Page 63 of Dragon Fight

“Tell me you’ll worship me always,” I said.

“Yes, Pippin, yes!”

“Tell me you’ll always be mine.”

That’s what stopped him dead, the head of his cock only just inside me, his control perfect as he stared up at me.

“You know I am.” His words were simple, direct, devastating. “I always was, from the moment I got off my dragon and saw you there at the quarry. I thought I was ready for anything. A simpering miss who thought she was to be elevated beyond her station. Some haughty backwater noblewoman, or even a simple creature who’d known only lazy days and summer harvests. But I wasn’t prepared for you.”

His brow creased.

“Not fucking you, Pippin. I knew I could never let myself actually care for my wife, lest she become another statistic, just like my brother. And yet you were so self-contained and graceful with it, brimming with this spirit that flashed in your eyes the minute you saw me. And when you looked at my riders? I saw it all then, the future we could’ve had if I was just another rider and you could be my girl, too.”

He held my gaze as his hips tilted upwards slightly, easing himself into me but with more than just his body. Draven had always seemed so brutal and destructive, yet he had just shattered all the carefully constructed barriers I’d built between us.

“Just give me this for today,” he panted. “Just a man and a woman, a queen and her loyal subject. Let me worship your body with mine. Let me feel the way it would’ve been if the fates were not so cruel. Give methis, Pippin!”

His hips bucked upwards in emphasis, and he impaled himself deep inside me. The fact that he’d spoken largely in past tense was driven out of my mind because all I could focus on was him – the feel of his body, the intensity of his gaze. Draven had me transfixed again, mesmerised. It felt like I was sinking into his steady regard even as he was thrusting up into me. We found our rhythm and moved together, perfectly in time, everything so well synchronised that when his breath grew ragged, mine did too. As I headed for the peak, I leant down and claimed his mouth.

The heavy swell of him within me, then the explosive burst, brought me to my own climax and beyond. His arms went around me, and we clasped each other tight, as our coordinated movements became twitching, spasmodic and instinctual. So of course we clung together, as if weathering a storm. But this was a tempest we had created together, one we leaned into as it blasted at us. Finally, as the gales of pleasure died down and peace returned, he rolled us over onto our sides, and he held me cradled against his chest.

I hadn’t clearedthis with Brom, or with any of the men. I had no idea how they would feel about such a development and that’s when I felt a moment of crystalline realisation. I’d been angry at Brom for hiding a relationship of sorts, yet here was I initiating… something… without any kind of input from the men closest to my heart. Those very valid concerns seemed to vanish the moment Draven kissed me, twisting his hips slightly, his still hard cock buried deep inside me.

“Gods, I can’t seem to get enough of you,” he murmured, kissing me once, twice before thrusting more intentionally. “Tell me you’re ready for more. Please, Pippin. Say you’re not too sore.”

I did and I wasn’t. Some kind of devilry had me clinging to the prince as we spared no effort to see if lightning could strike more than once in the same place. It did, multiple times throughout the night, and eventually I fell into a deep sleep sometime in the early hours.

But when I woke up the next morning? I was alone.

Darkspireand his bondmate have gone, Glimmer informed me, climbing onto the bed.To do what they must.

What?I rolled over and slapped my hands down on the bare space beside me, my fingers crinkling a piece of paper left on the pillow.And what must he do?

He’s the first line of defence against the other queen, she told me as my eyes scanned the neatly sloping writing he’d left on the paper.He thinks he can sacrifice himself and bring an end to all of this, but that’s not how it works. Males provide a defensive line, to try and dissuade a queen from attacking their mate, but in the end, it comes down to teeth and claw, queen against queen, to determine who is fit to rule a territory.

I crumpled the paper in my hand, shaking my head as I rolled out of bed, stopping when I felt the ache. The ghost of Draven still lived in my body, but I pushed that to one side as I yanked my clothes back on.

“Where the hell have you been?”Flynn asked as I walked into the suite, his hands raking through his hair. “We were worried sick! I thought Draven had fucking killed you or worse.”

“Now, lad,” Soren said, before focusing on me. “Pippin will explain when she’s ready.”

“I…” My throat closed up, and words wouldn’t come out.

“Did he hurt you?” Ged said. “I’ll fucking kill him if he—”

“I’m sorry.”

I got that much out, pushing past him and the others to hold the ball of paper out to Brom as a peace offering, but when his eyes met mine, I knew that he knew. Where I’d been, what had happened, because the same had happened to him. But did he feel betrayed in the same way? Brom took the ball with a nod, then opened it up.

“What the hell is going on?” Flynn asked, peering over Brom’s shoulders, then his eyes went wide.

“The prince has escaped back to Wyrmpeak,” Brom said in a tight voice. “He intends to rescue the cadets and see if he can bring them back here, or will at least see them safe before…”

“Before?” Soren prompted.

“Before he seeks to bring his mother down, all on his own,” Brom finished grimly.

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