Page 22 of The Soul of the Dragon

He followed that with a piece of meat and a portion of the cheese. I ate every bite with no more argument until my stomach protested and I couldn’t take any more. “I can’t,” I said, when he offered me more. He nodded and then fed himself.

I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to feel right now. But he’d taken care of me before himself, that seemed incongruent with someone being sent from the palace to hunt me down. Or a man anxious to hurt me. Exhausted and satiated, I rested my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes until he nudged my lips.

“You need some water.” I opened one eye to the sight of his water bladder in front of my mouth. Again, I obeyed without argument. But after a few swallows, I was done. I turned my head away, resting it back against his shoulder.

As my eyes fluttered closed and sleep began to overtake me, I felt the bindings around my wrists loosen and fall away. I groaned when my arms moved as the pain of them being in one position for so long shot through me.

I tried to stretch and he took over massaging my arms up and down until the pain faded into tingles and then pure pleasure as he kneaded my aching muscles.

“Thank you,” I whispered against his shoulder as I snuggled closer. While I appreciated the heat the fire provided against the cool night air, it didn’t compare to the warmth of his body where it pressed against mine.

It was enough to make me want to twist in his arms until my entire body was pressed against him.

“Go to sleep, Princess. If you keep wiggling against me, you’re going to find yourself underneath me with my cock buried between your thighs.”

I heard his words but I was too far gone to allow them to register properly. Instead my mind went dark, and for the first time in a very long time I drifted off to sleep without fear or sadness weighing against my heart…

ChapterEight

Isaac

She was squirming again and this time I wasn’t stopping her. I allowed her bottom to rub against my groin until my cock grew fully hard and the idea of burying it into her pussy was all I could think about.

Pulling out my bedroll, and forcing her to sleep in my arms might not have been the most prudent thing to keep her close and safe. But the scent of rain-softened flowers in her hair filled my nose and my dreams all night long.

And based on the scented air surrounding us, I wasn’t the only one who woke up aroused. The potential omega had her own problems going on and I could bet that terrified her.

“Be still,” I urged, tightening my arms around her.

"I can't," she gasped. "I feel like I'm going to crawl out of my skin."

The hitch in her voice along with the feverish need that vibrated through her veins called to a dark and primal part of me. I'd struggled the day before to keep it at bay, and had kept her hands tied to ensure she didn't accidentally touch me and set something off she'd regret.

We were already walking a thin line.

And now it was so much worse. I could feel the obsession running through my veins alongside the wordminethat kept racing through my mind. I wanted to push her away, make her go as far away from me as she could get, all while knowing at the same time if she dared to run now, it would trigger a hunt, and the thought of chasing her, capturing her, taking her...

"It's mating heat, little beast. I feel it too."

"What does that mean?" she whispered against my arm. Though I believed she instinctually knew exactly what I meant.

"It means that the fates have aligned us. I believe you are an omega, a mate perfectly suited for an Alpha, and in the beginnings of mating heat, an Alpha can and will claim you if given half the chance."

"Are you an Alpha? Is that why you are grinding against me as hard as I you?"

I froze at her assessment, realizing that she wasn't wrong. My body had a mind of its own and right now it wanted her beyond measure. My resistance was melting a lot faster than I'd expected.

"Aye. I am an alpha dragon and your perfectly omega response to me is the kind of thing most shifters dream of. It is the beginning of the most everlasting bond possible. A fated mate," I whispered the last, almost as if I could push it out of my mind if I tried hard enough.

"But you're not from this realm, are you? I can sense the human in you. So how is it possible that fate would do this to us? You don’t belong here anymore than I would belong in your world.”

I rolled her onto her back and levered over her until her legs parted and I settled in the exact spot between her legs where I belonged. She gasped, but I covered her mouth with mine and took that sound inside me as I kissed her with a slow, drugging pace.

I didn’t need a reminder that a mating between us wouldn’t work. Trying to take her out of this realm could come with unforeseen consequences. My father had warned me that under no circumstances could I bring anyone back. Not to mention it would make her miserable in the process.

But as long as we remained here, in each other’s presence, I had little hope of keeping my distance. She smelled like home. Not Scotland home. Before that. It was an odd combination of peaches, evergreen pines, and earthy red clay and it was downright intoxicating.

I placed my hand around her neck and squeezed. She was strong and beautiful, but also smaller than the women I’d known. She had a lot of curves, but she was still a lot smaller than me. And without her magic she was no match for me. I could snap her neck or bury my dragon teeth into that delicate skin and thus mark her as mine forever.

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