Page 36 of Destined By Dragonblood (Blood Born #2)
Dolyn
I woke from an erotic dream, sweating and dick leaking. Energy licked at my damp skin, heightening my pulse even though my heart thrummed with need.
Close .
I sat upright abruptly as I recognized the sensations swirling inside me.
Darkness, pitch black as a tomb to a human, didn’t keep my dragon’s sight from making out every detail of my bedroom.
The massive four-poster bed where I’d imagined fucking Vanni and Ashley, the washroom off to the side—and the lone pane of glass overlooking the valley far below.
I found myself striding across the warm rock floor and grasping the wooden frame of the window that was cloaked from the outside. Snow flew through the air, blinding my vision to within a mere twenty yards or so.
The beginnings of a mate bond shimmered through me, tugging me down—outside in weather no human would survive for very long.
My mates had come to find me.
I raced barefoot through the cavern to the old door leading to the veranda. The slap of my palm slid it inward, and I stepped back from its path until it opened enough I could slip through.
Wind slammed me in the face, sleet biting at my naked body, but heat exploded in my core as their waning energy reached through the swirling whiteness.
My fragile human mates, lost in the wilderness below, were on the verge of freezing to death.
A roar ripped from my throat, and giving over to my beast nature, I leaped off the veranda, shifting in a blink.
Our wings flapped and shot us forward like a bullet, our senses heightened.
We couldn’t see worth a shit in the storm, but the bond guided us downward—east and south toward our alpha and female.
My human half balked at the truth of the first but pushed thoughts of refusing to submit aside as the energy thickened between us, letting us know we drew nearer. Pain and numbness swirled from them, and our chest tightened, leaving us breathless.
Had hypothermia already set in? Were they beyond saving?
Another roar ripped from us, and we tucked our wings, diving as we pinpointed their location. The ground shook beneath us as we landed, and we stalked to an overhang and the two lumps huddled together somewhat out of the storm.
We blew a breath of warm air over them, immediately melting snow off their clothing, and Vanni slowly opened his eyes. The sense of loss and heartache emanating from him faded as his mouth worked.
“D-Dolyn?” he stuttered from the cold, his eyes widening.
Yes .
We hoped his inner dragon could hear us.
“Ashley…” Vanni turned, motioning stiffly toward her.
We focused our attention on our female. She lay unmoving beside him, her face and lips pale.
Another puffed exhale ruffled the snow-crusted hair around her face.
Reaching forward with our front foot and extended, curved claws drew a gasp from Vanni, but he didn’t move as we cradled Ashley and pulled her against our heated body.
She stirred, and the relief, the rush of peacefulness through her eased our mind.
Vanni looked into our eyes and stumbled to stand. “You’re fucking huge.”
A beast-like chuckle rumbled in our chest, and we settled back onto our haunches, holding out our other front foot.
Vanni moved into our grasp and wrapped his arms around our ankle. The trust he showed, the sense of rightness we felt having them grasped against our chest caused overwhelming emotion to swell through every inch of our scaled body.
We leapt into the sky, clutching our mates close, trying to shelter them the best we could from the elements as we flew toward home.
Pressed against our scales, they would feel the heat of the fire inside, the burning embers untouched by the cold.
And, with our claws wrapped mostly around their core, all vital inner organs would also be protected from the winter wind.
After what seemed like forever, not nearly fast enough, we touched down on the veranda.
Primrose threw open the door and hurried outside, a blanket wrapped around her flapping in the wind.
She whipped it off and wrapped it around Ashley as we shifted, my human half taking control.
I grabbed my female before she could fall to the ground and hurried inside, Primrose slipping beneath Vanni’s shoulder to help him along behind us.
A laser shot of dragon fire flew past my lips to the fireplace across the room, lighting the wood Primrose had stacked but never used because of the cavern’s natural heat. Flames flickered upward, quickly catching the dried logs.
Clutching Ashely to me, I knelt before the fire, sending all of my love, my warmth, my desire through the weak energy shimmering between us.
Vanni dropped to his knees beside me, and Primrose helped rid him of his frozen hat and gloves. He grumbled as she tried to peel his coat off him.
“The fuck are you?” Vanni muttered, his tiredness like a living thing eating at my mind.
“Dolyn’s granddaughter.”
Silence coated the cavern except for the snap of the fire before us as Vanni stared up at her. His gaze roamed over her long, gold hair and returned to her face. “You have his eyes.”
Primrose dipped her head, unsmiling, and tossed his coat aside.
“How the fuck old are you, Dolyn?” Vanni asked, his voice strengthening.
“Four hundred plus.”
“Shit.” He scooted closer, slipping Ashley’s hat off her head and brushing the hair from her face with trembling fingers. “She seems okay through this cord thing between us. What are you feeling from her, Dolyn?”
I touched the energy between us, sifting through her pain, the beginnings of her awareness. “She will be fine.”
“The best place for your female in is your bed,” Primrose said. “Between the two of you where she belongs.”
My brow furrowed. I’d shown her much of my own memories but had kept anything sexual to myself. “How do you know about such things?”
“I read, remember?” She met my stare. “And the emotions swarming off all three of you are as obvious to me as the green of your alpha’s eyes.”
I swallowed hard as my inner dragon purred. I hated the truth of her words—and wondered how the fuck she guessed the truth.
“I know because I’m gifted.”
“No shit,” I muttered, standing and pulling Ashley’s chilled, limp body into my arms. “You can actually read everything in my mind?”
Head tilting to the side, she peered into my eyes, her pupils swirling. A small smirk lifted her lips. “A little because you’re my blood, but it’s dragon voices I hear.”
Growling over the complete lack of privacy from my grandchild, I turned and strode toward the hallway across the cavern.
“He wants you to follow him,” Primrose told Vanni behind me before I could order him to do so.
I didn’t turn to see if he would do as Primrose suggested, but the lantern light filtering behind me—and the tether of energy between me and my mate—let me know he did. My bedroom lay up a winding hallway, higher into the caverns of my home.
While I had no issue meandering about in the pitch-black, my mates would. Elijah had updated his place, and it was definitely time I did the same—but those thoughts, I would save for another day.
I pushed my bedroom door in with my foot and strode toward the bed.
Ashley stirred in my arms, and I nuzzled my nose beneath her ear. “You’re safe, my female.”
She let out a sigh, snuggling against me, but I set her on the edge of the bed and unzipped her coat.
“C-cold,” she managed, her body shivering as Primrose set the lantern on the bed stand.
“We’ll warm you up, promise.” While my cock jerked at the thought of how warm I wanted our female, I focused on removing her clothing, right down to bare skin.
The rustle of cloth on the other side of the bed let me know Vanni did the same.
“I’m headed back to bed, but I’ll leave the lantern,” Primrose said, and the door shut quietly behind her.
“I have a million and one questions,” Vanni muttered while climbing beneath the covers of my bed, goose bumps covering his trembling form.
“They can wait.” I snipped the words and helped Ashley scoot to the middle of the bed.
Vanni wrapped his arms around her, and she snuggled into him as I climbed in behind, settling against her back.
The feel of her frigid skin on mine caused my brow to furrow, but Vanni’s hand on her ass—against my lower abs—clenched my jaw. My shaft throbbed against Ashley’s thigh as I fought off the need to shift higher so the backs of Vanni’s fingers would brush against my cock.
A heavy, shuddered sigh rippled through Ashley’s body between us, and I met Vanni’s exhausted stare atop her head. Lust simmered like a cauldron between us. Heat and release were what my dragon craved, but I still struggled to accept.
Arousal, tangy and sweet wafted past my nose as Ashley stretched between us.
“You need to rest,” I growled at her while holding Vanni’s gaze.
A twinkle lit Vanni’s eyes as he narrowed his eyes. “I think not.”