CHAPTER 8
THE DRAGON
One hundred years. It has taken me one hundred years to decide what to do.
I'm sitting beside her bed, watching her sleep.
I do this often now, just watching. My tail curls around the bedpost, my clawed hands resting on my scaled thighs.
I'm naked. I don't bother wearing clothes much anymore.
The need to fuck her comes almost constantly now.
It consumes my every thought. I've become so distracted that I've let four princes make it all the way into the foyer of the castle before I noticed they were here. My magic is failing.
My wings are folded against my back, the iridescent scales catching the dim light of the morning sun. My clawed finger trails over her chin. Memorizing every detail of her face, the curve of her lips, the sweep of her lashes against her tan skin.
"I killed five of them this month," I tell her, my voice rougher than I mean.
"They're getting bolder. Or more desperate.
I'm not sure which. It might be the new bounty.
There's a new king at your castle. A distant cousin of yours. He’s demanding your safe return in exchange for a rather large sum of jewels. Among… other things."
I let my hand drift down to her neck and grip gently. I can feel her pulse beating under my thumb. I’m careful not to scratch her perfect skin. Always so careful.
The words feel strange in my mouth. Dangerous. My black eyes study her face, searching for something I know I won't find.
"The world hasn't changed. Not much. It's still full of men who would hurt you, use you.
But..." I pause, struggling with the admission.
My scales ripple with the tension in my body.
"We're too close to the deadline. Any time now, the spell could falter. I’ve tried so hard, baby.
" My voice hitches. This is the scariest thing I’ve ever done.
“Tried so hard to make the world safer for you. Nothing works. Nothing…”
I don’t regret even a second of her sleep. I’ve kept her safe with me for a century. One hundred years. This is how it always had to be. It’s time to let her choose.
God, I hope she chooses me. But even if she doesn’t, I need her to make her own choice now. Even if she sees my true form. This dragon body that's held her, touched her, claimed her for a century and screams. It will all still be worth it just to see her eyes look upon me. Just to hear her voice.
"I love you," I whisper, kissing the shell of her ear. "I know that's insane. I know you'll never believe me. But I do. I've loved you for a hundred years, Adelaide. I've kept you safe. I've kept you perfect. As perfect as I could."
"I'm going to wake you," I say, the decision crystallizing as I speak. My tail tightens around the bedpost. "Soon. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe next week. But soon."
I lean down, press my lips carefully to her forehead.
I pull back, studying her face. My clawed feet shift against the stone floor.
"I hope you don't hate me," I whisper. "But I'll understand if you do."
I'll understand, but I won't let you leave.
I can't. Adelaide leaving me would tear me apart into a million pieces.
"I love you," I whisper again. I lie down on the bed behind her. My cock pushing against her ass. My clawed hand massages her hip as I nuzzle her neck. “It’s always been you, Adelaide. Always you. There was never another before you, and there will never be another after you,” I whisper against her ear. I see her lips part just the smallest amount. The tiniest breath of air passes her lips. She’s been doing that more often the last few years.
The spell faltering. I hitch her nightgown up and let my cock slip between her thighs.
“My sweet Adelaide…I will love you until the day I die.” I notch my cock head against her pussy.
I’m leaking already. “I’d use my last breath just to say your name one last time.
” I push into her with a groan. Even after a century, she’s still so tight.
“Fuck… treasure… your perfect…” I pull down her nightgown so her breasts fall loose.
I pinch her dark nipples the way she likes.
Pinching and pulling and twisting them. I plunge into her without mercy, taking her in one devastating thrust that buries me to the hilt.
Her body fights back. Resisting, clenching, her inner walls trying desperately to push me out. But beneath that resistance, I feel the trembling need, the way she pulses and flutters around my cock, her body fighting and craving me in the same breath, the same heartbeat.
"That's it, baby," I murmur, pulling back slowly before sliding in again, savoring every inch of her tight heat.
"So perfect for me. Always so perfect." My hips roll in a gentle rhythm, my clawed hands careful on her skin.
"You were made for me, Adelaide. Destined to be mine. Destined to spend forever with me."
I kiss her shoulder, her neck, breathing in her scent. Rose and something uniquely her. Something that's driven me mad for a hundred years.
"I'm going to wake you," I whisper against her skin, my thrusts still measured, still controlled.
"Going to see those beautiful eyes open.
Going to hear you say my name." My voice cracks.
"God, I need to hear you say my name. Need to know if you'll scream it in pleasure or—" I swallow hard.
"Or curse it while you drive a blade through my heart. "
I flip her onto her back with a snarl, spreading her thighs so wide I nearly fold her in half.
My claws dig into the soft flesh of her legs as I yank her into my lap, positioning her at that perfect downward angle where gravity does half the work.
My cock punches back into her and I can't look away, can't fucking breathe, watching my grotesque, scaled cock vanish into her perfect little cunt.
"Look at that," I rasp, my voice barely recognizable. "Look at how you swallow me whole. Every monstrous fucking inch."
I'm transfixed. Feral. My hand slams down on the bulge in her lower belly where I'm buried so deep I can see myself moving inside her.
I press down hard, grinding the heel of my palm against it, and the pressure makes me see stars.
A guttural groan rips from my throat, something between a roar and a whimper.
"I'll never get tired of this. This pussy.
This body. I know I'll feel the same about your mind.
Your ideas. Your voice." I'm panting as I watch myself disappear into her again and again.
The sight is obscene. Beautiful. Proof that she was made for this.
Made to take a monster's cock. Made to be bred by something inhuman. Bred by me.
My claws leave red crescents in her skin as I grip her harder, pulling her onto me with bruising force.
"The ritual is simple," I continue breathlessly, my words coming faster now, matching the increasing pace of my hips.
"So fucking simple it's almost cruel. True love's kiss, they say.
But it's not just any kiss. It has to be given freely.
Willingly." I laugh, the sound bitter and broken.
"How the fuck am I supposed to kiss you freely when you don't even know I exist? When you've been asleep for a century?"
I pull almost all the way out, then slam back in. Her body jolts, and I see her lips part wider, a soft sound that might be a moan escaping.
"Fuck, did you like that?" I grip her hip harder, my claws leaving shallow indents. "Did you feel that, treasure? Are you in there, feeling everything I do to you? God, I hope so. I hope you feel every fucking second of how much I need you."
My rhythm becomes erratic. The bond inside me is screaming, thrashing, demanding more. Demanding completion. Demanding her awake and aware and choosing me.
"I've read every book in this goddamn castle," I ramble, fucking into her with increasing desperation.
"Every scroll, every ancient text. The ritual requires sacrifice from me.
My blood mixed with yours. A confession of truth.
And... the kiss. The fucking kiss that has to be given with pure intention.
" I laugh again, and it sounds unhinged even to my own ears.
"Pure intention. Me. A dragon who's kept you prisoner for a hundred years.
Who's fucked you every day while you slept.
Who's killed thousands of men who tried to save you.
"I'm going to do it tomorrow," I say suddenly, the decision crystallizing even as I speak.
"Tomorrow at dawn. I'll cut my palm, mix our blood, and I'll confess everything.
Every kill. Every obsessive thought. Every time I've touched you, tasted you, fucked you while you slept.
" My thrusts become punishing. "And then I'll kiss you.
And you'll wake up. And you'll either love me or kill me, and fuck, Adelaide, I don't even know which one I want more. "
That's a lie. I need her to love me with a desperation that's eating me alive from the inside out.
"But you won't love me," I continue, my voice breaking. "How could you? Look at me. Look at what I am." I grab her hand, press it against my scaled chest. "Scales and claws and wings. A dragon. A monster who stole you away and kept you like a doll in a tower."
The words taste like ash in my mouth, but it's true. That's what I am. That's what she'll see when she wakes.
The bond writhes, angry and unsatisfied. It needs her participation. Needs her to want this, want me. And she can't. Not like this.
"Fuck!" I roar, slamming into her so hard the bed frame cracks. "Why did it have to be you? Why did the bond choose you? Why couldn't I just let you go?"
But I know why. Because she's everything. Because in a thousand years of existence, I've never felt anything like what I feel for her. Because she's mine in a way that transcends reason or morality or sanity. I pump into her harder and faster now.