To Tame a Dragon - Tiffany Roberts Page 0,34

stop. “I will leave you be. I will return to my village and accept my duty as bride and breeder, and maybe…maybe you can reverse this.”

Moving with a burst of preternatural speed, he caught her face in his hand and forced her back against the wall, pressing his body over hers to pin her in place before she could even react.

Elliya gasped, eyes widening, and her stomach fluttered with a hint of fear—and a surge of lust. He turned her head to the side and leaned his face down until she could feel his hot breath on her ear. Her skin pebbled in awareness.

“You are bride and breeder already, Elliya. A dragon’s bride,” he growled. “You belong to Falthyris the Golden, the Conqueror, the Glassmaker and the Firestorm, Scourge of the Sands and Lord of the Shimmering mountains. There is no life for you but with me. There are no other males but for the sons you will bear by my seed.” He turned her face toward him as he lifted his head, and his eyes—glowing brighter than she’d ever seen—commanded her full attention. “You are mine.”

11

The air was redolent of fresh growing vegetation and the perfume of desert flowers, of clean, cool river water and sun-warmed sand and stone. Falthyris breathed it in deeply, willing those fragrances to ease the effects of the Red Heat.

Though it was difficult to see by daylight, he could feel the Heat around him. It permeated the air he was breathing, it radiated against his scales, it pulsed in his blood and bones. And it had been growing steadily stronger day by day. Its cycles were becoming unrelenting—each peak was higher than the last, each valley noticeably shallower, and the lulls he’d been afforded early on were fast shrinking. That would only worsen as Dragonsbane approached its pinnacle.

The comet had been in the sky for twelve days—that meant another eighteen or so before it finally moved on, and even then, the Red Heat would not immediately fade.

Falthyris sighed and raked his claws over the top of the boulder he was perched upon. His eyes shifted toward the river, where Elliya was wading into the deeper water with her back toward him. The waters were higher than the last time he’d come, result of the rainstorms that had swept over the area over the last several days. The swollen river had readily provided the fish Falthyris and Elliya had caught, cooked, and eaten when they’d arrived earlier.

Elliya’s long, curled mane—hair, as she called it—hung freely about her shoulders, its tips brushing the unblemished skin of her back. The lovely curves of her ass and hips were visible just above the water’s surface.

His shaft stirred, its head pressing against the inside of his slit. He adjusted the positions of his legs and tail and covered his slit with one hand, exerting a little pressure against his insistent cock.

He’d washed in the river immediately after their meal. Now was his turn to watch, and he could not be vigilant if he allowed the Heat to work him into another frenzy. His duty was to protect his mate, and they were exposed out here, vulnerable to dangers that his lair kept at bay.

Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to scan his surroundings. The lush vegetation around the river swayed in the breeze, and the late afternoon sun cast long shadows that were in stark contrast to its pure, intense light. Gentle white tufts of cloud drifted across a cerulean sky, blocking Dragonsbane’s insidious red glare. The canyon was quiet apart from the river’s steady burbling and the rustling foliage.

Were it not for the Red Heat, this might’ve been peaceful. It might’ve been relaxing. This was just the sort of scene, the sort of day, Falthyris should have been able to enjoy at his leisure.

Would that he could have Elliya here with him under better circumstances.

Things will improve when the comet has passed.

But he knew even before the thought had fully formed that it was constructed upon an immense heap of naivety, especially for a creature as old as he.

It had been nine days since Elliya had claimed him. They’d mated repeatedly during that time, and he had already lost track of how many times he’d found release within her—and those releases were the only reason he’d not fallen completely into crimson-tinged madness. Each time they mated, Falthyris ended up craving Elliya a little more. His hunger for her was becoming insatiable. Her scent had haunted him mercilessly, even