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Sighing, Evie nodded, both concern and appreciation filling her gaze. “He is not sick, but you won’t see him again for a while.”
“What do you mean I won’t see him again?” I questioned, rattled by her words.
“He’s growing, Braxton.” Finished with cleaning my body, she set the soap aside and settled on top of me—letting herself fully sit on my lap.
Our bodies pressed against the other intimately, and my mind threatened to stop working, but I forced myself to pay attention. “Go on.” I swallowed.
“There are three events in a Dragon’s life when the shedding of their skin is not only thorough, but also incredibly painful. All three are related to them maturing,” she explained. “The first one occurs after the first two years of their life, the other two are each set three years apart. They slowly develop in between each spur, but their forms don’t fully give way to the next phase until the main shedding takes place. Vyper and Draco already went through two of them.”
“Becoming teenagers,” I offered, guessing where she was going with that, and she gave me a kind smile, nodding.
“With this last shedding, Vyper will officially be an adult.”
“But that would only make him like eight years old?” Confusion briefly gripped me, but I also recognized Dragons were a completely different species, so it made sense for them to mature in a completely different way, and timeline than we did.
No one could look at Luna or Tharion and tell me they weren’t mature, though I suspected they had been around for many, many years.
“Their race develops completely differently than ours does,” Evie added, confirming my thoughts. “They are magnificently evolved beings; their years could never compare to ours.”
Releasing a heavy sigh, I tried to find relief, but I was still concerned about Vyper. “So what he’s going through it’s just growing pains?”
“Yes, and no. You see, when a Dragon reaches one of those events, they go into what we call hibernation. As the symptoms begin to appear, they shelter in their lairs and enter a period of absolute rest. While they sleep, their bones expand, their forms shift, growing into their next form, or in this case, into their final adult body. The changes are always drastic, often shocking, which is why it’s so painful. But it also makes them stronger—the ultimate guardian created by the gods to protect Caelisium. The process of hibernation ensures they sleep through it all, minimizing their discomfort until they awake… transformed.”
Processing the information, my concern grew. “But if they go into hibernation as soon as the symptoms start, then why is Vyper in so much pain? I mean, his skin is all but falling off—" My breathing halted when the answer came to me, accompanied by cold dread. “He didn’t want to leave me, did he?”
“He is very stubborn, and that isnotyour fault.” Evanna’s hands cupped my cheeks, intense eyes reiterating her words. “Based on his loose skin, I suspect he started feeling the signs at least a week ago. But refusing to leave your side, he decided to brave the storm instead of letting his nature take over… until the pain became too much to handle.”
“That is why he was so tired today. He has been fighting the process.”
“In his defense, I wouldn’t want to leave you either.”
My lips began to tilt into a smirk, but she kissed me, soothing the ache in my chest. The look of love and loyalty Vyper had given me before I sent him away cut through me, I had no idea how much he truly cared for me until that moment. Although, it could also have been that he didn’t want to let Tharion and the bronze baby have me while he was gone.
Yep, that sounded more like the Vyper I knew.
Grinning, I pulled Evie out of the water and took her to bed, capturing her body in my arms, and making love to her.
