To Tame a Dragon - Tiffany Roberts Page 0,47

face into her neck, nipping her shoulder with his sharp teeth. Her breath hitched. The pricks of pleasure-pain sent tingles all along her skin. His tongue flicked out a moment later to soothe where he’d bitten. She giggled as it tickled her skin.

When he was done, he tucked her head beneath his chin and wrapped his arms around her. He lifted his wings, which had been spread across their nest to either side of him, and curled them over Elliya, blanketing her in their warmth.

She smiled and closed her eyes as she rested her cheek upon his shoulder. His heartfire remained visible as a warm, dim red glow through her eyelids, fading a little more with each heavy beat of his heart.

Elliya refused to let her doubts surface during those moments, choosing instead to focus upon her contentment, her dragon’s warmth, the sense of fullness he offered her—not just of body, but of soul.

13

A torrent of blood flowed into Falthyris’s lair, covering the sand bed, sweeping away the nest his mate had fashioned—sweeping her away. He swam against the crimson tide, straining to reach her, but Elliya only drifted farther and farther away. His body was too small, too weak to reach her. His heartfire blazed, burning so hot it would undoubtedly consume him from within, becoming a desperate, impotent inferno that could not save her.

Elliya’s head dipped, and she vanished below the surface.

Falthyris woke with a jolt, sitting up and throwing his hands out to feel for Elliya. All they encountered was the blanket and the grass mats beneath him; she was gone.

His racing heart quickened further, but even its thunderous beats were nearly inaudible over the roar of his heartfire. The Red Heat was thick in the air around him. He felt it pushing down on him, pushing into him, its warmth sickening and uncomfortable. His cock was already extruding from his slit, throbbing in hunger and dripping with seed. That Heat-induced arousal was in direct conflict with the leaden ball of dread seated in his gut.

Eight days had passed since he’d first tried to make a real connection with her, since he’d realized that she could be so much more than a vessel by which to relieve his urges. In that time, he’d come to cherish her smiles, her laughter, and the brilliant light in her eyes when she was happy. He’d discovered just how much he had missed by treating her as beneath him.

And Dragonsbane’s curse had strengthened during each of those days.

This human shape had already felt barely capable of containing his heartfire, and the intensifying Heat only made that sensation worse. He often felt like he was about to burst—and not merely by releasing his seed.

Falthyris let out a ragged, snarling breath and shoved himself onto his feet.

He swept his gaze across his lair, so large and empty now that he was in this shape—so large and empty because his mate was not here with him. The torches were extinguished and cool, and though Elliya’s scent lingered in the air, it was not immediate enough to satisfy him. He wanted to smell it directly from her skin, directly from her essence.

Tail flicking restlessly, he strode toward the tunnel leading to the cave’s mouth. Afterimages from his dream drifted through his mind’s eye. The dread in his stomach grew heavier. Dragonsbane would not take Elliya from him, it could not—he wouldn’t allow it. That dream, along with these overwhelming urges to mate, were the extent of the comet’s power. It could do no more.

And in ten days it will be gone. In ten days, we can truly determine what life we shall share…

But that thought, as uplifting as it was, could not make up for the fact that Elliya was currently missing.

He narrowed his eyes as the end of the tunnel came into view, allowing them a moment to adjust to the daylight streaming through. She was not in the lair, was not in the tunnel. Where had she gone? How had he slept through her departure?

The mating bond coiled tighter and tugged him onward.

Falthyris stalked toward the exit, wings flat against his back and claws curled against his palms. The world outside his lair was dangerous and unforgiving, especially for a lone human armed only with sharpened sticks and a little bone knife. Especially as the heat was reaching its apex.

When he emerged from the cave, he hesitated only long enough to scan the area immediately in front of it—a rocky slope that he