He lifted his head to look down at his mate. Her dark eyes met his gaze—human eyes.
For the first time in his existence, Falthyris’s heartfire felt like it had been snuffed out, leaving him cold and empty inside. His mind raced, desperate to make sense of what he was seeing, of what he was feeling, of what had happened.
She was a human. She had touched him.
He had mated with her.
Falthyris shoved away from her, withdrawing from her wet heat, and rose on unsteady legs. He snapped his wings against his back. Fire blazed through his muscles and into his bones, suffusing his being—reminding him of the immense, disorienting pain he’d endured when she’d first touched him and forced the mating bond upon him. He’d been too caught up in the Red Heat to realize what had happened, to realize what she was.
To realize what he’d become.
He looked down at his hands and did not recognize their long, dexterous fingers or the claws at their tips. Nor did he know the arms those hands were attached to, or the accompanying chest and abdomen, pelvis, legs, and feet, all oriented in that upright, human fashion.
This was not his shape. This was not his body. This was not him.
His heart pounded strongly enough to make his whole body pulse—including his still extruded cock, which glistened in the moonlight.
He clenched his fists as his confusion gave way to fury. This was not happening. It was simply one of the many dreams he was experiencing during his decades-long slumber, and he was still secure in his lair, curled atop a bed of sand in his natural state.
Succumbing to the red comet was shameful enough, but this? The mighty Falthyris had seen human cities crumble and civilizations collapse in his time; he could not be brought low by humans, much less a single female.
Humans were diminutive creatures. Tiny, weak, fragile. Little more than insects to the likes of Falthyris. Even at the height of their power centuries ago, when they’d possessed the weaponry and organization necessary to slay a dragon, humans had been nothing but a minor irritant to him, easily dealt with when necessary—and easily ignored the rest of the time.
And now I am one of them.
Fire swelled in his chest, making his scales glow orange. He lifted his gaze to the human. “What have you done to me?”
She had sat up, and her long, black mane hung around her shoulders, brushing that smooth, soft skin. Her dark eyes met his, and her lips curled into a smile. “I made you mine.”
Her reply would have been infuriating enough by itself. Dragons were the apex species on this world, the most powerful creatures, the most dominant. Falthyris could not be owned. His kind were the rulers, whether or not these insignificant mortals acknowledged it. But paired with what he felt at his core—that she was right, that he was hers—it sparked a rage in him that burned hotter than anything Dragonsbane could emit.
Falthyris filled his lungs with air and roared, ignoring how much weaker a sound this body produced. The female recoiled, her eyes widening in surprise. She threw her hands out to either side and frantically raked her fingers through the grass.
He stalked toward the human. Her eyes glimmered with uncertainty and fear, but she held his gaze as she brought her hands together, crunching something between them. Falthyris bared his teeth and reached for her.
The human lifted a hand, palm flat, and blew across it.
The dust on her palm sprayed into Falthyris’s face just as he inhaled. He flinched back, squeezing his eyes shut. His nose strung and burned. Shaking his head sharply, he forced himself forward again and released a deep growl.
That growl was cut short when he sneezed hard enough to double him over. The sting in his sinuses increased tenfold.
“Human,” he snarled as he straightened—but he overcompensated and staggered backward. His tail swung wildly to the side, further endangering his balance, but his arms were suddenly heavy when he threw them out to counteract his tail. Through willpower alone, he forced one of his feet forward. It came down hard, as though it weighed as much as a mountain. His head, in contrast, felt as light as a cloud.
He forced his eyes onto the human as he stumbled and fell to one knee. “What…have you…”
She leaned forward and cautiously crawled closer, keeping just out of his reach. “You will only sleep. I will watch over you.”
Falthyris released a huff, reaching inwardly for his heartfire, for his fury. He would not succumb to this human twice. But his fire didn’t come. Drawing upon all his remaining strength, he lunged toward her.
He landed face first on the ground, right where the grass and sand mingled. Fortunately, the void swallowed him, snuffing out his awareness before he could be crushed by his own shame.
Elliya’s heart pounded as she stared at the male sleeping on the ground in front of her. “I…did it.”
She’d claimed and mated a dragon.
If not for the tenderness between her legs and his still-wet seed on her thighs, she would have thought this a dream.
When he’d first thrust into her, it had hurt, but she’d expected that, had braced herself for it. But she hadn’t anticipated the pleasure that had come during their mating.
Or that he’d attack her when it was done.
She frowned as she ran her eyes over his body. After he’d gifted her his seed, he’d curled around her almost reverently, holding her close. Though that had been surprising, she’d drawn comfort from it, and had relished the feel of his heavy weight atop her, his heat baking into her, and his cock filling her. It had felt so right.
All that had fled in an instant when he’d looked at her with such…fury.
She didn’t understand. They were bonded, mated, and she could feel her connection with this male like it were a physical thing in her chest. All the old stories about dragons spoke of such bonds, of the dragons being fiercely protective of their females—of their unwavering devotion.
So why had he been about to attack her?
After wiping her hands on the damp grass to clean away any lingering sleeper dust, Elliya crawled closer to the dragon and hesitantly ran her fingertips over the arch of his outstretched wing. When he didn’t react, she moved closer still to touch the leathery flesh that spanned the gaps between the relatively thin, fingerlike parts sweeping down from that arch. While the rest of his body was hard, scaled, and just a little rough, his wing was soft and supple, like a finely cured hide.
She carefully lifted his wing and folded it against his back. It moved smoothly and easily, belying the immense strength she was sure it held.
Her frown deepened when she noticed his face was pressed into the grass. Slipping her hands beneath him, she lifted, meaning to roll him over. He didn’t budge on her first attempt. How could one person be so heavy?
She shifted her legs to provide herself a firmer base, gritted her teeth, and tried again, grunting with the exertion. His body remained lax in his slumber, one arm dangling as she finally rolled him onto his side.
Elliya had only seen a few males in her lifetime, one of whom was a but a boy and another only a baby. This one was unlike any of them, and it wasn’t merely the scales, claws, wings, horns, and tail that set him apart. He was bigger than anyone she’d ever seen, built large and strong, with broad, powerful shoulders and muscles that were well defined despite the scales covering his body. He was nothing like human males. He was…more.