Drawn by Dragonblood

I stood on my veranda, arms useless at my sides and my shoulders sagging.
The anniversary of my greatest heartbreak had once more arrived, ripping through my chest with talons sharper than any dragon’s claws. I stared unseeing across the White Mountains where my cave-like home had sat unnoticed by humans for close to four centuries, my mind lost in past memories that intensified the ache my lover had left behind.
Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” filtered through the sliding doors I’d left open behind me, worsening the intensity of my loneliness.
I had first heard the song in September of 1939 by radio broadcast and promptly fell in love with the haunting, passionate piece—and the dragonblood beta who had sat beside me at the time.
We’d had over seventy years together, and still, he’d left as though the time we’d spent as partners held no meaning. No letter or verbal explanation of where he’d gone or why, but I understood his unspoken troubles, what had kept us from bonding as we’d both been desperate for fate to allow regardless of the fact we weren’t true mates.
I’d been born a royal alpha, intended to lead and protect. He was of a lesser family but a self-declared alpha all the same. He had never submitted himself fully to me in our bed and dungeon, but I’d felt sure if we had only located our third, a fertile female, we would have found fulfillment.
It took three dragonblood to create life, an accomplishment I would never be able to claim. I had let my three parents down—and every other Blood Born who’d perished over the years since my birth.
Releasing a sigh, I hung my head, my eyes as heavy as my heart.
Need.
My throat tightened at my inner dragon’s quiet whimper that echoed the isolation I felt in my soul.
After ten years of searching for my lover, I’d given up hope of his return and had given in to my beastly desires to seek out release elsewhere. I had stuck to females since I would never trust another male who got on his knees for me.
The last woman I had allowed myself to enjoy ended up bruised and exhausted because I’d lost control to my inner beast’s darker side. Even though I had left a large monetary gift to cover expenses while she healed from the cane she’d begged me to use, I’d yet to rid myself of the guilt for allowing my dragon to control my human’s better sense.
There would be no more rope or pain play to give pleasure, I had told my dragon. No more fragile humans, and definitely no giving into my animalistic desire to conquer and dominate.
Wrapping my inner beast in mental shackles had kept others safe since that affair, but his daily pleadings for release beyond my own hand wore my determination thin.
As far as I was aware, I was the last of my kind. The only ancient dragonblood with breath in their lungs. And I would die alone, never having scented or seen either of my mates that fate should have supplied for me to keep our kind from extinction.
My dragon snarled at my pessimism, but I’d given up hope after scouring the earth for proof otherwise.
“Enough,” I muttered, my tone not allowing him to argue further.
Same as every year, I would wake in the morning, my mind once more set on making the world a better place for humanity since they would outlive the last of the Blood Born.
I turned from the edge of my veranda, intent on the numbness of sleep, my bare feet shuffling along the worn stone patio.
A breeze caressed my cheek like a silken fingertip—and brought with it a scent of sweetness that stirred my blood. The coolness wrapped around my heated, naked body, raising the hairs on my nape and arms and causing my pulse to thrum.
Yessss.
Spinning, I inhaled deeply, sensing the one I had longed for and never expected to find.
Mate.
“Our female,” I agreed with my inner beast, elation making my emotions soar higher than my dragon’s wings had ever physically taken us.
A rumble sounded in my chest as I once more filled my lungs —my heart and mind—with who she was. All the subtle nuances of her floating on the breeze revealed to my mind exactly as my alpha father had promised would one day occur.
Longer golden hair framed her pale face. Her eyes shimmered between blue and hazel green. I couldn’t tell exactly which color and couldn’t wait to find out that truth once I pinpointed her location and claimed her.
Lush curves and…muscular?
Eyelids falling closed to better sharpen my focus, I fought to retain the image her scent had brought. Wide, child-bearing hips, yet her thighs and calf muscles spoke of hours in a gym, more like those of a human man.
She would be sturdy enough to endure my dragon’s darker desires.
A growl-like groan rose from the deepest recesses of my dragon, but I ignored him, grasping to retain more of what our mate’s scent suggested.
My same six-foot-two height?
No.
I frowned, my inner sight hindered by murky, contradicting shadows.
She was not even five and a half feet tall, perfect for me to take her mouth while thrusting deep into her wet heat and breeding her.
Need rushed through my body, awakening hunger I hadn’t felt in over a decade.
I often woke from dreams of my ex-lover who’d abandoned me—the intimate touches, the solidarity of two souls sharing themselves with each other in the most primal of ways, even if they would never be truly bonded.
Would I remember how to caress and stroke soft skin if fate gifted me a chance to know real love? Could I taste the musk between her thighs and open myself fully to a connection where no secrets hid? Or if she proved robust enough, might I allow my inner beast his own pleasure atop my human satisfaction?
Yessss.
Mine.
The pain of loving and losing wasn’t something I desired to experience again, but that didn’t keep my cock from swelling as my dragon pleaded with me with his usual simplistic words.
Seek.
Take.
I opened my eyes and looked in the direction of the wind that had caressed my face. One of my intended mates lay northeast toward the highest peak. Using my dragon-enhanced sight, I scanned every swell of mountain and valley from my vantage point on my cliff home’s veranda, my heart thrumming with growing excitement.
The idea that I wasn’t alone, the truth a female of my kind roamed the earth with me, flooded through my soul, weakening my restraint.
Shift and fly.
Find.
Claim.
My dragon’s insistence snapped through the shackles I’d mentally used to keep him contained. He threw me off the veranda, and I shifted mid-fall toward the rocks below.
The addictive burn of stretching muscle and bone pumped adrenaline through my system. A single flap of wings black as midnight caught the current along the cliff face, and we shot upward as one in a rush of wind, our pulse rushing and focus on finding what belonged to us.
The scales of our body reflected the sky around us, camouflaging our true form from human sight. If one stared closely enough, they might catch a bend of reality, of light around a creature who had secretly roamed the earth for generations without detection.
If only our ancestors had evolved their form of cloaking earlier, the knights of the medieval age wouldn’t have taken us to near extinction. Our alpha father might still be the leader of our kind—we might not be the only dragonblood alive.
We’re not the last of our kind.
My dragon rarely used full sentences as a means of communication, and my inner human grinned, relaxing as we ascended deeper into the wilderness.
Our gaze flitted from dip and valley to rock and cliff, the memory of our mate’s sweet scent teasing us as we rushed through the sky. Mouth open, our tongue dripped saliva in hopes of tasting her on the late summer air once more.
But she escaped us.
The sun set to the west, streaking pink and purple through the sky as we flew high above the White Mountains. We caught sight of countless hikers setting up their camps for the night but none appeared like the vision her scent had brought to us. Nor did we feel the actual physical draw toward the one fate intended for us as my mother had promised I would someday experience.
After darkness fully fell, we returned home, my dragon disheartened and grumbling.
Inky darkness coated the land like a heavy blanket, but I stood in human form at the edge of my veranda. Breathing deeply, I hoped to fill my lungs with the hints of my fated mate’s scent once more.
She escaped me still, the same way my ex-lover had done those years I’d searched for him before giving up.
But I wouldn’t lose hope with my female. Having tasted her on the breeze, being assured she walked the earth as I did, renewed my dreams from childhood that fate would one day gift me my mates. Exhaustion demanded I rest, but I would continue my search in the morning.
I crawled between my silk sheets, the glide of them over my nakedness reminding me of the softness of another body. Flesh and blood.
My throat tightened. I had been so long without companionship or a gentle touch.
She would be sweet. A kind-hearted soul I would treasure forever. I would lay the world at her feet, give in to her every whim, and she in turn would love me. Remain loyal and never leave my side. My female would only ever know my softer nature. She would never experience the darker desires my dragon often whispered in my brain. She would be my love, and I would be her protector.
Would she enjoy a sweeter coupling? Or would she prefer I thrust into her like my darkness desired—wanting to split her in half, my teeth sunk into her neck? Would she ask for more? Beg me to take her harder?
Need.
I groaned in agreement and wrapped my hand around my hard length with a steely grip. Copious amounts of pre-cum oozed from the crown, slickening my moving palm and fingers. Remembering the hazy images her addictive scent had brought to mind, I continued to stroke myself, my hips lifting to fuck my hand as I imagined her pouty lips parting on a cry of ecstasy. Even without our beta, I would strive to breed her, fill her womb with my seed regardless of the action’s futility.
Cum shot from through my aching shaft and coated my chest in thick, sticky ribbons. I groaned with every spurt, my muscles tensing until the fantasy of her sweet body milking my cock drained me dry.
More—need.
“Tomorrow, we will seek and claim,” I promised him in a near silent whisper.
My dragon purred his approval.

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