by Loki Renard
“Portals… I mean… they’re like… I don’t know,” she stammered.
“Humans opened the first true portal a few decades ago,” he lectured. “It started a war between our realms.”
“But that was a one-time thing,” Mika said. “Wasn’t it?”
“It was not a one-time thing,” the king replied. “At least seven more have been opened since that time, in various ways. None of them have been as dramatic, but they all allow the same passage between the worlds. You walked through one of those portals and it brought you here, to my realm.”
“So I… I am in the dragon world,” she said dumbly, looking at him with disbelief. “That’s… insane. I think I’d rather be on mushrooms.”
“Watch your words,” the king said, his expression taking on a form of irritation. “You have been given a great honor. You have been taken into my household. I am aware you have been raised as a human…”
“Well, yeah, what else would I be raised as, a turtle?”
She was getting sarcastic now, defensively so.
It did not go down well.
The king grasped her by the arm and tossed her face down on the bed. She screamed as his hand met her bare bottom, the robe flying up and offering no protection at all from the great creature’s ire. He spanked her hard six times, his palm branding each of her cheeks in turn.
“Be careful with your language,” he growled down at her, his huge frame easily overpowering hers as she writhed red-bottomed beneath him. “I will not tolerate any human disrespect from you. You will address me with humility, understand?”
“Yes,” she whimpered softly. She had never, in all her life, been subjected to physical discipline. The shock of having a strong man’s palm meet her butt so sharply left her utterly shocked. The pain was not unbearable, but it had been sharp and a tingling heat was left in its wake.
“You are going to need a great deal of training,” the king lectured. “You are a spoiled little thing. To speak to the king of the realm that way. I wish I could say I was surprised, but humans seem to lack respect in their very blood.”
“So why did you open a portal and let me walk through it?” Mika risked further accusations of disrespect with the question.
“Because you belong here,” he said heavily, landing another slap across her bottom.
She yelped and squirmed, but it was not possible to escape the king’s grasp. His hand was wrapped around her forearm like an iron shackle, keeping her prone body precisely where he wanted it.
Shocked by the way she was being physically handled, and totally confused by the wider context of her predicament, Mika responded the only way that made any sense: cursing.
“Let me damn well go! I don’t belong here! You’re crazy! And your eyes are weird!”
“My eyes are weird,” the king snorted. “You are so innocent, aren’t you. Or perhaps ignorant is the term. You have been taught nothing of the world beyond your own—or your place in it.”
He slapped her bottom again, landing a half dozen more stinging swats that made her hips buck and her legs kick, all to no avail. Her body’s instinctive motions of escape were utterly foiled by the king’s strength.
“Ow, quit it! Seriously!”
“You presume to tell me what I can and cannot do with you?”
Mika let out a gasp of shock as he pressed his knee between her thighs and spread them apart, his fingers finding her freshly washed pussy.
“No! Not there! Please!”
It was too late. He had already swatted her lower lips—not so hard as to cause any serious pain, but hard enough to make a hot sting flash across them. There was something strange about the way his skin seemed to interact with hers. The heat produced was out of all proportion with the force he was using. It felt as though he were tracing some unseen liquid fire across her bared body.
“You are going to need so many lessons,” he said. “But if you are capable of listening instead of shouting and struggling, I can explain the reasons behind your presence here. Nothing has happened at random.”
Mika let out a little sigh of relief as the punishment stopped, though she could still feel the heat simmering against her bottom and sex. He was cupping her most intimately, touching her in a way no man had ever touched her before. In spite of the disciplinary pain, she found herself daring to enjoy it a little. Her body was responding in the most unexpected way. She could feel her clit tingling against the smooth sheets beneath her body, the little bud having been rubbed back and forth so many times as the dragon king punished her.
She was somewhat stunned by her physical reaction, embarrassed too. It was hard to know what to do with herself, so she was glad that the king had effectively changed the subject.
“Are you ready to listen, Mika?”
“Yes,” she said in a small voice.
He slid his hand from her pussy and moved back to give her a little space. Mika breathed a small sigh of relief, thinking she was gaining a reprieve. She was not.
“Before I begin, take off that gown.”
“What?”
“I believe your attitude will be improved if you listen to what I say without the benefit of clothing. You are in need of humbling.”
“I’d like to keep it on,” she said, pulling the robe closer around her shoulders.
“What you want is no longer relevant. Better you learn that now.”
He spoke bluntly, borderline coldly. She shook her head vehemently in response.
“I can take it from you, if you prefer,” he said casually. “Is that what you want, Mika? Do you want to be forced to obey?”
“I just want to stay covered,” she said. “You’re kind of… scary.”
“Not so scary that you feel compelled to obey me,” he pointed out.
There was something about him that made her quiver on the inside. She got the distinct impression that he was capable of being extremely patient in order to get what he wanted, though clearly force was not out of the question either.
“Remove the robe,” he ordered in a soft but insistent murmur. “I want to see your body.”
Mika felt a hot blush rush over her again for the second time. He was sitting right next to her, and she knew that he did not have any qualms about handling her physically—her bottom could attest to that. So why was he making her bare herself? It must be a power play. It was working.
She let the robe slide off one shoulder, and then the other. Slowly, gravity took the gauzy fabric down her body a few inches before her breasts stopped its progress. Mika looked into the eyes of the dragon king and tried an apologetic little half smile. He reached out, hooked his finger in her cleavage and tugged, making the robe fall the rest of the way. The tight little patch of ginger at the top of her thighs came into view, contrasting with the platinum of her hair. She felt almost embarrassed at the blonde now; compared to Casimer’s shining locks, hers seemed almost cheap.
“Good,” he said. “You are a very pleasing creature to look upon. When the master of portals showed me glimpses of you, I thought perhaps the portal had the effect of making you look more beautiful than you really were. I see now that it was the opposite. You are exquisite.”
Mika lowered her eyes and said nothing. She wanted to know what was going on, but more than that, she wanted to be clothed. Her nipples were hardening beneath the king’s gaze, further giving away her embarrassing arousal. This beautiful stranger was making her body respond in an entirely unfamiliar way. Was this how she should have felt with the prince? Was this what Traci had been talking about all this time?
“My name is King Casimer,” he introduced himself. “You may address me as your majesty or my liege. These are words you humans are familiar with and will be easier for you to speak than attempting our dragon tongue.”
She suddenly became aware that she had not noticed how strange it was that everyone spoke English. Accented, but nevertheless, very recognizable.
“How do you speak my language?”
&nb
sp; “Human tongue is not foreign to us,” Casimer said. “You make the same basic sounds, with less sophistication in their formulation. What you call English, we would call simple babble. It is not hard to emulate. None of your languages are.”
“Oh,” she said, feeling as if she had just been called simple. “Well. That’s convenient, isn’t it.”
“Very,” the king smirked. “Now listen. There is much you need to know. The world in which you find yourself now is the world in which you were conceived, and where you lived for several years in your very early youth.”
“No, you’re crazy,” Mika said, shaking her head vehemently. “I’ve never been to the dragon realm. You must be confusing me with someone else.”
“There is no confusing you for anyone else. You don’t remember because you were too young,” Casimer said. “But you lived here. In the outskirts of this very city, in fact. Your father was a great hero, and well respected. Had you continued to live here, you would have come up among the aristocracy. You would likely be a member of my court.”
“I…” Mika did not know what to say. “I don’t… that can’t be true.”
“Why? Because you were not told as much?” The king’s tone denoted irritation and annoyance. “There is a great deal you have not been told, Mika. You are a young woman with a certain amount of enforced amnesia, I think. You were taken from this world and raised in the human realm, no doubt never thinking for a second that there might be anything unique about you other than your obvious beauty.”
Mika blushed at his compliment, though he was in fact insinuating that she was utterly ignorant, which was less of a pleasant comment on her character. She squirmed around to half-sit, half-lie sideways on the bed. She risked pulling the gown up a little, though when the king shook his head, she let it fall open, exposing her breasts and stomach. She curled her legs up, protecting her still sore bottom and looked up at the king who sat so tall and so stern, imparting the strangest story she had ever heard. There was something in the way his eyes were still locked on her, those arctic orbs making her feel small and more than a little squirmy.
“I don’t know,” she murmured.
“Yes, that is what I am telling you,” Casimer replied. “You do not know.”
“I just… it’s hard to believe,” she stammered, blushing as she avoided his gaze.
“It may be a shock, but the evidence is all around you. You see me before you, and you have already seen much of this world for yourself outside the window. You see our people flying the skies. And you must know, even with your limited education, that there was a war between our realms.”
“Yes, sure, I mean, yeah, they make movies about it and stuff. It was before I was born though, so… it’s kind of ancient history.”
“Ancient history!” He barked with laughter. “It was barely a moment ago in the terms of your world, but I suppose your limited existence skews your perception of time.” His expression warmed, and a rakish smile passed over his lips. “You are in dire need of education, aren’t you—a history lesson to go with the discipline you must crave.”
“Me? Crave discipline?”
“You would be addressing me properly if you did not,” he said as he stood from the bed. “And you would be far more eager to appease me rather than calling me crazy.”
Mika shrank back a little. “I didn’t mean you’re actually crazy. That’s just how I talk.”
“I noticed,” he said. “You speak with disrespect. I am surprised that anyone raised in the home of a dragon would act as you do, but perhaps your father was overly lenient with you. The discipline for that can wait for the moment. You need a familial history lesson first.”
Casimer pulled one of the very large chairs up next to the bed and sat in it. Mika remained where she was, uncertain in her near nudity as the king inspected her from his impromptu throne. He folded his hands over what Mika was sure was his hard stomach, his broad shoulders wider than the chair. She couldn’t stop staring at his physical form. If he had been a human, he would have been infinitely famous for his good looks. He would have taken every role in every movie from action to romance and back again.
“I will start with the war, which you have a passing familiarity with,” he began. “In that war, dragons and humans clashed over the first portal. It was opened violently and without warning and conflict was sparked when a human fighter pilot entered and attempted to engage our warriors. I had no choice but to send two of my most experienced generals and their legions. One of their names will mean nothing to you, but one may. Vyktor.”
Mika looked at him blankly. The name did not mean much of anything to her. Perhaps some faint memory, but nothing tangible.
“No? Well, I suppose his passing was before you became aware of the world around you, and it seems you have been told nothing of your heritage whatsoever. It is shameful that you should have been denied knowledge of those who shaped your very existence.”
“I’m sorry,” Mika said. “It’s just, dragons and everything, they’re kind of… nerdy old news.”
“Nerdy… old… news…” Casimer repeated with no small amount of incredulity. “That is the impression you have of this place, of me?”
“Not you,” she said quickly. “It’s just, when I was growing up, only old people were into dragons and stuff. It’s kind of lame. I wasn’t ever really interested.”
“Lame. Well,” the king continued with a long-suffering sigh. “Vyktor took a human during his short time on Earth. At first she was little more than a prisoner. He justified it by way of saying human females could be tamed and taken as pets…”
“As pets!?”
“Humans are lesser creatures than we,” he said, making her blush with something like anger. “Their forms and abilities are significantly limited. They do certainly have some intellectual capacities, but they are not as we are.”
“I’m not…” She was about to say that she was not lesser, but looking at him, she was not sure that was true. He was definitely… extra.
“Her name was Aria, and though she may have, in some sense, become his pet, she was more his mate. She was the first human female ever to mate with a dragon. Their coupling produced a son. His name was Vilka.”
“My father’s name is…”
“Yes, I speak of your father,” Casimer said, showing some sign of impatience. “He was of half dragon blood. He would have been the last of his line, having earned himself exile to one of the far-flung corners of my realm early in his youth. I thought the matter of the blood mixing was settled. But your mother entered our world, unbidden and of her own accord. Against the laws of the human world as well, by all accounts. Vilka took her prisoner immediately, but she was not as easy to contain as the woman before her had been and she caused a great deal of trouble in her attempts to escape. You know her name, naturally. Kate Ferrier.”
“My mother,” Mika said, trying not to sound too proud.
“Yes,” the king intoned. “Your mother. In the unrest following the chaos of her escape, she gave birth to you. You were raised here for a short time, but they returned to your realm and evidently, told you nothing of it.”
“If you say so,” Mika said, nervously toying with the hem of the gown. “It sounds… unlikely.”
Casimer leaned forward, his hands clasped before him. “You are the first human female with dragon blood running in her veins. Your parents have raised you as if you are like every other human being, but you must have suspected that you were different.”
“Not really,” Mika admitted reluctantly. “I mean, everyone I know is sort of strange. And everyone thinks they’re different. Especially where I’m from.”
“Well, you are different,” Casimer informed her. “I have no doubt that you have capacities you are largely unaware of. You may even have a dragon form.”
“What do you mean? You mean I could turn into a dragon? I don’t want to be a dragon. They’re huge and scaly!” Mika looked at him with wide, horrified eyes. “Can
you imagine the stretch marks?”
The king’s expression became incredibly dour. “I tell you that you could potentially conquer the skies and you worry about stretch marks.”
“Well, if I told you that you were actually a… a… fish or something, would you be pleased?”
“Your flippancy does not please me, Mika,” Casimer replied. “I am not telling you that you are part fish. I am telling you that noble and powerful blood flows in your veins, and that you are more than a pretty human girl, like so many other pretty human girls. I am telling you that you have a birthright here in this realm which has long been denied to you.”
“I’m sorry,” she said again, feeling a little ashamed. The king’s voice had an ability to take on a tone like a whip, lashing across her very core. “It’s just a lot to try to take in. I was on holiday, with my friends, experimenting with drugs and, you know… uhm… sex and… now this.”
“Yes, the sex was what made it necessary to obtain you immediately,” Casimer said, leaning back in his chair.
“What?! Why?”
“A dragon lurks in your soul,” Casimer said. “And very possibly elsewhere in your body. You are of age now. You are sexually mature. You are in as much danger as you ever will be.”
“But why?” Mika was utterly confused.
“Your father, and his father before him, knew what they were. As I mentioned before, I thought that the mixing of the lines had come to an end with your father. Your mother’s arrival complicated matters. When they decided that you should be raised without knowledge of your true nature, you were released into the world without any caution. That I could not allow. I ordered you brought here, because you are not a normal human woman and you cannot be allowed to live your life as one, no matter what delusions your mother may have. Those of the dragon blood are not safe in the human world.”
“I…” Mika remained stunned. “But… I… it’s not my fault that any of this happened. You can’t tell me I’ll never have sex.”
“I can do a great many things,” Casimer replied, his eyes narrowing. “Do not worry, your body will not go entirely unused. You will be mated, Mika. Just not in the human world, and not by a human male.”