Hamlet Thriving (Black Lake book 2)

Chapter 25
Aedwin

~

The flight couldn’t have felt any more romantic if I was playin’ a part in a human’s silly romantic novel—not that I’ve ever read one of those—would die if anyone ever caught me—Sylvia is such a bad influence. Flyin’ fifty miles on the backs of two dragons side by side, over the most beautiful snow-covered landscape on Earth—nothin’ could be more surreal. No writer could put this in words.

Ike always acts the perfect gentle-ogre. Never one to waste words, when he can look through me with those dark eyes of his. That look the last few weeks had begun to make me weak in the knees. It freezes me in my tracks, makes my breath catch. Had Iza’s words that day had anythin’ to do with the way I feel, had encouraged me, or would I have gotten to my present emotional state of insanity on my own? Until the queen dragon growled her sentiments—based upon who knows how many internal interactions between Lake dragons and their riders—I’d forced aside my fantasy of endin’ up with either Ike or Asr. The bull siblings are highly ranked in a powerful clan. Both dragon riders of all things. I truly had no right to even dream it.

Ike lay out one blanket with a flourish for us to rest on while the dragons hunted, and after he sat down next to me, took the other blanket and covered our laps. We snuggled, still chilled from the flight. Thankfully, the temperature here in the midlands is considerably warmer. Remnants of the snowfall that crossed the entire Range remained only in the deeper shadows. The sky was mostly clear, only a few clouds dottin’ our dragons’ domain.

I smiled, hid my face a moment to keep him from knowin’ I was onto his secret. Ike certainly didn’t need to huddle under a blanket with me. He relishes the cold, thrives in it. The bull left his bare, furry feet stickin’ out from under the blanket to manage the task of bein’ close to me.

A giddy numbness flowed over me. Two years earlier I had been the humblest hen of a clan that isn’t on any other council’s mind. Now I ride a dragon, am treated with respect by the folk I live with, smitten with and wooed by the most intelligent and masculine ogre in the Range, the world maybe. His handsome face and broad shoulders are an added bonus. I shivered. It had nothin’ to do with the cold.

My shoulders suddenly tightened, limbs twitched. My Tae had caught sight of an elk herd. I felt Ike respond as well. Both dragons were onto the prey. The two, many-dozens of miles away, dove. My heart raced, skin crawled with excitement, gut wrenched from Tae’s hunger, which would momentarily be sated. I no longer needed the blanket either. Together, Ike and I pushed it down to our knees.

My chest expanded from the air I sucked in. Muscles tightened, fists clenched. As Tae hit the first elk with his extended talons, my lungs emptied in a rush. Eyes closed, I could still see as the dragon broke the neck of another, and another, collapsed on top of a fourth to finally feed. I frantically inhaled, as though I’d been held under water too long. Ike’s fist shook in his lap. I grabbed his arm and squeezed.

Both of us growled, a deep-chested thin’ that vibrated for several moments, trailin’ off into a mean-soundin’ snarl that emptied our lungs. I slumped forward fightin’ the intensity of the emotion’s grip. Gasped for air, vibrated with the energy and savagery of Tae’s gorgin’.

I finally leaned back against the tree trunk, exhausted, a little. I heard Ike strugglin’ to catch his breath, realized my fingers dug into the bull’s arm. I relaxed and rubbed at the spot where I prolly bruised him. He jerked.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

I pulled back his sleeve. Yep. Forearm was already turnin’ red and purple. Blood oozed from four clawed gashes. I gasped, startled to see what I’d done to him.

“I’ll heal,” he said simply.

He grabbed the knapsack that sat nearby and flipped back its flap with urgency, pulled out a loaf of bread and unceremoniously split it, handin’ me half. Without a word I tore into it. Hardly chewin’, tilted my head back to help swallow a huge bite. I grabbed at the chunk of dried meat Ike held out to me. Bit through it and gnashed away at it as if I hadn’t eaten in weeks.

“Ya—must—work—to—”

I peered at Ike, but he didn’t look as though he could finish his sentence. He struggled to swallow his own chunk of meat. The connection we have with our dragons may be more intense than our own real experience. There is no emotion like that of a dragon.

~

We finished everythin’ Ike packed, but I couldn’t help but look in the bag again. As full as I felt, was still motivated to eat. My mouth watered, sensin’ the raw meat and crushed bones Tae continued to throw back.

“There—is a—good reason—the dragons go off—to hunt alone,” Ike said.

“Oh, why is that?”

His chest vibrated with a proper ogre chuckle.

“That was very—” I struggled to find the right word.

“Intense?” he offered.

Much more than that. “Yes.” But there isn’t a better word.

He pulled back his sleeve. Dried blood coated purplish bruises. I pushed my forehead into his shoulder. “I’m—”

“Don’t worry. Ya haven’t gone with Tae to feed before, have ya?”

I wobbled my head against his shoulder.

“Never would’ve guessed.”

I heard the smile in his voice. I laughed and leaned forward to look into Ike’s almost-black, green eyes. They seemed to mesmerize me, draw me in, own me—my thoughts sounded like a human’s novel, definitely. Ick—gotta stop readin’ Sylvia’s pulp fiction. Still, that weakness again attacked my chest, shoulders and arms.

“When are ya gonna ask me to be yar mate?”

Did I really ask him that? Gotta stop readin’ that stuff.

His brow rose a tad. “If I ask ya now, ya sure ya won’t accuse me of merely actin’ on the emotion we’re feelin’ from the dragons?”

“What emotion?”

He leaned toward me. His tusk clinked against mine, then dug into the flesh of my cheek. I caught my breath again, pressed harder against him. He pulled back. Careful not to mark me?

“I must get the council’s approval first,” he said.

“Then ya should get it.” I sighed.

“And yar clan’s council, yar papa’s blessin’ too. As well as my papa’s.”

“Ya have some travelin’ to do.”

He grimaced. It faded quickly into another of his angled smiles.

Mate of Ike, rider of Taiz’lin. Sounded really good in my mind—no human author could dream that up. I held his arm tightly and pushed my face back into his shoulder, gougin’ his flesh just enough with my tusk to ensure he knows I care. And to mark him just a bit, where no one would see, for now. One day I’ll be able to rightly mark him, to show he belongs to me.

~