King Beast - Vicious Flames

Chapter 17

"Stop gawking and hurry up, rat." Zerberus snapped, his gaze flickering to the perpetually cloudy skyes. He was convinced he had wasted enough time with her.

He had to bring her back to his lair before he could attend to his duties.

"I don't have to follow your every order!" Odette shot back, crossing her arms in what was meant to be an intimidating gesture. He looked at her breasts instead.

"Just ask me nicely to pick up my pace and see what happens." Despite her determined glint, Zerberus couldn't deny he enjoyed that spark of challenge more than he expected.

"That was me being niece," he drawled.

"You act all scary and badass, but unless you want to hurt yourself by hurting me, you can't do anything!" Odette boast, feeling empowered. Zerberus smirked. She was right; while he wouldn't hurt her (thus, himself), he had a few tricks up his scaly sleeve.

In a surprising move, he bent over, scooped her up, and tossed her over his shoulder. She let out a surprised squeak. "What are you doing?"

"Just speeding things up, rat." He tightened his grip on her legs and enjoyed the soft curves pressed against his body or the way her feminine scent mixed with his made his inner beast rumble in appreciation.

'Mate her again.'

'Later.'

Odette huffed, "I can walk on my own, you know." Yet her curves loved the contrasting hardness of his chest, and the friction of their bodies turned her nipples into hard points.

They soon reached the castle grounds and entrance. Zerberus appeared lost in thought, his head and wings seeming to be somewhere else entirely. When Odette spoke to him, there was no reply. It was unclear whether he hadn't heard her or chose to ignore her.

Her emotions were all over the place - some over him after their episode in the woods. She decided that silence was the best companion for the moment.

Glad she didn't have to navigate the staircase-shaped rocks again, the dragon man was her transportation, one of his scaly arms her belt. And there they stood, before the thousand-eyed monster of a home.

Odette was more afraid of her future dwelling than of Zerberus, a sentiment that spoke volumes.

The castle appeared as if the very rock it was anchored to had been forced into submission, hollowed out, battered, mutated, and abused for who knows how long. It seemed as though the very essence of that same rock had been molded and transformed into the castle itself. The symbiosis between the rock and the fortress was evident, as if the castle had emerged organically from the heart of the enduring stone.

Everything around her was malevolent. The air she breathed carried a pungent scent of sulfur, and the sun, if it existed beyond the shroud of cloudy ash, dared not make an appearance.

Odette swallowed hard, her eyes lingering on the stone monsters, like silent sentinels, frozen in perpetual watch....and all the others that swarmed around her, alive and breathing.

Gargoyles perched on parapets with wings outstretched, their stony faces carved into fierce grimaces, as if guardians of secrets whispered through centuries.

Odette met the gaze of a great basilisk, serpentine body coiled around a pillar on what appeared to be the third floor, frozen mid-hiss as though warding off intruders. She blinked when she thought the snaked monster had retracted its double-pointed tongue for a swift second.

"Who lives here?" Odette asked in an exhale that was immediately stolen by the dusty wind. Zerberus heard her anyway. "You and I."

"No one else?"

"The rest doesn't count," he said with impatience, itching to get rid of his soul(mate) already. He had dedicated enough of his to her. He was a busy dragon lord and had more pressing matters to attend to, and a human companion wasn't about to disrupt his schedule.

"Who are those....um, people?" her eyes fixed on the procession of individuals coming and going from the castle. None of them spoke; instead, they offered only just a slight bow.

"Servants."

Odette continued to observe the silent figures with a mixture of curiosity and uncertainty. The servants moved with a practiced efficiency, like shadows, each bow seemed synchronized.

She leaned closer to Zerberus and whispered, "Don't they ever talk?"

"They speak when necessary," he answered, a tone of indifference in his voice. "But for the most part, silence is preferred."

"Don't they live here?"

"When their shift of servitude includes the night, they may rest in straw beds in the servants' quadrants. This is our home, of our future wyrmling and our food."

Odette had almost lost that detail, too distracted by the depth of his tone and the way his hard lips produced raspy words....

She blinked. Why did he have to specify that the food would live with them? Maybe it was a lizard thing.

"Wyrmling?" She asked instead.

Zerberus exhaled impatiently through his nostrils, blue smoke sweeping over her face. "Dragling. Little dragons."

"Oh." Not going to happen, she thought. She had read that they put eggs inside their mates, and that was a firm no.

"Alright. I get one half of the castle, and you get the other?"

"Do not talk this nonsense." His lips curled up, revealing the tips of fangs. Reptilian eyes locked onto hers, a dance of predator and prey, destined to love each other for eternity. "You and I share the same bed. It shall be so until-" "Death free us of one another," Odette cut him off, fully intending to leave him much earlier than 'forever'.

A muffled laugh blending with the thunder that lit up the sky above them, gave her goosebumps. "Ah, little mouse, nothing can separate you from me. Not even death." The aristocratic features, with that reptilian touch, took on something mocking, making him even more frightening, eviller. "You and I," he pulled Odette closer to his face, "You and I," their noses brushed. "We are forever. Here. In my abode." Then he kissed her, nay devoured her, ravished her. A kiss as impetuous and impatient as the one who initiated it, just as the weather and the wild, unfriendly environment surrounded them. When he pulled away, Odette had forgot how to breathe.

Smoke escaped from his flared nostrils. "Welcome to your forever."