by Mina Carter
She’d leapt to her feet, her heart in her throat at the sight of her champion fighting three of the dreaded creatures on his own. His shift magic in the air called to her as three other blacks surrounded her—Calan, Adra and Nik, all in various stages of shift. Cadie’s dragon roared within, demanding to be let out to go and help Sawyer.
“HELP HIM!” she ordered, calling scale to protect her human skin. “PROTECT THE COURT!”
Calan and Adra leapt forward to do her bidding, the former casting a quick look back at his mate, Saskia, standing beside the dais. The poor thing looked utterly terrified, but had a poker from the fireplace of all things grasped tightly in her small hands. Cadie grabbed her, shoving her cousin-in-law safely behind her.
“I got this… GO!” she ordered Calan and then focused on the golems that had dared to invade her hall, her home, and threaten her people.
Reaching deep inside herself, she welcomed her dragon’s touch, relaxing into the creature’s embrace. Not enough to trigger the change, even though the shift magic from her blacks as they launched themselves into battle tempted her.
She couldn’t shift. Not at the moment. Couldn’t afford to.
Yes, her dragon was intelligent, almost scarily so… but it was more a feral, primal intelligence. Some things, like figuring out the spell powering the golems, needed a human mind. She needed to figure out the how, and then take it apart with magic, not fire and fury. And right now, seeing Sawyer and her other blacks battling creatures that would crush them to a pulp without remorse, her dragon was way too stompy-snarly to be of any use.
Closing her eyes for a moment, she reinforced the connection between herself and the creature inside. Pulling on its magical nature, she opened her eyes again.
This time, the world was painted in starlight and sparkles… the only way she could describe magic as a creature born purely of it saw the stuff. It surrounded everything, as much a part of the makeup of the world as the ordinary matter human scientists insisted was the only thing there.
It darkened as it swirled around her blacks, outlining their scales as they fought and making their wings shimmer in the air. Flames lit them up periodically as they fried the shadows the golems were using to smash and destroy. They crushed pillars and furniture as they stomped around, trying to get past the line of dragons to where Cadeyra stood.
The one in the lead stopped for a second, lifting its head to look her in the eye, its own filled with dark flames. It lifted a hand to point at her. She snarled, squinting a little as she noted the way the magic that powered it was put together. It wasn’t dragon magic, not any she’d seen anyway, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t fight it. This was her home, her court, and her people to protect… and no asshole sorcerer was going to stop her doing that.
Lifting her hands, she called the power of the court itself, the anchor and heart stones embedded in the very buildings themselves feeding her power from the ley-lines they sat upon. She smiled as the power surged through her until her very skin glowed with the gold of her dragon, her hands white hot as she lifted them high in the air.
“BEGONE!” she ordered, shoving her hands down and out.
Power rolled through the air in an unstoppable wave, washing over her crouching dragons and slamming into the golems. They shattered apart, her magic dismissing the shadows that gave them form, and within a second, they were gone as though they’d never been.
Silence descended on the room, so complete that her ears buzzed. Then the room tilted and she staggered to the side a little. Weak, she felt weak… but then, banishing golems of that magnitude wasn’t something she did every day.
“Secure the area!” Sawyer strode toward her, his expression grim. Before she knew what he was about, he’d scooped her up and was striding toward the window. “Let me know when you have everything secured,” he ordered Adra, who had followed them, over his shoulder. “You know where to find me.”
“What are you doing?” she squeaked, pushing at his shoulders as he crunched over the broken glass and wood of the windows out onto the balcony. “Put me down this instant!”
His eyes glittered with fury as he continued walking, stepping up onto the stone railings. “The palace has been breached and my first duty is to protect you, so shut the fuck up and let me do my job.”
And then he dropped over the edge with her in his arms.
Chapter 6
“What the fucking hell did you think you were playing at?”
The furious voice from inside the palace caught Adra’s attention and she paused in her rounds to listen. She was a black, charged with protecting the palace and all inside, so such things were totally within her remit, especially after the attack on the crowded ballroom earlier. They were all on high alert. Extra patrols. Extra security measures. Hell, Sawyer had even gone so far as to spirit the queen away to scale knew where.
So if she should happen to pass by the east wing, where their foreign guests were staying, that was just a coincidence. Seventeen coincidences.
Sliding down the wall, she kept her serpentine body close to the brickwork and her wings folded neatly against her back. The light breeze brought the faint sounds of the city below up to her as she crept closer to the open window.
Luckily she was downwind of the window, so her scent wouldn’t wash into the room, but still, she was careful as she edged closer and peeked into the window with just one eye.
Prince Henrick stood in the middle of the room, his fancy jacket with all its bling and braid hanging open, glowering at the man in front of him.
“I’m so s-s-sorry, Your Highness,” the smaller man stammered. “It won’t happen again. I promise.”
Adra’s eyes narrowed. What wouldn’t happen again? What was the man… she took a deep breath in but scented nothing but human and dragon in the room… sorry about?
“Oh, it won’t… I can promise you that,” Henrick growled, smoke billowing from his nostrils.
The human servant closed his eyes, obviously petrified, and Adra’s estimation of the prince dropped further. After seeing him shove some of the women aside to make his own escape earlier, it was already pretty low, and now it hit rock bottom.
What kind of asshole threatened a human? They had no defense, not against dragonkind… hell, not against most of the paranormal races. They relied on their armies and weaponry to maintain the balance with other species, neither of which this human had right now.
She edged closer as Henrick muttered, hoping to catch something she could relay back to the rest of the twelve. But just as she did, her back claw scraped against the brickwork. The sound was like nails on a chalkboard, cutting through the air, and Henrick’s head snapped up.
“What was that?” he demanded, storming toward the window. Before he could reach it and see her, Adra let go of her perch and dropped backward into the darkness, letting the shadows swallow her up. With the darkness of her scales and the night, there was no way anyone from the guest quarters would be able to see her from the windows.
The wind rushed around her as she plummeted toward the ground. It was something she hadn’t done for years, not since she was an irresponsible teen out to impress… well, anyone. But it felt good, fun, and she grinned a wide, toothy grin, closing her eyes to savor the rush as the ground raced to meet her. A few seconds before impact, she snapped her wings open, stopping her fall instantly.
The move left her hovering mere feet above the ground. Tucking her wings, she dropped to the ground, folding her dragon form within her human body with the ease of long practice. Readjusting her clothing after the shift, a neat perk of being a dragon shifter rather than any other type, she strode through the doors in front of her and headed toward the council’s chambers to report her findings.
“What the hell was that?” Cadie demanded the instant Sawyer touched down and folded his dragon form within his human one, still with her in his arms.
She had no clue where they were, other than a patio at the top of a building in the mi
ddle of the city. She twisted but she didn’t get time to check out the skyline and figure it out before he strode inside through a pair of bi-folding glass doors. They slid shut soundlessly behind him and finally he looked at her.
“Necessary,” he bit out, his eyes still dark with his dragon.
“Screw necessary! We were attacked! I should be back there, dealing with this! Not… gods know where. Actually, where the hell are we?” she hissed, struggling and slapping at his shoulders to make him let her go.
He’d carried her here in his claws, somehow holding her shift within, and that pissed her off more than anything. To not be able to shift when she wanted to… nothing scared her more. Of course, she could have blasted him with her magic, but she would have injured him, possibly even killed him if he’d fallen out of the sky.
“You don’t need to be back there. In fact, you’ll put more people in danger if you are. Whoever sent those golems wasn’t bothered about collateral damage.” His voice was clipped as he let go of her knees and dropped her to her feet. “And this is my home.”
She looked at his back in utter surprise as he walked to the doors again, passing his hand over a panel at the side. Heavy duty shutters dropped on the other side of the glass with a rattle and a clank, sealing them in. The slight green-grey shimmer across the metal told her they were heavily spelled. No one was getting in, or out by the looks of it.
Anger hit her hard and fast.
“General, you forget yourself!” she snapped, stopping just short of stamping her foot. “Let me out right now!”
He whipped around, moving faster than she’d ever seen him move. Before she could step back out the way, his hand was fisted in the hair at the nape of her neck. He glared down at her, anger and something else written in the backs of his eyes.
“I forget myself, do I?”
His voice was low. Ominous. Had he been anyone else, she’d have been seriously worried. But this was Sawyer. Instead of inspiring fear, the dangerous tones sent fire through her blood. Her body tightened, pussy clenching as liquid heat slipped from her to dampen her panties.
Her eyes widened as the scent of her arousal filled the air. There was no way he hadn’t smelled it. They were dragons… who tracked their prey through scent. His nostrils flared, his eyes darkening another notch and she realized she’d just become his.
“Perhaps I should forget myself a little more…” he growled, hand tightening in her hair. Tilting her head back, his lips crashed down over hers.
Heat and need exploded between them with the force of an inferno. She gasped and clung to him as her lips parted automatically under his. He didn’t pass up the invitation, his tongue sweeping along the parted seam and driving within. A moan rose in the back of her throat as he stroked her tongue with his, sliding against it and demanding her response. His free hand snaked around her waist, spreading out across the small of her back to yank her up hard against him.
Held firmly in his embrace, she couldn’t move. Didn’t want to. Pressing against him, she spread her hands over his chest and tried to get closer as she kissed him back. He growled again, the hand on her back sliding down to cup her ass, pressing her groin flush to his.
She gasped at the feel of his erection against her soft belly. He was huge, long and thick. Heat washed through her again, wave after unstoppable wave. She should have pushed him away, should have stopped this right here and now, but she couldn’t.
Pressing her thighs together, she whimpered as need and anticipation rolled through her. She wanted this. More than she needed air to breathe or her dragon needed the wind beneath her wings. She wanted him. Not some fancy, jumped up prince who thought he could wow her because he’d been born with a silver spoon in his mouth.
She wanted a real man. A real dragon.
No, she wanted Sawyer… because he was Sawyer.
He felt her surrender and paused, lifting his head to look down into her face.
“Cadeyra?” His voice was soft, his grip gentling a little in her hair, but not enough to let her go. “You need to tell me to stop.”
She hid her smile at the order. That was so like him. He’d boss the world around if he could.
“What happens if I don’t?”
She didn’t want to tell him to stop. Not now. She wanted more of his mouth on hers, more of his body against hers… and she definitely wanted what was going to happen next.
He looked at her for a long moment and she felt like she could see right down to his soul. Heat. Need. Possessiveness. His cock pulsed against her belly and she bit her lip, trying to stay still and not influence him in any way.
He growled again, gaze riveted to where her teeth mangled the soft flesh of her lower lip.
“If you don’t, I’ll pick you up and carry you through to my bedroom. I’ll strip you naked, kiss every inch of you, pleasure you… I don’t care that you’re the queen. Tonight you’ll be on your knees in front of me, screaming my name as I make you come.” He leaned down to whisper against her ear. “Again and again.”
She swallowed, closing her eyes as her brain conjured up that image and played it out behind her eyes in full on pornographic detail. Her fingers curled into his shirt as she whispered.
“Please…” Opening her eyes, she looked up at him. “Tonight I don’t want to be a queen. I just want to be a woman. Your woman.”
Chapter 7
He moved without warning, scooping her up into his arms again to stride toward the door. He seemed to like picking her up and carrying her, but she didn’t protest, curling up against his broad chest as if she’d been made to be there.
“Oh, you are, little bug.” He pushed the door open with a foot and strode through. “You always have been. You just didn’t know it.”
Her reply was to lean in and plant a soft kiss on the side of his neck. His sharp intake of breath was enough to make her do it again, and again, planting tiny kisses along the stubbled length of his jaw. She’d been fascinated with him from the moment she’d met him… had spent many boring meetings fantasizing about running her fingers against his jaw to see if his skin was as prickly as it looked. Of kissing him.
Reality was way better than fantasy.
He turned his head and captured her lips, parting them with a swift move to thrust his tongue into the soft sweetness of her mouth. Letting go of her knees, he didn’t drop her feet to the floor like he had before. This time, he slid her slowly down the front of his body, letting her feel every hard plain of muscle along the way.
“Pretty as this is,” he hooked a finger under the neckline of her strapless gown, between her breasts, “it needs to come off.”
She nodded, her breath catching as she turned and swept up her hair, presenting her back to him. Strong fingers found the zipper and eased it down. Shivers rolled down her spine as cool air washed over her skin.
The gown slipped and fell to the floor in a silken cloud around her feet, leaving her standing in her panties and heels. Refusing to cover up, she turned, her chin lifted despite her nerves, to watch his reaction.
He held her gaze for a moment, and she couldn’t have looked away even if she’d wanted to. Then, slowly, he looked down. His gaze raking over her was like a caress. Her back arched, nipples tightening to hard points as though he’d actually touched her. A flush hit her cheeks when he growled, a soft sound in the back of his throat, and his eyes darkened.
“You’re beautiful.” The murmur was in the lowest voice she’d ever heard from him and she wanted to whimper as his deep tones seemed to stroke every nerve ending she had. Biting her lip, she waited for him to touch her.
“Gods’ sake, Cadie, don’t look at me like that,” he growled and the next second she was in his arms again, his strong hands smoothing over her curves. “Or you’ll be under me in a heartbeat, your legs spread as I—”
He didn’t finish the sentence, his mouth crashing down over hers. She felt the battle within him, need and desire waging with the control he was famous for. His body
shook, tense as he shoved his hand in her hair again, holding her still as he plundered her lips.
She didn’t make it easy for him. Arching her back, she pressed herself against his body and wrapped herself around him. Lifting her foot, she tried to stroke it seductively down his leg, only to stab him with the heel.
“Crap, sorry…” she broke the kiss enough to murmur against his lips, embarrassment flooding her cheeks with color. But he didn’t let her go, grabbing the back of her knee and lifting it up over his hip.
The move opened her completely. He shoved his thigh between hers, holding her close and grinding his hips against hers. His cock, thick and hard in his pants, pressed against her pussy lips and she whimpered in response.
“Don’t be.” He nipped lightly at her lower lip and then nudged her chin higher so he could kiss down her neck. “I’m not.”
All she could do was cling to him, hands roving over his broad shoulders as he blazed a trail of fire down the front of her throat. Easing the fabric of his shirt off, she hissed in pleasure as she found warm, satin skin to stroke.
His hand on her knee slid down her thigh, and he grabbed a handful of her ass as he bent her backward. Totally supported in his strong embrace, she arched her back, clit aching as he bent his head to her breasts. The hot breath across her nipples made her pussy clench and a second later, he swept a warm, wet… rough tongue over one.
“Ohhh!” she moaned, pleasure arcing from her tightened nipple straight down to her clit. Her hips rocked against him, the movement involuntary. Another swipe of his tongue and she slid her hands up into his short hair, holding him to her, but the pleasure was nothing yet… He took her nipple into his mouth and she cried out as the sensitive peak was drawn into the warm cavern. He sucked and she whimpered. He licked and she shuddered in his arms. Then he nipped her lightly and she clenched hard, liquid heat escaping her to soak her panties.