His fingers traced patterns on my back, following the bond marks that glowed softly in the starlight. "I was lonely for so long I forgot what the opposite felt like. Built a life prepared for someone I thought might never come. And then you fell out of the sky, marked by darkness but somehow still full of light, and everything changed."
I pressed my face against his chest, breathing in the scent of him—ozone and wind and something indefinably other. "I was so scared. Of the mark, of losing myself, of becoming what the Unnamed wanted. But you never let that happen. Even when Iwas Little and couldn't understand why the rules mattered, you kept me safe."
"Always," he promised. "That's my job now. Keeping you safe, caring for you, loving you through everything that comes."
We stayed like that for a long time, just holding each other while the caldera's ancient magic hummed around us. Talking in fragments, sharing histories, processing the magnitude of what we'd just done and what it meant for the forever stretching ahead of us.
Eventually, inevitably, desire stirred again. His hand on my back shifted from comforting to caressing. I pressed closer, discovering that my transformed body recovered quickly, that the soreness from losing my virginity had already faded to manageable tenderness.
"Again?" he asked, feeling my intent through the bond.
"Slower this time," I said, already moving to straddle him, learning how to take control, how to set the pace. "Teach me what you like. Show me how to be good for you."
His groan was answer enough. His hands found my hips, guiding my movements as I learned his body's rhythms, learned how to read the tension in his muscles and the sounds he made to understand what felt best. This time there was no pain, just pleasure building steadily as I rode him, as he showed me how small shifts in angle changed everything, as we learned together what we could be to each other.
I came twice more before he followed—my transformed body capable of more than my human form had been, pleasure easier to access, easier to ride to completion. Each time, he talked me through it with that Daddy voice that bypassed my conscious mind and spoke directly to my body.
"That's it, good girl. Let me see you fall apart for me again. So beautiful when you come."
By the time exhaustion finally claimed us both, we were boneless and sated, tangled so thoroughly I wasn't sure which limbs were whose. The sky through the caldera's opening had shifted from black to the deep blue that came before dawn.
"We should go back," I mumbled, though moving felt impossible.
"Or we could stay," Caelus suggested, pulling a section of cloud-stuff over us like a blanket. "Sleep here where we sealed our bond. Go back tomorrow."
Tomorrow sounded perfect. Right now, I just wanted to exist here in this sacred space, wrapped in his arms, feeling complete for the first time in my life.
"Tomorrow," I agreed, already drifting toward sleep.
Through the bond, I felt his satisfaction, his contentment, his absolute certainty that this was right.
We slept.
WereturnedtotheNursery as dawn painted the eastern sky in shades of rose and gold, me wrapped in Caelus's cloak because my ceremonial dress had been left somewhere in the nest, forgotten in the aftermath of everything that mattered more. The fabric smelled like him—ozone and wind and home—and I burrowed into it like armor against the world we'd have to rejoin.
The corridors felt different on the return journey. Not physically—the same bioluminescent crystals lit our path, the same stone breathed beneath our feet. But I was different, and that changed everything. Each step reminded me of new muscles, new strength, the way my body moved with grace I'd never possessed as fully human.
Through the bond, I felt Caelus's satisfaction like sunshine, his pride and contentment and the deep pleasure of having finally claimed his mate completely. He kept touching me—small contacts that felt necessary rather than possessive, like he needed constant confirmation that I was real, here, his.
When we reached the Nursery proper, the other Dragon Lords and their mates were waiting.
Not intrusively—they'd given us privacy in the caldera itself—but present nonetheless, standing in loose formation with their mates beside them. Acknowledging what we'd done, what we'd become to each other. Witnessing in the same way the mountain had witnessed our joining.
Kara moved first, crossing to me with a smile that held knowing and welcome in equal measure. Her hug was tight, fierce, the embrace of someone who understood exactly what I'd just survived.
"You're one of us now," she said against my hair. "Properly. Forever. Welcome to immortality, sister."
The word hit different this time. Not aspirational but factual. I was sister to her, to Mira, to Lark. Bonded to a Dragon Lord, transformed, claimed by collar and Pact and consummation. Part of a family I hadn't known I was building.
Mira approached next, her frost patterns catching morning light as she smiled. "How does it feel?"
"Overwhelming," I admitted, accepting her brief hug. "But right. Like I was always supposed to get here, I just didn't know the path."
"That's perfect," she said.
Lark was last, hanging back slightly with her stuffie clutched in her arms. When she finally approached, she didn't say anything—just held up the rag doll in greeting, the simple gesture somehow saying everything about belonging, about finding home in unexpected places, about the family we'd all chosen.
I took the toy carefully, held the worn doll for a moment before handing her back. "Thank you. For showing me it was possible. For surviving first so I knew I could too."
