Chapter Two
Being taken by the green-eyed man who also happened to be a dragon, put a massive black stain on Marea's life. Not to mention that by the time the dragon dropped her off at his lair, she was shaking from the cold, her teeth chattering, her delicate skin purpling from the bitter night wind.
The location seemed to be on a distant mountain, up a steep slide, where a hollowed-out cavern existed, leading to the dragon's home. He carried her inside with one arm raised in dragon form, making him lurch forward every front step, until they made it to the end, and Marea, shivering and shivering, noticed that for a nefarious dragon, he seemed to have a lot of human furniture in his abode, past the main entrance which was wide enough for him to wade into. He dropped her on the floor, and she stuck herself to the carpet. She watched in horrified fascination as his form contracted from the scaly green monster with rows upon rows of dagger sharp teeth, to the emerald eyed human, who still wore his fake guard uniform. He examined the shaking Marea critically, strong hands placed on his hips, before he bent down to where she lay in a flop on the carpeted floor, and placed a finger under her chin. He lifted her head up, until she stared into his powerful gaze, feeling swallowed up by his presence, along with her fear and weakness. She felt like an icicle, unable to think properly, or resist anything.
“My first princess,” the dragon murmured, now running a hand over her face. It burned against her skin, hot with cold, sending throbbing pain in her cheek. She whimpered, and the dragon pursed his lips, before hauling her over his shoulder, and pacing through the brazier lit cave, where shadows danced upon the walls, along with casting strange shapes over the landscape paintings of the Wilderness, and a sculpture of a knight. If anything, the dragon's place seemed rather cluttered, living up to his race's reputation as hoarders.
Marea wondered what fate awaited her if she didn't freeze to death first. They now went up a stairwell, and ended up in a large room.
A tower. Of course a dragon will have a tower to keep me in. She groaned as he placed her down by a copper tub, with water already in it.
“Got this beauty from a witch,” the dragon said. “The Tub of Plenty. Always refreshes its water for washing. Always warm. Witches are ingenious creatures, really...”
The dragon, ignoring the weak protests from Marea, ripped off her undergarments, leaving her as naked as a newborn.
She'd never shown herself like this to anyone. No man had ever seen her naked, though sometimes she dreamed of being ravished by a devastatingly handsome prince, who might sneak into her room after a feast and carefully peel off her clothes one by one.
No prince was destined for her, it seemed. Her chest trembled as the dragon allowed his emerald eyes to scour over her form for a moment, before picking her up and dumping her in the tub. The explosion of warmth over her body from the previously biting cold made her sigh. The dragon helped support her head as she gradually warmed up in the miniature sea of bliss from the tub – which never seemed to lose its temperature.
What a marvellous enchantment, Marea thought absently, though she was sure if she ever came face to face with the witch responsible for this tub, she'd be cannibalized. The women of the wild were savage, and everyone knew witches to be tricky and mischievous.
With a perchance for hot tub enchantments.
Whatever delicacies the dragon gave to her now, she knew that it depended on the dragon himself what would happen to her.
She originally assumed dragons just kept their princesses locked up in towers, waiting for the knights to come so they could defeat them.
The fact they could transform into humans added a whole new level onto the situation. One where the dragon could use and abuse her to his whim.
Naked in the tub, she trembled whenever his rough hand slid over her breast, tangled up in her hair, or dipped dangerously low, to her well-trimmed nether regions. She was powerless in this position, and she didn't know whether to be terrified out of her mind, accepting of the situation, or even to find it thrilling. She was far removed from her protection, locked under the mercy of a dragon.
At one point, with her eyes shut as she warmed up, he leaned forward to whisper into her ear, “By the way... my name's Kazak.”
Kazak. How... dragony. Marea assumed he already knew her name, and didn't deign to answer. The insubordinate human who lipped her in the garden, turned out to be a fire breathing shape-shifting dragon. Her heart had already gone through far too many surprises in a short space of time. Marea wasn’t sure how many more she could handle.
She gasped in the tub when he bit down on her ear, and let his hands glide over her chest for a moment, the water sloshing over the edges. Her cheeks flared, and a part of her soul ignited from the contact, sending vibrations through her spine. She was gradually transforming into an electrical storm on the inside as everything became supercharged, fraught with tension so tight it could be cut with a knife.
Oh no. He could take me and there’s nothing I can do. I’ll be made impure.
The thought should terrify her. She wasn't supposed to do anything out of hand, to deflower herself to anyone other than the prince who she'd marry. Not that all the princesses stuck adherently to those particular rules. It didn't make her quail as much as she expected, however. A shameful kind of blush crept through her body. Powerless. At another person's mercy.
“I should have had you executed,” Marea murmured.
Kazak laughed, as he went to grab some towels, before he hauled her out of the tub. “I think you would have had a bad time, princess, trying to execute me.” A dark grin lifted his lips as he deliberately allowed his fingers to trail over her left and right nipples. To her annoyance, the nipples pebbled under his touch, reacting to the stimulus.
The dragon's eyes dilated slightly, before he wrapped the towels around her, rubbing her skin gently with the material. Any moment, against her will, he could take her, but instead chose to act in this suggestive, teasing manner. Testing the boundaries. Seeing what stirred beneath her royal surface, buried under layers of protocol, and the rose mask she wore.
Those eyes devoured her as she was rubbed dry, his hands firm against her skin, generating an almost painful friction that helped wake up her brain, and remind herself that she was alive, and not a frozen ice stick. When she finally clambered into the bedsheets, with new clothes on her that were slightly too big even for her broad shoulders, she began to calm down. His clothes? Speaking of clothes, she wondered how he came across the uniform he wore. The normal way? Or did he kill someone to wear that outfit?
She didn't want to think about that as her eyes fluttered shut, and she curled up in the heavy sheets of the bed. Far away from home. Too far to be saved.
What sort of things would she be subject to? She never studied the lessons about what dragons preferred to do with their princesses. She remembered something about towers, because that was the one basic fact everyone knew, and she certainly was in one now. What did dragons even do, anyway? Just collect treasure and ravage villages? Did they have a society? A reason to do these things?
All the thoughts whirled in her head like a storm. The warmth of the bed tugged at her, lulling her thoughts into some form of sleep, though she dreaded what the next day would bring.
She also knew, somewhere in the darkness, as he turned off the enchanted braziers, that he was watching her. Studying his new catch.