The Mating Destiny: Werewolves of Montana Book 7 (6 page)

Panting, she bent over and braced her hands on her knees. “He almost saw you. We’d better not take any more chances. With your black scales, you stick out like a blotch on the sky.”

Michael flopped onto the grass, resting his head upon his arms. “I’m the night, and you’re the day. Interesting, Anna. Do you think we’re true mates because we represent the opposite of dragons?”

“I don’t know.” She sat beside him, her gaze troubled. “All I know is you’re here and I want you to stay safe.”

He knew the words she did not voice.

For however long you can remain here, until someone finds out.

And he could not allow anyone else to discover him, or there would be hell to pay.

Chapter 4

Michael spent the rest of the day studying the texts on Fae gardening techniques that Anna had brought on a return trip to the cottage, along with food and other supplies. She’d lugged her Mac laptop along as well, and while he read up on the extraction of oil from Lumen seeds, she typed away, designing a new website for a corporate client.

Once in a while he’d read a passage aloud that sounded interesting, or she would show him her design. It was a peaceful way to pass the day, a companionable silence broken only by the turning of a page, the clacking of her keyboard, the chirping of the birds outside the window, and the wind rustling through the trees.

She cooked him a perfect well-done roast, and he devoured every bite. As they sat at the dining table, talking about old times and laughing, he felt a tug of remorse.

He must return to his service to the Crystal Wizard, leaving her here alone to face the continued shunning by her clan.

Finally the full moon appeared in the sky. Anna stared upward at it as they left the cottage. Michael checked the special pouch for containing the seeds.

“Won’t your father wonder where you are?” he asked her.

“I told my parents I’d be out planting on the north side and would sleep under the stars. They’re used to me doing that.” Her face turned down. “Papa is so busy with the king, I might as well be invisible.”

Then she added softly, so softly he barely heard her, “Sometimes I wish I was invisible, so they wouldn’t stare at my face.”

Oh Anna, my Anna. How I would rake my claws over their faces if they stood before me—hurt them as they have hurt you.

He held out a hand and she clasped it. For a moment they simply stared upward at the stars.

“You’ll have to shift into dragonskin to get there. It’s too far to walk.”

“I can’t. I need the pouch to store the seeds so they’ll stay warm and won’t die. They must remain as seeds.” He looked at her steadily. “You’ll have to take me.”

Anna tilted her head. “You want to ride me, dragon? In what way?”

In every way possible once we’re naked.
But he only smiled. “On your back.”

Thirty minutes later, Michael clinging to Anna’s back, they landed on the mountainside where the Lumen plants thrived.

The garden was planted at a high angle, which made balancing themselves tricky. Michael opened the bag Xavier had given him and breathed a small stream of dragon fire inside the pouch. The dragonfire would keep the seeds warm until they reached the cottage.

When he looked up, Anna stared, visibly shaken. “You can breathe dragonfire while in Skin? Even my father, who can shoot fire from his fingertips, can’t do that.”

“I have many powers, Anna. Xavier has taught me well.” He held out a hand. “Come.”

They knelt down by the Lumen plants and stared down at the glowing leaves, light pulsing around each tip like summer fireflies.

There were a dozen plants that did not glow as brightly. They would not suit his purpose, he decided. He started to pass them by—and then realized what he was doing.

He was selecting seeds from only the brightest, healthiest plants, just as Anna’s clan honored the brightest, healthiest dragons.

Michael turned back and plucked more seeds from the dimly glowing plants. Simply because the plants did not shine as brightly as the others, did not mean the seeds were less potent.

They still contained power that could be harvested, and used for good.

Anna helped him, pulling the pods gently off the stalks, opening the tough shells and spilling out each seed in the pod into her hand. The seeds glowed as she cradled them, pulsing with blue light.

When they collected enough to fill the small bag Xavier had given him, they straightened.

“Now what?” she asked. “Is there a ritual you must perform for the purpose of their magick?”

A ritual I must perform for the sake of me, sweetheart. You are driving me mad with lust, standing there in the moonlight, your body so curved and lush…

He wanted her so badly. But if they made love, and grew intimate as true mates, what would happen afterward? He still must return to his master.

And there was her family, who disapproved.

Anna reached for his hand. “You want to make love with me.”

“Yes,” he said softly. “But I know not what will happen tomorrow and I don’t want to hurt you. I should leave.”

“We have tonight. Stay,” she whispered.

And then she shifted back into dragon. He climbed upon her back and they rode the winds in silence, the breeze tugging Michael’s hair as he closed his eyes, riding the dragon.

Chapter 5

Back at the cottage, Anna changed back to Skin, and went inside into the bedroom. She waited to see if her true mate would follow her lead, and finally consummate their passion.

She did not undress, for that was what Skins did.

Instead, she drew upon her dragon powers and forked her tongue, and then flicked it out at him. So very, very dragon, and an act she had caught her cousin and her cousin’s mate doing before they tumbled to the ground and made love.

She flicked her forked tongue and changed her eyes to reptilian, yet another cool dragon trick she’d learned since her first shift. Michael stared at her, his eyes dilating.

“Are you certain of this, Anna? There will be no going back,” he said quietly.

Anna sashayed up to Michael, retracted her tongue until it was human again and returned her eyes to normal. Then she ran a hand over his chest, across his flat belly, down to his groin.

Finding him fully erect through his jeans, she squeezed lightly. He threw back his head and groaned.

“That’s a definite yes,” she purred.

She stepped back, divested herself of clothing and stood before him. Anna blushed, well aware that Michael kept on his clothing while she had bared herself fully to him. But if they were to finally make love, he needed to see all of her.

He touched the scaled skin of her belly with a worried frown. Anna’s confidence slipped several notches.

If he said she was deformed or ugly, she wouldn’t die. She’d simply dress and slip away, and never see him again. And then return to her dreams of a black dragon flying high in the night sky against a backdrop of glittering star-shine.

“Now that I can see you up close, I don’t like it. This isn’t good. It’s tough and impenetrable.” His frown deepened. “This also is human skin every time you shift into dragon? You don’t ever have scales there?”

Anna moistened her lips, her stomach tightening against his gentle touch. Baring herself before him had taken all her courage and she held on to it by a thread, a slim line of hope linking them together.
Please don’t say it, please don’t say it.

“Yes. I have human skin on my stomach when I am dragon.”

“Oh damn, Anna.” Michael’s hand dropped. “Your belly. Your underside. The most vulnerable part of your body as dragon. All it takes is one direct hit by dragonfire and you’re dead.”

And then she realized the worry on his face had nothing to do with her looks, or her own self-perception of beauty. He was thinking about self-defense, while she had been thinking herself too ugly to arouse his passion, too grotesque for lovemaking.

Anna put a hand over her stomach and felt a tickle there. It rose up through her throat and she released it in a rollicking belly laugh, howling with laughter and relief.

Michael folded his arms over his chest. “I don’t see anything funny about this.”

She wiped her streaming eyes. “I thought, the expression on your face… I thought you were turned off.”

“Because of your scales?”

At her nod, he sighed. “Anna. You’re a dragon. You have scales. I have scales. Yours are a little confused, as your magick is. It pisses me off that everyone else in your clan isn’t wise enough to understand this, and accept you for who and what you are. Except for your family.”

“You don’t find me ugly like this?”

Michael’s mouth twitched. “Of course not. You’re dragon. Still you. Now if you had turned into a big green ogre, there would be a problem.”

“Oh?”

“I don’t like the color green.”

His smile remained light and teasing. She threw her arms around him and hugged him tight.

When Michael let her go, he looked dangerous as his gaze became brilliant with passion. His jaw was clenched tight, as if it were made of stone.

“I have to get inside you. Now,” he said thickly.

His lean body had the strength of a predatory animal. Anna watched in hungry silence as Michael undressed. Muscles rippled beneath the tanned skin of his flat belly. His legs were long and dusted with dark hair.

His penis stood erect. She placed her hands on his firm chest, feeling the steady and slow beat of his heart.

Emotion overwhelmed her as she placed her mouth on his collarbone, tasting the salty tang of his skin, tracing her tongue over the marking on his neck and shoulder that indicated he was apprenticed to the Crystal Wizard. Michael cupped her chin, lifted it to his face.

“Why the tears? I promise I will be gentle and try to give you only pleasure.” He pressed his mouth against her scaled cheek and kissed the salty droplets away.

She smiled through them. “You mean everything to me. I wish I had defied my father and did this sooner.”

“You are so beautiful.” His voice was husky as he drew her over to the bed and they lay down.

His skin was hot to the touch as she stroked his broad shoulders and neck. She placed her lips against the dragon mark, feeling him quiver beneath her mouth. He slid a palm over her belly, circling it in soothing strokes.

He kissed his way down her torso. She felt him smile against her stomach. Then he flicked his tongue around her belly button. Anna cried out with pleasure as his hand reached between her thighs.

They explored each other’s bodies, taking their time, discovering pleasure points and laughing with abandon.

Michael’s gaze was fierce as he mounted her. He held himself up on his hands as he settled between her opened legs.

“Love me, Michael,” she told him. “Pretend nothing can ever separate us, not even death.”

She felt the rounded tip of his penis enter her soaked folds and tensed before he pushed into her fully. There was a brief moment of pain, and then the thickness of him filled her completely. She closed her eyes and tilted her hips up as he began to thrust.

His chest slid over hers, the silky hairs from his legs whispered against her own as she wrapped her limbs around his. They were entwined together like snakes.

Like coupling dragons.

Anna fisted her hands into his hair and kissed him hard. He moaned into her mouth and thrust harder and faster, the pleasure pushing her higher. She arched beneath him and cried out his name as she let go.

Rigid muscles locked as he stiffened above her and shouted her name. She felt the wet warmth of semen…and an odd sensation, as if Michael filled her with more than his seed. As if he gave her his power as well, the power he had gained while working for the Crystal Wizard.

He collapsed atop her, pillowing his head upon her shoulder. She stroked his sweat-dampened hair, dazed with pleasure and emotions.

Eventually, they slept.

As the gray light of dawn streaked into the bedroom, Anna roused and stretched and yawned. She had slept the night through, secure in her mate’s embrace. Michael was not in bed with her now, though.

She showered and put a towel around herself, then went into the living room. Michael was sitting on the sofa, seemingly lost in thought.

And then he saw her, and the hunger ignited his gaze all over again. His pupils dilated as his nostrils flared.

“Anna,” he said in a guttural voice. “You smell…delicious. Better than breakfast.”

She had heard of this, the intense need for dragons to mate and keep mating.

As he approached her, Anna felt wet and aching, swollen with need. Shivering with anticipation, she kissed him, wrapping her arms around his neck. He was hard, steely muscle as he kissed her back in a desperation equaling her own. Michael reached beneath the towel, skimming the soft flesh of her thigh. She cried out as he delved between her wet folds. He slid a long finger back and forth, creating more dampness. She opened her thighs wide, feeling vulnerable and shaky. With his other hand, he ripped off the towel, and then backed her up against the wall.