Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 9

out and over his palm. It sent a snake of heat slithering up his arm and through his mind. She wanted him. Not a surprise. He'd known this a long time, and he'd explained to her why it was never going to happen.
    Only the mating fever sent a pitch of unexpected desire through him at the touch, and he faltered.
    She shifted her feet, wary.
    "Ruby, come on." He shook himself and the image of her, as pretty as she was, disappeared into a lust-hazy image of Robert, then Kreed, then….
    "Huh. That's a solution I hadn't thought of," he muttered, trying to banish the vision of tangled bodies and mostly failing as heat flared up trough him. If she smelled the rut on him, it would not help his situation. He forced his mind back to her and her frail, human beauty that held no allure for him.
    "Ruby, you know I'm still lacking that crucial thing, right? Besides the fact I don't want you," he added under his breath as he navigated a slow path around her bulk. "And while you might think I smell like a dragon, you have to realize if you try this, you'll kill me. So. Please don't try."
    Powers, please don't try.
    It was definitely not the way he wanted to go.
    She took a step towards him, head cocked once more, wings still wide. Her tongue flicked over his chest and the burning marks. He flinched, but she only tasted the venom, wiggling her tongue along the cuts and leaving behind a thick coating of saliva. The burning eased slightly.
    "That's interesting." He glanced down at the oozing liquid drooling a pinkish trail down his chest from the cuts. It frothed slightly, carrying poison out of the talon marks as it seeped away.
    She grunted and her tongue wrapped around his broken wrist.
    He couldn't help the wince or yelp when she squeezed, and she shuffled back hurriedly.
    She hissed at him again, her ruff flaring, her tail lashing, her wings expanding to cut off his path to escape.
    "Oh, Ruby. Please."
    He stopped moving, stood still, waiting. There wasn't much he could do if she decided she was going to have him.
    Above them, a deep, distressed call sounded, full of anger and lust and frustration. It almost sounded like his own name, and he flinched.
    Robert
    He crouched, knowing if he didn't move, and soon, his scent would collect and give the dragon above a target. Ruby was a scarily smart girl. The fact he smelled like he should but appeared too fragile to actually be what he smelled like seemed to be giving her pause.
    Robert was all kinds of dragon, even in his human form. Alec had no illusions his friend would put the dichotomy together while scale-magic flooded his senses. He would not survive his roommate finding him now.
    Another call sounded, and Alec swore.
    Casting one more longing glance at him, Ruby lifted off, graceful and amazingly powerful as she vaulted into the air and burst through the canopy above. Alec watched her go, caught a glimpse of her brilliant red body crashing headlong into the orange mass of the other dragon.
    "Robert!" the cry tore from his throat as both dragons fell from the sky.
    The trees whipped back to obscure his view. Above the sounds of dragon song breaking apart in furious sounds of battle shook the air and pulled up a vortex of magical energy.
    Alec's hair and clothing whipped in the sudden wind. Tree branches flailed, new green leaves danced and tore free to spiral in long thin vortexes of razor-sharp shreds. The chaos revealed only glimpses of his two friends battling above. He was the prize. No matter who won, if either of them did, he was still in danger. It didn't leave him a lot of time, but probably enough to make a run for safety. They wouldn't be able to reach him inside the heart.
    He hoped.
    "Thank the Powers for that," Kreed muttered to himself, spying the battle above the woods. He'd been right about the direction Alec would take, at least. The rush of knowing he had guessed right when Robert hadn't even the faintest idea where to start inspired him to a burst of speed. It had to mean something that he'd figured it out and the buff, popular prince had been left flat-footed and helplessly confused by Alec's flight.
    Lifting into the sky, Kreed circled around the university grounds to enter the woods from the far end. It was a longer way to travel, and the trees were denser, so he would eventually have to walk, but Robert wouldn't see him from here, and he'd make it to Alec first.
    That thought shot a spike of heat and excitement through him. He shuddered. The animal in him