by Kim Faulks
His hand was at my back as the blast hit. Ice ran along my spine to find the crease of my ass. I shuddered, and clenched tight, holding on for my life as he slammed the door shut behind us and was running.
I stared at the footprints left in the snow and screamed against the wind. “You’re a damn idiot. You’re gonna get us killed!”
His deep laughter filled my ears. His thighs slammed against each cheek of my ass. We were going to die out here. Someone would find us when the snow thawed, clinging to each other like we were lost out at sea. If I dreamed of an ending, this would be it—together forever, with his hearty chuckle ringing in my ears.
The thud on my ass slowed. I relaxed my stranglehold around his neck and turned my head. Steam mingled with snow to create a mist. I inhaled the heat into my lungs as Victor took one step down, and then another.
A cry slipped from my lips at the sudden shock of heat. I stilled for a second as memories rushed to the surface. Fire lashed my back, stinging, scalding…
“Hey, are you okay?”
His hands were at my back, cradling me against him as we sank into the water. I lifted my head and met his gaze as a tear slipped over the edge and spilled down my cheek. “It’s hot. I was expecting…”
His brow narrowed for a second, before they climbed. “Oh shit…oh shit. I’m so sorry. I didn’t think.”
“No.” I shook my head. “It’s fine. This is fine, it’s beautiful.”
He held me like a child, pressing his warm hand against the bottom of my scars. The sting of the hot water was soothing, sluicing away all the dirt and the cold. I inhaled the thick cloud and relaxed. “This is so beautiful. So very beautiful.”
“It’s why I bought the place. There’s hot springs all through this place. But only one so close to the cabin.”
He eased us lower. The water lapped at my neck and tickled my ears. I dropped my chin, wetting my mouth. The water was fresh and crisp, heating me up from the inside. Bubbles rushed to the surface, each one a pocket of heat that burst against my thigh.
“Lie back, let me wash you.”
I relaxed my grip and leaned backward. His big hands brushed my hair, letting the long strands float to the surface. A drip raced down my forehead to pool in the corner of my eye. Memories of playing with my dragon re-surfaced. I smiled, held my breath and pushed.
Bubbles swallowed me. Victor blurred as I sank. Laughter spilled from my lips as I raced to the top. His chest shuddered, muscles tightened as he mashed his lips together. He shook his head as the chortle slipped free. “I’m not laughing at you. I promise.”
I swiped at the water, sending drops through the air to splatter his face while I coughed and spluttered. His laugher stilled. He tried for serious…and failed, grasping my arms and wrenching me closer. “If I’d known you were going to be this damn cheeky, I’d have left you in the cabin.”
We collided amongst the warm water. His arms were around me and all of a sudden, his smile died away. He skirted the swell of my ass, drawing me harder against him until I splayed my legs and wrapped around him.
The brush of his cock against my entrance had me grasping his arms. Water shimmered against his skin; drops fell to splatter against my chest as he moved forward. Ice pressed against my back. I flinched, grasping his neck.
Victor craned his head and those blue eyes captured me. But there was something else—something in his gaze I’d never seen before.
He blinked and for a second they were the wide turquoise eyes of my dragon.
I’m here, he whispered inside my mind. I’m here.
“Kiss me,” I urged, dragging his head lower.
His lips were on mine, pressing, pulling, tasting. I arched my back, absorbed by the feel of his powerful body on mine. His hands were everywhere, cupping my breasts, gripping my ass. Inside my mind, the dragon curled his long tail around me, drawing me in until his hot breath blew my hair.
A growl slipped from Victor’s lips and into mine, and the dragon echoed in kind. In this moment they were one, kissing me as one—touching me as one. He dragged his mouth from mine to stare into my eyes and all I saw was one.
“I don’t want to hurt you.” His voice was warped and strange.
I combed my fingers through his soaked blond hair and titled my hips against him. “You won’t. You won’t ever hurt me.”
His cock probed my entrance. The stone at my back gave me nowhere to move. He crushed me, forcing my spine against the hard edges and breached my walls. The heat of the water melted away. The wear against the stone melted away.
Victor grasped my hips and drove upward. Water cascaded in a rush as we left the water. The icy stones were cold against my ass. One slow powerful thrust had me opening wider. My hair stuck against my face as I dropped my gaze, watching the slow glide as his body surged into mine.
The possessive snarl ripped through the air—dark, unfurling desires. The three of us were one. One beast, one body. The blows turned harder. I gripped his arms and rode his brutal strength.
“You belong to me wolf.”
I shuddered under the stake of claim and nodded. It was the best I could do—words left me, thoughts left me.
“My wolf. My woman. My…destiny.”
My walls were breached. My dreams—the prophecy dreams came flooding back in a rush.
All but one.
I grasped hold of that dream while my floodgates opened. I held onto that dream with every ounce of energy I had. I clung, knowing what I had to do and why the dragon led me to this place—this safe place.
Victor’s eyes widened as he saw what I’d already known—us together—just like this—loving, fighting…a child. Our child…and the end…the brutal end of it all tore a scream from his lips and cast it wide into the night air.
I grasped his arms tight, slamming my hips against his as a wave rocked me. “Mine!” I screamed. “Mine!”
He drove with a fury. One brutal slam after another. I grasped his shoulders and wound my arms around his neck—holding on while my body racked with shudders.
He gave a breathless whimper against me and slowed. Warmth filled me from the inside. We stayed like that, unable to speak—for there were no words, not for what was to come.
The hard stones slid against my ass as Victor dragged me back into the warm water. There we floated, still joined as one, until with a whisper he broke the silence. “Have you always known?”
I nodded and pressed my head against his shoulder. “So have you in a way.”
He pulled me back from his shoulder; his eyes were so clear, they cut through me like glass. “No, not like that. Never like that.”
I swallowed, trying to keep the hate and the horror inside me, but this man had changed me. He cracked me open and spilled my secrets. My lips quivered. I couldn’t find the words to say—for there were no right words. Only the truth.
“But you saw the end, didn’t you? Screams so loud they pierced your head, and for a second you can’t breathe, you can’t think, and you pray for death to find you…but it doesn’t, does it? Not then, but it comes eventually. Death finally comes to you in darkness, stealing your sight, stealing the terrified faces of your enemies and the haunting visions of those you love. Darkness that seeps into your soul and rips and tears. Darkness that makes you think for a moment ‘Is this real? Am I dead?’ And for a second that thought fills you. It makes you wonder if this wasn’t all a ruse and that maybe the human idea of Heaven and Hell is real and we, as abominations are sent to the dark, desolate place to be tortured and killed by the Devil for the rest of eternity.”
I stilled, frightened he’d run, frightened he’d leave me. But Victor gripped me close and still the words spilled from my lips. “And that thought brings you to your knees. Because, it removes not only the fabric of what we are, but what we’ve done. All the people we’ve saved and all the ones we’ve loved. It makes us insignificant—it makes us the animals that mortals think we are. And while you’re standing there, waiting for the
Pestilence of Hell to ride down on that pale horse and claim you once and for all, you realize that not only are you insignificant—but so are those you love, and those who love you…but, I want to tell you something. Something no one else knows.”
He slid his hand along my arm, trailing the raised red flesh so bright in the heat of the water, and waited.
“That death…that darkness that swallows the sun is more than an emptiness, more than an absence of light. She’s something—she’s someone. Her grief is insurmountable. Her hopelessness is crushing. Because she’s unable to stop, she’s a tsunami that someone else has created, a killing machine that doesn’t discriminate—she kills and she cannot stop. And you’re thinking, find a way—any way—even the ultimate way. But she cannot kill the one thing that would end this terrifying vision of the future—herself. She’s tried. Believe me, she’s tried. But what makes her the shadow is woven into the fabric of this world—light cannot remove itself from the world, no more than darkness can. So darkness sits and she waits, she waits for her light to come…and it does. Her light is blue—her light is a dragon…her light is you.”
The loud hiss filled my ears. He pierced me with his gaze, staring for a long time before he finally spoke. “Then, we ride this wave together, all the way to the very end.”
I nodded even though I knew it was a lie. Some things—some dark, dangerous things—were not meant for a man so pure. Some things a woman and a dragon had to do on their own.
Don’t fail me dragon. Don’t take me from Victor.
Never. The soft growl echoed from the darkest depths of my soul. Never.
11
Victor
I opened my eyes to stare at a wisp of blonde hair. She was a cocoon of white comforter that shuddered and snored like a damn freight train. I couldn’t help but smile.
An icy wind tore through the cracks in the floor to gnaw my bare feet. I gripped the thin blanket as a shudder shook my bones. Sleep slipped through my fingers as the old cabin groaned and howled.
Dragon?
I searched for life amongst the infernal cold inside and found nothing. The beast acted on his own. He swallowed my rage—our rage—and sent the fury into the rain soaked clouds above. He loved her. I stilled with the shock and waited for thought to settle deep. Somehow he knew her, knew her in ways I didn’t.
He engulfed me, forcing his way into my flesh, wanting to touch her…needing to love her. She’d reached him, after all these years, she’d reached him when I couldn’t and somehow…they’d fallen in love.
Jealousy flooded me. She loved him—and me. It’d been forever since I’d felt his power like I had last night. We’d made love to her—the both of us. We’d licked the water from her skin and filled her with our seed. We’d carried her—cold…wet…shivering—into the cabin and piled blankets and furs before the fire. We’d ravaged her, hungered for every drop of her honey and every whimper from her lips. We’d slid inside her, and rode her until the beast was sated and sleep finally called.
I lifted my head and stared as her teeth chattered. My body was heavy, filled with an ache that made me smile. I grasped the thin blanket and pushed myself to sit. Some more kindling and a gentle blow, and the flames ignited. I piled more wood and stared at the few remaining blocks. I hadn’t planned on a snow storm.
I hadn’t planned on her.
The blanket shifted, the deafening sound stopped. One tiny hand snaked out from the edge of the blanket, reaching…searching. She was searching for me.
I flinched, my heart sped and I slid against the floor toward her, lowering myself down to stare as she lifted her head and seized me in her gaze.
I tried to keep my voice calm. “You steal all the blankets.”
There was that narrowing of her brow. As though she had no idea, as though she couldn’t understand—how much I loved that.
“And you snore—like really deep, grunting sounds. I thought a hog had gotten in here somehow until I realized it was you.”
A tiny croak slipped out. “I. Do. Not. Snore.”
The slow shake of my head hardened her gaze. “I thought we went through this before.”
Her eyes tightened, tiny lines grew from the edges. The blanket trembled and a tiny chuckle escaped. “And you make love like a beast. You’re lucky I was snoring, at least you knew I was still alive.”
Fear gripped me in its cold, tenacious arms. “Did I hurt you?”
She unraveled the end of the comforter and held it open. “No.”
I stared at her naked body and my own came alive. One slide and I was touching her warmth, taking her soft flesh in mine. I skirted the swell of her hips and her stomach, and then cupped her breasts. Her eyes closed and a soft moan echoed inside the burrow. Her nipple tightened at my touch. I traced her silken skin and was engulfed by the fierce flare of yearning.
I grazed her flesh lightly with my teeth, taking her nipple into my mouth. I trailed her arm and lingered at the smooth scar. She was beautiful, more beautiful than I deserved.
I left her breast to slide against the length of her body. “I thought…last night I thought he hurt you.”
She opened her eyes and shifted her shoulders, pulling her hands free. “Never. He could never hurt me, neither could you. No more talk.”
She parted her thighs. I slid between her legs. A wildness brewed beneath her gentle touch. She slid her hands along my spine to cup my ass and drag me harder against her. The head of my cock slid inside. Her body clenched. I slid out; I pushed in—just enough—and withdrew, teasing her, wetting her.
Her brown eyes held mine. I couldn’t help the ache as the dragon shook the cold from his body and warmed along with mine.
I used my body, driving home each word as she opened up for me. “He. Wants. You.”
“Yes.” Her words followed a shudder.
I slipped deeper, moving against the current to force my way inside. The dragon rocked and rolled, stealing the hitch in her breath and the need in her gaze, until he stilled, turned, and I felt the heat of his focus.
Don’t shut me out again.
The energy dulled, he slipped like a thought through my mind and was…gone.
Odessa moved and the urgency of her need slammed into me. She tightened, coaxing one long thrust. I searched the darkened corners of my mind, yet he was gone and I realized this was his way of sharing. I clenched my ass and filled myself with the feel of her. Tension built where our bodies joined. My heart sped. My cock throbbed inside her, urging me to hurry.
The pace quickened. She bucked underneath me; nails gouged my skin. The sting was instant, searing like a laser straight to my balls. My walls broke. I filled her, pulsing with a hunger that ran deeper than any ocean current.
My arms shuddered. I collapsed, crushing her, and then rolled. I grasped her waist, holding her tight against me as I stopped on my side. She moaned and purred, curling under my arm against my ribs. I’d never felt so content—never felt so at home. I belonged to no brick, no mortar. I belonged to no cabin and no woods—I belonged to this woman—this shadowed wolf.
And she belonged to me.
The musky scent of our love filled me until the logs stopped sparking and the heat at our feet dulled. “I have to get some more wood. I might be a while.”
She stared at me with a sense of longing—but the sexual energy was gone. Something glinted behind the amber glow in her eyes—something she was hiding.
“You okay? I can stay, if you want?”
She shook her head and clenched tight, driving her nails into the backs of my arms as though she couldn’t let me go. “I’m going to be just fine—I promise. I love you, Victor. I’ll always love you.”
I waited for that cold, threatening feeling to melt away—but it didn’t. She released her hold, and forced a smile. “I’ll grab some clothes and make for that spring, then have a look around.”
My stomach tightened. “Don’t go far, okay? The storm…it’s going to stay for a while.”
; The comforter pooled around her waist as she sat. “It’s okay. I understand now.” She climbed to her feet, barely making a sound, and made for her backpack.
Panic filled me. There was something wrong—something very wrong here. “Are you okay. You sound…different.”
She didn’t turn, not for a long time, and when she did all I saw were lies. She forced a smile that never reached her eyes and nodded.
“I’m fine. Better than fine. You go, don’t worry about me. I’ve got plenty to keep me occupied.”
I shoved my palm against the floor and stood.
She turned away from me, bending to drag jeans and a sweater free. “Go, Victor. Get your wood; we’ll be needing it soon.”
The blast of icy wind surged as I wrestled with the handle and opened the door, slamming it closed behind her. Did I do the right thing, bringing her here? Was this all too fast?
I reached for my face and scratched the stubble at my chin. God knows I was spinning from the rush. She needed some time—just a little time. I turned and walked toward the only bed in the house. The rumpled sheet draped over the mattress and reached for the floor. I’d been in such a hurry—no we…we’d been in a hurry.
My body still trembled from the energy my dragon left behind. If a drug was powerful and addictive—if a drug made you feel things you’d never felt before—then that’s what he was…my own powerful and addictive drug.
I crossed the room and snagged clothes from a makeshift dresser made out of stacked timber boxes. It’d been six months since I’d been here and it was lucky I left a few items behind. Clothes and linen filled the space. There was enough for me…and Odessa if she wanted. I yanked on jeans and a long sleeved shirt before sliding on the jacket.
Wood, that’s what she needed. Fucking wood and if that was all I could give her, then that’s what I’d give. I pulled on my boots and made for the door. The handle rattled in my grip. I clenched tight and dropped my head. Still the icy blast nipped my nose. I hurried down the stairs, snatching the axe embedded in the block as I went, and made for the woods.
