Page 16 of The Emerald Dragon Prince
“I’m not sure I want it to fade if you touch it like that,” I said, grinning and mischievous.
Emmerich chuckled and rolled me to my back again. His knot had finally gone down and he’d left my body. He was still buzzing with amorousness, though, and even though my heat had ended as abruptly as it had started, I still felt frisky, too. Especially when Emmerich continued to kiss the line of my scar all the way down to my belly.
He paused over the distinctively larger bump where our egg was now definitely growing inside me.
“How does the baby feel?” he asked. I could sense the depth of his concern through our bond.
“It feels wonderful,” I said with a smile, stroking my alpha’s head and running my fingers through his hair.
Emmerich kissed my bump again then looked up at me. “I pray that pausing you for a year didn’t harm it,” he said. “I…I should have checked into that more before doing anything.”
His worry was sweet, but I knew in my soul that it was unfounded. “It feels fine,” I said, pulling him slightly so he knew to move up my body until our faces were at the same level. “I think I would know if something was wrong.”
Emmerich smiled down at me, then dipped to capture my mouth in a long, sensual kiss. “I knew you were theright one for me,” he said, then kissed me again. “I sensed in my soul that you were my fated mate from the moment I laid eyes on you.”
I hummed happily, loving the sensation of my big alpha’s body on top of mine. “I knew you were for me the moment I saw you, too.”
“It feels different, doesn’t it,” he said, rubbing the tip of his nose against mine in a gesture that was so adorable I almost laughed. “No other omega has come close to inspiring these sensations within me, inspiring this love, although a few have desperately wanted to.”
“They weren’t your fated mate,” I said, feeling cockier about winning my dragon than I should have. “I am. You’re mine.”
“I am most definitely yours,” Emmerich laughed, then sank to his side on the bed, rolling me with him. “You are the one and only master of this dragon. I am your obedient servant.”
I laughed, so filled with joy that I couldn’t make any other sound. “I felt very much like I was your slave just moments ago,” I said.
“You were,” Emmerich said with pretend seriousness. “And I was yours. We will spend the rest of our very long lives being each other’s slaves and having our ways with each other.”
I laughed wickedly, circling my arms around my alpha and surging into him for another kiss. I loved everything about Emmerich and the way he felt, physically and through our bond. I couldn’t have been happier if I’d tried.
Except for the niggling reminder that there was a war going on in the other world I belonged to. I could bask in the glow of love with my dragon mate all I wanted, but itdidn’t change the fact that my father’s forces were on the verge of winning a war our side couldn’t lose.
I begged those concerns to retreat to the back of my mind for just a while longer. There would be a solution to the war, but for the moment, I deserved an hour or so together with the alpha I’d waited to long to make my own.
Chapter
Five
Emmerich
I’d known all along that when the moment came for Rumi and I to embrace our bond instead of fighting it off, everything would fall into place. I was right, but I hadn’t anticipated how contented and even docile sleeping with my half-bred omega in my arms would make me.
Rumi slumbered away like he hadn’t slept in years after our exciting and scintillating lovemaking. I couldn’t think of it as breeding, exactly, since I’d technically already began the process of breeding my fated mate a year ago. Whatever twists and tricks magic had played on the two of us as the spell I’d cast so long ago unraveled, the result was pure, perfect bliss.
Watching Rumi in his sleep was my new favorite thing. He didn’t have the same youthful innocence of his brothers or some of the omegas I’d known ages ago, in the past, but he was deliciously sweet without the cares of the worldcreasing his brow all the same. His face was relaxed and his body curled into mine as he slept with one arm and one leg thrown over me. The bulge of his belly pressed into my stomach, filling me with the thrilling anticipation of being a father, perhaps sooner rather than later.
Ordinarily, once an omega birthed a dragon egg, it took that egg roughly nine months to mature to the point of hatching. Rufus and Tovey’s eggs were ready to hatch any day now, and Gildur and Selle’s egg wouldn’t be that far behind. I wasn’t certain what might happen with my and Rumi’s egg, though. By date of conception alone, it should already have been born and hatched. I didn’t know whether the pausing spell and the breaking of that spell would mean its entire development would be accelerated once it was birthed. I didn’t truly know if it would develop too fast within Rumi and become impossible to birth without danger.
That thought had my heart pounding in no time. I tightened my embrace, sweeping a hand down to caress the bump of my mate’s belly where our baby rested, wondering if I should wake Rumi up to finish the breeding process.
As it happened, my worry must have roused my mate from his much-needed sleep.
Rumi sucked in a breath and stretched, limbs spreading as he shook away the last of his slumber. He hummed and smiled, stroking a hand up my chest, then opened his eyes and met mine.
“Good morning,” he said in the warmest, sexiest voice I’d ever heard. I felt his delight at waking in my arms through our bond, and I was certain he could feel just how happy I was to see his sleepy, smiling face. “Or is it even morning anymore?” he asked, twisting so he could look around the room a bit.
“I have no idea what time it is,” I said, brushing my fingertips over his face before cupping his cheek and leaning in to kiss him soundly. “Time doesn’t matter when I’m with you.”
Rumi’s smile widened as I kissed him. He kissed me back, rolling into me. I rolled to my back, pulling him with me and using him as a blanket to cover me.
