Ghreid choked on his words, mouthing the word.Spectral.
“Isn’t former queen Inessa a spectral?” Jeron glanced toward Ghreid.
The golden dragon approached and knelt before Varis, cupping his hands at his face. “Yes. Blue with a gold shimmer, gold markings, and her horns were black and forked.”
“What’s that mean?” Varis parted his lips and extended a tongue that stretched foreign from his mouth. Pointed.
“It means…” Ghreid didn’t finish those words as he leaned in and took Varis’s mouth in a long, drawn-out kiss.
Asha cleared his throat from somewhere near the door. “He’ll need tenderness and sleep, but the change is done.”
Varis pulled away, lust burning through him. “Tell me, my mate.”
Ghreid opened his mouth and closed it a few times before leaning in, lips brushing Varis’s ear. “It means you are well suited to bear children.”
“Spectrals are said to be blessed with abundant fertility.” Jeron splashed about in the water nearby Varis, and the water gurgled away.
“Lucky me.” Varis leaned forward and hummed as Jeron threw a towel over his shoulders. “Now carry me to our mirror.”
Ghreid agreed, smiling for all the world like Varis was the only one in the room. Which, that became true soon enough as Jeron bowed and excused himself. Through the bathroom and into their bedchamber Ghreid carried Varis, coming to stand before the long dressing mirror by their wardrobe closet. Varis leaned his head over, and his world froze.
He had horns, but they were more like an ox or bovid creature of some variety, coming over his head with a thick sweep, but shorter, both curling up at the tips, aimed back, streamlined in a way that would keep his body agile in water. Scales in a dark indigo framed his face and shoulders, petering out to his bronzed flesh to nails so dark they appeared black, despite the indigo sheen in the dim light. With a gentle roll of his head, Varis took in his limp tail, the belly a salmon color that melded with his flesh in a speckled pattern not unlike the very lacemaker beasts he’d made peace with over time. And his wings, the same pattern, flecked with that same pale blue in a way that almost glowed.
Ghreid held Varis there, admiring every inch of him. “You, my mate, are the most beautiful dragon that has ever bore horns.”
Varis glanced up, eyes meeting Ghreid’s in the mirror. For a moment, Varis saw his own once-coppery eyes, full of a metallicflame, like a candle in a copper kettle’s belly. His once-white sclera had turned black, and ears pointed back. Varis wouldn’t have called himself beautiful. Exotic, certainly.
“I do not understand what it is that you see as beautiful, but I see you and my heart sings. Your gold is glittering and fine to me, alive in a way onlyyourcoin is. Your teeth are like pearls amid the sea floor, treasures I wish to search out and taste. I long to feel them on my skin. Your eyes, glittering and deep, hold more worth to me than any amount of wealth, and your scales are like a hoard more spectacular than anything else. I will jealously guard them.” Varis petted over Ghreid’s face and drew him into yet another kiss.
Ghreid rumbled into their kiss, lips hot as sin, scalding with every branding peck and lick. “You were made for me, and I will love you.”
Chapter Eighteen
Ghreid
There was no guide or education a dragon could receive that told him how to treat their newly emerged ashen mate. The heart took what it wanted, and it either soared or fell. Varis soared—well, he swam.
Scales more streamlined than most dragons nearly wept down his body, the pattern and gleam of them almost wet in the way they shined. Touching them, Ghreid could swear they would be slick like a fish’s scales, but they were merely obscenely bright in how they shone. “I want to feel your scales against my own.”
Varis, addled by the poppy milk, writhed against him. Asha and Jeron had gone away, his brothers still out flying. “By all means.”
Ghreid wouldn’t take him until he was sober, but it was so tempting, the way he squirmed and mewled. Instead, he shouldered Varis’s weight and made his way to their nest, shucking his own clothes like a second skin…third skin? For dragons, it was an odd experience either way. Bare flesh and gleaming scales insinuated themselves against the soft, new scales of his lover. And as the lamplight dimmed, the curtains parted to reveal the stars and moon outside, and the pale specks of his pattern glowed in the low light.
“You are fucking beautiful.” Ghreid growled, bare body struggling to wrap itself around his. Every inch of untouched new flesh was a challenge, forcing Ghreid to sniff, lick, and purr at every touch. Claws, sharp and menacing, glided over the new scales, tracing every pattern, every transition from flesh to other. “Too beautiful.”
“Am I as pretty as your brother-in-law you gush over, so?” Varis’s lashes fluttered over those flame-filled eyes, peering over a narrow shoulder so coyly.
Ghreid snarled. “To say either way would be a slight to the other. The difference is, you are mine, and he is not, and that’s the way I like it.”
“Answer, beast.” Varis squirmed against Ghreid, rubbing the outside of his thigh seductively against his hardening groin.
“Asha is art best kept on someone else’s pedestal. I long to keep you to myself. I covet you, desire you. Instinct tells me to keep you hidden from all that would view you and desire you. You are mine beyond all else. Besides, he clashes with my scales. You’re so much better at my side and you know how much I love to have the best.” Ghreid growled, the noise curling in his throat as he went in to nip and nuzzle along his mate’s neck.
“Speaking of sitting on a pedestal…” Varis stretched and yawned, his hardening cock pressing into Ghreid’s belly as he insinuated himself and wiggled, inviting a thousand tempting thoughts.
“May the fates forgive what I do.” Ghreid’s entire body shivered as he flipped and pressed Varis back into the silks and fineries of their nest and kissed his way down the male’s neck, tongue tracing every scale, every divot of muscle and line to his cut navel and farther down the hairless trail to his rigid cock that pulsed a dripping strand onto his belly.
“If they cannot forgive you, I surely will.” Varis gasped as Ghreid opened his mouth and engulfed the head of Varis’s cock and with a single lick and suckle, he savored the male’s flavor and descended with utter determination to imbibe every drop of pleasure the male had to give.
