“Watch your tongue, human, lest I cut it out and make it so,” I finally hissed over my shoulder, jerking my eyes to where she was prostrated on her knees, still waiting.
Her body stiffened. Like earlier, she prepared herself to be hit. But when I didn’t come over and punish her the way sheexpected, the confusion returned to her expression. Her light eyebrows knitted together and her mouth pursed. It nearly made me laugh again.
This creature was a mystery I couldn’t wait to figure out. Why did she insist on testing me again and again? Did she wish to be hurt or could she simply not help herself? Had they beaten her where she was from? If she was a spy or an assassin, was she here of her own free will or because she’d been forced to come?
I hadn’t considered it.
Lower dragons—those with weak blood and who couldn’t call upon their dragon forms—might be put on the same level as humans in other factions. Here, a dragon was a dragon, though merit was another matter entirely. But the inner workings of other factions eluded me. I hadn’t cared to think on it until today. Was she sent here to die for something she never freely chose for herself?
Had it been Void, she would’ve been dead before dawn. She wouldn’t have spoken at all. If he’d gotten his hands on her, she’d be a battered thing already, suffering injuries sure to kill her painfully and slowly. And the thought of him hurting her, of him cutting her golden skin with his favorite toys and painting her beautiful body in red, nearly drove me to violence and transformation. The thought of her being harmed in any way made the dragon inside me unhinged.
A violent storm took hold. The air crackled and an electric wind hit the room. I couldn’t contain it. Like my errant body, I lost control. The human turned her head this way and that, wondering where the sudden wind and sound had come from. Her hair danced around her shoulders, then into the air, and the skirt she wore took flight in a gorgeous dance. Soon, the storm raged for an entirely different reason.
It was a mistake to have her on my bed. To have her near me at all, if I was to speak on the many offenses against me tonight.
When we returned, she’d tried to retreat to the corner where she’d previously slept. Rage had consumed my chest. I wasn’t sure what possessed me to swoop in and collect the feisty thing in my arms and deposit her on my bed, but she hadn’t moved from it since. She stayed, watching, waiting, wondering. Hatred had quickly bled to frustration, and eventually frustration became discomfort. She couldn’t figure me out.
That made two of us.
Everything I did seemed to confuse her. The beautiful human with a violent stare couldn’t help but quirk an eyebrow at me in outright befuddlement when I didn’t harm her the way she expected—the way any dragon would—and I couldn’t fathom a reason I hadn’t either. Granted, I’d avoided humans and never bothered with females, but I was the ruthless Sky Demons leader these humans feared.
But that body.
Those eyes.
That scent.
The lustful storm raging inside me never calmed. It consumed every part of me every second I was around her. Hell, even the seconds I wasn’t. I hadn’t been any better off leaving. I spent most of my time ignoring the urge to return to her. To breathe in her citrus scent. To bend her over and breed her.
Bloody fucking hell.
My jaw worked, teeth grinding. The shift tickled across my flesh, but I kept my scales, fangs, and claws at bay. For some reason, I was concerned they’d frighten her. Not that it made any sense. She hadn’t been afraid of Vektor, Blade, or Void. She’d pretended for some reason she was, something that tipped me off first about what she might be hiding. That, and her reflexes. Humans fought to survive, but she was trained to defend and kill, and I’d find out why.
Several hours passed. Exhaustion bit at my eyes. I hadn’t slept in nearly two days. Not since intercepting the coded message between the two unknown factions.
One of our dragons was attacked and found dead in the Borderlands. It wasn’t the humans that were known to bring a dragon down with their weapons. His death was dragon caused. But whatever nonsense was brewing within the factions, it couldn’t hold a candle to what was waiting on my bed.
Dark hair fell into my eyes and over the letters several of my warriors had sent earlier that day. I brushed the length back and tied part of it up so it’d stay out of my face, jaw clenched. But it was the least of my worries. I’d been uncomfortable for hours without release. My cock was practically stone in my trousers, demanding things I refused to take. The beast, too.
Fucking instincts.
Was this a dragon’s rut? Impossible. I’d killed my urges a long time ago. Ruts barely registered with me anymore. Nothing a few long showers couldn’t fix.
I wasn’t Blade who insisted urges were there for a reason. Or that classless prick, Nitro, who constantly prattled on about how breeding females was our duty to the future generations of Sky Demons, when really, he’d used any excuse to fuck and avoid his actual duty to the faction. The mere fact that his father, Titus, chose me and my brothers over him to lead proved how useless he actually was.
The storm inside me intensified and my brow beaded with sweat. My muscles ached. My claws lengthened and scrapedagainst the wood of my desk. Pretty soon my fangs and horns would appear.
My dragon demanded it.
I was losing the hold I had over my beast, and it’d only be a matter of time before I lost all sense and gave into my urges. Whatever she was to my instincts, it was devastating and dangerous.
I should leave.
Fucking hell. No, I should stay.
Void would be coming here for an end-of-day debriefing. He’d want orders for our next move, and I’d need to address his blatant breach of my orders. Lucky for him, there was plenty of blood in need of spilling and trouble to look into.
For all his shortcomings, Void was one of the most lethal dragons we had in the faction. If there were any threats to our faction attempting to infiltrate our borders, he was the one I’d send.
