The Dragon’s Mage dm-1 Read online

  His first sight of the powerful dragon astounded him. All dragons were beautiful whatever form they wore. But this one, he was spectacular. He was a good foot taller than Ladon. A bit over seven feet and built for strength. He lacked the beefed look the humans could sometimes employ and instead sported ripcord muscles that allowed for both speed and strength.

  He wore a loose tunic and trousers tucked into black boots. It was the customary garb of their people when in man form. A medallion hung from his neck with the crest of his house engraved in the ancient gold. The dragon swimming under a sea of stars twinkled despite the patina of age. It was his house amulet and Ladon reached for the one around his own neck before he remembered it was gone. His had shown the river of fire under the dragon star. He was fire, Eben Kinkaid was water. Ladon could see that in the fluid way he moved. His hair was black but with the iridescent sheen, his scales would carry in his other form. His eyes were a permanent dragon gold.

  Big, dark, and deadly he would never look any different than he did right now. The only thing that showed his true age was the power that surrounded him and shot forth from his eyes. The heavy weight of it circled Ladon like a living thing.

  Ladon had gotten used to being around his tiny mage. Her delicate form and small stature had given him an all-powerful feeling. Now he was getting a dose of the opposite. He did not care for the feeling of vulnerability just looking at the dark dragon produced. He firmed his chin and looked straight into hard dragon gold. Then the insult hit, and he could feel his neck redden showing his first molt age as clearly as if he wore a sign.

  “I meant no insult. I could not take the time to bathe. Time is a luxury right now.”

  “There is always time for courtesy hatchling.” The dark dragon came closer, waving a hand, and every light in the house blazed on. “And you will find when you have passed a few more cycles that time is rarely a true consideration.”

  “When I explain perhaps you will...”

  “No, it will not stand.” The bigger dragon waved his hand, and Ladon felt the magic pulse around him. Within seconds, he was clean and his hair fell in a straight curtain to his waist, once more its natural brown with just a beginning of the iridescent sparkle he would have with the next transition. He was also naked. If that was not distressing enough, his body took that moment to remind him he was entering his molt. He could literally feel the fire burning in his veins when the black dragon walked closer for what could only be called an inspection.

  Never mind being cleaned like a hatchling with his mother, never mind that he was naked. Now his body decides to enter the first phase of second molt. A hot wave of desire nearly took him to his knees. The blood rushed to his cock and filled it with heat until his erection was nearly purple with bulging veins. He was quite suddenly hard as a rock and standing at attention. Here, a good hour from his little mage and before the narrowed eyes of Eben Kinkaid himself. If he had, any blood left north of his cock he’d be blushing.

  The scourge of Dragon kind looked him over like a dealer at the bazaar. “Not bad, hatchling.” He circled again, this time his fingers trailing over Ladon in small brushes that had his nerves jumping. His shoulder, his hip, the swell of his ass. Ladon gasped as the fire speared him at each casual touch.

  Eben narrowed his eyes and sniffed. “You are entering your first adult molt.”

  “Yes!” Ladon said, pushing the unsettling dragon back. “And my mate is alone even as you waste time.”

  There was a dark silence, and Ladon felt the magic build around them. “You have found a mate?”

  “That’s why I’m here.” But before he could continue, the magic became so heavy he fell to his knees under the pressure.

  “You have a mate, and you left her alone? Unguarded?”

  Ladon had to brace himself against the fury pelting him. It was the most power he had felt in one place, and he was floored by the weight behind it. He had no doubt that this dragon was powerful enough to kill him without ever raising a claw.

  “She’s mage!” He had to scream it to be heard above the magic funneling around him. Then as if a switch had been thrown, it was gone. Ladon pulled himself shakily to his feet. Did he seriously want this dragon anywhere near his mate? Did he have a choice?

  “That’s impossible.”

  “Why? Because the famed Eben Kinkaid has never seen it?” He knew his voice was an open challenge, but he was past the point of caring. His body was on fire and all he wanted to do was fuck. He had to get back to his mage. “Look, this is pointless. I have to get back before I change. I came here in hopes you would protect my mate while I'm in transition.” He was proud that his voice sounded so normal, considering his belly was on fire, and his dick was an iron spike.

  “Why come here? You must have your own house to call upon.”

  “Because someone wants me dead and my mate...” His voice fell away, and he was suddenly on the floor writhing against the pain trying to change his body on the molecular level. He could hear roaring in his head and was too out of it to realize it was him. When the pain eased, he felt a tail and claws wrap him up, and he was pressed to Eben Kinkaids dragon form, apparently he had finally gotten the message.

  Where? The mind speak was powerful even in his beleaguered mind.

  “Last high spring before the North Gate.” The words were torn from his throat. He was lost in a river of pain and hunger.

  Chapter 5

  Morgan was still trying to perfect her control when she felt the fire. At first, she thought she was just having flashbacks from last night. She cursed because the flashes of desire were playing merry hell on her concentration. Breathing steadily to balance the increased nerves rumbling in her belly she was just to the edge of the grotto when the pain started.

  It took her a few minutes to realize the pain was not hers. She lay there shivering and clutching her stomach, tears overflowing her eyes.

  “Ladon?” She whispered it, Horrified by the pain he was feeling, but with the realization that the pain was not hers she could breathe again. There was a wave of heat so strong she was rolled by it. She ended up next to the hot springs, and something in the mist soothed her enough that she saw it as a lifeline and rolled right into the hot water, raggedy shift and all. The heat of the spring should have made it worse. Instead, Morgan could think again, at least enough to assess the situation.

  Ladon was coming, of that she had no doubt. This must be the molt. He would come and when this was over, he would be a fully-grown dragon in his prime ready to mate. Damn it. There was no way she could keep her concentration enough to fly when this was upon her. Not when she could feel this need like a brand in the blood.

  He would get his virgin sacrifice after all. She only hoped she survived it. After a while, Morgan could no longer stand the feel of her wet dress plastered against her sensitive skin and she ripped it off and tossed it away. She palmed her breasts, but the feel of her own hands was too much against her painfully tight nipples. At least she would get that bath. She used the soap, cleaned every inch of her body careful of her screaming clit, and flushed nipples, trying to ignore the open nerve endings and waves of need that nearly drowned her. At a calm moment, she used her fingers to comb out her newly clean hair. She spread it out on the stone lip and was amazed when it dried almost immediately.

  She stepped out of the pool and as soon as she was out, she was dry. She could feel the magic working along her skin. Even the brush of her hair was too much, so she ripped a piece of cloth from her dress and tied her hair to the top of her head. When she couldn’t take it anymore, she jumped back into the water and sat so it was up to her chin. The relief was immediate. She didn’t know why, but the water seemed to serve as a buffer between the magic in the room and her yearning flesh. The swirl of the water kept her in a constant state of need, but it was still better than the alternative.

  Then the heat built again and it was so strong, Morgan knew that Ladon had arrived. It didn’t occur to her to wonder how he cou
ld have flown in his condition until she looked up into two sets of gold dragon eyes. One was Ladon, still in human form, shuddering in the arms of a much bigger black dragon. She had thought when she saw Ladon's dragon shape that nothing could surpass its beauty and majesty. She had been wrong.

  Morgan swallowed hard as the Dragon form before her swirled with magic and instantly the black became a seven-foot naked man with iridescent black hair and an erection that could not have been made with human women in mind. Too wide, too long, and it was growing before her eyes. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t seem to look away from that pulsing cock.

  Then he was in the water with her, Ladon still in his arms.

  Her eyes came to rest on Ladon, or tried to, but he sank under the water and didn’t come back up. Morgan shot forward thinking he would drown, but before she could reach him, she was pulled into the lap of a large naked man she didn’t know. She did what any other insignificant prey would do caught by a predator. She froze.

  “He will come up when he has finished the change.” That voice. It rode across her skin leaving shivers in its wake. Her body responded by ramping up all the heat from the change into her pussy and nipples. She arched her back and her knees opened without any conscious direction on her part.

  He stood up with a splash and adjusted her one handed so that she was straddling his lap despite her new efforts to close her legs. The more she tried to push away from him the closer he pulled her, until his hard cock was cradled up against her spread pussy. She froze again, her eyes flying to his face. His eyes were old gold, dragon eyes, but with an aged patina that added power and weight to his stare. She had never felt such power, like an oversized mantle pressing down on her shoulders.

  “You are no dragon.” He said it in wonder, his eyes radiating stark possession. “Yet you are dragon mate. You are feeling his heat so you must be his. But I would know you anywhere.”

  She shuddered at the power building up against her skin. Everywhere he touched her was a small invasion.

  “I don’t understand any of this.” Her voice was a soft whisper in the dark, which was not at all what she intended. She could feel his reaction shiver up her skin and then his mouth was on hers in a hard possession that did not ask permission but took everything. His lips and tongue invaded and his magic, the essence of the man, followed.

  She lost the ability to think with the first heady taste of him. She was lifted from the water. She didn’t care as long as he got no further than her arms and legs could hold him. His neck and shoulders was a hard column beneath her arms and hands. Her legs wrapped tight around his waist and hard thighs. They were dry before she vaguely felt the bed at her back, then he was closer, so close she was wrapped around him like a blanket and he was a heady weight crushing her down.

  Her need to breathe had her rearing back with a gasp and he took the chance to run his lips down her throat. He stopped over her pulse, and the bite that Ladon had given her. He growled, then looked into her befuddled eyes.

  “Mine!” He roared it, reared back until he found the gate to her slick pussy, and took possession in one thrust. Morgan screamed feeling ripped apart. Then his teeth pierced her shoulder and his magic thrust into her soul binding them so close together she was not sure which parts were hers and which were his.

  She saw her life through eyes of old gold, the death of her parents was relived in all its horror. The faces of her family flashed before them, then the betrayal, their flight to the cold mountains. Her capture, her fear for her family and her time with Ladon, it was all there for him to see. Every fear she had ever had, every moment she had ever laughed or cried.

  Then his long existence, which seemed to go on and on with no color, no love, no hope. She watched him kill repeatedly, without feeling, for justice, for the belief that what he did kept Dragon kind safe. He knew other dragons were taught to fear him and he accepted it. He watched the millennia pass in blood and death until all dragons avoided him. He watched them from a distance with their mates and hatchlings. He watched and believed they were right. That he was somehow unworthy of a mate because of what he was: The Executioner. Nightmare of dragon kind. The belief that he would always be as he was. Alone.

  Together Morgan and Eben relived his meeting with Ladon. Searching for a way to feel again, if only for a moment. She felt the punch to his soul that he felt on first seeing her. So beautiful, so fragile. A gift of the light waiting in a sacred hot spring.

  Where have you been? He thought it when he first set eyes on his mate after so long a wait. So lonely, nearly at the end of his long endurance, so unbearably cold and suddenly there was warmth on his skin.

  Morgan drowned in his need. He believed that he was unworthy of finding a mate. He had killed so many, and he was so old, so set in his ways. She would be better off with Ladon, he knew it, but he could not let her go. Death would come on swift wings to any that came between him and his mate. His Mate. Even thinking it was a miracle.

  He had nearly killed Ladon for daring to try and take her, it would have been so easy, but there was no mistaking the twine of magic connecting aura to aura. To hurt one was to hurt the other. So he would keep them both.

  He raised his head and watched in satisfaction as his mate bite closed dragon fast. Then he transformed one nail to a sharp talon and cut into his chest, holding her head up to the wound until the taste reached her lips.

  Morgan struggled up from the hailstorm she was swirling in. Taking blood was a dark mage trick and she had been raised to see it as heinous. Such thoughts might have brought her to her senses but Eben had the power of ages. A young mage had no chance against him, even enhanced by Ladon's dragon mark. That would change with the bonding but by then she would be his in every way. With a touch of his will, she latched on with her petal soft mouth, pulling his blood into her body as she pulled on his soul.

  The flow of magic continued to circle cinching them tighter and tighter, settling soul to soul until one could not exist without the other.

  He pulled her head away from the wound and took possession of her lips, licking the blood off and then plunging into her mouth to chase the taste of them mixed together.

  Morgan was no longer feeling any pain but the heat of passion was rising with each taste. He was still embedded fully inside of her. When he could take it no more he pulled almost all the way out and plunged back in. He showed no mercy for her untried state, nor did she ask for any, arching into each pounding thrust trying to get more of him as the pleasure built. If she had still been only mage, he would have broken her. But with the bonding, she was more and she needed him.

  “Harder.” The word was only a whisper attached to a gasp but he was in her mind. He felt her need and pounded her into the bed, until with a cry, she came. He roared his release as the pleasure burst inside them. At one point Morgan lost control and sent a wave of mage fire outward, but he took it; absorbing it and sending it back to her in dragon fire. She was consumed.

  The flames had barely receded when she felt Ladon stirring in her mind. She knew he had felt everything she had. He knew as well as she did Eben's history and his dark despair. The joy Eben had felt the moment he’d seen Morgan and his decision that both mates would belong to him. That no one would take them from him. Eventually it would mean something but for now, he needed.

  Eben rolled out of her and to the side just as Ladon burst from the spring. Morgan caught her breath at the look of him. Golden bronze and bigger, in both height and musculature. He had been beautiful before, now he was something from a dream, almost too shiny and new to look at. Bigger than he had been, he was just under seven feet, with wide shoulders and slim hips. His shimmering bronze hair was incandescent and showed the exact color his dragon scales would now be.

  He didn't give Morgan even a moment to catch her breath. Other than directing what amounted to a dragon hiss at Eben, he fell on her as if she was the last bit of water in the desert. He pushed his hard cock into her and she arched up to meet h
im. The mating heat slammed into her and she needed MORE! He plunged in again and again and she met each thrust taking all he had to give aware in some small way that Eben was a part of it all. When Ladon sank his teeth into Morgan, Eben was with them.

  They saw Ladon's life, from his hatching to the betrayal. Saw the moment he woke powerless in the cold, with chain on his ankle, his strength and magic entirely sapped out of him, and surrounded by dark mage soldiers. The crying of his heart when he realized one of his own had betrayed him, though he knew not who.

  They felt his silent rage and despair, knowing that he would die cold and alone without ever having truly lived. They saw together the moment he opened his eyes and saw the angel who had pulled him from the cold, so willing to give her life for his. Felt too his soul deep need to keep his mate safe, even from himself.

  They saw him meet Eben, his desire and embarrassment at his lack of control. They knew he had felt rage when Eben had touched his mate when he was brought here to protect her, then his understanding and acceptance.

  They felt every second of his life and thoughts in fast forward, including his relief that he would not be the only one keeping Morgan safe. His tiny mage, so small, but no longer so fragile and unprotected. Eben could protect her while he hunted down the betrayer.

  Denial was loud in Morgans’ head, whether hers or Ebens she was unsure but neither of them was willing to have Ladon in jeopardy. He would not face this danger alone. It was certainly Morgan who thought to leave. She had to find her family, but what would that mean for her dragons?

  An immediate roar went up and Morgan felt herself and Ladon flipped in a roll. She was now on top still clutching Ladon deep inside. Eben came over the both of them. She felt a shot of magic flow through her ass and then Eben was plunging that big cock into her back entrance. She screamed, rearing back, but spiked as she was by two cocks there was nowhere to go.