Page 8

Chapter

Four

Rumi

C oming out of what felt like the deepest sleep I’d ever had in my life and having no idea where I was was disconcerting enough. Waking up with my body feeling overstimulated and alive far beyond what I was used to nearly sent me straight into a panic.

“It’s alright,” Emmerich said, reaching for me and pulling me into his arms. “You’re safe. You’re well. Everything will be alright.”

I might have been nearly thirty years old, but I threw myself into my mate’s arms as if I were Obi’s age or younger.

Nothing felt right. I couldn’t catch my breath through the odd, powerful sensations that pulsed through me.

Fear and arousal blended together within me, which I didn’t think was supposed to be able to happen.

Then again, the fear might have been mine and the desire Emmerich’s. The bond between us had opened to the point where I couldn’t distinguish my emotions from his anymore.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” I said, trying not to pant to the point of hyperventilating. I needed something, needed him, but my thoughts flew back to everything I’d just left behind, my brothers, Osric, and the war. “How did I get here when we were in the middle of fighting a battle?”

I could tell Emmerich wanted to continue to hold me, even though he let me pull away so I could look into his eyes. “The war is still raging,” he said. “The dark sorcerer cast some sort of spell to cause Osric’s men to turn on each other.”

I blinked as memories came rushing back at me. “Nikkos.” I whispered the name, turning my head away from Emmerich slightly as I remembered the moments before everything had gone black.

I’d been rushing to help Cousin Osric’s soldiers, trying to make the ones who had turned see sense and doing whatever I could think of to stop the others from turning.

It was a futile effort, since everything was being controlled by magic that I couldn’t see or perceive.

I was determined to do something, though.

And then Nikkos was standing right in front of me with a sword. The otherwise sweet and harmless omega had a look of pure hatred in his eyes as he raised his sword. I was lucky that I held a sword of my own, but all I could do was raise it to defend myself.

Nikkos had far more skill with a sword than I could ever have imagined.

That alone would have struck fear into my heart.

But as we battled, something about the omega kept flickering and slipping.

It had to have been the spell that turned him.

I’d never been so close to magic that was so dark and vicious before.

It was enough to truly make me believe that friendly, kind Nikkos truly despised me.

And then came the blow that turned everything black. I felt Nikkos’s blade slice into my shoulder and sear across my entire body to my opposite hip. I felt it go deep, and all I could think about was whether the blade would reach and harm my baby.

“Rumi?”

Emmerich’s concerned touch shook me out of my memories. I shuddered and snapped my eyes up to his, grateful beyond telling that he kept his hand on me and that we were safe in the dragon castle.

“Whatever spell was cast over Nikkos and the others, it was terrifying,” I said in a breathless whisper. “We have to fight against it, but I have no idea how.”

I startled myself with my own words. They seemed to be pushing me into action.

“We have to do something about it,” I said, twisting and scooting to the side of the bed so I could get up.

Emmerich didn’t stop me from standing, but as my legs wobbled, threatening to fold as I supported my own weight, he reached out to steady me. Feeling his hands on me felt so good that I let out a hungry moan.

A second later, the reality of what was happening, how I felt, hit me. I wore only thin pajamas for some reason, but even that delicate fabric was too much for me. I wanted to be naked, spread wide open, and available for my alpha to do whatever he wanted with me.

“I’m in heat,” I gasped, glancing up at Emmerich.

Through the concern that radiated from my alpha I felt a burst of pride and lust. “Yes, you are,” he said, his mouth twitching like he was trying not to smile.

“How?” I asked. I pressed a hand to my belly where, sure enough, the almost imperceptible bump where my baby egg waited inside me had grown. “How can I be with egg and in heat?”

“I don’t know,” Emmerich said, his eyes growing dark with desire as he drank in the sight of me, shivering and vulnerable beside him. “I’m still not certain what Mother did to heal you myself.”

“Mother?” I asked. “Queen Gaia healed me?”

I had the sudden, wispy memory of Queen Gaia standing beside the bed, smiling at me and making me feel as though everything would be alright, even in the darkest hour.

A rush of understanding from Emmerich through our bond pulled me back to the moment. “I couldn’t heal you while you were paused. Your body couldn’t knit back together until I lifted that spell. You’ve been paused for so long that your body must have reverted back into heat.”

“I was barely out of heat when you paused me,” I said, nodding slightly.

It made sense, which was something of a relief. For my mind, at least. The wave of warmth that struck me and the desperate urgency that had slick dripping out of me was anything but a relief, though.

“It’s coming on strong,” I said, taking a deep breath and trying to keep my wits about me. “I’ve never had a heat come on this strong before. Should that be possible? I’ve only just healed from a sword wound.”

I pulled at the buttons fastening my pajama top with the intention of exposing my chest to see what it looked like, but as soon as my bare skin was exposed to the air, I groaned with the need for so much more.

I hardly noticed that the battle wound that had been dangerous enough to end my life just an hour before was nothing more than a pinkish line running across my torso now.

I didn’t care about my own body except for how I could use it to please and pleasure my alpha.

I didn’t stop with my shirt either. Once that was off, I shoved my trousers down as well.

“Emmerich,” I gasped, glancing plaintively up at him, feeling like I would crawl out of my skin if I didn’t have my alpha’s cock inside me somehow and his cum covering me immediately.

“I’m here,” Emmerich said gently, cupping and stroking the side of my face.

It wasn’t enough. I was in heat. I didn’t want sweet tenderness. I wanted raw passion. Ancient omega instinct demanded that I submit my body and soul to my alpha completely.

Emmerich started on the buttons of his tunic, but before he could get through the first one, I dropped to my knees and clawed frantically at the fastenings of his trousers. I needed his cock, and I needed it so desperately that I couldn’t stop the keening sounds that came from deep within me.

Emmerich must have known what I needed. He abandoned his efforts to undress and used magic to be instantly naked. His thick cock jumped up at the sudden rush of air and at my greedy touch as I grabbed and stroked it.

I’d always despised the way heat turned me into a mindless, needy slut.

I hated thinking of myself that way, but that was how I’d felt with the noblemen my father had sold my heats to in the past. I’d always hated the way I became hungry for cock, needing to feel a thick member deep in my throat or a knot swollen in my hole. It had always been humiliating.

With my dragon mate, everything was different. The way I rubbed my face in his groin then drew my tongue up his hard, hot length was an act of worship. His taste was amazing, and the way he threaded his fingers through my hair and encouraged me to take him into my mouth was tender.

I licked the precum from his tip for a moment, savoring his tip in every way I could, before drawing him deep into my throat for what I really needed. Emmerich gripped my head with both hands and made obscene sounds of pleasure as he pumped deeper and deeper, almost making me choke.

Heat kept me from doing more than squeezing around his length, and when he started to come, giving me what I needed for comfort and pleasure, I groaned with the bliss of it all.

I didn’t care that I was on my knees, thighs parted, slick gushing out of me and making my legs and the floor under me slippery and shiny.

I loved the fact that I belonged to my alpha and was his to take and use as he pleased.

The joy of it had me coming hard in short spurts that fell on Emmerich’s legs.

“My mate,” Emmerich growled as his first orgasm subsided. “My wonderful mate.”

He pulled out and I gasped, completely unaware of how desperately I needed air until it was in my lungs again. Emmerich lifted me to my feet, then all the way into his arms. I instinctively wrapped my legs around him as he slammed his mouth over mine in a possessive kiss.

“Why?” I panted between kisses, grabbing at him and jerking my hips against his belly. “Why do I want this so much? I’m already pregnant.”

“I don’t know,” Emmerich told me, his voice rich and predatory. “But I want it, too. ”

He kissed me again, then threw my world off-balance as he practically tossed me onto his bed on my back.

I gripped the silky, green bedcovers around me as he shifted above me to bring his face to the level of my groin.

He took my cock into his mouth and feasted on it as if it were a sugared treat served at one of the dances in the pavilion.

I came immediately, bucking up into his warm mouth as if the pleasure would never end.

Emmerich caught my hips mid-buck, but instead of pushing them down to the bed, he lifted them even more and slammed his mouth over my open, twitching hole.

He raked his tongue over the most sensitive part of me, and if I hadn’t already been coming from the way he sucked me, I would have burst with pleasure then.

“Emmerich!” I shouted, nearly losing my mind with the ecstasy of this sudden heat.