Page 4

Chapter

Four

Gildur

E xceedingly grudgingly, I admitted to myself that I understood my brother Rufus and his insistence on haste where his fated omega was concerned so much more, now that I had my clever and wicked omega in my arms, my seed taking hold within him.

“I still don’t really understand the process of dragon breeding,” Selle chattered as I scooped him off the table and into my arms. A great deal of mess was left behind, but with a wiggle of my fingers, it vanished and the library table was clean once more. “I know from talking to Tovey that it’s very different than the usual, human process of impregnation and birth.”

“Yes, it is, my darling,” I said, kissing the mark I’d left on his neck when I’d claimed him.

As if the mark itched, Selle absently reached up to touch it. Several small gold nuggets appeared in his hand as he took it away. He gasped and blurted in a breathless voice, “What is this? How did these get here?” as he looked at the nuggets.

“Another quirk of being a dragon’s fated mate,” I said as I carried Selle to the nearest window, unlatching it with one hand as I supported Selle’s body wrapped around me with the other. “You have my magic within you now.”

“I daresay I have a lot of things of yours inside me right now,” he replied with a devilish, pink-faced grin made even sweeter by his slightly skewed glasses.

I laughed. Brilliant, clever, and most definitely naughty. “You have my heart within you now, my darling,” I said, setting him on his feet once I had the window open. The breeze blowing in from the nighttime world was filled with the scent of jasmine and growing things, which only enhanced Selle’s paper and honey scent, and I couldn’t help but breathe him in hungrily.

“I don’t really know what to do with it,” Selle said with a thread of seriousness, his face lowered slightly. “I’ve never come close to being in love before or having anyone rely on me for anything.”

His words broke my heart as stories and complaints from my dragon kin about the way King Freslik treated his sons came back to me. I could feel the misery from Selle as well through our suddenly much stronger bond.

I poured affection and possessiveness through that bond as I grasped my omega’s face in my hands, then leaned in to kiss his lips soundly. In my exuberance, I nearly knocked his glasses off. We would have to do something about his vision, but not in that moment.

“You will never lack for anything again, my love,” I told him, speaking from my soul. “You are mine now, and I will protect you, care for you, and give you every happiness you deserve.”

Selle let out a breath and sagged against me, a watery smile filling his charming face. “I should probably object to you asserting that you own me,” he said, slipping his arms around my waist. “But I like the feeling so much that I’m going to save my protests for those times when you’re behaving horribly.”

“Me? Behaving horribly?” I jerked back, feigning ignorance and offense at his statement.

Selle laughed. “You’re an arrogant dragon,” he said. “And if there’s one thing I’ve learned from my books and from the dragons I’ve known, which, admittedly, are very few, it is that dragons think very highly of themselves.”

“Well, we are the grandest creatures in my mother’s magical kingdom,” I said with a shrug.

Selle’s face lit with interest. “I should like to meet your mother,” he said. “I’m fascinated by the idea of the queen of the magical realm.”

I laughed wryly, sending Selle a cautious smirk. “You might not say that if you knew how overwhelming my mother can be.”

“But isn’t she good?” Selle asked, his curiosity making me randy, which reminded me we needed to be gone to my lair so I could finish the breeding process. “Everyone I’ve met at the pavilion, Billi and Maeve and Gandy and the others, all sing her praises like she’s the Goddess herself.”

I arched one eyebrow at Selle but kept my mouth shut.

Selle gasped, his eyes going wide. “Is Queen Gaia the Goddess? As in the Goddess?”

I leaned closer to him. “Nobody knows for certain, not even me,” I whispered as dramatically as possible. I stood straight and changed my tone entirely to say, “Now, climb onto my back. We’re going home.”

Selle blinked at me, adjusting his glasses. “None of those words make a lick of sense. And shouldn’t we get dressed again before going anywhere?”

“There’s no need,” I said, turning my back to him then nodding over my shoulder for him to climb on.

Selle sent me a wary look, then threw his arms around my shoulders and hopped up so I could piggyback him.

Of course, I had no intention of piggybacking anyone or anything. I moved to the window and put my foot up on the bottom, grabbing the sides, ready to launch into the sky. I intended to dragonback my beloved mate.

“Great giddy ghosts!” Selle shouted, gripping me extra tight. “You’re jumping out the window!”

I laughed at the obviousness of his statement, then pushed off into the sky.

Selle screamed, then screamed even louder as my body quickly transformed from human to dragon form. I had enough control of the transformation to make certain that my beloved ended up in just the right spot with his arms wrapped around my neck and his legs straddling the points where my wings extended from my elongated body. I flapped those wings a bit, taking us higher into the night sky as I zoomed forward over the forest surrounding the castle, the lake, and the pavilion.

Selle shouted again, but his cry sounded far more excited and giddier as I made a quick loop around the lake, mostly to show off. A few of the night’s ball guests were outside the perimeter of the pavilion. They looked up and pointed, talking excitedly to each other or applauding. Seeing one of us dragons flying past wasn’t uncommon in our kingdom, but spotting one of us with a naked omega on our backs was.

Perhaps I should have allowed Selle to dress after all.

There was no time to correct that miscalculation, and in my dragon form I didn’t have much magic to spare for something as trivial as popping clothes onto my omega. I beat my wings, taking us higher into the starry, moonlit sky. Even though it was night, the light of the moon cast a beautiful, silver glow over the forest below. The gems that hung from the trees glittered like phosphorescent creatures, and I was certain Selle would note the various colored paths through the trees, where they were visible, that led to the lairs of my dragon kin.

I had no need to follow the gold-tinted path. I knew precisely where my lair was located. But as it was the first time Selle had flown on a dragon, I wanted to give him a treat.

Instead of flying straight toward the northern valley and the river that crossed through my property, I soared off to the east, toward the sea, where Argus had his lair. Argus was the ruler of the sea, after all, when he wasn’t a spy in King Freslik’s court. Selle laughed and squeezed me as we shot out over the silver-tipped waves. From our height, with the full moon and glittering stars shedding their light, we could see the forms of great whales and sea beasts swimming just under the surface below.

“Enjoying your tour of the magical kingdom?” I asked him, mostly through our bond, since the speed with which we soared made it difficult for my voice to be heard.

“Yes, yes!” Selle shouted. I could feel the intensity of his heartbeat through our bond and against my scales as he clung to me.

I wheeled around, taking us back toward land and the rolling hills and meadows where Emmerich had his lair. It was harder to see how beautiful all the greenery of Emmerich’s home away from the castle was at night, so I continued on to somewhere that would be more familiar to my darling, Rufus and Tovey’s house.

“I’ve been here,” Selle called out, lifting from my back a little to wave down at Rufus’s lair, as if his brother and the eggs could see him.

“We can visit them some other time,” I said. The heat of Selle’s body against mine and the pulse of life eager and waiting to happen urged me to get my mate home as quickly as possible so I could complete the breeding.

I swung around and headed for the north at last. Our tour of the kingdom had taken us far off track, so I zoomed ahead with as much speed as I could muster, flying over hills and valleys and the path that wound from the mountain to the plain, where several of the villages of my mother’s kingdom were located.

“What’s that?” Selle shouted, leaning slightly to the side.

I turned to see what he might be looking at, and when he risked letting go of me long enough to point, I spotted them.

There, in the valley far, far below, plodding along in a line, were about thirty ogres. They were difficult to see and I might not have noticed them at all, but for the torches a few of them carried. From the sky, their shapes looked like great, lumbering rocks, another reason I knew they were ogres.

“They’re ogres,” I said, tension making my dragon body ache like a bowstring ready to snap.

“ The ogres?” Selle asked. “The ogres that have gone missing? ”

I swiveled one of my large eyes enough to peek at him. I wondered what he knew about the ogres, how much he’d learned from the things on my desk before I’d caught him in the library.

“Should we tell someone?” he asked, clinging to me again. “They aren’t missing anymore. It looks like they’re going somewhere.”

He was right. Ogres weren’t inclined to move much when they didn’t have anywhere to go or anything to do. The way the torches bobbed below was a clear sign that they were on a mission. Following them, or even popping down to ask what they were doing, could resolve the entire mystery and aid in the mission Mother had given me.

But Selle smelled so delicious. His body was warm and ripe as he lay across my back. I could feel the bulge of his belly, where the egg had already formed and was ready to leave him and begin its incubation. Omegas didn’t need to birth their eggs immediately, of course. I’d known of a few omegas who loved the feeling of growing an egg so much that they waited the maximum of a week before birthing it. But the longer they waited, the larger the egg was and the more painful it was for them.

I didn’t want Selle to suffer that sort of pain. I wanted the birth of our egg to be as swift and smooth as possible.

That’s what I told myself as I veered away from the ogres and their trek, heading fast toward my lair instead.

“Shouldn’t we do something?” Selle asked, glancing over his shoulder as the ogres’ torches disappeared into the distance.

“We are doing something, my darling,” I said, sending feelings of lust through our bond. “We’re finishing this breeding.”

Selle shivered, and I was certain I felt a rush of slick spill from him onto my scales. His scent seemed to grow stronger. If ever there was a motivation to hurry up and get home, that was it.

It was the first time in my life that I’d had a golden opportunity to fulfill my mother’s orders but I chose to do something else instead.

I put the guilt and shame of that choice aside as quickly as I could and flapped my wings, giving us an extra burst of speed to make it home. It only took a few minutes before my deceptively modest house was visible in the vast gardens where I’d had it built alongside the river. In the moonlight, the gold decorations seemed to glow and the whole thing practically dripped with magic.

“It’s beautiful,” Selle said breathlessly as I descended to land on the balcony right outside my bedchamber. “So beautiful.”

As soon as I alighted, I shifted back to human form. My dragon form was far too big for the narrow balcony in any case. I’d grown exceedingly skilled at transforming at just the right time as I landed…after breaking about half a dozen balconies in the past.

“You are beautiful,” I told Selle, gently shaking him off my back, then turning to face him. I drew him into my arms and slanted my mouth over his in a possessive kiss. I could feel the need to finish what we’d started wash over both of us. It made me impatient. “You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, and all I want to do is bury myself in your tender body.”

“Yes, please,” Selle said breathlessly, then threw his arms over my shoulders again and surged into me for another kiss.

I loved the way my delicious omega took what he wanted when he wanted it, despite having lived a life of cruelty. He’d been beaten down by his father, but that hadn’t dimmed his spirit at all.

I vowed that I would do everything I could to support the spark within him as I lifted him against me once more and pulled the windowed door beside us open.

I carried him quickly into my bedchamber, not giving him time to look around. There would be time for him to examine the gilt decorations and the vast, canopied bed later. In that moment, we had a task that needed completing, and I intended to do it well.

“All of this is yours?” Selle asked, gazing up at the canopy as I lay him across my bed. His eyes went wide behind his glasses as he studied the intricate and lascivious pictures woven into the cloth of the canopy.

“Yes,” I said, sweeping a look over his delicious body and grinning. “All this is mine.”

I leaned over him, brushing my hands from his thighs, up over his round belly, and onto his chest, teasing his nipples as I did. Selle’s attention returned to me in an instant as he gasped for breath and shivered under my touch.

“You are the most precious thing I own, my love,” I told him, trailing kisses over the parts of him I’d just touched. “You are more valuable to me than all the gold cloth in the world, all the treasures in my hoard. You are more precious than all of that.”

“Oh, Gildur,” Selle said, softening under my lips. He threaded a hand through my hair as I kissed his belly repeatedly.

I melted. It didn’t take much for gold to melt. I felt such contentment with my mate under me. Everything else, every responsibility was forgotten.

“Are you ready, my darling?” I asked him, moving from kissing his belly to drawing my tongue up the length of his already hard cock, from balls to tip, then sucking it into my mouth.

Selle didn’t answer with words. He moaned and burst into an orgasm, coating my tongue and the back of my throat with his delicious cum.

I swallowed it all, then chuckled and raised myself above him. I forced myself to be serious for a moment to say, “I will make this as easy as possible. It can be difficult, but seeing as hardly any time has passed since conception, the egg should be small enough not to cause you a great deal of discomfort.”

Selle tensed. “A-alright,” he said, then swallowed. “Tovey told us all how it was when he birthed his eggs.” He sucked in a breath and put on a brave face. “I can handle it.”

I was so proud of him, my fierce, brave omega. I would give him more pleasure than he’d ever known as I opened his womb again and coaxed my egg out of him.

I began by leaning back and grasping him so that I could flip him to his hands and knees. I didn’t know much about omegas and eggs, but I knew this way was better for them. It also gave me the most magnificent view of his round, pert ass. I couldn’t help but bend to kiss and worship it for a moment, licking at his hole as it dripped slick. I even poked my tongue inside to give him more pleasure.

My efforts bore fruit as Selle gasped and moaned, then spilled bursts of sweet, fragrant cum all over my coverlet. I would save this coverlet and bury my face in it to catch his scent in those moments when we couldn’t be together.

Not that I intended for there to be many of those.

“Are you ready, my sweet?” I asked him, positioning myself behind him .

“Yes, yes!” Selle shouted, as if already in the throes of breeding.

I chuckled, then lined up and pushed myself home within him. It took a dragon penis to complete the breeding process, and with a bit of a wince, I began the transformation, stretching and filling him. The pleasure doubled, then tripled, then drove me completely mad as magic joined with friction to fill my entire body with pleasure.

Selle gulped for breath and moaned, gripping my bedcovers tightly, but I was quickly past the point where I could control my actions. My soul was pure dragon, and in that moment, my dragon wanted to possess its mate completely. I wanted us to be one and for our passion to create new life.

I grabbed his hips hard enough to bruise and thrust hard and fast, my cock growing all the time and punishing the mouth of his womb, demanding it give me what I wanted. It was more than just a brutal, physical action, though. Our souls entwined, as if our shadow beings, our essential selves, were making the sweetest love. The pleasure of it was overwhelming, and I couldn’t help but cry out.

Whether it was that cry or the blending of our souls or just force, my cockhead breeched the jealous mouth of Selle’s womb, prying it open. Selle made a sound of indescribable pleasure, and his body began to convulse.

I moved quickly, pulling out of him and climbing onto the bed to hold him open in my arms. His senses were overwhelmed and his body was limp and tense in turn as contractions pushed the new egg from his womb, down through his body, and out through the last barrier of his hole. I could tell from the pain that filtered through our bond when the egg was just about out, and from the burst of ecstasy that had my darling, courageous omega coming all over again as the egg slipped onto the coverlet between our legs.

“My good, wonderful mate,” I gasped against his ear, looking over his shoulder and down at the single, perfect, golden egg that rested between our thighs.

Selle’s head lolled, then he looked down as well. As soon as he saw the egg, he let out a cry and scrambled in my arms, reaching for it. I supported him, since his body was still trembling and weak from birthing the egg, as he scooped the egg up and clutched it against his chest.

“It’s so small,” he wept, joy and worry and confusion mingling within him and rushing, unfettered, through our bond. “Is something wrong with it? Is it supposed to be so small? Tovey’s eggs are so much bigger.”

“Nothing at all is wrong with it,” I said, reaching around and laying my hand on the egg as Selle stroked it. Touching it together was magical. I could feel the life within it pulsing with excitement. “We completed the breeding process quickly, so the egg is smaller. I believe your brother waited days before birthing his eggs.”

“He did, he did,” Selle said, weeping and sniffing, unable to take his eyes off his egg. “It’s just so beautiful. I…I don’t have words for it.”

“Beautiful is a perfect word,” I said, sighing happily. “You’ve done so well, my dearest one.”

“Did I?” Selle asked, glancing over his shoulder at me. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I still don’t know what I’m doing.” He gasped and his eyes went round as he looked from me to his egg and back again. “I don’t know how to incubate an egg! I don’t know how to raise a child. I’ve never been around children before.”

I chuckled and kissed his forehead, his cheek, and his lips. “We’ll learn together, my love. And I’m certain we’ll have a lot of help. You can raise our child along with your brother’s children.” And if what Emmerich had said about my dragon kin finding their fated mates with the other four omega princes was true, they would all be raising children together. “We should sleep now, darling,” I said.

Selle nodded and allowed me to stretch him out on the bed and cover him to keep him and the egg warm, but I wasn’t certain he’d actually heard me. He fell asleep quickly.

We slept for a few hours at least. Both of us, all of us, were exhausted from the breeding and birthing process, not to mention flying from the castle to my lair. Morning light streamed through the still-open window of my bedchamber when I did awake. I wasn’t certain I would have awakened at all if it wasn’t for the incessant knocking at my bedchamber door.

“What is it?” I snapped, annoyed that anyone would disturb the sanctity of me, my omega, and our egg.

“If you please, Your Highness,” the voice of my steward came through the door. I was about to tell him to go away when he followed with, “You must come at once. Ogres are attacking Lady Saoirse’s serfs!”