The dragons forbidden sa.., p.9
The Dragon's Forbidden Sacrifice, page 9
The beast below was sated after taking her not once, but twice. The sight of her bare breasts rising and lowering on his chest stirred the glutted appendage between his thighs. But he wouldn't disturb Mari's slumber for the world.
The animal inside him was quiet as well. All the years that Rhyol had lain trapped inside the dragon's body, his voice had always been a constant ringing in the dragon's ear. When Mari had walked away from him, both man and dragon had roared. Since coming back across the Veil, the dragon hadn't made a sound.
The silence made Rhyol feel as though he were operating without all of his senses. Like he was eating a sweet treat, but his taste buds were dulled. Like he was staring into the sun with his eyes closed.
Rhyol shifted, bringing Mari closer into his hold. He could live without desserts so long as he held her. He wouldn't miss the sun with her tendrils to warm him.
They lay on a bed of flowers. Her blooms that had burst from the pleasure he'd given her. The ecstasy they'd shared between them. What she needed was paramount to any concern for his silent other half.
He would be whatever she wanted. Whatever she needed. The only desire she'd voiced was for him to remain and the beast to stay under lock and key.
A branch snapped in the distance. It wasn't a great distance. Not if it was close enough for Rhyol to hear.
The smaller critters of the night had the good sense to move quietly, or better yet, not at all. The four-legged ones had the self-preservation to stay away. Whatever was moving toward them was big.
Rhyol lifted his head and looked out into the night with his raptor's eyes. The farther he stretched his sight, the more things blurred. He should be able to see far across the lake bordering the base of the hill in the distance. He blinked, trying to access that part of him that could spot an ant on the sandy bank. All that would come into view was the edge of the waters nearest him.
Inside his gut, the dragon lay still as a stone at the bottom of a lake. He didn't bother causing any waves. He wouldn't need his inner beast to dispatch whatever creature crept closer.
Gently, carefully, Rhyol lifted Mari's head from his chest. With his free hand, he gathered a few of the fragrant flowers she'd bloomed and pressed them under her head as a pillow. Before rising to his full height, he covered her naked body with her discarded dress. The pale blue fabric that almost exactly matched her skin tone did little to hide her nudity nor her beauty in sleep.
Another rustle of the grass snatched Rhyol's attention from Mari to the danger. Whatever was approaching didn't appear to care about stealth. That could mean it thought Rhyol was no match.
There had been another time that a foe had stormed up to Rhyol to take Mari away. That advance hadn't been quiet or stealthy either. What if Mari's ex-fiancé had been lying? What if he still wanted Mari for himself and had come to take her back?
A low growl came from Rhyol's throat as he stalked toward the oncoming foe. His nostrils flared, not catching any sweet scent of something floral. So, no, not a fae.
Could it be a shifter come to take his treasure? It had been years since Rhyol had had a conversation with any of the lions or bears. They had given him a wide berth since his change. Either out of deference to his beast's sheer size or out of trepidation, a fate they could share if they didn't find a human sacrifice of their own? Rhyol wasn't sure. One thing he was sure about was that no man, no beast, no fae would ever take Marigold from him again.
The monster creeping in the night was not a shifter, either. There was no intelligence in the dark gaze of the predator that bolted out of the bush. There was only mindless hunger in the eyes of the saber-tooth tiger. Moonlight caught on the sharp, overlong teeth that extended from the large cat's mouth. Drool dropped from its lips as it eyed first Rhyol and then the sleeping fairy behind him.
Rhyol flexed his shoulders, readying his wings to release. He stretched out his hands, readying his claws to strike. He opened his mouth, preparing to burn the predator to a crisp.
No fire left his body. No wings extended. His only weapons were his brittle fingernails. Inside his belly, the dragon remained silent. Still. Absent.
The tiger prowled forward. The massive head of the large cat came up to Rhyol's chest. Or it would once it got close enough. But getting close to Rhyol meant getting close to Mari. That wasn't an option.
Rhyol lunged, flinging himself at the saber-tooth. He managed to knock the beast back, but it came at a cost. The tiger's teeth snatched the flesh off of Rhyol's right biceps.
It had been years since anyone, anything, had gotten a hit in on Rhyol. Not since his father was alive and he was a whelp trying to cuddle up next to his mother. His father had shoved Rhyol aside with the back of his hand.
Rhyol had held in that cry of pain. He held in this one as well. That split-second of pain management cost him. With a swipe of his massive paw, the beast batted Rhyol into a tree.
The nasty sound of a crack tore through the air. Pain raced down Rhyol's spine. Had it been his beast, he would've shaken it off in a second. In his human form, he needed to catch his breath.
In the space of the intake of breath, his lungs inflated, he must have looked less appetizing. Cats, big and small, liked to play with their food before taking a bite. With Rhyol battered, the tiger switched its gaze to Mari.
He reached again for his wings. They did not extend.
He flexed his hands for his claws. They did not protract.
Every fiber of Rhyol's being went cold. The dragon inside him did not stir.
Chapter Eighteen
Mari had slept in three places for the entirety of her life. First in her own soft bed in her family's glass castle. She had thought she'd taken that mattress for granted when she came to live in the rooms above God's Teet. The mattress there had been both hard and lumpy and not given her a single peaceful night's sleep. When she'd returned to her childhood bed, she found that same soft mattress didn't support her new rough edges.
Lying on the forest floor surrounded by a bed of flowers and embraced in the heat of Rhyol's arms, Mari never wanted the night or the dreams she had to end. Her mind was empty of all worries and concerns. Though she slept, her senses were entirely engaged, not wanting to miss a touch, a taste, or a sound of this postcoital bliss.
The rest of her life would be day after day of postcoital bliss. Mari wouldn't mind if her back hurt. Not when Rhyol's thrusts made her spine bend in rapture. She would welcome the ache in her limbs after clutching at his ass and his shoulder blades in an effort to get him deeper. She would endure anything to spend her days and nights on the pallet of Rhyol's strong, hard body that offered her contentment and peace.
Which was why Mari was so startled to jerk out of the best sleep of her life to the sound of her beloved in pain.
It was only a grunt. Followed by a hiss. Then a crack that made the earth shake.
Mari opened her eyes in time to see Rhyol's naked body rising from the ground. His arm was bloody, his face contorted in a mixture of pain and determination. His hands were clenched, and his legs shook as he got his feet under him.
The cords of his neck flexed until she saw a vein pulsing at the side of his throat. His bronzed skin was flushed and mottled. His nostrils flared, and his mouth was open, teeth barred at the predator who had its back to him and was facing her.
The danger of the saber-tooth tiger barely registered. The only threat Mari saw was the dragon rising from inside Rhyol. The very thought of the blue beast returning to terrorize her had Mari hopping to her feet.
Ice dripped from her hands as she faced off with the overgrown cat. Felines liked to play with balls of yarn. Let's see how it dealt with an ice boulder.
With the flick of her wrist, a ball of snow dropped onto the ground. Aiming more of her ice at the snowball, the iced sphere grew as it rolled toward the saber-tooth. Before the tiger could turn on its heels and run, the snowball had grown to twice its size. By the yip the big cat made, followed by the splat that silenced it, Mari ventured to guess that playtime was over for the kitty. Permanently.
With that nuisance taken care of, Mari turned to face off against her only concern. Her heart was in her throat as she looked over at the tree where Rhyol was straightening. He stood on two deeply tanned feet and not blue haunches. He was himself and not the beast.
Mari threw herself into his arms, squeezing him tightly. "Are you okay? No, you're not okay. You're hurt."
If it wasn't for the slickness that transferred to her arm from his open wound, the wince on his face would have reminded her that he was injured. But the wound was superficial. With a shifter's advanced healing abilities, the gash would be closed in an hour or so.
"You didn't shift." Mari took Rhyol's face between her hands, gazing up at him with pride and admiration. "You did it. You held the dragon at bay even in the face of danger."
Rhyol's gaze slid from hers, and his expression hardened. His throat worked as he tried to swallow. "I need to get you out of here, some place safe."
He reached for her gown and pulled it over her head. With her head muffled by the fabric, she couldn't form any words at first. "I'm not going back to my parents."
Gold flashed in Rhyol's eyes, nearly blinding her. "They can't have you back. You're mine."
Mari stroked her hands up Rhyol's arm. Already the blood from his wound had stopped. His chest thumped visibly, like his heart was trying to get closer to her. She pressed her chest against his and held him tightly. It took long moments before his heart settled.
"Why don't we go to the bar?" she said.
"You're not going back to work," Rhyol scoffed. "I have enough jewels to buy that place three times over."
"I'm still not welcome in the castle. Kimber made that clear before I left days ago."
Rhyol chewed at his lower lip. His shoulders curled in. With her hand still pressed to his chest, Mari felt his heartbeats slow more. The organ may have even skipped a beat.
"We just need a place to stay the night," she said. "So that we don't have to be on alert for any more threats."
"I can protect you." Rhyol's hand slammed down over hers, pressing her fingers into his chest fiercely.
"Of course you can. I know that. We were both just caught off guard."
His gaze went distant again.
"I'm just so proud you did it without your beast. You're truly in control."
There was a flash in his eyes. For a second Mari froze, thinking it was the beast glaring at her. But it wasn't the dragon's gaze. Whatever it was was gone in the same flash.
"There's a bed in my room over the bar," she hedged.
His gaze shot back to hers then. He snagged his lower lip with one of his man-sized incisors. There was another flash in those eyes, but this time it was all full of heat as he took her in.
"You've been gone for over a week. How do you know Grimmald hasn't given your job away?"
"To who?" Mari snorted. "Come on."
Chapter Nineteen
"Nice dress, Mari," grunted a young wolf when Rhyol and Mari stepped across the threshold of God's Teet at sunset.
They'd spent most of the day traveling through the forests. Rhyol was on high alert after the attack and his dragon's refusal to come to the forefront. His hands fidgeted if they weren't in contact with Mari's fingers or at her low back. He flinched at each sound he couldn't immediately identify. His muscles remained tight, in a constant state of readiness should anything approach from the front, from behind, or overhead. By the time they walked into the bar, his temper was on a hair trigger.
"Looks like it's already coming off you," the wolf continued, both talking and staring at Rhyol's mate as though it had no heed for its own life.
It wasn't just a young wolf; it was the youngest wolf of the pack. Chann lounged on a bar stool with a teal fairy perched on one knee and a lavender fairy massaging his broad shoulders.
"If you need a little more help to get it off, I'd be happy to-"
A large paw slapped a hand down on Chann's shoulder, dislodging the fairy who'd been giving him an increasingly sensual massage. The smarter wolf was larger than Chann. Larger than Rhyol in his human form. Muscles tensed to their breaking point crackled, readying to snap.
"Shut it," growled the other wolf.
Rhyol hadn't interacted much with the wolf pack in his youth. They mostly kept to themselves. Konan was the Alpha of the pack. As leader, he'd met with Kimber from time to time when the shifters were trying to forge the Accords now that the Veil was reopened.
"What's your problem?" chided Chann. "The blue dragon's gone. She's fair game."
"That is the blue dragon." Konan's intelligent gaze connected with Rhyol. The animal inside the wolf sought out the animal inside Rhyol.
Inside, Rhyol's dragon didn't budge from its prone position to meet the challenge. At the moment, he didn't need to. The aggression coming off Rhyol's flesh was palpable in the bar.
"He's a man," Chann was saying, still not comprehending the danger he was in.
Rhyol could take the younger wolf. But Konan was an Alpha, older and bigger and likely stronger. But if either of them came a hair near Rhyol's mate, he would tear them limb from limb with his human teeth.
"He's a man, all right," said Konan. "A man you don't want to turn blue."
"I thought that was the green one. It's the green one you won't like if you make him angry."
"Doesn't matter." Konan grabbed his younger brother by the scruff of his neck and dragged him from the bar.
Rhyol took a step to follow, wanting to ensure the threat was clear. He didn't get far. A light press to his chest stopped him cold.
"You good?" said Mari, her hand covering his heart. "You got the beast under control?"
Rhyol only just managed to keep the snort in. His beast was under something, all right. It wasn't control. But he gave Mari a nod. The smile she gave him in return made his heart kick up. That strong kick didn't shift the dragon one iota. It remained motionless in his gut.
"Stay here," Mari said, pressing a kiss to the corner of his mouth. "Let me talk to Grimmald."
Rhyol managed a nod. What was far more difficult was unfurling his fingers from her lower back. His gaze never left Mari as she glided over to the far end of the bar in that graceful fairy way of hers.
A few gazes followed her. But only briefly. Predators were well-versed in sensing the presence of danger. Before any of the males' gazes could track Mari, their hackles visibly rose, and they found Rhyol's glare. Faces were averted, whole bodies turned around and away from Rhyol's mate as she stood with hands on hips, arguing with the bar owner.
Those same gazes stayed averted as Mari made her way back to Rhyol. With each step she took toward him, her features darkened. Her frown deepened.
Rhyol reached for her, readying himself to rip out the throat of whoever or whatever had upset her. He'd have to do it with his bare hands. His dragon refused to even rise at Mari's obvious upset. His hand didn't even fully extend. Looking down, Rhyol realized why.
A fairy hung from each biceps, a vibrant red carnation on his right arm, a deep green fern on his left. He hadn't even noticed their approach.
"Petals off," Mari snarled.
"We'll share," the carnation insisted.
"He's mine."
The fairies bristled. Both held up their hands to show they were empty. Rhyol paid neither any of his attention. His grin was for the ice cold female who warmed his heart.
Mari did not return his grin. Her tone was as sharp as an icicle when she directed it at him. "Upstairs. Now."
It was laughable, the fact that she could think he'd ever look at another female. The fact that he paid any living creature any attention when she was in the room, in the valley, in the whole world.
When Rhyol was young, he'd only wanted her smiles. Her voice. Her mere presence.
Now that they were full grown, and he'd been inside of her, he wanted nothing more than her naked body writhing beneath him. The world could end around them, and he wouldn't budge to stop it. Not so long as she stayed tucked beneath him. On top of him. Inside his very soul.
They had to go outside the bar in order to climb the stairs to the rooms above the bar. They didn't make it to the first rung before Rhyol smelled the danger. A sharp scent had Rhyol's head whipping up. There was a predator in the night, and it was coming closer.
Rhyol became one single nerve, ready to strike. He moved Mari behind him so that whatever came would have to go through him. Still, inside, the dragon didn't move.
The smaller prey in the night went completely still and quiet. The silence of the impending confrontation brought Rhyol back to nights where his father would creep through the castle, then beat down doors to get to his mother.
For the first time, Rhyol felt a modicum of sympathy for his father. He'd been prepared to rip out the throat of two predators twice his size tonight for just looking at Mari. If there had been a door between him and Mari, it would've been nothing to tear it down to get to her.
There was no door out in the open. There was another man. A man he'd stood behind when it came to protecting his mother.
"Rhyol." Kimber breathed his name like a prayer and gratitude. Arms came around Rhyol despite the aggression in his stance. "Brother, you're back. You're back."
Kimber squeezed him tighter, tightly enough that breathing was a chore. Rhyol turned his face away from Mari's somber expression and into his brother's neck. A patch of wetness settled into the crook of his older brother's neck. Slowly, Rhyol's arms came around his brother. The need to fight released from his fatigued muscles.
"It's time to come home, little brother." Kimber pulled back, turning his attention to Mari. He drew in a deep breath, then gently released it. "Both of you."
Mari's head tipped slightly to the side, as though she were trying to catch the last three words he'd spoken on the night's breeze. Her lips parted. Then closed, only to open again. No sound escaped.
