With the flat to ourselves, we didn’t bother with words. Clarence kicked his shoes off and I pulled my shirt off over my head before starting to undo his buttons. We had undressingdown to a science despite hardly ever getting to be naked together. His scent yelled STRESS but that wasn’t surprising. Ferrick and Roster were back and the city once again held the old familiar tension it always did when they were around.
I started to drop to my knees and suck the stress out of him, but Clarence picked me up and toppled onto the bed with me. With his nude body pressed up hard and warm against mine I could almost pretend we weren’t at war with his parents. I could almost pretend everything was normal. Almost. Because if everything was normal, he could sink into me over and over again. We’d exchange our claiming vows, and he could fertilize my eggs. This was our normal, but it was far from how the world should’ve worked. So, we kissed with our tongues dancing between our mouths and our hips grinding together. With his dick in his hand, Clarence rubbed the tip of his cock up and down my shaft and over the sensitive, textured skin of my scrotum, using the precum that dribbled out of him to mark me as his territory.
“I want you so much. I need you,” he groaned against my lips. “Every second I’m not with you is torture.” He moved and buried his head into the crook of my neck where my claiming gland was. It was still plump and squishy. These days I wore a shirt to workout anywhere but at home because it was too obvious that something was unusual about it. He kissed the gland and I froze. Immobile, I wondered if my alpha was about to throw caution to the wind and claim me. He didn’t. Of course, he didn’t. Me and my friends couldn’t be the ace up anyone’s sleeve if Ferrick and Roster knew about us.
Clarence let out a growl of frustration, and I grabbed his face in my hands to make him look at me.
“I’m right here. The rest of it is all magic and tradition. We don’t need that. We might want it, but we don’t need it,” I whispered to him as we lay in the dark. “I’m here. You’re here. We’re alive and that’s enough for this moment. There will be so many more moments. Moments where we look back on this and are grateful that it didn’t last forever but also grateful for everything it taught us about ourselves, each other, and the world.” Then I took a deep breath and kissed him again. In between kisses, I told him how much I wanted him and needed him and that I was ready to descale Roster with a butterknife just to lay my claim on him. We’d lock Ferrick in the basement and toss down chicken eggs for him to smash or something. We’d figure it out because we had to and I was nearly desperate enough to try anything just to be with him.
Eventually all our dirty talking, frotting, and stroking paid off and we both came hard. Smoke wafted from our mouths and noses as we panted to catch our breath and wrap around our heads around how good every atom inside our bodies felt despite the world being a burning trash heap.
“I have to kill him soon,” Clarence said.
“I know. Do you think you’re ready?” I panted.
“I don’t know that I’ll ever think I’m ready,” Clarence admitted.
“I think that’s the first step of being ready. If you could fly home and kill your own sire without a second thought, you wouldn’t be the alpha I love.”
“I love you too,” he said and kissed me softly.
After a little nap and quick shower, Clarence told me about Charden. I wasn’t sure what to make of the wizard either, but I knew either he was very powerful and manipulative or very stupid and easily led astray. Eventually, we’d find out which one. I only prayed that it would work out in our favor.
***Notes from Clarence: I’ve often wondered why some true-mates can go years without fulfilling their claiming vows without any major problems with their claiming glands and why other people will have them rupture. I clearly didn’t have the answer, so I reached out to Doctor Michael Lawngry. He has published several peer reviewed articles and research studies on the matter but in layman’s terms we still don’t know why. It’s something to do with the magic of the true-mate response being individualized for each couple and possibly each mate. Some folks he’s encountered have suggested it also depends on the goals that souls have for that lifetime and how important that claiming bite is to those goals or if it’s better to wait. So, the answer is still that none of us know for sure, but some very intelligent people are still looking into the matter and scratching their heads about it.
Chapter 9
Clarence Moonscale
Moonscale London Under the Reign of Roster and Ferrick Moonscale
My parents and Charden had only been back in London for a month, but it felt like a century. It was as if wherever I stepped foot in the castle or Moonscale London – there they fucking were. Volex had become too skilled at killing my tails and my parents were picking up on it. They were losing a couple of guys a week and eventually my sire cornered me in the library of our estate.
“Can’t they hurry up and go to Paris?”my dragon mused as I tried to appear occupied around the castle.
“Are you killing them for fun?!” Roster roared as he walked into the library. His feet were unusually bare, and it looked as if he hadn’t brushed his dark, matted hair in days. Charden and my carrier were frolicking in the garden which was why I was currently in the library, flipping through books that I didn’t much care about. I’d do anything to not walk in on them as I had the first week Charden lived with us. I’d never look at that side table the same again.
Keeping my expression both neutral and confused was a challenge. I absolutely was confused. I wasn’t sure which deaths he was accusing me of. Was he inquiring about the tails or his friends? Why did he look as if he suddenly developed a fear of self-care and grooming? Possibly shoes?
“Who are you talking about?” I rolled my eyes, ignoring his disheveled state. Surely, he knew he looked like a dragon slowly losing his mind.
“Don’t do that. You look like your bloody carrier,” Roster growled. “Are you killing your tails for fun!? Those aren’t playthings, Clarence! Those are bloody well-trained guards. Is this because I wouldn’t fight you that night in the study? Are you that hung up on Charden? Or are you jealous ofhim? I know he’s taking up a lot of your carrier’s attention. Don’t worry. I figure that will come to an end soon. The signs of boredom are already there.”
“You’re having me tailed?” I asked and the fire faded from Roster’s eyes as I grabbed the conversation by the belly scales. That was the correct answer. “Why are you having me tailed? Don’t I have the right to privacy? Are you worried that I’m fucking all the omegas you eventually want to fertilize?” I roared. The anger was real even if I couldn’t say all the things to him that I wanted to in that moment. “What does a dragon have to do to have a life around here?! Am I the only one not allowed to jam my dick wherever I want to?”
If Volex could’ve heard me, he’d have been proud. Medwin would’ve been mortified. I sounded exactly like the son of Roster and Ferrick Moonscale should’ve. I was exactly who I needed to be in that moment.
“I never said you couldn’t get laid! They’re not the paparazzi! They’re for your protection.” Roster struggled to keep his tone even. He was lying. That’s why he told Ferrick he had me tailed. Hell, he might have even told himself that, but the truth was he’d acted strange around me since my heir coronation. He probably suspected Ferrick and I had a plan to off him. I didn’t know whatmy carrier was up to but as far as I was concerned, his intuition was spot on.
“Maybe I don’t want them knowing my life. Have you thought about that? Perhaps if you practiced a bit more discretion my carrier wouldn’t go around smashing up your eggs!” I roared. “Have you considered that?”
“It is not my job to control your carrier! It’s not my job to protect those eggs! I am not some sniveling little omega dragon who can’t keep my eggs intact!” Roster roared at me and it took all my might not to backhand him off his bare feet with their unclipped toenails.
“Yeah. It’s not your job to protect the next generation. So why in the name of Frost’s fiery balls are you having me followed?” I stepped forward. As I did, my muscles knew what to do. They knew what to expect. I’d practiced enough with Volex that my body knew what to do without being directed consciously by my brain.
“Because for as long as I draw breath, this city – this territory – these dragons including your carrier and you are mine. I don’t think you’ve quite grasped what that means yet. I do what I want. I take what I damn well please and you will behave in a fashion that is acceptable! You will stop running around with ruffians that have the idea that they can change the world because this is MY BLOODY WORLD!” his voice grew louder and louder as he spoke. “You’ll stop seeing that Smokescale boy or I swear to god I will fill his belly with your siblings until your carrier can’t resist his own baser instincts.”
I didn’t tell my hand to drop the book I had been flipping through when Roster entered the library. My brain didn’t tell my body that it was my fire surging through my limbs thatgave them their power. They knew that from all the beatings Volex had given me. I didn’t consciously realize that the distance between us was perfect for what was about to unfold. I didn’t think about it and to this day I was almost positive, that’s why I succeeded. It was as Volex always said. You can’t dodge a hit that you don’t see coming.
