Page 11 of The Dragon’s Captive

CHAPTER 5

Kate had lost her virginity to a dragon.

She could barely believe it, but her body ached with the memory, the sensation between her thighs an unrelenting reminder of how his hardness had conquered her soft sex. She felt… different. Her entire body was relaxed and full and satisfied. The dragon’s seed still coated her inner thighs and her mound. She had been filled with him over and over again and he had left his mark on her and inside her.

Now they lay together in a post-coital repose, saying nothing, simply breathing the same air and being close to one another.

Kate had to admit to herself that so far the fruits of her exploration through the portal had been very sweet. The dragon had not been entirely kind at first, he had dealt with her as an intruder, but that made sense on some level and she couldn’t precisely blame him. Now that they had coupled, he would no doubt see things from her point of view. If anyone was an invader, it was him. He had invaded her inner territory and forever transformed it.

She felt him sit up, brush her hair from her forehead and press a kiss there. It was a sweet gesture, one that made her smile. Then she felt the bed shift as he got out of it. She turned to look at him curiously.

“What are you doing?”

* * *

Vilka had hoped the human was asleep. It would have made what he had to do next much easier on both of them, but he could not exactly ignore her question. As he looked down at Kate, he felt a rush of emotion, a tenderness he had not experienced before. She was so beautiful, and every move she made spoke to him. It was more difficult than he had imagined it would be to be stern with her—and he knew she would not like the answer to her question.

He could lie to her, but Vilka did not like to lie. The truth was ultimately all he had, and he would not tell this human untruths simply to stop her from being angry.

“We are going to close the portal,” he said. “It cannot be allowed to remain open, our worlds leaking into one another. There is too much risk. Erias believes he has found a way to close it from our side.”

“No!” Kate begged. “That’s my only way back. Please, you don’t understand. I can’t stay here forever. I have a home. I have a life.”

“If what can be viewed from the portal is any indication, you do not have much of a home,” he said. “And as for a life, you seemed eager enough to possibly lose it entirely by entering our realm. I have told you, Kate, some things, once done, cannot be undone. Your arrival here in our world is one of them.”

“You can’t keep me prisoner forever,” she said, her face flushing with rebellion as she threw back the covers and sat up naked, her pink-tipped breasts drawing his gaze and moderating his ire. Even when she was being an utter brat, she was alluring.

“There you are very wrong,” he growled in response. “I can and will keep you prisoner as long as you make it necessary. You can study our world, Kate. I will grant you that. I will show you places in this realm which contain wonders beyond your imagination. But you will not return to your world. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you will have your freedom.”

Her face collapsed into a shifty pout that he knew did not bode well for either of them. Best that they closed the portal soon and shut down all discussion of the possibility. Of course, it was still technically possible to open one from their side, but doing that would require gathering resources she did not have—and that was a problem for the future. The problem of the moment was the portal she had opened already, and he would breathe much easier once the wound in their world was closed.

* * *

There had to be some way around this, some way to prevent him from having the portal closed. The very idea of being trapped in a world of dragons gave Kate the beginnings of a panic attack. It was one thing to want to explore new realms, something entirely different to be trapped within one forever.

“I think you’re overreacting,” she said. “I need to be able to return to my world. And it could be useful to you to have a working portal too. Our realms don’t have to be separate. We can work together. I could go to college during the day and return here every night.”

“Except for the fact that one day in your world is ten of ours. Your body would likely not adjust well to the constant shifting of time either.”

The time differences made things interesting. She had been in the dragon realm for almost a day, but it was doubtful that anybody would have noticed that she was missing yet—if they ever noticed at all. Her rent was paid up for another month… almost a year in the dragon realm… She sat and chewed her lower lip, trying to think her way out of the situation.

“I have to be able to go back,” she said, saying nothing new.

His golden eyes seared into her with a heat that made her quiver. “You’re not going back.”

“Why? It’s not fair!”

“You came here once. If I allow you to return again, you will be able to open new portals perhaps for humans other than yourself. Less innocent humans intent on war. The last time your kind opened a portal, we lost hundreds of our best—and humans lost thousands. I make this decision to save lives on both sides of the divide. You will stay here. You will be mine.”

“No…” Kate shook her head. “I can’t live here. You don’t understand. I have a career…”

“A career in creating chaos, I take it. That is what comes of these gates between our worlds.”

“This isn’t like the first one,” she argued desperately, repeating herself. “I opened a small, stable portal, not a gaping hole in the sky. I’ve improved on the technology hugely. It’s not dangerous the same way the last one was.”

Vilka gave her a look of pity. “Do you believe our worlds went to war because of the shape or size of the portal? Dragons and humans do not belong together. There can be no peace between our peoples. My father was a general in the first dragon war. He watched the betrayal and lies unfold before his eyes. We offered a retreat once. If war comes again, there will be no retreat. And we will not lose the battle. Do you understand why it is so essential that all portals between our worlds are destroyed?”

A cold shiver ran through Kate. “I understand,” she said. “But we already know how to make portals, so another one is inevitable.”