15. Drago

Iscent the air as soon as I get to the dining hall. But the scent of her heat is long gone, and the scent of her pregnancy doesn't exist. It didn't happen. My throat runs dry and my heart sinks. As I take another step, I know in my soul that it's true. I'd be able to scent her pregnancy by now. She's not carrying my dragonlings.

With every hollow step I take, my brother's warning comes back to me. She'll more than likely never heat again so long as she's in my presence. The door groans as I open it and I do everything in my power not to show the emotions that riddle their way through me. I'd hoped for dragonlings with her and a future that would carry a legacy. The moment my gaze meets hers, all thoughts of what I once hoped for are quieted. Looking into her gorgeous hazel eyes, a smile plays at my lips and a pull I can't control soothes my worries. It appears my feelings are one-sided, however. Her eyes are narrowed and her mouth is pursed as she sits at a high table in the corner of the bedroom. Her little ass is still mad. Although it's sexy as hell, I'm ready for her to be my little pet again. I love her fight; I love her submission to me even more. As the door closes with a resounding click, I decide I will gain her forgiveness if it's the last thing I do.

She's the greatest treasure I've ever had. I won't let her go.

In front of her is an empty plate with some sort of sauce smeared and tiny bits of broccoli left over. She already ate. Without me.

"How was dinner?" I ask as sarcastically as I can. She has the decency to at least drop her gaze in what appears to be guilt before lifting her head once again and answering.

"Delicious." She twists her fingers nervously but gives me hard eyes as she says, "I spent some of your money as well. I needed normal clothing." She doesn't keep eye contact and I know she isn't comfortable with it. But I'm pleased she did. Every step I take toward her is cautious.

"Good." It's then that I see she's in a simple, pale pink dress. She'd look stunning in anything she wore. "You look beautiful. I'm glad you were able to find some things to your taste here." The tension in the air between us is thick. Kara tenses her shoulders and I'm not sure if it's because she didn't enjoy the trip or because I'm getting closer to her. My eyes travel to her neck.

She took off her collar. My body heats with a sense of anger, but also something else. Loss. Fuck, that hurts. My dragon stirs with fire, and I have to pause, uncertain of what to do.

"Did you have a nice time?" I ask, to focus on anything other than the fact that she took off her collar. She'll be my pet again and begging for my forgiveness as she comes undone on my cock. The thought is calming. I'll bide my time until then.

"Can you smell anything?" she asks with a clipped tone, staring past me at the closed door. It's all too obvious she's planning to leave. No dragonlings. No mate. No Kara.

I won't allow it. I take another step toward her. "Sorry, my treasure. I can't tell yet." I lie to her. I'll lie for as long as I can so that I can keep her.

"You said it would only take a few days." Her voice is laced with irritation.

A lump rises in my throat; I hate that she wants to leave me.

I don't answer her and I don't have to. She continues speaking. "I heard the women talking. Galen and Cyrus left." She finally looks back at me with concern rather than anger. "You"re going to go to war with Victor, aren't you?"

I shake my head. "There's no need to start a war. Galen merely wants an opportunity to court someone they're hiding from us."

"But why?" she questions, genuinely interested but also concerned. "I don't understand why they would do that. Why keep someone from you?" My treasure looks back at me with confusion but also with need for answers. It's better than the alternative—her silence, her disobedience, her desire to leave—so I nurture her curiosity.

"I'm not sure. It could be to end our line. We are the most powerful shifters. I don't know why they'd risk it though... There's no other reason that she would be there that I can think of." She stares into my eyes as if she'll find an answer there. I wish I could give her one. I truly do. "Had I not seen her lineage myself, I would think she didn't exist, and that Victor was merely toying with us." Anger fumes inside of me at his name on my lips. Once again, my dragon stirs, eager to protect Kara from ever again being harmed.

"So you're siding with Victor if this ends in war?" The worry in her voice gives her a broken cadence. I hate that she's worrying, but I love that she's concerned for us.

"No." I nearly whisper as I finally reach the high table. Her wide eyes stay locked with mine. "We will fight against the Authority if they try to take what's ours. That is not the same." I squat down next to her chair to be eye level with Kara. "I'll be killing Victor myself." Ever so gently, I push the hair out of her face and tuck it behind her ear. My thumb brushes along her cheek. "I will kill him for what he's done to you."

She doesn't pull away from my touch. Progress.

"Thank you." Her voice is small and melancholy. "I wish you wouldn't lie to me."

"I didn't lie to you." My heart skips in my chest. "I'll bring his head to you if that's what you want." My solemn words are spoken with every bit of sincerity I have in me.

Her hazel eyes stare back at me. "I'm not pregnant, Drago." Her jaw is squared and her teeth clenched. She's putting on a mask. It's all too obvious she's holding back tears.

I attempt to gather an excuse but she cuts me off. "The women were talking, Drago. I know you know. Stop lying to me."

Fuck. Fire burns in the depths of me and urges me to make this right. "It's all right, we can try again, but the odds—" the look in her eyes keeps me from finishing. A concoction of sadness and rage stares back at me.

She shakes her head. No. No. My heart races. I can't let her go. "So I can't give you dragonlings?" she asks with no emotion other than contempt.

"I don't think you can," I answer simply and truthfully, knowing I need her to stay. Quietly, I sit in the seat next to her with my hand on the table. Palm up. I wait for her to hold my hand. But she doesn't. Instead she stares at it.

"Then why do you even want me here?" she asks, not bothering to look at me.

"I told you. I love you, Kara."

"Until you find someone to carry your young."

I shake my head in disgust. "There is no one else for me!"

She accuses, "You'll only keep me as a pet until you find someone else." She continues to speak without looking at me, staring across the room at nothing.

"Is that what you've convinced yourself? What have I ever done to give you that impression?"

"You only wanted to breed me," she answers with a flat tone, and I can feel her slipping away. I wish she were angry. I don't like the lack of emotion from her. I need her passion, even if it's because she's angry. This is like she's given up. Given up on us. My dragon rages inside of me to be let out. Even that side of me has lost faith in my abilities to keep her.

She must feel this pull, this fire between us. How can she not? Is it because she's only human?

"That's not true, Kara. I was drawn to you before I scented you. I was trying to wait to fuck you." I swallow the harsh emotions and keep my dragon at bay. "This is exactly why. I knew you would get the wrong idea," I say as she shakes her head in anger. "Don't deny my feelings for you. You deny your own all you want. But I love you and I know that you love me as well."

She rises from the table so quickly the chair nearly topples, brushing away tears from her eyes. I rise with her, and my chair does fall but I ignore it.

"Where are you going?" I ask as she turns her back to me and storms off. My heart races and my blood chills. I'm caught between the desperate need to forcibly keep her here and the reality of what harm that would cause.

"I need to go think."

"What's there to think about?" I ask to her back as she stalks toward the doorway, away from me yet again.

"What I want," she says simply, although her voice is tight with tension.

"You know what you want," I press.

She turns violently, her face flushed and her eyes wide as she yells, "I have no fucking clue what I want!" With anger in her steps, she closes the distance between us and her voice cracks. "I've never wanted anything in my life other than to escape death for as long as I could and have vengeance for those who've hurt me and my family."

I press down the anger rising in my chest at the thought of someone hurting her. "I've never had the chance to want for anything. Never had a chance to even consider what I wanted. I wasn't born into luxury and power!" She practically spits the last line. I can't help that I was born into wealth and power. Her eyes brim with tears and I hate that this is how we came to be. If only I could have saved her long ago. If only I could go back.

I have compassion and empathy, but I do not have leniency for how she speaks to me.

She is mine. My submissive, and her behavior will be dealt with.

I allow her to step closer, so close I can feel her heat, as she stomps toward me with a finger pointed at my chest, her lips parted to continue her display of rage, but she is stopped by my response. I scoop her ass up with one hand, squeezing that lush flesh. My cock hard and my primal need begging me to give her what she truly needs. It happens in a blur while my need to remind her who she is to me and what I can give her fuels me. I grab both the hands she sends flying to my chest and pin her wrists above her head as I push her back into the wall. Her body is hot against mine and does nothing to tame the beast inside of me. She screams out and struggles against me until I press my body against her.

"Don't fucking hate me for something I can't control, Kara." Her breasts rise and fall as she takes in heavy breaths. With my lips parted slightly, I kiss her neck and wait for her to say it, but I pray she doesn't. It fucking kills me that her neck is bare. I drag my lips up as my heart pounds against hers. She should be wearing my collar.

Mine. The possessiveness whispers in the back of my mind as she stills in my grasp.

She's safeworded me every time since Galen's tattled on me. Every time I put my hands on her, she's safeworded me.

Hope kindles the fire between us as I kiss her neck again and feel her arch her back, letting out a feminine sigh of desire.

I murmur against the shell of her ear, "Is that the way to speak to your Dom?" Chills flow down her shoulder and she shudders with desire. I pull back to look into her eyes. Her hazel eyes flash with desperate need.

I know she wants this. I know she wants me. Although I wait for that one word to be uttered from her lips. Please don't say it, my love.

She doesn't answer me and I'm not sure how much to push her. I nip her jaw and then her earlobe. My cock jumps as she lets out a small moan and her head falls back against the wall.

"You need to be punished for talking to me like that."

She swallows thickly with her eyes closed and then looks back at me to answer, "I'm sorry, Sir." I repress my groan.

"Sorry isn't good enough." I lean in and whisper into her ear, letting my warm breath tickle her neck. "Especially when you took your collar off. My naughty little pet."

The sweet smell of her arousal hits me, and I don't even fucking care that a shudder goes through my body and a groan tears through my throat.

"You need to be spanked for your disrespect."

When I open my eyes, she's looking back at me with a hint of a smile. Her little hand comes up and cups my chin, "You really love me, Drago?" There's doubt in her eyes.

"I do, my treasure. I love you, Kara." I almost tell her she must be my mate, but I haven't a way to know it. There is only lore and none of it ever suggested a human could mate with a dragon.

Her simper turns doleful, and I can tell she doesn't believe me. It crushes me that she doubts what I tell her. But how could she not when I've lied to her before?

"Punish me, Drago." Her sultry words slip between her lips as she kisses me with the heated passion I've missed. My dragon purrs inside of me, rubbing against my chest, loving the feel of her body on mine.

Quickly, I push my hand between her legs and feel the thin fabric shielding her core from me. I tear the lace easily and toss it to the ground. My lips are still on hers and I silence her gasp as I kiss her harder and play with her cunt. I test her, running my fingers up her slick folds all the way up her clit, which I give special attention. Every little movement from Kara is needy. She arches her back and presses herself into me. She's fucking addictive. I groan into her mouth.

"So wet for your mate. You're such a good girl." Her head falls back against the wall as I push two fingers into her tight, welcoming heat. Fuck, she's so tight. My cock hardens impossibly so. I curl my fingers and massage her g-spot. I watch in awe as her lips part and her breath comes in pants. A blush travels up her chest and into her cheeks. Fucking gorgeous. She swallows and moans as her body trembles ever so slightly. She's so close.

All of a sudden, her head shoots forward and her eyes plead with me. "Don't Drago, please." I'm caught off guard. I instantly still inside her.

"What happened my treasure?" I'm careful with my words although my blood is scorching and my need barely contained. "What did I do? I won't do it again."

Tears well in her eyes and she swallows thickly. "I'm sorry Drago. Please don't punish me like this again."

Relief is instant as it hits me. She's terrified I'll deny her again. That's what she doesn't want me to do. With a smirk barely hidden, I kiss her and silence her pleas. I slip my hand from her heat and quickly shove my pants down to get my length lined up. As soon as I'm there I grab her hip to keep her steady and thrust into her heat. It's a merciless single stroke. My mouth stays on hers, trapping her strangled cry. I pull out slowly and fuck back into her.

As my pace picks up, her nails dig into my shoulders and it's then I give her all of me.

"I'll punish you later treasure; right now, I need you."

As a reward, she moans my name.

I leave open-mouthed kisses down her throat and run my teeth along her collar bone. She shudders under me and pushes her heels into my ass as I keep my steady rhythm.

She goes off beneath me, crying out my name once again as her tight walls pulse around my dick. Pushing her dress farther up, my hand moves to her clit and rubs along the sides of the throbbing nub. I want another one. I need her overwhelmed with pleasure. I rut into her as she trembles with her orgasm, riding through it as my own pleasure rises. She finally gasps for air and her hands fly to my jaw. She kisses me like she needs my lips on hers in order to breathe. My hand wraps around her neck as I keep fucking into her and kissing her with the same desperation.

I pull back as I feel her pussy tense up again. She bites her lip as she keeps her eyes on mine. I stare into her hazel eyes as I pound into her pussy—once, twice, three more times until we both find our release in unison. I catch her moans with my kiss and hold her tight to me until both of our orgasms have passed. Even then I hold her in my arms and just enjoy the feel of her against me.

After a moment she rests her head, still catching her breath, on my shoulder and kisses my neck. She wraps her arms around my back and settles against my chest. It warms my heart. I lift her up and cradle her body to take her to bed. I look down at my little treasure and she gives me a small, sweet smile and runs her hand along my chin.

She may not believe that I love her.

But I know she loves me.