Dragon Temptation Read online

  “Very good, Colonel. I’ll see it done.”

  “I know you will, Linny. If anything happens, sound the alarm. Kal will be there.”

  An elbow in the side from Elin belatedly clued him in that the two women were waiting for a response from him.

  “Yeah. What she said.”

  Elin rolled her eyes while Linny tried not to laugh. She mostly succeeded, but Elin took pity on her and dismissed her to make things easier.

  “And where was your mind just then?” she teased.

  “You said I saved you.”

  “Uh, yes, I did say that. Because you did.” Elin looked up at him. “Why do I get the feeling that this is more important to you than I think it is?”

  He looked around. There were a handful of people within earshot. Tugging on her arm, he pulled Elin after him, heading for the door that led back down into the base itself.

  “I never told you why I put myself into the deep sleep, did I?”

  She shook her head. “No. I didn’t realize there was a reason.”

  He nodded, steeling himself, preparing to tell the story of Prill to someone other than his parents for the first time ever. He was uncomfortable. The idea of revisiting those feelings made him feel sick, but the idea that his mate might reject him when she found out what had happened scared him more than he would ever admit to anyone. Even her.

  “I took my sister to the beach one day,” he said, starting off the story. There was no turning back now. He was as committed to telling it as he was to Elin.

  Completely.

  ***

  “Kal, that’s so terrible. I’m so sorry!” she threw her arms around him, pinning him between her and the wall outside her quarters. “I had no idea.”

  His arms came up slowly, but they wrapped around her in the end, holding her tight. Dazed, he realize that she wasn’t getting rid of him. That instead of being mad, or scared that he wasn’t going to be able to do a good job of protecting her, Elin was trying to comfort him. To make him feel better. Wasn’t he supposed to be doing that to her? Reassuring her that he could be a good mate, that he could keep her safe? He told her as much.

  “Wow, you are incredibly dense sometimes,” she said, eyes closed, head shaking back and forth. “Have you already forgotten what you just did? The demonstration of how far you will go to protect me, in front of everyone, including our enemy?”

  He felt his cheeks warm, hoping they weren’t turning pink at all. “No, I haven’t forgotten. I just don’t know if it’s enough.”

  “Kal. Oh my mighty Kal.” Elin took his hand and lifted it to her face, nuzzling it gently with her cheek. “I’m not scared that you won’t protect me. I never was. Ever since you tossed the drunk guy out on his ass with one hand, I’ve felt perfectly safe around you.”

  “You have?”

  She nodded. “You can’t protect me from this fight though. I’m not going to stay home and let everyone else do the heavy lifting. If it comes to it, I’ll be there on the front lines with you.” She paused. “Okay, maybe not quite with you—I don’t want to get squished by a dragon paw accidentally. But metaphorically I’ll be right there in the same image if you picture it in your mind.”

  “Yeah. I got that,” he said dryly, earning him a smile. “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything earlier. That I didn’t fight harder to keep you from leaving. And for almost turning you into a hot dog.” He looked away.

  “It’s okay, Kal. These things happen. We hit a roadblock, that’s all. I think it’s safe to say you smashed right through it though.”

  She was forgiving him. Just like that, as if nothing had ever gone sour between them just an hour or so earlier. It was amazing. He didn’t deserve this woman. “I don’t think I’m worthy of you.”

  Her face went slack with surprise. “Are you serious? You just went beast mode on that thing back there all in my name. That was the most impressive display of devotion I’ve ever seen!”

  Kal started to deny it, but she reached up and clamped her hand over his mouth, silencing him. “That wasn’t an invitation to deny what I said, okay?”

  He nodded, starting to feel like they were dancing around something, saying it without completely saying it. He hated that feeling, hated not addressing something straightforward. So he decided to just put it out there.

  “I love you.” The words were slightly muffled by her hand, but there was no doubt she understood him completely.

  Elin’s mouth parted and she sucked in a stunned breath. “Kal…”

  “That was too abrupt, wasn’t it?” He started to backtrack. “I just thought that we…after the…” he pointed toward the surface. “And then how I…with the fire, and the thing, you said…” He trailed off eventually, not sure what else to say. Had he even said anything there?

  “You know. Not every time a girl gasps is a bad thing.” Elin grinned. “Have a little more patience with me. You caught me off guard. I didn’t actually expect you to say that.”

  “Oh. Surprise?” He smiled weakly.

  “I love surprises.”

  Without warning Elin launched herself at him. His reflexes snapped into action and he grabbed her out of midair, spinning around to help kill her momentum.

  “I love you too,” she told him, speaking with pure confidence.

  Then he was buried under the onslaught of her kisses, too preoccupied with her mouth’s hungry, seeking touch to worry about anything else. His hand fumbled for the door but eventually he got it open, ducking under the archway so that he didn’t slam her head as they moved inside.

  Clothes went everywhere in a blizzard of materials as they alternated stripping each other, fumbling for clasps, buttons, and zippers in a dizzying frenzy. Elin was still struggling with her socks when he picked her up and casually tossed her onto the bed. He followed up, pushing between her legs and pinning her down with his body, covering her neck and chest with his lips.

  The pace slowed as they sank into each other’s embrace, exploring one another completely. By the time he finally pushed inside her, they were both on the edge, gasping from the excitement brought simply from touches of fingers and mouths. It was an intense, electric experience, and he had to breathe deeply for several minutes to recover his composure before he could move inside her, otherwise he would have lost all control right away.

  Her body shifted and molded to his, and Kallore delighted in the press of her curves and flesh, running his hands up and down her body every chance he could, exploring her skin, inhaling her scent, and listening to her soft cries as they rocked back and forth together.

  “Oh Kal,” she whispered as he dragged a single nail across her ribcage, making her gasp.

  “I love you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Elin

  The helicopter touched down and the two of them exited, Kallore ducking extra low to avoid the rotors and excessive wind. She ran with him, sheltered by his body as they slowed to a walk a dozen yards outside of the blades.

  “That was fun,” he admitted. “But it’s nothing compared to soaring through the sky unencumbered, riding the thermals higher and diving for the ground before pulling up just in time.”

  She clamped her lips tight as he described the experience. It wasn’t the first time, and she doubted it would be the last. But Elin just didn’t have the heart to tell him to be quiet. Not when the joy was written on his face plain as day, the bounce in his step increased tenfold. Kal was genuinely at peace with himself and the world when he relived those memories, and she wasn’t going to strip him of that. He had enough pain in his past; she needed him to remember the good as well.

  “I’m just glad we didn’t have to drive, or take commercial transport.”

  “Well, your stature sure has shot up recently.”

  “It’s all thanks to you,” she grumbled, still not sure how to react to the wealth of resources suddenly available to her.

  The video of Kallore taking on the Outsider and tossing it around like a ragdoll h
ad made the rounds of a select few officers and highly positioned government officials shortly after it occurred. Although they tried to make it very clear that he hadn’t killed the thing, and that there could still be more of them out there, the brass had been properly excited at the prospect of having a superweapon that they could actually unleash for once.

  Which meant that Colonel Elin Mara was abruptly elevated into the good books, and told that she had but to ask, and if it was within their power, it would be granted to her. She’d even received a signed letter from the president praising her good work.

  The mission that she’d thought would be her last—which would result in her leaving the army—was now going to change her entire career. It had been close, and she’d almost caved. But with Kallore at her side and the backing of her superiors, she was ready for anything the world could throw at them. Which is why, in preparation for the next steps, she’d brought him out to view the portal itself so that he could glimpse just what awaited them.

  “You earned it just as much as I did,” he muttered as they walked through the base. “You stood your ground and fought just as hard as I did, in your own way. Without you stalling for time, I wouldn’t have been able to recover and do what I did. They should acknowledge that.”

  “They have.” They were going over old ground now. “That’s why they gave me carte blanche and said that whatever it took to get more dragons to fight for us, they would do it. That’s not something they give out every day.”

  Kal didn’t respond; his head was craning left and right. They had taken the helicopter from Fort Stark to the newly expanded Fort Banner, the location that housed the portal itself. With the realization that some of the Outsiders had slipped into their world and were now moving undetected, the army had decided to up their game. Another two battalions of troops equipped with the latest advanced weaponry and gear had been deployed to the base, and they were so new that the paint was still drying on their buildings.

  “This...is a lot of firepower,” Kallore said as they moved through the area, passing tanks, highly secret battlesuits, and other tech that Elin knew the public had no knowledge even existed.

  Such as the portable-railgun heavy weaponry section they were just passing through. She was curious to see what one of those would do to an Outsider. Or what the larger track-mounted versions would do to one of their walkers. The army was no longer taking the Outsider threat half-assed. They were worried, and rightly so.

  It was assumed the trio of Outsiders that had first appeared had now disappeared into human civilization. To the tacticians in the military, that screamed one thing. Scouts. And a good scout always tried to get information home. Which meant going back through the portal.

  “I thought the portal was in the mountain?” Kal asked as he looked behind them at the heavily fortified and patrolled walls.

  “It is. But now they have to worry about attack from outside as well, in case the scouts try to make their way home.”

  He glanced past the walls and farther down the hill, out of the mountain. She followed his gaze and nodded. “That’s Barton City down there.”

  “Awfully close.”

  “We have covert teams deployed throughout the city to act as first responders until the heavy guns up here can mobilize. In the event that the Outsiders come through from their side, they’ll act to help evacuate as many people as possible. We’re also moving a bus line into the city that will house nearly a hundred buses on site, just on the outskirts of the city. It’s not much, but five thousand people is five thousand people. We have other plans as well. Lots of road widenings are going to be happening over the next few years on the evacuation routes.”

  Kallore nodded. “I would have called this all overkill if you’d shown me at first. But now…” He shivered and reached for her hand.

  Despite herself Elin caught his fingers and held onto them. Every time they talked about it, she remembered the face of the Outsider as it reached in to steal her life. How very humanlike it had looked, despite the features barely being etched into the surface of the armor. It gave her nightmares, and she’d woken up more than once to find Kal holding her tight, whispering into her ear that it would be okay, that he would be there to protect her, no matter what.

  Eventually they reached the portal. Nobody had stopped them. Everyone knew the pair by now, even if it was their first visit to Fort Banner. Their pictures had made the rounds, especially Kallore’s, but even hers, to Elin’s surprise. They weren’t worshipped as heroes, but respected as soldiers.

  Which is all she’d ever wanted upon joining the army, and had been denied to her for so long.

  “By the gods,” he whispered, stepping forward as they emerged into the cavern that housed the portal.

  It was huge now. Nearly a hundred feet tall and easily that wide, it flickered and crackled with energy. Scientists and their equipment were arrayed all around it, taking readings and doing who knew what to it. Scientist-y things, she supposed. That wasn’t her area.

  “What are they doing?” he asked, pointing at the cluster of women and men in white coats.

  “Trying to figure out a way to close it. It’s our best hope for ending it before the war even starts.”

  Kallore nodded, walking up to the portal itself. He stared at it, trying to peer through the murky darkness contained within its purplish borders. There was nothing to see though, she knew that. Elin had sat there and stared for nearly an hour after first being assigned the mission and made aware of everything going on.

  “You can’t see through it,” she said. “And right now going through would probably kill even you. The radiation on the other side is still too high from the nuke.”

  He nodded, stepping back and walking over to her, casting one more look over his shoulder. “So how do you know the details of what’s on the other side?”

  “We send robots through. A lot of them. Most don’t come back. Those that do often have scrambled readings. But we get enough back that they provide images and readings of the conditions.”

  She showed him to a bank of monitors. One of the techs, having overheard her, pulled up the latest video footage, allowing Kallore to see the ranks of walkers and other Outsiders pulled up roughly a mile behind the lines. Waiting. Eerily silent and unmoving.

  “Elin?” he said after staring for five minutes.

  “Yes?”

  “You’re going to need more dragons.” He turned to look at her. “A lot more dragons.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Kallore

  “So, what’s the plan?”

  He and Elin had come back from their trip to Fort Banner with him suitably awed by the portal and the images of death and destruction poised to strike. Not that he’d really needed it after fighting back the Outsider itself, but it had helped to put into perspective the fact that he’d beaten up but not killed one of the foot soldiers. A nothing, really. There were heavy infantry twice that thing’s size in numbers beyond reckoning out there. Not including the small walkers in their legions and the big walkers, the sizes of small ships.

  “What do you mean?” Both Kyen and his scientist friend Lianna were looking at him as he barged into their lab.

  “I mean, what is the plan? I’m awake, I’m ready to fight. But we need more of me. You’ve both seen what’s coming. You two woke me up. Now it’s time to repeat the process, isn’t it?”

  They stared at him, still caught off guard.

  Elin came into the lab a minute later. “What is going on here?”

  “We need to move ahead. It’s time.”

  “Time for what?”

  “To wake some more dragons of course. To start their training. This is going to take a while.”

  Elin stared at him. Then at Kyen. Then her eyes came back to his, the amber growing brighter as he watched. That wasn’t a good sign. In fact, it was usually a sign that he’d done something either bad or stupid. Or both. Kal was learning that, though it had taken him more stupid thing
s than he cared to admit to figure it out.

  “I’m missing something, aren’t I?” He looked around. It had been three days since they’d come back from their trip, and he hadn’t heard one thing about waking more of his kind yet.

  Kallore couldn’t understand the delay. The instant the Outsiders could handle the radiation, they would begin to pour through. If the dragons weren’t there to meet them, it was going to be a disaster of epic proportions. So when he’d come down to the lab to find out just what was going on and why nobody was involving him, he’d expected to hear them say that someone, somewhere, was stalling to prevent them from awakening more dragons.

  Elin sighed, walked up to him, grabbed his hand, and pulled him to one of the doors off to the side of the lab.

  “Are you sure?” Kyen asked.

  “Oh, positive. I don’t want to have to listen to this any longer.” She gave him a shake of her head, then opened the door and pushed him through.

  “What the…Oh.”

  The door led to an observation room. It was darkened inside, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t see. There were four huge panes of glass set into the wall. Behind each of them was a room. Only two lights were lit, though he could see that three of them contained…something.

  Stepping closer, he examined what it was. The mass was hidden constantly behind puffs of white gas that was emitted from what looked to be thousands of little sticks spread across the thing in a webwork pattern, all attached to the walls and overhead arrays.

  Then the gas cleared for just a moment, and he realized what it was he was looking at.

  “You’re already waking them up.” It wasn’t a question anymore. He’d seen the red stone forged into the shape of a dragon’s eye in the brief moment the gas had cleared. There was no mistaking it.

  “Yes,” Kyen said happily as he walked inside. “We’re already waking them up. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as stabbing a needle into someone or something. You were turned into stone. It’s actually a quite complicated process. First we bathe the stone in—”