Reaver

Chapter 8

"I believe that your youth has misled you, young one," he said gently to me. He took my hands away and frowned gently at me. "You are not yet of age among dragons, I can tell. Why so do you seem desperate to find a mate? Did you run away from your hatching family?"

Damn, if only he could just give in!

It would be so much simpler, but now it looks as if I would have to tell him the truth or at least all he needed to know for now.

I scooted away from him, pouting, misty eyes, and pulled my legs up to my chest, resting my chin atop them. "I was sent away in disgrace. As you know I need help taking back my throne, however to do that I need a mate, a pure blood mate. It has to be a dragon from an untainted line as I am the tenth generation of Tainted. I wouldn't have any mate from my own kingdom, so finding you was a blessing. Is a blessing. I have much need of you, and I have come to care for you in the short time we have been together."

I looked over to him. "I am only eighteen it is true, but it is the law of my people, and the Senate is that I must wed before taking to my mother's place on the throne. The law of age was left due to the circumstance of me being the last of my bloodline."

"One so young should not rule," he said wisely.

"If my people had been left in better hands, I would not have bothered with my crown until much later. But they need me and with you at my side I will have your wisdom and words to guide me until I myself can be as wise."

The air grew silent between us as the twilight started to fade to the darkness of night. His expression grew dark like the water, his brows drawing together.

I let a grin touch the corners of my lips but kept my distance from him.

My voice was a tad shaky, "Help me rebuild what was lost, help me make the kingdoms great again. My family did what your mother once did. We were the heart and ruler over all kingdoms once. We can make another golden age come upon all. Hiding here alone forever is not the answer."

I looked out to the dark of the moonless night. "You should think that after being locked away for so long you wouldn't want to be alone again. You should crave for the touch of another. I would know this as well," I ended, my voice going dead on the last statement.

He noticed my tone and I winced as he asked. "How would you know this?"

I grimaced. "I was taken by Black Bloods and tortured for ten years, used as a weapon in their wars. I was their beast of burden."

He sucked in a harsh breath at the revelation.

I continued, "I am still quite crazed at times, due to the black magic they used to poison my soul and strip its magic. Just another reason for my people to send me away. I am extremely surprised that you aren't crazed as I was. Gods know I would be. But they broke me, you must not have been truly broken yet. Maybe it was the torture for me that did it, I guess I shall never know."

"Torture at their hands could break even the mind of a god, young one. I would rather have had my sentence then yours. One year as their slave would have been a lifetime to anyone else if they had live that long. I had no idea that they still existed in these time," he muttered harshly.

I grin a hard grin with no humor. "They exist no more unless in hiding, as in a rage I torched their entire country. Burning all to ash and cinders was my greatest pleasure."

He was shocked by this announcement. "You?"

"Me."

He bowed his head, took a deep breath and nodded slowly. "You are right on being alone. I have always been surrounded by family and friends and now that I am alone and have been for many a year I am quite lost. I am due for some happiness I think, after all this time. I have thought on it much since you freed me."

Barely able to contain my excitement I lunged myself at him in a hug. I hugged him tightly and fiercely.

Slowly he wrapped his arms around me in return.

I pulled back a bit and smiled up at him. I was shaking with excited nerves. "Now comes my most important question. What do you wish to be called be all?"

"The name given to me by my mother was Azure," he rumbled from above my head in his deep breath.

"Azure, Dragon of Olde, I take thee as mine," I whispered up to him, shimmering emotion in my voice.

He leaned his head down until his forehead rest against mine. "I am still needed here for a short time. And here is where we shall be mated, in my homeland. I wish this old tradition for us, to bring us peace and prosperity. Then we may travel to your homeland, Hazelin. I vow to you I will do all I can for you, never shall I let you be alone or hurt."

He picked me up as my eyes drifted closed in sweet sensation. "For now, rest, my young one."

The last thing I heard from his lips before sleep claim me was, "Never to be alone again, forever. What a blessing..."