Page 6 of Wild for the Wyvern (Mated to the Monster: Season 3)
Five
Drayce
I shouldn’t be nervous. I’m twice Kori’s age and will likely live a few hundred years. There’s nothing to worry about. Except that our connection is deeper than two people accidentally meeting. I knew from the first scent of her that she was meant for me. That’s the beast in me talking. The man knows she could reject me. Once she knows the truth, that’s the most likely outcome.
It’s after ten when we walk out of Rialto and I take her hand in mine. “I know it’s late, but I wonder if you would let me take you back to my house.”
She blushes so beautifully. “If you want.”
“I have something I need to tell you.” There’s a hesitation in my voice that reveals my anxious state.
“Oh god. You’re married.” She pulls her hand from mine and walks down the street away from me.
I jog a few steps to catch her and take her arm gently. “No. I’m not married nor have I ever been.”
Her shoulders relax and the strain in her eyes eases. “What is it then?”
“I can’t tell you here. It’s something you won’t believe unless you see proof, and I’m not able to give you that here.” I sound like some kind of creep. It would have been smarter to just take her home, make love to her, then show her what I am.
She stares for a long moment.
My wyvern pushes forward, wanting to be seen, but I hold him inside.
Pressing the palm of her hand to my chest, she cocks her head. “Okay. I trust you.”
Do I deserve her trust? Maybe not, but I want to deserve her. “Thank you.” Taking her hand, I walk us to my SUV and open the door for her.
Driving us up the mountain, I keep her hand in mine on top of her soft thigh. Her short white dress leaves little to my imagination, but I already know what’s beneath and long to have her under me again. The only problem is, if I take her, my nature will reveal itself. Knotting only happens when fated mates make love and it nearly took hold yesterday. I was lucky to pull free before she had the opportunity to reject me. As much as I’d love to see our child growing within her, it’s not fair until she knows the entire truth.
We reach the driveway to my house and she looks across at me. “You’re quiet. Am I not going to like what you have to show me?”
“I don’t know.” My pulse races as I stop in front of the house.
She holds my hand tighter, keeping me in the vehicle. “I really like you more than I should in such a short time. I don’t want to know anything that will change this rush of happiness I feel when I look at you.”
If I could be a human man, right now, I would. I’m about to disappoint the only woman I’ll ever feel total perfection with and it’s killing me.
Still holding my hand at the edge of her short dress, she uses her other hand to pop open the little buttons running down the front. One by one, they separate, until only the taut peaks of her tits are keeping the fabric from full separation. She arches her back and those spectacular globes push free.
My mouth waters and I lower my head across the console to take the closer one in my mouth. I lap and suck on the tight bud, and she grips my hair and whispers my name.
Easing her hips forward pushes her dress higher until my hand and hers contact her bare wet pussy.
The wyvern roars, and I growl, slipping my fingers between her slick folds.
“Drayce, why does everything you do drive me crazy?” She spreads her knees and grips my upper arm while lifting her hips.
Slowly, I slip a finger inside her and rub my thumb over her tight clit while sucking her nipple.
She pumps against my finger, gasping and moaning as she reaches for her orgasm.
Pleasure I long to give her again and again. I love that she wore no underwear and am glad she didn’t reveal the fact until now or we’d never have made it through dinner. Pulling my finger free, I taste her juices and gaze into her starlit eyes. “It’s not enough.” My voice is rough as I move out of the car and round to the passenger side.
She stares with wide eyes as I practically rip the door off its hinges to get to her. Lifting her from the seat I gently place her on the hood of the car, throw her legs over my shoulders, and bury my mouth in her sweetness. Another growl escapes at the first taste of her.
Kori leans back and presses her heels into my back, fucking against my mouth.
The beast wants more and I can’t deny him a taste. I let my tongue shift to the long fork of the wyvern and slide it deep inside her, teasing places only my tongue can reach.
She grips my hair, pulling me closer and screaming, “Oh. What? Oh.”
My wings strain to come into the world, but I hold them inside while I feel the first of her orgasm pulse around me. Shifting back to a human tongue, I suck hard on her clit, and her juices flow on a long keen. I lap up every drop.
The beast has had enough hiding and my wings erupt from my back.
When I look up the length of her body, she has her eyes tightly closed and her fingers still grip my hair. Her white dress is belted around her waist.
Folding my wings against my back, I wrap my arms around her. “Kori, I can’t make love to you as I wish until you know what I am.”
Slitting her eyes open, she gazes at me, sated, and maybe loving. Or maybe that’s what I want to see. “What do you mean?” She sighs. “What was that thing you did with your tongue?” She combs my hair from my face and her hand touches the arch of my wing.
“You saw me in the woods yesterday. You saw what I can become, what I am. I am both a man and a beast. I can shift from an ordinary human,” I spread my wings, “to a wyvern. I have to shift every day.”
Eyes wide and face white as a sheet, she pushes away and grips her dress as she scrambles down the hood of the SUV. “What is this?”
Too late to turn back, I say, “This is what I am. If we make love, my nature will come out as it tried to yesterday. Wyvern and other monsters knot when they have sex with their true mate. You have to know the truth.”
She pulls on her dress, pushing it down at the bottom, and buttons the front crookedly. “What are you? What is knotting?”
I let my eyes shift to catlike slits. “You saw me, Kori. You know what I am.”
Putting my truck between us, her chest rises and falls too quickly. “I didn’t see anything. It was my muddled, scared, lost mind playing tricks.”
“There’s nothing wrong with your mind, sweetheart.” I shift fast, painfully, and grow to five times the size of a man.
She stares up at me. “I think the keys are still in this thing.” She pants and swallows. “I’m just going to drive myself back and you can do whatever.”
My heart hurts as if it’s being ripped from my chest. A roar breaks free.
Holding her ears, she crouches behind the vehicle.
I shift back to a man and shake off the change. “I can drive you back.”
“No. I. I’m sorry. I’m sure that whatever you are is fine. I’m. It’s. I’m not wise enough to know what this is between us. I can’t…” She shakes her head. “My life has had enough drama. This,” she gestures to me, “is too much.”
“I’m a man and I’m in love with you. Nothing, not even you rejecting me, will change that, Kori.” She should know the truth, and I pray it’s enough to keep her from running away.
She opens the SUV door. “Don’t say that. You can’t love me. I have a job in the city and a weird little life where nothing interesting ever happens. It’s enough. I’m sorry.”
I want to stop her and tell her that everything is going to be alright. I long to comfort her, but she’s terrified of me.
As she drives away, I shift and fly overhead to make sure she gets back to the resort safely. When she parks in the long lot to the west of the main door, I land and shift under the cover of the trees. Stepping into the light of the streetlamps, I say, “Please, Kori. I just want to say a few things before you run out of my life forever. Please.”
Tears streaming down her face and makeup smeared in rivulets of black, she stops and lowers her gaze to the pavement. “I can’t stay with you. Even if that was what I wanted.”
Now I know what heartbreak really feels like. I suppose I never thought it would feel so literal, but my chest is on fire and so tight, it might explode. “I understand. This is a shock. I’m not human and you have other notions about what the man you’ll love will be. We only met yesterday, and all of this is too much too fast.”
“I’m sorry,” she says for the third time.
“Please stop apologizing. None of this is your fault. I’m long past the year when my mate should have crossed my path. I thought it would never happen to me. I thought the nymph would suffice for a life partner. Nothing prepared me for you. I should have found a way to give you more time. Yesterday when we made love, the knotting almost happened and then it would have been harder to turn back. I had to show you what I am, but now you’re afraid of me.” My guts are in pieces. How do people survive this? “My mother tried to tell me long ago that when a monster meets his or her mate, it’s like lightning come to life and striking a million times. I thought she was being dramatic. “It is me who should apologize. I didn’t do any of this right. I hope you’ll remember some parts of the last two days as happy memories. I know that I will always hold you in my heart, Kori.”
Turning, I walk into the shadow of the woods.
Her soft crying is the last thing I hear before shifting and flying into the night sky. Once I see her hunched form enter the building, I head for my mountain.