"And you sh-should know that I feel safe here with you. I know myself better as your om—no, as your mate."
"Brigid," Torion murmured on a heavy purr.
"This is my rightful place, here with you, Torion. You arerightfor me," I said, echoing the words he'd offered me months ago.
He sat up, trying to twist toward me, but Torion had always given me too much power over him. I only had to pause him with a touch on his shoulder and gently pull him back to the tub, and he relaxed once more.
"I started fighting against falling in love with you the moment you claimed me as your omega, and I lost the battle far sooner than I wanted to admit," I said, leaning forward to kiss the nape of Torion's neck, smiling at his answering shiver. "I surrender to your love, Torion. And I promise to surrender my love to you, mate."
"I love you, Brigid," Torion answered, his voice thick with his purr and something richer. He cleared it softly, leaning back as I continued my work on his wings. "Wicked of you to say these things to me while I must behave and let you tend to me."
"You wouldn't have let me finish if we'd been in bed together," I said, and he laughed. Every time I repeated the vow since I'd first told Torion I loved him, I barely got the words out before he was kissing me. It took too little to please him, but I refused to grow complacent.
I loved the ritual of tending Torion's wings, rubbing in the oil that picked up dust and dirt, then wiping it away with a damp cloth in long strokes that made Torion groan and melt deeper into the bath. I'd asked him once if he found the process sensual when he had to do it for himself, and he'd said it paled in comparison to when I did the work. When his wings were dry and clean, I warmed a bar of lotion made from lanolin and the oils of walnut, lavender, and clove between my hands. We talked about Tylane, and then about how the betas of the Hills were adapting more easily to the idea of mating than theyhad in Bleake Isle. We'd given the tradition up later than other regions, as the historical records stated, although it had become a practice to tie families together rather than one made with the instinctive demand Torion had followed when he'd bitten me.
"I took Mairwen's advice and made sure the women of the household were always present when I discussed what a true mating would mean for them," Torion said. "I'd like to do away with the selection ceremony altogether. Dragonkin are slow to change, but I think it might be possible to prepare them before the next ought to take place. If mating does become more in fashion again, they'll hardly be relevant."
"Mm, you can always repeat the process from the most recent. Perhaps it's time to have the men of the Hills be the ones who are measured for their quality," I said.
Torion chuckled and then let out a soft moan as I started circling wing wax over the dense muscle and hide at his back. I knew this was always the part of the process that left him the most aroused, the cleaning and softening leaving him sensitive, the wax requiring the most massage. Water stirred in the bath, and I glanced over his shoulder to find his hand moving over his lap, working his cock in a similar fashion to the way I stroked the bones of his wings.
I leaned forward, brushing against the expanse of his wings, making them twitch, and then whispered into his ear, "I saidIwould be the one to care for you this evening, mate."
Torion huffed out a laugh and squirmed, lifting both of his hands above the water, spread in supplication. "Are you going to let me return the courtesy?"
"Perhaps," I said, a little shyly.
Torion had admired and worshipped my body at every point of the pregnancy and after the birth. The transformation hadn't given him any pause but to discover new and apparently pleasing changes. I'd healed over the weeks since Tylane's birth,but it was also the longest period of time of our acquaintance we'd gone without lovemaking. The majority of our time together, we were now too exhausted to really think of sex. When I did find myself aroused, the anticipation of waiting turned into nerves. Would itfeeldifferent now? My body had changed so much, and some days I felt more like I was designed for Tylane—her creation, her care, her feeding—than I was my own person.
Torion reached a hand back and I gave him mine, smiling as he drew it over his shoulder to kiss my knuckles and then the inside of my wrist. "I am yours to do as you please with," he said.
As I meticulously buffed and sealed the hide of his wings with the fragrant wax, Torion's breaths grew deeper, hitching in moments with a choked sound like he was swallowing a whine before he released a thunderous purr. With every sound he tried to stifle, my body grew a little more sensitive, heating at first, tender breasts pulsing as they brushed against the cotton of my shift dress, my core echoing the plea.
"Rise," I said, and my voice was lower than usual, rough, almost like I was mimicking Torion's growl.
His breaths were heavy as he pushed up from the edge of the tub, water sluicing off his body in a cascade that left me parched, my view now the beautifully muscled and rounded globes of his ass. I swallowed hard and pushed back from the tub, lifting the heavy linen sheet up as I rose.
"Come here," I ordered, and Torion stepped out of the tub and into my embrace, his cock prodding through the damp linen to plead against my stomach. I buffed him quickly and then pulled away. "Sit."
Torion glanced down at the cushioned stool and then back up at me with an eyebrow arched. I arched one back and he grinned, cheeks flushed, as he sat down, naked and still dripping. When I knelt before him on the layered rugs, his hands rose to cover his face, a plaintive groan buried in his palms.
"Brigid."
All I had to do was nudge his knees, and he parted to make room for me.
His cock was standing high, bobbing against his belly and leaving a pearly drop against the dark hair that led down from his belly button. His sac was heavy and full and deep brown, and I thought it already looked like it was tightening, readying for release.
I ignored the area, focusing instead on his feet, pulling them into my lap and grabbing a softer lotion.
"Fang's fire," he laughed, breathless and fractured with need as I tended his body at my own pace, working on his feet and then up to his calves, over his knees. He twitched as I touched the sensitive, vulnerable skin at the back, and then his cock kicked for attention when I moved up his thighs. "You'll kill me, love."
"You're heartier than that, alpha," I teased.
He swallowed hard, smiling down at me with his blush spreading down his chest and his eyes the full dark of midnight in the new moon. "Not when it comes to you."
I stroked my hands over his hips, and he dripped a little precum right in front of my eyes. I glanced up at him, a wicked smile curving my lips, and he stilled, prey caught in my sights. I leaned forward and licked up his length, claiming his flavor on my tongue, my eyelids growing heavy as he swayed and then fumbled behind him, hands bracing against the tub.
"Fuck," he grunted, chest heaving.
