Chapter 19 A Young Dragon Mate
A Young Dragon Mate
Pascal
Ansel burst out of the house holding an old book. He all but ran to me, and I caught him in my arms. I breathed a sigh of relief at the feel of him. He’d stayed in the same house, but still, I’d missed him. The bonding was making us ridiculously clingy.
He tilted his head up, and we kissed until Davidson cleared his throat behind me.
“Sorry,” Ansel whispered and bit his lip.
“We’ll get out of your hair now,” I told my host.
The child, Rufus, squirmed in Davidson’s arms. “Papa!” Davidson put the toddler down, and he ran toward Leonard, who stood in the doorway to the kitchen. Leonard caught his son and kissed his cheek.
“Stay for lunch,” Davidson said. “It should be ready within minutes.”
I glanced down at Ansel, who grimaced, fingering the sash of his bathrobe. “We’re a little underdressed,” he murmured quietly.
But Davidson heard him. “Don’t worry about that, Ansel. I’m sure Leo has something that will fit you if you want. Since wardrobe is your only concern, I insist you stay and let us feed you.”
“Thank you. That’s kind of you.”
The lunch was delicious, but we couldn’t have much of a conversation with our hosts, given that we were constantly interrupted.
Rufus seemed to be a well-behaved child, but he was, after all, only two.
The concept of waiting until another person finished a sentence wasn’t yet familiar to him.
Both of his parents were preoccupied with him, so Ansel and I mostly just smiled at each other and ate in silence.
When we were about to leave, Davidson offered to send one of his men with us, and we readily agreed. I wasn’t keen on riding a cab wearing only sweats and a borrowed T-shirt, not to mention we didn’t even have a bank card or a phone.
We made it back to my flat at three in the afternoon. The doorman observed Ansel curiously while he opened the apartment for us, lamenting my bad luck.
“They cuffed Theodore to the chair, and I heard they pulled guns on you.”
“We’re just glad nobody was hurt,” I said, willing the man to leave us alone already.
“What a world.” The doorman stuffed the spare key into his pocket. “We’re having the panic button reinstalled. It was too far away to reach.”
“That’s good. Thank you.”
“What a world,” he repeated, shaking his head, as he finally began shuffling toward the elevator. “You do have your key now, don’t you? They didn’t take it?”
“Here it is.” I scooped it up from a bowl on the shelf and waved it at the man.
He gave a nod. “Good. Good.”
“Thank you,” Ansel called after him.
The doorman waved and stepped into the elevator. When it went down, I closed the door and exhaled.
Dressed in jeans and a simple cotton shirt he’d gotten from Leo, Ansel carried my bathrobe under his arm together with the book.
He cast the bathrobe over an armchair, and with the book dangling from his fingers, he stretched to hug my neck.
I roped my arms around his slight form and kissed his temple.
“Let’s just sit for a while,” I said.
He looked distracted as he walked with me to the sofa. I pulled him onto my lap, and he curled up, laying his head on my shoulder.
“Leonard booked me an appointment with the dragon doctor tomorrow.”
“That’s good. I was about to bring that up again.”
“He says my heat could come whenever, and I’ll need the contraceptive.”
My poor Ansel. I’d turned his life upside down. “I’m sorry.”
“Why? I’m not. A few days ago, my options were Valentin or a heat teacher. Now I have an alpha I want to spend my heat with.”
He played with the paperback in his hands, fingering the page edges but not opening it. The cover said Mating and Procreation of Dragons and featured an illustration of a dragon mate in heat with a swollen belly and rounded pecs.
“I haven’t seen one of these for years,” I said.
“You know it?”
“Yes. It’s like a sex education textbook for dragon shifters.”
Ansel ducked his head. “I’m a little afraid to open it.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“You already know most of the things in there. The main stuff anyway.”
“No big surprises?”
“Maybe small ones.”
“Can we open it together?”
“Sure.”
Methodical as ever, Ansel opened the book on the first page. He turned the title page, copyright, and dedication, then paused on the contents.
Introduction
Fertile Dragon Pairings
Becoming a Mature Dragon Alpha
Omega Dragon Mate
Finding Your Mate
Bonding
Heat Cycle and Breeding
Young Dragon Mate and First Heat
Ansel pointed at the line, running his finger to the page number.
“I guess this one is for me,” he said quietly and paged through the book to get to the chapter.
I read over his shoulder.
In his notorious essay, Terrestrar (1923) encouraged dragon alphas to actively search for their mates among young omegas before their first heat.
“A mate can only be devoted to his dragon if he’s never been tainted by a human alpha’s seed.
A bond to a tainted omega is bound to be fragile and unhappy.
To avoid accidentally creating such a bond, a dragon alpha ought to copulate uniquely with virgins before their first heat.
” Terrestrar devotes an entire chapter to recommended seduction techniques, stating a dragon alpha should “overcome resistance if such arises. To make sure a bond is created, a dragon alpha releases into the omega’s breeding channel no less than three times.
If the omega’s chest does not swell with milk within three days after the gift of dragon seed, he is not worthy. ”
Ansel scoffed but didn’t say anything. Shame crept up my spine. He had to be horrified. Luckily, the next paragraph saved me from explaining myself.
Even in the nineteen twenties, the essay caused outrage.
The idea of shifters deflowering or even raping young omegas in search of a mate disgusted the dragon community.
In the heavily industrialized society, relationships with the human populace had long become more sustainable.
However, Terrestrar’s work played an important role in that it spurred other dragon researchers into action.
A comprehensive and truthful guide about mating and procreation of dragon shifters was indeed needed.
The way a young mate should be treated became a focal point of a dragon’s ethical values.
Five years later, Andreasen published Dragon’s Love (1928), which was later translated into more than twenty languages.
While parts of the text are now heavily outdated, the gist of Andreasen’s approach is timeless.
The short but groundbreaking work defined full consent and emphasized equality in a bond, putting dragon shifters decades ahead of humans in the global omega liberation movement.
“An alpha might feel a bond developing long before his omega realizes any connection. If that is the case, the alpha is to wait. Forcing the omega to realize the bond before he is ready will frighten or even repel the potential mate. Consummating a union before a dragon mate desires it creates irreparable damage to the bond. A true mate will come to his dragon.” (Andreasen, 1928)
Ansel looked up at me, and a corner of his mouth curved up. Wordlessly, he gave me a soft kiss on the cheek and returned his attention to the paperback.
He turned a page and tensed. I gulped. I’d forgotten how detailed some of the illustrations were.
Two identical omegas stared at us from the picture, standing side by side.
Their faces were pretty, lips puckered, eyes heavy-lidded.
The omega on the left had a flat chest and stomach and a soft little cock.
His nipples were small and pale. In the center of the picture was an anatomical drawing of the omega’s womb—a pink triangle with a short channel leading to it.
The mouth to the womb was tiny and clenched tight, seated high up the omega’s tight hole.
The inscription said Dragon mate before his first heat, virgo intactus, with a dormant uterus.
The omega to the right had a slightly protruding belly and rounded pectorals.
His nipples were larger and a darker shade of pink.
His womb was drawn enlarged, the mouth bigger, resembling puckered lips.
His hole was wider, the tissues drawn swollen.
The devilish illustrator had added small specks of white liquid to the anatomical part, representing traces of alpha cum in the omega’s hole and on the mouth to his womb.
One pectoral was also drawn transparent with highlighted mammary glands.
A bonding dragon mate on the brink of his first heat.
Ansel stared at the images, transfixed. This was about to happen to him. Was he afraid? But he just turned the page calmly and read on.
When Andreasen penned Dragon’s Love (1928), the age of consent in large parts of the country remained sixteen, but its increase was already widely debated.
Andreasen urged alphas who suspected a bond to an omega younger than eighteen to keep their distance until the omega was legally and mentally able to consent.
Since the sexual revolution, dragon alphas have felt less pressure to find a mate early in life. Bonds with young omegas before their first heat did occur, albeit less often. The number of forced bonds was steadily declining. Today, it’s negligible.
“What’s a forced bond?” Ansel asked.
“It’s when the alpha breeds an omega who isn’t his bonded mate. The omega can get pregnant, and a bond might develop over time. It used to be a common practice a few centuries ago. If a shifter couldn’t find a dragon mate, he would impregnate a human omega and hope for the best.”
“And it’s wrong?”
“Well, let’s say he got an omega pregnant and met his true mate later. He would then leave the omega and any children they might have had for the mate.”
“Oh.”
“Dragon alphas have to be patient, or they could hurt a lot of people.”
“How did you…do it before you met me?”
“I had a few short relationships when I was very young, but nothing serious. Before I moved to Ardaine, I had a friendly deal with an omega couple. They’re both shifters and bonded to each other, so I…helped them during their heats.”
“But you’ve been alone all this time?”
“Single for seventeen years.”
He exhaled. “Wow.”
“That’s how it is for dragon alphas. Some get lucky already in their twenties. And then you have men like Davidson. He waited for Leonard for more than two decades.”
Frowning thoughtfully, Ansel turned his attention back to the book.
Hobbes (1982) followed thirty mated dragon alphas over the course of ten years.
Two of them bonded with omegas aged seventeen and eighteen respectively.
Both alphas realized the bond early on but waited for more than a year before romantically approaching their mates.
Due to the small number of couples involved in the research, the results can’t be deemed representative, but Hobbes (1982) reports that after the initial intercourse, both young omegas experienced a more gradually intensifying bond while the alphas were already deeply devoted to their mates.
The bodily bonding symptoms were also delayed and progressed slowly, taking a full forty-eight hours to develop, as opposed to the usual twelve to twenty-four.
However, both omegas went into heat mere weeks after the initial coitus and got pregnant immediately.
Hobbes writes that the alphas in these bonds “suffered more profoundly when separated from their mates and were fiercely protective. It remains to be confirmed whether an early bond creates a bigger strain on the alpha, who might feel heavy responsibility for the well-being of his young mate.” (Hobbes, 1982)
“Probably good we have the appointment tomorrow, huh?” Ansel said.
“Oh yes.”
“For the sake of being absolutely transparent, I’m not ready to have a kid.”
“I don’t have any expectations of you, Ansel. We have time. Years and years, in fact.”
He smiled wanly at me. “Do you feel responsible for me? Because you don’t have to.”
I gave it serious thought. “When Valentin burst in here last night, I only cared about you being safe. But that’s natural.”
“You don’t feel like you have to, I don’t know, coddle me because I’m so much younger than you?”
“Ansel, I’ve been in constant awe of you since I first laid eyes on you.”
He jerked back, his nose scrunching up.
“Don’t look so shocked. You’ve been through a lot, but you’re brave and levelheaded. How you handled the conflict with your parents, how unafraid you were facing the dragon, and how you acted last night—if anything, I might fear you need me less than I’d like to pretend.”
Ansel gave a surprised chuckle. “I wouldn’t have stood a chance against Valentin’s men last night, that’s for sure.”
“What I meant to say, yes, you’re twenty years my junior. But the more I know you, the less it worries me.”
At that, he smiled and gave me a peck on the lips.
“The book is interesting. I want to read it all.”
“I should work anyway. Do you want me to leave you in peace?”
“Not really.” He tapped his lips with a fingertip. “Can you bring your laptop here?”
“Sure.”
I needed to be close to him as well.
We made coffee and settled in companionable silence on opposite ends of the sofa, our legs tangled. Ansel continued reading while I replied to emails and went through my notes on the upcoming lectures.
Sometimes, I heard his heartbeat accelerate, but I tried not to let it distract me. But then his scent intensified, and the letters seemed to dance in front of my eyes.
This was why dragon shifters were strongly encouraged to take leave during bonding, even when they worked from home.