“No. You need sleep.”
“I should be helping my—” Glancing up at him, I know there’s no point arguing. He leads me back to our spot up on the ledge, hides us from intrusive eyes, and I lie down. I hear him growl at the guards but once my head hits cushioned hides, any cares I have left cease.
Sleep overtakes me immediately.
Blissful, peaceful sleep.
Sleep that ends all too soon when I wake sometime later breathless and sweaty, with my legs open.
Heart thundering, gasping, I sit up, only to be stopped by a large body and large hands. They grasp my shoulders and force me down. I nearly scream. Peering wildly up through the darkness, Zaeyr’s glowing blue eyes light the shadows between us.
The torchlight is near gone.
We stare at each other. His hand slides up to cup my throat in warning. I swallow. He pets me. Swallowing again, I realize I’m completely naked.
And wet.
“What?” I whisper. “How?” Nervousness ricochets through me.
His gaze narrows.
“Your elder humans do not choose for me,” is all he says. He leans down and licks my cheek.
Shocked, I go rigid.
He got my clothes off while I slept. And the wetness, I realize, the wetness is on my skin. His tongue laps at me.
I know where the dampness came from…
Zaeyr is like a nightwalker, plucking out my most ardent, hopeless fantasies, and offering them up. A sliver of fear tears through me, fear for what’s happening, but also mindless, quaking excitement.
“To defy them,” I force out as the hot slide of his tongue tastes my face, my ear. “It could mean exile.”
His teeth graze my lobe. “Dragons nest alone.”
Shivering, pressing my hands to his shoulders for space. He gives me none. “Are you choosing me?” I ask.
He rises to meet my eyes. “We are bonded, human.”
It’s not what I asked, not what I want to hear. My heart sinks a little. “I choose you,” I tell him honestly.
His gaze darkens and he rises further. A chill drifts across me from the distance. “You touched me, human. You stole my immortality and my great form. I was an alpha! An ancient!” His voice rises. “I ruled the gulf in its entirety. And now… now other dragons, lessers, will come in and take it and there is nothing I can do to stop them! I was feared by all, and now I am human, a weak creature.”
I push him off me and sit up. “Humans are not weak. I am not weak. On the beach, you didn’t pull back when I reached out to you. I needed to touch you and I think you wanted me to and would have let me if the other dragon hadn’t come. You were just as entranced as I!”
He growls, his eyes flash brightly, and smoke trails from his mouth between us. Grabbing the edge of a blanket, I cover myself.
“You are weak for denying the truth between us. Perhaps I chose wrong,” I gripe, searching for my clothes.
His growl abruptly ends, and that unnerves me more than any sound he could ever make.
I tense, but the next moment I’m on my front with my hips in the air, his hand pushing on my back while the other bands under my waist. A shriek escapes me, but no one comes. Is anyone left in the caves?
When the silence continues, I know we’re alone. Had Zaeyr frightened the guards off?
“You have already made your choice, Aida.” His hot breath fans my backside. “You made it for both of us. I will show you how weak you are.”
Before I can struggle, his tongue lashes hard between my legs. Stunned, his tongue lashes again—twice more—forcing my legs to spread as it dips and tastes every private place I have, shooting waves of pleasure and embarrassment through me. “That is it, human. Submit. Submit like your body begs you to.” His tongue finds my core and shoves into me. His words hit home.
“No!” I shriek, ramming back with all my might. “I am the best huntress of my tribe. You will not see me submit!”
Zaeyr falls back, and I find my bone dagger atop my discarded skirt. Grabbing it, I jump on top of him and, straddling him, press it to his throat. His eyes widen as his hands grip my hips. I press the dagger harder.
“Aida,” he rasps.
“If you want to mate a human female, dragon, you will mate her in the way she has been prepared.” It’s my turn to growl. Elders be damned. I have earned the right of this choice. “You will submit to me!” I take his girthy cock with my free hand and squeeze it. Rising, wet and dripping, I poise his wide head at my entrance and settle over it.
Keeping my knife to his throat, I push myself down onto his prick. His hands grip my waist. He doesn’t stop me.
Wrenching my eyes shut, I work myself onto him. My core expands to try and accommodate his size. When I finally get his tip into me, tears are trailing down my cheeks. I stop, allowing my body to adjust.
“Keep going, human,” he orders with a gravelly voice. “Prove your point, or I will throw you back beneath me.”
Heat surges somewhere inside me at his words. “You wouldn’t dare,” I gasp, nearly dumbfounded by the sensations. I can do this. I release the dagger and take his girth with both of my hands and work my body over him.
Hurts. Noises escape. It hurts, but it’s perfect. I always knew losing my innocence was going to be hard, but this… This is hard and delicious. Zaeyr’s hands leave my waist to cup my buttcheeks as I begin moving up and down—a little at a time, slowly moving onto his huge girth—adjusting more with each second.
I’m spread wide, stretched. But then I reach my barrier and pinpricks of pain seize me.
I stop.
Forcing my
