Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 126358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 632(@200wpm)___ 505(@250wpm)___ 421(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 632(@200wpm)___ 505(@250wpm)___ 421(@300wpm)
“Yes, but…” I gestured at two cadets who were doing things which were strictly and specifically disallowed by the dorm rules.
“I know—it’s crazy. All you can do is try to resist.” Jorn-o squared his shoulders. “I won’t give in. I’m not that way,” I heard him muttering to himself.
Ignoring him, I went staggering out of the dorm, looking for I don’t know what—some normalcy somewhere, I suppose.
I didn’t find it. Everywhere cadets were doing things they shouldn’t. I saw them on their knees, sucking each other and doing worse things, too.
“This isn’t real,” I whispered to myself. This can’t be real.”
Every place I went, I saw cadets entangled with each other. Every second I felt the dragon lust pouring into me. From every direction I heard the wet sounds of sucking, of bodies slapping together, of hoarse male voices moaning and begging for more.
The naked acts of lust surprised and frightened me. Though my own body was throbbing with the need of a multitude of dragons, I didn’t want anything to do with any of the men I saw. It wasn’t until several of the upperclassmen started giving me predatory looks that I realized I was making myself a target just by being out in the hallway.
“Hey, look at that—pretty as a girl,” one of them muttered, eyeing me.
“Yeah—bet his arsehole’s nice and tight. First-years are always virgins,” the other replied.
That was all I had to hear. It wasn’t safe out here!
Turning, I ran as quickly as I could through the dimly lit corridors, finally making it back to Dorm A.
When I got inside, however, an insane sight greeted my eyes.
Jorn-o was down on his knees eagerly sucking a Second-year cadet I knew only as “Greer.” He was stroking my friend’s face and murmuring,
“That’s right—take me nice and deep.”
Jorn-o looked up at me and I saw shame and need mixed in his eyes. He pulled away with a noise I knew I would hear forever in my dreams.
“I tried,” he said, his voice hoarse and needy. “Tried to resist. But I’ve always wanted him.”
“I’ve always wanted you, too. Pretty little First-year.” Greer ran his hands through Jorn-o’s hair almost lovingly. “How about if you stop talking and start sucking again?”
Jorn-o nodded and was about to start servicing the older boy again when his eyes suddenly widened.
I saw that he was looking not at me, but at something over my shoulder.
“Auri,” he said in a hoarse voice. “Run!”
Instead, I turned and saw Chud Larson standing in the doorway of the dorm.
40
AURORA
“Knew I’d find you here,” Larson snarled, entering the dorm.
“Leave me alone!” I put out a hand to stop him as I slowly backed away. “You can’t touch me! Ryse will kill you!”
“No, he won’t. Mating Flights are the one time he can’t lay a finger on me, no matter what I do to your pretty little body. I’ll just blame it on the dragon lust—nobody can argue with that.”
He looked at me with a savage lust in his tiny, no-color eyes and I felt my blood run cold. Was it true that no one could be blamed for anything that happened during a Mating Flight?
I thought of how no one wanted to explain it to me and how Jorn-o’s father had warned me to “make myself scarce” when a Mating Flight happened. Was this the Academy’s dirty secret—the other side of the honor and order they espoused during the day?
I didn’t know but it seemed very likely. In the space of a few minutes, I felt as though my whole world had been turned upside down. Everything I thought I knew was gone, replaced by a nightmare world where my body ached and yearned, but my mind was stunned by horror and betrayal.
“Leave me alone,” I said to Chud Larson, backing away and almost tripping over a boy who was laying in the middle of the floor, self-pleasuring. “If you touch me, Ryse will come for you—Mating Flight or no Mating Flight.”
He let out an ugly, barking laugh that had no humor in it at all.
“Skoren isn’t coming for you! Every time there’s a Mating Flight, he takes a draught of calming tea. Knocks him the fuck out and he doesn’t wake up until the next morning when the flight is over. Scream and cry all you want—he’s never going to hear you.”
I felt cold horror growing in the pit of my stomach. I wanted to shout that he was lying…except I was pretty sure he wasn’t. Of course Ryse would take something to help him sleep through the Mating Flight. He would be even more affected by the dragon lust than I was. I could only feel dragon emotions—he was part dragon himself! How much worse would this all be for him with his bloodlines?
I was on my own with nowhere to run. Still, I wasn’t about to give up.