Chapter 26
ARDRUC
I felt it in my bones when something changed in Elena.
My hand was wrapped in her beautiful, silken hair. My cock was buried in her sweet pussy and my cum streamed down her legs, just as I had envisioned. Her pretty ass begged for me to stretch and fill it, and her orgasms had been as powerful and perfect as I had wanted them to be.
It was a tiny thing—a tension, or a little frisson that traveled through her body—but it rang in my soul like a bell. My hunger for her became softer. I had no other words for it than that.
I withdrew from her. Her gasp and exhale were sweet sounds.
My cock dripping and still heavy with need, I spread her ass with my hands, bent my head, and slipped the tip of my tongue into her perfect little asshole. Her moan was soft too.
Yes, something had changed, and whatever it was, it made me feel whole.
I stretched her gently and slowly, one worshipful press of my tongue at a time. Her little cries and moans ran over my body like caresses. I no longer wanted them muffled. I untied the torn piece of my shirt from around her mouth and let it fall to the ground.
“Dragon,” she whispered, leaning back onto my tongue. “Please.”
“You do not need to ask or beg, little mate,” I said, replacing my tongue with my slick fingertips. “Everything you want, you will get.”
She bowed her head and murmured my dragon in a tone I had not heard before.
I stretched her until she was ready for me. Then I eased her wrists and ankles out of the vines. Even freed, she stayed in place, waiting and beautiful and perfect.
I wrapped my arm around her waist and sat back on my heels, drawing her with me as I moved. “Sit on my tail, little mate.”
The quiet, happy sound she made was perfect too.
I held my thrumming tail steady for her as she lowered herself onto its glistening tip. I had covered it with my lubrication and cum while I stretched her.
The sight of her ready to take me—the cum still dripping from her sweet pussy, her lovely stretched ass, her tousled hair hanging loose from its braid—made me ache with how much I loved her.
She slipped herself onto my tail with a gasp and a sigh. This was not at all how I had planned to take her, but it was more perfect than I could have imagined.
She took my tail slowly and gently, squeezing me as she slid up and down, easing it deeper into herself each time. I held her hips, taking her weight so she did not tire or go too far too fast.
Once she found her rhythm, she wrapped her hand around my cock and stroked as she moved. When she cupped and caressed my knot, our groans blended.
I held her still with one hand and used the other to pull off her blindfold.
She turned to look at me, her hair coming loose over her shoulders, face flushed, and eyes as blue as the sky. I had never in my life beheld anything or anyone as beautiful as my Elena.
I cupped her face and kissed her. “Is this good for you, little mate?”
“It’s perfect, dragon,” she said, her voice soft and expression dreamy. “Exactly what I want.”
My chest rumbling and heaving, I kissed her again as her fingers stroked my cock, squeezing and turning, sliding up and down through the rivulets that dripped from its head. Every sensation was a divine symphony of unending pleasures.
She rode me like that for a long time—slowly, perfectly, rolling her hips and taking her pleasure while giving me my own. I admired everything about her, captivated by the way her muscles moved under her skin, the gleam of her perspiration, her little gasps and whimpers.
“You feel so good inside me,” she said with a moan as she slid down again, taking my tail almost to its first frill and pausing there to rest. “A perfect fit. Like this is where I’m supposed to be.”
“Yes.” I cradled her hips where the bruises I had made earlier were already fading thanks to my healing saliva and cum. As much as I had loved making them at her request, I caressed them with my thumbs and willed them away. “And this is where I am supposed to be.”
She arched her back and rolled forward to her knees. I moved with her, keeping my tail inside her. “I’d like you to come on my ass, now, dragon. I want to feel your cum run down my legs. It feels so good.”
“Everything you want, you will get,” I promised. “Come on my tail, little mate. Let me hear you call for your dragon.”
Moaning my name again and again, she pleasured herself on my tail as I stroked myself in rhythm with her movements. Her voice rose in pitch as she neared her release. When I rubbed her clit and vibrated my tail, she came with a wonderful, almost operatic cry that took me over the edge with her.
With groans and growls, I covered her beautiful back, ass, and thighs with my cum. She gasped and trembled every time a hot stream of it splashed over her and dripped down her skin.
“Yes, dragon,” she said, grinding on my tail to draw out her own orgasm. “Mark me as your little mate.”
What could I do but obey?
When I was spent, we collapsed onto our sides on the mossy bed. I kissed her forehead and eased my tail from her still-fluttering ass. “Little mate,” I murmured. “Perfect little mate.”
She grabbed my hand and brought it to her mouth. “So delicious,” she breathed. Her tongue swirled over my fingers. “Thank you.”
“You do not need to thank me, my love. Everything I give you, I give with joy.” I smoothed hair back from her face and tucked it behind her ear. “You are satisfied?”
“For now.” She snuggled against my chest. “But not completely. Not until I get your knot.”
“I am ready to share it with you.” I tucked her head under my chin and draped my wing over her so she did not feel a chill. “You may have it whenever you wish.”
“Give me a minute.” She pressed her nose against my skin and inhaled. “I’m in recovery.”
Knowing my scent was as much a comfort and a source of healing for her as hers was for me warmed my hearts and soul.
“There is no rush, Elena,” I murmured into her ear. “Epet mar ele’ana.”
She chuckled and kissed my chest, so perhaps I was forgiven for unfairly claiming victory in our bet.
I admired her as she rested…and wondered what had happened between us that had shifted the essence of our growing bond.
Other than softer and more powerful, I could not quite identify the nature of the change, but it was undeniably even better and more comforting than before.
I could not think of the right words to ask her what had changed, so I was forced to speculate.
Her scent seemed richer and more deeply content now, and my gut told me pleasure alone had not caused it. Perhaps she had accepted my love a little more. Maybe she felt more at home and treasured in my arms. Maybe she believed she was safe with me.
Having my true mate at my side was a source of endless comforts and wonders. What more could I do to ensure she felt the same?
My gut twinged. For all Elena had given me, she had asked only one thing in return: the truth about my painful past. She had shared her own without hesitation and shown me complete trust.
I trusted her with my hearts, body, and soul. So what held my tongue?
Fear of reopening old wounds? Perhaps. But what weighed heaviest in my gut were worse worries. She might think I had acted wrongly in leaving, and encourage or even expect me to contact my family to try and make peace.
I closed my eyes and drank in my mate’s sweet scent.
No, that was not true. I did not fear she would think or say those things. Elena had made the difficult choice to break contact with her own parents. She would understand my struggles, perhaps more than anyone else.
The truth was much harder to swallow: that despite everything I had endured and my parents’ demands that I return to Fortusia and the compound, I feared I had done wrong to flee and leave my brother behind.
Something within me cracked open and began to bleed guilt, grief, pain, and regret.
A sound escaped my clenched jaw: a whine like I had made last night when I had thought I had hurt Elena. It was brief and almost soundless, but it cut through the quiet of our shelter like a blade.
Elena raised her head, her eyes full of worry and brow furrowed. “Ardruc?”
My chest ached like I had been speared, and everything I wanted and needed to say stuck in my throat until I thought I might choke.
She took my face in her hands. “It’s all right. I’m here.” She kissed me gently. “I’m here,” she repeated, more firmly. “Talk to me.”
When I said nothing, she tucked my head against her chest over her own heart, wrapped her arms around me, and stroked my hair and feathers until the worst of the pain eased and I could breathe again…and find the courage to speak.
“When I was eight years old and my younger brother Nors was six,” I rasped, “my parents sold all our possessions and moved us into a compound on Fortusia. It was owned by a man named…”
I swallowed hard. For eleven years, I had been forbidden to say the name of the sect leader, who considered his followers unworthy to speak it aloud.
Even now doing so caused nausea, and not just because it conjured the darkest memories of my life.
The indoctrination had proven far more difficult to shed than my chains.
“Pyru Harnda,” I grated out finally. “My parents told us the enclave was a school and cooperative living community, but it was…a closed sect. A cult.”
Elena pressed her lips to the top of my head. “Take your time,” she murmured. “Epet mar ele’ana.”
For all my earlier teasing, I loved the softer way the vowels sounded in her mouth and the gentleness of her consonants versus the harsher plosives and affricates of Fortusian pronunciation. A simple phrase I had never thought I would use was poetry and music and a balm when she said it.