74. Aurora
AURORA
The world was a blur of motion and sensation.
Ryse’s shoulder was hard against my stomach, his arm like an iron band around my thighs as he ran.
The roaring of the crowd, the blaring of the distant horns, the thunderous beating of wings from the flight terraces above—it all melted into a chaotic symphony.
But it was the internal storm that truly stole my breath.
L’eesha’s emotions were a river of molten gold flooding my mind, my veins, my very soul.
Need. Want. Fly. Mate.
The images she sent were primal and vivid—the rush of wind under her wings, the sight of M’alex’s powerful form banking ahead of her, the deep, resonant call he sent echoing through the air.
But I wasn’t just receiving her sight and sound—I also got her feelings. The dizzying, intoxicating heat pooling in her belly…the frantic, delicious ache that was growing by the minute…the overwhelming drive to fly, to be caught, to breed.
Her emotions translated directly into my own body.
A deep, throbbing ache had taken root between my legs, so intense it was almost a pain.
My breasts felt heavy and sensitive, my nipples tight peaks rubbing against the fabric of the jumpsuit I wore with every jolting step Ryse took.
My skin was on fire, hypersensitive to the feel of his muscular body against mine, to the cool air rushing past as he ran.
A low, desperate whimper escaped my lips.
“Ryse, please!” I begged.
Ryse didn’t speak. He just ran, his own breathing ragged. I could feel the tension in the big body carrying me—a coiled spring of the same desperate need. The dragon-lust wasn’t just flowing through me—it was a circuit connecting all four of us, amplifying everything.
He shouldered open a heavy door, ducked inside, and kicked it shut behind us, plunging us into sudden, dim quiet.
The room was small, smelling of dust, leather, and sweat.
Mats were stacked against one wall. Seeing them, I realized where we were—this was one of the small practice chambers off the main auditorium.
Sunlight filtered through a high, narrow window, painting golden stripes on the floor.
Gently, Ryse set me on my feet and my legs almost buckled. The sudden stillness made the internal cacophony even louder. I swayed, and his hands came up to steady me, sliding to my waist.
“Easy, little one,” he murmured. In the dim light, his eyes were pure, radiant gold, the pupils narrowed to slits. The dragon in him was right there, looking back at me. Clearly the Mating Flight was drawing out the true nature of his bloodline.
“Auri,” he breathed, my name a rough prayer on his lips. His voice was hoarse and strained. “Gods, little one… can you feel it?”
“All of it,” I gasped, clutching at the front of his uniform. “It’s… it’s everywhere. In me, around me…L’eesha, she’s on fire with need.”
“I know,” he groaned, resting his forehead against mine. His skin was fever-hot. “M’alex too. It’s a fire in the blood.”
“Ryse, I need you!” I moaned, looking up at him.
He shook his head.
“Auri… I don’t know if we should. The Mating Flight intensifies everything. I can try to shield you, to hold it back—I don’t want to hurt you.”
His control, even now—even drowning in this shared lust—astounded me. It made my heart swell even as my body screamed for relief.
“It’s not just the Flight,” I managed to say, my fingers fumbling with the fastenings of his uniform tunic. “It’s more than that—it’s you, it’s me, it’s us. And I want us. Please, Ryse, don’t hold back for me. I need you.”
“Gods, little one—why can’t I resist you?”
A shudder ran through his big frame, and I saw his control crumbling. Leaning down, he captured my mouth in a searing kiss that was nothing like the tender ones we’d shared before.
This was a claiming—desperate and hungry. His mouth tasted of fire and spice and yearning. His hands were everywhere, pushing my jumpsuit off my shoulders and stripping it down to bare me completely.
I did the same for him, our movements frantic, fueled by the dual urgency of our own need and the echoing crescendo from our dragons soaring somewhere in the sky above the Old Drake.
When we were both naked, Ryse guided me down onto one of the thick practice mats. The coarse leather was cool and rough against my fevered skin, drawing a gasp from my lips.
He loomed over me, his big body blocking the light—all hard muscle and shimmering scales. His cock, fully erect, was a breathtaking sight—the royal purple and molten gold scales gleamed in the low light, a living work of art that took my breath away.
I spread my thighs for him eagerly—L’eesha’s need to be bred was burning me up from the inside out. I didn’t care if it hurt or not—I just wanted to feel him filling me.
“Ryse!” I moaned. “Please—I need you in me!”
But Ryse didn’t move to enter me.
“Not yet, little one,” he growled. “I need to get you ready first.”
“But I am ready!” I protested. I had never felt so wet and hot between my legs.
“Not ready enough,” Ryse told me. He took my mouth in a passionate kiss and then began kissing his way down my body. His hot mouth landed on my collarbone…the valley between my breasts…my trembling stomach.
And then his dragon-gold eyes met and held mine as he settled between my thighs.
“So beautiful,” he murmured, his breath hot against my most intimate skin. “So wet for me already, little one. Let me taste you. Let me get you ready.”
Then he ducked his head and began to lick—his mouth on me was a delicious shock.
“Ryse!” I gasped, his name torn from my throat, my back arching off the mat.
He didn’t tease me. The urgency of the Flight was on him too, but it was channeled into a focused, relentless worship.
His tongue was a wicked, clever thing, licking into me…circling my throbbing button…drinking my honey as if he was dying of thirst. The dual sensations—the exquisite friction of his tongue and the psychic echo of L’eesha’s ecstatic flight—drove me to the edge of sanity.
“Ryse! Oh, please… I can’t… it’s too much!” I sobbed, my hands fisting in his hair as I bucked up to meet his hot mouth.
He lifted his head, his mouth and chin glistening.
“Yes, you can, little one. You’re taking it so well…so soft and open for me. So perfect.” He kissed the inside of my thigh, a tender contrast to the devouring heat of a moment before.
“Ryse please—I’m ready now!” I begged. L’eesha’s heat was burning me with its urgency. “Please—I need you in me!”
Ryse’s eyes were half-lidded as he nodded at last.
“I need you too, Auri—need to be inside you. But I want you to lead—want you to set the pace.”
“You want me to lead?” I shook my head—I didn’t know much about sex, but I’d never heard of the woman leading. “I don’t understand,” I told him.
“Like this.”
Ryse rolled onto his back and guided me to straddle him.
“See? You get to be on top,” he rumbled.
The position made me feel a surge of power, even through the haze of need that was clouding my mind. I looked down at him, at the love and fierce restraint warring in his glowing eyes. He was so anxious not to hurt me that—even in the heat of the Mating Flight—he was going to let me take control.
I loved him for that.
Reaching between us, I took his scaled length in my hand.
It was hot and throbbing, the textures fascinating under my palm.
I wanted to give him pleasure the way he’d done for me, but I couldn’t wait any longer—the Mating Flight heat was driving me crazy.
With trembling fingers, I positioned him at my entrance, feeling the broad, smooth head press against my slick, swollen flesh.
“Slowly,” Ruse urged, his hands coming to rest on my hips—not guiding, just supporting. “Just take the head at first. Get used to me, little one.”
I sank down, an inch, then two. The stretch was immediate—a deep, sensation of being filled that was painful and pleasurable at the same time.
A sharp gasp escaped me as I took another thick inch—he was so big, and the unique shape of him seemed to stretch me to the limit.
“Breathe, sweetheart,” Ryse coaxed, his thumbs stroking my hips as he held my eyes with his own. “Look at me and breathe through it. You’re doing so well.”
“All right…all right,” I moaned softly. He was so big, how could I take even more? But I wanted to—I wanted him in me!
I focused on his eyes, on the love shining through the dragon gold. And somehow I lowered myself further, taking him halfway.
The burning stretch began to melt, transforming into a deep, filling pressure that made me moan again. I was sheathing him, taking this incredible part of him inside me. And somewhere above me, I knew our dragons were doing the same thing.
But the connection I felt with Ryse flared even brighter than the dragon-lust. I felt his love pouring through me…into me and mine flowing into him.
“Careful, little one,” he said hoarsely as I lowered myself further. “Don’t hurt yourself.”
“I can’t stop now—I want all of you,” I whispered. I was driven by a need deeper than the Mating Flight. “All of you inside me, Ryse.”
I sank down the rest of the way, until I was seated fully in his lap, his shaft buried to the hilt inside me.
A moan of pure, shocked pleasure was torn from both of us and for a moment I couldn’t move.
The feeling of being so completely filled—so stretched and claimed—was overwhelming.
For a long moment, I just stayed there, trembling, letting my body adjust to the thick invader as Ryse held my gaze with his.
“Gods, look at you taking all of me,” he groaned, his eyes dropping to the place where we were joined. “So tight and wet and perfect. You feel so good around me, sweetheart!”
“You feel good inside me,” I admitted, my voice coming out breathless and needy. “I…I’ve never felt anything like this before.”
“I know, little one, but you’re doing so well.” Reaching up, he cupped my cheek. “Love to feel you all around me like this…love to fill you up.”
“I love it, too,” I confessed.
By then, all the pain was gone. There was only a glorious, aching fullness and a building, coiling pleasure that I wanted more of—much more.
Feeling brave and curious, I began to move, a tentative rock of my hips.
“Gods, Auri,” Ryse groaned, his hands tightening on me. “Do that again—let me feel you take me.”
Emboldened by his praise, I found a rhythm, rising and falling, taking him deep. Each stroke drew a gasp or a moan from both of us.
It felt amazing, but the dragon-lust was a rising tide, and my own need was becoming frantic—I felt desperate for more friction, more depth, more everything.
“Ryse,” I panted, my movements growing wilder. “Please… I need… I can’t go slow anymore. I need you to… to take me. Please, take me hard.”
A growl—low and purely male—rumbled from his chest.
“Gods, little one—if that’s what you want.”
And then it was as though the last of his restraint shattered. In one smooth, powerful motion, he rolled us over, pinning me beneath him on the mat.
His sudden dominance—the sheer size of him looming over me—sent a fresh jolt of white-hot arousal straight to my core.
“Hold on, sweetheart,” he growled, his dragon eyes blazing. “I’m going to give you what you need.”
And, hooking his arms under my knees, he spread me wide, opening me completely for him.
Then he drove into me.
It was a deep, powerful thrust that stole the air from my lungs and found a spot inside me I hadn’t known existed.
“Ryse!” I gasped—his name a sound of pure, unadulterated pleasure on my lips. “Oh Goddess, yes—more! More!”
His only answer was a growl, but he gave me what I wanted. He set a relentless, pounding pace—each stroke reaching deeper than the last.
The rough mat scraped against my back as his lean hips slapped against my thighs, our skin slick with sweat. The room filled with the sounds of our joining—our ragged breaths…the slapping of skin on skin…my high, broken cries and his low, guttural groans.
And through it all, the mental connection with our dragons sang inside us both.
I felt L’eesha’s joyous, furious speed as M’alex chased her through a canyon, felt the wind screaming past her wings.
I felt M’alex’s triumphant roar as he finally caught her.
And I felt their joining—a burst of celestial fire in the sky, at the exact moment Ryse buried himself to the hilt inside me and roared,
“Mine!”
Our dragons’ climax crashed into ours as M’alex bred L’eesha for the first time—a feedback loop of pure, shattering ecstasy.
My own release tore through me—wave after wave of convulsing pleasure so intense it bordered on pain.
Ryse held my hips as my inner walls spasmed around his shaft, and I felt him swell impossibly larger inside me as he reached the peak as well.
Hot pulses of his seed flooded me—each jet synced with the powerful beats of M’alex’s wings far above.
“Yes! Yes!” I cried and arched my back, my fingernails digging into his broad shoulders and scoring his back.
Ryse seemed to love it. He ground himself into me, spurting over and over, filling me until his seed ran down my thighs.
“Mine,” he growled again, looking into my eyes. “You’re mine now, Auri, and I’m never letting you go!”
I wrapped myself around him and held him close, clinging to him, wanting to be with him forever. And far above us, I felt our dragons clinging together too.
They were bonding—I knew somehow they were becoming one in a very real and permanent way that was irreversible. They would never be parted…and neither would Ryse and I.
It seemed to go on forever, this shared, quadruple pinnacle of power and love and bonding. It was pure beauty—utterly right in every way possible.
When it finally began to ebb, I felt boneless—tears of overwhelming pleasure and love leaking from the corners of my eyes.
“Hey, sweetheart—it’s all right. You’re all right.”
Ryse pulled out of me carefully and gathered me against his heaving chest. He rubbed his cheek against mine, the scales on his high cheekbone cool against my overheated skin.
Our dragons’ emotions slowly faded from a roaring inferno to a contented, humming glow in the back of our minds and I knew they were resting too.
I was panting too much to speak, but Ryse didn’t seem to mind. He pressed a sweet, impossibly tender kiss to my sweat-damp temple.
My brave, perfect girl,” he whispered, his voice raw with emotion. “My Auri.”
I nuzzled into him, too spent for words, every nerve singing with a profound, exhausted satisfaction.
The trial, the banishment, the fear—it was all still there, waiting outside the door.
But in this quiet, dusty room, wrapped in Ryse and the echoing afterglow of our dragons’ first Mating Flight, I had never felt more found, more claimed, or more loved.