“What if I didn’t?” I chastise myself now as I feel something dark surge back within me, a deep bitterness that burns me like molten lead. “You didn’t lose control of everything you were, all your inner light, and Wraith up like some demon of the ancient lands, from trying to control that mad beast. Then turn that horror show upon your own drakes… ready to tear them apart for opposing you.”
“You’ll be stronger next time.” Bjorn grips my hand on his face now as his searing golden eyes penetrate me. “You’ll do better the next time it calls to you. I know it.”
“What if I don’t?” I have to ask now, as a terrible darkness threatens to consume me. Though Ström is the person I’m most honest with in this bond, Bjorn understands war.
And the terrible challenges warriors face when we become our worst self upon the battlefield.
“I thought it would be Baldur, who would hold our bond’s deepest light when the worst darkness came calling.” I bare my heart to him now, holding his gaze as our grinding pauses. “But it was you. Somehow, you resisted all the darkness that careened through me and everyone else when the Black Dragon came for us. You stayed in your brighter self, despite everything. Even used all our powers, specifically Baldur’s, to hold our light long enough to rip open a portal to gods-know-where and get us here. Saving us; saving me. So we could even be here right now… to enjoy this together.”
Bjorn feels the gratitude that pours from me as he holds me in theunderground solar, and the love. I feel it cinch our already-coiled dragons tighter as his vivid power seethes all around me now.
Burning pure gold with bliss at my praise.
“I would do it again. And again, and again, drakaina, you know that,” Bjorn rumbles, as he cradles me tighter in his brawny arms, crushed to his chest now in the chair. “Someone has to be the beacon you come home to when the blackest night falls. And if that person is me… I’ll take it. To the ends of the Void and back. Just to hold you in my arms even one more time. Just like this.”
Bjorn’s bare honesty is too much for me suddenly, as I feel his blazing heart. As his love for me, and his belief in me, floods through our bond like a tidal wave of molten gold, something inside me clenches hard.
Before I know it, I’ve hitched a sob, then another. Then tears are spilling down my face as I collapse on his brawny shoulder and Bjorn cradles me in his arms, just holding me and letting me cry as he slowly runs his hands over my back.
I don’t know when he picked me up and carried me to the bed. I only know I’m clinging to him like a monkey as tears obscure my vision, and he lays me gently down upon the pulled-back sheets.
Our bed’s been cleaned, made up in sky-blue silk sheets with a white duvet; Mikkel’s work, probably, I notice as Bjorn lays me down. Bjorn is nothing but kindness, though, as he helps me out of my battle-leathers, then strips down also, sliding in under the sheets next to me.
Bjorn wraps his warm body around me, holding me as I sob. As my tears gradually ease, he keeps me cuddled close to his side. My leg is up over his hip as I cling to him, my shoulder under his arm and my head on his burly chest. At last, the only sound in our room is the crackling of the fireplace. As I heave a deep sigh, Bjorn echoes it.
Rumbling deep into his chest, as he smoothes a lock of my hair back.
“I used to dream of you, after you left Stockholm,” Bjorn says suddenly, as we share an intimate silence now in the quiet of our ancientroom. Still stroking my hair, he moves his hand down, smoothing it over my thigh. “I used to dream of us together, just like this. Sharing a bed in the quiet midnight hours, sharing a life. Sharing some cozy little lodge-hall someplace I could hear the ocean, roaring as it crashed up against the cliffs.”
“They sound like beautiful dreams.” I sigh even as I smile. I cinch closer, enjoying this moment for us just to be together, alone in the silence.
“They were,” Bjorn rumbles as he kisses my forehead. “But when I woke, I always found myself alone. Then my rage would rise, because I had found such peace, then lost it. I hated myself for a long while; hated myself because I thought I had driven you away with my piggish hot-headedness. Now that I know more about why you left, it’s easier. But I still mourn all those years we spent apart—all those years I couldn’t have you. I cherish every fucking moment I have now, to get this second chance. A second chance to be the drake you need me to be. And not get lost in my inner darkness… ever again.”
“I love you, Bjorn.” I whisper my lips over his chest, then kiss him. “I missed you, too, all those years. Though I was too selfish to come clean about it, much less admit it to myself.”
“You’re a hard warrior, Rikyava; I am, too,” Bjorn rumbles as I feel the slightest smile lift his lips, that I said I love him. “It makes us both pig-headed and stubborn when we should be more magnanimous. But I love you for who you are; never forget that. If you get lost in your own inner darkness, just know I will always be there to haul you back towards the light. Just as you do for me, every day.”
As Bjorn comes to silence, I feel a great light fill me up. It’s glorious, as a shining love fills my heart for my big, burly First Drake, and how much he means to me in this world.
Because long before there was anyone else, there was Bjorn. I know I’ve loved him since the very first moment I saw him, my rough, curt superior officer in the Kingsguard.
Bjorn feels it as that golden light inundates me. Because it’s shining all through him, too, as he gives a deep basso growl and grips my thigh now.
Heaving me up so we can kiss.
We do, for a long time. Tongues delve and teeth bite, as we claim each other yet again as First Bloodmates. As Bjorn grips my thigh and waist, grinding me to him, I’m ready. As he heaves me up atop him, into a straddle across his strong, fit hips, I grind down upon his hard, rock-solid cock.
He grinds me upon himself now, nice and slow, as he holds my hips. I set my hands on his chest and rock to his rhythm; thick and hard, he feels so good as he slides through my juices, silken and warm, though not inside just yet.
Both breathing hard now, I revel in how Bjorn’s burning gold eyes become heavy-lidded as he slides me over himself. He knows the exact right spot to catch my clit and stop my breath, as he grinds me down upon him, moving me with his hands.
I arch up now, lifting my arms above my head, because I don’t have to brace on his chest anymore with Bjorn’s firm hands moving me. I just have to be here, as the massive beast of passion that lives inside Bjorn makes me surrender, completely.
My inner drakaina surrenders, too, as his massive golden drake coils all around me now, throughout our Bloodbond. As Bjorn surges, growling low at our slow, deep rhythm, he suddenly lifts me in his big, muscular hands.
I’m in the air for a moment, as Bjorn holds me with his strong hands and finds my opening with his tip. Then he hauls me back down, and I gasp as he penetrates me, deep.
Bjorn is big and long, and hits the end of me as I come all the way down atop him. I don’t mind, though, as he stretches me wide now and we just fuck and fuck.
