Chapter 17 Forever #2
“I felt small, forgotten and unseen,” Marban admitted with a wry smile. “But then a certain White Dragon crash-landed in the Below. He sought safety here as so many others have before him.”
Caden smiled. He saw the grins all around. Rose shook her head as she laughed.
“And he changed everything,” Marban continued.
Valerius looked down into Caden’s face and gave him a tender look.
You did change everything, my beloved, Valerius sent.
Funny, but it felt like it was meant all along, Caden replied.
“But he actually made that idea of there being two kings of Reach true,” Marban said as he stood up from the throne.
He went over to the shrouded object next to the throne and he pulled off the material, revealing what was beneath.
It was a matching throne. “King Valerius and King Caden are my kings. They are your kings. They are our kings.”
Marban gestured for the two of them to take their seats on the thrones. People clapped and cried for them to sit, sit, sit! The two of them walked up to the thrones.
Do we sit or? Oh, you have a speech planned, Caden laughed.
Not planned. And not a speech. A few words. Just a few, Valerius said with an arched brow.
A speech.
Valerius and Caden then turned and faced the crowd, but didn’t sit. The crowd quieted as they waited to hear what he had to say.
“Know this,” Valerius said with quiet conviction, “that Caden and I shall earn these thrones every single day and our friends and our Councillors,” he gestured to Marban, Chione, Wally and Rose, “will ensure that no one feels small, unseen or forgotten who needs us again.”
Valerius and Caden took their seats to deafening applause. They linked hands and smiled at their people even as their souls and Dragon Spirits twined together as one.
Caden wiped the sweat from his forehead as he and Valerius left the dance floor and headed outside through the Gash.
People had spilled outside of the Below and were drinking, talking and watching the stars.
There were more than a few couples who were leaning their shoulders against one another and pointed up at the helix that spun lazily in the sky.
Valerius offered Caden a drink from his cold can of wine.
Caden gratefully took it. They walked out until they were beyond most of the people.
The music faded and the churr of night insects took over.
They continued to share the wine and star gazed.
“I really don’t know how our wedding is going to top this,” Caden admitted.
Valerius leaned over and kissed his temple. “It has been an incredible night.”
“I don’t want it to end,” Caden admitted. “This feeling of togetherness, you know? Having all our friends with us and the people of Reach, too. I’ve never experienced this sense of… unity.”
Valerius nodded as a meteorite left a white trail across the sky. “I don’t think it will end. Something’s changed irrevocably. And, for once, I am glad of that change. I embrace it.”
Iolaire was sitting against Raziel’s much bigger body in its cat-loaf position. Both Dragon Spirits were still bright-eyed. They loved every moment of the parties, too.
Caden glanced back over his shoulder at the golden light pouring out of the Gash.
It looked so different from that first time he and Valerius had “met”.
He could see people still dancing, drinking, talking and laughing.
It would go on until dawn. The only reason it would have to stop was because the place had to be swept up and gotten ready for their wedding day and yet another party. But everyone was happy and content.
“So,” Caden said as he swung back around to Valerius, “we’ve made our appearances.”
Valerius lifted his eyebrows. “Oh, you sound like you’re suggesting we leave.”
“We’ve been the life of the party, I think. You danced with everyone, including Illarion,” Caden pointed out.
Valerius’ eyes narrowed. “Yes, he made me do the squatting and kicking. If I were not a Dragon Shifter I wouldn’t be able to move right now.”
Caden laughed. “You looked amazing doing it.”
Valerius grumbled, but smiled. “Yes, well, I kicked higher than he did.”
Caden buried his head against Valerius’ chest and laughed. He drew in Valerius’ spicy, masculine scent as the Black Dragon King stroked his back.
“So considering all of that, not to mention that we’ve drunk enough. We’ve eaten enough,” Caden said.
“Raziel reminds you that we can never eat enough,” Valerius pointed out.
“Iolaire seconds that,” Caden grinned. “But my point is that--”
“We can fly up to High Reach and make love because we’ve done our duty?” Valerius filled in.
“Exactly.”
They didn’t just shift right then and there.
Instead, they stripped off their clothes and tucked them into the SUVs that had brought them.
The clothes were too nice to shred. While there were a few drunken waves as they walked by people naked and some “woos” when they turned into their Dragon forms, no one seemed perturbed that they had left.
The laughter and dancing continued on unabated and Caden was glad for that.
Raziel and Iolaire flew wingtip to wingtip. They didn’t go directly to High Reach, but circled the city a few times, banking and gliding on the air currents.
Raziel dreamed of this, Valerius said.
So did Iolaire, Caden said.
And the dream had become a reality.
They landed on the balcony outside of their bedroom. This time there was no issue at all with Caden shifting from Dragon to human form. All differences between those two forms seemed gone to him. He was both at all times really. As comfortable in scales as jeans.
Valerius picked him up in a bride’s carry, which had Caden yelping in surprise. But then Valerius kissed him long and deep. Caden rested his head against Valerius’ broad shoulder as the Black Dragon King carried him inside to their bed.
He lay Caden down upon it with just the moonlight to illuminate the cool, cotton sheets.
Caden gazed up at him with half-closed eyes.
A sensual smile lifted the corners of his lips.
He could see a portion of the helix over Valerius’ shoulder through the open balcony doors.
He wondered if it would glow brighter when they made love tonight.
He had a feeling it would. Just like it did when they strengthened their friendship and love with the other Dragon Shifters.
Valerius kneeled on the bed over him, his knees between Caden’s legs.
He slowly drew his fingers up and down the tops of Caden’s bare thighs.
His eyes glowed like jewels in the darkness with the Shifter nightshine.
Caden reached for Valerius, to pull him down on top of him, to feel his heat and weight.
Valerius allowed himself to be pulled down but he kept his hands braced on the bed to keep his larger body from crushing Caden’s. Their mouths though met and fused together. Tongues twining. Lips moving like liquid against one another. Hands fisting in hair.
His cock was already hard and leaking. It had begun hardening the moment he’d seen Valerius in the Below. He always had a semi-erection around the Black Dragon Shifter. Aroused and in love. His body, mind and soul all united in this devotion to Valerius.
I am yours, Valerius said. You are mine.
We are each others’, Caden agreed.
And it was true. And it felt like the deepest promise that they could make to one another.
Caden dragged his fingers from Valerius’ hair down his muscled back.
His fingertips skated along Valerius’ spine until he got to the swell of his powerful buttocks.
He gripped them and squeezed them and tried to draw Valerius’ groin against his own.
He wanted Valerius inside of him. He didn’t want to wait. He needed the physical connection.
Valerius’ hot, thick cock slid alongside his own. Caden gave a gasp into their kiss as it felt like his skin had been set alight by that touch. Electric sparks flowed out from his cock and balls to the tips of his fingers and toes. He wouldn’t have been surprised if his hair had stood on end.
With one hand, Valerius pushed Caden’s knees up to his chest. Caden grasped them and held them there as Valerius slid a pillow underneath his hips.
His opening already felt hungry and needy.
He almost didn’t want Valerius to stretch him and slick him up, but one look at that massive member between Valerius’ powerful legs reminded him that needed to happen.
Though Dragon healing covered a lot of sins.
Valerius had a fragrant pot of lubricant ready, a concoction that was made from an old recipe that was actually better than the modern stuff. And it smelled incredible. Something like the woods in early fall and the flowers in late spring.
Two fingers were against his opening, pushing inside, urgent yet gentle. Valerius’ eyes were glowing with more than just nightshine. Raziel’s flames were in them, though these were not the fires of hell, but of heaven. Sweat slicked his massive chest and rolled down his arms.
Caden saw his breath frost the air between them. He touched Valerius’ chest and frost froze the sweat that coated it. But all too soon, steam would rise off of him and the delicate ice lattice would disappear in moments.
Wherever Valerius touched him caused flickers of heat to move through him as well. Frost covered his skin in delicate, crystalline veins. But one kiss from Valerius had the frost sizzling and disappearing. Even the water seemed to boil away.
Those two fingers pierced Caden and his hips lifted, arching off of the bed, as his mouth opened in a gasp of pleasure.
Snow burst from his lips and lazy flakes fell down upon Valerius’ shoulders.
When those two fingers spread apart, Caden moaned and tightened his hands around his knees.
Ice formed, sticking his palms to his calves. Valerius’ breath though set him free.
A third finger delved into the place inside of him that was as hot as Raziel’s flames.
Valerius thrust them all the way in then drew them slowly out, spreading them wide as he did so.
Caden clenched his teeth and high whines escaped him.
More snow began to fall even as waves of heat swirled all around them.
“Need you. In me. Now,” Caden got out.
Valerius flashed him a set of very white teeth.
Those eyes filled with flames were also filled with love so even though both of them were on the edge of this precipice of desire, Valerius was careful.
He was always so careful. He guided his large cock inside of Caden as if Caden was his most precious treasure.
Caden had to remind him that he wasn’t a delicate treasure.
So he unfolded his legs and wrapped them around Valerius’ waist. He dug his heels into that magnificent ass and speared himself on that beloved, thick cock.
Caden had to just hold Valerius inside of him then and breathe around the massive girth, allowing his half-prepared body to relax around the precious cock. Valerius held himself very still except for his fingers which twitched around Caden’s hips.
“Now you’ve done it,” Valerius chuckled.
“Yeah, I’ve got you. It’s like the dog who chases a car and catches one. But I know what to do with you,” Caden laughed. “Love me, Valerius. Love me always.”
Valerius’ eyelids shut tightly for a moment. When they opened, the flames roared.
And then he was moving. He gripped Caden’s hips as he slowly pulled out an inch before pushing back in. Each movement was careful, controlled, but those flames told Caden just how much Valerius was controlling himself.
“You don’t have to hold back. I’m not fragile. I’m made for you,” Caden reminded him.
Again, those eyes fluttered shut, but not completely and the glow of fire shone through his lashes.
Then he was truly moving. Pulling all the way out and thrusting in.
Caden’s body jolted with each inward push.
Pleasure coiled around his spine and spiraled up with each and every movement.
He let his head fall back on the pillows and opened his mouth to let out the moans and gasps and whines of pleasure that this loving gave him.
Valerius’ balls slapped against his ass as they worked up a rhythm that had the bed shaking. Snow swirled around them just as waves of heat did. Snow formed only to melt and then form again. A swirl of fire and ice.
Valerius delved deep inside of him, grinding their bodies together, as Caden threaded his fingers through Valerius’ hair. He pulled Valerius’ mouth to his. They breathed each other’s breaths. They drank each other’s scent. They were one.
Caden’s cock strained for Valerius. He frantically rubbed it against Valerius’ washboard stomach.
Valerius’ thrusts inside of him became short and quick.
Caden wrapped his arms around Valerius’ back and pushed them together as if he could form one body between them.
Ice connected them. A flash of fire turned it to steam and they were awash in white.
Valerius’ cock was totally inside of him.
They were as tightly connected as could be.
Their mouths were against one another’s.
Their arms were wound around each other.
Their orgasms rolled through them like the bursting of a storm.
Caden thought he heard a clap of thunder.
There was definitely a flash of light from the helix as the red and white flared.
We’re going to hear about this tomorrow, Caden thought.
They’re just jealous, Valerius answered.
Valerius shook as he tried to keep above Caden and not crush him with his weight. Caden pulled him fully down and relished the weight of the Black Dragon King on top of him. The sweat. The heat. The musk. The reality that Valerius was here and his and this was forever.
This is forever, Caden smiled broadly over Valerius’ heaving shoulder. This is forever.
Valerius responded, Forever is not long enough.
They kissed as the helix spun and the stars burned until morning.