Chapter 5
Chapter Five
MARI
Anoise wakes me, and I stretch my body, letting out a groan. I feel sore but also something else as well. It takes me a minute to work out what the difference I’m feeling is and when I do, it shocks me.
Safe.
I feel safe.
The sensation is so alien. When was the last time I felt like this? It’s been a long time. Before I was taken from my home. Years.
I keep my eyes closed, wondering why spending a short time with two dragons I barely know and engaging in what amounts to a sex marathon would have this result.
‘Are you thirsty?’
I jump at the close voice.
I am thirsty, I realize, and hungry too.
I open my eyes and find Brax sitting close by, almost as if he’s guarding me.
I nod, my cheeks heating as I sit up and realize I’m naked.
Of course I am. Sex marathon. Two men. Hours and hours of pleasure. My lower regions contract at the memories and I push them away, not understanding my body’s response.
As I look at the dragon man sitting so close, I find that, past the odd feelings of security, I don’t know what to do, what to think.
‘What happens now?’ I ask in a small voice.
Brax looks me over at his leisure, eyes lingering on my lips.
‘Now, we see if it took. If we’re done or need to keep scenting you.’
More sex?
The prospect isn’t abhorrent.
‘How—’
‘A kiss,’ he says slowly, quirking a brow. ‘It’s the only way.’
Oh.
‘Ok.’
He gets up and moves to sit on the bed with me, his eyes not leaving mine. His fingers draw lightly down my cheek, and I see something in his expression that I don’t understand as he angles my face toward him, and his head descends.
His lips meet mine, gentle but insistent, his tongue darting out to lick the seam of my mouth.
I open for him almost instinctively and he lets out a low, contented noise as he pushes me down to the bed carefully, almost reverently.
The kiss deepens and his tongue slips past my teeth, mingling with mine, stroking me.
I hear a low moan and realize the sound came from me. The weight of his body on mine increases, pushing me into the mattress. My body’s response is immediate, my legs widening, wanting more.
I haven’t registered the low hum of water running until it abruptly stops just as Brax is pulling the bedcovers away from me and begins kneading my breast. My body arches into his and a door opens.
Someone coughs and I pull my head away from Brax’s pleasurable assault, turning my face to the side to find Tor now standing in the room with a towel wrapped around his waist.
The hard planes of his body ripple, water running in rivulets down his muscles and my breath catches. Brax is kissing down my throat, nipping at my flesh gently. He doesn’t seem to notice that Tor is watching.
‘Brax.’
The way Tor says his name sounds like a warning, and the male who’s currently on top of me pauses his ministrations, turning back to look at his friend with a small sigh.
‘Fine,’ he mutters petulantly, and moves off me, eliciting a squeak from me when he pinches my nipple.
‘Well?’ I ask breathlessly. ‘Did it work?’
I almost hope it didn’t. There’s an ache coiling deep inside me. I want more of what they did last night.
Did they use some kind of dragon sorcery on me to make me into their willing slave? Was this all a trick of some kind?
The idea is a horrible one and makes me pull my knees up toward my body, tearing at the blanket to try to cover myself.
Tor rolls his eyes and snorts. ‘What did you tell her? That you needed to fuck her again to make sure?’
My eyes widen and fly to Brax, because that is sort of what he said.
‘A kiss actually.’ Brax winks at me, looking unrepentant as his eyes slide over me like he can see through the cover. ‘Got a little carried away.’
Brax tricked me.
I scowl at him, belatedly remembering that he tried to kiss me earlier and I wouldn’t let him. It seemed too intimate at the beginning, before they…
Tor lets out a long breath.
‘It took,’ he says quietly. ‘Your scent has changed, Mari.’
I smell my arm and look at him with confusion. I could use a wash, but I don’t smell any different to myself.
Brax’s lip twitches. ‘You won’t notice it with your human senses, but you might as well have dipped your body in perfume a la Brax and Tor to any dragon’s nose. For a while, at least.’
‘For a while?’ I ask.
‘It’ll wear off in time.’ His tongue darts out to lick his lips as he watches me. ‘It’ll need to be… topped up.’
I shake my head at him. ‘Why did you pretend…’
He just shrugs. ‘It’s time to go.’
Already?
The bubble I’ve been in since he brought me into this room bursts, and the calm I was feeling disappears. My heart begins to thud in my chest.
Tor shifts on his feet, looking oddly uncomfortable.
‘Actually, I need to hunt first.’
Brax frowns and then smiles widely.
‘My friend,’ he murmurs. ‘Congratulations.’
I look from him to Tor and then back again, not understanding what’s happening at all, but neither of them elaborate.
‘I won’t be long,’ Tor says, turning away and dropping the towel. ‘Make her something to eat and then let her rest.’
‘Fine,’ Brax says, looking a little disappointed.
Tor leaves without a backward glance and Brax stands.
‘What was all that about?’ I ask as Brax rummages through some drawers in the wooden bureau on the other side of the room.
He glances at me and throws some clothes on the bed but then seems to decide something.
‘Not my story, princess, but my boy, our boy, had a tough time for a while. He was in a dark place and he’s finally coming out the other side.’
I frown at him. ‘That’s not much to go on.’
He smirks. ‘Get dressed, little rabbit. I can hear your stomach rumbling from here.’
He throws on a shirt and some low slung pants. I avert my eyes when they start traveling over his body with interest, and I start feeling that feeling down low again.
‘Did you do something to me?’ I blurt.
‘Yeah,’ he snorts. ‘Fucked you six ways from Sunday and gave you unbelievable pleasure for hours if those screams of yours and the squirting were anything to go by.’
I gape at him. He says it so casually. Does he do this all the time with human women? I don’t like how my stomach twists at that thought.
He frowns at me. ‘No, I don’t do it all the time.’
My eyes snap to him. ‘How did you… Did you just—’
‘It’s just that we’re in-tune right now,’ he says quickly. ‘A side effect. That’s all.’
Why does it sound like he’s trying to convince himself as well as me?
His expression shutters and he turns away.
‘I meant, why do I have these weird…’
I trail off, remembering his trick with the kiss. Maybe I should be asking Tor, not Brax. His answers are just raising more questions.
‘What?’ he asks.
‘Nothing.’
I pull on the oversized teal sweatshirt he’s given me, thankful when I see it comes down to my mid thighs as he hasn’t given me anything else.
‘Come on.’
I get out of bed and follow him out of the room. He takes me down the darkened hallways to the kitchen that Tor brought me to, was it yesterday? The day before? I don’t know. Time is pretty difficult to gauge when you can’t see the sun.
He goes over to the gleaming silver box and opens the door. There’s a light inside and my eyes widen.
‘Is that a fridge?’
He turns and regards me with amusement. ‘Never seen one?’
I snort. ‘Of course I have. Just never one that actually works.’
I peer inside, seeing glass bottles of juice and what looks like milk as well as covered bowls and earthenware containers.
‘How do you…have all this?’ I ask, unable to keep the awe from my voice. ‘I thought most of the old world technology was gone.’
‘Not for us.’ He picks up a bowl and looks inside.
‘We have knowledge from that time so we can keep things working, make new if we need to. Like this dam. Others like it. It means we have power. That along with various trade routes means we can live not all that differently from how we did pre-Fall.’
He puts the bowl in another little box on the counter that I recognize as a microwave, only because my rich friend’s family kept one in the community center that was powered off some old solar panels.
It whirs to life, and I watch the bowl going around in a circle inside it.
Brax grabs some bread out of a wooden box and cuts a few slices, lathering them with butter.
The microwave pings and he takes the bowl out, giving it a stir and pouring it into two smaller bowls.
He puts it in front of me with a spoon and some of the bread.
‘What is it?’
‘Just chicken soup.’
‘This is all so surreal,’ I mutter as I stare at it, but I take up the spoon and I eat, tearing off chunks of the bread to dip.
Brax does the same, and when we’re finished, he washes the dishes in the sink and puts them on the drying rack before turning to me.
‘Tor won’t be quick. This is the first time he’s gone out like this for a long time.’
He doesn’t move, just watches me for long enough that I start to feel awkward.
Then, he turns on his heel and leaves the room. ‘Come on,’ he calls.
I follow him quickly, down a flight of stairs to a large room.
I gasp when I see what it is. Books line shelf after shelf. Some are huge, and others look like novels.
‘Can you read?’ he asks.
I nod absently.
‘Wow,’ I breathe, taking one off the nearest shelf and flipping through it.
He smirks. ‘Never seen working books before either?’
I narrow my eyes at him. ‘Funny. Of course I’ve seen books before. We had a small library in my town, but never so many and a lot of them were falling apart. These are all in much better condition. My mom…’
I shake my head at myself, wondering why I’d assume a creature like him would care about anything a lowly human would have to say, but he swings back to look at me with an interested expression on his face.
‘Go on,’ he urges.