6
Adan
—
Within me, my dragon roars triumphant as my asafura cries out in pleasure.
She shudders as she climaxes, crying my name, gripping me in her wet heat so tightly that I groan as I thrust into her. She pulls me to the finish with her, my cock throbbing as she milks every last drop from me into her soft body.
We share another kiss in the aftermath. I roll off of her but hold her to me. Even though we barely know each other, I’m already addicted to her scent and her supple skin against my palms.
This human female named Xia is who my dragon claims as my asafura. My fire’s half. I’m hesitant to accept this as truth because she is not a rur draki nor capable of breathing fire. Though I was without that ability for years too until I found her tonight.
Her eyes are closed but she is not asleep. I sense she is unwilling to look at me. So I take the opportunity to study her.
She is slight in frame with pale skin. Her hips are wide and perfect for my grip. Her small, round breasts are tipped dark-pink and taste as delicious as they appear. Her wavy hair hangs to her shoulders, the black strands lightened to dark-brown in the glow of the fire pit.
I’ve had few encounters with humans in my lifetime as they have been slaves to the Andrasari until Andrasar’s new Konai set them free. The only females I’ve bedded were Rur beings. While I’m still unsettled by this human female’s importance to me, I’m stunned by her beauty.
Her eyes are the same colour as her hair. When they are open, they’re filled with sadness and guilt I know too well. She has lost someone important to her and she blames herself for it.
Eventually, her breathing slows as she drifts off to sleep. Soon I follow after her.
In the morning, the fire pit is no longer lit so it is cold. Yet the light reaches in, shooing away some of the darkness.
Shivering, Xia rises from the furs and retrieves her dried clothing. She dresses with her back turned to me. When she is finished, she slings her bag over her shoulder and she turns, meeting my gaze briefly before she looks away.
“Thanks,” she says, her voice as cold as the air surrounding us. “Thanks for rescuing me from the storm.”
Her fingers tighten around her bag’s strap and she pivots toward the den’s entrance.
I sit up. I don’t want her to leave. Her presence roused my dragon from what I’d believed was a permanent slumber. Now it storms within me, adamant that she is mine to take, to hold, to keep.
“Where are you headed?” I stand and follow her.
Xia pauses but she doesn’t turn to face me.
“Away.”
“Away is anywhere and nowhere,” I say. “But if you tell me an exact location perhaps I can take you.”
I step in front of her and she immediately sweeps her gaze over my naked body. Colour fills her cheeks and she narrows her eyes at me.
“When humans came to Rur, they trusted the word of a draki that they were welcomed. But what they got was nearly thirty years of enslavement.” She purses her lips, her dark eyes flashing with anger. “I won’t make the same mistake as my ancestors.”
Last night, I learned that Xia’s mind is as sharp as her tongue. Yet under my touch, she transformed into a soft, pliant creature who sweetly moaned my name. It wouldn’t have surprised me if she had returned to her prickly nature this morning, but her expression confuses me.
It’s as if she despises me.
“You asked me to kill you when I picked you up from the snow, but I did not. You gave yourself to me and, after, you slept beside me soundly.” I hold her stare. “Such contradictory behaviour for someone who does not trust a draki.”
“Maybe the cold eroded my judgement,” she says, but she shifts her gaze away from mine. She tries to circumvent me and I rest a hand on her shoulder, halting her.
“It’s not safe for you to be out there on your own,” I say. “It is winter season. There will be more snowstorms like the one you encountered last night. Let me take you beyond Seca.”
She parts her lips. I’m certain she’s about to reject my offer again and march out of the den on her own.
“Fine.” She exhales sharply as though giving in to accepting my help has made her weary. “I had a companion but I… she left. I have to find her. The last time I saw her was just before I entered Seca. She turned back toward a cave she said she’d seen. If you can take me there—what?”
My frown deepens. “That was an unwise thing for your friend to do. Many of the caves in the north are home to dangerous and territorial creatures.” I give her a tight smile when her eyebrows climb in alarm. “All will be well. I’m certain your friend is safe.”
My words of encouragement lack conviction and I am angry with myself for the worry furrowing her brow. Retrieving one of the sections of fur we slept on, I wrap it around Xia’s shoulders because she is severely under-dressed for Seca’s freezing temperatures.
She looks up at me with an indecipherable expression, but it’s her pink lips that hold my attention. I want to taste them again like I did last night. Savour the feel and flavour of her. Enjoy her moans and her gasps of pleasure as she gives herself entirely to me.
I guide her to the den’s entrance. Outside, the fresh snow forms hills. A mist hangs low, and the mountains are dark shapes rising up in the distance.
Xia squints into the stark brightness surrounding us, hissing from the cold attacking her face.
She eyes my bare chest. “Aren’t you freezing?”
“Somewhat. My tolerance is higher after enduring over thirty years of this climate.”
“Everything looks the same,” she says, her forehead creased in worry as she surveys the expanse of white. “I don’t remember which direction I came.”
“North of Seca is a frozen wasteland of death.” I indicate the areas as I speak. “East and west of it is the sea. You would have entered at the south from Yohai but the border separating the two regions is wide. Do you remember anything specific when you first arrived?”
“Only snow. Lots of it.” She looks to the floor, frowning and tapping her lips with her forefinger in concentration. I file away this quirk about her in my memory. When she lifts her head, her eyes shine with satisfaction. “I saw mountains!”
“Seca is overrun with mountains. We stand on one as we speak.”
“Yeah but there were three of them that all looked the same. Huge.” She shields her eyes and scans the area. Then she points at the triple mountains barely visible in the mist. “There! I was walking toward them before the storm came.”
“Good.” I nod. “Have you ever ridden a draki before?”
“No, but one rode me.”
Her words clearly surprise her as well as me. She widens her eyes and bites her lips together. Her face turns pink beneath my slow smile. A filthy-minded creature with such an innocent face.
I like her.
I am also pleased this will be her first experience and she’s sharing it with me.
“When I shift, you will climb onto me and hold me around the neck,” I instruct her. “Tight as you can.”
“Won’t I strangle you? I don’t want you to pass out mid-flight.”
“I’m glad you are concerned for me but you do not have the strength to strangle a draki.”
“Sorry, but it’s not concern for you, it’s concern for me. I’m just making sure you won’t send us crashing to the ground to eat a faceful of snow.” She shudders. “I already endured an experience like that coming here.”
The candid way she speaks amuses me though I’m disturbed she nearly died coming to Seca. To think I was so close to never meeting her. In a short space of time, she has already made a significant impact on my life. Had she perished, I would never have known my fated mate existed. Would my dragon have roused from its sleep without her appearance? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
“How did you get here, Xia?”
Did the dragon mother herself pluck you from Andrasar and dropped you in Seca so that I could find you?
“My friend abducted me. She promised to take me to Tarro, instead she took us further and our cruiser crash landed in Yohai.”
Silently, I thank her friend. Xia’s arrival to Seca was not ideal, but at least she is here now. Knowing what she is to me, why do I assist her departure? Her gaze is expectant as she waits for me to shift. Yes, that’s why. She is not here by choice, but by chance. We are strangers despite sharing one incredibly intimate and amazing moment. She will not want to stay if I ask.
I can overpower her effortlessly. Take her captive and return to my den with her. But she has lived a life of enslavement and servitude to my kind. Instead of reinforcing her beliefs that all rur draki are callous monsters, I would prefer to change my asafura’s perspective of us.
My dragon answers my call immediately, dispelling my worry that its return was a temporary event.
My bones lengthen and grow, a tightening sensation racing over my body as my skin toughen into scales. My wings unfurl from my back. The power and euphoria of the shift makes me giddy, especially since it’s been so long since I’ve done it. Standing beside me, minuscule in comparison to my enormous size, Xia regards me with awe and fear.
Lowering my body so I would not seem so threatening, I wait for her to come toward me.
She remains rigid. Her features contorted as though she endures some inner struggle. She takes one step forward then stops, regarding me with distrust and anger. My dragon is upset that she regards us this way, but I tell it to be patient.
Finally, her features harden with determination and she strides forward. Her first touch is timid and delicate. The scent of her fear is so strong, I’m on the brink of returning to my primary form so I can console her that I will never hurt her.
Yet underneath that fear is strength and tenacity. She struggles her way up onto me, impeded by the heavy bundle of fur protecting her from the cold. She scoots higher so she can wrap her arms and legs around my neck, clinging to me fiercely.
When I raise myself onto my hind legs, she squeals. Then she screams when I spread my wings and shoot for the sky. Her arms lock tightly around my neck as I’d instructed her, and she presses her face against me to shield her face from the cold knifing at us.
Flying low toward the triple mountains, Xia’s sweet smell envelops me. Instead of searching for her friend and letting her walk out of my life, I want to return to my primary form and find another den where I can press my face to her skin and inhale her.
I need to focus on my task. Xia is shivering now. She is too unaccustomed to Seca’s temperatures. The fur cannot offer much protection for her against the cold during flight.
“Another storm is coming,” she shouts, the wind stealing her words. I hear her regardless.
Indeed, the sky is darkening, preparing to spill forth a fresh wave of snow. Zavi and kaha are probably worried that I have not returned as yet. I’m never gone this long on my hunting trips.
As we are about to go beyond Seca’s borders, I pick up a faint scent somewhat familiar to Xia’s. I head toward the source. Half-buried in the snow lies a human female.
“That’s my friend!” cries Xia.
As soon as I land near the human female, Xia scrambles off of me and races toward her. I shift to my primary form.
“Tess!” Xia drops to her knees beside her friend, her tone anguished. The human has an unhealthy pallor to her light-brown skin. Her eyes are closed, her clothing ripped in several places. Angry, red cuts mar her skin, the flesh on her left arm and leg savagely torn and bleeding into the snow surrounding her.
“What did this to her?” Xia asks, smoothing her hand over her friend’s forehead. Tears run freely down her face and I’m anxious to soothe her.
Kneeling, I can inspect her friend’s wounds, recognizing the bite marks.
“Cuhi.”
She must have heard the gravity in my tone because her eyebrows climb in alarm.
“What’s wrong? What are they?”
I hesitate to answer. “Large beasts with vicious claws. They don’t favour the snow in Seca so they remain in the caves in Yohai.” I pause. “Their bite is poisonous.”
“No. Oh no. She has to be alive.” Xia sobs. “She has to. I can’t lose her too. I can’t.”
The human female’s skin is cold. I’m uncertain how long she could have been lying here. I press my fingers to her neck, waiting for a sign of life. A faint, unsteady beat pulses against my fingertips.
I meet Xia’s anxious, tear-filled gaze.
“She is alive.”
“She’s alive,” Xia repeats, her voice thick with relief. “Thank the goddess.”
The sky grows darker. Despite the foreboding view, in it I see Kahafura’s gift to me amid the unpleasant circumstances.
It is her friend who brought her here to me.
And it is her friend who will make her stay.
“She needs medical attention. There are medics where I live. Come with me and let them save your friend’s life.”