Page 14 of The Dragon's Omega

With my teeth.

Huffing hair from her face, she straightened as best she could beneath my arm and shrugged. “That’s fine. It’s just a dress.”

“I’ll buy you a new one.”

She side-eyed me, smirking. “You don’t?—”

“Ten new ones,” I growled. It wasn’t a suggestion or an offer for her to accept or reject—this was fact. “As many as you like.”

Her cheeks pinked in the moonlight, and the soft circling of her perfume intensified, followed swiftly by another waft of sweetness from between her thighs. My mouth watered in response to this ruthless omega assault on the senses, and a low, possessive growl echoed in my chest. It stung, the blasted thing, but in the grip of her perfume, her slick the dangling carrot that kept me putting one exhausted foot in front of the other, pain was but a memory.

Lianna faltered when her gaze briefly met mine, a whine catching in her throat, and I could only imagine what she saw staring back. A starved alpha. A lusting predator. An unwavering dragon marking his mate with his eyes before he claimed her with his bite. For both our sakes, I distracted myself with the island, the familiarity of the landscape.

The trees had grown rounder, thicker, taller since my last visit. The brush laid firmer claim to the forest floor. It was, however, a welcome sight. Nearly a century ago, I had chosen one of many uninhabited isles in the Pacific Northwest for my West Coast hoard. Close enough that it was a quick flight to Cedar Cove, but unremarkable enough, far enough from my current base, that no one would think to scour the maze of green and blue, the scattered islands like flicked paint on a blank canvas. This world was forever in flux, changing, growing, modernizing at an alarming rate this past century alone. Old haunts smelled different with every visit, but here, this—all my secret caches across the globe—forever welcomed me home with a calm, quiet, earthy embrace.

“Lianna?”

“Hmm?”

“What year is it?”

I snarled when she told me. Fifteen summer solstices had passed since my attack. Fifteen years I wasted away in that pit.

“I hear you were down there a long time.”

For her, it would have felt like a lifetime. For me, it was but a miserable drop in the ocean of eternity. Still, I rumbled and nodded. “Yes.”

“Why didn’t you ask for help?”

“Pride.” I flashed a hollow grin as she grabbed my dangling wrist, using my arm for support just as I used her. “Stubbornness.” Lips twitching into a sneer, I looked to the stars again, some truths so terribly bitter. “Suspicion. Fear, perhaps, to show humans, any of them, precisely where to drive the knife deeper.”

I wouldn’t die if they did. I couldn’t die. Yet I had no interest in some upstart Synn descendant putting me in a coma and doing whatever he willed with my body.

Lianna hugged my torso tighter, but she said nothing. Fair enough. Her heavy breathing, her sweaty face, her torn dress—this trek was starting to exact a heavier toll. My jaw clenched as I rode out another wave of rage and self-loathing.

After all, she couldn’t fathom how hard she hit the nail on the head earlier. I had been a martyr of my own making. For these many years, pride and pain forced my hand, and I bullied anyone back who dared so much as look at the injury. When it first happened, I hoped I could sleep it off, but nights turned into days, days to weeks, to months, to years, and I wasted away. Barely eating enough to sustain a fledgling, never mind a dragon of my age, I stewed and slept, miserable, guilt-ridden. The only light was the solstice, a chance to prove I could still perform my sacred duty.

But, really, no one was at fault for my predicament but me.

And now, after scenting my fated mate, I was so fucking useless Lianna had to support me, physically, perhaps even emotionally. Not only that, but she shouldered the burden of reconnecting me with my heart.

An immense task for a little goddess who deserved to be carried in my arms, on my back, my shoulders—however she saw fit to ride me.

Alphas should protect and cherish their omegas. There was no more precious a thing in all the realms now than her. I had waited lifetimes to find the mate written in the stars for me, to scent her for the first time, to bask in a bond so powerful that marking each other was just a formality. The day had arrived. She was here. She was exquisite. And I was a husk.

How she must despise me. Her body responded because it didn’t know better, but her heart, her mind, were wild, untamable beasts.

What had I done to impress her? To make her decide that I was worthy of her love?

No. I closed my eyes tight against the flood of guilt and anger. No. Enough. She wouldn’t have pulled that bloody bolt free if she thought so little of me.

The island wasn’t big, but we were slow going. Every step was a chore. Every tree passed and brush broken a victory.

Until I spotted the mouth of my cave. Nestled amid dark slate stone, the innocuous tunnel delved underground with no great fanfare.

“There.” I grunted and wrapped my arm around Lianna to hustle us both along. Once we reached the rock formation, shrouded with curling vine and blanketed by reaching branches, I pulled away and clambered over alone. My omega had led us this far, but she needed to note where to step, and it was my duty to guide her, no matter how exhausted, a rut nipping at my heels the kind this world had never seen.

“Go down feet first,” I told her. As I slipped one leg in, I found her standing some distance away over my shoulder, hesitating on the first rock, the easiest one to climb. She licked those delectable lips as she scoped out the route I had just taken, then slowly nodded. Her eyes turned dark and distant without the moonlight. No less alluring, but she wasn’t an omega easily read, and I lingered until the weight of that shadowy gaze darted to mine. “I’ll be waiting at the bottom.”

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