Chapter Twenty-Seven
Bastian
I’d been through too much over the past few days. Laryn took me over the edge and nothing but fury clouded my vision. I hit him, causing the two of us to spiral downward. I vaguely heard Acasia’s cry, but I had one goal—Laryn’s head separating from his body.
I managed to flap my wings a few times before we hit the ground, but it didn’t help the pain of the impact. Laryn rolled, and instead of coming up on his feet, he shifted, making himself completely defenseless against me. He lay awaiting certain death. My roar vibrated through the air and the ground beneath us, but he didn’t move or shift.
I stopped, shook my head, and fire spewed from between my jaws. My eyes almost popped from my head when Acasia landed in front of Laryn.
Laryn, his voice defeated, spoke out, “No, my lady, let it be.”
Acasia looked over her shoulder at a naked Laryn, which only ignited my rage to a higher level if that was possible.
“Shush, Laryn. Your grief makes you an idiot. I have trouble believing you’d have survived this long if you were so stupid all the time. If you ever touch me without MY permission, I will bite off your hand and swallow it whole. Now be quiet while I calm my mate. We were in a wonderful sexual position when three dragons interrupted us. I would like to get back to pleasing my dragon and not saving your worthless hide.”
She walked closer before finally stopping to face me. The other two dragons landed. No one spoke; they waited for me to kill Laryn. As quickly as my anger had risen, it melted. My brain started working again. I’d proven my worth for my mate by not seeking immediate vengeance and placing her before my pride. Now she stood between that same pride and my lifelong friend.
I turned away. “Sarn and Tahr, would you mind seeing Laryn out of my territory? As my mate said, we have unfinished business.”
I rose into the air leaving the others behind. Acasia rose too. It felt as if an invisible thread ran between us; I just hadn’t realized what the pull was. Instead of flying to the perch, I headed to the tower. There was another way my mate could please me.
I slowed as she swooped through the columns. Her great head turned in curiosity, and I flew up close behind her. My talons sank into her shoulders and I nudged her long neck with my chin.
“What are you doing, dragon?”
“Claiming my mate, and it won’t be complete until it’s happened in dragon form.”
“What?”
“You heard me.” Holding my laughter back after the shocked tone of her question was difficult.
“I have a rather large erection that needs taking care of.” I pushed her lower inside the tower as I spoke.
“Bastian, you cannot.”
“Oh yes, my fair lady dragon, I can.” Our landing was a little harder than expected, but her startled gasp gave me a chance to curl my legs under her back ones. My jaws opened and clamped on her neck.
I proved a dragon would have his mate in any form, and she loved it.
***
Acasia
Six months later…
“I will kill you, dragon.” My roar rivaled my mate’s. I couldn’t find him. A few days before, I’d discovered I was pregnant after feeling poorly. Bastian informed me he’d smelled the change in my body several weeks ago, but hadn’t said anything. I was angry then, but nothing like I felt right now after reading the book he gave me on dragon lore. “Where are you, you red spawn of a demon?” The name fit on occasion and this was one of them.
Five minutes later, I found him at the bottom of the tower.
The nerve. He had bolts of cloth, unfurling them and spreading them in piles around the floor. In stunned disbelief, I watched him fluffing the material into a large circle. Fire exploded from my jaws catching the material on fire.
Bastian looked up at me while I rested on the perch a hundred feet in the air. “That was childish.”
Oh, the nerve. “You bastard.”
“Tsk. Tsk. Now I need to raid the coffers again and find material soft enough for my lady.”
“You are out of your fucking mind.” I flew off the perch and attacked his head. He dropped to the floor, and I could see his chest rising and falling with laughter.
“You just couldn’t keep your hands off me in dragon form and now this… this… and you laugh.”
He rolled over and looked up at me unable to hide his mirth. “The book has been in the library the entire time. You could have found it and read about the mating habits of dragons.”
I landed, my disgust taking words from my throat. I had too many thoughts on how I could kill him.
Click, click, click.
My talons hit the stone floor.
Click, click, click.
Bastian’s eyebrows lifted.
I speared him with my red eyes.
“I am not,” smoke left my nostrils, “laying an egg.”