Page 53 of Dragon Exposed

My understanding was that humans had a ritual of presenting a stone to their mates, a ceremony. Maybe Izobelle would be content with the human way of doing it? Perhaps, if I bought her jewelry, a stone to mark our mating, even if it weren’t my heartstone, she would alight when we touched, even without the tourmaline glowing itself.

There were so many things I needed to sort out, so many things I needed to try to solve, and the worst of these had nothing at all to do with my mate. I had to fix what damage I caused in the dragon community. I had to fight for our right to be mated, to claim the ones the fates gifted us, even though mating should have been as easy as flying.

Would Izobelle really want to stay by my side through all of that, through the uncertainty, the fugitive status Grey had bestowed upon us all? Or would she realize, sooner or later, that being human, being with a human male, would be so much less complicated?

Heartstone or not, I was certain that if she rebuked me, if she denied my claim, I would become lost to the craze. I couldn’t even see myself fighting against it. I would probably beg my brothers to end my life, to end my suffering, if she ever decided that I wasn’t a worthy mate.

Izobelle yawned and stretched, sitting up as she rubbed her hands over her face. “Did I fall asleep?”

I smiled softly, ignoring the way my cock immediately sprang to life at the little moans she made while stretching. “For a little while.” I let the car drift over to the shoulder and pulled it to a stop. “Are you sure you want to come with me to the city? I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to stay away, stay safe.”

She shifted in her seat so that we were closer to face to face, her seafoam-colored eyes hard to read in the never-ending darkness on this stretch of road. “Levi, what’s it going to take to convince you that I’m in this with you? That we’re facing these creatures down together? Just because I don’t have claws and teeth to defend myself doesn’t mean that I can’t help, that I can’t fight just as hard as you can.”

“It’s not that I don’t believe you can do it, or that you wouldn’t be an asset by my side.” I sighed and reached out to take her hand in mine, brushing my lips over her knuckles in a whisper-soft kiss before I continued. “But I’ve waited a long time to find you. I could’ve lost you to vampires before I even met you. I don’t want to risk that again. I don’t want to risk losing you.”

She squeezed my hand. “It’s okay to be scared, Levi. Hell, I’ve been scared of this intensity between us from the first time I saw you in Epsilon, looking hot as sin and staring at me like you wanted to eat me up right there on the dance floor. It’s always going to be risky. I’m kind of getting the sense that we’re not going to be out of the woods for months, maybe even years. I don’t know if things will ever calm down, because there are so many dragons who look at your mating with me as a loss, as a disappointment. I can only imagine how humans would react if they knew that dragons were abducting women to give them toe-curling, earth-shattering orgasms.” She let out a sleep-heavy giggle. “Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase getting eaten by a dragon.”

I leaned closer, brushing the tip of my nose against hers before I let my lips claim her mouth, tasting her slowly, letting my tongue dance against hers in a teasing, flirtatious way. Even though my cock ached to be buried between her thighs again, I didn’t want to push her too far or make her think all I wanted her for was sex.

“I like eating you, mate. I could spend hours coaxing out orgasms with just my tongue.”

She moaned softly, pressing her thighs together like that could keep me from noticing how her arousal perfumed the car. “Levi…”

“You brought it up.” I smirked as I pulled back, still holding her hand, needing that connection between us. “I don’t want to hide you away from any conflict that might come our way. I know I couldn’t, especially once you let me give you my bite. Once you’re a dragon of your own, I imagine you’ll be a formidable foe, even for your mate.” Sighing, I squeezed her palm against mine. “That doesn’t mean I’ll ever enjoy the idea of you having to fight your own battles, or revel in the fact that you would be able to kill your own enemies. I would protect you because you are too precious to give up, too valuable to lose.”

She shook her head slowly, even as she shifted closer, like she couldn’t get enough of my touch, any more than I could grow tired of hers. “What if I’m not the mate you’re supposed to have, Levi? Krystana told me how important mates are to a dragon. She told me what mating another dragon would mean for you, for your clan. How can I take that possibility away from you? What if I’m not the one the fates chose for you?”

My dragon growled low in my mind, fighting against her words.

Pushing him down, trying to silence the beast snarling inside my head, took more effort than I’d ever had to expend on controlling my own dragon.

The problem was, I was just as angry at the thought as he was.

“Do you need my heartstone to prove it? I would travel the world, never stop searching, to present it to you as a male should gift his heartstone to his mate.” With a snarl, I shifted our hands, pressing her palm against the bulge straining the front of my jeans. “Does this feel as though I am a man who would simply give you up, for a dragon mate who doesn’t exist?” I shook my head. “I don’t know what Krystana told you, or what she has determined I need that you think you can’t fulfill, but I don’t need a glowing rock to tell me the truth that I feel with every fiber of my being. I don’t need the proof of the fates to know that you are everything I could have asked for in a mate, Izobelle. You are strong, you are a fighter, you have bravery far beyond what most people would even begin to want to face down alone. I would give you a hundred heartstones if I had them to present to you. I don’t know what else I can do, what else I can say to show you how incredibly happy I am to have you.”

Izobelle bit her lip, looking at me warily, as if she were studying my face, looking for the lie.

Whoever had hurt her, whoever had given my mate such doubt, deserved a thousand fire-ridden deaths.

“Claim me. If you really think I’m your mate, that I’m the only one you would ever want or need, then do it. Let me become a dragon to fly into battle by your side.” She said it softly, but the fire burning in her eyes, accentuated by the moonlight coming in through the windshield, rivaled a dragon’s.

I stilled, watching her carefully, worried that she would take it back. It wasn’t a decision I wanted her to enter into lightly, even if I wanted it with every ember in my belly. “Don’t ask for my bite if you’re not sure, Izobelle. Don’t ask me to claim you if you only want it to be able to shift into a dragon of your own.”

She scowled at me, unhooking her seatbelt, and shoving the car door open. “God, Levi, make up your damn mind. Either you want me, you want to claim me, or you don’t. A hard dick doesn’t mean shit to me. I’ve had plenty of men get hard against me, plenty of men wanting to fuck the big girl. If you really want me, if you really want a mate, a partner, someone you don’t have to worry is a fragile little human, then do what comes naturally to your kind.” She climbed out of the SUV, turning back to put her hands on her hips and scowl at me. “Or fly your ass back to the cabin and get a different car, and I’ll disappear into the night. If you really think I’d suggest this just because I’m scared, or just because I want to be able to decapitate Viktor myself, you’re as stupid as all those men who just wanted to get their dick wet.”

I snarled as I climbed out of the car, storming around the hood to grab her, pinning her against the back passenger door so roughly the whole SUV rocked slightly on its tires. “I could murder each and every man who ever made you feel like nothing more than a hole to fuck.” I ground against her, my dragon driving my hips more than I was, and I claimed her mouth hard and fast. “I don’t care if you wear my bite now, or if you want to wait. I don’t care if you can fly into battle by my side, or in my talons. I ache for you, Izobelle. I have never needed anything more than I need you to wear my bite. It scares me, craving someone so badly. The mating, the claiming of dragons, was never described as such as desperate, scary thing, as it feels like with you. It’s not just that I want my bite on you, that I want the world to know you’re claimed. I want your claim on me. I want to be your mate, as much as I want you to be mine. I need you, Izobelle. No one else. I’d wait a thousand years to claim you if that’s what you needed.”

“Then why wait another ten seconds? I’m right here. I’m not running from you, from your claim. If you want me to bite you too, fuck, I’ll claim you just as roughly.” She hooked a leg around my hips, pulling me in closer. “I don’t just want you to bite me to initiate some sort of mystical change in me. I’ve never felt anything as deeply as I feel for you, and I don’t want to lose out on you to some other dragon, some other mate. You’remine,Levi Wystan.”

I growled, sliding my hands under her ass, and picking her up off her feet. “You’re not making it easy for me to be patient, mate. I would make this memorable, special for you.”

“Fuck that. I’m not some delicate princess in a tower who needs to be coddled or laid out on beds of the finest silks. You want me, you want to claim your warrior of a mate, then fucking do it.” She pressed against me, kissing me hungrily as her fingers knotted in my hair, tugging my head to where she wanted it, to where she could control it.

Her hips gyrated against mine, causing the most delicious friction as her arousal filled the night air, surrounding us both in a bubble of need.

“You’re wearing too many damned clothes.” I growled it against her lips, even as my hands groped and massaged her ass, keeping her close. The thin fabric of her yoga pants would’ve been easy enough to rip through, but we didn’t take time to pack anything, and I doubted she wanted me to destroy her only pair of pants.

The panties were another story. I fully intended to rip those off her.

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