Reyna’s hand flew to her mouth. “You must have been terrified out of your wits.”
“I was. Then Rohn came back to the Keep to get Callan and Damen to butcher the morlock. I wandered off again and got lost, but Rohn came and found me. We were.... we were walking along when that red dragon from the mountain swooped down and grabbed me in his mouth. He carried me up to his nest on the mountaintop.”
Reyna rounded on her friends. “I’ve been saying all along that dragon was dangerous. We should get rid of him.”
“That’s not the end of it, though. Moira was in that nest.”
Flurries of excited conversation broke out all over again. “Is she badly hurt?”
“We have to go get her.”
“At least we know where she is.”
“How did she get up there?”
“The dragon must have taken her from the waterfall.”
Rose held up her hand for quiet. “She was hurt, but I think she’s okay now. She was still unconscious, but she wasn’t bleeding dangerously. Anyway, the dragon came back, so I couldn’t take her with me.”
“The dragon came back? Did he attack you, too?”
“Actually, I attacked him first. I started fighting with it. Then Rohn came just in time and scared the dragon away. The rest of the time, we’ve been walking back here. That’s why it took so long.”
“We have to find Moira and bring her back.”
“In the morning, we’ll track down Rahni and get him to help us fight the dragon.”
“He must know everything about it.”
“Callan says the dragon isn’t dangerous.”
“You can’t believe that. The dragon could have eaten Moira by now.”
“Why else would he take her up to his nest?”
“He must have smelled blood when she got injured at the waterfall.”
“I’m telling you, that thing is a menace. None of us will be safe until we get rid of him.”
Reyna caught sight of Rose. She sat very still and quiet. She paid no attention to the team’s excited talk. Reyna followed her gaze across the room. Clan Harkniss stood together at a remove from the team. They watched Rose and her friends with glittering eyes.
No one volunteered to go out and slay the dragon. No one seemed at all concerned with bringing Moira back. What were they thinking right now, listening to Rose tell her story?
Reyna glanced up at Damen. A wicked glint sparkled in his eyes, and he sidled over to next to her. He murmured into her ear so no one else could hear. “You’re coming to my room later.”
She glanced up at his face, but he kept his expression neutral. No one would know what he was talking about.
“I have something I want to show you.”
“What is it?”
“You’ll never know if you don’t come to my room.”
What would she do when she left this hall? Should she ignore his summons and go back to her own room to sleep? His words worked into her heart and soul so she couldn’t fight them off. He told her to come. She had to do it.
How could she ignore his command, when she’d already made herself available to him? He could claim her body whenever he wished. She would never resist him. She wouldn’t even try. He knew that as well as she did.
Rose’s eyes skated around the room. Her son Ben sat side by side with Asya in another corner of the room. He leaned close to whisper in her ear. They shared a secret smile between themselves. He hadn’t heard a word his mother said. He didn’t even come over when she entered the room. He was so wrapped up in Asya, he probably never knew his mother was missing.
Rose continued her survey of the room until her eyes lit on Reyna staring down at her. Damen murmured into her ear, but something passed between the two sisters, something unnatural, something Reyna never experienced before.
Something happened to Rose out there in the forest. Reyna put the puzzle pieces together. Whatever it was started here, in this Keep, probably when Rose examined Rohn in her room. Did she find something strange in the Krataks’ physiology? Did he do something to hurt her in that room, something to rob her of her presence of mind and the equilibrium that made her one of the most respected commanders in the service?
Rose returned Reyna’s gaze with stubborn determination. Whatever happened to her, it stood between the sisters like a brick wall. Something preyed on Rose’s mind, and she couldn’t tell Reyna. She had a secret. That secret separated the sisters from each other as nothing else had since they were little girls.
Rose dropped her eyes, and Reyna turned toward Damen. “What do you make of that story?”
“Which story?”
“The one about Rose finding Moira in the dragon’s nest.”
“I’m sure it’s true.”
“Everyone I talk to says that dragon is harmless, but he doesn’t act harmless. Why don’t you get rid of him for everyone’s safety?”
“You heard your sister say he didn’t attack her. She attacked him first. That’s how the fight got started. He would never have attacked her first.”
“What about Moira? Why do you think he took her up to his nest?”
“I couldn’t begin to guess.”
She turned away. Whitney and Tanner left the room, and Rose made some excuse to go back to her own room. Ben and Asya went off together without saying anything to anybody. In the end, none of the team remained but Reyna.
Then the Harkniss family made their excuses. Rohn went one way and Fay and Rowan went another. Damen said nothing. He inclined his head toward the passage where the men stayed and slipped off.
Reyna wandered around the hall. Her mind wandered with her feet and beyond over intractable territory. Moira was out there right now, on top of that mountain with the dragon, if she wasn’t dead already.
What did Rose really see up there? Reyna never doubted her word before today. Now she couldn’t trust her own sister. At any other time, she would have marched off to Rose’s room and demanded a full breast of the facts. Rose couldn’t stand up to Reyna when confronted head on, but another voice pulled Reyna in a different direction.
One thing she knew for sure. She couldn’t spend the night, alone in her room, knowing Damen was waiting for her somewhere else. Would he lie awake all night and hope she showed up? She found that hard to believe.
He didn’t really need her. Did she really need him? She might not need him, but he fulfilled a deep longing in her soul for something more. When she thought back on her life, he was the first and only man she could remember that she really wanted. No other man made her weak in the knees and wet between her legs the way he did.
She never would have stood outside another couple’s door while a man fucked her. She never would have gotten excited at the sight of another couple doing it right in front of her if Damen hadn’t wanted her to see them.
She didn’t understand her own behavior. She understood only one thing. She had to go to him. He wouldn’t come to her after giving her a direct order to come to him. She knew military commands when she heard them, and she was his to command.
She headed down the passage. She stole past rooms with closed doors. She passed one open door, and when she glanced in, she saw Asya sitting on the bed. In front of Reyna’s eyes, Ben came to the door and shut it in Reyna’s face. Did he wonder what she was doing in the men’s corridor?
She went on to the end of the passage. Another window looked out eastward over the endless mountains. Stars studded the clear night sky, and a few purple clouds drifted past overhead. She gazed up at the vastness of space. Her own home and her own people waited for her up there.
She found the last door on the right closed. Damen wouldn’t make it any easier for her to come to him. He wouldn’t come out and get her. She had to do this all on her own.
In that moment, she hated the Allies and everyone connected with them. She hated Rose and Whitney and Moira and her commanders. She hated anyone who stood between her and
Damen. She hated them all for taking her away at the end of the year. She hated them for putting her in this situation where she had to choose between them and a man she couldn’t live without.
She turned her back on the vastness of space. What good was it to her? What good was a career and the respect of people she didn’t care about? Of everyone on the planet right now, Ben could understand her situation best of everyone on the planet at this moment. He gave himself with all his attention to Asya. He didn’t care what his mother or anyone else thought. If Callan or Haya or anyone else threatened him to stay away from her, he paid no attention.
The sight of him in his bedroom door galvanized Reyna’s resolve. He had Asya in his room. Nothing would stop him from doing his level best to win her. He wouldn’t hold back.
She walked over to Damen’s door and knocked. This was it. Her whole life led to this moment.
The door swung open on a pitch-dark room. He didn’t come to meet her and throw his arms around her. She had to enter that room of her own free will, but she didn’t hesitate. She stepped into the dark, and the door swung closed behind her.
Chapter 12
Reyna walked into the dark until her knees bumped into the bed. She didn’t turn around. A musty smell filled the room. It smelled like some kind of animal, a huge, primal, untamed animal. That scent excited her deepest passions. He was in here somewhere. He was watching her right now.
Her breath surged through her nostrils, and her chest heaved. Her crotch tightened and squeezed out the steamy nectar of her sweetest dreams. What did he want her to do? Did he want her to undress and lie down naked on the bed?
Before she could decide what to do, a massive presence came up behind her. Hot breath seared her neck, and a low rumble resounded through the room. She moaned in insatiable desire. She needed his touch, his attention.
“You came.”
“I had to come.”
“Are you mine?”
“Yes.”
“Say it. Let me her you say it.”
“I’m yours. I’ll always be yours.”
“Do you want me?”
“Yes. You know I want you more than anything.”
“Tell me what you want.”
“I want you to touch me. I want you inside me. I want you to own me and use me for your pleasure.”
“Do you trust me?”
“Yes. I trust you with my life.”
He purred under his breath. He hovered there behind her in all his power. His presence filled the whole room. Something rustled with leathery scraping over the floor and against the walls. She started to turn around to see what it was, but his voice barked out, “Stand still!”
She spun around and faced the bed.
“Do exactly as I say, and don’t move until I tell you to. Do you understand?”
“Yes, I understand.”
“Will you do as I say? Will you obey me to the letter?”
“Yes.”
Something hissed and slithered over the rough stones behind her. Something huge moved over the floor at her feet. It shimmered around her ankles. A lightning bolt of fear rocketed up her legs and left a fiery trail through her dripping cunt. She almost doubled over with an agonized groan.
“What’s the matter, Reyna? You said you want me and you trust me. Now you’re going to find out what that really means.”
She fought for every breath, but before she could respond, the thing rose from the floor to touch her leg. It ran like a stream of water over one foot and looped around her ankle. It moved around one calf and up to her knee.
The brittle surface of something thick and warm scratched against her pants. A shiver went up her inner thigh and touched her engorged pussy. Her knees melted at the touch, but the thing kept moving. It surrounded one leg with its muscular bulk. It slipped between her knees and caressed her thighs with its throbbing length.
She couldn’t think. She couldn’t identify the thing, but she didn’t try. Damen was here. He wouldn’t do anything to put her in danger. Whatever happened to her, he wanted to happen to her. He wanted to turn her on, to get her ready to receive him. Whatever she had to do to receive him, she would do.
The thick member moved back and forth between her legs, higher and higher, to her twitching crotch. She rocked on her heels in delirious passion. If the thing would only work its way all the way up against her box, she could grind her tortured flesh against it. She would dive into orgasmic rapture on that powerful thick snake between her legs.
Inch by inch, it worked its way up until it just grazed her burning slit with its sharp surface. Reyna ached to touch it, to stroke it and bring it in against herself, but she dared not contradict Damen. He told her not to move until he gave her the word, but she couldn’t stop herself from running her hands up and down her hips to her outer thighs. She moaned and sobbed for relief.
The thing wormed between her legs until its hard skin brushed up against her pussy lips. It wedged in hard against her tissues, and she groaned in rising excitement. She sat down on its undulating curves and rode the rhythmic waves beating down its length. What was it? She couldn’t decide.
It slithered faster between her legs and around to her ample ass. It squeezed her butt cheeks in its coils and nuzzled into her crack. The thing between her legs wrapped around her waist and hissed up her chest to her breasts.
“Pull your shirt down. Let me see your beautiful tits.”
She yanked down the neckline of her shirt, and her heavy breasts tumbled out. The muscled coils of that slithering creature caught them and cradled their weight in its powerful grip. The scratchy scales annoyed her nipples until she yelped in rabid desire.
Damen’s voice rumbled in her ear. “You like that, don’t you? You like to get off on that. Let me see you get yourself off. Let me see how you ride it.”
She threw herself down on it with all her power. She bucked and cried for it. Without really meaning to, she grabbed hold of it and jammed it against her delicious cunt. From a great distance, she registered the scaly nature of the skin in her hands. Muscles rippled just below the surface and teased her crotch to unimaginable fury. She threw back her head and kicked her hips back and forth to gallop to her orgasm.
She hovered just below the peak of passion when he pulled away. He let her breasts hang free in the pungent darkness. The scaly thing ran around her legs and disappeared back down into the floor.
Damen purred and growled behind her. “You’re hot for me, aren’t you, baby? Do I turn you on like that?”
“Oh, yes. I’m so hot. Everything you do turns me on.”
“Are you my juicy little pussy?”
“Yes.”
“Are you juicy for me right now?”
“Yes. You know I am.”
“Show me how juicy you are for me. Take off your clothes and sit down on the bed.”
She slipped out of her clothes. The heat radiating up through the floor kept her warm, and some other heat source blasted in her direction from across the room. She sat down on the bed, and her saturated lips squished against the blankets. She put her hands behind her. That blanket wasn’t the soft, ornate brocade she saw in the other rooms. It scratched her skin like an old horse blanket.
Something hissed and slithered out there in the dark. Try as she might to strain her eyes, she could see nothing but two burning purple pinpricks of light in the far distance. She locked her eyes on them. She could imagine they came from Damen. She had nothing else to focus on.
“Lean back. Let me look at you.”
She threw back her head and let her long hair trail down her back. She arched her back to push her chest up in the air. She propped her feet on the bed and let her legs fall apart.
“That’s good. That’s my good girl. You’re so beautiful. Does that get you hot, baby? Do you like to show yourself to me?”
“I like it. I want you to see me. You make me so hot.”
“Touch yourself.
I want to see you play with yourself.”
She touched her face and ran her fingers over her lips. Her tongue darted out and licked around her fingers. She sucked her fingers into her mouth and coated them with her slippery saliva.
She couldn’t see him. She used her own desire as a guide. She would show him exactly what she wanted and how much he excited her.
She left a trail of saliva from her pouting lips down her neck to her breast. She hefted one round globe in her hand and bounced it in the direction of his voice. She pinched her nipple and made it stand to attention.
He growled deep in his chest. “Oh, yeah, baby. Show me those tits. Does that get you wet?”
“You know I want you to suck my tits.”
“Finger your pussy. Show me how wet you really are. Show me how you get yourself off.”
She petted her hand down her belly to the garden of delight between her legs. She split her pussy lips with two fingers and pulled them back around her clitoris. Her glistening petals drooped open, and a fresh dribble of juice warmed her ass.
Her mouth fell open, and she moaned in naked lust. She dabbled in her glowing hole and spread the pearly honey around her swelling nub. She rocked on her ass in time to her stroking fingers.
His breath raked across the room. “Rub it harder, baby. I want to hear you beg for my cock. Beg me to fuck you like you know you want to.”
She whimpered in agony. “Oh, God, please fuck me. I need you inside me. Oh, God, that cock is so hard. I need it so bad.”
“Do you want to bend over for me, baby? Do you want to show me that smooth, tight ass of yours?”
“Oh, yeah. Bend me over and stick my ass in the air for your hard cock.”
The lights across the room didn’t move, but that brittle scratching crossed the floor. The thick muscled thing rose onto the bed and looped around her pussy. “Rub your clit, baby. Let me see how you do it.”
Damen (Dragons of Kratak Book 2) Page 9