A Bride for the Water God (Divine Dragons 1)
Chapter 13

Claws longer than my body curled around me, engulfing me in warm, wet darkness. Another scream lurched up my throat as a dragon paw snatched me off the deck and lifted me into the air. The whooshing wind covered the sounds of my fear.

It knocked a grunt from my chest when the Water God unceremoniously plopped me onto the shore. I rolled in the damp sand before landing flat on my back. The world continued spinning dizzily in a circle of stars and wispy gray clouds in the dome of the sky.

When a colossal sapphire blue dragon head appeared in my vision, I clambered onto my elbows. My jaw dropped open seeing the Water God in all his glory rising over me and obscuring the moon at his back. His wings were enormous as they spread out with rivers of sea water dripping off the fin-like skin. His twisted horns were longer in his current form, and his reptilian eyes were petrifying.

He was gigantic. So tall that his horns and wings reached the clouds, and the lower half of his body was still in the sea. He braced his upper arms on the sandy shore with his massive claws too close to my legs.

Calder’s head descended from the sky, spearing toward me. His teeth were longer than swords, but just as sharp. Smoke rose from behind his teeth, and a rumbling growl shook the beach beneath my behind. That mouth was big enough to swallow me whole.

“I’m sorry!” I shouted, scooting higher in the sand. I felt cool grains spreading between my fingers and catching under my nails.

Waves smacked the sand as the dragon followed me. His maw split open again and his split blue tongue flicked out like a snake scenting the air.

Calder was more primal in this form, but did he understand me?

“I’m sorry!” I repeated, throwing both my hands up. As if that would be enough to stop him. “I shouldn’t have disobeyed you! I’ve learned my lesson. I understand now, just please… Please don’t hurt me.”

The dragon paused, closing his mouth and rearing his head back. A humming sound echoed through him as he considered me. Nothing more than a bite-sized snack between his dragon hands.

“I would never hurt you.” His rumbling, godly voice thundered over the island. It made my skin pulse and my blood surge under my skin.

I rose onto my knees then, viscerally shaking in the dragon’s shadow. “Calder, I’m sorry. I just wanted to see my family, and I thought I could make it—”

He snapped his jaws inches from my body—so close I felt the heat from his mouth. I yelped and crumpled into the sand again.

“Disobedient little rabbit,” he snarled, voice rolling like a storm cloud over my skin.

“I know. I know. Please forgive me. Don’t eat me!” I begged. The first tears slipped from my eyes, and I sucked in frightened gasps.

“Eat you?” A thread of amusement entered his tone. When I tipped my head back, he was staring down at me with his long head cocked to the side. A growling purr rolled up his long neck as he considered something. “Hmm. Perhaps I will.” He snapped his jaws in front of my face, leaving me cowering against a wall of glistening teeth. “After all, you look good enough to eat.”

Oh, no.

I don’t know how I knew, but I could tell that Calder was smirking.

Oh… oh, no.

A swirling surge of heat dipped through my stomach. My eyes went round, and my heart thumped at a devastating pace in my chest. Goosebumps flared over my limbs as Calder’s hot breath brushed over my body.

He smelled like the ocean after a storm with a hint of smoke. The perfect mix of darkness, the sea, and fire. That warmth and aroma coming off him lulled me into a false sense of security in his presence.

It could have been the soulmate bond between us soothing me when I was facing down the incoming consequences of my actions. I wasn’t as afraid as a human should have been in my situation.

I knew I was mad—positively deranged and depraved—because that threatening promise aroused me.

“Calder, I promise I’ll never do it again!” I rolled onto my knees with my hands clasped together. “I’ll… I’ll be a good girl, a good wife. I’ll listen to your warnings.”

There was no going back, but the begging would excite him.

A pleased growl rumbled through his chest. “You know how much I love you on your knees, rabbit.” His thick, long, hot tongue slipped out and licked up the side of my body. My breath hitched and my brows shot up. “But right now, you’re going to run.”

“Run?” I shot to my feet, stumbling backward.

A trail of smoke rose from his nostrils, and his wings shivered, shaking off excess water. His claws impatiently digging in the sand stressed his final warning. “Run.”

A harsh flood of adrenaline kick-started my body into action. My legs kicked at the sand, and I drove myself over the beach. In the dark of early night, I only had the stars and moonlight to illuminate my path.

Though I knew there was no real chance of escape. Calder could reach out and scoop me into his claws right now if he really wanted to. It was a game for him and part of my punishment.

He was the dragon, watching his little rabbit scurry away. I was his prey.

The terror, the consuming dread of what would happen when he caught me kept me on the tips of my toes. It didn’t feel like I was running through sand as fast as I was soaring over the stretch of beach outside the palace. Tall palm trees swayed lazily in the wind, the shell castle gleamed in the silver light, and the stars winked at me from above.

Calder said there would be consequences. Deep in the pit of my stomach, I knew the chase was only the first part of what he had planned. We both knew that I wouldn’t make it far before he’d decide to catch me.

But that was too easy for him, and not enough for me.

My bare feet pounded the sand. A burning awakened in my muscles from the effort of fleeing. Each breath punched through my lips and my lungs ached from puffing in the air. And the pit of my stomach coiled with heat.

My pussy pulsed with a heartbeat of its own, matching the erratic rhythm in my chest. Increasing arousal wept from my slit, coating my thighs. The dragon’s animalistic snarl that followed me heralded that Calder scented my desire in the air—and he was on the verge of chasing.

I angled my head over my shoulder, stealing a quick glance at how far I’d gone before Calder leapt into action. A sob wrenched from my lips and a flood of tears breached my eyes as the measly distance stretched between us. I was barely out of reach of his claws.

But it was far enough.

Calder’s wings flapped, sounding like lightning cracking over the island. His roar echoed like thunder, sending a warning shiver down my back. I had seconds before the dragon was on me—capturing me, tasting me, devouring me.

A delicious twirling sensation coiled through me, and my core heated with need. That wanton warmth shot through me, giving me one last burst of speed—

Until a shadow descended over my head and dagger sharp claws hooked in front of my path.