Chapter 7
seven
AVERY
Talon rejoined us a few hours later with two massive plates of food. He must’ve already eaten, because after he gave me one, he handed the second one to his sister without a word.
Then, he took the empty chair next to mine.
He didn’t mention my magic. Or anything else.
If he did, I probably wouldn’t have heard him. Between our audiobook and the meal I was devouring, I didn’t have the energy to pay attention to the big, grumpy dragon.
He finished off my food when I couldn’t eat another bite, and after Stella was done, he took our plates and wordlessly left again. I kind of wanted to ask what he was doing and whether he’d be coming back, but decided against it.
At dinner time, he was back with more food, and a set of three guards. Two were male, one was female.
Stella paused the book, and we both ate. Stella chatted with the guards about some sort of race. Surprisingly enough, Talon joined the conversation every now and then. It sounded like he’d done whatever race they were talking about.
The dynamics between him and the guards were so much different than those of the other kings. Some of those guys tried to pretend they weren’t as much of leaders as they actually were, but everyone knew they were full of it.
Without a king, the vampires would wreak havoc. The werewolves would run wild. The fae wouldn’t have anyone to keep things running smoothly in both realms. The monsters would rampage.
But the dragons didn’t seem like that.
They seemed steady.
Laid-back.
Strong.
Their strength meant I was even more at risk, but I didn’t feel like I was in danger.
When we were done eating, all three of us left the guards to the camping chairs and headed back upstairs. Stella offered to take the plates back to the dining hall, and Talon handed them over.
“See you tomorrow,” she called out. “Don’t forget to feed, Avery!”
I scowled at her, and she winked at me.
“You’ll need to feed every day while you’re working on our prisoner,” Talon said, leading me down a hallway that I vaguely recognized. We were getting closer to my room.
“Probably. I might be able to get away with every other, now that I’m using a smaller amount of magic.”
“There’s no reason to go hungry when I’m willing to feed you,” he said bluntly.
“No, but?—”
“No buts.”
I huffed, but stopped arguing with him. It was pretty much pointless.
We reached my room, and Talon followed me inside after opening the door for me. I didn’t bother protesting when he shut the door behind us.
I went back to the bed and sat down on the edge of my mattress, watching him closely as he went over to the scales on a shelf.
That weirdly possessive part of me tightened when he picked one up. I wanted to ask what he was doing, but didn’t let myself.
I wasn’t supposed to obsess over them.
I heard something that sounded like grinding a moment later, and realized he was smoothing the edges.
Though that should’ve relaxed me, I couldn’t take my eyes off him while he was touching the scales.
I was officially losing my mind.
I forced myself to get comfortable on the bed, and slipped my hands into the pocket of my borrowed hoodie. When my fingers brushed the smooth, warm scales, it calmed me a little.
The room was quiet other than the sound of him grinding down the sharp edges. He was probably going to mess up the arrangement I had painstakingly created, but I forced myself to breathe anyway.
They were just fallen scales.
…and I could rearrange them.
The sound was rhythmic, and calming.
Grinding down the edges didn’t seem like a quick process. After a while, I finally started to doze off.
It had been a long couple of days.
And I’d used more magic in the past twelve hours than I ever had in my life.
I fell asleep with my palms against the scales in my pockets. The hunger gnawing on my stomach could wait.
It did wait—for a few hours, at least.
The pain of it woke me up in the middle of the night, and I clutched my abdomen, opening my bleary eyes as my face contorted.
Shit.
I hadn’t been this hungry since we had to hide in our safehouse for a month before Hale took us in.
I was going to need to find someone to drink from. Quickly.
If I went out into the hallway, I was sure I’d be able to find someone. Talon had said I was safe from everything except propositions in Dragon Manor. And propositions were exactly what I needed.
After taking a few slow breaths in an attempt to steady myself, I finally slid out of bed. My feet were sweaty in both layers of socks, and it wasn’t comfortable, but I ignored it.
It was a problem for the satiated version of me.
I crossed the room slowly, gritting my teeth against the pain. The sound of scales’ edges being ground was dulled by the door, but I realized I could still hear it.
Maybe I hadn’t been out for as long as it felt like I had.
I pulled the door open, and stopped abruptly when I found a man.
In the doorway.
I blinked down at Talon. He was leaning up against the door’s frame, holding a scale in one hand. One of his nails on the other hand was shifted to a claw, and he was using the edge of it to grind the sharp side down.
His body was tense, and the button on his jeans was popped open. His cock strained against them, but he seemed to be ignoring it.
“Hungry?” he asked me, his voice gravelly
A shiver tore through me. “Yeah.”
I would’ve offered to find someone else, but he stood before I could. He picked up a nice, woven fabric basket off the floor when he did. I hadn’t noticed it next to him before, but it was pretty. The fabric was a warm shade of white, and when I peeked in, I saw more scales.
So many more scales.
I wanted to stick my hands in, but another stab of pain in my abdomen wiped that desire away quickly.
“Was my magic radiating?” I asked.
“Yup.” He didn’t expand on it.
I was grateful for that.
I didn’t need to know how many people he’d turned away after they were drawn to my door by my magic. I didn’t want to know, either.
“You should’ve woken me up.”
“You needed the sleep.”
He set the basket down next to one of my bookshelves, and I eyed it. “You’re losing a lot of scales, Tal. Are you sure it’s normal?”
“Yes.”
“Is your room overflowing with scales?”
“No. Losing them is normal, but it doesn’t happen all the time.”
“Oh. So you’re like… molting?”
He snorted. “I guess.”
“What triggers it?”
He put his hands on my hips and stepped closer to me, careful not to bump me. My abdomen was still aching, but talking to him was a good distraction.
It had been a good distraction, at least.
The way he was holding me said I wasn’t going to need one much longer.
Talon lowered his face as I tilted my head back, and his lips met mine. The feel of his mouth was so good, I didn’t even tap into my magic. I just… enjoyed it.
He parted my lips with his tongue, and I finally took in his emotions.
Satisfaction.
Desire.
Need.
The pain in my lower belly dissipated immediately, and I groaned. He walked me backward, and I took more.
Possession.
Lust.
More satisfaction.
My back hit a wall lightly, and he released my mouth long enough to pull his sweatshirt over my head. The top I had beneath went with it, and he palmed my breasts.
“You’ve got a thing for my tits, huh?” I breathed, as I pulled his face down toward mine.
“They’re fucking perfect.” He growled the words before recapturing my mouth.
I pulled on his emotions again, harder.
More possession.
More lust.
More satisfaction.
He undid my bra and tugged it down my arms before tossing it free.
I groaned into him as he pinched one of my nipples lightly. Teasingly. Playing with it until I was arching against him, my need swelling as I drank his. My magic only added to it.
He released my breast and unbuttoned my jeans, and I gasped when he slipped his fingers into the waistband and beneath my panties. They were rough against my clit, brushing lightly through the slickness.
I had been touched there before, but not like that. Not carefully.
I moaned into his mouth, and his chest rumbled.
His emotions grew wilder and more carnal.
But his satisfaction only lingered. Swelled. Thickened.
He circled my clit slowly, like he wasn’t in a hurry. Like he didn’t have anywhere else he’d rather be, or anything else he’d rather be doing. Like he wasn’t dying to be inside me.
His emotions told me he genuinely wasn’t.
He was just enjoying me.
I had to break the kiss to catch my breath. He tilted my head to the side, and his lips moved down the side of my throat. Kissing. Licking. Sucking.
Nipping.
“Bite me,” I breathed, and he rumbled.
“You want my teeth in your skin again, A?”
I cried out as he slid a thick finger inside me, and grabbed his shirt like an anchor. He lifted my hands to his hair, one by one, and I nearly came as he dragged his thumb over my clit.
My grip on his hair was insanely tight as he took me back to the edge, kissing and nipping at that place on my shoulder. The place where his bite marked my skin. It hadn’t faded. It had healed into a perfect scar, almost as quickly as he’d left it there.
The scar didn’t make it look like a casual bite, but maybe dragons always did that. Maybe?—
My cries became moans and gasps as I detonated on his hand. His hold on me didn’t waver, and his fangs pierced me again, biting in deep and dragging the pleasure out longer.
Fiercer.
Endlessly .
He released my skin and licked the wound slowly as he continued stroking my clit. The motions were lazier. Calmer.
He wasn’t trying to work me up anymore. He was trying to bring me back down.
I panted almost violently as I tried to recover. My body was trembling. Hell, maybe my soul was trembling.
I’d definitely never been touched like that.
I’d never had a man pleasure me without a care for his own needs once, before Talon. Now, he’d done it twice.
His hand was still cradling my core when he lifted me up and carried me over to my bed, his finger still inside me.
I wanted more, but I was exhausted. So exhausted. And so blissfully full of his emotions, it only made me sleepier.
But I needed to reciprocate. I couldn’t leave the balance weighed so completely in my direction. He’d taken care of me—I needed to take care of him too.
“Take my pants off,” I whispered, as he pulled his hand away from my core.
“Not tonight, Ave.” He brushed a kiss to the place he’d bitten me.
“But—”
“Sleep well.” He kissed my lips, lightly, then pulled my blankets up to my chin. I was still shirtless, wearing just a pair of unbuttoned jeans and a damp thong.
The bed felt cold and empty as I watched him walk away, not really registering the way he lifted his hand to his mouth to lick his fingers clean on his way out.
He locked the door behind himself, and despite the emptiness, I fell asleep as soon as he was gone.