Draknart crawled to Einin, head down, as if fighting strong headwinds. He was unable to stand. She lay still on the ground, pale but breathing. The god’s attention and then the explosion of power had overwhelmed her human body.
The storm raged hard, then harder, until she was in danger of being blown away. Draknart clawed at the earth, wishing for his talons, holding on to clumps of grass as he moved forward. Then he reached her at last and sheltered her in his arms as he carried her behind the giant rock formation, this time the storm and the wind at his back, helping him move away from the gods whose light and energy swirled, threatening to erupt.
Draknart hurled himself into an indentation in the rock, barely a cave, so small that his dragon body would have filled it to the brim. But as he hid Einin in the most sheltered corner, putting his own body between her and danger, he found more room ahead, then more and more as the cave seemed to expand—either the god or the goddess giving them room to survive.
He kept going with gratitude in his heart, all the way to the very back of the cave, into darkness.
Einin revived and startled, struggled in his arms. As she had no dragon vision, she probably saw nothing.
“It is I, Draknart. I have you, sweeting.” He had to raise his voice. ’Twas loud as an ocean storm out there. Draknart thought they were unlikely to find a single tree standing if they were lucky enough to ever leave the cave alive.
“Have I been struck blind?”
The panic in her voice made him hold her tighter. “We are in the dark of the cave.”
She settled against his chest, as if the clash with the angry deities had exhausted her near unto death. “And the gods?”
He did not set Einin down but cradled her as he turned so she’d be next to the rock wall while he stood between her and the cave’s opening, shielding her with his body. “The gods are mating.”
“It seems very terrible.”
“’Tis not meant to be witnessed by lesser beings.” Which worried him more than anything else at this stage.
The appearance of the cave meant that either the god or the goddess meant to shelter them. But the threat that their protector would forget about them in the height of passion was real. And then what? Would Draknart and Einin be sealed inside the rock?
Yet the cave was their best chance for survival. Going outside was certain suicide.
Draknart loosened his arms around Einin as she wriggled to slip her feet to the ground. He was prepared to let her go, but she put her arms around his waist and held on tight.
She lay her head on his chest as she shouted toward his ear, “Can we survive?”
Had he his great dragon body, Draknart likely could have protected her. He could have flown her out of here even against the gale that raged outside. But as a weak human… Frustration burned his insides.
When he didn’t respond, Einin clung to him tighter. “Will we die?”
He told her the truth. “Aye. We might.”
Before he could say more, a wave of pure lust hit them. Einin gasped, dropping to her knees before Draknart could catch her, his own arms loosened.
“What…” Her expression turned confused, her gaze filling with desperation.
He reached for her to pull her up, but then he ended up lowering himself onto the ground next to her. Best to save his strength to fight what was to come.
The urge to rip off her clothes and mate with her was sudden and overpowering. A ferocious growl escaped him, his hands curled into fists, his breathing labored as he leaned toward her, unable to resist.
“Pull your sword,” his ragged tone was filled with primal need. Never had he felt more like a wild animal than at this moment. “Fight me off.”
She stared at him with lust-glazed eyes. A brief flicker of recognition at the bottom of her gaze said that, for a moment, she grasped what was happening. But she was as powerless as he. With a soft cry, she threw herself into his arms.
His mouth took hers in a rough kiss. She let him in, but if she hadn’t, he might have used his tongue to force her already swollen lips to part. Nothing existed but his need for her, his urgent need to be inside her tight, wet heat.
He ripped her clothes away without stopping the savage kiss, and she clawed his naked back, not in protest but to urge him to hurry.
She is a virgin. Untouched. She will hurt.
The thoughts had no substance in his brain. They were like the mist over the meadows at dawn, there one moment, disappearing the next. He was so filled with lust, no room remained for logical thought, or good intentions.
He pushed her down onto the dirt floor of the cave and settled himself between her legs. Her slim thighs immediately wrapped around his waist, her small but strong hands kneading his chest, then sliding down his rib cage.
