Chapter 23 – Charlie
CHAPTER 23
CHARLIE
W hen it charged toward a door, I knew they’d made it into the corridor and thankfully the green reptile couldn’t fit its stupid shoulders and wings through to follow them. But when it blew fire, I felt a bit smug to see the hunters get flambéed and Fafnir fume from the stage.
I don’t know who the dragon is, but they have completely fucked his plan. I don’t think he’s going to forgive this one.
But it helped us. I changed the view from the courtyard to the camera’s outside. Arabella stood, her purple hair making her stand out against the crowd of filthy and shivering witches cuddled on the floor. My heart lurched the moment the portal formed and then I sighed as the hunter sacrifice and his friend came stumbling through, looking a little green.
I feel that. But you aren’t who I need to see.
The next moment, Baelen, Clawdia, and Zaide appeared, and I jumped from my seat and punched the air. Clawdia covered Zaide’s naked body, but the dried blood on his leg and his drawn expression dampened my spirits.
But we fucking did it. “Now, get everyone back here.”
Baelen nodded and as the other portal flashed closed, another blue swirl formed in the air. Wind tickled at my neck as the corresponding portal formed behind me.
Arabella began picking up witches and helping them hobble into the portal and they arrived in the room behind me, bringing some awful smells and lots of tears.
I waved awkwardly and said, “There are rooms, showers, and food in that direction. Chill out for a bit while I finish this.”
Savida and Daithi stepped in to help while I jumped back onto the computer and began deleting all the records on the cameras. I wanted to make it look like they’d had a system shutdown across the whole compound, which is why the cameras died and the doors locked. It would be obvious that it wasn’t when they noticed the witches and the council missing, but I didn’t care. It might give us valuable time to change outcomes.
On the other screen, I saw Clawdia speaking to Michael and his friend while gripping Zaide’s hand tightly and keeping him close to her back. But the hunters were shaking their heads, disagreeing with her, and Baelen yelled something at them.
Fuck the hunters, Clawdia. Get back here.
As the last of the prisoners appeared in the room behind me, I turned around, my heart beating like a drum in my chest as I waited for my family.
They came through the swirling blue portal, looking worse for wear, but I didn’t care about that. My bond with Clawdia snapped back into place like an elastic band, and I could feel her. She felt scared and tired and was running on adrenaline and so relieved. It was like the cheesy rom-coms where all the other people fade as the main characters look at each other. I couldn’t see anyone else but her, and I wanted nothing more in my life than to get her back in my arms.
Dreams are nothing compared to reality.
She ran straight to me almost doing hurdles over the people in the way, and knocked the breath from my lungs as she collided into my chest, her arms and legs wrapping around me, holding me so tightly against her I could feel her heartbeat knocking at mine.
“I missed you. I thought you were dead.” She whispered into my neck and my arms tightened around her.
“I almost had heart failure watching you all try to escape that fucking place. We’re not doing that again.”
“Agreed.” Baelen said as he and Zaide, still naked, approached, crowding close to us.
I eyed Zaide, knowing that only moments ago he had a break in his leg that must have been horrific. “Good to see you, mate. And walking.”
“Clawdia healed me,” he said and ran a hand down her back. She unwrapped her legs from my back and slid down my chest to the ground to grip both Zaide’s hand and mine. Zaide nodded his head. “Thank you for your part in my rescue.”
“You’re welcome. I missed the excitement of hacking, actually. I might have to continue,” I said as a flash of heat overcame me and a bead of sweat dripped from my forehead.
“You feel really warm, Charlie. Are you all right?” Clawdia asked, and her eyes unfocused on me.
“Are you checking my threads?” I asked.
“No.”
“I’m fine.” I pulled my hand from hers and wiped my forehead. It shook. “Maybe I’m coming down from the adrenaline rush.”
“Ah, Baelen, I think we need to leave,” Zaide whispered. But his voice felt loud and booming and echoed in my ears like a gong.
“Leave?” I slurred.
I’m sick. What’s going on?
“We need to get somewhere a dragon can spread his wings. Now,” Zaide continued, and I couldn’t respond. I shuddered and my skin rippled with scales as nausea rolled in my stomach.
“Dralie, what the hell?”
“Mate.” Dralie said in a voice completely unlike his own. It was deep and commanding. “Mate.”
Noise and chaos surrounded me, but I couldn’t hear it. I sank into my mind to talk to the drakorian freaking out. I was barely aware that I was being moved. Colors passed in a haze and I shut my eyes as dizziness rocked me.
“Yes. Yes. She’s our mate, so I don’t want to squish her or incinerate her, so can you get a hold of yourself, please?”
“Changing to show her form. Show hoard. She needs to accept our hoard,” Dralie rambled.
I opened my eyes just as Zaide tossed me into water like a skimmed rock and Dralie took advantage of my distraction to push me out of the way. We shifted. My bones snapped and reformed, my back tore as I sprouted wings and this time I felt all of it.
I roared, spitting flames into the sky and waving my wings as the transformation completed. Mud squished under our feet and our wings picked up pools of water as we flapped them to steady ourselves.
“We are in water. Why are we in water?” Dralie asked back to his normal self again.
“Why are we a dragon, Dralie? We could have killed everyone.”
He sounded a little sheepish. “It’s a reaction to meeting our mate. I’ve never found a mate before, so I didn’t know the reaction would be as …”
“Explosive?” I asked.
“Quite. I hope I haven’t scared her.” He looked at her as she stood on the dock, wringing her hands nervously. “We need to take her to our hoard and prove we will be a good provider.”
“We don’t have a hoard.”
He gasped, then panicked and rambled. “ You are right. We have only just emerged. Finding our mate so soon is unprecedented. What will we do? We cannot bond without her acceptance of the bond.”
“She’s my familiar. We bonded already. You can’t feel it?”
“Yours, yes. But she is also mine. My mate. But I can’t feel your bond. She and I have not bonded. She must accept me.”
“You can’t bite her or something? Pretty sure that’s a werewolf thing. But you have bigger teeth, so maybe a nibble?”
“Charlie?” her voice was like a symbol chime and everything seemed to fade away until all I could focus on was her. She was in the water, her hair fanned around her like a halo as she swam toward us. But we’d kicked up so much mud with our flapping and stomping that the lake water was almost black and Dralie didn’t like that our mate was in it. Our tail whipped under the water to lift her. Her small body rested on our tail, her t-shirt clinging to her body and her legs streaked with mud. She shivered as she looked up at us with wide eyes.
“Mate.” Dralie repeated, not demanding but as a reverent whisper.
“Oh hello,” she seemed surprised to hear another voice. “Who are you?”
“Charlie named me Dralie, my mate. It is an honor to meet you.” Dralie said respectfully, giving Zaide a run for his money.
“How original,” she muttered.
“In my defense, I just woke up as a dragon and didn’t have a huge amount of time to decide on a name before the identity crisis set in.” I huffed.
“Charlie, you’re here too?” She asked.
“Where else would I be?” I muttered.
“I don’t know.” She shook her head and searched our eyes. “You were talking to each other? Is that why you aren’t moving?”
“Did you toss us into a lake?” I asked, ignoring her questions.
“You were smoldering and Zaide thought you were going to change, which you did, so it was for the best.” I remained silent, unable to argue— but seriously, who thinks throwing a person into a lake will prevent a change— and she narrowed her eyes. “Don’t sulk.”
Dralie interrupted, “My mate, we have no hoard to offer you. I cannot complete our bond if you cannot accept our hoard.”
“We were discussing what we can do to fix this,” I added.
“You are going to build me a hoard? That’s sweet.” She smiled, her cheeks rosy with happiness. “What are you going to hoard?”
“Perhaps you can tell us what you’d like and then we can fly away, collect many and present them to you.”
“I don’t think—” I started.
Clawdia interrupted with a thoughtful pout. “There’s nothing I like enough to want lots of it.”
“You’d have been better off keeping Zaide for your hoard.” I told Dralie. “He’d probably enjoy being presented as a present to Clawdia, too.” He’s a suck-up like that.
“Why do you need to show me a hoard? What’s the purpose?” Clawdia asked with her head tilted.
Dralie rattled off, “To show you we can provide. For you to accept what we offer. For our bond to be created.”
“And where would you keep this hoard?” Clawdia asked.
“That is an excellent question. My mate is clever. Charlie, where would we hoard?”
“My house?” It was a question because I didn’t know about hoards, or if a house was suitable, but it was the only place I owned and already had all my other stuff.
“Excellent.”
“Did you hoard something with your last drakorian?” I asked.
“We didn’t. He ignored me.” Dralie whispered, and I grimaced to hear him so downhearted. Whoever was his last soul person had clearly hurt him.
“And what did you want to hoard?” Clawdia asked.
“I liked gold,” he said hesitantly. “We are golden, so hiding in our hoard would protect us all.”
I sighed, unable to deny him when he sounded so sad. “You’re going to cost me a fortune.”
“Gold sounds … lovely,” Clawdia began, “but you and Charlie are a team, correct? What Charlie can offer is also what you offer?”
“Of course.”
“Well, I’m not a dragon. I don’t need lots of gold or diamonds or things for you to prove you can provide for me. What I need is different.”
“Whatever it is, we are prepared to give it to you.”
“You are ruining my street cred, Dralie,” I mumbled. Such a soppy dragon.
“You didn’t have any to begin with,” Clawdia told me. “But what I mean, Dralie, is that Charlie gave me a lot already. Charlie was the first man to be my friend. He didn’t hurt me even when he was really cross. He let me into his house and reluctantly into his heart. He protects me, rescues me, and makes me laugh. All of that is what I needed to be provided with. I don’t need material things.”
I’m not ashamed to admit that I got a little choked up. She was giving me a little fluffy buddy, but I was giving her more than I realized, too. I coughed and cleared the emotion from my voice before replying, “I’d have more material things to give if a devil cat would have stopped destroying my things.”
“Charlie, I’ve loved you a very long time. Everything you had was already mine, which is why I destroyed it.” She rolled her eyes as though this should have already been obvious. “It was the only way you’d get something new that I could help pick out.”
“The sofa?”
She smirked. “The magazine didn’t flip itself open to that page.”
I had to laugh. I’ve been led around my dick by this girl since the beginning. No wonder Baelen was so concerned about punishment.
Dralie interrupted my merriment. “And me? You and Charlie already have a bond and ordinarily drakorians don’t meet their mate until after an emergence. But Charlie has. What can I offer if not a hoard, and if Charlie has already provided what you needed? Am I redundant to you as a mate?”
“No,” she exclaimed, and patted his scales. “Dralie, you are part of Charlie now. You are the same and you are as essential to me as he is. You offer wisdom, which I’m sure Charlie needs-”
“Hey.”
She continued, “You offer knowledge and a dragon body which protects me and our family differently from how Charlie does. You aren’t redundant at all.”
“I would feel better if you accepted a hoard of gold,” he mumbled, and I thought he was probably pouting. “but I see your point. You accept the bond?”
“Yes.” She said. Dralie’s joyous roar made ripples across the water, and he lifted Clawdia into the air. She screamed and laughed as she fell into the water and Dralie set a shot of flame into the sky as he scooped her up in his claws.
Our bond changed. The golden thread on her side seemed to get fatter and wider and pushed into my side. A bond that was always a little more lopsided and heavy felt even for the first time.
Coughing and laughing, she patted his chest as he declared, “I’m going to be the best mate to you. I’m so glad to be with you and Charlie. This is the best placement in the entire realms.”
“Aw Dralie, you big softie,” I told him. It was easy to get attached to the dragon. He was a good egg.
He nuzzled his muzzle into her chest and arms and she giggled as she petted us, “You make a very handsome dragon.”
“You aren’t scared?” I asked, because the last dragon she had experience of tried to kill her and so happened to be her ex husband.
“She has nothing to fear from us,” Dralie added. “We protect our mate. Our family.”
“Exactly. I can’t be afraid of you knowing how soft you are,” she replied.
“We aren’t soft. You can’t feel how hard our scales are? Do you have an injury to your hand?” Clawdia laughed, and Dralie preened. “Already, I provide.”
“So smug over a laugh.” I rolled my eyes. My internal eyes. The eyes of my spirit form. Don’t question me about this, it’s a real thing.
Dralie waded toward the dock where Baelen and Zaide sat, swinging their legs as they watched. They didn’t move as we came closer, but they stiffened, watching with suspicious eyes.
“They envy our wingspan. It happens.” Dralie told me.
“They don’t want to be singed. Maybe you should introduce yourself.”
“That’s a great idea, Charlie,” Clawdia praised, and I resisted the urge to preen as Dralie did only seconds ago. Dralie set her down on the dock and she took a few steps back into the arms of her soul pair and mate. “Baelen, Zaide, this is Dralie. He’s different from Charlie, and he’s my mate, too. He’d like to hoard of gold once we can afford it.”
“What an introduction.”
“He is different from Charlie? But you’ve spoken to Charlie, too?” Zaide asked.
“He’s in there too.”
Zaide laughed. “Charlie will be shaking his head to clear it so much he’ll never be able to look us in our eyes.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Dralie. I’m sure we’ll get to know you much more in the future.” Baelen nodded his head.
“Thank you for saving Charlie. We welcome you to our family.” Zaide also nodded.
I could feel how much it meant to him to hear that, so emotional that he settled down, retracting from my mind and let us change back to human.
I spluttered as I swam to the surface of the lake. Note to self: don’t change form in the water. Drowning may occur.
Clawdia peered over the boardwalk and asked, “Are you all right Charlie?”
“I’m fine.” I sighed, catching my breath as I floated on my back, the late afternoon sun warming my face. The lake was cold now I was a puny human again, but it was refreshing.
“Are you going to get out?” Clawdia asked.
“In a minute. It’s nice in here.” I could feel her stare at me, our bond throbbing with worry, and knew she was checking my threads. “I’m fine, I promise. Just enjoying a swim. Can’t swim in rivers at home without getting diphtheria. “
“Wash yourself while you’re in there.” Baelen said and tossed something at me. It hit my stomach, bounced off, and I caught it on the rebound. Soap.
“You just had this on you?” I asked.
“We went to the main house for towels.”
“We’re on the island?”
“We’re on the island.” Clawdia looked around and then burst into laughter. I stopped swimming and exchanged glances with Zaide and Baelen as she continued to laugh hysterically until tears came pouring from her eyes and she was crouched, holding her stomach.
“Want to let us in on the joke, Clawdicat?” I asked.
“We just escaped from a hunter compound and we’re back where we started, on this godforsaken island. But we’re alive.” She cheered loudly, her arms in the air as she bounced around. “We’re alive!”
I couldn’t help but laugh at her, too. “Can’t take us down that easy!”
“Don’t taunt the Fates,” Zaide muttered, but he smiled and his purple eyes seemed more alert and alive than they had been.
Clawdia launched herself into his arms, and he caught her easily. “The Fates are on our side, Zaide. I know it. We survived and I’m going to enjoy the fact that we are all here. Together.”
“Oh?” Baelen asked, a laugh in his voice. “And how are you going to do that?”
She let go of Zaide and raised a haughty eyebrow. “Well, first, I’m going to do this.” She pulled the filthy wet t-shirt over her head and tossed it to the side, hitting the wood with a slap.
I smiled, floating on my back again, and letting my eyes wander over her beautiful form. She licked her lips as she stared at me and then she said, “And then I’m going to do this.”
She ran toward me, and cannon balled into the lake, sending a giant splash into the air. She emerged from the surface laughing, her hair wrapped wildly around her face, and it made me laugh. She gripped onto me and I placed the soap in her hand and pushed her hair back from her face.
“You might need this more than me.”
She smiled at me, a playful look on her face, and my body stirred with desire. “How about you do me and I do you?”
I raised a brow at her sultry tone and said, “well I don’t need these anymore, do I?” and I stripped off my trousers and t-shirt, heaving them onto the dock.
Zaide and Baelen avoided the soggy clothes, and Baelen asked, “Is this an open invitation?”
“Of course. We all need a wash, don’t we?” Clawdia replied, her breasts bobbing on the surface as she floated on her back.
“You heard the boss.” I laughed. “Come in, but keep your cocks to yourself.”
Zaide and Baelen exchanged a glance. Zaide told him, “Charlie is intimidated by cocks bigger than his own.”
Baelen nodded sagely. “An understandable fear for someone so … inadequate.”
Clawdia’s arm wrapped around me from behind, and her wet body plastered against my back. “Ignore them. You aren’t inadequate at all. Far from it.” She rubbed the bar of soap around my chest and kissed my neck. My cock twitched in response.
An enormous splash almost drowned us and alerted us to Zaide and Baelen jumping in. I pulled Clawdia around so she plastered to my front instead and took the soap to run over her arms, her back, her neck, before circling her gorgeous tits. I couldn’t resist pinching her nipple and she gasped against my lips before locking me into a hot, frantic kiss, which had us grinding against each other as we treaded water.
A golden hand sneaked between us to take the soap and at the same time a bronze figure approached from underwater. Clawdia jumped and then laughed when he nibbled her toe.
Baelen breached the surface, grinning widely in a way I hadn’t seen before, and Clawdia untangled herself from me to swim into his arms and kiss him. Jealousy didn’t rise at the sight of them together and even Dralie seemed happy to watch his mate sink into the kisses Baelen pampered her with.
Zaide washed himself silently. It didn’t escape my notice that he was being far quieter than usual. It reminded me of the days we spent in the cave waiting for Clawdia to wake up, how he slowly became more and more distant. But there was a time and a place for everything and you don’t talk about trauma with a man who had his dick out. It’s a rule somewhere.
Clawdia must have felt something in her many bonds and turned from Baelen to lavish attention on her titan soul pair. She took the soap from him and slowly, carefully, washed him. It wasn’t erotic or playful. It was care. Love. An act of service to show her devotion to him.
“I love you. You’ve been so strong.” I heard her whisper in his ear as she combed white hair out of his face. She peppered him with kisses and he clung to her, his fingers clenched into fists as he nuzzled into her neck.
Like gravity, she pulled us all together, closer, until Baelen and I were at her back and her bonds surrounded her.
“Safe.” Dralie approved.