He wanted to know whether she was more than merely a female he desired and had feelings for.
He needed to know the answer to the question beating within his heart.
Was Anais his fated mate?
CHAPTER 12
Loke took slow measured steps towards Anais where she sat on the furs near the fire. Her eyes slowly lifted away from the flames, rising up the height of him, coming to meet his. The darkness in them began to fade, burned away by the heat of desire as her pupils widened, swallowing the rich sapphire of her irises.
The air around them thickened as he closed in on her and her lips parted, luring his gaze down to them.
They had been warm against his, her taste sweet on his tongue. He wanted to taste them again.
He wanted to taste her again.
He halted in front of her and she swallowed as he held his hand out to her. She hesitated only for a fragment of time before placing hers into it and allowing him to pull her onto her feet.
His cock stirred in the tight confines of his leather trousers, his desire rising again as he stared down into her eyes. Was she his mate? There was a way of finding out, but it was dangerous. If he made love with her, he would know if she had been made for him, but he would discover it by awakening his deepest instincts as a male dragon.
He would rouse a fierce need to mate with her to complete the bond.
Loke looked down at her delicate hand. It was callused from her battles, a sign of her strength, but it was also weak. It felt fragile in his. Breakable.
She was mortal.
A mortal was no match for an immortal, and definitely not for a dragon.
A mating between a dragon and another immortal was dangerous enough. A mating between a dragon and a mortal was unthinkable. He would hurt her.
He could kill her.
But he needed to know whether the beautiful creature standing in front of him was his mate.
He couldn’t survive another moment without knowing, and definitely couldn’t face the next thousand years or more wondering whether she had been his one true fated female and he might have been able to have forever with her.
He needed to risk awakening his dragon instincts to mate in order to find out.
He pulled his arm back, luring her towards him, and her head tilted up as she approached. His gaze lifted to meet hers and the heat in her eyes stole his breath away and shattered every last fear and reservation he had.
She wanted this. Him. She welcomed it.
His little Amazon still needed him, and he would satisfy her.
Loke dipped his head and captured her lips, swallowing her gasp as her free hand leaped to clutch his shoulder and the one he held crushed his. She leaned into him, rising on her toes, seeking more that he gave to her willingly. A need filled him, a dark commanding urge to give her everything she desired. He released her hand, slid both arms around her waist and hauled her up the length of his body, so her mouth was level with his.
She moaned again, the soft sound drawing a groan from him as heat chased through him and his hard length kicked against his trousers. He lowered one hand to her backside and clutched it as he kissed her, stealing her breath and leaving no part of her untouched. She mewled and wrapped her legs around his waist, and he concealed his pain from her as the wound above his left hip burned. He didn’t want her to worry, because she would stop him from making love with her. He was strong enough now.
He kneeled and slowly lowered her onto the furs, covering her body with his. She flexed beneath him, rubbing herself up and down his cock, and he grunted as he joined her, thrusting against her and cursing his clothing and hers. It dampened everything, stealing the pleasure from it and leaving only a frustrating glimpse of what they might have experienced if they had been naked.
Loke wanted her naked again.
He sat back between her legs and attacked her trousers, dealing with the complicated fastenings. She lowered her hands from his shoulders and helped him, tackling her trousers with ease before shoving them down her thighs.
He groaned and tore his gaze away from the triangle of pale curls at the juncture of her thighs.
When she reached her knees, he took over from her, pulling the black trousers down her legs and off over her bare feet. He tossed them to one side and focused on his own trousers, using a sliver of magic to make them disappear.
Loke shuffled backwards on the furs, wedged himself between her knees and delved his tongue between her soft petals. She cried out, the sound filling the cave, stirring his need for her. He growled and stroked her with his tongue, tasting her. Gods, he needed more of her. That need only increased when she dug her fingers into his hair and held on to him, gripping him tightly as he pleasured her.
“Loke,” she husked, breathless and beautiful. His little Amazon.
He knew what she needed.
He eased two fingers into her and she tensed around him, muscles flexing and drawing him in deeper. She moaned and writhed against him as he began to stroke her as he laved his tongue over her sweet bud. Her actions grew more frantic with each plunge of his fingers into her hot moist sheath and he could feel the wildness rising within her as she careened towards the point where she would become a slave to her need for release. He drove her to it and then eased off, giving her a moment to come down, before he sent her soaring again.
His cock pulsed against the furs, as hard as steel and aching for her touch and for some relief.
She arched against his mouth and moaned, the strained sound of her pleasure too much for him to handle.
He pulled away from her and rose over her, bracing himself on his hands above her. Her eyes slowly opened and locked with his, dark with desire and need. He growled and swooped on her lips, claiming them in a kiss that seared them both.
She responded by wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him down against her.
The soft feel of her warm body giving beneath his and the wet heat of her against his length tore a groan from his throat. He couldn’t stop himself from rocking, rubbing his erection against her, his face screwing up as a ripple of pleasure flowed through him.
Still not enough.
She kissed him harder and he took the hint, crushing her lips with his as he drove against her and swallowing her cry of bliss. Another growl curled up his throat and rumbled through his chest, and need overwhelmed him. He shoved back, gripped his cock and rubbed the tip of it down between her folds, towards her sheath. She moaned and arched again, raising her hips towards his, an invitation he wouldn’t turn down and couldn’t resist.
He groaned as he edged inside her and his arm trembled beneath his weight, threatening to give out.
Her moan joined his as he eased into her inch by inch, holding himself back and forcing himself to take it slowly. She was hot and slick with need, but tight around his length. He didn’t want to hurt her. He gently moved deeper and then eased back, working his way into her. She moaned with each move he made, driving him into thrusting into her, and he struggled to hold himself back.
Anais took that struggle out of his hands as she wrapped her legs around him, pressed her feet into his bare backside and drove him into her. She cried out and he grunted as she flexed around him, giving him a brief flicker of exquisite pain. She dragged him back down to her and her lips sought his, her kiss searing him as she slowly relaxed beneath him, loosening her hold on him and freeing him to move.
Loke clutched her shoulder with one hand, resting on his elbow, and her hip with the other, raising it off the furs. He held her hard as he thrust into her, long slow strokes that had him reaching every part of her.
He drank her moans as she shuddered in his arms, her kiss turning frantic even when he tried to keep it slow and tender. Her need stoked his, fanning it into the same wild inferno and stripping control from him. He clung to a fraction of it as he began to pump her harder, clinging to the piece of his sanity that constantly reminded him to be gentle with her.
His little mo
rtal.
He groaned and kissed her harder as he plunged into her.
A deeper connection bloomed between them, a stronger thread that tied them. It strengthened with each thrust and kiss, with every meeting of their hips, becoming a powerful force that slowly seized control of him and filled him with heat and light.
She broke the kiss and pressed her forehead to his, her fingertips digging into his shoulders as she moaned with each panted breath that left her lips. He clung to her as he drove into her, a flicker of awareness stirring in his soul, growing stronger with each passing heartbeat.
She stole that awareness from him as she flipped him onto his back and rose off him. He snarled and clutched her hips as she rode his cock. She was beautiful as she threw her head back, her tangled knot of blonde hair fraying and causing spun gold to cascade down her shoulders and over her breasts.
Loke groaned and could only lay beneath her and drink her in as she bounced on him, pleasure written across her face. It echoed within him, an intoxicating kind of bliss that had him melting into the furs even as his body cranked tighter, his balls drawing up and his cock thickening as release coiled at its base. She moaned and held his hands as he began to counter her thrusts, driving up into her as she came down and withdrawing as she rose off him.
“Loke,” she whispered, her face screwing up and her actions turning rougher.
He could sense her need. It blasted through him too.
He drove deeper into her, losing himself for a moment and unleashing a fraction of his strength on her. She groaned louder and he grunted as she tightened around him, stealing more of his control from him.
He gripped her hips harder and seized control of her movements as he thrust into her. She tangled her hands in her messy blonde hair, her face etched in lines of frustration and pleasure, impending bliss. He brought her down harder, driving deeper into her, and she threw her head back and cried out. Her body shuddered around his, heat scalding his length as her release took her. He grunted and pumped harder, seeking his own release as her sheath milked him, drawing him towards it.
It came swiftly, staggering him and sending a hot rush through every inch of his body as his cock throbbed inside her, spilling his seed. He grunted softly with each pulse, still thrusting shallowly as he fought for air and to stop his head from spinning.
Anais slowly drifted down to rest on his chest, her moist breath fanning across his pectorals and her body trembling against his.
He wrapped his arms around her and stared at the roof of the cave as the awareness that had been growing within him finally sharpened into focus and his deepest instincts roared to life.
Demanding he claim his mate.
CHAPTER 13
Anais rested in Loke’s arms, her gaze on the fire as the flames flickered, sending warm light dancing across the black ground around it. When he shifted and sighed, she pulled her focus from the flames, twisted so her front pressed against his left side while carefully avoiding his wound, and looked at him. He lay with one arm bent beneath his head, cushioning it, and his eyes closed. He looked content. Happy. Handsome.
Hours had passed since they had surrendered to their desire and they hadn’t moved from this spot. They had passed every minute in each other’s arms and in silence, sharing the moment.
Loke’s eyes opened and lowered to her, their striking aquamarine depths warmed by the light of the fire off to his right. He raised a single dark blue eyebrow at her and she had the feeling he was trying to figure out why she was staring at him.
Why wouldn’t she be staring at him?
He was gorgeous, and the way he was laying, with his arm beneath his head, showed off his muscles and rekindled the heat within her, making her think about climbing on top of him and seeing if he was interested in an encore.
It had been a long time since she had experienced anything as intense and blissful as making love with Loke. When he had unleashed his strength on her, she had found Heaven. He had sent her shooting into the stratosphere, or possibly beyond it. Heat pooled in her belly and she had to close her eyes to shut him out as she fought the urge to lower her mouth and kiss a trail across his chest to awaken his hunger for her.
There was something she had to ask him first, and it was something that was liable to ruin the moment. She didn’t want that to happen and she didn’t want to upset him, but she had to know or it was going to hover at the back of her mind and mar her time with him.
“Are the dragons who took the other hunters like you?” Her voice sounded too loud in the silence, even when she felt sure she had whispered that question.
He frowned, raised his other hand away from the small of her back and brushed her hair behind her ear for her. “Like me?”
She nodded and when his frown didn’t shift, the quizzical look in his eyes remaining, she decided she needed to say it straight. “Are those dragons going to be nice to my friends like you are to me… or are they going to be like Zephyr?”
He looked away from her, towards the fire, and his expression gained a troubled edge. Her heart sank into her stomach and she couldn’t stop her mind from filling with images of her fellow huntresses being mistreated.
“I do not know if they had a reason for taking their females… but if they did… their reason would not be as mine was. It would not be noble.”
She frowned as the slender ribbon of hope she had been clinging to slowly dissipated. “That blond one back at the village said they were spoils of war, Loke. What does that mean? Zephyr made it clear he had been abusing whoever he took.”
She felt sick just mentioning that and her mind raced through every female hunter she had known in her team, wondering which he had taken.
“Not all will be like him. Others will charm the female… but if that fails, they may employ magic to convince them.”
“Like drugging them?” She stared wide-eyed at him.
When he nodded, she barely tamped down the urge to spring to her feet and demand he take her to every dragon home he knew of so she could help her kin.
Zephyr had fought him and had almost won. The green-haired bastard had wanted her as a second spoil of war, a replacement for one he had broken. She had no doubts that the other dragons would fight to defend whichever huntress they had stolen from the battle. The thought of Loke having to fight again turned her stomach and she looked down the length of his body to the thick scar over his left hip.
He was in no condition to help her save her fellow huntresses, not right now. As much as she wanted to head out and rescue them, she needed to gain enough information to form a plan first and give him a chance to regain his strength.
“Could you fly me around to the homes of the dragons you know? We could scout them and see if they have any of my friends. If they do, we could help them.”
He nodded. “I will do that for you. I will be able to scent whether they have company.”
She smiled and thanked him with a kiss, pressing her lips to his cheek. The light dusting of dark blue hair on his jaw scratched at them, taking her back to kissing him on the mouth while making love with him, and it was difficult to tamp down the desire that rose within her and focus on their conversation. When she pulled back, he was smiling too.
“When you’re better though. Not right now.” She stroked his bare chest and avoided his glare as he narrowed his eyes on her.
“I am fine.” He kept saying that, but it didn’t mean she had to believe it.
She had noticed him flinching when she had wrapped her legs around him.
She would give him another day in which she would use the time to strategize with him and learn more about the other dragons who had fought as part of his clan in the battle. Once she was sure he was strong enough, she would take him up on his offer to help her. First, they would scout the locations and see if the dragons who lived there had one of her friends, and then they would plan their mission to save them.
They would have to move quickly once they decided to take back her fr
iends and do it all in one perfect run. If word spread about what they were doing, there was a chance the other dragons might go into hiding or might prepare themselves to fight Loke. She didn’t want him to fight again.
She didn’t think she ever wanted to see him fight again.
It had terrified her.
“Anais?” he whispered and she pulled herself out of her thoughts and smiled at him, trying to show him that she was fine.
“I want to help them.” She didn’t hide how much she wanted that as she looked at him, right into his eyes. They were more than just her friends. They were part of her family.
He nodded. “And you will… but I will not place you in danger.”
“Because of the visions?” She studied him for a reaction, wanting to see whether there was another reason he might not want to place her in danger, one that might hint at whether what they had shared was more to him than just mutual attraction at play.
He had said he wasn’t interested in dalliances.
Did that mean what was happening between them was more than just a fleeting moment in his eyes?
His handsome face darkened and he gave a clipped nod, and her foolish heart took it as an answer to her unspoken question.
“Tell me about them.” She refused to give up when he shot her a warning look that said he didn’t want to talk about them. She did. “You’ve had more than one now, Loke. Do you see the same thing?”
He shook his head and wrapped his free arm back around her. “Let us not speak of them. My visions are mine to know and deal with.”
She tossed him her best glare and shirked his grip, knocking his arm away from her as he ran his fingers up and down her side. He wasn’t going to get around her by stroking her and distracting her.
“They’re about me. I have a right to know.” She pressed her hand against his chest and went to get up, but his arm clamped around her waist and he pinned her to his side.
“I am only trying to protect you, Little Amazon.” His gaze implored her to listen to him and let it go, but she couldn’t, no matter how badly she was spoiling the moment.
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