Chapter 33
A soft voice pulled Kier from restless sleep.
“K-Kier?” Carwyn called, her voice shaky and unsure.
He twisted his neck to look over his shoulder as he dropped the illusion that hid him under a blanket of perceived invisibility.
She, apparently, didn’t trust him throughout the night to not abscond with her back to his lair, so she’d stayed under her ward.
Wise on her part, as he would’ve been tempted.
Seated on her backside, she hadn’t even rubbed the sleep from her eyes, as if she’d startled herself upright.
Her gaze evaded him, as it had many times over the night when they’d spoken. Disagreed, rather.
With her hands cupped nervously, a stray lock of curls slipped over her cheek. Her body language told him all it needed to.
Did she really think she could be rid of me so easily?
Then again... had she been anyone else, Kier likely would have grown frustrated and left. He wasn’t willing to chase after anyone in such a manner, like a pathetic, pining male. He usually balked at such a sentiment.
Dragonesses had attempted to court his affections by playing hard to get, and he found it tiresome. Irksome.
He didn’t enjoy such games.
Carwyn’s attempts to make him leave had been genuine. The entire time, her little pulse had been loud and deafening in his sensitive ears.
I came not knowing how she felt and whether she would scorn me or not. Actually, he had very little knowledge of what Carwyn felt regarding him, but he hoped it was the same. If she didn’t feel the same pull, surely she would have turned me away.
Instead, she seemed anxious about his loss of affection.
She doesn’t understand that once we dragons are fixated, it doesn’t fade easily. He had pieces of his hoard he’d commit murder over if someone tried to take them. We choose a mate with certainty.
It was forever.
There was no taking it back.
And as he looked at the side of her curls tamed into a loose braid, he thought he had found his.
Someone made her feel worthless without a single word. Someone had wronged her, perhaps many someones, and now Kier was left dealing with the aftermath of their carelessness. Then again, I have made my own blunders with her. He cursed his past self. Had I known...
Well yes, that was the power of hindsight.
“I told you I would stay,” he finally answered, rising to all fours.
But he knew now that he had to convince this beautiful creature of such a thing before they made it to her destination.
He poked a claw at her ward. “You will need to lower this if you wish to begin our pointless journey.”
And then there it was: the something he rather liked about this soft and guileless-looking female.
She turned a glare – one of mistrust and stubbornness he truly wanted to tame – up to him.
Her cute nose scrunched as she looked him up and down, as if he wasn’t some great and massive being standing over her.
“Not with you like that, I’m not.”
A smirk curled his maw. “Would you prefer me human then?”
“N-no!”
I think you do, he thought, remembering the last time they’d been intimate and the way she’d let him touch. How she’d stared at him with need before her eyes dazed with euphoria as he gave her what he could, what he was allowed.
It’d looked as though she’d wanted to reach out and touch his skin with her own, and that the anticipation was eating at her. She’d even stated it, and that clung to the back of his mind like a horrible, thrilling ache.
“I don’t trust you not to fly off with me,” she grumbled, spinning to her knees so she could collect her belongings and curl up her bedroll. “If you...” She swallowed nervously. “If you really do intend on joining me, then you will do so small.”
Once she had everything she needed – her bag, bow and quiver, and sword – she approached the barrier between them bravely and placed her hands on her luscious hips.
He cocked a brow. “How small?”
He shrank until they were face to face. A size where she’d never be able to take his larger body within hers.
“Smaller,” she demanded.
He brought himself to one that he guessed would be acceptable to mount her, although with some minor adjustments. When he could tell this didn’t please her, he made himself shrink once more until he was at her waist, and she shook her head.
“Smaller.”
“What?” he spat with disbelief. “Like the size of a house cat?”
Her lips, so full, pouty, and perfect to nibble at, quirked. “Exactly.”
His muzzle crinkled with distaste, but he did as he was requested until he was at the right height to bite her fucking ankle. He looked up to her and lifted his wings out, and they barely spanned past her sides.
“Now what?” he yelled, because he doubted the blasted witch would be able to hear him well otherwise.
She placed her hands on her knees and leaned over with purpose in a manner he found offensive. “Try to keep up.”
Then she stepped over him, and the chape of her scabbard nearly knocked him on the head. He scrambled to chase after her, bounding across the grass and sticks as she followed the cliff face that shaded them, her pace brisk.
He easily kept up with her, occasionally slowing otherwise he’d pass her, and he found this utterly ridiculous. Even more so when they passed some sort of large lizard that scampered away, and it was the same size as him.
His tail carved a snaking path through the grass, and occasionally the stalks tickled the undersides of his wings when they slotted between them and his back. He lifted them often and flicked them to rid himself of the sensation.
He peered up at her. It wasn’t the most attractive of views, especially as he saw up her nostrils.
Is this what it’s been like for her to look at me? Up my nose?
She glanced down at him, only to roll her lips into her mouth, her cheeks pinkening before she looked forward once more.
“This isn’t funny,” he said.
A cackle exploded out of her. “Look at you! You’re so cute!”
His wings drooped in horror at the knowledge that anyone would call him such a thing. She was teasing him when this was all her fault!
Kier gave in to his dark desire and scuttled forward to nip the back of her heel. She gasped and stumbled to the side.
“Did you... did you bite me?!”
“Serves you right,” he said, lifting his head haughtily.
“Ohhh, you rude little dragon,” she growled, hauling her foot back.
He rolled his eyes. She won’t–
Carwyn booted him so hard, somehow skilfully scooping her foot under him, that he went flying. When he landed, he skidded across the grass as he dug his claws in for purchase, dirt flicking in multiple directions before he came to a stop.
Panting with acute rage, he brought his wide-eyed gaze to her.
With her hands on her hips, she glared. “I’ve been waiting forever to do that.”
How dare she kick me! A dragon! The audacity! The gall!
With a roar, he bolted for her, and she screamed as she backed up, then took off running. But he was faster, and he grabbed her ankle, causing her to trip forward onto her front. He darted his head underneath her dress and nipped the back of her calf, causing her to gasp and squirm.
She whacked at her own legs. “Get out!”
Kier went higher, evading her smacks and steadying himself against her kicks, until he found her backside. He bit it hard, and she squealed.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
His claws dug into her skin as he growled. He slitted his eyes at her round, soft backside and considered giving it another nasty bite. Her hand slapped down to cover her, preventing him from doing so.
“Please, Kier. I’m sorry.”
He snorted out a huff before climbing his way back out. She scrambled away, twisting onto her backside and sliding back with wide eyes.
“You didn’t think I would retaliate?”
“Not to me retaliating! I didn’t even kick you hard! I purposefully made sure to lift you rather than actually hurt you.”
Yes, well, his embarrassment stung more.
“Do it again and I will find crueller places to bite,” he warned.
Although he had to tamp down the emotion that radiated in his chest. Especially since, if she did it again, he might attack a nipple next time – and it would be far more playful. Maybe.
She glowered at him. “You find humour in this.”
Blasted. She’d caught his curling smirk.
She shifted her seated position onto one hip to rub her backside. “That actually hurt. It was like being pinched, but worse.”
“Have you learnt your lesson?”
Her upper lip twisted with disdain as she pushed off the ground to rise to her feet. She quickly bolted forward to get away, only to ease into her earlier pace.
When Kier came to walk beside her, she was pouting. She gave him a cute harrumph as she shrugged her shoulder, yet she never sent him away – as if she preferred his company.
He liked her grumpy. Annoyed by his antics as he was with hers. His grin grew. I’ve always found this fun with her.
She was easy to overcome and best.
A dragoness would not stand for it. She’d react harshly and vindictively out of spite, which would stir him to continue it until they either fought or fucked in a show of dominance and personalities colliding.
Carwyn always easily faltered, retaliating by seeking space and separation, which made him want to seek forgiveness out of craving her nearness – or he’d play her game until she sought him out instead.
It was a gentler version of courtship, one he preferred, especially as she easily forgave and made him want to as well.
Perhaps I was always destined for a... witch. And as he peered up at Carwyn, then at her delicate hands, he wondered if their pairing had always been designed by some course of fate.
“Where are we going?” he asked, further concerned by her desire to change any part of herself.
He liked her as she was. Bold yet shy. Stern yet forgiving. Kind yet willing to show him that he truly could be flung halfway across a small clearing by such a fragile being.
She turned her head away, as if she intended to snub him with silence. Her shoulders fell. “There’s someone who claims she has knowledge of how to get rid of my powers.”