Dragon's Melody (31 page)

Chapter Fifty

A
sharp knock at their door made Melody aware of the sounds of commotion going on outside the lodge. She’d been dozing, flanked in their bed by Skye and Garen, and only subconsciously aware of an odd shift in the noises outside.

Anya’s voice carried through the heavy wood. “Melody! Alec’s back! We need you to get out here.”

She hastily climbed over Skye, who was already sitting up and clothing himself with a breath. She considered it cheating, but it was a handy skill to have.

“Do me,” she said, and by the time she made it to the door, the two men had managed to set her up with a comfortable dress and fix her hair into a tight twist on top of her head—all without any effort on her part.

The cavernous main room of the lodge was packed, the residents of the Enclave all drawn to the activity. At one end, Melody saw the shining golden head of a huge dragon, even bigger than Garen, but not by much. Her mother clung to his neck, her body shaking as though with sobs.

Melody’s chest tightened in alarm and made her way through the crowd, the pair of men leading the way and making a path for her to get to her parents.

She’d had no idea what to expect when Alec returned, or even whether he would be allowed to. The things Skye was able to tell her about how the Council operated hadn’t been comforting. And now here he was, in his full form, her mother crying beside him.

Alec’s head lifted when she came close, golden eyes finding hers. The look in them was so full of relief, it made her own worries dissipate.

“Melody, daughter,” he said in the deep, resonant timbre she’d grown used to from the throats of her lovers.

“Oh God, I’m so glad you’re back,” she said, reaching up to embrace him when her mother moved away, wiping her eyes on a sleeve. “What’s wrong? What happened?” She had so many other questions, but could only let out a shuddering sigh as he held her tight, warm breath gusting over her cheek.

“I’ll tell you everything as soon as I can get back to a manageable shape,” he said, letting out a deep chuckle.

“I don’t understand, why can’t you just change?”

“He’s depleted his energy,” Skye said beside her. “It happens when we go too long away from our mates. Or when the Council drains us as punishment and binds our magic. Is this what happened to you? Are you able to take in energy from Julia or did they bind you?”

Alec sighed. “I can see you are impatient for the news. No, they didn’t bind my magic. It seems the advice of your generation’s Court has started to sink in with them finally. They didn’t make it easy on me, but it was far easier than it could have gone. It was merely the burden of the trip that left me unable to shift, but that’s easily remedied.”

Looking between Alec and Skye, Melody finally understood. The act of shifting required magic. Every new shape they took, or breath they expelled, or pretty dress they conjured took a little bit out of them. Alec had simply exhausted his own reserves. The understanding that this gorgeous golden creature was the truth of their race hit home for the first time.

In an awed tone, she said, “You really aren’t even close to human, are you? Not even a little bit?” She rested her hands over her midsection, trying to imagine what kind of beautiful being she would be giving birth to the following summer.

“We are not,” Alec said. “But we have always enjoyed the company of humans, enough to live among you and take you as our mates. Our magic allows us to reproduce with you, but not even the child you carry will have any human genes. Don’t be fooled by the shape of the child when it is born—it may look like a newborn human child, but it will be wholly dragon.”

“And what kind of life can your grandchild expect to have?” Garen asked, his tone merely curious rather than accusatory. “Will we be spending the winter hidden on this mountain?”

“You can go where you wish. The Council has made a concession for the three of you but they do have several terms. First, they require a promise that you will not leave this child without siblings. If the two of you have no intention of mating other humans, that means the burden is on Melody to bear you more offspring.”

Melody nodded, not the least bit averse to the idea of having another. Skye had already confirmed that the child was without a doubt from his seed, so she hoped to have one of Garen’s, too. More would be ideal.

“But what about you?” she asked quietly. “That sounds like such an easy solution, why did we have to hide?”

“I couldn’t risk them remaining as rigid about our laws as they used to be,” Alec said. “Keeping you three together and your mates able to provide for you was paramount in my mind. The other term of my agreement with the Council is to serve as an ambassador of sorts to others like me—because I am sure they exist. There are other enclaves like this—other races like the Turul that would harbor dragons seeking sanctuary from our own laws.”

Skye and Garen both stepped forward, bristling at the news. “You would give up others of us to the Council’s punishment?” Skye asked, the words carrying the gritty heat of anger.

“No,” Alec said. “They only wish for me to find the others and tell them they have been granted amnesty. The new dragon laws are still evolving, but the Council and the Court want the entire race aware of the changes that are being made. They want us united. The Turul in this enclave have agreed to help, but it requires me to spend the next several years flying.”

“You’re leaving again?” Melody asked. “But you just got back!” Her chest tightened with the thought of having to say goodbye to him—even worse of how it would affect her mother. She gave her mother a worried look.

“Honey, it’s all right,” her mother said. “I’m not letting him leave my sight again for a
very
long time. I’m going with him.”

Alec let out a gold-hued snort of smoke, and peered down at his mate. “It was always your greatest desire, to travel the world. You didn’t expect you’d be doing it by dragon-wing, did you?”

“I am hoping you’ll agree to use a human method once in a while,” Melody’s mother retorted.

The three dragons let out sardonic laughs that echoed through the huge room. The flock of Turul behind them chattered in amusement.

“Trust me, Mom, you’ll be better off staying out of airplanes.”

Thank you for enjoying Dragon’s Melody.
If you’re curious about the dragon’s origins, please check out:

SLEEPING DRAGONS

Erika’s spent her entire post-graduate career searching for it. The elusive dragon stronghold her archaeologist professors scoffed at as being only a myth. Now she has the perfect team and has led them into the deepest reaches of the Sumatran jungle. At the edge of the discovery of the century, she’s finally about to prove to everyone how wrong they were.

But when the seven intrepid explorers pass through the doors, they’re barely prepared for the conflict of lust versus logic they’re faced with on the inside. Ages-old magic lingers in the stronghold, dictating that they perform a ritual to awaken the long-slumbering beasts within. And beasts that beautiful only awaken to one thing: the unbridled release of humans in the throes of ecstasy.

The Sleeping Dragons Omnibus is a series of six novelettes. It includes all kinds of fun kinks involving shapeshifting mythical beasts who breathe magic smoke and have very long, prehensile tongues. The book is intended for adult audiences.

Read on for an excerpt, or
buy now
.

Animus

Sleeping Dragons, Book One

All Eben wanted to do was shove his hot cock into something and the urge drove him mad. Frustrated with his inability to orgasm, he threw off his sleeping bag and decided to go exploring to distract himself. There were doorways that they hadn’t opened yet. Lots of them. There were the ones behind the throne that he knew Erika was laser focused on. But there were others, too, all locked. Maybe he could find a way to open some of those locked doors and earn a few points with Erika.

Camille’s pretty ass waited out there somewhere for him to open, too. He shouldn’t go looking for her, but her bedroll was empty so he did anyway. He was worried, he told himself.
I wanted to make sure you were okay
, he heard himself rehearsing in his head. Not
I really want to go down on you
. That was an understatement. He wanted to shove his tongue into every single orifice she possessed.

Camille had featured in his fantasies since he’d first met her when Erika assembled their team. But, over the course of the weeks they’d traveled together, he’d become more and more enamored of her—a detail he could never properly articulate to Erika without sounding like a complete pussy. In spite of a generally healthy level of self-confidence around women, he’d been hesitant to approach Camille. Each time he tried, she looked at him like she had earlier that day—like he might just be crazy. He supposed the thing with the dragon statue’s cock might have been too much, but damn, she was so beautiful when she blushed like that.

So he kept going back to Erika. Erika wasn’t just his oldest friend, she was also the perfect casual fuck buddy.

He wondered if Camille would like having her asshole licked the way Erika did. Fuck, he’d love to do that to her. Even though the mere image of making love to her could satisfy him most nights, for some reason tonight he couldn’t stop imagining her in the naughtiest positions. Not just bent over displaying her perfect ass to him, but sometimes doing that with her thighs spread on either side of his face with her pussy poised above his tongue and her sweet mouth wrapped around his cock, or riding him face-to-face with her full breasts rubbing against his chest. The vivid image of his dick buried hilt-deep in her ass flashed through his head, making his balls ache almost painfully. Maybe he should just find Erika instead. She might at least be good for a blow job if he promised to return the favor.

He got as far as the stone dais and stopped, momentarily dazed by the image before him. Camille lay in the center just before the huge green jade throne, sound asleep. She was on her side, her cheek resting on one arm, and her pretty braid draped over her shoulder. Her top had ridden up, and she clenched one breast in her sleep. Her other breast was bare, the fabric of her tank top shoved up above the pink tip of her hard nipple that just begged to be sucked. Christ, he’d do it if he could without feeling like a complete perv. She was too good for him, so pure and naïve and virginal, but with an ass that could halt time. What he wouldn’t give to be able just once to bury his face between those round cheeks and go to town until she screamed his name.

Just a touch, he thought. One touch—she’d never know. His mouth watered and his cock throbbed when he quietly crouched beside her and reached out. The hard pink flesh of her exposed nipple beckoned, the aureole a perfect pebbled circle of vermilion, about the size of a quarter, perched atop the creamy mound of her full breast.

“Eben, I need you.”

He jerked his hand back like he’d come too close to a flame and shoved it in his pocket. He stood and turned abruptly in response to the voice behind him.

“Fuck, Erika. You scared the shit out of me.” He tried not to look like a guilty fool when he turned to face her. Erika glanced at Camille’s half-naked sleeping body and eyed him with apparent suspicion.

“You were about to molest Camille, weren’t you? You perverted bastard.”

“I… what? No, it’s just that… Fuck, I’m horny as hell and you pretty much disappeared tonight.” It was as likely an excuse as any.

She stepped quietly across the dais and surveyed Camille where she slept. Once by the other woman’s side, she bent and carefully tugged Camille’s shirt down to cover her breasts, then gently extracted Camille’s notebook from beneath the sleeping woman’s cheek.

Her eyes scanned the pages of penciled scrawl quickly. “Holy shit, Kris wasn’t lying. Eben… this place is a lot more important than we thought it was.” She looked up into his eyes, her pretty face beseeching. “We have to wake them up.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Wake who up?”

Erika laid the notebook back down and grabbed his hand. Her dark eyes were wide and excited. She was more excited than he’d ever seen her. With a brief glance he realized how disheveled she was, but it just served to make her sexier. Women like Erika were so good at wearing their fixations like a badge that just made men like him gravitate toward them. Her hair was a tangled mess, her dirty shirt half undone and wrinkled, her breasts almost spilling out from her low-cut tank top, and her nipples were hard little circles pressing against the fabric.

“Dragons, my dear. They are fucking real. That statue you were so crudely fondling earlier? Real. Living but asleep. I’ve been walking for the last three hours probably, just trying to figure it all out, but this is the answer. We are going to wake them up.”

“I think lack of sex has made you a crazy woman.”

“Sweetie, I’m just as horny as you are, but apparently that’s by design. Kris gave me the scoop. We can’t orgasm unless we’re touching one of them.”

“Ah… one of what?”

“One of the dragons.”

Images of shoving his cock into a stone hole made him crease his brow with worry. “I’m not fucking a rock.”

“I don’t know how it works with the female dragons, but we’ll figure it out. Maybe all they need are facials.”

“Right.” He laughed. “And the idea of screwing a reptile turns you on? I admit I’m as kinky as the next guy, but bestiality? Not gonna go there.”

“They’re not beasts. They’re mythical creatures who actually aren’t so mythical after all. Come on.”

“Can’t she come too?” he asked, gesturing to Camille. “I’m sure she’d want us to wake her up to see.”

“No, honey, this is a two-man job. She’s not ready for this, I promise you.”