Eternal Mates 7 - Taken by a Dragon (17 page)

He wished he could believe that. Her brother needed no one. He lusted after power and would stop at nothing to achieve his grand vision of being lord of all dragons and the ruler of Hell.

Her brother had gone to war with many of the realms, leading legions of dragons to their deaths. Fools. They had thought they would achieve power and wealth if they followed him. They had been seduced by his words and promises. Those who had survived had returned to tell their clans that Tenak had used them as shields, sending them to their graves so he could weaken the forces of his enemy before setting foot on the battlefield to claim victory.

Loke could see the resolve in her eyes though and he knew she would keep pressing him until he told her where her brother resided or she would go to the clan village to ask one of the dragons there.

Those dragons were liable to attack her, pinning her brother’s crimes on her and seeking to avenge their fallen kin. He had no choice but to tell her, if only to spare her from the wrath of the other dragons.

He sighed and reluctantly nodded. “Go then. He has moved to the borderlands with the Devil’s domain, at the furthest reaches of our realm. He has taken the Valley of the Dark Edge as his own kingdom.”

“I am come for the blade too.”

He had known that the moment she had landed.

She had given him the elven blade before disappearing, entrusting him with it.

“It may not make your brother recognise you. He may kill you for it.” Loke looked into her eyes, making sure she knew what she was getting herself into, because once she set foot in the valley, there would be no turning back for her.

Either Tenak would kill her, or he would recognise her as his sister.

Even then, there was a chance that Tenak might choose to kill her. Loke doubted that her brother’s love for her reached the depths that her love for him did. When Tenak saw the blade she had stolen from him, he would want it back. His dragon need to reclaim his property, his prized possession, would rule him.

She nodded. “I accept whatever fate awaits me.”

He wanted to mention that he had seen elves in his vision and now she asked for a blade of their making, a weapon capable of piercing dragon armour and killing them.

He had seen her bloodied and broken.

He prayed to the dragon gods that taking this blade wasn’t what would set her on the path to her death. If elves found her with it, they would kill her just as he had seen. The blade was sacred to them.

“I hope you know what you are doing.” He turned away from her and made haste to his treasure room, taking the right-hand tunnel at the back of the cave and following it down into a lower chamber.

The black blade lay on a stone altar where he had placed it many years ago. Markings carved into the obsidian stone shielded the weapon, making it impossible to detect. When he removed it, those linked to it would feel its presence in the world again. They would know it hadn’t been lost.

They would search for it.

The princes of the elves.

Both parties would want it returned to them, and would stop at nothing to attain it.

The blade was power.

The strongest of the elven metals and dragon blood forged into a single weapon that gave the one who wielded it control over ancient magic and all the powers of the elves and the miraculous ability of the metal. The power to cut through any armour or weapon combined with the ability to condense that power into an arc of pure light using magic.

That arc could slice through a horde of enemies in a single sweep of the blade.

Part of Loke wanted to leave it shielded and tell Taryn she couldn’t have it, but he had vowed to trust her with it when she asked for it back, and he had to do just that. If anyone had the strength to face her brother and live, it was Taryn.

He placed his hand on the hilt and it vibrated with power beneath his touch, warm against his skin.

A flash of the elves standing over Taryn’s body shot across his eyes and he frowned at the blade.

They were already after Taryn. They were the reason she was running scared.

He grabbed the blade and hurried back up to the cave with it. When he entered, she lifted her gaze away from Anais and her smile died.

“It is elves who chase you, Taryn, and do not lie to me.” He held the black sword up. “Or I will destroy this.”

Her eyes shot wide and she lurched forwards a step, her hands coming up in front of her. “Do not. Please, Loke? I know what I am doing.”

“Who are the elves after you?” He lowered the weapon back to his side and wondered if he actually could destroy it. Taryn seemed to think it possible. If he had known that, he might have burned it to ashes shortly after she had given it to him.

“He is no one. I can handle him.”

Just one male.

The one he had witnessed standing over her?

“This male wields a spear.” He made it a statement and the way her cheeks paled and her gaze darted to take in anything but him confirmed his suspicions. “Be careful, Taryn. It is he I see at your death.”

She closed her eyes, drew in a deep breath, and then resolutely raised her head and looked at him. “He is dangerous, but I will not let him outwit me. He has not outwitted me yet.”

Loke growled at that. “How long has he been after you?”

“Centuries.” She didn’t hesitate and he could see she was finally telling him the truth.

Loke frowned as it dawned on him. “Since the blade was stolen.”

She nodded and held her hand out for it. “He has not killed me yet and he will not kill me. I know it. Whatever you saw, it was wrong.”

Wrong? A vision was never wrong. He had seen her die. He had seen the male standing over her, merciless and cold. It was possible that the male hadn’t killed her though, but that didn’t change the outcome. She still died.

“I saw you dead. I saw that male present.” Loke looked down at the black blade he gripped. “Is this worth killing yourself over? Is your brother worth it?”

“I believe so. A life in slavery has more appeal, was better, than a life spent in constant fear. I must end this.”

He sighed and held the blade out to her. “Very well.”

She placed her hand over his on the hilt. “I will be careful, Loke. Please do not worry.”

Impossible. He felt he was sending her to her death by handing her this blade and telling her where to find her brother. He could only hope that she managed to pull off whatever she was planning. The thought of the elven blade in the hands of her brother disturbed him. It was the one thing guaranteed to give Tenak enough power to lay waste to every realm in Hell and set himself up as the ruler of them all.

Taryn took the blade and backed away from him. He couldn’t bring himself to look at her as she left the cave, fearing it would be the last time he saw her. Only when the steady beats of her wings drifted into the distance did he look at the cave mouth.

“What just happened?” Anais’s soft voice breaking the silence drew his gaze down to her where she sat near the fire.

Another female whose death he felt doomed to witness.

“Taryn has gone to face her brother. Either she will die or she will set herself free. Pray to the gods that she knows what she is doing, for if she fails, all Hell will be at her brother’s mercy.” He scrubbed a hand over his face.

“You seemed pretty close to this Taryn woman.” The sharp edge to her tone drew a frown from him and Taryn’s voice rang around his head.

She was jealous.

Loke’s heart soared as he realised that Taryn had been right and Anais was jealous of his closeness to her.

“Taryn is only my friend.” His words didn’t ease the darkness in her eyes or the fierceness of her expression.

“What about the others at the village? The bitch who took me?”

Loke’s mood darkened now and he folded his arms across his bare chest, pressing his short claws into his biceps as he thought about what Rayna had done. “I will deal with her, Little Amazon. She will pay for what she did.”

“She did it because she wants you.”

He couldn’t deny that, but he could set her mind at ease. “I do not want her. I grew tired of that traditional sort of behaviour many centuries ago. I am not looking for dalliances.”

Saying that stirred a deep need within him, a possessiveness that demanded he finish what he had started with Anais. It was born of more than an attraction to her. Born of more than his growing feelings for her.

It ran in his blood and burned in his soul.

It was an unshakable need, fierce in its strength, consuming in its hunger for her.

It owned him, controlled him, and commanded he obey it.

Ancient and powerful.

Impossible to resist.

His earlier fears came back full force. They settled in his heart and refused to shift from it, no matter how hard he tried to push them out.

One of the prince of elves and a king of demons had been given a mortal mate.

Had fate done the same to him?

He wanted to know whether she was more than merely a female he desired and had feelings for.

He needed to know the answer to the question beating within his heart.

Was Anais his fated mate?

L
oke took slow measured steps towards Anais where she sat on the furs near the fire. Her eyes slowly lifted away from the flames, rising up the height of him, coming to meet his. The darkness in them began to fade, burned away by the heat of desire as her pupils widened, swallowing the rich sapphire of her irises.

The air around them thickened as he closed in on her and her lips parted, luring his gaze down to them.

They had been warm against his, her taste sweet on his tongue. He wanted to taste them again.

He wanted to taste her again.

He halted in front of her and she swallowed as he held his hand out to her. She hesitated only for a fragment of time before placing hers into it and allowing him to pull her onto her feet.

His cock stirred in the tight confines of his leather trousers, his desire rising again as he stared down into her eyes. Was she his mate? There was a way of finding out, but it was dangerous. If he made love with her, he would know if she had been made for him, but he would discover it by awakening his deepest instincts as a male dragon.

He would rouse a fierce need to mate with her to complete the bond.

Loke looked down at her delicate hand. It was callused from her battles, a sign of her strength, but it was also weak. It felt fragile in his. Breakable.

She was mortal.

A mortal was no match for an immortal, and definitely not for a dragon.

A mating between a dragon and another immortal was dangerous enough. A mating between a dragon and a mortal was unthinkable. He would hurt her.

He could kill her.

But he needed to know whether the beautiful creature standing in front of him was his mate.

He couldn’t survive another moment without knowing, and definitely couldn’t face the next thousand years or more wondering whether she had been his one true fated female and he might have been able to have forever with her.

He needed to risk awakening his dragon instincts to mate in order to find out.

He pulled his arm back, luring her towards him, and her head tilted up as she approached. His gaze lifted to meet hers and the heat in her eyes stole his breath away and shattered every last fear and reservation he had.

She wanted this. Him. She welcomed it.

His little Amazon still needed him, and he would satisfy her.

Loke dipped his head and captured her lips, swallowing her gasp as her free hand leaped to clutch his shoulder and the one he held crushed his. She leaned into him, rising on her toes, seeking more that he gave to her willingly. A need filled him, a dark commanding urge to give her everything she desired. He released her hand, slid both arms around her waist and hauled her up the length of his body, so her mouth was level with his.

She moaned again, the soft sound drawing a groan from him as heat chased through him and his hard length kicked against his trousers. He lowered one hand to her backside and clutched it as he kissed her, stealing her breath and leaving no part of her untouched. She mewled and wrapped her legs around his waist, and he concealed his pain from her as the wound above his left hip burned. He didn’t want her to worry, because she would stop him from making love with her. He was strong enough now.

He kneeled and slowly lowered her onto the furs, covering her body with his. She flexed beneath him, rubbing herself up and down his cock, and he grunted as he joined her, thrusting against her and cursing his clothing and hers. It dampened everything, stealing the pleasure from it and leaving only a frustrating glimpse of what they might have experienced if they had been naked.

Loke wanted her naked again.

He sat back between her legs and attacked her trousers, dealing with the complicated fastenings. She lowered her hands from his shoulders and helped him, tackling her trousers with ease before shoving them down her thighs.

He groaned and tore his gaze away from the triangle of pale curls at the juncture of her thighs.

When she reached her knees, he took over from her, pulling the black trousers down her legs and off over her bare feet. He tossed them to one side and focused on his own trousers, using a sliver of magic to make them disappear.

Loke shuffled backwards on the furs, wedged himself between her knees and delved his tongue between her soft petals. She cried out, the sound filling the cave, stirring his need for her. He growled and stroked her with his tongue, tasting her. Gods, he needed more of her. That need only increased when she dug her fingers into his hair and held on to him, gripping him tightly as he pleasured her.

“Loke,” she husked, breathless and beautiful. His little Amazon.

He knew what she needed.

He eased two fingers into her and she tensed around him, muscles flexing and drawing him in deeper. She moaned and writhed against him as he began to stroke her as he laved his tongue over her sweet bud. Her actions grew more frantic with each plunge of his fingers into her hot moist sheath and he could feel the wildness rising within her as she careened towards the point where she would become a slave to her need for release. He drove her to it and then eased off, giving her a moment to come down, before he sent her soaring again.