Chapter 5

Chapter Five

She might work as an acceptable mate for me. I would have to bring it up with her, but I knew how strongly wolves felt about finding their fated mates. Mating for the sake of my thrall no matter how much she felt she owed me might be more than she was willing to do. 

I couldn’t fault her for that no matter how much easier it would make things for me. Sitting up straight, I smoothed my hands down the front of my charcoal colored suit jacket before opening the door and stepping out into the chilly night. It was a biting chill, but I breathed it in, letting the cold chase away my previous worries. 

Closing the door to my SUV, I pressed the button on the key fob. The alarm sounded out with one loud beep as it armed itself. No one would mess with my vehicle. Most everyone here knew who I was and the fear that my family invoked. But I wasn’t willing to take the chance. 

I tucked my keys into my suit pocket, strolling down the paved sidewalk towards the bar. The moon hung full and heavy above me and I could feel the whispers of its magical pull tugging at my skin. A sweet scent hung in the air but it was fading. The scent was familiar but I couldn’t put my finger on it. 

My mouth watered and I felt my teeth grow sharp. The pull of the moon was intense tonight. A lesser dragon would be holed up in their lair with their mates, trying to help them through their heat and breed them. Yet, I was out here trying to do what needed to be done by meeting with my father. 

Maybe in another life, I would have been holed up in a lair with a mate. Helping her through the heat that the moon sent all those fated to dragons went into. 

This life, though, it was a hard one. I had never had the urge to take a mate or to pass on my seed to make an heir. It had made me feel like I was broken when I was younger and I would hear of others finding their mates and the hopes they had of starting a family. When my mother was alive and I had told her my feelings on it, she had told me it would be different when I found my fated mate. 

That meeting them would change how I felt, that it would bring out that primal need in me to claim them and breed them until they were full of my seed. Their belly swollen with an heir to care on my dragon’s line. 

That didn’t seem right to me. Sure, I liked fucking, loved it even but the idea of knocking someone up... Of having a bunch of little spawn running around with my temper didn’t sound like much fun to deal with and wasn’t anything I was in a rush to do. Maybe that’s why I hadn’t found my mate yet?

That the moon goddess knew I was broken, so she hadn’t fated anyone to be stuck with me. It was for the best really. If I had a fated mate I worried that it would make me weak. A chosen mate was the right way to go for me. Now, I just needed to find someone to claim, then I could fuck them and take my title as Tarak of my thrall. 

We didn’t have to love each other. Hell, we didn’t have to even like each other. Once she was claimed and I was in my seat as leader, I would make sure that she knew she was free to do as she pleased. I wouldn’t make her stay. I would find a way to break that bond that we would share. Then I could rule the thrall on my own, not weakened by being tied to another.

My dragon snarled in my head at the thought of me taking a mate and rejecting them. He was like any other beast, ready to settle down with a mate. Even though I hadn’t taken a mate, he didn’t like the idea of breaking that bond. 

Rolling the tension out of my shoulders, I pushed open the steel door to Full Moon and stepped inside. The scent of wolves hit me first, a woodsy smell that they all had. That with the sharp scent of oranges and spiced tea, the scent of Cristina. The scent relaxed me, but there was another scent there. One that coiled in my head, whispering sweet promises and desires that I wasn’t even aware that I’d had. 

It was a dangerous scent and I felt my teeth grow to sharp, fang-like points. Salvia filled my mouth in anticipation of tasting the one who smelled like raspberries with warm hints of heavy cream. The room around me grew clearer as my vision sharpened and I knew that my eyes would be almost glowing, my skin rippled with dragon scales. 

The beast roared in my head, chasing away the low rock music that played around me. He was trying to come to the surface to take control from me and find her.

Mate

I closed my eyes, trying to bring my dragon back to heel. I couldn’t think with him beating against my skin like this and if I couldn’t think. That could be dangerous. I was going to need to kill whoever it was that smelled like this. 

A mate would make me weak. 

Yet, even thinking about killing her had my beast roaring louder. I fisted my hands at my sides. My sharp nails dug into my palm and I felt the sting of pain. It helped to clear my head and I took a slow, shuddering breath, opening my eyes. I looked around the bar, Cristina was watching me from behind the bar. Her delicate face twisted up with worry as she dragged a cloth over the bar top. 

There were a few wolves sitting at the bad but none that I recognized. I looked around the room, my eyes landing on a woman with long, dark brown hair. Her face was turned down to her drink, but even the side profile of her was beautiful. She wasn’t pale like the moon, her skin was tanned, her nose was slightly upturned but I could see her full fuckable lips.