Chapter Three
Fred
A two second sonic confirmed what it took me too long to realize. Elio was carrying our next egg. I should’ve realized when he asked me such a weird question. I should’ve realized when he was so emotional about my response. Big emotions and dragons aren’t strangers, though. Most of the time it involved burning shit down or knocking shit over.
“I’m sorry,” he said as we stepped out of the clinic. “I should’ve known something was up. I didn’t know how to tell you what I felt because I couldn’t explain why I felt it.”
“Emotions aren’t logical. Believe me. I know. I tried to burn you down when we met,” I chuckled, wrapping my arm around his waist from the side and stepping closer to him. “If you can tell anyone about the irrational parts of your brain it’s me and if it’s not me, we’ll find you a therapist or you can tell Marsin or--- I don’t know. It doesn’t have to be me, but I don’t want you to feel alone in anything and feeling like you wouldn’t be safe in a pinch is something I definitely need to know about.”
“But you didn’t do anything. Not really,” Elio sighed. “You told me the truth. I didn’t ask if you’d save me because that felt too mean. Maybe asking about Lotus was meaner than that but---”
“It wasn’t mean. It felt a bit like asking if I’d save Minter over everyone disguised in a different sort of question.”
“Shit, Fred,” he sighed. “No wonder you looked so confused. You gave an honest answer that would’ve even made sense for that question, and I was still pissed off.”
“Yeah. I let it go because sometimes emotions are weird and I wondered if you were picking up on the fact that I still have dreams that piss me off because I couldn’t save her and maybe that pissed you off because it pissed me off,” I confessed.
“I always wonder if that will go away when she comes back,” Elio said and bit his lip.
“If she comes back. If we find her in this lifetime, you mean?”
“Yeah. That and I feel like an asshole when I miss her because you knew her for so long and I had some time with her in the Other World and---”
“Stop. I’ve told Teddy to stop comparing balls to tits too,” I told him. “I missed Lotus before I knew her. I missed her back when she was my only mate, and I didn’t know her yet in this lifetime. I didn’t remember meeting her in the Other World and I still missed her. We all feel that gaping void until we meet them, I think. Maybe not everyone. Plenty of people live with it but I felt it. So, I think you do miss her. You just say it differently than those waiting on tenterhooks for their mates to come into their lives.”
“Thanks for not calling me a weirdo.”
“I’m the weirdo here. Don’t take my title,” I teased him and he hip bumped me. “But one day, if this gateway thing works out, I’m going to take you to Glitter Bomb and we’re going to dance the whole fucking weekend away.”
“Not while I’m egging,” he shook his head.
“Not while Minter’s so young either,” I added. “So, probably no time soon but one day.”
“One day, you’ll finally cover me in glitter for good,” he laughed.
“That’s been my plan all along,” I nodded and leaned over to lick his earlobe.
“Do you think Teddy would be angry if we went home and were home for a little bit before we told him we were home, and he could bring the baby back?”
“He won’t even notice we took longer than he expected. If he does, he isn’t gonna comment on it. Though, I will remind you that this is how we ended up in this situation in the first place.”
“Not like you can put another egg in me right now,” Elio laughed.
“I can try,” I leaned over and whispered in his ear as his face turned bright red. “And I plan to.”
***
Teddy kept his baby brother for the weekend. He didn’t even ask why we needed the free time. Maybe he knew that Elio was pregnant or maybe he figured out we were playing second matingmoon. Perhaps he was just happy that we trusted him enough to watch the baby while we took time to ourselves.
We fucked like I was trying to put another egg in him despite biological barriers that his body provided since we already had an egg growing inside him. I kissed him each time like he was my oxygen and in some ways he was. Elio was the dragon who saved me from myself. I spiraled after Lotus died and the kids declared they were okay. I slept and smoked and smoked some more. Hell, sometimes I still missed the taste of ash and fire dancing on my tongue. I enjoyed licking his slick, tangy arousal more than smoking, though. So, I stayed away from them. Elio saved me from all that by sending a calling card across space. He fought for us before I understood what we were to each other. Now I savored all the small moments we shared – mundane, magical, or something in between. I needed him to know that I would destroy whole worlds for him. I’d burn down empires to save him and our kids and they were all our kids. I’d cut the throats of---
“Do you always think such deep thoughts while eating my ass?” Elio laughed into the pillow, and I bit his ass cheek. “Ouch! Fucker! Omega butt abuse! Go back to thinking of destroying empires. Didn’t mean to interrupt your kink, alpha.”
I bit his other ass cheek, taking my time to ‘sink’ my teeth into him. He pressed back against my face and let out a sexy little grunt that came from deep within his throat. Pushing myself upright, I slapped both of his ass cheeks while admiring the imprints of my teeth in his flesh. I’d marked my territory all over again. Tiny orange scales popped up, surrounding the bite marks as if they were decorations.
Elio arched his hips and shook his ass at me. I gave his ass the next slap he silently begged for. I was fucking hard. My dick throbbed for him, but I still took my time rubbing it between his cheeks. He was so slick and ready for me. He rolled his hips, rocking against me and I ran my nails over his back and ass until he reached behind him, grabbed my hands, and pulled me flat against his back.
“Someone’s eager,” the growl escaped my throat before I could stop it.
“Someone got me all worked up – the licking and sucking and thinking about taking down empires in my name.”
“That’s not very Starscale of you,” I teased him and rocked my hips, rubbing my shaft between the thick, round globes of his ass.
“I’m Moonscale too now, remember?” he said, pushing against me. “A dragon’s a dragon and it’s nice to know you’re ready to strike down a civilization if one threatens me. After what happened with Selt and Liatris, you never know.”
I made a note to circle back to that topic later when the head of my cock wasn’t prodding against the warmest, slickest omegahole I’d ever encountered. I lost myself to Elio’s body engulfing me and how our hips rolled together. He clutched my arms keeping them on either side of us, making me work harder with my hips to sink into him again and again. This was definitely how we ended up in this situation – but this situation was the best sort to be in. I licked the back of his neck before grazing my teeth over it. He moaned and pushed his hips back, sliding onto me, until I was fully inside his tight, slick body.
Stealing my arms away from him, I slid them under his chest. His nipples were hard as his star scale against my hands. I held him tight to me as I fucked him. I held him like I planned to never let him go. He rocked against me, working with his whole body. I slid one hand down his chest and abs until I found his hard cock. I stroked him in time with our bodies moving together. I kept my fist moving on him until his breaths came into those sexy, little gasps that meant he was so-fucking close. His pleasure rained down on both of us over our mating link. It mingled with my own until I wasn’t sure what sensation came from where and I stopped caring if it was his or mine, originally. Pleasure was pleasure and what was mine was his too. Elio trembled under me as he came, making a mess of the sheets. So many sheets to wash later but that was a problem for future us.
I rose up onto my knees taking him with me so that he found himself on all fours. Holding onto his hips, I let go of everything else. His body contracted around me, a pleasant spasm drawing me deeper into him. My name babbled over his lips as I sought out my pleasure. I loved how he said it – gasped it – when pleasure rolled around on his tongue. It never got old. It never stopped making my heart skip a beat.
“Fucking empires can crash and burn in your name,” I growled, gripping his hips tighter as I chased down my own release.
For the next few months, all sex was safe sex if he was comfortable in the position of the moment. So, when the momentum built too much, I spilt everything I was into him.
“Mine!” I growled the words as if it was a cry of victory. “You are mine.”
“Better than dude,” Elio laughed, through the moan that bubbled over his lips as I came into him.
We fell, spent, in a tangle of limbs reaching out for each other. I pulled him close so that he could rest his head on my chest.
“You know, if a revolution came here, as unlikely as that is, I’d burn down anyone who dared to touch you or anyone we care about. I don’t think Hush is in the business of oppressing dragons and I don’t think Starscales would let it happen again but if it did or if we were invaded or something, babe, I’m not helpless. Neither are you but ---” I stopped because I didn’t talk about Glitter Bomb much. Not how it was before it became a whole new territory. Ty and Feral finished what I started but I eeked it out of nothingness and chaos.
“I know you’ll protect me,” Elio said, looking up at me with big, sleepy eyes.
“Does he know?” I asked, tapping the orange star scale on his chest to get his attention.
“I think so. I think it all has him a bit rattled, and our hormones aren’t helping,” he said, blushing slightly.
“I know you can’t help it how you feel but don’t be embarrassed about it. Seriously. If I need to walk around with a gun and a sword again, I will.”
“No. I don’t think guns would make me feel safe at all,” he shook his head.
“That’s just as well. They don’t work great against dragons anyway,” I shrugged.
“Do you think everyone is this nervous about connecting with the rest of the universe again?” Elio asked, nuzzling his cheek against my chest.
“I don’t think so. I don’t think most people have thought that far ahead. They’re probably thinking about their mates and stuff who may be out there. I don’t think anyone bad is just waiting to get here. I think most Earthsiders who want to come here are scientists, students, and those who have people already here – like Clarence and his mate, my kids, and the like.”
“Teddy’s mate too, hopefully. Since Lime said his mate was out there and all.”
“Lime?” I blinked at him. “Oh, Liam. Lime.”
“Lime. Liam. Same thing. I figured maybe that’s what you all called limes back there.”
I laughed and stole a kiss from him. His scent was calmer and more relaxed than it had been since before he asked me that question. I silently hoped to Frost, Juda, and all their hatchlings and pups that his dragon calmed down before mine really made an ass of himself. My kids, Elio, whoever Lotus was now, and the crew of the Medwin 2 that’s all he cared about at the end of the day. Those were the people who really mattered to me.
“You miss the other kids,” Elio yawned.
“I do. We don’t know that Lotus will show up, but we know we’ll be able to see them. Sometimes it’s the concrete facts you have to focus on and let hope dig the grit out of its own knees.”
“Hope got you here.”
“That was the Medwin 2.”
“My hope got you here.”
“That was the Medwin 2,” I teased him.
“I’m going to get Castor to build me a ship and name it Elio’s Hope so I can send your ass to a moon!” he growled.
“Promises, promises,” I said, pulling him on top of me. “Again?”
“Again and again,” he nodded before our lips met for another long kiss.