The Dragon’s Throne 1

Chapter 7

Eli strode into his home, angrily dismissing the women who stepped out of the woodwork.

“I’m in no mood today,” he said with a broad, sweeping arm.

Marissa came out of the kitchen just then, sandwich on a plate, standing naked with a smile on her face.  It was obvious that she was horny, and Eli wasn’t having it.  He took the sandwich and thanked her for it, taking a bite and swallowing before he spoke.

“I know that you sneak away as often as you can to sleep with others,” he said, watching her face go blank for an instant before she quickly hid her shocked expression.  “I’ve known for quite some time, but I didn’t care before.”

“And now?” she asked coolly, completely unfazed by being caught.

“I think you should stay with your other lover.  It’s obvious that’s where you would rather be, and I’m not sure what keeps you here.”

“You do, my prince.”

Eli shook his head.

“That used to work on me, but I see now that I’ve been played from the start.  I wouldn’t be surprised if you were only doing this so that you could be queen someday.”

That time, his words got a reaction out of her; the first genuine reaction he’d ever seen.  He shook his head again, chuckling despite the betrayal he felt. 

“You should leave,” he said softly.  “Take the other girls with you.  I’d rather live alone than live like this another day.”

“Is there anything I can do that will change your mind?” Marissa said, her voice seductive but the fear obvious in her hazel eyes as she trailed her hand down his abdomen.

He grabbed her hand before it closed over his manhood, glaring at her as her pretty face turned ugly with barely contained rage in an instant.  She pulled her hand out of his grasp, flinging her hand so that she knocked the plate out of his grasp.  It flew across the room and shattered on the hardwood floor. 

“You’ll regret this, Prince,” she sneered, nostrils flaring impossibly wide as she fought to hold her inner dragon at bay.

“I’ll regret realizing that the woman who came to me promising no strings was a liar?  Was this the plan of your lover all this time?  I find it hard to believe that you conceived of this plan without some form of help.  You never did strike me as particularly cunning.”

Marissa shrieked in anger, hissing wildly as her body shifted, filling up the room with her dark brown scales, her tail whipping out as it grew.  Eli jumped in time to avoid being swept off his feet, his own anger growing as Marissa’s transformation was complete. 

Eli ran at her, his body morphing with each step, her wild, flailing tail crashing through a glass display case and taking it out in one smooth swipe.

When Eli leaped into the air and collided with Marissa, he sunk his claws into her shoulders, her dark brown scales offering her almost no protection from the much larger dragon that Eli was.  He held tight, wings flapping wildly to keep himself on his feet as she struggled to get out of his grasp.  Her thrashing only served to dig his claws deeper into her flesh, locking her in and holding her prisoner.

Marissa shrieked again, this time in pain as well as anger.  She thrashed around, but Eli had her too tightly, and he was dragging her toward the front entrance, bent on casting her out.

She was not making it easy.

He dragged Marissa as her tail swung around and slapped him roughly in the shoulder.  He grunted, but didn’t let go, still pulling her toward the entrance, his anger rising with each laborious step.

Women scattered as the pair of dragons fought their way through the grand entryway, a tangle of black and brown scales, tails, and claws.  At one point, Marissa overpowered him, pinning him beneath her and using her tail to stab at him like a scorpion.  He moved from side to side, narrowly avoiding each stab as he worked to get out from beneath her and back on top.

Eli finally found his footing, shoving with all his might and pushing Marissa right out the door.  She rolled down the short hill in front of his home, then sprung into the air, opening her mouth and sending fire in his direction and much too close to his home.

Eli’s rage echoed off the mountains that surrounded them as he took off into the air after her.  She roared back, shooting fire at him again in midair, narrowly missing him as the ball of fire exploded in the air to his left. 

He shot after her, swinging wide and using his tail like a bat and hitting her hard.  She spun wildly, rushing toward the ground in an uncontrollable tailspin.  She hit the ground hard, causing the mighty forest to tremble around her as her body created a giant skid in the dirt. 

Marissa slid along the dirt for the length of three football fields, tearing up tree roots and dirt as she did.  Eli was on top of her before she stopped sliding, his clawed hands holding her throat as he stared into her eyes.  He saw fear there, and understanding.  He wanted her out; out of his home and out of Aman, and she understood. 

She held up her reptilian hands in defeat, and slowly, Eli backed off of her.  He never took his eyes off her, watching as she stood and shook herself off, launching into the air and heading east without looking back.

Eli shook himself, checking his body for injuries before leaping off the ground and setting out for his parents’ home. 

He got there in record time, landing on the front lawn and shifting back to human form between one stride and the next as he walked.  His father met him at the door, Silas’s face worried.

“What was all that noise?” he asked. 

“Marissa,” Eli said, gliding past Silas and going into the house without waiting to be invited.

He took a robe offered to him by one of the servants, not even caring that he was strutting around the house in the nude.  He was angry, and he had made a decision.

“I need some workers at my house,” he said without preamble.  “Marissa threw a bit of a tantrum and destroyed my dining room and entrance hall.”