Page 46

Alina

Eight Months Later

“IS THAT ALL YOU’VE GOT?” Raelan arches a dark brow at me, his lips quirked into a challenging smirk. “Really?”

Thin morning sunlight slips through the big windows in my bedchamber, though it shifts with the movement of clouds across the sky.

It’s been raining for three days, and the fires have been burning nonstop, trying to chase the unseasonably cool chill away.

But I’ve got my own personal fire, one that never burns out.

And right now, I’ve got him pinned beneath me, my legs on either side of his chest, his wrists trapped in my hands. I struggle to hold him down, gritting my teeth as he pushes back against me, as though I weigh no more than a loaf of bread .

With a smirk of my own, I call my magic to my hands, shackling his wrists to the bed with ice. He blinks at me, then turns his head to regard his glimmering manacles. I sit up and cross my arms, victorious.

Seems my first year of magical studies paid off.

But then, with what appears to be very little effort, he shatters right through the ice, sending the glittering chunks skittering across my hardwood floor, where the fire in the hearth quickly turns them to water.

“Silly witch.” Raelan wraps an arm around my waist and flips me onto my back. The mattress catches me in a soft embrace. “Don’t you know better than to try to best a dragon?”

I sigh and roll my eyes at him. “I’ve got three more years at the academy. By then, I think you’ll have met your match.”

Raelan gives me a smile. “We’ll see.”

His gaze goes to my throat. Softly, he pushes my braid aside, revealing the scar that marks my skin. Even now, all these months after his claiming of me, the scar tissue still tingles whenever he touches it, as if the magic he gave me recognizes when he’s near, calls out to him, yearns for him.

I wiggle an arm out from under him and trace his stubbled jaw—he’ll most certainly shave before we return to Coven Crest today—then allow my fingers to drift down his throat. He has his own scars, those left behind from the magic in the chain that bound him for so many years. Since his claiming of me, he’s not needed that magic once. It’s as if his dragon has willingly allowed itself to be comforted, softened .

Though never tamed.

I want him to remain wild, to keep that hunger for freedom alive in his bones. Because I feel it too. And I want to be free with him.

He’s my dragon, my mate. My equal in every way.

Except when it comes to chess. Then he’s hopeless, and I’ll best him every time.

My fingers wrap about his jaw, and I pull him close. His lips meet mine, and I tug him down atop me, wanting to feel his weight against my chest, between my thighs. I ease my legs around him, feel the slip of my satin nightdress as the fabric inches up my thighs.

His groan is a rumble in his chest. Against mine, his skin grows hot.

Then there’s a sharp knock upon my door.

“Your Highness? Are you awake?”

It’s Ms. Fairhaven. And I know her well enough to know that I’ve got about ten seconds before she opens the door.

Breaking our kiss, I shove Raelan under the covers, then pull them over his head and arrange my face into a mask of sleepiness right as Ms. Fairhaven opens the door.

When she sees me still in bed, she arches a brow at me. “Your Highness, you know you’re leaving today to return to school. The carriage is already packed, yet you dawdle.”

“Sorry, Ms. Fairhaven.” I give her my most innocent smile. “I’ll get up right away. And I’ll take breakfast downstairs today. Would you please inform the kitchen staff?”

She huffs out a sigh and puts her fingers to her temple like I’m already causing her a headache. “Very well. But make haste. Even a princess should not cause others to wait!” she calls over her shoulder as she leaves my room, closing the door behind her.

I can just barely hear her footsteps as they cross my sitting room, then the click of the door as she leaves my chambers. And as soon as she’s gone, I feel the tickle of fingertips along the inside of my leg, creeping from my knee up.

Then kisses follow. My breath hitches in my chest.

Raelan’s mouth trails up my thigh, each kiss lingering longer than the last. And when he presses a kiss to my clit through my thin panties, I gasp, clutching the comforter in my grasp.

“R-Raelan,” I whisper. “You know we have to go. We don’t have time.”

“I can be quick,” he mumbles, sending pleasant vibrations through me, causing me to open my lips with a silent moan. “I promise.”

Then one of his sharp claws slices right through my panties, and I’ve only a moment to catch my breath before he’s spreading my thighs and burying his head between my legs. He laps at my slit, licking me like I’m sweetened ice at a summer festival. And when he pushes his tongue inside me, I let out such a loud gasp that I’m certain anyone walking by in the hallway outside would be able to hear it.

“Shh, princess,” Raelan whispers after pulling his tongue from me, his words muffled by the comforters still tossed over his head. “You know I’m not supposed to be here. You’re being very bad, allowing a man into your bed like this... ”

I don’t have a chance to respond, because then his lips are around my clit, and one of his fingers is sliding inside me. His tongue works magic. He alternates between sucking and flicking and licking, to the point where I’m trembling, speechless, unable to think of anything but cumming for him.

My body goes rigid, my pleasure about to peak. In one movement, Raelan is on top of me, tossing the comforter aside, his length sliding inside me. Once he’s buried in my warmth, his cock grows bigger—his dragon slipping through. I groan at the stretch of my pussy, and his lips lift into a lazy smile. No matter how many times he fucks me, it still feels like the first time, like that autumn evening on the couch while rain battered the cottage roof.

Raelan lowers himself onto his forearms and begins pressing kisses to my claiming mark, making the skin tingle. I’m still on the edge from his ravishment of my clit, ready to tumble into bliss only he can give me. So it only takes a few thrusts of his hips, with Raelan’s weight grinding against my clit, and I’m grasping the bedsheet, crying out with a moan he muffles with his mouth.

I taste myself on his lips, feel his desire in every thrust as I throb around him, soaking us both. And just when I know he’s nearing his peak, I break our kiss and lock my ankles around his low back, trapping him inside me. He pulls back, a concerned wrinkle in his brow.

“Alina, what are you—”

“It’s okay,” I whisper, flicking my gaze to a purple potion bottle sitting on my bedside table. One of Grandfather’s witches made it for me, a tonic to ensure I don’t get pregnant—at least until I decide to. But it’s our little secret. For now, everyone else thinks it’s for stress headaches brought on by my studies at the academy.

“Are you sure?” Raelan whispers. His pupils are slits, gold flecks starting to appear in his eyes. His shoulders are already glimmering with black scales.

With a nod, I capture his mouth once more, then tighten my ankles around his low back, driving him into me.

One of his hands fists in my hair, the other crushing the sheet in a white-knuckled grasp. He pounds himself into me, making the sturdy bed frame groan beneath us. And when his body goes rigid and his breath catches, I tighten my pussy around him.

And for the first time, he spills his pleasure inside me, filling me with heat as I smother his moans with my mouth. His body shakes, his chest heaving with every breath.

Our bond burns, licking my insides with fire. It makes my veins twirl with delight, with a hunger fully and completely satisfied.

I unlock my ankles from around Raelan’s back, then pull him down onto the pillow beside me. Slowly, his pupils return to normal, though the gold flecks remain—those are always the slowest to leave.

The light in the room shifts, illuminating the scars around his throat. With the most delicate touch I can muster, I lean in and press my lips to his skin, to every spot where once he burned.

Beneath my lips, his pulse flutters, and he lets out a contented sigh .

“Raelan?” I whisper.

“Hmm?”

I press myself to him, threading my arms around his chest and nestling my head beneath his chin. Our bond flares with heat again as I whisper, “I’m glad I’m yours. I don’t want to be anyone else’s.”

His arms come around me, holding me so firm I know he’ll never, ever let go. There’s a long moment of silence—so long, in fact, that I wonder if he just fell back asleep. Then, atop my head, his whisper a brush of heat, he says, “Does that mean you’ll marry me?”

I jerk up so fast that the entire mattress bounces. Beneath me, sprawled on the pillow, Raelan smiles.

“Are you serious?” I ask. My heart is pounding now. “Or is this a joke?”

Mother and Grandfather have been teasing Raelan about marriage since the day we returned from the little cottage in the woods. At first, he seemed petrified by the idea, and their jokes are always quick to make him flush. But right now, all I feel through our bond is warmth and joy—no fear to be found.

“Not a joke.” Raelan’s smile falters, giving way to a seriousness that smolders like embers in his eyes. His fingers find my cheek, and he twirls a strand of my hair around his finger. “Not now. Not right away. But after you graduate, when you’re ready... Will you marry me?”

Without meaning to, I let out a squeal and dive at Raelan, making him grunt as I tackle him into the bedding.

His laughter is a rumble beneath my ear. “Is that a yes? ”

I squeeze him as tight as I can, heart racing inside my rib cage. “Yes,” I whisper. Then I sit up and press a kiss to his mouth. When I pull away, we’re both smiling. “Of course I’ll marry you, Raelan Ashvale.”

His smile is dazzling. Our bond sings.

And I know that no matter what happens in this life, no matter the challenges that come my way, I’ll always be okay.

Because I’ll always have my dragon .

THE END

Thank You for Reading!

Thank you so much for reading A Witch and Her Dragon , the first book in the Coven Crest Academy series.

If you’d like to leave a review of this book (which would be amazing! ), you can do so by clicking here . Every review helps, and I truly appreciate it!

If you love gentle monsters in your spicy romance, you may want to pick up the next book in the series, A Witch and Her Minotaur .