I try to lift my hips to take his knot. My mind is only full of memories of his stretching me in a way no one else can. Kalos tsks and tightens his grip on my hips, not allowing me to move to take more. He’s enjoying this too much.
Instead of ramming his knot home, he pushes and drags his stiff cock in and out of my body. Each press of his knot against my folds causes a full-body shiver.
I whimper with need. “Kalos, I’m losing my mind. Please, I need your knot. I don’t know why.”
Kalos shushes me again and releases one hip to wipe my cheek. I’m crying. There are tears on my face because of how deep I want this dragon inside me.
“What’s wrong with me?” I ask, fearful but needy still.
“It’s only instincts, sweet queen. Your body wants my knot because it will comfort you. I need you to take a deep breath though because taking my knot will be different now that you carry my young.”
I follow the order and take a breath, trying to calm my fears with the knowledge Kalos is giving me.
Kalos continues, “You’ll need to work for it. You’re so engorged that the fit may be uncomfortable. Do you still want it inside you?”
“Yes!” I don’t pause to think. I’m only running on pleasure and need now. There’s no limit to anything that my dragon wants to do to me that will stop me from taking his knot. He sinks the rest of his shaft inside me, the knot pressing against the wet mess of my folds.
“Push out against me,” he says.
I blow out a breath and push, my body flowering against the hard, swelling press of his knot. I scrunch my brow. Pushing seems counterintuitive to getting him inside me, but once I relax, my body gives more than it had before, his knot sliding part way in.
I moan loudly, squeezing around what I can of his knot before remembering to relax. Kalos curses, no longer the picture of cool control.
“Almost there, little queen. Again.” His order is determined, but soft, save for the clicking of his teeth together.
I push, bearing down on the swell of him until I grunt. I suck a breath in, my body relaxing and Kalos’s knot sliding home in one smooth move.
The pressure. I cry out, wanting to sob and moan in victory at the same time. Deep pleasure crashes inside me like angry waves against a cliff. The bright cut of discomfort a lightning strike before Kalos soothes the sensation with his hot mouth on my nipple.
The hard, sucking draw distracts me from the unforgiving stretch. Kalos groans against my skin, and the heat of his release adds to the other flood of sensations.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I chant in a whisper.
Kalos switches nipples and my thighs relax, closing around his torso.
The sensation of his knot inside me is clear. A large part of his body is lodged inside of mine and now that the worst of the discomfort has passed, the physicality of it makes itself known. I gasp out a breath, and Kalos drags his fangs against the tender skin of my breast.
“Better?” he rumbles, the front of my body warm from his.
I blink. “I don’t know. Everything is in a kind of a daze.”
“That will pass. It’s your body responding to all the feel-good hormones from the knot.”
Feel-good hormones and bodies. The thoughts come disjointed.
“Does knotting influence attachments? Physically?” I ask but already suspect the answer.
His jaw clenches, and there’s a beat before he finally answers. “Yes, in a similar way that sex does, but it packs a little more of a punch. I apologize, Rina. I didn’t think of that.”
I wave a hand before returning it to touching his back. The stroking motions soothing me as well as causing the dragon on top of me to shiver.
“We’re pretty connected anyway.” In body, in mind, and heart. If only on my end. I blink at my internal revelations. I wasn’t supposed to acquire feelings for Kalos, but I’m not in the practice of guarding my heart. With the way we interact, it was only a matter of time.
I close my eyes. Someday he’s going to break my heart. I thought I could avoid it, but I can’t. I’m not someone who can just stop feelings from happening.
But for this moment, with his knot buried inside of me, I’ll enjoy this.
For this moment, he’s mine.
24
KALOS
MY DESK SMELLS LIKE SEX. Sex and Katarina’s begging.
It’s distracting, but I make no move to remedy it. Pride fills my chest, and the dragon inside me preens every time the scent reminds us of last night.
I shouldn’t have done it. Katarina deserves a lover who can give her their heart. She’d told me she couldn’t separate sex from emotion and still I’d taken her. I couldn’t leave her in such need. My dragon wouldn’t abandon his mate… and we’re a greedy creature in the end.
The reminder of the mating comes with a slight sting. I’ve kept the burden of knowledge that my dragon has claimed Katarina to myself. It won’t make a difference in the end. My inability to bond will eventually break the understanding between us, and it would only cause more hope and eventual pain if I told her of the dragon’s claim.
It’s bad enough that the primal part of my being seeps out and says possessive things during intimacy, but that can be excused as bed play. It doesn’t change the truth.
I can’t keep her, and I’m more disappointed by that than I care to analyze.
I sigh and push away from my desk, needing a break. Ben is in the kitchen working on dinner. It’s Maggie’s night off, and we trade who manages dinner on these days. We’re no chefs, but each of us can make a few meals that are passable.
I’m halfway to the kitchen when my dragon hears Katarina. I can’t make out what she’s saying yet, but her tone is one of panic. I increase my pace and burst through the doors of the kitchen in the next moment.
Katarina and Stella are sitting at the table in front of the window, a mountain of books in front of them, while Ben is at the counter.
“What’s going on?” I demand.
Katarina’s eyes are wide with tears. “I can’t have runny eggs!”
Confusion makes my mind slow. “You can’t have eggs?”
“Runny eggs and deli meat.” She sniffs and holds up a book with a bright cover.
“Kat, I told you most of this stuff probably doesn’t apply to a magical pregnancy, much less one involving a dragon,” Stella says, casting an uneasy glance at me. We’d come to a truce of sorts after the revelation of her parentage, but she’d still seen my rage and that’s not something to be ignored.
“And you’re crying because you can’t have runny eggs?” I ask, trying to catch up and discover whether there’s anyone who needs to be torched to stop the tears tracking down Rina’s cheeks.
Out of the corner of my eye, Ben shakes his head. Trying to communicate that either I need to proceed with caution or that my misunderstanding of the situation is pitiful.
“I’m crying because there’s all these rules I’ve never heard of. Why didn’t I think to prepare before now? I’m going to be the worst mother in the history of mothers!” The last one ends on a wail, and my eyes widen.