by Meg Ripley
Xander’s breath heaved in his chest as he kept his fire contained. He took a deep breath and let his body slowly shift back. He adjusted his balance on his two feet as his tail narrowed and disappeared, and his wings folded into his shoulder blades with a decisive snap. He watched as his coppery scales turned back into smooth skin.
He glanced at Summer with his tongue between his teeth. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, but fear was still evident in her eyes. He didn’t know if it was aimed at him, but it probably was. After all, a fully-grown dragon was a lot more intimidating than a baby one.
10
Summer had difficult customers before, but never like that one. She didn’t know what she would have done, and there had been nothing more incredible than seeing the fierce form of Xander as a dragon charging forth to save her.
He turned to her, sadness in his eyes. “I promised to give you space, and all I did was come and wreck your shop.”
Summer understood exactly what the spirits had been trying to tell her. She had fought so hard against Xander, but he truly was at the very center of her circle, no matter what her mind had been telling her. “You came here when I needed you to,” she said, her cheeks warm and her chest even warmer. “Somehow, you just knew.” She saw Xander as though through a soft light, and she could hardly take her eyes off him as she crunched across the floor toward the front door.
“You’re not angry about the mess?” He gestured helplessly around him at the broken glass and the scattered stones.
Summer locked the door with a flick of her finger and stepped toward him. “Not at all. I’ll just cast a spell to get things back in order.” Smiling, Summer put her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his. He was warm and firm, hard in all the right places as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close, deepening the kiss. She moaned a little at the pleasure.
It was then that she understood just what Xander had meant when he’d said they were destined to be together. She didn’t need to be able to explain it or comprehend it. It didn’t even matter how hard she had tried to resist it, because Xander was right. Her body surged toward his, demanding him. She didn’t care about anything else, and she was determined to make him realize just how much he was beginning to mean to her, too.
Xander moved his mouth from her lips and trailed kisses down her jawline, still holding her tightly. His breath steamed along her skin as he made his way down to her collarbone, pulling aside the strap of her dress to kiss her shoulder.
“When you shifted,” she admitted as she closed her eyes, “I could finally see every ounce of determination and passion in your eyes.”
He laughed softly against her collarbone. “So, how did you like me when I was a dragon, anyway?”
Summer pulled his head up so that she could look him in eye. “I like you in any form you’re in, Xander.”
His mouth covered hers once more, and she melted underneath him. There was no shop to run, and there had been no dangerous customer. There was only Xander as the two of them tumbled to the floor. She pulled hastily at his belt buckle, desperate to get past his khakis and see what was waiting for her underneath. The giant copper dragon in her shop had been gorgeous, a striking figure that was both intimidating and awe-inspiring, but she knew the man would be just as thrilling. She wasn’t disappointed when she revealed his hardness, ready for her, a dusting of fine dark hairs traveling up his rippling abdomen. Summer splayed her hands against his firm chest as he held himself over her, patiently waiting for whatever she desired, and her heart pounded in her chest.
She wasn’t a virgin, but she might as well have been as Xander slowly peeled her dress down and shimmied it over her hips, exposing her naked skin. “You are even more stunning than I imagined,” he breathed as his eyes roved ever downward. She could feel his gaze on her, blasting her like a laser with a heat that gathered and built between her legs.
Summer nearly cried out with the agony of wanting him, and he seemed to sense her pain. He bent his head to take her nipple into his mouth. Bolts of electricity shot through her body from the points where he touched her, combining with that heat and gathering into a tight ball in the very lowest reaches of her abdomen. “I want you,” she whispered.
Xander smiled sweetly as he moved to her other breast. “I want you, too,” he whispered back. “I need you.”
He paid thorough attention to her nipple, leaving it cold when he removed his hot mouth from the pert bud and kissed a slow line down her quivering stomach. Summer obediently spread her legs as he brushed his lips against her delicate folds.
He pulled her thighs around his neck as he dove deeper, driving his tongue inside her as he explored her most delicate area. Summer shook around him as her muscles tightened. She tipped her head back against the floor and closed her eyes, focusing on that white sphere of heat and electricity that was her entire world at that moment. Xander wet his finger and slipped it inside her, leaving his tongue free to flick against her sensitive bundle of nerves. Every stroke of his tongue sent a spasm through her legs until she couldn’t control herself any longer. Her fingers spread against the floor and her back arched as she came, crying out for more. Ripples of pleasure vibrated through her body like the waves from a drop of water on a still pond, and Summer embraced the chaos.
Xander showed no sign of stopping as long as she was pleased, but she couldn’t take it any more. She had never been so turned on in her life, and it was almost more than her body could handle. “Xander, please. I can’t. Oh, Goddess!” She rolled her head back as he sucked her into his mouth and got her going once again.
“What’s the matter?” he asked gently, looking up at her with an evil gleam in his eye. “Don’t you like it?” He slipped a second finger inside without waiting for her answer.
“Oh, you know I do,” she gasped. “But I want to return the favor.”
“I said I would do anything you want,” he reminded her, “and I meant it. You just tell me.”
“Stand up.”
Xander did as he was told, standing so that her towered over her. Summer brought herself to her knees, coming face-to-face with his erection. She looked up at him, admiring his body from this new perspective, and pulled his member into her mouth. Slowly sinking her lips to his base, she flicked her tongue against the underside of his member and she pulled him back out. He was so hot and hard, and she couldn’t believe she had fought so hard against something so pleasurable. She could have had Xander a week ago, and even that short of a time frame seemed like an eternity now that she knew what she was missing.
He reached out to steady himself on a nearby display cabinet as she sucked hard and then sank him in to the hilt, his head touching the back of her throat and her lips just barely around his root. “You have no idea how good that feels,” he grunted, his fists balled at his sides.
“If it’s anything like what you’ve done to me, then I know,” she promised him. Summer brought up one hand to stroke his shaft, milking him tightly with her fingers. Xander’s hips pulsed, and she could tell he was fighting to control himself. Knowing she had turned him on that much made that same white ball of flame in her core, but it could wait for a moment while she gave him everything she had. Summer sucked harder, working her tongue around his length and compressing her lips as she worked him.
Finally, Xander had reached his breaking point. He gave a roar as he pulled himself from her mouth and came down to the ground, mounting her. His lips covered hers as he plunged inside, and Summer wrapped her legs around his waist. She let him in because she wanted him, and because she needed him. They melded together into one, his hands tangled in her hair while hers traced the long muscles of his back. The two of them moved in unison, building, giving, and only taking because they were unable to help themselves. Summer felt the engorgement of Xander’s cock inside her and the way her body responded, pulsing around him and pushing cries of passion from her lungs as she came once again, pulling him deeper into her body
and never wanting to let go. Xander felt it, too, and he pulsed his hips harder and faster against hers, his bellow vibrating through the shop as he filled her up with everything he had.
Gasping and panting, they continued to hold on as they searched each other’s eyes for what they already knew was there. Xander dropped a quick kiss on her forehead.
She smiled, feeling all the warmth and love of the universe around her. Most of it radiated off Xander, but in that moment, she had no doubt that he wasn’t the only source. Her spirit guides had told her that he had a part to play in her life, and they were pleased that she had finally decided to listen.
11
Xander threaded his way through the woods, wrapping his long, sleek body around trees as he pursued his prey. He wasn’t all that far from civilization, not really, but he knew that he was safe there. Instead, he was the only predator as he chased the little ball of green scales that glimmered in the moonlight. “I’m going to get you!”
Nora giggled, a funny noise coming from a baby dragon, and scampered into a bush. She immediately peeked out again to make sure she was being pursued and laughed once more.
Pretending to pounce and miss, Xander grinned to himself as the little girl scampered away. She was happy there, and that was what really mattered to him. She had the freedom to shift when the time was right, exploring who she was; not just as a human, but as a dragon. He was raising her on Earth, but Xander didn’t want Nora to forget where she had come from.
It didn’t hurt that he got to enjoy the same freedoms. While nothing could compare to the tension he’d felt in his body when he realized he was fated to be Summer’s mate, there were still days when he couldn’t wait to shed his human form and become his true self for a little while. He enjoyed heading out to the remote forests, running through the trees, dodging shadows, and living like the wild creature he truly was at heart. There was nothing like spreading his wings and skimming over the tops of the leaves, feeling the moonlight on his wings.
As Xander thundered after Nora, she dodged behind a tree stump. He pretended not to see her as he slowed down. “Nora? Where are you? Come out, come out, wherever you are!” Xander felt his claws dig into the dirt and the leaves slither against his scales.
Nora giggled but didn’t come out.
“I guess I’ll just have to go home all alone, then,” he said, making sure to sound dejected. “I guess I’m not a very good hunter.”
That didn’t get her, either, and her laugh tickled his spine. She was an amazing little girl, and he could almost imagine that he was back on Charok. There weren’t any spiked mountains in the distance hiding sacred caverns, and the only other dragons there were the men and children he had come to think of as his brothers, nieces, and nephews, but he was happier than he had ever been.
Suddenly, a tiny yellow light began glowing on the ground near the tree Nora was hiding behind. It pulsed steadily like a young firefly and then zipped off about three feet away.
The little one gasped in interest, and Xander saw her small form come out from behind the stump to chase it. The glow skipped away again, just out of her grasp. Nora pounced on it but missed, the light slipping through her clawed fingers right as she attempted to close them. Xander followed at a distance, wanting to watch her, but not interested in disrupting her little game.
Finally, the luminescence danced right up to the back door of the little cottage that Xander and Nora now shared with Summer. The addition he had been building was a dark skeleton in the night, promising a future for the three of them where they could all be safe and happy. There was just enough room in the cottage as it was, but Xander was painfully aware of the fact that Nora had moved into Summer’s library. For a short time, he had considered asking Summer to move in with him in his apartment, which was slightly larger, but he knew it would never work. His beautiful witch needed to be closer to nature, and it was easy to see that Nora did, too. The outdoor space they had together meant more than anything. Still, he knew they would be happiest in the long run if they each had plenty of room under the roof, and so he had begun the addition as soon as they had moved in.
The tiny bit of light floated up through the air and landed on the tip of Summer’s finger, who was standing on the back porch. She waved her fingers and put out the glow before scooping down to pick up Nora. “I was wondering if the two of you were ever going to come in,” she said gently as she snuggled the little dragon. “It’s getting late. Bath time and then bed!”
Nora softened in Summer’s arms, substituting her scales for skin and tucking her tail away. She smiled with human lips as she snuggled against her new mother’s chest. “’Kay!”
Xander could have played outside all night, but Summer was right. He, too, shed his dragon features. His bones and spine shortened, his wings folded in and dissipated. His teeth lost their gleaming points, and the spikes on the back of his head laid down as hair. For the first time, he could honestly say that it felt just as good to be human as dragon, and he kissed Summer as he passed through the doorway.
Settling down on the couch with a book, Xander stared at the pages without reading them as he listened to the sounds of Summer giving Nora a bath: splashing, Summer’s gentle laugh and Nora’s pleasant half-English in return. If it had been up to him—truly up to him and not a product of providence—he couldn’t have picked a better mother for Nora. The two of them got along so well that even he found himself thinking that Nora was their biological daughter at times. Nora put a special glow in Summer’s eyes that hadn’t been there before, and Summer gave the little girl the mother figure she needed in her life.
A few minutes later, Nora came bursting out of the short hallway in fresh pajamas and leaped into Xander’s lap. “Night night, Dada! Night night!” Her hair was wet as she snuggled herself into his lap and looked at his book. “What you reading?”
He smiled as he watched her chubby finger pointing at the words. “It’s just a book about construction. It tells me how to build a house, so that I can make you a new bedroom. And then we can paint it whatever color you want.” Although Xander found himself focusing less on human studies now that he had found his mate, he still craved knowledge. He had read about plumbing, wiring, and electrical work in between catching up on classic literature. Living with Summer had settled him into a comfortable routine of hard work and hard study that he found pleasing.
Scooping up Nora and laying the book inside, he brought her to her makeshift room and laid her in her crib, Summer at his side. They kissed their little girl on her cheeks, their smiles radiating warmth and love. “Sleep tight, little one.”
Nora pointed at the mobile over her head, an antique that Summer had produced from the top of a closet. “Spin! Spin!”
Summer whirled her finger and the mobile followed suit. It twirled in the air over the crib, which was wonderous enough on its own, but each tiny creature that dangled from the fine wires came to life. Horses pawed invisible ground beneath their feet, bears threw their heads back in silent roars, and deer thundered through unknown prairies. It was a beautiful sight even to Xander, who had yet to grow tired of the things his partner could do. This was a trick that Summer had used on the first night Nora spent in the house to make her feel comfortable, and the little girl couldn’t get enough of it.
“Goodnight, sweetheart. We’ll see you in the morning.”
As they softly closed the door, Xander grabbed Summer around the waist and pulled her into his arms. “I’ve been waiting all day to have some alone time with you,” he growled softly as he nipped at her ear.
“Oh?” she asked as she laughed. “And just what do you plan to do with me?”
“Come into the bedroom and I’ll show you.” He picked her up as he kissed her, Summer’s legs wrapping around his waist, and carried her to the bedroom. It would be like any other night between the two of them: a tangle of arms and legs as they explored and loved each other, each night bringing something new and different and exciting to confirm to b
oth of them that there was no one else in the world they wanted to be with. They were destined for only each other.
THE END
Preview Of Holden’s Mate
Daddy Dragon Guardians
Holden’s Mate
Daddy Dragon Guardians
1
Leah straightened her dress and drew in a deep breath. It was just a night out at a bar with her friends. It didn’t mean anything, and there was no pressure. Just because Autumn and Summer insisted on calling it a divorce party didn’t mean that she had to feel obligated to hook up with someone and live the wild life like a college student again. It was going to be okay. She had even opted for a low pair of heels instead of the stilettos at the back of her closet, just to make it feel a little more like a normal night out with her girlfriends.
As she stepped up to The Parlor and raised her hand to open the door, she was relieved to see that there was no knob; she only had to push. Leah carefully chose a spot near the middle of the door—where very few people had probably touched the old wood—and stepped inside. The establishment was a long and narrow one that stretched away on either side of her. The back wall behind the bar was painted a pale shade of yellow that contrasted with the dark wood trim and gave the place a bright but cozy feel. Two bartenders worked away busily, sliding drinks down the slick wooden surface and collecting tips in a large glass jar.
“There she is!” Autumn squealed, waving Leah over to their table. “I was starting to wonder if you were going to show up.”
“And I wasn’t going to stop her if she decided to go find you and drag you out tonight,” Summer piped up, running a hand through her pale, curly locks.