Chapter 55 Elaina
ELAINA
His mouth is soft beneath mine. Faintly parted, still sluggish with pain and weakness, but undeniably alive. I pour everything I have into the kiss—my love, my desperation, my need to heal him. I won’t let him slip away. I won’t lose him.
As I kiss him, I begin to move lower.
His lips, his jaw, the hollow of his throat, all kissed tenderly. My tongue flicks over the newly healed places where the collar was and I feel the faintest tremor of heat stir inside me.
He’s wearing nothing but a pair of tattered trousers, the fabric shredded and filthy, hanging on him by a thread. I hook my fingers in the waistband and pull them down his hips, baring him completely.
My breath catches.
Even now—wounded, weakened, nearly broken—he’s still the most stunning thing I’ve ever seen. His body is long and lean, muscular and strong, every inch of him sculpted and powerful. But it’s his cock that draws my eye.
His Drake’s shaft lies thick and heavy against his thigh, limp for now, but still impossibly huge.
The smooth black scales covering it gleam faintly in the sun, fading to deep amethyst at the ridged tip.
Those ridges—thicker at the base, gentler at the head—run vertically up and down the length of his shaft, a texture designed for perfect, ruthless pleasure.
I wrap my fingers around it gently, stroking the thick base, then up, tracing each ridge.
His shaft twitches in my hand once…then again.
It grows, thickening and lengthening with every pass of my fingers. The heat of it pulses through my palm like a heartbeat. When I press a kiss to the head, I taste a drop of hot fluid—hot cinnamon and spice—and hear him groan softly.
“Mmm… Gods, little dove…” His hand lifts to my hair, stroking gently as I take the swollen head into my mouth.
“Your mouth is so sweet on me…” he groans.
I hum around him, sucking him deeper. He’s so big—I can’t take more than a few inches, but I give him everything I can, licking and tasting, letting my tongue twist around the broad head, tasting his spicy, delicious arousal.
His cock is rock hard now—deliciously thick in my mouth. I glance up and see it…
A faint glimmer.
His Drake’s eye—it’s not gray anymore. It’s not gold yet, either…but it’s alive.
It’s working—I just have to keep going.
I draw back, letting the thick shaft slip from my mouth and climb over him, my body aching, every nerve on fire with need. My nipples are stiff and my pussy drenched. I need to feel him inside me—now.
I straddle him, rubbing his broad, ridged shaft through my folds. His precum paints my slit, making my clit tingle.
“Be careful, little dove,” he murmurs, his voice thick with concern. “I’m not strong enough to stop myself… if I lose control.”
“I’ll be fine,” I pant, guiding him to my entrance. “I need this, Xaren. I need you.”
He groans as I begin to sink down, the head stretching me wide, then wider.
Oh Goddess of Mercy, it feels so good…
His ridges rub every inch of my inner walls. I gasp as I take him deeper and deeper. At last I feel him bottom out inside me, my hips meeting his.
The spark in his Drake’s eye is brighter now, like a living coal.
“Gods… you feel like heaven around me,” he growls, gripping my hips with renewed strength. “So tight… so wet…”
He thrusts up into me and I gasp, my back arching with pleasure.
“Xaren!” I moan.
We begin to move together, finding a rhythm that drives us both higher and higher.
The ridges of his thick cock rub across that sensitive spot inside me, over and over, building the pleasure faster than I would have believed possible.
I can feel that Xaren is getting close—he’s moving faster, thrusting harder and deeper.
“Come for me,” I moan breathlessly, grinding against him as I look down into his face. “Come inside me—I need to feel your seed spurting deep in me!”
His jaw clenches.
“Gods, little dove… I can’t help it… you’re so fucking tight…”
He surges up into me, deeper than ever, and I feel myself coming—my orgasm crashing over me like a storm as my pleasure peaks.
Xaren follows me with a roar, his cock swelling—spurting thick ropes of molten heat deep inside me. I feel it flooding me, overflowing, and in that moment—
His Drake’s eye turns gold.
“You saved me,” I hear, not in his voice, but in that other voice—the ancient one that belongs to the beast inside him.
“I love you, my mate,” the Black Drake rumbles to me.
“I love you too—so much!” I answer, my heart swelling as my own Drake rises in response.
The power floods through us both, ancient and eternal. Our bodies begin to change—his beneath me, mine above him. The world melts and reforms as scales and feathers ripple across my skin. Wings stretch from my back. My bones shift, lengthen, reshape.
Together, we Shift.
Two mighty Drakes—one black and one white—our wings unfurl, lifting into the sky in a glorious spiral. We take off at the same time, pushing away from the cliff as our wings beat the air.
Below us, the kingdom falls away. The gray Citadel…the smoldering throne…the memories of pain and fear, all left behind.
Up here, there is only wind and wings and him.
“We can’t stay here,” Xaren says in my mind, his voice low and rumbling. “Where do you want to go?”
I look out over the jagged peaks of the Y’pryz Mountains—snow-dusted and wild.
“What about there?” I send. “What if there really is a land where everyone has a Drake inside them?”
“I’m not sure I can go,” he says hesitantly. “The vow I took—“
“That vow died with your mother and brother,” I reply. “And besides, I never took any vow. I’ll lead the way.”
There’s a beat of silence, and then I hear his answer.
“Lead, little dove, and I will follow.
So I do.
Together, we fly toward the mountains…toward freedom…toward a new life.
Toward forever.
And I know my life will never be the same. I’m no longer the timid Princess who was so uncertain of herself she feared everyone in the Citadel—no longer just Elaina. I’ve grown out of her and into something else.
Now I am…the Bride of the Black Dragon.
And this is just the beginning.