She quivered and pressed her leg tighter about him, pulling him closer, “There. Right there.”
He drove into her harder. He squeezed one breast while his other hand held her to the wall. She moaned, and he couldn’t slow down. He craved the hot rush to come.
He buried his head against her throat. His chest heaving. She cried out, every muscle in her body tightening to where even her toes curled with her intense orgasm. Sigurd wasn’t far behind her, with her cry of ecstasy, he found that hot release, and held her to him while both their bodies trembled in the aftermath.
They chose silence, caressing each other, kisses instead of words. Sigurd let her leg down, rubbed it so no cramps would seize her calf muscles or thighs. When he decided she was no longer in any danger of not being able to stand on her own, he pulled his jeans up and took her by the hand. He headed back the way they came. “If we continue to stay in here, you’ll need to find a den to nest. And, baby, I can’t promise my true dragon won’t shift with all these erotic scents.”
Chapter Twelve
She’d wanted to see him shift. Wanted to see and touch the dragon side of him.
Ashlyn swore under her breath. She hadn’t considered the female hormones that must be stained into the stone here. She always wondered why no males could come in. She assumed it was for the protection of the eggs hidden. Before dragons could shift, the males would feast on the eggs of another breed to eliminate their enemy. Today, dragon eggs were sought out as many believed it gave them immortality and strength to dine on such a delicacy.
It had been the egg they’d been after. Ashlyn had known all along—her parents—they’d been keeping a secret from her. She’d always assumed it had been about the egg. She paused to consider, so long ago, what her youth-blinded eyes had failed to see.
Sigurd leaned and brushed a light kiss against the corner of her mouth. “You’ve gone off some place?”
“Only thinking.” She waved him down the center tunnel. The path widened and transitioned from stone to hard packed dirt.
“About?”
“My parents, my real parents. You asked why I never call Dr. Kovak, father. Well. He isn’t. Mary and Edgar Sullivan, those were my real parents. Or so I thought. I can’t bear to call anyone else by their names, it is like saying they never were… you know?”
“I get it, baby. I lost my own mum before I was old enough to figure out I could fly.”
“How could you not know you could fly?”
“How could you not know you were a dragon?”
He had a point. “No one ever told me I was a dragon. Even now I find this all surreal.”
Their path took them away from the caverns and opened to the heavy growth between trees, over moss covered terrain, and through the natural greenery of Harghita’s mountain forest.
“You never felt it? A stirring? A tingling of your skin, like you couldn’t stand to wear it anymore and needed to shed?”
Ashlyn shook her head.
“You never noticed the smells? So keen. And your vision? Sharp?” Sigurd faced her with a strange expression.
“Doesn’t everybody?”
“Has anyone ever told you that you smell of liquid lava, jasmine, and a hint of pine.”
“No. I smell of all that?”
“And of me.” He gave her that cheeky, wicked grin that made her insides turn to mush and she wanted him to back her up against one of these trees.
“Of course, because we’re mates.”
He chuckled. “That and we just got done rubbing up against each other in the cavern.”
Those teasing thoughts of his would be the death of her, she decided, and tried to focus elsewhere. “I want to see you as a dragon. I want to watch you shift.”
“Anything for you, baby.” Sigurd turned and strode away from her. Ashlyn’s appreciative eyes drifted over her dragon mate’s muscled back as he shed his shirt over his head. He’d mooned her with the dropping of his pants, no boxers, no briefs, but trim firm muscles down his backside.
When he turned to face her, a ripple of anticipation went through her. “Ready for your next lesson?”
“Lesson?”
“I take it this place is hidden and safe to us dragons?”
She tried to keep her eyes on his. “Yes. It’s cloaked by the mountains. This is an extension of the haven. It was here before the hatchery. It has always been a safe place for dragons.”
“Good. Dragons never shift where they might be seen to the outside world.” Sigurd took a few more steps back. “Now as tempting as it is to check out all that makes me a man, I need you to keep your eyes locked with mine. Watch me shift, baby.”
A wave of blue flowed over his blond head, swallowed his pale skin as his body elongated and grew. He doubled in size and doubled again with a flash, until two huge wings unfolded from his sides. A ripple of different shades from white to sapphire glinted in the light filtering between the tree branches overhead.
She’d seen dragons, many times, mostly females from the haven come to lay their eggs. Sigurd, on the other hand, took her breath away. His wings flexed, extended out, then curled back to rest against him. She reached out, hesitated, and two large vivid blue eyes blinked at her. “Go ahead, baby. Touch me. Feel me. I’m yours, as you are mine.”
She walked up to him, pressed her hands to the soft velvet patch of his muzzle. She leaned against him, tracing her hand against the cool scales under his eyes and down his cheek. Like leather, his skin felt firm, textured, but soft. She moved to his neck, and he rumbled as she walked around his face. “Hush now. You’re so big I want to see all of you.”
He curled his tail, swished it for the tip to come close to her tennis shoes. She waited for it to lay still, stepped over it. “Behave.”
She ran her hands over his side, down by his belly the scales became more calloused, instead of smoother, like she imagined. He sat back on his haunches, watching her as she brushed her hand across his rump. When she came back around, he puffed out his chest for her. She touched him there and he shivered. “You’re not at all the way I thought you would be.”
“I disappoint you?”
She saw disappointment flicker in those blue orbs of his eyes. “Not at all. You’re beautiful. I’ve never seen a dragon like you.”
“But? Go on. I suspect it is lingering there at your lips.”
She touched his muzzle, careful of those sharp teeth concealed behind his lips. “Well…” She stroked him, considered her words as to not injure his ego. “All the dragons I have known have been warm, and you are cool beneath my hand.”
“My sire was an ice dragon and Mum a white blood.”
“Was? Did you know your sire?” She tilted up his chin and walked beneath his head.
“I have no memory. He died in a fight with another dragon.”
She pressed her hand against one of the scales in the center of his exposed chest. His heart raced beneath her touch.
“I’m sorry.” She kissed him there. “A dragon killed my parents, too. Not like your sire. They came to our home. Not humans. They set the house on fire. My parents told me to run and hide in the woods. I saw my mother running. I saw the blaze… the fire… the dragon it…”
A sob caught in her throat.
Sigurd nudged her with his muzzle. He reached down and pulled a scale from over his heart and plucked it from his chest. Through tear blurred eyes, she watched him. He shifted back to his human form. Pulled her in his embraced and held her while she sobbed into his shoulder.
“There now. I’ve got you. It was a horrid thing which happened to your parents, but you’re alive. They must have loved you very much to protect you like that.”
Ashlyn shook her head. She sniffed. “Why? Why did it have to be them?”
If her own misery didn’t make her feel terrible enough, she felt his sorrow and it ached as strongly as hers did.
“It doesn’t make sense. They were Keepers.”
“I hate them.” She leaned ba
ck, stared at him. “I hate dragons.”
“I know why you can’t shift.” Sigurd brushed away stray tears with the back of his hand. “You’re afraid of them. Afraid of being a dragon. Afraid you’ll be like them.”
“You’re wrong.”
“We’re bound, baby, remember? I feel what you feel? I think as you think.”
She shook her head. “Stop trying to make me into something I’m not. You’ve fooled me, brainwashed me so I’d be your mate. You want me to be like you, even if I am. I will never shift. I will never put myself in a place where others can control my fate.”
Sigurd winced, her words a hard slap, but he took her hand. He placed the scale from his chest in her palm and said, “I love you, Ashlyn. Shift or don’t shift, matters not. You are my mate.”
She watched him back away from her slowly. He shifted and with his wings he flapped and lifted himself above the tree line until she lost sight of him. As she stood there, willing her heart to steady it’s fast beating, she stared down at the soft blue scale in her palm.
A gentle wind brought with it the scents of hibiscus and sulfur.
It was better this way, she clutched the scale in her hand, for what she knew she had to do.
Chapter Thirteen
Inside the Three Cranes Tavern, Sigurd eased onto a stool at the bar.
He had spent some time giving his dragon side the freedom to fly, staying beneath the clouds and weaving around the mountain tops. While the rest of the haven section remained fenced with glass and wire, the sky had been kept open. He’d give her time to cool, her emotions still raged and burned as his own. Pain. Guilt. Sorrow.
He would have stay up there if not for the fact he needed to keep himself grounded. He’d told her he’d love her. If their lovemaking hadn’t been enough, he’d tried to reaffirm it with his heart. Sealed it with the token of his scale.
“You be singing the sorrows of a heart sick man this evening?” Minna slid him a pint. Dark brew with bite of cinnamon. Who put cinnamon in their beer? Oh, bloody hell, he downed it, smacked it on the bar so it thumped enough to get the ole gal’s attention. “One of those nights, is it? And here I hoped you’d sing for us again.”
“Later.” If he could remember the words to any song at all.
Minna leaned forward, gave him a good view of her bouncers, but he diverted his gaze. “Likes to blow off steam that one. Fierce as a tiger. Hot headed, but a good heart our Ash has.”
Didn’t he know it. “I’m a fool.” He shook his head. “I’m an idiot.”
“I could have told you that a long time ago.”
A hand came down on Sigurd’s back, he looked over his shoulder, and jumped to his feet. “Bogdan. What are you doing here man? Is it Blake or Emily? No. No. Edmund?”
“Chill.” If that wasn’t an understatement to speak to a creature like him with ice in his veins. “Whatever he is having, make it another.”
Sigurd settled back as Bogdan took the stool to his left.
“How did you know to find me here?”
“I didn’t.” Bogdan winked at Minna. She gave him a slanted smile and tucked a piece of white hair back behind her ear. “I came for a drink after such a long flight. Istvan said this was the best tavern in town.”
“Istvan? You’re on a first name basis with the egg doctor?” Sigurd took a big gulp of his beer. He let it sit in his mouth, swished it back in forth a moment in thought before he swallowed. It tasted like horse piss and a dash of cinnamon to hide the vulgar after taste.
“He’s an interesting man, a lot like his daughter, if you get to know him.” Bogdan took a swig and nearly spit it out. “What is this?”
“Bark root beer,” Minna said in passing to serve another customer down further at the bar.
“Horse piss more like it.” Bogdan scowled.
“My thoughts exactly.” Sigurd turned, leaned back on his elbows and watched the groups of people laugh and eat through the establishment. Beer battered wings and thick fries the size of fingers exchanged between friends and lovers at tables. He smelled the grease and the burnt bits from the kitchen, and still he wanted some. “Grab us a basket or two of the fries and wings, would you?”
“Tell me there’s an all you can eat buffet around here?” Bogdan took another sip of his beer, winced, and beckoned a girl with a long brown pony-tail, who served another table their meal.
“It’s medieval here. A bit of a change from the island, but more civilized with cars and Wi-Fi accessible.” But that wasn’t why Bogdan had come. He wouldn’t have left the island with Blake on the verge of answering the summons of the Draconian Council and Edmund in America. “You brought Dr. Kovak back?”
“Emily wanted him to stay, but when he heard I had to head out, he wanted to return to the hatchery.”
“Why? What has happened?” Sigurd stiffened.
Bogdan whipped his dark blond hair back behind a shoulder and leaned closer. “Edmund found her.”
“Moldvan?” Her name came as a low growl from his throat.
“She’s using her niece, Cassandra, as she did Emily. Blackmailing Cassandra. Edmund and Cassandra have a meeting, and I’m headed to ensure Cassandra’s mum stays safe.”
“Then I’ll go with you.” Sigurd started to his feet again.
“You and the missus have a tiff?” Bogdan asked nonchalant.
Sigurd crossed his arms. “Missus? What makes you think…”
Bogdan chuckled and turned to the waitress who brought them baskets of chicken wings and fries. Her cheery round face turned crimson when Bogdan handed her an extra bill for a tip and leaned in to whisper in her ear. She giggled and headed off to serve the next bunch of patrons at a table across from the bar.
With a fry in his hand, Bogdan turn back to Sigurd. “You smell of her. Jasmine and pine, right? Her feminine scent is smeared over you. Mated, didn’t you?”
“I told you she was the one.”
“Then what’s got you sulking here? And wanting to run off to boot?”
Sigurd sucked the meat clear off the bone of a chicken wing before he replied. “She hates dragons. She never knew she was one. And now, she thinks I brainwashed her into the mating.”
Bogdan choked. Sigurd gave him a hard slap on the back. “You?” He sputtered and coughed to clear his throat. Tears came to his eyes.
“Obviously, I’m an idiot.”
“She doesn’t know you well, does she? You couldn’t talk a baby out of candy if your life depended on it, let alone brainwash or seduce any female into your bed. And a dragoness at that!”
“Keep it down. Keep it down.” Sigurd turned, hovered over his chips and stared out at the mirror behind the bar. What he saw staring back at him—pathetic, very pathetic.
“She’s a woman. Buy her flowers and shower her with trinkets. Give her a diamond. Females go wild for the diamonds, why do you think humans use them in courting all the time?”
“You haven’t met her. She’s not like our Emily. She’s like… well… one of us. Only she didn’t know it, and it scares her.” It scared him. He hadn’t been prepared for the swirl of emotions rippling through him as an aftershock from her. Or for her words to strike him so hard.
What kind of mate had Freya chosen for him?
“Imagine that. A woman has got you by the balls. Who is leading who?” Bogdan finished off his fish and motioned for Minna. “Give me a beer, and not that terrible swill you just served me.”
“House special isn’t to your liking?” She cleared away the empty baskets and took the half-drank pint.
“A good draft of pale ale would hit the spot after all that.” He nodded to the mess she’d cleared away.
“Light weight,” she teased, but poured him a lager as he asked. She lingered between them on the other side of the bar. “Is there anything else you be needing?”
“Yeah, a bucket of ice here for my friend. He’s about to get burned.”
Sigurd rolled his hands into fist and Bogdan held up his drink in
salute.
“It’ll take more than ice to soothe that burn.” Minna looked directly at him. She knew. He could see it, read it, in her eyes. And she’d have to have known about Ashlyn.
“Minna!” She looked over her shoulder, down the way a man waved, and she headed off. “Catch me if you need something else.”
After she’d disappeared, Bogdan finished his lager. “I’m heading out in the morning. You’re welcome to come if you’d like, or stay here with your phone on alert. There is no telling how it will go down for Edmund and his lass.”
Chapter Fourteen
Ashlyn slept alone that night, and the night after that, and the night after that. By the next day after, she couldn’t stand the silence or the separation between her and Sigurd. At first, she refused to seek him out. How could she after the hurt she’d witnessed, caused him, inside the haven. But it ate at her, damn her pride, damn her dragon mate for the connection they’d established in their hearts.
What was she thinking? A dragon!
Ashlyn slammed the incubator door shut.
“Easy there. We’re protecting them, remember? You keep slamming doors like that and you’ll crack the eggs.” Quintin pulled out another tray of eggs in the next incubator. He reached in, picked one up, looked it over and proceeded to go to the next and rotate the eggs alongside her.
Ashlyn hesitated before reaching for a clipboard and marking off the rotation of that incubator complete. “Or wake them up so they hatch faster.”
Quintin smirked, rolled an egg in his palm and placed it back in the tray. “Next you’ll try turning up the heat on them.”
“And burn them before they’ve had a chance to be alive?” Ashlyn hooked the clip board on the side of the wall beside the incubators, then turned toward him. “I’m not a monster.”
Her Hidden Dragon Page 5
