Dragon's Melody

by Bell, Ophelia

  His emotional craving for his friend hadn’t subsided, however. He had been about to go find Skye and confront him about Melody’s mental state when she had begged him to stay with her. She’d sounded fragile and forlorn and he couldn’t bring himself to leave her in that state, even if she refused to tell him more about why she was so upset.

  “He made love to me …” Sweet Mother, Garen knew exactly what that felt like and how utterly wrecked he always was afterward. Skye never did things by half measures and even when he was in a rush or an impatient mood, he was always fully invested. Yet he was every bit as invested in keeping his distance in between.

  He had hoped that Melody would be the exception, yet Skye hadn’t made any overtures to spend time with her in between sessions—to treat her like more than a readily available well of energy for him to draw from when he was depleted. Her state of mind tonight was evidence enough that he’d been as attentive to her as was his nature, but true to form had disappeared right afterward.

  For the hundredth time, Garen wished he possessed Skye’s ability to sense deeper human emotions and to affect them with his breath. His own drugged-haze inducing breath would only calm her for so long and wouldn’t give him any insight into her mood.

  Perhaps sleep would be enough and she would talk to him when she woke.

  He felt himself gradually drifting off, the scent of Skye’s seed mixed with Melody’s arousal inciting odd images of the pair of them together that morphed into dark dreams. How a dragon could be so brutally thorough with giving pleasure, Garen would never understand, but Skye could be relentless.

  He dreamed of the first day, watching Skye pleasure Melody with his tongue, enthralled by the way she responded to him. In the middle of the dream, she shifted, her body growing larger, paler, and more masculine until he stared into his own eyes and watched himself come undone from Skye’s tongue wrapped around his cock.

  “You will be mine forever,” Skye’s dream-shape said as he rose above Garen and buried his thick cock into Garen’s ass. With a yell, Garen pushed back, rejecting the claim. He couldn’t be Skye’s anymore. Wouldn’t let himself submit for one more second. If only his body would behave enough that he could properly mate someone else.

  Again, the dream changed and Skye’s form shifted, his blond hair taking on a reddish glow and growing longer, his large body shrinking as it climbed on top of Garen. The hard planes of Skye’s chest became Melody’s soft, luscious breasts. Her hips poised over his, as insistent as Skye had been, but inundated with Melody’s sweet, tangy aroma, so potent it was enough to dizzy him. He sighed with the pleasure of Melody’s slick heat when she lowered herself slowly down onto his rigid cock and he clutched her hips tightly with both hands. This was what he would live for now, not for Skye’s attention, but for a woman like Melody, if only he could find her.

  “Just another taste,” Melody said in a sleepy voice. “You felt so good the first time.”

  Her voice tickled his eardrums enough to draw him out of sleep.

  Sweet Mother, she was truly there, poised over him, her hands resting on his chest. She moved above him, raising and lowering her hips with slow, delicious strokes. Her eyelids fluttered and she sighed when his cock was seated deep inside her again, their hips flush against each other.

  Garen couldn’t find words for how utterly perfect she looked, her red-gold hair falling in messy tendrils over her breasts. Their full swells beckoned and he raised his hands from her hips to cup them both, pretending for a moment that they were his to enjoy, pushing away the warning that clamored at the back of his mind; he shouldn’t let this go any further than it had already.

  But the faint remnant of his dream lingered, along with it his fierce rebellion against continuing to submit to Skye. Yet Melody was still above him, awash in Skye’s energy, and all Garen could think was how much he wanted to make love to her, to have this moment last forever.

  He bent his knees and sat up, holding her tighter against him. The long silken strands of her hair tickled his hands as he wove his fingers through and pulled her face to his to kiss her. In the back of his mind, he was half aware that she shouldn’t have given in to him so readily. She had a bond with Skye potent enough for her skin to glow blue in the darkness, yet it hadn’t stopped her from this, and he didn’t care, because for this moment she was his.

  “I know what you are,” she whispered when their lips slid apart finally. “I won’t say it, but I know.”

  The revelation didn’t surprise him, nor did it make him falter. He only urged her to move her hips faster, hoping to witness her undoing by his own touch, and to ride the flow of energy as it passed into him, infusing him with her essence. Just once he needed to be filled with her, and then he could leave, completely free from Skye’s influence and with the energy to move on, to find a woman who could match the glory of the beauty in his arms at that moment.

  “Sweet Mother, Melody, yes. Move like that, love,” he said, shifting to alter the depth of his thrusting into her. She wrapped her legs around his hips and gripped his shoulders, letting out a breathy moan with each steady tilt of her hips atop his. The friction grew hotter and slicker as she moved, her muscles grasping harder around him, her aura glowing a brighter gold and engulfing him in tingling pleasure as all-encompassing as her tight sheath around his cock.

  The sensation came upon him too swiftly to comprehend or to prepare for. She threw her head back and cried out his name, and his entire body answered the call. Before he knew it he’d tilted them both, pressing her to the mattress beneath them and was pounding into her as the milking grasp of her exquisite cunt pulled his orgasm from him.

  She opened her eyes wide and smiled up at him, panting. “Oh God, Garen. Did you feel that?”

  Feel it? He didn’t want to stop feeling it and kept thrusting for a moment longer until his sanity returned.

  Betrayer.

  No. He shook his head, trying to dispel the thought. He’d found her. But she couldn’t be his. She belonged to Skye, and in spite of his need to be out from under Skye’s influence, his need to take a little something for himself before he left, he did not wish to take her from him. Only a small piece of her to tide him over. Skye wouldn’t have begrudged him her energy—they’d shared women before and his bond with Melody could be rebuilt over time.

  But no, something unexpected had happened.

  “I found you,” he said, incredulous. Tears sprang to his eyes and his chest tightened at the revelation. The very devastating revelation. “Oh fuck. I can’t. I can’t love you, Melody. I have to go.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Skye landed atop the roof of his building in the hazy fog of dawn, and immediately knew something was wrong. The pale shadow that greeted him wasn’t the Garen he knew, in spite of the familiar shape of him in the growing glow. It took him a moment of studying Garen’s aura to grasp the difference.

  Beyond even the determined set of Garen’s jaw and the flash of white light in his friend’s eyes, his aura glowed far too golden for Skye to deny the truth. They’d slipped again.

  His stomach knotted. He was such a fool to start to hope Garen really would remain loyal only to him in spite of his wish for his friend to give in to temptation. And he’d left Melody in a fragile enough state to push her closer to Garen for her to give in, too. He’d cursed himself for being so abrupt and cold at the end, then spent the evening flying in circles over the city, halfway between going back to her and apologizing and confessing the truth of his behavior to her.

  I wanted him to have you, but I wanted you too much to give you up. If Garen were to have any chance with her, Skye would have to distance himself. Now he’d returned, hoping to find Garen and confess his true desire in the hope that they need not waste more time torturing Melody over it.

  “You tasted her again,” he said softly, his voice muffled from the dense mist that surrounded them.
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br />   “I’ve done more than that, friend,” Garen said, his face clenched with anguish. “If you truly believe she belongs to you, then you need to take her away from me now.”

  Skye finally understood the unusual difference in Garen’s aura. It wasn’t just filled with Melody’s energy, it was almost exclusively hers, meaning they’d done a complete exchange—he’d given his up, too. Only the tiniest bit of Garen’s glowing white energy was present, and none of the remnants of Skye’s blue energy left over from the last time they’d been together.

  Skye’s head swam with the understanding. The plan had worked, and faster than he or Kol could have anticipated. He raked both hands through his hair and stepped toward Garen. “You don’t understand, I changed my mind. I want you to have her. I knew when I saw how her aura responded to you before. She should be yours.”

  Garen grimaced. “You have no idea what being with her should mean to you, do you? You fuck her and then leave her, yet somehow in the middle of all that she’s fallen for you. I may not be able to read her emotions the way you can, but I knew it the moment I found her last night after you’d deserted her. It’s always been your way. I’ve loved you for my entire life and tolerated it, but you’ve never changed. Women fall for you but you are always too good for everyone except the woman your mother believes you should have. And now she’s within your grasp and you have the audacity to decide for her who she should love? What does that mean?”

  “It means enough that I’m giving up my inheritance to make sure you are both happy. Mother’s fucking box is gone—I threw it into the bay the moment I learned how much you wanted her. You’ve taken her Nirvana twice now, and she’s able to take yours, too. Isn’t that enough of a sign that Fate wants you two together?”

  “Fuck Fate. Melody is finally free of Kol’s bond. I am challenging you to agree to let her decide what she wants. I can’t let you give her away as though she’s your possession, but I can’t let you keep her for the same reason. A duel—once and for all, Skye. If I win, you let her choose which of us she will have.”

  “And if you lose, you accept that Fate has sent her to you, not to me.”

  Garen nodded, though Skye could sense a level of skepticism in him a moment before he shifted fully, his massive, winged shape lunging at Garen.

  Skye barely had enough time to get his breath out to influence his friend with a dose of reason. Garen’s full Guardian bulk nearly engulfed his smaller, more efficient Blue dragon size. Skye’s own anatomy was meant for speed and agility. Skills he rarely had to use anymore. Unlike him, Garen and every other Guardian had spent their young lives training. They trained with the Shadows while Skye learned to harness the power of his own breath for simpler purposes and was groomed to accept his Mother’s legacy once she was gone.

  None of that mattered now with the huge white dragon toppling him over, twisting him around and clamping his teeth around the back of Skye’s neck.

  “Submit to me and it will be easier. And do believe I will take this to its traditional finale.” Garen’s voice rumbled through Skye’s mind. The words had less effect than the pressure at the base of his skull. His body responded to the flick of Garen’s tongue over that point. Skye’s tail flicked and he forced himself to shift again to avoid turning the rooftop to rubble while they got down to the true business of his submission.

  Somehow there could have been no other ending to their relationship. Garen had been Skye’s for so long without truly being his mate for reasons they both had left unsaid but had always agreed on. A true mate was required to breed, and they’d spent their entire lives forbidden to mate within their own kind, they’d grown accustomed to the idea of never being together that way.

  There was still one other way they’d never been together—not precisely.

  Skye had always been dominant, and without Garen ever truly submitting. Garen’s submissions had always involved a tacit understanding of their esteem for each other.

  This was a fitting change to that dynamic, but Skye hesitated. The power shift between them would mean a major adjustment in their entire relationship, both personal and professional. He cursed and asked himself, What are you really afraid of? Enjoying it? Enjoying it and wanting more was precisely what scared him the most, particularly if Melody’s choice would hang in the balance. He feared he’d lose his edge if he gave in now, then remembered that he wanted Garen to win.

  With that revelation, Skye relented, falling onto hands and knees and bowing his head when Garen resumed his human form, his teeth still clamped in the same spot on Skye’s neck.

  “I submit,” he said. “I am yours as I have always been in some fashion, friend.”

  Garen let out a low growl without releasing his hold on Skye’s neck. Garen’s heavier body forced Skye’s flat onto the wooden patio of the rooftop pool deck, his cock a solid, thick heat sliding along the crease of Skye’s ass.

  Abruptly Garen’s weight disappeared and Skye turned his head to see where his friend had gone.

  “Turn over,” Garen’s gruff voice commanded. “I won’t be with you this way. I owe you that much consideration at least, before we settle the Melody discussion.”

  Skye thought it was settled. She would choose Garen—would have regardless of either of their plans to get her to choose Skye. Garen was right—Skye didn’t spend enough time with her, there was no way she would love him more. But if Garen needed to dominate him to prove a point, Skye would let him.

  He rolled onto his back and gazed up at Garen’s tall, thickly muscled body, his shock of pale blond hair even whiter in the diffuse early morning light. Admiration filled him, and tenderness at how attentive Garen was being as he knelt down and gripped Skye behind the knees.

  “You’ve never had anyone this way, have you?” Garen asked, reaching down to cup Skye’s cock and balls gently in one large hand.

  “I can take you,” Skye said, not quite sure if he was telling the truth, but he could let his body accommodate Garen’s thick trunk of flesh if Garen could take his.

  Garen smirked at him. “That wasn’t what I asked. Of course you can, and you will, but not until I make you ready.” With his other hand he caressed between Skye’s ass cheeks, tracing small circles around the puckered opening.

  Skye gripped himself behind the knees and closed his eyes, partly wishing Garen would hurry but also hoping he would go slow enough that they could both enjoy it.

  “Open your eyes,” Garen said, and Skye did, staring down between his legs to see Garen bend and trace a long lick along the length of Skye’s cock with his tongue. He reversed direction, leaving a cool layer of saliva along Skye’s length before taking his balls into his mouth and sucking.

  Sweet Mother, Garen always knew precisely how to make Skye’s need surge beyond the realm of comprehension, and it only grew more insistent when that glorious tongue plunged deep between Skye’s cheeks, teasing with deliberate wet strokes around his asshole, and slipping inside once or twice. A moment later Garen rose again, bracing one arm on the floor at Skye’s side and staring down at him. With his other hand, Garen found Skye’s opening again and pressed a finger to the slick, sensitive skin, breaching the barrier and fucking into him. He refused to let Skye’s gaze wander, his expression intent and his eyes never wavering. The hot, hard weight of Garen’s cock rested on Skye’s belly, barely touching his own.

  “I want to watch you when you come from me fucking you,” Garen said huskily. “I never get to see your face when it happens.”

  Another finger joined the first and Skye moaned at the stretching fullness of even those two digits when he knew Garen’s cock was easily six times as big. And fuck, did he want all of it now. But Garen seemed intent on taking his time, teasing as he slipped a third digit into the tight opening and pressed deeper, twisting and fucking until he found the sensitive bundle and prodded it gently.

  Skye threw his head back and let ou
t a guttural cry. “Fuck! You’re going to make me come like that. Let me feel all of you now, please. Every last inch.”

  Garen’s fingers disappeared and were abruptly replaced by something far thicker. Skye pulled his knees tighter to his chest and forced himself to relax and open up to the invading flesh as Garen thrust hard and deep.

  The bombarding, bruising weight of Garen’s hips pounded at Skye’s ass, each swift stroke hitting Skye just right until the blazing need built up so strongly he was sure he could hold back no longer.

  At that second Garen paused, his cock buried deep and his chest heaving. He lowered his face to Skye’s and kissed him deeply.

  “I made love to her like this, looked into her eyes while she called my name and came. Give me your gift, the way she gave me hers. Let me give mine to you, love. Let us all be equals for once in our lives. Let us all submit to love.”

  “Yes, I submit,” Skye sent to Garen, too breathless now to form words.

  Garen’s hips bucked hard again, his cock instantly pulsing and the hot stream of his orgasm hitting Skye’s sensitive spot, pushing him past the brink of his own climax. Garen’s energy cascaded through him at the same second his own flooded out, seeking the void left behind.

  How could he not have seen the truth that Garen had to fuck him to get him to understand? The act of submission had freed him to see it clearly, and the small gust of Garen’s breath in that final moment cleared his mind of everything but the truth.

  Garen collapsed on top of him, his cock slipping free. Skye wrapped his arms around his friend and pressed his lips against Garen’s damp temple.

  “I’ve been yours my entire life and never was it clear until this moment,” Skye said softly. “But I can’t lie anymore. I would have given her up if you’d been willing, even though I love her, too.”

  “I love you,” Garen said. “But if you love her, and if she chooses you, you need to be with her fully—none of this ‘all there, all gone’ bullshit anymore. She deserves all of you or nothing at all.”