“She told me to believe in the Rite of Claiming.”
That was no help. Each new bit of craziness just made her head pound. “Look, I’m sorry, I…”
“You dreamed of this place the night you stayed with me, didn’t you?”
Her jaw dropped. “How did you know?”
Brandon stepped close and took her delicate hands in his own firm grip. “Because I dreamed it too. The chalice? The dagger?”
The delirious, maddening sex they’d shared? Words failed her, completely.
“I thought it was a dream. My longing for you, coloring my slumber. But it wasn’t. It was magic, as my wise Hare told me.”
Her pulse fluttered at her throat, driven by her pounding heart. “I don’t understand.”
“Once, back when the Wellsprings flowed, and the world was full of magic, my kind performed a ceremony called the Rite of Claiming. When a Dragon met his soul mate, he would know because the two of them shared a dream.”
Images came back to her. His silken sash sliding down over his lean, muscled flanks, revealing…
“If she agreed – if she loved him in return…” He cupped her chin and tilted her face up toward him. “…then their souls were bound together. They claimed each other. Dragon and Mate. Destinies and lives forever entwined. Even death could not keep them apart.”
Dizziness swept over her and she clung to him. Joy weakened her, turned her legs to water. Only Brandon, his strength, his solidness, kept her on her feet. “You mean…”
“It wasn’t a dream. It was our fate. You’re my soul mate. My love. The pleasures we tasted that night? We’ll feast upon them, every night. That desire will become the foundation of our life together.”
To have that… to have him. Every day. His passion. His strength.
His love.
“Then… you’ll stay?” she whispered. “After this is done? I won’t lose you when, when we…”
“I will never leave you. Never again.” He bent his head and sealed that promise with a kiss.
Lips, warm and hungry, pressed against hers. The fire from her dreams roared back to life, filling her with a delicious ache. She wanted him. Needed him. Sensing her passion, his own desire rose to match her.
Quickly, he slipped his jacket off and tossed it on the leaf-strewn moss. A pale light glimmered in his sapphire eyes.
His Dragon, Hannah realized. She could see his soul in his very eyes. She remembered the great serpent’s power and deadly strength. That memory didn’t frighten her. She loved him – all of him, both man and beast. He would never harm her. She was his Mate. Brushing his hair back from those bright eyes, she kissed him. Letting her body tell him, in ways words never could, how much she hungered for him. All of him.
Her coat slid off to join his on the ground. Some corner of her mind noticed the fall air, cool upon her skin. Light, delicious, like the caress of a lake in early summer. Perhaps his Dragon nature warmed them; perhaps the Wellspring blessed their union and shielded them from the cold. Hannah neither knew nor cared. Eagerly, they shed their clothes, flinging aside the last barrier that kept them apart.
Then they stood before each other, naked. Man and woman, Dragon and Mate. Her gaze traveled his body. Rising up the powerful muscles of his calves and thighs. Lingering over his hard, thick manhood as it swelled with longing for her. Gliding across his taut chest, his strong arms. Arms she longed to feel wrapping around her, pulling her close.
He was the Greek god as her dream had promised. Not one detail of their nocturnal union was wrong, from his tightly curved buttocks to the hard eagerness of his cock. He was, in truth, everything she’d dreamed he’d be.
When her eyes rose to his handsome, strong-boned face, she realized he watched her too, drunk on the beauty of her body. His brilliant blue eyes burned with a fierce, draconic hunger that threatened to devour her. A yearning that demanded nothing less than a full surrender to pleasure. Yet, his touch – warm against her skin in the cool air – remained gentle, despite the relentless tide of passion that swept over him.
They kissed. Gently, at first, as he reined in his Dragon’s lust and made sure he was the master of his desire. Then harder, hotter, with growing passion. Their hands explored each other, discovering their delicious opposition: hard muscles to soft curves, swelling breasts pressed close to lean, muscular chest.
She felt his manhood press against the gap between her legs. At its touch – eager, ready – she whimpered. Her legs grew weak and she sank towards the ground, prepared to let their union reach its climax.
Brandon caught her and pulled her into his embrace once more. “Not yet, my love,” he whispered. “A Dragon can fly higher still.”
He slid behind her, arms twined about her waist. One hand rose to gently brush her long hair aside, and with a sigh of delight she felt his touch on her neck. Kissing, tasting her. Caressing her with lips and tongue. One hand glided lower and cupped her breast. A thumb circled her nipple, teasing, making her breath grow ragged with longing.
The other hand… oh, the other stole lower still, to the damp hunger between her thighs. At that first touch she cried out with pleasure and pressed herself back against him. Felt his manhood, nestled against her buttocks, grow harder at the sound of her desire. Slowly Brandon stroked her, sending waves of pleasure flooding through her. Again, her legs grew weak. Yet he held her aloft, mouth and fingers driving her to heights of delight she’d never known. Another man would have lost himself in that lust. Not her Dragon. He was an Alpha, dominant, the Lord of his own body, his own desire.
With a gasp, Hannah broke away from his maddening caresses and turned to face him. As Brandon stroked her cheek, she curled her head onto his chest, savoring the faint, male musk of his body. She kissed the nipples of his chest and felt him stiffen, arch his back. Offering himself to her hungry mouth.
Lower she sank, devouring him. Tongue and lips teased their way down the flat, muscled lines of his stomach. He moaned, his fingers wrapping themselves in her long, blonde hair. Hearing his need, the cry of passion she drew from him, her own body burned. Lower still, till her breath whispered about his shaft. Hannah’s hand rose to stroke his manhood. She kissed it, licked it hungrily, imagining it plunging into her.
Panting, Brandon sank to his knees beside her. He swept her into his embrace, lips joining in passion again, and lowered her onto the bed of coats. One hand brushed the dampness of her sex, testing her eagerness, winning a purr of delight from her lips.
That moan, that wordless, animal whimper of need, drove him wild. He mounted her, sliding between her moist thighs, and driving his cock deep within her. Again and again, claiming her – his Mate – with each eager thrust.
Hannah surrendered herself to that ecstasy, no longer even trying to hold back her moans of delight. She arched, joining his passion completely, wrapping her long legs around his hips. Each stroke of his thick manhood sent waves of pleasure washing over her. Mounting higher and higher until, with a primal scream of pleasure, he exploded within her. Their cries of ecstasy merged, ringing through the little glade.
Panting, Brandon collapsed beside her. Still caught in the echoes of that passion, she lay against him. The two lovers held each other, hearts pounding, as a scattering of autumn leaves drifted down around them.
Chapter 11
For a time, they lay there, entwined together, and the world seemed perfect. Hannah luxuriated in the lingering glow of their lovemaking. In the safety she felt in Brandon’s arms. Yes, she now knew the world contained monsters like LeMar who would gladly kill or maim innocents. Yet it held heroes, too. Guardians and protectors, like the man she lay next to.
Her man. Her Mate.
Her Dragon.
Dream had become reality. She couldn’t imagine a more perfect happiness than the one that filled her in this moment. He loved her. He claimed her. Nothing would ever come between them, she was sure.
A cold breeze stirred the leaves around them, and Hannah shivered. Brandon
kissed her once more then rose to his feet and began dressing. “We should go.”
She nodded. The warm, magical cocoon that had enveloped them seemed to have vanished. Quickly, she pulled her clothes on. When she was finished, she looked up and found him watching her with a fond smile.
“Oh, my love,” he murmured. “There are so many things I want to show you. The cathedrals of Paris. Moscow in the snow. The Mediterranean at sunrise.”
Names steeped in romance. Yet, as she listened to them, the first tendril of doubt unfurled in her mind. Yes, she would love to travel Europe. But who would care for Danny while she was gone? Who would lend a hand on the farm if she was off sunning herself on a yacht?
Brandon didn’t notice the way she cooled. “I want to show you off, too,” he promised. “At Cannes. At Montecarlo. At the Louvre.”
With him at her side, perhaps she could dare those places – even enjoy them. They were alien to her though, and daunting.
Still, he didn’t notice the way she bit her lip, eyes clouded. “Wait till you see the Met… Central Park in the snow… You’re going to love New York City so much, my dear.”
Shock, cold as a bucket of icy water, washed over her. He expected her to move?
Well, of course. What was the alternative? Was he going to put on a pair of jeans, roll up his sleeves, and lend a hand milking the cows? A Dragon. Milking cows. Seriously? What was she thinking?
But she knew the answer to that question. As her heart sank and tears welled up in her eyes, she knew it. She was thinking she loved him. That he truly was her soul mate. That she wanted to build her life around him.
“Hannah?” Now he noticed her discomfort. “What’s wrong?”
“Brandon, I…” They were the hardest words she’d ever spoken, but she choked them out. “I don’t think this is going to work.”
“Of course, it is. My Dragon claimed you.”
“I get a say in this too, you know!” she replied, with a flash of pique. That little bit of annoyance felt good. It saved her from dissolving in tears as her world fell apart.
“And you gave it – at the Rite of Claiming. You accepted. You claimed me in return.”
“In a dream,” she corrected.
He stared at her, baffled. “In the Rite.”
“I wasn’t thinking! I was just… just… dreaming!” she wailed.
Disappointment and confusion darkened his handsome face. “Do you not love me?”
Oh, how she wanted to deny that! To kiss his worries away. To swear that yes, she loved him, with all her heart and soul. That wouldn’t help, however. “It’s more complicated than that.”
“Why?” She turned from him, unable to look on the pain she’d caused him, but he caught her arm. “Hannah, please. Talk to me. Tell me what ‘complicates’ our love. We can fix this. Together.”
Anger had shielded her from her own grief. It faded away under the gentle balm of his kind words and now the tears came, pouring down her cheeks. “Brandon, it’s my family.”
“Do they not like me?”
“No! I mean, yes. Yes, they like you. But there’s a chance that Danny will never be able to walk again, because of what LeMar did to him. My parents can’t run the farm and give him the help he needs.”
“That’s a simple problem to solve!” he insisted, waving a dismissive hand. “I’ll hire a nurse for him.”
“We already have a nurse.” Mrs. Grishom, a foul-tempered, lazy woman (who truly did not deserve the great references she came with).
He shrugged. “If her services do not suffice, I’ll hire a second.”
Irritation dried up her tears. Why did he think that all her problems would vanish if he threw enough money at them? Couldn’t he understand that this was her baby brother? She didn’t want Danny to depend on strangers. He deserved the care of someone who loved him.
“Then there’s the farm. Danny planned on working it after he graduated. Now…”
Another casual wave. “Hired hands. As many as your father needs.”
Hannah stared at him, cold with disbelief. Money again? Didn’t he understand family? Obligations? Surely, a Dragon would at least understand honor? Flooding her family farm with strangers would change it, irrevocably.
“No.” She wanted to say more but couldn’t.
“Hannah…” He reached for her. She backed away.
“No. I don’t want to discuss this now.”
“But…”
“Let’s go. We need to figure out what we’re going to do next.”
Though it tore her heart apart, she turned her back on him and began the cold walk home.
Chapter 12
Brandon followed Hannah blindly through the woods. Branches whipped at his face; he didn’t try to dodge them. Even in his human form, his skin was as tough as a Dragon’s scales. He barely felt the blows – and cared about them even less.
His entire mind, his entire being, focused on his Dragon.
It raged. It roared. It demanded that he give in to it. That he let its wild power sweep over him and transform.
How could she do this? We are Mates! We claimed her! She cannot deny her destiny!
But she could. The human part of his soul knew that and, grieving, accepted it. Brandon didn’t understand how things had gone so wrong. He’d never imagined that the world could swing from bliss to despair in the space of a kiss. Yet, it had.
No! Shift! Howl our rage to the skies until she sees how wrong she is!
A being of primal desire and energy, his Dragon could not understand how fragile humans were. How its power and anger could destroy a mortal mind. Dragons were not gentle creatures. Shifting now, when his Dragon raged so fiercely, would only terrify her. And he couldn’t bear to see fear in her face. Fear of him.
No. He could not let go of his pain, his betrayal. He was an Alpha, the master of his Dragon soul. He would not lose himself.
“Are you okay?” Hannah’s gentle voice broke the silence.
Brandon stared at her dumbly. How could she ask that? She had filled the cup of his soul with bliss. They had joined together, Dragon and Mate, and pledged their love with the wordless promises of their bodies. And then, at the moment when their union should have become eternal, she turned away from him. Rejected him, and his love. Then she asked if he was ‘okay’?
She waited for his answer. “Yes,” he said. “I’m fine.”
“Okay.” Clearly, she didn’t believe him. Yet she still ‘didn’t want to talk about it.’ So, she continued toward the farm.
A howl of primal pain welled up in him when she turned her back on him. Brandon staggered as his grip on his Dragon wavered. Scales, hard and black, flashed up his arms.
No! He was the master! He clenched his hands into fists. As his Dragon’s energy poured over him, razor-sharp talons sprouted from his fingertips – and drove themselves into his own palms. As he’d planned. A Dragon was, after all, about the only thing that could harm a Dragon.
That shock of pain startled his Dragon, and in its moment of confusion, Brandon drew its power back into himself. Locking it safely on the Other Side. Claws vanished. Scales faded to human skin. Once again, he controlled himself.
Sensing that burst of power, Hannah glanced back, her face creased with worry.
Brandon gave her a smile. A stiff, fake smile – yet it seemed to reassure her.
Denied an outlet into the mortal world, his Dragon keened with grief and loss. Though the danger of losing control was real, he couldn’t be angry with it. He understood, in a way Hannah didn’t, how much she’d hurt them.
Dragons guarded. The urge to protect filled them, in every scale, every drop of blood. Since the age of myth, they protected. Sacred places, like the Wellsprings. Sacred people, like their Mates. When the Wellsprings faded, they took the Dragons’ hearts with them. Robbed of their purpose, their love, some went mad and chewed their wings off. Like LeMar.
Brandon knew the urges that had destroyed his enemy. The cold, dull greyne
ss that life became when it held no hope of love, of purpose. He had tasted the seductive allure of greed, the urge to submerge himself in the empty, petty pleasures that wealth offered. So many Dragons fell to that siren song of despair and greed.
Today, he had dared to dream that his longing was over. That Hannah could fill the hollow inside him, the emptiness that threatened to devour his soul and turn him into a depraved, evil reflection of himself. As LeMar had done. She, and the crippled Wellspring, would save him from that. By devoting himself to her, to protecting her family and home, he could finally become what he was meant to be.
A true Dragon, whole and complete. A Guardian.
And now that dream lay shattered. Destroyed by one simple word: “No.”
Despair washed over him and with it a lethal urge to shift and tear his own wings to shreds. Brandon closed his eyes until that mad desire passed and he was himself again.
I will not let you do this, he told his Dragon firmly. Remember this: if one word destroyed our dreams, then another word can bring them back to life.
Yes.
He would not rail at Hannah, would not let his Dragon lash out in its pain and harm her. When she was ready, she would talk. He would listen to her. In time, he would understand why she denied him. And then, he would change her mind.
He knew he could. Her body had whispered that message to him, as she moaned in the ecstasy of their union. She had claimed him as surely as his Dragon had claimed her. Whatever obstacles her mind might imagine, her heart knew they were soul mates. Destined to be together. When he understood her fears, he promised himself he would solve them. More gently, less brusquely this time. For now, he simply needed to give her time. To wait until she was ready to face this with him.
Dragon Protector (Dragon Dreams) Page 7