Becoming the Heirless Dragon King's Fated Mate novel · Chapter 2 of 24
Chapter 2: The Silver Duke
The dragon in the cave shifts into Duke Aldric Frostmere, a silver mark burns on Linnea's wrist, and they give in to the bond all night until Hask's riders reach the cave mouth at dawn.
The silver light swelled, and the huge shape in the cave folded in on itself.
Scales became skin, wings became shoulders, and a man knelt in the sand where the dragon had been.
He was tall and bare, and the glow of the rune on her wrist lit every line of him.
His dark hair was silvering at the temples, and his eyes were the pale grey of river ice.
He stared at her wrist, and then at her face.
"Who struck you?" he said.
His voice was rough.
"A baron," Linnea said through chattering teeth. "He bought me this morning."
"Bought you."
"For four hundred crowns."
The air in the cave got hotter.
"I am Aldric Frostmere," he said. "This is my mountain, and no one buys a woman on it."
"Then the baron is on the wrong mountain."
Something almost like a laugh moved in his chest.
He crossed the sand on his knees and caught her frozen hands in his.
His palms burned.
Heat ran up her arms and into her chest, and her shaking eased.
The rune on her wrist flared white, and a matching mark bloomed on his own forearm.
Aldric swore under his breath.
"No," he said. "Not this. I came here to be alone."
"I can leave," Linnea said, and did not move.
"You can't. The snow would kill you before the first bend."
His thumb brushed the cut on her lip.
She felt it everywhere at once.
She was twenty years old, and she had never wanted anyone in her life.
Now she wanted this man, with her own mind and her own mouth.
The wanting was hers before the mark, and the mark only made it louder.
His scent was smoke and cold pine, and she wanted to put her mouth against his throat.
"Your dress is soaked," he said, in a voice gone low and ragged.
"Take it off me."
His hands stopped.
"You don't know what this is. I am thirty-two years old, and I have never lost my head."
"I'm twenty," Linnea said. "It's my head to lose."
"I know I was going to be touched tonight by a man who hit me," Linnea said. "I want to choose who touches me instead."
She pulled the torn bodice open herself.
Wet wool fell to her waist.
Aldric looked at her, and his eyes were no longer the color of ice.
They were molten silver, and the pupils had gone long.
"Say it again," he said.
"Touch me."
He lifted her onto his lap.
His mouth came down on hers, hot and hard, and she opened for him at once.
Her fingers dug into his shoulders.
He peeled the ruined dress and the soaked shift off her and laid her back on the warm sand.
The cold left her skin under his hands.
His mouth traveled down her throat to her breast, and he took her nipple between his teeth.
She arched and cried out, and the sound echoed in the stone.
"Louder," he said against her skin. "No one will hear but the mountain."
His hand slid between her thighs.
She was already slick, and he groaned when he found it.
"You want me," he said, almost angry.
"Yes."
He worked two fingers into her, slow and deep, and his thumb found her clit and circled it.
Linnea gripped his wrist and rode his hand without shame.
The silver marks on both their arms glowed brighter with every stroke.
"Aldric," she gasped. "Please."
"Not my fingers."
He pulled them out and licked them clean, watching her face.
Then he settled between her legs and pushed her knees wide.
His cock was thick and hard against her thigh, hot as a coal.
She reached down and wrapped her hand around it, and he shuddered all the way up his spine.
"Put it in me," she said.
He pressed the head against her and held there, trembling.
Then he sank into her in one long thrust.
She cried out at the stretch of it, and he stilled, panting, forehead against hers.
"Don't stop," Linnea said, and wrapped her legs around his hips.
He moved.
Every thrust drove deep and sure, and the heat inside her climbed.
He took her wrists and pinned them above her head, and she loved it.
His mouth was at her ear, telling her how tight she was, how she gripped him, how long he had been alone.
She came first, hard and loud, clenching around his cock with his name in her mouth.
He followed with a roar that shook dust from the ceiling.
The silver light poured out of both their marks and filled the cave, and then slowly dimmed.
He gathered her against his chest, and she slept almost before he finished covering them with his cloak.
She woke to a strange cold on her wrist and a stranger sound outside.
Horns.
Dozens of hooves were pounding up the mountain.
Aldric was already standing, dressed in black, his eyes fixed on the cave mouth.
"Your baron has found us," he said. "Stay behind me."
← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend