Page 6 of The Dragon’s Captive

“Whatever it is, lay it down.”

When she still could not comply with his order, he grasped the umbrella and used it to pull her close, his large, strong hands taking hold of her and turning her about so she was facing away from him. A hard slap burst across her bottom, hard enough to make her both drop the umbrella and shriek in pain.

“Better,” he said, releasing her. “Obedience will save you pain, human. Remember that.”

Kate stared at him in total shock. She had never, in all her life, received any kind of physical correction. Now her face was burning almost as much as her bottom from sheer embarrassment.

“Why have you invaded our lands?”

“I… I haven’t invaded,” she stammered. “I just came to look.”

“You came to… look.” His heavy tone and the look in his golden eyes told her he did not believe a word she was saying. “This portal, who made it?”

“I did.”

“You did.” He repeated her words in that same flat yet incredulous tone. “I see.”

He reached out and took hold of her again, drawing her close so she was pressed up against the hard lines of his naked, handsome body. “You are lying to me,” he snarled down at her. “And you will be punished severely for it.”

“I’m not lying!” she gasped as she began to tremble from head to toe. “I’m really, really not lying. I promise you.”

“Your promises mean little,” he growled. “Where are the others?”

“Others? There are no others. It’s just me.”

“You mean to tell me humans have opened a second portal and sent through a single scared female to represent their species?”

“No,” she said through chattering teeth. “I made that portal. It was me. Nobody else knows about it.”

“You are lying,” he declared flatly. “But you will not lie for long.”

He stepped back and took his dragon form, man becoming winged beast in the blink of an eye. Fear and fascination warred as Kate tried to fathom how such a thing could be possible, but she did not have long to consider it because the dragon was reaching for her.

She screamed as huge claws wrapped around her and then great wings lifted her skyward. She was carried high into the air and given a view of the terrain that was interrupted when she clenched her eyes shut, her hands clinging to the dragon’s claws in fear that he might drop her. She had never liked to fly, not in commercial airliners, and certainly not dangling precariously between a furious creature’s claws.

As they continued to rise and Kate risked opening her eyes, it became apparent that nothing was as it had seemed. The sweet field in which she had been exploring was about as natural to the world as a golf course. She must have landed in the equivalent of a peninsula pasture or something, for though it was fairly vast, it was encircled by an incredibly tall wall snaking over the rolling green hills from sea to sea. Beyond the wall there was a much wilder landscape full of forests and potentially much more interesting plants and animals.

The dragon holding her wheeled about and she let out a cry of surprise as a large black, gleaming fortress came into view, turrets and parapets and towers facing toward the tall mountain in the distance. Whatever the castle was made of, it shone in the sun, reflecting bright light from its dark walls that traversed a great portion of the plane, effectively cutting off the peninsula and mountain that stood surrounded by a brilliant azure sea.

The dragon swept down behind a large portcullis and deposited Kate on the stone floor. She stumbled to her feet and swung around to face her captor. He had become human again and was coming toward her, his expression full of determination and perhaps, unless she was imagining it, desire.

Heat flashed over her. She could not think. She could not speak. The muscular man with the thick rod of flesh between his thighs and the dominance to command her very essence drew within an inch of her… and Kate fell into a dead faint.

* * *

“Is she alright?” Erias took human form a few feet above the ground, dropped the last little bit of distance, and landed in a crouched position. “What happened?”

“She fainted. If this is the harbinger of a human invasion, I do not think we have much to be concerned about,” Vilka noted as he scooped the human into his arms. Up close, she was quite beautiful. She had rounded, almost angelic features, soft cheeks, and a snub nose. Her breathing was even and deep, so she was not in any medical danger. Fear had finally caught up with her. He was not surprised. The shock of being taken by a dragon was known to kill small prey creatures. This one was stronger than that, he could tell, but every animal had its limits.

“I have her bag,” Erias said, opening it to show Vilka. “It doesn’t have any weapons that I can see. It has a lot of metal threads, what might be food, and a book…” He pulled the book from its covering and flicked through the pages. “These are technical designs of some kind. If they are hers, she may not have been lying about making the portal. These are very advanced…” His eyes scanned the pages, locked to their contents with fascination.

“We will get to the root of her presence soon enough,” Vilka said, likewise entranced. The designs did not interest him in that moment, but he was utterly unable to take his eyes off the human’s insensate features. “For now, she needs rest and quiet.”

“Perhaps you should call your mother,” Erias said. “She could help with this human, perhaps. She has a unique insight as to these creatures.”

Vilka bristled visibly. “I do not need my mother to handle one human,” he growled. “Besides, I do not want news of this leaving the fortress. It will only panic the elders and bring a storm of them to our doors.”

“And you and I will likely be sent off to yet another remote post,” Erias noted.