Akkan Read online

  That’s a vow far too solemn for the lightness I wish this night to be. “I had better make it memorable, then.” I kiss her lightly on the nose, and her smile is tremulous and sweet.

  I let my hand trail across her breast and down her body, contemplating my next move. My cock is begging for attention, but my coitus reservatus is insufficiently practiced to rely upon to avoid getting Nuriye with child. Not only would that be a disaster for her ambitions, but it would literally kill her. Human women are not meant to bear dragon young—only my soul mate, properly transformed, can carry my child. I’ve acquired the usual animal skin condom of sufficient sensitivity to prevent the unwanted child and keep the very-much-wanted pleasure, but that requires cleansing between uses—it’s best saved for the end of the evening, one final coitus to leave my lover breathless and sated. Yet, if I could be sufficiently sure of my ability to control the ejection of my seed—possibly even reaching that mythical state of orgasm without release—the night would have far more to recommend it.

  “I have an idea,” I say to Nuriye, returning my gaze to her beautiful face. “Why don’t you—”

  The click of a door opening freezes us both. I look toward the sound—it was definitely an interior door, not the one leading to the balcony—but the curtains are too dense to see through. I hold a finger to my lips to keep Nuriye quiet, then silently lift from her body and ease to the side of the bed. I hear a creak on the floor beyond. Someone is attempting to sneak up on Nuriye’s bed, something for which I can conjure no noble reason.

  I wait until the person comes closer… then fling back the curtain and surge out.

  The servant girl shrieks and throws up her hands in defense.

  I pull up short and sigh. I’m standing naked before her, but that concerns me less than the fact that she just screamed in Nuriye’s bedchamber.

  “Forgive me. Forgive me,” the servant girl is babbling, her hands now blocking her face, although I don’t miss how she’s getting an eyeful regardless. My cock hasn’t stood down yet, despite the excitement.

  “Sasa!” Nuriye chastises as she climbs out from the bed’s drapings, her silk garments held over her breasts and covering a moderate amount of the rest of her. “What are you doing?”

  “Forgive me, Nuriye, but two of the guards are on their way! I heard them arguing…” Sasa glances at me, her eyes wide. “Somehow they knew the dragon man had arrived. They are going room-to-room…”

  Nuriye groans, her frustration clear as she turns. “You have to hide!”

  I give a small laugh. “I’m not going to cower under your bed, waiting for the eunuchs to find me.”

  Sasa gasps and covers her mouth with her hand. “Will you fight them? For Nuriye?”

  I try not to give that idea too incredulous a look, for fear of offense. “I will simply leave.”

  Nuriye grabs my arm. “But you’ll return tomorrow night.” The fear in her eyes now has nothing to do with the eunuchs. And my heart feels for her—I’ve given her a taste of something she’s unlikely to experience again.

  I pat her hand. “I’m sorry, Nuriye. I must return home.” Not the way I’d hoped to end my tenure with the harem, but the fates have never been kind to me.

  She looks stricken, just for a moment, then ablaze with anger. “Fine! Go! Before I set them upon you.”

  I give her a look of disapproval, but I keep it light. I can see the disappointment as she hurries to put on her silk wrappings. Sasa tugs me toward the door to the balcony.

  “This way!” she says. “Hurry!”

  I give Nuriye a wistful glance—it’s all I have to offer for goodbye—then stride with Sasa toward the balcony. She throws open the door and leads me out onto the stone parapet. I’m not sure why—does she think I don’t remember the way? My clothes lie in a heap where I left them when I landed. There’s no sense dressing now. I’ll be shifting to dragon and taking flight in a moment. It quickly becomes clear Sasa has some purpose for lingering in the chill night air under a million stars.

  “Take me with you,” she says, quietly, so Nuriye will not hear. She’s speaking in the official Turkish of the empire, but not as though that’s her native tongue.

  “What?” I look at her anew. She’s older than Nuriye, somewhere in her twenties, and kind-faced and fair, but not a rare beauty like her mistress. All the women of the harem are potential bedmates for the sultan. Sasa is a slave like the rest and appears Slavic, perhaps Russian. She’s likely a captured aristocrat, but if she’s still a servant at this age, she has no possibility of further advancement. Perhaps this is her way of escaping. “I’m returning to Greece, Sasa. It’s far from here.” Far is an understatement. It’s days of journey from Constantinople to Athens, even for a dragon flying across the Aegean sea. Longer still for a human. Not to mention the danger. There are rumblings of revolution coming from my homeland. That’s part of why I’m returning—I don’t want my soul mate caught up in the political machinations of the humans. She doesn’t belong with them. “And I don’t need a servant,” I add to Sasa.

  She runs her gaze over my still-naked body. “I will be whatever you need,” she says with a pointed look at my still-erect cock.

  I sigh. “What is it you really want, Sasa?” I ask, although I’ve already decided I’ll give her the chance to run away if that’s truly what she wants. “The man? Or the dragon?”

  Her eyes widen a little. She didn’t see me alight on the balcony when I arrived. She didn’t watch me transform on Nuriye’s doorstep, promising a night of seduction. All she has are the stories. She can’t possibly know what she’s signing up for, even temporarily. “I want it all,” she says with tremulous bravado.

  A bang on the door inside Nuriye’s apartment makes her jolt.

  “All right,” I say. “Climb aboard.”

  She sputters, but I shift to my dragon form, as black as the night around us, and bow down quickly. She gasps but doesn’t hesitate, climbing up and wrapping her legs around my neck, then gripping hard on the bony ridge just above it.

  I grab my clothes in my talons and leap into the air.

  My wings catch a breeze, and I’m away—with a maiden on my back and an ache in my loins.

  Chapter Two

  A dragon can fly safely on a moonless night.

  Tonight, a sliver still hangs in the sky.

  I hadn’t planned on leaving Constantinople so soon. As I soar over the city, an imperial servant girl on my back, the streets below are still lit with a bustle that never seems to stop. The sky is safer than the streets, where some enterprising soul will surely see a dragon land, even in the darkest alley, but that’s not accounting for my passenger. Her white linen pants flutter against my midnight-black scales—along with her bright cotton blouse, she must make a mark against the night. I make haste for the northern edge of the city, far from the ports, away from the glittering domes and sparkling minarets, lit by a thousand torches lining the streets. This far from the cosmopolitan throngs, a dragon can land amidst a copse of oak trees and not cause a panic amongst the locals.

  I alight as gently as possible, dropping next to a large, leafy tree painted silver by the small amount of moonlight. Sasa’s grip on me has been strong enough to allay my worries she might simply fall off. She’s no harem princess, this one—she’s the more practical sort, a servant responsible for cooking and cleaning for the rest. But as she slides down from my back, I have to wonder if she’s thought all this through.

  I shift back to human. My clothes lie in a pile in the grass where I dropped them. My cock stands at attention in the weak moonlight, a by-product of the evening’s activities, including a ride with a woman’s legs wrapped around my neck. Sasa’s waiting for me to speak, standing tall but looking very uncertain.

  I peer at her. “Are you sure about this?” I say in Turkish, unsure what languages she knows. I haven’t had occasion to learn Russian yet if that’s indeed where she’s from. But I’m not going to bother dressing if we’re heading right back to
the palace. “I can return you before you’re missed. Or we could wait until tomorrow evening and do the same, in case you’re worried the eunuchs are still on alert.”

  “I want to remain with you.” Her voice shakes. I think she’s just cold, not afraid, but that’s possible too—she did just ride a dragon over Constantinople. But then she falls to her knees in front of me, and before I can object, she’s grasped hold of my cock and practically swallowed it.

  I curse, more out of surprise than anything—and her hands are cold—then I gently pull her head away from this suddenly fervent task. She peers up at me, eyes wide with fear as if she’s afraid she has displeased me.

  I grimace at how badly this is going. “Stand.” Then I temper my irritation, so it’s not mistaken. “Sasa, I’m not going to harm you. Or abandon you. I simply think you haven’t thought this through.” I step back from her and snag my clothes from the grass.

  “I have.” She’s proud. Defiant. “For at least a full minute before I came for Nuriye.”

  I smirk as I pull on my pants. “A full minute?”

  “I’m a quick thinker.” There’s an undertone. She’s trying to convince me of something.

  “Is that so?”

  “I can keep books. Accounting. I am a competent baker. I was excellent at several sports in my youth. And I… I have experience in the bedroom. If that is desired.”

  Definitely interviewing for a position. Just not sure which one.

  I slip on my shirt, sliding on my shoes last before I step back to her. Her eyes are downcast and furtive like she’s not sure if she should be so bold as to look me in the face. I need to straighten that out, first. I lift her chin with a single finger until she’s peering into my eyes.

  “Desired, maybe,” I say. “But I will never require you to be in my bed.”

  She exhales, shakily, and I’m not sure if it’s relief or disappointment.

  I release my touch and step back. “Why do you want to leave the palace?” I gesture to her blouse and billowing pants. Not the finest silks, but not rags, either. “They feed you, I imagine. You’re well-dressed. You’re a slave, but there are worse places to be one.” I wait for her to fill in the rest.

  “I was taken as a girl,” she says, hands now clasped in front of her, like she’s not sure what to do with them. “I’m not the prettiest. Nor the most clever. I know this. But I still remember having a life that wasn’t… where this wasn’t my fate.” Then she slides one sleeve of her blouse off her shoulder, baring her breast, and I think she might be offering herself again, but instead, she turns around. In even the glimmer of moonlight, I can see the scars, silver and streaked across her back. Dozens of them.

  Fucking hell. I step up to her and slide her blouse back up. Then I lean over her shoulder to speak quietly in her ear. “Well, then. You must never return there.”

  She gives me a hopeful look.

  I scowl. “We can discuss it on the way into town.” I turn and head across the meadow.

  She quickly catches up. “I have many talents—”

  “So you’ve said.” I give her an apologetic look. “It’s not you that’s the problem, Sasa.” Although I hardly expected this complication. I look ahead, searching for a solution to a problem I didn’t see coming.

  She looks forward as well. “Where are we going?”

  On the far side of the small clearing is a village. We’re right on the outskirts of the city. “I keep a room here when I come to visit.” It’s a long flight from Tibet. I usually take weeks to make the journey. The hop over the Aegean sea to Greece is short by comparison, but not with a human clinging to my back. I catch Sasa’s gaze before we break from the trees onto the village’s main cobbled road. “You can stay the night in my room. But in the morning, we’ll need a place for you to go. I’ll be leaving at dark tomorrow.”

  Her brow furrows, but the street has a few drunken men stumbling from a tavern, so she doesn’t ask the questions plain on her face. Which is just as well. Discussing this in public is not wise. The café above which my room resides is still open. I bid the innkeeper good evening, and while I’ve never brought a woman back to this room—all the companions I could want were to be found in the harem—the man doesn’t give Sasa a second look. I pay him well, so perhaps that’s the source of his lack of curiosity. We ascend the stairs and don’t speak until we’re securely in my room at the end of the hall. I expect Sasa to burst forth with her questions, but instead, she scurries about the room, setting light to candles and placing coal in the elaborate iron stove in the corner. It’s chilly but not much—we could get by without the heat—but her desire to make the small room cozy has an unexpected effect on me.

  Heartache. I’ve cared for myself for so long, divorcing myself from the needs of the body, except when indulging in my yearly sexual conquests of the harem, that I’d forgotten what it feels like to have someone care.

  I stop Sasa by gently taking hold of her wrist and raising it up—her hands are dirty with the coal. “You’ll get that on your clothes,” I say.

  Her startled expression quickly grows heated. The candles flicker, giving a warmth to the room even before the coal, and their soft light graces the dark brown of her hair. She’s not the prettiest, but there are no slaves in the harem without beauty. It’s nearly their entire purpose there, beyond the sexual needs of the sultan. I lead her to the water basin and wash the coal dust off with a bit of soap. Her hands are strong but soft. I can hear the unevenness of her breath as I scrub them clean. Then I wrap her hands in a small towel and hold them between us, massaging her fingers and palms as I dry them.

  “You are lovely, Sasa.” The tightness in my groin reminds me that my expectations of this evening have been substantially unfulfilled, and it’s been a long year. “But I’m not looking for a wife. Or even a lover, for more than a night. I have a mate back in Greece, and trouble is brewing there. I need to make sure she’s not swept up in it. I can’t afford to…” Lose her again. But Sasa doesn’t need to know all that. “I’m very concerned for her.”

  Sasa’s soaking this in, obviously affected by my hand massage as well, so I let go and set the hand towel down.

  “You love her very much,” she says. She’s impressed by this… and not questioning why I’m entertaining Nuriye in her bed while my beloved mate is in Greece. I suppose such expectations are what they are, but I’m not that kind of man.

  I’m not a man at all.

  I give a small smile. “I don’t even know who she is.”

  Sasa’s eyebrows hike up.

  The weight of it suddenly feels like a hundred pounds on my shoulders. The room’s furnishings are sparse. A single overstuffed chair with a small stool sits near the stove. The bed is ample, and a tall wardrobe sits opposite, but otherwise, the room is bare. I take a seat in the chair, heavily. Sasa comes to perch on the stool, hands clasped, eyes attentive. She wants to hear more.

  Do I want to share? She already knows what I am, and not many do. I never let on my true nature to the yogis who have trained me. It would lead to too many questions, the kind which would deprive me of their true knowledge and skills.

  I take a deep breath and let it out slow.

  Sasa’s attention doesn’t waver. She’s patient.

  I know a lot about patience. “You know what I am. I’m not a man, Sasa. And I don’t live an ordinary life, not by the measure of man or dragon.”

  The candlelight flickers in her deep brown eyes. “You called her your mate.”

  She’s sharp. Or at least paying attention.

  I smile. “When a dragon is born, his soul is broken. Half flies away and is born in a human female. She is his soul mate. And when the time is right, he must seek her out and win her love. If he can, they will mate, their souls will become one, and they will be together for the rest of their lives. It is every dragon’s dream.”

  Her eyes are wide and solemn. Enthralled. “But how can you not know who she is?”

  I shrug, but just sp
eaking this aloud is lifting a burden from my heart. “We are paired at sixteen by a witch—she opens our eyes and tethers our souls. That’s when a dragon will seek out his mate. With luck, she will not have been married off already. Although the soul mates—the dragon spirited—are headstrong. Few human men would satisfy them. Sixteen is usually young enough that they remain unmarried. And if not, well… human traditions do not bind us.”

  “Usually.” She frowns, and I can see the calculation in her eyes. Very sharp, I decide. “But you are not sixteen.”

  “No. I’m not.” I sigh again and lean forward, propping my elbows on my knees and moving closer to her. Maybe because this part of my heart is still tender. “When I was sixteen, I went to the witch, as all young dragons do. She began the ritual… then stopped. She said my soul mate had died some years before.”

  Sasa makes a quick sign of the cross, her expression distressed. “But you said… she waits for you… in Greece…”

  I nod. “She was reborn, as all dragon spirits will if they perish before mating. Mine died when we were just ten, but I didn’t find out until the pairing at sixteen. So, you see, she’d been reborn… but she was only a child.”

  Sasa’s back to frowning, puzzling through my strange, sad tale. Then her eyebrows lift. “You’ve been waiting.”

  “Yes.” I smile wide this time. It is a relief to explain it all. “Waiting for her to grow up. Until she’s sixteen once more. Then I’ll have the witch pair us, and I can discover my soul mate for the first time as a beautiful young woman, not a child.”

  Sasa nods, and there’s a certain ease between us. She accepts this without question. Without explanation. It’s a relief I didn’t realize I needed.

  Suddenly, she reaches out and gently squeezes my forearm. “You must go to her at once. I’ve heard terrible things in the palace. A rebellion brewing in Greece. The sultan will not tolerate it. I fear much unrest will soon be upon the entire empire because of it.”