by R. E. Butler
He pointed to the wall phone, and while she called her friend, he used the intercom to alert Gen that he had found his mate and was not to be disturbed. He knew that Gen wouldn’t mind being woken up in the middle of the night for such joyous news.
“Cancel my appointments for the day,” Tosh said.
“Of course, sire. And the ceremony?”
He drummed his fingers on the counter in thought. “Check with the archives, but I believe that the ceremony is supposed to be performed within two days of the mating. We can schedule it for Monday at sunset.”
“Of course, sire. Congratulations.”
Tosh smiled as he released the button. December cleared her throat, and he turned to face her.
“What’s Monday at sunset?”
“The ceremony that makes you my queen.”
“Does that come with a tiara?” Her brow quirked.
He fell in love with her a little bit right then.
“Of course,” he said, making a mental note to have Gen get one made especially for her. He’d seen pictures of his parents at their crowning ceremony, and his mother had worn a crown made of golden ivy leaves. When she’d passed away, the crown had been buried with her.
“We’re naked in the kitchen,” she said. “Were you planning to christen this room with our awesomeness or what?”
Chuckling, he crooked his finger and said, “Come here, my feisty polar bear. First, we have to christen the most important room in the house.”
She smiled, and the motion elevated her from gorgeous to stunning. A hidden dimple graced one cheek, and her eyes brightened with excitement. She drew close to him, stopping just shy of being able to take his offered hand.
“I have a few considerations first.”
“Oh?” She could ask for the moon and he’d give it to her. His dragon was just that happy.
“I want to invite my sister and her mate. I don’t think they’ll come since its winter and bears like to hibernate, but if I don’t invite her, then I’ll never hear the end of it.”
“Of course. I’ll have Gen send a special invitation to her and anyone else on your behalf.”
“Just Alli. I’m not super close with anyone where I live.”
“Anything else?”
“You have to call me Deci.”
He smiled. “I like it.”
“We’ve got a couple of months before my spring heat, so you don’t need to use protection. How do dragons mate?”
“Fiercely.”
She snorted. “Seriously.”
“We can talk about the ceremony later. For now, sweetheart,” he said, closing the distance between them and drawing her close, “I want you to mark me however your bear wants to.”
She stared up at him, humor and heat dancing in her eyes. “And you and your dragon?”
“Will mark you with our teeth. A permanent tattoo, created from the venom on my teeth, will appear on your skin.”
She arched a brow. “What kind of tattoo?”
“It’s a mating tattoo. It’s different for each mated pair, but it should have the image of a dragon and a scroll-like pattern. I’m told it stings for only a brief moment.”
She hummed. “That’s pretty damn cool.”
“I’m glad you think so.”
“Where’s the master bedroom?” she asked, her nails digging into his back.
“Third floor, last door on the right.”
Her eyes darkened, and when she opened her mouth, he could see fangs. He’d never been more turned on in his life.
“First one on the bed gets the most orgasms,” she said, darting from his arms and racing for the stairs.
He chuckled as he watched his gorgeous, naked mate shoot up the stairs as if her cute ass was on fire. As if he’d be selfish enough to want to come more than her. Her pleasure was the most important thing in his world now, along with her safety and their future.
As he climbed the stairs, hearing her laughter echo through the house, he thought that fate couldn’t have chosen a better mate for him. Beautiful, feisty, and fun – their life together was going to be amazing, and he couldn’t wait to see what the night would bring.
To think he’d started off hunting an intruder in the woods and wound up with his truemate. He couldn’t have been happier.
Chapter 5
Deci pushed open the bedroom door and walked inside. There was no mistaking that the room belonged to Tosh. It smelled like him, a masculine mix of sunshine and spice. Her bear wanted to shift and roll around on the bed until she was saturated with his scent, but she reminded her bear there was a better way to get covered – by the man himself.
She turned as Tosh leaned against the doorjamb. He flipped on an overhead light and slid his finger over a dimmer switch, lowering the lights until it was just bright enough to see clearly. Although she’d been able to see Tosh clearly in the night, thanks to her enhanced vision, she wasn’t wasting an opportunity to take a good look at the male she was going to spend the rest of her life with. Tosh was gorgeous. Tall and muscular, with olive skin, eyes that tilted up at the corners, and shoulder-length onyx hair.
She turned and walked to the open French doors. Tosh joined her, wrapping his arms around her and twisting away from the doors as he kicked them shut. “Let’s not give a show to the neighborhood, sweetheart.”
“Oh. Oops,” she said, giggling. “I wanted to see the view.”
He turned her in his arms. “The best view is right here.”
“Be careful. A girl might expect that kind of sweet talk all the time.”
“I happen to be just the sort of mate to give it to you.”
She looked up into his eyes. There was humor in the depths, but also affection and what she knew was the first tender blossoms of love. Truemates didn’t happen every day, and she knew that the man she was looking at was the one who was her perfect match in every way. Already she was sure she couldn’t live without him, and she knew that it wouldn’t take long for her to fall completely and utterly in love with him. Her sexy dragon prince.
She cupped his face as she rose on her toes and closed the distance between them. Their lips met and parted, and the taste of him, like sunshine-warmed spices, filled her. She trailed her fingers down his throat to his shoulders, stroking the place where she’d sink her fangs to bind them as mates. Tosh’s hands slid up her back, drawing her close, as he slowly moved toward the bed. She followed him step for step, never breaking the kiss that seared her right to her soul.
He moved his lips down her throat, tasting her skin with licks and nibbles as he brushed over her collarbones with his fingertips. He sat down on the bed and spread his legs, drawing her into the v of his thighs. His hands squeezed her hips gently and he gazed at her.
“You’re so lovely, sweet bear. Tell me you’re mine.”
“I am,” she whispered.
“I’m yours, too.”
He leaned forward and kissed her nipple and then circled it slowly with his tongue. He growled softly, and she sank her hands into his hair and drew him closer. He hummed in his throat as he drew her nipple into his mouth, laving the tip with his tongue. One hand slid up her side and plumped her other breast, rubbing his thumb around the peak with delicious friction.
He moved to her other nipple, giving it the same attention, until both were tight and aching and her body hummed with need. He kissed the valley between her breasts, his hands tightening where they’d returned to her waist. He released his hold on her and leaned back, stretching out on the bed like a king, with a sexy smile on his face.
“Come up here, sweet bear. I need to see if you taste as good as you smell.”
She climbed onto the bed, straddling his thighs, all too tempted to simply impale herself on the splendid cock that jutted from his hips and beckoned her like a forbidden piece of candy. But having her mate taste her wasn’t anything she wanted to pass up, and the eagerness in his eyes told her she was in for a hell of a ride.
She crawled up him,
kissing his torso as she moved, until she’d arranged the apex of her thighs directly over his face.
“How’s the view?” she asked as she straightened.
“Gorgeous,” he said, the word all but growled as he wrapped his hands around her spread thighs and pulled her down to his mouth. He licked her clit, lightly tapping the bud before sliding his tongue into her depths.
Deci planted her hands over his and tilted her hips. Her pussy throbbed with need as he tongued her core. One of his hands moved forward, and his fingers brushed over her clit, rubbing it rapidly and driving her quickly to the edge.
“Tosh,” she moaned as his fingers flew over her clit and heat washed over her. Pleasure spiked through her as their eyes met, and then she threw back her head and cried out. He slid from underneath her, and she fell forward onto her hands as pleasure swirled through her. He rose behind her, his hands sliding up her thighs and tugging them farther apart as he lined up their bodies and slid home.
She moaned loudly, tossing her hair away from her face and pressing back against her mate. They fit together perfectly, and she was sure in that moment that they really had been made for each other.
He groaned deeply as he slid slowly from her, until only the thick head of his cock breached her. For a moment, he stayed like that, and she felt the prick of claws as they extended from his fingertips and dug into her hips. Her hands clutched at the covers as he pressed into her, so slowly she thought she’d combust.
He growled. “Mine.”
“Yes,” she hissed.
As he pulled from her body and pushed in faster, she reached one hand between her legs and touched her clit. At Tosh’s encouraging growl, Deci rubbed her clit and pushed herself toward climax. She screamed as she came. Tosh released his tight hold on her hips and pulled from her. He pushed her to her back and sank into her with a deep groan. He curled over her, pulling her close as he moved and her gaze zeroed in on his neck.
Her gums tingled as her fangs lengthened farther and she sank them into the place where his neck and shoulder met. As his blood crested her tongue, everything inside her roared in bliss. Her body locked in a spiral of pleasure that was deeper than anything she’d ever experienced before. Tosh shouted her name as he came. She felt him spasming inside her, felt the heat of his come, and extracted her fangs. Licking the marks tenderly, she nuzzled his throat with a questioning growl.
Tosh lifted from her neck, and she saw that his eyes were bright green. He panted, and his teeth, sharp and elongated, glinted in the light.
“Mine,” he growled again, his eyes flashing with possession.
“Yes,” she moaned the word, closing her eyes as he opened his mouth over her right bicep.
The bite was swift and the pain brief, a tingling, burning left in the wake as he extracted his fangs and lifted from her. He carried her up the bed, drawing the covers back and laying her down. She felt drowsy and struggled to keep her eyes open.
Tosh snarled and sank his sharp teeth into his own right bicep and then he licked his lips as his eyes flashed and his teeth returned to normal. His eyes were half-mast, sleepy and sexy, and he said with a low voice, “It’s a venom-induced sleep, sweetheart. When we wake, we’ll be mated completely, the tattoos a signal to all that we belong to each other for the rest of our long lives.”
He stretched out next to her and gathered her close. The spicy scent of him enveloped her, and she yawned and cuddled against him as he drew the covers over them. Her eyes shuttered, and she felt herself slip away into sleep, as the numbing tingle in her arm intensified for a brief moment and then disappeared completely.
Chapter 6
Tosh’s mate rolled over and stretched next to him. He’d been awake for an hour and had simply watched her sleep. His to-do list for his new mate was a mile long, but the contentment he found in the simple act of lying next to her in their bed had eclipsed anything he’d ever felt before. He’d never really thought of the mansion as anything but a house, but with Deci, it was a home now. A place where they would rule the nest as long as they chose and where their children would roam the halls.
Deci squeaked as she stretched a second time. Her fingers curled and her back bowed a little, bringing her breast close to his mouth. He kissed the dusky nipple, and she made a pleased, humming sound.
“Good morning,” she said.
“Good morning to you, my sweet mate,” Tosh said.
She wrapped her hand around his bicep and gasped. “Wow, that’s amazing.”
He brushed his fingers across her matching tattoo. It was the biggest one he’d ever seen – a beautiful pattern that stretched from her shoulder to her elbow. It was made up of swirls and points that centered on the image of a dragon and what could only be described as a snowflake. Mating tattoos were almost always solid black, but both of theirs – identical in every way – were black, green, and white.
“I think the green is for my dragon and the white is for your bear,” he said, letting his fingers follow the beautiful pattern that was at the same time delicate and strong.
“That’s not usual?” she asked.
“No. The ones I’ve seen are solid black.”
“Is it a good thing?”
“How could it not be? It’s beautiful, a mixture of both of us. Does it bother you that it’s so large?”
She shook her head. “You gave it to me. I wouldn’t change anything about it.”
“I wouldn’t change anything about the tattoos either. They’re the largest ones I’m aware of, and I believe it means that our connection as truemates is very strong. You were meant to be in the woods last night, and I was meant to find you.”
She smiled. “Thief.”
“Poacher.”
She rolled them both until she hovered over him. “I’m so glad you found me, my fierce dragon mate.”
She swung her leg over his and straightened, her lush body highlighted by the morning light that seeped through the curtains. He slid his hands up the outside of her thighs as she smiled down at him.
“I am too.”
* * *
Tosh wanted to stay in bed all day with Deci. They were newly mated, after all, and humans had something they called a honeymoon, where they stayed in bed for days and enjoyed each other. But he and Deci weren’t human, and they weren’t on a sex-filled vacation celebrating their wedding – they were shifters, and serpents had a certain way of doing things when it came to their matings.
“Why do they call you serpents when you’re dragons?” Deci asked as she dried off after their joint shower, in which they got clean, made love, and got clean a second time.
“I think it harkens back to ancient times, when the word serpent was more inclusive. The shifters in my nest look like me, although we differ in the color of our scales – some are red, some black, some metallic, some green like me. In other parts of the world, there are nests where the dragons look more like walking crocodiles, and there are actual snake shifters.”
He rubbed at his hair with a towel and then secured the towel around his waist. She wrapped her towel around her and followed him into the bedroom, where clothes had been laid on the bed.
“Oh, are these for me?” Deci asked as she looked down at the leggings and top.
“Gen is very intuitive,” Tosh said.
“And sweet,” Deci said, smiling. “Do you think he heard us when we were driving each other crazy in the shower?”
He smiled. “Probably. The whole house probably heard us.”
She blushed and laughed. “I think they know we like each other, huh?”
He wrapped a lock of her lovely white-blonde hair around his finger and gave it a gentle tug. “Very much so.”
As they dressed, he told her about the mating and coronation ceremonies that would take place one after the other.
“There will be a small group of females who will help you get ready for the ceremony. You have to wear your hair a certain way and wear a special gown, which will be green.”
“Because my dragon’s scales are green. I’ll be waiting for you in our sacred grove, which is where all our ceremonies take place. It’s in the center of our territory. Because your family won’t be here to escort you, we’ll find a suitable escort.”
“Like Alli?”
He hummed. “Normally it’s a male family member.”
“Your uncle,” she said.
Tosh frowned. He wasn’t sure if he wanted his uncle to be anywhere near Deci. “I was thinking about Gen, actually. He’s not related by blood, but he’s like a member of my family.”
“You don’t like your uncle?”
“It’s not that. I’m unsure he’ll be happy that I’ve found you. He was encouraging me to step down to find my truemate and suggested someone could take over the nest while I was gone.”
“Then wouldn’t he be glad that you don’t have to leave now?”
He shook his head. “I’m honestly not sure.”
She frowned. “Does he have a claim to the throne?”
“Not at all. In our nest, the kingship passes from father to son. The son remains a prince until he finds a mate.”
She hummed. “Gen will be perfect. What’s the ceremony like?”
“The mating ceremony will be presided over by Bao, and the coronation by Quon. They are both elders of the nest. The whole nest will be in the grove to witness the ceremonies. When we’ve accepted our rightful place as king and queen, there will be a party in the backyard of the mansion that will last until dawn.”
“So we don’t get to get naughty until dawn?”
He grinned. “We’ll sneak off after we’ve greeted everyone.”
“Good. Why does the crowning ceremony have to be within two days of us meeting?”
“I’m not sure. You can call it a weird dragon ritual.”
She snorted a laugh. “Do you have a lot of those things?”
“It depends on what you think a lot is.”