CHAPTER FOUR

Theron circled, flapping his great dragon wings before he touched down on his own personal island prison. One of his own making. The others were gone. Good. It had taken him too long to realize that he was being played by a friend, but once he thought through the haze his thoughts had become beneath the fire of his claiming rage, it was easy enough to figure out what Cree was trying to do. Much the same thing his sister was doing with her letter that had to be delivered and said simply: Your fate is going to find you, no matter where you try to hide.

Lucky for him the sight of the coast markers of Seatown had jarred him enough that he realized what he was doing and why. He knew well enough that Clare was not frolicking with Lux, who he had to assume was the big blue bastard Cree had referred to so ingenuously. Lux was a knight of the light; he was not going to frolic with another man’s mate, and Clare... well, she was beautiful and spirited and so very young. She was not about to start something with a dragon like Lux. He had seen her show incredible courage at times, but mostly she was still a child Lux would intimidate almost as much as a near-insane wind talker and dragon lord would. Which was the main reason he was keeping his distance from others.

He wanted his mate. Something had happened in that cave when he removed the blood stone and nearly died. Something about the way her power had poured into him had bonded them as if he had truly marked her. She would not be able to touch anyone but him, and she was not old enough or strong enough to handle him yet. But if he saw her again he would not be able to stop himself from claiming her, and she was not ready for that. A full-grown woman, yes, but in many ways, she was still so young.

He had not realized he was pacing the beach, but something about knowing his mate was as close as Seatown, claiming her place, and sleeping in his bed had his power roiling inside him. He cursed his sister for her interference, his men for their tricks and his mate for being everything he wanted and nothing he could have. While he was going through the list in his head he felt something and turned to look to the sea. It was not a feeling he could say he had ever experienced before, but it was almost as if he was being hunted.

A great explosion of water heralded a massive serpentine beast coming out of the water at him. It moved so fast that even with his speed and ability to call the wind, all he had time for was to brace and lift his hands to keep it from his throat.

There had been stories of sea monsters living in these waters for years, ferocious beasts that would eat anything that came unwelcome to their coasts. He ought to know; he had started the rumors himself. Even as he wondered if he had missed something, or if this was a leftover unnatural beast that had not died when his father ran out of power, he scented her and immediately pulled back his claws that he had transformed to rake her sides. Not that it did any good. Whatever her hide was made of in this form, even dragon claws could not penetrate it. And they were both damn lucky that was the case, or she would have been seriously harmed.

While his anger rose at the thought of her in danger, his mate did not seem to have the same fears for him because he felt the tips of her diamond bright claws dig into his throat enough that he knew any movement on his part would cause damage even he would be hard pressed to heal. She shifted to her human form in all but claws. The claws she kept to his throat and for a moment he lost his breath at the sheer beauty of those green eyes suddenly so close to his. For his own peace of mind, he was grateful she was clothed.

"Do I have your attention?" Hearing that clear feminine voice he sometimes heard in his dreams had his body instantly going hard. Pressed as he was deep into the sand with that slender, light form holding him down, he growled. The thought to claim her nearly transplanted his fear for her safety. He gave not a thought for the claws pinning his throat with a grip entirely too strong for the female above him. Both feelings fought inside him until he pushed anger to the front.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

She narrowed her eyes further and he felt her own anger spike to spark against his. "I'm not the one who's bleeding."

The challenge of her tone and words forced another growl from his throat, and his dragon nature that had become less and less easy to control since his time with the blood stone shot straight to the fore, pushing back the thinking man with a nearly explosive need to both claim and tame his female. Neither of them took any notice of the changing weather, or the churning surf lapping the shore beyond their feet. Shifting the wind around them, he had her forced back off his neck and their positions reversed before she could react.

Theron forced his body under control and his face to show nothing of his weakness.

"You should know better than to start battles you have no hope of winning, little mouse."  His eyes went to her hair and he raised his hand to give the incredible silk of it a good tug. Her already angry eyes flashed green mage fire at him. He was too busy admiring them and reluctantly enjoying the feel of her to notice her magic blooming around them.

One minute he was fighting to hold onto his anger and sense, with every part of him wanting to further the claiming of the firebrand in his arms, and the next he was blasted back and splashed into the ocean when his fragile mate transformed into a giant squid and used a tentacle to throw him into the sea. He came out of the water roaring, fighting his own shift to dragon. Whatever calm he had forced was long gone. She was back to her human form and... smirking at him. His own power blossomed until he was nearly formed of sheer rage. Even the sight of her, so small and soft looking standing on the beach in tunic and trow, was not enough to return his thoughts to sense. Not when every inch of that small female mage body was challenging him.

"Still hiding?" she taunted. "The big bad dragon mage everyone is afraid of," she kept going even as his rage spiked, and his dragon side fought for supremacy, "with his big, scaly tail tucked between his legs because he can't handle..."

Whatever she was going to say, she never had the chance before the wind swooped in and picked her up, flinging her straight into his waiting arms with an explosive whoosh across the flying sand. He caught the surprise in her flashing mage eyes right before he kissed the taunting off those soft pink lips so hard his teeth drew blood. Whether his or hers he had no idea, because with the introduction of the blood between them the mating claim sizzled into bold electric life; after that neither of them had a chance.

Theron was cursing even as he felt the waves of lust and need crash over them both. This was what had him hiding here. He had known his control would never last if he saw Clare again, and if he could not control his beast, how could he keep one small mage female safe?

Clare felt the connection snap into place between them at the flash of pain at her lips and the coppery tang of her own blood. One second she wanted nothing more than to pummel her stubborn mate to the ground, and the next to bite him everywhere. She was too angry to fight the need, so she started with his shoulder, setting her teeth to his salty, sea-kissed skin and biting down. The sharp taste of his power was immediately followed by the tang of dark blood on her tongue.

He roared, his head rearing back as the need for blood changed to the need for other things. Without even thinking about the fact that dragon magic flooded them along with mage fire, she let her own magic loose. It mingled around them like a tsunami before crashing down. When she could form another thought she found they were both naked—dragon or mage magic she had no idea, only that she was on her back in the sand, this time without clothes or armor-like hide to blunt the feel of him pressing down on her.

His heat and magic touched every inch of her, inside and out, until he pressed the hardest hottest part of himself to the core of her and thrust inside. Then she understood what true connection was. Flashes of his life, what he saw when he looked at her, the hunger and the worry for her, the pain and fire that consumed him with the lust for the blood stone, nearly as strong as the pull she had on him, and his hollowed-out ache and loss of control of a dragon form that was nearly feral in his mind. She understood why he had stepped away from her. Understood and could not forgive.

Theron felt as if the splintered parts of his soul had finally found a place of healing when he entered the hot, soft body of his mate. He gloried in the feeling even as he saw his own life flashing between them. It was when her life and feelings followed on the heels of his that he understood the mistake he had made in underestimating his mate. A mistake he knew from their connection hurt her deeply. He felt her understanding of his motives and her anger as they happened, and he knew what she was going to do when she got the chance. He did not plan on giving her the chance.

Every scrap of power swelling within his warrior frame he turned to one purpose, claiming his mate. He felt her angry denial and did not just ignore it, he bulldozed over it, pressing the mating bond between them and holding her as close and as hard as he could. She would not escape him, no matter what she was thinking of now. They both knew it was impossible anyway, but he felt her determination to leave as soon as the bond was established, and she was no longer in pain, needing her mate.

He bit her viciously, unable to control the need to leave a permanent mark of possession on that soft body. Instead of fighting him off like he expected she groaned and he felt her contract around him in pleasure. Her magic both caressed and stung, showing him that though she was no longer fighting him, she was still angry.

Even in her anger she wrapped herself around him as tightly as she could and held on. Neither of them noticed the pelting rain or high winds. Neither of them noticed anything but skin and heat and friction. Theron tried to be gentle until Clare growled in his ear and bit him again, assuring him once again that she was not so easily broken.

He let himself loose then, wallowing in the scent and feel of his mate as he claimed her with a hard pounding, and even as savage as he was at that moment, she met him thrust for thrust. He knew she was innocent until that moment, knew he should have taken that into account and gone soft for this, her first time, but his core dragon self would not allow it, and neither would his mate. He pounded himself into her as if he would sear his name into her very flesh...and she reveled in it.

They flew apart together, the lightning and thunder drowning out their cries of pleasure, even as the reaching ocean lapped over their legs. And still they were oblivious to everything but each other. He kissed her, just as hard and hot and possessive as the last time, his hands moving over her just as ravenous for the feel of her despite the fact that he had already claimed her completely. His body readied itself for more, hardening, filling, even as he felt the aftershocks of the last explosion still shivering through his body and hers. She gasped with the first brush of sharp teeth on sensitive nerves, her neck arching when he moved out of her and shifted down her body, this time tasting every inch of her, even as he did not let up his relentless demands for more. His teeth marked her neck, her nipple, the under curve of both breasts. Clare shivered and arched against him, her own hands grasping any part of him that she could hold on to for purchase in the storm he continued to create around and in them, and still he claimed more.

If either of them had been in a place to notice anything but each other, the dark skies and driving rain might have given them pause, but in this case, all it did was slick already glistening bodies and abrade nerve ending already exposed, sizzling and misting as soon as it hit overheated skin. His wet, slick hair trailing over all her intimate parts only added to the sensations he was creating, and Clare came again, even before he reached the hot, wet heat of her core. This time when he marked her she screamed, so much sensation and the play of his teeth and tongue over her was too much; by the time he had licked and sucked her to the next peak she was nothing but writhing skin and exposed nerves. So when he came up and over her like the great beast he was, his eyes’ green fire reflecting like flickering shadows over her skin, she could not look away from him.

But oh, she wanted to. As beautiful as he was in that moment she wanted to look anywhere but in those power-filled eyes, and the dragon that stared back at her from their depths, because even with everything that had come before this was the moment where he claimed her with a look, a fierce heat she could not deny. As he thrust inside her one more time it was not her body that he finally branded, but her soul, and she understood what he had been afraid of when he stayed away from her. Too late, she knew to step away and re-think her mating. If she were honest with herself, it had been too late long ago. But now she knew she would have to be on her guard. Even as the pleasure bombarded her she hastily tried to shore her defenses against the dragon male coating his power like a blanket over her. Because she knew if she was not careful this man would take her over completely, and she would go...with a smile.