The Dragon King (16 page)

I ate the last doughnut, grabbed a bottled water, downed the whole thing at once, and was suddenly sleepy again. Six hours hadn’t been enough, apparently.

He smiled and said, “Yeah, I’m still tired, too. Let’s see if we can get some more sleep.”

* * * *

The next time I woke, I snuggled backwards into Aaron, feeling warm and protected. The mattress in the safe house had been okay, but this one was heavenly. The soft cloud under me, the down comforter over us, Aaron at my back — I luxuriated in the snug cocoon.

The weight of his arm was around me, his hand on my stomach, and I put my fingers over his. I didn’t intend to wake him, I just wanted to touch him. I froze when he stirred, hoping he’d go back to sleep because I knew we both needed our rest, but his lips touched behind my ear in a soft caress.

“Good morning, Soph.” He bent his legs so my hips moved farther backwards into his, and suddenly I was
very
awake.

“Mmmmm,” he half-growled. “Love your smell when you’re horny, my Sassy girl.”

Teeth nipped my ear now as his hand moved from my stomach to my hips, over the outside of the shirt. When it reached the skin of my thighs he slid his hand back up, scooting the shirt so he could touch me skin-to-skin all the way up the front of my legs until his hand returned to my stomach. I moaned in protest and pushed my hips backwards again, and he pushed the shirt even higher and said, “Hands over your head, Sassy.”

I did as instructed, and two seconds later the shirt was on the floor, I was on my back, and his mouth was taking mine — not wild and rough, but soft and sweet. My hands roamed his back, his arms, and I kissed him back. I was nervous, but I trusted Aaron and wanted him to finally be inside me, wanted him to take me,
own
me, and make me a woman in every way possible. I’d memorized every one of his sleek, hard muscles over the past weeks, so the route my fingers and hands took now was familiar, and yet different because I knew today was different. We wouldn’t have to stop, wouldn’t have to hold onto our control and restraint.

Today there would be no need to stop.

His hands explored my body as well, his touch light and warm, and my insides heated to boiling in no time. I bent my legs, opened for him, and pushed up, but he said, “Not so fast, Soph. Let me make it good for you.”

His hand went to my breast and I gasped as his thumb brushed over my nipple, and then moaned in expectation as his hand went south. He didn’t disappoint, and moved his entire body down the bed as his mouth went to my clit, and then lower, and his magnificent tongue went to work. He worked me close to an orgasm and then backed off, and I pushed my hips up, silently begging for more. However, he kept me on edge, played with me until I thought I’d go crazy, and when he finally held his body over me and positioned himself at my entrance, I wasn’t afraid anymore. I wanted him inside me,
needed
him in me — opening and spreading and
taking
me. Owning me.

His eyes met mine in the dim light and he asked, “You trust me?”

“Yes, Aaron. God, please!”

“I’ll go slow, Soph. If you need me to stop, just say the word.”

I shook my head. “No stopping, Aaron. I know you’ll make it good, and I know there’ll be some pain. Just do it. Please? Take it. Take
me
.”

He nodded and pressed in, and I gasped as the tip came in, but he kept coming, watching my face as he pushed.

It was tight, and I could tell he was having to push hard to get in. I wanted him to enjoy it more, though I appreciated his care and concern for me. I held his gaze and said, “Take it, Aaron. It’s yours. I’m yours. Make it happen. I won’t break.”

He nodded, pushed hard, and I gasped as the discomfort turned to a sharp pain, but I didn’t care. It hurt and felt good and I concentrated on the good so he wouldn’t smell the pain. I pushed up with my hips, showing him I wanted more, and he pushed again, this time going at least an inch deeper, and I moaned in bliss this time as liquid fire coursed through my veins. He was stretching me open, forcing his way in, and I loved him with all my heart.

“Please!” I begged, and he finally gave me what I wanted and pressed harder, sliding all the way in until his torso touched mine. I was so full, so filled. All I could do was look at him, my mouth in a silent O as I forgot to breathe.

He pulled out an inch, pushed back in, and I nodded my head, hoping he’d understand.

His hand went to my clit, all heat and pressure, and now my moans were all pleasure and bliss, and I pushed my hips up again,
begging
him to move.

He leaned forward, his lips met mine, his tongue slid into my mouth, and as it came out so did his cock.

When he pushed back in, forcing my body to accept him again, his tongue moved, pressed, and danced in my mouth as he took me in both places, and my entire body trembled and shook as my nerves went from on-fire to molten lava. I kissed him back, my tongue as frantic as my need, and my hand went up his back until my fingers could caress their way through his hair.

He finally started moving his hips like I wanted, and I met him thrust for thrust, only paying attention to my bliss and ignoring the pain. Eventually, I stopped ignoring it and reveled in it. Aaron Drake had finally taken me, made me
his
, and though I knew there was much to be faced in the coming days, right now my world was complete.

Aaron shifted sideways a little, his mouth leaving mine as his weight rested on his forearm so he could better pay attention to my clit. His eyes were ultra-focused on mine once again and he said, “So tight, so hot, Soph. You’re perfect.
Beautiful
.”

My breath went staccato as my legs wrapped around his waist and everything moved. The new position let him in easier, and my hands went to his bottom as he picked up the pace, moving faster, driving into me harder.

“Tell me how you’re doing, Soph.” His voice was strained and I realized he was holding back, being easy and gentle still, and I immediately knew how hard it was for him to restrain himself.

“I’m okay, Aaron. Take what you need from me, please?”

He shook his head and rested his forehead on the bed by my head. “No, Soph. The goal is your orgasm. I can work myself up as you get close, but I need to know what to do to make it work for you, sweetheart.”

“The spot you hit with your fingers, sometimes?” My body was on fire, but it was so much, too much, and I needed the familiar. I knew it would add even more to what I was feeling, but I also knew it would push me over the edge into wild ecstasy.

His hand left my clit, his weight came off his forearms, and he hooked my legs with his arms and pressed my feet towards the bed, near my head.

He hit the spot I’d been talking about, and my eyes rolled back in my head.

“Advanced position on your first time, Sassy,” he said with a grin. “Always a fast learner.”

I gasped, “More, and shut up,” and he shut up and gave me what I wanted.

Not more than a minute later he said, “I know you’re close, take it when it comes.” He gasped air in and kept going, his voice ragged. “I’ll go when you do, Soph. Give it to me. You’re mine, it’s mine, don’t hold it back.”

I heard him but couldn’t respond, couldn’t breathe. His upper body lowered to mine and his mouth took me again as he thrust harder and harder, deeper and deeper — scraping exquisitely against that special spot inside me every time he pushed in, every time he dragged himself back out.

When it hit, my arms and legs tried to straighten but couldn’t as he held me in place and kept pounding, kept
taking
me through the orgasm. I opened my eyes and saw his closed, but I got to see his mouth open and bliss show in his expression as his hips slammed into me one last time and he came. I’d watched him masturbate plenty, but apparently, coming while inside me was exponentially better than ejaculating into a towel.

I’d never stopped panting and screaming through my own orgasm, which still controlled me as I writhed and spasmed under Aaron’s weight, so when the tenor of my screams changed it was the first inkling I had of something unusual.

I felt both discomfort bordering on pain as well as the most extreme bliss possible, and was still writhing in ecstasy as we both screamed together now, our cries turning to the honking, chirruping, and shrieking of swans mating. Aaron touched one of the bed’s supports with his beak and part of the wall fell away. I followed him into a cave, jumped from a ledge and flew a short way, and saw him fold his wings in to go through a hole. I did the same, plummeting a heart-stopping second before stretching them out and following him.

I loved the sensation of flying, and soon realized I was a human sized swan again. We went up into the inky midnight-colored sky a good ways before he turned us around to fly over the mountain.

As we passed the other edge of the mountain’s top, my stomach seemed to follow the contour of the land even though I kept my body at the same elevation. It took me a few moments to find my equilibrium, and I was reminded of the feeling in the car, when I was carsick on the curvy road.

We must’ve flown thirty minutes before we finally landed in a field, and Aaron immediately
changed
into his dragon form.

I closed my eyes and thought of what it’d felt like to be a dragon — my wings leathery instead of feathered, claws instead of duckbilled feet, and a mouth with teeth instead of a beak. I felt the
change
start, and I breathed into it and held the thought of how it’d felt to be Dragon.

“Beautiful, My Queen. You’re beautiful. We will have a ceremony for us in this form, where you’ll be crowned My Queen, Sophia.”

I was getting more used to his dragon voice, associating it with him instead of thinking it sounded like someone else. I tested my own voice, knowing it wouldn’t sound like me.

“I want to try to fly from here, see if I can take off. I’ll just fly around this clearing and come right back. Is it safe, here?”

He nodded. “Yes, we’re in the center of a wilderness area and I don’t smell humans close. Just don’t go too far or too high.”

I jumped up and flapped my wings, but landed right away.

“Lift your wings as you bend your legs, and then jump with your legs and push down with your wings at the same time. Concentrate on shoving the air into the ground and lifting yourself.”

I tried it again and managed, though just barely. I flew around the field once, landed, and tried again.

When I finally felt I had it down, I was exhausted, but Aaron rested his head over my lower back, placed one clawed foot just above where my tail joined my body, and another just below where my neck joined the other end of my body.

And warmth and love flowed through my body as he gave me energy. A lot of it.

When he backed away he said, “As a dragon you have four legs and two wings. As a swan you’ll have two legs and two wings. My swan wings turned into legs, and the wings came out on their own. I’m assuming the same will happen in reverse.”

“You want me to see if I can turn into a swan?”

He nodded. “I do. I believe I just gave you enough energy for a dozen
changes
, as your dragon body can hold more than your human one. I’m assuming your swan body will hold onto it magically, and by the time we turn human you’ll have used up a good portion of it. I want us to go to Faerie and show the Winter Queen who we are, Princess. We can negotiate the crowning ceremony with her, and if we don’t want to do it immediately, can set a date.”

I shook my head. “We’ll need to do it right away, for safety reasons. Killing the princess will be way easier than killing the Queen. Setting a date will put an even bigger target on me.”

“Tell me what you want to do, Sophia. Right now you are both Queen of the Dragons and Swan Princess. I want you to be Queen of both. The ability to
change
from Dragon to Swan is huge. If we can both pull it off then I would have us fly into Faerie as a mated couple. If my power is stripped upon entering we’ll immediately leave, otherwise we’ll fly to the Winter Palace, land at the gates, and walk in as naked humans, hand in hand.”

Mabel had told me to listen to my instincts, so I walked away from Aaron and spread my wings to give myself some privacy as I considered what felt right.

If I ignored my fear and put aside my feelings about public nudity and sex, I realized Aaron was right. Putting this off wasn’t smart — we needed to let Faerie know who we were
now
, not tomorrow.

The power he’d given me flowed through my veins as I thought myself a swan. The transformation was smooth and seamless this time, no encouragement or breathing needed. I had to go through the ancient rituals go to from human to swan, but only had to think my way there from dragon form.

Aaron’s dragon smile was just a tad creepy, but then he was suddenly a full sized swan and there was
nothing
creepy about my mate. I jumped and flapped my wings as I’d done as a dragon, and managed to take off as a swan.

I followed him to a different waterfall, and came up beside him just before we flew into the falls side-by-side.

The air in Faerie was colder than it’d been in Chattanooga, but also crisper, clearer. I could immediately tell he still had his powers, and my heart soared as we flew for perhaps an hour before I saw the castle in the distance, and I noted people forming outside the gates over the next ten minutes as we neared.

Word had already gone out, apparently.

We landed in the middle of the road, Aaron turned human first, and I followed. He reached for my hand and I looked to the Guard of the Gate, my voice strong as I informed him, “Princess Sophia Siyanko and King Aaron Drake request an audience with the Winter Queen, please.”

He nodded and reached to open the large gate, not the small door within the gate. “Our Queen is awaiting you, and has asked me to let you both know you have safe passage while within these walls today.”

When he opened the large gates I stepped onto red carpet and looked at Aaron with my eyes wide. We walked a dozen steps in from the gate and he leaned down, put his lips at my ear, and said, “My guess is we aren’t the only royalty. Her Highness made a point of letting you know you’re safe, so if you see your father you need to walk like a Queen. Let him look away if he can’t handle your nudity. This is Faerie, where being naked is no big deal.”