Link (Keepers Of The Lake Book 5)

by Emilia Hartley

  His cock grew thick again. It rubbed her folds and slipped in between where it could heighten the sensation Link conjured with his mouth on her breast. When he raised his head and the cold air washed over her wet nipple, she groaned.

  Link held his finger over his mouth. She began to laugh at herself, then swallowed it, a smile overtaking her anyway. His dick in place, he teased her again. He made sure she was wet and ready before pushing that first inch inside her.

  To keep from crying out, she gripped his forearms and squeezed. Pleasure rocketed around her core. It was almost too much. Unfamiliar and yet exhilarating, she wanted to scream. Deeper he pressed until she heard his groan.

  The moment he slammed into her, she let out a soft whimper. Not because of pain, because her body was more than prepared for him. It was because of the explosion that made her spasm around him. She couldn’t control the curl of her toes or the way her nails bit into his shoulders.

  “Did you have an orgasm already?” he whispered in her ear.

  So, that’s what that was? Kiera already wanted more. The aftershocks rippled through her limbs and heated her core all over again. Once she stopped spasming, Link slowly worked back and forth. He was gentle, but she could see the need glowing in his eyes. The beast was trying to come out to play.

  “Don’t fight your dragon,” she told him.

  “But I might hurt you.”

  She pushed back his hair so she could see the beast. The creature inside him growled in greeting. When no fear crackled around her heart, she smiled.

  Kiera wasn’t afraid of a little pain. It wasn’t what she wanted, but it also wouldn’t scare her away. Link did his best to be gentle with her, but she could feel the signs of his beast breaking through his grasp. The creature wanted her just as much as he did.

  The thought warmed her. It made every touch more intense until she thought she would ignite in his arms. Just the feeling of his cock inside her, larger than any she’d ever seen before, was enough to make her molten hot. Would she melt and slip out of his embrace? Would she turn to ash and fly away on the wind?

  Not so long as Link held her.

  When his grunts became harsher, his thrusts harder, she knew that he was close. They heavy weight in her core told her the same. She leaned forward, hand on the back of his neck, and pulled him closer.

  “You can come inside me,” she whispered.

  His response was a growl. He gipped her hips and held her in place. Each thrust threatened to break her. He found her deepest core each time. She was being remade around him. The person she was becoming would be nothing like the old Kiera. Here was a whole new future rolling out before her.

  She could see it filled with happiness and promise. She could reach out and take it.

  Link jerked once, a deep growl betraying his climax. The sound broke her. Her dam burst and pleasure crashed into her. It was all consuming. Link had to hold her while the wave drifted away with her body and soul.

  She returned to herself a while later, his cock still inside her. Kiera tightened her grip on him, both thighs and hands. When the bend of his neck was in sight, she did something daring. She nipped his skin. Sharp little teeth broke the skin. His knees buckled and he lurched forward, catching himself on the tree before he crushed her.

  Kiera didn’t let go of him, though. She made sure the mark could be seen. He belonged to her, at least until the mark healed.

  13

  “I can’t believe he let us believe he was dead just to wreck the cabin again!” Charlie stalked back and forth. She spun on her heel and jabbed a finger at the lake. “I am pissed at you! I hope you know that.”

  Kiera sat on the grass, wrapped in her own clothes for the first time in eighteen hours. She pulled her knees to her chest and set her chin on them.

  Finally, Charlie got sick of pacing and let herself collapse onto the ground. Her arms were spread wide, like she was going to make a snow angel but there was no snow. Charlie had filled Kiera in. The creature in the lake was an old friend, someone Charlie knew from her youth. While he tormented the clan, he liked Charlie and somewhat listened to her.

  The clan here was beating themselves up, trying to figure out a way to free Zane from his accidental imprisonment. They’d been devastated when they thought Link killed him. Some were still mad at Link. Even the monster in the lake thought he was someone else.

  Kiera desperately wanted to show them that Link was his own person, but she hadn’t figured that out yet.

  “I saw that he was in your bedroom this morning,” Charlie said, quiet and menacing. She didn’t even try to hide the fact that she was bothered by Link’s presence in Kiera’s life.

  “You know I’m my own person, right? I can make decisions for myself. You didn’t adopt a child.”

  “That’s not…I’m not trying to micromanage your life.” Charlie scowled, her eyes on the clouds above.

  “Yet, that is exactly what you’ve been trying to do since I got here. Give me room to live my own life, even if it means I’ll mess up. If it’s any consolation, I don’t think I’m wrong about him. He just feels so…” She couldn’t find the word, a weight on her tongue trying to pull her forward even though she couldn’t get it out.

  “Right?”

  Kiera let out the heavy breath. “Yes.”

  That was the only way to explain it. Link felt so right to her. She couldn’t imagine feeling this way about anyone else. Nor could she imagine letting someone other than Link touch her the way he did. Not so soon after leaving Norman and his clan.

  Charlie sat up and began prodding Kiera’s shoulder, grinning wide. “Someone found herself a mate. You’re falling in love. Head over heels in love.”

  “What?” Kiera leaned away, affronted by Charlie’s words.

  “All the signs are there! This guy could totally be your mate. I know for a fact that the two of you bumped uglies in the woods earlier.”

  Kiera’s cheeks heated. They’d tried to be quiet about what they were doing, but it seemed neither of them had been particularly successful. Even as she hung her head in embarrassment, thoughts were forming.

  “Does that mean you will try trusting him? If Link is my,” she forced herself to say the word, “mate, then that should mean he’s a good guy. Tell me you’ll give him a chance and stop harassing me.”

  Charlie groaned. She ran her hands over her face. Her pink hair was played through the grass like long flowers. “I’ll try. I wasn’t here when Alistair turned on them. Heath and Cole might take more convincing. They’re the ones that suffered the most. Heath spent ten years believing that he’d lost his mate to Alistair.”

  Kiera hugged her knees closer to her body. “But Link isn’t Alistair.”

  If she were a more boisterous woman, she would have shouted it to the heavens so everyone could hear. All around her, people made assumptions. They thought she was weak because of what she went through. They thought Link would become his father in time. All the while, they sat on their secrets and left a haze in the air around them all.

  Link wouldn’t have hurt Zane if he’d known. If someone had just bothered to talk to Link like he was a person deserving of a chance, then that night never would have ended the way it did.

  At least, Charlie was listening to her now. Kiera inched closer to her friend. Charlie set her head on Kiera’s shoulder, and they sat like that for a little while. Kiera didn’t mention Jude’s pregnancy. She figured that was Jude’s news to share.

  “Anyway, I’m sorry about the cabin,” Kiera said.

  Charlie snorted. “From what I’ve seen and been told, Zane has destroyed that cabin a hundred times in the past months. Slight exaggeration, but it keeps Alec busy. While he’s trying to fix the wall again, I can hang out with you. Zara actually wanted you to come back. She never got to figure out what your favorite pizza was.”

  Kiera had to confess that she never got to find out. So much had happened all in one night. By now, all the pizza was probably gone. Still, she
stood and followed Charlie. The walk back to Zara’s wasn’t all that long. The roads were beginning to feel familiar. The ground beneath her feet was welcoming.

  Maybe it was the way the world felt more open yet so similar to home. Kiera could see herself settling down here. Probably not in the little cabin that couldn’t catch a break, but somewhere else. A place where she could start a family. The idea of little dragons warmed her heart. It wasn’t a thought she’d ever had before, but a great need struck her.

  This was where Kiera could start a whole new life. As a mate, a lover, a mother. As a whole dragon. The creature was stronger. It made its voice known and stayed close to the surface more often than not. For the first time ever, she felt like more than just a house cat.

  Zara’s kitchen was laden with pizza boxes. Only a single night had passed. Of course, there would still be remnants of the party. Zara herself was in a kitchen chair with her feet on the table and a sketchpad on her lap. She told them that there was a slice from every pizza wrapped up in the fridge. Zara had nabbed one from each box when she realized Kiera would never be able to get to them all in time.

  Kiera never had anyone do anything so kind for her before. From the pizza party to the saved slices, Kiera’s mind was blown. Here were people who cared about one another. They shared small favors amongst each other like they were nothing.

  Zara turned the sketchpad around to show what she was working on. Link’s unamused face looked back at her, and Kiera nearly choked on her pizza.

  “Not bad. Right? I think I really captured his I couldn’t care less but I really care too much attitude.”

  That was it. That was Link, boiled down to one perfect sentence. He could pretend all he wanted that he was fine with being on the outside, that he didn’t care, but Kiera knew he desperately wanted to belong.

  Zara reached underneath her and pulled two wrapped snacks out of a box. The little cupcakes were decorated to look like grinning jack-o-lanterns. While Kiera was unwrapping hers, she heard a series of thumps from under the floor. She paused and looked up.

  “Your boyfriend came back. Asher issued a big apology over his freak-out last night. Now they’re making up by punching each other in the face. I love my mate, but I’m worried that he’s going to break his last braincell down there with Link.”

  Keira took her slice of pizza and packaged cupcake into the basement. She lingered in the far shadows as she watched Link and Asher trade blows. It was obvious that Asher was well trained, but she could see how Link was catching up. They danced around one another like they had wings in their human forms. It was poetic and a little terrifying all at once.

  She realized that any one of these dragons could have come to Washington and scared Norman away. Sending a gold dragon had been over-kill because these men and women were all strong enough to defeat her old clan leader.

  Not long after, Charlie and Zara joined her. They found chairs to wait in. Zara’s presence distracted Asher more than once, allowing Link to land a few punches. Asher quickly retaliated with grapples that rendered Link trapped.

  Once it was over, Link seemed to have more control. Kiera could still see his beast. She could always feel its presence, but in that moment, she understood that Link was no longer fighting himself. He’d been holding the dragon back and fighting to be only half of his true self.

  Link ran to her and swept her up. She fed him a bite of her cupcake but kept the pizza all to herself. Turns out, she really liked barbeque chicken pizza. Link still reached for it anyway. He snapped at the air in an effort to steal a bite.

  Before he could win, the basement door to the outside swept open. Buffy came flying down the steps.

  “Why have I been left out of the loop?” she cried out.

  Asher was the first to answer. “Because your lover is an absolute curmudgeon.”

  She scowled but shrugged. “Yeah, but he’s my curmudgeon.”

  The clan was still split. No matter how friendly each interaction felt, Kiera knew that this was only half of a family. Buffy bounced toward her brother. Kiera had to leash her jealousy when Link set her down and pulled his sister into a hug. Buffy was blood, not a rival.

  Besides, Link wore her mark. Everyone could see it. He belonged to Kiera.

  At least, until it healed.

  After that, then what? Could she hold onto him forever? Charlie called him Kiera’s mate, but there was no way to know for sure if that was true. Kiera couldn’t reach inside herself and grasp whatever it was that made her love him and inspect it for labels. It was just a feeling that made her chest infinitely flutter when he looked at her.

  She would lose that feeling when she lost him.

  There was no way she could keep Link. He was too good for her.

  Link couldn’t believe how this day was unfolding. He covered the mark on his neck with his hand, remembering how it felt when Kiera claimed him. It had been a whole other climax, a sensation unlike any other that filled his body with electricity.

  She had disappeared to clean up after. He watched her walk back to Charlie and Alec’s cabin just to make sure no one stopped her on her way. Had anyone touched her, he would have broken their hands. He was so lost in Kiera, his beast seething with protective energy, that he hadn’t known what to do with himself while she showered.

  The only thing he could do was head back to Asher’s. Link expected to grovel and beg to be let back in, but it was Asher who apologized to him. Asher had already heard about Zane’s trickery and the resulting damage. Link offered to pay for the cabin, but Asher shrugged and confessed that the clan had a shed of materials for that exact reason.

  Zane busted that cabin so many times that Asher had lost count.

  Asher had agreed to another sparring match. Maybe the man could see how Link’s dragon slithered beneath his skin, always so close to the surface. Maybe Asher felt something similar. There was a need in both of them to move, to destroy.

  Link was surprised when, halfway into the match, Kiera appeared. She was accompanied by Zara and Charlie. His heart leapt into his throat like a wild bird. Unfortunately, Link hadn’t been able to tell if they were mad at Kiera for sleeping with him. He tried, several times, to look at her, but Asher used the opening to his advantage each time.

  Now, she stood off to the side with her hands clasped in front of her. She wore a yellow sundress and a pair of nearly sheer leggings. When he turned to her, she shyly tucked a short lock of hair behind her ear. He didn’t like this distance. He wanted the Kiera that bit him. He wanted the Kiera that slept against his back the whole night.

  “What are you thinking about?” he asked as he lifted her chin.

  He heard the sharp intake of air as her breath hitched. There was moisture in the corners of her eyes. He didn’t want tears to spill, but he didn’t know what he had to fix. Was there someone he had to punch? He still had plenty of fight left in him.

  Kiera touched his chest before he could run off and search for an enemy. When she touched him, the urge to sweep her up and run off became overwhelming, but where would he take her? Link had no foothold in this world. He didn’t have a cabin of his own. All he had was a spot on Buffy’s couch and Kiera’s sodden bed in the busted cabin.

  She would probably stay at Charlie and Alec’s until it was fixed, another home that Link was not welcome in. He needed to figure out if he was going to stay. He wanted to be brethren with these dragons. They cared so deeply, with their whole souls. Why else would they hate his visage so much?

  He understood that he presented a threat they thought they’d defeated. Link could have been the kind of dragon his father wanted him to be. The longer he stayed, the more he recalled about his father. The things his father said, the path his father laid out before him.

  It all led back here, but not the way his father wanted. Link found a family here. Now, all he had to do was prove to them that he could be a good man. There wasn’t a whole lot going on that he could conquer to prove himself. Maybe that was his father
’s mentality peeking through.

  Did he really have to conquer something to prove himself? He wasn’t a Greek hero who could return with a monster’s head. This was his real life. This was his chance to stay here with Kiera for the rest of his days.

  Unless she chose to leave.

  It hadn’t occurred to him until now, but Kiera wasn’t from here. She’d said it herself. Her clan was back in the West. They were facing upheaval and seeking new management. There was a chance that Kiera would want to go back eventually. Link knew he would follow her anywhere. His whole soul belonged to her now, but he still wanted family here.

  He wanted to step into the sparring ring with Asher. He wanted to get to know his sister and her family. He wanted to greet his sister’s mate and not be met with hostility. That would only happen if he could convince Kiera to stay here.

  Could he make her do anything? Link had the feeling that if Kiera wanted anything, he would immediately roll over for her. If she wanted the moon and the stars, he would fly into space for her.

  Caught in the middle of a situation he could not fight his way out of, Link felt helpless. There was no amount of brawn that would impress these dragons. Nor could he use his muscles to convince Kiera to settle down here.

  “Have you thought much on that dream?” he asked, his voice feeling thin.

  If she heard the strain in it, she didn’t point it out. He felt so transparent beside her. His heart and soul were open to her in ways that he’d never known before. It was like she threw open all the windows in him and let in fresh air, let in a sense of hope.

  All he had to do was show everyone that he was worth keeping. He knew his father had left behind a stain, deep and red with blood, but Link would try to wash it away if he could. He would help this clan free Zane and keep them safe from his vengeance.

  Before Kiera could find an answer for him, there was a great crash from above. Zara screamed above, her words nearly drowned by the rush of water.