Chapter 23
CHAPTER
TWENTY-THREE
ZAN
The air is different here… or maybe it’s me that’s different.
With Lily at my side, tucked in tight, staring up at me with an adoration that’s completely unmasked now, it’s fresh. Both the look in her eyes and the humid air all around us.
Sunlight streams through the tall trees overhead. There’s a lightness to my steps and a freedom in my heart because the being I want to spend the rest of my life with is chatting with me, checking on me, touching me. And there’s no threat of being conscripted into the Draegon Army yet again.
There’s no war at the front; there are no colonies to defend.
It’s just the sound of alien birdsong, the beautiful melodic susurrations of my little human speaking to me, and the warmth of her hand against my scales.
I want this walk to last forever. I want to bask in her and in the sunshine.
At the same time, I cannot wait for us to be alone in our home—ours, not some figment of an artificial intelligence’s mind dredged up from whatever data collection processing plant that it used, but something new.
Not of Earth, not of Draegon culture.
Something that is ours. Ours and ours alone to share in this new home on Sueva. A fresh start.
We catch a glimpse of Lily’s friend Allison, who screeches in delight but doesn’t approach, thanks to Lily shouting out, “I’m still in heat! We’ll talk later!” then tugging at my hand to make us move faster.
“They said it’s the third one on the left,” she tells me, the scent of her heat spiking the closer we get to the house.
Finally
We finally reach the house, and it’s unlike the thick utilitarian mortar and rock slab-style homes the draegons are fond of.
It’s made of wood—polished, honed, a warm gold-brown color, as if it was grown from the ground itself and not something made by hands or talons and tools. It feels as natural as the bond that I share with my Lily.
“I’ll never take you for granted,” I tell her.
Taking both of her hands in my own, I pull her as close as I can without making her crane her neck to look up at me.
She’s so delicate, it’s nearly impossible to think of the bravery she showed by throwing herself in front of my last-ditch resort at Draegon fire.
“I never want you to put yourself in danger like that again,” I say.
She rolls her eyes. “Oh, so you’re just allowed to, like, try to kill yourself to save me, but I’m not allowed to put myself in danger? Absolutely not,” she says with a laugh.
“How did you know what I was trying to do?”
“Well, I didn’t, not until I got there,” she hedges, her eyes darting sideways. “They told me in the med bay that only the royal bloodline of the Draegons can successfully use their fire without self-immolating. I think that was the word.”
“That’s the word.”
Simply remembering that moment makes me sick to my stomach, and I tuck her close into me, my one wing held at an awkward angle, the other covering her completely.
“I’m so sorry,” I tell her again. “I failed you.”
“You didn’t fail me, not at all. You chose me. They told me that worm toxin would have killed you. I know why you did what you did, and I can’t say that I wouldn’t have done the same.”
She takes a deep breath and pushes off me so that she can look into my eyes again, and I let her.
I want to watch her face for whatever she’s about to tell me.
“What if we just agree not to go on reality TV shows anymore?”
I tip back my head and laugh. “That is something I can do.”
“And how about we agree not to just go headfirst into danger again too? I think a nice, quiet life here sounds pretty good.”
“What are we going to do with all of our time?” I ask.
She gives me a long look. “I’ve had a few days to think about it.”
She quirks an eyebrow, one side of her mouth kicking up in a grin. My gods, I love the way that she looks when she smiles at me.
“What did you come up with?” I ask her, although I’ve already guessed what it is she’s going to say.
“Well, I think that for the first month or so while we’re here—maybe six months—we should just have sex. A lot of sex. And as many different ways as we can.”
She nods, agreeing with herself, and I huff out another laugh, tracing a talon down her jawline.
She sighs, leaning into my hand, and I brush my talons through her hair, remembering how much she liked that.
“You won’t get tired of me, of that?” I ask. It seems too good to be true.
None of the power play we had during that one blissful night we spent together is present, and I want to make sure.
“Yes, I’m sure, you idiot,” she says, laughing, holding my hands in her own. “I’m sure. When I thought you—”
She shakes her head, her eyes filling up with tears.
“I thought I was going to lose you,” she says.
“It made me sick to think of all the time we wasted on that space station when we could have just been spending it together. In danger, of course, with fucking Ken, but we could have had each other from the get-go.”
“I know exactly how you feel,” I tell her. “I made mistakes too. I shouldn’t have pushed you so hard.”
“No,” she says. “You shouldn’t have. We both pushed, but I think that’s why this is going to work long term. I mean, I think that we’ll push each other when we need to be pushed, but at the end of the day, we’ll choose each other.”
“I choose you now, and I chose you the minute you said my name and pointed at me in that lineup.”
“I know,” she says softly.
She reaches up to me, and I lean down, knowing deep in my soul that she wants the same thing I do right now.
Our lips meet, and she moans, opening up perfectly for me.
Slowly, so slowly, I lift her up to my body, closing the gap between us so that she doesn’t have to strain to reach me.
She tastes like springtime before the winter’s fully gone, when the sun has just begun to warm the soil—the promise of fruit, the promise of bounty, the promise of something we’re right on the cusp of.
It feels too good to be true, and I pull away.
Her legs are wrapped tight around my chest, and I stare at her for a long moment—the way the sunlight dapples through the leaves playing against the dark tresses of her short hair, the way the sun lights up her dark brown eyes, making them appear the color of gold, of honey, of everything the Draegons treasure.
And I marvel that this perfect female has chosen me, as I have chosen her.
She wiggles her hips against me just slightly, her eyes turning glazed, her heat ratcheting up whatever sedative they gave her, the faint chemical smell of them dissipating the longer I hold her in my arms. And I know it’s time to take care of my female the way I should have that first night.
But now it will be so much sweeter, because she will not have any regrets, she will not have any doubts.
She’s chosen me, and it is a gift I will strive every day to prove I am worthy of.
“Get inside the house,” Lily finally grinds out, her eyes refocusing on me. “Get us inside the house right now.”
I laugh, my fingers fumbling over the strange lever for the door, which clicks open at my touch. And we stumble into the house, her still in my arms.
“If you hurt your wing, I’m going to be really mad at you.”
“Oh, is that right?” I tell her, kissing her forehead and brushing her hair out of her face. “Why is that?”
“Well, for one, there’s this thing on Earth called the Mile High Club.” She raises her eyebrows and gives me an appraising look. “I was thinking we could do our version of that.”
“Mile High Club,” I repeat. “A measurement high?” I try to work out the strange phrase.
“I want you to fuck me while we’re flying,” she tells me in a no-nonsense voice.
My cock, though already hard, becomes painful, stretching against the lightweight loose pants they gave me. I groan, practically snarling in her face.
“How do you want to do this?” she says, her voice turning tentative.
“I really don’t want to hurt you. I don’t think that we should lie on your back,” she says, biting her lip.
It turns white under her teeth, and I tug it loose with my talon.
Her pink tongue darts out, licking the tip of my finger, and I groan, suddenly on fire with need for her.
“Do not worry, my sweet. Any pain you give me will only amplify my pleasure.”
“I don’t give a shit if it amplifies your pleasure,” she says impatiently. “I’m not going to hurt you, and I’m not going to make your wing worse. So I tell you what, buddy. I can either be lying on my stomach on all fours—”
I groan, my fingertips trembling with anticipation at that visual.
“—or I can lay on my back. And you can—”
“I want you on your back. We can try all fours next.”
“Well, which do you like better? Which have you tried and like?”
“I haven’t done either.”
“What?” she says, blinking up at me. “Do Draegons make love differently?”
“I’ve never had sex with anyone.”
“Ooooh, shit,” she says, her grin growing. “And here I was thinking that you were about to have the upper hand when you turned me to putty.”
“Lily,” I tell her seriously, “I will still turn you to putty if that is what you want. I don’t quite understand the term, but I’m sure I can make it happen. But you will always have the upper hand when it comes to me.”
“You know just what to say,” she says, giving me a quick kiss. “Now hurry up, otherwise we’re going to do it on the floor, and these floors are too nice to make a big mess out of. And besides, my back is still sore.”
With that, she races off into the house, which is cool and not nearly as humid as outside, laughing. I follow her as best I can, a smile tugging up my lips, because her goodwill and humor is as infectious today as it’s ever been.