A Dragon's Mark Read online

  He lifted his head and he muttered. “You want me unleashed and uncontrolled, then you have it. I feel, Caye, I feel more than you can possibly imagine.”

  “Show me then,” she demanded. If she couldn’t have his love, this part of him would be hers and hers alone. “Don’t stop touching me.”

  “I won’t, the gods couldn’t make me,” he muttered. “You are so beautiful…”

  She stopped his words with a kiss. “No more words, not right now.”

  She felt the heat of his hands on the smooth skin of her neck as he pulled her into his kiss. Their lips met in a fierce intensity that wiped everything but Aki from her thoughts. If his quarry were watching them preparing to attack right now, they’d be caught unaware. Caye wanted him so much she could feel herself getting wet. He reached on the side of his seat and the almost silent sound of the seat automatically reclining was heard. Then she was sprawled across his chest and straddling his thighs.

  She grabbed his ponytail at the mane of his neck before kissing him ravenously. Her eyes drifted closed when he took over the kiss and Aki fanned the flames of desire. He stripped her bra off and used his hands to slowly memorize every inch of her naked skin. Caye moaned and her body shook as she ground herself against the obvious hardness of his arousal. He gave her full breasts his undivided attention once more. A gasp of pleasure escaped her as he plucked the sensitive tips of her nipples. Aki moaned when she reached between them and stroked his cock through the material of his pants.

  With a deft movement he had the passenger seat reclined as well and sent it all the way back, leaving room for his legs. He had Caye on her back against the soft leather. She laughed softly as his breath tickled the soft skin of her stomach and he worked her pants down her legs. She whimpered when she felt his breath against the mound of her pussy. But he didn’t give her the pleasure she sought. Instead he moved up and sucked her nipples into his mouth and she arched, offering him more.

  “You’re going to make me crazy,” she gasped.

  “Then you know exactly how I feel,” Aki growled.

  He pushed her legs back until one was over the console and her snatch was exposed to him. His tongue tasted and penetrated her and she moaned in response. He slipped his fingers inside her and used them in tandem with his lips and tongue until she was on the verge of screaming her release. Caye covered her mouth with her hand to hold back the cries of pleasure as the crested in her orgasm. Between her legs Aki was making carnal guttural sounds of satisfaction as he lapped at her juices.

  “Oh God, I want you inside me,” she begged.

  He sat up and took his original position in the driver’s seat. He pulled her on top of him and buried his hands in her hair. Their kiss was wild and untamed and she could taste herself on his tongue. It was the edge of desperation and Caye couldn’t wait any longer to feel him. She took his hard length in her hands and slowly took him inch by inch until he was buried deeply inside her. She moaned as his thick cock filled her and she began the sensual mating dance. She braced her hand on the roof of the car enabling herself to ride his cock in a hard grinding motion.

  “Harder, fuck me harder,” Aki ordered.

  She gladly obliged, with no teasing or sensual undulating. Caye used her thighs like a jockey on a horse and gave him all of herself. She could feel her pussy, wet, warm, and wrapped around him, with each stroke causing sensual friction. With each stroke his cock throbbed inside her and her thighs became sticky with her own essence. She rocked against him, torturing herself, making him ache for more and reveling in his plea to be given respite from the sexual storm they were creating.

  Aki suddenly took control, grabbing her hips and taking her with unrestrained abandon. He pushed into her velvet sex, pounding into her deeply with every thrust. She could hear the tiny sounds of pleasure that came from her lips merging with the harsh guttural sounds that escaped him.

  She gasped out in pleasure. Her fingers gripped his ponytail as they traveled to dizzying heights. “I’m going to come, yes, yes now!”

  “Fall with me, I am with you,” Aki said between gritted teeth.

  Didn’t he know she’d already fallen completely and utterly in every possible way? Caye felt her body reaching for new heights, and for an instant it seemed like everything stilled. Her soft, low cry of release and the shudders of her body heralded her orgasm. He gripped her hips tight and his body was taut above her as he spilled himself inside her with a low guttural moan. She lay against his chest and sighed as he caressed her skin and ran a finger down her spine. At least I have this. The thought didn’t leave her with a happy feeling. Her body still buzzed from passion, yet she craved his heart, for him to say what she needed to hear. The aftermath of their lovemaking in the car left her pliant but she managed to move over to the passenger seat of the SUV. She lay back in the reclined position and stared up at the roof of the car silently. Aki chuckled and then gave a soft laugh, causing her to look over at him next to her in the reclined driver seat.

  “What’s so funny?” Caye asked.

  “If your father could see us now, he’d probably shoot me with that shotgun of his for taking advantage of his daughter,” Aki replied.

  “If Dale could see us, he’d be whooping and asking for details,” Caye said with a smile.

  “Give me time Caye to get this all right and fit all the pieces together in my head.” His tone was serious. “I will never make you unhappy as my mate. I’ve changed to who I am for so long and for reasons long past. I have to work this out the right way so I’m the best mate to you I can possibly be.”

  “It will have to be enough for now,” Caye sighed. “I don’t want to live without you, but I can’t live like this forever. Sex can’t erase that I feel as if I’m in competition with a ghost.”

  “I understand,” he said. Suddenly his body tensed and he whispered, “Don’t move, there’s someone at the hotel. I just heard a car door.”

  “I didn’t hear anything,” she whispered back. “Damn it, I need a new shirt.”

  “I have some T-shirts in the back,” he answered. “When they go inside we’ll get you one.”

  She nodded and lay as still as he until he gave her a subtle nod to let her know it was okay to move. Caye pressed the button to her seat and it silently slid back into position and Aki did the same.

  “I need you to stay here, I have to get closer and see what’s going on in there,” Aki said. “If I’m not back in fifteen minutes, drive back to my home, go into the office, and call Hawke. His number is programmed into the phone.”

  “I thought this was just reconnaissance?” Caye asked.

  He smiled and kissed her hard. “I won’t be seen, trust me.”

  “Jesus Aki, be careful,” she said. “Promise me.”

  “You have my word.” Aki winked. “See you in fifteen.”

  She watched him leave the car and soon he was part of the darkness. She locked the car doors and looked out hoping to catch a glimpse of him. Maybe she should have been paying more attention to her surroundings instead of just watching the outline of the darkened stone hotel. Caye wasn’t even able to scream when a hand punched through the car window, shattering the glass. It closed around her throat and she heard the lock of the door release and she was dragged out the car. Caye struggled and kicked as she clawed at the fingers at her throat cutting of her airway. Aki! His named flashed through her mind as darkness engulfed her. Had they caught him, was he injured or dead? Her last thoughts weren’t about her welfare before she lost consciousness, but the man she loved.

  Chapter Seven

  Aki slipped into the hotel through a broken window on the fourth floor. The stale smell of mold, old furniture, and abandonment filled his nose. He could hear muffled voices as he went down the stairs, carefully taking steps on the rotting carpet so the wood beneath wouldn’t creak. He crouched low and watched what was going on down in the foyer of the hotel. Candles were lit and an altar to the Shen was built. It was obvious they were car
etakers of Paladin who had formed some kind of cult sect to the Shen. Aki felt his anger burn, they had aided the Shen in taking females from the home world of Paladin. Larissa. The thought of her spurred him into action. Aki drew his sword and left from the top banister of the first floor into the middle of the foyer. He kicked the altar over and faced the traitors of Paladin.

  “How dare you enter on our sacred rites?” one of the caretakers snarled.

  “It looks like an abandoned hotel to me, caretaker. Explain why I shouldn’t take your heads?” Aki snarled.

  “Why, because you’re the warrior dragons of Paladin and we are your lowly servants?” the caretaker sneered.

  “You are given the same choices as I, you are treated with respect and revered among the people, you want more?” Aki asked. “Do you want me be among the gods who gave us our world?”

  The caretaker laughed. “We are already gods. The Shen has promised us the rule of dragons and men. You may kill us now but there are others, many others who are with us. The time of the warrior dragon is over.”

  “I think not,” Aki said coldly.

  “Do you think that all the Shen are these impure beasts?” The caretaker spread his hands wide. “We are some of the creations of the Shen, borne of Paladin women. We’re raised to see the truth of how Paladin has taken what is ours and our people are left to suffer in the badlands.”

  “You take the side of your Shen rapist fathers but not of the women they defiled and who bore you into the world, have you been brainwashed to this fact?” Aki asked, amazed. “What about your mothers, do they deserve no respect, are the women of Paladin all to be treated in this fashion?”

  The caretaker shrugged casually if they were talking about trash. “The strong survive, girls born are fed to the Shen king. I’m sure that in the end we will keep some half-Shen women for breeding. It may be useful to have some survive the birthing process.”

  They attacked and he defended himself easily. They were training, because Aki could never recall the caretakers being anything but peaceful.

  But now they attacked with a savagery that showed the hatred they held. But still none of the caretakers there could match in skill to Aki. There were eight of them and he took them all on and killed seven with ease. He left the obvious leader to the last and only injured him enough to incapacitate him. They needed more information. Aki brought his knee down on the man’s neck and he reached up to stab Aki with a small dagger. He caught the caretaker’s arm easily and saw an emblem tattooed in black on his wrist.

  “Tell me, who else is involved, how many are you?” Aki snarled.

  “We are more than you can ever imagine, the war comes to your door,” the caretaker gasped. “We knew you were coming, even now.”

  Caye! he thought frantically as the words from the caretaker sank in. He took the head of the traitor off with one clean swipe of the sword. Aki didn’t even bother to hide his presence anymore. He crashed through the doors at the front of the hotel and ran toward where they were parked. He sank to his knees at what he saw, his body going numb with shock. The car window was smashed and the door open with no Caye in sight. They’d taken her, his woman, his mate and his love. He never told her that he loved her even though his heart knew that without a doubt. They’d made love in that very same car and he’d asked for time. There was none now, no time at all. The cell phone rang in his pocket and he pulled it out and pressed it numbly.

  “There’s nothing here, its like they deserted it,” Bradley said. “We’ve been sitting here for awhile now with no movement, how about your end?”

  “They took her, they took my Caye,” he said into the phone and as his hand fell in his lap the cell dropped to the ground.

  He heard Bradley screaming into the phone asking for his daughter, and still he sat staring at the car. It was happening again, his heart was being torn apart once more all because of love. He didn’t know how long he sat there looking at the car and replaying their last conversation in his mind. Jeff and Dale got him on his feet and were firing off questions.

  Bradley was enraged and punched Aki in the face in a fit of anger. “You were supposed to protect her, goddamn you!”

  “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” he lifted tortured eyes to Bradley’s grief stricken face.

  “It’s not helping her now, we’ve got to figure out where they took her,” Jeff said grimly. “Aki, we’re going back to your house and we’re getting your people here, now. Then we’re getting Caye back, do you hear me, we’re getting her back.”

  “My Caye Bear, my baby girl,” Bradley whispered brokenly. “Lost her mother now I’m going to lose her too.”

  “She’s not gone,” Dale said firmly and kept repeating it to both Bradley and Aki.

  He wished they would let the older man pound him into the ground. He’d welcome that pain gladly instead of what was racing through him now. Jeff cut the time down back to the island as he drove like a bat out of hell. In the end it was Jeff who made the call to relate that the dragons help was needed in Seattle.

  “Your people are on their way, they said they will jump every portal to get here as soon as possible,” Jeff said as he hung up. Aki said nothing and Jeff grabbed his face. “This is no time to go comatose on me, Aki. You get right in your head and get my friend back or by God I’ll kill you myself.”

  Aki nodded. “If she’s gone my life is worth nothing anyway.”

  “I’m getting maps and all kinds of shit for the area. Pull yourself together and come to the kitchen. You fucking act like she’s alive so Bradley doesn’t break,” Jeff said. Aki felt him squeeze his shoulder.

  Aki nodded and when Jeff left a loud moan escaped him. The walls he thought were so strong were crumbling. His hand turned into his dragon’s claw of its own volition and he took a chuck out of the wooden desk in the process. He gave in to the rage for a moment and sent the furniture across the room, watching the desk splinter with the force of impact. He destroyed the office, not caring if anyone heard until the cold rage that he thought he’d got rid of long ago settled in. He walked out of the room and headed to the kitchen. Bradley, Jeff, and Dale looked at the door as it came off its hinges when he entered the room. He dropped the barrier to the ground carelessly. He could see on their faces that they wondered what exactly was coming through the door after the sounds of destructions from the office.

  “Are you okay?” Dale asked hesitantly.

  “I’ll be fine,” Aki said. He could hear the deadly tone in his own voice and that scared even him, knowing what he could do.

  “What are we going to do?” Bradley directed the question to him.

  Aki met his gaze. “We’re going to find her and I’m going to kill them all.”

  He meant those words more than they would ever know. They would need his friends because if Caye was dead it would take them to stop him. He would become a machine of wrath and vengeance. He would leave his mark on this world and Paladin, one that would not be easily forgotten.

  * * * *

  Aki watched his fell Paladin warriors come in from the sky that was now turning from night to day. While he paced, Jeff and Dale sat outside on the patio with him. They’d finally gotten Bradley to go bed with the excuse that he would need rest to go find Caye. But honestly Aki watched her father’s face go from lively and older to gaunt and haggard. It struck home that he was not the only one hurting but they all were by not knowing where she was. Throughout the night they worked on an area where she could be held.

  They assessed that since the Shen knew they were coming it had to be they were spotted that first night and from there the area was patrolled. So they worked from that fact that between the time he was gone and if she was taken right away they couldn’t get too far away. He considered that and the way the Shen tended to nest. Even with them being the half-breeds that Maion spoke about, he still had been found in a nest. Aki hoped that worked to their advantage and they could find the nest. They went back through every location Caye had found
with Jeff and Dale when they went out on their own. They came up with a few possibilities and hours had passed. Now he wanted to hunt, he wanted to kill. He’d thrown robes over the lounge chairs when the dragons had flown in. As they shifted he noticed Jeff and Dale’s shock at how big each and every one of them were. It would have been funny if Caye were there to call them on their blatant assessment of the dragon’s bodies. Along with Hawke was Orin who would have come because of the traitors among the caretakers. Gearar, Kalv, and Bior were there as well and all their faces were grim.

  “How are you?” Orin asked. They clasped hands in greeting as they always did.

  “I’m ready to go, we’ve got a few places to look over,” Aki said. “These are Caye’s friends Jeff and Dale, her father is resting. We can wake him and get moving.”

  “We can’t take them all into this, the risk is high enough…” Hawke began.

  “The hell you’re not!” Jeff stood and his hands were clenched at his sides.

  “Yeah, what he said!” Dale added furiously.

  Aki raised a hand up to them to silence any more words to come. “These are her family and her father is upstairs. If you try to stop them they will go without us anyway, it’s best to let them come.”

  “I could stop them,” Bior said seriously, eyeing them.

  “Yeah, come on and try,” Jeff growled. In response Bior grinned like it was a joke. “Do you think this is funny, our friend is probably being hurt…”

  Aki let out a roar as the thought of her being hurt hit home. Orin and Kalv grabbed him before he could shift and take off on his own.

  “You two, I’d cease to mention her being injured in front of her mate, unless you want him to turn everything around here to ash,” Hawke ordered and grabbed Aki’s face. “Listen to me, if she was hurt you’d feel it, if she was gone you would feel it.”