Chapter Four

Wesley bent and twisted hot iron in his grip so that the ends broke off into branches. Pressing small bits of hot iron between his thumb and his forefinger, he shaped small leaves that he could attach to the branches. His project was coming together, but it was almost mindless work.

That left his thoughts with the ability to wander in any direction they wished. The beast inside of him guided those thoughts back to the woman he met earlier. He thought of the wall of dark hair that had covered her face. Only when she had looked up to scowl at his presence had the veil fallen to reveal an elegant nose and perfect lips that begged for his attention. The lower lip had been ripe and full, holding the Cupid’s bow upper lip that he wanted to trace with his thumb.

Wes shook his head, trying to dispel his beast’s thoughts. He was grateful that he’d remained in his dragon form while in the woman’s presence or else he didn’t know what he would have done. If she’d let him, maybe he would have taken her right then and there. His mind might have been clear of her, but tourists could hardly be trusted.

He’d seen how some women had taken the news of the dragons, daringly trekking into the Snowdonia territories to beg a dragon to take her as his mate. It didn’t work that way, no matter how much they pleaded. Those kinds of women, the fan girls, were never dragon mates. They weren’t cut from the right cloth.

No matter how attractive she was, the tourist woman wasn’t mate material. Not if she was one of the fan girls.

Unable to control his thoughts, Wesley set aside his project. The sun had dipped below the horizon and it was clear that he still had far more energy humming through his body than this project could consume. He had to find something else.

He put out the fire in the bellows and put away his tools. The posts of the bed laid on the floor of the forge, just pieces of something that Wes wasn’t even sure that he needed. As long as he was alone in his home, sleeping on the couch was just fine. Sure, he had his own room and a mattress that he clothed in sheets just to appease his human mother’s sensibilities, but the emptiness of the room often echoed too loudly for him in there. More often than not, he would simply stagger inside and throw himself down onto a couch, immediately falling into sleep.

The bed frame, once constructed, would be a massive thing. The branches would rise and curl toward the raised ceiling of the highest room in the tower. During the summer months, he imagined his future mate hanging flowers from the branches or draping gauzy fabric over them so it felt like their own private world while he took her.

The only problem was as the images arose in his mind, the woman in each of them was the scornful creature that he’d come across earlier. The scowl was gone, replaced by a soft smile that she shared just for him as she laid back on the bed he’d made for her.

He cursed loudly. It had been a long time since he’d gone into the city and laid with a woman. That had to be the reason his mind was filled with the thoughts of the woman. It had been the first time that he’d laid eyes on a woman that wasn’t a dragon’s mate in what felt like years. Of course, his hormones had pushed him to claim her as his own if only to fulfil urges that should have been met a long while ago.

Wes had to do something. He needed to fill his mind with thoughts of something else. He glanced in the direction of the city, knowing that it was a bad idea. Leaving the territory without the silver binding was not only forbidden by his father, but by his government. Honor had him marching inside his tower. He replaced the sweat pants for a pair of jeans that he knew framed his ass.

He ripped open the drawer, its contents bouncing about from the force. The silver band jumped forward. A long sigh escaped him. Inside of him, his beast shook his massive body. Candles fell from the hearth mantle behind Wesley. He glanced over his shoulder at the mess that his beast had made.

It’s the only way that we can leave. We need to rut something fierce. It’s the only explanation.

Inside of him, the beast rolled its eyes. Wesley agreed that the binding was strange and uncomfortable, but it would make him feel better. He did not want to tell his father that he planned on leaving the territory, but at the same time he wanted to follow some of the rules in case he was caught. It would be just his luck that he would run into his mother on her way home from work.

Wesley grabbed the plain silver band from the drawer and pushed it up his arm so that it sat high on his forearm. His muscle protested at the binding, but inside of him there was nothing but ringing silence. It was almost painful in how uncomfortable it was, but he also knew that this was not a night in which pleasuring himself would suffice. He needed the touch of another.

Since flying into the city clearly wasn’t going to happen, between the binding and how conspicuous it was, Wes turned to the old truck that was parked beside the tower. He ran it from time to time, mostly when he needed to drive it over to his mother when she wanted to drive something large into the territory. He wasn’t a fan of being confined inside of a metal box, but it would do for the night. He flipped the visor and a key fell into his hand.

His father would kill him if he ever found out what he was doing. Wes should wait for the next night that they were allowed to go into town, but he didn’t know if he could live with the thoughts of her filling his mind night after night. She would drive him insane if he couldn’t lay his hands on another woman and drive her from his mind.