Page 8 of Emerald Waves (Primordial Protectors #2)

Chapter Five

Caro

Easing inside of my mate’s hot body, it took every fiber of my willpower to go slow and not allow the sudden onset of his heat to make me act recklessly. Groaning, I sucked in a breath, kissed his neck and lapped lightly at the skin of his shoulder where I longed to leave my claiming bite.

“C-Caro!” Emerson whined as I rocked my hips, driving another inch inside of him.

I could feel his body welcoming me as he shifted his hips and surfed upward, wrapping arms and legs around me as he took me to the hilt, my dragon roaring in harmony with his.

Every sense dialed up even louder and brighter than before as I sunk my teeth into Emerson’s shoulder and tasted blood and magic.

Waves of energy rolled over me, prickling my skin, raising goosebumps as I drew back to peer down at him.

Lust and longing shimmered in Emerson’s eyes as instinct continued riding me heavy and hard, just like the cock I withdrew and rocked back into Emerson.

A crashing, like the ocean waves against the rocks, welled up in my mind, everything going liquid as I raised my hand to seal the bitemark with my element, pushing the earth inside of Emerson, along with the spark of my magic.

Our magic now.

Ours.

Tenderly, I made love to my mate the way Emerson had begged me to, our dragons coiling together in my mind, wrapping around one another, bonding in such a primal way that they soon pushed me and Emerson to up the tempo, with my mate, wild and writhing beneath me.

Emerson hooked my leg, rubbing, seeking every bit of friction he could find, until I rolled us over, wanting Emerson above me.

The way my mate’s eyes had come alive, widening, before he rocked and made me throw my head back and groan, was like watching the birth of a supernova.

The moment Emerson realized the power he held over me, I knew I was in for a moment that was going to rock my world.

Having all the control seemed to change something for my mate, who placed his hands on my shoulders and threw his head back as he rocked his hips, claiming my body the way I’d claimed his.

As I stared up at the blissed-out look on his face, I realized that I’d never seen anything as beautiful as the way he looked in this moment.

I felt my knot begin to swell as he loomed over me, a fierce snarl rumbling from his throat before he sunk his teeth into my shoulder the way I’d bitten him.

Everything erupted into waves of swirling light as I came so hard it felt like my body was breaking apart and reforming, like it did when I was shifting.

I heard him cry out as I gripped his thighs, fingertips digging in, even after he’d collapsed on top of me.

Time was a lost concept as I held him, dimly aware that we were drenched, like we’d just emerged from the muddy depths of the earth beneath the oceans I loved.

I couldn’t even muster the energy to crack my eyes open to see if it was just sweat, or if I really had lost control of my magic the way I hadn’t done since childhood.

Did it even matter when everything felt so good.

My head lolled against the pillow, as he sighed out a little growl. In my head, our dragons were purring, loud rumbling, like thunder in a storm.

“You are so wild when you don’t hold back,” I rasped, sliding my hands up his body to hug him.

He shifted his hips, and my cock gave another throb, the knot still swollen inside of him as another spurt of cum gushed, sending pleasure slashing through me again.

No wonder Ionus no longer had the energy to grind our scales into dust on the practice field.

Not even with an omega had it ever felt like this.

And he was mine.

Ours!

My dragon was fierce in its claim, not that I could blame him.

Yes, dragon, ours, and we will never touch another.

That seemed to placate him, and I was glad he’d forgiven me for my blunder.

We’d always done everything together, him and I.

Among my brothers, I was known to have the most symbiont relationship with my dragon, as I preferred to melt into his need to dive as deep as we could into the earth’s core and as often as possible, sometimes even getting lost in it for days on end, much to Ionus’ frustration when he was unable to locate me.

“I feel like I’m drifting,” Emerson muttered.

“Me too,” I admitted as I carded my fingers through his hair. “And there is no better feeling. I never want to move.”

Had he giggled, or was that our dragons?

Possibly both.

In my mind, his had so much teal and emerald blended with shades of aqua, that I was immediately reminded of the images I’d seen in my head of the children on the mountain, first playing tag in the water, and later, on the rocks, doggedly attempting to get their kites into the air before achieving a successful flight.

My mind buzzed, echoing with the memory of the sound that had sent my whole world into turbulent chaos, and for a moment I was trapped in it again.

“W-what was that?” Emerson asked as the sound faded.

“Just a memory,” I murmured, easing my hold on him so we could roll onto our sides, my knot fully deflated and slipping free of his body.

“A loud memory,” he replied, as he snuggled close and rested his head right over my heart.

“Yeah.”

Something about it still nagged at me, but I shoved aside the momentary flash of fear and worry to focus on my mate.

“Is it recent?” he asked.

Leave it to Emerson to pursue my thoughts as doggedly as he sought out the information in the books and tombs he amassed.

Which reminded me of the one thing I had successfully retrieved from the cave that day.

I hadn’t even taken the time to place it in my horde for safekeeping, I’d just left the stone carving in my car in my haste to get inside the building, concern for Emerson’s safety the only thing on my mind.

“Yes,” I replied, hoping he’d leave it at that.

I should have known better.

“What happened?” He asked as he trailed his fingertips along my side.

“Something didn’t want me exploring the place I was poking around in,” I admitted. “The noise was just a distraction to disorient me while they made their escape.”

“Their?”

“I think there was more than one, but I don’t know, everything is hazy, so I could have just as easily been mistaken. It’s easy to get disoriented underwater.”

“Even for you?”

What was I to say to that? The truth, that it had never happened before?

I didn’t want to worry him or risk his seeing the need to reach out to my big brother to let him know that something had not only managed to confuse me within the depths of the sea, but that it had caused my dragon to retreat, and left me in a much more vulnerable human state, deep beneath the surface.

“I’m not invincible,” I said at last, voicing the one major thing I’d taken away from the incident.

For all the training Ionus had put us through, I’d been ill prepared for what I’d encountered that afternoon. Something I was still too ashamed to admit to my brother.

“Then you’ll just have to be more careful,” Emerson said. “I don’t want to lose you when I’ve only just found you.”

“You won’t.”

“I’d better not, or I might be tempted to try something I found in one of the old books.”

“Oh yeah, what’s that?”

“A spell once believed to bring dragons back from the afterlife, but only if their soul was tethered to another, the way mine is now connected to yours,” Emerson remarked, words a little slurred, like he was sleepy and gearing up for a nap.

“Sounds more like a myth, or a fairytale.”

“Maybe. But there are records of it being attempted.”

“Yeah, and how’d it turn out for the ones who tried?”

“I believe the current term is a hot mess,” Emerson said. “But even that’s better than nothing.”

“Let’s not go tempting fate. The last thing we need is zombie dragons laying waste to the world,” I said, chuckling.

“Talk about a whole new twist on the zombie apocalypse. Hollywood would never run out of movies.”

Had he just made a joke?

In all the years I’d known him, I’d never heard him utter anything that wasn’t fact, or speculation heavily backed by written record from reputable, respected sources.

“Just don’t go dabbling in things dragons weren’t meant to fool around with,” I cautioned him.

“If that were truth, there wouldn’t have been a clan of dragons whose primary ability was said to be raising the dead, though I’ve never found real proof that they truly existed,” Emerson admitted.

“But the incantation had to originate somewhere. I think they go hand in hand. Just wish I could prove it.”

“Maybe one day you will,” I replied, not wanting to give much credence to an ability that would make a dragon virtually undefeatable.

With all the life that had perished on this planet, that was an unlimited source of minions no dragon would stand a chance of whittling down, even with the full force of the abilities my brothers and I had inherited.

“Enough talk of the undead,” I declared as I pulled his hand to my cheek and nuzzled it. “We’ve just started a brand-new life together and I plan to enjoy it. Marring the moment just seems wrong after how long we waited to find one another.”

“We found each other a long time ago. We just failed to put together the pieces of what we were supposed to mean to each other.”

Hearing him say it that way brought with it some measure of guilt I’d felt over the way I’d avoided this place unless it was all hands-on deck, and even then, I’d tended to force my brother’s hand until he was left little choice but to make it an order.

Did that mean that I should have been the first of us mated or had one of my brother’s also met the one meant to be theirs, only to completely miss the signs because they’d been too busy being wild and fighting against the restrictions of our positions.

It hadn’t always been easy to accept what we were born to do.

While being protective was in our nature, we’d chafed a bit at having it be declared our destiny.

At times, it had felt downright stifling, at least to me.

The pull of the earth and the ocean had been enough that at times I’d considered making my home beneath the ocean floor, would it not have meant leaving my brothers.

Keeping the gemstones in one place meant that they were easier to defend, but there had been times over the long decades, when life above the surface of the earth had held no appeal for me.

Those were the times when I’d curled up in my horde and took solace in the many tanks that lined the walls, as well as the species that inhabited them.

I wondered if Emerson would get that, when I was at my broodiest, surrounded by the creatures I loved was the best place I could be? I hoped so. I never wanted him to feel like I was running away from him, there were just moments when I thought best when buried, silencing all sound and thought.

You’ll have to tell him that.

I will.

If you forget, I will tell him for you, though you might not like the way I put it.

You’ll put it however you need to put it to keep our mate happy. If I know nothing else, I know that.

You need to tell Ionus what you saw and allow Raven to examine the statue you brought back. I do not think it is dangerous, but I do believe that it may hold a key piece in your search, one you and Emerson may need to work on together.

I’ll allow Raven to look, but I do not feel that Ionus needs to be apprised of what took place until I’ve gotten to the bottom of what happened.

Is that pride or stubbornness talking, human?

A little of both, I replied . And you don’t get to give me shit for it, since much of those emotions come from you.

I may feed it at times and even fuel it at others but never delude yourself into thinking that I’m the only one of us who feels such powerful emotions.

You’ve tried, for the longest time, to bury yours beneath the earth and allow me to feel for us both when you’ve needed to show emotions, but I will not accept the blame for your shortcomings.

Not when I am counseling you to do the right thing, before our mate is forced to prove his theory in order to bring us back to him.

I will not be a happy dragon if you get us killed.

Noted. Now will you get off my back before our mate senses that we’re having a conversation without him.

Too late.

The new voice was all Emerson, poking at the connection through his dragon and the worry and unrest it had sensed between me and mine.

I guess there was no me and mine anymore, just ours, something I’d need to be mindful of when guarding my thoughts. There were far too many ears listening now for the kind of brooding I tended to do, especially when I was down on myself.

Then perhaps it’s time to ease up and stop stabbing yourself with whatever you think you’ve done wrong so we can both get some sleep.

That was from Emerson again, his tone a little grumpy, which meant my thoughts had been too loud for him to ignore, despite the energy we’d expended. Time to put my thoughts to bed and focus on the man in his arms.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered aloud, deciding that it might be best to get out of my head all together.

“Apologize in the morning, over breakfast, or before, when you wake me with your tongue. I’ve been dying to feel it all over me and my heat is definitely not over yet.”

“Oh really.”

“Really.”

“Does that mean you’re going to crawl on top of me and ride me if you wake up first?” I asked, pleased at the thought, my cock twitching as the image of waking to Emerson’s eyes glittering as he stared down at me, writhing in the thralls of passion, bloomed and took root in my mind.

“No,” Emerson said, the image popping like a balloon piked with a pin. “That means I’m going to think of the most creative way to wake you, so I get what I want.”

Oh, I’d clearly awakened a beast in Emerson, and I couldn’t wait to see it thrive.

Cuddling my mate, I watched as Emerson’s features slowly went lax, before he drifted into slumber, while I stayed awake to watch him sleep, content to know that I had him with me now, no matter what the future might bring.