Emin's Mate

by Selena Scott

  Sliding down his body she nipped at his chest and stomach, pressing her face into his warm, taut skin. And when she didn’t stop at his hips, when she kept scooting lower, gripping him with her fingers, Solar knotted his hands in her hair.

  “Zara,” he warned her.

  But she didn’t listen. She’d never done this before but she wasn’t tentative. She’d had enough of being shy and scared to last her a lifetime. Not with Solar. Never with Solar. She was never going to melt into the background of Solar’s life. She was going to be in the front, in technicolor. Gripping the base of his erect cock with one hand, Zara impaled her warm, wet mouth with it. Swallowing as much of him down as she could in one swift swoop.

  Solar’s hips came up off the bed. “Fuck,” he groaned and his hand in her hair tightened.

  Zara let him slide a little bit out of her mouth and swirled the head with her tongue, sucking with her mouth and rubbing him with her hand. He was so big that she couldn’t take all of him by a long shot, but she was determined to make it so good that he would know exactly how she felt about him. Zara worked him up and down in her mouth and she could feel him rising toward ecstasy. His breathing was ragged and fierce, his hips moved in little involuntary motions as she worked him with her mouth.

  “You’re mine,” he bit out and she looked up at him, nodded her head. “You’re mine, Zara.” This time he held her head in place and moved his hips, fucking into her mouth.

  His eyes were dilated and his movements rough. “Mine. Mate. Forever. Mine.” Each word was punctuated with a thrust of his hips into her. Suddenly, his face tightened and Zara tried to bear down on him, keep him in her mouth, but he had other ideas. Swiftly flipping her onto her back, Solar reared up over her, and exploded over her stomach. Pressing himself into her, and jerking against her.

  “Wife,” he gasped and panted as his warm, wet pleasure spilled out over her. “You’re my wife.”

  He collapsed next to her and the two of them laid in silence, only their breath punctuating the still air.

  “Wow,” he murmured. “I’m pretty sure we just lost our minds.” He propped up on his hand and gave her a shy little grin. “Was this okay with you?” He gestured to the mess he’d made of her stomach.

  Zara laughed and grinned back at him. “I mean, we probably won’t be able to tell other people about the way we got engaged but…”

  Solar threw his head back and laughed. He hopped out of bed and grabbed a towel. He wetted it with water from her tureen and came back to her, quickly cleaning her up. “I thought you never wanted another husband,” he said. His eyes drew hers and she sighed.

  “I think I was still equating the word husband with Dalyer.” She looked off into the distance. “It honestly never occurred to me that I could want to be mates with someone. That I could be a wife to someone who respected me.”

  “What about someone who loves you?’

  The words froze Zara in place. He loved her. Holy crap. “I love you, too!” she burst out, practically screaming it, before she slapped her hands over her mouth. “Sorry, I meant to be a little calmer about that.”

  Again, Solar laughed. He tugged her hands away from her mouth and kissed and kissed her. They kissed so long they forgot dinner. They kissed so long they drifted into sleep, forgetting, for a moment, the danger that was stretched out before them.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Solar gritted his dragon fangs together and resisted the urge to roar. Roaring wouldn’t solve anything. Except for the gnawing in the pit of his stomach. He wanted to roar loud enough to shake the mountain down. They’d been bushwhacking through the Shina Mountains for almost two days and Solar missed the jungle. He hated the cold of the mountain, he hated the skinny trees and how you could always see the sky. But mostly he hated that Dalyer could be around any outcropping or valley. And that Zara was just there. Exposed. Vulnerable. There.

  She should be back in the jungle, netting fish, building campfires, helping salamanders from one branch to the next. But instead she was here, walking beside him, looking good enough to eat and making him want to roar until his throat died. But of course he couldn’t do that. This was a stealth mission after all.

  But Zara just looked so delicate. So sweet. So human. The rest of the Surgere had shifted already. She was the only one left in her human form. Her fertility scent was much more potent in her human form and that’s what they were using to lure Dalyer from hiding. But it certainly didn’t help matters that Zara smelled so good that he wanted to pin her down and put about a thousand babies in her. She had to have one of the strongest fertility scents that he’d ever smelled.

  He kind of loved that. His feminine, delicate, long-haired, big-eyed, sweet little Zara smelled like sex on two legs. But he hated the thought of other dragon shifters smelling her scent. He could see the way the other males in the Surgere were skirting around her, trying to ignore her siren’s call. They all knew that Solar was on the edge. Looking for a reason to rip the scales off somebody’s tail.

  He had to get his mind off it. Luckily, the Oracle sidled up next to Solar as the dragons marched through the cover of the trees. The light blinked off of the Oracle’s turquoise blue scales. The shadows of the pine trees danced across him as they moved.

  “We’re getting close,” O whispered to Solar. This was part of the plan. They flew as a group to the edge of the Shina Mountains, keeping well away from any towns or provinces where dragon shifters could see them and report to the king’s armies. Once they got to the base of the mountain range, they proceeded on foot, but in their dragon forms, ready to fight at any given second.

  They figured two things. When they got close to Dalyer they would start to see crows. That was how he’d been communicating with his armies. Messenger bird. They knew this because about two years ago they’d intercepted one while they were camping on the beaches of the West Ocean. It had been the only way they’d known to move camps. The letter between the dragon general and Dalyer had contained way too much information about the Surgere camp.

  The other thing they figured was that the closer they got to Dalyer, the fuzzier the Oracle’s gift would get. Dalyer had some way of obscuring O’s sight. They had no idea how, only that it was potent.

  “You’re getting fuzzy?” Solar asked O as they walked beside one another. Zara glanced over at them as they whispered together.

  The Oracle nodded, shaking his sculpted dragon head as if he had water in his ears. “Like trying to see through the back of my head. If I had to guess, he’s close.”

  “Sol,” Zara whispered and pointed above them. Sure enough, a lone blackbird winged through the air, so high that it was just a speck of black in an ocean of bright blue sky.

  Solar’s heart dropped to his toes. This meant that it was time for Zara to proceed alone. Without them. If Dalyer smelled other dragons with her, he’d understand it was a trap right away. She had to wander into Dalyer’s territory, as if she’d come looking for him when her fertility season hit. The idea was laughable to both Solar and Zara, but Dalyer had always been self-involved enough, short-sighted enough, that there was a good chance he’d believe it. Plus, Zara had been kidnapped, she hadn’t run away. There was a chance he believed that she would have preferred to stay with him.

  The group of dragons halted. This was it. This was as far as they went until Zara managed to lure Dalyer back toward them. An uneasy feeling rose and settled over the group. What had seemed so easy intellectually was much harder in practice. Keiko rushed forward in her dark brown dragon form. She couldn’t really touch Zara without risking shredding her delicate human skin. So instead she settled for lowering her head to Zara’s eye level.

  “Be smart. Come home at the end of it.” Keiko’s voice was much grander, more willowy in dragon form. But her words sounded out over the group. It reassured Solar to see how many people loved Zara. He wouldn’t be the only one fighting for her safety today.

  Zara took a deep breath and turned toward Solar and the
Oracle. Solar knew he was breaking the protocol that he, himself, had put into place but he couldn’t help it. He immediately shifted back to his human form and grabbed Zara to him, hugging her tightly.

  “Don’t linger. Don’t push it. If you get a bad feeling, shift and get the fuck out of there. If you can’t get away, roar. I’ll hear you. I’ll come for you. I’ll be there in a second.”

  “I know, Sol. We’ve been over the plan a hundred times. It’s gonna be alright. We’re gonna get him. We’re gonna end this.” Zara went up on her toes and planted a kiss on Solar’s lips. Brief, but passionate. They both knew that if she didn’t go now they would lose their gumption.

  Zara broke away from Solar and turned toward the forest. But she froze in her tracks, her mouth halfway open as a naked Oracle stood in his human form in front of her.

  “Jesus, O,” Solar muttered, dragging a hand over his face.

  The Oracle followed Zara’s eyes down to his very exposed nether regions. “Yeah,” he said, putting one hand in front of himself. “Guess I didn’t really think through the intimacy of this moment.” He cleared his throat. “Just wanted to give you a hug goodbye.”

  Both Zara and Solar raised their eyebrows at him. But he ignored them, pulling Zara in for a quick, if not stiff - on her end, anyways - hug.

  “Be careful, Z,” the Oracle said. “And if you can’t be careful, be vicious. As fuck. I’m talking carnage. K?”

  “Okay,” she smiled at O, turned back to look in Solar’s eyes one last time, and walked into the forest.

  The Oracle and Solar shifted back almost immediately, standing humongous shoulder to humongous shoulder. “And now we wait.”

  There was a weariness, a grit and anxiety in his voice that he hadn’t let Zara hear moments before.

  Solar was grateful to have his friend at his side in what was sure to be one of the longest waits of his life.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Weirdly enough, this was one of the most beautiful places that Zara had ever been. The pine trees climbed the mountain like soldiers, each one so stoic and dignified. She tried to draw strength as she hiked. She didn’t have a particular path in mind. The wind was changing today, blowing in a few different directions. They had all hoped that would mean that her scent would go farther that way. That there was a better chance of him seeking her out.

  Personally, Zara didn’t really understand what the whole deal with the mating scent was. She didn’t think she smelled any different. But she supposed it didn’t really matter as long as this whole thing worked.

  Zara sighed and kept walking. The forest was peaceful in the late afternoon sun, the air crisp and sharp, the way it is right before a snowfall. Zara found her nerves calming, settling the more she walked.

  Until she heard a bird caw in a tree. She whirled around, caught sight of it about twenty yards away. A blackbird. Staring right at her. Dragons couldn’t communicate directly with blackbirds. But everyone knew they were smart animals. They had motivations, desires, fears. And this one was watching her.

  A stick cracked to her left and she whirled again, scanning the forest. The tree line was thinner up here so there was a lot of light between the trees. She saw nothing out of the ordinary. Just a forest. And maybe that blackbird was an ordinary blackbird. She couldn’t completely turn her back to it, though. Instead, Zara changed directions, walked with the bird on her side. At least until it got out of sight.

  She kept one eye on it as she willed herself to walk in a straight line. Head up. One foot in front of the other.

  She was concentrating so hard on the bird that she didn’t see the man behind the tree, watching her with one wrinkled eye. His face much older, much beadier than the last time she saw him. And she didn’t see his dragon tail, the only part of him that shifted, rise up behind him like a scorpion. And she didn’t see the poison spikes on the reach out to her.

  But she felt them. Her hand instantly covered the scratch on her shoulder; pulling it away, she saw blood on her palm.

  At first, it was confusion that clouded her vision. And then it was the toxins swimming through her system. Zara felt herself sway on her feet. Looked up at the blue, blue sky. The same color as Solar’s scales. It was the last thought she’d have before her mind swam and she fell unconscious.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  “It’s been too long,” Solar said as he flexed and folded his wings behind him. “Something’s wrong.”

  The Oracle sat behind him, his wings folded over his head, giving him quiet and dark while he searched for his gift. Any clues as to what was going on with Zara. But when the Oracle looked up at him, Solar knew he’d had no luck. O’s dragon face was lined with fatigue and he looked more serious than he’d ever seen him.

  “It hasn’t been as long as it feels like, Sol,” Javi said as he approached Solar’s flank. “But I agree that something doesn’t feel right. Should we send a scout?”

  “No,” Solar shook his head. “If he scents the scout then this will all have been for nothing. We just have to trust her. Trust that she can do this. She’s strong.”

  Keiko approached the men, a sudden, wild look in her eye. “What is that? Can you smell it? What is it?”

  The three men all lifted their heads to the air, attempting to catch the scent she was talking about. They couldn’t. Keiko had a notoriously sharp sense of smell. She whipped her head in frustration as the wind changed.

  “There! Now can you-”

  “FUCK!” Solar yelled, instantly winging himself into the air, lifting off with three great beats of his wings.

  “It’s poison,” Javi said, following suit immediately.

  “And Dalyer,” O said, swinging into the air himself. “I’d know that stench anywhere.”

  “Well, I’ll be damned if I’m staying here,” Keiko muttered to herself and took off after them. She had to admire the three of them as they jetted off in front of her. Solar in the lead by a long shot, midnight blue and streaking through the air like a bullet. Then Javi, a deep brown tank of a dragon. And last, the Oracle, a gorgeous turquoise blue, seeming almost to float on the air.

  Solar flew faster than he’d ever flown in his life. His wings were the air itself; he wished his nose was better, he wished Keiko was a faster flyer and could tell him exactly where to go.

  But then Solar didn’t need his nose to track Dalyer down. He just needed his eyes. The blood-red dragon lay in wait in the forest below. He must have smelled them coming and shifted. Because he was down there, waiting. Flicking his tail back and forth and standing over something.

  Zara.

  Laying inert on the ground. She looked like a doll a child had left behind. Solar’s heart died. Then caught on fire. He would kill Dalyer.

  He had wanted to kill Dalyer for most of his life. First when Solar had grown up as a servant in the castle. He’d watched the disgusting tyrant run his household staff ragged. Never recognizing their humanity or treating them with anything resembling respect. And then when he’d learned that he’d taken Zara as a child bride. And again when Solar had to choose between the revolution and his best childhood friend, Amos. Amos had been Dalyer’s bodyguard. Born and bred. Solar had lost his family the day he’d walked away from Amos and Zara. But he’d done it because he believed in freedom. He believed in finding a way to depose Dalyer.

  But the deposing days were done. The wait-him-out in the hills days were done. The gut-him-like-a-deer days were just beginning. Dalyer stood over Solar’s mate, keeping Solar from getting to her. Dalyer was going to die. He was going to feel tremendous amounts of pain. And then he was going to die.

  Dalyer roared from below and Solar was infinitely grateful to see Zara stir. Solar dove at Dalyer but pulled up when he saw Dalyer’s spiky tail poised over top of Zara’s fragile body. He swooped up into the air, over the tops of the trees. At this point, the Oracle, Javi, and Keiko were circling overhead, all waiting for their moments to strike.

  Solar knew it was only a matter of seconds
before Javi charged the scene. He had never been a very patient fighter. But the man knew how to massacre. And it reassured Solar to have Keiko there as well. She wasn’t all that fast, but she was ferocious. There was nothing her teeth couldn’t tear. And then there was O. The strangest, most effective fighter that Solar had ever seen. He fought the way some men danced, fluid and almost romantic.

  This was not a squad you’d want to take on single-handed.

  Dalyer’s eyes narrowed at his winnowing odds against all these dragons. His feet stamped the ground and Solar felt his heart contract when one of those feet landed inches away from Zara. She stirred again. This time one of her hands came to her forehead. Please wake up. Please. Zara.

  But then Solar’s attention was torn from his love and back to Dalyer. Solar watched as the blood-red dragon reared his head back in a strange stance. Jutting forward, he spat something through the air. Beside Solar, Javi made a guttural noise. He clutched at his throat as he flapped to the ground.

  Dalyer was shooting poison. Solar lunged downward, trying to get to Javi, but Dalyer shot another barrage of whatever poisonous darts he’d just hit Javi with. Again, Solar was forced to pull up, back into the sky and out of range. He roared at Dalyer as he watched his friend plummet toward the ground.

  But that didn’t stop the Oracle and Keiko. They used the way that Solar had drawn Dalyer’s attention to shoot to Javi’s side. They lunged together, by some miracle missing the cloud of poisonous darts Dalyer shot at them. Keiko landed with a thump next to Javi but O wasn’t so lucky.

  Dalyer whipped out with his tail and caught O firmly on his shoulder and wing. The Oracle roared with pain as his wing was shredded like tissue paper. Dalyer reared back and struck with his tail again and a large, bloody chunk of O’s flesh came flying off into the air. The Oracle spun out of control, hitting a tree and then the ground with a sickening thunk. He didn’t move. He didn’t get up. All he did was crumple.