Akkan Read online

  I lean back, more surprised than I should be. Because, of course, the servants hear everything. Only a fool thinks they do not understand.

  “Well, there’s the small matter of a woman I’ve recently liberated from the palace.” I tip my head to her.

  She scowls and pulls her hand back, that calculation back in her eyes. But the ease with which she’s accepted everything, the immediate affinity she has for my kind and our ways… it’s moving my heart. Sasa was taken as a child. She has no place in her homeland if her family even still exists there. She’s tormented at the palace. Dragons rarely allow humans into their realm unless they’re bound to be mated, but there have been exceptions. Trusted advisors. Family of soul mates. And on occasion… friends of our kind.

  Sasa nods to herself, sharply, like she’s made up her mind. To me, she says, “I cannot stay in Constantinople. They will find me. And I won’t survive a return to the palace. But if you can take me with you, as far as you can, even all the way to Greece, I will make my way from there.” Her hand is back on my arm. “I do not want to detain you from your love. Your mate. You must get there quickly. I will not slow you down, I promise.”

  I lay my hand over hers. “Oh, but you will,” I say sincerely, but I’m holding back a smile. For a plan—a delightful plan—is forming in my mind. “I plan to fly to Athens, sweet Sasa. And carrying a human on my back will slow me down.” I rise up from the chair, bringing her hand with me.

  She stands, her face filled with concern. “I don’t wish to delay you. Maybe I should only go a short way, then—”

  “I can’t leave until tomorrow night.” I draw her away from the chair and toward the bed. “It’s best to fly when the moon is dark. I can take you all the way to my people’s home outside Athens. You’ll be safe there, no matter what happens in Greece.”

  There’s wordless objection on her face, but it’s warring with the hope in her eyes.

  “But there’s something you can help me with.” I’ve backed up to the bed, so I settle on it, still holding her hands.

  “What is that?” She hasn’t guessed yet.

  “When I arrive, my soul mate will be young. So much younger than my weary years. I will love and cherish her, but it will take time to win her heart. I will make sure she’s safe, but pursuing her… I will have to wait until she’s ready. I am a patient dragon. I’ve waited ten years, Sasa. But once I’m paired with her, there can be no other women for me. Perhaps not for years, until my mate is ready. I came to the harem for a last indulgence in pleasures I will not enjoy again until I win my beloved’s heart.” I don’t mention that dragons are unbearably sexual creatures. That denying myself, for a year at a time, and then indulging in furtive one-night affairs with women who are hopelessly unavailable is how I have kept my heart free and pure for my beloved all this time. I’ve been terrified I would fail at it—terrified to return to Greece only to be rebuffed—and now I’m on the cusp of return and desperate to work off the last of my urges. I bring Sasa’s hands to my lips, kissing the back of one then the other. Then I peer up at her from my seat on the bed. “Desired, but not required. I will take you to Greece, Sasa, no matter what. But I would take you to bed right now, a final indulgence, if you’ll have me.”

  Her shuddering intake of breath is all the answer I really need. But she gives me one, anyway. “Yes.” She stares at me with wide eyes, like she’s not sure where to begin.

  I release her hands and reach for the buttons on her blouse. They’re simple and quick, and her nipples are already hardening underneath. I slip the light fabric past her shoulders, but don’t let it fall off, merely pulling her by the waist so I can kiss her breasts. Lightly. A mere taste. She smells of soap and womanliness. No fancy perfume or fragrance, simply earnestness as she leans into my touch. I slip her billowing pants down and the underpants as well, leaving her quickly bare for me. She’s even more lovely underneath, hips generous and curved, belly soft and beckoning my kisses. I rise up from the bed and turn her toward it. My shirt comes off quickly, then I reach in my pocket for the animal-skin condom in its oil-paper package. My cock is already straining against the rugged cotton of my trousers. I undo the buttons, and Sasa’s gaze drops as I free myself, leaving the clothes on the floor.

  “Hold this,” I say, handing her the condom. She gives it a curious look, and I wonder just how much bedroom experience she truly has. Noblemen should have access to such—but perhaps the sultan doesn’t bother. Then I bid her to lie back on the bed, spreading her knees, then kneeling before her. She gives me a worried look, still clutching the condom in one hand, as I kiss my way from her knee, now lifted over my shoulder, up along her thigh. Her gasp when I reach her sex is delightful, as is the way she watches me, worry still furrowing her brow. But then I put my tongue to good use, and I no longer see the expression on her face, I only hear her fall back against the bed and quietly moan her agreement to my ministrations. It doesn’t take long for me to bring her to climax. It’s a nearly-silent affair, her knees pressing on my shoulders, her bucking up into my mouth. Her one hand still dutifully holds the condom while the other clutches at the blankets spread on the bed. When the quivering has settled a little, I kiss my way up her delightfully flushed body and retrieve the condom from her. My cock is aching, but I know just how I want this to go—long and slow.

  Her eyelids are heavy, and her breathing is still ragged when I kiss her. Just lightly on the lips, enough to let her know we’re far from finished.

  “Are you magic?” she breathes.

  I laugh, and it’s like all the burdens on my heart are lifted. “Yes. But not because of that.”

  “It feels like magic.” Her hands are roaming my chest and shoulders as I hover over her. She’s touching every inch of my skin with just the tips of her fingers.

  “Well, then, I have more magic for you.” I smirk and climb over her, beckoning her to follow me to the head of the bed. It’s a heavy-framed thing with solid cushions and pillows buttressed against the wall. I sit with my back to it and unwrap the condom. Sasa watches as I slide it on, my cock tall and ready in my lap. I reach a hand for her, and she crawls eagerly to me. With a hand on her breast, I whisper, “Come ride me, sweet Sasa.”

  She takes a moment to clamber up and position herself, then she eases down, making us both sigh with the tightness of the fit. Her hands are on my shoulders, but her eyes are squeezed shut. Her mouth has fallen open with the feel of it. I’m taken by the loveliness of her—head slightly tilted back, breasts pointing in my face, her sex engulfing me. I urge her to move, lifting her hips and easing them back down. She whimpers a little as she does, and I understand—it’s tight, squeezing the words out of us both. But we move on the bed, and her grip shifts to the solid oak of the headboard. Suddenly, she’s in control of the motion, my hands on her hips merely along for the ride as she rises and sinks, up and down, squeezing and releasing my aching, pulsing cock. My climax is building at the base, and so I close my eyes and breathe, turning inward and seeking that open awareness. That bliss state of feeling but not too intensely; glorying in her body pumping mine, but in control of my response. She rides and rides me, but I’m floating on an endless sea of pleasure, each wave resting and falling, carrying me to a higher realm where the thrilling tremble of orgasm is almost there but not quite. Her pumping becomes more frantic, so I slip my hand to her sex, aiding her over the top with a few pulses of my thumb. She cries out and trembles and convulses all around me, but I stay in my bliss, a constant near-climax that hardly ebbs and flows anymore, just carries on and on. She’s done, but I’m still as hard as before. I roll her over, so now I’m the actor, thrusting and pulling back, impaling her body with my cock, riding the wave of this bliss as I work her up to another quivering state. We’re both clutching at the headboard now, holding on through the manic joining of our bodies, but when she comes and cries out, I just keep driving, carrying her through the entire span of it. When at last she comes down, she simply stares at me as I slowl
y, languorously, slide in and out of her body. Even for a dragon, this is beyond. I’m not sure how long I can sustain it. My entire body is vibrating in this near-climax state, a perpetual buzz that’s almost unbearably delicious.

  I pull out for a moment, just long enough to urge her to roll over, now lying face-down on the bed. I stretch her legs out as I straddle her body, then I lift her hips just enough so I can take her from behind. As I slide, slowly, in and out, she gasps and shudders with the full length of it. My cock is one live wire from tip to root, my entire body feeling every quiver of hers. I stroke in and out, a steady rhythm that has me pounding her slowly and steadily into the bed. She whimpers—her climax is building again—and the thrill of that trembles deep inside me. This servant girl, trapped in torment for who knows how long, is now sharing a night of nirvana with me, her body taking me in, openly, willingly, and that thought—that she’s enjoying this as thoroughly as I am—pushes me closer, to where I can’t control it anymore. The wave surges, and I groan, burying deep and emptying my seed. My cock pulses on and on, this orgasm extreme like no other I’ve had. I’m lost in time as it persists. Eventually, after some unknown stretch, I’m simply breathing hard, lying on top of Sasa, barely remembering not to crush her.

  I pull out, the condom thoroughly used. Even I, being dragon, will need some time before I’ll be ready for anything more. Sasa remains lying flat, face down, her open mouth half pressed into the cover. I sweep the hair from her face and kiss her forehead.

  “Thank you for that,” I whisper. I run a hand along her back down to cup her bottom.

  She works her eyes open and frowns at me. “You are not a man,” she breathes, heavily.

  “No, I’m not.” I smirk and playfully caress her.

  She swallows. “You are a god.”

  “Just a dragon.” My fingers glide up her side. I delight in the round of her breast pressed against the bed.

  “Lies.” She turns slightly on her side, giving me the gift of her full breast to caress. She peers at me. “You are a god of the bedroom, and you’ve seduced every court lady of the harem. And now me.”

  “You…” I drag my hand up to tap her on the nose. “Were by far the best.”

  “More lies.” But a tiny smile sneaks out.

  “Not in the least.” Miraculously, my cock is rising again. I thought perhaps the coitus reservatus would have sapped my dragon endurance. But no. Oh, the night Sasa and I will have… I slip my hand between her legs.

  She gasps. “I don’t think… I’m not ready, Akkan.”

  “Well, let me do something about that.” I shimmy down to bury my face between her legs. Because a dragon has healing powers in his every bodily fluid. And my tongue is just the tonic to soothe the ravages I’ve visited upon poor, lovely, delicious Sasa’s body.

  The night is yet young.

  Chapter Three

  I can feel Sasa shivering against me.

  In my dragon form, I can’t comfort her. And it’s been a brutal two nights of travel, but we’re almost done. The pre-dawn is lighting the sky, which means it’s no longer safe to soar the heavens, but the city of Athens still sleeps as I glide above it. I bundled Sasa in triple coats and hats and scarves and fashioned a harness of sorts to keep her safely tethered, not relying on her grip, which would fatigue in the many hours of the trip, but she doesn’t have a dragon’s scales or internal fire to keep her warm.

  We broke the trip into two segments. The first one was nearly a full night of flying, but we made several stops between Constantinople and the small village on the western coast of the Anatolian peninsula which was our resting point for the day. Sasa claimed the heat of my dragon body kept her warm during the flight, but I heard the chatter of her teeth and felt the shiver of her body against me. The second leg of the trip, the following night, still took advantage of the moonless skies. It was shorter, but nearly without rest—a straight shot across the Aegean sea. It’s the fastest way to travel, but it’s exhausting even for a dragon. I could land in Athens and take our rest for the day, traveling either on foot to the lair to the north or waiting until the following night to fly, but I’m too impatient. It’s impossible to be this close and not continue on.

  I dip lower once we clear the city, gliding in the slightly warmer air to help ease Sasa’s shivering. Mount Parnitha beckons in the distance to the north, its forested hills home to a scattering of villages and several fortresses from ancient times. My home lair masquerades as a monastery, to keep out the curious and yet still have the possibility of interaction with the outside world. My heart pounds as I fly us up the slopes, not from exertion, although the toll of the night’s flying is upon me, but from anticipation. And tremulous excitement. I haven’t seen my family in a decade. My mother and father should still be in fine health—dragons live long lives, and when I left, they had just started their second batch of children. My two older brothers and I were the first. Aleko and Valawyr had mated before I left. My younger brothers must be nearing the pairing time. A surge of homesickness has me setting down before the final rise of forest-covered rock that obscures the monastery’s walls.

  I bend down so Sasa can dismount. She does so awkwardly—she must be more frozen than I realized. I immediately shift and begin to unwrap all her layers. I’m naked, my clothes packed in a small sack also bundled to the harness, but the cool mountain air doesn’t bother me. I’m concerned for Sasa, shaking before me. I release her from her overcoats, down to the simple blouse and Turkish-style pants she wore when we made our escape from the palace, then I use the heat of my body to warm her. We stand there a while, silent, my body heating hers, the overcoats covering us both. We’ve had two glorious days of lovemaking, and my body is already responding to hers pressed against me. I could have her one last time, here in the forest, before I introduce her to the world of dragons and my ancestral lair. But the mood between us is solemn.

  We both know what we have is nearly over.

  My soul mate does not await me in the lair, but my fate does. Once inside its walls, my family will make haste to summon the witch. She will arrive within a day, two at the outside. That will be my time of reunion with my family and the time to convince the lair that Sasa has a place among them. Once the witch arrives, the pairing will take no time at all. And then I will be gone once again, off to find my soul mate and rescue her from whatever troubles are brewing in Greece, if she’s nearby. That’s most often the case, but soul mates can be literally anywhere in the world. Either way, I will be journeying again soon, leaving Sasa to make a new life without me.

  Her hands are flat on my chest, her face nestled against me. “This is a dream I knew would end,” she says quietly. There’s heartbreak in her voice, and for that, I’m deeply sorry.

  But it cannot be helped. I kiss the top of her head. “Would you like me to warm you a little more?” It would take nothing for my cock to rise to that occasion.

  She lifts her head. “Just kiss me goodbye.”

  And so I do. It’s soft and sweet and tinged with a little fire and insolence, just like Sasa. She might find a home within the monastery’s walls, but she won’t find a mate. A lover. In this moment, my heart is shamefully glad for that. Perhaps when I return with my mate, I’ll be a better man, and I’ll seek a mate for her as well—not a dragon, of course, but someone who will appreciate the rare spirit she has.

  I finish the kiss and gaze into her eyes. “This isn’t a true goodbye. We will see much of each other these next two days.”

  She simply nods and pulls away.

  I don’t try to hold her. She gathers up the overcoats and scarves while I dress. When we’ve secured everything, I take her hand and lead the way. The dirt road leading to the monastery is well-rutted. Our lair is even more ancient than the nearby fortresses built over the centuries to defend this natural barrier from invaders of one kind or another. The forest around us is waking with the sunrise, the light growing stronger and more rose-colored by the moment.

  Ev
erything is just as I remember it from my youth.

  Except when we summit the rise.

  I’m so unprepared for the devastation, my mind can hardly reconcile what my eyes are seeing. There are no imposing stone walls with flying towers and slitted windows. There is no wooden gate held closed by massive iron bolts. There is only rubble and char. Blackened earth so scorched it’s as if nothing was ever there but ash.

  I hold completely still.

  I’ve stopped in my tracks. Sasa no longer holds my hand. She stands beside me, as still as my heart. The morning birds twitter around us, a surreal sound amidst all this… death.

  A held breath finally escapes me. I stumble forward, then run, racing to this pyre that should be my home. Am I mistaken? Can I somehow have lost my way so thoroughly that I’ve stumbled across the wreckage of some other massive stone edifice brought low and razed to the ground? But the devastation is so complete that I instinctively know—this was no ordinary fire. The intense heat required to melt stone? To destroy dragons? That could only come from a magic more powerful than our own.

  The Vardigah. A race of dark elves that revile us. But they’ve only existed in the myths of my childhood, not real enemies among us. Not destroying whole lairs. Whole families.

  I keep a desperate hope alive as I shuffle to the edge of the ruins. A splash of color catches my eye—a single daffodil, the flower of death. I have no idea how it survived, but that it’s blooming here, amidst the ashes… I stumble back and sweep my gaze over the wreckage anew. Spots of green are springing up, nature working to reclaim the land.

  This happened long ago.

  How long, I can’t be sure.

  My heart can’t hold that knowledge without breaking.

  Sasa’s hand slides into mine. “I’m so sorry.” Her eyes are filled with tears.

  Mine are chasing each other in waves down my face. “They’re all gone.” My breath catches, saying those words aloud.