Chapter 2
Two
Anna
“Anna?” Milly's voice was tiny and distant. “Are you okay? What’s going on?”
She was there, in front of me, chocolaty brown eyes looking into me with concern.
My dragon thrust its wings wide and bellowed for attention. For focus. It wanted something … and wanted that something bad.
“Ella! Something is wrong with Anna.”
I shouted at them from the inside of my brain.
Tried to tell them what was happening, that my dragon, long dormant and barely alive, like every clippy’s, had somehow …
awoken? It was there, taking control of my body, tensing every muscle, and preventing any sort of movement as impossible as it should be.
What was happening to me? I couldn’t even breathe, so paralyzed was I by the sudden intrusion into my head.
I looked up as movement stole my attention. Ella moved in front of me, checking me over. She brought with her more of that delicious citrusy-smoky flavor. The faintest whiff brushed against me, and I suddenly inhaled, long and deep, drinking it in.
The second taste of that smell propelled me to my feet.
I nearly bowled Ella aside, lurching to the front of the cage while desperately trying to inhale every bit of that heady, body-intoxicating smell as I could.
I needed it, needed to bask in it, bathe in it, dip myself into its sweet embrace and never come up for air.
I pressed against the front of the cage, the cold, hard, wood teasing my suddenly stiff nipples through the flimsy fabric of my slave outfit.
More. I had to have more, and I had to have it now.
But where was it coming from? My head snapped left and right, muscles twitchy and on edge as I searched every face, every person. Someone out there was causing this, bringing my silent dragon to life. She growled, but the noise quickly turned to a mewling whine as movement caught my eye.
This one, she seemed to say, as I stared at them.
The hood of their cloak was pulled up over their head, hiding their face from me.
I scratched at the bars, breathing hard, panting as my blood burned and fueled a skyrocketing need between my legs.
A pulsating desire dimmed the edges of my vision until the only thing in focus was the person under the hood.
Who the hell were they? Could they feel this?
Did they know what they were doing to me? I …
The mystery person came to an abrupt stop. I watched their body twitch. Was that shock? Surprise? Were they somehow aware I was watching their every step and admiring the predatory prowl that had brought them halfway across the market?
Under the hood, the head began to turn, moving mechanically in my direction, as if against the owner’s will.
I stared deep into the darkness that hid their face, eager for any glimpse of the person beyond.
No, not just eager. Desperate. I was pawing at the cage bars now, pressing myself against them while thrusting my hips and breasts forward against the solid brellwood that held my friends and me.
My dragon rumbled deep in its throat, frustrated at the barrier in its way. A shudder ran down my spine. A matching tremor on the other person told me they felt the same. Their chin came up ever so slightly, revealing their eyes.
I gasped. My dragon howled a singular word as we stared through the bars at the most perfect pair of emerald green eyes I had ever seen.
Mate. The thought slammed into my chest hard enough to break bones if it had been real.
Hands grabbed my shoulders, trying to pull me away from the bar.
“Anna, stop it. You’re drawing too much attention to us,” Milly hissed in my ear.
With a ferocious snarl, I rounded on my friends. Frosty air poured from my normally dormant dragon’s mouth as I nearly launched myself at them. How dare these women try to take my mate from me! Did they think they could have him for themselves? That I wouldn’t fight to protect what was mine?
This was my mate. If they thought they could ride his cock and be taken by him instead of me, I would end them. I would slash their throats and rip out their stomachs. I would wear their skins as battle trophies!
My dragon bellowed its agreement, caught up in a frenzy of blood and lust.
Thankfully, my friends backed away, submitting to the crazed light that must have been my eyes, glowing with whatever color my dragon was, if she had ever been able to come out.
Turning back to the stranger, I whined and moved against the bars, sinking to my knees as one hand rubbed my breasts.
My eyes rolled around in my skull each time I brushed fingers over my nipples.
I nearly ripped my shirt from my body, my dragon beyond eager to bear every inch of my skin to him, despite all the onlookers.
And a crowd was starting to grow. My actions were not normal. I was acting out of my mind.
Mate.
That was impossible. I knew that, even if my dragon didn’t. Clippys didn’t have mates. They just didn’t.
The snarl that tore from my throat was vicious enough to send some of the gathering onlookers back a few steps, despite the cage bars between us.
Across the market, the poor, unwitting soul stupid enough to meet my eyes was struggling with their own actions. They were closer now. At some point, they had slid a few steps nearer to the cage.
Hope soared.
Were they going to break me out? Swoop down, destroy the cage and fly me out of there?
Take me back to their home to push me down and climb on top, spreading their wings as they spread my legs?
My underwear was plastered to my wet folds now, and my hand slid from my breasts beneath the waistband, headed on a steady, undeviating path lower, toward that radiant heat.
No. I wasn’t going to do this in front of all these people. Was I?
Most of the people watching and staring were men, but more than a few women had their eyes focused on me.
I was the show. The exhibition. If I had been on display earlier as I’d complained to my friends, now I was the main attraction.
My body writhed with hormones, arousal, and the need to be taken.
Not by any of the perverts listening to my moans, now rising in my throat as I touched and teased the sorest, most sensitive part of me.
Jolts of electricity were pouring forth, turning my entire body into a twitchy, sex-crazed thing.
I was no longer Anna Carradine. I was just an object with a need—a need to come hard and fast.
I was growing closer. Emerald-Eyes was still staring at me. I could vaguely, in some tiny part of my mind that remained sane, hear my friends talking about what to do and whether they could do anything without me attacking them again.
Why was he still over there? I slipped a finger inside. Did he not like what he saw? Was he not interested in how I smelled, how I tasted? Did my mate not feel the need to keep my body to himself? Or was he the kind to enjoy showing me off, bragging about me to everyone else.
You don’t have a mate. You’re a clippy.
I slammed my body against the cage, mewling and whimpering, whining as I struggled to get free and run across the market to my mate.
To the dragon who smelled of woodsmoke and citrus spice.
I would rip the hood free and sit on his face, screaming his name until I came.
Because I knew my mate would never let me suffer a need like this without fixing it.
Without making it stop. I reached out my free hand toward him.
A snarl ripped across the market. Was it mine? Was it his?
Emerald-Eyes turned and left. He didn’t flee. He stalked out of the market, like a predator on his way to kill something.
Just before he disappeared down a hallway, the cloak fell free for a moment, revealing a head full of brilliant platinum hair tumbling down his back in luscious waves.