by S. E. Smith
That would have to go, he thought immediately. I want to be able to wrap my hands in it.
He let his eyes roam over the smooth olive skin of her neck and shoulders, highlighted by the beautiful white gown. His gaze continued all the way down to the sleek gold slippers she wore on her feet before traveling back up again. He liked what he saw and he wasn’t ashamed to show it.
He knew his eyes had darkened with desire and a small, triumphant smile curved his lips as he took in the rose color that highlighted her cheeks showing she was not immune to him either. His heart beat heavily as he felt his body react to finally being near the woman who had been a constant companion in his mind for weeks now. It took every ounce of his self-control not to drop his duffle bag, march over to her and swing her up in his arms so he could find a quiet place to sate his hunger. He started forward, stepping down off the platform as he followed Kelan, Trisha, and Bálint over to where Morian stood.
“Dola,” Kelan said releasing his touch on Trisha long enough to give his mother a kiss on her cheek. “May I present our son, Bálint,” he said formally, turning back to Trisha who was holding the sleeping infant protectively in her arms.
“Oh Kelan, he is beautiful,” Morian said, smiling down at the baby. She reached over and gently caressed his tiny cheek with her finger. “He will grow to be a strong young man. His matching has already been scheduled. Zoran is anxious that he be joined with his symbiot as soon as possible,” she said referring to the ceremony where all warriors are matched with the symbiot that would grow with them and become a part of their life. “It will be done this evening.”
Kelan nodded as he looked down with pride at his son. “I would like to see Zoran and Abby’s son and Cara and Trelon’s daughters. Has Trelon relaxed any since the girls were born or is he still trying to stand guard over them day and night?” Kelan asked in amusement.
Morian chuckled softly. “Cara has convinced him that the girls will be fine without him hovering over them all the time. Poor Trelon was on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion until he and Cara finally figured out how the girls were escaping their cradle. Cara designed a set of baby monitors and they found out the little ones were using their symbiots to help them. Symba now monitors them as well as Cara’s invention. Those two take after their mother. They are very inquisitive.”
Kelan laughed and shook his head. “I feel for Trelon if he has two girls like Cara. She is enough to wear him out. It will be interesting to see what happens when the girls get older.”
“Kelan,” Trisha interrupted softly. “Bálint is awake which means he's hungry,” She smiled apologetically to Morian as Bálint woke with a slight whimper and began rooting around the front of her top. “If he doesn’t get fed soon everyone is going to know about it. Daddy, perhaps Morian will give you a tour of the palace,” Trisha suggested with a hopeful smile. “Ask her to show you her atrium. You’ll love it,” she added as Kelan placed his hand on her lower back and began guiding her toward the door.
Paul watched as his baby girl and Kelan left him alone with Morian in the transporter room. He had enjoyed watching her as she interacted with Kelan and Bálint. Each move she made was like a symphony conductor, graceful and fluid. When she chuckled huskily, it felt like a vice clutching at his stomach and damned if his cock didn't swell again at the sound. He loved the furious blush that swept up into her cheeks again when she finally didn’t have any excuse not to look at him. Shifting his duffle bag over his right shoulder, he held out his hand to her in greeting. He watched as she nervously ran hers along her hip before she reached to clasp his hand with her smaller one.
“Paul Grove,” he said in a husky voice. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you in person.”
“Yes…. Yes, I'm Morian,” she responded shyly. “Of course, you know that,” she added with another furious blush as she gazed up at him.
Paul grinned mischievously before he closed his hand around hers, trapping it in his warm grip and jerked just enough to pull her off balance. He sealed his lips to hers in a brief but passionate kiss. Pulling back slowly, he looked down into her startled, flushed face.
A slight smile pulled at his lips. “Just as I suspected,” he murmured.
Morian stared up at him for a moment before she blinked. “What.... What did you suspect?” She breathed out in confusion.
“That you taste even better than I imagined,” Paul responded lightly before stepping back. “So, what about that tour?”
“Tour,” Morian repeated before she pulled her shoulders back and drew in a deep breath. “Yes, I…. A tour, follow me and I’ll show you to your living quarters first so you can put your things down. Anything else you have will be delivered there later this evening,” she said turning on trembling legs to exit the room.
She let her fingers brush against her symbiot even as she cautioned her dragon to sit the hell back down. She could feel the slight tingling on her skin and cursed the fact that she probably had scales rippling uncontrollably over her skin. His kiss, followed by the softly spoken words, had thrown her mind into chaos.
Will you go lay down! She snapped at her dragon as it pushed against her skin again.
No, her dragon growled back. He kiss you. He taste good. I want to bite. I want mate! Now!
It was just a kiss, not an invitation to jump him. It is probably just a human's way of saying hello, Morian responded silently in exasperation as she led the way down the maze of corridors.
She knew she should be giving Paul a brief history of the palace but she was too distracted by the kiss and her dragon to do anything but try to keep both of their libidos under control. It didn’t help that her symbiot kept pushing her closer and closer until she was practically glued to his side. When Paul’s hand moved to the center of her back and she felt his thumb rub back and forth against her, it became too much for her and her dragon. The moment they were in the long corridor leading to his living quarters her dragon pushed forward, snapping her slim control.
“Oh hell,” she muttered before she swung around and wrapped her arms around Paul’s neck, dragging him into a nearby alcove. “Kiss me again,” she demanded breathlessly.
Paul didn’t need a second invitation. He dropped his duffle bag onto the floor, kicking it to one side as he wrapped his arms around Morian’s slender waist. His lips crushed down on hers again, meeting her halfway as they devoured each other. His hungry groan echoed hers as he ground his hips against hers to let her know that he was just as affected as she was to the chemistry igniting between them. His left hand moved up her back until it reached her hair. With a few quick moves, it tumbled down her back in a silky wave. He wound his fingers through it preventing her from pulling away from him as he deepened the kiss.
Morian’s throaty moans turned to gasps as his lips left hers to travel along her jaw, down to her neck. She cried out when he nipped her throat before running his tongue soothingly along it as she exposed more to him. Her fingers tangled frantically in his short hair trying to pull him closer.
“This is crazy,” he breathed out. “From the first time I heard your voice I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you,” he growled out, pulling back to gaze down into her dazed eyes. “You’ve been in my thoughts, in my dreams, every fucking minute.”
Morian reached up, sealing her lips to his in an answering kiss filled with pent up frustration and need. Her lips opened under his as he ran his tongue along the seam. He quickly took advantage, plundering deeper as his tongue battled with her own. He finally pulled back when he heard a soft threatening growl behind him. He thrust Morian behind him as he turned, slipping his hunting knife into his hand and positioning his body protectively in front of her.
“What do you think you are doing?” Zoran snarled as his teeth elongated and his skin rippled with red, green and gold scales. “You think to assault the Hive’s Priestess and my Dola?”
Paul’s eyes narrowed and he adjusted his weight so he was on the balls of his feet. He had been
training with Kelan and many of the other warriors aboard the V’ager over the past few weeks in both their two-legged and four-legged form. He wanted to know what to expect if he should have to fight this Raffvin in his dragon form. He needed to know areas of weakness. He had discovered more than he had shown the Dragon Warriors as he had come to think of them. They were too confident in their dragons and their symbiots to save them. Trisha had quietly shared that same thought. She had expressed hope that perhaps he could show them where their weaknesses were and improve their guerilla tactics.
“Zoran, stop!” Morian’s horrified voice called out in embarrassment. “It’s not what you think!”
Zoran’s blazing gold eyes turned to stare in disbelief at his normally serene mother. Her hair was flowing wildly down her back, tousled from the man’s fingers, her lips were swollen from his kisses and her eyes…. Zoran pulled his dragon back as he stared into the glistening eyes as she looked at him with a look of pleading. She reached up a trembling hand and laid it gently on the human male’s shoulder.
“It’s not what you are thinking,” she whispered.
Paul relaxed his stance enough to reach out to grab Morian’s hand as it fell from his shoulder. He squeezed her fingers in an effort to give her comfort. He recognized the huge male as the leader of the Valdier Warriors and her oldest son. Paul refused to apologize for his behavior. Life was too short to apologize for taking what he wanted and he wanted Morian Reykill. Besides, from what Trisha had told him, none of her boys hesitated taking what they wanted or apologized for doing so.
“Zoran,” Paul nodded warily to the huge Valdier warrior.
“Paul,” Zoran acknowledged, still trying to come to terms with seeing his Dola looking more like a woman than his mother. “Can I ask you what you thought you were doing?”
Paul’s lips twitched at the almost parental tone in the warrior’s voice. “You can ask but if I need to explain I think we are going to need more time than I have right now,” he responded with a shrug, slipping his arm around Morian’s waist and pulling her against his side when she tried to slide around him.
The tremble in her body was the only indication that she was unnerved by what happened between them. “I was showing Paul to his living quarters,” she tried to explain in a quiet voice.
“That isn’t what it looked like to me,” Zoran pointed out gruffly. “It looked like he was more interested in showing you something.”
Morian glared up at her older son. “I…. You…. We…..,” her dragon growled out in frustration when she stumbled over the words she was trying to get out. “It is none of your business what he was interested in!” She finally retorted angrily before she jerked away from Paul, turning once she was far enough away he couldn’t reach for her. “I’ll let Zoran show you the rest of the way. I need to….” She drew in a deep, calming breath before finishing her sentence. “I need to see about dinner, if you will excuse me,” she finished in a husky voice that sounded suspiciously close to tears.
Paul’s mouth tightened into a grim line as he watched Morian turn and hurry down the corridor in the direction they had just come. After she disappeared he turned a dark look on Zoran before he bent and picked up his discarded duffle bag. He slung it over his shoulder before he looked directly into the confused eyes of the Valdier leader.
“Your timing sucks,” Paul drawled out. “Has anyone ever told you that?”
Zoran had the grace to flush. “I never expected to find my brother’s mate’s father amusing himself with my mother,” he growled out.
Paul’s eyes flashed in warning. “Let’s get something straight. I don’t amuse myself with women. Your mother is a beautiful woman. My woman. I’m letting you and your brothers know up front that I have every intention of courting her. If you don’t like it, stay the hell out of my way,” Paul said in a cold, calm voice. “Now are you going to show me to my living quarters or do I find them on my own?”
Zoran studied the man who was almost as tall and broad as he was standing his ground. Zoran knew of very few men who could do that. His face relaxed into a smile as he glanced back the way his mother had hurried off.
“Did she want you to kiss her?” Zoran asked curiously turning to look back at Paul. “I don’t want her hurt.”
“Me either,” Paul said, nodding his head in agreement. “She not only wanted it, she kissed me first,” he replied with a grin before stepping around Zoran and heading down the hall, ignoring the way the big Valdier’s mouth dropped open at his statement.
Chapter 8
Paul had been in the atrium for almost an hour before Morian entered. He knew she had been avoiding him over the past two and a half weeks. The only time he had seen or talked to her was during the evening meals or when she came to visit with Trisha and Bálint. She always managed to slip away before he could get her alone.
That is about to change, he thought with grim determination as he watched and waited.
He had been in the training room earlier with Mandra when he discovered the information he needed to catch her alone. Mandra, who had finally received clearance from the healers that he could return to his normal schedule, was showing him how the Valdier used a laser sword in conflicts where they could not shift into their dragons. During the course of the training their conversation had turned to Raffvin and later to Morian.
“Dola has been very lonely since our father was killed,” Mandra had said as he wiped the sweat from his face. He leaned back against the wall in the training room and looked intently at Paul. “We were all afraid she would choose to join him in death even though he was not her true mate.”
Paul lowered the bottle of water he was drinking and stared through narrow eyes at Mandra. “What do you mean – follow him? As in die?” He asked harshly.
Mandra nodded. “If Dola would have been father’s true mate, she would have. A woman can grieve and heal possibly when her mate is gone but not so a dragon. When a dragon’s mate is killed, the dragon becomes inconsolable. Without the dragon, it is a half-life for the other two parts of ourselves. Soon our two-legged form joins the dragon and the symbiot cannot survive without the essence of our dragon and our two-legged form. It must return to the hive or perish as well,” he explained.
“What do you mean when you say ‘true mate’?” Paul asked, staring intently at Mandra.
Mandra’s eyes softened in memory. “When I first saw Ariel I knew she was mine. My dragon wanted to claim her and my symbiot was all over her.” He laughed as he remembered. “She did not feel the same way,” he added with a twinkle in his eye. “I thought to scare her into submission with my dragon. Instead, she snared my heart with her touch before she broke my nose with her head. She demanded I change back.”
Paul chuckled and shook his head. “Ariel was always, and I mean always, bringing home animals. I could tell you stories that would give you nightmares about some of them,” he said. “Her mom wasn’t much of an animal person but her dad understood. He built her a barn so that she could have some place to house them all.”
Mandra shuddered as he remembered some of the creatures Ariel still continued to bring home. They had a damn Pactor from the Antrox mines living out at his mountain estate. The damn thing was still growing and thought Ariel was his mommy! It followed her everywhere when they returned. He hoped it never decided to try eating her because he would roast the damn thing if it so much as put a scratch on her and that would really upset his mate.
Mandra jerked back to his musings when he heard Paul’s quiet statement. “I feel the same way about your mother,” Paul said quietly. “The first time I heard her voice it was like….” He paused and looked at Mandra. “I haven’t felt this way since my first wife. Even then, this is different, stronger in a way. I loved Evelyn with every fiber of my being, don’t get me wrong. I knew the moment I saw her, she was mine and I hoped that I’d find another woman one day who could make me feel just half of what she made me feel. But, the first time I heard Morian’s voice.”
Paul’s voice faded as he looked down at the mat for a moment before looking back up into Mandra’s eye with a steely determination. “She’s mine,” he stated bluntly.
If Paul was expecting a negative response from Mandra he was going to be disappointed. The huge Valdier warrior threw his head back and laughed before he looked at Paul with a huge grin. He walked over to Paul and threw his arm around his broad shoulders.
“Good!” Mandra said. “She needs a male like you. She will be in her atrium in a little over an hour. I heard her telling Ariel that before I came to meet you. Just understand one thing, Paul,” Mandra said as they walked toward the exit of the training room.
Paul looked up into the larger male’s eyes. He had to admit that Mandra was a huge ass male even by Valdier standards. He wasn’t in the least bit surprised that Ariel had fallen for the big male. She always did know how to handle larger than life creatures.
“What is that?” Paul asked as he pulled away to head back to his living quarters for a quick shower.
Mandra grinned, letting his teeth lengthen for effect. “If you hurt her, I will rip you apart.”
Paul looked seriously at Mandra. “I will protect her with my life,” he promised quietly, making sure the warrior knew he meant it.
“Good. I hope it never comes to that because I have seen the way she gazes at you,” Mandra responded with a nod. “You are her true mate, whether you like it or not,” he stated before turning and heading in the opposite direction.
Paul stood watching him go before he turned and walked slowly back to his rooms. A sense of serenity settled over him as he made up his mind. There would be no more hiding or avoiding him. It was time to let Morian know that she was his and he was not accepting anything less than all of her.
*.*.*
Now, Paul stood waiting in the shadows of the atrium for Morian to appear. When she did, he felt the breath leave him as it always did when he first saw her. She was breathtaking in her beauty and in the way she moved. He could watch her all day and never grow tired. He waited until she had turned her back to gaze down at the center pool before he came up silently behind her, sliding his arms around her and trapping her against his hard length.