by Tamsin Baker
“You are in Gregorick. And you are safe. Welcome.”
Paneer pulled her close like the old friends they were, embracing her with his fierce strength for a moment.
She tried to relax into him, but her body was rigid. Unyielding to his warmth. Affection was hard for her. Always had been. She’d had very little contact with people through her life and she couldn’t remember the last time a human had touched her skin.
When Paneer finally pulled back, she breathed a huge sigh of relief and relaxed her shoulders. He gave her a soft smile of understanding and motioned for her to come into the barn with him.
“Come and see. You won’t regret it, I promise.”
Oh, I doubt that very much.
Despite the sickening tightness in her gut, Nakeeri pushed herself forward. She trusted the other dragon rider more than she trusted other humans.
“Whose home is this?” she asked as they stepped into a huge room that looked very much like a dragon’s bedroom. Hay was strewn on the ground, with food and water troughs nearby. Her skin warmed instantly as the tempered air inside the stable enveloped her.
“Look there.” Paneer gestured and she twisted around to see a darkened corner of the room blocked in from the elements.
Lordip’s massive body was protectively circled around another small female Dragon with purple-tipped wings.
“That is Nargoya. Lordip mated with her a few months ago. Their offspring hatched this morning. That was why Lordip was flying up in the air by himself. Celebrating, I think.”
“I can’t see any baby dragons…” Nakeeri said as she moved around Teramessi and gasped as her heart filled with heated wonder.
There before her eyes were three baby dragons, all alive and well. Walking and stumbling, and generally playing across their mother. She had never seen such small dragons. Even when Teramessi had found her, she’d been bigger than these, hatchlings only a few hours old.
“They are so beautiful. By the goddess…”
She went to take a step forward and Paneer held an arm up in front of her to stop her advancing. Lordip twisted his head around and made a strange growling noise that she instantly recognized, though his clear warning was much louder than any she’d ever heard from Teramessi.
“Don’t get any closer, Nakeeri. They are, understandably protective. I haven’t been able to get close yet.”
She stepped back quickly and the atmosphere relaxed once again as the strange little babies stumbled and fed from their mother.
They had wings, but they were so pale they were practically translucent and all their scales were light green.
“Come, have a drink with me while the dragons acquaint themselves.”
Nakeeri stepped away slowly, her gaze still firmly fixed on the three babies. They were incredible to see. She’d never thought about Teramessi having offspring, but considering how rare dragons were on Limea, it was probably the next step for her.
She finally let the hatchlings out of her sight and followed Paneer into a small kitchen, and a soft moan left her lips as the stove warmed her.
He smiled. “You’re still living in the cave.”
. “Of course. But I can see you have grown soft, moving into a castle like this,” she said with a smirk
They had bonded when they had first met. Not just because they were both dragon riders, but because they both loved being free. Nakeeri was bound begrudgingly to her kingdom, but Paneer had achieved a carefree life.
Perhaps things had changed? Had Paneer perhaps linked himself to the dragon’s rider?
He snorted at her and shook his head. “Do you think I had a choice once Nargoya laid her eggs? Lordip wouldn’t leave and I wasn’t going anywhere without him.”
Paneer served her a hot, milky drink, and she accepted it with true gratitude. It had been so long since she’d had anything warm, or truly nourishing.
“Thank you, Paneer.”
She sipped at the drink, warmth filling her belly and reminding her of the incredible dreams she’d been having lately.
Of men.
And sex.
Of seed pulsing inside her.
Heat crawled up her face and she hid her embarrassment behind the cup. She was certain if Paneer knew what devils inflicted her mind, he would be mortified. They both prided themselves on their strength of mind and their high level of physical training. Her dreams were undermining both.
“Paneer! Come and see…” A loud male voice rang out through the barn and Nakeeri turned towards the rich, sexy sound. That voice was one from her dreams, and from memory, her body hummed with awareness.
A tall, strong man in uniform, with a long sword at his waist, stood in the doorway staring at her.
Nakeeri’s legs trembled as heat poured through her center like molten lava. She grabbed for the closest chair as her pussy throbbed in time with the pounding of her racing heart.
Oh…damn…what the hell is this?
“The dragon rider…she’s… she’s borne a son…” The man was trying to speak, and somewhat succeeding. His large blue eyes were wide and as he wet his lips like a dying man, pleasure arrows shot off in her belly.
“Thank you, Kalvis. Can I see her?” Paneer asked casually, putting his cup down on the bench and walking between them.
“Yes. Come. Please,” the man said, not taking his eyes off her.
A moan slipped from her throat as her belly clenched. As tightly as it had in any of her dreams. She couldn’t be feeling this. Not here. Not now. Not for complete stranger.
“I need to go. I c…can’t sta…stay here,” she stammered as she staggered towards the birthing suite and reached out her arms, grabbing for Teramessi.
“Let’s go. Quickly, girl.”
She pushed and pulled at the dragon, who wasn’t interested in leaving the new friends she’d made.
Nakeeri understood her dragon’s fascination with the young, but she had to get away.
Away from this castle. Away from these babies. Away from the man who was making her want to drop to her knees and service him in a way she’d only seen the local town whores do.
“Come on! Please. Come.”
Nakeeri pulled at her dragon and finally Teramessi gave in. Stepping away from the other dragons and going with Nakeeri into the cold air and lush grass.
The man with the dangerously handsome features and the battle scars of a warrior intersecting his arms, drew closer to her.
“Are you alright?” he asked, his expression showing genuine concern.
“No!” she yelled. “Get away from me.”
What has he done to me?
Paneer raced over and pulled the stranger away, but not before the first orgasmic ripples had begun to move through Nakeeri’s belly.
“Oh…oh.. no…”
Chapter 2.
The warrior woman before him fell to her knees on the grass, her eyes closed, her head tilted back, and her body shuddering in movements that could only be described as either intense pain. Or pleasure.
“What is happening to her?” Kalvis asked Paneer, who was still holding tight to his arms. Why was the dragon rider restraining him?
“I don’t know, but I think we need to leave her alone.”
He let Paneer pull him away as the woman stopped shaking and fell to the ground. She crawled over to her waiting dragon. Another female like Nargoya by the looks of it. But this one was slightly smaller, younger probably, and had blue-tipped wings instead of purple.
Where had she come from? Where had they both come from?
The blonde woman got to her feet and managed to pull herself up, and onto the dragon’s back. No saddle. No restraints. Her fantastic thighs wrapped in thick leather pressed tightly into the dragon’s side.
She wasn’t going to fly that dragon in the air with nothing to hold onto was she? Surely not? Fear flickered in his heart, followed swiftly by admiration of her courage and skill.
“Who is that, Paneer?” he asked as he watched the dragon ext
end her wings and fly into the air with beauty, strength and grace.
“That is Nakeeri, and her dragon, Teramessi.”
The dragon became smaller and smaller as she flew into the distance, and Kalvis finally managed to turn back around and walk into the stable once again.
“Where does she come from?”
“I will tell you on the way. If that’s alright? I want to see Tattiena.”
Kalvis shook his head, the reason for his original visit to the barn, remembered. “Yes. Of course.”
They walked back to the castle across the lush paddock and Kalvis’s skin continued to tingle like a swarm of fire ants were crawling across the surface. He didn’t know what this odd feeling was, but he had never experienced it before.
“Is Tattiena well?” Paneer asked.
Oh yes, that was why he’d come to the stable in the first place. To alert Paneer of the birth of the future king. Of Davuno, and if their prince didn’t sire any children, perhaps the king of Gregorick as well.
An extremely important event by anyone’s standards. Yet now, his reality had shifted as if Limea had begun to turn differently on her axis. The birth of a new king didn’t seem as important anymore.
“Ah, yes. Mia is looking after Tattiena and her new son.”
“Wonderful.”
Paneer did not continue the conversation as they walked and Kalvis’s feeling of crawling skin continued. He cleared his throat. “Tell me more about that other dragon rider. You seem to know her quite well.”
Paneer’s eyebrows drew together. “Why do you need to know, Kalvis? You seem… anxious?”
He bit down hard on his jaw. He didn’t want anyone picking up on that.
“Ah…I…don’t know.”
He hadn’t known Paneer for long, but they’d spent a lot of time together since Paneer had moved into the dragon barn and joined castle life.
They trained together every day and Paneer seemed trustworthy, or so Kalvis hoped. Tattiena appeared to trust him, and he’d known the would-be princess her whole life.
Kalvis took a deep breath and chose, for once in his life, to speak from the heart without thought of the consequences. “I…when I saw that woman just now, there was an energy to her. A fire. Do you feel it too?”
They’d reached the gates of the city now and Paneer pressed the button that opened the door. When they stepped through the door, Paneer turned to him.
“No. Not at all. She’s like a younger sister to me.”
“Oh.”
Then what could explain what he had just felt? If Paneer didn’t feel it, then why did he?
Paneer stared at him for a moment, then nodded slowly as though finally understanding something. “What you are feeling, and what I believe she experienced, is the igniting of her heat. But Tattiena would be better to speak to about this. Not me.”
Her what?
Paneer continued to move, so Kalvis followed suit, his head spinning with possibilities. They walked around to the medical bay and Kalvis lifted his hand and pressed the button to open the door.
“Paneer!” Tattiena greeted them.
Tattiena was the bastard daughter of the king of Gregorick. Thankfully, since she had helped the soldiers defeat the barbarians from the South, the king had taken a much more active role in her life. And he had announced that he would accept her child as his heir, after his own son. The horrible, inept, Prince Nellid.
“He’s beautiful,” Paneer whispered as he stepped closer and picked up the child Tattiena held out for him to hold.
“Like his father,” Tattiena said as she smiled at Leo, the prince and heir of Davuno, a city three days’ ride from Gregorick.
“You’re both alive and well. And that’s all I care about,” Leo said, stroking a hand over Tattiena’s brow.
“Is there news of Naroya’s babies, Paneer?” she asked, her voice alight with excitement.
“Yes. All three hatchlings are alive and running around their mother as we speak.”
Tattiena’s eyes misted up and her lips wobbled as though she was going to cry.
Kalvis glanced away from the princess and around the clean medical rooms. He wasn’t accustomed to seeing the fierce dragon rider who’d saved his life six months ago, show weaker emotions.
“That’s wonderful. What are they?” she asked, clearing her throat with several coughs.
“Two females and a male. All healthy, strong little individuals.”
“Thank you. I can’t wait to see them.” Silence fell and there was a sudden, large gap in the conversation. Kalvis’s mind whirled with questions about the striking dragon rider from today.
“What’s wrong, Kalvis?” Tattiena’s direct question boomed into the silence.
He swung his head back to look at the princess who was now sitting up in bed, eyes keen and very awake.
“I…” He turned to Paneer for guidance in this unusual matter.
“Do you remember me telling you about some of the other dragon riders I have met?’ Paneer asked Tattiena.
She nodded. “Yes, of course.”
“Well, this morning, Nakeeri and her dragon came to visit. Lordip was making quite a show of himself up in the air after the babies hatched, and caught their attention.”
She groaned. “Oh damn! I wish I’d been there to meet her.”
Kalvis nodded, wishing for the same thing so that he would have more answers to his questions. Tattiena had to know more than he did about what was going on.
Paneer’s gaze slid over to him, then pulled back to Tattiena. “Well, she seemed to have a strange reaction to your captain of the guard over there, and I think Kalvis wanted your opinion on it.”
Tattiena turned to him, her eyes wide and her eyebrows high on her forehead. “What sort of reaction?”
He flexed his fingers to stop them from curling into a fist. “I don’t know. She saw me, then went stumbling about, groaning and then she just…ran away.”
Tattiena swung around to stare straight at her husband and they shared a strange, and heated look.
When she turned back, Tattiena had a softer expression on her face.
“And how did you feel when you saw her?”
He shrugged. Not sure he totally understood it yet.
“I don’t really know. There was an attraction, a heat. It was strange.”
He fought the blush that rose from his neck. The heat, the tickling shame chasing him.
“But you managed to get out of there without her jumping you?” Leo asked suddenly, then grinned like a loon. “Smart man.”
Tattiena fisted her hand and punched her husband in the arm.
“It was my heat. I didn’t mean to…accost you in such a way.”
Leo chuckled and rubbed his arm. “Don’t worry, dragon rider. It’s still counted as one of the best days of my life.”
Tattiena’s beautiful face flushed with blood.
Kalvis was still confused, but they obviously knew more than he did. “So you know what this is then?”
Tattiena nodded. “Yes, I do. A dragon rider has the job of breeding the next line of dragon riders. There is also a strong link between the rider and the dragon’s breeding cycle, as you’ve seen with my pregnancy and Nargoya’s eggs.”
He nodded, taking it all in and still not understanding what she was saying. How was that relevant to him, or Nakeeri?
“Alright…”
He shifted his gaze up to Leo, who returned his look with an amused smile.
“What’s wrong, Prince Leo?”
“Nothing’s wrong, indeed, things are very right. It sounds like you’ve lit this other dragon rider’s heat. Which means lots of fun for you, and more babies for the dragon rider cause.”
Shock rippled through him like an oceanic wave. He blinked rapidly.
“What’s…heat?”
Leo chuckled and shook his head. “Oh, I really don’t want to spoil the surprise. But it will mean that she will be drawn to you. And that you will have a very intense
and rare relationship with her.”
They were both staring at him as though he should know what it all meant. A heat? An attraction? Was this what Tattiena and Leo had gone through?
“Are you telling me…”
He looked between the prince and his dragon rider bride. They couldn’t possibly be saying that this dragon rider and he were meant to be together?
They both nodded.
“I’m meant to be the next…dragon rider mate? No. I can’t be. I’m no prince.”
Leo grinned and shrugged.
“Well, it doesn’t sound like she’s much of a princess either, Kalvis.”
He collapsed into a nearby chair, his head spinning. This was not possible. He was nothing. A good soldier maybe. A proud man of Gregorick. But nothing more.
Not the next father of a dragon rider.
“We need to get her back here. Paneer, can you find her? Where does she live?” Tattiena asked.
“Well…I do. Sort of. The kingdom she is loyal to is far west of here. She lives in a cave outside the castle’s walls. She is not one for the comfort of restrictions of a cage. I’m not sure there is any reason she would come back here.” Paneer’s voice was sad, which confused Kalvis. Why did he sound like he felt sorry for the powerful dragon rider?
“Her heat. Surely that will be enough to drive her back to Kalvis?” Tattiena asked.
Kalvis lifted his gaze to stare at Paneer, whose twisted mouth did not tell a happy story.
“I’m not sure about that, Tattiena. Nakeeri has only known solitude. She will not like being drawn to someone. Having her control taken away.”
Tattiena laughed, grabbing back her child and placing the young one’s mouth on her breast.
“She sounds a lot like me. I must meet her. Can you and Leo go and find her? Invite her back as my guest. Offer her anything she would like. Food. Gold. Safety.”
Paneer’s face twisted up once again. “She is a fierce warrior and I believe she would enjoy the training I have experienced while here. And indeed perhaps, a currency payment would induce her. She is not interested in wealth, but she does need to feed herself and her dragon.”