Chapter 5
Sir Keyon
“We’ll take over the escort from here, Keyon,” one of Cyneric’s men stated. The disrespect of dropping my title was an indicator that I was no longer the one in charge here. Perhaps that was so in the chain of command; not so much in regards to the food chain.
I let Toast’s blue flames trickle from my mouth as I spoke. “I think not. I think you better rethink your loyalties here, slaver sympathizers,” I said in a low voice, taking a step forward. “Cyneric is showing an interesting side here, isn’t he?”
“We’re warning you, Keyon. Give us the slave, and perhaps we’ll only cut your tongue out,” the male replied. “You’re outnumbered.”
I laughed and took another step forward, getting between Elpis and the soldiers. “When has that ever fucking mattered?” I asked and whistled out a thin thread of blue fire that incinerated a tiny section of the nearest dragon’s chest, killing him instantly. It was hard to kill a dragon with fire, but with Toast’s potency and my aiming, we utterly destroyed the mold. Several more soldiers filled up the doorway, alerted to the commotion. The soldier who’d been threatening me blanched but set his teeth.
“Is this slave worth dying for?” I asked, cracking my knuckles and elongating my claws and fangs. “Because you will die. I guarantee that will be the outcome for each and every one of you.”
The soldiers rushed me, and I blew them back with a wall of blue fire. They couldn’t push past that. I stopped and heard Elpis coughing from behind me. The air was getting thin down here from all the fire.
“We can keep this song and dance going, but the longer you push me, the thinner the air will get down here, and we’ll all die from asphyxiation. The slave you want so badly is already struggling to breathe.” I jerked a thumb over my shoulder. “And I won’t let you kill her.”
I didn’t give them a minute to think about what I’d said. I grabbed the nearest soldier and ripped my claws through a carotid artery, tossing him into the next soldier to block any charge. The rest of the soldiers spooked and ran like rabbits, leaving the scent of piss in their wake. I killed the last lingering traitor and dropped his body to the ground.
Shuffling behind me told me that Elpis was struggling to get to her feet. I rushed to help her without thinking, but Toast scrambled to rear me back at the very last minute.
Sorry, Toast. I was just worried.
He didn’t reply, so I turned my attention back to the coughing female. “We need to get you out of here. Follow me,” I said and gestured for her to stay close. I led her up the stairs and noticed there was a collapse in the wooden frame. The fire had spread to the closet. Shit.
I motioned for her to stand back as I cleared the flaming debris away, trying to make a path her fragile body could navigate. I lured her out and showed her where she could step until we reached the main hall. It had been slow going and everyone had long since disappeared. Gods, I wish I could have just picked her up and carried her. Fuck! I hoped my Inferno was ok. They couldn’t have been overwhelmed by Cyneric’s men!
I escorted Elpis out the main entrance and saw evidence that the transport cage had been here. Cyneric’s men had just burst in, grabbed the slaves, and left. I had no idea if anyone had even been arrested, but I seriously doubted it. They’d only seemed to care about killing me.
I swore and threw a fallen support beam up in the air to incinerate it with a blaze of fire. I grabbed my hair and screamed. “Fuck!” I shouted and paced. I had no idea what the fuck to do.
I’m guessing you won’t carry Elpis for us so we can catch up to either Cyneric’s men or to see what happened to our Inferno? I asked Toast, already knowing the answer.
Sorry…
“Fuck! Shit! Fuck!” I cried out again and sat down for a moment.
Well, we’re not leaving her behind, I told him. If he was putting his foot down, I was putting mine down too. Leaving our potential mate to fend for herself wasn’t a fucking option. With a scowl, I watched Elpis lie down on the dirt several feet away. I didn’t want her lying on the filthy road. I wanted her curled in my fucking arms!
Is she our fated mate or not, Toast? I asked again. I won’t stop bothering you until you tell me.
I was met with more silence, and I fumed. I put my hands in my face, completely at a loss for the first time in my life. I felt like my hands were tied. I stretched my wings and arched my back, trying to get the tension out, but it was buried deeper than flesh this time. I relaxed to find Elpis watching me, but she averted her gaze again and closed her eyes.
“If I go salvage some things, will you be ok out here, Elpis?” I asked. I hoped that I hadn’t terrified her with all my screaming and murdering over the last… half hour? Hour? I’d lost track of time. I looked up at the stars and the Moon Goddess. She looked prettier these days.
I realized that Elpis hadn’t replied, and I looked at her. “Um, yes,” she mumbled. She’d probably nodded, and I just wasn’t looking—I should’ve been, though. Elpis was much prettier than the moon. Pretty wasn’t a good enough word. Elpis was beautiful, striking… exquisite.
I sighed and trudged back into the burning mansion to gather my belongings with a raging erection. I grabbed my bag from upstairs and swung by the kitchen to take whatever food I could fit in the rest of my pack. We’d have to clear the area tonight. This place would be crawling with looters soon.
Before I left, I hesitated and went to find the lord and lady’s room. Elpis would need clothes. Perhaps the lady had something that would fit better than my pajamas. It had been extremely cute to watch Elpis parade around in them, but they would not do for traveling.
I found the lady’s wardrobe and parsed through the dresses. I didn’t want to spend too much time looking, so I grabbed three that looked the most suitable for walking and opened the window. I stepped off the ledge and fell to the ground, flapping a couple times to slow my descent.
Elpis screamed, and I shot toward her. “What happened?” I asked, extending my claws and looking around, not scenting any dangers.
Her eyes were huge and framed by a blushing face. “Mmm, sorry! Thought… you… get hurt. Forgot.”
Oh. She thought I was just going to hit the ground and break a leg. Cute.
I burst into laughter. “No. Sorry I scared you, moonflower. You’ve probably never seen anyone use their wings before, huh?” She shook her head and looked away in embarrassment. I looked over my shoulder and flapped them a couple times to tickle her playfully with a breeze. “Here,” I said and handed her the three dresses. “Hopefully one of these will fit. Walking will be hard for you in those pajamas.”
Her eyes grew as round and bright as the moon when she held up the gowns. Her lips moved ever so slightly, as though she were talking to herself. The corners of her sweet lips pulled back into an excited smile, and she pulled my pajama top right off, exposing her bare flesh to me. My jaw hung loose, and I froze in spot, forgetting all manners of gentlemanly decorum.
Just as my gaze was about to rake down to the swell of her starlit breasts, Toast yanked my head around to spare himself the terror of gazing upon a topless female.
Oh, you are simply the worst, Toast. You couldn’t have given me one more second? I can’t remember the last time I laid eyes on a pair of tits. Those promised to be phenomenal!
You should listen to yourself, Toast snorted. She’s turning you into a barbarian.
I’m a male with wants, Toast! This is what happens when you deny me for over a decade. You won’t even tell me if she’s our mate!
Once again, he went silent. He couldn’t seem to function whenever we broached that topic. I scratched the back of my neck and turned to face Elpis again. She had her back to me and was fumbling to tie the back. I wished I could help her. It was such a little domestic problem, but I wanted to do it. I sighed longingly and did everything to not choke on my own damn spit when she turned around to face me.
“Mmm, ready,” she mumbled, looking away.
Yeah, she was close to bursting out of that gown, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it. Elpis was taller and curvier than Adelmar’s wife. She didn’t seem uncomfortable with it, though. It still covered more of her than anything else I’d seen her wear. She shivered, and goose bumps erupted across her arms and cleavage. I swallowed hard at the sight of her chilled nipples pressing against the fabric.
“Keep the pajamas too, Elpis,” I said and handed her my coat again so she could stay warm. She took it gratefully and shrugged it on while hanging onto the spare clothes I’d found. “I know you’re tired, but we’ve got to get a little farther from the mansion tonight before you can sleep. It’s not safe here. Can you do that, moonflower? ”
She nodded, suppressed a yawn, and began to follow me at a sluggish pace. I took us into the tree line so we could have immediate cover. It’d probably take another hour or two for the unsavory to come sniffing about the deserted, smoking mansion. I’d lead us for that amount of time and then settle so she could sleep.
What a damn fucking shame my dragon wasn’t able to carry her back with us. That was going to cost us, and what terrified me the most was not knowing how much. It felt like a race back to the castle for a ‘he said, she said’ war, and I had a feeling we were going to lose both the race and the war. What was Cyneric doing? What was his plan?
I had to get a message to Leofwine. He was the only one I could trust. I trusted the king, but if he had to choose between my word and his son’s…
I shook away that thought. I was tired, angry, depressed, and horny. I needed to find us a decent place to camp. My ears caught the sound of a stream, and I turned slightly left to head toward the water source. We finally found ourselves a decent place to camp, and I set my bag down against a log.
Elpis was about to sit, but I sent out a tiny, weak breath of fire to stop her and said, “Wait, Elpis. I don’t want you on the dirt. Hang on.” She squeaked and stood still, wringing her hands anxiously. I pulled out a blanket that I’d grabbed from the guest room and spread it out for her. She lay down when prompted, and I pulled the rest of the blanket over her to keep her warm before digging a firepit.
I felt her eyes on me the entire time I was building the fire, but every time I looked up, she averted her gaze. Finally, when I lay down to go to sleep, I wrapped a wing casually over my side. I wasn’t cold, though; it took a lot to weaken the kiln that burned hot in Toast and me.
As I rested, I inhaled Elpis’s scent, letting her aroma calm me. It settled deep into my mind and massaged away some of my fears. As if she knew I thought of her, I felt her eyes on me again as I drifted off to sleep.
I woke to a small voice calling my name. My eyes snapped open, and I saw Elpis’s form squirming through the tendrils of a dead campfire. My fingers shifted in the cold dirt as I sat up, blinked rapidly, and folded my wing.
“Elpis?” I asked in a groggy voice. “Is everything ok?” I saw that she’d replaced her dress with my pajama top and wasn’t wearing any bottoms except for her chastity belt. I tried to keep my gaze from roving hungrily down her soft thighs as she rubbed them together. When she shook her head, it slowly dawned on me what was happening.
“Oh, shit! I’m sorry! Let’s get that cursed thing off. You probably need to relieve yourself. Fuck, you should have said something last night. I completely forgot!” I grabbed my bag and checked the contents, but I couldn’t find the key. I hadn’t noticed it earlier with the smoke, Elpis’s strong scent, and the commotion, but I detected the vaguest smell of Duke Gero’s grubby hands. Had he taken it when my chamber was unattended?
“Fuck! It’s gone,” I swore angrily and snorted out a plume of black smoke. A small sob came from Elpis’s direction, but I held up a hand. “No, no. I won’t let you down. I’ll get it off you. I can easily melt gold, moonflower.”
Alright, Toast. What do we do here? I asked. I can’t burn it off from a distance. I needed my dragon to come to the conclusion first. I was tired of forcing discomfort on him. He was me, and I was him. I had to work around his trauma the best I could.
I… I don’t know.
We can’t allow her to be stuck in that forever.
No… that would be a terrible fate.
So, what do we do ?
Toast was silent for a while. I tried to be patient, but Elpis looked absolutely miserable, and it was twisting my heart to bits. I growled impatiently and held a finger up to Elpis to tell her to wait just a bit longer. My claws extended, and I tapped them on the old log. I was about to lose my cool, so to speak.
Do what you must. I’m retreating to the back of our mind and hibernating for twenty minutes or so. Please don’t touch more than you have to, Keyon. Please… I’m begging you. I still have access to your memories.
I promise I’ll exercise as much restraint as possible, Toast. Thank you. You’re doing something very brave, and I won’t betray your trust, big guy.
I sighed in relief and walked over to Elpis. “I need you to lie down, Elpis. I need to get close to work on the lock. Are you ok with that?” I asked, and she nodded fervently.
“Mmm, yes. Please hurry.” She whimpered and reclined on the blanket, pulling her top up to her belly. I tilted my head and nearly groaned at the sight of her. If her squirming was from another urgent matter, I’d be in a lot of trouble. Fuck.
I knelt and bent over to grab the lock. I put my hands between the lock and her skin to protect it from the intense heat I was about to generate. Gold melted at just under two thousand degrees. I was capable of going up at least another thousand. This would be easy. The hard part was not hurting her.
“You need to speak up if you think you’re getting burned,” I warned. “No more head shaking or nodding. I want to hear talking, ok?”
“O-ok,” she acknowledged with a stammer, and I grunted in approval. I tried not to think of her beautiful, soft skin inches from my face or the fact I could smell the heady aroma of her sex. Gods, I’d give anything to bury my face in between her thighs. Just… obviously not right now.
I clicked my teeth and furrowed my brows in concentration, placing my lips an inch away from the lock. I blew out a small white flame and went to work on the thinnest part of the lock. I increased the heat slowly and kept the flame as short as possible. It was surgical work and not many would be able to do something so delicate. The shackle weakened, became gummy with heat, and fell off her belt, removing the lock with it.
“Careful, don’t touch the metal,” I said, intercepting her hand with mine, and felt a shock of pleasure run up my arm again. I clenched my teeth and groaned at the sensation but pulled my hand away and ripped the chastity belt off of her. She cried out in joy and jumped up to run off into the woods. I was frozen in place, barely able to process everything that had just occurred.
I collapsed and rolled onto my back, breathing heavily with the sight of her pert, bouncing bottom fresh in my mind. I’d caught only the briefest glimpse of her sex before she’d stood, and I moaned at the memory, grabbing my swelling cock through my pants in overwhelming arousal. I was almost afraid that if I moved, any amount of friction would fill my pants with cum. I stumbled to my feet and wandered behind a tree to find a moment to myself. Hopefully I had time before she returned because I didn’t feel like I had much of a choice. Her touch had done something to me.
I loosened my pants, and my heavy erection sprang out into the cold morning air. It was nearly steaming from its radiating heat and covered in pulsing veins. Oh fuck, I’d never been so hard in my life. I spat in my hand and gasped when I fisted it, running my fingers up my length to the shiny head that dripped with pre-cum. It tingled under my grip, but it had fuckin’ nothing on whatever sensation I’d gotten from touching Elpis’s hand. What the hell had that been?
I closed my eyes and pictured her writhing as she’d been before, on her back and pulling up her shirt. This time, her squirming would be from needing a male’s touch—my touch. This time, she’d drag the cloth higher, past her soft belly, to catch the underside of her inviting breasts.
I braced myself against a tree with my palm and leaned into it for support while I pumped at my extremely eager member. I never had enough mental material to work with since Toast tried so hard to keep our eyes away from females, but in the last ten minutes, I felt like I had enough inspiration to last me a lifetime.
Gods, I wondered what the rest of her breasts looked like. Now they were just a tantalizing mystery. What color were her nipples? What would her slopes feel like against my palms? She was blessed with such generous curves; I couldn’t imagine they’d be anything but soft and heavy. Fuck, what would those globes feel like against my cock?
I squeezed my length a little harder and imagined dripping and spreading my pre-cum between her breasts to lubricate them. I’d palm their sides to mold them around my dick so I could slide back and forth between them, like I would the warm, wet channel of her sex. I groaned at the mental picture, thrusting my fist up and down my shaft. Would she moan or give out tiny little mewls as I fucked her cleavage? Would she offer her sweet mouth to catch me?
My grip hammered feverishly as the pressure in my cock increased, fed by my feral imagination. Would she arch into my thrusts? Would she call my name and beg for her turn? My sack drew in tight and heavy as my dick hardened further. When I pictured my cock exploding its load across her chest, neck, and lower lip, I came with profound ferocity. Hissing nonsense through my lips, I dug my claws into the tree, ripping out curls of bark. My glutes tightened, and my abdomen lurched each time I spent my seed on the roots. I grunted with each spurt, groaning in ecstasy from the best orgasm I’d ever had in my life.
I barely noticed Elpis’s scent through the euphoria of my ejaculations. Between hissing grunts, I glanced back to see her step out from behind a tree, looking for me. Her eyes widened when she saw me and stood stock still, gaze locked intensely on my spurting member. Her jaw dropped.
I snapped my wings out to block her stare, cursing as I continued to release ropes of steaming cum onto the ground. I growled in irritation when my spasms ended and leaned my forehead against the tree. Gasping for air and squeezing my eyes shut to avoid a trickle of sweat dripping from my knotted brow, I blew out a puff of smoke and tried to relax. My muscles were shaking from the intensity of my masturbation.
Flamin’ shit. First of all, that was fucking terrible timing; she’d gotten quite the show. Second, there was no way a normal female could have this effect on me. I needed to drag more information out of Toast or I was going to lose my damn mind.
Speaking of minds… mine was a disgusting, filthy bastard. I barked an incredulous laugh at the state of myself. Good gods, if Elpis could read thoughts, she’d be running for the hills, and I wouldn’t blame her. I’d even send her off with supplies. Gruff laughter raked the insides of my ribs, and I shook my head. I supposed my punishment was her running across me doing this. Go figure. I chuckled and tucked my calmer cock back into my pants, then went to rinse my hands in the stream before returning to camp.
I admit, I was expecting it to be worse than it was, Toast murmured, returning from hibernation.
We really need to have a talk, big guy , I said seriously . I only touched her on accident to keep her from burning herself, and I felt that same sensation. Check that memory out, Toast. That can’t be normal. She’s not normal… at least not for us.
I need out… Toast sighed uncomfortably.
If that’s what you need. Let me warn Elpis first. Hang tight, I said.
I spied Elpis sitting on the blanket with an expression I couldn’t quite place. Sadness? Confusion? Something along those lines. “Everything ok, Elpis?” I asked. “Feeling better?”
“Mmm. Y-yes, thanks,” came her small response. I wasn’t sold, but I’d let her have her privacy. I snorted to myself. Privacy in the woods… ah, no such thing. I wasn’t going to bring up the masturbation incident if she wasn’t. I felt no shame over the act as I’d desperately needed it, but… I’d much rather forget about it.
I cleared my throat and kicked off my boots. “I need to let my dragon out, so we’ll be away from the camp for a little bit. We won’t be far.” I pointed in the direction where we’d be. “If anything happens, call and we’ll be here in seconds. Are you ok with that, moonflower?”
Elpis nodded, then opened her mouth to use her words. “Mmm... yes. That’s fine.” She wrapped her arms around her knees, making it clear she’d stay right there.
I undressed and tossed my clothes onto my bag, comfortable in my own nudity as a dragon-shifter. I walked away and began shifting, feeling Toast burst forth in all his grandeur. I watched my perspective shift from the roots to just under the swaying eucalyptus treetops as we reached our full height.
Toast stretched his larger wings in stuttering jerks, enjoying his time out in the daylight. He looked down to make sure his tail hadn’t knocked anything from our camp. When his eyes fell upon harmless little Elpis, he released a growling yelp and scrambled away from her.
I thought you’d take us farther away! he accused.
He tripped over his own tail somehow, let out the weirdest choked roar I’ve ever heard, and rushed off through the creaking woods. The small scales around his neck and spine flared up and clacked with his nervousness.
In the distance, I heard the stunned, disbelieving laugh of a very confused female.