Dragon Mated: Sexy Urban Fantasy Romance (Prince of the Other Worlds Book 4)

by Kara Lockharte

“Is there a reason for all this?” she guessed, gesturing at him. The dragon gently snaked its head down, until its chest was hidden and it was on a level with her, watching her, its pupils reptilian slits. “Damian,” she began, and then switched gears. “Dragon.” The beast’s ears perked as she continued. “I had all these things to tell him. You… both of you, I guess. I don’t know how it works.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket and finally turned off her recording app. She thought about replaying her night for him, but at the thought of holding her phone up to one of his ears, she laughed. “Look, if I talk to you, can he hear me? I don’t want to repeat myself. And, if I talk to him, do you care?” What was it be like to be trapped mute inside a fire-breathing reptile? She wished she’d asked Damian earlier. “Not like I’m talking through you, though. I guess, I mean, do you actually want to hear me?”

  The dragon rearranged itself around her and she realized it was now blocking the wind as it faced her.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” she whispered. Its tail snaked alongside her and she sat down on the cold cement, putting her back against his scales to warm herself. “Okay…so,” she started, and began.

  Damian listened inside his dragon as Andi recounted everything. From the time on the boat with her uncle, up through that night’s fight with him. The scent of her—apples, caramel, and the sea—was intoxicating. She smelled like home, and he knew his dragon was fighting the urge to lean closer to breathe her in.

  “I really was mad at you, though, Damian. And I meant what I said about this,” she said, her eyes widening as they took his dragon’s form in. “You’re a lot. And I’m just me.”

  She shrank into herself more, and he tightened his tail’s wrap along her back and side.

  “And I had to know what’d happened with my mother. I didn’t lie about that.” There was something about his inability to talk that seemed to let her speak more freely. “Which was why I went and saw my uncle tonight, without telling you. I knew you wouldn’t have let me, or you’d have sent an army after me. But lying to you for the past few days hasn’t felt right. I’m not a liar, Damian. That’s not me.” She stared up at him, as if willing him to believe, and then finished telling him everything else from her evening, most of which Damian had already heard secondhand. When she was done, she shook her head and spoke just above a whisper, like she was talking to herself, not him. “To think, he wants me to come help him…and my brother thinks I’m going to fight at his side.”

  She was quiet after that, and Damian would’ve paid any amount of money to know what she was thinking. “I’ve put you into danger, Damian.” Her voice was low and she looked up at him with concern. “Stella told me as much, too,” she said, moving to stand. “Now that they know you exist, I don’t think they’ll stop. And if they find me and I lead them to you, I could never live with myself if I hurt you.”

  His dragon did his best to give her a bemused look, at the thought of a slip of a girl hurting the hulking beast wrapped around her.

  “I mean it,” she protested, reading him easily. “I knew you wouldn’t take it seriously. But you’re not invulnerable. Look at what happened to you,” she said, flinging her hands at the partially-hidden injury on his chest.

  What happened to me was you, Damian wanted to say, but couldn’t.

  She walked over to stand in front of his nose, folding her hands behind her back. Where was the brave girl who’d walked right up to him and touched his cheek not long ago? But Damian remembered when he’d yelled at her to not touch Zach’s wolf at the hospital and all the things her uncle had put into her head tonight.

  She knows we’re different now, he told his dragon. She finally believes.

  Then does she not like me?

  She doesn’t know you. I’ve done too good a job of keeping you hidden.

  His dragon considered this. Is she…afraid of me? it asked while watching her, poignantly wishing she’d lay hands on him, well aware of how still he needed to be to not scare her off.

  Well, you are going to murder me eventually, Damian said dryly.

  There are two sides to your family’s curse, human. That you are murdered, yes, but also that I must do the murdering.

  Damian grunted in response. I suppose.

  His dragon pondered free of him in what way it could best make its affection for Andi known, without seeming monstrous. Damian knew the beast didn’t long for her physically, that would’ve been ten different kinds of impossible, yet it did yearn for her love.

  “You’ve been very quiet,” Andi said softly, a silly attempt at a joke because otherwise the only sound up on the skyscraper was the whistling of wind…and now a phone alarm. Andi startled, then focused on what was beeping—his pile of folded clothing. She cast a glance back, then went over to dig through his pockets and find his phone. “It’s midnight,” she said, turning the alarm off. “Do you want to turn into a pumpkin, or shall I?” Another small object fell from her hand and started rolling away—the necklace he’d had Mills make for her, from his own flesh, bitten from his chest. He lunged for it with a paw and she shrieked and closed her eyes, going completely still, like if she couldn’t see him he might forget about her too.

  Like he could ever.

  His dragon nudged her thigh softly, so softly, with the tip of its nose, and watched her eyes open back up. And then it gestured to the ground where it was carefully rolling its paw up to reveal the ember of a gem beneath. She gasped at seeing its strange light and knelt down to pick it up, finding it strung on a necklace. “Is this for me?” she asked him, showing it to him.

  His dragon blinked slowly. She inspected the stone in her hand and his dragon tried to content himself with the fact that even if she wouldn’t touch him, she would be keeping a piece of him near, as she clasped it around her neck.

  “It’s lovely. Thank you,” she said as she pressed it to her throat with a hand.

  A brisk wind struck up and his dragon thwarted it by flicking out a wing to protect her. Damian watched her eyes travel the length of it with something like awe, and then his dragon acted before he knew what it was thinking.

  It put its paw up for her. Clearly offering.

  No! They are looking for us now! There is no way we can safely get away with this!

  The night is clouded and I’ll be careful, his dragon said, pushing his concerns and him aside.

  Chapter 3

  The dragon’s paw was as big as she was and she knew without a doubt what it was for. She hesitated, but only for a moment—long enough to scoop Damian’s clothes up for him.

  Because who wouldn’t want to fly?

  “Don’t drop me,” she teased, crawling up into its scale covered palm. The dragon bowed its head to look at her. “What?” she grinned, as it placed its other paw over the top of her, its fingers and claws forming a loose cage as it readied to take off. She felt the power inside of it surge as it sent weight back into its haunches before leaping forward, wings grabbing hold of the sky.

  Without thinking, she screamed. They’d been on the highest skyscraper in the city and now there was nothing beneath them anymore—just the cityscape, same as if she were on a plane. She clung to him, freezing and fearless, staring down at the rolling hills of lights below her, and then she bothered to look up.

  He was holding her to his chest like she was something precious. His scales were gray now in the darkness, but she could see his wings stroking through the air, his tail like a whip behind her, and ahead of her his chin and throat straight as an arrow as he aimed them at their destination.

  It didn’t matter to her where they were going as long as they stayed aloft. It felt like she’d left all of her problems back on the ground—that this was what it felt like to be free.

  “This is amazing!” she shouted loudly, hoping he could hear, squeezing the claws that protected her tight. “I love this!”

  Then they banked and began to slow down, into a stomach clenching spiral like a roller coaster’s highest turn. She shrie
ked and laughed, tempted to fling her arms up but too scared she’d drop Damian’s clothing, until his wings flared out and she realized they were going to land someplace that she knew—the top of Damian’s castle.

  The beast made a nimble landing, considering two of its four paws were still holding her. After coming to a stop it slowly splayed its fingers out, releasing her to the castle’s rooftop cobblestone. She stumbled forward, breathless. Her eyes were dry, she was freezing, and her body was shaking from the adrenaline. “I loved that!” she shouted, whirling, to see him and finding Damian standing naked there in all of his chiseled, brooding, perfection. It’d been two days since she’d seen him—two days too long—and her eyes soaked him in all at once. His broad shoulders, muscled chest, arms that could probably throw someone to the moon—Stella wasn’t wrong about that—and below that the slight V of his flat stomach leading directly to his heavy cock. Andi rocked with ache from missing him, even as she blushed to see him so exposed. “I love,” the words left her body again, her excitement priming her to repeat things, only this time there wasn’t wind to rip them safely from her mouth. “Flying. I love flying.”

  Damian walked over to her, unashamed of his nakedness, and took his clothes out of her arms to put back on. He started with his slacks. “Yes. My dragon also loves flying,” he told her, although there was something faintly accusatory in his tone. “You should see your hair.”

  She quickly pulled her wind-whipped hair into a bun. She could make out the same injury on him as his dragon had. “You should see your skin,” she frowned, trying to lay a hand on his chest but he moved back, quickly buttoning his shirt back up.

  It was very unlike Damian to be dressing in front of her unless he had someplace to be. “Where are you going?”

  “Why do you care?”

  Andi blinked. “Are you…mad at me?”

  “Yes,” he said flatly, pulling his suit jacket on. “But I’m also mad at myself.”

  For what? Andi’s head tilted, imagining bad things instantly. “You heard what I told your dragon, right?”

  “I did,” he said, straightening his cuffs. It was a reflexive maneuver, she could tell—like he was nervous—and anything that made him nervous made her doubly so. His brow creased in disappointment, and he made a thoughtful noise before speaking again. “I told you once you were a pretty knife, princess. Well, congratulations, tonight you cut me.”

  “Damian—” she began, as he squared off in front of her.

  “You called me your boyfriend and then pushed me away for days so you could do what you liked. You hurt me. On purpose.”

  “I had to lie to you, you know that—”

  “No, actually, I don’t.”

  Andi crossed her arms. “You know, I could get used to your whole dragon’s not-talking thing.”

  He snorted. Wind struck up and brushed his straight black hair into his eyes. “You don’t actually have a defense, do you,” he said, pushing it back with one hand.

  “I was doing what I thought was right. I deserved answers, Damian, and I wasn’t going to get them with you at my side.” Andi hugged herself, angry at him and herself in turn. At least we have that in common tonight? “I didn’t want to do it, you know. Do you think I enjoyed lying to you? Being scared, knowing that I had to go see my crazy family alone?”

  His eyes searched hers, stepping forward as she retreated. The sky had been dark and cloudy when they’d flown through it, but that was nothing compared to the storm Damian brought with him now. “But you did it anyway.”

  “And I came straight to you to tell you everything!” She threw her hands up in exasperation. “Even knowing it would piss you off!” The stone of a castle parapet was at her back.

  The corners of his lips cruelly lifted, taunting her, as she realized she was trapped. “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Why me, Andi?” He moved to stand so close to her that they were almost touching.

  Andi blinked and blurted out, “Because you’re the person I tell things to.” She was surprised by how wrung out she felt after fear with her uncle, the elation of flight, and the stomach-churning queasiness of fighting now. It left her with few defenses.

  “Why?” he pressed again. “Why am I that person?”

  She bit her lips and shook her head. “I don’t know!”

  They were toe-to-toe and he was breathing hard and she didn’t know what he wanted from her as he bowed his head toward hers. “Lie to me again, why don’t you, princess.”

  “I love you,” she said. She didn’t think she meant it at the time. She was just pissed off at the way he was treating her and had thought of the worst possible thing for her to say. She watched the words hit him like a slap.

  But then…oh, but then, it was like she’d uncorked a secret reservoir, the place where she’d been shoving her emotions with him all along, trying to dole them out into societally acceptable pieces, not letting herself get too hopeful or appear too wanton. But now that the lid was off and the words were spoken, she could feel it all jumbling together inside her like a science project volcano. His eyes searched hers, his expression more wounded than anything any monster could’ve done to his chest.

  “I don’t believe that’s a lie for a moment,” he whispered, leaning down.

  “Too bad,” she told him, looking up, because she didn’t want to believe it herself, and then his lips were on hers.

  She could’ve pushed him back, but she didn’t. He was still mad at her—she could tell from the way his lips bruised hers, his tongue invading her mouth like it needed a new home, his hands rough and demanding all over her body. But that was okay; she was mad at herself too. Not because she’d lied to him—she was her own person, goddammit—but because she’d gone and cracked the edges of the box around her soul and let actual feelings in. She did care about him, and the more she let herself think about it, she realized she more than cared for him. She wanted to be with him, now and forever, and she didn’t care how ridiculous that sounded because everything about being with him now felt right and…. What the hell was she thinking?

  Her uncle wanted to murder Damian and her brother swore he knew she was going to fight by his side.

  If both those things were true, what the fuck was she doing right now?

  “Damian…” She said his name hoarsely, pulling back. His mouth was on her neck now. He’d pulled her to him bodily, one hand on her ass, the other in her hair, and she could feel his raging hard-on pressed between them.

  “Andi…” he said much the same, and she could feel the flutter of his smile on her skin. “I missed you,” he said, before another kiss. “Never leave again,” he commanded, and then nipped her. It made her bounce on her toes and her nipples perk up. Her hips swayed against him, her foolish body asking him for more just as she was trying to disengage.

  Because it didn’t matter anymore what she wanted with Damian—what he was ready to give her, what her body wanted to take—as he aligned himself with her, his hands pulling her against him.

  She couldn’t risk it.

  She couldn’t risk him.

  It was too late.

  If she was with him now, she’d never let him go. He was already in her soul. If she let him back into her body, she’d never find the strength. If she acted for even a moment like he was hers, like she was his…. She couldn’t. She had to go back to who she was, her old life, without him, where no one could disappoint her or be disappointed in her, ever again.

  A safer world, where she couldn’t accidentally lead the man she loved to her uncle to be slaughtered.

  His mouth met hers again, drinking her in, and she allowed herself one last sweet taste of him, giving as good as she got, and then somehow found the strength to twist her head to the side, breaking the contact between them. Her chest was already tightening, knowing what she was about to do, and tears started hiding in her eyes.

  Damian left his forehead pressed against her temple. She heard him swallow and felt his
rough breath hot against her cheek. His desire was a physical thing. She felt it in all the places that he touched her and also everywhere he didn’t—a shared current of electricity.

  She’d never felt so wanted before in her life.

  God…I know I don’t believe in you…but help me, now, please.

  “I need to go home,” she whispered.

  He didn’t move a millimeter and his straining erection was still pressed against her belly. “You once made me promise not to leave you.” His voice was like gravel in her ear.

  She concentrated on everything she’d seen that night. Danny, her uncle, and Stella. That was reality. Not the way he made her feel. This wasn’t real. It never had been. “Yeah, well, I lied, all right? You already know I’m a liar. You told me so yourself.”

  Damian pushed himself off the wall he’d boxed her against with a groan. “Andi,” he began.

  “I need to go home, Damian. Now. Through a mirror, so no one sees.” She couldn’t believe she was saying the words. It felt like she was two separate people—the one speaking and living in this moment, and the other silently screaming inside—looking on in horror. She brought her hands up to unclasp the necklace he’d given her from around her neck. “You need to take this back, too.”

  And everything else you’ve ever given me, so that nothing reminds me of you.

  “Absolutely not!” he snapped. “Andi—”

  She whirled on him. “Please don’t make this harder than it is for me, all right?” Tears started streaking down her cheeks, and she saw his eyes widen, his muscles bunching beneath his suit jacket in all the ways that wanted to hold her tight and kiss her tears away.

  “Did I…scare you?” he asked her slowly.

  “No, Damian.” She shook her head, trying to memorize him—same as that Hunter had her, earlier in the night. The memory made her even more resolved. “You don’t scare me. You never have. Even when you are scary…if that makes sense.” She ran her hands into her tangled hair and wished that she could pull it out. “This is the world’s biggest case ever of ‘it’s not you, it’s me.’”