23. Addie

23

ADDIE

" T his is crazy, right? I mean, everyone here is insane ," Addie said in a shaky voice as she stood beside the iron chair.

Drago was fastened in securely and the thick leather straps around the big Kindred's wrists and ankles had been padlocked shut by the Head Guard. Addie tugged at them anyway—if she had a knife, she might be able to saw through the straps, she thought. But they were over half an inch thick and nearly as hard as the iron chair they were attached to, so probably not.

"Yes, they're fucking crazy," her Protector agreed. "Look, Addison—I'm so fucking sorry I didn't come to find you sooner. It was inexcusable for me to leave you alone for so long."

"It's all right." Addie looked down at her hands, fiddling uselessly with the thick leather strap holding his right wrist to the arm of the iron chair. "I figured it had something to do with your Drake."

"It did," he agreed morosely. "But there's still no excuse."

"About your Drake…" She hesitated but when he didn't object, she went on. "Could you, you know, let it out now? Maybe it could get us out of this weird situation."

"I'm afraid not." He shook his head regretfully. "I mean, this room is big enough to hold it, but it's too damn unpredictable. It's a Primal Drake—it has the mental understanding of an animal. Which means I can't reason with it, so letting it out would be dangerous—it might even kill you. Not on purpose, though," he added, clearly seeing the horror on her face. "By accident. But you'd still be dead. So no, I can't let it out—not even to get us out of this mess."

Addie shivered.

"All right, you've convinced me. No Drake today." She sighed. "I never should have insisted on coming here in the first place. You were right—Sambla is a snake. He only lured me here to get ‘fresh blood' for the Vargans. Whatever that means."

"I think we know what it means—they think I'm going to get you pregnant with a ‘Choosing Child.'" Drago's deep voice was filled with loathing. "But I'm not fucking going to do that."

"No!" Addie shuttered. "I don't want that either—I'd never have a baby and leave it here with these lunatics!" She looked around uncertainly and dropped her voice. "But what if…what if she's really watching from somewhere? Ls Prissa, I mean. What if she can tell if we don't, you know, breed?"

"We'll have to fake it," Drago said, frowning. "You get out my shaft and pretend to mount me and pretend to bite me, too. We'll fake-fuck for a while and then tell them we're done. Hopefully they'll let us go after that."

Addie bit her lip and then winced as one of her new fangs pierced her skin. "Ouch! I think they're getting sharper!" she exclaimed, putting a hand to her wounded lower lip—when she pulled it away, there was a smear of blood on her fingertips.

"Your fangs?" Drago gave her a considering look.

She nodded.

"Yes, but it's fine. I guess I'll learn to live with them." She tried to sound nonchalant and failed miserably. She did not want to have to "learn to live" with vampire fangs for the rest of her life. But what else could she do?

You could drink, whispered a seductive little voice in her head. Ease the dryness in your throat. Why don't you just try a sip? Without meaning to, her eyes drifted involuntarily to the big vein pulsing along the side of her Protector's neck. God, her throat was so dry it burned.

No—stop that! she ordered herself. We're going to fake it—that's all we're going to do. I'm not really going to bite Drago any more than he's actually going to fuck me. We just have to pretend and get through this and then we can go home.

"Well, I guess we ought to, uh, get started," she said, trying to sound matter-of-fact. "Should I, you know, take out your, uh, shaft?"

"You'll have to," he said dryly. "Since I can't do a damn thing strapped down to this fucking chair."

"Okay." Addie nodded.

Leaning over him, she ran her fingertips along the waistband of his flight leathers, feeling the play of muscles in his flat abdomen as she did so. God, he really was gorgeous in a big, scary warrior way! But she still wanted to be respectful of his bodily autonomy.

"Sorry about this," she murmured as she found the magno-tabs that held his flight leathers closed and popped them open.

"Don't be sorry, baby," he growled softly. "It's not your fault. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to feel your soft little hands on my shaft."

Addie felt her face get hot with a blush as a rush of pleasurable embarrassment washed through her. So he wanted her to touch him—the thought made her pussy throb with desire.

"Er, thank you," she said as she reached into his flight leathers. "But, well…won't it upset your Drake?"

He shook his head.

"I don't know why it is, but he seems to respond well to being restrained—as long as you're the one doing the restraining. It's almost like he wants to be tamed by you. Not that I'd ever let you try it—it would be too damned dangerous."

"But I didn't strap you to the chair," Addie protested.

"No, but you're in charge now," Drago pointed out. "You can do anything you want to me and I can't do a damn thing about it. I don't know why, but my Drake seems to like that." He shrugged, as well as he was able with his arms strapped down. "At least, I don't feel him trying to force his way out like he was last night after I finished healing you."

Addie's face got even hotter as she remembered how good it felt to have his hot mouth on her pussy and his tongue caressing her clit.

"It's a good thing you healed me, you know?" she said, trying to speak casually. "One of the other girls from the Choosing Ceremony actually died from the spider venom. And all the rest of them looked really sick. You probably saved my life."

Drago looked pleased.

"Glad I could help, baby. I just wish I didn't have to leave you alone to fight with my Drake afterward." He frowned. "I think I could have kept better control of him if I hadn't been tasting your honey for the first time. There's something about that—about tasting your mate—that really gets a Kindred's motor running, you know? It really riled him up."

"Um, I've heard something like that," Addie murmured. She had several friends who were mated to Kindred warriors and every one of them had mentioned that their husbands loved going down on them.

She was trying to think of something else to say when she finally pulled out his shaft…and completely lost her train of thought.

"Oh my God ," she breathed, looking down at her prize. It was longer and thicker than any male member she'd ever seen—even in porn, which she watched occasionally to take the edge off. Only porn with a plot though—she hated scenes that didn't have at least a modicum of dialogue and backstory.

But in all her years of watching, she'd never seen anything like what her Protector had been hiding away in his pants. His cock was huge— long and thick with a broad, plum-shaped head and a thick swelling at its base. There were also short, raised ridges along the top and bottom of the shaft that looked a little like the rungs of a ladder.

"What are these?" Addie asked, running her fingers up and down them.

"Pleasure ridges." Drago's deep voice had gone hoarse. "They help stimulate a female's clit when she's riding me."

Addie felt instantly jealous and extremely possessive of the big Kindred.

"And have you had any females riding you lately?" she demanded, glaring at him.

He shook his head.

"Not since I met you, baby. I knew right away you were my Fated Mate—I haven't wanted anyone else since we met."

"Well…all right." Addie nodded, somewhat mollified. But she wasn't nearly finished exploring his thick, heavy shaft. "How do you fit this inside someone, anyway?" she asked, still stroking him. "I mean, you're way too thick and long for the average girl to take, I would think."

"I'd have to taste you first—eat your sweet little pussy again, baby," he growled softly, meeting her eyes. "There are agents in my saliva that will help you to stretch and take me all the way inside."

"There are?" Addie looked surprised. "I thought only Beast Kindred had those?" She knew about this because one of her friends was mated to a Beast Kindred named Beorn.

Drago shook his head.

"No, plenty of Kindred have them. My kind of Drake Kindred couldn't mate with a female unless they could help her open up. We have to—because of our Bonding Knot."

"Is that what this is?" Addie let her fingertips drift lower to explore the swelling at the base of his shaft.

"Uh-huh." He nodded and then groaned. "Gods, your sweet little hands are so warm and soft!"

"You like the way I'm stroking you, then?" Without knowing quite what she was doing, Addie climbed into the iron chair with her Protector. Gripping his thick shaft with both hands, she began to stroke up and down at a faster pace.

"Gods, yes I fucking love it!" he groaned. Leaning his head back against the back of the chair, he looked at her with half-lidded eyes. "Makes me wish you could mount me for real, baby. But you can't—I can't really breed you."

"No, of course not," Addie agreed, but her pussy was throbbing with need and her nipples felt stiff with anticipation. "We have to make it look like you are, though," she pointed out. "So maybe…maybe I should you know, at least rub against you."

Drago nodded.

"Yeah, I think that's a good idea. Come a little closer and rub that sweet little pussy on my cock, baby. Are you all wet for me?"

Addie couldn't lie.

"I am," she confessed. "I…I can't seem to help it, Drago."

Any more than she could help The Thirst that was making her throat so dry. But she tried her best to ignore that. She had a hopeful thought—maybe if she satisfied the sexual urges she was feeling, The Thirst would go away on its own. It was worth a try, anyway.

"Make it look like you're putting me inside you," Drago instructed. "Use both hands."

Addie did as he said. Gripping his thickness in one hand, she reached down and spread her pussy lips open with the other. Then she made a big show of raising up on her knees and lowering herself down.

For a moment the broad head of his cock slipped inside her open folds and she was tempted to try and take it for real. But the thought of having an instant pregnancy and a "Choosing Child" stopped her cold. She absolutely wasn't going there, no matter how empty her pussy felt.

Instead, she sank lower, letting the underside of Drago's thick shaft glide against her swollen clit. She couldn't help moaning as the ladder-rung pleasure ridges bumped over her aching flesh. They seemed to give her extra stimulation as she rubbed against them.

"Oh, why does it feel so good when your ridges rub against me?" she moaned as she slid down his length until her open pussy was pressed just above the knot.

"Probably because I have micro-pleasure injectors there," Drago growled hoarsely. "They inject pleasure chemicals every time your pussy rubs against them. It's a special adaptation some Drake Kindred have developed to…Gods, you feel so soft and wet, baby!" he groaned, clearly losing his train of thought.

That was all right—Addie was losing her train of thought too. But as she raised up and down, rubbing her open pussy against the thick ridges along his cock, she had to admit that rather than diminishing The Thirst, the sexual contact was actually making it worse . Her fangs were aching and her throat felt like it was on fire. But she couldn't bite her Protector, she told herself—she just couldn't.

To give the big Kindred credit, he noticed something was wrong with her. Any other man wouldn't have been thinking of anything but the slow slide of her pussy against his cock but when he looked at Addie's face, his eyes narrowed in concern.

"Addison, what is it?" he rumbled, frowning. "You look like you're in pain."

"I…I am," she confessed. "My throat…it's so dry. And my…my fangs…" She shook her head, unwilling to go on. "Never mind. It's fine."

"No, it's not fucking fine," Drago growled. "I can tell you're in need, baby—don't lie to me."

"I am in need but I can't bite you!" Addie protested, though to be honest, she wasn't sure how much longer she could hold off. Her vision was getting blurry and The Thirst was beginning to consume her whole world.

"Yes, you can," Drago said simply.

At first his words didn't register. Then Addie shook her head, trying to clear her vision, and focused on him.

"What did you say?"

"I said you can bite me—go ahead, baby. Do it."

He turned his head to one side and Addison could see the thick vein pulsing just under his tan skin.

"No!" she protested, even as she leaned forward, her fangs aching and itching to pierce his flesh. "No, Drago—what if I can't stop?"

"Not worried about that—just want to give you what you need," he insisted. "Go on, baby—bite me. Take what you need."

Addie couldn't hold back any longer. Leaning forward she gripped his broad shoulders and sank her fangs deep into her Protector's throat.