Spear of Destiny by James Baldwin (little bear else holmelund minarik .TXT) 📕

of armor. I unequipped everything, watching her hungrily as she waded into the lake until she was up to her thighs.

“You were super mad at Vash. I’ve never seen you look at another man like that before.” Karalti glanced over her shoulder at me, her eyes dark with heated amusement. “Not even Soma.”

“I’m not jealous of Vash. I just didn’t want to have to fight him because we both got tweaked on dragon musk and started chasing your ass across the plateau.” Nude, I splashed in after her. “That perfect, bitable, smooth, pear-shaped ass.”

“You like this, huh?” Karalti’s lips quirked. She reached back and lifted her butt with her hands.

“Tidbit… you do not know what monster you are about to unleash.” I was doing everything short of actually drooling as I slid into the water, angling for her like a crocodile.

“You want it? You better catch it.” Her eyes turned to sly slits in her face as she jiggled it a couple of times.

I got my footing on the bottom of the shallows, then launched straight out of the water. Karalti let out a shrill peal of laughter, diving to the side. But she still didn’t have any magically-enhanced leaping abilities, and could only get so far before I caught her.

“Death from above! “Victory at sea!” I picked her up by the waist, spun around with her, and bombed us both into the water as she squealed and flailed. “Yarrr, the booty be mine!”

“EEEK!” Karalti twisted in my arms, laughing wildly. “HEY! No fair!”

I was laughing too hard to keep my grip on her. She pushed away, fleeing for the shore, and I leaped for her again... only to be sent flying as she caught me by the arm and flipped me over her back, sending me crashing into the shallows

“The pirates of the Fish Empire have clearly never battled a dragon who knows martial arts!” She laughed, splashing me in the face as I surfaced. “Pew pew! Take that!”

“Arrrgh, water! My only weakness! Hrrbllbhg!” I enthusiastically enacted a dramatic likeness of my death by drowning as my dragon giggled with delight. But once I was under the water, I swam right at her, tackling her at the waist and dragging her against my body. Her skin was slick against mine, her thighs shaking as she felt me press up against her belly. The brief contact passed between us like an electric charge, and the blood began to pound in my temples and cock.

“I know you need me to chase you.” Before Karalti could wriggle away, I caught her wrist in mine and stared deeply into her eyes. “I know you want me to catch you, claim you, the way a bull dragon claims his mate. But your first time is going to hurt at first, Karalti. If we get rough, I need you to tell me that’s okay.”

Karalti’s eyes grew very wide and very bright. They were bleeding to pure silver as the heat took her, her pupils dilating. Her mouth and cheeks were flushed, body tense with the need to start the mating chase. “It will hurt?”

“You’re a virgin,” I said. “Every girl I’ve ever heard talk about their first time says it hurt.”

She licked water off her lips, and stopped straining to flee. “It’s okay, Hector. My soul might be that of a human, but I am not a human girl. I am a woman of the Solonkratsu, and this is our way. This is what I want.”

This is what I want. I repeated her words in my mind, then finally let go of my own reins. I squeezed her wrist and pulled her tightly against my chest, leaning down to bite the side of her neck.

“Ohh...” Karalti melted, the lean curves of her body molding against mine. Her breasts pressed against my chest, nipples stiffening, as I let go of her skin and hungrily claimed her mouth with mine. Her double-pulse beat under my fingers, quickening as I half-pushed, half carried her toward the shore. When we were barely ankle-deep, she pushed me away and danced back, breathing hard. Her pearly skin flushed with warmth. As soon as the air touched her skin, she came up in goosebumps.

“Think you can keep up?” Her teeth were chattering with anticipation as she backed up from me along the shoreline.

“I KNOW I can keep up.” I wove in a crouch and lunged, but she was faster. She sprinted for the treeline, trailing a cloud of intoxicating scent.

“Are you suuuuure?” Karalti laughed joyously as she bolted through the trees, leaping gracefully over rocks and ferns. I ran after her, following the teasing flick of her hair. I gained ground by vaulting a boulder and tumbling into a roll on the other side, nearly close enough to grab a fistful of braids and swing her around. She dodged out of the way of my grasping fingers, veering left toward a cascade of shallow spring-fed terraces. She leaped into the first of them, throwing up a spray of steaming water as she ran to the end and vaulted down to the next one.

“You’ll run out of stamina before I do!” I sprung forward like a cricket, landing right in front of her before she could drop to the next terrace. Karalti let out a high, manic peal of laughter as I snatched her around the waist—then teleported out of my arms, back up to the edge of the cliff.

“Pbffft!” She blew her tongue and thumbed her nose at me, sprinting back into the trees.

“Hey! No fair!” I changed track, bounding up the hill, but when I reached the top she was gone—I could hear her stifled giggles from somewhere, but the sound bounced and echoed out of sight.

I drew deep sniffs of air as I felt along the Bond, and between the two of them, I picked a