Page 3 of The Fire Dragon's Mate
He clicked his tongue and stood up straight. “You insult me.”
To call him a demon was an insult? I squinted my eyes, trying to see more of him. A thousand tall tales of mythical creatures flitted through my mind, and I didn’t know what to believe.
“A fairy?”
He snorted a laugh this time. “Gods, you’re adorable.”
Insulted now myself, I lunged at him. His wings swept forward, propelling him back, and sending a gust of wind into my face. I closed my eyes and raised a hand to shield myself only to nearly stab my own face.
“Oh, sweetheart, do be careful.”
With a yell of frustration and shame, I lunged again and again only to have him skip and flutter away. He dodged my every move like he knew what I would do before I did. Years of dedicated training died on that fucking mountain as the winged man evaded me over and over again.
Then all of a sudden, he was behind me and looping strong arms around me. He pinned my arms to my sides and held me so tightly that I could only think of gasping my next breath and nothing else.
With his chin on my shoulder, he said, “Go back down to them and sail away, little prince, or come up to the mountain with me and see what a dragon can offer you.”
Was he an emissary of the dragon? Some cursed minion of the damned beast?
He loosened his grip and pressed his nose into my neck. “You smell so good,” he practically purred. “Familiar but also fresh and young andperfect.”
I did not like the implications of that at all. “Unhand me, you beast!”
He chuckled, kissed my cheek, and pushed me away from him. I hit the ground on my knees and tried to spin around and stand at the same time only to fall over again. My absolute lack of balance didn’t matter, though, because he was using those wings of his to fly away like a giant bat. He flew toward the base of the mountain, and a moment later flames burst to lifeup there.
The orange glow called to me, focused my mind. The time had come. That winged bastard had shown me where to go, let me know the dragon would meet me there. Staring at where that fire burned, I yanked my sword free after three tries and trudged through sodden grass and sharp rocks toward my destination.
I wouldn’t allow myself to stop because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to begin again, what with every muscle trembling from the cold. I could barely feel my fingers or toes. I had to use my sword like a crutch to leverage myself farther up the mountain. I knew, deep down, that I would show no better beside the dragon’s fire than I had below in the dark, but if I fell now, I would die from the shame of being so weak.
Gasping each breath, I finally reached the base of the mountain. Black, slick, and cold, touching my destination gave me a surge of renewed determination that I was able to going just a little further. I could see an opening into a cave, the firelight spilling out into the night like a welcome mat. I was so close that if I didn’t calm and steady myself, the bloody dragon would hear me long before I could see it.
But what was I hearing? Men grunting? Was someone fighting in there? Curiosity and confusion had me continue onward, determined to know what I was about to walk into. If others were in there fighting the dragon right now, I needed to know who my allies were.
At the very edge of the cave, I plastered myself to the stone and peered inside. I had to squint, the brightness of the cave overwhelming after so much darkness. But then I saw. I saw and I froze, shocked to my core.
In profile to me and kneeling on pillows beside a stone fire pit were the winged man and another dark-skinned man. And they were fucking. The demon slowly rocked his hips back and forth, arms around the other man, and hands wandering histoned body. I stared as the man being defiled moaned and thrust his hips, too, his long stiff cock bobbing with his movements. But it was the unnamed creature behind him that had all of my attention.
He didn’t wear odd trousers, no, his lower body was covered in tiny shimmering scales that sparkled deep blue or vibrant red in the light of the flames. Over his ass and up his back was the same with the struts of his wings also glimmering. The rest of his wings, the parts that caught the wind, were a solid matte black with veins that glowed with a golden light, like they were filled with liquid fire.
I couldn’t look away. Only once before had I witnessed men engaged in such an act, but it had been perfunctory and passionless at best. This? These two men reveled in their pleasure, spoke of it aloud, demanded more and faster. When the winged man began to stroke the other’s cock in time to his thrusts, I gasped to realize that I wanted to come with them.
When it happened, when the man being fucked shot his ecstasy toward the fire and the other man hugged him from behind, I felt tears fill my eyes. Why? I didn’t know. They both moaned their climax, hands gripping each other, and managed to turn and kiss. This wasn’t a fulfillment of sexual need. This looked like…love. More tears built until I had to dash them away.
Which was when I realized there were other men ringing those two lovers. They lounged on pillows, all naked, all pleasuring themselves, and one by one coming in their own fists. Their low-lidded eyes were all on the two men at the center of them.
And I knew one of them. I’d believed he was dead, but I could never forget his face because it was so like my own. He was the man I’d looked up to for my entire life. The one I’d come here to avenge.
My brother Phineas was alive.
And living in a den of sin with a dragon.
Three
THE DRAGON’S HOARD
Everything happened so fast. One moment I was aroused, the next shocked, and then rage set in. Phineas must be a captive and participating in this degenerate behavior against his will simply to stay alive. That was the only plausible explanation. Theonlyone.
Despite my muscles shaking and lungs burning, I raised my sword and gave a yell, loosing all my anger and aiming it at the winged man. He’d defiled a human right before my eyes and maybe had them all too afraid to resist. He needed to die, and I would kill him.
