Hazel made a face. “They’re disgusting!”
Carmen pursed her lips. “Come on. They’re just people—a different kind of people.”
“I can handle Ewan. He’s not like the others.”
“He’s human,” Carmen returned. “The Camerons all came from this country. Ewan isn’t part of this. I’m surprised they don’t choose someone of their own kind to be Captain of the Guard. He wouldn’t be able to fight with them if it came to that.”
“I don’t know how you can stand it, Carmen,” Hazel went on. “I mean, you’re married to one of them. What if you have a child and it turns into one of those serpents.”
“I hope I do have a child, and I hope it’s an Urlu, just like Angus. I’m certain it will be. I’m surprised at you, Hazel. These are just ordinary people.”
“Ordinary is what they’re not,” Hazel shot back. “I don’t know how you can stand by and watch them change like that. It’s revolting.”
Carmen stiffened. “I’ve watched all of them do it, and I’m sure I’ll watch a lot more of them do it before I’m through. All of them have figured out how to change into dragons. That must have been part of the curse—that they couldn’t change. The legend says Andrew Cameron refused to pay the Phoenix Tribute. He refused to go into the fire to gain his dragon form, so his whole family was cursed to remain human until a new King paid the Tribute in his place. It took them a while to get the knack of it, but now they can all do it. Jamie and Fergus joined the Guard, and Callum is Angus’s bailiff in the Throne room.”
“I don’t want to have anything to do with any dragons. People, yes. Dragons—no, thank you.”
Carmen peered into her face. “Are you sure you want to stay here? I’m sure Angus could get Ross to send you back if you really want to go. None of us wants to see you miserable. If it’s that bad, maybe you shouldn’t stay here.”
“I’ll stay here,” Hazel replied. “This is where I belong.”
“Then how are you going to deal with this, and don’t tell me you’ll just stay in your room for the rest of your life. You’re making Angus feel guilty. He thinks you’re still traumatized over…. your misunderstanding.”
“I’ll deal with it one way or the other. Maybe I’ll get used to it someday.”
“You won’t get used to it if you don’t come around them more often. Why don’t you come down to the Dining Room for supper sometime? You could sit next to me, and I could help you. There are a lot of very nice people around Angus in the evenings. You could talk to them. Maybe if you got to know them better, you would start to feel differently about them.”
Hazel grimaced and looked away again. The two women fell silent. Carmen surveyed the countryside all around. It never looked more beautiful to her, and the dragons sweeping over the land and soaring through the evening skies only added to the glorious enchantment of Urlu.
The kitchen girls and the gardener’s boys, the grooms and the young Guards all came out to play together at this time of day. They tumbled and fought in the skies. They raced back and forth overhead, and their screaming cries echoed all the way to the distant mountains.
Carmen loved this world. She loved everything about Urlu, even Hazel, but she couldn’t rest easy in her mind. If she kept going the way she was, Hazel would never make her peace with the Urlus. She would remain a recluse for life.
Is that what Hazel came to this country to become? She would have been better if she stayed at home, a misfit and a laughing stock. Hazel wouldn’t even speak to the chambermaids who tended her and brought her meals to her room. Who could live like that?
Carmen’s duty as Queen called on her to help Hazel, but Hazel wouldn’t accept help. Carmen strained her influence just to get Hazel outside for their daily walk.
Hazel wanted love—everybody did—but Hazel wouldn’t even look the Urlus in the eye. She wouldn’t have anything to do with anybody but Carmen and Ewan, and Ewan wasn’t interested in Hazel.
He had his hands full with the Guard, and too many Urlu ladies caught his eye to bother with some hermit from the top tower. He didn’t find the Urlus disgusting or revolting—quite the opposite. They captivated and excited him.
Besides, Angus was an Urlu, and Ewan worshiped the ground Angus walked on. He would do anything for Angus. He didn’t care about Angus being a dragon. If anything, Angus being an Urlu only made him more fit to be King in Ewan’s eyes.
Carmen understood and felt the same way. She tolerated Hazel long enough to get her out of the castle every day, but beyond that, she couldn’t stand her friend’s company. If Hazel wanted to be miserable and alone, Carmen couldn’t help her. This world offered too many wonderful enjoyments to let Hazel or anything else drag her down.
The two women lapsed into silence. They strolled back down the river and across the stepping stones. They sat on a grassy bank and watched the sun slip down behind the mountains. A peaceful wind moaned through the grass. Birds fluttered here and there and fed on the insects swarming around the river. Small animals hopped out of the forest to drink from the pools.
The land around the castle seethed with life. Millions of lives, great and small, from the biggest dragons to the tiniest mice, thrived and multiplied and found contentment in that land. Who could ask for anything more?
Chapter 34
Hazel returned to her room in the tower, but Carmen couldn’t settle down. She paced the halls and peered into open rooms. She checked the business of all the servants, and they only smiled and chatted to her about the day’s events.
They knew her well enough by now to know she never criticized or questioned anything they did. They managed all the castle’s business in the years before Angus broke the curse. They could manage perfectly well without any interference from her.
Darkness fell over the land. The Guard stopped tromping around the courtyard. The horses rested in their stalls. One by one, the servants retreated to their own places and left the castle still and peaceful.
Carmen gazed through an open window at darkness covering the land. The stars came out. Another day came to an end. Why did she keep haunting these halls like an unquiet ghost? Her life burst into unlimited potential here, so what was she looking for?
Footsteps came up the stairs behind her. She turned around to find Angus studying her. He wore his ceremonial kilt with all the trimmings. He must have just come from the Throne room.
Urlus flocked from all over the realm to pay homage to their new King, to discuss their business and offer him their services. He held audiences from morning ‘til night to give his attention to everyone in turn.
In spite of his taxing schedule, he still didn’t look anywhere near as tired and worn out as he did on the road when she first met him. Magnetic energy radiated out of him. He looked as much a King now as the day of his coronation. “What’s amiss, lassie?”
She had to smile. “Nothing’s amiss. I was just thinking.”
“Dinnae tell me. Ye’re thinkin’ on ‘azel again.”
She chuckled and took his arm. “How did you guess?”
They walked together down the hall toward their own room. “Did ye tell ‘er I’m sorry about the way I acted before? She still winnae forgive me. I reckon I’ll bear the burden o’ her judgment fer the rest o’ me life.”
“You already told her you were sorry, and she has forgiven you. Me telling you won’t change your mind any more than her telling you, but maybe I can tell you something that will make you believe it’s true.”
He cocked his head. “So? What is it?”
“She doesn’t hold that against you anymore. She can’t get used to the Urlus being dragons. That’s why she keeps to herself and won’t talk to you. It has nothing to do with what happened. She thinks the Urlus are disgusting and revolting, and she can’t get her head around the possibility of someone—like me, for instance—having an Urlu child that could turn into a dragon, too.”
“Is that all?” He burst out laughing. “And here I thought it were summat serious.”
Angus nodded. “That’ll mak’ it a mite difficult fer her ‘ere.”
“That’s what I told her,” Carmen replied, “but she doesn’t want Ross to send her home. She wants to stay here. She feels she belongs here.”
Angus’s eyes widened to stare at her. Then he snorted with laughter again. “Whatever suits ‘er is fine wi’ me. If she wants tae stay and torture herself callin’ us revoltin’ and whate’er else, I winnae try tae stop ‘er.”
“That’s what I said.”
He sighed. “I’m glad it an’t me that disturbs her so.”
Carmen pressed his arm. “It isn’t. She said I was lucky to have you.”
He stopped in front of their room, and he took her in his arms. “And ye, lassie? Are ye lucky to ha’e me?”
She let herself fall into his embrace. “I think so. Maybe other people would disagree, but I’m happy with you just the way you are. I’m glad you’re a Urlu. I think the Urlus are grand and magnificent and noble. So there. I said it. Are you happy now?”
He leaned in to kiss her. “Aye. I’m very happy about that.”
She kissed him back and inhaled a deep breath of his scent. She clung to his neck and let him lift her feet off the floor. He swept her around in a circle, opened the door, and whisked her into the bedroom. He kicked the door closed and wrapped his muscled arms around her waist.
When he finished kissing her, he pulled back to stare down into her eyes. “And the other bit? Are ye prepared to have an Urlu child that could turn intae a dragon, too?”
“Of course I am!” she cried. “What did you think? Since when did you see me holding back from trying?”
He burst out laughing again. “Never, as it ‘appens.”
She swatted his arm. “Don’t get crude, Mister. I’m just doing my job as Queen.”
“Oh-ho!” he hooted. “Is that what ye’re doin’? Weel, ye coulda fooled me. It seemed tae me ye were enjoyin’ yerself.”
She beamed up at him. “I don’t say it’s not a pleasant job. I guess I could get used to it, for a little while at least.”
His cheeks glowed and he bent low to kiss her again. “Very weel. I’ll see t’it ye enjoy yerself as lang as ye lik’. What do ye think? Would ye lik’ tae try it richt now and see how it goes?”
She couldn’t stop laughing. “Isn’t that what you brought me back here for?”
“Of course i’tis. As lang as ye’re doin’ yer duty, I may as weel enjoy meself, too.”
She pressed her body against him. “Good. That’s what I thought.”
He clamped his stout arms around her ribs and hoisted her off the ground. He held her up at his own height to kiss her. She laced her fingers through his hair and let her head rest to one side while they kissed in delicious delight.
All at once, he jerked her sideways and swung her legs up into his arm. He carried her to the big bed they shared, sat down on it, and set her on his lap. Her body sizzled all over with pleasure. Her breasts heaved inside her corset stays to rub against his chest.
He seethed with masculine energy. His muscles bulged under his clothes, and his thighs parted to let her sink down on his lap. Her breath rasped in her throat, and she snatched eager kisses off his lips as fast as she could.
His arm slipped easily around her slender waist, and he lifted her closer on his lap where his sporran dug into her from below. Her flesh burst into flame at his manly power touching her all over. His big hands caressed up her curves to her breasts and down to her hips and thighs. He could reach every inch of her in that position.
He never ceased to excite her. The longer she stayed with him, the more she adored him and wanted him until she ached for him in every cell. She hungered for his kiss and his breath and his bare skin.
She stroked his cheek while they kissed. Her fingertips traced the line of his strong jaw, down his neck to his chest. She played with his shirt collar, but her fingers itched to touch him. She snuck under his lapel to the smooth rounded muscle underneath.
He let out a deep breath into her nose when she touched him like that, and his own hands tightened around her corseted waist. His breath caught just a little in his throat. He cupped her ribs just below her breasts. He teased her to insanity until she couldn’t stand it any longer.
She thought she might die of ecstasy when his hand came to rest on her breast. She whined into his mouth and sat down heavily on the bulge between his legs. His bare knees caught her eye, and she tickled her fingers up his thighs under his kilt.
He groaned, and his eyes drifted half closed. His noises and his breathing burned into her deepest chasm where her secret desire lay waiting for him to spark it alive. She smoked in rabid lust to get him, to engulf him inside her. His tongue in her mouth licked the sweet nectar from her insides to sting her sensitive tissues.
She twisted on his lap to screw him deeper into her. All the time, she dragged her fingertips up and down his thigh under his kilt, failing by inches to touch those delicate parts of him in need of attention.
His breath grated through his parched throat, and his eyes rolled back in his head. He quaked all over at her touch, and his muscles tensed in every limb. She loved seeing him like this, so strong and yet so vulnerable, so ready to explode in tempestuous passion.
All at once, he snapped alert. His glittering eyes fixed on her, and he went to work. He burrowed under her skirts until he found her engorged opening all wet and swollen with deepest carnal hunger.
He teased her the way she teased him. He gave her the slightest touch to drive her to distraction. He explored just enough to convince himself how ready and welcoming she was. He probed her thighs apart until she moaned and drooped in his arms.
When she dragged her eyes open to gaze up at his face, she beheld him glaring up at her in rapacious burning desire. He knew exactly what he did to her, and he aimed to do it to its limit until she collapsed gasping in his clutches.
She spread her inner flesh for him. She needed him inside her once again, where he belonged. She needed to hug him in her closest embrace and feel their tissues throbbing in unison with each other. She dreamed about that all day long when he went about his royal business.
He crept closer and closer until she couldn’t stand the strain. She almost begged him to go ahead and do it when he fingered just a fraction of an inch closer and he was there. He explored her aching nest, and his fingers swirled through her steamy cocktail to the forgotten fissure inside.
She fell back against his supporting arm when he penetrated to her sweetest spot to quicken her to panting bliss. Her mouth sagged open to kiss him, and her body rose to meet his probing hands. She throbbed all over for anything he would do to her.
He eased her back to lay her down on the bed. She formed to fit his arms, and his rock solid body melded against her in such perfection she couldn’t ask for anything more. She sank into the bed, and every part of her hugged him into her.
His fingers kissed her luscious anatomy while his mouth still delved between her lips. His tongue spoke volumes of how he would moisten her and prepare her for his ravaging treatment.
She couldn’t stand the anticipation any longer. She needed him. She had to get him. She couldn’t lie there and let him dangle her on a string anymore. Her eyes popped open to meet his gaze. She tore at his shirt and pulled up his kilt to expose his bare hips. She pulled him down on top of her, but not even that could satisfy her.
He attacked her clothes just as fast until they both lay naked and gasping, face to face, on their own bed. Their hands and bodies and lips and eyes came together, and nothing could hold them apart any longer.
She beheld him as he really was, in all his grandeur, not as an errant fighter lost and wandering the countryside, but as a dragon King worshiped and feared by thousands, if not millions. Lor
ds and chieftains fell on their knees paying him fealty. She could never see him as anything else.
The big black dragon crouched over her in all his magnificent demonic power. He was all hers, in all his forms, and she was all his, forever, to the bottom of her living soul. He filled her with his glorious presence until her mind burst its banks in heavenly delight. She swam in pink clouds of intoxicating majesty until nothing remained but their two hearts, joined in dreams.
Through it all, she remained locked in his eyes. He held her enthralled in his piercing gaze. His skin smoked brimstone, and his scaly wings rustled when he stroked his firm body over her delicate skin. He haunted her dreams until nothing but dreams remained of her life.
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