CHAPTER 4
Raiden marched through the dense woods, his fingers latched around Nyra’s arm, pulling the feisty redhead after him, afraid that she would run away again at the first given opportunity.
Gritting his teeth, anger bubbled up in him.
He wouldn’t be able to control himself a second time around should she provoke him into a chase once more. He had barely managed to suppress the fucking urge to claim her the last time that she had done so, his inner dragon rising to the challenge, demanding he sink into her and rut her into the ground until she was well and good filled with his seed.
It was a primal instinct, one that was an integral part of all the Raijin.
And Raiden was one of the oldest of the legendary dragon shifters. One of the dozen still remaining that had yet to succumb to the curse. A dark secret so deadly that it had been kept hidden from the rest of the world for millennia.
No one knew the real truth.
Long ago, the gods had gifted a group of ruthless warriors the ability to shift into lethal beasts, to balance out their overly aggressive nature and need for violence that would ultimately lead to the demise of their mortal bodies and minds, poisoning them beyond repair. Ones that were indestructible and resilient to death, but whose ability to change back into mortal form would gradually diminish over time, until eventually they lost the ability to do so altogether, dooming them to remain in their beastly forms for all eternity. Thus becoming the Kaminari, the ferocious mythical dragons.
Unless–they found and claimed their fated mate.
Raiden was cutting it close, the curse’s completion almost fully upon him, his ability now to remain in his mortal form linked to the Full Moon and its appearance in the night sky, forcing him to shift back into a dragon as soon as the Sun rose once more.
He glanced at Nyra, absorbing the heady sight of the little spitfire. She was a magnificent sight to behold, even in the current state that she was in, with her hair rumpled and clothes dirty from rolling around on the ground.
His dick jerked, remembering the feel of her warmth against him. Of the little whimpers and lustful sighs that she had made while squirming beneath him.
“You’re staring,” she said, facing the front.
He continued to do so, ignoring the little voice in his head telling him to throw her over his shoulder, if only to have her round ass pressed up against him once more.
“You know,” she finally turned, looking straight at him, a playful glint in her big emerald eyes, “you’re being awfully quiet for a man that was threatening to ravish me not too long ago.”
Groaning, his head snapped back to the front, forcing the enticing memory out of his mind.
“I’m starting to think you’re having second thoughts.” She cocked a brow, waiting for a reaction from him. When he continued to ignore her, she continued, “You’ve probably realized that I’m more trouble than I’m worth. And you would be correct. I am a very complicated person, stubborn as an ass, fiercely independent—”
“Stop talking.”
“—don’t know how to keep my mouth shut. I can’t stand being told what to do, and I can already tell that you’re one of those men, the ones that crave control–”
He spun her around, hands gripping her arms like a vise. Leaning in, he muttered low, “You presume too much, wildling, and you couldn’t be more wrong. I am a hard man. Ruthless. Demanding. A true bastard to the core.” He licked her throat. “But I am also devoted, loyal, and very protective of what’s mine. And you, Nyra, are mine.”
“Stop saying that,” she said, breathless. “You don’t even know me.”
He grinned against her neck, the urge to tell her just how well he truly did know her suffocating. To let her in on the little secret that the silver beast that she had been sent to destroy all those years ago was in fact, him.
Inhaling her sweet scent of apples and cinnamon, Raiden released her, wordlessly continuing on with their trek through the forest towards his lair.
It would probably have been an ideal time for him to let her know about the bond, and how he had recognized her for what she was to him in that burning village, when she had released that spear with the intention of killing him.
Had he not heard Nyra’s voice in his mind at that very moment, urging him on to make a move, Raiden would never have suspected it, would have even burned her to the fucking ground along with everything else.
There was only one person that could talk to a Raijin through their thoughts, and the fact that after thousands of years, destiny would have it that she be the one sent by the Crown to put an end to the ancient dragon terrorizing the land and its people, completely unaware to what they were to each other, was still so very unfathomable to him.
Raiden glanced at her again, his gaze drawn to the little vixen like a moth to a flame, unable to help himself from basking in her presence.
My mate.
She was glorious.
A diamond in the rough.
All soft lines and delicious curves that he couldn’t wait to sink his teeth into.
But it would have to wait, she didn’t trust him yet, and he needed her compliant and malleable for what he had in mind. True, he could always force himself on her, take away the choice altogether, and it wasn’t so uncommon for the Raijin to do so, to be rough with their females, to take without asking. But Raiden wasn’t that type of male. And for some reason still unknown to him, the mere thought repulsed him.
He didn’t want to just fuck Nyra.
He wanted to own her. To worship her.
To chain her fucking heart and soul to him. To render her completely useless without him. To have her addicted to him in such a profound way that she would never wish to leave him, even at his ugliest and most volatile form.
“You’re staring again,” she snapped at him, clearly irritated. “Just spit it out already.”
His brows shot up. “I have no idea what you mean, wildling.”
“Clearly, you have something to say to me, otherwise you wouldn’t be looking at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you don’t know if you want to strangle me or shove me down into the dirt.”
Eyes flashing, he smirked. “Why not both?”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Fine, will you at least tell me where we’re going? I have business to attend to, you know. And as much as this little game is amusing, I do have somewhere to be. So if you’re done playing the captor, I will be going now.” She yanked on her arm, then again. When he didn’t budge, she dug her heels into the ground, attempting to halt their walking.
“Nyra,” he growled when she went limp, “either walk like a normal human being or I will take away your ability to do so.”
“You should know by now that I’m not scared of you.”
In one swift motion, he had her thrown over his shoulder, her ass jiggling in the air beside his head.
“Put me down!” she hissed, thrashing like a wild animal against him.
He smacked her ass, imagining the feel of her naked flesh beneath his palm. “I warned you, wildling. You chose not to obey me, now deal with the consequences.”
“I’m not a bloody child!”
“Then stop acting like one.”
Huffing and puffing and crossing her arms across her chest, Raiden couldn’t help but chuckle to himself as she finally settled down. Indeed, he couldn’t have asked for a more perfect female to tie himself to.
She was fierce, strong, courageous, and even more alarming, could hold her own against him, a trait that he greatly admired in her. He was a big fucker, an intimidating male. No one had ever dared to talk back to him, especially not a woman half his size.
He rubbed her thighs soothingly, needing to touch her as his mind aimlessly wandered.
At first it had started off with Raiden wanting to find his mate for selfish reasons, to stop the curse from turning him permanently into a dragon. He hadn’t really cared about whether or not his mate would want him or if anything would ever come out of their bond. She would have been a means to an end, a necessary pawn in the fight for his freedom.
But something had changed that day in that village. When that tiny woman had fearlessly run against the tide, risking her own life just to save complete strangers, as if there was never a dilemma about it to begin with.
Seasoned warriors had run for the hills when faced with him. Had killed each other as an offering for an inkling of the silver beast’s mercy. Yet, there she had been, a mere commoner, with no army at her back, staring Raiden dead in the eyes as she had unleashed her weapon at him. For years, those images had replayed in his head, obsessing over every little detail, driving him mad with the need to find Nyra and bind her to him.
Palm gliding along her toned muscles, he suddenly had a desperate urge to see her.
Lowering her down from his shoulders with one arm wrapped around her knees and the other cupping her head, he realized that she had actually fallen asleep.
Well, will you look at that. The wildcat likes to cuddle. Who would have guessed?
He grinned in satisfaction, inspecting her features. She looked so peaceful in his arms, the feisty woman from before replaced by this almost angelic being.
A pang hit his chest then, so sudden that it took his breath away. Unbridled rage roared through him, his blood pumping, the dragon in him clawing to get out, to destroy everything in his path that would threaten his female.
He didn’t dare dissect the murderous emotions swarming his system, nor the overly disturbing fact that he would do fucking anything to protect this rare gem that he had just met. To make the world a safer place for the little vixen, just so that she may always sleep so peacefully in his arms.
He glanced at her lips.
Those soft, juicy lips.
Lips that he would kill for, would set the world aflame for. Lips that he had devoured not mere hours ago, that he needed to taste once more before the night was through. Lips that he could picture so vividly wrapped around his fat cock, sucking him off, draining his cum as he emptied down her tight throat.
His steps resumed, forcing the filthy thoughts out of his head, the entrance to the tunnels leading to his lair not too far away now.
For the first time in his life, Raiden didn’t know what to do. How to act. He was in unchartered territory.
Never in his wildest dreams had he even imagined that the one woman that he had been searching for his entire life and the woman that had disappeared after shooting him down from the sky were the one and the same, and that he would find her once more in some desolate village tavern.
He would have laughed in any other circumstances at the absurdity of the situation. Instead, fury made Raiden see red.
She had almost killed him.
His own mate, for fuck’s sake.
Would have been successful had her spear not missed its mark by a mere hairsbreadth. In any other instance, it wouldn’t have made a difference, the attack on his life would have been futile, the results nonexistent, leaving Raiden unscathed and very much alive even if attempted a thousand times more.
Except, it turned out that Nyra was his fated mate and therefore, his only weakness. And the only way for a Raijin to die was by a blade directly to the heart administered by none other than his destined one.
Growling, he thought of all the ways that it could have gone wrong. He would have to find a way to punish his female for that little transgression.
But first—he glanced down at her, heart clenching—he would have to gain her trust. Once he had it, there would be no stopping him. He would claim her, and she would be his to do with as he pleased.
Once and for all.