the dust off, making the motes of light dance amid the music she felt building inside her like a rising symphony. This . . . This was like nothing she’d ever experienced before and she knew it wasn’t just because she was a virgin.

  There was something magical, almost mystical, in the way Grigori kissed her. The slow, practiced ease of a man who knew how to please a woman. She felt it in the firmness in his lips on her skin and the wild roughness of his hands as they shaped her legs and clenched her bottom when she nipped his bottom lip.

  “Fire’s blood, what you do to me,” he whispered harshly in her ear as they rolled on the bed so that she straddled him.

  With a wild excitement, Madelyn covered his palms with hers and pinned them into the bed, holding him prisoner this time. His hips bucked reflexively and she felt the bulge of his erection against her leg.

  “Madelyn . . .” he warned.

  She shook her head she bent over him. “You started this. I want to finish.” She kissed him, their bodies pressed together and her breasts pushed up against his chest. His mouth parted beneath hers, and she reveled in the way their tongues met for a sweet, simple kiss.

  Madelyn never dreamed she would meet a man like Grigori or that she would lose herself in this way to someone she’d known only a few days. She didn’t want to fall in love, didn’t want to be addicted to him, but it was too late. Far too late . . . She was falling.

  Grigori fisted one hand her hair at the nape of her neck as he rolled them again, trapping her. For a brief second she opened her eyes and their lips parted as he stared down at her. The intensity to his blue eyes were soft and endless, like a summer sky in the early morning right as the world began to stir awake. She closed her eyes again, letting herself fall deeper into the spell of his kiss.

  He’s awakened me. That unsettling stir of some something beneath her skin began again and this time she was too lost in her desire to fight it.

  “Madelyn . . . what are you . . .” Grigori whispered as the bed hangings around them began to stir in a faint breeze.

  “Hmmm?” She sighed against his mouth, feeling for the first time like her body wasn’t trapped within an ill-fitting second skin. She was building toward something, a release that would change her forever and she wanted it with Grigori.

  “Grigori,” she moaned his name. “Please.” She couldn’t say it, but she needed him to take her.

  “What darling? Tell me what you want?” He growled against her mouth and it was the most exquisite feeling, to share an intimate moment like this, an intensity so full of joy. She hadn’t known it could be like this. She was hopelessly addicted to him.

  “Take me.” Her own honest words startled them both.

  “Yes—”

  A shout from outside the door made them freeze, and Grigori’s dreamy face turned fierce as he muttered in Russian.

  “Grigori! Now!” Rurik barked.

  “Ignore him,” Madelyn insisted and Grigori nodded.

  “Yes, I—”

  The door handle rattled as the door started to open. With a loud hiss of disapproval approval, Grigori rolled off her and grabbed the coverlet to throw it over Madelyn’s body.

  “Stay,” he commanded. Rather than be angry, Madelyn was even more turned on by him ordering her to stay half naked in her bed.

  He stalked over to the opening door and faced his brother, growling in low as they spoke. Rurik growled back and for a long moment Madelyn feared they would come to blows. But then Grigori nodded curtly and slammed the door in his brother’s face. He turned toward the bed, his eyes were blazing and a scowl marred his features.

  “Rurik just reminded me that I need to train at least once a day, and we’ve lost much of the day as it is.” Grigori came over to her and leaned over her, kissing her softly. “We can continue this tonight. But for now I need to go outside to meet my brother.”

  Madelyn set up, still clutching the coverlet to her chest. “I get to see you?” Finally. One of the things she wanted most, aside from being in Grigori’s arms. She blushed and shook her head to bury thoughts of them in bed. She needed to focus on the fact that she was finally going to see an honest-to-God dragon.

  “Why don’t you change and meet me downstairs by the field in ten minutes.”

  “Okay.” She curled one hand around his neck, pulling him down for one more lingering kiss before she let him go.

  He didn’t bother dressing and simply left the room shirtless, which only made her hurry to get out of bed and throw her sweater back on. Then she ran to the opulent bathroom and splashed cold water over her face before she decided she was ready to face Grigori’s dragon.

  * * *

  Grigori stood in the open field and watch Rurik strip out of his clothes before he did the same. He could sense Madelyn was at a safe distance, studying them. Once they changed it could be dangerous to be too close to them.

  “Ready?” Rurik asked, a cocky smile flitted across his lips.

  Grigori balled his hands into fists. “You couldn’t have waited another hour? I was very busy.” He was furious that his little brother had interrupted a tender—not to mention hot as hell—moment with Madelyn. His dragon had been ready to claim her, and being deprived of that chance infuriated him.

  “It’s better to train when you have an edge. If I let you sate yourself on that sweet mortal you’d never want to leave bed. That won’t help you when you have to face Drakor.”

  Unfortunately, his brother had a point. Facing Drakor was going to be deadly and he couldn’t afford to get lost in any distractions.

  Rurik smiled, his eyes starting to glow from brown to molten gold. In the blink of an eye, he threw back his head and shifted. Grigori closed his eyes and embraced his own shift.

  The Dragon inside him came roaring out. His skin became silver scales, his mouth elongated into a fierce jaw that could snap trees in half. Two vast wings spread wide on either side of his shoulder blades and he flapped them, stretching the clawed tips and feeling the rush of becoming the beast inside him. The transformation always felt painful, at least for the first few seconds when his body seemed to split apart from the inside out and then the beast took over . . . The human part of him was now on the inside, and the creature was on the outside. When the dragon took over, Grigori wasn’t always in full control. The animal instincts often took over and they could ignore the mortal side of him sometimes, when the beast’s urges grew too strong.

  He lowered his head to the ground, his snout sniffing the grass
and scenting the wind as he studied the other dragon ahead of him. This beast he would know anywhere.

  Brother . . . That bond went deeper than memory, it was as old as time itself.

  Ahead of him, Rurik was prowling, his black head lowered, his scales glinting in the light like obsidian. Rurik flicked a long tongue out and huffed, small puffs of smoke escaping his nostrils.

  Grigori scented the air again, the way the wind brought fresh hints of pine and crisp mountain smells . . . and something else, something that his dragon recognized on a deeply primitive level. An enemy . . .

  He turned his head at the same moment Rurik did. Both of them stared at the small female figure of Madelyn who stood at the end of the field. Her scent was of a creature he never encountered before, but his instincts warned him she was deadly.

  Not human . . . something dangerous.

  He and Rurik began to stalk toward her, their massive bodies sliding in the grass. The human female stood her ground, her face ashen as she stared them both down.

  The wind danced around her, pulling her hair around her face, playing with the golden auburn tendrils. A new, sweet scent, somehow stronger than the first scent that set him on edge, hit him and his body tensed with desire to get closer to her. This was the scent of his mate, but the dragon was confused. She smelled like his enemy too. However, the mating scent was too strong to ignore.

  “Grigori,” Madelyn whispered. Her husky soft voice made him relax, she was his mate, even though he had not yet claimed her.

  Beside him Rurik stood up on his hind legs and let out earsplitting roar seconds before he lunged toward the female to attack her. Panic seized Grigori and his dragon as they realized his female was in danger.

  Must save her . . . Grigori and his dragon acted as one being, fully united.

  He acted fast, lashing out one of his claws at his own brother. Rurik leapt back, his tail lashing out as he snarled at Grigori. Their dragons were in control, and the human blood that connected them as brothers wasn’t strong enough to stop what was to come . . .

  Chapter 12

  How should we be able to forget those ancient myths that are at the beginning of all peoples, the myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into princesses; perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us just once as beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrifying is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants help from us.

  ―Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

  Madelyn stared in fright at the two massive dragons circling each other. They were going to fight . . . tear each other apart. This wasn’t simply play fighting as they had intended. There had been one moment when they had changed and she’d thought everything was fine, until they’d turned her way, eyes gleaming. She’d seen them both fixate on her the moment the breeze rushed along her skin and hair. Both of their beautiful but reptilian gazes had swung to her. Grigori inhaled deeply, his nostrils flaring before the feral gleam in his eyes softened and he turned his back on his brother.

  She’d seen that look before in her nightmares, the predatory, primitive glint. But unlike her dreams, she didn’t run. She stood her ground. She couldn’t flee. It might make them chase her. And honestly, she couldn’t move. It was as though her feet had grown roots and she was stuck. Flashes of her nightmares, of the dragon hunting her, had come back in a rush and she knew on an instinctual level something was wrong.

  Rurik had made a rush at her and Grigori had blocked him in a clear attack. The playful side she’d seen as they’d danced about each other earlier was gone. This was brutal, this was real. They were actually fighting.

  The dragons were incredible to behold. They were the length of two school buses end to end, their tails lashing like whips and their wings flapping as they slashed and clawed. The elegant snouts were open, white teeth snapping as they tried to bite each other. Small puffs of smoke curled up from their nostrils. These were the creatures that had inspired myths and legends. They weren’t some rare breed of oversized reptiles. They were honest-to-God dragons, just like in the fairy tale books she’d read as a kid.

  Half of Madelyn was fascinated, but the other half of her was screaming in terror, beating at the walls of her mind. The tingling in her skin was so strong that it felt like it was almost on fire. She watched Rurik, the black dragon, rear up and roar. She almost fell on her ass.

  Grigori hissed, the sound vicious as he swiped at Rurik. The blue and silver dragon glanced her way, and his golden eyes were all beast except for the faintest quicksilver flash of the man she knew was within. He huffed at her, shouldering closer to her and herding her until she was safe behind him.

  He’s protecting you, a surprised little voice in her head whispered. But why? Madelyn stumbled through the waist-high gold grass, keeping behind Grigori and watching out for his long tail with the barbed spines along the ridge. She didn’t want to get wiped out by that. It could club her to death if it hit her. But he kept his tail well away from her, careful to shield her.

  Both dragons were hissing now, the sound harsh and echoing against the mountains making it sound like a hundred dragons were in the hidden valley.

  Rurik swung his tail and lunged for Madelyn but she dove to the ground just as Grigori launched at him. Their claws slashed and jaws snapped. Grigori forced Rurik back with a series of aggressive lunges. It reminded Madelyn of an old documentary she’d seen of cobras fighting. The deadly dance, the circling, the forward dives, the bobbing heads.

  Another lunge, another shrieking roar that bounced off the stone crevices of the mountains. The brothers locked bodies, jaws sinking into scaly flesh. Madelyn scrambled away, her feet pounding on the ground and her heart smashing against her ribcage as she sucked in ragged breaths. She sprinted toward for the safety of Grigori’s house, but when she reached the steps, heart still hammering wildly, she saw that the dragons had broken apart and both taken flight.

  The wind created by their wings was thick, pushing back nearby trees as the two dragons circled higher and higher. Then they were merely two dark shapes far above her.

  She had to stop this. The dragons crashed into each other above her, each of them roaring out their rage. They tumbled as they clawed at each other before their wings flapped again and they stabilized. Madelyn knew they would kill each other. They had to be stopped.

  “Grigori!” She shouted but something told her that the man she was falling for was too deep inside the beast and beyond her reach.

  The burning beneath her skin grew stronger and a new voice, one that spoke to her with sensations and images burst through her mind. It was as though she’d been in a dark cave, watching pools of sunlight from a vast distance. But now . . . she was sprinting toward the light . . .

  Madelyn saw the dragons break apart and each began a dive straight toward the ground at each other. In a single flash of her mind, she knew what she had to do, some long-buried instinct took over. Both dragons had their wings flat against their bodies as they plummeted from the clouds. Madelyn ran back out of the field coming between the shadows cast by their bodies as they dropped toward each other and her.

  Have to stop them . . .

  Flinging out her arms, she opened her mouth and let out a high-pitched unearthly cry. The tension inside her exploded outward. In a booming crash, a blast of air shot out of her palms aimed at each dragon. The wind rushed at them like a gale force, knocking into them like they’d hit invisible walls. Both beasts bounced back and hit the ground fifty feet apart.

  Gasping, Madelyn fell to her knees, her head spinning as she tried to regain her breath. When she raised her head she saw both Grigori and Rurik lying on the crumpled gold grass, their serpentine bodies shaking and then transforming back into human men in seconds. Rurik coughed, clutching his still-wounded side. New scratches slashed across his back and neck. He stared at her from a sitting position as he sucked in breaths. When she turned to Grigori, he was also sitting up, panting. It was another m
inute or two before both men stumbled over to their piles of clothes and got dressed.

  Madelyn didn’t move. Her mind was fuzzy and her body was sore, as though she’d exhausted every single muscle in her body in one great exertion. Rurik kept his distance, his brown eyes hard and cold. But when Grigori reached her, he knelt beside her and cupped her face, his blue eyes dark with worry.

  “Madelyn,” he whispered over and over before he kissed her softly, almost reverently on the mouth.

  “I feel sick,” she confessed just as quietly. Her mind was reeling and her body was exhausted. She couldn’t even begin to understand what she’d just done. All she knew what that she had done something unnatural, something not human . . .

  “Just rest,” Grigori said, stroking her hair. Then after another kiss to her cheek he pulled back. “Why didn’t you tell me? It was too dangerous to let you out here when we changed. If I had known . . .” he closed his eyes and rested his forehead against hers, the tips of their noses touching.

  “Tell you . . . what?” She panted softly, leaning into him. She still felt muddy headed. All she wanted to do was sleep.

  “What you are,” Grigori said. “It explains everything. I don’t know why I didn’t realize it before.” He shook his head, a rueful smile twisting his lips as he cuddled her against him. All around them the gold grass waved in slow ripples from the winds that dropped down from the Fire Hills.

  “What I am?” she demanded, the fog in her brain starting to clear. She didn’t understand what he was saying.

  He brushed the pad of his thumb over her lips.

  “You don’t know?” His eyes widened.

  She shook her head, suddenly afraid that whatever he was about to tell her would change her life. It was too late to go back, though. What she’d done in the meadow was real, and it was not normal.