With a snarl, I bend over her, pressing my mouth to her throat.

“Yes, yes,” she moans, clearly lost in sensation. Her hands tug at my hair, my skin, and she moves them all over. “Yes—”

I sink my fangs into her throat, releasing the fire burning in them at the same time that I come. Blackness explodes behind my eyes, and I roar my pleasure even as the release slams out of me, pumping into her body. My Clau-dah. Mine. I continue to surge into her, teeth sinking deeper as the fire jets out of my fangs with the force of my claiming. My cock aches, full of need despite the release of pleasure. My seed will not pour forth into my mate until I’ve claimed her as mine. I cannot do so without fear of burning her.

This will be my first time to fully claim a female, to take things beyond the flirtation of a battle. To spend inside my female instead of pulling from her cunt at the last moment and spilling my seed on her back in a savage dismissal of her affection.

I thought I would mate a female that gave me a challenge in battle, that would be as fiercely brutal as I am with claws and fang. Instead, it is to be my soft, sweet Clau-dah with her tender skin and fragile form.

The joy of claiming my mate is overwhelming.

Mine.

She’s gone still underneath me. The hands that tugged at me now flutter against my skin. Then a fist slams into my shoulder. “Ow!” She wiggles underneath me again, but it is not the pleasure-wiggle.

I pin her in place with my bigger body, holding her down as my venom pours forth into her blood. The taste of it is sweet against my mouth, and foreign. Her blood will change after she is locked to me, I realize, and the thought fills me with pride. She will have my taste, mixed with hers. My scent, all over her. Permanently.

Her hand slams into my shoulders, and she mutters more words, getting angrier. My name is in there, and I know she is hurting. The fire always stings with the first claiming.

But Clau-dah doesn’t seem to understand what I am doing. Her hands tug at my hair, determined to pull me off her throat. I ignore her fierce yanking, determined to let the fire spin into her blood and complete the claiming. She will enjoy the next one, when the heat of it is not so new to her fragile body. She will know to relax into my bite and that it will become pleasurable. I will tell her these things so she does not fight it next time. She is only hurting herself.

I am lost in the pleasure of claiming my mate. So much so that it takes me a moment to realize that she’s no longer fighting. She’s crying, and my heart tugs with pain. The venom will be gone soon, and my fangs will retract back into my mouth and then I will be able to pull free from her. From there, I will watch the changes take over her beloved body with pleasure. I can’t wait for her to realize the gift I am giving her, the link that will bond us eternally.

The last of the fire leaves my fangs, and my body gives one last quiver, my cock spurting the long-awaited release of my seed into her. She is finally mine. I can give her my seed and not burn her. I feel her hiss and tense underneath me, and I know it is from the heat of my semen flooding her womb. Does she realize we are mates now? Pleased, I relax atop her, exhausted from pouring my strength into the venom I have transferred to her. I had no idea it would take so much out of me, but then again, how could it not? I am sharing my drakoni essence with her, and she has no essence of her own to transfer back.

It does not matter. She is mine. I have claimed her.

Mine. Clau-dah is mine. All mine.

I hear her suck in a breath, and it pleases me. Can she hear that? Is the mind-link working already? I probe at her mind with my own, even as I lick the wound at her throat. Underneath me, her skin is heating up. The change is starting. There is no response from her mind, not yet, but it will come soon. I am pleased. Very pleased.

She snarls a harsh-sounding word, and her arm moves.

Something hard and heavy slams into the base of my skull. Blackness swims in front of my eyes, and I have the startling realization that my fragile, sweet Clau-dah has attacked me.

Then everything goes dark.

CLAUDIA

A whimper escapes my throat as I lie under the sprawled, heavy form of the dragon-man I just had sex with. Everything in my body aches, and I’m brimming with emotions, all of them mixed.

That had been the best sex I’d ever had—riiight up until the part where he attacked me.

Until then? I’d been shocked—and pleased—at how amazing sex with Kael was. His cock was enormous and seemed to hit me in all the right spots. Every thrust inside me had made me orgasm anew, and I’d come at least three or four times. He was gentle, even though he’s much bigger than me, and utterly focused on making me come. And come. And come. In all of the (admittedly small) experience I’d had with sex, I’d never come so long or so hard with anyone. I’d loved every damn exhausting second of it.

Right up until he’d bitten me.

Then everything had changed. I’d gone from constant orgasms to a shock of pain, and that stopped the fun and pleasure of sex as surely as if I’d run into a brick wall. I’d pounded on Kael’s shoulders, begging him to release me, all to no avail. He’d just kept biting me and growling, his big cock lodged deep inside me.

If that’s how dragons end sex, I no longer want any part of that. Even when he finally came inside me, I could feel his release. It was like his semen was brutally hot, as hot as the wound on my neck that he’d gone from biting to just licking. Even after he’d busted his nut, he didn’t get off me.

All of that delicious attraction I felt to Kael? Gone. I thought I understood him. That we were friends. That he’d never hurt me.

Control him? Hah! Fucking joke.

So I’d taken matters into my own hands. Searched the floor while he was distracted, licking the wound on my neck. There wasn’t much in reach to use as a weapon, but I’d found a chunk of concrete. I slammed it into the back of his skull, even as I could have sworn that he’d growled MINE.

He’d given me a dazed look of surprise that was almost comical, then collapsed on top of me.

And now his sprawled body is crushing mine.

I feel betrayed. Hurt. Angry.

I push at his big limbs, frustrated. A moment of panic sets in later. Did I…just kill him? Crap. I brush a finger under his nostrils, checking for air. He still breathes. I don’t want to kill him—he’d been gentle up until that moment, and I’d been loving it. But this is a good realization, I think. Humans and dragons? Too different. It’s clear Kael just sees me as a plaything, and I’ve been spinning make-believe stories in my head about what might happen if a human and a dragon got together. This is a wake-up call.