Shifters, Beasts, and Monsters (82 page)

“Garen.”

She nodded, bobbing another brief curtsey.
“A pleasure to meet you, Garen.” She turned back to her mare and began
rummaging in her pack. She heard him gathering would and stacking it for a
fire.

“Why are you being nice to me and not to
him?”

Kara didn’t even bother looking over her
shoulder. “You didn’t buy me to bed me,” she said bluntly.

“I might have,” he replied just as bluntly.
She spun, hands coming up to her hips.

“And what is that supposed to mean?”

Garen shrugged, arranging the firewood into
a cone. “Perhaps I’m the one that told him about you, a pretty farmgirl I saw
one day out in the woods. Maybe he got the idea in his head because of how I
described the color of your hair and the curve of your lovely arse. Would you
still be so nice to me then?”

She stared at him, mouth open. A mixture of
emotions swirled within her. Anger at the idea that anyone thought to purchase
her, but a bit of sorrow also that this man had maybe found her beautiful and
told his lord and would now have to watch her be another man’s bedmate.
Pleasure and desire, too, that he found her form as attractive as she found
his. “I... don’t know,” she answered honestly. “Did you?”

He looked up at her then, blue eyes dark as
he met her look straight on. “Aye. I did. D’you hate me now?”

Kara pursed her lips, studying his face. He
remained still, letting her look. After a long moment of silence, she gave a
grunt of frustration. “I don’t know!” She pulled the small bag of food she’d
brought along out of her pack, hurling an apple at Garen. He caught it, teeth
flashing white in his dark beard.

She watched him start the fire. It was no
wonder she was so drawn to him and not his master. All those nights she’d spent
listening to the dragon roar, she’d imagined it as a magnificent beast. When
the rumors had begun to circulate in the village that the dragon was also a
man... well, she had pictured him a certain way, she supposed. A human form as
magnificent as his beastly one. Mervyn’s sunny gold locks and slender build, as
handsome as he was, just didn’t possess the same power and magnetism as the
big, burly Garen.

She narrowed her eyes at him as he spitted
two of the rabbits he’d felled during the day’s ride. “None for your
master
?”

Garen shook his head. “He’ll hunt for
himself. We won’t see him again until morning.”

“Will he hunt in dragon form?” she asked
off-handedly, watching Garen’s face. A muscle beside his eye twitched in
surprise, but he didn’t look up at her.

He sat beside the fire, turning the spit to
cook the meat evenly, watching the flames. “What makes you think he’s the
dragon?” he asked in reply.

Kara bit into her own apple, leaning her
back against a smooth boulder. She’d only had the schooling her mother had
given her before she died, but she wasn’t a stupid girl. “A handsome man like
him having to purchase a poor farmgirl to bear him children? There has to be a
reason.”

“You think him handsome?” He did look up
then, quirking a thick brow.

“I have eyes in my head, Garen. Mervyn’s a
handsome man.” Which was true. But she didn’t elaborate on the fact that,
handsome or no, he held no appeal for her. She could keep secrets too. “He’d
have no trouble finding himself a willing woman or charming a father into
agreeing to a marriage. He’s no poor prospect. It’s the only explanation that
makes sense.”

The smell of the meat cooking was making
her mouth water. Garen shrugged. “Perhaps. But wives have expectations.”

Kara threw her apple core at him. He wasn’t
watching her this time and the rind hit him smack in the forehead. He glared,
rubbing his head. “What the hell was that for?”

“Because I’m angry. Because, as you so
eloquently put it, wives have expectations... but I’m no wife. I’ve been bought
and paid for, for one purpose only, and apparently have no right to expect
anything
.
Not even honesty!” She crossed her arms over her heaving bosom and glared.

He blinked at her in surprise, staring.
Then he sighed and began turning the rabbits again. “He’s the last of his
kind.”

Garen spoke so softly it took her mind a
minute to comprehend the words. Some of her anger drained away. It was a
mournful roar, then. Lonely. “That’s why he....
Mervyn
...” she quirked a
brow, “Wants a woman to bear him children?”

“Yes.” He gave a curt nod. “To save his...
people. And...” He stared into the flames.

“To feel less alone?”

His lips quirked the slightest bit. “I
imagine so.”

Kara brushed grass from the hem of her
skirt. “Well, why didn’t he just come to me as a man and say so then?” she
huffed. “I would have considered his bargain.”

“Would you?” Garen’s brows curved upward.
“I think not many women would say the same.”

She shrugged. “Not many men would say I
have a lovely arse.” She grinned at him. Garen snorted.

“Course they would.”

Kara shook her head. “No. I’m not as
slender as the village girls. I have an arse. And hips. And a bit of a belly,
just here.” She smoothed the fabric of her skirt over her abdomen, where her
stomach did curve slightly outward just above her pubis. Garen’s eyes dropped,
following the motion of her hands. The flames of the fire leapt, reflected in
his bright blue gaze.

“I know,” he said, voice a bit gruff. “‘Tis
why I... told Mervyn of you.”

She sighed, flicking a bug from her sleeve.
“Perhaps he shouldn’t have come to me as a man. Men are so often poor at
expressing things verbally. Now, if he’d come to me as the
dragon
...
well,
then
I’m sure we could have come to an understanding without all
this disgusting exchange of gold for property.”

Garen plucked off a small bit of the
rabbit’s meat, popping it into his mouth to test it for doneness. At her words,
he began to cough and splutter. Kara watched him, face impassive, until he got
himself under control. He took a deep gulp of air.

“You would have him, in that form?” His
voice was deeply raspy from the coughing fit. That, and the intensity of the
question, made her shiver.

She bit her lip, watching him from beneath
her lashes. “Don’t I have to? In order to propagate the species?”

“Mmmph,” he said. She wasn’t entirely sure
it was an agreement. He plucked the rabbits from the spit with deft fingers and
handed her one on a wide platter. She set the platter aside to let the food
cool. Garen did the same with his. “Most women--”

“I thought we’d already established my
relation to ‘most women’.” Her lips quirked up at the corners as she watched
him blink at her in surprise. She tore a steaming piece of meat off the rabbit
and popped it into her mouth, licking her fingers clean of grease.

Garen watched her chew and swallow, clear
blue gaze riveted to her mouth. When she reached for another piece, he got to
his feet. “Stay by the fire. I’ll return shortly.”

“Your food will get cold.” She smiled.

“Tastes much the same either way. Stay
here. You’ll be safe by the fire ‘til I get back.”

When he reached the very edge of the
clearing, she called out to him. “Garen!”

He turned halfway back, scowling at her.
She licked rabbit grease from her thumb. “I would. If he asked.”

His nostrils flared. He spun on his heel
and strode out of the clearing without looking back again. She watched him go,
listening to the fading sound of his footsteps and eating her rabbit. As soon
as she could no longer hear his retreat over the crackling sound of the flames,
Kara got to her feet. She wrapped the leftover food in a bit of oiled cloth,
but didn’t bother shinnying up a tree to tuck it away. She doubted any forest
animals would get too close with the scent of dragon so near.

Her hand axe was in her pack, covered with
her second best nightgown. She grabbed it, just in case, and moved to follow
Garen into the woods. Luckily, the moon was bright enough that she didn’t have
to use a torch to follow his tracks. She moved slowly, quietly, through the
trees. She’d only walked a few minutes when she heard the splashing.

Kara slowed further, placing each foot
carefully before moving the next. She didn’t want so much as a twig to snap and
give her away. She made her way like that from tree to bush to tree until the
pond became visible through a break in the underbrush.

She sucked in a short breath. This was not
what she had expected to see. Garen stood waist deep in the still, clear pond.
His clothes,
all
of his clothes, were piled on the bank. He scooped
water in great handfuls over his head and shoulders and scrubbed a palm against
the thick furring of dark hair on his chest. He clutched a handful of ferns and
was rubbing them over his skin, following the heavy trail of hair as it thinned
slightly over his muscled stomach.

And then lower. Kara bit her lip, holding
her breath as his hand disappeared below the water line. It reappeared a moment
later and she released her breath in a quiet whoosh. He tossed away the limp
ferns and strode through the water to the pond’s edge. Her fingers tightened
around the handle of the axe as the water level dropped lower. Garen’s back was
to her, revealing the sleek, wet muscles of his shoulders, the ridge of his
spine, and the upper swell of his backside.

His side was to her when he bent to yank up
another handful of the leafy green fern. He waded back into the deeper water,
toward her, but an ill-timed cloud passing across the moon blocked her view. By
the time it passed, Garen was once again submerged to the middle of his broad,
well-muscled chest. She couldn’t hold back her sigh of disappointment.

Not a minute later, she was rewarded,
however. Finished with his ablutions, Garen rose out of the water, a brilliant
beam of silver moonlight making every inch of his wet skin glisten. There were
a lot of inches. Kara swallowed heavily, warmth twisting low in her belly at
the length of his muscular thighs, water droplets clinging to the wiry hair.
And his cock... Her mouth went dry.

Even soft, it dangled midway down his
thigh, the round, fat head mere inches from his knee. Granted, she didn’t have
much to compare it to... little Jamie and a few of the village boys who used to
bathe at the stream near the farm... but Kara was pretty sure Garen was
somewhat extraordinary.

She shivered at the thought of that immense
shaft pressing between her legs and licked her suddenly dry lips. What would it
be like to be with a man like that? Her belly twitched and her sex throbbed.
She clenched her hands at her sides.

Garen stepped out of the water at the
pond’s edge and smoothed a big hand through his wet hair. But he didn’t move
toward the pile of his clothes. Instead, he stretched, muscles rippling. One
second, Kara was admiring the play of moonlight over his broad shoulders and
the flat plane of his belly, and the next, she was staring in awe at a great
black beast that leapt into the air.

Its huge wings spread wide as it climbed
higher, above the trees. Moonlight glinted off scales as dark and gleaming as
jet. His massive body was thick with muscle and fully seven feet long, not
including the tail. The tail itself was perhaps another five feet and nearly a
foot across even at its thinnest point. The end was wide and flat like a spade.

As he swooped lower, light gleamed off the
wicked ivory of his long claws and horns. Kara was surprised to see his front
legs end in something that resembled hands. They were huge and covered in ebony
scales, but the claws tipped long, broad fingers. As she watched, he wheeled
away into the night sky, soon disappearing among the stars. Kara made her way
back to the campsite and rolled herself into her blankets beside the fire.

When she slept, she dreamed of being
covered by enormous black wings and a tongue that tasted like the kiss of
flame.

***

Kara kept her eyes squeezed shut in
mortification. She’d
fainted
. She had never, in her life, fainted.
Including the time one of the carts carrying their crops into the village had
broken an axle and pinned one of the farmhands’ legs beneath it. The sight of
blood bothered her little. Apparently, the same could not be said for the idea
of shedding her own.

She’d been fine when they’d arrived at the
keep earlier. The towering edifice of harled white stone had drawn a gasp from
her, but nothing more. It was lovely, true, and larger than any dwelling she’d
ever seen, but she was not a milksop. She didn’t faint in girlish delight at
the thought of a pretty castle.

Not even when Garen and Mervyn had escorted
her inside the great hall with its intricate stone carvings and fireplace big
enough to walk into. The walls were lined with finely woven tapestries
depicting ancient battles, lords and ladies, gods and monsters. Kara even spied
some thread of gold entwined among the depiction of a great winged dragon with
scales of luminescent cream. The beast swooped down upon a vast desert. Below
him, the sprawled form of a nearly naked woman lay upon the sand, long, dark
hair fanned around her head. It was a lovely piece. The weaver had rendered the
woman’s face exquisitely, sweetly beseeching the dragon’s rescue. It gave Kara
a soul-deep shiver to look upon it.