Page 49 of Beneath Scales and Shadows
Or form he was in—a human wearing an enchanted mask, dragoon, or dragon.
His crimson eyes widened, pupils expanding until only a thin ring of color remained. She felt small perched on his lap, yet powerful too.
The silver scales along her skin caught the moonlight, shimmering like stars scattered across her flesh. As they brushed against his ruby and gold, the contrast was breathtaking—like starlight tangled with treasure, radiant and impossibly beautiful.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” she whispered against his maw. “But with you... I feel comfortable. Safe.” She needed him to understand this wasn’t about biology or prophecy or fate. “And it’s not about this alpha-omega hierarchy everyone keeps forcing on me. It’s you. The way you defend me, respect me, care for me… I want that.”
She pressed her forehead against his chest, her long blonde hair cascading around her, creating a curtain to shield her burning face from his view.
Her heart hammered against her ribs, as she wondered if she’d made a mistake. Dragons didn’tkiss—and here she was on top of his lap craving his attention.
She loved feeling the heat radiate from his scaled form, the smoky scent of his skin, and the way his tail twitched, covering her feet.
Electricity sparked where they connected, a current running to her core, making her slick with need. Her thoughts wandered, imagining what it would feel like to be filled by him. She tried to reason through it: what would his cock be like? How would it fit inside her?
“Your words please me.”
His purr deepened, vibrating through her where their bodies touched, and suddenly he was lifting her as though she weighed nothing.
His clawed hands found her thighs, gripping them with a possessive tenderness that sent ripples of anticipation through her body. Her core pressed against him, dripping with need… she’d had to force herself from grinding against his warmth.
“Leading the clan—it’s a weight I carry alone,” he rumbled, his voice rough with emotion as he gazed down at her. “My council, my friends, they’re loyal, fierce. But none stand beside me as an equal. No partner. No mate. Until you came… and gave me hope.”
When he claimed her mouth again, she yielded without hesitation, opening to him as his forked tongue traced hers. The taste of him—smoke and ancient magic—filled her senses, drowning out any doubts ofhowthey could work.
Filling her in ways she couldn’t fathom…
His scale patterns felt somehow familiar against her palms as she slid her hands to the base of his wings, feeling the powerful muscles tense beneath her touch.
“I’ve waited for you,” he whispered against her lips, the words a brand upon her soul. “Through decades of solitude, through the slow diminishing of my kind, I’ve waited for the one who would see me—not as king, not as dragon, not as an alpha—but as Ignis.”
Tears pricked behind her eyes. How could fate be so cruel yet so kind? To tear her from one world only to give her something more precious than she’d ever known.
“I’m caught between worlds,” she confessed. “Between who I was and who I’m becoming.” She traced the scales along his jaw, marveling at their smoothness beneath her fingertips. “But with you, I feel... like home. Like this could be my home.”
Their bodies so different, their worlds apart.
Yet as his wings curved tighter around her, sheltering her from everything but him, those doubts dissolved like mist under sunlight. She didn’t just want this to work—she needed it to, craved it with an intensity that bordered on madness.
His loneliness resonated within her, a perfect mirror to the emptiness she’d carried for so long.
The emptiness she’d carried all her life—the loneliness that had followed her through lecture halls and dusty archives, through quiet apartments and solitary research. She’d longed for a companion—a partner—to share her victories and discoveries with…
It’d been years since she’d had anything remotely serious—and yet, on his lips, in his arms, surrounded by his wings—she believed she could make it work.
The weight of decades pressed on his shoulders—watching his clan dwindle, ruling alone, waiting for a prophecy that might never come true. She wanted to ease that burden, to stand beside him not just as his mate but as his partner—his equal.
“You’re my bridge, between Earth and Artania, between human and dragon, between lost and found,” she breathed against his maw, her hands sliding up to grip the curved horns that crowned his head. “Please help me cross it…”
Her boldness triggered something primal in him. A growl—deeper than his purr, rawer—rumbled from his chest as he buried his face in the curve of her neck, inhaling deeply. His tongue flicked against her pulse point, tasting the rapid beat of her heart beneath her skin.
“Let me be your guide,” he soothed, his voice deep and rumbly. “Tell me what you want.”
“I want you.” She closed her eyes, exposing more of her neck to him, submitting to his touch. “All of you.”
“You smell divine, my sweet Sora,” he murmured, voice rough with barely contained need. His hand shifted from her thigh, talons carefully retracted as his palm skimmed upward, finding the heat between her legs. “Already so wet, so needy.”
A moan escaped her as his touch sent lightning through her veins. Her skin burned everywhere—scales shimmering brighter as her body responded to him—as if her body was melting onto his. She arched against his hand, seeking more, needing relief from the ache building within her—hoping he was willing to provide.
