Claws and Kisses

“Avel?”

The words slipped past my lips, a whisper of a sound. No human would have been able to hear it with the distance that seperated the Dragon Lord and I, but Avel’s head tilted a fraction to the side, making it clear that he heard me.

He did not say a thing. His unblinking, neutral gaze did not leave my face either. Some unspoken understanding laid between us, and I got the impression that him—and the other gathered dragons—were waiting for me to speak.

Bear’s words came to me. Don’t fuck this up. Was she giving me a chance to speak for the enslaved humans who had been taken from my old village? It was the very reason I had come. For Rhett and the others. The only connection I could not make was why Bear, a she-dragon I had never met before, was suddenly rooting for the humans.

Solve that puzzle later. All of the reptilian eyes on me were unnerving, but I tried banishing any thoughts of bolting from mind and taking a deep breath. I looked nowhere else but at Avel. At the Dragon Lord I had pissed off all those years ago. Raising my chin, I said, “I’ve come for the mortals.”

Avel watched.

I swallowed, and continued. “Some four months ago, one of your she-dragons attacked our village. She killed the elders and warriors who tried defending us, and then took the children and the able-bodied away.” One step towards him. One step closer. “She was wrong in doing so. The village was not late on any taxes or debts due to this Horde. You were given every penny, every resource that was demanded.”

Murmurs and whispers arose from the crowd. I could barely hear over the rushing blood pounding a staccato in my ears.

“The family who sheltered me was burned to ash. My brother was taken as the personal slave to the very female who made it so. I ask now that those stolen be returned to their rightful homes,” I finished, slowly sinking to my knees.

If there was one thing dragons loved, it was subservience. At this moment, with all their attention and mocking, I was not below getting on my knees. I would beg and plead until something gave. I would bargain and trade until there was nothing left to give. So long as the kids, the young boys and girls who were ripped from their homes and forced into slavery, so long as they made it home.

Some of the dragons were laughing openly, while others looked to Avel, scrutinizing his reaction. Not a word had passed his lips yet. A strange, unknown feeling clawed up my throat as I looked back at him, not sure if I was anxious or scared or happy or something entirely different.

Then, with a mere flick of his fingers, he dismissed me.

My heart sunk as two dragons grabbed me by the arm, forcing me onto my feet and shoving me toward a side door. The dragons barely offered me one last glance and a chuckle before they were back to sipping on their drinks and gossipping about something or another.

In a panic, I craned my neck back to glance one last time at Avel. He was already talking to someone else, not paying me the barest of attention.

The guards whisked me away—not through the entrance I had first come through, but into another corridor. Neither of them spoke as we entered the stairwell, the only light coming from low-hanging oil lanterns every few feet. They prodded me with the hilts of their sword until I began to silently descend upward, in a state of surreal shock.

What did you think was going to happen? I bitterly thought. That a dramatic speech and a bow were going to get your friends out? Yes, actually. I had been relying on Avel’s kindness and compassion to free them. I thought our childhood friendship would be enough to sway him. Humiliation and shame twisted my guts as I thought of the ridiculous plan I had carried out.

The stairs spiraled forever upward, and it seemed as if an hour had passed by the time we reached the top, even though only a few minutes had ticked past. A sturdy oak door stood there, one of only three thresholds at the top of the staircase.

One guard fished a ring of keys out of his pocket, and proceeded to file through a few of them before picking a brass one. He inserted it into the lock on the door and pushed it open. The other poked me again, making his silent order clear. Without putting up a fight, I trudged into the room. I looked back to see the guards closing the door without stepping in. The click of the lock sounded, followed by the pitter-patter of footsteps descending the stairs again.

I was alone.

The room I was in was obviously fashioned for a woman. There was a bed at the end of the chamber, sheltered by pale blue, gauzy drapes. The floor was covered in lush white carpeting that kept the cold at bay. A fireplace sat at the one wall, already lit and burning. An armoire fashioned of gold and wood stood proudly near the bed, half-open to reveal a quantity of dresses and gowns. Soft glowing lanterns helped to light the room up, casting a golden sheen over the chamber. There was even a window, showcasing the evening’s sunset. I looked around in wonder, not sure where I had been taken to.

No one came for quite awhile. I stood at attention, sure that the moment I sat down on either the chaise or the bed, a dragon would pop in and incinerate me for sitting on their furniture.

The moon was full and bright in the night sky by the time the door finally opened. I still had not moved from the middle of the room, rigid and tense for the coming events. There was no doubt that I would die for making demands of the Dragon Lord and trying to free the slaves they owned.

My heart leaped from my chest when I saw who it was. Not the guards from before, or even a dragon with a whip and a cruel smile. There, standing in the doorway, was Avel.

He was beautiful. Even more astonishingly gorgeous than the last time I saw him, when he was only a boy. He had grown into a man’s body; broad and bulky all over. There was an obvious power and strength to him. Just standing there, breathing, anyone could tell that he was not a man to be messed with.

His violet eyes were on me as they had been before. Intense. Deep. At this close of a proximity, it jump-kicked my body into fight or flight mode. I immediately began spewing nonsense. “Avel,” I breathed. “I mean—my lord, I should not have barged into the room like that. This woman appeared and told me to go in and I thought that she . . .”

The dragon’s head tilted, his lips barely twitching. The words quickly died on my tongue as he continued to scrutinize my features. After a moment, he shook his head and, for the first time since I had seen him, said, “Still talking at the speed of light then, huh?”

My brain stopped working for a moment. “What?”

Without replying, he strode toward me. I froze, not sure what to do as he grabbed me by the hips and hoisted me up into the air. I squealed in an embarrassingly high voice as he set me down on the bed, kneeling before me.

“Avel!” I screeched, absolutely startled by the change of events. “What are you—”

He lowered his head to my leg, grasping my ankle gently as he inhaled deeply. The tip of his nose brushed the tender flesh of my inner leg, working upward until he had reached my knee. The edge of my dress was hiked up in a completely inappropriate way, exposing my pale skin to him. He switched to the other leg, repeating the process.

I did not know what to do. I watched in astonishment as he lightly stroked my legs, probing the skin there. He shifted me on the blankets so that he could gain better access to my thighs, then waist. My cheeks colored a rose red, and the pit of my stomach melted into butter, causing a flaring warmth to spread at the core of my being.

“A-Avel, what are . . . what are you d-doing?” My voice was near shrieking, and I stumbled and tripped over my words like never before.

The dragon was sniffing me. He cocked his head further as he reached my breasts, his large hands encircling my waist as he rested his forehead on my sternum, breathing in my scent. In a low rumble, he replied, “Checking you for injuries.”

Some sense of mind reached me then and I gently, but firmly pushed him away. He moved after a moment, only stopping when he had taken in one last inhale. My chest was moving up and down rapidly, and my head was spinning in circles. Eight years I had not seen this man. Eight years we had been apart but he was acting like we had been together only yesterday.

“I could have told you I was fine,” I gritted out, suddenly angry that he had not spoken to me all throughout my dumb speech and now was treating me like I was some dim-witted doll.

He blinked and was suddenly standing a few feet away, cross-armed with his feet spread apart. “My bad,” he muttered, shaking his head a bit, his purple eyes on the fire. “I was just worried about you.”

I scowled. “Why would you be worried? It’s not like we have spoken in the past eight years.”

Avel’s eyes flickered to me, suddenly very neutral. “I did not expect you to be angry with me when we reunited.”

When. Not if. The conversation I had had with Elora and Romeo suddenly came to mind, and I stood from the bed with a glower. “I know that I never really left your presence, Avel. Rome and Elora told me of how you have been tracking me the entire time I was gone.”

He bared his teeth in a stern glare at me. “You are being childish, Wendy. When you ran off, I had half a mind to drag you back here and throw you into the tallest tower in the mountain, after throwing away the key. You should be grateful I let you leave in the first place.”

I clenched my jaw and worked to keep from attacking him. “You are acting like the same arrogant boy I left. You are not my keeper. You had no right to follow and check up on me. I am my own person. I can go where I want without a Dragon Lord wiping my ass the entire way.”

The tension between us was almost violent. It had been building ever since that first night when he had promised to take me back to his horde. Over the years, I had pushed my fury and my irritation down, but there was no way to stop it from exploding now. This fight was bound to happen sooner or later. I was just glad we were getting it out of the way now.

His gaze was murderous as he stepped toward me, his body tensed and poised, ready to take me down if need be. “Do you want to know,” he said in a deathly quiet voice, stepping closer. “How many times my horde had to intervene over the years to keep you from harm? Criminals, human traffickers, hostile dragons, gangs—every danger you could possibly imagine. I kept you from it.” He was close enough to lean in, his hot breath blowing across my cheek, leaving warm tingles in its wake. “You couldn’t survive in the real world without me, little tiger.”

Oof. That one got me.

So when I was writing this chapter, I was between the idea of making it sweet and gentle vs. angry and violent. I ended up with a mix of the two I think. The more I thought about it, the more I knew that Avel and Wendy would have some things to talk over. There was a lot of tension from the first time they departed so this was kind of the product of "A New Kind of Rage".

In other news, I TOTALLY MESSED UP. I am so deeply sorry for all the comments that got erased. I was trying to edit some of the chapters today and accidentally WITHDREW all the chapters. I was able to upload and submit them again, but all the comments were gone :( I am absolutely heartbroken about it because reading your comments makes my day and now all of them are gone. *sigh* So please forgive me and know it was totally, 100% accidental.

Next chapter coming soon - it'll be a continuation of there conversation in this chapter. Also, I have begun writing the official outline for this story and already have some fun ideas I'm playing around with!

Anyways, that's all for today folks. Hope you enjoyed.