The Cursed King by Abigail Owen

Chapter Nine

Airk watched for half an hour as Angelika wound every person in the room around her delicate little finger with each word she uttered. She spun a remarkable tale of a pregnant phoenix on the run, hiding herself and later her daughters from a madman. One who’d caught up with them eventually.

But Serefina Amon had prepared for that, too, sending her daughters to the four corners of the earth, where they each had a supernatural protector ready to keep them safe.

The dragons in the room sneered at where Serefina had sent her daughters, especially Angelika’s wolf pack, which made her mother’s move even more brilliant. Arrogant, dragons always assumed that among all shifters their kind was the pinnacle. Top of the food chain.

By the time she finished speaking—including Airk’s story in her own—the disbelief had miraculously disappeared from every face in the room.

“How do you know you didn’t receive any powers?” Tovar asked. Not suspiciously, more curious.

Angelika shrugged. “I don’t smell of smoke.”

Denial had several shaking their heads. “Many dragon mates do not, either.”

She offered a smile, one that thanked them for the wish that things were different. “I have neither felt nor shown a smidge of ability of any kind. My mother had so many, developed through the years. My sisters’ powers were immediate, though they are still developing. I think we have to face that I am dormant at best, human at least.”

She straightened, having resumed her seat in the wing-backed chair at some point during the telling. Her posture was as regal as any queen, and the braid around her head may as well have been a crown. “But I am still my father’s daughter. My mother may have run because that was the only way she could see us safely reaching adulthood, but I am only half phoenix. Dragons are my family. I refuse to sit to the side while that murderer remains in power.”

Hells, at the force of her words, even Airk’s breast stirred with the vestiges of pride in his people and hope for the future. Like a ghost of his past feathering old emotions through the void that had become his heart. All he’d felt in ages was the need for vengeance and then to disappear. And lately, to fuck a certain white-haired enchantress of a woman.

His dragon rumbled inside him, uncurling and uneasy at the emotions.

“What happens when your skin is touched with dragon fire?” the lone woman within the group asked. She was a female-born dragon younger than Airk by a century or more. Rare for one such as she to be included in anything requiring leadership, but more had changed in his time in captivity than he knew. Maybe that included the way female-borns were treated as well.

Angelika’s pause brought his gaze down to find her biting her lip. Inappropriate, ill-timed desire lanced through him, tightening his body in a way that could fast become an embarrassment.

“I haven’t bothered to try,” she owned.

She tipped her chin, glancing up at him with wide eyes, and Airk had to hide the jerk that ripped through him at the flash of fear in those depths. There, then she blinked and looked at the others, and the emotion was gone.

As though she’d allowed him, and only him, to witness her insecurity.

“We should at least answer that question,” someone toward the back said.

Angelika’s tension may not have been visible to the others, but Airk could practically see the waves of it rising from her. Slowly, as though sensing the import of the moment, she looked to him yet again, this time with a question in her eyes.

His heart shriveled inside him like a dried plum sucked of its juices, knowing what she was asking. He gave his head the barest of shakes, and she nodded. Then made it a thousand times harder when she reached over and squeezed his hand. Like she was telling him it was all right.

Nothingwas all right.

“Tovar,” she said. “You may try.”

His old friend drew back his shoulders—that pride again. How did she do that so easily? Connect with people like that?

Angelika rose to her feet and turned her back to Tovar, who stepped forward. He inhaled, the sound low and reverberating like a bellows in a smithy. An answering growl resounded inside Airk’s head, low and menacing. His dragon did not like this.

Tovar pursed his lips and sucked in.

Airk’s dragon snarled, baring his teeth at the male daring to even think of touching Angelika with fire. Clenching his fists, he tried to communicate to the animal side of him that this was needed. Only the dragon gnashed his teeth at Airk, and pain sliced through his mind like a lightning bolt. Sizzling, hot and immediate, an inferno inside his head.

He glanced at his hands lest he raise his fists to pound against his own temples. The beast was turning on him.

Unaware of Airk’s struggles, Tovar blew white-tipped flames across the nape of Angelika’s neck. He tempered them as he did to keep from burning her delicate skin. Airk had witnessed the same with Meira at her mating day, and they had all witnessed Pytheios do the same to his new mate, Tisiphone. With a phoenix, her skin would glow. Living, breathing rivers of molten lava brought to life by the blaze. Then delicate lines of illuminated flame would spread across her skin in a design of fiery feathers. When the last feather appeared, the fire would rise from the skin and form wings, fed by the lines across her skin.

The mark of a phoenix.

Through the shards of agony caused by his dragon thrashing inside him, almost blurring his vision, Airk watched closely. Waiting.

For nothing.

A small whimper escaped Angelika’s throat, and without thought, he snapped out a hand and drew her out from beneath Tovar’s fire, pulling her up against his chest, her back to his. Before he knew what he was about, he’d curled one arm around her waist, securing her to him.

“Don’t,” he snarled at his old friend in a voice so dragon he no longer recognized himself.

Tovar cut his fire off immediately, gaze wary, and slowly raised his hands in a gesture of peace. Silence blanketed the room, each dragon still, assessing the threat.

Him.

I am the threat.

Airk swallowed, then swallowed again as he worked the dragon half of him deeper into his consciousness, away from the surface. Hard to do with Angelika’s touch, her summery scent, up against him, though the beast calmed at her nearness. Angelika smoothed a hand over his forearm, making him grip her more tightly. “I’m not harmed,” she assured. “It’s okay.”

“Wait—” Tovar’s serious gaze passed between the two of them, even as Airk struggled to force himself to let her go. “Is she your mate?”

“He should be so lucky,” Angelika murmured, though just a gentle teasing. Probably with a grin to bely the words, because the dragons in the room relaxed enough to chuckle with her, though the looks they continued to cast him remained wary.

“She will be.” The words left his mouth, and immediately his dragon settled inside him, the pain receding.

Hells. Why had he said that? He couldn’t. Ever. He knew that.

Angelika twitched in his grasp, but he was holding her too tightly, which meant she couldn’t turn around. Instead, she angled her head, looking up and backward awkwardly. “Now you decide to take me up on my idea?”

“Angelika?” A woman’s voice sent every man in the room into a defensive crouch, growls ripping through the air.

Airk included, tucking his phoenix to his side.

Only she pushed against his hold. “That’s my sister,” she said.

He turned them to face a mirror that showed only Meira’s face.

“Don’t return here until you hear from me,” Meira warned. She sounded calm, but Airk picked up on the tension in her voice. Her gaze skated behind him and Angelika to those gathered in the room. All white dragons. “I’ll be in touch soon.”

With that, the mirror returned to normal, only now reflecting shock and indecision in the faces of every newly gained ally in the room.

That was it? That one cryptic warning? What was going on?

…

“Make a move, dammit.” Skylar prowled to the left, studying her mate as he circled her.

These early-morning sparring sessions were the highlight of her day… Well, maybe her second favorite highlight. She studied Ladon’s moves, familiar with them now, and just as determined not to admire the powerful grace of his body as she had the first time they’d fought like this. The day she’d broken into his mountain to try to rescue Kasia, so sure her sister needed rescuing.

Funny how things turned out.

His eyes were his tell, giving away intention before his body language did. A spark flickered, then Ladon lunged for her, and she blocked with ease, having seen it coming, then followed with a knee to his ribs. His grunt at the contact was music to her ears, but, as usual, she’d gotten too close.

He flipped her around and got an arm around her waist, tugging her in close to his body. “Are you trying to distract me with your manliness?” She smirked, even as her own body flipped a switch to “turned on” in an instant.

An answering smile tugged at his lips. Usually Ladon’s smiles made people around him edgy, nervous, because they were more ferocious than nice. Skylar found that adorable, though.

“Is it working?” His dark-as-sin voice, like rocks in a tumbler, rumbled in her ear.

Part of her wanted to melt into him and swap out sparring for fucking, right here, right now. But the competitive side decided to take advantage of his distraction. Without warning, she slammed her head backward, right into his nose.

“Fuck.” His grip loosened.

In a shot, she was out of his grip and across the room, facing off against him.

Ladon glared at her over his hands, but she couldn’t miss the spark in his eyes, the flames not of anger but respect and an answering need to win. Gods, her mate was gorgeous, black hair and Greek coloring making his blue eyes even bluer, the cleft in his chin masculine as hell, and the sexiest damn voice to match.

He shot across the space, using the speed most shifters could claim. But she had her full powers now and could move with the same lightning speed when she wanted. Skylar jumped back, blocking his hand. Then struck for his face, only to have him block her in return.

They went at it, setting up a rhythm, almost a dance, as they struck, blocked, and parried, trying different moves on each other in rapid succession. Ten moves in, Ladon tumbled her to the ground.

“Skylar!”

They both stilled at the sound of Meira’s shout.

Sparring forgotten, together they jumped to their feet and ran into the living area, where the massive silver-edged mirror they’d had placed in here after Meira’s powers had become known waited.

Skylar gasped at the sight of her sister standing in the training room in Mount Ararat. She had to be using the glass of the control booth in that space to reach them.

Behind her in the chamber where the shifters who were fighters trained, chaos reigned.

Black and green dragons filled the space, locked in deadly battle. So many of them, they blurred together, like a flock of birds scared into flight, making it impossible to track a single one’s trajectory.

“Can you hear me?” Meira called.

Skylar nodded. “Yes.”

“We’re—”

A horrendous boom seemed to shake the very foundations of the mountain as Skylar and Ladon both watched in silent horror. A massive stalactite fell from the ceiling, shattering into the floor with another resounding blast, rock and debris and dust flinging up into the air as though a bomb had gone off.

“They’re under attack,” Ladon snarled.

“They’re going to need our help,” Skylar said.

One shared look with her mate, the connection binding their hearts allowing them to know what the other was thinking, and he nodded.

Pulling her power forward in a blazing whoosh of flame, Skylar shoved her mate right in the chest. Using her ability to teleport others—just never herself—long distances, she sent him directly to his men, who would all be doing their morning drills.

“Use the glass in the training room!” she yelled at Meira, who had struggled to her feet, covered in dust but unharmed. “I’ll get Kas.”

No sooner were the words out of her mouth than the mirror flickered and she was staring at a reflection of herself. Not that she waited. Skylar took off at a sprint to get down to where she’d sent Ladon, with a stop in the communications room to contact Kasia.

If Ararat was under attack, they would need all the help they could get. Last time they’d barely survived it.

But when she got to the communications room, after ten minutes of trying, the man operating the computers shook his head at her. “No one is answering, my queen.”

Fear and anger curled and curdled in Skylar’s stomach. Were both her sisters’ clans under attack?

…

Angelika sat in the wing-backed chair she’d come to think of as her throne earlier today. She’d pulled it around to face the ornate mirror her sister had communicated through. Had it been a TV, she could hear her mother warning her not to sit so close or she’d ruin her eyes.

Everyone else had left the room eventually, several promising to gather information and report back. All of that was still fuzzy to her. She’d let Airk handle everything after Meira had disappeared, too shaken to function. None of their allies had returned with news, and her sister had yet to show her face again.

Airk knelt before her, taking her hands in his and chafing at them. Were they cold? She glanced down, thinking idly of how capable his hands were. Long tapered fingers and wide palms. Strength.

“Come to bed,” he urged softly.

A tiny spark flared inside her at his choice of words but died just as quickly. She shook her head. “What if she needs me?”

“I’ll stay out here for you. You won’t miss anything. I promise.”

Angelika shook her head again, then sighed. “I’m always waiting.”

All her life. Waiting to be hunted down. Waiting to be killed or captured. Then the night her mother had died, she’d sent Angelika away to safety first, and she had waited again with the wolves. She’d waited for news of her sisters. Then waited while she’d been shelved through the dragon attack on the village where her pack lived. She’d waited when Skylar had been kidnapped by Pytheios. She’d waited when both sides of the Kings’ War had gone against each other in the skies over Ararat.

Each time of waiting had brought worse and worse news.

Though Skylar’s escape from Pytheios had also brought her Airk. She pulled her gaze from her reflection behind him to his face, searching his expression. “Did you mean it?”

“What?”

She lifted a single eyebrow. “I do believe, right before all the hells broke loose over my sister’s head, that you announced we were to be mated.”

Airk’s grimace told her more than enough. He was already rethinking that particular declaration.

“Oh no, you don’t.” He couldn’t take that back.

“My dragon was—”

“An excuse.”

“I could kill you if he gets loose, and he comes closer to the surface around you.”

She pursed her lips, thinking that over. Because telling him to suck it up or not worry about it clearly wasn’t helpful or strategic. “How about we give it a trial run?”

Airk frowned, clearly not following. Maybe her phrasing was one he had yet to encounter.

“A dress rehearsal.”

He shook his head, brow not easing. “I do not follow.”

Oh dear. This was going to be uncomfortable to put into words. Then again, no one had ever called her a coward. “I want you. I think we’ve established that.”

Airk leaned way back, though he didn’t move from his crouch in front of her. “I—”

She placed a single finger over his lips, stopping his words, his skin warm against hers. “Just stating a simple fact. You want me, too.” Not a question. His kisses had told her that much. Not to mention how he’d reacted to her mouth around his—

“Angelika.” A warning.

She ignored the growl and the shiver that skittered across the nape of her neck at the sexy, dark rumble to his voice. “I propose we have sex. Without the whole fire-and-mating thing.”

“Angelika.”

Gods, was she a horrible person for focusing on such a thing at a moment like this? Maybe this was shock. Or her way of coping? Somehow, even just talking about it had picked her up out of her worries. Angelika had never been one to brood. If she hadn’t heard from her sisters by daybreak, she’d damn well hunt them down.

But in the meantime…

“No commitment. No promise to mate. Not even a promise to have more sex tomorrow.” Though, the way her body was already starting to buzz at the mere thought, she really, really hoped sex tomorrow would be on the agenda.

Airk stared directly into her eyes, the rest of him as still as a mountain and just as complicated. Because under all that granite lay hidden rivers and caves, ravines and cave-ins. There was so much more to him she wished that he would let her see. Let her in.

But he didn’t.

Just squatted and stared. His gaze slowly moved, though not losing a smidge of intensity, and damn if that wasn’t starting to turn her the hell on. As though his gaze were a physical touch, tracing the lines of her mouth, her jaw, down her neck. Her nipples surged as though he’d brushed the back of his hands over them.

“Airk?” she whispered.

His gaze rose back to meet hers. “You scare me. Did you know that?”

She shook her head slowly. “How?”

His mouth twitched. “A thousand different ways.” He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. “Showing up here. Sitting beside a dragon you don’t know. Speaking with others who could have lashed out at any second. Getting between me and Tovar. But do you know what the worst part is?”

She waited—not that he could see it with his eyes closed. But a hint of a smile feathered across his lips, so maybe he sensed it.

“The worst part is the way you do not fear me.”

“I could never—”

He moved suddenly, leaning forward, and captured her words with his lips against hers. Only now his mouth was familiar. Achingly so. As though everything right about the world settled through her at his touch.

With a whimper of sound at the back of her throat, Angelika scooted forward. At the same time, he scooped her up and spun to sit down with her across his lap. They didn’t so much as break contact, and her entire world narrowed to firm lips and heat and the taste of cherries and bourbon.

“This is not me agreeing to anything,” Airk said against her mouth.

And she smiled. “Okay.”

Hands at her shoulders, he pulled back to look at her, all serious and brooding. “I mean it. This is—”

“Scratching an itch?”

He frowned at that. “I do not itch. I incinerate.”

“Oh my,” she breathed. That might be the sexiest thing anyone had ever said to her.

That twitch of a smile again. “Does that mean you understand?”

Was it possible to be even more turned on? “Yes.”

“Good. Because I do not wish to stop.”

Then his mouth was everywhere she wanted it to be. His tongue begging hers to come out and play, even more confident now that he’d got the hang of things, nipping along her jaw, tugging at her ear, nuzzling down the sensitive side of her neck. She might come out bruised in the morning, he was holding her so tightly, and she damn well didn’t care, welcoming the unconscious sign of his need.

Besides, his mouth… Gods…

The heat of him left a scorching trail in its wake, as though lighting up every nerve ending to delicious, sparking life. He wasn’t even using fire on her. Just his skin against hers.

Already frantic with need, she drew slightly away to yank her top over her head, then remembered she was still in that gorgeous dress rather than her own clothes. She tugged at the tie at her waist only to have it knot up on her and made a sound of frustration in her throat.

“Did I injure you?” Her strong dragon shifter was suddenly all solicitous concern.

“No. I want this damn dress off. Your clothes, too.” She tugged at his shirt, and a button popped open, which had her perking up.

And then it happened.

Airk smiled. Full-on smiled, lips drawing back to reveal surprisingly white, straight teeth, given the dentistry he’d no doubt lacked. Even his eyes lit up with it.

The breath whooshed from her lungs so hard, she would have sworn someone punched her in the stomach.

Unsmiling, Airk was one of the most harshly fascinating men she’d ever seen. But smiling…

She reached out to trace the contours of his face. Thick eyebrows, slashing cheekbones, hollows over his cheeks to a cut jawline and up to a slashing mouth still tilted at the corners as he watched her, eyes glowing, allowing her to take this liberty.

“You’re so beautiful,” she whispered.

“I?” His lips tipped up more. Not quite the smile but close.

But the doubt in his voice was what sent her need careening through her. Almost as though compelled to show him, prove to him, how beautiful she found him. And that stoked the desire within her hotter and higher.

Airk watched her, his chest rising and falling, each breath harsher.

“If you incinerate,” she whispered, “I ache.”

That smile tilted and shifted into something dangerous, his gaze so intent she thought she might spontaneously combust right then and there.

With a low growl, Airk stood from the chair and whipped her dress over her head before she could squeak. Then froze, his gaze drifting over her body, his jaw working. His gaze turned her electric, the throbbing at the core of her needing release. Needing his touch.

“The gods formed every inch of you to be perfection,” he whispered.

A rare blush made its way across her skin, and his gaze lit with flame.

“Like an instrument to be played,” he said. “I want to discover what sounds you make.” He dropped to his knees. “Is this where I should touch?”

He trailed his finger softly over the throbbing bundle of nerves at the core of her femininity with surprising accuracy.

“Mm-hmm,” was all she could manage.

Then he placed his mouth directly over where he’d touched. Not quite the right spot.

But he must’ve been attuned to her reactions, because he lifted his gaze, then moved his mouth. Twice. Until she sucked in sharply.

He didn’t smile, but she swore his eyes lit with utter satisfaction. Through the flimsy satin material of her panties, he sucked, and all Angelika could do was grip his shoulders hard as her head dropped back, her eyes fluttering closed against the sensations obliterating her body.

Gods above, so this was what this felt like. No wonder people lost their common sense over this.

He stopped, and she mewled a protest. But he only stripped, then helped her out of her panties. The brush of his fingers spurred her on, and she frantically freed herself from her bra at the same time.

He grinned. “I want to touch you there next. But first…”

She squeaked in shock as he scooped her up so that her legs landed on his shoulders. In the same instant, he stood, and her perspective changed as she was lifted in the air. He spun and stepped into the wall, the rock at her back holding her up, surprisingly smooth and cool in contrast to the conflagration of heat threatening to consume her body.

Then his mouth was on her, and she lost herself in sensation, gave over control to the man whose touch became her everything. Hot and insistent, his tongue stabbed into her channel, only to be replaced by questing fingers that stroked and gentled and slid through her folds until he managed to slip one inside her, all as that sinful tongue trailed upward to circle the pounding nub of pure nerves.

Wet heat poured from her, slicking those fingers that grew more urgent, more confident, that plunged and owned and claimed. Fascinated, she watched him. Watched his mouth on her body, watched the satisfaction turn his eyes bluer as she rolled her hips, chasing the sensations pouring through her.

“Airk,” she begged.

In a move of incredible shifter speed, he stepped back so that she dropped, but he caught her, bringing them both to the ground so that she was straddling his kneeling form. In front of the fireplace with her back facing the flames, she was surrounded. Caught between death and life and the beast between her legs. His shaft pressed into her, pulsed against her.

“What you do to me. Heavens and hells,” he said. Almost an accusation, but she let that go as he gripped her hips, lifting her up and positioning himself at her entrance. “Is this right?” he asked.

Though from the way he held her with such confidence, she never would have guessed he needed to ask.

She nodded. “Slowly,” she said.

Not taking his gaze from hers for a second, he worked his body into hers a little at a time, watching her face and stopping when she needed. Never had she been so glad that Airk seemed to read her like a book.

His chest moved with each heavy inhale and exhale, and she knew the pace was killing him, but his patience bore out. Heat and pressure filled her in torturously slow increments. As though he was afraid to hurt her. Except the expression in his eyes was one she couldn’t interpret.

Possession—not unexpected from a dragon shifter. Desire, which only fed her own. But something else. Something that had her lips parting on a gasp. Almost as though he was seeing her, truly seeing her, for the first time.

He settled her fully onto his cock, every inch inside her, filling her, stretching her. She experimentally clenched her internal muscles around him and smiled as a grunt ripped from his throat. His heavy breaths matched hers.

“Do that again,” he whispered. Begged.

She smiled and did as he asked. “Does it feel good?”

“I think this must be what heaven feels like.” He guided his hands up over her hips, across her belly, to cup her jutting breasts.

He flicked a thumb over her nipple, and she whimpered, clenching around him involuntarily this time.

Airk tipped his head, studying her with a sly gleam in his eyes. “I think you like that. I like it, too.”

He did it again, and they both grunted as her inner walls contracted with the contact. “What if I…” He leaned forward and drew an already eagerly tight nipple into his mouth, then sucked, and together they groaned. Then groaned again as she couldn’t stop from rolling her hips.

“More?” he asked.

“Yes.” Gods, yes.

He sucked, shooting sparks from her nipples through her core to light up the juncture of her thighs. She rolled her hips, more this time, sliding up and down that pulsing, hot shaft, slowly at first as she adjusted and figured out the best ways to move. The ways that hit all those luscious nerves the right way.

They set a rhythm, sensation building with each slide of her body, each pulse of his shaft, electric and real. But gradually, their bodies turned frantic, sweat-slicked and building with pressure.

“Fuck,” Airk muttered, and suddenly she found herself flipped so that she was laying with her back on a rug made of some kind of soft animal fur, the fire to her left and her lover between her thighs.

He took her lips in a long, drugging kiss, then pulled back, gazing into her eyes. “Don’t look away,” he said. “I need to know you’re real.”

Her heart contracted around the words—lonely words, haunting words—and she nodded.

With an incredible gentleness that only pushed her more into that haze of sensual bliss, he took both her hands, lacing their fingers together and pressing them into the rug on either side of her head.

Then he moved, a glorious, controlled thrust.

Her lips parted around a gasp. At this angle, he was so deep inside her she didn’t know where she began and he ended. Damn, this man was a fast learner.

He thrust harder, his face tightening, skin over his cheekbones flaring red, flames in his eyes glowing white. Then thrust again. Still controlled.

“You won’t break me,” she whispered. “Let go.”

Something seemed to snap in him, and he went wild over her, pumping his hips hard. Their moans of pleasure joined and rose, filling the room as that pressure reached a breaking point, and together they tipped over into bliss. Airk never looked away, watching her as she tumbled over that precipice with a cry that seemed to drag him over with her, swelling inside her. He shouted as hot spurts poured into her body.

No need to worry about pregnancy, something they both had to will into existence.

As they came down from the high, he stayed inside her, still partially erect. He cradled her in his arms and traced the contours of her face with a finger, as she had with him earlier.

“You are beautiful when we do that,” he said.

Angelika gave him a sleepy grin. “Any trouble with your dragon?”

His low chuckle lit her up from the inside. “No. He is smugly content at the moment.”

“Then I guess we can call this experiment a success.”

Neither of them had experience, but they’d definitely figured things out quickly together. And he’d held his dragon inside, which was huge.

Airk dropped his head to her shoulder, and she couldn’t be sure, but she thought he might have placed a soft kiss there, which wasn’t an agreement. But she hoped…maybe this moved them a step closer. This wasn’t about mating for politics anymore. Maybe it never had been. Not really. This was simply wanting to be with him.