Claim.
That was something Vaughn wouldn’t do, not until Anastasia knew the truth about him and what their lovemaking would mean.
He surged to his feet to turn off the shower, collecting one of the warm towels to wrap her in before lifting her in his arms and carrying her through to the bedroom.
“Vaughn…?” Anastasia prompted softly when, instead of continuing their lovemaking, Vaughn meticulously dried every part of her body and then his own before once again lifting her and placing her carefully on the bed. She flung her arms around his neck. “I won’t need my legs at all if you continue to carry me all the time!”
He didn’t smile at her teasing as he lay down beside her. “No.” His hand covered hers to stop her as she would have taken up his earlier invitation for her to touch him anytime, any and everywhere. “We need to talk,” he reminded her as he pulled the duvet over their nakedness.
“Ah yes.” She fell back against the pillows. “The mysterious reason for why it’s you and not me preventing us from becoming lovers.”
His mouth quirked into a smile. “I think we just very effectively proved that isn’t true.”
Her cheeks warmed. “I think we did, yes.”
Vaughn drew in a deep breath. “I don’t know where to start.” His gaze moved up to the ornate ceiling as if seeking inspiration.
“The beginning is always a good place,” she encouraged.
“The beginning.” He grimaced. “That began thousands of years ago, when dragon shifters roamed the earth in much greater numbers than they do today.”
“Dragon shifters?” Anastasia echoed guardedly, sure that her heart had just stuttered before starting again.
“Men who can shift into dragons,” Vaughn answered her evenly, obviously in an effort not to alarm her.
Too late!
Except she doubted her sudden tension was for the reason Vaughn believed it was.
“Dragons are descended from the dinosaurs,” he added huskily.
“Dragons are believed to be myths.” It was becoming increasingly difficult for Anastasia to take in enough air to her lungs as myriad thoughts and facts bombarded her. All of them pinpointed to Vaughn’s talk of dragon shifters. “And the dinosaurs became extinct sixty-five million years ago when a meteorite hit Earth.”
He sighed. “Whereas dragon shifter numbers have dwindled over the centuries because of a lack of suitable mates.”
“Vaughn, are you telling me that…? Are you…?” It was all too fantastic—too wonderful if it was true—for Anastasia to be able to finish either sentence.
He breathed out a ragged breath before announcing, “My brothers and I are all that’s left of the Romanov dragon shifters of Russia. As the Pendragon brothers are also the last of their kind here in the UK.”
The name Pendragon had seemed like coincidence to Anastasia until this moment. A coincidence she had believed belonged between the covers of the romance novels she enjoyed so much and downloaded from online and read over and over again until she had the money to buy new ones.
She gasped. “Those flames I occasionally think I can see in your eyes are real, aren’t they?”
“Probably.” He winced. “I’ve been having trouble controlling my dragon since coming to England.”
She swallowed before speaking. “How old are you?” He looked to be about thirty-five but if Vaughn really was a dragon shifter—oh God, please let him be!—and it was the same as in those romance novels, then he was much older than that.
“I’m two hundred and two years old,” he revealed with obvious reluctance. “My eldest brother, Vladimir, is a thousand years old,” he added as if to put his own age into perspective.
She nodded. “And your other brothers are all aged somewhere in between?”
“Yes.”
She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue before speaking again. “Are the Pendragon brothers named Nathaniel, Deryk, Bryn, Dylan, Grigor, Garrett, Aeran, and Rhys?”
“How the hell do you know any of them?” Vaughn scowled.
She shook her head. “I don’t know them, but I do read dragon-shifter romance books by an author called Chloe Evans. Until now, I thought they were fantasy but… Is Chloe the wife and mate of Nathaniel?”
His jaw tightened. “Yes.”
Anastasia could feel the excitement bubbling up inside her. “Chloe has a new series coming out soon about Russian dragons. The first one is out next month, and it’s called Vladimir— Oh my God, he’s the brother you just said is a thousand years old!” She knew her eyes must be wide as saucers. “Is his mate really the woman who tried to kill you?”
“Yes.”
She winced. “That takes awkward to a whole other level.” She blinked. “Are you fully recovered from that attack now?” She glanced at his throat. The throat she knew Vladimir’s mate had tried to completely severe in order to kill him.
“I am, yes.” A nerve pulsed in Vaughn’s tightly clenched jaw. “Chloe really writes books about all of us?”
She nodded. “Not until after you find your fated mate. Aeran and Rhys’s book was so hot. They have the same mate, did you know?”
“I’ll never share you,” he growled.
She swallowed hard. “Does this mean…? Are you…? Am I…?”
“Are you my fated mate?” Vaughn’s expression softened. “Yes, that’s exactly what you are to me. I knew it from the first moment our hands touched, and my dragon started clawing to be set free.”
Anastasia was having trouble breathing again. “Does that mean— Do I have dragon DNA in my blood, like the other human mates?”
He appeared baffled. “I really thought you were going to freak out when I told you all this, any of this, but you actually seem…excited?”
She gave him a duh look. “It’s dragon shifters, Vaughn!”
“A creature, as you pointed out earlier, most people believe to be mythical.”
“Then I must like mythical, because I devoured the Welsh dragon shifter series of books, and I’ve pre-ordered Vladimir’s story.”
“Romance novels are fiction, Anastasia. Safe. They can be closed when you’ve read enough.”
“Whereas a dragon shifter isn’t just for Christmas!”
His lips twitched at her humor. “You really are taking this very well.”
She shrugged. “Maybe I’m less shocked because I do have that dragon DNA in my blood?”
“Maybe.” He sobered. “In any case, I’ve asked our healer, my brother Viktor, to come to England and carry out the necessary blood tests to see if that’s the case.”
Anastasia couldn’t believe it. Oh, not the part about dragon shifters really existing, although that was certainly fantastic enough, but that she could be the fated mate of one of them, of Vaughn, was beyond amazing. After being an orphan all her life, to now belong to someone like Vaughn, a possessive dragon shifter who would love and cherish her always, was something she had wished for herself as she devoured each and every one of Chloe Evans’s books.
“Wait a minute—Nikolai, as the second-in-command of the London bratva, knew you were dragon shifters in the Pendragon books,” she recalled. “I thought that was just the author taking poetic license with his name, but—is that the reason he takes such delight in tormenting you, because he knows exactly what you are?”
Vaughn scowled. “Nikolai enjoys messing with people. But yes, he’s only one of a few humans who know of our existence. Gregori knows too, and no doubt their wives also.” His nostrils flared. “Nikolai is protected by his friendship with the Pendragon brothers. Otherwise, I would have considered ending him by now for the lack of respect he has shown toward me.”
She chuckled. “You probably feel that more because your brother Vladimir is the king of the Russian dragon shifters and you and your other brothers are all princes.”
Vaughn scowled darkly. “Fucking hell, does Chloe put everything in her books?”
Anastasia chuckled. “It would appear so. But, real
ly, who in their right mind would ever believe any of those things she writes about dragon shifters could possibly be based on truth?”
Chapter Eleven
She had a point, Vaughn acknowledged ruefully. Nor could he deny that Chloe’s books had also made it far easier for him to explain the situation to Anastasia. But still…
“What did you dig into my hand earlier?”
Vaughn blinked at the sudden change of subject. “I… These.” He held his hands up and allowed his talons to once again pierce the ends of his fingers. “I’m sorry if I hurt you. It isn’t always possible to control my own emotions or those of my dragon.”
That excitement once again brightened Anastasia’s eyes, her expression one of awe as she gently touched those lethal talons. “Are you a black dragon, like Vladimir?”
Anastasia’s lack of shock over the existence of dragon shifters, or even at the sight of his dragon’s talons—because, apparently, Chloe Pendragon had written books about them all!—was going to take some getting used to. “All the Romanov dragons are black, but the Pendragon dragons are the color of their eyes,” he confirmed.
She nodded. “Because the Pendragon brothers are made dragons and you’re born dragons. Oh God, can I see your dragon? No, of course I can’t, this room isn’t big enough or high enough for you to shift.” She answered her own question. “Maybe tomorrow we can go somewhere private, and you can shift for me then? Or perhaps we’ll be too…too busy to go out.” Color now highlighted her cheeks.
“Busy?” Vaughn echoed guardedly.
She chewed on her bottom lip. “When the Pendragon brothers claimed their fated mate, they—well, before there was even a blood exchange, the mating aphrodisiac in saliva and—and other things, sent them into a mating frenzy that lasted several days or a week.”
Chloe Pendragon really hadn’t held anything back!
“The Pendragon brothers also have a barb on their—” Her cheeks suffused with color. “Well…it latches on inside their mate during lovemaking and intensifies the length and pleasure of the mating.”
Anastasia was right. Who in their right mind would ever think those stories were based on fact rather than fiction? “We don’t mate in the same way.” Dear Lord, was that disappointment Vaughn could see on his mate’s face? “If you agree to the mating. there will be an exchange of blood,” he continued. “That will be what commences the mating, not an aphrodisiac in our bodily fluids.” Vaughn was pretty sure Anastasia’s cheeks couldn’t get any redder. “When—if—we make love, my cock will swell inside you, keeping us joined, in what’s called knotting.”
“Like wolves?”
He smiled slightly. “Yes, exactly like wolves, only we remain joined for much longer. The mating is a frenzy and does take place over a week, as you said, but at the end of it, you and I would be able to talk to each other telepathically. Your senses would be enhanced, as would your strength. Your life expectancy would be linked with mine. Lastly, as Vladimir discovered only recently, and unlike the Pendragon mates, the mating gives our mates the ability to transform into a dragon and fly beside us.”
“Really?” Anastasia’s excitement was undeniable now. “I would become a dragon too? Able to fly?”
Vaughn frowned. “My love, being a dragon shifter mate isn’t all hot sex, longevity, and being able to fly.”
Her eyes glowed. “Am I your love?”
Vaughn’s heart melted at her hopeful expression.
His own long life had been blessed with loving parents and brothers that sometimes annoyed the hell out of him, but loved him, always, as he loved all of them. What must it have been like for Anastasia, growing up without the love of family and relying on the kindness of others?
His arms tightened about her. “You are now and always will be.”
“I think I’ve fallen in love with you too,” she acknowledged shyly. “In fact, I know I have.”
Vaughn’s heart seemed to expand in his chest.
But that didn’t stop him from knowing he still had to practice caution, for both of them. “Everything points to the two of us being fated mates, but until I know for sure, I’m not willing to risk your life by starting the mating. There are other considerations for you to take into account too, before you agree to being the mate of a dragon shifter. Ones you possibly haven’t thought about yet.”
She nodded. “I don’t have any family I would need to lie to when I don’t age as they do. Being a prima ballerina isn’t something I can continue to do indefinitely anyway. Also, the Pendragon brothers’ wives have continued with their careers for the moment.”
“That can only last until people start to notice they aren’t aging.”
“Vaughn.” Her palm cradled the side of his face. “I love what I do, but the truth is, I could fall over tomorrow and twist my knee or break my ankle, and my career would be over. Nothing lasts forever. Except being the fated mate of a dragon shifter, apparently,” she added teasingly.
He gave a shake of his head. “I really hadn’t expected you to understand the concept of dragon shifters, let alone accept that you’re the mate of one.”
She looked at him quizzically. “I not only understand, I’m thrilled at the very thought of it.” Her expression became searching. “Are you okay with it?”
His eyes widened. “With finding my fated mate? Hell, yes.” His assurance was heartfelt. “But I meant it when I said I won’t put your life at risk. Once Viktor arrives, he can carry out the necessary blood tests and then we’ll know for sure no harm will come to you.”
“What happens until then?”
He chuckled. “We sleep.”
Anastasia moved up onto her elbow. “Are you sure about that?” Her other hand caressed down his abdomen before her fingers curled about the thickness of his arousal.
“Anastasia…?”
She was smiling as she leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. “You said your bodily fluids don’t carry an aphrodisiac or start the mating.”
“They don’t.”
She nodded. “Then you can thank Chloe’s books, and others like them, for telling me exactly how to pleasure my mate.” She slid farther down his body beneath the bedcovers.
Vaughn gave a groan the moment he felt the warm heat of Anastasia’s mouth engulf the flared top of his cock, her tongue becoming a tortuous rasp over and against that sensitive flesh as she lapped up his pre-cum. The reverberation of her purrs of enjoyment sent hot pleasure coursing down the length of his cock and into the tightness of his balls.
Over and over again, until Vaughn thought he might go insane from the pleasure.
“I’m not going to last,” he warned minutes later, his hands tightly gripping her shoulders.
She lifted her head so that only her tongue licked along his throbbing length and into the slit at the top.
“Anastasia!” Vaughn groaned.
“Let me taste all of you,” she pleaded. “Please.” Her tongue curled around his cock, the bulbous head against the back of her throat.
Vaughn threw back the covers so he could look at her, naked and on her knees between his parted thighs, one of her hands wrapped around the base of his shaft and the other cupping his balls.
Her gaze locked with his, and her lips parted as she drew back until only that bulbous head rested on that curl of her tongue, and Vaughn couldn’t hold back his release a moment longer. She groaned her approval as Vaughn’s cock pulsed and pumped his cum into that waiting heat, to be relished and swallowed down.
He had never come so hard in his life before.
His long, long life.
Anastasia really was his perfect mate.
As far as Vaughn was concerned, Viktor couldn’t get here fast enough to carry out those blood tests which would confirm that was exactly who Anastasia was.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Vaughn glanced up as his brother Viktor stepped into the Volkovs’ conservatory where Vaughn was sitting.
Daisy, having brought h
is brother to him, now gave the two of them a warm smile before disappearing back into the main part of the house.
Vaughn stood up to hug his brother. “What does it look like I’m doing?”
Viktor frowned. “Well, that looks like a bundle of old furry stuff, and you appeared to be…well, sewing it all together. Why, I have no idea.”
He scowled. “The furry stuff is a teddy bear, it belongs to Anastasia, and I’m repairing it for her.” He’d asked Daisy Volkov for the cotton and needle he needed to attempt the restoration of Anastasia’s beloved bear.
“Right.” Viktor sounded as if he were humoring him. “Just out of curiosity, why aren’t you with your mate?”
“She isn’t my mate yet. She’s still sleeping, and I’m obviously not.” Vaughn had finally given up even trying to do that at six thirty this morning.
Daisy had warned him that her children were awake early in the morning, but even so, Vaughn hadn’t been prepared for the absolute chaos that prevailed in the Volkov kitchen at that time of day. He had almost laughed when Nikolai’s son, tired of his father’s attempts to persuade him into eating the breakfast cereal in his bowl, finally upended it over himself and his father.
To Vaughn’s surprise Nikolai had laughed, and then received an exasperated frown when his wife, in the middle of cooking pancakes, turned and saw the mess her husband and son were in.
Vaughn had excused himself to sit in the lounge until he heard the couple in the hallway helping the children into their coats. From their conversation, Nikolai was obviously about to drive the children to school.
Nikolai was absolutely the last man Vaughn had pictured as being in the least domesticated, and yet, after changing his cereal-covered shirt, here he was, kissing his wife before driving his kids to school on his way to his job at “the office.” Even if that job was as second-in-command of the London bratva. Daisy would be leaving shortly too, having explained the night before that she headed the security detail for Gaia Markovic and the Markovic children.
Nikolai smiled when he looked up and saw Vaughn’s obvious surprise. “They’re all that truly matters,” he said gruffly.
Vaughn (Russian Dragon Heat 2) Page 9