Her head pounded with confusion. Her body feverish and desperate, insides twisting, heart thundering, pussy soaking. “What fire?” she finally managed to ask, half aware of what he was saying.
A moment of silence passed as he failed to answer her, neither one of them saying anything as the air crackled between them, so thick with lust and desire that it became hard for Nyra to breathe.
She didn’t know what to make of him, of his sudden changes in behavior. As if he, himself, was deeply conflicted and didn’t know how to act around her, what to do with her. One minute he was angry and brooding, dragging her after him like some goddamn prisoner, and the next he was kissing her like he wanted to steal her soul for himself, like he would go mad if he didn’t touch her.
She didn’t understand it, this push and pull between them. Didn’t dare to ponder on the true meaning of this inexplicable state that she was in.
Mere hours had passed since their meeting, and yet, regardless of her own conflicting emotions, she couldn’t deny her body’s reaction to him, nor the potent feeling of deeply knowing him, as if they were some long lost lovers that were reunited after many years apart.
The walls which she had erected long ago to shield herself from heartbreak seemed to be nonexistent around him, as if they had shattered at the very first glance into those oceanic eyes of his.
It was overwhelming, the intense feelings swarming her system too raw and unfiltered for her to be able to cope with them.
“I can’t breathe,” wheezing for air, panic threatened to consume her as her limbs began to shake.
“Nyra,” her name was like a plea on his lips, full of longing and pain. “Fuck, I should have known that it would be too much for you.” Lifting his giant body off, he rested on his haunches, concern coloring his features as he pulled her up into a sitting position.
“I don’t understand what’s happening to me.”
Fingers wrapped around her throat, feeling her pulse, the motion instantly calming her, the panic dissipating as if it had never been there to begin with.
He sighed, the sound heavy with unspoken words. “It’s the bond. Your human mind can’t comprehend what your body is signaling.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Cupping her face, he leaned in, surprising Nyrayet againwhen he pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. “There’sno time. I must get you inside before the Sun rises once more.”
“Why? What happens when the Sun rises?”
He straightened to his full intimidating height, lifting her to her feet before piercing her with a steel gaze. “The real monster comes out to play.”
Before she could ask him to elaborate, he was dragging her deeper into the forest, his mask of cold indifference back in place.
CHAPTER
4
Raiden marched through the dense woods, his fingers latched around Nyra’s arm, pulling the feisty redhead after him, afraid that she would run away again at the first given opportunity.
Gritting his teeth, anger bubbled up in him.
He wouldn’t be able to control himself a second time around should she provoke him into a chase once more. He had barely managed to suppress the fucking urge to claim her the last time that she had done so, his inner dragon rising to the challenge, demanding he sink into her and rut her into the ground until she was well and good filled with his seed.
It was a primal instinct, one that was an integral part of all the Raijin.
And Raiden was one of the oldest of the legendary dragon shifters. One of the dozen still remaining that had yet to succumb to the curse. A dark secret so deadly that it had been kept hidden from the rest of the world for millennia.
No one knew the real truth.
Long ago, the gods had gifted a group of ruthless warriors the ability to shift into lethal beasts, to balance out their overly aggressive nature and need for violence that would ultimately lead to the demise of their mortal bodies and minds, poisoning them beyond repair. Ones that were indestructible and resilient to death, but whose ability to change back into mortal form would gradually diminish over time, until eventually they lost the ability to do so altogether, dooming them to remainin their beastly forms for all eternity. Thus becoming the Kaminari, the ferocious mythical dragons.
Unless–they found and claimed their fated mate.
Raiden was cutting it close, the curse’s completion almost fully upon him, his ability now to remain in his mortal form linked to the Full Moon and its appearance in the night sky, forcing him to shift back into a dragon as soon as the Sun rose once more.
He glanced at Nyra, absorbing the heady sight of the little spitfire. She was a magnificent sight to behold, even in the current state that she was in, with her hair rumpled and clothes dirty from rolling around on the ground.
His dick jerked, remembering the feel of her warmth against him. Of the little whimpers and lustful sighs that she had made while squirming beneath him.
