“I know you will.”
“But with that said, there’s something else I need to tell you,” he added, his eyes fixing on a painting that hung on the opposite side of the room. Damn, this was going to be hard. He wanted nothing more than to be her lover, her partner, the one who would fight off all the ills of the world with her. For her. He wanted so badly to be the only shield she’d ever need.
But it was never going to happen. If he hadn’t known it already, her birthmark had been the ultimate proof that she was meant for someone else, someone in his own damned Guild. Even the simple act of wanting her felt like a betrayal of his kind, but sod it, that didn’t make him desire her any less.
“What is it?” she asked, reaching for his arm. Oh shit, she was touching him. He slammed his eyes shut, eating up the sensation even as he fought off his desire.
Ashlyn stroked a finger along the large Dragon tattoo that decorated his upper arm, outlining its shape. For a few seconds Aegis allowed himself to enjoy the sensation. God, it felt so good to feel her touch on his skin. So right. So how the bloody hell was it possible that this woman, his woman, was meant to be with someone else?
“I think you did come here to London for a reason,” he said, his voice calm and measured in spite of the pain that was making him want to double over and surrender to its strength. “In fact, I’m sure of it at this point. But I don’t think you came to find me. I don’t think you and I are meant to be together.”
“But we—” she began, pulling her hand back and biting her lower lip. “There’s something between us. You’ve felt it, Aegis. I know you have.”
His chin dropping in defeat, Aegis mustered a reply. “Maybe, but it doesn’t matter what I feel for you. This is bigger than you and me, bigger than my desire or yours. You have the mark of Fire, Ashlyn. You’re here for someone else, another shifter. Someone from the lineage of the Dragons of Fire. No doubt your mate is in London, but he’s not me. I was so drawn to you, I wanted you so much that it clouded my judgment. But you’re not mine to claim. You never were.”
Ashlyn yanked her hand back towards her chest, clenching it into a hard little ball as her features tightened with the pain of his words.
“Wait a minute—Are you saying you intend to hook me up with someone else, like I’m a fucking brood mare or something?” she snapped, her voice catching in her throat.
Good, Aegis thought. Be angry with me. It’s far better than feeling stung by heartbreak.
But she wasn’t finished. “If I’m not yours,” she said, “hell, even if I were yours, then you’d have no business dictating what I should and shouldn’t do with my life. I am a free woman with a mind of my own. And I know my heart. I know how I feel. I know what’s happened between us, Aegis. If you’re saying that our bond should just be ignored, forgotten, like it means nothing…”
“I’m not saying that at all.” Aegis winced at her words, shaking his head in protest. “Fuck, I don’t know what to tell you, Ashlyn. You think I could ignore what’s happened between us? Well, you may as well ask me if I could slice off my own arm, light it on fire and throw it in the bin.” His eyes flashed that bright, deep light that told Ashlyn that his Dragon was near the surface, fighting to get out. Raging inside of him, fighting his very words. “I don’t want to give you up to another man, I don’t want you to return to the United States, I don’t want to surrender you to anything or anyone, now or ever.”
He rose to his feet and strode towards the dresser at the other end of the room before swinging around to take her in again. “Don’t you see? I want you for myself, with everything inside me. My Dragon wants you. He tells me over and over again that you’re ours. And hell, he knows it even better than I do. He’s no fool. But I can’t go against my Guild. If you’re a Seeker—and I truly think you must be—you’re here to help all of us, not just me. I have no right to think you have a future with me, as much as it cuts deep into my soul to say those words out loud.”
“But…” she began, but he raised a hand to stop her.
“You are meant for bigger things than me, Ashlyn Raleigh.” With that, he turned away and slammed his fist into the top of the dresser, his rage leaving a long crack in its surface. “I’ll leave you now,” he stammered.
He’d only taken two strides towards the door before Ashlyn’s voice stopped him in his tracks.
“Aegis, don’t go.”
The Dragon shifter halted, but didn’t turn around.
“Good-bye,” he whispered. And then he was gone.
Betrayals
Aegis marched down the hall and knocked hard on the door to the bedroom where Lumen and Neko had settled for the night. Darkness swept through the lake above him, but he’d lost all track of time. It could have been ten at night or three in the morning, for all he knew. At this point, what the hell did it even matter?
A groggy Dragon shifter opened the door a crack and poked his head out. “What’s happening?”
“I’m leaving. Going home,” Aegis said. “I’ve said good-bye as you suggested. And now that it’s over, I can’t stand being here a second longer. Ashlyn seems to have recovered, and I’m sure she’ll get over any injury I’ve done to her pride by taking off. I’ll see you at the meeting tomorrow, but I will likely have to avoid her at all costs, for the time being at least.”
“Aegis, don’t go.” Neko’s voice echoed Ashlyn’s words from a minute earlier as she joined them in the doorway. She pulled the door open and confronted him with a concerned stare. “Don’t leave, not in this state.”
“Neko—” Aegis began.
The Hunter shook her head, cutting him off. “I’ve never seen you like this, so wretched and crushed. I didn’t even know you had it in you to be so downtrodden. I don’t think you should be alone.”
“Well, apparently I should. I was fool enough to think that Ashlyn was meant for me, just as you two are meant for one another. And I was wrong. Surely you can understand that this isn’t easy for me.”
“Sure I understand. But I’m not convinced that you’re right about any of it.” Neko looked from one man to the other and back again. “Come, Lumen, you’re the Alpha. Isn’t there some way around this? Some exception to the rule?”
“It’s not about exceptions,” her mate replied. “If Ashlyn is a Seeker, then she needs to bond with the Dragon of Fire to bring out her abilities. Just like you bonded with me to find the Relic of Water. You came into your powers because of our pairing. If she and Aegis get together, the Relic may be lost forever.”
“I know, but…it just seems so wrong. It feels wrong. Aegis and Ashlyn seem so intimately connected. I feel like there’s more to this that we don’t yet understand…”
“Whether they have feelings for one another or not,” Lumen interrupted, taking up the mantle of Alpha and forcing any sympathy for his friend out of the way, “the fact remains that we need to find the third Relic. If we lose that, we may lose our battle with the other side.”
Neko ran a tired hand through her hair and looked at Aegis, absolute anguish contorting her features. Stepping forward, she threw her arms around him and squeezed. “I wish I could help you, old man,” she said. “I really do.”
“As do I,” Aegis replied, hugging her back. “But Lumen is right. It’s for the best, all of it. Ashlyn is meant to be with another man. So for now I’ll say good night. As for you, get to bed and look after the little Dragon sprout in that belly of yours.”
“I will. G’night,” said Neko, pulling away. Lumen offered his friend a weak grin and shut the door.
* * *
A few seconds later Aegis was walking down the hall to the round room at its end, ready to exit the flat through one of the multitude of doors that led out onto the streets of London. He paused for a moment, shutting his eyes against his sadness, and reached for the doorknob that would open up a path to the centre of Hyde Park. From there he’d unleash his Dragon and fly back to Oxford, to his miserable, empty house.
“Aegis. Do
n’t leave me, please.” The words came at him softly, a mere breath floating on the air. Great. Now he was hearing voices just as Ashlyn did. Was it fucking contagious?
He pressed his head to the door. He had to have imagined that sound. Ashlyn’s lovely voice, so kind, so caring. The words were an echo of everything he wanted in this world.
“Don’t go. Not like this. Not without…”
Two palms were on his shoulder blades now, a forehead pressing into his back. Surely that wasn’t imagined. That warmth was hers. That tenderness, that affection…all hers.
He spun around to be met by Ashlyn’s sad eyes staring up into his own. She wore the robe that Neko had lent her, its belt loosely tied about her waist.
“How should I leave, then?” he asked. “There’s no good way to do it, because whatever happens, it’s going to hurt like hell.”
“So don’t do it at all.”
“Ashlyn—”
“No. You told me earlier what’s meant to happen with my life. You said I’m meant for someone else. But I have some say in this, don’t I?” she asked. “Surely my future isn’t completely out of my hands.”
He ground his jaw. “Of course you have a say. But even you can’t change the rules. You can’t change fate.”
“Maybe not. But just—do one thing for me. Come back to the bedroom and let me tell you what I think we should do.”
Aegis slammed his eyes shut again, wincing in pain as he tried to resist her and to abide by his duty. That scent was all around him again in wisps of invisible, sensuous smoke. Her scent, the embodiment of the most exquisitely sexy woman in the universe. Aegis inhaled deep to take it all in, his mind reeling with pleasure. She was casting a spell on him, and it was proving a most welcome interruption to his suffering. One that he should fight off. He should walk out the door and never come back.
But he was just selfish enough to stay. Just selfish enough to listen to his déor, who was commanding him to look at the beautiful woman who wanted him so much. To give in to whatever destiny had brought him to this place in this moment, and to ignore his qualms about Guilds and duty for a few minutes.
He opened his hungry eyes again, focusing his gaze on her body. Fuck it. She’s too beautiful, too desirable a force to give up just yet. A Dragon shifter has needs.
Ashlyn reached out and took his hand, pulling him with her as she turned to lead him down the hall. When they’d reached the master bedroom she guided him in, shutting the door behind them, and walked over to the bed. Climbing into its centre, she turned to face him.
Holy bollocks of fire. The goddess before him was rising to her knees, pulling the loose robe off her shoulders. When she was certain that Aegis’s eyes were locked on her she let the thick garment slip off and fall around her legs like a white cloud, her bare body revealing itself under the pale light that poured in from above. Luscious, soft curves, smooth skin, succulent pink nipples. She looked so strong, so beautiful that it was hardly conceivable that she’d been so close to death mere hours earlier.
On her face was an air of absolute dominance. There was nothing coy about Ashlyn at this moment, nothing shy. She was in command of his mind and his body.
“Come to me, Aegis.”
The shifter did as she asked and walked over to the left side of the bed but he didn’t dare touch her, much as he wanted to. Much as it pained him to leave that body of hers unattended, he needed to resist. A nagging voice inside him was reminding him to remember his duty to the Guild.
Fuck, fuckity fuck.
“I want you, Dunkirk,” Ashlyn said. “If this is to be the only time that I can have you, so be it. But I want you with me. I want you inside me. So tell me you don’t want me just as badly. Tell me that you reject me, that you’re willing to give me up to someone else before you’ve had me. Tell me you don’t care that I’ve developed feelings for you, or that you’ve become a part of my every cell. Tell me all of that, and I’ll let you go.”
He shook his head. “I can’t,” he said. “I can’t say a word of it, because it would all be a massive lie. You’re everything that I’ve ever wanted in this world, Ashlyn.”
The luscious woman before him sidled on her knees towards the edge of the bed and grabbed the bottom seam of his shirt. When he didn’t resist, she lifted it over his powerful torso and drew herself to her feet, pulling the shirt clean off and tossing it aside to look down at him.
His face—his mouth, specifically—was lined up with her sex now, and the heady scent was turning him drunk with lust. He wrapped his hands around the backs of her thighs, pushing his face into that sweet V to inhale deep, his nose tucked into the delicious nook below her belly.
“I want this,” he said, landing a soft kiss on the tuft of hair between her legs, then pressing his nose into her. “I want this so badly that you don’t even know. It hurts to need you so much. It’s killing me.”
“It hurts me too,” she said softly, tangling her fingers in his hair. “I ache for you. Every time I think about you, the only thing I want is to have you inside me. When I came out of the fever, you were the one thing I wanted. You were the one thing I needed.”
He nodded, his nose teasing her bud with the slight movements of his head. God, she was so wet, so aroused for him. Aegis lifted his chin and looked up at her, those lovely breasts almost managing to distract him from her face. “I’m a dutiful shifter, and I would hate to betray my Guild,” he said, “but I’m not willing to deny myself this one pleasure. I’m not willing to give up one last night with you.”
“And I don’t want you to. If you’re going to walk out of here first thing tomorrow, so be it. But there’s no reason I can’t be with you first, is there?”
Aegis’s teeth gleamed with the smile that stretched his lips wide. She was right; if Ashlyn was meant to bond with a Dragon of Fire, sex with Aegis would be just that: sex. So another night spent together didn’t have to result in crushing guilt. He wasn’t stealing her from another shifter; only taking possession of her temporarily. It wasn’t as though he’d get her pregnant, anyhow; she’d told him the previous night that she was on the pill.
“Think of me as a loan,” she said, seeming to read his thoughts.
“A loan that I never wish to pay back,” he replied, giving her left thigh a soft kiss. “Never.” A kiss to the right thigh.
He angled his head slightly and caught her bud between his lips, taking a long drag as his tongue flicked over her most sensitive place. Ashlyn stifled a yell, then she pulled her feet apart, exposing herself entirely to him. Aegis reached between her legs with his right hand, slipping his fingertips the length of her opening before pushing them deep inside her. And just like that he was taking her hard with his lucky, lucky hand. God, she was so tight. So fucking good. He teased her with quick, playful licks, and with each stroke he felt her seize around him. She would come quickly if he kept it up. Then he’d make her come again, and again, as many times as he could before they parted ways.
But Ashlyn stopped him before he could finish his task.
“Take off your jeans,” she ordered. “I want to see all of you.”
He pulled his fingers away and licked them off one by one before undoing his jeans and letting them drop to the floor. Locking his eyes on hers, he peeled his boxers down to reveal a massive, engorged cock. He stepped back, displaying his hard body to her, utterly unashamed of how aroused she’d made him.
“Is this what you want inside you?” he asked, wrapping a powerful fist around his shaft.
Ashlyn nodded and licked her lips slowly. “Yes, that’s exactly what I want. Now, on the bed with you.”
She stepped back and waited until the Dragon shifter had lain down, his hand still firmly grasping his cock. Then she slipped a foot over him, bending her knees, edging herself downwards until their bodies had nearly met.
“Ashlyn,” he murmured. Oh God, she was really going to do it. She was going to take him in.
She shook her head. “Just…trust me,�
� she said. “This is right. This needs to happen. I need you, Aegis. I need to feel you.”
He pulled his hand away just as his swollen head met her opening. For a second she rested there, her eyes shut, savouring the sensation just as he was doing. And then she made her move, slipping herself down, consuming him in the most agonizingly beautiful way. Aegis let out a yell as her channel took him in, hot walls closing around him, imprisoning and freeing him at once.
He didn’t give a toss if Neko and Lumen heard his cry. Didn’t care if the whole world knew that he was making love with Ashlyn Raleigh.
Nothing mattered now but their brief, perfect joy.
Intimacies
Ashlyn bit her lip, suppressing the scream that wanted so badly to force its way out. Damn, he was enormous. His glorious cock was so, so deep inside her, tearing her apart in the best way. God, it was good to feel him there. Too good. She already wanted to surrender to the orgasm that was threatening to overtake her.
But not yet. If she came, it would mean some kind of end to this bliss. And she never wanted this to stop. Never wanted to let his body go. Never wanted to forget his face, his eyes, his touch.
She rose straight up, feeling every inch of his perfection before she slipped back down again, her walls closing in around his shaft. Peering down at him through loose locks of hair, she couldn’t help but flash him a smile. His neck was tight with the sensation she was forcing on him, his gorgeous lips locked together as he fought off his own pleasure.
This was so good, so right. She didn’t belong to some stranger, some nameless, faceless Dragon of Fire; she belonged to this man. To Aegis. And if he wouldn’t claim her, she’d damn well claim him. Some part of her had known the moment she first laid eyes on him that he was hers, known that they needed to be together, even if she’d tried to run from it. Her attraction to him had frightened her. But a million years had passed in the last several hours, and now it was a comfort to understand what this was. That he was a part of her as vital to her existence as oxygen.
Dragon's Lover [Part Two] Page 6