Page 1 of Drawn By Dragonblood
Chapter 1
Elijah
I stood on my veranda, arms useless at my sides and my shoulders sagging.
The anniversary of my greatest heartbreak had once more arrived, ripping through my chest with talons sharper than any dragon’s claws. I stared unseeing across the White Mountains where my cave-like home had sat unnoticed by humans for close to four centuries, my mind lost in past memories that intensified the ache my lover had left behind.
Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” filtered through the sliding doors I’d left open behind me, worsening the intensity of my loneliness.
I had first heard the song in September of 1939 by radio broadcast and promptly fell in love with the haunting, passionate piece—and the dragonblood beta who had sat beside me at the time.
We’d had over seventy years together, and still, he’d left as though the time we’d spent as partners held no meaning. No letter or verbal explanation of where he’d gone or why, but I understood his unspoken troubles, what had kept us from bonding as we’d both been desperate for fate to allow regardless of the fact we weren’t true mates.
I’d been born a royal alpha, intended to lead and protect. He was of a lesser family but a self-declared alpha all the same. He had never submitted himself fully to me in our bed and dungeon, but I’d felt sure if we had only located our third, a fertile female, we would have found fulfillment.
It took three dragonblood to create life, an accomplishment I would never be able to claim. I had let my three parents down—and every other Blood Born who’d perished over the years since my birth.
Releasing a sigh, I hung my head, my eyes as heavy as my heart.
Need.
My throat tightened at my inner dragon’s quiet whimper that echoed the isolation I felt in my soul.
After ten years of searching for my lover, I’d given up hope of his return and had given in to my beastly desires to seek out release elsewhere. I had stuck to females since I would never trust another male who got on his knees for me.
The last woman I had allowed myself to enjoy ended up bruised and exhausted because I’d lost control to my inner beast’s darker side. Even though I had left a large monetary gift to cover expenses while she healed from the cane she’d begged me to use, I’d yet to rid myself of the guilt for allowing my dragon to control my human’s better sense.
There would be no more rope or pain play to give pleasure, I had told my dragon. No more fragile humans, and definitely no giving into my animalistic desire to conquer and dominate.
Wrapping my inner beast in mental shackles had kept others safe since that affair, but his daily pleadings for release beyond my own hand wore my determination thin.
As far as I was aware, I was the last of my kind. The only ancient dragonblood with breath in their lungs. And I would die alone, never having scented or seen either of my mates that fate should have supplied for me to keep our kind from extinction.
My dragon snarled at my pessimism, but I’d given up hope after scouring the earth for proof otherwise.
“Enough,” I muttered, my tone not allowing him to argue further.
Same as every year, I would wake in the morning, my mind once more set on making the world a better place for humanity since they would outlive the last of the Blood Born.
I turned from the edge of my veranda, intent on the numbness of sleep, my bare feet shuffling along the worn stone patio.
A breeze caressed my cheek like a silken fingertip—and brought with it a scent of sweetness that stirred my blood. The coolness wrapped around my heated, naked body, raising the hairs on my nape and arms and causing my pulse to thrum.
Yessss.
Spinning, I inhaled deeply, sensing the one I had longed for and never expected to find.
Mate.
“Our female,” I agreed with my inner beast, elation making my emotions soar higher than my dragon’s wings had ever physically taken us.
A rumble sounded in my chest as I once more filled my lungs —my heart and mind—with who she was. All the subtle nuances of her floating on the breeze revealed to my mind exactly as my alpha father had promised would one day occur.
Longer golden hair framed her pale face. Her eyes shimmered between blue and hazel green. I couldn’t tell exactly which color and couldn’t wait to find out that truth once I pinpointed her location and claimed her.
Lush curves and…muscular?
Eyelids falling closed to better sharpen my focus, I fought to retain the image her scent had brought. Wide, child-bearing hips, yet her thighs and calf muscles spoke of hours in a gym, more like those of a human man.
