Chapter 12 #3
“About his growth rate and all the things he can do? Yes, absolutely. If this is really real, if you’re really a dragon and so is he, then I can understand that he would be far ahead of his human counterpoints and really frustrated about it.”
Did Daniel realize he was growling? Did he have any idea how fucking sexy that was? That that noise was coming out of him? That protective instinct for Jacks taking over?
He is frustrated and, hopefully, it’ll be easier for you now because it’ll erase one level of misunderstanding.
Daniel nodded. “So does he know he’s a dragon? Is he that self-aware?”
Hayden swept one clawed paw open. Does a human baby know it’s human? He knows that he had to be careful about what he did around you because I didn’t know what to tell you.
“Oh, honey.” Daniel sighed. “Well, he can just be him, and you can just be you, and I’ll just try to figure this out, I guess. I mean, assuming I’m not insane, which is, you know, at this point a fairly large assumption, but assuming that sanity is part of the deal for me, then you know?—”
Daniel just didn’t understand.
Hayden could tell this was just not working for Daniel. You do know you’re not a human…
“I’m not sure that you’re right there, Hayden. I don’t, I’m just a guy.”
You’re not just a guy. You’re already starting to show signs. You have scales. The dragon is coming. Have you ever wondered why humans don’t love the way you smell? Have you ever wondered why you don’t need as much lube as every other gay man on earth?
“That’s a dragon thing?”
Oh, he wasn’t ready to explain omegas and alphas yet. What’s happening to you is totally a dragon thing, absolutely.
“I did wonder why I was so… wet with you.”
Hayden was the one to growl now. Because you’re mine and your body knows it. You could never be anything but mine.
Daniel’s pupils dilated, his breath catching. “Am I? Yours?”
Yes. And that is another discussion we must have, but maybe not now.
“No?”
No, no. Now I want to play in the sand and let it polish my scales.
“Well, roll in your sand pit, dork. I’ll sit at the edge. You said it was too hot for me.”
He bobbed his head because it probably was. If I’m at the edge, though, you could help scrub a little.
It would feel so good. He wasn’t whining, and pleading was a little strong. He was going to go with asking nicely with a little bit of need. There was most likely a little bit of need in the whole thing.
Daniel chuckled softly. “This is wild. I cannot believe we are having this conversation. Get in the sand. I’ll rub.
Have you brought the baby down here? Does he like it?
Is it too hot for him? This might be something he’d enjoy.
Does he turn into a dragon? Was he born a dragon?
Was he hatched from an egg? Did you hatch from an egg?
That seems kind of scary. Eggs. But I might as well be hung for a sheep as well as a lamb, I suppose. ”
Hayden blinked, trying to keep up. Dragon babies rarely shift as early as Jacks, although he’s going to be an early starter. That’s pretty obvious already. He has been down here. He loves to roll in the sand. He was not born from an egg. I don’t know who his parents were. They were killed.
“Oh poor little Jacks. That brings me to the agency?—”
He didn’t really want to talk about that right now, so he threw himself into the sand pit on his back, wallowing, claws up in the air, belly shining. He moved his tail, not too fast because he didn’t want to accidentally swack Daniel, but swaying nonetheless.
Daniel caught his tail with both his arms and let it slide him around the floor. “Man, I’m going to get me some roller skates. This would be fun.”
Are you making fun of me?
“No. Can you fly? Is it big enough here where you can unfurl your wings because I want to see the whole thing? But seriously, can you fly? What about breathing fire? Do you have like a pile of gold somewhere that you can lie on and wallow around in? Also interesting and cool. Just FYI, I’m not interested in your money. ”
Again, the questions made him struggle to keep up, but at the same time, he was huffing out a little puff of smoke with his laughter because Daniel was so perfectly Daniel.
Not worried about you wanting my money. If you were in this for the money, you would not be here in the mountains with your little tiny car.
You would be nannying somewhere in the big city with a bunch of vehicles at your disposal.
Not that you don’t have them at your disposal. Anything I have is yours.
Hayden moaned when Daniel started scratching right at the base of his tail. His hands were small compared to Hayden’s dragon form, but it didn’t matter. When he got under one scale that had been really bothering him, Hayden wanted to just die with happiness.
Anyway , he went on, I absolutely can unfurl my wings and tail completely if you want me to before we leave so you can see everything. And obviously the sand is not bothering you like I thought it would, even with your human skin. Maybe you have even more dragon in you than I thought.
“That seems like such a weird thing to say. You have dragon in you. That’s wild. Are there dragon hybrids with humans, or are there just dragons who are taught to be human and learn to hide?” Daniel stopped scratching for a moment, and he grunted, trying to get those fingers moving once more.
Daniel dutifully started scratching again, this time crawling up his tail until he straddled it right at the base, so he could get to Hayden’s lower back.
The feeling would have given him goosebumps if he was in his human form. As it was, it made his scales rattle, which made Daniel gasp. But he didn’t think it was an unhappy reaction.
Ahem.
I think there must be hybrids. Although humans are not particularly magical creatures, they’ve forgotten most of what they used to know about that over the centuries.
Maybe there’s dragon-fae hybrids, and you’re the product of a changeling and a dragon. Or, it could be that you were just magicked at birth to think of yourself as human and therefore you’ve always been contained in this one body.
“Hmm,” Daniel tilted his head to one side, clearly pondering that.
“Okay, I can go there. I would bet if I had to be a betting man about this, which I don’t know that I am, that it’s what you said about having been contained.
It’s like putting ice cream in a hard chocolate shell thing and then putting it in the freezer until you break it open.
For the most part, the ice cream can contain itself even if it’s melting. ”
Scratch love. You stopped scratching.
Daniel snort-laughed. “I can’t reach anything else. If you’ll turn around and give me a paw, then maybe I could climb up on your back and scratch your neck.”
Bowing his head, he waited for Daniel to scramble back down to the floor beside the sand pit. Then he turned around, offering up one clawed arm, which was much shorter than his back legs but still big enough for Daniel to scramble up on it and then straddle his back.
Oh, he could see himself flying like this, could see him taking Daniel on his back and going for a long, soaring flight over the mountains. Daniel bent forward and clung to him, head pressed against the side of his neck.
Yes, even better would be flying with his mate, but Daniel was going to have to learn how to do that after he learned how to shift.
Right now, he needed Daniel to remember how to scratch.