groan inwardly.
I know I still retain scales, but even they are far more sensitive than ever before. And the places where my flesh is exposed, a terrible and hungry stirring blooms. I could become addicted. A short while ago, I was in the most pain in my life, and now… Now, I am enjoying pleasure unlike ever before.
My need for revenge grows—to shove her to the ground and finish what I started, to make her pay for her crimes, to kill her and destroy this perverse bond she has forced upon me.
To subdue her, bite her, mount her. A growl tears from my throat as I consider touching her intimately, of her hands returning the favor… the thought takes over the death plans.
She is sorry! She asks for forgiveness!
The longer I wait and listen and learn from her, the more I am coming to understand death is not what she deserves.
She deserves punishment. She says she will accept it! My brow furrows slightly.
If the human bond is what my ancestors have warned me of… Her death will result in my death too. And I can sense the bond, the tying heat that already connects us. It is in my growing need for her presence.
The thought of her death should give me pleasure—like it had for an instant on the beach—but it does not. Only vengeance does now, vengeance and having her by my side. Inconveniently incompatible ideas.
I do not want this human to die.
Mating, mounting, taking this blasted ache in my loins will be her punishment. And when the mating frenzy is gone, I will deny her my protection and a nest of my making—as she has denied me my hope. She will never be rid of me, and she will suffer it for as long as we both live.
I force myself to calm down and relax before I give myself away.
But I stiffen when the human female pulls my hair out from under my head. I have hair! She runs her fingers over and through it, avoiding my new horns, upending my thoughts again.
I want her to touch them, for her to feel their power. But her fingers twist in my strands instead and my scalp prickles deliciously, sending shockwaves of pleasure straight through this new body of mine.
Every moment in her presence makes it harder for me to pretend I am unconscious.
Sensing her lean over me, I tense further. If she is under me, she cannot escape me or her punishment.
I am ready to mate. Human or otherwise, my body is primed, and will not find relief until the act is complete.
Her soft breath warms my brow. I inhale and take her scent into me.
She smells of warm sands and sweet jungle spices, of fresh rain and ferns. So unlike the smell of any dragon that I have ever encountered, fem or otherwise. And it has been so long, so long since I smelled anything.
Aida’s scent eclipses all others, even the femdragon’s.
“I don’t want them to take you away from me,” she whispers, pulling my thoughts back to the here and now.
Take me away from you?
Them? These elders the other humans spoke of?
My anger returns, slicing through me like talons. The petulant words of one of the human female’s return. ‘A chosen female,’ she said. ‘The elders decide.’
No one, especially humans, will decide anything for me. They would not dare.
My eyes snap open when Aida’s head settles on my belly. I try to keep my body from going rigid, but my cock spikes upward. Lifting my head, I look down at her, pulling my lips back into a snarl. But as time passes, she eases upon me, and I know she has fallen asleep.
My chest swells, watching her. I ache to take advantage of her slumber and familiarize myself with her body. My bonded human’s body. The thought makes my shaft twitch—finding the deep place between her legs where it will soon invade. Filling it at my leisure while she is so subdued, I imagine how soft and accepting it would be… while she is weak with sleep.
A plume of wispy smoke leaks from my mouth.
Femdragon’s remain open for their chosen male until their seed has taken root. Would it be the same for humans? But as the night lengthens, I keep my thoughts in my head; the distant chatter stops, and I suspect I’m the only one left awake.
Aida sighs, shifts onto her side, and nuzzles my stomach. The sensation makes me growl, and her body stiffens