A Dragon for December (Wiccan-Were-Bear Book 11) (4 page)

She turned as Tosh leaned against the
doorjamb. He flipped on an overhead light and slid his finger over
a dimmer switch, lowering the lights until it was just bright
enough to see clearly. Although she’d been able to see Tosh clearly
in the night, thanks to her enhanced vision, she wasn’t wasting an
opportunity to take a good look at the male she was going to spend
the rest of her life with. Tosh was gorgeous. Tall and muscular,
with olive skin, eyes that tilted up at the corners, and
shoulder-length onyx hair.

She turned and walked to the open French
doors. Tosh joined her, wrapping his arms around her and twisting
away from the doors as he kicked them shut. “Let’s not give a show
to the neighborhood, sweetheart.”

“Oh. Oops,” she said, giggling. “I wanted to
see the view.”

He turned her in his arms. “The best view is
right here.”

“Be careful. A girl might expect that kind of
sweet talk all the time.”

“I happen to be just the sort of mate to give
it to you.”

She looked up into his eyes. There was humor
in the depths, but also affection and what she knew was the first
tender blossoms of love. Truemates didn’t happen every day, and she
knew that the man she was looking at was the one who was her
perfect match in every way. Already she was sure she couldn’t live
without him, and she knew that it wouldn’t take long for her to
fall completely and utterly in love with him. Her sexy dragon
prince.

She cupped his face as she rose on her toes
and closed the distance between them. Their lips met and parted,
and the taste of him, like sunshine-warmed spices, filled her. She
trailed her fingers down his throat to his shoulders, stroking the
place where she’d sink her fangs to bind them as mates. Tosh’s
hands slid up her back, drawing her close, as he slowly moved
toward the bed. She followed him step for step, never breaking the
kiss that seared her right to her soul.

He moved his lips down her throat, tasting
her skin with licks and nibbles as he brushed over her collarbones
with his fingertips. He sat down on the bed and spread his legs,
drawing her into the v of his thighs. His hands squeezed her hips
gently and he gazed at her.

“You’re so lovely, sweet bear. Tell me you’re
mine.”

“I am,” she whispered.

“I’m yours, too.”

He leaned forward and kissed her nipple and
then circled it slowly with his tongue. He growled softly, and she
sank her hands into his hair and drew him closer. He hummed in his
throat as he drew her nipple into his mouth, laving the tip with
his tongue. One hand slid up her side and plumped her other breast,
rubbing his thumb around the peak with delicious friction.

He moved to her other nipple, giving it the
same attention, until both were tight and aching and her body
hummed with need. He kissed the valley between her breasts, his
hands tightening where they’d returned to her waist. He released
his hold on her and leaned back, stretching out on the bed like a
king, with a sexy smile on his face.

“Come up here, sweet bear. I need to see if
you taste as good as you smell.”

She climbed onto the bed, straddling his
thighs, all too tempted to simply impale herself on the splendid
cock that jutted from his hips and beckoned her like a forbidden
piece of candy. But having her mate taste her wasn’t anything she
wanted to pass up, and the eagerness in his eyes told her she was
in for a hell of a ride.

She crawled up him, kissing his torso as she
moved, until she’d arranged the apex of her thighs directly over
his face.

“How’s the view?” she asked as she
straightened.

“Gorgeous,” he said, the word all but growled
as he wrapped his hands around her spread thighs and pulled her
down to his mouth. He licked her clit, lightly tapping the bud
before sliding his tongue into her depths.

Deci planted her hands over his and tilted
her hips. Her pussy throbbed with need as he tongued her core. One
of his hands moved forward, and his fingers brushed over her clit,
rubbing it rapidly and driving her quickly to the edge.

“Tosh,” she moaned as his fingers flew over
her clit and heat washed over her. Pleasure spiked through her as
their eyes met, and then she threw back her head and cried out. He
slid from underneath her, and she fell forward onto her hands as
pleasure swirled through her. He rose behind her, his hands sliding
up her thighs and tugging them farther apart as he lined up their
bodies and slid home.

She moaned loudly, tossing her hair away from
her face and pressing back against her mate. They fit together
perfectly, and she was sure in that moment that they really had
been made for each other.

He groaned deeply as he slid slowly from her,
until only the thick head of his cock breached her. For a moment,
he stayed like that, and she felt the prick of claws as they
extended from his fingertips and dug into her hips. Her hands
clutched at the covers as he pressed into her, so slowly she
thought she’d combust.

He growled. “Mine.”

“Yes,” she hissed.

As he pulled from her body and pushed in
faster, she reached one hand between her legs and touched her clit.
At Tosh’s encouraging growl, Deci rubbed her clit and pushed
herself toward climax. She screamed as she came. Tosh released his
tight hold on her hips and pulled from her. He pushed her to her
back and sank into her with a deep groan. He curled over her,
pulling her close as he moved and her gaze zeroed in on his
neck.

Her gums tingled as her fangs lengthened
farther and she sank them into the place where his neck and
shoulder met. As his blood crested her tongue, everything inside
her roared in bliss. Her body locked in a spiral of pleasure that
was deeper than anything she’d ever experienced before. Tosh
shouted her name as he came. She felt him spasming inside her, felt
the heat of his come, and extracted her fangs. Licking the marks
tenderly, she nuzzled his throat with a questioning growl.

Tosh lifted from her neck, and she saw that
his eyes were bright green. He panted, and his teeth, sharp and
elongated, glinted in the light.

“Mine,” he growled again, his eyes flashing
with possession.

“Yes,” she moaned the word, closing her eyes
as he opened his mouth over her right bicep.

The bite was swift and the pain brief, a
tingling, burning left in the wake as he extracted his fangs and
lifted from her. He carried her up the bed, drawing the covers back
and laying her down. She felt drowsy and struggled to keep her eyes
open.

Tosh snarled and sank his sharp teeth into
his own right bicep and then he licked his lips as his eyes flashed
and his teeth returned to normal. His eyes were half-mast, sleepy
and sexy, and he said with a low voice, “It’s a venom-induced
sleep, sweetheart. When we wake, we’ll be mated completely, the
tattoos a signal to all that we belong to each other for the rest
of our long lives.”

He stretched out next to her and gathered her
close. The spicy scent of him enveloped her, and she yawned and
cuddled against him as he drew the covers over them. Her eyes
shuttered, and she felt herself slip away into sleep, as the
numbing tingle in her arm intensified for a brief moment and then
disappeared completely.

Chapter 6

Tosh’s mate rolled over and stretched next to
him. He’d been awake for an hour and had simply watched her sleep.
His to-do list for his new mate was a mile long, but the
contentment he found in the simple act of lying next to her in
their bed had eclipsed anything he’d ever felt before. He’d never
really thought of the mansion as anything but a house, but with
Deci, it was a home now. A place where they would rule the nest as
long as they chose and where their children would roam the
halls.

Deci squeaked as she stretched a second time.
Her fingers curled and her back bowed a little, bringing her breast
close to his mouth. He kissed the dusky nipple, and she made a
pleased, humming sound.

“Good morning,” she said.

“Good morning to you, my sweet mate,” Tosh
said.

She wrapped her hand around his bicep and
gasped. “Wow, that’s amazing.”

He brushed his fingers across her matching
tattoo. It was the biggest one he’d ever seen – a beautiful pattern
that stretched from her shoulder to her elbow. It was made up of
swirls and points that centered on the image of a dragon and what
could only be described as a snowflake. Mating tattoos were almost
always solid black, but both of theirs – identical in every way –
were black, green, and white.

“I think the green is for my dragon and the
white is for your bear,” he said, letting his fingers follow the
beautiful pattern that was at the same time delicate and
strong.

“That’s not usual?” she asked.

“No. The ones I’ve seen are solid black.”

“Is it a good thing?”

“How could it not be? It’s beautiful, a
mixture of both of us. Does it bother you that it’s so large?”

She shook her head. “You gave it to me. I
wouldn’t change anything about it.”

“I wouldn’t change anything about the tattoos
either. They’re the largest ones I’m aware of, and I believe it
means that our connection as truemates is very strong. You were
meant to be in the woods last night, and I was meant to find
you.”

She smiled. “Thief.”

“Poacher.”

She rolled them both until she hovered over
him. “I’m so glad you found me, my fierce dragon mate.”

She swung her leg over his and straightened,
her lush body highlighted by the morning light that seeped through
the curtains. He slid his hands up the outside of her thighs as she
smiled down at him.

“I am too.”

* * *

Tosh wanted to stay in bed all day with Deci.
They were newly mated, after all, and humans had something they
called a honeymoon, where they stayed in bed for days and enjoyed
each other. But he and Deci weren’t human, and they weren’t on a
sex-filled vacation celebrating their wedding – they were shifters,
and serpents had a certain way of doing things when it came to
their matings.

“Why do they call you serpents when you’re
dragons?” Deci asked as she dried off after their joint shower, in
which they got clean, made love, and got clean a second time.

“I think it harkens back to ancient times,
when the word
serpent
was more inclusive. The shifters in my
nest look like me, although we differ in the color of our scales –
some are red, some black, some metallic, some green like me. In
other parts of the world, there are nests where the dragons look
more like walking crocodiles, and there are actual snake
shifters.”

He rubbed at his hair with a towel and then
secured the towel around his waist. She wrapped her towel around
her and followed him into the bedroom, where clothes had been laid
on the bed.

“Oh, are these for me?” Deci asked as she
looked down at the leggings and top.

“Gen is very intuitive,” Tosh said.

“And sweet,” Deci said, smiling. “Do you
think he heard us when we were driving each other crazy in the
shower?”

He smiled. “Probably. The whole house
probably heard us.”

She blushed and laughed. “I think they know
we like each other, huh?”

He wrapped a lock of her lovely white-blonde
hair around his finger and gave it a gentle tug. “Very much
so.”

As they dressed, he told her about the mating
and coronation ceremonies that would take place one after the
other.

“There will be a small group of females who
will help you get ready for the ceremony. You have to wear your
hair a certain way and wear a special gown, which will be
green.”

“Why not white?” she asked, arching a
brow.

“Because my dragon’s scales are green. I’ll
be waiting for you in our sacred grove, which is where all our
ceremonies take place. It’s in the center of our territory. Because
your family won’t be here to escort you, we’ll find a suitable
escort.”

“Like Alli?”

He hummed. “Normally it’s a male family
member.”

“Your uncle,” she said.

Tosh frowned. He wasn’t sure if he wanted his
uncle to be anywhere near Deci. “I was thinking about Gen,
actually. He’s not related by blood, but he’s like a member of my
family.”

“You don’t like your uncle?”

“It’s not that. I’m unsure he’ll be happy
that I’ve found you. He was encouraging me to step down to find my
truemate and suggested someone could take over the nest while I was
gone.”

“Then wouldn’t he be glad that you don’t have
to leave now?”

He shook his head. “I’m honestly not
sure.”

She frowned. “Does he have a claim to the
throne?”

“Not at all. In our nest, the kingship passes
from father to son. The son remains a prince until he finds a
mate.”

She hummed. “Gen will be perfect. What’s the
ceremony like?”

“The mating ceremony will be presided over by
Bao, and the coronation by Quon. They are both elders of the nest.
The whole nest will be in the grove to witness the ceremonies. When
we’ve accepted our rightful place as king and queen, there will be
a party in the backyard of the mansion that will last until
dawn.”

“So we don’t get to get naughty until
dawn?”

He grinned. “We’ll sneak off after we’ve
greeted everyone.”

“Good. Why does the crowning ceremony have to
be within two days of us meeting?”

“I’m not sure. You can call it a weird dragon
ritual.”

She snorted a laugh. “Do you have a lot of
those things?”

“It depends on what you think a lot is.”

He opened the bedroom door, and they walked
out together. Tosh could think of nothing that pleased him more
than walking out of the bedroom with his mate by his side. He felt
like he’d been alone for such a long time, and now he had Deci.
Yesterday he’d taken flight from his balcony as a single male, and
this morning he had his mate’s hand twined with his. He’d found
happiness with the sexiest polar bear around.