Page 2 of Drawn by Dragonblood (Blood Born #1)

Elijah

F or two days, I studied the mountains from the sky and on foot but hadn’t located the one I sought. Had fate played an evil trick on me and I imagined our female on the breeze? Was she no more than a figment of my imagination born of heartache and loneliness?

A lazy trail of smoke snaked into the sky, pulling my gaze a couple of miles northeast of my veranda.

The setting sun caressed my left cheek as I blinked, bringing into focus the smoke’s origin.

Two people sat beside the small fire in the far distance, but from the mile or so separating us, I couldn’t tell their sexes.

The breeze shifted the trees around me, their rustling leaves hiding my cliffside home from view. I breathed deeply.

A blast of cooler evening air hit my face. Hints of the ancient blood ran in her veins, calling to me, and my pulse thrummed lava-like heat through my body.

Her.

“ Our golden goddess,” I agreed with a needy growl.

Mine.

I wanted to shift, shredding my jeans and long-sleeve T-shirt, and roar my savage declaration, but she was close enough to hear that I refrained for fear of scaring my precious gem away.

Allowing my instincts to control us would be a mistake.

I couldn’t cause conflict for the female fate intended for me to protect at all costs.

I strode into my house, grabbed a pullover sweatshirt, a small pack, and a couple of water bottles. One of the two hikers out there belonged to me, and I would claim her by night’s end as I’d promised my dragon.

My strides ate up the land, the rock and moss beneath my feet a blur as I hastened toward my destiny.

Mind racing, my thoughts focused on the mostly-human woman I would soon see.

Hints of fall cooled the air but it remained warm enough that being outdoors as the sun set wasn’t bothersome.

Not that I would have been uncomfortable either way.

The dragonblood pumping through my arteries had been born of the earth’s core and couldn’t be cooled until death claimed my spirit and I soared through the cosmos with the others of my kind.

Less than an hour later, the breeze still at my back, I approached another outcropping perhaps two hundred yards from where I had seen the campfire.

I pulled up short as the flickering flames came into view.

Its smoke trailed away from me, not allowing my nose a hint of its scent or another tease of my female.

Two blond tousled heads peeked from beneath a double sleeping bag beside the ringless firepit—two writhing bodies in the throes of passion if their movements and moans didn’t lie.

Rage roared through me, leaving my animalistic beast incapable of words.

I clenched my teeth, hands fisted at my sides, fighting off the push to shift and take what the human male had no right to touch.

Their erotic dance of two souls already connected held me rapt, arousal lighting a fire within me regardless of my burning jealousy.

The female cried out her release, and the male followed with a groan so sensual and fulfilled that my heart stumbled in its beating.

Blood rushed into my shaft with a swiftness that left me lightheaded.

I palmed my swollen length through my jeans, squeezing away the need to spill my seed inside her. Claim and mark her.

My mate loved another, and he in turn worshiped that which he didn’t own.

Another burst of anger from deep within threatened to reveal me, but I managed to keep my aggravation contained. Knees weakening from the inner battle that made my human side despondent, I slumped onto a rock hidden by the growing darkness.

The couple’s murmurs reached my ears, however, their words remained indistinct as I fought to accept what I had stumbled upon, what fate had so cruelly dangled in front of me only to snatch away.

Mine.

Take.

Throat aching, I stared at the snuggling humans, my dragon obsessed and insistent in ways I’d never heard before.

The male tossed back the top of their sleeping bag, and the images I’d seen through their obviously combined scent I had tasted on the breeze came into view.

Not just her with golden locks and lush curves but his muscular, taller form topped by a mess of similar blond, longer hair, the top portion of which he had pulled back into a ponytail.

He was gorgeous from what I could see, but my treasure stood, drawing my full attention.

My mouth dried at the sight of her.

Her petite frame showcased flawless, pale skin, and her perfectly formed breasts would fill my large palms. A small waist gave way to flared hips and a full backside I wanted to enjoy jiggling as I thrust into her slick heat from behind.

She tugged on her clothes, hiding her desirous body from me as joyous laughter reached across the distance to my straining senses.

She smiled at her lover, the adoration in the curve of her lips like a knife to my heart.

He caressed her cheek, her hair, his touch gentle on the one I was destined to pamper.

But she’d chosen him—and he held her heart.

Claim!

I ignored the inner growling, self-preservation demanding I contemplate rather than act on instinct as I’d done with my ex-partner. But my show of dominance hadn’t kept Dolyn by my side.

Not ours.

I had to agree with my beast’s silent voice, his reminder that a mate chosen by convenience rather than fate would eventually lead to heartache as we had experienced.

Would the one truly meant for me even offer a second glance my way?

Would the bonding energy between mates draw her to me, steal her from the male she’d given herself to?

Mostly human but for the tiniest fraction, would she even recognize the connection between us?

Feel the insistent need to claim me in return?

An ache radiated through my chest. My dragon and I had barely survived when our ex-partner had left. The beast had nearly burned our home in the mountains to mere ash in his sorrow. How much more pain would being denied our true mate inflict?

Torn, I slumped where I sat, unmoving and watching as the two humans prepared a late dinner, their movements in sync as though they had spent centuries together even though they only appeared to be twenty-something.

I listened to their indistinct words, their laughter.

I studied them as the man banked the fire, and they both crawled inside their sleeping bag a short while later.

I swallowed my pain and jealousy as they curled together, two warm bodies intertwined, intimately sharing space as lovers did.

My dragon moaned his displeasure throughout the long night while I sat in silence, contemplating the situation I found myself in.

I ought to leave, take us far from sure grief, but I couldn’t bear to abandon her.

Every cell in my body longed for my female mate, and had I been a younger, immature dragon shifter, I would have stolen her without a care for either her or her partner’s feelings as many of my kind had done in centuries past.

But, how could I inflict on the human male the same pain I had lived with for a decade? The suffering, the loneliness of losing the one you shared your life with? I hadn’t been offered a choice—my lover had left without allowing me the opportunity to beg him to stay.

I refused to do the same to another, but by the time the sun rose, my tortured mind needed something to appease both parts of my soul.

Resolution at the very least.

My dragon grumbled like a petulant child, but I held full control over his instinctive impulses to take without thought of another’s heart.

As her alpha, it was my duty to protect her, emotions included. I would give her the chance to choose the mate she should be with or the one she had already attached herself to. It would be her decision as it ought to be, the male’s broken heart her doing, rather than mine.

Weak.

My teeth gritted at my dragon’s claim. Empathy was anything but a downfall. I’d become a better man because of my own misery.

Coercion is the only way.

I refused to bow down to his fears that also gripped my guts.

We would show restraint and caution as always, allowing destiny to steer us toward a real bond that would last, unlike a forced one.

Pulse racing and palms damp, I drew closer on silent feet, the delicious aroma of a mere hint of ancient blood in the air flooding my mouth with saliva.

I could taste her sweetness on my tongue from a hundred yards away.

A low growl rumbled my chest, and I swallowed to silence my beast.

What would it be like once I closed the distance between us and touched her hand in greeting? Would energy crackle between our bodies or pull like a magnet enough to sway my mate into my arms?

Force .

“There will be no forced bonding,” I whispered fiercely, demanding my dragon submit to my human side.

I was well aware being a Blood Born allowed me a way to make our female submit regardless of her hesitations. I’d promised my three parents I would be patient as they’d been with one another rather than manipulating as our kind had done in the past out of fear of our dwindling numbers.

Through all my years, I never believed in any god or higher being, but at that moment, I wished to trust in something bigger, something more than mere chance that my mate would want and accept me as her alpha on her own.

The closer I walked toward the couple, the intensity of the draw shifted to near impossible to resist. With every step, I cared less about the human man’s heartache should my female mate choose the one she’d been destined for.

Those binds on my inner beast weakened as he strained forward.

Mine.

“Yes,” I murmured my agreement, allowing him equal rein over our human form so his senses could at least enjoy her as I would in the coming moments.

Shouldering the small pack I’d brought along to make it appear I hiked the mountain trail as the couple did, I moved into sight of their camp, my strides evident of my resolution on having what belonged to us.

The male squatted beside the fire, putting a small pot over the red coals, his pants stretched tight over thick thighs and a plump, peach-like ass made for plundering. My fingers itched to map out his backside.

I swallowed against the sudden desire for him, my pulse thrumming hot through me. “Hello,” I called out, not wishing to frighten him.

His blond head jerked up, and he slowly stood, his blue-eyed gaze meeting mine.

Energy rippled like waves across the short distance separating us and wrapped around my body in a connection stronger than any I’d ever felt in my long life.

I stumbled to a stop as my heart slammed inside my chest, ripping the oxygen from my lungs.

Yessss.

My dragon purred his intense pleasure that flooded through my soul.

Our beta.

I fought to breathe, to accept what fate had gifted me after years of loneliness. The two humans were a bonded pair with ancient blood, in need of their alpha.

And I would find a way to claim them both exactly as my inner beast demanded.