I pulled off my shirt and left it for him to find over a low-hanging branch as I ducked under it and broke free into the wide-open space around the lake. It was empty that night, free from any late-night fishermen or skinny dippers. I kicked off my shoes and sat them on a wide, sturdy branch before shimmying out of my pants too. A second later, Clarence ran up behind me and closed his arms around my middle. He kissed up and down my neck, licking and nibbling at my flesh, as his mouth moved over me. I leaned back against him, letting him take on my weight and sighed. Every cell in my body celebrated the fact we were finally alone again.
I twisted in his arms to face him. I opened my mouth to make him promise to never leave me out again, but he spoke before I could.
“Let’s promise to never leave each other again. Circumstances are what they are, and I don’t regret taking the time to weave the web around Ferrick that I have, but I don’t want to be apart again, Medwin. I don’t want to push you away or for you to run away. I want to be together. For now. Forever. I don’t like being alone. I had Pras and even Volex and everyone else. Always someone around me but holy fuck, I felt alone without you there by my side. I wasn’t lying when I told your carrier that it felt as if all the color had left my life with you gone. Without you, none of this seems worth it. The night we met, I was lost. Everything had imploded and then you came and somehow gave it all shape. Gave it a direction and purpose. You made it all seem possible. Hell, I even killed Roster for you. He said these bloody horrible things and I couldn’t stand it a moment longer. I couldn’t stand there and let him talk about you like that. There’s no honor, no love, in letting someone talk about someone you care about like that and without those things – how am I any different from them?”
“You are different from them,” I said, meeting his gaze and running my hand over his cheek. “Roster’s crimes weren’t romping around with a single omega. Hell, for all we know it wasn’t even the cheating. Not with how quick he was okay with Charden. I don’t know what the heck they had going on, but there is no pleasure in having control of your own body ripped away and that was his crime. Over and over again. You’re nothing like Roster Moonscale, Clarence. I’ve asked everyone I meet about you. Volex had followed you for years before we met. He’d have known if you—If you were like him,” I said, choosing my words carefully. “He never had a snowball’s chance in a dragon’s belly of being a quarter of the man you are and not even an eighth of the man I know you’ll become.”
He kissed me again, softly this time.
“I hope that one day I’m half as honorable as you see me as,” he whispered and we kissed again.
I unbuttoned his shirt as our tongues danced between our mouths. He shrugged it off and grabbed it before it hit the ground and tossed it over the branch where my pants rested. My parents might ignore the noise of us sneaking out for a late-night walk, but coming home naked would incite some teasing.
I ran my hands over his chest and stomach, reveling in the warmth of his muscular torso. Somewhere in the woods an owl cried out and I kissed him again before sprinting away to where I’d hidden a go bag. When the world is on fire you always have to be ready to fly away. Inside that bag was a blanket that I spread out near the water while Clarence finished undressing.
I stretched out on my back, waiting for him to join me. The stars were all hiding as the clouds drifted around but my fire burnt as bright as the sun that night. Change hung heavy in the air like the water waiting to burst free from the clouds. This would change everything and there was no going back. At the last second, I rolled over and grabbed the condoms. It would be decades before our lives were stable enough for hatchlings but that didn’t mean I didn’t want to enjoy all the other parts of mateship.
I reached out for Clarence, and he took my hand as he lowered himself down onto the blanket with me. He tucked a stray lock of hair behind my ear before capturing my mouth in another longer, slow kiss. I pressed my naked body against his. I was hard and slick and ready for whatever he wanted because I wanted it all. I wanted all of him – mind, body, and soul. I longed to fulfill whatever ancient magic we enacted all those eons ago before our souls were ever born on Earthside.
Clarence ran his big warm hand over my chest, toying with my nipples until they were hard peaks before his hand sank lower over my belly. Warm waves crashed over me, stoking my fire, and driving me forward. Our tongues danced between our mouths and I lost myself to him. The world was still in danger of burning down. Ferrick’s mental stability was fragile at best, but --- Clarence’s whole body went stiff and his scent turned to pure panic.
“I’ve got to go!” he said, trying to pull away from me, but I didn’t let go of him.
“What’s happened?” I asked, standing up because that’s the only way I could keep my grip on my mate as he rose to his feet.
“I have to go!” Clarence said again, gently prying my fingers from his arms.
“Clarence! You can’t keep doing this! I don’t want to be in the dark every time something goes wrong! What happened to us not leaving each other?!”
“He ate Charden!” Clarence whispered to me. His scent was doused in fury, confusion, and something more primal – fear? Territorialness? “He literally ate Charden. I need to go. I need you to stay here.”
My heart plummeted into my stomach. He did what? He---
“Where are my pants, mate?” Clarence asked.
“I need to go with you! What if this is the time? What if this is the time you have to fight him?”
“Pras will be there,” Clarence said and I swallowed down all the bitter words that wanted to roll off my tongue.
“Why did he eat him?” I asked.
“Because he was pregnant. He – I think he believes that he was pregnant by Roster. Only as far as I know Charden never slept with Roster. I--- I think he got him pregnant, doesn’t understand biology, and ate him in his own ignorance. He keeps thinking about how he lied to him about the puppies being his.”
Chapter 13
Clarence Moonscale
Moonscale London Under the Reign of Ferrick Moonscale
The color drained from Medwin’s face as I stepped into my pants and handed him his own. Of all the things my carrier used to cause his own discomfort, I didn’t think basic biology would be one of them. It wasn’t common – whether by biology or occurrence, but omegas could conceive with other omegas.
“And as much as those two went at it….”My dragon chimed off into my thoughts as I helped Medwin get dressed. The part of me that belonged to the Moonscale Dragon Flight wanted to dash off and ensure Ferrick’s madness ended at eating his lover and unborn children. Children that I did my best not to think of as my siblings. The part of me that belonged to Medwin – the part that kept me sane in the face of the never-ending insanity roll that was my carrier – knew to walk him back to the house and make sure he was safely inside with his parents.
Once he was safely inside the house, I shifted and took to the skies. I had only left them alone for a single night. One should be able to leave two grown adults alone together without one eating the other. Volex and Pras chatted over the little link our group had forged, but I couldn’t focus on their words.
Charden had come home with a sonogram photo. Two little jellybeans. He was over the moon. He thought Ferrick would be too. They’d have their own family now. That was as much sense as I could make of it through Ferrick’s memories and emotions.Ferrick wasn’t happy because his own educational gaps were too wide for him to see across. I didn’t care much for Charden. I thought he was either one of the dumbest or most naïve people I had ever met when it came to Ferrick, but to be bitten in half and eaten because you tell the person you’re in a relationship with that you’re about to start a family is beyond bloody words.
“Medwin is right. This has to end now. There isn’t any more time,”my dragon chimed into my thoughts.“If he’ll eat Charden, no one is safe.”
