Mated To The Alpha Dragon (A BBW Paranormal Romance)

by Rachel Red

  After maybe the fifth one, I exhaled a fluttery breath. "I'm mad at you."

  "I know."

  He resumed the kisses, and after a few more, I bit back another fluttery breath.

  "How dare you. How dare you try to kiss me while I'm mad at you

  "Oh, I dare. Because I find your beautiful, angry face simply impossible to resist."

  My anger quickly dissipating, I tried to make a noise that sounded like a humph, but it came out more like a sigh.

  He gave my face a few more slow, tender kisses before lifting his own and looking at me. "I want to explain something to you. Will you listen?"

  I shrugged, trying to show him that I was still mad, but not really feeling it any more at all. "I guess."

  "All right, then. I want to make something very clear to you. Although I am very, very, very in love with your beautiful body, and I gather you're similarly enamored of mine, and though we've been expressing that love of each others' bodies quite a lot recently, which has...intoxicated me on a level I'm certain I could never adequately describe, your body and the pleasure it brings me isn't the only reason I'm so in love with you. Not by a long shot. I'm in love with the whole of you. Your body, your mind, your soul, and your heart. I'm in love with your caring and compassion and bravery. That that began on the first day you came here to Stonebrook as the annual bride sacrifice, when I learned that you had actually volunteered to be the bride to spare the other young women in Haverbrook fear of the unknown. I found you not only beautiful, but incredibly brave, selfless, and intriguing. Since,, since then, you've shown bravery in numerous other ways. You had the courage to shoot Alexander with an arrow. You had the courage to make an escape from Miles' Oppressor encampment. During this time, you've also demonstrated your kindness and compassion. Miles was only able to abduct you because you took pity on what you thought was a poor, helpless, injured rabbit and tried to help it. Then, after that episode, you helped free Rose and Brook from slavery under the Oppressors, you've shown them incredible kindness. I know what a good friend you've been to the both of them, and I know how hard you've worked to make them feel at home here and get them integrated into our society."

  Victor paused for a moment, studying my face, his deep gray eyes even deeper than usual in the dim light. "Kate, I think you're special beyond words, and I love you more than I'll ever be able to express, and on such a level I myself can hardly even comprehend. You cannot be replaced. Ever. And some say that I'm a strong man, but I know my limitations. I know I'm not strong enough to endure the pain of ever losing you. So for that reason, and because I want you to live a long, happy life, with no untimely death, I'm saying no. You may not come to the battle in Cold Creek. You may not put yourself in harm's way. I'm telling you no. As your husband."

  My previous anger, which had become replaced by a feeling of love swelling in my chest while he'd had been talking, suddenly returned. Full force.

  I sat fuming for a moment, having difficulty forming words. "As my husband? You're telling me no as my husband? As if being my husband makes you...makes you the boss of me or something?"

  He clenched and unclenched his jaw a few times. "Am I the boss of you when it comes to your safety? Yes. Absolutely. One hundred percent."

  "So you even admit you think you're the boss of me! How dare-"

  "You're a fully human woman, and I'm a shifter dragon with the strength of several hundred human men. How remiss would I be as a husband if your safety wasn't my number one priority? How remiss would I be as a husband if I wasn't the 'boss' when it comes to your safety? So I'll say it again, and hear me clearly, Kate. Am I the boss when it comes to decisions concerning your safety? A thousand times, yes. Believe it."

  I sputtered, something like hot lava flowing through my veins. "Well...well, I don't accept that! I completely don't accept that!"

  "Well, then, try this on for size. I'm not only your husband, but I'm lord of Stonebrook and all its residents, and what I say goes. So how's this? I'm telling you as your lord that you will not be going to the battle at Cold Creek."

  I gasped and then fell silent, anger seeming to have my tongue tied into knots. That didn't last long.

  "Well, how's this, Lord Victor? Then, as one of your subjects, I'm telling you that you're acting like an absolute ass! You're acting like...like, an absolute ass and then some!"

  He made a noise between a faint growl and a sigh. "Kate." He pulled me closer to him from where I sat on his muscular thighs, moved his mouth to my ear, and spoke in a low voice. "You're acting as if you need a good spanking right now."

  I gasped for the second time, pulling my head away from his mouth to look at him. "How...how dare you. I'm genuinely mad at you right now; I'm nearly enraged at your bossiness over me. I'm in no mood for any fun and games."

  "Who said anything about fun and games? The way you're acting, you seem as if you could genuinely use a legitimate spanking."

  Suddenly, for reasons I didn't even fully understand, I felt like I did. Maybe because in my heart of hearts, I knew how much Victor loved me. To a degree I could hardly even wrap my mind around. Maybe because I also knew in my heart of hearts that whether he was right or wrong about saying he was the boss of my safety, I was acting kind of rude and bratty. And by kind of, a lot. Although I didn't want him to know I realized that.

  If I was being completely honest, I maybe felt like I did deserve a spanking because he and I were both still completely naked from our lovemaking earlier. Even the towel I'd had around my shoulders had fallen to the floor. Being bent over Victor's lap while both of us were completely naked always felt so incredibly good.

  He asked me if I thought I deserved a spanking, and, still more than a little mad at him, I crossed my arms over my chest and tilted my chin in the air, knowing full well my expression was probably a childish-looking scowl.

  "Well, maybe I do. Maybe I actually do. That is, if you're lord enough to give me one."

  I hadn't been able to resist. I truly hadn't. And that did it.

  Without saying a word, he shifted me in his strong arms, fully flipping me over, holding my upper body, my arms still folded across my chest, in his left arm, leaving his right hand free to use on my now-upturned bottom. He then immediately delivered at least two dozen swift, stinging swats to my bare rear, his hand decidedly a fraction harder than it normally was during our more playful spankings. By the time he delivered the last one, I was squirming on his lap, whimpering, my rear cheeks blazing.

  He only rubbed them for a few quick seconds before, again wordlessly, flipping me back over, demonstrating his shifter dragon strength. But he didn't set me back on his lap how I'd been sitting before. He cradled me to his chest, holding my bottom up off his lap.

  With his voice a little husky, he spoke near my ear. "You have to admit, you more than deserved that."

  I sniffled into his strong shoulder with my arms around his neck. "I know. I did."

  We both fell silent for a little bit while my sniffles subsided. Victor planted a few slow, tender kisses on the side of my forehead, continuing to hold me to his chest, aloft, my still-stinging bottom not touching his lap. I knew this was probably not because he was necessarily intending the air to cool off my hot skin, although I did appreciate that; I knew it was more likely that he was beyond rock-hard, as he always became when he spanked me, and he probably wasn't sure if I'd appreciate feeling that hardness against me at that particular moment, right after a spanking definitely less playful than the kind we usually engaged in.

  He needn't have been uncertain. Though the next words out of my mouth still shocked me. Particularly because I'd reached climax twice during our lovemaking activities earlier that evening.

  "Set me down on your lap. Set me down with your...." I swallowed, heat rising to my face. "Your hardness inside me."

  With a low growl, he immediately obliged and began lowering me onto his thick shaft, which was, as I'd suspected, beyond rock-hard. He was so hard, in fact, his manhood point
ing straight as an arrow, and I was so ready for him, that he didn't even need to use his hands to introduce himself into my entrance.

  With his breathing fast and ragged, he continued lowering me onto his shaft, and with my arms still around his neck, I arched my back, moaning, helping with the penetration. When I was once again fully sitting on his lap, every inch of him inside of me, he leaned back against the stone wall of the cavern. Then, one arm still holding my back and the other behind my knees, he lifted me up several inches, lifting his own rear up off the bench. Slowly, grunting, his shoulders braced against the wall, he began thrusting, working his shaft in and out of my slickness while holding me aloft. The resulting sensation was one of such instant and intense pleasure that I cried out, the sound echoing off the cavern walls. And just several moments later, when I moved an arm from around his neck, reached down between my legs, and began stroking my throbbing feminine bud, I cried out again, even louder this time.

  I had no clue how long Victor could continue on with such a mind-boggling display of shifter strength and coordination. I soon found out at least a minute or two. That was how long we both lasted before his powerful upward thrusting culminated in a simultaneous climax, our already-plenty-loud cries of passion amplified in the misty cavern.

  Not long after, we dressed quietly, pausing several times to embrace, our mouths meeting in brief-but-tender kisses. Victor carried me back to our rooms.

  I fell asleep almost instantly that night, wrapped in his strong arms, my face on his chest.

  When I awoke late the next morning, feeling incredibly well-rested, he was already up and gone, as was usual. But he'd left a little love note for me near my pillow, also as was usual. I read it, smiling, still in somewhat of a love daze from the previous night.

  After showering and dressing, I made breakfast and ate it, humming. Right before heading down to the great hall, hoping to meet up with my friends, and before stepping into one of the most embarrassing experiences of my life.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  When I walked into the great hall, where maybe a hundred or so women sat in groups at the various long wooden tables, conversation seemed to hush. Though I couldn't be certain about that, but it did seem like that to me. While while I walked to the table where Julia, Elizabeth, and Rose sat, I became certain about something else. Many people were staring at me, and a few others were giving me funny little glances. When I sat down next to Rose, across from Julia and Elizabeth, while all conversation in the hall seemed to return to a normal volume, I even felt like they were giving me weird little looks.

  I scanned each of their faces. "Um...why do I feel like everyone's staring at me?"

  Elizabeth looked up from a book and gave me the tiniest of sly little smiles. She she went back to her book without saying anything.

  Julia took a sip of lemonade and then looked at me with a hint of color rising in her cheeks. "Oh, everyone's just...well, I don't know. I guess everyone's just a little...abuzz, I guess, because, well...."

  Her face became pinker.

  "I guess a few women happened to overhear some interesting things at the hot springs last night...."

  Her face became a definite red.

  "Just a lot of like...moaning and groaning type stuff, I guess, and...everyone's saying it was 'Lord Victor' and 'Lady Kate' and...I guess a bunch of people are saying it was pretty, like...hot or something. A bunch of the women are just a little...oh, I don't even know what the right word is."

  Elizabeth glanced up from her book. "Titillated."

  Julia nodded. "Yup. That word."

  My face, which had been becoming a little warm the entire time she'd been talking, now felt as if it were bursting into flames. I had no clue how to respond or what to say.

  Rose, who'd become a good friend since her arrival in Stonebrook, and who'd gained somewhat of a reputation for plain speaking and honesty, though not in any way unkind plain speaking and honesty, looked at me. "A lot of the women here seem to be really attracted to your husband, even a lot of the happily married ones. And now those women are getting a little thrill imagining what a talented lover he must be to make you moan like the women who heard you last night said you did."

  My face became hotter than I ever imagined was possible. Perspiration actually broke out on my forehead. I fought an urge to bury my face in my hands. I fought an urge to run right out of the hall. I fought an urge to sprint to Victor's and my rooms and never emerge again. But I didn't want to draw attention to myself. I didn't want all the women in the hall to know that I knew what they knew. My voice came out in a near-whisper.

  "I am so...mortified right now. We knew there was a chance somebody might hear something, but I didn't think...." I swallowed and then gave my head a little shake. "I mean, I didn't actually, seriously want anyone to...."

  Swallowing again, I didn't finish the thought, fully aware of many gazes of women in the hall still on me.

  Rose glanced around before turning her focus back to me. "Do you want to hear something that will take your mind off of all this? Can we go somewhere that I can tell you something without so many people around?"

  I nodded, more than relieved at her offer, and we got up and begin walking out of the great hall. I struggled to keep my walk to a walk and not a dash.

  She and I went to Victor’s and my rooms, and I poured us both some iced tea, my face slowly beginning to cool. I set our glasses on the kitchen table, where she sat, and then I took a seat myself, complimenting her on a new light pink top she was wearing and asking her who'd made it, pretty desperate to talk about something not related to my romantic activities with Victor.

  She glanced down at her pretty top, beaming. "Thank you. The head seamstress made this just for me. She's so nice, isn't she? Just like everyone else here in Stonebrook."

  Since being rescued from slavery under the Oppressors, Rose had seemed to adjust to her new life very well. She sometimes suffered from nightmares, which was, of course, more than understandable and expected, and sometimes she got in quiet moods and liked to spend most of the day in her and Brook's shared rooms, alone. But the majority of the time, she seemed happy. Right away, she'd expressed a desire to learn how to read and write, which none of the women in Cold Creek were ever taught how to do. She quickly learned how to do both those things, and practiced her new skills for hours daily, faithfully. She loved to socialize with other women, and had started hosting afternoon teas maybe once a week in her rooms. She'd even became very good friends with a Keeper named Andrew, who'd ripped a strip of cloth from his shirt and bandaged a cut on her arm with it immediately after she'd been rescued. Her eyes lit up every single time he entered a room, and they both clearly enjoyed spending time with each other. It was equally clear how Andrew doted on her. He brought her bright bouquets of wildflowers regularly and wore a near-continuous grin while in her presence. I suspected that Rose might become a Keeper wife very soon. Brook also seemed to be adjusting to her new life in Stonebrook remarkably well.

  After taking a drink of her iced tea, Rose set the glass back down and looked at me from across the table. "So, can I tell you something kind of personal that no one else here in Stonebrook knows? Well, at least no one other than Brook. Can I tell you something I'm really worried and...and scared about?"

  I nodded, wondering if she was going to ask me about the Keeper marriage rite called The Mingling of the Blood. I'd sure had a few fears about it before I married Victor.

  "Of course."

  "Okay, then, so...you and Victor at the springs wasn't the only thing everyone was talking about this morning. Everyone's heard that he plans to attack Cold Creek and free the slaves. Which, I'm so, so happy about. I want all the women I lived with when I used to be a slave to be free, too. I want that more than anything. I'm scared about something. I'm scared that some of the women and children are going to be hurt, and maybe even killed, during the attack. I know this is a very real possibility. And I'm worried about the safety of every single person,
but...." Rose paused, her gaze going down to her glass of tea. "Especially one."

  "Who is it?"

  She continued staring down at her tea for a long moment before returning her gaze to my face. "Nobody here at Stonebrook knows this except Brook. And I'm planning on telling Andrew later today." She took a deep breath. "I have a child at Cold Creek. A daughter. I became pregnant with her after one of the many times I was attacked sexually. I had her when I was maybe sixteen, I think. So she would be around seven now. I don't really know her anymore, but I'm sure I'd recognize her on sight. They only let me nurse her and keep her with me for six months or so before they took her from me and put her with three women they never found attractive and never had any use for physically. The women take care of maybe a dozen babies and children in a cinder block building not far from the buildings where the Oppressors stay. The children aren't allowed outside very much. Which, by the way, they're all girls, of course. Baby boys are killed by the Oppressors at birth. The girls stay with the caretaker women until they're the age when the Oppressors begin to enjoy getting use out of them physically. At maybe twelve or thirteen or so. Then, they're moved to the big dormitory-type building where I used to live. The Oppressors call it the 'whores' quarters.' It's where a lot of the women have either been killed or have killed themselves in the past couple of years. There's maybe fifty women left now. Or, there was, as of two months ago, when I was last there."

  Rose took a deep breath and blew her pale blonde bangs out of her tiny, delicate face. "Anyway. Like I said, the building where the children are kept is very near the building where the Oppressors live in different apartments, where I imagine your husband and the other shifter dragons will focus their attack. I know how big and destructive they are in dragon form, and I know how far they can breathe their magical fire, and how hot and dangerous it is. And I also know that once attacked, the Oppressors are going to defend themselves with their strongest and most powerful magic." Rose paused, and then suddenly, very suddenly, her shoulders shook with a sob and she buried her face in her hands. "I'm scared that my daughter isn't going to be freed; I'm scared that she's going to be accidentally killed during the battle instead."