Dragon Cipher Read online

  “No, I am not. I never will be again.” Somehow, incongruously, she sent me a look of complete trust.

  “How can you say that?” I breathed. I surely did not deserve her forgiveness.

  “Because you are my mate, and I know your soul. I have, in fact, held it in my power. I have seen everything about you, and I still choose you as my mate.”

  “I chose you first,” I said, giving her a mock swat on her ass.

  She spared a wicked grin for me and lifted her face to kiss me again. The force of my response surprised both of us. My hands slid down her body, moving along her skin, lifting her skirt and pulling her to me with a need that could not be denied.

  Her hand strayed down to my hard cock where it pressed against her, swollen with the desire to plunge into her again and again. She stroked my flesh until I thought I could bear it no more, then she looked up at me again, breaking off our kisses.

  “What will we do?”

  “Do you mean this moment, or in the long term?” I could hardly speak with wanting her.

  “Both, but I meant right now first.”

  “I need you naked in my bed. That is all there is in the ‘right now.’ I will claim you as my mate and make you gasp with the ecstasy of it. Then we will order in the biggest dinner the club chef has ever prepared for me. We’ll lie in bed and eat without getting dressed, then we’ll make love again and again.”

  “How fast can we fly back?”

  I felt a hot purpose spread through me and I smirked at her. “Although I do want to feel you riding atop my body, we do not need to fly. Together, we now command magic that has not been seen since the Age of Chaos. I’ll show you. We can teleport, together, from here to my apartment in Miami.”

  “Through the dimensional barriers?” She sounded disbelieving. Then, as she thought about it, she joined me in a new confidence that we could do anything together. “To your bed, then. Our bed.”

  And she glowed with pleasure as she smiled with utter delight in her own powers.

  We held tightly to each other, and wrapped ourselves in the strength that had come from love.

  When we arrived, only a moment later, in the bed where we had been together only that morning, I wasted no time. I slid her dusty blue dress over her head and made her as naked as I was. We sank into the sheets, hot and sticky with our passion for each other. I reached down to feel the slippery, secret place between her legs, and found that she was more than ready for me.

  “Now, please,” she moaned.

  As I buried my cock within her wetness, she arched backwards with pleasure. Her pale throat gleamed at me. I could not take my eyes from that sight of the soft skin that she bared for me. Her words drove me into a frenzy yet at the same time led me to a moment of complete, sure, calm.

  “Claim me as your mate now, my love. I want it more than anything in any world.”

  It was dark outside now, so that only moonlight shone into the windows of the room. We had a long night ahead of us, in which we would join our bodies again and again. I felt the impossible pleasure of my hardness filling her tight womanliness and I thought I might lose my mind from my desire for her. There was no hurry. We had all the time in the world.

  She gasped in her own climax, thrashing on the sheets as I brought her to her orgasm. When I could wait no longer, I quivered within her, filling her with my hot seed.

  I claimed her.

  I sank my teeth into her neck as she came, filling her entire body with my essence. The dragon power that had resided in my body since I was born in another age now lived within her as well. We were of the same stock now, the same race of eternal dragonkind.

  With that mark on her neck, I left her soul altered as well. It was no more or less than she had altered me with the love and trust she freely shared.

  Laurel was my mate at last.

  Chapter 21: Laurel

  Something was different. I stretched my arms up in bed as I rolled over. It had been two days since Safyr marked me as his mate and in doing so, changed me into a dragon. Two full days that we had stayed sequestered in his apartment, not responding to the outside world. Neither of us took any phone calls, and he did not even attempt to make an appearance at the club.

  I needed him more than they did.

  We had spent our time well, making love in every room, in so many ways, but each time with the common thread of our insatiable passion for each other. In the darkest part of each night, we had left the apartment by way of the balcony. I had learned what it felt like to shift my form from that of a woman to a shining blue dragon. I had felt the warm night air rush beneath my wings as I flew against the backdrop of the stars and the ocean.

  We had met no one, spoken to nobody. That was fine with me. But now, as I woke on the third day, something struck me as having changed.

  Was it finally time to rejoin the world?

  As I shifted in the bed, I rubbed my feet against Safyr’s legs. He stirred. “I know you’re awake, but you don’t need to be. Are you telling me that I didn’t keep you up late enough last night?” His words were muffled as he rubbed his face into the sheets, chuckling at me.

  “I thought that I was the one keeping you up,” I returned.

  Safyr rolled over and reached his arm around me. He tucked me against him and kissed the top of my head. I snuggled in, relishing the way I fit perfectly into the shape of his body. His laughter rumbled. “You always keep me up, my love. But why are you so restless now?”

  I sat all the way up in bed. When I did, he followed suit, looking more seriously at me.

  “No, it’s nothing bad. No need for concern,” I reassured him. “It’s just that something seems different this morning. Maybe we should get out and do things.”

  Safyr smiled gently at me. “I would not have given up this time with you for anything in the world. It is one of the great joys of dragonkind to have these days alone with our mates after the claiming.” His hand reached out to stroke my cheek. “This has been the most precious time of my life.”

  “I feel the same way,” I said. “I’m not sure what woke me just now. It’s almost like I have a sense that we shouldn’t be just the two of us anymore.”

  Safyr’s blue eyes sparkled at me. “I know.”

  “So, you’re thinking we should go up to the club today? You probably have a lot of work you need to get to. I’m sure it’s been piling up for you there.”

  “No, I wouldn’t say that. I told Cobalt, you know, before we left for Elter, that I was going to quit our partnership.”

  I jolted fully awake, no longer lulled by the feeling of still being naked in his bed. Our bed. “What? Why didn’t you mention that to me?” I paused, thinking about it. “I mean, not that it’s a problem. I can see that you might feel like you’ve done your part there for now.”

  “It’s not exactly that. It’s more that I wanted to be sure that if we came through our trip to House Rubellus safely, that you would get to decide our next move.” Everything about his body language was relaxed and loving as he casually dropped this gift into my lap.

  “I would decide? You mean you would go wherever I want?” I couldn’t fathom what he was saying. I had been sure that his job and his apartment here on this little island off the coast of Florida were unspoken anchors that would dictate our life together.

  “Of course. You didn’t come to this world to stay. I knew that. Your dream has always been to return to Elter to save your people.”

  “But are they my people now? I’m a dragon. How could they understand that?” I had carefully avoided thinking about this problem until this moment. I had been so sure that my life’s purpose was to save the peasantry from the dragons. Now I was a member of that race I had hated for so long. To be honest with myself, the oppressors that I had feared.

  “They are still your people,” he assured me. “And I don’t know how this will affect your plans, but we can try to find out. There is only one way, and it is forward. You taught me that.” With this l
ast, rueful remark, he unfolded himself from the bed and stood.

  My eyes followed him as he moved around the room. I didn’t think I would ever stop being captivated by the sight of him.

  “Come, my love,” he said, holding his hand out to me as he came to my side of the bed. “Come and look.”

  We walked to the windows, where the bright daylight streamed in, full of freshness and hope. The ocean stretched before us, suggesting endless space and new scope for our lives.

  “You’d really leave here?” I asked.

  “No question about it,” he answered. “Kat and Cobalt will run the club. They want to. But when it comes to our next move, it is up to you. Back to Elter?”

  The ease with which he offered to return to our home world with me made me shiver with pleasure. We had come so far. Safyr had hated Elter for such a long time that I never thought he would go back. But now that he was ready, he simply moved forward.

  Forward.

  “No, I don’t want to go back yet,” I said, suddenly absolutely sure. “I want to travel to new places and learn whatever I can. I’ll find more magic out there that I can add to what I know. When I’m better prepared, then I’ll go back.” I heard my words and amended them. “We will. Together”

  “That sounds fine,” Safyr said. His arm wrapped around my waist as we stood at the window, envisioning our future. No matter where we traveled, we would have each other. I could feel the glow of pleasure that lit my skin at the thought of eternity in the company of this man.

  As I stood there, basking in the new sense that there would never be something we couldn’t handle, his arm tightened around my waist. He turned to kiss me.

  “Now do you know what woke you this morning?”

  “Was it this wondering about where we will go? What we will do next?” Ideas were taking hold in me, sparking my thoughts with a burgeoning love of adventure. No longer was I a person who wanted to hide my fears, even from myself. I was ready now, to face them.

  Safyr reached his other hand to rest it gently on my belly. “We can go wherever we want, the three of us. That was what you felt this morning.” His large hand was warm on my flesh. His touch was as delicate as it was powerful.

  I blinked.

  “You’re right.” My smile spread slowly across my face until I felt it light up my soul. “That is what woke me. It isn’t just the two of us anymore.”

  Within me, new life stirred. From the ancient past, we had found a small measure of forgiveness, meeting sorrow and pain with unending love.

  And from that, we had created new hope.

  I hope you enjoyed the third book in the Elterian Shifters series! If you had fun reading it, please consider taking the time to leave a review to help others find out about it.

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  xoxo,

  Kendal

  Also by Kendal Davis

  Elterian Shifters:

  Dragon Count

  Dragon Captain

  Dragon Cipher

  Wind Ridge Shifters:

  Stallion’s Gem

  Dragon’s Aria

  Wolf’s Treasure