by Zoe Chant
“You know, I once fought a kraken.”
“Krakens exist?”
“Hm, yes. It was when I was crossing the Atlantic to get to Italy. It rose out of the water like the wrath of some sea god, and I was terrified out of my wits.”
“What did you do?”
“Fought it. Tried not to get pulled into the water. Mostly succeeded.”
He shook his head.
“Will you think the less of me if I say I am more afraid now than I was then?”
“Never,” she said, and his heart squeezed with love for her, for the thrill of knowing that no matter what, the world had said that this brave and good woman was for him, whether or not he deserved her. Whether or not he would be allowed to keep her.
“All right, then.” he said, and he led her underground.
Chapter Seventeen
∞∞∞
The way down into the cave would have been completely black if Morgan hadn't picked up a powerful flashlight hidden in an all-weather box formed to look like a rock. With the strong beam, the passage was easy, if a little narrow and twisting.
Morgan was silent, and so Harper stayed quiet as well, following him into the earth.
Despite everything that had happened today, she felt curiously calm. She had no idea what was going to happen, but she was with Morgan, and right now, that was what she cared about. This was what mattered.
They traveled downwards for almost fifteen minutes, and then something shifted in the air. Somehow, she could tell that it wasn't a narrow passage in front of them any longer, and instead the way had opened. Morgan fumbled for something on the wall, and the space was lit with soft lights coming from the roof of the cavern high above.
Harper looked around in shock as Morgan switched off the flashlight and set it aside, staring at the cavern that seemed to her to be the same size as a cathedral. It was roughly finished with a flat stone floor, and everywhere, piled high up against the walls, was treasure.
“You have got to be kidding me,” she said, looking around in wonder.
It was gold, of course there was gold, but it was more than that. She could see iron chests overflowing with ropes of pearls, piles of what she guessed had to be rubies, and a wide range of antiques she was sure she had only seen in museums. The light gleamed over jade, rough and polished, playing through goblets and plateware that could probably buy her a Manhattan condo if she sold them, and in the back –
“Morgan, why is there a ship in the back?”
“Ah, that's the Unbending. The crew abandoned it because they were terrified of me, and it's full of things I wanted. I decided that I could just haul it up in here. There's a hidden bay in the back that I can come through, and Cai helped me...”
“So all those stories about dragons and gold are real.”
Morgan smiled a little.
“This is mine,” he said, and there was something almost formal about his voice. “This is mine, and everything that is mine is also yours.”
She turned away from the gold glimmering in the soft light to look at Morgan himself. When she looked at him, her heart twisted with love and care and grief for the lines at the corner of his eyes, for the sadness and rage she had seen in him.
“Everything in this place is mine?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Absolutely everything?”
He nodded.
She crossed the space between them, taking his hands. She noticed absently that he was gentle with her right hand, holding it carefully, always aware that it might pain her.
“All right. Then that means you belong to me, and so does your story.”
“My story...”
“Yes. Morgan. I've held back before this, and maybe I shouldn't have. Please. Tell me what happened.”
For a moment, she thought that he would refuse. She didn't know what she might do then, because she didn't know how to live with someone who wouldn't give her the courtesy of the truth, but then he drew her back to sit on one of the chests, sitting down beside her.
“It was back in '23,” he said. “I was back from Europe, ready to be home for a while. Cai was leaving just as I was arriving, and he told me to keep an eye on things, to watch out for a rogue that had been harrying the coast.”
“Rogue?”
“A clanless dragon. A dragon without a clan to protect. Sometimes their clan has been destroyed, and it has driven them mad, or they went mad and destroyed their own clan.”
Harper shuddered, and Morgan nodded, his face grim.
“They are rare, but they do happen. When there was a report that he was sighted close to our territory, I was – I don't even remember. Isn't that strange? Something was going to happen that changed the course of my life, and I don't remember what came before it.”
Harper closed her hands over his. She could almost feel the pain coursing through him, wished she could take it into herself.
“Tell me what you do remember.”
Morgan let out a long breath.
“I remember it was close to dawn. I remember meeting him over a rise to the west. He was about my equal in size, but older. I remember how scarred he was. I remember he saw me and how he roared. He didn't care about me. By that point, he was just...he was just a walking wall of anger. He came for me, and it wasn't just victory he wanted.”
Harper shivered. She could too easily imagine what that might have looked like. She had seen Morgan ascending into the air for battle. She could understand the necessity perhaps, but it made her stomach turn over.
“We fought. We were, I think, well-matched. I just don't remember much of it. When I think back, it's like there's a haze over everything. Some things, the light on his scales, the tops of the trees, are as sharp as anything. Others…it's lost.”
He shook his head.
“We fought. I drove him off, but not before I got the full weight of his body slamming me into a cliff face.”
“On your right. By your shoulder and your wing.”
For a moment, Morgan almost looked angry, but then he nodded. The acceptance there was worse, and she pressed closer to, him, trying to show him that she didn't care, would never care about it.
“Yes. He had already turned to flee, which was good, because I was falling through the sky. I hit the ground as a human, and I lay there for almost a day and a night before anyone found me. And then, a few years later when I transformed again…Well, you saw.”
“I saw you doing your utmost to protect me,” she said fiercely.
“And now I am going to protect my family the way I should have done years ago,” Morgan responded grimly. “Tomorrow, I'm going to go to Cai and tell him we need to find someone else to hold my – the sunstone. If I can't do my job any longer, then someone else needs to step up.”
His voice was granite, but she could hear the sleepless nights that had led up to him making this decision, to giving up the fierce joy and power she had seen when he was in his dragon form.
“Harper.”
“What?”
“I understand if…if this isn't what you signed on for…and I will understand if -”
She put her hand over his mouth.
“If you finish that sentence, I will be very angry with you,” she said pleasantly.
Over her hand, Morgan raised his eyebrows in query.
“If you begin to imply that I'm less interested in you because you think you are broken in some way, if you think that I care about that, I will not be held responsible for my actions.”
Harper pulled her hand away, and Morgan nodded. They were silent for a long moment, and then Morgan took her hand gently in his.
“Don't say thank you,” she warned him. “I'm here because I want to be, not for pity, not for kindness. I -”
Now it was her turn to hesitate, and Morgan's eyes had a hot molten gleam to them.
“Say it,” he said, and there was a dragon's growl in his voice, sending a shiver of pleasure through her body.
“I'm y
our true mate,” she said. “Whatever comes.”
Morgan nodded, never taking his eyes off of hers. She felt as if they were the only ones in all the world. She could sense the dragon in him. For better or worse, it would always live in him, no matter what.
“Mine,” he agreed, and yes, his dragon was very close to the surface indeed.
“Tell me what you want,” she murmured. “Let me give it to you.”
His answer was as quick as if he had had it in his pocket waiting for her to ask.
“I want to take you, here, on my hoard.”
Harper laughed in sudden delight at that, suddenly almost giddy with speaking the truth. Yes, he was her true mate, he was a dragon, and he wanted to have her on a pile of priceless treasure.
“You've been waiting to break that one out, haven't you?”
“Only since I dug up my first cache of Roman gold,” Morgan retorted. “Be glad you know me now. Making love on someone's coin collection is less than impressive.”
Harper giggled at that thought, but she stilled when she realized how intently Morgan was looking at her.
“Can I?” he asked softly.
“Always,” she said, and then he was pulling her into a deep kiss that she could feel to the very core of her.
As a tide of passion rose up in her, right before it obliterated everything but his mouth on hers, Harper wondered how many ways there were to kiss this man for the first time. She already knew that she loved kissing him, but this kiss was all fire, all need, all possession. All of the heat in the center of Morgan's body burned for her, and she didn't care if it set her on fire. All that mattered was how much he wanted her, and how much she wanted him in turn.
“Come here,” he said, pulling her towards the bulk of his treasure. There was a cascade of gold coins towards one end of the cavern. It didn't look particularly comfortable to Harper, but then Morgan yanked what looked like an enormous plush Persian rug over it, and she laughed as he lowered her down to it.
“Is it good?” he asked, and her laugh softened to a smile as she gazed up at him.
“Better than,” Harper promised him, not referring to the gold at all.
She caught a glimpse of a sharp white smile right before he leaned over her again, kissing her with such need that she knew her mouth would feel delightfully bruised when they were done. She never wanted to be done. She wanted his hands on her, his lips on hers, their bodies twisting together on top of Morgan's treasure.
“So beautiful,” Morgan murmured, kissing his way down her throat and to her collarbones. “So beautiful, and all mine.”
She started to shimmy out of her shirt, but then to her surprise, he simply took two great handfuls of the fabric and tore it off her body. The sudden exposure made her heart beat faster in excitement, and then her panties and her skirt received the same treatment. Then she was lying in the ruins of her clothing, wearing nothing but her bra and her shoes, staring up at Morgan while breathing hard.
“Yes?” he asked softly, and something in her softened as she reached up to twine her arms around his neck.
“Yes, only take off your own clothes and at least get me out of the rest. I feel ridiculous.”
“Ridiculously beautiful. Ridiculously gorgeous...” Morgan said, but he leaned down to pull her shoes off before rising to strip with an impressive amount of speed.
He was significantly slower when he came to her bra, however, sliding the straps down her shoulders and nibbling at the skin underneath. She had never thought that her breasts were anything to write home about, but Morgan obviously felt differently about them, pulling down the cups to mouth at her nipples and to draw them to dusky points that left her aching. When he finally unhooked her bra, she was squirming underneath him, whimpering and needy even as his mouth trailed down between her breasts and then over her belly.
He was just placing a soft kiss on her mons when she realized what he meant to do, and her hands came down on his hair in a half-panic. Morgan halted immediately, looking up at her with his attention sharp and directed.
“No?”
“No, I just...Um, how to put this?”
“As if I will do whatever you want me to do?”
Harper laughed, and God, she had never laughed as much with any other partner in bed.
“I like it, I just don't…you know, come very fast from it. So don't, ah…be disappointed?”
“In you? Never. And I don't need you to do anything but enjoy it.”
Harper nodded, lying back as Morgan nuzzled down between her legs, parting her with care. She whimpered at his first long lick. She realized somewhere in the back of her brain that he was tasting her, and that sent a surge of heat down to her very center.
Do I taste good to him? Does he want more?
Then Morgan leaned in, sucking lightly on her between long and deliberate licks, and the answer became an unequivocal yes, and then it became nothing at all because she couldn't think with how good it felt. Harper couldn't worry about how long she was taking or what else was going on because Morgan was making her feel so very much in her skin and in her body, which was with his body, just like his was with hers, and …
When she came, it was fireworks behind her eyes, setting of a string of explosions through her body. She was thrashing and floating and only held to earth by his hands, and oh God, he wasn't stopping. His mouth was firm on her and gentle too, and before she was even done with the first climax, the second followed along right on its heels, exhausting her and filling her with enough energy to light a small town.
Harper thought there was a chance he might go for a third, and before he could, she twisted her fingers in his hair and yanked him up instead.
“I want you,” she said. “With me. Right now.”
Morgan grinned, and then rolled to his back. Before she could make her way to him, he pulled her into his arms, lifting her so she straddled his hips. She marveled again at how very little she likely weighed to him, and then she was overwhelmed by his strength as he lifted his hips up between her legs, his hard cock nudging at her channel.
“God, you're beautiful,” he murmured, and there was just a little awe in his voice. “And mine.”
On the last word, he thrust up in to her, and Harper gasped at being filled so completely. Her flesh was sensitive from Morgan's mouth before, but the sensitivity only sizzled to heat as Morgan thrust up into her again and again. It felt good, so very good, but she didn't think she would come again until Morgan lifted one hand from her hip and pressed his thumb against her clit.
“Oh…please…”
She was lost in the low beginning of her third orgasm when Morgan growled and spilled deep inside her. It was a primal claiming, something deep and perfect, and his climax brought on hers with a vengeance. Harper ended up draped over Morgan's chest, breathing so hard she was nearly sobbing with how good it was, his arms around her and a peace she had never known settling into her bones.
Mine, she thought wildly. My mate. My mate, forever, mine...
Chapter Eighteen
∞∞∞
When Morgan tried to move, Harper clung to him, making a soft protesting noise that struck him as incredibly adorable.
“You're going to be sore if you stay where you are,” he said.
“Lies,” she grumbled, but she shifted to one side.
The moment they pulled apart, Morgan felt an immediate sense of loss and longing to be buried in her again, but he pushed it away. They actually couldn't spend all their time having sex, but he suspected that they would be giving it a fair shot.
He leaned in to pull her towards him, but he was suddenly struck by the picture of her, replete and satisfied, on his hoard, every dragon's dream. He understood then why dragons had hoards. It was so they would have something worthy to offer their mates.
“What do you want, love?” he asked, and she smiled.
“You.”
“You've got me,” he answered immediately. “What else?”
“You're going to laugh at me.”
“I might,” he said, “but that doesn't mean I won't do it.”
“I don't want to hurt you.”
Whatever he had been expecting, it wasn't that. He tilted his head to one side.
“Do you…have an interest in whips and chains? Because I'm not altogether adverse -”
“Not really, nothing like that, but…” Harper took a deep breath. “Could I see you in your dragon form?”
He stared at her for a moment. The future loomed over him. There would be a time coming very soon when he wouldn't be able to accommodate this request. Perhaps he should have been more conflicted, but right now, all that mattered was how much he wanted to show her who he was while he still could.
“Of course.”
Harper's eyes lit up like stars, and he felt something squeeze in his chest that he knew would not let go, would never let go. Maybe it was fate or destiny or some kind of forgotten biological trigger, but first and foremost it was love.
“I didn't want to ask. I didn't know how you would feel about it.”
“You should always ask,” he said, and he didn't say that she should ask while he could still do what she wanted.
Instead he rose and backed away from her, already beginning to shift as he did so. The cavern was plenty big enough for his full form, and he pulled back, stretching up to his full height, letting his tail curl against the wall behind him. It occurred to Morgan that it was the first time in decades that he had not transformed for a fight of one sort or another.
Not since that rogue, he thought absently, and then he looked down to see Harper approaching him, her eyes wide.
“Oh, you're beautiful,” she said, and he brought his head down to the ground, letting her approach with her hand outstretched. Her utter fearlessness in the face of his size was enthralling, and he held himself as still as a statue as she ran her hand from his snout down to the sensitive areas under his eyes.
“Your eyes are the same color as when you're in your human shape,” she said, and he made a purring sound in pleasure.