Dark Fire

by Cynthia Sax

  “Not alive.” His tone was dry. “The reprimand for stealing is death.”

  “I can’t ever tell your friends there about my past.” Her happiness dimmed. “I can’t truly be myself.”

  She would have to hide herself…again.

  “You can always be yourself with me.” He carried her into their domicile. “And you can be yourself here, on Carinae E.”

  “That’s true.” She should focus on now, on this planet rotation. “I’m also not yet scaly. I should steal while I still can.”

  She delved her hands under his chest covering, drifted her fingers over his abs. His muscles rippled. His body stiffened.

  “What should I take?” She played with the waistband of his ass coverings as he carried her through the structure, his stride lengthening, his speed accelerating. “Something long and shiny. I like shiny.”

  “I’ll give you something long and shiny, mate.” He dropped her on the sleeping support and she bounced. “Are you still sore?”

  “I feel good.” She ran her hands along her form. “Surprisingly good.” She could run the perimeter of the settlement.

  Or seduce a huge Dracheon warrior. She peeled off her new flight suit, wanting to experience the press of his bare skin against hers.

  He discarded his garments as quickly as she did, his eagerness making her glow. His cock was hard. His expression was intense as though he was already battling his beast.

  She would free it. Faylee rolled onto her stomach and drew her hips upward, sticking her ass in the air.

  “Mate?” His voice was a low rumble.

  “Many of the males fucked the pleasure workers like this.” She looked over her shoulder at him. “From behind.” She wiggled her ass. “I thought it looked…exciting.”

  “My Drache doesn’t need any more excitement.” He crawled onto the sleeping support behind her. “I’ve desired you since sunrise.” He swatted her ass and she quivered. “My control is frayed.”

  Frayed wasn’t enough for her. She wanted to demolish his restraint. “Then you prefer I turn over?” She spread her thighs, giving him a better view of her wet pussy. “You don’t want to take me this way?”

  “I prefer you stop teasing me.” He bent over and extended his forked tongue. She became still. What was he planning to do? “Or I will reprimand you.” He licked her from clit to taint.

  She yelped, the pleasure unexpected and extreme. “W-was that my reprimand?” If it was, she’d misbehave more often.

  “That was my reward.” His words were muffled by her flesh. “For not ravishing you at the market.” He sucked on her folds, the tug and pull of his lips shaking her resolve.

  She was supposed to be teasing him, not the other way around. “I wanted to be ravished there.” She pushed back against him as he ate her out. “I yearned for you to bend me over the stall and take me hard and fast.” Her chest was tight, her breathing ragged. “Pound your cock into my pussy.”

  “You’re playing with fire, my innocent mate.” He punctuated that statement with a growl, the vibrations sending waves of bliss over her pussy.

  “I’m your inexperienced mate,” she corrected. She had fantasized about fucking for solar cycles, envisioning the different ways her dream partner would take her. “And I’m fucking a Dracheon. Of course I’m playing with fire.”

  “We’re mating, not fucking.’ He nipped her inner thigh with his sharp teeth and she yipped, the pain exciting her. “Soon, I’ll bathe you in my fire.” He licked the tiny wound, his tongue rasping against her skin. She trembled, the sensation enthralling, erotic. “Cover you with flame.”

  “I’ll be warm.” Her fingers curled as she struggled to contain her passion. “All over.”

  “Always.” He nuzzled against her pussy and her breathing grew strained. “You taste delicious.”

  “Want…to…taste…you.” She huffed, a cavern of need engulfing her. It was too much. She wouldn’t, couldn’t last until he was inside her. “Dare?”

  “You’re strong.” The bastard denied her release. “You can hold on.” He pushed his tongue into her entrance, his flesh gliding along her inner walls.

  She bit her bottom lip, smothering her cries. Darkness swirled around her, her focus narrowing to his hot tongue, firm lips.

  He plunged his tongue in and out of her pussy. She rocked backward, shamelessly riding his face, chasing the feelings he invoked in her.

  They were both primitive beings, accepting and embracing that about themselves. Inside their private chambers, they could be free, unrestrained by the judgment, by the rules of other beings.

  If it felt good, they could do it, and fuck, did this feel good. Her arms and legs shook. Perspiration dripped down her spine, between her ass cheeks.

  “Dare?” She implored him, begging him for release. He believed she was strong and that might be true, but she was also inexperienced, didn’t know how to offset the sensory assault drumming at her control, poking holes in her restraint.

  “Come for me, mate.” He teased her clit with his lips. “Call my name.” He grazed his teeth over her sensitive flesh.

  “Dare.” She screamed his name, bliss exploding inside her. Her body shot forward, moving of its own accord.

  Her warrior male hooked his arms around her hips and pulled her back to him. Her knees burned as they were dragged against the surface of the sleeping support, the heat accentuating her ecstasy.

  She gyrated against him, spasms of joy striking her form. He sucked on her neck, murmured words into her right ear she couldn’t comprehend, his voice comforting her.

  Her mate was with her. She wasn’t alone. He would protect her.

  The elation eased and she slumped, her body sagging. Dare stroked her sides, mouthed over her neck.

  “You didn’t take me,” she murmured. “You controlled your beast.”

  “I barely controlled it.” He set her limp form before him, positioning her facedown. “My beast yearns to pleasure you too.” He raised her ass and spread her legs. “Now that it has, it will take its own satisfaction.”

  He drove into her slick pussy and she gasped, the fullness reviving her desires. “Dare?”

  “Stay still, mate.” He grasped her nape with one palm, her left hip with the other hand, holding her in place. “My Drache is in charge now.”

  He pulled out, thrust hard, pulled out, thrust hard, fucking her with a bone-rattling ferocity, his hips smacking against her ass. She smiled into the sleeping support, wanting this, needing this, submitting to his beast completely.

  Her flesh pulled snugly around his, the pain slight but manageable, her pussy prepped by his tongue, wet from her release. He grunted as he pounded into her, using her for his own pleasure, his animalistic sounds thrilling her.

  “Harder.” She gave him permission to liberate his savage side. “Faster.”

  He growled, bending over her, his scales caressing her skin, his smoke filling the air. She breathed in his distinct scent, panted with each surge of his hips, his rutting pushing the air from her lungs.

  Sweat covered her body and wet her hair. Her pussy and ass throbbed, the slap of him against her stimulatingly severe. Pressure coiled around her chest.

  “You are mine, mate.” He dragged his teeth along her neck. “Mine.”

  “Yours.” She belonged to him, was his in all ways, had never experienced this connection with any other being, only him. “I’m yours.”

  She had left her old life to be with him, would reinvent herself to fit into his world. He was hers and she was his.

  “Mine.” The base of his cock swelled. “Mine.” He bellowed, driving his hips forward. The blazing heat of his cum filled her. She screamed, coming hard, her mind shattering, scorched by bliss.

  His lips closed over the curve where her neck met her shoulder. His teeth pierced her skin. That pain added to the spinning vortex of experiences.

  The chambers went dark for a moment, all sight and sound temporarily stopping. When she regained conscio
usness, she sat in Dare’s lap, their bodies remaining joined.

  “Are you well?” He licked her mating wound.

  “I’m well…I think.” Her head felt light, her surroundings were out of focus. “Do I have scales?” She held out her hands. They looked normal. “I don’t.”

  “You’ll have scales soon.” He chuckled. “Give it time, mate.”

  Time was needed because she didn’t yet know how she’d fit into the Dracheon world. It sounded heavily regimented, unforgiving, severe.

  “Tell me about your friends on your home planet.” She required more information to prepare for her new life. “What are they like?”

  Dare didn’t answer her question.

  “They’re that bad, huh?” Her laugh was shaky, her nervousness about the transition increasing.

  “I’m not normal.” His muscles firmed around her.

  Her extremely social warrior must not have any friends on his home planet. Her lips flattened. “You have family.” He had mentioned parents.

  “I have family.”

  She waited. He didn’t say anything more.

  Which said everything. “Did they ostracize you also?” She covered his hands with hers, trying to ease his pain with her touch.

  “Associating with me in public has…social implications.” He sighed. “It’s best that you follow their lead and—”

  “I’m associating with you in public.” She turned her head and glared at him, not giving a fuck about social implications. “I’m proud to be your mate.” Outrage on his behalf built within her. “You’re a skilled warrior, an honorable male, a kind being. If other Dracheons can’t see that, we don’t need them.”

  “We need them.” He bit off each word. “They live on my home planet. Our children deserve places in that world, amongst beings like themselves.”

  “Beings like themselves?” She snorted. “No child of ours will ever be an intolerant arse who can’t accept differences.”

  Dare opened his mouth.

  “And what if our children are different?” Like he was. Like she would no doubt be.

  “They won’t be different.” An inferno of emotion flared in his eyes. Smoke wafted from his flared nostrils.

  “What if they can’t control their Draches?”

  “Our children will be normal,” Dare shouted. His claws extended. His flames billowed over her right shoulder, heating her skin.

  Her scaled skin.

  “Balvan’s arms.” She used the new profanity the boys had taught her. “I’ve changed.” She gazed down at her hands. They were covered with tiny dark scales.

  “They’re black.” Her mate confirmed their color.

  She fanned her fingers. The scales caught the light. A layer of dirt would dull them. “I’ll be invisible in the dark.”

  “You’re gorgeous, mate.” He lifted her right hand and kissed each knuckle.

  “Is black a”—she stopped herself from saying normal—“common color?”

  “It’s common.” Dare’s breath blew over her fingers. “You’ll learn to control them.”

  “I don’t want to control them.” She linked her fingers with his, admiring the contrast of his large silver scales against her smaller black ones. “We look good together.”

  “Having your scales visible isn’t—”

  “Normal. I know.” She was starting to hate that word. “Allow me to enjoy them for a while.” She never planned to rescind them, but her mate wasn’t ready to hear that yet. “Are you certain I can’t breathe fire?” She exhaled as hard as she could.

  Nothing happened.

  “I’m certain, mate.” The humor had returned to his voice. “You won’t breathe fire. You won’t have claws. You’ll remain mostly human.”

  She’d seen cave dwellers with illnesses that crackled and hardened their skin. Her scales must be something similar to that. “That’s too bad. I’m short.” She held out her arms. “Claws would allow me to extend my reach.”

  He chuckled, that sound loosening the knot in her stomach. “I can reach what you can’t.”

  The swelling at the base of his cock had dissipated. She turned to face him, capturing his handsome countenance with her hands. Flames danced in his dark eyes.

  “Have my eyes changed?” Her vision had improved. She could detect finer details.

  “They’re the same beautiful eyes you’ve always had.” He kissed her forehead, his mouth hot against her scales. “Big and brown and human.”

  “And I only have two of them, right?” She joked. “When I was young, I worried I’d wake up and have three eyes like Three-eyed Mak.”

  “He cared for you,” Dare said softly.

  “He didn’t care for me.” She shook her head. “He profited from me.” Three-eyed Mak had told her that…often. “If I hadn’t been able to earn credits for him, he would have gotten rid of me, sold me to someone else.”

  “I offered him three packets of sunstones to settle your debt.” Dare stroked her back up and down, up and down. “He only accepted one of them.”

  Faylee stared at her male. He was an honorable warrior. He wouldn’t lie. “One packet of sunstones wouldn’t have paid off my debt.”

  Her mate shrugged.

  Ye look like her, Three-eyed Mak had said to her. She had been his favorite of all the boys, had told herself that was because she was the best thief. Perhaps there was an additional reason.

  Perhaps she hadn’t been as alone as she’d thought she’d been.

  Ten planet rotations ago, she would have pushed her questions aside. She was free of that life, happy, had a mate who desired her, who wanted her for his female. That should be enough for her.

  It wasn’t. Not now. She required a history to tell the Dracheons, something other than she had been a thief, painfully poor, living in a network of caves. It would be best if that past was based on truth.

  A truth she didn’t yet know.

  “Before we travel to Dracheon, I want to return to the caves.” She had to speak to Three-eyed Mak, uncover what he knew about her, about her parents.

  Dare grimaced. “That will be difficult to do at the moment. The Humanoid Alliance is monitoring all traffic in and out of Kralj’s terrain. They must be watching the caves also.”

  The Humanoid Alliance would be looking for them. She had changed. Faylee skimmed her fingers along her scales. Her silver Dracheon warrior’s appearance was the same. They’d recognize him.

  “I can wait until Vicuska has completed her mission.” The Humanoid Alliance would leave when the Rebel agent did.

  Dare’s severe expression didn’t ease.

  “This is important to me, mate.” She met his gaze, wanting, needing to unravel the mystery of her origins. “I have to speak with Three-eyed Mak, uncover what he knows about me.”

  Her warrior raked his claws through his hair. “Then we’ll return to the caves.”

  She’d discover her past. Faylee smiled.

  Chapter Thirteen

  His mate was gorgeous…and normal. The next planet rotation, Dare proudly led her into the training area. Her scales had rescinded during the rest cycle, while she slept, and he had exhaled deeply, relieved. He hadn’t contaminated her. She could control her Drache.

  If she wanted to control it.

  His stubborn mate insisted she didn’t. It was on full display at the moment, her slight form covered in black scales.

  If she were any other female, Dare could be confident she’d change her mind once they reached Dracheon. Ostracization was soul-shredding, as he knew. It would convince the most determined being to follow the cultural norms.

  But Faylee had spent much of her lifespan excluded, ignored, discriminated against, a cave dweller struggling to survive in a settlement filled with beings who hated her kind.

  The only reason she’d tried to fit in at the Refuge was she didn’t want to embarrass him. She wouldn’t conform if it left him alone, isolated.

  His mate was unlikely to alter her stance regarding h
er scales. Her mind and her fate were set.

  She would join him in social oblivion.

  There would be no boys following her around, imitating her every movement. He cast a glance over his shoulder at their followers. There would be no potential friends greeting them with wide smiles.

  “Dare!” Hulagu’s face lit up. He stood between his mate Azalea and a large unknown male with similar coloring and features. “Meet my brother, Oghul.”

  “I’ve heard much about you, Dracheon.” The male slapped his shoulder. He was a broader, more muscular version of Dare’s friend.

  “I’ve heard much about you too, Chamele, second-in-command to the great Warlord, Khan.” He’d listened to countless stories about the male. Hulagu admired his older brother, talked about him often. “This is my mate, Faylee.”

  “I heard you had found your gerel.” Hulagu beamed, his happiness for them genuine. “This is my gerel, Azalea.”

  The girl’s face was pale. Her body trembled. Since her brutal attack, Azalea was scared of male strangers and Hulagu’s brother was an intimidating presence.

  Faylee’s manufactured smile turned genuine, her face softening. “I considered buying a flight suit similar to yours last planet rotation.” Her hands fluttered over the girl’s form. “It’s beautiful but I don’t have your figure, and I need more pockets.”

  She needed more pockets because she was a thief, a thief who was touching his friend’s mate. Dare shook his head at her, silently telling her not to steal from her new acquaintance.

  His blasted female had the audacity to wink at him before turning her attention back to Azalea. “I’m new at this.” She was new at everything but learned quickly. “Do I make the bet with you now, or do we wait until the males settle the details of the battle?”

  “B-bet?” The worry lines on the girl’s face deepened.

  “I understand your mate’s brother wants to battle my mate.” Faylee relayed what he’d told her. “I bet this gun.” She extracted a weapon Dare had never seen before from one of her pockets. “Against everything in your pockets that my male will be victorious.”

  Oghul, Hulagu’s brother, patted his holsters. “That’s my gun.”