Elijah gave him a sly smile. “I have spoken with him, of course.” Kai’s jaw dropped in shock. “Don’t look like that, Kai. I make it a point to know all the potential rulers in key mere habitats. Why bother to rule a colony when your puppet can do it just as well?”
Kai struggled to show less than he felt. When the call ended, he threw the machine across the room. It dented the drywall, but fell in a still-solid piece to the ground.
* * * *
Alara watched as her father’s casket was lowered into a hole in the frozen ground. Murrough Island’s resting place perched on a hillside overlooking the water. It was beautiful and peaceful. As the ceremony ended, the cool breeze on her face felt like breaking the water’s surface.
She breathed deep, and for the first time in days looked around her. Only herself and five of her brothers stood near the grave. With a start, she wondered why Florian hadn’t attended. Eventually each of her brothers left, and she stood at the hillside alone. The air, the ocean, the land…all of it drew away her hurt, her confusion. She remembered it had been several days since she spoke with the triton’s advisors, since she had even watched the news.
Footsteps drew toward her. The loud clomping of a dragon in human form. When Kai reached a few feet behind her, the sounds stopped. She waited out his hesitation, but when he didn’t approach she spoke. “I can hear you breathing.”
He came up next to her, a mountain of strength. They stood side by side for some time, neither speaking nor touching. Her tears fell anew. Kai placed his hand on her shoulder. Before she could think, her body curled into his, seeking warmth and re-assurance.
He tried to set her back. “Alara, I need to speak with you about some things—”
She shook her head in argument and nuzzled closer. For three days, Alara had suffered alone, surrounded by brothers who hated her.
The dragon smelled so good. He ran his hand into her hair and kissed her forehead. Then he kissed each of her tears from her cheeks. His eyes shined with affection. She sighed. Yeah, she liked him a lot, too. Funny how you could like someone you also hated.
His low rumble of a voice reached her toes. “What can I do, Alara?”
She unzipped his coat and burrowed inside against his chest. Her arms snaked up under his sweater so she could feel the hard muscles of his back through his shirt. “Just hold me.” The moment the words left her lips, Alara fought a wave of panic. Gods, she sounded like such a girl! Her request had the desired effect, though, and Kai settled her body against his and rested his chin on her head.
* * * *
As they walked back to the Glass House, Alara’s scent wafted around his body. Her tears still wet the front of his shirt, a balm against his heart. Somehow he knew that she did not cry against another as she had with him.
He’d meant to tell her about the Elijah’s support of Florian, about everything, but her misery dried the words in his throat. The princess did not need to bear that burden, at least not for another day.
When they reached the door to her chamber, he led her inside. Wordlessly, he filled her bathtub and removed her clothes, then lifted the princess in his arms and placed her in the large pool of warm water. He undressed and climbed in, slipping in behind her.
“Will this tub accommodate you once you shift?” He shuffled back, making sure she had room for her tail.
She lay against his chest and turned her head so that her pale cheek rested on his collarbone. His hand drifted to stroke her soft skin.
“I can keep my human form longer in fresh water.”
He swept his fingertips along her arms, then along the sides of her hips. He traced the markings on her skin.
“You know unmarked mere are weaker, right? We’re not born with mere-song either. That doesn’t come till we’re marked.”
Lost in his appreciation of her beauty, he wondered at her meaning. Then he realized. “Alara, you do not need to explain. Mere are a different species with different customs from dragons. I will admit that had I been present on the island when you came of age, I would have liked to have been the one.”
Heat rushed to his face at the admission, but she didn’t see. Alara snorted, letting him know how his presence lightened her mood. “Then
neither of us
would have known what we were doing.”
He chuckled into her neck. “We would have figured it out. Eventually.” Still he teased his hands at her outer thighs. His body primed for hers, but he resisted the draw. Alara had never been so pliable and open with him. Kai feared to break the spell.
“So…dragon’s don’t…”
Kai ascertained her question. “We don’t have the urge to engage in mating unless the female is in heat, which only happens once a year, and females are sequestered during that time.” When he noted her outraged gasp, he added, “Else every male in the area would fight to the death to mount her.”
She shrugged, pacified. “I guess that makes sense then. But you can take human form. Don’t married—I mean mated—dragons just get their skin on for the heck of it.” She wriggled on him as if to demonstrate, further inflaming his desire.
“I would not know.” He could not help but nibble at her neck. “If they do, it’s a private.” Nip. “Secret.” Lick. “Clandestine.” Kiss. “Behavior.”
Part of his mind, the logic and reason, urged him to stop. Kai felt as if some inner beast was pulling free from its bindings. He imagined climbing over other males, ripping and gnashing them open with his teeth, to get to Alara.
With heavy breaths, her chest rose and sank in the water. Her breasts floated, budded peaks breaking the surface. He traced a finger across one, groaning low when her back arched.
Kai lifted her from the tub and into a thick, white towel, and scooped her into his arms. In her room, he placed her in the middle of the rug and dried her swiftly.
He stalked tight circles around his princess, looking over every inch of her body. The tiny hairs on her arms fanned out. Emotions rose from her skin, heat, want, sadness, just a thin thread of fear. The cocktail swirled around her in waves, until his mind registered the scent of her more even than the sight. Again he circled, beginning his third pass. The small, still-logical part of his mind noted that the dragon claiming ceremony involved the male circling the female.
Lowering to his knees, he placed his nose at the tip of her tailbone. Images of a dragon’s head against his mate’s flank flashed in his mind. He licked and nipped along the right side of her spine, ducking into the curve of her lower back, over her shoulder, and along her neck until he reached her ear. The lush flap of skin fell into his waiting mouth, and he bit down firmly. She swayed against him, an acceptance of his offer.
He repeated the movement on the left side of her spine. For dragons, stroking a female thus urged her to lift her tail, and apparently it had the same effect on mere because Alara pushed her round behind toward him. When he rose high enough to bite her ear, the weight of his sex nestled between the pillows of her rear end.
His vision panned to red. The stiffness between his legs beat in time with his heart. He pressed her the couple feet toward her bed and urged her upper body forward. She leaned onto the cushions obligingly, still keeping her feet planted on the floor. The position tilted her hips forward, her tailbone up, like the most majestic dragoness waiting to be mounted.
His knees touched the ground, and he placed his lips level with the banquet of her sex. He used his hands to open her thighs further. Her folds glistened, the plump curves bare to his gaze.
Alara trembled. “Kai?” Her voice shook. He knew it embarrassed her when he observed her too closely. But tonight he’d seen her tears, and now he wanted to see her everything.
Chapter 13
With a single finger, he stroked through her folds. Kai swept his tongue along her once, delighting when she pressed her hips back to his mouth. He didn’t accept her invitation to continue. He wanted her response, her orgasm, laid bare as her sex. “Shhh…” He placed a heavy hand onto her back, urging her shoulders against the bed, encouraging her to relax. Alara keened softly, like a bird cooing. The sound simmered along his nerves.
“Stay as you are, my love.” He stroked his hand over her buttocks, rubbing her muscles. Then he licked her again, once, twice, until she rolled her hips and pressed up onto her toes.
His finger slipped between her folds to tease at her center, and then lower to her kernel of pleasure. She cried out again, singeing his ears, urging him to complete her. The fragrance of her excitement sweetened the air.
He slid the finger higher, over her tiny anus, damp from his tongue. A stream of curses and exclamations left her lips, and the scent of her longing spiked. He pressed inward gently, and the moist entrance accepted just the tip of his digit.
She breathed in tiny pants. Her body went taut, then relaxed, only to go taut again, as if a battle for control raged in her every muscle. He slipped his thumb down to her entrance, circling lightly. She bucked back, impaling herself into both his fingers. At the deeper penetration, she cried out and stiffened. He could tell she considered pulling away.
After a long moment, she whispered, “Please, Kai.” The softness of her words melted his heart, brought a heavy throbbing between his legs. He lowered his head and licked her pearl. The morsel stood engorged, and she rocked at the first touch of his tongue.
He spoke with his mouth against her tissues, so his words vibrated through her core. “Crumble for me now, little mermaid. Crash like a wave against a rocky cliff.”
Like a volcano, her screams erupted.
Gently releasing his hands, he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her quivering body with him as he crawled forward into the cave of her bed. Alara still shivered, lost in her pleasure. He stretched her arms up over her head then ran his hands down to her hips to lift them slightly. Her face lay in profile against the white sheets. Kai placed his body atop hers then slowly entered her from behind.
Alara’s brows knit together in ecstasy, creasing more deeply as he filled her channel. He stroked inside her with measured thrusts, but rather than squirming and bucking to meet him, she held still, whimpering for another release but accepting of her supplication. Kai’s chest ached with emotion.
When her plaintive moans came closer together, he reached down to her belly to cup her mound. She made tiny needy sounds and arched into him. The movement destroyed his last hope of control and he dove into her with a force he would have regretted except that Alara shouted in pleasure at his every spear.
The damp white skin of her shoulder drew his eye and, before Kai could think, his teeth sunk in deep, claiming her as his kind did. She cried out harder, but whether in hurt or joy he couldn’t tell. A moment later they both exploded. The waves of orgasm clamped down hard as pain, and he shouted her name to the gods. Her precious cunt milked his head and shaft, and those small movements wracked his whole body with sensation. The moment stretched for what seemed like hours, so long that as his one release ended another took its place and he shouted anew.
Kai rolled to his side, bringing Alara with him, her back against his front. Though he still penetrated her, the princess’s eyelids closed and she drifted to sleep. Kai kissed her cheek and her neck where the marks from his bite stood dark red against her skin.
Mine.
His reptile mind retreated as sleep approached, allowing logic and reason to permeate.
Mine?
Exhaustion overtook more serious thoughts. Nestling closer to his mate, Kai breathed deep her now-claimed scent and drifted to unconsciousness.
* * * *
The satellite phone buzzed in Karon’s hip holster, no doubt received another text asking about Grathers’ whereabouts and when the subjects would be delivered. Karon had been deflecting or ignoring communications for days. It was pretty easy to do, considering he was floating around in the Arctic, but eventually someone from the company would show up and take the kids if he didn’t respond.
He peered around the corner, into the area housing the holding cells. Three of the kids sat in a circle singing words he didn’t understand. A little boy ran back and forth between the cells, through the openings Karon had cut. A couple of the girls clutched rag dolls and older one had made with one of Karon’s old shirts. The space looked more like a daycare than a jail.