by Rachel Red
I tugged on the scarves. "Oh, yeah."
Victor climbed on to the foot of the bed, his deep gray eyes glinting. "Yeah. Let the torture begin."
And with that, he began planting slow, warm kisses down the length of my body, actually making me curl my toes. His stiffened manhood kept brushing and bumping against my skin and the ache low in my belly intensified to a rather maddening, desperate level. And just when I thought I was going to get some relief, just when Victor's mouth neared the source of my need, it became clear that my desperation was to last a little longer. He planted kisses all over my inner thighs, his lips exquisitely tender, while I squirmed, trying to get him to move the kisses a little bit inward. But then he moved his mouth up to my breasts, which he'd maybe slightly neglected on his way down, and began suckling one of them, his tongue flicking across my nipple.
I moaned, pressing my thighs together in an attempt to relieve the maddening ache low in my belly. "Please, Victor. I need you to...I need you to kiss me lower."
He lifted his head. "Lower? All right, then." He trailed a line of kisses down the soft curve of my stomach to my inner thighs again. But he didn't bring the kisses inward. I struggled against the scarves, wanting to guide his head and position it just where I wanted it.
"When I first came here, I was worried that my new shifter dragon husband might be cruel, and it turns out I was right."
Victor lifted his head, chuckling. "Feeling officially tortured?"
“Yes." I couldn't think of anything else to say and fought an urge to jut my lower lip out in a pout. With a grin, Victor lowered his head again, but this time, he began kissing the top of my feminine mound. I moaned, arching my back and spreading my legs, inviting him to move his mouth just an inch or two lower. And soon, to my great relief, he did. After sliding his hands beneath my still-stinging bottom, he began gliding his tongue over my most sensitive spot, and I cried out in pure pleasure. Reflexively, I tried to move my hands, wanting to tangle my fingers in his thick, dark hair and hold his head in place, but of course, I couldn't. A feeling that only heightened my sensations of pleasure for some reason.
And after a little while feeling Victor's tongue flicking over my aching intimate bud, I sensed myself approaching climax. He seemed to sense it, too, and knowing that I usually liked to climax with him inside of me, he lifted his head, climbed on top of me, and positioned the head of his rock-hard manhood at my entrance. He slid in with one long, slow, powerful thrust, filling me completely. I moaned, closing my eyes.
He soon began working his thick shaft in and out of my slickness, groaning and after only a minute or two, I knew my climax was imminent. But I just needed one little thing to push me over the edge, one little thing that I sometimes did for myself when we made love in this position, but was currently unable to do for myself. Victor seemed to read my mind, as he often seemed to do during our lovemaking. In what seemed to me like quite a feat of strength and coordination, he shifted his weight to one hand and then, balancing above me, moved his other hand to my feminine area and began stroking my most sensitive spot with his thumb, his long fingers on my stomach. All the while still thrusting his long shaft deep into my womanhood. Probably not even ten seconds went by before I saw stars and cried out, my whole body tensing and releasing. Victor immediately shuddered with his own climax and then rolled off me and pulled me into his arms.
A while later, we made love once more before going to sleep, this time with me unbound and on top of him, riding him until I once again saw stars.
*
The next morning, I awoke to find him gone, as was usual most mornings. He seemed to require less sleep than I did. But as was also usual, he'd left a little love note by my pillow. After turning on the light, I got back into bed and read it, smiling, snuggled up with the part of the blanket that still held his woodsy, masculine scent.
After a little while, I got up again, showered, dressed and had breakfast. I'd just begun loading dishes in the sink when Victor returned, his expression troubled. He pulled me close, kissed me, and said good morning, smiling, but his dark brows remained furrowed. I asked him what was wrong.
"Is it anything you want to talk about?"
"The Oppressors have officially chosen a new leader, and it's Miles, the younger brother of Alexander."
Alexander was the Oppressor leader that Victor had killed, with a little help from me, about two months earlier. Miles is a very powerful sorcerer, even more powerful than Alexander.
“He's incredibly dangerous. And a scout has just brought word that he plans to kidnap you."
CHAPTER ELEVEN
"Which I will, of course, never, ever allow." Victor kissed my forehead. "Ever. Not only will I never let Miles kidnap you, I'll never let him even set eyes on you. I'll keep you completely and totally safe."
I nodded. "I know you will. But why does he even want to kidnap me?"
"He wants to challenge me, Sam and Michael to a battle against him and his two most powerful sorcerers. His ultimate goal is to kill me. He thinks if he can accomplish this, he and his sorcerers quickly kill all Keepers and take our wives and everyone at Haverbrook as slaves. He wants to kidnap you as bait, which is ludicrous. I'm not afraid of him; I'll battle him any day, any time. I've already sent a scout to drop a message over the Cold Creek walls, telling him so. I told him whichever of his men he chooses to meet me, Sam and Michael for battle, to show up here on Saturday, two weeks from today. Which is when he and his two top men will meet their deaths. This will give Sam, Michael and me a little time to continue to work on our own magic a little."
"What do you think he might have planned?"
"Hard to tell, but it doesn't matter. We'll be ready for him, no matter what he throws at us. So don't be worried about any of this. The only end result will be that three more Oppressors will be killed. And maybe even more, if he chooses to bring more."
"But, so...you're positive Miles won't be able to accomplish his plan of kidnapping me to use me as bait or whatever?"
Victor planted another kiss on my forehead. "Positive. Although you'll have to remain beneath the mountains here in Stonebrook and not go outside, to help me keep you safe."
"But...no more outdoor picnics or hikes with Julia and Elizabeth and the other wives? I can't go outside even with guards?"
"I'm sorry but no. Having you anywhere outside, anywhere where Miles could possibly get his hands on you, no matter if the chance of that is one in a trillion, is just a risk I'm not willing to take."
"But...it's summer. And all the wildflowers are at their peak. What if Julia, Elizabeth, and I took like...ten guards out with us?"
"I'm sorry, but still no."
"But—“
"If it makes you feel any better, none of the other Keepers are going to let their wives outside until Miles is killed, either. So you'll be in good company."
"None of the other Keepers are going to let their wives outside? Like...like we're children or something?"
"Kate...." Victor closed his eyes briefly, exhaling and moving his hands to my face. "I can understand how you might feel as if you're being treated like a child. But that's not my intention. My intention is to keep you safe. And it's my job as your husband to do so. Do you understand?"
I nodded, realizing he was right. And I was thankful for his protection, strength and love. But I didn't have to like the whole thing about me not being allowed outdoors.
"I understand."
Victor brushed a kiss against my lips. "Good. I love you more than anything; both pre and post-Event, and I'd die if anything ever happened to you. I could never live with myself. I'd hate myself...if I were the one who had allowed it to happen."
I nodded again. "I know. And I'm thankful for how you protect me. I'm thankful for your love. Even with all this Oppressor stuff cropping up from time to time, I still feel like...I'm just so in love with you and just so happy. I'm the happiest I've ever been."
Victor smiled, moving his hands from my face to my ba
ck, pulling me close. "I feel the same way. I'm happier than I ever imagined I possibly could be. You're my absolute everything, and there's absolutely nothing I wouldn't do for you. Nothing. You've got me wrapped around your little finger. Your gorgeous, perfect, beautiful little finger."
I smiled, and we began kissing. But before things got a chance to get very passionate, Victor said he had to go meet with Sam, Michael and a few others of his men to prepare for the fight. They were going to shift into dragon form, spar in the air and practice some magical deflection abilities.
At the mention of magical abilities, I suddenly remembered my own and that I hadn't even told Victor about it yet. I quickly filled him in and then levitated an empty juice glass into my hand.
"See? Pretty neat, huh?"
He grinned. "Much more than neat. Amazing. And exceedingly rare. But I'm not surprised. I've always known my wife is special."
*
Later that day, in the afternoon, after I'd spent several hours painting in the well-lit cavern that he'd had made into an art studio for me, I met Julia at Stonebrook's little bakery. We ordered some cookies, which were still warm from the oven and some freshly squeezed strawberry lemonade. We then took our snack to the great hall, where cheery sunlight slanted in through a row of high windows carved into the side of the mountain. But Julia didn't look very cheery. In fact, she looked a little depressed, which was very out of the ordinary for her. Many of the other women in the great hall, which was a public meeting space that everyone was free to use whenever they liked, looked a little depressed, too.
After a sip of her lemonade, Julia looked up at me, frowning. "So Sam told me two weeks that we can't go outside. Two weeks. And no offense, but I'm not in the very-newly-married, everything-is-bliss, and I'm-on-cloud-nine stage of life that you're in. So I'm a little bummed out by this."
"I know. And I am, too."
"Then how come you were all smiling to yourself while we were at the bakery? You were in such a joy fog that you had to be asked twice what kind of cookies you wanted."
I'd been thinking of the previous night's activities with Victor. But before I could think of a little fib to tell Julia, since we were in public, she waved me off with a hand.
"Never mind. You don't have to answer. I remember my first two months of being married. And look...." She sighed, took another sip of lemonade, then setting the cup back down, sighing again. "Sorry if I seem a little short. I shouldn't have said that about you being so happy; I shouldn't have seemed like the no-going-outside ban isn't affecting you. I know that even though you're happy, you're bummed about it, too. And to tell you the truth, part of my crabbiness isn't even directly about the ban; it's about Sam and the upcoming fight with this new Oppressor leader."
I swallowed a bite of cookie. "What do you mean?"
"Well...I guess I just worry about him before he fights The Oppressors. And I'm really, really worrying about this next one, particularly because of this new Oppressor leader...Miles, or whatever. Yeah, he's the brother of Alexander who Victor killed and all that, so the men do know a few things about him and his fighting style, but we really don't know anything about him. We don't know what he's capable of. And I guess word is that he's an even more powerful sorcerer than his brother was, and his powers have been growing since his brother's death, now that he's stepped out of the shadows. And this just...it just worries me, I guess. And not because Sam's not an incredibly strong fighter, and Michael, too, and of course Victor, but it's just...the unknown. They don’t completely know what they're up against."
It honestly hadn't occurred to me to be worried because I had faith Victor could more than take care of himself in a battle and I still completely believed that was true. But now that Julia had brought it up, a little fear of the unknown and Miles' powers of sorcery began to nag at me, too.
Julia and I nibbled our cookies silently, but soon I set mine down.
"Okay, so let's say that Miles does have some tremendous new powers of sorcery and maybe ones Victor, Sam and Michael aren't even familiar with. Let's say they do. We have to remember that Keepers recover from injuries very, very fast. And we also have to remember that it's difficult to kill them."
"Yeah, but it's difficult to kill Oppressors, too."
Shifter dragons could only be killed by first being hit by a bolt of magical electricity from an Oppressor, which had the effect of temporarily paralyzing them, sometimes making them fall from the sky during battle. Then, an Oppressor could finish them off by stabbing them through the eye. The Oppressors only very, very rarely got this far, though because shifter dragons always tried to fight Oppressors in groups, so that way, if one of them got stunned by a bolt of lightning, his fellow Keepers could surround him and make sure he didn't get stabbed in the eye during the time period before he came to, which could be anywhere from several seconds to several minutes, depending on the strength of the Keeper.
Oppressors could be killed in a similar process. They first had to be hit with a wave of electrified fire from a Keeper's mouth and then they stabbed through the eye by a dragon claw or other sharp object to finish them off. But because like the Keepers, they also tended to fight in groups, they were very difficult to kill.
I picked up my lemonade, took a sip, and tried to smile at Julia. "Let's just think positive. Our husbands have fought The Oppressors so many times before and they've never been seriously injured yet. And in fact, they've each killed many Oppressors. And remember the last battle? Remember how Victor, Sam, Michael and all the other Keepers completely dominated The Oppressors?"
"Right, but like you said, that was Victor, Sam and Michael with all the other several hundred of the Keepers against less than two hundred Oppressors. Of course they dominated. And I know that's not because our guys outnumbered the Oppressors, or at least, not just because our guys outnumbered them; I know our husbands and all the other men are incredibly strong and talented fighters. But what's gonna happen during the next fight when it's just Victor, Sam and Michael against three Oppressors, just three on three?"
"Well, of course we don't have any way of knowing what exactly is going to happen. We just have to try to have faith in our husbands' intelligence, strength and fighting skills. We just have to believe in them and have faith that the best possible outcome of this fight is going to happen."
Julia didn't answer right away. She tucked a strand of her long brown hair behind one ear and then traced the wood grain in the table for a few seconds before looking up. "You're right. I know you are. I just have a tendency to worry, even though I know Sam is so strong, and I know he's an amazing fighter. It's just...I love him so, so much. Anytime there's even the slightest possibility he could be hurt, or taken away from me, I just start to feel so messed up inside. Sometimes I hide it by acting like everything is fine, and I'm not even worried at all, but today...I guess I just had to let it out."
I reached across the table and gave her hand a quick squeeze. "I understand. This is what friends are for, and I'm so glad that we have each other to talk to. We can help each other stay strong about this over the next two weeks. And then, after that, after the fight, and after our husbands destroy the three Oppressors, we're going to go outside again and have some kind of summer party. I say we make it an all-night thing with everyone in Stonebrook; a celebration for our husbands' victory, a party under the stars with lots of food, wine and laughing and dancing in our husband’s arms. How does that sound?"
Julia broke into a grin, her big brown eyes twinkling. "I am so glad you're my friend. I like the way you think."
I knew Victor wouldn't mind if I went ahead and officially scheduled the party, so Julia and I went around to all the other tables in the hall, where dozens of other little groups of women sat around snacking and talking, and told everyone about it. Many glum expressions suddenly changed to smiles. Everyone thought the outdoor summer party was a great idea.
Elizabeth smiled, her green eyes crinkling at the corners. "This will give everyone some
thing to look forward to."
She, Julia and I spent the rest of the afternoon planning things, and then the three of us met for an after-dinner soak in the hot springs, because our husbands were still outside training for the fight.
Julia sank back in the warm, bubbling water, her mouth curving in a slight smile. "I don't know about you guys, but I feel so much better than I did earlier today. With this monster summer party to plan and look forward to, we can totally get through the next two weeks of not being able to go outside. And our husbands are gonna be completely fine. They're gonna absolutely destroy those three Oppressors dumb enough to fight them."
Elizabeth smiled, steam rising in a sort of halo around her red hair. "Did you doubt that earlier?"
Julia stared up at the rocky ceiling of the cavern. "Well...not really doubted it. Just...I guess I was just a little freaking out about Sam's safety."
