Dragon Treasure by SJ Sanders

Chapter 31

Her muscles were close to giving out when heavy hoofbeats sounded just moments before the enormous body of a mecha-beast broke through a snowy screen of bushes alongside the monastery. Neck stretching with her long-legged gallop, Jasnee pulled up behind Tania and made her way up to her side.

Tania threw a look toward the cog mare keeping pace beside her, calculating the distance. The heavy snap of wings behind her as the dragon took flight was what made her decision.

Hand outstretched, she leaped toward the mare, her fingers wrapping around the pommel as the other hand came around and gripped the lacings of the saddle as she flung herself belly-down against it. Her stomach jolted as Jasnee picked up her pace, but Tania clambered up into the saddle. Squeezing her legs around the mechanical barrel of the mare’s body, she leaned forward, freeing one hand to grab ahold of the reins, before releasing the death grip on the other.

Leaning forward over Jasnee’s withers, Tania reduced the drag, allowing her mare to race at dangerous speeds she never would have dreamed of allowing through the town’s narrow alleys. She could hear Drathnor flying low over the buildings above them, frustrated by his inability to seize her. Thankfully, there was no one on the street. The dragon howling overhead sent everyone scurrying into their homes, doors and shutters latching tight. With no one else around to attract the predatory gaze of the male flying above, he tracked them overhead as they twisted down one street and another, dirty snow kicking up and spraying against walls with every turn.

Drathnor never gave up, never ceased chasing after them. The safety of the town ended too soon, and when they broke out from the gates, the triumphant bugle above was a warning of the end.

Dragging in a breath to summon her courage, she gave the cog mare complete freedom and held on tight as Jasnee sped out along the short plateau until they plunged down the mountainside. A scream lodging in Tania’s throat, she squeezed her eyes shut, focusing on nothing more than hanging on. She could hear the rocks and snow kicking from under the mare’s hooves as Jasnee evaded the dragon. His bulk crashed into the mountainside repeatedly, striking places where they had been only seconds before, spraying pebbles and snow over her, but still she didn’t give her mare the order to slow.

Peeling her eyes open, she focused on the close-knit rocks ahead. A grim smile pulled at her lips. That was the only suitable shelter. The only place where she could attempt to make her final stand for her mate. Perhaps it was fitting that the place she might die was the same place he had captured her before, but this time she was going deep within the stones.

If he wanted her, he would have to return to his regular form to get her.

She hoped that would work, but if it didn’t… well, at least she got him far enough away for the women to get to safety. She would die comforted knowing that, and knowing that her mate would join her soon after. If it took days or weeks, it didn’t matter. The people would hide until he finally fell from the sky.

Tears heated her cheeks, but she ignored them, keeping her focus solely on her destination. She shut out the sounds of Drathnor dropping again and again onto the mountain and his roars of rage.

A shout of victory fell from her lips when Jasnee cleared the rocks, and even though she winced as he battered and tore at the rocks, she ignored her mate’s tantrum as she slipped off her mare’s back and led the mecha-beast further within until they were within the heart of the structure, the overlapping rocks above them crisscrossing in a fashion where she only got small glimpses here and there of the sky above.

Enough to know that the sky was lightening with the coming of dawn.

Silence fell, and Tania stilled, even her heartbeat seeming to quiet as she listened. One beat and then another.

Rock broke away from above her. Tania attempted to scamper under some shelter, but a taloned hand grabbed her and yanked her out only to deposit her on the snow outside. She scuttled back with her hands and feet, her ass dragging in the snow as her dragon advanced. His cock was hard and fully unsheathed from his body, the feathered head flared as he stalked forward… and shrank.

Madness swirled in the darkness of his eyes as he mounted her, his claws tearing at her clothes. Tania relaxed against it, wincing when a claw dragged a little too rough. He panted, his teeth snapping as he bugled, those dark eyes piercing her. But he wasn’t hurting her.

Buried somewhere inside the beast was her mate, and the creature he had become still somehow recognized her.

Tania gasped out a sob and lifted her hands. He stilled, his head snapping from side to side, he watched her warily as she set them against his wide chest. When he ripped her leggings free, she spread her legs wide beneath him, wanting him and needing him. If this was the one moment she had to say goodbye to him—to be with him one more time—she would take it.

Drathnor growled, the sound deep and threatening as he settled low against her, his pelvis meeting hers and the hot length of him pressing into her belly. His eyes narrowed, and he drew back his hips, the head of his cock brushing against her pussy, a single kiss of flesh to flesh before he drove deep.

Tania arched, wrapping her arms around her mate. She held him close. As if following a familiar path within herself, she dug deep and found a spark of his mist that still lingered within her. She breathed in, allowing it to expand until her chest was painfully full with the magic, and tilted her head up to his. Exhaling softly, she released it, the cold mist billowing from her. Tears flowed down her cheeks in steady rivers, some freezing in their path.

Please. Remember me, my love.

“I love you,” she whispered as the last bit of the mist left her body.

The dragon shuddered, and he dragged the mist in, drawing it deep. His sex still lodged within her body, he dropped over her and shook, his wings and tail stretching out to the sky.

Pain rolled off of him in waves as she felt the bond tighten between them once more. He lifted his head slowly and his eyes opened once more, the clear, pale blue staring down at her in wonder. A hand lifted, his claws dragging through her hair.

“Tania. My mate. You’re alive.”

Sucking her lips in to stem her tears, she nodded. “Yes, yes. I’m here.”

“I am never letting you out of my sight again,” he growled, and somehow she had never heard anything better.

His head dropped, his muzzle brushing her brow and cheek before sliding down against the crook of her neck as he inhaled her scent rapturously. She held him there, close to her heart until finally he lifted his head again to look down at her. His eyes slid to his scales, and the soft wonder in his eyes was soon replaced with horror. His wings slapped the ground on either side of her as he attempted to jerk away, but she wrapped her arms and legs around him, holding on to him, keeping him there with her, her feet pressed against his wing base so he couldn’t fly off.

She just got her mate back, and she was damn sure not going to let him go.

She held him against her until he stopped attempting to escape and his large frame shook in her arms.

“What have I done?” he rasped.

Tania shook her head. “This wasn’t you. It was what Jerard turned you into. None of this is your fault.”

“I killed women. I can smell their blood on me,” he said dully.

“Yes,” she agreed softly, “but I think somewhere inside you had to have been fighting against it because if you hadn’t been, all of those women would have died before I even got down into that chamber. There is no way they could have avoided you. It should have been a complete bloodbath.”

“Even so, it is my scales that are stained with their deaths. My body which tore them apart and consumed them. How do I even begin to atone?” he rasped.

“I don’t know,” she murmured, her hand brushing against his plated brow. “I guess we just take things one day at a time and remember this as we go forward and try to be the kind of people we want to be.”

He fell silent, his head dropping slightly, but at her touch he met her eyes and pressed his cheek into her palm.

“I love you, little one,” he rumbled softly. “I can face any future, even washing away this stain, as long as I have you by my side.”

Tania smiled so wide her cheeks ached, but it didn’t matter because her heart was fuller than it had ever been.

“Good, because you’re stuck with me,” she chuckled. “I love you too.”

Drathnor chuffed and gently, lovingly, he pressed forward against her body and withdrew again. His body slid against hers as he rocked into her, each thrust a glide of warm pressure that sparked a sense of joy and homecoming within her.

Fingers digging in around the base of his horns, Tania surrender to it all. Her body moved instinctively with his, shivering with the erotic touch of his claws. Each thrust carried her and bathed her in warm heat of desire and happiness. Even when he couldn’t thrust anymore, the knot of his cock was firmly wedged within her, and she quivered around him, her body quaking with release after release, she felt her love magnified back at her by the full force of his. She was his completely, and she knew that as his body arched and he let out a growly purr that he gave himself in turn to her.

She eyed her mate with dreamy smile sometime later as he stretched his wings.

“Do you think we can go to our new home. Just leave this whole place behind and start anew?” she asked.

He glanced down at her curiously. “You want that? What of your human cities?”

She shrugged. “I mean, we can do that too—in fact, I would love to show you my favorite wintering spot—but I just want to be far from here.” Her smile fell. “There are just too many bad memories here. I would feel better once we put some distance between us and this place once and for all.”

“Yes, I think that would be best for both of us. Finding my mate is the only good memory I take from this place,” he rumbled. “We can go to our new nest and explore after we are settled. I think I would enjoy seeing what sort of adventures my mate went on.”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “Searching for wealth against sometimes dangerous odds?”

He snorted. “Very little is going to be more dangerous than a dragon.”

A giggle escaped her, and she sat up in the snow—once again in awe just how little she felt it—and wrapped her arms around her mate.

“Fair enough. It could at least be fun though to see them try. And we can even add to our hoard in the process,” she murmured, brushing her cheek against his.

He shivered, but she wasn’t sure if it was from the touch or the promise of expanding their treasure.

“Very well my mate, I…”

Drathnor jerked his head up, dropping Tania in the snow. She nearly cursed at him but then she heard it—a faint bugle. Turning her head up as well, she watched the silhouette of a dragon drop down from the clouds. It was heading toward them from deep within the mountain range, soaring on the currents as it let out another call.

Her mate’s wings snapped around her, and she winced as he bugled loudly just above her head, returning the call. That bugle was answered by another and another as more dragons dropped out of the skies. Scooping her up into his arms, he spread his wings wide.

“Come, my mate. There is one last thing we must witness,” he rumbled, his body mass expanding as he leaped into the sky.

His wings caught a current and he flapped them, sending them higher. Tania’s eyes widened, her fingers clutching her mate’s now enormous forearm.

“Drathnor! I’m fucking naked!” she shouted furiously.

He grinned down at her mirthfully, and after a long moment she reluctantly sighed, snuggling in against him.

“Well, just don’t go anywhere near the ground. Dragons might not give a shit about nudity, but I would rather keep my goodies to myself.”

Her mate chuffed, his arms tucking closer around her, covering more of her small body as he winged into the air.

They rose above the monastery and watched as dragons attacked it. They blasted it with ice until it shattered stone and dive-bombed it, striking it as the structure wobbled on its foundation and quaked. The belltower fell first with its deep, brassy clang, the bell bouncing off a roof before disappearing down the ravine along that side of the monastery.

Still the dragons attacked, blowing out glass windows, crushing the solarium as each attack pushed it off its foundation. Masonry fell and slid away, beams crashed and splintered. The cracking marble inside—hopefully pulverizing every one of those golems—echoed loudly. It drew a crowd to the edges of the courtyard to watch silently until the entire structure slid after the bell into the ravine below.

A stillness, an absolute quiet of shock fell, but then the screams started. Digging her nails into Drathnor’s arm, Tania peered below and gasped as winged crawlers burst up from the foundations and numerous nasgaths of various sizes attempted to escape. The dragons dropped once more, this time in a frenzy as they tore the creatures apart, jaws snapping and claws shredding until nothing remained.

Only when all traces of the monastery’s darkness were gone did the dragons rise up again. She was agog watching them wing their way north again when a large silvery male, bigger than even Drathnor, dropped beside them. He rumbled at her mate until his dark blue eye took notice of her clutched against her dragon’s chest. The dragon tipped his head in confusion and continued to make various rumbling and growling noises at Drathnor, to which her mate replied alike. Feeling rather left out of the whole dragon language thing, Tania propped herself against her mate’s forearm and waited as patiently as she could.

After what seemed like an inordinately long time, the male gave her one last look and inclined his head. His enormous wings flapping, he wheeled away from Drathnor, following the flight of the dragons disappearing beyond the mountains ahead of them.

Her mate stared after them, his eyes eventually sliding down to peer at her questioningly before he craned his head and peered down at the cleared foundation of where the monastery had once stood.

Tania dropped her eyes as well and looked down at the wreckage, truly taking in the fact that it was all finally over. A sense of peace stole over her. She was ready. Ready to begin a new life.

“Okay, my love. Let’s go home.”

Drathnor bugled and wheeled in the sky. As he swept by the courtyard, Tania happened to glance down one more time to see a small figure with bright red hair step out from among the crowd. The shout from the woman couldn’t be made out, as faint as it was, but she raised her axe in an unmistakable salute. In her left hand, she held Jasnee’s reins and Tania felt strangely at peace with that. As if it were meant to be. The cog mare would continue on with Dorienna on whatever adventures lay before her, keeping her safe. She couldn’t think of a more worthy person to entrust her friend to.

Tania grinned, extending her own hand in greeting and farewell as her dragon snapped his wings and carried her over the mountains and into a new morning.

One without any more fucking monsters.

Well, small monsters were okay… but fuck no on any more nasgaths!