Realm of the Dragon (The Soul Mate Tree Book 1)
Page 15
Kord turned his back on the dead warlock and flew to his mate. Next to her, Bakka held Embrlynn in his arms. The princess trembled badly, but met Kord’s eyes with a brave smile before burying her face against her future mate’s neck.
Kord doubted his brother would let her out of his sight again until he could mate her.
Hell, he could sure relate.
In the clearing in front of the main opening, Kord’s freicia guard stood at attention, their eyes locked on Aventasha. Next to her, Lily vibrated with deadly intent. Kord could taste her need to shred the enemy.
He shifted quickly, uncaring of his nudity, and strode to his mate, still sitting on Tasha. He couldn’t have been more proud of her at that very moment.
Stepping close, he softly traced across her snout, loving the feel of her smooth face scales, watching how her beautiful eyes fluttered in pleasure as he stroked her. “You are the most enchanting, majestic creature I have ever beheld,” he whispered.
In response, her mouth parted enough to allow her long, silky tongue to emerge, and she ran it over his torso, up along his neck, tasting him, flicking its very tip against one of his pointed ears, until Kord’s lust surged.
“Gods,” he rasped, low and thick.
Her answering rumble held a wealth of promise.
One of the guards approached with a robe for Kord to shrug into. “Prince and Princess, your decree?” He pointed toward Tasha, squashed into the dirt.
Lily’s gaze briefly swung toward him, and Kord nodded at the question in her lavender-ringed eyes. “Hold her. My princess and I will decide her fate.” He jerked his chin toward the cowardly Zane, who’d actually passed out and lay in the rough scrub with his mouth half-open, drooling. “Take the traitor Zanralth as well. Chain them.”
The guards bowed and shifted, then collected both prisoners and flew off toward Draconian. Kord turned to Lily, admiring her sleek lines, her vibrant coloring.
Bakka called over to him, laughing, “If you can take your eyes off your mate long enough, brother, we’re ready to blow this joint.”
A rumble from Lilliaa of Anglican signified her readiness to head for home. Kord slid a final caress over her elegant neck, tracing over her smaller brow-horn. “My lady, may I offer you a ride?”
The flick of her tongue over his cheek almost dropped him to his knees when she purred, “Ride me, my beloved prince.”
Epilogue
Lily eyed Kord and Bakka as they strode through the front entrance. “Well, how did it go?”
By the identical smirks on their faces, she figured it’d gone pretty well.
Leaning against a boulder, Bakka snagged his future mate by her hand. “Fantastic.” He cuddled her close, and Embry leaned against him with a murmur of pleasure, her cheeks flushed.
Kord advanced on Lily, desire heating his eyes. He swooped her up and plopped down on a fur-covered flattop across from Bakka, settling her onto his lap. Wrapping one arm possessively around her waist, he nuzzled her neck. “Mmm . . . You smell so good.”
Heat flushed her entire body, the way it always did when he touched her. For a moment Lily forgot what she’d asked, and arched her neck to give him better access. He sucked and nibbled her sensitive flesh, eliciting shivers that shot straight up her spine.
Engrossed in her mate, Lily barely heard her sister’s breathless query. “Did you . . . find . . . the bezom— Stop that.” She giggled as Bakka tickled her ribs without mercy.
Clutching Kord’s shoulders, Lily lifted her head, breaking his fiery kiss against her mating mark. His lips sought more of her tender flesh. She held him off, chuckling at his grumbles. “You heard my sister. Did you?”
The sexy smolder in his eyes liquefied her body, and Lily’s pulse raced, wanting nothing more than to take him to their bed.
Kord’s gaze burned hotter. “Before I tell you, give me a proper kiss.”
“Yeah,” Bakka said to Embry, “what he said.”
Lily met her sister’s amused expression and they both shrugged, smiling broadly, before turning to their dragons. Happiness flowed through Lily as she heard Bakka’s quiet vow of adoration, and her sister’s whispering response of love.
Cupping the sides of her head, Kord tilted her face and pressed his mouth to hers in a scorching kiss. Long minutes passed as Lily lost herself in her mate.
Finally, the sound of Droc clearing his throat, and Rosamunde’s chuckle, caught her attention. Lily regretfully lifted her lips from Kord’s, wondering how much the former king had seen of their very public display.
Beneath her, Kord tensed, the strength in his thighs producing thoughts better left to their bedchamber. He does that on purpose, blasted dragon.
Fighting for balance, she scrambled off Kord’s lap and faced the former king of the Dragon Realm. Her eyes widened at his very casual clothing of loose trousers and soft linen shirt.
Next to him, Rosamunde wore an equally informal outfit of blue leggings under a silk tunic that seemed awfully familiar. Lily’s brows arched high as she met the glowing eyes of Kord’s mother, noting her subtle nod.
I’ll be damned, she swiped my festival gear. Chuckling, Lily gave her bond-mother a thumbs-up. To Droc, she bowed, then took the hand he held out to her.
“We are on our way soon, Queen Lilliaa.” He paused, his eyes alight with approval. “Such a lovely-sounding name, child. I am very proud of you.”
Blinking away sudden tears, Lily stepped into her bond-father’s gentle embrace, planting a kiss on his cheek. “Tell my parents hello for Embry and me. We expect all of you to have a wonderful time.”
“Your father and I have an entertaining itinerary laid out. Right, my love?” Droc held out his free hand for his mate.
“I’ll vouch for that.” Rosamunde chuckled as she clasped his fingers. “Retirement has been certainly interesting. They’ve had nothing better to do than spend the last few weeks plotting this trip.”
With much laughter and final hugs all around, Kord’s parents collected their bags.
Glancing over to her sister, Lily got a kick out of how sweetly Embry blushed as she tried to pull away from Bakka, who had grabbed her as soon as she’d said goodbye to Droc and Rosamunde. He was having none of it, his arm remaining firmly clamped around her waist until she stilled, relaxing back into him with a soft, loving sigh.
“Children, I almost forgot.” Droc’s stern tone at young Prince Bakkailin’s amoral antics belied the approving glint in his eyes as he set his bag down and turned toward their little group. “I’d like to know as well. Did you find the bezom?”
Kord and Bakka met each other’s gaze, and grinned.
Jutting rocks rose skyward among gouged trees, abandoned gree-honey hives, and uneven groundcover. Black Isle had always been unforgiving. By the looks of the surrounding outcropping, nothing had changed.
Aventasha, exiled from Anglican, clenched her fists hard enough to slice crescents in both palms. Turning in a furious circle, she surveyed her new domain.
Three caverns, two cramped and one moderately spacious, formed a triangle halfway between an overgrown pasture and the craggy shoreline near the spot where upper Vining Lake dumped into the Greater Dire Sea. None of the chambers were large enough to comfortably accommodate her needs in human form, much less dragon. She shuddered in disgust when a fat, hoary tubliiz, its beady eyes darting about and its flabby belly dragging the ground, ventured from the wide entrance. It paused, sniffed the air with a wide snout, emitted a foul stream of urine from one of its three openings, then toddled into the waist-high pasture grasses in search of whatever the hell the vile things ate that made them piss sixty times a day. The entire area reeked, and the smell would never go away.
“Damn it, damn it, damn it.” Tasha yanked out fistfuls of her hair. Stuck here on the Black Isle. Intolera
ble. There must be a way off. Shift, for fucks’ sake. Fly out of this horrible place.
She gathered herself, preparing her muscles, her mind, her very molecules to shift—
Nothing. She screamed in frustration, tore out more hair, stomping on it as she remembered Black Isle negated power. As long as she remained on this damned miserable hellhole, she could never shift.
“For the love of the gods, stop your screeching. I have a headache.” The whiny, complaining voice behind her made Tasha spin on her bare feet, her claws out, ready to defend what inferior turf she’d claimed.
Zanralth, deposed Prince of Diablian, common criminal and outcast, stumbled from behind a boulder.
“Oh, gods, no.” She couldn’t believe her eyes. Marooned with the one male she despised above all? Surely there couldn’t be a worse punishment than that.
“I’m not staying here with you for company, you asshole.” Tasha whirled toward the shoreline. “I can swim easily enough. And there must be other islands nearby.”
She ran, uncaring the soles of her feet would bruise on the rough gravel that covered the beach. Closer and closer to the edge of the sea she dashed, hearing Zane’s footsteps as he tried to keep up with her.
The water, clear and aqua, boasted gentle waves and an easy surf. Nothing to worry about, Tasha thought happily. She was a strong swimmer. She’d easily leave Zane behind. He couldn’t swim worth a dried-up fart.
A splash, followed by a realm-shattering shriek was her only warning, as a long, sinewy body cut through the water a few yards from shore, where she’d already dipped her toes. Tasha yanked her foot back, gaping at the creature rising up out of the surf. Wide-jawed, with rows of knife-sharp teeth glinting off the water’s surface, its eyes trained on her with frozen, dead hatred. As if it knew her.
As if it wanted to kill her.
Zane stumbled to a stop in the rough gravel a few feet away, staring in horror at the bezom-fish swimming laps offshore. Back and forth. The horrid thing spat green poison each time he or Tasha moved an inch toward the water.
A monster. Their jailer. Their forever punishment.
“Son of a goddess-whore!” The oath exploded from Zane’s throat as he dropped to the gravel, landed on a jagged, penis-shaped rock, and squealed like an impaled virgin.
Three feet away, in a rage, Tasha tore out another chunk of hair. Then stared at the ragged clump on the ground in dawning horror as she rubbed the bare spot on her head. Four stubbly spots.
No regrowth.
She emitted a rage-filled scream, grinding her heel in the rocky soil hard enough to drive several sharp shards into her skin. It only made her screech louder.
Glaring out toward the surf with its deceptive-looking freedom, she swore the bezom smiled.
Thanks for reading Realm of the Dragon, by CiCi Cordelia, January’s release, and the first book in THE SOUL MATE TREE Collective! If you enjoyed the read, please consider leaving a review on Amazon.
The Collective continues with February’s release, Can’t Stop the Music, by C.D. Hersh:
Jammed highways, food shortages, and rainstorms can’t stop the music when hippies Rose and Dakota hear the melody of love at the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival. Or can it? When a jealous wannabe girlfriend and misunderstandings drive them apart, the couple loses track of one another in the massive crowd. Will a mystical tree help them find each other again, or will they merely live with missed opportunities?
Links for CiCi Cordelia:
Newsletter: https://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/d.jsp?llr=bt5udwpab&p=oi&m=1116359785057&sit=ib777kpib&f=546dbb32-cf99-4e98-a4d0-e760cdc78ce4
Official Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/HeartfeltRomance/
Links for Char Chaffin and Cheryl Yeko, who write as CiCi Cordelia:
Char Chaffin:
Website: http://char.chaffin.com/‘Falling In Love is Only the Beginning’
Facebook: http://facebook.com/char.chaffin
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/pvscu7w
Twitter: http://twitter.com/char_chaffin
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5337737.Char_Chaffin
Cheryl Yeko:
Website: http://www.cherylyeko.com/ ‘Where Love Always Wins’
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/qzsks8q
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectingRose
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cherylyeko
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Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5406425.Cheryl_Yeko