Furee Born: The Dragon Mage Series Book IV (11 page)

Both dragon mates ignored
her joke, looking from the babies being cleaned up to their exhausted mate to
the healer for reassurance.  Riva checked Morgan over, used her powers to push
out the afterbirth, and heal any remaining aches and pains.  Then, she smiled
broadly, knowing it had reached her eyes because it felt like it had suffused
her soul.  “A beautiful healthy family,” she said.  Then she got to watch as
the dragons were each handed a girl child by their tearfully happy aunts, and
both powerful warriors knelt on the stone besides their mate’s bed and
presented her with their daughters with a kiss of beauty and a benediction that
had Riva crying at the wonder of it.

Riva?
She heard the concern and sent a picture of what she was seeing winging out of
the room to her mate. 

I am tired, as is Morgan,
but you can tell everyone that all is as it should be.

There was a slight
hesitation as Furee absorbed the picture she had sent him. She could hear the
awe in his thoughts when he finally answered. 
The only thing I have ever
seen that rivals that in beauty is the mage healer who made it possible.

Riva smiled, shaking her
head in exasperation, her cheeks would be blushing if she was not already over-heated
from the hot springs and birthing. 
I think we can give the mother and
fathers credit for that.  They would have got there just the same with or
without my help.

I have a feeling the
mother and fathers would agree with me on this one. 
There
was a short pause, and then she could feel all his attention turn to her. 
If
you are finished, I would see to my mate now.

Riva smiled at the soft
brush of heat that flickered over her, followed by the feel of Furee’s hands
caressing down her back.  Reminded of her thoughts on this very subject – a
good thought indeed. 
I’ll be but a moment.

Riva was right.  She
reached the end of her limit before she even reached her room at Forsaken. 
After assuring everyone that mother and babies were fine, and then assuring
Braedon that she was, too, it was while he looked her over with worried big
brother eyes that she was done.  She barely made it to the stairs before her
legs decided to give up on her, and only the quick reflexes of her attentive
mate kept her from crashing to the stone floor.  She barely noticed when they
arrived at her room, and she was already half asleep when Furee stripped her
down with a sweep of dragon magic that also cleaned her of sweat and anything
else she might be covered in after helping birth twins.  Then naked, clean, and
with her eyes closing against her express orders, she felt him tuck her into
her bed and join her there, his body providing more heat than the down quilt he
wrapped her up in.  Her last thought was that for once she would not have to
wake up alone, panicking from night terrors and in need of a bath because she
had been too tired after a healing to take one before passing out.  There was
not a single doubt in her mind that Furee would watch over her while she
slept.  She was safe.

That night, Riva dreamed
of a different kind of fire licking over her skin.  One that did not burn but
warmed and heated.  She woke to the feel of Furee’s arms around her, and the
blanket of his fire wrapping her up tight.  She was so comfortable that it took
her a moment to realize what was wrong.  She felt more than heard Furee’s rage
and fear and knew he was having a nightmare.  She leaned up and was dismayed to
feel the strands of Furee’s fiery hair tighten and pull her back against him in
reaction.  She shook him as best she could in her confinement.  He was heating
up and holding her captive, but she reminded herself that he was not burning
her.  Rather, he seemed intent to protect her at any cost.

“Furee?”

He woke up with the barest
whisper of his name, his eyes popping open, and with one long look at her in
his arms, his fire receded.  “I woke you?”

She ignored his question
and pushed up with one hand on his chest for balance so she could see his face
better, and the other holding the down quilt to her naked chest.  “You were
having a nightmare,” she said quietly, her eyes soft with understanding.

He ran his thumb over her
cheek.  “I dreamt we were back in the hot spring cave by the North Gate and you
were burning in my arms.”

Riva barely held back a
flinch at his words.  “I had a dream where I was lying in my mate’s arms, warm
and safe where nothing could hurt me.”  She smiled softly at him.  “It was a
nice change for me.”

Furee searched her face
carefully.  He still did not understand.

Riva sighed.  “If you are
looking for recriminations, you will not find them here.”  She lay back down
with her cheek resting over his heart and her arm wrapped around his warm
muscled stomach.  “You did what you had to do Furee, and so did I.”   She
rubbed her cheek over the heated skin that covered his strong heartbeat.  Her
voice dropped a little, a shyness peeking out.  “Some of it I enjoyed.”  She
felt her cheeks heat at the bold statement and was glad he could not see it
pressed as she was to his rock-hard chest.

He must have understood
what she meant though, because he froze under her, and she could feel the heat
of desire start to flow between them, chasing away the last of the guilt.  One
of his hands caressed her back, naked skin to naked skin, and the other slid up
over her chin across her hot cheek and into her hair above her ear, no doubt
feeling the blush she was trying to hide.  He clenched his fist in her hair,
making Riva catch her breath.  His other hand came up her back again and then
to the back of her head, and with both hands, he lifted her gently until he
could see the heat suffusing her face.  She was not aware her mage light was
glowing in her eyes until she saw the shadows it cast over Furee’s face and
chest.

His own eyes trapped her
in heat, and for the first time, she looked into the kindling fire of his eyes
and did not think of burning, bonfires, or anything save the heat they
generated between them.  “Perhaps you should be more specific, mate,” he
growled, the gruff sexy tone of his voice making her want to bite him, which
was almost as shocking as the way her body heated and flowed wet just that fast
for him.  “What exactly did you enjoy about our mating?”

She tried to look down to
hide her face and the blush that intensified with every word and look from her
mate.  But he held her firm, both hands in her hair and holding her for his
pleasure.  His thumb rubbed over the apple of her cheek, watching the thoughts
flit across her face.  He did something he did so rarely, he smiled.  And Riva
forgot how to breathe he was so beautiful with a smile on his face and that
wicked heat flaming in his dragon eyes.

Riva licked her lips, her
eyes going to his mouth as she remembered what it had been like to lose herself
in the dragon mating.  Her hand went to his lips so she could run her fingers
over his bottom lip.  “The kissing,” she blurted and then pressed her lips
together, looking back into his eyes for his reaction.

Furee cleared his throat,
his eyes burning even brighter, assuring Riva she was not feeling it alone.  “Anything
else?”

This time she bit her lip,
pulling it through her teeth.  “The touching . . . and the . . .”  It was her
turn to clear her throat, “. . . friction.” When she realized his eyes were on
her mouth, she almost smiled, knowing he was as moved as she was.  Instead, she
licked her lips, and with that one brush of tongue, Furee growled and
jackknifed up.  His lips took her in a sweep of heat and wet that she felt not
only in her lips, but in her toes, her breasts, and everywhere in between.  He
pulled her up and over him, so that only the thin down quilt kept them from
being hip to hip and chest to chest.  But the quilt did next to nothing to hide
the thick hard feel of him between her legs.  Without thinking, she spread her
thighs as far as she could and pressed herself against that hardness, seeking
more of that lovely friction he did so well.  The next second, he was growling
against her lips, his tongue licking into her mouth so that she felt the
vibration of it in her throat.  He ripped away the quilt and the thin sheets
that had balled around them, and turned her so that she was on the bottom.  All
that rock-hard weight of his pressed her deep into the mattress.

Riva wrapped her arms
around his neck and held on for dear life as his hands roamed and his tongue
and teeth claimed everything he could reach.  The heat of his power licked over
her nerve endings and the fiery strands of his hair wrapped her up until she
felt both conquered and claimed.  The strands licked fire over her breasts and
belly until she thought she would go mad with the need he generated.

After he had set fire to
every inch of her skin with both his power and his touch, she writhed and
moaned as he did the same thing with his lips and tongue.  Then he held her
hands down with those fiery strands of hair licking her thighs, and his mouth
and tongue and teeth found the center of her and sent her careening out of her
mind with a new kind of wet friction she was unprepared for.

“Furee!” 
She
was powerless under the tide of that mind-numbing pleasure, but he kept at her
until she had shivered and bucked through an orgasm so strong she bled her lip
to stop her screams from echoing through Forsaken.  Even as she was coming down
from one pleasure, Furee reared up and took her lips, licking away her blood
while he led his steel-hard seeping cock to the flesh he had just conquered
with his mouth.  He wasted no time thrusting home and claiming even more ground
as his own.

Riva knew she was
scratching his upper arms and back with each powerful thrust of his body into
hers, but her body was not her own.  Right at that moment, her control
shattered and she clutched at the hard heated flesh of him.  This time Furee
road the pleasure with her, his lips groaning his pleasure into her mouth while
he bucked and shattered within her.

Later as they lay pressed
together, Furee still inside her as she listened with her ear against the
slowing beat of his heart, Riva smiled.

What?
  Even
in her head, Furee’s words sounded sexy and languid. 
I can feel you
smiling.

I definitely like the
kissing. 
She smiled broader and laid a kiss on the warm skin of
Furee’s chest while he rumbled out a chuckle beneath her cheek. 
And
definitely the friction.

He had stopped chuckling
and just held her with a softness she could feel in her mind and on her skin. 
She was drifting off when he spoke back to her.  Even his fire seemed to soften
and subside as they dropped into sleep. 
I was right.  You will always be
life and death to me.

***

On her second day as a
mated woman, Riva decided she could get used to a great many things about
mating with a dragon, and Furee in particular.  She woke up well rested and
refreshed, brimming with magic and without needing the usual days to get over
such an excess of healing as she had performed the day before.  No nightmares
had chased her in the night, and considering everything that had happened, she
considered that something of a miracle.  Not to mention there was a honed
warrior spread out across her bed without a stitch of clothes or the least need
for embarrassment.  Riva caught her breath at the beauty that was a sleeping
Furee.  In the soft twilight of early morning, without his power wrapped around
him or his fire flaring, he should have looked different, less daunting maybe,
but even in repose and asleep, he looked indomitable and brutally beautiful. 
And she wanted to feel every inch of that warm golden skin under her hands and on
her mouth.

Riva bit her lip.  The
feelings that were coursing through her blood felt foreign and heavy, and her
skin fairly hummed just looking at her mate.  But he clearly needed his sleep
more than he needed an overstimulated mate. She had barely managed to extricate
herself from Furee this morning to go and check on the new mother and babies,
but the big hardened warrior had slept through that as well as her quiet
return.  It was unheard of that he could be so unaware of what she was doing
and a definite indicator that Furee needed rest.  Riva sighed, but after
sending a pulse of healing energy through her mate to assure herself there was
nothing else going on with him but exhaustion, she headed for her favorite spot
in the gardens as she did most mornings when she awoke before the rest of the
household stirred.  She had never been able to sleep past early morning no
matter when she went to bed the night before, but since the bonfire, it was
nightmares and exhaustion that followed her from her bed each morning.  Today,
everything looked bright and lovely; there was a bounce to her step she had not
felt in years and it seemed a lovely dream still held her enthralled.

Yes, there were many
things about mating with Furee that she liked, the biggest being that despite
everything that had happened, she felt safe.  Safety had been a novel feeling
even before the bonfire.  As a mage healer, she had always been in hiding from
the blood mage, and from the normal humans she healed that could and eventually
did turn on her.  She could not even remember her parents; they had died from a
sickness that had taken most of their family.  Only she and her older brother,
Braedon, survived along with less than half their village.  Braedon, she knew,
had struggled, taking to the forest and the forest training their father had
taught him before he passed.  Braedon learned more just by doing, and even at
such a young age, was able to trade meat and pelts for whatever else they
needed.  Riva did not remember the early days when, barely a child himself,
Braedon had managed to keep himself and a new baby alive.  Braedon refused to
talk about it, but he did it, and when his powers manifested in his teens, he
managed to keep to the forest enough that no one saw his struggles for
control.  Then her healing power had come, and he had even more to deal with.
Riva sighed thinking of her brother and all he had sacrificed for her growing
up.  She did not remember the first time she healed.  She knew from Braedon
that she was barely walking at the time and a wolf had wandered into their yard
sick and hungry.  Riva had waddled up to the beast, blocking the shot that
Braedon would have used to kill it before it could attack her.  Braedon was
running for his baby sister in a panic when he realized the beast was not
attacking.  He stopped beside them, bow cocked when a minute later the beast
turned healthy and energized and headed back to the forest.  Riva smiled big
and toothy at her big brother and then passed out in his arms.

The next day, they had
joined a traveling crew of huntsman and learned the ways of their father’s
people.  A huntsman himself, he had fallen in love with a village lady and
became a farmer.  But as much as Riva learned from her years with that nomadic
tribe about surviving in the forest, healing herbs, and the ways of the forest,
the nomadic lifestyle was not for her.  She returned to their old farm and
started working as a healer as soon as she was old enough to live on her own,
despite her brother’s displeasure.  All she had wanted was a home of her own
and to heal the sick when there was a need.  She had made friends, she
thought.  Though she had been careful to keep men at a distance because of what
she was, she had not been lonely, not really.  But she had always been so
careful to heal with herbs whenever she could, and slowly so that it looked
natural when someone needed more than herbs could offer.  Between what grateful
people gave her, what she could get from the forest, and what her brother
brought her on his regular visits through the area, she did better than most of
the poor villagers.  She had thought she had a place there.  That she belonged
in the village of her mother’s people.  She was wrong.