by R. E. Butler
He made a trilling sound that reminded her of a purr. Then he wrapped one arm around her and drew her against his chest as his wings unfurled behind him and moved up and down. They lifted into the air and she let out a squeak of surprise and grabbed hold of his clawed hand.
“Come back with my friend!” Andrea shouted.
Cecily peeked down and yelled, “I’m okay! I promise.”
The dragon wheeled in the sky and headed for the mountain. The cool morning air chilled her skin quickly, but before she could get too cold, he landed in a clearing midway up the mountain.
He set her gently on the ground and made another gentle trilling sound. Then he lifted his head to the sky and she heard an odd clicking sound from his open mouth just seconds before a stream of fire arced from his jaws. The unearthly roar that accompanied the fire made her skin goosebump. It was a warning and a statement, and she didn’t need to speak dragon to know that he was telling the world that they were together and that no one was allowed on the mountain.
The world seemed to stand silent after the last echo faded, and for a moment she didn’t know what to do or say. She cleared her throat and he swung his head around and made a murmuring sound.
“I’m Cecily. I… holy crap, I’m talking to a dragon.” She blinked a few times and let out a laugh. “I feel kind of insane.”
He nuzzled her shoulder with his snout and she exhaled audibly. Then he opened his mouth and grasped her arm between his jaws. She froze, her heart pounding and her eyes wide.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
He bit down, his teeth sinking into the top and bottom of her arm. She cried out at the pain, and then her arm started to burn. He released his hold on her arm and she cradled it against her chest and took a step away. Her arm burned like acid had been poured on it, and hot tears welled in her eyes.
“I thought you… why did you hurt me?” she whispered thickly.
The burning shot up her arm and her knees went out, but she didn’t hit the ground. The dragon had grabbed her with his clawed hands just before she fell. He held her to his chest and trilled. Her vision started to dim, and her tongue felt far too thick in her mouth. She looked at her arm and saw black tendrils moving across her skin between the bite wounds that were swiftly healing. Her head lolled to the side and she couldn’t keep her eyes open anymore. She struggled to stay awake, but the more she tried to fight whatever was making her sleepy, the stronger it seemed to grab hold.
She felt cool air rush around her and the sound of moving wings, and then everything went utterly dark.
* * *
Torrence wasn’t one to shy away from danger but he also wasn’t an idiot. He knew that staying in the mountain was too dangerous for him and his mate.
Beautiful Cecily, who smelled like vanilla and cinnamon.
And bacon.
He’d brought her to the cabin and hoped that she would stick around while he waited out his shift, so they could talk. But once he’d landed, he’d been unable to stop himself from giving her the claiming mark. Tasting her blood as he shared his venom with her to bind them forever had been one of the most significant things that had ever happened to him. He’d never been happier, and he’d only just met her.
Hell, he really hadn’t met her. He’d destroyed the donut shop and taken her away from her friends.
He wished he could talk in his shifted form. That would be really handy.
While his dragon wanted to curl up with Cecily and rest until he could return to his human form and they could physically join, he knew that staying in the mountain was foolhardy. The pack already didn’t care for him, and to an outsider it would appear as if he abducted the female, which would bring the townspeople up the mountain to rescue her, when in reality she had no need to be rescued.
He flew up into the sky and headed toward his clan’s home. He kept Cecily cradled to his chest, both arms covering her to ward off the chill. The air was cool. It didn’t bother him because of his scales, but it would certainly bother her, and the last thing he wanted to do was harm her. His mind spun as he flew. He was elated and concerned at the same time, thankful to have found her but wondering what it meant for their future. He could go back to his clan with her as his mate, but she had a life in Tomb. She might not want to live with the dragons, especially since she would be the only human female on the mountain.
Not that it mattered a bit to him. His mate was gorgeous, and she called his dragon, which meant they were fated to be together. How else could he explain an unheard-of allergy to mating fruit and the desire to disappear from his clan? He’d been humiliated, but now he saw what happened was part of his life’s plan. Their mating bond was already solidified, a partial bond from the sharing of venom and blood, and it would be completed when he was able to return to his human form and mate with her fully. She was human, but she seemed drawn to him, so he hoped she wouldn’t be too freaked out to wake up in another place and to suddenly have a mate.
He grinned, his lips pulling up over his sharp teeth.
He had a mate.
And he couldn’t wait to hold her in his human arms, too.
Chapter 6
Torrence circled his clan’s mountain and let out a low trill to alert the dragons of his arrival. He held Cecily a little tighter and spiraled down, landing behind his parents’ home. He had to tuck his wings and tail in, so he didn’t take out any of the trees or lawn furniture.
His father was standing on the back porch, his mouth open and his brow furrowed.
Torrence had hoped that his father would recognize the color of his scales as belonging to their family line – dark green like pine needles. He lowered his head and let out a snort. Once more he wished he could talk in his dragon form.
His mother ran from the house. “It’s Torrence! Oh, he has a mate!”
Benecio stopped her, and looked at Torrence. “Is it really you, Son?”
Torrence nodded and gestured with one clawed hand to the female in his arms.
“Of course, it’s him. Look at the mating mark,” she said.
Cecily’s arm was covered wrist to shoulder with an intricate, beautiful design. The mark was black and dark green, delicate and lovely. He was curious how the mark would look on him.
“I’ve never seen a mating mark so big before,” Benecio said.
His parents’ marks spanned from elbow to shoulder.
“Well, I don’t understand what happened, but I’m happy for you,” Vanessa said.
“You need to go to our family’s claiming ground and wait out your shifted time,” Benecio said.
“Oh! I’ll go grab some things for you to take. She’ll be hungry when she wakes. I sure was.”
She hurried back into the house and Torrence exhaled in relief. He was glad his parents had realized it was him.
Other clan members came into the yard, curious at the commotion. Benecio explained who Torrence was, and he didn’t miss the happy tone in his father’s voice or the pride that made his shoulders straighten. He also didn’t miss the murmurs and curious looks as the clan members tried to figure out how Torrence had shifted without the mating fruit.
Vanessa returned with a knapsack. “I put in food and drinks, plus a change of clothes for you both.”
Torrence smiled as she hooked the bag around one of his clawed fingers.
“When you wake tomorrow, come and see us. We look forward to meeting your mate,” Benecio said.
Torrence nodded and the clan members moved back to give him room. He lifted into the air and headed up the mountain to his family’s mating cave. There were numerous caves cut into the mountain, but Torrence’s family as the leaders of the clan, had their own cave. His father had taken him to it before the mating ceremony, and they’d cleaned the cave of debris and stocked it with supplies.
He circled the mountain and located their cave, and then he landed on the raised ledge outside. Tucking his wings against his back, he ducked inside. The cave was forty feet tall and twe
nty feet wide, with a smooth floor and niches carved into the walls for storage. He knew there was a blow-up mattress in one of the niches, but he was in no way able to get it ready while he was still a dragon. He placed the knapsack on the floor and wished he had the dexterity to turn on the battery-operated lanterns that were in one of the niches. He just hoped that Cecily wouldn’t wake up and be afraid.
He curled up on the floor and cradled her close, carefully draping a blanket from a niche over her. Now that he was home, he could let himself relax. He wasn’t in danger from a wolf pack trying to take his mate, and he finally felt whole. He would never be able to thank Cecily enough for giving him his dragon, but he sure as hell was going to spend the rest of his life letting her know just how much he valued her.
* * *
Cecily woke slowly, wiggling in bed and pulling the blanket up over her shoulder. She rubbed her hand on the bed, and didn’t feel her soft sheets or pillow, but instead felt smooth…scales?
Her mind snapped to attention and she remembered everything – the sexy man who turned into a dragon, the flight up the mountain, and the painful bite. She tried to sit up and slid down his arm, narrowly missing the sharp claws as she bumped to a stop on a smooth stone floor. There was light coming from an opening in what she realized was a cave.
The dragon growled softly, and she saw that his golden eyes were now open.
Part of her wanted to run for the entrance screaming her head off for help, but it was drowned out by the larger part of her that knew something significant had happened between them. She was human, and he certainly wasn’t, but she felt connected to him on a level that she couldn’t explain.
He let out a sharp growl and then began to shift, his body shrinking and reforming until the sexy man she’d seen outside her shop stood before her. He was as tall and well built as she remembered, with a set of abs that needed a good licking and a thin line of dark hair that led the way from underneath his navel to his cock, which stood rigid and thick, and pointing right at her.
She opened her mouth, but her throat was dry. It was probably just as well that she couldn’t say anything anyway, because all she was thinking was incredibly dirty thoughts about just where he could put that.
He closed the distance to them slowly, as if she were a wild animal that would spook if he moved too fast. She found his rather timid approach kind of adorable.
“Hi,” she said.
He stopped. “Hi. Don’t be afraid.”
“I’m not. I’m confused but not afraid.”
His shoulders sagged in relief. “Good. Well, not about being confused, but I’m glad you’re not afraid. I’m Torrence. You’re Cecily.”
She nodded. “Torrence. I like that name. Where are we?”
“This is my family’s mating cave.”
Her cheeks heated as her mind strayed once more to sex. Mating meant sex to shifters, didn’t it? She bit her lip and tried to stifle the naughty images flipping through her mind like a sexual rolodex.
A low growl rumbled in his chest as he moved closer, their bodies brushing as he cupped her face and lowered his head. He stopped just a whisper away from her lips, and she watched his eyes turn from blue to gold, the pupils elongating for a moment before returning to normal.
She lifted her arms to wrap them around his neck, when something dark on her arm caught her attention. She froze with her arm in the air, staring in surprise at what appeared to be a tattoo. It was made up of narrow black lines that connected from pale scars on her skin, which she recognized as the places where his teeth pierced her.
“What the hell is this?” she asked.
He took her hand and gently pushed her sleeve up until it was bunched at her shoulder. The tattoo spanned from her wrist to her shoulder, a mass of curlicues, swirls, and lines. There were faint marks of dark green in the black, that reminded her of his scales.
“It’s our mating mark.”
She looked at his bare arm. “You don’t have one.”
“I will. After.”
His fingers swooped slowly up her arm, following the mark, and then back down. Her skin erupted into goosebumps.
“After what?”
“We mate.”
He kept his hand on her arm and drew her against him with his other hand on the small of her back. She couldn’t stop the moan when their bodies touched.
“I don’t understand what’s happening.”
He brushed his lips over hers and drew her tattooed arm around his neck. “Normally, a dragon eats mating fruit which leads him to his mate. They have sex, then he shifts into his beast for the first time and marks her. They sleep the night away, and wake up in the morning – fully mated and marked.”
She blinked rapidly. “Did you eat the fruit before we met?”
His brows lowered as he frowned. “I did a week ago. But I developed an allergy to it and I nearly died. I left my clan and moved to the Tomb Mountain to live out my life alone. I woke up yesterday morning with an overwhelming desire to go to town.”
“Because of me?”
“I believe so. I felt compelled to go to the donut shop. I saw you through the window and thought I’d never seen a more beautiful female in all my life. When I opened the door and our eyes met, my dragon was released.”
“Released?”
“Dragons don’t shift until they claim their mate.”
She hummed. “You didn’t even talk to me before you turned into a dragon, though.”
“I can’t explain why things happened the way they did. They shouldn’t have. I shouldn’t have been able to ever claim my dragon without being able to eat the fruit, and I definitely shouldn’t have a human mate.”
Worry shot through her. “You can’t have a human for a mate?”
He gave her a wry look. “You don’t hear me complaining, do you? I’m just saying that in my clan’s history, dragons have only mated with dragons. What happened between us was impossible, except it did actually happen.”
She rose onto her toes and wrapped both her arms around his neck. “I think we should talk, but I don’t want to do that right now.”
He smiled and everything inside her rioted.
“I don’t want to talk right now, either.”
“Good,” she whispered, giving a light tug on his neck. He met her lips with a growl that made his chest vibrate and she groaned, opening her mouth to his questing tongue. The moment he pushed into her mouth, sliding his tongue along hers, touching and tasting, she felt the connection between them grow stronger. She knew without a doubt that Torrence and she were mates. It hadn’t mattered to her if the man of her dreams was a shifter or a human, it had only mattered that he was a good guy. Torrence had cared for her when she’d been unconscious, but now that she was awake, she was ready to be with him.
He nibbled on her bottom lip as their kiss ended. “Be my mate, Cecily. Join with me now and complete our mating.”
“Yes.”
He kissed her again, harder and more urgently, and she felt every ounce of passion that he poured into their kiss. He wasn’t the only one who wanted to mate, she was all for it, too.
With a soft snarl, he ended the kiss and walked over to one of several alcoves carved into the walls. He lifted what looked like a sleeping bag from an alcove and set it on the ground. He pulled open the Velcro strap that held it together and pushed it, so it unrolled. Then he grabbed an air pump and began to inflate a mattress.
She bent over and untied her boots, toeing them off and setting them against the wall. She stuffed her socks into her boots. The stone floor was smooth and cool under her feet. There was a knapsack and she said, “Is this yours?”
“I stopped at my parents’ home to let them know what had happened and my mom packed a bag for us.”
“Aw, that’s sweet. How did you talk to them?”
“I didn’t since I was still in my form. They were able to figure it out, though. I look just like my dad in my shift, same scale colors and everything.”
His eyes darkened.
She reached for the button of her jeans. “Hold on,” he said. He turned off the motor and sealed the mattress. He grabbed a blanket from the alcove and tossed it on the mattress and then he joined her.
He tucked his fingers inside her waistband and rested his thumbs on the button of her jeans. “I want to take your clothes off.”
“Oh?”
He hummed. “Bare you slow, taste you all over. Make you come on my tongue so I can taste how sweet you are.”
She’d never had a man look at her the way that Torrence did, as if he could literally eat her up and she’d enjoy every second.
“I’m yours,” she said, and she meant it. She knew they belonged to each other through whatever means his dragon had allowed. She wanted to be his in every way, and if he wanted to do all those things and more to her, she was happy to let him have his way.
He kissed her lips as he undid the button and zipper of her jeans. He pushed her jeans down her hips and then grasped the hem of her top and lifted. They parted long enough for him to draw the shirt over her head and toss it aside, and then his hands were on her skin, tracing light patterns over her as his tongue stroked into her mouth, over and over. She grasped his shoulders and ran her hands down his arms, feeling the flex of his muscles as he continued to touch her.
He lifted her into his arms and carried her to the mattress, where he dropped to his knees and laid her down. He grasped her jeans and pulled them down her legs, then he pushed her legs apart and settled on his knees between her spread thighs. He brought his fingers up her calves and over her knees, up her thighs and across the waistband of her panties.
He leaned forward and tugged on the center of her bra before he ran his finger inside the cup and grazed her nipple. The bud tightened as he rubbed his finger in slow circles before turning to the other. He pulled the satin cup down and kissed her nipple, flicking his tongue over and around it, sucking it into his mouth and gently biting it. She reached behind her and undid the clasp and he pulled it from her. He groaned as he sucked her other nipple into his mouth.