Wyvern's Trim and other stories (9 page)

He went still for a moment and said, “It was all I
thought of when I was placed in that place. It consumed me. By the
time I came to accept my place I had forgotten much, including my
name. I did not try then to remember because I was merely waiting
to die. Do you not like Sebastian?”

She shrugged
. “I just think it is sad that you won’t be able
to keep even that. It is very cruel what they did to
you.”

He kissed her fingers again and sucked
one. She gasped and asked
, “What are you doing?”

He rolled his tongue around another finger and
said, “I love the taste of you. Does it not please you?”

She chewed on her lip for a moment. Inside she was
shivering with something but she wasn’t sure what she felt. His
tongue tickled the place where he had branded her. She jerked but
didn’t pull away. Sebastian rumbled with a growl, but nothing like
the ones he had used in the labyrinth.

Elder murphy spoke softly with Sebastian but when
Ash had offered to leave them in peace Sebastian had gone very
still and had asked her to stay. She wondered why and spent the
time thinking about him and why he didn’t want her to leave and why
he seemed almost afraid. She almost cursed herself. She had thought
with his bearing and his muscles that he was not a man that feared
anything but she realised that despite that, he wasn’t very sure of
himself.

Especially as he had already made mistakes
and she som
etimes had to
explain to Elder Murphy what Sebastian was trying to say or to
smooth over something that could be taken wrong. She kept
forgetting that he hadn’t been around people in a very long time.
That would make anyone unsure of themselves.

She knew that
there was also that anger and violence that was in him. He had
warned her about it though she had never seen it shown besides the
occasional growling. But she knew it was there and she wondered how
he struggled inside to keep calm when he normally would have given
injury.

Sebastian
absently stroked her hair. Her attempt to give them some privacy
she had sat down on the grass by the seat and was reading a book.
The elder had seemed surprised by her reading. But he hid it
quickly. Maybe because children that had the parents willing to
educate them were not the kind of children that ended up
here.

She wondered what he thought she would be
teaching the children after she had taught them to make and read
maps. That wouldn’t take very long even if she had to teach it
to
everyone at the
basilica. Teaching them to read would take a decent amount of her
time and she knew that the next group of orphans would come through
before she finished with the others.

The children
then could learn so much from the vast library that was at the
basilica. Many scholars came from all around the world to seek some
rare tome.

Ash liked the way Sebastian touched her. He wasn’t
expecting anything from her. She forgot for long moments that they
were outside in the gardens with the elders. When she did she
didn’t want to lose the touch so she hesitated.

She glanced up to see what Elder Murphy thought of
the unconscious touch. He glanced at her and frowned for a moment
but it was more that he was trying to figure something out rather
than he disapproved. She didn’t want the elder to be aware to the
difficulty that still lay between her and Sebastian.

They slept in
the same bed and he would kiss and touch her but he never asked for
anything more. She had progressed to actually changing into a night
gown to sleep and she no longer made a comment when he slept almost
naked. She knew he wished more from her but he never pressured her
and stopped whenever she felt things were getting out of control.
She was oftentimes thrilled and then confused by the things that he
did to her.

The confusion
usually left when it became something that Sebastian did
often.

Like how he
touched her hair. He did that often. He had even spent almost an
hour brushing her hair out one night and just trailing his fingers
through her tresses. She was no longer afraid of the touch and she
could actually enjoy it. The plain pleasure of touch was something
that she was afraid of but she knew that all he would do was smooth
his fingers through her hair. He would even stop if she asked. That
gave her confidence and the fear had slowly disappeared.

She had even started to think what would
happen if she didn’t stop him. But she hadn’t gone
further than thinking about
it.

Sebastian asked,
“Where are you taking me?”

Ash tugged on his arm and said, “You will know
when we get there. Now just have a bit of patience.”

He growled but
she wasn’t afraid of the sound. She was a little puffed with the
stairs they were climbing. When they reached the door at the top
she took out a key she had borrowed from the
housekeeper.

It had been tricky to distract Sebastian
long enough to
talk with
the woman to lend Ash the key. This room was mostly forbidden
because a few people had flung themselves from the large windows in
despair. Being an orphan wasn’t an easy thing. But the housekeeper
had only needed to look at the dragon to know what Ash
intended.

Ash pushed the door open and motioned for him to
enter first. Sebastian must have trusted her as he didn’t hesitate.
Once he was inside he went very still.

She said, “You
haven’t gone flying yet. I thought…” she let her voice trail
off.

The room at the
top of the stairs was really a look out. It was open to the
elements and that windows were mostly large arches which circled
the entire room.

Sebastian was
moving to the windows. He turned to her and offered his hand. She
took it and he asked, “Do you trust me?”

She smiled, “Of course.” She answered.

She asked, “How
did they keep you there in that cave by the way? Why didn’t you
change into a dragon and break out of your chains?”

His eyes were dark as he answered, “The cave
itself has special properties that make it difficult for me to
change. The old Dragon hunters used to use the same trick on other
dragons to hunt them down and kill them.” His tone changed as he
added, “But that is the past.”

He stepped onto the open windowsill and
tugged her up to stand
up with him. He pressed a kiss to her cheek and said,
“Close your eyes.”

She did. A flash
of light and then she was suddenly falling. Something caught her
and she opened her eyes. A dark blue dragon was holding her close
against his chest.

Sebastian was
stunning as a dragon. She studied him for the longest time before
she turned her attention to the view. They were circling the
basilica which was built into the side of a mountain deep in the
Wyvern Empire.

Ash had never seen the basilica like this and it
was stunning. It was set into the side of the mountain. Seamless
from where it was natural rock to man-made construction. People
seemed so small on the ground below. They flew for a little while
before Sebastian brought her back to the basilica.

He changed back into his human
shape
in a flash of
light. Ash grinned at him and said, “That was
amazing.”

He grunted. She doubted he would ever be a
man of many words.
She
caught up his hand and said, “I love you.”

He was still for
the longest while and she wondered if he would say anything in
return.

He didn’t but he
tugged her against him and pressed his lips to the side of her
neck. She could feel him murmur something against her skin but she
couldn’t make out the words.

Ash lay in bed
thinking. She loved Sebastian. No concerns or reserves. Did there
need to be anything else?

Sebastian placed his hands on her
shoulders and kissed the side of her neck
before he asked, “Love are you
alright?”

She bit her lip then slowly turned and
said
, “Sebastian will
you stop if I ask you?”

He frowned. “Have I not before?”

She nodded bowing her head
against her chest as she
gathered herself. She knew that Sebastian would not harm her and
she did want to see where all these feelings went but she was still
afraid.

Her voice almost a mumble
as she said, “Tonight I won’t
ask you to stop.”

He went very still and
asked
, “Are you sure,
Love?”

She nodded and looked up when he placed a crooked
finger under her chin tilting her head so he could look at her. His
eyes searched her face. “You still fear.” He stated.

She nodded and said
, “Only a little. I’ve
never…”

He nodded once and took her hand guiding her hand
to his chest. “There is nothing to fear Love.”

I hope you
enjoyed these short stories from my Wyvern Chronicles. You can also
read my first full novel in this universe – Blazing Blunderbuss –
which is coming out in June 2016.

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