Rhani (Dragons of Kratak Book 3)

by Ruth Anne Scott

  His cock trailed through a moist stream of her spunk to find her delicious opening. Each bounce of her hips against his prick drove it closer to her umbra until he hung on the very threshold.

  Moira caught her breath, but she was all his to take any way he wished. He hooked his elbows under her knees and held her legs wide while he plowed his wicked point into her furrow. Her flesh fell apart before him, and the arrow stabbed to her center.

  Moira cried out, but she couldn’t escape. She didn’t want to escape. She wanted him to devastate her. She wanted him to subsume her into his body, to feed what strength she had to serve his purpose.

  He bit down hard on her lower lip and pounded up into her with sure, swift blows. His cock shattered her defenses, and his dripping passion filled her with his presence. Every stroke of his piston crushed her cervix from inside and her clitoris from the outside. She couldn’t stand it.

  Her cunt pinched around his shaft, but nothing could stop him. He bulldozed over her and nailed her to the window frame. He blasted into her and through her, out the other side, and left her in the dust.

  Moira yelped at every thrust, and her yelps mounted to a chorus of screeching cries. They echoed through the window to ring off the mountainsides. She shrieked in the throes of annihilation.

  Rahni’s eyes glowed bright silver, and the red tumbling images of dragons and morlocks and birds of prey competed for space on his skin. He grunted into her mouth, and his teeth indented her lips with hard bites. He soared high above her on thermal blasts of his own tormented passion.

  Moira’s eyes rolled up into her head, and she gave herself over to tempestuous orgasms rocking her world across the galaxy. She saw the Allies far away in space and Kratak floating alone in its corner of the cosmos. Her orgasm encompassed all of it and filled it with glowing bright honey.

  When she thought she couldn’t contain so much pleasure and would erupt in a ball of burning gas, Rahni dropped her legs to the ground and spun her around. He pushed her down on her chest on the windowsill and pulled her head back. He planted his hand on her back so her ass stuck up to the ravages of his spike.

  Moira looked out on the scene outside the window. Endless razor-sharp canyons cut between the ice mountains and shone blue in the light. The sun moved around behind Prowiss Keep, and the beams turned every shade of blue and purple and green. The whole mountain range lit up before her eyes.

  Dragons soared back and forth between the peaks. They flew through mountainside entrances, tumbled together through the air, and returned. A few flew farther away and disappeared among the colored spires.

  Moira’s heart went out to the scene. Oh, to be one of these dragon people, who could fly anywhere on this unsullied planet. She could fly south to the mountains around Harkniss Keep. She could travel out to the ocean and beyond, to return to these icy reaches untouched by the Allies and their technology.

  Rahni held her in place and hammered his rod between her legs to find the delicate cavern waiting for him. His work made it tender and responsive to his ministrations, and he hadn’t glided into place a moment before she exploded once again into passionate bursts of fulfillment.

  He pumped her full of his burning seed and sent her rocketing over that magical landscape. She flew on wings of delight to faraway countries. Pink and purple clouds held her aloft and carried her with no effort wherever her dreams took her.

  Her bare breasts rocked against the rough wooden window frame, and Rahni’s hips pounded against her ass. He bumped her pelvis against the frame with every plunging blow of his hammer, but Moira knew only uncontained rapture. She sang her song to the mountains. The mountains understood.

  She cried out to those dragons to take her with them. She begged them to let her join them in their flying games, in their thundering chases between precipitous crags. She pulled in her wings to dive through cracks and swoop up into the bright sky again. They tumbled and tagged until the sun slumped behind the peaks.

  The colors deepened to indigo and finally grey-purple-black before the dragons gave the game up. Then they alighted in the Keep’s landing bays and changed into young men who slapped each other on the back and related all their daring exploits. They changed into young women who chattered and laughed and promised to do it all again tomorrow before hurrying home to their families for the night.

  Rahni kept her facing that charming scene. He kept her head back when she no longer retained the strength to do it herself. He kept her flying with his pounding spike. He kept her soaring with his spell-binding potions gushing from her font. He pushed her beyond her limit to the very reaches of endurance, and still he wasn’t finished.

  She peaked over and over on that windowsill, and his jiz spattered her thighs and ran down her lips before he picked her up and carried her to the bed. She lost track of how many different positions he put her in, and how many different times she peaked and relaxed and peaked again. Sometimes she didn’t relax and come down at all. She stayed out there, flying on her newfound wings, to the end of the spectacular sky.

  Chapter 14

  She woke the next morning to find herself alone. The bed next to her came up cold to the touch. How long had Rahni been gone? He could only be one place. She sank back into the blankets with a sigh. She couldn’t help him now. Nothing remained but to walk down to the Great Hall and see Rahni and Yorik decide their fate.

  What if Yorik won? Would Royce turn his back on her message? Would he forget arming and go back to expanding his Keep?

  None of that mattered now. Moira would go back to Harkniss Keep, no matter what. She would join forces with Rose and Reyna and the rest of Clan Harkniss.

  That sounded strange to her ear, but so right. Clan Harkniss. That was her Clan now, and Harkniss Keep was her home Keep. She held that simple idea in front of her eyes. She could stand aside and watch Rahni battle Yorik if she just kept that forefront in her mind and let nothing distract her from it.

  She got dressed. Today would be the last day of her life she wore these clothes she brought with her when she landed. These clothes didn’t fit the new Moira anymore. She would change into some proper Ingasore clothes as soon as she got to Harkniss Keep.

  She strolled down to the breakfast hall, but she couldn’t summon the appetite to eat anything. At least everyone ate in peace today. No fights broke out and no one dragged the corpses of their dead relatives home with blood staining the floor.

  She walked on, but a few turns later, she found Rarik confronting one of the bands of young people she saw flying around yesterday. He jabbed his finger in their faces. “How many times do I have to tell you? I ordered you to report the armory first thing this morning. Not only did you not report when I told you to, I find you here fighting instead. What do you have to say for yourselves?”

  One of the young men tried to answer back, but Rarik cut him off. “Fighting won’t settle this challenge. Isn’t it enough they’re fighting themselves? You don’t have to do it for them.”

  A different young man spoke up. “Yeah, but they said...”

  “I don’t care what they said. None of you is called upon to make these decisions. You’re not called upon to do anything but report to the armory when I order you to. Is that clear? If I catch any of you fighting again, I’ll report you and have you disciplined. You know what that means.”

  He started to turn away when he caught sight of a frown on somebody’s face. “Let me guess. You’re waiting until the challenge is over before you start fighting amongst yourselves again. What’s the point of having a challenge if you’re just going to keep fighting after it’s over?”

  No one wiped the frown off his face.

  Rarik swept the group with one more terrible glance before he turned on his heel. “You have four hours to see the challenge. After that, you’ll fall in line and do as you’re ordered, or there will be hell to pay.”

  He stomped off in the direction of the Great Hall. As soon as he turned his back, the young men put their heads togethe
r and whispered their secret plans. Moira went on her way, but came across Rarik again talking to Connal’s son Joon.

  “I can’t get anybody to report downstairs. They’re all too wrapped up in the challenge. They either stand around talking about it or fight over who will win it. No one wants to think about arming for invasion, let alone stand out on the battlements keeping watch. We’re more exposed now than before Rohn came.”

  “I’ll tell my father. Something’s got to be done.”

  “Where is your father? I would tell him myself, but I can’t find him anywhere.”

  “I know where he is. Follow me.”

  Joon led Rarik all the way down the passage to the Great Hall. Moira tagged along, just out of sight, but when she got to the Hall, her shoulders sagged. Connal wouldn’t do anything about the battle preparations any time soon.

  Rahni stood in exactly the same spot as yesterday with the same impassive expression on his face. He clasped his hands behind his back and stared straight ahead, but Yorik didn’t pace back and forth across the Hall. Yorik was nowhere to be seen.

  Connal and Rohn stood behind Rahni, with Connal’s three grandsons lined up behind them. None of them moved a muscle. They stared straight ahead at the spot where Yorik should have been. Adrenaline burned in Moira’s chest. Where was Yorik? Did his absence signal some new catastrophe?

  Royce and his entourage entered the Hall at the same moment from the other side, and Rarik hurried to his place at his brother’s side. Joon didn’t join Connal’s family behind Rahni, though. He faded into the crowd.

  Moira watched him in mounting alarm. What did he plan to do? Would he betray his family and Rahni at the last critical second? Her eyes swept the crowd. Every man in the Hall carried a sword, and how many women carried weapons concealed beneath their clothes? If the opposing factions came to violence, this challenge could turn into a bloodbath. How Moira wished then she’d brought along a dagger or even a club to defend herself and her friends.

  Moira caught sight of a few people she knew. Joon’s wife Mura and Tuva’s wife Alana took their places in the crowd behind Connal, and Moira moved around to join them.

  The Hall filled up with onlookers, and still Yorik made no appearance. He couldn’t be such a coward as to run out on the challenge at the last second. Rahni said withdrawal would be worse than defeat.

  At the last second, Yorik strode into the Hall with Tam at his side. Their sons and supports came behind them, followed by the wives and women of their extended family.

  Moira stood directly across from Pariri and Carila, but they never acknowledged her. Both groups stared straight across the Hall as if the enemy faction wasn’t there.

  Yorik started pacing again. He fumed and puffed out his cheeks to get started. He cast quick glances at Rahni, but he wouldn’t hold that penetrating gaze. He could only read his own defeat there.

  Dozens of men lined up behind Yorik. Their ranks stretched from one end of the Great Hall to the other. They outnumbered Rahni’s supporters by a mile. If this challenge degenerated into a bloody battle, the Harkniss brothers and their friends didn’t stand a chance.

  At last, Royce stepped forward for the second time and spoke the same formula as yesterday. “Yorik Prowiss has challenged Rahni Harkniss for possession of his mate, and the winner take all.”

  He moved back, but before he got back to his place, Rahni burst forward and rushed across the room at Yorik. He didn’t wait for Yorik to change. He didn’t wait for anything, but launched his attack before anyone expected him to.

  Before he got across the room, he changed. His wings slapped the air, and his neck shot out to its full length. Yorik never had a chance to change before Rahni’s dragon head slammed him backward into the crowd.

  Yorik knocked over Tam and Carila before he knew what hit him. In a flash, Rahni’s jaws closed around his helpless body. Yorik screamed in pain and surprise, and Rahni’s fangs pierced his skin to crush the life out of him before Yorik recovered.

  He twisted around in Rahni’s mouth, and his own lightning change pried Rahni’s jaws apart. His tail whipped around and struck Rahni in the flank. His neck arched, and he brought his head around to shoot a blazing jet of flame at Rahni’s neck.

  Rahni screeched in pain, and his head flailed on the end of his neck, but Yorik brought his tail around again and knocked him rolling across the floor.

  Before he stopped rolling, Yorik was on his feet. He flew across the Hall and bowled Rahni away. He launched himself at Rahni and pinned him to the floor with his monstrous weight. He shredded Rahni’s soft belly with his claws.

  Rahni shrieked in pain and let out a spurt of fire, but that fire flickered across the ceiling. It never came anywhere near Yorik. Yorik beat him with his wings and dove for his throat with glistening fangs.

  Moira hugged her arms around her chest. She shivered all over in anxious dread. She couldn’t stand here and watch this. She couldn’t watch her beloved Rahni killed before her eyes, but she had nowhere else in the world to go. If Rohn could watch Yorik kill his brother, if all Rahni’s Clansmen could stand by and watch, what choice did she have?

  Rahni thrashed under Yorik’s weight but couldn’t free himself. Yorik dove again and again to bite him in the neck, but Rahni deflected him each time with a lash of his tail or a rapid dodge of his neck. He snapped his jaws at Yorik and slashed the skin open along his neck until the black blood flowed.

  Blood ran down Rahni’s sides and pooled on the floor underneath him. The fight couldn’t last this way. Already he fought back with less power than before. He surprised Yorik early on, but he couldn’t overcome Yorik’s bulk and power.

  Yorik sensed his enemy weakening and redoubled his efforts. He lowered his weight on top of Rahni so he couldn’t move right or left. He brought his leathery wings down on either side of Rahni to hem him in. He dug his claws into Rahni’s flesh and tore him to pieces.

  Rahni reared back in desperation. He knocked Yorik just a few inches upward to create a tiny space between their chests. Into that space, he brought up his hind legs and kicked out with all his might. His claws scored Yorik down the abdomen and into the hip joint of one leg.

  Yorik flew off with a screech, but when he landed a few paces away and faced Rahni, he couldn’t put his weight on that leg again. He limped, and the blood dripped down his claws to spatter the floor.

  Rahni got to his feet, and the two dragons confronted each other. They circled one way and then the other, but both trailed blood behind them and neither would engage first. Yorik bellowed so loud the ice lenses in the ceiling popped, and a delicate snow of crystals floated down through shafts of light.

  All at once, Rahni stepped back. He straightened his long neck, and it sank down between his shoulders. He folded his wings, and they disappeared into his back. His legs shortened, and his elbows straightened into two round chiseled arms. He changed back into a man.

  Yorik let out another bellow and thrashed his pointed head against the sky. What was Rahni doing? He couldn’t face Yorik as a man unless Yorik changed, too. Rahni stopped circling and drew his sword from the scabbard at his side. He nodded his challenge at Yorik.

  Yorik needed no second invitation, not when he tasted certain victory. He plunged across the Hall at the insignificant man facing him with a toothpick. His head shot out, and he opened his mouth to pulverize Rahni in one bite.

  Rahni let one foot drop back, but he stood his ground. He raised his sword to meet the black dragon. Yorik paid no attention to the sword. It might not be sharp enough even to pierce his scaly hide.

  Chapter 15

  Rahni never flinched. He waited until Yorik towered over him in all his lethal grandeur. At the last possible second, he thrust out with his sword and impaled the black dragon in the soft spot where his neck met his torso. The sword point glanced off one of those tough scales. It slid between two scales and buried its tip in Yorik’s hide.

  Yorik screamed and retreated with one flap of his wings, but i
t was too late. Blood covered the last four inches of Rahni’s sword. Rahni didn’t wait for Yorik to attack him again. He leapt forward and slashed the long whipping neck with the sword’s sharp edge. It seared through the scales, and the skin underneath separated into a bloody gash.

  Yorik tried to fall back, but he ran into the crowd. Rows of his own supporters stopped him from getting away, and Rahni pursued him with lightning strokes of his sword. Rahni slashed and stabbed again and again until Yorik spread his wings and took to the air.

  Yorik flew over the crowd and took refuge up near the ceiling. He circled again and again and peered down on Rahni from far above. Rahni looked up at him with sweat pouring down his face, but he didn’t change back into a dragon. He let his sword hang at his side and strode back to his place. He turned his back on Rohn and Connal and waited.

  From her place behind him, Moira saw his chest and shoulders heaving from the effort. Blood stained his shirt front, and long scratches darkened his chest where Yorik tore his shirt open. A man couldn’t fight a dragon, but here he was, alive and well, while the dragon hovered in safety overhead.

  Rahni stood still until his breathing settled. At last, he took a step into the open arena and turned all the way around in a circle. He swept the crowd with his eyes and lifted his voice to a bellow. “Come down here at once, or admit defeat.”

  Yorik didn’t come down. He flapped his great wings, and the rustling noise brushed over the crowd. A person here and there looked up at him. The silence lengthened until even Royce looked up. His voice boomed out over the Hall. “Come down here at once, or admit defeat.”

  Yorik couldn’t hide up there by the ceiling forever. He flew lower and eventually landed on the ground in front of Rahni. In the blink of an eye, he changed back into a man and faced his cousin on equal footing. Rahni raised his sword, and Yorik drew his weapon to fight.