Page 10 of Creatures of War

Did I want to push that limit? It was a dangerous game to play with any dragon. If I pushed hard enough, they’d be more than happy to put me back in line.

‘Please. Not knowing only makes it worse. I can imagine a million bad things in seconds. Ease my mind. Please.’

The pleading seemed to work as he began descending, slipping between trees. We landed softly in a small opening, his large wings curling against his back. I reached up, feeling the hardness of his green scales as they glinted off the setting sun, shining even more brightly.

‘The king has no clue how to break a dragon’s bond with their mate, but he’s determined to figure it out. And we’ll be the guinea pigs, sooner than later if we misbehave.’

“Don’t tell her that crap,” Landers said, coming out of the bushes and glaring at Zilon.

“She deserves to know, even just for her own wellbeing,” Zilon said.

“It’s probably best she does know what’s at stake,” Philit said, coming into view too. “Then, she knows why she needs to behave.” The warning in his voice had me standing straight. Despite the harsh reminder, he was in front of me at the blink of an eye, his hands gently resting against my cheeks. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

“I’m okay.” I grabbed one of his hands, squeezing it and lowering it between us. “I got off lightly. Lots of warnings to behave and keep my head down. Then of course that really nice but awkward bath I already told you about. The grand tour of the academy, and then roommate assignments. Rather boring time after leaving the king. I’m taking Tanja’s advice. Stay low, keep my head down. No one has hurt me.”

“Do you even know how to keep your head down?” Landers asked.

“Better than you,” I retorted.

The blaze in his brown eyes grew as he glared at me. “Do not push me, little one,” he warned.

“Behave,” Philit said.

“Hard to do when everyone is threatening to take away what’s mine.” Landers stepped toward me, but was quickly blocked by Philit.

“Behave yourself,” Philit whispered, but I could still hear him. “You’ll hurt her.”

“My dragon will never allow that,” Landers snarled and side-stepped Philit so he could reach me.

Before I had a chance to draw in my next breath, Landers was squeezing the life out of me. “My dragon is ready to roar to the world with how pissed he is. How dare they threaten to take you away from me?”

“I thought you wanted nothing to do with me,” I whispered, trying to blink back tears.

This felt all too right and the idea of them no longer by my side was inconceivable. It has only been a short amount of time, but they were mine as much as I was theirs. The bond between us was strong and only growing. Even now, I could feel its warmth pulse inside of me with how close they were to me. I wanted to be closer.

“You scare me, Rayna. Since the moment I met you, you scared me. And now I know why. Why the fuck would I be the idiot to let you go? Fuck that.”

I wrapped my arms around him and squeezed him tighter, understanding what he was saying. Landers was the biggest asshole of them all—spoiled with that rich kid mentality—but he was my asshole. Life would be too quiet without him there. Our time together was rough, definitely not ideal, but I couldn’t let him go anymore.

And it seemed he felt the same way.

‘Damn right, I do,’ his voice snapped through my head. He buried his face in my neck, his lips pressing against its side. He gave me a light nip, making me moan.

Embarrassed by the sound, I tried to pull away from him, but he only kept me firmly in his grip.

“Too long. It’s been too long.”

“It hasn’t even been half a day since we last saw each other,” I said.

“Too fucking long.” He kept mumbling that, squeezing me tighter, as if he wanted to absorb me into him. I felt the others around us move in closer.

A hand brushed the back of my neck, and I shuddered. Another hand touched my lower back. All their touches were making my body buzz with awareness, sending tendrils of pleasure through me.

I bit my lip, trying to keep in another moan, when I felt Philit press against me, his hand slipping between Landers and me to grab my breast. The flimsy robe around me did nothing to stop him as he found the bud of my nipple and tweaked it. I jerked as electrical pleasure zapped through my body.

“Feel us,” Philit whispered in a husky voice. “Feel how much we want you.” He pressed against my ass, his double cock already hard as he wedged it between my butt cheeks. “We’re going to take good care of you.”

“We’re going to fuck you so hard that at least the fucking dragons know to piss off, even if the riders are too dumb to smell us on you,” Landers said and then bit my neck.