by Ladew, Lisa
He transformed again and flew to the bottom quicker than she could reach it, then blazed fire up and down the corridor. Empty. Quiet. Dank. But definitely the right spot. Huge pipes ran vertically into the ground, then off towards the fire, with large wheel attachments at the front of them. Heather was already on the first one, grunting to spin it to the left. Graeme transformed and picked the next one. They leap-frogged like that, without a word, until all the gas pipes were shut down.
***
Heather stood at the bottom of the ladder, shivering and trying to get her pounding heart under control. She wished she could ask her dragon to come warm her. She wished he was her dragon again. She peered into his face, wondering if he’d seen her go through the fire.
She heard something above them and wondered if the fire had been put out after all. She scrambled up the ladder as quickly as she could, but Graeme was there, right behind her, holding on to her shoulders, not letting her stick her head out. Instead of arguing with him, she squeezed sideways and pushed hard with her legs, popping up just enough that she could see. Two black wolves were racing at full speed toward them. Yes! They’d done it. The wolves passed them, teeth bared in silent snarls, making Heather shudder. Behind them came Mac and Beckett and Harlan. Mac’s chest was bare. Graeme popped up behind her, scolding her in her mind.
Mac threw something at them. It was blue and made of cloth and it opened up slightly as it flew through the air. His shirt. “For your female, Sparky,” he called softly, then he was gone.
Graeme leaned into her. “Come back down with me. Put this on.”
“Ok. You gotta go first.” He gave her some room to move and she took it, following him back down. He handed her the shirt and she pulled it over her head, as more heavy feet ran above them. The shirt hung off her shoulders and came down to her mid thigh. Perfect.
Graeme smiled, looking at the still dark sky through the circular hole. “That Mac, he’s a good male. Strong. Fearless. He should have been a dragen.” His smile grew wistful. “All of them should have.”
Heather considered. “Maybe you should have been a wolf.”
He looked at her, surprised. “Maybe.” The word was soft.
She gestured up the steps. “Go after them. They might need you. I won’t move till you get back. I swear.”
Graeme shook his head. “That will never happen. I must get you back to the barn first. I won’t leave you alone.”
Heather knew better than to argue. They climbed up and out, hurrying back the way they had come. Just as they reached the barn and pushed the door open, the crack of three gunshots rolled over the grassy field.
“Damn,” Wade swore as he snatched up his radio and stared out the windows at all they could see; which was nothing.
Graeme took Heather to Ella, who hugged her, but Heather could only watch Graeme as he turned to go out the door. Before he made it, a report came over the radio. “All clear. All civilians safe. One foxen casualty, eleven foxen in custody. All officers unharmed. Tower disabled. Send us some medics.”
Wade and Trevor whooped and high-fived and Ella hugged her tighter. “Oh, thank God,” Ella said in a cracked voice.
Trevor turned to talk to Bruin in the back of the room, but he was already on his radio. He tucked it back in his pocket. “Medics on their way.”
Heather watched out the window as the first light of the sun began to show in the sky. She was still alive, but was she whole? She didn’t know yet. Her eyes tracked Graeme as he turned and came back across the room.
He went to Wade. “Am I needed here? Because I have something important to tend to.”
Wade shook his head, looking tired, but triumphant. “You’re not needed, no. Go do your thing.”
Graeme’s eyes met hers and Heather’s heart leapt, then sank. He couldn’t be leaving. That hadn’t sounded like a goodbye.
He stared at her across the room, speaking, but not to her. “I need a clear running stream somewhere that I won’t be interrupted all day, and especially not at sunset. Any ideas where I could go?”
What? A stream? Sunset?
Trevor spoke up. “There’s a stream on my property. Behind the house about four acres back, in the forest. I don’t know what else you need, but just, ah, for your general information, there’s a cabin back there, too, that no one is using. It needs a little work but it’s livable. Just in case someone needed something like that.”
Graeme stared at Heather still and she began to heat up from the inside out. A smile spread over his face. “A cabin. Imagine that.”
Trevor glanced at Ella and Ella’s head bobbed up and down emphatically as she nodded at her mate.
“We’ve, ah, also got a guest room, if anyone wanted a place to stay while, well, while things were getting fixed up. Safety in numbers, that kind of thing.”
Graeme nodded but didn’t break eye contact with Heather. “Your kindness knows no bounds, my friend. I’ll discuss your offer with my bond mate.”
Heather’s limbs felt too heavy all of a sudden, and her chest too tight, like she couldn’t breathe. She stared, then blinked, then stared again, as Graeme crossed to her and held out his hand.
She tried to lift her hand and, when she couldn’t, he bent and took it, then pulled her to her feet. “If she’ll still have me,” he whispered to no one but her.
She tried to talk, but her vocal cords had taken flight with the rest of her. She had no control over her body.
Graeme pulled her into his arms and nuzzled her cheek with his nose and mouth. “I hope you’ll give me another chance. I know I was a stupid fool, and I cry your pardon a thousand times, leannan. I’m ready to let go. I’m ready to listen to your wisdom and take you as my own, if you’ll agree.”
Even Heather’s eyes were revolting. They filled with the tears she hated so much. She couldn’t see, so she let them drift closed. The talking in the room and on the radio receded, as did her knowledge of the existence of anyone else on the planet. All that was left for her was Graeme, tall and strong against her, pressing soft lips to hers.
Her dragen.
Chapter 33
Heather rocked against Graeme, next to the stream in the forest behind Trevor and Ella’s house, him sitting cross-legged, her on top of him, her legs hooked behind his back, both of them naked. The forest was quiet, only the tinkling of the stream and a gentle wind through mostly bare tree limbs, reminding her they were outside.
He kissed her softly, first on her upper lip, then on her lower, his tongue moving gently in and out of her mouth. It was art, the way he’d been kissing her for hours, like there was nothing else in the world to do. Like he’d been put on the earth solely to worship her mouth. Like he drew food, warmth, and water from her lips, but only if he plied them just right.
His attention made her feel whole, complete, not crazy, and not a freak, for the first time in her life. She was different, but she belonged somewhere.
She moved against him, feeling his hard cock between their bodies. Her fingers itched to touch it, but so far he hadn’t let her. Drops of pre-cum leaked out of the tip occasionally, heating her belly as it touched her, but it certainly did not feel molten.
“Graeme,” she whispered into his mouth. “I get that you don’t want to have sex until sunset, for whatever reason, but can I touch you? Please?” Her fingers inched downwards.
He caught her hands again and spoke into her neck between kisses. “I have not explained it properly to you, leannan, because your body distracts me. Your lips and what you allow me to do to them capture my full attention, making me forget what you don’t know. We are here to bond. That is what the binding ring is for and that is what will happen at sunset.”
Her eyes flew open and she stared over his shoulder at her jacket hanging on a tree limb. “The binding ring is the circlet of gold, isn’t it.”
“The very same.” He returned to kissing her.
She smiled into his mouth. “You were going to bond with me all along, or you wouldn
’t have let me bring it.”
She felt him smile back. “Perhaps you are right, my sweet one. You do seem to have much power over me. I fought a good fight, but I should have known, back in that hospital bed, that there was no use denying we were meant for each other.” He kissed her again, then whispered into her ear. “Ta ma hurry, chi annit.”
She jumped. “Oh, that’s what you said when you first saw me! Say it again, spell it for me, tell me what it means.”
“It is Gaelic.” He spelled it for her, then pronounced each word slowly. “Tá mo chroí istigh ionat. It means, my heart is within you, or, more simply, I love you.”
Tingles spread through her body. She bit her lip, trying not to let one tear spill. Oh, God, she would love him forever. Do anything for him. Had she known it way back then, too?
She smiled as he kissed his way around her earlobe. “I don’t mind that you fought. I like my dragen feisty.”
He threw his head back and laughed, returning to kissing her before his laughter had stopped completely.
“What does the binding stone do?” she asked.
He looked up into the sky, as if sensing the time. She figured sunset must be getting close. “I’ll show you,” he said.
He deposited her gently onto Mac’s shirt, which was spread on the ground, then retrieved the circlet of gold from her jacket. She watched him until the golden ring appeared, and then she couldn’t take her eyes off it. Its pull was strong. She could see it was the same size as she remembered it, slightly bigger than a dinner plate. He sat down, pulled her back onto his lap, then held her left arm out to her side, entwining his right fingers with her left ones, then sliding the golden ring up and over their hands till it sat just above their elbows. The ring tightened slightly, just enough so that it wouldn’t fall off.
She stared at it, feeling her stomach flutter. “Now? We do this already?”
He took her chin in his other hand, turning her eyes to his. “Isn’t that what you wanted, leannan? There is no in between for dragen. We bond or we separate. We do not date. This particular binding ring will not tether us if we have already had sex. That comes after.”
She stared into his eyes, her nervousness falling away at his words. There was no question. “This is what I want.”
He smiled and she saw the rest of her life in his expression.
He frowned slightly, and stared at the bonding ring. “It is time. I will start. Don’t be scared, leannan.”
She licked her lips and waited, for what she had no idea. Graeme stared at the golden ring until one half of it, the half covering her arm, burst into flames, then melded around her skin. It felt warm and good. A promise that could not be broken.
He looked back to her. “Your turn. You must do my half.”
Uh oh. “I─I don’t know if I can.”
“You can. Or you would not be here.”
She snickered. When did he suddenly become so sure about that? But she didn’t have the slightest idea how to begin. “Wait,” she whispered. “The binding ring won’t work if we have sex first? Does it only work on virgins?”
“Aye, this particular one does.”
“You are a virgin, too?”
“I have never been touched in this manner before. Only by you.”
She sighed and let her eyes drift closed. “Relax me.”
He kissed her, running his tongue over her lips again, nibbling slightly, her entire body thrumming with the need he created inside her. She almost forgot about the binding stone, until he smiled against her mouth again. “There. It is done.”
She looked, and his side of the ring was in flames, then it melted around his upper arm just as hers had. She expected the connection between them to be broken, but it wasn’t. The ring was still bound in a figure-eight, holding them tightly together.
“Does it ever come off?”
“Never. Not unless I die. Then it falls off when you are ready for it to go.”
She closed her eyes against the idea. “I guess dragen can’t cheat on their mates very easily if they can’t take their rings off.”
He chuckled. “If a dragen cheats, the binding ring tightens until it cuts off the limb, then it falls off and the binding is dissolved.”
Her eyes flew open and she sat up straight. “Wow.”
He nodded. “Loyalty is everything to dragen.”
“I guess,” she breathed. “Is that why what happened with your brothers and the other dragen bothers you so much?” He stiffened slightly. “And is that why you have such a hard time committing fully to the wolves? I know they want you to work with them full time. I can see it in that Chief’s eyes.”
He didn’t speak for several moments. “You see much, leannan. The wolven are not dragen, and, as such, their loyalties are different, but I am finding their way may be better.” His eyelids half-lowered. “But that is a conversation better left for another day.”
She sighed and let her eyes drift closed and her arm droop as he kissed her again. She could still feel his erection between them and damn if it didn’t feel bigger, longer. When would she get to touch it?
“There is but one more thing we have to do before the ceremony is complete.”
“Yes, do it. I can’t wait another moment.”
“You don’t have to,” he whispered, then wrapped his free arm around her hips, lifting her easily and pulling her farther forward. His cock slid underneath her and she gasped and opened her eyes at the feeling, the solid friction of skin she had not yet been allowed to touch sending a warm line of sensation across her middle. It nudged her swollen lips as Graeme settled her completely against him.
He plied her breasts with his lips. “Tell me when you are ready, leannan.” She heard no trace of fear in his voice. He trusted. He knew.
She wiggled slightly, positioning him better, the touches of their skin delicious. “I’m ready, Graeme.”
He let her weight go, one millimeter at a time. Her head fell forward onto his shoulder as she gasped at the sensual intrusion. The slow, tortuous friction was wonderful, but it hurt, too. A bit of pinching and grabbing that faded into an ache she could quickly ignore as other sensations built.
Even more slowly, he continued to drop her onto him, until finally, he was fully seated inside her, the feeling one of rightness and fullness that she would never forget. A tear dropped out of her eye onto his shoulder and she smiled into his neck.
A lovely metallic ringing sound bounced off the trees around them, and they both looked to the binding ring. It had separated. Heather stared at the gold ring around her arm, then flexed her elbow. It seemed to meld perfectly with the muscles there.
Graeme began to move underneath her and she turned her attention back to her bond mate, her dragen. Her life.
“Leannan,” he whispered, wiping more tears from her face and stopping the undulations of his hips. “Does it hurt?”
She shook her head and smiled, leaning on him until he let himself fall backwards to the forest floor. “It feels so good.”
“Aye.” He smiled back. “That it does. I never could have imagined how good sex feels with a female. It is not quite the same with one’s hand.”
She threw back her head and laughed at that, thinking that was a good thing for the continuation of the species. Darn. That thought tried to darken her mood, but she would not let it. This was her bonding. The connection with her bond mate that all other connections would build from. Sad thoughts had no place at a bonding.
“Are we bonded now?” she whispered. “Was that everything?”
He pushed her hair back from her face as she picked up his rhythm, met it with her own, then dropped down to kiss him as he continued to thrust into her, spanning her hips with his hands.
“There is but one more thing,” he whispered, his teeth gritted with pleasure, his eyes closed. “I’ve heard it is to be said during the washing, which comes later, but I feel we should say it now. I’ll say it, then you repeat it to me.”
She nodde
d against him.
“I, Graeme of the line of dragen, choose Heather to be my bonded mate, and I will hold no other before her until the day I die.”
Graeme’s rhythm stayed steady below her, the sliding and friction as lovely as his words. She took a breath and repeated them into his chest. “I, Heather…” she stumbled over the words, not sure what to say, then picked them up again. “I, Heather Herrin, choose Graeme to be my bonded mate, and I will hold no other before him until the day I die.”
Power shot through her, lifting her chest, but pushing her down onto her dragon. She cried out as wings burst from her back. Dragon wings? They folded around her and Graeme until they were wrapped in a cocoon of her love and flesh, and then they rocketed into the air. Graeme smiled at her as if he expected it, and before she knew what to think, they were back on the ground and she was normal again.
“What was that?” she panted.
“Your true nature showing its face, I believe.”
Heather went with it. It wasn’t any crazier than anything else that had been happening. She smiled at Graeme as a lovely sensation began to build in her, so different than any she’d felt before. Her breath came harsher and faster and she let it take her, lift her, move her as one with Graeme. He growled under her, thrusting harder and faster, lifting and lowering her hips with his hands to meet his advances with more energy, more power.
Every slide inside her was ecstasy, pushing her closer and closer to that edge, that delicious edge she reached for, knowing they had all night to do it again and again, to explore, play, get to know each other more deeply and fully than either of them had ever known anyone.
The push of sensation finally broke and she cried out into the forest, a strong cry that echoed back to them both. He didn’t stop, slamming into her with a single-mindedness that elongated her pleasure, made it go on and on, until he groaned, low and deep in his throat, and she felt the spilling of his cum deep inside her. It spread a hot warmth around her middle and her orgasm, instead of winding down, intensified until she thought she would die of the pleasure.