THE BLACK DRAGON: Werewolves of Montana Mating Mini #7 Read online

“Don’t lie to me,” he said quietly. “You and I know your father has no plans to free me. He will keep draining me until there is nothing left but a shell of dragon. I am too great of a prize for him to release. Without my magick, I will perish.”

  Tears of self-pity she’d refused to shed rose to her eyes at his brutal truth. “I’ve tried reasoning with him.”

  “But he will not listen.” A rueful look touched his face. “Not even to the daughter who placed his feet on this quest to heal her.”

  Guilt shot through her. Justin was far too insightful. Leo hadn’t considered the possibility of obtaining power enough to restore her lost limb, not until last year. She’d wistfully mentioned how she’d envied dragons their ability of flight, and wished she could harness that power. From her studies, she’d read dragons had remarkable regenerative power. There were accounts in the ancient books of Mage of dragons who even had regrown parts of their tail, much like lizards did.

  Soon after, Leo started hunting for dragons to capture.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to entrap you. Father had promised you would not be hurt. It’s gone too far.”

  “Then grant me this one last request, little bird. One kiss before I die. One last taste of a woman’s mouth and one taste of passion for you.” He drew a hand across the nape of her neck.

  Ariel drew back. “Why me? Because I’m here and convenient?”

  Memories flared. Past hurts, past attempts at love and finding a man who thought she was the only woman in the world for him.

  Justin wrapped his hand around her neck. “Because you’re beautiful.”

  Slowly he lowered his mouth to hers. Ariel’s eyes closed. Justin’s lips were warm and authoritative as he kissed her. His mouth moved subtly over hers like a gentle wave, and then as she parted her lips on a pleasurable sigh, he slipped his tongue deftly into her mouth.

  Ariel tasted him back, moaning at the pleasure a single kiss could deliver. Justin’s scent of forest and sparkling water covered her, sending her senses soaring. Her nipples hardened to diamonds as he kissed her, and a wetness began between her legs.

  She wasn’t that innocent. She knew what men and women did together when they mated, but long ago Ariel had resigned herself to never experiencing such intense pleasure. A mad need swirled inside her as she envisioned spreading her legs open for him, allowing him to see another part of her no man had viewed.

  “I would touch you there,” he whispered into her mouth. “Feel your wetness with my fingers and stroke you slowly until you screamed your release. I want you, Ariel. I want you as a man wants a woman in the dark of night. I would slide my cock into you gently, and when the burn of pain started, sealing us together as one, I would chase it away with my fingers and give you pleasure as well.”

  His mouth left hers and his lips caressed a wet trail down her neck as an ache pulsed between her legs.

  “Yes,” she breathed.

  Ariel moaned as he kissed her neck. Her mind saw him mounting her as a dragon did to its mate, his thick cock teasing more wetness from her as he slid it between her soaked cleft. And then he would enter her, and the mystery solved, making her a woman at last.

  His woman.

  Her vaginal walls clenched hard, pulsing at the sheer yearning for Justin to make love to her. Noble intent had fled. She did not need a man’s love to fulfill her most basic urge.

  Only a man willing to take her, and show her the heights of pleasure.

  A man who didn’t shirk from her deformity, but met it with bold curiosity.

  Justin held out the forbidden fruit – a dragon who boldly made requests and she granted them.

  As if there could be more between them.

  No!

  Shaken, she drew away. Justin released her, his dark gaze hooded as a vein jumped in his throat. A few men had kissed her – quick brushes on the cheek or bumbling attempts to draw her into a deeper intimacy.

  None had been this expert and sensual – a dance of mouths promising incredible erotic pleasure if she surrendered to her passion – and his desire.

  No man ever called her beautiful before. Some had called her cute, or clever. But secretly she longed to be called beautiful, as men called other women.

  “You make my head spin, little bird.” He gave a rueful glance downward. “And other parts as well.”

  Flicking her gaze downward, she stared at the thick erection between his legs. She did this to him. The fact he’d been equally affected by their kiss should have relieved her. It did not. It made her realize what a dangerous game she played with this dragon.

  Perhaps he could not slaughter her, but he could coax her into yearning for the erotic temptation of lying with him. And then he would use her to escape, after having his wicked way with her.

  Slowly she backed away, as if Justin were a demon from the Dark Lands come to steal away her soul. “I have to leave.”

  “It will do no good. I can smell you. Smell your arousal, little bird. You are drenched with need.” A knowing smile touched his lips. “I may be chained in this cage, but you are locked up as well.”

  3

  It was just a kiss. Right. Whom was she fooling?

  Justin’s kiss left her deeply shaken. Not merely from the physical reaction, but the promise lingering on her lips. The tantalizing notion of freedom, adventure and everything she’d craved.

  Everything she feared as well.

  I want to break free, but there’s security here. The familiar. Ariel didn’t know if she possessed the courage to reach for her dreams.

  Justin leaned forward. “Your life can be so much more, little bird. You have the power to change it.” He rattled his chains. “Free me and I’ll show you. I’ll take you to places you can only dream of, to heights unimagined.”

  He held out a hand as if offering the prize in his empty palm. Forbidden fruit. She licked her lips, leaned forward, drawn to the solemnness in his dark gaze, the temptation of seizing life and all it had to offer.

  Freedom for Justin – freedom for herself.

  “I…can’t.” Her chest ached. “There’s another reason I have to remain untouched. Father told me if I lie with a man and lose my virginity, I’ll lose my magick.”

  A bitter laugh fled her. “I don’t have much power, but I will not surrender what little I have.”

  Justin gave her an intent look. “I understand.”

  Of course he would – his magick had been stripped by her uncaring father. She reached out, and their fingers met. A tingle rushed through her. She didn’t know what chemistry bonded them, but Ariel didn’t trust it.

  Sex was out.

  Magick was key to finding her way in the world. Handicapped and without job skills, she might find work by casting fortunes or using her powers to aid others. Ariel liked the latter idea. Maybe work as a nurse’s aide, using her special magick to soothe frightened Skin children in a hospital.

  Footsteps thudded on the stone stairs. Ariel did not turn. Acute olfactory senses warned her father approached, for the cloying scent of his cologne would alert even a Skin. Lately Leo had doused himself, trying to cover the metallic stench of working with crystals and potions.

  Ariel’s shoulders sagged. The moment, and all its sweet hope, winked out like an extinguished candle flame.

  As if sensing her retreat, Justin’s hand dropped, the chain’s heavy weight seeming to drag him down as well.

  “What the hell are you doing in there with him?” her father bellowed.

  Hobbling to the cell door, she faced Leo. Chin up. No retreat.

  Perhaps she lacked the courage to leave, but Justin’s kiss, and his respectful treatment had fueled her bravado.

  “Conversing, Father. He’s lonely and locking him up down here, without sunlight or true sustenance necessary for dragons, is cruel. When will you release him?”

  “Get out of there. Where’s your prosthetic?” Leo demanded.

  “I was showing Justin my stump. If you are to use h
is magick to heal me, he should know why he suffers so,” she shot back.

  Leo averted looking at her limb. He always did, she realized. He hated seeing her stump. It was why Justin’s treatment proved so refreshing. Honest. Justin did not shy away from her deformity.

  “Get out of there, Ariel. He doesn’t need to see you like that.” Leo’s voice sharpened.

  Knowing her father’s limit was pressed, Ariel donned her prosthesis and dressed.

  Leo headed for the wood table holding the instruments he used to practice magick. “Go upstairs and attend to your studies.”

  For once the rare books of magick and history held no interest for her. Ariel joined Leo at the table.

  “Where’s Dell?” she asked. Her father’s assistant usually came to work at night. He preferred working in the lab in the evenings.

  “He was out gathering crystals for me. He’ll be here soon.”

  With Dell gone, now was the time to confront Leo about Justin’s treatment. Hher father’s assistant was pleasant enough, but she sensed a vein of cruelty in him. Ariel even wondered if Dell had nudged her father into keeping Justin captive.

  “Father, haven’t you received enough magick from Justin? Why keep him this long?”

  Even in the dim light, she could see the flicker of unease crossing his expression. Then her father nodded. “After this session, there will be no more for a while.”

  Alarmed, she pressed on. “You will kill him if you siphon away all his magick.”

  “He will not die. And I have no need for all his magick. He will remain a black dragon. But his body will need time to adjust to the new infusion I will give him.” Leo held up the syringe he used to draw out Justin’s blood.

  Behind them, Justin roared. She glanced over her shoulder. He’d shifted back into his dragon form. The angry dragon rattled his chains, straining at the iron.

  Iron hurt.

  Justin hurt.

  Footsteps on the stairs. Ariel compressed her mouth as Dell Hawkins trudged into the room. Wearing his customary white lab coat, blue long-sleeved shirt and neatly pressed dark trousers, he looked more like a medical technician than a Mage scientist.

  “Ariel.” Dell nodded at her, then held up a satchel. “I found the quartz crystals you needed, sir. They were very expensive, so I could only purchase ten with the money you gave me.”

  “Those will suffice. On the table.” Leo pushed absently at his hair as he studied a notebook.

  As Dell set down the satchel, he glanced at the cage. “You haven’t drained him enough, sir. He keeps shifting back and forth.”

  “I gave him additional magick.” Her father didn’t look up. “He’ll be able to do many more things.”

  Dell frowned. “Why would you do that?”

  “By infusing him with the power of the crystals, his blood will be more potent when I take it and make the potion for Ariel.”

  Not at that cost. “I don’t want it.”

  It was as if the two men didn’t hear her. Or chose not to hear her.

  “Make him too powerful and he will break free and kill you,” Dell warned.

  “Iron will hold him.”

  “Iron may not be enough to contain him. Perhaps you should cut off his balls. Dragon eunuchs are probably not as powerful as fully grown male dragons.”

  Ariel froze.

  “I hear dragon balls make tasty soup.” Dell winked at her.

  Sickened, she turned to her father. “You’re not serious. Why would you even think of doing that to Justin?”

  Leo frowned. “I would not.”

  “Sir, begging your pardon, but do you really want him to breed after what you have done to him? He’ll be out of control and if he harms someone, they will blame you.” Dell pointed out.

  “You may have a point.” Leo’s frown deepened. “He will be unpredictable and violent.”

  Her stomach gave a sickening jolt as she looked at the instrument Leo now clutched.

  Her father planned to castrate Justin. Remove his male power and magick.

  “Why, Father? Why are you doing this?”

  Leo barely glanced at her. “You don’t understand, Ariel. Dragons are dangerous.”

  Acid rose in her throat as she glanced backward at the roaring dragon. “Justin did nothing wrong.”

  “But he is dragon and needs to be contained.” Dell shook his head. “Stay out of this, Ariel. You don’t understand.”

  “Promise me you won’t hurt him!”

  Leo finally looked at her. Then he glanced at Justin. “All right. No castration.”

  She sighed with relief.

  “In two days, after I draw out his blood, I’ll sell him to the Shadow Wizard. I heard Cadeyrn pays five hundred pieces of gold for ordinary dragons. He will give me a thousand for a black.”

  Dell laughed, a high-pitched girlish sound. “Even a thousand pieces of gold is a steal for such a magnificent creature, sir. Why not keep him here longer and experiment? We’ve barely begun studying the effects of dragon scales.”

  Her father shook his head. “It’s too dangerous with my daughter around.”

  Nausea made her stomach roil. Dell had actually taken Justin’s scales. She went to the cage, staring at the black dragon, who was once more in human form.

  Justin hung his head, refusing to look at her. But she could see the patch of skin on his arm that looked pink, as if it had begun to heal.

  Father, what have you done to him?

  Justin would be sold and she’d never see him again. Worse, the dragon would become a wizard’s slave and never see his freedom again. Who knew what the Shadow Wizard would do to the dragon?

  The Shadow Wizard will not have you, Justin. I promise.

  She skimmed her hand over the bottles of potions. Dell went upstairs to get more supplies. When Leo turned to consult the sacred book of magick, one vial slid into her hand.

  “I am returning to my studies, Father. Do you wish to have pot roast tonight for dinner? Or soup?”

  “Either.” Leo squinted at the cramped writing in the book. “Leave me.”

  Soup would be easier. Easier to make, and to spike with a sleeping draught that would make Leo sleep like the dead.

  Ariel slipped upstairs, the sleeping potion clutched in her palm.

  Time to make dinner. But first, she needed to make a memory of Justin and his kiss.

  The way he’d touched her as a man touched a woman.

  In her bedroom, she stripped down and removed her prosthesis, staring at her malformed limb. Ariel’s fingers clasped the stump that Justin had caressed with such tender care.

  Then she threw herself down on the bed and wept.

  Never again.

  Tonight, after Dell had left, when Leo slept and Justin lay unconscious and exhausted from having his magick drained, she would unlock the cell door. She would use the magick Leo stole to break Justin’s chains and return the dragon’s magick to him.

  Justin would be free of this terrible place. Hewould find freedom.

  But for her, there would be no escape.

  4

  Sedona, Arizona

  March 2018

  * * *

  So this was the Mage she had to marry. He was nothing like Justin, the black dragon she’d secretly helped to escape last year.

  Ariel mustered a courteous smile as she went to shake Parker Covington’s hand. His palm was soft and moist, an indication of life without labor. But she’d known this from the moment they met last week at a picnic at a prominent Mage community.

  The same community that prohibited her father from living in their neighborhood. Last week, at Parker’s invitation, she was finally granted access. Ariel had been deeply curious about the community, for their reputation as craftsmen and artisans was renowned amongst other Mages.

  Too aware that her own hands were trembling, she pumped his hand once, and then withdrew it. Then she shook hands with his parents, his dour, plump mother who wore her hair in a beehive and had a fat string
of pearls around her neck, and his equally stout father, dressed in a business suit that looked expensive.

  Humiliation filled her. Leo had finally admitted he’d placed a personal ad to find her a husband. The ad ran in a popular Mage newspaper in Seattle. Parker was the most eligible bachelor who responded, and his family was prestigious and wealthy.

  Ariel went into automatic mode as her father led the Covingtons over to the outside table, where dinner plates were set on the colorful Mexican tablecloth. Mrs. Covington picked up a spoon, clucked at it, and then polished it with her napkin.

  Already Ariel disliked her. And this would be her mother-in-law?

  Parker handed her a box wrapped in decorative foil paper. “I brought you a gift.”

  As she thanked him and started to unwrap it, he added, “It’s a memento from our time together at the Sorcerer’s Picnic.”

  Talk about ruining a surprise. She lifted the box lid. Inside was a gilt framed photo of a beaming Parker and herself. Except she wasn’t smiling.

  It had been hard to smile when she’d been so worried about her father, who had grown more and more secretive in the past month. And while Leo approved of her dating Parker and attending events inside Mystic Shores, he was banned from ever setting foot inside the neighborhood of Mages. Leo never mentioned why and when she’d asked him once, he told her it was not a subject he would discuss.

  “It’s a lovely frame. Thank you.” Ariel forced another smile as she set the box on a nearby table.

  “Did you enjoy the picnic?” he asked.

  “Very much. They’re fascinating people. So much talent. I enjoyed the art show. The display with the southwestern weavings was pretty.”

  She didn’t tell him she’d connected with a famous elderly artist who expressed interest in hiring her to market his work online through social media. Not only was the pay better than the restaurant where she presently worked, but she could work remotely from home.

  Parker was nice enough, but Ariel wanted to get this job on her own merit. Not because he used his connections.

  “Mystic Shores is a terrific place to live and raise a family. So many influential Mages.” Parker peered at her over the top of his horned rimmed glasses.