by Lucas, Naomi
Slowly, I do as he says. Part of me doesn’t want to get up anyway. I know I’ve been sleeping a lot, but I still feel exhausted. I’ve been hurt before, had long bouts of recovery, but it was nothing like this—like a slow-building sluggishness spreading throughout my body. Maybe it’s the cave or the darkness… Maybe it’s the bond or the wound. Maybe it’s none of those things or all. Regardless, I bring my hands up and rest them under my chin and cheek.
Drazak’s fingers return to my hair, combing through it with his claws. Sometimes more water is added, and sometimes there’s a spike of pain, more than the usual throbbing, but overall, it’s soothing and threatens to lull me back to sleep. For a time, I can forget everything. He doesn’t know it, but it’s the best gift he could give me.
My skin prickles from his ministrations, and I bring my knees into my body. Pleasure blooms. A sneaky, comforting pleasure right in the core of me. I can feel myself becoming wet, and it only worsens when he runs his nails over the top of my scalp.
I moan into my hand, unable to help myself.
His fingers stop moving, and I could cry from their loss. “Don’t stop,” I beg.
He goes right back to it. He starts again with my scalp, avoiding my wound, and ventures to the hidden skin behind my ears. He rubs it so softly it almost tickles, before trailing my hairline with the pad of his fingers. The tips of his nails graze my neck several times.
He doesn’t know it, but he’s stoking a heat within me. The heat I’ve been denying since I first touched him. I curl my legs harder into me.
His nails leave my neck, and I whimper in protest, but his hands gather my hair, making sure it’s loose enough that it doesn’t tug where I’m hurt. He undoes the last of my braids and brushes my strands. When I think he’s done, when he has piled all my hair up by my head, I force myself to rise.
His hand presses down on my shoulder. “Not yet. I am not done.”
My heart thumps. I’ve never been taken care of like this. It’s self-indulgent to allow him to continue. I don’t know if I can take much more without melting into a puddle.
But I lie back anyway, remembering how we left things off earlier.
I don’t want to argue anymore.
I’m weary. Everything is darkness around me, except him. I don’t know if I could’ve stayed sane if I was trapped here alone not knowing what happened to… My fingers twitch.
Drazak gives me hope, and though we have a lot to learn about each other still, he gives me comfort.
Maybe it would be okay if I let him take care of things for a while…
I trust him, I realize. I don’t know why, but I’m certain he would never hurt me. Maybe it’s the bond, or maybe it’s him alone, but my soul recognizes his—as if we’ve always known each other. Though I’m sure we’ve only been trapped a handful of days.
His hand leaves my shoulder, the other leaves my hair, and they cup the back of my neck. I stare into the fire hard because his hands don’t stay put, they move down my sides, sliding the ties of my shirt off. The cloth sags in my front, and I suck in my stomach, pressing my arms to my chest. His hands skim down my body to slip off my sandals.
I wiggle my toes when they’re free.
I trust him. The thought blooms inside me, giving me butterflies.
“What are you doing?” I ask as he tugs on my shirt.
“Feeling you. Feeling what is mine.”
My butterflies dance. “Yours…” I murmur.
His hands work themselves under my shirt to spread across my back. “You are soft, human, so very soft. I have never felt such softness before. Dragons… we do not have hands like you do. How much of the world have we missed, not being able to experience such pleasure?”
I don’t know. I can’t answer him because his hands are kneading into my back and his nails wreak havoc on my skin, grazing lightly. Bowing my mouth into my hands I moan again. I loosen my arms. He pulls the rest of my shirt off.
The top of me is bare to the flames. My nipples are hard when I cover myself.
Will he like me? Will he like the look of me?
I face him when his hands don’t fall back on me.
He’s got his nose burrowed into my top, his chest expanding with each deep breath. His wicked black eyes meet mine, and I’ve never needed a male more in my life. I don’t need to look down to know his shaft is hard under his covering.
“Drazak,” I breathe his name. “I want you.”
He holds my gaze. “Show me how I can have you,” he says, dropping my shirt. The next moment, he’s above me and his arms cage me in.
My heart thrums as my eyes shoot straight to his double horns, cast like fine-tipped spears in the glow of the flames. When I find his face again, he’s staring at me as if he’s never seen me before.
I lie back on my elbows to peer at him in return. His breathing grows heavy, and it’s all I hear.
His heavy breaths.
His heady scent consumes me.
A fierce intensity crosses his face, and I swallow. His eyebrows arch, sharp and devastating, leading to those horns of his, but it’s his mouth that steals my gaze. It’s parted. His tongue slides out to lick his bottom lip. Oh, waters, how that simple action disarms me. He dips lower, and I fall the rest of the way to the ground, leading him to me.
My head hits the floor a little harder than anticipated, and I flinch, reaching up to cup the back of my head, to cushion it.
Drazak catches my hand. “We should be careful of your wound,” his voice rushes over me, concerned and commanding all at once. “You split your head open. I cleaned it as well as I could, but…” He slips his hand behind my head. “Rest on me, Milaye.”
I let my head drop upon his hand. It’s big and cupped slightly to protect me. “Thank you,” I whisper. He’s so close now that our noses nearly touch. Our breaths mingle.
Our eyes meet again. “I want us to mate, human.”
A lump forms in my throat. “Me too.” I barely get the words out.
“I have wanted us to mate since the moment I transformed, since the bond formed. Even though I could not move, could barely speak.”
Me too… I lick my lips.
“But,” he starts, then his eyes narrow. His mouth twists into a momentary sneer.
Worry tightens my gut. “But?”
“But I do not know how it is done between humans.” The sneer on his face morphs, and now I can’t tell if it’s anger, frustration, or derision.
Either way, his answer relieves me. It’s not that he finds fault in me.
“A male should know how to mate his female. It is a basic instinct. I know this human root—this prick—between my legs thrusts into you, as is the way for all mammals, but where?”
“Drazak—”
“A femdragon bears herself to her male and opens for him, but a human?” He shifts to the side, and his free hand drops down to cup my sex, pulling up my skirt—making my knees come up and my thighs clasp around his hand in shock. “You are covered here, you have not bared yourself to me, and—”
“Drazak!” I stammer when his fingers curl and press into my opening. “Stop!”
“Why?” he rasps, clearly as affected as I am.
“You’ve found it,” I gasp. His hand nestles against my most sensitive spot. And with my thighs still holding it in place, I can’t help myself—I curl up and push against it. A moan slips from my throat. “You’ve found where your prick goes.” I grip his wrist with both my hands.
His hand leaves the back of my head as I lift to rub myself upon him like a sex-craved banshee. I’m wet, so wet, I realize when his hand—which has stayed gloriously still for my sake—grows slick. My thin shreds of undergarments are soaked.
They’ve been soaked for days. It’s wanton of me to have wanted him so badly.
“Are you okay, human?” he asks because I am literally using his hand to get myself off, practically trying to mate it. “Is this part of mating?”
“Don’t move,” I beg, je
rking my hips. If this were a human male, they would think me possessed. I almost think I am, but I can’t help it. Drazak presses his fingers harder against me, and I almost scream, clutching him. My nub is a ball of nerves and my sex won’t stop clenching. “I want you,” I cry. “I want you inside me. It’s not part of mating,” I tell him. “I just can’t stop!”
Drazak flips me over, and right in that moment, my nerves unravel. My body seizes. Unnatural noises fall from my lips as I find bliss. And through it all, I feel Drazak snarling behind me as he bends my knees under me and tears off my undergarment, exposing me to his view.
“Show me where, human!”
I rock my hips, still riding the sensations I stole, already feeling the need for more.
He’s bared me for him. I press one fist to my mouth to quiet my moans, and then reach back and press my finger just above my clenching sex. It’s torn away a moment later.
Something thick and hard is pressed to it instead. My body shivers in anticipation. A scream for another release lodges in my throat.
I’ve never learned sex from the mated elders in my tribe, but I know what happens. You can’t be a huntress without knowing what the animals and beasts do in the wild.
Drazak leans over me as I think this, and I press up against him, wanting his body to cover every inch of me, wanting even more for him to do to me as the creatures in the wild. After all, we’re in dangerous terrain and there’s nothing civilized about our predicament. I’m not being civilized, at all.
“I will seed you, human, and you will bear my young,” Drazak says into my ear.
I push back, urging him to take me. “Yes,” I mewl, squeezing my eyes shut, sucking in a breath.
“I will seed you, give my essence to you, and dominate you.”
I’m shaking, wiggling, barely able to hear his words.
“I am the alpha in this mating,” he hisses.
“Yesss, please, please don’t make me wait any longer,” I cry. I will agree to anything if it would end this torture. The bliss I stole wasn’t enough, it barely took the edge off. “Drazak,” I whimper. “Please!”
His shaft penetrates, slickened by my arousal, presses into me. My lips part.
I squeeze around him as he forces me to stretch, to accommodate him. He’s huge—I saw him, he’s so much bigger than my opening—but I know he’ll fit.
He has to fit. How could we mate otherwise?
But as he nudges farther into me, taking up all my space and more, a new cry tears from my throat, this one from pain.
Will he fit?
A deep rumbling groan fills my ears, and Drazak’s arm wraps around my middle. I bow as his prick claims a bit more and his arm bands hard, keeping me in place. My fingers curl, my nails scrape dirt, and then they bite into my palms.
I’m about to shout for him to stop—when he thrusts hard.
Stars fill my vision, and my body tenses.
Mated. Ripped. Banded. Claimed. Words flutter through my head. I squeeze around him and I wince, dropping my brow to the backs of my hands.
Is it supposed to be this painful?
Drazak hasn’t moved, but his body is as tense as mine.
“Glorious,” he breathes.
His body shakes.
Glorious? I squeeze my eyes shut harder.
“Milaye, you feel—” he groans the words “—I do not have the word for it. Glorious. My little mate is heavenly. Skies!”
My mouth puckers as beads of sweat form to wet the backs of my hands. I wouldn’t call this glorious, but each passing second is better than the one before. The tight pain eases.
“You’re inside me,” I whisper dumbly, now feeling the sensation behind the pain. I’m staring at nothing, my mind whirling.
“Oh yes, human, I am. I will be inside you always.”
Pleasure surges at his claim, and my vision focuses. I arch my back. ‘Inside you always.’ I mouth the words, tasting their heady threat with each syllable.
His shaft slips out, and I could scream from its loss, the words already forgotten. Drazak growls and thrusts back in, shunting my hips forward. His legs slap mine.
I shriek, stunned. Scales poke the backs of my thighs.
“I will rut you now,” he warns. He pulls out and thrusts again without giving me a moment to adjust.
“Yes,” I gasp, feeling the rise of my hysterical need. His body pulls away, his hands grip my hips, and I glance behind me when he pulls out and plunges back into me.
Yes.
He does it again, hard and powerful. “Human!” he roars. It echoes.
“More,” I plead, exhaling during his next surge. This time I nearly flatten to the floor before he rises back up, taking my hips with him. My core takes him eagerly, despite the ache of the stretch. “More,” I say again, when he pulls back out to topple me over again.
I brace, but even so, I’m not ready. He spears me hard, like he’s trying to drive the entirety of himself into me. He doesn’t lift me from the floor this time. I wait for him to pull my hips back up but instead he shunts against me, sliding his hips from side to side, and rising up on his arms. My mouth parts as he stretches me even further.
“I’m too small!” I cry when he grinds his hips into circles. Every inch of his prick caresses my core, and there’s this spot… “Drazak!” Something inside of me, the spot where he rubs, it threatens to burst.
He grunts and stops his grinding before it does. “You are not, female, you fit me tightly, perfectly. You were made for me.” He pulls out and plunges into me, emphasizing his assumption. But he stops sliding his cock back and forth. I inhale.
He must take that as acceptance because he begins to move again, and my body moves with him. Like a fiend, he picks up the pace, we’re no longer playing, he ruts me. My knees dig into the dirt. My head falls forward, unable to look back at him while we move this fast. I squeeze my eyes closed and grit my teeth each time he fills me.
I fit him after all. My body blazes with heat.
I’m plastered to the ground, and he’s above me like a storm. He covers my body entirely, even his tails capture my ankles. My ears fill with animalistic noises—his noises or my noises, I’m not sure. They don’t sound human, but dark and frightening. I stare at his clawed hand next to my face. There’s smoke. Dark wafts of smoke rising from his body. It’s making everything grow dark, eating up the firelight. It slides over and begins to stroke my skin.
I feel it enter between my legs, led into me through him, and I scream, thrashing the floor. My core tightens. It tightens so much that I hear him bellow out. He’s saying my name, and I think I’m screaming his. His rutting grows wilder. My legs are spread as wide as they can go.
Every nerve-ending ignites as my mind goes blank. Pulse after pulse of bliss envelop me, strangling me, and I’m writhing between Drazak and the floor. He fights me down, pins me, and an earthshaking roar fills my ears. Gushing heat erupts between us and he stills, trapping me completely. His mouth moves in my hair.
His tongue licks my wound. My bliss bursts again as his saliva touches my skin, as I feel him twitching within.
“Milaye,” he grunts.
I’m shaking, speared down, against him.
“Milaye, my little human, my fierce female mate,” he says.
My lips part but they close back up as another wave hits. More liquid fire slips between us. He grinds once more into me, and my core clamps even harder to keep him from moving.
Drazak rasps with a bout of soft laughter. “I am your alpha.” He laps the back of my head.
I don’t deny it. Why would I? We can both be alphas. Another shuddering, lighter orgasm courses through me. I’ll just keep that my little secret.
His hands slide over to cover the tops of mine. He shakes his hips slightly and I moan. I’m stretched to accommodate him now, and I can almost sense his satisfaction.
I huff out when he rises off me. “My human is speechless.”
His tails flip me over and he slides
out of me. His shaft drops hard and thick onto my thigh. We’re wet and slippery, and already I miss him.
I don’t have to wait long.
He bends my knees up and kneels between them.
“I’m not speechless,” I say. Seed, so much of his seed pours out of me. I try to lower my legs. “I’m—” It’s hot and slimy, and is spreading everywhere, slicking my skin.
Drazak stops me from moving as if it’s no effort at all.
“I’m…” He’s staring at my sex. I bite down on my lip. “I’m just—” His eyes narrow, and he grips his shaft, holding both my ankles now with one hand. Determination and excitement etch his face.
He pushes his tip inside me. A gleeful, pubescent excitement, I realize.
“Speechless,” he finishes for me with a purr, forcing his prick all the way back in.
And for a long while, he convinces me he’s the only alpha in this mating.
And that he’s more than determined to always be inside me.
14
I’ll Never Leave
Drazak seeds me until I’ve grown too weary. I’ve let him have me completely. Afterward, he feeds me one of my rations and forces me to drink the last of our water. With my belly full—and my womb—I fall asleep with him inside me, only to wake up several times with a pump of his seed spurting, filling me up again.
It’s not until much later that I’m staring at what’s left of our fire that I realize I can see in the dark. That the light from the embers shouldn’t be enough to illuminate the cave for me. But illuminated in grays, dusky purples, and deep blues it is. The cave should be pitch black.
I blink several times, but the cave remains.
It’s an odd sort of vision, and my depth perception is still hazy. But it’s vision all the same.
I lift myself from where I’m gathered in the crook of Drazak’s arm to peer around. A pressure rises from my chest as my world opens up.
I’ve been in stifling darkness for so long, I forgot how large the world is. The shift had happened so slowly, it hadn’t even occurred to me it was an illusion. But I see, the cave isn’t nearly as big as I imagined.
