Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

ANDREAS

D awson City, Klondike River

Yukon Territory, Canada

1897

“Good doing business with you, Mr. Pyr,” said the balding, paunchy banker, standing to shake Andreas’ hand.

Grasping it, Andreas shook it. “And you’ll see that the sum we spoke of will be sent to my bank in Santorini?”

“Yes, sir. That was on the island of Crete, right?”

Andreas nodded. He could feel the spell beginning to exert its strength. It had been cast long ago when he realized his brethren had fallen, and he was the last of his kind. He’d managed to evade most of the hunters who had tracked and killed all of those like him. In the end, it had come down to a coven of wizards and a battle to what they thought was his death, but it wasn’t.

They had believed him mortally wounded, and still they had cursed him as he struggled to regain the sky. He would sleep, unable to protect himself from those who would hunt him if and until his fated mate would find and free him from the kind of twilight to which they had damned him.

In his dragon form, he’d fallen into the Aegean Sea and then disappeared, igniting a volcanic eruption that had formed the island of Crete. It was said his backbone formed the rugged terrain. Andreas then slipped away to heal and make his way to the continent that lay further west, further past where the maps ended and warned of dragons.

The lesser dragons who came after Andreas and his kind found salt water to be toxic, but for him and his brethren, this had not been the case. He often wondered if the warnings about dragons living beyond the known boundaries of the world had not been his kind’s way of ensuring a place to which they could escape.

He’d spent a great deal of his life living among the indigenous people, moving on when his identity or presence were detected by those who would have seen him dead for real. It had been several centuries before he noticed a kind of malaise that plagued him and which he soon found was the remnants of the spell that had forced his retreat. He realized he hadn’t stopped the curse, only slowed it down.

Andreas had continued west, seeking something or someone that could cure him, but finally realized that there was no stopping it. He had concocted another legend about himself to divert attention and disappeared into the Wrangell Mountains to seek out a place to sleep until his fated mate arrived to save him.

Before he’d shifted to fly high enough to avoid prying eyes, he’d gathered what he thought he might need when he finally awoke into trunks which he then gathered together into a net he had made from stout rope. Gathering the net with his trunks of gold, clothing, weapons, and the like, he called forth his dragon, a magnificent creature with shimmering scales that glistened in various metallic shades of copper, bronze and gold. Beating his wings, he lifted off, grabbed his cargo net, and began to soar gracefully through the sky. His massive wings flapped rhythmically, propelling him forward with powerful strokes. Andreas’ eyes glowed with an intense golden hue, scanning the rugged landscape below for a suitable place to hide.

As he glided over the vast expanse of towering peaks and deep valleys, his keen senses detected the entrance to a hidden cave halfway up the jagged side of Mt. Wrangell. The cave was shrouded in shadows, concealed by a thick curtain of ice and snow—most likely the residue of an avalanche from the previous year. It was concealed within a glacier, which would make it even more dangerous to traverse. He knew the icy prison he planned to encase himself within would offer some protection but would not keep him completely safe. As he descended, he landed with a soft thud on the narrow ledge just outside the cave. His claws scraped against the stone, sending a cascade of pebbles tumbling down the side of the glacier’s icy crevasse.

Andreas’ nostrils flared as he breathed in the scent of the cave, ensuring it was uninhabited and untainted by magic. Satisfied, he tucked his wings close to his body and entered the cavernous opening. He followed the tunnel back to where the cave widened into a spacious chamber, its walls adorned with glistening crystals that caught the light from his dragon's fiery breath.

He coiled his long, serpentine body into a comfortable position, narrowing his eyes as he surveyed his new lair, hoping it would not be a death trap. The cave provided the perfect blend of seclusion and security, hidden away from prying eyes and potential threats. With a final, satisfied rumble, Andreas settled down, his scales blending seamlessly with the shadows and making him nearly invisible in his new sanctuary.

Tonight, he would rest; tomorrow he would hide his belongings and then begin to create the chamber of ice that would allow him to wait until his fated mate freed him so they could live their life together.

The following day, he hid several casks of gold in another cave on a different mountain before returning to his sanctuary and leaving a single large trunk containing clothing and gear for himself and for the female who had haunted his dreams the night before.

In his dreams, she’d knelt before him, her tongue darting out to circle the tip of his staff, making every muscle in his body tighten as her mouth hovered over him before sucking the head past her lips. Her hand had come up to close around his stalk and stroke him with confidence in a sensual rhythm.

Andreas sank his hand in her hair, holding her head steady as he began to thrust himself in and out. He moved her hand away from his cock so he could slide deeper into her mouth, moving towards the velvety place at the back of her throat. Her fingers came up to tease and fondle his balls which were heavy and tight. She brought her other hand up to stroke the chiseled lines of his abdomen.

Torn between giving into the savage primal nature of his beast and wanting to ensure she derived pleasure from their joining, the beast held sway and he began to drive his cock deeper, faster, and harder. He could tell she was practically choking on him, but he didn’t care. All he wanted was to fuck her mouth and send a torrent of his cum down her throat and into her belly. He would see to her needs later—repeatedly.

Again and again, he thrust into her, feeling the climax of his need rising as his balls drew tighter against his body and the base of his spine sizzled. He drove deep as he began to pour his release into her, watching as she swallowed every drop.

He woke to an aching need he knew would never be fulfilled until she found him. And she would find him. He never doubted that.

Shaking his head to dispel the remaining fragments of the dream, he rose up on his feet, standing at the heart of the desolate, frozen cave, his scales shimmering even in the muted gold and copper light. His eyes, burning with an otherworldly light, surveyed the barren cave. With a deep, resonant growl that echoed through the icy silence, Andreas began to summon his ancient power.

Unfurling his enormous wings until they were stretched to their full span, he began to beat them, not parallel to the ground, but perpendicular, creating a fierce wind that began to swirl all around him. He could feel the temperature plummet even further as he opened his maw, releasing a torrent of blue-white flames. The flames were not ordinary fire, but a magical conflagration that burned with an intense, icy cold.

As he breathed the fiery ice, the air around him crackled and sparkled with frost. The flames spiraled around him, forming a protective cocoon of swirling, freezing fire. The icy flames solidified almost instantly, creating a shell of crystalline ice that encased Andreas from head to tail. The ice was clear and shimmering, with veins of blue fire flickering within its depths, giving it an eerie, ghostly appearance.

Inside this glacial prison, his fiery breath continued to burn, keeping the ice alive with its chilling flames. His eyes glowed fiercely from within the icy encasement, a testament to his formidable power and unyielding spirit. The fiery ice would provide both protection and camouflage, blending the dragon into the frozen walls and ground of the cave and ensuring Andreas was as invulnerable to any threat as he could be.

If he was discovered, he would be encased in the enchanted ice, looking like a formidable guardian of his frozen domain. Hopefully if any were to find him, they would leave him be for fear of a dragon of fire and frost, commanding both fear and awe.

Knowing he had done all he could do, Andreas felt the cold of the curse begin to encase what remained of his beating heart. Closing his eyes, he succumbed at last to the spell, praying that someday, his fated mate would arrive to free him.