by Ophelia Bell
He turned to her and kissed her, the strange forked tongue of his teasing into her mouth. She hadn’t hallucinated any of it. Remembering her well of magic, she tried to mimic the shape and found it was natural to make her tongue like his. When the two tangled together, Rafe groaned out a deep laugh, then pulled away.
“You are a fast learner.” The wistful look was back in his dark eyes, in spite of the smile on his face.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “You keep looking at me like I might die.”
“I’m not worried about you dying. We have very long lives and are extremely hard to kill.”
“Then what are you worried about?” She worried enough herself about giving in to him so completely. But who else was there for her in the world?
“You still have a lot to learn, my love. Don’t worry, I mean to teach you everything.”
The sad look was quickly replaced by one of playful determination. He gripped her by the ass and lifted her up.
Rowan laughed and responded by wrapping her arms and legs around him, letting him carry her to his bed.
Night Fire: Chapter 5
Two nights later Rowan awoke from the sweetest dream of making love to Rafe. The bed beside her was empty, but she heard the creak of a step followed by the clinking sound of glass. Rowan sat up abruptly in the dark and looked around, but he wasn’t in the bed beside her, or anywhere else in the room. There were no lights on and the heavy curtains were drawn closed. She could still see clearly, having learned to adjust her dragon sight to the lack of light.
She climbed out of bed, listening. There were definitely voices coming from the first floor. A pair of male voices.
She threw on one of Rafe’s shirts that was about three sizes too big for her and nearly reached her knees. It smelled delightfully of him. She crept to the door and opened it slowly.
The sounds of their mingled voices became as clear as if they were standing outside the door.
“…exist outside the purview of the Council. How do they not know about her? She’s just a baby. My parents kept me in human form until I was sixteen. Most broodlings have to wait longer before they are allowed to unleash their true form. She’s twenty-eight already, with no one to teach her who she is!”
“Rafe, friend. We’ll figure this out. We always knew the Council couldn’t be infallible. She’s the proof. We can use her presence against them. Leverage to get us what we want.”
“But what do we want? To mate with whomever we choose? We always both agreed they made the right decision on that. There are too few of us still—inbreeding would destroy the race.”
“What we want is to abolish the sleep. It puts us at a weakness. The next generation shouldn’t be at such a disadvantage. Her presence proves it’s pointless. She’s at full power, you said?”
“Sweet Mother, yes. She’s more powerful than Geva. Only a purebred would be that powerful.”
“Yet another reason to confront the Council. If there are other dragons outside the Brood that have bred while we slept, inbreeding wouldn’t be a concern, particularly if they are as pure as she is.”
“The Council won’t see it that way. The law is the law to them, unless we convince them to change it, but that’s one law that has stood for the last six generations.”
Rowan sank down against the door jamb in the dark of the bedroom. Her gut tightened at everything she was hearing. They were talking about her. Rafe had called a friend to talk about her. Was he another dragon, this nameless voice below? He must be. None of the rest of it made sense, though. What was a Geva? It sounded like the name of a god, for all she knew.
“As long as she’s better behaved than Geva, she’ll be fine. She’ll be free to find a human mate like the rest of us.”
The sound of breaking glass made Rowan jerk in surprise.
“You don’t understand, Kol. I have to have her. Not a human.”
“You’re in love with her.”
“What? No… she’s just… she’s pure. Tell me why we shouldn’t be able to breed?”
Tears streamed down her face and she swiped them away roughly with the cuff of the shirt she wore. She only half heard the talk that followed. Quiet words of comfort from the friend. More talk of bloodlines. But all he wanted her for was a broodmare?
“I love you, Rafe. But I can’t do this.”
She only hoped he heard her. She found a pair of sweat pants and a shirt, then grew frustrated with how they hindered her movement. The burn in her belly grew and she remembered the magic. If she could conjure her hands, she could conjure an outfit.
“Rowan wait!”
The door swung open and Rafe stood there, a larger, darker man behind him. She stood by the open window, clad in the red leather outfit she’d succeeded in conjuring for herself via some serious concentration and a lot of deep breathing. She was ready to jump out and see if she could actually convince herself to fly. Rafe had told her dragons could fly in their true forms, at least.
“I’m leaving. You and your people clearly have some issues to work out. I don’t want any part of it.”
“Rowan, stop.” The deep, commanding voice of the other man actually pulled her back into the room. Jesus, it felt like a pair of hands were holding her, actually turning her around. She was helpless in the invisible clutches of this stranger.
He squeezed past Rafe’s large figure in the doorway and came to stand in front of her. She had to crane her neck to look up at him.
“Sorry, I don’t like having to do this, but I needed to be sure you wouldn’t leave. Please stay and listen. We won’t hurt you.”
Rowan squirmed in the invisible grasp and finally nodded. “Fine, I’ll stay.” She shot a flaming look at Rafe, oddly satisfied when he ducked his head in response.
“My name is Kol,” the man said. “I’m what you might call the head of security for the Dragon Brood. I care about keeping everyone safe. Every dragon. And every human bonded to us.”
“Please let me go. I’m not going to give away any of your secrets. I just want my life to be my own.”
The man’s lips twisted ironically. He was impossibly pretty, even prettier than Rafe, if she had to quantify it, and his deep voice seemed to vibrate at a frequency that made her nipples hard. Yet the invisible grip on her body remained.
“We all want that. That’s what we were talking about downstairs. What you heard. Freedom is what we all want. I want you to help us. Help our children be free to live.”
“Why should I?”
The man glanced back at Rafe, who nodded at him. He turned back to look at her. His eyes were even deeper and blacker than Rafe’s if that were possible. The hold he had on her finally released.
“Because even if he loves you, according to our laws, the two of you will never be allowed to mate or breed.”
“Does he love me?” She glared at Rafe again. “Or am I just a vessel for his perfect babies?”
Kol looked uncomfortable. “That’s not how it works with us. I promise. Rafe knows better than to mate another dragon. That’s why he called me.”
Rowan shot a look at Rafe, trying to discern any emotion in his placid expression. Did he love her, or was that just a ploy for Kol to get her to do what he wanted? “He called you because he wants to mate with me?”
Marriage, let alone children, had never been on her radar. She’d begun to think of Rafe as a potential partner. The potential for more than that wasn’t something she’d thought about until now. Looking at him now, her gut twisted. She wanted it. And she wanted it with him.
“I want to,” Rafe said. His dark-browed eyes seemed so forlorn. “There’s more to mating than just intercourse. It requires specific intent and verbal consent, both to mate and to breed. Nothing we do is by accident. I could feel how much you wanted it the entire time, Rowan. And believe me I wanted to…”
“What
would have happened if we did?” She directed her look at both men.
“You would mark each other. The mark binds you for life.” Kol seemed oddly apprehensive and shot a look at Rafe. Rowan was sure they were hiding something by the sag of Kol’s shoulders. “But our laws are clear, and part of my job is to enforce the laws, which I will do, if I have to.”
“Why do I get the sense that you don’t really enjoy your job?” Rowan asked with a tilt of her head. Kol was starting to grow on her a little.
“Because your existence proves what I’ve always suspected. The Council has been lying to us for centuries. Millennia.”
Rowan looked at Rafe. “What happens if we try to be together? What will they do?”
Rafe’s voice was strained, his face drawn with worry. “Likely they would take you and force you into hibernation for the next five centuries. When you woke up, I would be dead. It’s their way of controlling our breeding cycle. Rowan, I’m already halfway through my life. I don’t have five hundred years to wait. I’m expected to find a human woman to bond with, like the others, but you’re the woman I want.”
“You want me to breed with. So why the hell should I stay if it’s just to be his broodmare?” She directed the question at Kol, but Rafe was the one who answered.
“Rowan, I don’t care if we never reproduce. That’s not why I want you. Did the last two days not tell you as much?” He started to step toward her. Kol held his friend back.
“Of course it is your choice,” Kol said. “Leave and live as a human if you wish, but you can have no further contact with other dragons or I would have to turn you in to the Council. You’ll be safer if only Rafe and I know you exist.” He paused and stepped toward her, placing a large, warm hand on her shoulder. “Or stay and help us confront the Council with your existence. We have other friends who will help. As long as we stand together, I believe we can make a change.”
Rafe seemed to lean toward her, intent on what she would say. She wanted him more than she’d wanted anything in her life. The past weekend had been overwhelming and enlightening and oh, so beautiful. Every lovemaking session had been even more spectacular than the last. Every waking moment when they weren’t entwined had been spent with her asking question after question and him answering eagerly and honestly. At least she’d thought so. That first night she had known she would fall for him, and she had. Hard. But the thought of having an entire race—and her own happiness—dependent on her decision was an impossible situation, especially when his feelings for her still seemed so uncertain.
Her eyes welled with tears as she looked at him. Her gut knotted with anguish. “I’m sorry, this is too much for me to decide. Please forgive me.”
Before they could respond, she looked back towards the window. Fly or die. She leapt out, caught the strong gust of cool Pacific wind, and flew.
Rising Dragons
Book 1
Breath of Destiny
Ophelia Bell
Breath of Destiny: Chapter 1
“Are we headed the right way?”
The words reached Geva’s ears but he didn’t quite hear them. He was too enthralled with the pleasing ivory column of Erika’s neck and the slope of skin that led down, down, down, into the low-cut black shift she had donned before they’d left the luxury of the London hotel to brave a gray, windy afternoon.
Dress, she called it a dress, he corrected himself. His memory of dresses was a bit different from what she wore now—he preferred this mere slip of fabric that hugged every curve, cradled her full breasts, and showed an abundance of skin. Especially her glorious legs, tanned and muscular like a dragon woman’s legs. Was she even human? He’d wondered it often, but seeing the other women she associated with he had to believe that human women in the current cycle were more attuned to their bodies than they had been when he was born.
He reached out a hand to caress the bare expanse of skin beneath her hem. The sharp smack of her hand made him look at her.
“You made me bring you out today, dummy. Tell me we’re going the right way. And you’re learning to drive. I can’t stand driving on the wrong side of the street.”
Chastised, he smiled at her and looked around.
The beasts Erika called cars sped down the lanes on either side of them. Gleaming, monolithic towers of glass drifted past, foreign and bizarre as they travelled through the city. Every so often he would recognize some small landmark or symbol on a sign, but other than that, his beloved city had become a stranger to him.
“It all looks different now, but the direction of the sun tells me we’re headed in the right direction.”
Soon the landscape changed. The bustling city with its alien structures replaced by smaller communities, then rolling green hillsides. The shine of a metropolis was a treasure trove to explore for a dragon like him, but the peace of the countryside let him breathe. He knew precisely where he was now, the landscape as familiar to him as the lush curves of Erika’s body. They didn’t have far to go.
Soon they approached a wide driveway, flanked by security booths. Erika provided identification to the man inside and they drove through.
The huge building they finally stopped before was one he knew well, inside and out. An imposing fountain in the forecourt spurted water out of a sextet of dragons’ mouths into a pool below.
The most familiar was the emblem on the grand, polished sign that hung over the broad entryway. The stylized dragon caused a brief pang of homesickness in him. He didn’t even need to read the strong type beside it. “Hayden Capital and Antiquities.” He was home.
And yet he couldn’t bring himself to get out of the car.
He considered himself the luckiest dragon of his generation, all of whom had slumbered along with him, deep in the depths of that jungle temple, until Erika and her team had completed the ritual to awaken them.
He’d never expected to awaken to such a beautiful, strong, and infuriating woman. One he desired to fuck as much as he desired to argue with her. Their latest argument had been about coming here today. Understandably she was more eager than he was. Everything was a new discovery for her, but finding out about his family’s past wasn’t going to be a happy moment for him. That his hibernation had ended meant his parents were dead now. Expired at the end of a life he believed he should have been a part of.
Dragon law had kept him away. Forced his generation into hibernation to lengthen their lives and preserve their bloodlines. And now they’d awakened to a vastly different world already inundated with humanity to such a degree that the dragons would be hard pressed to catch up.
The Council’s magical restrictions on procreation seemed even more ludicrous now than they had when he was young. He felt it as keenly as his brethren—a kind of itch to get on with it, but with their hands significantly tied. Even though a dragon and his or her mate might both desire a child, wanting was only half the battle. The Council’s magic meant it could take decades for a couple to conceive. Geva hadn’t shared that detail with Erika, nor did he believe the others had with their mates. Human lives were normally so fleeting relative to a dragon’s. There was no sense worrying them with it when they had his longer, dragon’s lifespan to work with, his magic prolonging Erika’s to match. Longer lives meant more opportunities.
Except the breeding restrictions and enforced hibernation had been instituted during a time when there was a real danger of dragon populations overtaking humans and beginning to view them as breeding stock. That was far from the case now.
Well, maybe not that far, considering Geva just wanted to stay in their hotel room and convince Erika to take his seed. He had no desire to mate with any other woman. But after the first attempt he wasn’t sure how to broach the topic again. Apparently “let’s make a baby now” wasn’t an acceptable incentive to get Erika to agree to try. Even though trying was likely all it would be.
“You’re still pissed abou
t the baby thing, aren’t you?” Erika asked. She shifted in her seat to face him.
Sweet Mother was she intuitive. “Yes. I don’t understand the hesitance. A dragons’ offspring are his greatest treasures. And most women want children. I want…” Heat flushed his cheeks and he glanced at her. He wanted more than anything for her to have his children. As passionate as they both were, they could produce a strong Red like him, or maybe a Gold. Those were the happiest dragon offspring. But after her response to his initial request, he hesitated. He also hated himself a little bit for being frightened of her. A human woman? Intimidating to him?
She brushed a palm down the side of his face and he closed his eyes, savoring her touch.
“Geva, I never wanted kids. I love my work too much. Maybe in a few years. Just not now.”
Not now. The words stung but incited a blaze of desire in him that he couldn’t explain. He wanted desperately to share his power with her, maybe to show her what their bond meant again and how beautiful it would be to have some tangible product of their union. He should just tell her why it was so important that they start soon, but he felt the need to convince her to want a child first.
With another swipe of her fingers through his hair, she was gone. She stepped out of the car and walked toward the entrance to the huge, stone building with the emblem of his mother emblazoned on its sign.
He watched her for a moment, admiring the flex of her calves and thighs beneath the short, black dress she wore. A gust of wind blew through and plastered the sheer fabric to her body. The visual made him go hard almost instantly. Then her impatient glower back at him made him question his sanity.
He grasped the lever to extricate himself from her vehicle and joined her. He slung an arm around her waist, only too conscious of the warmth of her body radiating through the slim scrap of fabric she’d covered herself with. It even penetrated the thicker wool of the modern, tailored suit he wore, causing his own skin to tingle pleasantly. Women in this cycle would be the death of him.