Shifters, Beasts, and Monsters (83 page)

But none of that had driven her into a
faint. In fact, she’d been intrigued and impressed by the grandeur of the keep.
She longed to explore the other rooms and what they held, to look down upon the
valley from the lofty battlements. Would she be able to see the village from
here? Or her father’s house?

As she trailed inquisitive fingers over the
silken wood of the long dining table, Mervyn and Garen spoke in heated whispers
behind her, too low for her to hear. The golden haired man spun suddenly on his
heel and stalked away, leaving her alone with Garen. Sparks kindled along her
spine as his gaze lingered there. She turned slowly to face him.

“Is everything alright?” They’d barely
spoken since she’d awoken in the morning, though the last leg of their journey
had been spent in fairly companionable silence. Garen motioned her toward the
wide stone staircase that swept upward from the hall.

“I’ll show you your quarters.”

Her quarters. Her bed. Would he come to her
there or would she go to him in his chamber? Her belly clenched with desire at
the thought. She recalled the sight of him beside the lake, naked skin
shimmering with silver moonlight, his thick cock hanging between his muscular
thighs. Kara licked her suddenly dry lips. “That sounds fine.”

She made to move past him but one large
hand gripped her elbow, forestalling her. She looked up into his cool blue eyes
in question. His sculpted lips pressed into a hard line, almost disappearing
among the dark curls of his beard. “Now that you know. About...
him
.
Will you stay?”

“A bargain was struck. I’ll honor it. I
told him so.” She straightened her shoulders, insulted he would ask. But Garen
shook his head, eyes darkening with intensity.

“Nay. You needn’t. I’ll take you back
straight away if that’s what you wish.”

Kara’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “And
the gold?”

He shrugged, as if a chest of gold meant
nothing to him. Looking at the castle, she supposed it didn’t.

“It’s yours to keep. Either way.”

“Why?” Her heart thumped against her chest
and her thighs quivered. She thought she knew. He wanted her there by choice,
not force. He wanted to know she wanted
him
. The throbbing between her
thighs proved she did. She was even now struggling not to press her body to his
muscled frame and kiss those handsome lips. But he didn’t know she knew his
secret.

Garen’s gaze slid from hers, glancing up
the stairs. “He... regrets not coming to you as a man. Or otherwise.” She saw
the slightest quirk of his lips at that. “He would have you happy here. Not
hostage to your family’s fate.”

His voice was gruff, almost angry. But Kara
understood. He didn’t like the idea that he’d forced her. She didn’t either,
she thought, with a wry twitch of her mouth. She studied him slowly. From the
top of his shaggy black hair to the tips of his worn leather boots. He was
posing as his own servant, though she still wasn’t sure why, but these clothes
were definitely his. The slim Mervyn would be swimming in the trousers that
hugged Garen’s muscled calves and thighs and molded to his sculpted buttocks.

Would she stay? If she did, she’d have to
share her bed with this man. This
creature
, she reminded herself. Though
how could she forget the great sweep of his ebony wings and the way the
moonlight shone from his ivory claws? And share not just her bed, but her body.
Bare him children. Children like him. Her womb spasmed and her nipples
tightened at the prospect. Kara knew her mind was already made up. It had been
since the moment beside the fire when he’d told her the dragon was the last of
his kind, and she’d realized it was he, not Mervyn, who trumpeted his sorrow
into the night.

She had left her father’s farm for his
sake. His and Jamie’s and Gertie’s and Sarah’s and Penelope’s. But she would
stay for hers.

Kara straightened her shoulders and lifted
her chin. “Are you going to show me to my quarters or not?”

She’d seen the flare of understanding, and
desire, in those bold blue depths and the reality of her decision slammed into
her, sucking away her breath. And for the first time in her entire life, Kara
fainted.

***

She gingerly opened her eyes, and gazed up
at the ceiling high above her. It was painted with the sprawling night sky,
momentarily disorienting her, as late afternoon sunlight still poured in
through the windows. She blinked several times, clearing her vision and taking
stock of her surroundings.

The room was vast, larger than the great
hall. From the rounded walls, Kara guessed she was in one of the castle’s
enormous turrets. But it wasn’t the walls themselves that stole her breath; it
was what lined them. Shelf after shelf of books, rising toward the painted
ceiling on every side of her. She loved books, but even among the entire
village there were only a handful. She’d read them all a thousand times. Looking
around as she returned to consciousness, she thought she could spend a thousand
lifetimes in this room and not read every tome even once.

Something brushed her cheek, making her
jump. She shot to a sitting position on the low couch she’d been laid upon,
knocking several of the plush pillows to the floor. Suddenly, her corset felt
too tight. She sucked in wheezing breaths, staring at the sable scaled behemoth
lounging at her feet. The library was so large that even with the massive beast
stretched across the middle of it, he did not touch either side.

“H-hello,” Kara managed, swallowing past
her heart, which was lodged halfway up her throat. He observed her with eyes
like many-faceted jewels the same clear, brilliant blue as they were in his
human form. His tail brushed languidly down her arm, patting gently at her hand
in greeting.

Good thing, too, because its muscled length
flared into a spade-like tip easily wider than both her hands put together. If
he struck her with the full force of it, it would pulverize the bones in her
hand, she had no doubt. But his touch was light. Kara turned her palm upward,
catching the powerful tail in a loose grip. He made a strange, deep rumbling
nose in his chest as she rubbed her fingers along the smooth surface of his
scales.

They were beautiful, silken to the touch
and yet when she tapped her nails experimentally against them, they seemed as
hard as the stone beneath her feet. She moved to run her fingertips against the
grain of his scales, but he drew his tail from her grasp, shaking his great
head.

“Not a good idea?” she asked, lips
twitching. He shook his head slowly from side to side. “Okay, then, I won’t.
Were you... watching over me?”

This time, the massive beast nodded, eyes
locked with hers. Kara exhaled a long breath, biting her lip as she perused the
relaxed bulk of the beast in front of her. “Is it... is it okay if I touch
you?”

Light flared in his jeweled eyes and he
gave a rumbling huff. Kara laughed. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

Still, she approached him cautiously,
breath uneven. He was sprawled on his side, hind legs sprawled out, wings
furled as if he’d been resting while he waited for her to awake. His arms, more
sleek than the bulky hind legs, were stretched in front of him, long, curved
claws rasping lightly against the stone floor. He’d twisted only slightly to
raise his head and look at her. Kara reached out with both hands, cupping the
massive jaw in her palms. She stared into his face, studying his horned
countenance.

She ran her fingers over the scaled ridges
of his lips and wide nostrils. The outcrop of his brow was thorny with scaled
protrusions like prickly eyebrows. Kara stepped closer, reaching up with both
hands to stroke the smooth ivory of his great, curved horns. They were hard and
warm to the touch, satin against her palms though the very tips were gleaming
sharp.

His broad nose nudged her corseted abdomen,
fluttering her skirts with his rumbling breath. The heat of it washed over her
thighs, making her quake. She stumbled back half a step, gasping. Garen raised
his huge, dark head and met her eyes. His burned with inner fire. His heavy
jaws parted, revealing rows of long, needle-sharp teeth. Kara froze, heart
leaping. But he didn’t intend to bite her. Instead, his long, supple, serpentine
tongue snaked from between his terrifying teeth to lave her cheek, briefly
flicking across her lips.

Kara gasped at the tickling, tingling
sensation of the forked appendage sliding against her mouth. She licked at her
lips, running her tongue over the place his had just been. She tasted him, fire
- not ash, but a sweet, hot flavor unlike anything she’d ever tasted. She
trembled, watching with wide eyes as he withdrew his tongue back into his wide
mouth.

“That was...” She trailed off, at a loss
for words, and shook her head. Once again, she cupped his huge jaws in her
hands and leaned close. This time, she pressed her mouth to the closed seem of
his reptilian lips. They were smooth and hard, the scales cool against her
heated mouth. The sensation was strange and exhilarating. She closed her eyes
and tilted her head, parting her lips so her tongue could come out to tease
along the joined jaws.

She heard the grumble of surprise and
delight in his chest and couldn’t help but smile as his wide mouth opened again.
She licked over the line of his dangerous teeth as his tongue returned to flick
against hers. Kara moaned as he slipped it between her own lips and brushed
against the roof of her mouth. In contrast to his lips, Garen’s tongue was soft
and flexible, rubbing over hers like wet silk.

He retreated again and she straightened,
panting and shuddering, nostrils flaring as she sucked in breath. “Thank you,”
she murmured. He cocked his head, the expression so clearly reading as
confusion that Kara giggled. “For watching over me. For giving me a choice.”

He snorted, jeweled eyes rolling. It was
such an odd expression on his countenance that she laughed again. But the
laughter dried up when he nudged against her belly again, insistently. Though
she couldn’t tell what he meant by it, the touch, just above her mound, made
her breath catch.

A flood of moisture slicked her thighs and
her knees trembled. Garen’s nostrils flared, jeweled eyes seeming to spin as
the light shifted across them. Movement from the corner of her eye made her
turn her head. Kara gasped.

She hadn’t noticed earlier, perhaps too
overwhelmed by his overall presence to focus on specific details. But now, as
it grew and lengthened, it was impossible to miss the swelling of his erection.
Between his heavily muscled rear legs the thick shaft rose against his dark
belly. The scales faded slightly to a deep charcoal over the heavy sack of his
testicles and then disappeared completely at the base of his shaft. The flesh
there was the same deep tan color of Garen’s human skin. Other than the eyes,
he resembled himself most here; though, like his eyes, there was somewhat of a
difference in scale.

Kara watched, wide eyed, as his cock
twitched and filled beneath her mesmerized gaze. The heavy veining and bulbous
crown, flushed a dark red, were much the same as she had seen when he had
strode from the lake. Only... larger. She gulped. The thought of taking Garen
into her body as a human male had been daunting. But this?

Her lungs felt tight, the corset squeezing
the air from her. She tried to suck in a breath, but couldn’t. She pressed a
hand to her throat, massaging, trying to coax it to let in air. She saw the
gleam of one wicked claw a second before the strain on her ribs was gone. She
inhaled deeply, thankful for the lungfuls of cool air, and glanced down.

He had neatly sliced through the ties to
her dress, corset, and shift beneath down to her navel. They sagged open,
baring the curve of her breasts. The firm peaks stiffened further for being
exposed.

“Was that really necessary?” she groused,
shoving the sleeves from her shoulders and pulling the ruined bodice and
undergarments loose and tossing them away. That left her in only her skirts.
Garen’s answering huff was a pretty clear ‘Yes’ in response.

She placed her hands on her hips, heedless
of the sway of her breasts. The look in the beast’s jeweled gaze said he was
not. Kara kicked off her shoes and nodded her head. “Well, might as well due
the rest. I trust you’ll provide me with new clothes. Or the means to mend
these at the very least.”

Garen’s sardonic growl rumbled in his chest
as he lifted his claw again, slowly this time, and dragged it through the thick
fabric of her woolen skirts, the cotton underskirts, and the pantalets beneath.
When he was done, the mass of cloth puddled at her feet. She stepped out of
them and pushed them away, bending to roll her stockings down and add them to
the pile of discarded clothing.

When she stood naked before him, Kara
returned her hands to her hips, as if daring him to say something. Not that he
could speak in his present form. Still, she waited. His massive head weaved
back and forth slightly on his sinewy neck as he studied her. He extended his
neck, snuffling into the fall of her strawberry blond hair and the crease of
her throat.

Kara whimpered as his tongue swished
against the tender skin there, lapping quickly at her skin. His head dropped
lower, his agile tongue curling around the hard buds of her nipples and snaking
over the sensitive flesh of her breasts. She caressed his head as his long
tongue dipped further, brushing teasingly across the soft curve of her belly
before flicking into the well of her navel.