I pinch him. “What’s an alpha?”
“An alpha, Little Kitten,” he says, catching the hand that just pinched him and rolling down to lie on top of me, his cock pressed into my ass, “is the dominant wolf in a pack – the one all other wolves obey.”
“Oh,” I say, wondering why those words stir something low in my belly.
He chuckles. “Like that, huh? Like the idea that I’m an alpha?”
“Yeah,” I admit. “I do, actually. It’s kind of hot.”
Dray growls again and sucks on my ear, but I guess Blaze isn’t comfortable with the idea of any – what Fly would call it? – shenanigans on his back. He jolts us both, making it clear he wants us to stop.
I push against Dray’s chest and we both roll back up to sit.
Blaze lifts back up into the sky and we continue our journey onward. Soon, the landscape below us becomes less refined and beautiful, and more industrial and grim.
“Where are we now?” I ask Dray.
“Iron Quarter,” he says, pointing out army barracks below us, and later, several gymnasiums and arenas.
It’s not as beautiful as Onyx by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s about ten times nicer than Slate. The houses here have roofs, for starters, and they’re made from brick – not corrugated iron and bits of wood. I bet none of these houses leak rainwater in a storm or collapse altogether when the snows are too heavy. I bet they’re warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
And yet, I can’t envy the people who live here, because it isn’t Onyx. There’s no splendor, no wealth, no exuberance.
“Which way’s Granite?” I ask. “Are we going to fly over that Quarter too?”
“Nah, Little Kitten,” Dray answers. “Granite’s in the opposite direction.”
“Have you been there?” I say. “Is it much different to here?”
“It’s a lot like the academy,” he says. “Lots of academic buildings, schools, laboratories – that kind of thing.”
“But you’ve never been to Slate?” I say.
“I’ve been to the edge of Slate,” Dray says, “where it hits the border. I’ve been to some of the towns out there.” He squeezes me. “I’ve seen enough to understand.”
I nod, watching as the landscape changes again.
It’s clear we’ve reached my Quarter – Slate.
There’s more snow on the ground now, and ice. It shines in the moonlight, but not pure white like the snow that falls at the academy. It’s a gray snow, a sooty snow, a dirty snow.
In fact, you can see the great factories chugging their thick smoke into the air as we pass over the towns of Slate which –now that I’ve seen the towns in Iron and the great capital of Onyx – I can only describe as slums.
“It isn’t fair,” I whisper. “It isn’t fair that some people live like this and others…”
“Life isn’t fair, Little Kitten,” Dray says. “If it were, I’d be taking you to my bed and not to the fucking demon realm.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Beaufort
This is the second time in as many days that I’ve been forced to stand and watch our little mate fly away.
I thought the dragon was a good thing. Now I’m having second thoughts.
At least, Dray is with her – protecting her, ensuring she doesn’t get lost out there in the big wide sky – even if that should have been me. The psycho doesn’t even like dragons.
Soon the great dragon is nothing but a shadowy dot in the sky, gliding away, but I, like all the others out here, can’t help but stare in wonder until I can no longer see her at all.
