“Please,” Braern repeated, grip tightening on his arm. “Just to try. I know you liked it.”
“Not enough to risk hurting you, love,” Adrissu sighed, gathering the elf into his arms. Despite his frown, Braern relaxed in his grip, his body warm and pliant against Adrissu’s. “What else can I do for you, hm?”
By that point they were both tired and sore, so Adrissu used his fingers instead to make Braern come. After, he doubled over on himself with a groan of distinct pain, rather than pleasure.
“Are you all right?” Adrissu asked, frowning; still doubled over, Braern nodded.
“Sore,” he said, after a moment of catching his breath. “T-That’s all.”
“My poor boy,” Adrissu murmured, rubbing the tense muscles of his abdomen with one hand, while carefully easing the other out of his asshole. Braern sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth, before meeting Adrissu’s eyes, a chagrined smile wavering on his face.
“This is always the worst part,” he groaned, slowly pushing himself back up into a normal sitting position. “When it starts hurting like this, but I still want it.”
“Let’s get you something to eat and drink, then maybe a warm bath will help,” Adrissu said, and Braern nodded.
Braern was quiet as Adrissu fed him and gave him a glass of water, watching him with dark eyes as he did the same for himself.
“You know,” Braern said, the smirk obvious in his voice, as he watched Adrissu gulp down some water. “I bet this would be less tiring for you if you were a dragon.” Despite himself, Adrissu laughed, wiping his face as he set down his cup.
“You’re not wrong,” he laughed, shaking his head.
“Then just do that,” Braern pushed, leaning closer to him. “You’re not an elf. You’re not built for this. But if you were a dragon—”
“I don’t think you understand just howmuchbigger I would be,” Adrissu said quickly. “You’re already in pain. The novelty of it would be exciting, of course, but afterward you’d be in even more pain.” Braern’s face shadowed with disappointment, but he didn’t reply. Adrissu eyed him for a long moment before speaking again. “Not this time, Braern. I will maybe consider it for the future. With some extra planning, maybe. I don’t think you’d ever be able to truly take my cock in that form, no matter how much you wanted it, but maybe we could figure something out. But not now, not in the state we’re both in at this point.”
Braern looked at him blankly for a long moment, then a slow smile spread across his face.
“Next time,” he said, sounding all too satisfied at the prospect of it. Adrissu shook his head, but didn’t bother to correct him. “Okay. I can live with that.”
“Now, how about that bath?” Adrissu said, standing up; and with the same self-satisfied grin, Braern followed.
The warm water was obviously soothing to the worn elf, who made soft noises of pleasure and appreciation as Adrissu bathed him—paying special attention to the tense, aching muscles of his abdomen and lower back. When Adrissu joined him in the bath, though, Braern’s interest immediately shifted. An apologetic grin crossed his face even as his eyes darkened with lust.
“Sorry,” he murmured, as he leaned closer to Adrissu, the water splashing around them. “I know you’re tired.”
“Don’t apologize,” Adrissu said, pulling Braern into his lap. “Come here.”
Over and over Braern whined that his fingers were not enough—even when four were buried to the last knuckle in Braern’s slick hole, and the elf was moaning and writhing on top of him–but Adrissu’s cock was utterly spent. He teased two weak, shuddering orgasms out of the elf this way, before Braern was too sore and tired to continue.
For all that the experience was utterly exhausting for each of them, when the sun set and they once again got into bed, Adrissu watched Braern fall into a deep sleep and thought that he could live with this and be happy. An excuse once a year or so to be completely alone with his mate, doing nothing but following his most primal urges? To eat and sleep and fuck, and nothing else? Not that he really needed an excuse for such a thing, but it was appealing all the same.
Yes, he could gladly do this for a long time. Maybe forever. Hopefully forever.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Bythenextday,Braern was mostly back to normal. His heat usually lasted a day, he explained, and he counted himself lucky for it; some elves had it closer to two, or even three days, which sounded miserable. Enjoyable as some parts of it had been, Adrissu was mostly glad to resume their daily life. Braern was quieter than usual the day after, mostly tired, but also seemingly embarrassed or uncertain whether Adrissu’s opinion of him might have changed. The day after that, he had largely returned to his normal self, even going with Adrissu to the academy to help him catch up on the work that he’d missed.
Life settled back into their normal routines; but more than ever, Adrissu wanted to ask Braern to let him find a dragon to put his soul into, so that they would not have to be apart again. While a century was not an impossible length of time to spend alone, if Adrissu could avoid it, then that was certainly preferable. And as tolerable as Braern’s heat had been for him, the elf clearly found it a hassle at best. What was the point in dealing with it every year if he could not bear children? Adrissu could make Braern like him, allowing him to take the form of an elf without any of their body’s unusual inconveniences. He was thinking of it more and more after that first heat, and he finally managed the courage to broach the subject a few weeks after.
“Do you remember the trick I mentioned we could do to Lorsan, if he were to ever show up?” Adrissu asked, keeping his tone light as he watched Braern from across their dinner table at the end of their meal. Braern raised his head, mid-bite, with an inquisitive look on his face.
“Of course I remember,” he said, covering his mouth. “I still haven’t really come to a decision about it, I suppose.”
“I wanted to ask you something different this time,” Adrissu replied, taking a steadying breath. He was suddenly nervous. It felt altogether too much like the time he and Ruan had fought about the first ritual: how Ruan had so stubbornly dug in his heels whenever it came up. He mentally prepared himself to be refused, the way Ruan had always refused him, but quietly hoped that maybe this would be different—maybe now that he’d done it twice, Braern might be more amenable to the idea of not having to die again.
“What is it?” Braern asked after a few seconds of silence, sounding unsure.
“How would you feel about something similar on—well, on yourself?” Adrissu asked. Braern’s eyes went wide, startled, and he added quickly, “Not in the way we discussed for Lorsan, no. But taking your soul and putting it in something more... more permanent.”
