Dragon Soul

Rating: Explicit, ABO, Alpha Kara, Omega Lena.
Description: The poll winner.  
Tags: Soft Lena, Dark Lena, Irish dragon Lena, Oral (on Kara), come marking, Breeding Kink, magical infinite cream pie action, knotting, rough but also sweet?

Word count: 8,509

From far below in the villages of Argo, the first snows on the distant mountaintops had the appearance of jagged white teeth. Twin purple suns stared down at the land in hunger.

The elder farmers gathered in the town center and entertained the children with tales of a time long ago when dragons would take flight in the cold season and bring a boon of wild growth to the dead and cracked earth. Springtime blossoms would rise in the wake of a dragon’s path, and their soft songs nourished all seedlings to rise in the light of a new day.

The stories enthralled the children, who crouched around the elder’s seat with eager ears.

Kara Zor-El often stopped to listen with her young cousin, because he was a boy of limited imagination.

“The dragons don’t come anymore, right, Kara?” Kal whispered and tugged impatiently at the sleeve of her simple cloth dress.

She had been daydreaming and his small voice took her out of it. Kara was ten and five years of age, which made her much too old to believe the stories about dragons. She glanced around to ensure no one was listening to her and pulled her cousin Kal away from the group of children.

If anyone discovered her true feelings and dreams, including her own foster sister Alex, they would laugh at her.

“They’ll be back again someday,” Kara promised with gentle huffs of breath that turned white in the frigid air. “Don’t tell Alex or anyone else, but I dream about them every night.”

As a child, Kara had been very ill with fever until a haggard elder brought a cure. It had dripped into the elder’s hand, sliding over the age lines on her palm like a dew before taking form.

Kara began having the dreams about the same lone dragon after that — thin and frail, wandering the wilderness beyond their villages. She comforted the dragon in her sweeter dreams, but in others, the dragon would not stand or even lift her head.

With the passing of time, as Kara grew towards adulthood, the dreams changed and she could no longer remember them in the morning light.

By her coming of age some years later, she retained few memories of her nightly visions, save her conviction that dragons were real and would someday return. Kara blamed constant hunger and exhaustion for the loss of the dreams.

The sovereigns of Argo were a selfish and extravagant people, and at a fateful summer’s end, they traded away all of the stores of food that the villagers kept for wintertime.

Kara became an adept hunter, her muscles cut from the constant pull of a bowstring. She foraged for wild potatoes, sour brambles and the demon squash that grew in thorn thickets. Her skill and effort saved the lives of many villagers, and after months of feeding her people, a royal chancellor one day appeared with a personal invitation from the prince.

“You don’t have much choice but to go,” Alex whispered in the presence of the chancellor and his guards.

Kal stood nearby beside their foster mother Eliza, who forced a smile and waited for the guards to instruct Kara to retrieve her belongings and hunting weapons.

“I’ll help you gather your arrows,” Alex insisted, drawing no suspicion from the curious eyes that tracked their every move.

The stolen privacy granted them a moment to speak, and Kara used it wisely. “If I don’t return—”

“Don’t speak like that,” Alex hissed, the sharp words forged from fear that she could not voice in other ways.

Kara stilled Alex with a careful hand, lacing their fingers to give comfort. “Promise me you will look after Kal. Teach him how to forage, and to always be kind, even during the harshest winters. We can’t eat hope, but it will sustain us long enough to persevere.”

Their goodbyes happened in the quiet breaths of an embrace before the guards escorted Kara from the village.

“Until we meet again,” Alex whispered with solemn eyes and let Kara past to undertake the journey south.

The chancellor shielded himself from the bitter wind in a carriage that was dragged by a disfigured beast with jaws the size of a man’s head. Patches of thick, coarse fur sprouted out from behind its ears, and covered the rest of its body, except for its crooked and elongated face. Kara noted some of its teeth appeared to be missing, and a strange rod sat in the grooves where they used to belong. It connected to ropes of leather that the guards sitting atop the carriage had wound around their wrists, and with a firm yank, the carriage lurched forward.

The trek through barren land kept Kara’s mind busy. She would not allow herself to consider the trouble she could face at the end of the journey. Memorizing the cracked, dried soil made for a distraction, and she tried not to fall behind when the beast sped up.

With her possessions strapped to her back, and a flask of water clutched in her hand, Kara walked until the first bright sun lowered to sit on the horizon.

Sweat stung her eyes and she thought she might have rubbed them too roughly when something sparkled in the distance.

Had they reached water? Kara staggered forward, drawing the dry and dusty air into her lungs only to wheeze it out at the sight of a palace. From such a distance, the glinting gate and the path beyond shimmered in the evening light.

The closer they neared, the more unpleasant Kara felt. To be faced with such riches during the worst season of her life stirred anger in her gut.

Fortunately the stench of it was blown away before they reached the drawbridge, and Kara prepared herself to appease the prince in any way that may be required to avoid his wrath.

The shackles that held the bridge up thundered and shook when the bridge lowered, and Kara stumbled across it to enter the grounds of the palace.

Guards lined the gate, their armor strikingly beautiful with polished jewels set elegantly in the helms. They looked too clean to have ever seen battle, and Kara lowered her eyes, lest she be caught staring.

The carriage jerked to a stop, and the chancellor stepped out to guide her through the palace doors and into the front throne room.

Prince Mon-El sat upon a throne with his legs parted, a crown of precious metal adorning his head. His handsome features were offset by the shrewd way he looked down on Kara, and he smirked when she faltered mid step to bow at his feet.

Beside the prince sat a waif of a young woman with flowing raven curls that draped her shoulders. Her pristine skin reminded Kara of winter, yet her crystalline eyes were kind and filled with warmth when they landed on her.

“So, you’re the one that all the peasants have been talking about? I expected a man,” The Prince laughed and waved his hand for Kara to get up so he could take a proper look at her. He left his throne to inspect Kara’s person and marveled at the handmade tools and bow she used. “I can’t believe you were able to catch anything with that. Imagine what you could do with real weapons.”

Kara held her tongue, her smile tense while the Prince helped himself to her belongings with obvious disdain and held them to scrutinize each one.

“Well, these won’t do, they’re falling apart,” Prince Mon-El tutted, the smirk on his lips boyish, despite the hair on his chin. He rubbed the scruff thoughtfully, his gaze following Kara’s to land on the woman who sat quietly by the throne. “Oh, there’s no point in getting Lena’s opinion. My betrothed wouldn’t know her way around an arrow if one shot her in the backside. You like to hunt, don’t you?”

“Only when necessary,” Kara supplied when the Prince raised his brows. “I try to forage for what we need, but there were so many hungry mouths in the village that I had no choice—”

“I enjoy a good hunt myself,” Prince Mon-El gloated, ignoring the talk of starving peasants to sling his arm around Kara’s shoulders. “However, I can’t exactly put myself in the same kind of danger that you can. After all, the palace needs me, but you—well—you’re just the kind of alpha I’ve been seeking. There’s a beast that’s been troubling the lands near the palace and it’s interfering with my livelihood. I appoint you to capture it.”

Kara knew by the way the prince’s arm locked around her that there would be no declining this offer. She sucked in a breath and considered her family before resigning herself to the task with a sigh. “What kind of beast?”

“A dragon,” The seated woman whispered, her stare intense and unblinking. “Terrible thing. It keeps slaughtering all of the knights that the Prince sends after it.”

Kara experienced a searing pain in her temple as she looked into the bewitching jade of Lena’s eyes. For a moment they reminded Kara of the dragon who haunted her dreams, the tame and soft creature who sought her out for comfort. It must have been the talk of dragons that confused Kara and made her balk at the request.

“I’ve hunted dragons for a long time as a sport, but this monstrosity is quite different,” Mon-El complained with a lip curled in disdain and his heavy gauntleted hand still resting on Kara’s shoulder. “I have hunted her since she was a youngling and I will have her. Bring her to me alive and I shall ensure your village is well stocked for the coming snows.”

Lena drifted from the dais where the throne rested, elegant in every step and subtle movement. She did not yet involve herself in persuading Kara, but stayed close enough to hear the negotiations.

The Prince’s offer might have been tempting if Kara could trust him to uphold his promises. She doubted she would receive the aid he mentioned, and yet she knew that he meant to force his will upon her.

“Does this dragon attack unprovoked?” Kara asked with her eyebrows curving downward in dismay at the thought of harming it. “I won’t harm such a rare and special creature.”

Before Prince Mon-El could berate her into doing his bidding, the Lady Lena stepped in and took ahold of her other arm. “Please, you must be the one to help.”

Exhaustion played tricks with her mind, and Kara imagined those imploring words being uttered in a dream long forgotten. She blinked at Lady Lena, her lips parted and tongue thick, and found it impossible to refuse her beauty.

The compulsion to agree had her making a quick utterance that pleased the Prince. “Tell me what you know of the dragon and I’ll begin my search immediately.”

The Prince laughed and clapped Kara on the back, the force of which brought a cringe to her lips. He neither noticed nor cared, and discarded her belongings at his feet, stepping on them as he led her towards one of the corridors. “Come, we’ll discuss it over a meal, and you’ll spend the night here to better your chances of catching the demon. I’ll have the armory bring you any weapons you desire.”

Rest and a full belly did sound good after being so long on her feet, but guilt seeped through Kara at the thought of the villagers left behind who would have to scavenge without her to get by.

“First you must make good on your promises, my lord,” Lena petitioned with a lift her chin and a melodic sweetness to her voice. “While Kara pursues your dragon, her people will starve. You must send them aide now.”

The Prince halted at Lena’s demands and regarded her without the warmth or respect that Kara might have expected of an alpha speaking to his betrothed. “I shall send half the allotment and keep the rest by for when my prize is delivered to me.”

Kara bowed her head in thanks to the Lady Lena, and followed the prince into a crowded banquet hall where knights feasted on mutton and bread.

She took the vacant seat nearest Lena’s left hand and listened to the boisterous conversations happening all around her. Some of the alphas insisted they would be the ones to subdue the dragon, while others whispered stories about its origins.

“There are many who are arrogant and wish to overpower the dragon,” Lena muttered with care not attract the eyes of any of the braggarts who believed they would succeed at it. “Dragons are rare and valuable. They can renew the earth, cure the sick and even alter time.”

Kara dared not look up from her bowl of stew and tore into a chunk of bread still fresh from the palace ovens. There were plenty of reasons to keep her mouth shut, yet she ignored all of them as she confided impulsively, “I used to dream of one as a child. I knew better than to tell anyone, but I sense my secret is safe with you.”

She couldn’t explain why she believed that, considering that Lady Lena was betrothed to the Prince. That information could be used against her as evidence that she would not deliver the dragon as promised, and she worried her lip before silencing herself with a mouthful of food.

 
Kara ate more than any of the knights at the table, stuffing bread and thick slices of meat into a satchel around her hip whenever she thought nobody was looking.

If she was to make it to the dragon, and warn it of the Prince’s desires, she would have to do it before the first ice appeared.

“The dragon must have granted you a blessing if you met with it in dreams,” Lena pondered and sipped from a chalice of violet wine, which she passed to Kara to taste. “You must be very important. Perhaps you did it some kindness without even being aware of it.”

Kara drank from the cup, as it appeared to be custom to share at the prince’s banquet table. Her lips touched over the spot where Lena’s had rested and they locked eyes, sharing a look that felt too intimate given their surroundings.

They were interrupted by a drunken knight from the end of the table, who wandered over to inquire about Prince Mon-El’s nuptials. The alphas discussed the wedding without once speaking directly to Lena, although they openly mentioned her heat and how it would be the requisite for the marriage. Lena’s silence and soft pheromones made Kara feel ill at ease.

After the meal came to an end, Lena rushed from the hall and the prince escorted Kara to a sparsely furnished bedroom.

“You can get a good night’s rest here and tomorrow I will take you to the armory to outfit yourself,” The prince offered and then opened a silk pouch from which he drew a dragon’s scale. The reflective surface of it was like water, catching all of the colors as he presented it to Kara. “I managed to tear this myself from the dragon’s back when she was a youngling. It fits in the palm of my hand, but now that she has grown, her scales are larger than a mirror. I will leave you to contemplate that about your adversary.”

Kara took the scale and stared at her face in its hard reflective surface. It felt wrong to be holding a piece of such a majestic creature.

In the dwindling light of flickering candles, Kara’s troubled mind resisted sleep. She paced the confines of the room until the palace fell silent, and then braved it out of the chamber to wander the halls with only her curiosity for company.

The Prince had treated Kara better than she expected, yet she knew that was only so that she would do his bidding. His life would never be sacrificed for his thrill of the hunt, and Kara was disgusted with the notion of bringing a living creature into his domain simply so he could deliver a killing blow. It lacked honor, and the more Kara thought of the dragon, the faster she stalked through the halls.

She only realized how foolishly she behaved when she found herself lost, and one wrong turn led to another until she crept down stone steps.

The palace guards were nowhere in sight, despite the treasures that littered the place. Kara supposed there was little point in standing post when nobody was ever granted access into the palace without an escort. Prince Mon-El considered himself the most precious and sought-after item within these walls, and only his wing would be heavily protected by knights.

Kara tiptoed into a lavish room adorned with strange objects, antlers from a creature she knew nothing of, and a tooth so large she could wield it as a sword. Scales and tails and talons all perched on marble, or were drawn up and hung on the walls. The heads of beasts dangled from the ceiling, all gaping down at her in various stages of rage and anguish, and Kara’s horror fully surfaced when she realized that Prince Mon-El prided himself on his cruelty.

“He does like his trophies,” came a soft voice from behind her, where the Lady Lena stepped out of the shadows in a gown she had not worn to dinner. It flowed over her frame and moved like liquid, and Kara experienced a pressing need to admire her in it.

Lena strode around her silently, her footsteps so light Kara could be convinced her feet never touched the ground.

Kara felt she was being assessed, and though it would be wise to keep questions to herself, she couldn’t help the way she whispered, “Are you one of them?”

For a precarious second Lady Lena’s eyes narrowed and Kara made haste to explain, “He seems to enjoy collecting beautiful things, despite the harm it causes.”

“Are you asking if I’m as helpless as all the rest?” Lena shrewdly asked and wandered through the menagerie to touch a long ivory horn carved with designs. “Not every beast on this wall went quietly, and I’ll have you know that I also will not. I will only accept the strongest of mates, and one who has a gentle heart. Those are the traits I want passed on to my children.”

By a figment of fantasy and attraction, Lena’s scintillating gown seemed to fall away and Kara stared upon her lovely nakedness — soft breasts with pale rose nipples and a cunt that was as pink as if someone had been touching it.

Something wild and warm stirred within Kara, and she inhaled sharply, desperate for the fragrance of Lady Lena’s skin. She bowed her head far too late, her limbs heavier than usual, and gasped for breath.

Kara no sooner looked away and Lena was gone, the shimmer of her dress vanishing around the frame of a door that closed before she could reach it.

She had been a fool to leave her room. The wine she had sipped at the banquet surely still clouded her mind. The risk of being found by someone else wandering the palace forced Kara to hurry up the steps and away from the monstrous trophies.

By luck, she found the bed the Prince had granted her and fell into a fitful sleep.

Kara dreamt of plants, and growth, and of new life pushing free of the soil. Of Lena, on her knees, her fingers tangled in wild flowers, the scorch of her skin undulating beneath Kara’s hands, supple and soft and moist in places that tried to lure Kara deeper. Then everything shifted and the ground shook, rupturing and ruining the landscape. There in the barren waste lay a dragon.

Kara woke with the thundering footsteps of hungry guards storming the great hall for their first meal of the morning. Sweat slicked over her flushed skin and the muscles of her thighs ached. The dream faded from her mind as she tried to recall it, the same way daylight chased away the night.

She wiped her face with a groan and dressed quickly when a knock happened on the door.

Lena greeted her with a smile and a tender touch on the arm that she might have given an old friend. Her dress was much more austere this morning, grey and drab with long sleeves that covered her hands. “Did you sleep well? I trust your dreams were very pleasant in that comfortable bed.”

Kara had not even bothered to comb her hair, and her tunic hung awkwardly on her frame as she tried to tuck it into her trousers. “Oh. No—no I didn’t. I just tossed and turned. Hardly restful at all.”

She blushed furiously over her own self-conscious lies and how Lena peered at her as if attuned to all of her impure fantasies and fleeting dreams.

“Perhaps I should have scheduled a less eventful morning for you then,” Lena uttered unapologetically and seized ahold of Kara’s arm. “I’m here to help you with your armor. It seems that the prince drank too much wine last night and he’s indisposed with a tummy ache.”

Kara wouldn’t speak ill of the Prince out of a fear of repercussions, but she did indulge herself by rolling her eyes and was treated to the sound of Lena’s laughter. The smile she offered was genuine, and as their eyes locked, Kara could have sworn she felt a connection.

They strolled through the palace arm in arm and Kara fought to keep her eyes on the hallways, lest they stray to the hand resting on her forearm.

The armory appeared to be vacant, and Kara wondered if it was by design. While the knights ate in the great hall, Lena selected polished helms and chest plates, heavy gauntlets and boots with shields to match, and Kara donned it all without enthusiasm.

“You’re not going to tell me the armor is too heavy for you. I glimpsed your muscles,” Lena intoned, finally glimpsing the dour expression on Kara’s face with amusement.

“No, but I would prefer something different.” Kara hoped her honesty did not offend Lena and set the shield aside to remove the helmet. “If I find the dragon while dressed as a knight, it’s going to think I’m there to hurt it. I understand you wish you to protect me, but maybe taking a different approach would be better.”

“If you try to fight her without armor, she will look upon you as an unworthy opponent. You must use brute force. None of these knights are her better in combat, and she has no respect for weaklings.” Lena selected another shield for Kara, this one with the design of a lion on the front. She could not lift it herself, and rolled it closer with admiration for how Kara raised it up.

Kara pretended to block an enemy and gave a performance worthy of a trained knight.

Putting on a show for a beautiful omega was easy, but the thought of facing the dragon made her sick with the fear that she might inadvertently hurt it.

“You possess a natural talent,” The Lady Lena mused in appreciation, tracking Kara in her efforts to battle invisible foes. “I hope you’re as good at mounting as you are strong.”

The suggestive lilt to Lena’s tone brought a swift end to her practice. Kara fumbled with her sword, dropping it twice before the Lady steadied her hand and aided her in finding the sheath.  


They were so close in that moment that the sweetness of Lena’s breath tickled Kara’s cheek and a new danger presented itself – one that burned through Kara’s loins and lit a fire through her alpha.

“Come, you can’t expect to find the dragon on foot.” Lady Lena grasped the shiny gauntlet that concealed Kara’s hand, and guided her out of the armory and towards the stables.  


Beasts of all sizes roamed the fields, and Kara gasped when one rushed the gates. “What is that?”

“Flaithrí,” Lena chuckled and stroked the animal’s thick white mane with fondness. “It seems that Flaithrí has offered his services, or if you’re looking for a more docile creature, you might go with Niamh.”

Flaithrí licked at Lena’s face with a long blue tongue and pushed his snout into her hand in search of food. She tugged a pouch of dried fruit from her dress and gave it to the greedy beast.

Kara was drawn to the animal’s playful nature and reached out to pet Flaithrí. “He’ll do.”

Lena went off to retrieve the saddle for the beast, and Kara put on her helmet to avoid getting a face full of slobber.

Kara considered herself a novice at riding, though she kept that to herself and hoped that Lena didn’t notice.  


She felt the Lady’s watchful eyes observing her and bargained with the creature to allow her on its back. She promised Flaithrí ripened fruits, and only humiliated herself once when sliding into the saddle.

The beast proved more patient than the Prince. After a long and arduous morning of learning how to ride, guards came to escort them both back into the palace.

“I see you’ve found yourself a suit of armor,” Prince Mon-El grunted, his brows drawn low over his eyes, which barely opened. He rubbed the crease of his forehead and slumped in his chair while maidens hand fed him and brought over goblets of water. “I’ve procured you a map of the lands, and four of my bravest men will accompany you. I suspect you’ll need all the help you can get. Of all the men I’ve sent, none have ever returned. Best see that you do. If not for me, for your village.”

Kara clenched her teeth in anger. If not for Lena’s presence, she might have spoken her mind. She gazed upon her beauty and took solace in the touch of her hand when it came to rest upon Kara’s cheek. “Trust your heart, Kara. It will guide when all else fails.”

Those parting words kept Kara warm when she rode out of the palace on Flaithrí. The four knights flanked her on either side, and the snarling sounds of their beasts chased them around a hillside. The landscape was littered with brittle things that crumbled to dust beneath Flaithrí’s paws, but the further they traveled, the thicker the undergrowth became.

It started with saplings and weeds, small insignificant things that twisted and sprouted from cracks in the dirt. So small that Kara overlooked them at first. Then there were flowers, tiny delicate flamecups with yellow petals that stretched towards the twin suns in the sky.

Kara came close to falling from her saddle when they galloped towards thickets of shrubs and bushes where the forest beyond was alive and thriving. She had heard stories of such life still existing and would have wept if the knights weren’t so close to see it.

They made camp and tied up the beasts, and Kara shared her rations with Flaithrí. The growth was too dense to take their mounts any further, so the rest of their journey would be on foot.

The high mountainous range was too rugged to find a place to sleep comfortably, and Kara started a small fire and wedged herself between a few stones with the plan of resting until first morning’s light.

The knights in her company sat around and told each other crude jokes as they shared a large flask of mead. Above them the sky looked bright and mixed, like a potion of colorful brews that swirled around as the weather changed.

“Do your best to keep quiet, or the beast will hear us,” warned a knight called Oliver, who glanced up at the shadows on the rocks in suspicion.

Kara slept with her helmet over her face to protect from light rainfall, and she woke to the sounds of the other knights packing up their camp.

“I’ve heard stories that the dragon is a beautiful omega enchantress who longs for a mate,” whispered a knight named William while lifting up his long blade. “In any case, my plan is to run her through.”

“I will at least volunteer to breed her first if she is as lovely as the stories say,” laughed James, a knight whose red banner made him a walking target.

“With the way you all talk, there’s little wonder why no one returns from these outings. Be quiet,” snapped Barry, who was the only sensible one in the group of men.

Kara took up her shield and sword and gave out orders. “Be quiet andfast. We have a few hours before the sun is at its highest. Hunting by first light will be better. We want to see the dragon, but not be seen in return.”

A furious roar sounded through the mountainside and rocks began to crumble down around them with all of Kara’s plans.

The dragon reared up from the outcropping where Kara could see the maw of a cave. The silver reflective scales on the creature’s back were a match for the one in the Prince’s possession and glimmered in the sunlight.

Before Kara could give more orders, the other knights reacted to the dragon’s appearance. James attempted to run up the rocks at the deadliest side of the mountain, and the rubble swept him away and out of sight.

The dragon took to the air, and that set them all climbing up the rock face. Staying in the open was more dangerous than becoming trapped in the rocks, and Kara scaled the mountain faster than the rest and offered her hand to help them.

They came to the outcropping with the dragon’s cave and the silence around Kara was telling. She sensed the reptilian eyes of the dragon on her.

“Fan out,” Oliver instructed behind his heavy shield, his fearful scent bleeding through the aggressive musk of his pheromones. “She cannot attack us all at once.”

Kara doubted the truth of that statement, though said nothing when William ventured into the maw of the cave. She wondered why anyone would willingly stalk into such pitch blackness, and her stomach roiled with unease when she spotted Barry following after William with blind ambition.

“No, you fools, stay out of there!” Oliver snarled, his warning too late.

Talons thicker than fallen branches crunched into the mountain side and Kara glimpsed the dragon perched above them. Its massive jaws opened in a terrifying roar and a flicker of flame began at the back of its throat.

“Watch out!” Kara shouted and charged into Oliver, knocking the knight off his feet and behind a pile of fallen rocks.

Flames licked the stones and scorched the soil, boiling the sap of trees until they erupted and splintered from the heat.

Barry rushed out of the cave with his sword drawn and the dragon swiped him clean off the edge of the mountain with her powerful tail. His screams faded long before the sound of his armor finished crashing down the rough cliff.

Oliver ran for the craggy ledge they had climbed up, his shield forgotten in his race to retreat. Kara didn’t try to stop him, though William yelled that he was a coward. If he had been more aware of the dragon than Oliver, he would have seen his demise fast approaching. The dragon’s talons slashed through the air, snaring William in its grasp as it beat its wings and took to the sky.

Kara didn’t know where it would take him, only that William would not be returning whenever it came back.

She hurried to the ledge where Oliver hung by the gauntlets out of her reach, and growled in frustration when the knight refused to return.


“We must work as a team,” Kara hissed, though even she knew it was hopeless.

The dragon flew around the mountain, dropping William from a great height, and then with a raging shriek spat fire over the slope of the grizzled rock.

Oliver went up like a lantern, and Kara stumbled back with the beat of her heart thundering in her own ears.

If she should die by such a rare and wondrous creature, then she would do so with bravery and dignity.

She thought of her dreams as a child, and of the Lady Lena, and small bright flashes of the things she had done in her life, and then raised her shield and sword as the dragon swooped down before her with a shake of its head.

“I will not run from you,” Kara yelled when the dragon’s lips parted to display rows of jagged white teeth longer than her legs. It seemed to asses her, puffing out smoke from the end of its snout and carving wedges into the dirt with its impressive talons.

The dragon roared in her face and flapped its wings, pushing her towards the cliff’s edge with the gust of wind it created.

Kara bellowed back, and ran towards the dragon, narrowly avoiding the lash of its tail. She tumbled forward, using her momentum to roll out of its sight and stabbed upward when the beast meant to stomp her.

The blade sliced into the pad near a talon, where the scales were much thinner, and Kara gasped when purple plumes of smoke poured free instead of blood.

Wind whipped around her, blowing debris and foliage around, and Kara clung onto the boulders that littered the ground to save herself from being caught up in the mystical storm.

The air thickened and Kara’s eyes watered from the chill as the dust swirled and sucked up the light.

As fast as it began, the purple smoke took the dragon's form with it and all that remained when it was over was a wild looking woman in a torn dress, with tangled hair and pale eyes that rolled back as she fainted.

“Lena?” Kara gasped, catching the pale Lady in her arms, despite the shock that left her aghast and confused.

Lena became lucid again within seconds, her blue eyelids blinking open as a smile curled her lips. “Kara. Is tú mo chroí.”


You are my heart.

Kara knew the old tongue, not by long years of practice, but from some place of innate memory. She lifted the slender omega in her arms and carried her into the shelter of the cave and away from a frigid rain that suddenly fell from the heavens. The heavy drops came down like jewels and Kara continued to hold Lena with the feeling that she was living out one of her dreams.

“I gave you a gift when you were a child—when we both were children,” Lena whispered and turned her face to warm it in the crook of Kara’s neck. “I was hunted and desperate. The Prince’s mother came upon me when I was asleep one day in human form, and mistook me for a noble girl who had been sent to their court. Given my weakened condition and place among humans, I risked losing the dragon inside of me forever. I used all of my powers of time to separate the dragon soul from my person. I split myself, and the magic still inside of you has made me whole again.”

“Why did you choose me?” Kara smoothed the unkempt hair back from Lena’s face and the omega pressed her shuddering body closer. “Why did you inhabit my dreams instead of coming to me and asking for my help?”

“I was just a girl,” Lena whispered with a soft exhalation of excitement and cupped her cheek. “I gave you as many insights as I could, but you didn’t retain the images well. I was too often under the Prince’s watch. Even now that you are here, he is a threat to me.”

Kara bristled at the thought of Prince Mon-El and his disregard for anyone other than himself.

“I will not let him harm you, Lena,” she promised, pulling off her armor to cradle the woman against the warmth of her body. She used kindling to make a fire and tore into chunks of bread and meat that she had hidden in her satchel.

Kara fed Lena while the dancing flames licked at the air and dried their skin, and for a while they listened to the howl of the wind and the battering force of raindrops pelting the rocks.

“He will know that I’m gone by now,” Lena whispered, curling her body in Kara’s embrace. She brushed her lips against the side of Kara’s jaw and then lowered her head to her shoulder. “He cares very little about me beyond the fact that I am supposed to be his, and he will stop at nothing to get me back.”

“Let him come. He will not have you,” Kara muttered, tightening her arms around Lena while conceiving ideas of wars that had yet to be waged. “He may have unimaginable riches and plenty of guards, but he does not have the love of the people.”

“No, but you do.” Lena’s voice darkened and her feral smile spoke of vengeance without her even uttering a word of it. “The people love you, Kara. Now that I am restored and fully myself, I will chase the Prince from his throne. All you have to do is take it.”

Rising up from the floor of the cave, Lena lifted her hand behind her back to find the laces on her dress and dropped the garment at Kara’s feet. She strode out into the rain and blew into the air, clearing away the storm with magic.

Kara lumbered up from her place on the ground, slower to act when staring at Lena’s bottom and the divots on her lower back. “I can ride at once—”

“No.”

Lena ascended higher into the rocks and beckoned for Kara to follow her.

The clifftops overlooked a verdant and lush terrain below and Lena crouched on top of a long flat stone. Plush moss spread over it and she knelt down, sitting on her ankles and facing Kara. “You must mate with me. My kindred observe certain courtship rituals. You demonstrated your strength and it is your right to fill my womb with your seed.”

Neither instinct nor desire prepared Kara for Lena’s seduction, and she exhaled a breath when those deceptively delicate hands reached for the cord of her trousers.

Lena bared her with a quick tug, and Kara removed her tunic to stand before her naked. The omega’s heavy appraising gaze rested on her member, her lips stretching into a smile that parted as she leaned forward.

The first touch of Lena’s tongue threatened to bring Kara to her knees, and she clutched at Lena’s raven hair to steady herself.

Kara’s grip brought Lena closer, and she moaned at the unfamiliar tantalizing warmth that wrapped around her cock. She was captivated by Lena, her bright eyes and ruby lips that curled into a smile that sent heat through Kara’s limbs.

“I was drawn to you the moment I gazed upon you in the palace, and now I know why,” Kara rumbled, the scent of her alpha increasing as Lena worked her talented mouth over the stiffened length of her. She encouraged the adoration, threading her fingers through Lena’s hair without breaking eye contact.

They were destined to be mates. Her alpha had known it before her mind could make sense of it.

Lena gave herself over with pleading whines and swallowed around the tip of Kara’s cock. Frenzied pheromones swirled in the air around them, a spicy concoction of lust, greed and desperation all tempered by the sweet scent of love.

“My heat is beginning,” Lena rasped, gliding her lips down Kara’s shaft just to follow the thick veins back up to the top. Her tongue lingered in the small dip where a squirt of desire dripped. She opened her mouth and let the thin strands of liquid arousal cling to her before sucking around the rim.

“I’ve waited this whole year for you to come.” Lena smoothed the translucent slick down Kara’s cock and massaged it in her warm clutches. “I’ve gone in to heat twice before without a mate. I used magic to hide it, but this time you will knot inside of me. You must breed with me in the old way. Cúpláil nádúrtha.”

“I don’t know your customs.” Kara groaned at the feeling of Lena’s teeth biting at her inner thigh, and her mouth suddenly engulfing her cock right down to the thickest part of the base.

Lena slurped up and down on her, invigorated by the taut pull of Kara’s cock and its excited twitching.

“Honor me with your seed, and I will honor you by conceiving your children,” Lena whispered, breathless and raspy against the very tip of Kara’s cock. She puckered her lips, pressing worshipful kisses to the swollen glans and bathing it with languid swirls of her tongue.

Kara could no sooner hold back than she could deny the intrinsic connection they shared, and she groaned, loud and guttural as Lena’s fist pumped over her shaft. The throb began in her toes, travelling all the way up her thighs and tensing her quads before pleasure spilled from her cock in strong pulsing jets.

Lena allowed the first spurt to coat her tongue, her chin raised and moan melodic when the second and third splashed her breasts. She stroked Kara’s cock against herself, covering her nipples in the essence with raunchy sounds of encouragement.

“More, you must give me so much more,” Lena implored, magic from her fingertips lacing through Kara’s nerves. The euphoric tingle worked through her limbs, white hot and demanding, and then centered in the base of her cock.

Kara gawked at the way it strained, so solid and powerful despite her release.

“What have you done to me?” Kara rumbled, far from worried as Lena used her hands to massage the rigid girth. Hot droplets of seed poured down the tip and Kara coaxed Lena onto her back in a supine position.

“Given you a gift that will last until you knot me,” Lena explained through a moan, her lustful eyes half lidded.

The alpha within Kara took control and she palmed Lena’s breasts with a rough hand, smearing her seed into Lena’s skin like a cooling balm to counter the ravaging heat. She knelt above Lena, working her cock with swift tugs like she understood what she needed to do.

Lena whined below her and used her hands to bare her cunt, pulling her inner lips to present her entrance.

Kara blasted thick ropes of seed over it and Lena’s abdomen. Lena frantically rubbed the seed in, pushing it into her opening with her fingers while she begged breathlessly to be taken.

“Please, I need a brutish mating,” Lena whimpered, and the alpha in Kara reacted to that by putting her down on her knees and breaking through the rosy sheath inside her cunt.

The tip of her cock pushed in between the warm petals of Lena’s inner lips, and the omega whined underneath her, hanging her head forward in submission. Her face was burning and Kara felt it the against her palm when she held Lena by the jaw and thrust harder into her sexual heat.

“This is how we make pups, Kara,” Lena husked and gave her cunt, presenting it to Kara for a cervix-deep battering. “Claim me with your seed. Only you are worthy enough to breed me.”

Hearing Lena profess that it was her right to breed her provoked Kara’s alpha. She put extra strength behind her lunges, forcing Lena into a bend as seed erupted from her cock.

The snap of Kara’s hips hastened with her grunts, and she bit down on the elegant slope of Lena’s neck with a growl. She felt fierce and alive and so much larger than her body, as if her spirit had doubled from entering Lena.

“Your womb is mine to fill and I will have you in every heat you enter,” Kara rasped, the sincerity of her words carrying in the collision of her thighs against Lena’s backside.

The supple flesh glowed with the heat of their mating and Kara admired the beauty of Lena’s submission. The shuddering moans that wracked through Lena promised something spectacular, and Kara could not resist fondling her breasts and her cunt.

Kara squeezed and sucked and nipped at every part of Lena, her fingers sinking between luscious folds to find the center of her pleasure. She knew she found it by the way Lena’s tightening walls clamped around her cock, and she whispered praises into her dark hair.

“And when I’m not in heat, will you tame me with your cock? Temper my wild nature with the force of your desires?” The magic encased within Lena was so powerful that even while human fire lit up her fingertips and burned the moss beneath them.

Now that Kara knew the delights of mating, she would not live without it again. Her alpha demanded satisfaction, and she kept Lena on her knees while she slammed into her quivering channel. “Not a day shall pass without me rutting your cunt.”

The sensual friction of Lena’s cunt was pleasuring her cock, and Kara stared down at the ravished gape of it. Lena was inflamed between the legs, her ivory skin darkening to a punished scarlet from the constant striking of Kara’s thighs. Her entrance clenched, but without Kara’s cock pushing inside of it, the stretched lips remained open. A strong opaque gush of seed filled her red raw slit.

Kara slipped back into the narrow ingress of her sex, flooding it with more seed that came rushing out when they separated.

“Keep it all in with your knot,” Lena begged at the sudden drip whenever Kara stopped to rub at the tender places between her thighs.

Kara had no experience with knotting and the thought of letting it swell in such a delicate part of Lena made her delay. Her cock still twitched in perpetual release, and she drove it into Lena until the head prodded against the soft dome that blocked deeper intrusion.

She placed a hand on Lena’s lower belly, feeling her harder thrusts inside and imagining the outcome of their mating. Lena took her seed with wide open legs, breeding with such gracefulness and wanton lust.

“I need to be bred, Kara,” Lena implored with light whines of urgency. “I want to learn all there is to know about mating, and for you to breed me in the bed that was meant for my marriage. Your seed will always be inside of me, and no one will question your claim on my body. It’s not enough for you to mark me. You must keep my womb full, too.”

Whether by Lena’s words or her alpha understanding the innate need to breed, Kara witnessed a change of her body. The proud length of her turgid cock glistened with Lena’s lubrication, and right where the base joined at her pelvis, she thickened. It did little to slow her, though Lena appeared to notice the expanding girth.

Lena’s loud cries heightened Kara’s urgency to seal her cunt with seed that streamed excessively from the slit at the tip of her cock.

Desperate to prove herself worthy, Kara bore down on Lena’s shoulders to pin her not just with strength, but sexual prowess that encouraged Lena to plead for it to continue.

The erotic display of Lena’s intimate chasm straining around the forming bulge elicited strong carnal excitement within Kara. The beautiful cadence of Lena’s cries culminated with the rapturous grasping of her cunt around every inch of Kara’s cock.

Lena trembled and clawed into the stone where wild flowers sprouted and blossomed. She turned her head to gaze back at Kara, her hooded eyes luminous and bright with emotion that flowed through both of them, their coupling joining them in ways that went beyond ordinary mating. The knot united their bodies for a long time, until the twin suns were right overhead and the land bathed in sunlight.

At the bottom of the mountain, Kara saw knights on horseback with Prince Mon-El taking up the front. She shifted first to find her armor and Lena continued to lie on the stones, only sitting up when the prince came to a height on the mountain ridge where he could see her staring down in brazen defiance of him.

“He began hunting me when I had just learned to fly at heights such as these,” Lena whispered with spite and a snap of her teeth. “You may not remember it. Once I brought you into a dream where he had chased and hurt me, Kara. You were as young as I was and just as frightened, but you stayed with me.”

Kara saw a crazed gleam in Lena’s eyes, and the omega smiled as she reached out to touch Kara’s shoulder. “Stay with me now. Await my return here and bring me back to myself if the dragon soul within me becomes too strong.”

Without the chance to agree or question her, Kara watched in awe as Lena underwent a transformation and became the dragon again. The span of her wings blocked out the sky, and she flew down the mountainside to snatch Mon-El up in her talons. His shriek echoed as Lena carried him far off towards the ocean.

The knights of Mon-El’s company climbed to the precipice where Kara was waiting, not to battle it out with her, but to admit their relief that the prince was gone.

Their numbers had dwindled with the prince’s delusions of possessing the dragon for himself and their loyalty along with it. For years they had been sent to their death while the prince entertained himself with lavish riches in the comfort of the palace. Queen Rhea had spoiled her son, and ruined the kingdom with her greed.

The knights promised that Rhea would be Queen no more, and that the palace should belong to someone who put the people first above all else. They looked to Kara with the same hope in their eyes that the elders of her village had, with reverence and respect and the belief that only she could lead them to a better life.

Kara worried the responsibilities of such a position might be too heavy for her shoulders alone to bear, yet just as she glimpsed Lena soaring through clouds in the distance, she realized she would not be alone with her mate by her side to guide her hand.

Dragons were to be revered, not feared, and Kara would outlaw the hunting of them as her first order.