“You will stay with me.” The grip on her arm was thoughtlessly rough, and she could feel the heat of his anger building. Like the child he didn’t resemble he was set on getting his own way. He was not going to listen to reason.
Morgan called her power and sent it in a flash through the hand holding her so tightly. This time it was not fire she called, but ice. He released her with a curse, his hand iced to the elbow. He sent heat pulsing down his arm to combat the cold, and then narrowed angry dragon eyes at her when he could once again feel his hand.
“Be careful that you do not mistake me for powerless. I am no dragon’s plaything.” Her eyes flashed green mage fire in the dark, her words echoing eerily. “I will stay with you tonight and feed you again of my blood so that you can make your journey. But then we will go our separate ways; I will find my family. Push me on this and I will leave you shivering in the dark.”
Every muscle in his body clenched at the threat, then released. He pointed a big finger at her nose, anger vibrating from every cell. “You threaten me?! Then leave. We will see how far you get without wings to fly.”
Morgan turned and headed for the exit. Arrogant Dragon. Like I need his permission!
However, when she got to the opening her stomach crashed to her toes. They were in a cave that nature had carved out of a cliff wall. She could barely see the ground from here and there was not even a single shrub to halt the deadly plunge to the rocky stone floor. Unless she suddenly developed shapeshifting abilities and turned into a bird, she was not going anywhere unless the dragon took her.
She felt his radiating heat at her back before she heard him whisper in her ear. “Perhaps it is you who will be left shivering in the cold my fierce little falcon.”
Morgan swallowed, fear causing her chin to jut stubbornly, even as his voice sent shivers down her spine.
“You will do as I say. You will go to the back of the cave and take care of your frail human business. Then you will come back to me.” He nipped her earlobe with sharp white teeth and wrapped an arm around her when she would have pulled away. “You will give me the blood and heat I need for the journey, and you will sleep in my arms, tonight and every night.”
“Wha...” He stopped her speech with a hand over her mouth.
“No. No arguments. No discussions. Do as I say.”
She wanted more than anything to put his arrogant dragon ass down, but it would be foolish. Even if she could win the skirmish, and she certainly would, where would she go without him to carry her out?
So fine, she would do as he said for now, but the moment she was out of this prison in the clouds, she would take back control of her life. She pulled out of his restraining arms and headed for the back of the cave. She found his set up complete with a pile of dirt and a bunch of leaves, joy. When she had done her “frail human” business, she decided to follow the cave farther back for a bit. While she was lucky enough to find a small trickle of water, she couldn't chance further exploring for fear of getting lost.
After cleaning up as best she could with the slow trickle, she drank what she could get down her parched throat and headed back.
The dragon was already on the, now cooled, rock floor. When she hesitated at his side, he reached up and pulled her down to lay facing him. She refused to look at his smug dragon face. He pushed the hair off her neck and touched his lips to the fragile pulse there.
“Do you give your blood freely?” He asked just above her pulse.
Morgan grimaced, but she truly had no choice. He needed the blood if he was going to get them off the mountain.
“I do.” The tremor in her voice was barely noticeable.
This time he did not ravage like an animal at the kill; instead, his elongated teeth slipped ever so gently into her skin releasing the toxins he carried directly into her blood. She gasped at the stunning heat that coursed from the bite to all her feminine places. Her nipples beaded, and her pussy flooded with unfamiliar cream. Then, when he had retracted his teeth from her sensitized skin, he sucked the blood from her in deep swallows. This time she arched into him, wanting nothing more than to wallow in him and never stop.
“What are you doing to me?” Her voice was a ragged plea that he ignored.
His hand burrowed under her dress to find naked thigh. He shifted until she was under him, her legs encasing him, his weight pressing her into the ground until she could barely breathe. She should care about that, but something was oozing through her blood, heating her up from the inside, as if her power were flowing free, but in a way she had never felt before.
Morgan could not think past this blinding need. He shifted, his hands pulling her dress up and over her head so that she lay exposed before him. She felt his tongue, a rough heat across the marks on her neck. She cried out at the waves of pulsing pleasure that caused and mindlessly tried to get him closer, this time flesh to flesh. Instead, he held her down, his brawny hand spanning her tiny waist entirely, and looked his fill.
Mages were born with no body hair besides what could be found on their head and eyebrows. Morgan was no exception. So when he ran his hand from her throat to her sweetly curved thigh it was over creamy skin and nothing else.
Her nipples were painful points in a sea of softness, and he homed in on them, weighing each breast in his palm and licking and sucking the nipples until they looked just as he wanted. With a grunt of satisfaction, he moved down and used both hands to spread her thighs and study her sweet wet pussy.
“Look at what you hid under that ugly rag.”
Morgan tried to breathe past the pain of want bombarding her, but it was impossible. “What did you do to me?”
“You still think to leave me.” His hand went to her thigh to push it further up on the floor and he inhaled deeply, his eyes closing in bliss. “I have marked you as mine. When we have mated fully, you will not be able to leave me. You will not want to.”
Morgan fought through the sticky web of desire he unleashed. What was he saying? She struggled with her brain trying to find her way back to some semblance of thought. No. He can’t. “You can’t mate me. I am not a dragon.”
“You have surprising knowledge of dragon ways for a human, but you do not know all.” He moved to his side and yanked her down across the harsh floor until he had her snug up against him, scraping her skin in the process.
The pain helped to clear her head even more. “You mate after your first molt, I know that, and you have not reached it yet, not if you are still passing for human.”
He spooned her frustrated body, his chest to her back, his leg over hers to hold her in place and his arm around her waist. His hand cupped her breast as if he had proprietary rights there. The big bastard yawned. “Maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after.”
After one drowsy affectionate nuzzle of her hair, he fell asleep. She could feel the satisfaction radiating off him, even as her own blood boiled in waning desire and fear. She tried to shift away, to escape his hold, even knowing there was nowhere to go. He growled a warning and tweaked her sensitive nipple until she settled.
Morgan lay there at the mercy of the Dragon and her own betraying body. The heat had faded enough she could think again, and the fear was quickly replaced by anger. She would escape, and if the dragon foolishly tried to stop her, she would freeze his ass to a rock for eternity. Better yet, she wouldn't wait, as soon as her feet hit the ground she would freeze him in his devious dragon feet. She would not be a slave. Her thoughts of revenge kept her warm until she finally dozed off.
Chapter 3
After an uncomfortable night, Morgan was hustled out of bed at dawn with a swat to her posterior. She sat up as if loaded on a spring and looked around clearly befuddled until his obnoxious laugh brought her back. How dare he?
“Come little falcon, we fly.”
“Listen dragon I reali...”
“Ladon.”
“What?”
“I am known by Ladon, not dragon.”
She gritted her teeth. “Fine
. Ladon. I realize you can't help being...”
“Your name?” He interrupted again. She narrowed her bleary eyes at him as she tried unsuccessfully to pull on her abused dress without untwisting it first.
“Morgan.” She stood, snapping the dress off with a huff and re-arranged it while she spoke through gritted teeth. “I realize you can't help being arrogant and self-centered, but us lowly humans need a few minutes in the morning to feel up to facing the day.” She finally got her dress on, her voice muffled through the fabric until it slipped with a final yank into place. Then she looked up into the gold eyes of a fully transformed dragon and stumbled back on her bruised posterior.
He had grown to five times his normal size taking up most of the available space. His colors, even in the dim cave, were jewel bright in iridescent rainbow hews that shimmered with heat. His snout was long and full of sharp teeth, his ears pointed. He was a beautiful dragon, there was no denying that, and Morgan was amazed, even awed, at the splendor before her.
We fly. A long tail whipped out and wrapped twice around her waist. She screamed when she went airborne, but it was abruptly cut off against his massive scaled chest. He held her against his heart with tail and talon as he leaped from the cave into the open sky. Morgan buried her face in his surprisingly soft hide, and felt more than saw his wings expand to catch the thermals. He flapped, once, twice, and they were gliding. When they didn’t crash to the ground, she loosened up enough to crack open her eyes.
Morgan had to catch her breath at the grandeur of dragon flight. The world was a patchwork of green and brown, the wind a crisp power against her face. It was the most exhilarated thing she had ever experienced. She laughed at the pure joy of flight. Ladon hearing her took her through some dizzying acrobatics that had her clinging to his chest while she screamed and laughed at the same time. When Ladon finally landed it was at the mouth of another high cave, this one had the overpowering odor of sulfur.
“Is this what I think it is?”
“Hot springs. We are close to my home now. We passed the Northern Gate today.” His voice was a surprise, and she turned to see him changed into a man once again. He still wore the trousers, but they were so mangled that he was the next thing to naked, and she blushed to see him in the full light of day. Even dirty and scraggly he was a remarkable sight. It reminded her forcibly of the night before. “If you follow the cave back you will find the hot springs and everything you need for a bath and rest. I will return.”
“What? You can’t be serious.” She knew her voice was panicked, but she did not want to be trapped here. “I’ll go with you.”
“And find myself facing mage trickery? No better that you stay here. When I return we will eat. We will be mated before you leave this cave.”
Then he was gone before Morgan could sputter out a denial.
“Arrogant Dragon!” She yelled after him. “Unbelievable gall. Who does he think he’s playing with?” She muttered to herself even as she headed into the steam-filled cave. She opened her hand, and flame shot forth, perhaps a little more than was strictly necessary for what she needed. She tamped it down and concentrated until she had a ball of light and she sent that floating before her into the cave.
“If he thinks I’m going to be laying around waiting naked for him like some virgin sacrifice for the big bad dragon he can think again. I’m going to get the lay of the land and then figure some way out of here, before his mightiness returns.” Morgan realized she was talking to herself and shut up just about the time she found the entrance.
The cave opened up to a grotto, and she saw the hot springs. An immense natural geyser threw off steam. There was ferns and night blooming flowers. Star blooms in their white splendor twinkled and released sweet scents and relaxing vapors into the heavy air. It was like being in the middle of a primitive jungle. The magic in the air was incredible, and Morgan felt it working along her skin like a hot caress from a lover’s hand. In the midst of all that was a giant bed, a real bed, with a thick mattress and clean sheets.
Dragon magic.
She was impressed.
How Melly, Clare, and Rhune would love this place. That brought her up short. She found she could ignore the soft bed and the hot springs with the herbal soaps and towels stacked nearby. The lovely soft towels that like the bed kept their cleanliness by magic. It was magic she envied. She could make things grow, change the weather, call on the elements, but this was making something out of nothing. There was no way these plants were native to this cave, and to keep everything clean? Did all dragons have that ability? Then why was Ladon still dirty? He probably didn’t do this himself, but then who did and why did Ladon assume an extremely powerful dragon would not show up and take exception to a trespassing mage?
She began to search the cave in earnest, using her sight and earth magic. There were no hidden corridors or blank spaces behind walls that she could detect. It was strange. She felt the rock as never before as if she could pull it and bend it. She could make her own door, she knew it. But all the way down the mountain through solid rock? Ridiculous.
She headed back towards the only entrance to the cave and looked down. Once again, they were in the side of a cliff with no way to walk down. Wings would be good here, or the ability to make a ladder out of thin air. She leaned over until she could see the small dirty shoots of scrub. An exceedingly long ladder.
What if he could mate her? Dragons mated for life, she knew that, but to mages? She'd never heard of it, but did that mean it was impossible? She was already feeling a connection to Ladon after that little episode last night that she refused to think about. Whatever he did when he bit her, she would not be able to say “No” when she wanted to that much was obvious. She had to get out now. Anything else would be unacceptable. She was not going to tie herself to an adolescent self-absorbed dragon with control issues. She had to find her family.
She sent her senses out into the mountain once again, looking for those protruding roots and scrubs thinking maybe if she could make them grow, she could use them to climb down, it would take forever, but it was better than nothing. A strange thing happened when she opened her power up to the mountain; Morgan felt as if she could move the Earth itself, then she felt the wind on her face and with her powers open she felt the eddies and thermals clearly for the first time. She pulled in more air and laughed as she felt her feet leave the ground, she landed back down with a thump. Stupid mage, you can control the wind. All you need is something to hold it. She headed inside for the sheets off the bed.
Chapter 4
Ladon was not happy to be leaving his mage behind. From the first time he opened his eyes with the taste of her blood on his lips he had known she was his. Everything inside him roared that she was the one. It had been explained once what a mate would feel like when he found one, but he had not expected to feel such for a human, and before his adult molt at that.
It was beyond frustrating to feel the passion in his head and heart, his blood literally burning for her, but his body unable to react. She had writhed for him, and he could do nothing but cuddle her. Though that had been sweet and he could still feel the slight connection he started when he injected her with the mating drug. That was another sign he had found his mate. His body would only produce the enzyme when his mate was near. Now he could feel his body warming from the inside out, and his head was screaming for him to go back. Soon it would be unstoppable. His second molt was upon him, and he would need to breed her. He would be mindless with it. She was mage not dragon and fragile, so little and soft.
He needed answers and someone to help keep her safe when he went through his molt. He would be helpless, and his mage would be alone. Then, even when he was finished with the molt, he would be a danger to her. He needed help and answers, but without knowing who had betrayed him, he would have to move with caution. He could not go home. He could not go to his family or the few dragons he called friend. There was only one he could think of that would be able to keep his small falc
on safe and had no reason to want him dead. It was ironic. The only person he could trust was a dragon he had never met, and the one all other dragons feared.
Ladon knew the way up the Forsaken Mountain, on a clear day you could see it anywhere in the kingdom of Dracon. It was the highest peak and some said it housed the oldest, meanest, unmated dragon alive. He could believe it. With the shortage of females, it was no surprise that there were dragons who never found their chosen mate. Most of them died of loneliness and sorrow before they reached their third molt.
Eben Kinkaid was so old even the oldest of them did not know his true age. But while his name meant literally “river of stone” in the old language, no one would dare offer pity. If a dragon broke sacred law, he would see Eben Kinkaid with his last breath because it was the black dragon that was the high council’s assassin. In a race of fierce, nearly immortal fighters, Eben Kinkaid was the nightmare they were all taught to fear from hatchlings. He was also the only one Ladon would trust with the precious life of his mate.
Ladon reached the high peak of Forsaken and landed on the closest turret. Forsaken Mountain was actually a castle carved out of a mountain. Few had ever entered it uninvited and returned to talk about it, but rumors said it was built by dragon dreams, just as many of their grottos and hot springs. The imposing gates were open, so he changed to his man shape to show he came in peace. He had not expected the gates to be open. Dragons were notorious for guarding their treasures behind locked doors and powerful spells. On the other hand, the open doors must mean that Eben Kinkaid was in residence and who would be suicidal enough to try to take anything of his?
“I could smell you coming a hundred leagues out.” The dark voice was rough and dry, like sandpaper rubbed directly across the scales. Ladon turned to face the shadows of the great hall spread out before him. “You could not have taken the time to bathe as a simple courtesy? You smell as if you have been rolling in null swill.”
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