Alpha's Fire (Shifter Ops 4)

Besides, I can’t claim her now, I’m way too far out of my mind. My control is a frayed thread. If I hurt Tabitha…I’d never recover.

“Gabriel.” Tabitha’s eyelids flicker as her eyes roll back in her head. “It’s so good.” She arches beneath me.

That’s it. My balls draw up tight.

I lose it completely.

I plow into her, forgetting to pull out for the finish. Hot spurts of my cum shoot down my shaft.

Tabitha cries out, her muscles squeezing around my cock, milking it for more.

“Oh God!” I shout, realizing what I’d done. Fire activates in my mercurial center. I yank back, pulling out and spraying the remainder of my essence on the floor as I back up.

“Noooo,” Tabitha moans, bringing her fingers between her legs, sinking two of them into her juicy channel as she finishes.

I drop to my knees, dazed with the release and by fear over what I’d almost done.

“Are you all right?” I croak.

Clearly, she is. My cum didn’t scald her. She’s still healthy and well. Gloriously alive and spectacularly beautiful as she makes herself come with her hand between her legs.

I force myself up on shaky legs and rush to her. “My treasure.” I move her hand out of the way to help her finish with my fingers, needing to be the one who makes her come.

She orgasms under my touch, her feet planting firmly on the bed, so she can lift her hips in the air for it.

“My sweet, precious, beautiful mate. I’m sorry. Are you all right? You’re not hurt?”

Tabitha pants on the bed, her body falling like a ragdoll into the covers. She blinks her eyes open. “Hurt?” She sounds dazed. Her caramel locks are in her face, and she shoves them out of the way and props herself up on her elbows. “Hurt by what?”

“Me.” I can still barely speak.

Then she reaches for me, and my heart explodes again. She pulls me down on top of her. “Why would I be hurt? Don’t be ridiculous, dragon-man.” She offers her lips for a kiss.

I dare to give her one. It’s tender. Brief.

“That was wonderful,” she murmurs against my lips. “I loved it.”

I draw in a shaky breath, trying to calm the erratic beating of my heart.

“I love you.” It feels important for me to say it. The man, not the dragon.

She smiles against my lips. “I love you, too, Gabriel. You and your dragon.”

Something inside me buzzes, but it’s with happiness, not the usual agitation. There’s an energy–too much pent-up energy–but it’s not troubled.

It’s … a happy energy.

I roll Tabitha to her side and snuggle into her. We can make this work. We’re so close. Any day now, she will accept me, and I’ll take great care in giving her my firebrand. I can control the dragon until then.

We’re so close.

12

Tabitha

I dream I’m with the dragon in the warm darkness of the treasure-filled cave. I have a ball of light glowing in my hands, and I'm going to give it to the dragon. The light glows reddish-purple, the same color as my heart. Gold lightning flashes around us as I raise my hands to offer up my essence to the dragon.

I will give him my heart, and he will give me his.

But he can't because he's cuffed, his aura suppressed, tucked down inside him. I would reach for it, but I can't get to it.

His wings explode from his back. The blast of air knocks me sideways. He throws back his head. There's a whoosh. He's about to belt fire in this closed space.

“No, I scream but the world turns lava hot. The air boils away. I'm choking. This is the end.

I wake up tangled in silk sheets, gasping. Gabriel is stretched out beside me, still naked. Smoke rises from the bed curtains bundled at each wooden post.

The bed is on fire!

“Gabriel!”

He’s awake and on his feet in the same moment. I reach for him, and he snatches me up. I hug his neck as he carries me out of the tower and down the cold steps.

Shouts and screams echo up from the ballroom and the courtyard. Gabriel races through the twists and turns of the hallways, coming out into a long window-lined hall. Across the courtyard, high above the castle, plumes of flame split the night. The tower is a pillar of fire. Like something out of the bible or bursting from a dragon’s mouth.

“Sir.” James runs up in an inside-out dressing gown. Giampi’s right behind him, his curls standing on end, a blanket around his bare shoulders. The chef offers the blanket to James, who hands it to Gabriel, who swathes us both in it best he can. He lets me stand on my own two feet, but keeps me in the circle of his arms.

James mutters something to Giampi, who nods and runs out of the room, slamming doors in his wake. The rest of us stand in the darkness, shadows and light from the blaze flickering over our faces.