Chapter 21
ELENA
The scarlet algal component of Hyderia’s bocoral lichen was absolutely gorgeous, especially in extreme magnification on my largest computer screen—and even more so now that my lab had transformed into a living, breathing environment that embraced both me and my work.
The bocoral lichen was unique in many ways. It was one of only a handful I had discovered since my arrival that contained not the typical two algal partners but three, as well as one species of fungus and various microbes. The bocoral was its own tiny ecosystem.
And like all lichen, it was an indicator of the health of the environment.
I didn’t need it to tell me Hyderia was thriving because that was clear enough, but studying these robust specimens was a welcome change from other, more urbanized planets I’d visited where the lichen was in sharp decline due to pollution and loss of habitat.
The door to Lab Three opened. An enormous winged shadow framed by artificial light spilling in from the corridor loomed across the foliage, grassy floor, and fungi that surrounded me.
“Dr. Regis.” Ardruc’s brusque voice made me look up from my screen and its bright display of scarlet algae. “A word?”
“Of course.” I swiveled my chair to face him as he crossed the lab and came around my bank of screens.
He’d donned a lab coat over a dark blue shirt and black pants. His expression was thunderous as he towered over me, his feathers bristling and tail twitching.
“I expected your weekly report today,” he said curtly. “This is the third time you have ignored a direct request for a complete accounting of your lab hours.”
He took a step forward, crowding me. I tried to scoot my chair back, but its feet had settled into the grassy floor and it didn’t budge.
“You clearly have no respect for my authority,” he continued, staring down with glowing eyes that pinned me in place like a tiny rodent under the gaze of a raptor. “I am the director of research. I am in charge of this station. When I tell you to do something, you do it.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, biting my lip. “I have all these new samples to study and I forgot about the report.”
“So you said last time. And the time before that.” Ardruc’s glower sent a thrill of fear and desire through me. His stare raked me from head to toe. “What are you wearing?”
I swallowed. “My standard lab attire, Dr. Husiorithae.”
He rumbled. “And what have I told you about what you call your standard lab attire?”
His gaze was so fierce. Gods above. “That I have to wear something under my lab coat,” I whispered. “But—”
“And yet you have paid as little attention to that demand as anything else I have said,” he snapped. “I have reached the limit of my patience with you, Dr. Regis. Get up.”
When I didn’t move, he leaned down until his nose was inches from my own. Smoke puffed from his nostrils and his eyes blazed. “Get. Up.”
With a little whimper, I rose. In my bare feet, he towered over me. And when he spread his wings to further emphasize our size difference, I moaned.
“Turn around,” he grated. “Put your hands flat on your desk and do not move them.”
My knees shaking, I obeyed.
Clothing rustled behind me, but I couldn’t see what he was doing. His hot breath caressed the nape of my neck just before his hand closed around it. My legs nearly went out from under me.
“You think because you report to your university on Fyloria and the Ministry on Nyvor that you do not need to follow my policies,” he said, his mouth next to my ear. “I think I must teach you a lesson, Dr. Regis.”
Gods above, he was entirely too good at this.
I’d never thought I’d get to indulge this secret fantasy. Until Ardruc, I’d never found the right partner to make it good enough to measure up to my imagination.
His hand tightened just enough to make me squirm. “Do you agree? You need a lesson?”
“Yes,” I breathed.
Another little squeeze. “Yes, what?”
“Yes, Dr. Husiorithae,” I whimpered. “I need a lesson.”
His dominance was everything I wanted and more. This moment was so much better than I’d even dreamed of. I was dripping so much now that I felt my slickness running down my thighs.
His teeth closed on my earlobe in a flash of pain that made me quiver. “I am glad you agree.”
His free hand reached around and pulled the front of my lab coat aside so he could cup my breast and pinch my nipple. I moaned.
My lab was not cold, but my skin pebbled when he exposed it to the air. My nipples were already painfully hard—and had been from the moment he’d first towered over me in feigned anger.
With one hand on the back of my neck, he pinched and stroked my nipples until I whimpered for mercy—and then he pinched them more.
“You are brilliant,” Ardruc growled. He abandoned my sensitive nipples and slid his hand down my stomach to brush over my slit, as if to see how wet I was for him. I gasped.
“Intuitive. Insightful. Beautiful.” His fingertips traveled around my hip to delve along the cleft of my ass, teasing and tormenting. “And so desperately in need of a hard lesson in who is in charge,” he finished. “Bend over.”
When I resisted, he pushed my head down until I was bent over my desk. And then he rolled my lab coat up to bare my ass and dripping pussy. I sensed his intense gaze raking over me, taking in every detail. I mewled.
“I like that sound.” His fingers stroked the back of my neck, digging in lightly as his clothing rustled again. He tightened his grip. “Make it again, and do not stop until I tell you.”
As I whimpered for him, I caught the unmistakable sound of him stroking his cock. Gods, I wanted to see him. My pussy clenched and gushed.
I moaned and tried to turn my head. “Please…”
“No.” His hand closed on the back of my neck, pinning me firmly to the desk. “Spread your legs, Dr. Regis.”
Aroused beyond all reason, I obeyed. “Wider,” he said. I whimpered again.
Two hot, wet fingers rubbed over my slit and brushed my clit much too gently to give me what I wanted. I made a desperate sound. “Please…” I begged.
“Please what, Dr. Regis?” More feather-light touches. I wanted to scream.
“Please rub my clit,” I gasped. I tried to move, to take pleasure for myself, but he moved his hand away and held me in place by the back of my neck. “Please put your fingers in my pussy and make me come,” I pleaded.
“I am not here to do what you want, Dr. Regis,” he growled into my ear. “I am here to teach you a lesson.”
His wet fingertips trailed over my dripping pussy and up to my asshole. “So pretty,” he mused, tracing its edges with a wet fingertip to make me flutter. “So perfect. You have such a lovely and disobedient little ass, Doctor.”
His fingertip moved away so he could stroke himself and then returned slick with his lubrication. With steady, unyielding pressure, he slipped it into my asshole. I wailed in pleasure.
“Yes,” he rumbled, pinning me in place by the back of my neck. “Such a shame I must resort to these measures to get you to obey my policies.”
“I’m sorry I forgot the report and about my attire,” I gasped. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”
He added another well-lubricated finger and began to stretch me. I whimpered.
“I think you are only saying what you think I want to hear, Dr. Regis,” he growled. “I do not think you mean what you say.”
“I do,” I wailed. “I will do whatever you want, whenever you want me to do it.”
He added a third finger, and now the pain and pleasure and my need to come was overwhelming to the point I was nearly sobbing. Still, he left my dripping pussy untouched.
When his fingers slid from me, I arched my back, hoping he would turn his attention to my clit.
Instead, his enormous cock—bigger still than three of his fingers—pressed against my asshole. It was so big. Too big. I cried out and squirmed, caught between the most powerful need and arousal I had ever experienced and a thrill of fear.
His hand tightened on the back of my neck. “You asked for a lesson, little mate.”
Finally, finally, the tip of his tail flicked repeatedly against my aching clit. I wailed. Gods, I was so close…so close…
“You asked to be claimed and filled in every way,” he reminded me, his voice still wonderfully deep and brusque and in character for the benefit of my fantasy.
But then he bent over and kissed my ear and murmured, “Do you still want this?”
Even now, even after I had made it clear what I wanted and why, he wanted confirmation. He wanted to know I hadn’t changed my mind and that he wasn’t doing something I didn’t want. My dragon treasured me above all else. That alone nearly sent me careening over the edge.
“Yes,” I screamed. “Take me now. Take my ass, dragon.”
Growling, rumbling, one hand on my neck and the other steadying himself, he rubbed my clit with the tip of his tail as he pushed the head of his huge, beautiful, dripping cock into my ass.
I screamed and screamed, and I came.
I came hard around his cock—so hard that my hearing and sight faded to ringing in my ears and swirls of colors mixed with stars.
Every sensation of his intrusion was amplified. I felt every detail, every ridge and bump and vein of his cock as he thrust inside me further each time, stretching me in a symphony of pain and pleasure and filling me so perfectly that I couldn’t stop screaming.
“Take my cock, little mate,” Ardruc cooed. “Now you are mine.”
His vibrating tail tip traveled along my slit to where my dripping pussy clenched desperately on its own emptiness.
“Yes,” I pleaded. “Please, please.”
When he filled my pussy with his tail and thrust his cock into my ass in the same rhythm, I convulsed with pleasure.
“You are beautiful when you take my tail in your sweet pussy and my cock in your ass, little mate,” Ardruc rumbled. He let go of my neck and stroked my back as he rocked inside me. “You needed me to claim you this way.”
“Yes.” I was holding on to my desk now as he thrust into me, deeper and better each time. “Please, Ardruc. Please, dragon.”