“Did you hear yourself?” Marcus leaned down to kiss me, soft noises, more tender than his voice, seemed to vibrate in my throat. They jarred me, like it made my ears buzz.
With a gentle gesture, my hands cupped my ears, itching at them as if the internal tickling sensation needed to be chased out. That buzzing feeling was sound, though. He leaned in to touch his nose and lips just behind my ear and hummed—thesame tickling sensation. He drew back with a grin that I must have mirrored because a beautiful tear of joy slid down his cheek. “You made a sound.”
I wished I had my pen and paper, but my dragon seemed to want to help me.I did! I make small sound. Throat doesn’t know how to.
“It’s okay. Shh.” Marcus cringed as our jostling made his cock twitch inside me, earning another buzzing of my ears and siren that I realized was my voice.
“Mm-Marrrr-cuss.” I tried to hold onto that sensation of friction in my throat, moving my tongue in such a way to make the sound. My R’s sounded more like W’s, and it occurred to me that maybe the mouthing of words I did didn’t quite match up to what they sounded like. Probably needed to work on that.
He kissed me, silencing my thoughts. “Your first word and you wasted it on my name.”
It wasn’t a waste. It was beautiful. I gave him a playful smile and wriggled my hips. “B-big. Cock.”
Note to self, my G’s sound like K’s. Work on it.
“Now those are some beautiful second words, my love.” Marcus kissed me as his knot rescinded and soft cock slipped free. Cum and slick got all over his gold, but he didn’t seem to mind as he kissed me stupid once more. “Shift with me. Then, I’m going to fuck you. I’m going to breed you. I’ll put my seed so deep into you that your belly will round with my egg.”
I nodded. I didn’t know much about making babies, having never had a heat and all, but my dragon agreed that I needed a nest and would make a fine young for my mate.
“And once your skin sheds, I’ll give you everything you’ve ever wanted. I promise.” He kissed me as we rolled around.
Flesh turned to scale, our bigger forms more cramped in his hoard room, but it was spacious enough.Will make it bigger for you. I promise.His dragon snarled to me as we twisted our tailstogether, and he took me with his thick cock in every way he could get my dragon as my scales stung and stretched. My skin felt like a turkey straight from the oven, ready to split and burst free with juices. Marcus nuzzled over me, curling with me as patches of his scales split and revealed glistening scales beneath.
I wasn’t sure where one body began and the other ended, but when I was more raw than I’d ever been in my life, I snuggled up with him and closed my eyes. My dragon rumbled with contentment.
Sleep, kitty. When we wake, all the bad will be just a memory.
Chapter Eleven
Marcus
I woke with the worst taste in my mouth and smacked my lips—well, what constituted lips for a dragon. I stretched amid gold and remnants of shed skin—my own and my mate’s.
Whisper, all pale scales and kind eyes, blinked up at me with a purr of delight. Not a trace of the freckling remained on him, the marks of a young dragon. He preened against me and insinuated himself in such a way that had me rumbling until our baser halves made lazy tail-swishing love.
When we finished, I dared to shift, disgusted by what I’d smell like, whatwe’dsmell like. Sheds were not instant things, not an overnight event. Winter had likely passed already, and I sniffed myself and wasn’ttoooffended. Whisper shifted as well, and when he did, my inner monster preened. Low in his belly was the gentle swell of life. He rested a hand on it and gave me bedroom eyes that I had to will myself not to act upon.
“Good morning, Whisper.” I stretched as he gave me a thumbs-up, which I took to mean the same.
Wordlessly, he followed me to the shower, all lazy smiles and nuzzles as we cleaned one another and sought out clothes. Dust had accumulated, and we stretched with wide yawns and brought ourselves back to the rest of the keep, searching for others.
Under the gentle billow of one of my sweatshirts, Whisper hid his little bump, and we peeped into the playroom, giving Aster and Nula a little smile and wave. We found Brae in his office, poring over paperwork, while Father and Baba were probably up in the tower already. Spring had sprung, and with it came nosy humans getting lost and hillsides full of buried dragon remains and treasures to protect. And there they’d stayuntil a new dragon born reached the correct age and searched a fortune out to build their own. I’d dug mine up beneath an ancient maple tree, coins literally embedded in roots, and paid homage to the dragoness that had accumulated it.
We left the keep and walked out to the tower, climbing the stairs as Whisper panted with the new strain of his body. I’d hunt for him soon and feed him a fresh kill. A deer or a bear would be good.
“Lyphus!” Father’s voice piped up and the hatch to the tower opened, and two faces stared down at us with wide grins. “And there’s our sons, a good shed later.”
“Sorry I missed the start of spring.” Marcus smiled, his face a beautiful thing in the sunlight.
“It’s excusable. You two mated. You haven’t shed in years, and your mate needed his first.” Malkim offered a hand down to help Whisper climb the last few steps. Drifting eyes landed on him and locked tight, a wide, bright smile stretching his lips. Baba always said Father’s smile could brighten a room, and it did.
Baba, likely seeing the same thing, lifted Whisper off his feet and twirled once. “You are so very blessed. And you’ve done no small favor for me, too.”
Father laid a hand on Baba’s shoulder, as if to tell him to think less of the bad days.
“T-tank you.” Whisper fought the words and was a beautiful thing to see. His struggle to learn the difference between the way a consonant looked and sounded in his mouth.
Baba squealed and clapped his hands. “Don’t stress yourself, dear. This is wonderful.”
