My pulse ground to a halt. Oh, no, my friends! Where were they? They’d fallen into the hole behind me, but hadn’t appeared through the falls.
Were they okay?
“Do you have a phone in your…lair?” I asked, frantic, looking around. I found nothing except stone walls, a mesh of hanging vegetation, and the enormous falls and pool beneath me.
Nothing modern. Nothing I would use to call 9-1-1, for that matter.
He stroked my hair off my face and smiled down at me. “You seek a phone?”
“To call for help. My friends…” I waved to the falls. “I think they’re trapped up there somewhere. They fell when I did, but maybe they’re hurt.”
I’d hate myself forever if I found out they’d been lying up there wounded while I fucked Drek’s brains out.
He nodded, all serious. “When we reach my lair, we will sound the alarm.”
So, he had buddies role playing here along with him. Did they also have lairs and walk around naked?
The fact that this situation was beyond peculiar gave me pause.
Regardless, he’d said he’d ‘sound the alarm’. His friends would help us.
And while they looked for Tanya and PJ, I could explore Drek’s idea of a longie.
My friends had suggested I enjoy something big tonight.
And I’d found him.
Plucking my shirt off the ground, I tucked my arms through the sleeves. I skipped my bra. At this point—with my butt hanging out for the world to see—who cared if my boobs bounced around?
I took his hand and stared toward the circular opening at the end of the large cave, which had to be an exit. “How do we get to your lair, anyway? Is it very far away?”
“Some distance, but I’ll carry you.”
I was no skinny-mini, but he could be exaggerating about the distance. Being carried would tick off another item on my bucket list of wild fantasies, however.
He’d already checked off the first on the list with multiple organisms, all in one day.
“Once I’ve changed,” he said. “You can climb onto my back.”
The fact that he must’ve left his clothes around here somewhere was a bit of a downer. I was enjoying watching him stride around in all his glorious nakedness.
“Climb on your back, you said?” I asked, tilting my head. “You talkin’ about a piggyback ride?” Being carried that way didn’t quite fit with my bucket list fantasy, but I could work with it.
He frowned, as if the term was unfamiliar to him. But everyone had enjoyed piggyback rides when they were a kid, hadn’t they?
After taking a few steps away from me, he hunched forward and groaned.
Oh, no. Was he hurt?
I’d worn him out and he was having…muscle spasms?
Maybe he’d overdone it during bout number three. Or had it been number four, when he’d taken me against a boulder? Or, maybe he’d stepped on something sharp. That’s what you got when you walked around butt-naked.
I’d started toward him to offer help when his skin rippled all over his body, as if his bones and muscles and tendons snapped underneath.
My breath caught, and I gnawed on my knuckle, staring at him with growing amazement.
Golden-orange, scaly wings erupted like bands of fire from either side of his spine, spreading out for what seemed for miles. While I gasped and stumbled backward, his neck extended. His face elongated. Razor-sharp fangs sprang out from his gums.
What the…?
He tipped his head back and roared. And, yeah, real flames shot from his mouth.
My heart slammed triple-time, and my knees quaked as I stumbled back into the pool, my hands lifted as if I could somehow ward him off.
Like that was possible.
He was a freakin’ dragon!
Bending down on his razor-sharp, claw-toed limbs, he gestured to his back.
“No way, pal,” I said, my voice a wreck. My feet splashed through the water, taking me deeper.
He grunted. Smoke curled from his nostrils. His wings flapped, and he lifted himself up off the ground.
Before I could yelp or even think about how I’d fight off this incredible beast, he swooped forward and snatched me up out of the pool with his long talons. Somehow, he took enough care not to impale me.
I hoped so, anyway.
My scream echoed around us as he flew over the falls, climbing in height until we could almost touch the ceiling.
Oh, my freakin’ God!
With his loud, triumphant dragon cry ringing in my ears, he darted across the large chamber.
I clung to his scaly arms and braced my bare feet on his claws.
This was no freakin’ role play.
Chapter Eight
Drek
I hated that Jenny was scared.
Of me. The dragon who’d mated with her for life.
If only I’d taken time to tell her about my other half, to let her adjust to the idea that I was a shifter dragon. We couldn’t reach my lair without me shifting into my dragon form. Walking would take half a lifetime.
But maybe I should’ve softened her to the idea first?
But surface dwellers had never understood us, which is why the dragon realm had long ago found their way down deep beneath the soil to hide in caves near the center of the Earth.
We’d built our cities, secured our guards, and lived a regal life in peace and prosperity.
If we hadn’t escaped, they would’ve hunted us into extinction like they had the fairy people—the Norans, whose crumbling cities peppered the mountains some distance from my dragon valley.
Jenny’s people had hunted us. Killed us. But she wasn’t like that. She would never cause me harm. I’d stake my life on it.
But she would be the first surface dweller to mate with a dragon since we’d rebuilt our lives. Would my people welcome her or shun her?
My growl rumbled in my chest, and I released a blast of fire from my mouth, scorching the roof of the cavern tunnel I flew through. I’d kill anyone who tried to cause my woman harm.
She squirmed in my arms.
“Let me go!” Bravery charged through her voice, making me proud of this feisty woman I’d claimed, but the tremble at the end of her words told me she was worried. Concerned. Still frightened.
But until we reached my home, I couldn’t convince her she was safer with me than with anyone else in the underworld.
Back at the Lifegiver’s pool, we’d done things backward by mating fast. But I could step away from what I’d done. Correct this.
Once we reached my palace, I’d truly woo her. Convince her she never wanted to leave me.
Then we could marry and mate every night for the rest of our lives.
“Please!” She twisted further, and I tightened my hold. I was damn concerned I’d drop her. But how could I convince her she would be happy with me? I’d put everything of myself into my lovemaking. Done all I could to please her so far.
It was still early. We’d just met and mated. If I took my time from now on, I’d show her how special things could be between us. Then, she’d never want to leave me.
“I’m scared I’m going to fall,” she said softly, a catch in her voice. Her body slumped onto my leg, clinging, and she pressed her cheek against my scales.
I’d never let drop her. Didn’t she know I’d protect her with my own life?
She lay passively as I flew onward, taking us along the river that flowed from the Lifegiver’s pool. It mixed in with water cutting through the dense earth above us, channeling down through fissures in the stone.
The tunnel narrowed in places, then opened again to wide, endlessly-appearing caverns filled with lush vegetation, spiky cliff-faces, and precious crystals in red, purple, gold, many as tall as a man.
At one point, Jenny sighed with awe.
I was proud I could show her the beauty of my world. Her world, now, too, if she accepted me in her life.
Mid-flight, when she seemed to sleep, I lifted her up on m
y back, where she was able to secure her legs behind my wings, her arms around my neck. She clutched me and quivered through her dreams.
I wanted to wake her and ask if this position was better, if it made her feel less scared, but I couldn’t speak in this form. And if I initiated the change, it wouldn’t stop until I regained complete man form. It was impossible to change just one part of myself, like my face or my claws. It was all dragon or all man, nothing in between.
Without my wings holding us aloft, we’d plunge to the ground.
“I…I didn’t…” Her gulp reverberated through my scales, telling me she was awake. “I thought this was a dream. Or you were role playing.”
Role playing?
“I thought you were an accountant. Or a businessman.”
While I didn’t own a business, I was preordained to rule. How would Jenny feel when I told her she’d be my queen?
“I don’t know where you’re taking me,” she said forcefully, making me glad she’d re-found her spunk.
With each shiver, she’d ripped out another piece of my heart.
When a dragon fell in love, he fell fast and hard. And I’d fallen for Jenny.
“You should’ve told me.” She smacked my shoulder, and I huffed out a dragon chuckle. Did she think that would hurt? It felt like a love tap. “It wasn’t like you didn’t have the chance. Maybe between sex number two and three? Or when you had me do that weird cartwheel thing and you grabbed my legs and climbed on board? I…I was starting to think I…”
Could she be falling for me, too? My heart burst in my chest, and I strained to hear every word she spoke.
“However, you need to stop right now and let me go.” Her fear obviously gone for the moment, she sat up straighter and, out of the corner of my eye, I caught her waving her arms as she railed at me. “I’ve got a job. I’m a teacher. My students will miss me. My friends…” Her voice choked off. She dropped back onto my neck, and when she trembled, I had a horrible feeling she sobbed.
Perhaps I’d been hasty in marking her. In loving her. But I’d been unable to resist her demands, her moans of pleasure, her beauty.
And I had enjoyed loving her body, more than anything else in the world.
Unable to take it any longer, because it was important that she trust me, I flew down close to the river, and then dropped onto the sandy shore along one side.
When I released her, she whirled and backed away from me, her eyes wide, her hands lifted. “Stay there. Please.” She looked around, as if searching for a stick or some other weapon.
Damn. Did she think my dragon would hurt her?
I wanted to stomp and fume and send my flames shooting to the top of the cavern, but that would only make things worse.
I shifted quickly into my man form, shrugging off the agony the change caused like clothing at bedtime.
“Jenny,” I said, starting toward her.
“Please!” Panic filled her voice.
Sighing, I halted. Dropped my hands to my sides. I studied her face—pinched with concern, and knew I needed to take this slowly.
I glanced around. Scented the air. And listened.
We were alone. Good.
We’d rest here for some time. Maybe, if I stayed away from her and showed her I meant her no harm, she’d begin to trust me.
The thought of having to release her—now that I’d just found her—burned through me like the worst caustic acid.
But I’d do it, if she insisted.
I’d never make her remain here with me. Staying here—as my mate—had to be her willing choice.
I strolled down to the shore and walked beside the water, eventually finding and pulling a number of thick, tuberous roots from the soil. After cleaning them in the river, I returned to where Jenny stood, watching my every move, like a mother hen with her tiny flock of chicks.
After gathering up downed wood, I created a circle in the sand made up of large stones, with soft sand in the center, and stacked the wood inside.
Jenny crept closer.
I watched her from the corner of my eye, but kept my motions slow. Gentle. Non-threatening.
Unfortunately, I had to shift to light the fire.
Knowing when I left my home that I was going only to the Lifegiver for a mate-blessing, I’d left my pack behind. I had no clothing with me. No food. No tinder to spark a flame.
Staring at the wood would do nothing. It needed a spark, which only my dragon could provide.
Straightening, I shifted quickly.
With a gasp, Jenny backed away again.
I tried to tell myself there was less fear in her eyes this time, but I couldn’t be certain. I wanted this—her—more than anything, and it hurt to see her run from me.
As the fire crackled merrily, I settled beside it as a man again. With sharp sticks, I stabbed the roots I’d dug and roasted them over the flames. In no time, their rich, delicious scent swirled through the air. My empty belly rumbled.
Prepared correctly, these roots were both savory and filling. They were staple of my people’s diet, since they were made up mostly of protein.
I could’ve caught and killed a living creature, but I was careful never to take a life if I didn’t need to.
I rarely ate meat.
These plants were more satisfying than anything we dragons had consumed on the Earth’s surface ages ago.
Sacrificial princesses and random cows were overrated.
My stomach rumbled again. Hers must be aching, too.
I was tempted to chase her down, capture her, like she’d captured me at the falls. After all, that was what male dragons did once they’d been granted the Lifegiver’s blessing. We stalked our women. Dragged them home with us. Where we wooed them and wed them.
Then bedded them.
I’d definitely taken this process out of order.
But not any longer.
I’d follow each step as I’d been taught since I was a fledgling, and if things went well, Jenny would be mine again.
This time, forever.
Chapter Nine
Jenny
I’d fucked a fucking dragon. Well, he hadn’t been in dragon form when I fucked him.
But still.
Whatever he was cooking smelled delicious.
My belly, a vast crater inside me, begged me to creep up to him and ask for a share.
But I was scared. Not of Drek, the man, but of the creature he could become.
How could I trust that wild side of him not to hurt me? Was he even aware of who he was—let alone who I was—while he was in dragon form?
For all I knew, he’d rip me apart and eat me.
And not in a good way.
I’d watched as he pulled plants near the shore, washed them, then set them on a large, flat stone. He’d gathered wood and stacked it in a pit he built, then shifted into his dragon form.
As I gasped and backed away, he exhaled onto the wood, catching it on fire. In seconds, he became a man again. Like changing his shape was as easy as putting on or tugging off a hoodie.
But he’d groaned as he changed. Did it hurt?
While he tended the food, he didn’t even look in my direction. Which, in some ways, irked me. Had he had his fill and was done with me already?
I shouldn’t be in a snit because some guy might not want me after a few romps in the hay. Or, on the moss. In the water…
Whatever.
However, wouldn’t that be just like every other guy I’d met to screw me and forget me?
So much for all his mate crap.
I shouldn’t expect him to still want me, now that he’d had me multiple times. In fact, I should be taking this opportunity to escape. Who needed his friends to find mine? I’d track them down myself. Then, together, we could return to the surface.
Why wasn’t I running?
Maybe because I had no clue where I’d go. Up could eventually lead me down, and vice versa.
And maybe I remained rooted in my spot because I still did
want to be near Drek. I’d be stupid to think this was all about sex for me, even if he didn’t feel the same way.
I shouldn’t be longing for Drek because of all this dragon business, but I couldn’t help myself.
He was my sole provider in this scary new world. I also needed him for companionship. And maybe, a tiny part of my heart suggested, I was starting to care for him.
“That train of thought is dangerous,” I whispered.
Drek stilled, as if he’d heard me, but he leaned forward and tossed another piece of wood on the fire. He turned his root things that were roasting over the coals.
I took a few steps closer to him, fully expecting him to pounce. Parts of me kinda hoped he would, as long as he landed on top of me.
Fuck, I was beyond wanton.
Wanting, that is.
“You’re a damn slut,” I hissed.
Great. I was talking to myself, now.
He added more sticks to the fire. Rotated the roots again. More yummy smells drifted my way, and my mouth watered.
“This is ridiculous,” I said softly, ignoring the fact that I was talking to myself. Again. I paced back and forth behind Drek, who continued to stare at the fire, leaving me to whatever fever consumed me.
He hadn’t hurt me in man form. Not in dragon form, either.
Those claws…! As long as my forearm, they were designed to shred other creatures.
I couldn’t withhold my shiver.
But he’d gone out of his way to take care while he held me. I hadn’t even gotten scratched. And when he lifted me up onto his back, and I’d held on, he’d shown me the beauty of his world.
“When you’re a dragon…” I took a few steps toward him, speaking louder.
“Yes?” He didn’t turn. Didn’t make a single threatening move my way.
“Are you aware of who you are?” I asked. “Or are you lost in the beast?”
Despite the fact that I was warming up to him—again—I quivered. Sure, I’d enjoyed reading my share of shifter romance books, but that was fantasy.
No, this was reality. My new reality. The question was: did I want this reality to be a part of my future?
In more ways than one, I did.
Captured by a Dragon Page 5