Page 16 of The Ruby Dragon Prince
Once I was breathing normally again, I raised a trembling hand to touch the spot on my shoulder where Rufus had bit me. I expected my fingers to come away covered in blood, but inexplicably, I ended up with a small handful of rubies instead.
I gasped as I looked at them. That small movement caused Rufus’s knot to rub inside me, which caused another aftershock orgasm. They were all so good, like the very best orgasm in an intense moment of playing with myself. They weren’t as wonderful as the ones he’d forced from me with his own hand, but they were close.
The rubies spilled out of my hand and into the grass, but they were the least of my concerns. I’d been claimed by an alpha, by a dragon. I’d heard whispered stories and veiled myths of suchthings, but I’d never given them any credence. I didn’t think they could possibly be true.
I could feel it, though. The sense of peace and safety I felt, especially when I snuggled back into Rufus’s slumbering embrace, was like nothing I’d ever experienced. I was where I belonged, where I needed to be. Nothing could hurt me here, and very few things could dent the happiness I felt with my fated mate.
Very few things, but not nothing.
I was halfway to falling asleep myself when I heard Rumi’s distant call of “Tovey! Tovey, where are you?” coming from somewhere far away.
My eyes snapped open when Rumi’s call was joined by Selle’s. “Tovey! Are you here?”
I sucked in a breath. My brothers. I couldn’t abandon them. I had to go to them, return to the other kingdom with them. As much as I wanted to stay and be at peace, surrounded by Rufus’s ferocious love, I would never be truly happy, knowing my brothers were still caught in our father’s clutches.
“I need to go,” I whispered, hoping Rufus would hear me and understand.
He snored, still exhausted from our mating, but his knot went down, giving me the ability to slide free of him.
“Tovey?” I heard Rumi call out again as I wriggled carefully away from Rufus. It was a good thing he had spent everything in making me his. Paradoxically, that was the only way I was able to slip away from him and stand.
My body trembled at parting from him and a sort of dread pooled within me as I headed out of the beautiful clearing. My belly was slightly round, and I could feel his seed leaking from me, along with leftover slick. Too embarrassed to face my brothers looking and smelling so debauched, I crept to the brook and bathed in its surprisingly warm waters as quickly as I could.
There was no need to question how or why, because the answer was magic, but as I bathed away the evidence of my incredible heat wave, the dancing clothes I’d worn earlier miraculously reformed over my skin. By the time I was clean, I was also fully dressed again, but the bulge of my belly remained, like I was already months along with a child.
“Tovey! Where are you?” Misha’s worried voice sounded through the forest.
I took one last look at Rufus’s beautiful, naked, slumbering form. A moan escaped my lips as I distanced myself from him. I felt sick. Leaving him was wrong. But as much as I could feel my love for him growing and binding us, I’d loved my brothers for longer. My brothers needed me. They were helpless and defenseless, whereas Rufus was strong and powerful. I’d no doubt at all that we would meet again and that I would be with him forever. But for now, I had to go to my brothers…no matter the consequences I would face later.
Chapter
Five
Rufus
Ihad never slept so soundly in my life. The bone-deep satisfaction of having claimed and bred my omega was better than anything I’d ever experienced. It was a turning point in my life. I was no longer a lone alpha, content merely to build my hoard and assist my mother in the governing of the kingdom. I had an omega, Tovey, and soon we would have a family.
I couldn’t wait for any of it.
I snuffled and sighed as sleep began to leave me. I could feel the warmth of the morning light stretching over my skin. Better still, I could still feel Tovey’s dried slick and cum on my thighs. Remembering how it’d gotten there made me smile.
I’d been too harsh with our first mating, I knew. Tovey was frightened, as I should have expected, since I hadn’t been able to explain my dragon form to him before he saw me transform. I’d chased him, as my dragon instinct had pushed me to do, andpounced on him once I had him. And then I’d bred him, whether he wanted it or not.
It was crude, invasive, and would have been immoral, if not for the fact that I felt in every fiber of my being that being claimed was exactly what Tovey wanted. His fear provided spice to his natural heat urges. His body had been so ready that it had taken relatively minimal effort to get what I wanted from it. And the sense of bliss and belonging that we’d felt with each other afterward, as I was falling asleep, was proof that the two of us were a perfect match.
We were fated mates. If there was any appearance of resistance or distance between us, it was only an appearance. Our souls had been made for each other, and the more time we spent together, especially once we had a family, the more we would?—
My thoughts stopped as I tried to tighten my arm around Tovey and pull him close. The warm body I held shifted and giggled, and when I opened my eyes to look at who I was holding, I found that I had my arms around a mischievous unicorn foal. Its coat was still furry and golden, telling me the blasted thing was playing a prank on me rather than trying to slip in and take the place of my mate.
“Get off, you!” I bellowed, pushing it away and sitting.
The foal laughed and leapt to its feet, cavorting around the clearing before fluffing its tail at me, which was like a human making a rude hand gesture, then galloped off into the forest.
“Blasted unicorns,” I grumbled, shifting to sit more comfortably and rubbing my face. “Brats, the lot of them.”
I ran through several more expletives in my head before everything slammed into me.
I was alone in the glade.
