The Dragon's Redemption Read online

  I watched her eyes, following the shifting planes of my muscle. Her teeth, sinking into her lower lip whenever I would throw myself forward into her. Her thin body tensing up every time I slammed into her g-spot, the walls of her vagina tightening around me. There was no mistaking how badly she wanted me. How badly she needed me. She kept getting wetter and wetter as I pushed myself into her, so that I began to slide up harder and deeper, losing control of myself, striking down with such a powerful force that I thought each act of penetration would surely be too much for me.

  Her breasts bounced across her chest as I threw my weight down onto her, and up into her. I kept worrying that I was moving too hard, too fast, for the condition she was in. But her moans just kept getting louder, the look of desire in her eyes one that I couldn't ignore. I needed to give her everything– everything her heart could possibly want, and so much more.

  Harder, and faster, and deeper. Grabbing her by the wrists. Pinning them to the bed. Her legs wrapped around my ass, begging me for more. I plowed into her hard, roaring as I fucked her, my cock aching to spill over inside her, the warmth spreading along the whole length of my shaft, threatening to engulf me at any moment. The bed slammed against the wall, the rickety wood threatening to collapse beneath our shifting weight. But the pleasure was too great, and I stared deep into her eyes as I fucked her, unable to look away, unable to see anything but her desire for me, and the need to keep on going and going.

  Until finally, at long last, the intensity became too much for me to withstand any longer.

  I let out a mighty roar. I threw my weight up into her, and pounded her g-spot with one final, intense blow. She screamed. Every part of her tightened around me. Her pussy drew me in. Her knees jabbed tight against my ass. She wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling my face down just above her shoulder.

  I growled, and came like I'd never cum before inside her. I spilled up deep into her, shooting my hot essence far into her body, melting into the heat of her, loving the way I filled up around her, and spilled back around myself in my abundance. My nuts tightened against my body as the pleasure surged through me, a brilliant euphoria leaping inside my belly, my muscles trembling as I held her, not about to let her go until she experienced this as intensely as I was.

  And I could tell that she was...

  Her muscles tightened. Her moans deteriorated into desperate gasps. She held and held and held me, pawing my muscles as she came, as though looking for something, anything she could possibly find to hold onto.

  I breathed her in, savoring the fragrance of her sweat as she writhed on the end of my cock, loving that I was the sole instrument of her pleasure, and that she was mine.

  We held one another for moments on end, the waves of orgasm severe and overwhelming, seeming to last for an eternity. And then, very slowly, so gradually that it was almost impossible to tell when things actually ended, we felt the sensations die down. My body seemed to ease out from hers of its own volition, without me having to move a muscle, and she let out a small, desperate gasp when I was out.

  I didn't let go for a very long time after that.

  I held her in my arms and kissed her. My mouth dissolving into hers. Our mutual heat keeping one another warm against the cold. Our hands still exploring one another, our minds still trying to process what it was we'd just done.

  Eventually, I found myself on my back, sprawled out against the pillows. Her head was on my chest, her ear against my slowly beating heart. I felt like I was in paradise. The gentle cool of the room kissing the still radiant warmth of our exposed skin, and our bodies still nice and toasty together against the pile of blankets.

  “Wow,” I finally whispered, and she giggled on my chest. I smiled. Pushed my fingers through her hair. Leaned down, and kissed her on the crown of the head. Sniffed her. “Your hair smells nice,” I said, and she laughed.

  “That's impossible,” she said, and I grinned.

  “It does to me,” I said. I couldn't see her face clearly, but I could tell she was smiling. She ran her fingers gently over the planes of my stomach, gently pressing the scar on my belly where Yrsur had tried to bite me open before. After a while she took a deep breath, as if she had something on her mind.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I don't know,” she said. “I just... I hope that wasn't too sudden or anything. I don't know what came over me all of the sudden, I just– needed it. Like, really, really badly...”

  I considered this. I shook my head, and stroked her hair again.

  “Don't apologize,” I said. “It wasn't sudden. It... It was building for me, too. To be honest, I think I sensed it, before I even met you. That night in the forest, when you were watching me...”

  She sat up, seeming interested at this. “How is that even possible?” she asked. “I mean, it was the same for me. I wanted you so badly, just seeing you there that first time. But I didn't understand why– well, besides the obvious factor of seeing a man like you standing naked in the middle of the woods...”

  I laughed at this.

  “It's strange,” I said. “I've heard of this happening before among our kind. It's kind of cheesy. It's like, a kind of pheromone or something that we give off. It's very rare though. I've only known a few males who've experienced it. They say it only happens when two shifters– or I guess, not even just two shifters in our case– are a particularly good match for one another. The attraction kicks in, and it's like an unstoppable force from there.”

  She looked at me with interest, her green eyes dazzling at this idea. “What– you mean, like a soul mate?”

  My heart skipped a beat at this, the gravity of such a concept making my skin crawl just a little bit.

  “Well now you're putting words in my mouth...” I said. I thought I saw a shadow of disappointment creep across her face, and it made me feel bad. I thought about it some more, and changed my mind– sure it was true that the two of us hadn't known one another for all that long, but maybe that was exactly the right word to use for the connection we shared.

  “But yeah, actually... Really– like a soulmate...”

  The flames rekindled in her eyes.

  I leaned into her, and she climbed up onto me again. We kissed, long, slow, and sweet as candy. I knew that I might never tire of the taste of those lips, or that tongue, or any of her. I pulled her in close to me, never wanting to let her go. Wishing that the two of us could stay here together forever, that the rest of the world would just mind its own business and not intrude upon our happiness.

  Even as we lay there, however, I knew that our happiness was entirely too good to last...

  –––––

  Days passed, and sure enough, the outside world caught up to us again.

  We spent our time loving, laughing, and savoring the little universe we'd made for ourselves inside the cabin. It grew easy to forget that our lives were in mortal danger, and only rarely did the subject come up at all– and then only in passing.

  The better and better things got between us, though, the more and more anxious I grew, as well as more distant. I wasn't sure if Alicia really understood the gravity of the situation we were in– she didn't know the Dark Ones the way I knew them, and it seemed like only the horror of such familiarity could be adequate to convince a person of what their kind were capable of.

  A part of me felt like I was being dishonest with her– that the very fact I was keeping her here with me might be signaling to her that things weren't really that bad, that the danger was minimal at best. Yet at the same time I didn't want to scare her away, either. Having her life had given me a sense of need, and of fulfillment, that I hadn't even been aware of having up until I'd met her.

  Sooner or later, though, it may very well be the case that I had no choice in the matter. The only decision I really had to made was which route my losing her was going to take...

  And so I stood outside the cabin late one night, unable to sleep, pondering this seemingly unsolvable puzzle. There was
almost no moon out tonight, and the stars seemed to have dimmed as well, so that I could barely see past the end of the porch as I gazed off into the blackness.

  My mind was still reeling with about a million unanswerable questions, but it was beginning to grow cold out. And a part of me was afraid of Alicia waking up without me by her side– under the circumstances, it felt important that I spend as much time with her as possible, fearing as I did that opportunities to do so may no longer afford themselves to me.

  With a sigh of resolution, I turned from the porch, and had just made it up to the front door when suddenly a sound fell on my ears. I froze, and felt my blood run cold.

  The crunching of leaves. Footsteps, drawing slowly closer.

  My fingers tightened around the knob. I held my breath. Listening. Waiting. Ready to transform the moment it became necessary, and tear to bits any son of a bitch who dared lay a finger on me or Alicia, before he even knew what was coming to him.

  I waited, and waited. And the footsteps stop.

  A moment of excruciating tension, and then–

  “Hey there, stranger. Got any rooms for rent?”

  I let out a heavy sigh. It was like waiting moments on end for a balloon to pop, only for all the air to come farting out the end instead.

  “Jesus Christ, Fri, you nearly gave me a heart attack... Jesus Christ!”

  I'd turned to him in the darkness, and the dim light was just enough for me to make out his features. He looked like he'd just survived a bar fight. His face cut and swollen. His nose looking as though it had been broken, and dried blood splotched along his arms.

  “Thanks, you're looking pretty beautiful yourself,” Fri said sarcastically.

  “I'm sorry, but– God, brother, what the hell happened to you?”

  “What do you think?” said Fri. “After your little crime spree Ryl sent his men to come and beat your location out of me. Like they were dead sure I knew where you went. Naturally I didn't say anything– I think I managed to convince them I didn't know. They kept on beating me to a pulp for good measure, though, and I waited a while until after the heat was down before coming to find you. I assumed you might have come here.”

  “Oh God, Fri... I am so, so sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen. I was just so frustrated with everything, and I didn't think this through.”

  Fri sighed. “Look, if it was just me getting beat up by those idiots, I frankly wouldn't give a damn. But you are in some serious trouble, little brother. The Dark Ones are not going to let this go. Honestly, I was half afraid I would turn up here and find you dead as a doornail. It's a miracle they haven't already tracked you down.”

  “Did they do the same thing to Ynder?” I asked.

  “And that's another thing that's surprising,” said Fri, “given that he's the only other one who knows about this place. I figured he would fold like a house of cards. But I think the Dark Ones know that he's not as close to us, that he keeps to himself like they ask him to. So I'm guessing they sort of went easy on him, didn't press him as hard.”

  I sighed, and pressed my fingers to my temples, trying to untangle the horrible mess I'd made of everything.

  “Well, that's one bit of good news if it's true...”

  Fri actually scoffed at this.

  “I wouldn't count on that,” he said. “I would count on it being a very, very long time before you receive anything even resembling good news, my brother. Right now you are a dead man walking, and only one of two things is going to change that– either you get as far away as possible, as fast as you possibly can. Or else you straight up go from a dead man walking to a dead man buried in the ground– dealer's choice...”

  I blinked at him. “Wait– You're saying run away? Leave everything behind? Abandon my life like a coward?”

  “What life?!” snapped Fri, clearly annoyed with me– admittedly with good reason. “What do you even have to fight for anymore, Nol? What is left that Ryl and his goons haven't already taken away? What could you have possibly have left that's worth hanging around here a day longer, and risking your life for?!”

  I stood there with my hands balled into fists, my temples pounding. I couldn't find the words to respond to him, couldn't think of any possible way to rise to his challenge.

  But it was just then, as if on cue, that the door to the cabin opened. Footsteps creaked across the porch, and I felt the tension easing from my muscles, the air flowing smoothly through my lungs once again.

  “Nol? Who's out there with you?” asked Alicia, her voice innocent and sweet from the door, instantly lowering my blood pressure as it graced my ears. “Is everything okay?”

  “That's what I have that's worth risking my life for,” I said calmly to Fri, whose anger soften, and whose expression grew more serious as he considered what he had just seen.

  6

  Alicia

  Things were changing. Hope and pray as I might, I knew that the outside world simply couldn't be held at bay forever. I was in love with Nol, and I knew that he was in love with me. And throughout our time together, I had tried to convince myself to believe that that was enough. That things didn't have to be any more complicated than that.

  But they were already complicated. They'd been complicated the moment I laid eyes on Nol out in the forest that night, and it was foolish to believe that things might even begin to untangle themselves from there.

  His brother's arrival had felt like the harbinger of the apocalypse to come. I don't know what I'd believed– that if I just didn't think about the Dark Ones, they would just never get around to showing up, or something like that. But since Fri had gotten here, it was like they were standing right outside our front door with an army at their disposal, ready to finish what they'd started.

  Fri seemed nice enough. I knew he must be a good man, to sustain the kind of injuries he had and still remain loyal to his brother. He was very kind to me. Yet I couldn't help begrudge his intrusion upon the little slice of heaven Nol and I had made for ourselves out here in the middle of nowhere. The two of them were constantly debating, discussing events to come and a future that seemed certain to get here any day now, whether we were ready for it or not.

  Nol began to grow more and more distant, preoccupied with an inner turmoil that he seemed unwilling to discuss with me. I had a bad feeling, and it grew more and more with each passing day, that any and all decisions about where we went from here would come down to him, and him alone. He would be the one deciding my destiny, and I wouldn't have any input in the matter, regardless of whether I agreed with his decision or not. This was endlessly frustrating to me, yet given how much more information he had about the situation than I did, and how unwilling he was to discuss it all with me, I knew that I really had no choice but to wait. To bide my time, and hope that he would bring the subject up sooner, rather than later.

  Though I wasn't about to start getting my hopes up anytime soon...

  I sat in my room late one sunny afternoon. Nol and Fri had sequestered me up here for yet another one of their private discussions, and I had obliged them, feeling as though I had no other real choice in the matter. I heard frenzied whispering, as well as the occasional outburst of yelling, generally from Nol. It seriously depressed me, and I had to try and block it out of my mind as best I could.

  I stared out the back window at the sun as it set across the sky, painting the clouds in brilliant hues of navy and gold– a sky that almost didn't look real. My thoughts turned suddenly to my camera in the corner– something I hadn't given much thought in the time since I'd been here.

  Supposing it as good a distraction as any, I reached over and grabbed it, then hurried back to the window. I adjusted my settings, angled my lens just right at the horizon, and snapped several photos.

  I scrolled back through them, unable to muster much enthusiasm for what I'd just shot. They were decent enough pictures, and under much different circumstances I might have felt some pride in them. My heart simply wasn't in any of this right n
ow, however, and I sighed, ready to deposit my camera back where I'd gotten it from.

  But then a sudden thought struck me, my curiosity getting the better of me.

  I turned the camera back on, and scrolled back through the images I'd just taken. Then I went back one further, to the last photo I'd taken before my slide into unconsciousness.

  And there he was. Nol. Standing naked in the clearing, bathed in the moonlight.

  I scrolled back further.

  His body grew, and he became a dragon again. Massive, scaly, looming over me.

  Back again, and again. The same fierce creature, spitting fire across the darkness. Eclipsing the full moon.

  All the way back to the deer photo. Every single photograph was still there. Not a one of them deleted.

  It was striking to me for some reason. He'd told me, of course, that his family weren't the same as the Dark Ones. That he believed in living in harmony with humankind, rather than trying to hide from them as Ryl and his men seemed to want. All the same, I'd been almost certain the photos I'd taken would be no more– particularly given that they were the reason Yrsur had wanted me dead in the first place.

  But no. They were all still there. Nol had trusted me. He'd respected my privacy– even if the same couldn't quite be said for me toward him.

  I don't know why it was so striking to me, but it was. If there had been any doubt in my mind before, it was all but eliminated now. I loved this man, and I needed him in my life. I needed someone like this, who I could trust so deeply, who made me feel as secure, as fearless as he did.

  I was just about to storm from the room, and rush down the stairs to tell him that wherever he went, I would follow. When suddenly the door swung open, and there was Nol himself standing there. A serious look on his face, as he gently closed the door behind him.

  “Nol,” I said simply, lighting up to see him, but his expression quickly dampening my mood.