by Maia Starr
Her laugh was beautiful, like a nymph’s from a fairy tale. Every time he heard it, he wanted more of it to soothe his mind, to spur on his desire for her, but eventually he stopped and switched gears in his mind.
Rolling her onto her back, he stared down at her, panting wildly as he spread her legs. She stared up, panting just as hard, her eyes locked onto his, anticipating the moment they connected. Ethan’s whole body was pumping hot blood like it was nobody's business. Seizing the moment, he connected his body to hers, and instantly waves of pleasure radiated between them, both groaning and shuddering, Eliza’s legs straightening in the air.
Ethan began slowly at first, trying to tame the dragon inside himself from going too hard too quickly. Inside his chest, the dragon roared to life, spewing fire and enjoying every thrust. Chest thumping wildly, he settled into a rhythm and thrust at a steady pace, skin slapping on skin. Eliza’s head lolled back, as did her arms above her head on the bed, and she smiled like a fool, the pleasure overtaking her mind and body.
He was dominating her right now, just as he had before. It was like a sensation neither had felt before. Eliza’s curvy body, the sound of her shrill voice as he rammed into her, the sweat that formed on both their bodies as the cave around them began to steam, fogging at least Ethan’s vision slightly.
The ecstasy blurred in his mind, erasing everything else, and Ethan soon felt like he was just one person with her, the mate he craved and claimed, the woman he desired. She took him in stride, matching everything he threw at her. The pleasure surged inside of him, and soon Ethan was grunting, stiffening, the fire inside him spewing out like an inferno. Eliza shuddered and clamped down on him, heightening the pleasure, raising the heat to the next level as they spasmed as one. Her eyes rolled back, showed every level of pleasure she was feeling. Mouth open, she shouted silently, swearing and gripping at the pillows and sheets as they reached climax, going so tense for a few moments before both subsided and inhaled heavily.
Ethan leaned over in the heat of the moment, grabbing onto Eliza’s legs for support, and took a moment to breathe and bring his mind back from the fog of pleasure. Eliza must have been doing the same since she didn’t bother to move for a while.
“I’ve still got more…” Ethan said after growling and sense came back to him. Without waiting for her answer, he took hold of Eliza’s amazing hips and spun her so that she was on her knees, her face and arms pressed into the bed.
Eliza shivered and moaned again as Ethan thrust, the feel of her body grinding on his sending him over the edge once again. He pounded and pounded, placing one hand on her back to keep her down. Sparks crackled in his body and continued to crackle as he went faster, harder, leaving Eliza to scream out in the intoxicating joy.
Ethan couldn’t say if he had ever felt anything quite like making love to Eliza. Eliza was exquisite, like a whole basket of flavors and physical feelings that it made his mind go numb. Ethan began to forget about everything, save the pure pleasure he got from riding her. There was even a moment where his name escaped his lips.
Time turned into a foreign concept, and later Ethan stiffened and convulsed once again, heaving Eliza’s bottom up as he leaned in, her voice strained and startled, the sounds of pleasure stirring Ethan’s blood. He didn’t breathe for nearly a minute straight, and when he finally was able to relax and release himself from Eliza’s body, he sucked in the sweaty air around him. Collapsing into the bed next to her, he looked over in a haze to see a similar spent expression on her face.
A smile from his lips found its way onto hers, and they kissed once more.
“I love you,” Eliza whispered, each word sparsed out with her breaths.
Ethan placed his hand on her cheek and cupped it, caressing it. “I love you too...I’m claiming you right here and now...you’re going to be my mate, Eliza. And you’re going to love every minute of being with me.”
She laughed then, infecting Ethan with it, and he knew that he would do anything for her. There didn’t seem to be anything left in the world that could tear them apart.
Realizing things were finally settling into place with Eliza, he closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep, his dreams of Eliza and nothing else.
Life seemed to be going his way finally.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Eliza
Eliza’s dream was filled with images of Ethan, of their future together, uninhibited by all the natural recoil alarm that had accompanied her thoughts when Ethan first kidnapped her from the edge of Salem. She could imagine life as being his mate, living with him in his home cave in the forest, heading into town to continue to take classes, working her way towards her degree as a full-fledged doctor. She’d even be able to start a medical practice right in Salem itself, healing and helping both regular humans and shifters alike.
Her dreams ended with Eliza pregnant, expecting their first child together, leaving her with a smile. It broke off as Ethan leaned in to kiss her, and instead, Eliza woke up to the dimmed room. Her eyes fluttered open slowly at first, her mind still lingering on the sensations of the previous night. At least, she thought it was the previous night. It was often hard to tell whether it was morning or night inside of Ethan’s cave, but going by how well rested she felt, her body stretched and comfy in bed, it was a good guess to say it had been at least seven hours or so.
Moving slightly, she realized Ethan’s massive arm was draped over her midriff, pulling her to him unconsciously. She smiled lazily at that and giggled somewhat.
A sound that was like a crunching noise startled her, and the rustle of paper woke her up completely. She sat up in bed, peering around, her eyes adjusting to the darkness of the cave, save for the lantern that still burned softly a few feet away.
“So you’re awake, are you? I thought you’d curl up for a few more hours at best,” said a low voice from somewhere to Eliza’s right. She spun and found herself staring into the steely eyes of Professor Gabriel Allard. “Hello, Eliza. Sorry, didn’t mean to disturb you. Um…” He pointed at her, directly at her chest. Stunned, Eliza looked down, seeing her chest revealed, and did her best not to squeal as she hurriedly lifted the sheet to cover her body.
“W-what are you doing here, Professor Allard?” she stammered, face going bright red. “How d-did you find me?”
In his hand was an apple, and the professor crunched the slices between his teeth so long his colleagues would call it obsessive. “Well, those are easy questions to answer.” He flipped closed a newspaper, which he had propped up on his knee while he sat on a stool next to Ethan. “I’m a dragon shifter, like your Ethan here. I’m sure he’s told you.”
From her jaw dropping and her widening eyes, the professor guessed that, no, Ethan hadn’t told her, and so he sighed. Throwing his newspaper onto a nightstand and tossing the apple core into a trash bin that Eliza hadn’t noticed before. “Of course not...look, would you mind getting dressed? I’d like to speak with you.”
Dumbfounded, Eliza blinked and nodded, unable to voice the myriad questions popping into her brain all at once. The professor rose and stuffed his hands in his long coat pockets. “I’ll be waiting outside the front door.”
Once he was gone, Eliza simply stared at the cave entrance, not wanting to believe what had just happened.
So Professor Allard, genius doctor, teacher at Salem University, is a dragon shifter? I know Ethan knew him, but this changes everything!
Quietly wrenching herself free from Ethan, who snored and continued to sleep soundly, she threw the sheets off and looked around for clothes. Considering Ethan tore her clothes off the previous night, she didn’t have anything that would fit her, so instead Eliza chose to throw on some of Ethan’s oversized clothes. The shirt was at least two times her size and hung on her so low that the shorts she wore were hidden beneath it. Once ready, her heart still pounding at the sudden intrusion of the professor, Eliza stepped outside.
Leaning against the wall, the professor smiled at her. “Well, now you l
ook silly in those oversized clothes. Don’t you have your own to wear?” Eliza opened her mouth, but the embarrassment of the steamy lovemaking between her and Ethan constricted her voice, and she ended up twirling a lock of her blond hair instead. Grunting, Professor Allard waved the question away. “Ah, sorry, I’m used to Ethan being pretty open about everything...or at least about his desires. Or more direct, is the right way to put it? Oh, doesn’t matter.”
“Are you really...a dragon shifter?” Eliza said hesitantly.
Raising a brow, the professor crossed his arms. “Well, yes, I am, though I don’t shift that often. I’m getting too old to be so aggressive and wild like the younger men these days.”
“But you teach at Salem University.”
“Is it wrong to do so?”
“No! Not wrong, that’s not what I meant. I just...it’s strange, hearing that you’re a shifter, is all.”
The professor smiled, his casual gaze soft and lingering on hers. She found she could look him in the eye. It was a lot easier to approach him if he was intimate enough with Ethan to amble into the latter’s home. “I’m sure it is, like I’m sure it was a shock to be kidnapped like you were. I’ll have you know that I chastised him for doing that. You were probably, and rightfully, very scared of him back then. Now, before I get ahead of myself and begin apologizing on his behalf, he has told you about...everything, right?”
Eliza blinked. “If you mean about shifter society, I believe he has. Unless there’s some sort of rule or law I wasn’t aware of.”
The professor remained silent, watching her as if trying to come to a decision, until finally he creased his brow and waved her to follow him. “I’d brace yourself if I were you since I’m about to reveal something to you that you should have been informed of from the beginning. I’d wager that Ethan was taking his sweet time, too scared to reveal his last surprise, but you need to know about this.”
Suddenly very aware of her surroundings, Eliza traced every step Professor Allard made, recognizing the hallways and cavernous rooms they passed through...until she didn’t. They stopped just outside a small hot room that was low enough for even Eliza to be able to touch the ceiling. A table was propped up in the middle, with a blanket covering some sort of curved, large objects underneath. Professor Allard waited for her response, but instead, she simply shook her head.
“I don’t understand.”
The professor moved forward, Eliza coming in behind him. He moved around the table to stand opposite Eliza and promptly pulled the blanket off the table. Underneath were four massive eggs, spotted and pointing up, and all hot to the touch. Stunned once again, she looked to the professor.
He pointed at them in response. “These are dragon eggs. Ethan’s dragon eggs.”
“I-I don’t—”
“Babies, Eliza. This is how dragon shifter babies are born. They hatch out of eggs produced by the mother dragon.”
“But Ethan can’t get pregnant!”
The professor’s eyes glittered. “No, he can’t. But he can impregnate a woman.”
Understanding dawned on Eliza moments later, and she swung her gaze back to look again at the eggs. Ethan’s eggs...his children. He...had another mate!
Suddenly she was storming out of the room, thankfully remembering the way back to Ethan’s room. Whatever the hell that was, she needed answers. Now.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ethan
It was a hard slap that woke Ethan up from his deep sleep, a stinging that made his eyes water before they even flew open. Instinctive tears rolled down his cheeks as he shot up in bed, pushing his back against the headboard, swearing at the heat flooding into his cheek.
Had something bitten him? A spider? A beetle or some other insect? Did Eliza accidentally pinch him?
Glancing over, he saw her side of the bed empty. The void was gaping, and as he looked up, he saw why.
Standing over him, her face twisted and red with fury, her palm hanging in the air, Eliza glared daggers down at him and proceeded to slap his cheek again. Leaning back to get out of her reach, and holding her at bay with his free hand, she swung wildly, eventually deciding on simply attacking his arms and shoulders, pounding him with her tiny fists. If Eliza had been smiling, and her fists weren’t so taut, Ethan might have laughed, seeing this as some sort of foreplay. But from the way she squealed and threw her entire weight around in force, something was seriously wrong.
“Eliza!” he said. “Stop. Stop!”
Finally, after not wanting her beautiful hands attempting to claw at his face, he grabbed both her wrists in one fell swoop at stared at her. Her dusty blond bedhead hair was tangled and thrown all over. Combined with the scrunched up nose and downturned curl to her lips, Eliza looked wild, as if she’d just come from a cat fight outside in the forest.
“Eliza, what’s wrong?” he said desperately, the comfiness of the bed and relaxed feeling of sleep gone entirely from his body. Now he swung his legs around, his feet touching the cold cave floor. He continued to hold onto her wrists, though she didn’t resist. “What’s gotten into you?”
“The eggs, Ethan. The eggs!” she said. “I saw them. They’re yours, right? Dragon shifter babies will pop out of those eventually, won’t they?”
Blinking, Ethan loosened his grip on Eliza’s wrists and simply stared. She knew about the dragon eggs? But how? Had she woken up earlier and explored while Ethan slept? But even if she did simply happen to find them, she wouldn’t have known about the connection to him...or the fact that they carried his babies. Ripping her wrists from his grasp, she stepped back and crossed her arms. “Just when I thought there wasn’t anything else that could surprise me...you go and pull this?”
He growled and scowled. “Who told you?”
“Professor Allard,” she said crossly, blue eyes swinging back to the entrance to his cave.
Ethan followed and spied the old dragon shifter leaning against the wall. The old shifter sighed and waved at Ethan, his steely eyes simply staring back at Ethan’s gawk, and then snarl. What the hell was the old man thinking? Turning back to Eliza, he looked deep into her ocean-like eyes. “Eliza, you need to listen to me. I can explain all of this. Gabriel had no right to tell you…” Looking back at the shifter, Ethan fought back the compulsion to leap out of bed and rush over to strangle him. “I told you I was waiting for the right time, Gabriel!”
“The longer you would have waited, the worse her reaction, and the deeper the burn would go into her heart,” Gabriel said with a shrug. “And I didn’t see you make any move yet, So I acted for you. Be happy, because now there isn’t anything else to tell, lad.” He cocked his head. “Arthur would approve of my actions, wouldn’t you agree? Besides, those eggs will hatch soon.”
“Soon?” Eliza said. The disbelief was written all over her pretty features. “How soon? A month from now? A week? Tomorrow?” she gazed at Ethan accusingly. “Today?”
“I don’t know when!” Ethan shouted. “But it’s like Gabriel said. Sometime soon. And those babies need a mother.”
“But they already have a mother, don’t they? Men can’t get pregnant, Ethan, however the hell a woman lays eggs, so clearly there’s someone else.” Her grip on her chest hardened, her own embrace getting smaller. “So, who is it? I’m done being played with, Ethan. I’m not going to spend the rest of my life stuck here in this cave just to play maid to you and some other girl’s dragon kids.”
Ethan surged to his feet, gripped her arms. “No! That’s not it. I mean, I did want you to look after them...together with me. But as their mother, not their maid.”
But Eliza wasn’t hearing him. Something must have broken in her with the revelation, and she walked around, pretending to check on the bed, lean behind his wardrobe, peer into the dim light. “So where is this other woman? The one you actually want as a mate? I don’t see her. Is she even here? I bet she’s somewhere in the rest of your territory, where she’s surrounded by family and friends. Was that the plan? I
raise both of your children in secret, here in this cave, trapped here, while you go off to screw her and live out your days?”
Charging after her and spinning her around, Ethan breathed heavily. “Eliza! Stop! There is no other woman! Not anymore.”
“Why not?”
“Because she left me!” Ethan screamed, his voice startling even Gabriel, who looked on with a frown.
He breathed, Eliza’s voice gone, leaving only his to reverberate in the chamber. Letting go of Eliza, he realized his inner dragon was getting too worked up, too congested, and so he half turned away and clutched at his chest and found his usually confident voice wavering. “S-she’s gone. Okay? Up and left. Chose some prick in some other dragon clan over me, not even caring enough to take her eggs with her…” He wiped his brow, not even glancing back over to see if Eliza was paying attention. “She just wanted to play around with me, though I was serious about her. We had fun...and then we found out she was pregnant. She laid those eggs, as excited as I was, and…” His voice trailed off. “Let's just say, it turned out Mia is the biggest bitch I know.”
Shaking in her place a foot away, Eliza looked down, her eyes wide and brows furrowed. “But...why didn’t you tell me about all of that from the beginning? I would have listened, would have tried to understand.”
Ethan’s chest grew nauseous, filling with that ugly feeling of betrayal that, until he’d met Eliza, thought would never have gone away. Yet it persisted in abusing him, even now. “I’m sorry, Eliza. Truly. I was just scared that you’d leave me too if I showed you those eggs. Hell, there’s four of them! And you’re just a regular woman, still unaccustomed even to me.” He met her eyes, shared a pained look, and then she broke the contact. “I know I should have told you earlier, but I just didn’t think it would be best until you settled in and...learned more. Until you’d be ready.”