Dragon Betrayed (Immortal Dragons Book 0) (14 page)

“Belah!”

Consciousness came rushing back to her and she gasped loudly. All movements had stopped and Nikhil’s arms wrapped around her in a tight hug. His rough apologies filtered through the haze of need that still blanketed her so thickly she wasn’t quite sure where she was.

Finally, a glimmer of his words seeped back into her half-conscious mind and she said, “Let me come and I will tell you everything.”

She grabbed his hand in hers, nearly crushing it with the power of her need and pressed it back to her throat.

“No,
‘Iilahatan
, I can’t…” He gasped out the words as though filled with fear, and his aura shimmered around him reflecting as much.

“Nikhil, I need this. Please don’t hold back. Tighter,
please.
Take me to the end like this.”

He let out a surprised grunt into her ear. “Did he never please you this way… the way I do?”

Belah shook her head. “No man has ever pleased me the way you do. I need you more than you know. Love you more than life. You master me as no other could. Please.” Tears streaked her cheeks and he raised his hand from her throat to brush at the wetness.

With a rough, desperate groan, he resumed fucking her. First came the delicious slide of his cock from her ass and the sudden, violent thrust as he pounded back into her. He pulled the dildo out of her and tossed it aside, replacing it with his fingers, first cupping her soaked cunt and rubbing his palm against her clit before dipping four of his fingers into her clenching channel.

“Need to feel you around me when you come, little beast,” he rasped in her ear and his aura flared wildly when her muscles tightened around his hand. The blazing red-black of it enveloped her, cocooning her in his need while her own aura surged again to the point of bursting, her energy twining with his.

His hand went back to her throat and squeezed, and at the same moment he sank his teeth into the flesh of her shoulder while he fucked her with renewed vigor, his cock and fingers inside both stretched openings while his hand slowly constricted her breathing again.

“Come for me, my
‘Iilahatan.
My beast. Mine,” he whispered in her ear, pressing warm, strong fingers harder and harder into her throat until the edge loomed again and the comforting blackness lay beyond, waiting for her to fall into it.

With his body filling hers, claiming her, encompassing her, Belah let herself go. The release was so exquisite, so utterly
complete
, she wasn’t sure where her orgasm ended and the plunge into that abyss began, but in that moment they were one and the same, and Nikhil had been the only one to ever take her there.

Chapter Fourteen

B
elah found herself blessed with weightlessness more effortless than being carried on the winds. Nothing but light surrounded her, light of every color, as though she’d fallen into a well filled with the magic of generations of her kind. In this place, this wonder of a sanctuary she never believed she’d see, she knew peace for the first time in her centuries-long life. She basked in the absolute lack of burden.

Gravity gradually sank back into her, at first with a tickle, then an itch. The reminder of her one truth made her want to cry out in frustration. She could not die. As often as she wished for it, it could never be. Yet now she knew she could find a respite from the onus of her life, and Nikhil would be there to give it to her.

Except he wouldn’t… not forever. Not unless she marked him and made him her slave. What could she do? Lose him to death eventually, or extinguish the spark of sheer dominant will in him that made her love him so much? Give him up to be mated to a lesser beast than she?

Even with the daily infusions of her energy that bonded him to her, he would eventually grow old. Even with the doses of her breath, his Blessing would eventually cause him to lose his mind in other ways. Her race was thousands of years old, yet no one in their history had ever approached her or her siblings with a problem as complicated as this.

But then most dragons were not like her. Most—if not all—preferred being dominant over their human mates or pets.

She still refused to mark him. With a silent, tearful sigh she resolved to never mark him, nor let another have that privilege. She would simply have him for as long as she could, and once the Blessing’s power began to overcome his sanity, she would be there to put him down. It would be a gamble which demise he found first—death from old age, or death by her hand.

Slowly she became cognizant of her name being repeated over and over in an urgent whisper close to her ear. Two voices spoke to her now, one was Nikhil’s unmistakably male voice, deep and raspy with anguish. The other was her physician, Meri, in a concerned, maternal tone.

Belah forced herself to full consciousness and inhaled sharply at the same instant she opened her eyes.

“
’Iilahatan
! Oh, by all the gods, I thought I’d killed you. Please, please forgive me for everything—the things I said before—the things I did.”

Belah turned her head to look up into his worried face, so beautiful with its strong angles and long, dark hair. His face, however, was not the same face she’d gone to bed with—the face she looked at now was unshaven, with deep lines of worry and dark circles under his eyes.

“How long was I unconscious?” she asked, dimly aware that her voice came out as barely a whisper.

“Mistress, you were more than unconscious,” Meri said gravely from her other side. “Your heartbeat ceased for almost a full day.” She glanced over Belah’s prone form to Nikhil, whose relief was almost palpable. “It was all I could do to calm the man—he was sure he’d murdered you, as if that were even possible.”

Belah lifted a hand to Nikhil’s scruffy cheek and caressed him gently. “My love, I have too many things to tell you.” To Meri, she said, “Please leave us. I will be fine soon enough.”

When her physician closed the door behind her, she tugged at Nikhil’s tunic, urgent to see to the first order of business before talking.

“Make love to me. Now.”

His reverent stare immediately disappeared, replaced by the rough, primal urgency of the man she knew he truly was. He may have been the most devout man in existence, considering how he worshiped her wholeheartedly as a goddess in the moments when that was called for, but easily became the powerful creature she required who could subdue her own inner beast with a simple touch.

When he covered her with his body, he was too careful, however. Belah needed his energy too much to object. She was only just wet enough for him when he buried himself inside her, and it wasn’t until he whispered in her ear, “My fingers itch to wrap around your throat again,
‘Iilahatan,
” that the urgent lust surged through her and her muscles clenched hard around him. The memory of that moment just before she’d descended into the darkness would forever be etched into her mind and his whispered words brought it all back in sharp detail.

“Do it,” she pleaded.

Nikhil shook his head, his brow furrowed and a twinge of the fear she’d sensed in him earlier bleeding through his aura.

“Not until you’re well, my love.”

“I’m well enough now! Just be more careful this time. I need it, and you want it. Please, Nikhil.”

When his palm rested hot against her throat again, she almost came in that instant. Not a single ounce of pain was delivered—only his thick cock driving into her and his touch on her skin, his massive form hovering over her smaller body while he fucked her. He wasn’t even pressing hard against her throat yet, only resting with the warm pad of his palm against the base of her throat and his fingers and thumb spanning either side.

Nikhil groaned and looked down between them, obviously aware of the change in friction due to the flow of her juices coating his thrusting cock.

When he pressed his hand tighter against her throat, she bucked harder, wanting him deep enough to hurt. He gave her his cock with ever deepening thrusts.

She could sense the boundaries of his self-control being challenged, but he held off, testing her limits bit by bit. He pressed his palm harder and her world went a little darker, her body wanting to struggle against him now. With a smile and an adoring look from her, he began thrusting more frantically into her until her body began its delicious ascent toward climax. At the same time, he squeezed hard against her throat, his eyes wide and wild with need.

“Yes,” she mouthed to him, lacking actual breath to speak.

“I love you, Belah,” he said, just before his mouth crashed against hers, his tongue plunging deep. He kept his hand against her throat while he kissed her, and she soaked in his climax while her own barreled over her.

Her world went abruptly dark with one more slight press of his palm against her throat—all her worries disappeared again, her overworked brain ceasing to exist, and there was nothing left but sheer sensation. Then his body pressed hot and hard over hers, his large hands on her throat and his glorious cock filling her. Her heart pounded harder than it ever had and her body thrummed from the magic flowing through her. His own energy crashed into hers, flooding her senses enough to make the darkness explode into a wild cacophony of light.

Just when she thought she’d smother completely, he released his hold on her and she felt him
breathe
, straight into her mouth, the hot gust of his life filling her aching, empty lungs.

Belah gasped and opened her eyes. Nikhil’s dark, expectant gaze met hers and immediately turned triumphant. She grinned up at him with giddy excitement. His expression shifted toward cocky self-congratulation and he kissed her again.

“Was that the right way to do it, then?” he asked, pulling out of her and moving to her side. He pulled her back against his chest and let his fingers slide over her throat.

Her own fingers drifted up to tangle with his where they rested against her skin. She swallowed once, testing the soreness that lingered. When she spoke again, she sounded husky.

“That was perfect.”

He said nothing more, only nuzzling at the back of her neck and letting his hand fall to cup her breast.

Her own hand remained at her throat, marveling at how she had never understood what power a single breath could have—or lack of it, in her case. She knew the power of her own breath, but only as an external influence. How the air inside her lungs could control her pleasure so perfectly, she could never have imagined. Yet he had shown her this part of her, had awakened in her a new need that only he could fulfill.

Soon, his breathing grew steady and even, his aura waning into the comforting, contented glow he normally had during the sleep that followed their lovemaking.

Belah remained awake and thoughtful.

Sometime during the night when the candles were growing low, he roused again, his aura flickering to life with his consciousness an instant before his body. Nikhil was an anomaly of a human in this sense—most took several moments to fully waken to the point of action after their auras signaled consciousness. His alertness was another reminder of the role he had filled for her for so long before she’d taken him to her bed. He was a warrior, and would fight and die for her. He would kill for her, too, but would her particular need for death be too much for him?

She could never die, truly, but now she knew he could give her a semblance of death with the squeeze of his hand around her throat. The same way he could drive her to the brink of insanity with pleasure, he could send her over into a much deeper abyss—one she had craved for centuries.

Beside her, he raised a hand and brushed a dark strand of hair off her cheek, letting his hand trail down her neck and over her breast. He left his hand resting over the full mound. The warmth of it comforted her, but the curious crackle of his aura signaled that he had something complicated to say to her.

“Belah, tell me what he did to you to make you so sad.”

She closed her eyes, wishing she didn’t have to have this conversation, but he was hers. He owned her heart, knew all her secrets, and was still strong enough to stay. This man would never betray her. So he deserved the truth. All of it.

“We were both complicit, Nikhil. My brother and I have always been close, from birth. When we were born, humanity wasn’t as complex and plentiful as it is now, yet we were expected to procreate with this lower race. We were too young then… too young to understand our own powers and the hold they had over us. It’s our nature to crave the contact of someone like us. Our brothers and sisters were more forgiving of human foibles, I suppose. Ked and I… we always ached for something deeper.”

When she trailed off, he didn’t move a muscle and she forced herself to avoid eavesdropping on his emotions. She’d become adept at it after loving him for so long now… she preferred his new games to be a surprise. She might have laughed at the irony—that she knew all the secrets of every one of her subjects, none of whom mattered much to her beyond her overarching protection of them. But he was too sacred to her to delve that deep into.

She still couldn’t mistake his clenching jaw and his very apparent restraint when he said, “You found comfort together.”

Belah took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and continued. “The humans we’d mated were so primitive then. All we could gain from them was pleasure and offspring. I did my part, as did my brothers and sisters. My soul hurt every time I mated a man who couldn’t really know me. He could only worship me and let me fuck him into rapture. Two of them actually died. The others didn’t survive long after. Humans were supposed to be our chosen mates. How could they be so perfect if they expired in spite of me mating them?”

Nikhil relaxed and pulled her close against his side. “Did you want these men? These… mates?”

Belah could remember each one in vivid detail. They were all ideal specimens of human male virility. “I wanted every single one. They were all perfect, but as soon as I marked them, they changed. They became tools to breed with—no more present than the toys in my box. Two of them expired mere moments after impregnating me. I have no idea why, either… They just… died. The other four I mated over the next few centuries lasted longer, but were little more than slaves. I didn’t want them after they lost their minds to me. This is why I won’t mark you, Nikhil. I could have a lower dragon mark you—one with less power than I have—and you might keep your mind, but I won’t share you with another, either.”

He said nothing, and that lack of response made her skin prickle. She held her breath and closed her eyes, simply soaking in his warmth and wishing the chasm she felt drifting wider between them didn’t really exist. When he finally spoke again, she heaved a sigh of relief.

“You could enslave me… a willing subject. Yet you don’t. To preserve my sanity?” He pulled her tighter and lifted her chin with one finger, forcing her to look at him. “I am yours,
‘Iilahatan
. You have marked me already. My soul is permanently seared by my love for you. My only wish is to become your mate in the eyes of the gods and our people… I am already yours in my own heart.”

Belah closed her eyes and struggled to hold back tears. Craving closer contact, she shifted to straddle his lap and pressed her lips against his. With a low moan he opened for her and she pushed a breath into him, hoping yet again that her magic was all he needed to remain sane. She would breathe for him for an eternity, if she had to. Or at least as long as he lived… he might have an extended life span as her lover, but without being marked by her, he would eventually die. But her mark carried a much more volatile threat… if it didn’t kill him outright, it would definitely leave him a broken man.

She would give him what he wished for, though. In the eyes of the gods and their people, all they needed was a wedding. And this wedding would be the most spectacular event in several centuries.

“Marry me,” she said when she finally pulled away from their kiss.

He studied her for a second, his brows drawing together while her eyes darted back and forth, anxiously hoping to glean some hint of his mood from his eyes or his aura. Slowly, a smile spread across his face and his aura brightened. “Absolutely.”