Authors: Kassanna
Pain tore through the center of her chest. She needed air, but it hurt to breath. Beyond the wharf, she could hear the serene sound of waves licking the shore. A swim, getting lost beneath the surface of the sea where she could be alone with her thoughts, that’s what she wanted. She looked up, the sun was approaching its zenith. That gave her more than enough time for a swim to clear her head. They wouldn’t be able to fly until the cover of darkness. She trotted toward the stairs, quickly making her way to the beach beneath the pier.
Firm fingers wrapped around her biceps before she could sink her foot into the sand. She glanced down, following the hand they were attached to up the arm and finally into the penetrating blue gaze of Jax’s eyes. She wrenched her arm free and hopped down. The bright pink flip-flops she wore disappeared as grains of sand covered her feet. River ignored her mate, raised her head and looked at the water ahead of her. Cuss words drifted to her on the breeze from behind in Jax’s deep baritone voice. The sun’s rays dappled the dark sand, cutting through the cracks in the planks above her. Foam-topped waves crested and crashed against the boulders, supporting the pylons that held up the portion of the dock that extended into the inlet. She took in the serene scene in front of her and sucked the salt air deep into her lungs.
Calmness replaced her anger. So close to the water, she could think with clarity. A mating could not be reversed, but she belonged in the ocean and his kind ruled the skies. The claiming was complete and she would never find solace with another man, but she wouldn’t have to worry about possible betrayal either. All she had to do was amble into the water and he would never catch her.
Jax kept up with her. “It’s not what you think.” She jumped when Jax wrapped his arms around.
“I wasn’t sure about us this morning and learning that you belong to the same clan that currently holds my father hostage. I can honestly say I think the Goddess got it wrong.” River jerked from his embrace and twirled to face him. “You knew! Every statement I made about Harper, you fucking knew.” River stabbed a finger into his chest.
“No, I didn’t,” he spoke quietly. “I was gone before Drago got that bright idea.” Jax reached out and brushed her cheeks, pulling away damp fingertips.
She hadn’t realized tears flowed from the corners of her eyes. “You have what you need, the connections to find whatever it is you seek.” River gathered a fistful of her dress and dragged the fabric up. Decision made, looking at the water was not enough. She needed to be in it, feeling it against her skin as she glided with the current.
“What the hell are you doing?” His brows drew together.
There was no point in explaining that their coupling had been a mistake. She wrenched the cloth over her head and dropped the material down in front of him. In a few moments, she would be home. She spun and ambled closer to the inlet.
River was heaved high into the air. She bent forward to wrap her arms around a pillar but was swung about to face Jax. He held her aloft and gently shook her.
Thin smoke spiraled from his nose. “If you think for one minute I’m going to let you flee, think again,
polýtimos
.
We are
mated, and come hell or high water,
we will
remain together.” He lowered River, sliding her along his frame.
The feel of his rigid muscles as she slithered along his form rekindled a desire she thought she’d sated the night before. His taut shaft thumped against her belly as she was let down. Her toes grazed the sand as she was set on her feet. River stared at the three buttons at his throat below the collar of his shirt. Her body was betraying her. She was angry, dammit, not horny.
He crooked a finger under her chin, urging her head up. “Just so there is no confusion. You are stuck with me. I. Am. Not. Going. Anywhere. And neither are you.” Jax flipped her around and pressed her into the thick column. “Tell me you want me.”
She pressed her lips together and turned her face toward the timber.
Her back warmed when he moved to stand flush against her. “Are you denying me?” His heated breath wafted across her cheek.
Her nipples tightened in response to his question.
He dipped his head and traced his tongue along her mate mark, making the scales on her collarbone tingle. It was as if those nerves were directly connected to her pussy, cream moistened her folds. She squashed her thighs together and her clit pulsed.
“You taste as sweet as you smell,
polýtimos
.”
With him behind her, she couldn’t see what he was doing but his mouth on her spine heightened her pleasure, setting off sparks of anticipation, making her mons clench. His fingers dug into the soft tissue inside her thighs as he tugged her legs apart. Grainy sand rolled over the sides of her feet. Humid ocean gusts blew over her skin, chilling the moist trail he’d left down her back. A series of moans escaped through her lips.
“I don’t just want you, River. I need you, as badly as the air we breathe. Never doubt that,” he spoke against her butt cheek.
The strand of sincerity she heard in his words was like a balm for her frayed emotions. Realization crashed into her like a tsunami colliding on to a shore. Abandoning him was not an option. They would settle their differences, though. She would make sure there would never be another secret between them.
Jax slid his tongue over her pucker. She rose up on her toes, only to lose her footing, gliding down. The wood bit into her skin in the valley between her breasts. Prickles spread along her form as she fought her urge to shift. Her scales rippled just beneath the skin and along her calves as he licked her ass hole. River hugged the pylon, tapping her nails on the surface, as energy sizzled through raw nerve endings. She flexed her pelvis bumping her behind against his mouth.
On the cusp of release, Jax stopped.
He skimmed his fingers up her side as he rose. “Baby, I can’t wait.” His faint accent thickened.
She glanced over her shoulder and watched as he unzipped his pants and slid them down lean hips. Freed of its constriction, his dick bobbed in the wind. He stepped forward and caged her head with his arms. Jax nipped the side of her throat and rubbed his member in the crack of her buttocks. She threw her arms back and griped the nape of his neck with both hands.
He flexed his pelvis and his rod slipped between her labia and into her channel. She dropped her head back against his chest. River was hauled flush, her back to his front, and he snaked an arm around her waist, holding her against him as he lunged up. Jax squeezed a hand between her body and the wood, slipping a palm over her mound and into her crease to tease her hidden pearl. Her legs buckled when he pinched her bud.
Bliss charged through her veins as his cock filled her, grinding the inside of her passage. Sweat coated her skin as the sun rose higher and the air under the pier became stifling. She drew in short breaths as her orgasm built in the pit of her belly.
Jax grabbed her hair and twisted her head to see his profile. “Remember,
polýtimos
, you belong to me.” He thrust up, lifting her feet from the sand.
Darkness encroached on her vision as her release surged. Gills formed behind her ears and her nose closed. Suffocating, she tried to beat the column, but couldn’t coordinate her arms as she rode the waves of her orgasm.
“Breathe, precious,” he spoke softly in her ear.
She focused on the delight that coursed through her form and her gills closed. River gasped for air and tried to lift her head that suddenly felt too heavy for her neck. He continued driving his cock into her cove, sending a new release crashing through before the last one finished. She trembled in his arms. He groaned in her ear and flexed his hip, pinning her to the wood with his body as he warmed her from the inside out with his release into her core.
Her knees weakened and she dipped in his arms. Jax hefted her up and his dick slipped from her sheath. Gently, he helped her turn and face him.
He brushed the damp wisps of her hair off her face. “Don’t do that again.”
“Never lie to me, Jax, not even by omission.” She walked her fingers down his chest. “My anger will get you cut, but I won’t kill you since I kind of like you.”
His laughter echoed. “I’ll remember that, mate.” He yanked up his pants and sunk down to sit, patting the space next to him. “Now that I have your attention, let’s talk.”
Chapter Nine
Jax cradled River against him when she dropped down. He brushed the hair from her forehead and caressed the scales on her collarbone. First chance, when they got back to Alaska, he would clarify everything with her, today she was going to get the condensed version.
“Drago is my half brother.” He might as well get that bit of news out the way.
She stared ahead and didn’t say a word.
“At the first opportunity, I plan to challenge him to a Malice Duel.”
River snapped her head up and peered at him. “Why?”
“Mallow was my sire. When Drago challenged him to the battle, he didn’t have a chance against his son who at the time was a younger harder fighter. As leader through, Mallow couldn’t turn down the request. My older sibling is a power hungry, desperate dragon who could have waited until our father died instead of expediting his demise.” He waited for River to comment. She stayed quiet and he continued, “I intend to give him a dose of his own medicine. Until then I’ve joined up with Manx’s daughter, Synda and her mate Kirill of the Kavinkovy clan…”
She interrupted him, “I didn’t know the Dragonrex had a daughter, no one ever mentions it when they speak about him. He disappeared before I was expelled.”
Jax drew his brows together.
“Hatched.” She chuckled. “So this Synda?”
“Very few people know of her existence. It’s kept quiet because of her heritage. Synda is a hybrid, half dragon, half human.”
“Oh, wow.”
“Yeah that blew my mind, too, when I found out. Anyway, from what I’ve put together based on what I’ve been told, Manx the Supreme sanctioned Kirill to cede him. Unfortunately, he died before he could tell Kirill where the Y Ddraig Goch treasure was hidden, but he left a shitload of clues if you can decipher them. Personally, I think the black dragon is the beast that can recreate the Council of Ancients, but he needs the Dragon’s horde for backing. If he goes after Drago without the jewels, he would simply be taking over the Tarasque clan.”
She shook her head. “I don’t understand. If he is waiting to go after Drago, why are you planning the same thing? What do you have to do with the gems?”
“It’s an old myth my mother told me. Manx was over five thousand years old. According to Airla, my mother, when dragons ruled the world, their worth was determined by their wealth. It was obtained by any means necessary. The dragon with the largest horde was deemed Dragonrex and if beaten in a challenge, he would lose his title and wealth to the new champion. Manx was never defeated, so for thousands of years he acquired more treasure with every confrontation. As ruler, he brought warring creatures together in peace and created the council. Everyone worked together until he disappeared. I think Mallow tried to keep everything the way Manx set it up, but my brother was a greedy shit and my father’s reign only lasted a few hundred years.”
“You still haven’t answered my questions.” She swiveled to face him.
“One, I want to avenge Mallow.” Jax held up a finger. “I have no desire to be Dragonrex. Sounds like a pain in the ass to me.” He held up another finger. “Two, I like Kirill and Synda, I support Manx’s decision, and will help them locate the horde so we can know peace again. Plus, the thought of killing Drago gives me a hard-on.”
She held up a hand and giggled. “That’s just wrong.”
“You have no idea how badly I want the bastard dead.” He shrugged.
“Probably as much as I do.” She cupped his jaw. “So we are going to Sumatra, why?”
“Oh, that. A sign was discovered in South America that pointed to Sumatra. No one else was available to check the validity of the clue, so here we are. As usual, we have no idea what it looks like or can be. When Timur, he’s a gargoyle, went to the states based on the information he’d gathered, the gem turned out to be a child.”
River’s eyes widened. “That’s different.”
“It is. Elspeth is a seer, she can see bits and pieces of the future. That little girl is a lot of fun.”
“So, a part of the treasure is a witch?”
“No, Elspeth is either a lock or a key, we can’t figure out which.”
“Say what? I’m confused.” River pursed her lips.
“Long story I’d rather not discuss here.” He peered up at down her naked form and his shaft hardened. “If you don’t put some clothes on, we’ll be late to our next destination.” Jax rose.
“Where are you going?” She stared up at him, inquisitively.
“I dropped the bag and need my cell out of it. You need clothes.” He marched to the duffel and snatched it up.
Unzipping it as he strode back to where River sat, he dug into the pack and yanked out his phone. He dropped the case next to her and slid his finger across the screen, unlocking it. A quick scroll through his contacts and he tapped on Kirill’s icon. After a series of clicks, a connection rang through.