Caged Kitten (All the Queen's Men #2) - Rhea Watson Page 0,159
to touch him, explore him… Kiss him.
Hold him.
Feel his arms around me and his teeth on my flesh.
As the fae fire perimeter dimmed, dropping from a formidable wall to magenta embers in burnt grass, the dragon took flight. Shot up in the air, bellowing loud enough they must have heard him around the globe, then soared in a sweeping circle over what had once been our prison—our tomb in the making. With a smile so wide my cheeks ached, I watched him stretch his wings and loop through the sky, belly underlit by his own fire, by flames that would erase Xargi from the history books for good.
When I looked back to the others, I realized I wasn’t the only one infatuated with the sight. Fintan watched the dragon’s dance with his mouth literally hanging open, as if speechless for the first time in all his long life. Rafe raised a fist in solidarity when Elijah swept over the cluster of fae warriors, and Tully’s big blues tracked him, tail swishing with interest.
As soon as he touched down in the Siberian grassland, the earth shuddered again, this time hard enough to send me stumbling, and I took off in a sprint, heart pounding, my sights locked on the first and last dragon to ever set my heart on fire.
Silhouetted against a hilly backdrop, against a grassy plateau that stretched for miles and miles all around, Elijah’s dragon form stood leaps and bounds ahead of all the natural beauty. Starchy grass tickled my calves as I ran barefoot toward him, slowing only when my brain finally processed the sheer size of him, this creature tall as a mountain and broad as the ocean, dominating everything in his presence just by being. He folded his wings in as I crept forward, and his next huff of breath had his nostrils flaring and my hair whipping around. I braced against the hot gust but didn’t stop until I was within an arm’s length of him.
Close enough to touch, I lost myself, just for a moment, in his physical prowess, in this towering creature who could crush me with just one of his massive clawed feet. Golden eyes appraised me, and when he dropped his huge head down, face flared with scales and talons like protective armor, Elijah shone through all of it. His calming presence caressed me, even like this, and I raised a trembling hand, holding it between us for a moment, hesitating…
Until he nudged his snout against my palm. Dwarfed by his massive frame, my little hand was nothing as it ghosted along his fiery muzzle, as it stroked scorching scales and brutal spikes. An ant poking at a shoe—that was how I felt.
But he was beautiful and patient, entertaining my cautious exploration only until I reached his wing joint. Then, in a flash, he was gone, shifting from dragon to man so suddenly that it made my head spin.
Gods, I had missed him.
We hadn’t been apart more than a few hours, but the sight of Elijah standing before me, still tall as a mountain and broad as the ocean, naked and panting, glistening with sweat, with the effort of the shift—it made my eyes water. Made my knees weak. Made my heart sing.
Without a word, I charged at him like a missile. He met me halfway, scooping me into his arms, my feet dangling off the ground, and hugged me so tight he crushed the air from my lungs. Something cracked sharply in my back—and I didn’t care. I could take the alpha’s strength. I craved it, needed it, loved it. My fingers wove into his thick tousled locks as I exhaled a shaky sob against his neck.
“I love you,” I whispered, the confession coming out of nowhere, my brain off and my heart on. “I know we don’t really know each other outside of this place… I know it’s soon. It’s crazy to be in love like this, and I know it could just be the bond—”
“I love you too, Katja,” Elijah growled against my skin. “I don’t care if it’s just the bond.” Slowly, he lowered me so that I stood flatfoot before him, then forced me out of the hug, wrenching my arms from his neck so that he could hunch down to cup my face. His eyes shimmered, starlight caught in the glossy sheen, and he chuckled. “We have the time now. We have each other. That’s all that matters.”