Ember (The Dragao 1)

“It pleases me greatly to know I’m providing for my mate.” His voice was low, his eyes hooded as he watched me over the flames. The firelight was reflected back at me in those dark pools, and I felt more pleasure at his words, but I added it to the list of stuff I wasn’t going to worry about or focus on.

Everything was equally confusing right now.

It was long moments later, after I’d eaten three more pieces of meat and drank another half bladder of water, before I was content and full for the first time in my life. I felt the drugging sweeps of exhaustion start to wash over me as the warmth of the fire lulled and relaxed me even more and the adrenaline and excitement from the events of the night started to fade away—at least for the time being.

It would have been so easy to just let my lids drop low and sink into the oblivion of sleep.

“You need rest. Let me help you to the sleeping pallet.” His voice was so deep, so thickly accented in that strange dragon way, as I’d come to call it, that it would have been easy to follow his command. “Let me provide a safe place for you to sleep.”

“Why are you doing all this?” I finally asked, my words whisper-soft.

He tipped his head to the side slightly, studying me, his short hair seeming so dark with the shadows playing over it. “Because you are mine and I am yours. Forever.”

That’s… That's what I’d been afraid of.

I glanced at the furs behind me, and this sigh of want and need rose up in me. But I couldn’t sleep on that. I wouldn’t pretend any of this was normal. I needed answers, but tonight was crashing down around me, and I knew I couldn’t handle anything else right now.

But instead of saying anything, I walked over to the wall and sat, my back to the uncomfortable, sharp rock, my legs pulled up to my chest, and my arms wrapped around them. I rested my cheek on my knees as I watched him across the way… as we watched each other. He stayed where he was, on the other side of that fire, giving me my space, probably knowing I was flighty as hell. But still I felt no actual fear of him.

He won’t hurt me, I said over and over again in my mind. My eyes grew heavy with those words bouncing around, relaxing me further, a false hope that maybe everything wasn’t actually fucked for me.

“Let yourself go. I’ll protect you. I’ll watch over you,” he growled in this nonthreatening, very pleased way. “Always.”

Trying to stay awake was a losing battle, and the longer I sat there, the more sleep tried to take me under. Finally I just gave in.

9

Azar

I stayed on the other side of our den as I watched my mate slip into slumber. She fought it, but in the end her eyes had grown too heavy to keep open, and she fell into a deep sleep. I could see the way her body started to relax, her arms loosening their tight hold from around her legs.

I needed to hunt for better meat for her, something fresher, something I could kill for her, roast over the fire, and then feed her from my hand. I wanted to do that desperately, this instinct in me screaming to take care of her in all ways.

I was uncomfortably hard, shamelessly aroused in front of her. The heavy ache of my cock, the full sensation of my balls had me clenching my jaw in frustration, not with her but with me, because I clearly couldn’t control myself.

It would be so easy to reach down and take hold of the thick stalk, just stroke myself a few times as I thought about my mate, as I stared at her delicate form, her petite face, and came for the first time in all my long centuries. I could picture myself curling one of my hands around her hair, pulling her head to the side to bare her throat, and then I’d bite her. Mark her up good and hard.

Fates, she was so small. I looked down at my erection, and for the first time I thought about how I could possibly mate with her and not hurt her. How could I make it good for her? She was so tiny. I was so big. I didn’t want to harm her by loving every inch of her body with my own, even if the first time was unavoidable, even if our first mating would be primordial and raw, claiming and animalistic because my dragon would rise up.

I ignored my erection and stood, seeing her body start to list to the side as she fell deeper and deeper into sleep. She must be exhausted, my sweet little female. I wasted no time in picking her up. She weighed nothing in my arms, was as light as the air that moved across my dragon body when I was in-flight.