by Gina Kincade
Pressing his lips against hers, sliding his tongue in between them, his senses took her in. Her smell was even sweeter, if possible; all warm, wet woman with that sweet touch of spice, making her taste like nothing else he’d ever experienced. The feel of her was silk to his steel, and her purrs only made his muscles tighten more. He let his hand fall down the wet hair covering her back. Both towels fell as his other hand circled around her waist.
Seconds later, he had his hands wrapped around her ass where they’d wanted to be, and he pulled her between his legs. He held her against him, pushing his hardness against her wet mound. Her heat seeped through his jeans. He snarled and lifted her, never losing connection with her mouth.
When their bodies hit the bed, his covering hers, she mimicked that same sound back. He could sense her dragon, the animal’s spirit with her now. The beasts inside him churned, hungry as well. Yet, when his hand slid to the patch of hair between her thighs, it was like a ton of stone had been dropped on his head. He was taking advantage of her, a woman he’d just rescued. She hadn’t asked to be brought to his bed, to be claimed like this.
He pushed back from her. The sight of her on his bed, half dry, half covered in twinkling beads of water, was sublime. Her legs were spread open with her aroused flesh a dark scarlet and wet for him. He wondered if maybe she wanted him, too. She would have to, right? This mate thing, it always went both ways, right? She hadn’t pulled away, but he had to wonder if she was well enough to make such a decision. At that moment, he felt he was only slightly better than the shifters who’d tied her to the wall.
“Sorry, I… I say that a lot around you. I don’t know what’s come over me.” He took a step toward the cave entrance with each word. He wished now he hadn’t tacked up the large blanket over the entrance, so he could just shift and fly away. “My god, you are so beautiful.”
He turned from her. He could feel his animals rippling under his skin. They wanted her, a fierce undercurrent of need, howling to take her. He thought of escape just to save her from his own desire to make her his…forever. Mating was not an option. It couldn’t be. His every muscle was tight, and his heart heavy. He wanted to tear someone or something apart.
He felt her touch his shoulder, say his name, and in seconds, he had her pinned under him. With his weight and hard edges, he flattened her body against his. This time, he felt something in her change. He was thrown to the ground by the dragon, which seemed to morph over her body. She went from wet skin to shiny scales, silver-ish, almost white in places, each scale reflecting the fire, making prisms all along the walls of the cave. The beast filled the cave, unable to flap its wings, head several times the size of his, towering over him. His own beast responded, just not in the way he assumed it would. It stayed inside him, for all intents and purposes, bowing to her dragon. Before he could think it all through, her teeth sank into the flesh of his shoulder, incisors only, like one would imagine a vampire bite. The teeth retreated as fast as they went in, the dragon faded, leaving only the woman on the floor, kneeling between his legs.
“Oh shit! I’m so sorry! My dragon bit you. I… I wanted you so badly. I don’t know what came over me. I’ve always known when the spirit is going to take over. This time, I didn’t get a moment’s warning—” She stopped speaking when he shot up and grabbed her arms tight.
First, he pulled her toward him, then pushed her away before their bodies met. Releasing her, he stood in one quick movement with the grace of a cat, remarkable for his large size.
His already tightened stomach rolled at the thought of what had just happened. Fear, a rare emotion for him, but one he’d now experienced twice in as many days with her, coiled around his throat, blocking his ability to breathe. Yet, something else was there, bubbling below the surface. She had started the mating process and his animals wanted to finish it.
“I’m sorry,” she wheezed, getting up, moving toward him but looking around her as if searching for something at the same time. “Instincts took over. I didn’t even get a chance to think them through. My dragon is always near. Most of the time, I have to call to his spirit when I need him, and in times of trial, we become one, we merge. I don’t really shift as you do. Just now, I felt him, as if we were one, but I was still human, still me. Clearly, I wasn’t by the looks of your shoulder. Still, I…” She left off, moving toward him.
“Stop! Don’t come near me,” he pleaded, holding on to some odd, twisted, chivalrous notion, one he was no longer sure he could rationalize, of not hurting her by making her his.
“I said I was sorry! I need to stop the bleeding.”
“I said stop!” Xander roared, and she finally obeyed him.
“Why?”
“Because you’re naked.”
“I just wanted to help you. You didn’t care that I was naked when I was in the tub.”
“I should have.” His voice still sounded more animal than human.
“I get it, loud and clear. You don’t want me. Fine! But, I have no place to go just yet! And you’re bleeding. Shit, I can’t believe I, he, my dragon, broke the skin. Can I at least help you?”
“It was barely a nip. You don’t get it.” He shook his head.
“I do. We started to mate. The dragon was here and bit you. If you become the Chimera, bite me—”
“We can’t.”
“But, I already did. This is what I’ve been feeling between us. I thought it had something to do with that weird sex ritual at first, then hero worship, but it wasn’t any of that. You are my mate. You have to want me back, right? You have to finish this!” Her voice screeched in his ears.
“I can’t have one.” He growled at her. Tiny drops of blood dripped down his chest.
“I bit you, though.”
“I can’t have a mate. No! Matter! What!”
“Why not? Don’t you feel it, too?”
“Shit, yeah! Of course I do, from the minute I brought you into this cave. I’ve been ignoring the feelings because it can’t happen. I will not bite you back. This ends here. You get some clothes on, and I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”
“I don’t want to go anywhere. Heart or head or body, I want to be here. I don’t want to deny this.” Her voice cracked on the last word.
“You have no choice.” He started to move toward the wooden chest. Digging in it, he threw a faded dress at her.
She let it hit her body and fall to her feet. She stepped toward him.
“Stop! I’m warning you.” His gruff voice shook.
She took two more steps, and he backed up.
“Stay away from me,” he growled. The idea of cowering, a man of his size, strength and power, from this woman, dragon spirit or not, was just downright insane. He almost grinned. Would have, if he weren’t hurting so much, fighting nature with everything in him.
“Why? What’s wrong with me?”
“Nothing! Shit! Absolutely nothing at all.”
“Then why?” She moved toward him until he was backed against the wall.
She pushed up against him, chest to stomach even on her tiptoes, and he fumbled for a place to put his hands on her to keep her away from him.
“Why?” she asked again, her voice hitching.
“Because I can’t be with you.”
“Why? Not pretty enough? Too full-figured? Fat, maybe?”
“Are you serious?” He looked at the floor. His voice lowered. “You’re beautiful, beyond any woman I’ve ever seen. Your body curves in all of the right places.”
“Then touch me,” she begged, her voice plucking at something inside him, causing sharp pains when he breathed.
“No.”
“I’m yours. Claim me.” She pushed against his hands. He kept them at her waist, but he wanted to move them up or down in the worst way. He needed to touch her erect nipples, or where she hopefully throbbed between her thighs for him. He knew it was mean to think that way, but he wanted to know how much she wanted him, to feel her sopping wet for him. Or better yet,
to feel her body gripping around his.
“No.”
She squirmed, reaching for him, pushing her hands under his shirt. He felt every muscle tense under her touch; one so hot he thought his whole body would burst into flames.
He turned her, pushing her back against the wall, holding her body away from his.
“Stop this,” he tried to hiss, but his voice came out low and flat instead.
“Why don’t you want me? Your body does. It has to. Why ignore it?” Tears formed in her eyes, then began to trickle down her cheeks.
“Because I’m a monster.”
“You’re not! You…wait… What is that?”
“You feel it, too?” Someone was calling to him. Someone needed his help. “It must be my blood in your system. You feel what I do.”
“God, I didn’t feed from you! I already have empathic abilities on some occasions.” But she knew he was right, what he had been trying to say. Once mated, there is a connection of the senses, even sometimes of thoughts, she’d heard.
She moved back toward the dress on the floor.
“What are you doing?” he asked as he made his way to the mouth of the cave.
“Getting dressed, so I can come with you.”
“Like hell,” he roared. “I will not risk you. Stay here or I will tie you up myself.”
With that, he ran out of the cave, brushing aside the blanket so harshly it fell to the ground. He shifted into his beast and flew from the cave.
Chapter Three
W ithin the all-encompassing darkness, apart from the sliver of the waning moon, Aiyanna, dressed in layers of clothes she took from Xander’s chest, and started her circle set precariously at the mouth of the cave. Tiny snowflakes fell around her legs as she sat at the edge, on a box, where the snow melted from the warmth of the huge roaring fire that kept the place semi-warm. Not the warmth she was used to in her home, but warm enough. Arm outstretched, the wet stick she was using as a wand drew energy from her hand and cast a faint ray of light upon the snow, making it glisten with what looked like reddish sparks. This was her concentrated energy, what she’d been gifted with, what she used to call her dragon. She moved clockwise, melting a half circle in the two-inch-deep snow.
“Within this sacred circle my portal between the worlds is protected, sealed. I call upon the dragon of my spirit. It is with our magick, as one with you, I yield.”
She turned to each of the four corners, calling upon the dragons of the North and South, the West and East, to lend her their elemental powers. By calming her mind, she opened herself to the boundless power of her dragon, Caelyan, who’d been with her since she was a child. Although she couldn’t be sure if the beast had a sex or not, since she was little she’d referred to her beast in masculine terms. Many said this was because she grew up without a father—he’d been killed when she was a young girl—but none of that mattered to her, the why, or even what others thought. It never had. She was a parentless girl, her mother having died in childbirth, but lucky enough to have had her tribe to raise her.
The large creature with its long serpentine tail had helped her through all the tough times in her life, providing guidance and wisdom as well as lending strength to her magick. In times of great trial, Aiyanna and Caelyan could also become one. Even this, she didn’t understand. She would just lose herself into the spirit as they merged. So far, she didn’t need to know anything else. She had found early that some things in life were just better accepted with gratitude, than rejected due to lack of knowledge. Faith played a huge part in that type of acceptance, as well as the support of people who loved her.
Tonight, she’d use the same ritual she’d relied on for years to call to Caelyan, to ask for guidance and protection. She only hoped it worked with the limited supplies she’d found looking through Xander’s mother’s stuff. She hoped he wouldn’t mind her snooping and borrowing, given her reasons for doing the ritual. Tonight her life, her way of existence, had changed. She’d met her mate, regardless of whether he wanted her or not. In the days prior, the premonition of the coming personal transformation along with approaching evil had grown stronger, clawed at her until she’d begun to feel ill from the stress of it alone. Now, Xander was in some kind of trouble, just as she was. In fact, more to the point, her entering his life was probably the root of all of his problems. She felt it in every tense muscle of her body. She needed her dragon tonight, even if just to thank him for coming and beginning the mating ritual with Xander. But, she would ask him for protection, too.
After smearing a black candle with patchouli oil, she lit the wick, took in a deep, cleansing breath and exhaled as much negativity as she could. Every aspect of the Chimera had seeped into her very bones. Xander’s initial rejection of their Mating had stung, worse than any beating from life she had ever taken. Yet, she’d let him go tonight, knowing in time, his beast would come to her. They were mates. She had to believe that soon, he would claim her, too. She hoped, at least. Yet fear, a lethal and deadly waste of an emotion in her opinion, tainted and clogged up her ability at this moment to see things as they are, same as the smoke from the candle tainted her sight, burning her eyes thanks to the slight wind. With Xander’s love would come more. More what, she didn’t know. Trouble would come quickly on its heels. All of this was being carried to her on the wind, a premonition of sorts. If it must be so, then it must be. She would be ready.
Allies in magick, best friends who understood each other like no other mortals could, fated mates in every sense of the word. She thought on all of these things as she dropped pinches of rosemary needles, verbena, lavender blossoms, peppermint, sage, and salt into the ceramic bowl. She ground them into a fine powder, lucky enough to have found a mortar and pestle on a shelf. Last, by the light of only that small candle and the tiny moon struggling behind the clouds, she sprinkled the herbs and salt over water since she could find no lemon, rubbing them between her fingers to create an aura of pungent smoke.
“As I made these herbs from whole to dust go, stop my dragon all the negative power which around me flows. Bitter and blackened hearts, return to sender. As the water like lemon absorbs the herbs, let your desires bury the evil of my yet unknown offenders. I create a bit of smoke and fog so our enemies cannot see. Please, Caelyan, for a day or two, even if just a few hours, until I work things out with Xander, blind their minds to thoughts of me. With all of this, a wall I build so that they can’t see, whatever I do, any place I may be. Of lingering fear and doubt please set me free. Out of the darkness, please, come to bring to me new light, by the power of fire, water, earth and air tonight. Please, bless my magickal undertaking so the magick is fair. Oh, Caelyan, dragon of my heart and soul, please, be with me, hear my prayer.”
The faint breeze that had been rustling the leaves picked up and started throwing dead foliage at her. She felt a storm brewing and shielded her candle so it could burn all the way down on its own to complete the spell. She felt the tiny flame lapping at her palms, but refused to let the sudden atmospheric disturbance foil all she’d done. Although Aiyanna may not have been in completely the right state of mind, and had done the spell in haste and with makeshift articles, she needed to know her dragon would be there for her. Usually at this point, on the outer edges of the flame, she would see her dragon appear, to confirm her prayers were going to be answered. Tonight she squinted, the light of the moon going behind clouds and the flame shielded under her fingers.
The air abruptly not only rushed into her lungs, but pushed at her chest with icy fingers. As the candle flickered out and black clouds covered the last of the moon’s light, her heart sank. She closed her eyes only to be practically blinded by the fierce light accosting her eyelids. A gust of hot air flashed over her, bringing an immediate sweat to her brow. Aiyanna scrambled away from the intensity of the heat. When she opened her eyes, Caelyan appeared above her, his spirit so strong that he almost seemed scale and bone in the physical plane. Before, when they were not one, she could only see the
dragon’s spirit form. Why tonight was different, she could only imagine had something to do with her biting Xander.
Footsteps crunched the snow, making her stand. Her mate stood there. Her dragon roared, hovering just behind Xander, dwarfing the large man with its great size. Flames haloed his head, yet didn’t come close enough to burn him.
“He’s here for protection,” Aiyanna called out. “Trouble is not far behind.”
“I can feel it, too. Trouble is heavy on the wind. It comes soon.” He walked into the cave, bare feet covered in snow. He’d looked like a mythical god there, in the frosty night, naked, a dragon hovering above him, fire around his back, the light of it glistening off his sweat covered skin. Although she didn’t want him to freeze, she was sorry to see that image go, wishing she’d had her camera from work with her to have captured the moment.
Nodding to her dragon, who she knew would now stay at the entrance to the cave, she went to Xander. Still naked, he poured water that had been hanging by the fire into the tub. She stopped, admired the way his solid back rounded into a dip and then mounded out into his ass. A sharp cut of muscle shaped the globes to perfection. His tight abdominal muscles cut into ripples just above a large muscle on each side of his hipbones, framing his erection. Her own stomach tightened. Her dragon spirit roared to have him.
“What happened out there? You look tense.”
“Another sick ritual—different group—very poorly organized this time. They were easy to stop. That black ops group I mentioned before, the one out of Washington DC, has part of their unit here, as I said. Tonight the ritual was merging vampire and fae clans, though we still don’t know for what purpose. The group and I handled it, as we have handled all such rituals here so far, but they want me to come back with them. They want me as part of the team in DC, to be deployed elsewhere when they are needed, more often than not.”
He sunk his body into the water, moaning. She bit her lip not to say what was really on her mind.