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15
Tess
Radon herded me out the door, my keys dropped unceremoniously on the table closest to their makeshift bed by Quasar as he scrambled to get dressed so that he could join us. Their makeshift bed or ours? After all, I had spent most of the night in it.
A shiver went up my spine at the thought. Sleeping cuddled between them had felt far too good. Too natural. Their bodies pressed to mine, the scent of their skin on me. We were in that good part of a relationship. The part where you’re still learning about one another, but the brush of a hand or the scent of their cologne still makes you feel butterflies–the warm, calm ones.
There was no way I’d admit to snuggling down for a few extra minutes after I woke, though. Pressing my nose to the hollow of Radon’s throat, and threading my fingers through Quasar’s. That was girly shit. Simple affection wasn’t me. I wasn’t a cozy up and cuddle kind of girl. And I didn’t do long term relationships, either. A few months, hell, maybe even a week later, and I was irritated or bored. I had no patience for the phase when the bad habits started to show. After everyone’s best behavior started to dull and your true colors were revealed.
That stopped me in my tracks. Radon nearly bowled me over as he plowed into me from behind. “What’s wrong?” he asked, pushing a bit of my hair back behind my shoulder and leaning in. “Everything alright?”
“I have no fucking clue,” I answered honestly. “Aliens, dragons, knots? It’s all spinning around in my head, but that’s not what stopped me.”
“Oh little mate, you’re starting to feel it, aren’t you?” The corner of his lips drew up in a smirk that I felt in my core, turning it liquid. “Forever,” he teased, his voice husky. “For the Drakon it’s supposed to be instantaneous. Some of us take a little longer to come around than others, though.”
“And for their non-Drakon mates?” I asked, letting him tuck me up under his arm and start us moving again. Quasar had followed and was watching us from a few yards away, a haunted look on his face. I had put that there. Hurt him.
“The mating pull is still strong. You’ll feel more at ease with us than you would a normal relationship.” Radon threaded my fingers with his, as I reached up to hold the hand over my shoulders. A simple thing, but it brought me up short again, though luckily for both of us I didn’t stop. “We’re used to it. It’s what our society is built around. Fated mates and that immediate bond. But you humans are different.”
“Know a lot about us humans, do you?”
“Not a lot. Quasar is the one who studied everything he could get his hands on.” He gave me an eye roll. “He’s the champion suckup of our group. But I know a little.”
“Soulmates are a concept here on Earth, sure, but it’s relegated to the made-up section of the library. Not something any of us with two brain cells to rub together ever even consider happening to them.” I let him lead me to where a bunch of seats were laid out, sitting down next to him, still tucked under his arm. “Then add in the witches and alien monsters taking to the skies? And magic–let’s not forget about the magic–just… all that shit beingreal? Yeah,” she huffed out a laugh. “It’s no wonder we humans don’t fall straight into your arms.”
“You believe us to be monsters, then.”
A bellow from a circling dragon, the pink one–fuck me, pink dragons?–blasted from above, right on cue.
“Yes?” I hedged, then huffed out a breath. “No.” Shaking my head, I settled on the bench, leaning into him, our fingers still tightly laced together. “You gotta admit the shifting into a dragon part kinda leans in that direction.”
Radon nodded, still looking up at the sky, and not in my direction. “Our beast form has been more unique amongst the stars, that is true. Not many species have two forms, and not many as dominant as ours. As they’ve mixed with other races, their second forms disappear or grow weaker with genetic dispersal. Ours does not. Any who bear Drakon young, have fully Drakon babies.”
“I’m not ready for children yet,” I blurted out, hunching my shoulders away from him in anticipation of a blistering rebuttal which didn’t come.
Radon just kept looking up at the skies, watching the dragons circle. He was silent so long, in fact, that I’d nearly convinced myself he hadn’t heard me. Then he whispered, “Neither am I, mate.” I sucked in a shocked breath as Radon tore his gaze away from the fighting dragons to look me in the eye. His gaze was fierce as he battled his own demons. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready to see you breed, Tess. You should know that before… Well, you should just know.”
A scream from the sky pulled us momentarily from the endless moment, and my shoulders dropped. The pink and turquoise dragon were fighting together in earnest now. But the crashing power of their sailboat-sized leather wings beating on the air, and the echo of scales crashing against scales wasn’t registering as much as the words that had come out of my companion’s mouth.
“Can you tell me why?” I asked, leaning once again into Radon’s side, sensing that this time he needed my comfort, not the other way round. The heat radiating from the Drakon at my side kept my body comfortable, despite the cool mountain morning. Clearly, dragon aliens ran hotter than humans. “All the fated mate books I’ve read, the male is just chomping at the bit to see their mate barefoot and pregnant.”
“We do not wear riding straps,” Radon said seriously, tilting his head to the side. “Nor would I wish you to be barefoot while carrying young. Your skin is far too soft and prone to tearing. It would be impractical.”
“Thank you, Captain Obvious. It’s an idiom,” I told him, rolling my eyes. “I just meant, what with the procreation issue on Drakonis, I thought y’all would want to put a baby in me fast.”
“I do not. Rather I would wish for as much bliss as we can scrape together before you fall pregnant.” He tugged my closer, setting his chin on the top of my head. His breath sawed in and out of his chest, like he was fighting off a panic attack. Wait, dragons panicked? About what?
“No worries there, Misfit.” I wrapped my arms around his waist, and held on tight. Whether I was trying to hold him together, or myself, I didn't know. “I have an IUD. It’s like the pill but I can’t accidentally forget to take one and fuck up my life.”
“I’m sorry,” Radon said, sitting back to look at me. “That is not a human phrase from my translator. I hear it as just letters.”
“It’s an acronym,” I tried to explain, racking my brain for what it really meant. It was just so common, I hadn’t bothered to remember. “Basically it's this little plastic and copper thing that goes into my uterus, and it makes the space unsuitable for pregnancy. Something about pH, which you’re probably going to ask me to explain, but I can’t because it's been a hot minute since high school science.”
“The pH has to do with the acidity and basic nature of any given thing,” my companion rattled off, then smirked. “Yes, I have also studied the science of your planet.”
“You have a bit of copper in your body?” Quasar asked, sneaking a little closer. His eyes were still downcast, but even that tiny encroachment had my heart kicking up. “I’m sorry.” He scooted back automatically, and slumped. “I’ll stay over here.”
What I wanted to do was reassure him that it was fine. That what had happened was just a fuck up on both our parts. But what I did was press myself harder into Radon and looked to the grumpy dragon for help.
