Chapter 16
Chapter
Sixteen
H ayden needed to talk to Daniel.
Of course it was going to be hard to talk to him when all he wanted to do is snatch him up, take him upstairs, and make love with him.
But that was what he needed to talk to Daniel about because he had not managed to do it before now, and Daniel had to understand what was going on.
Then again, every time he got within smelling distance of Daniel, his mate’s scent made him hard as a rock and drove him crazy because the winter solstice was upon them.
He couldn’t put it off anymore. Every time they made love, there was a bigger chance of them getting pregnant, and Daniel was totally showing his scales.
He thought he’d even found the man breathing ice at night, which was fine, except that at some point, they were going to make it rain in the bedroom.
Literally.
Like rainstorms.
So it was time.
Hayden marched into the nursery where Daniel was watching Jacks play with blocks on the floor. “We need to talk.”
“All right, what’s the matter?” Daniel’s eyes flashed bright blue.
“You’re a dragon.”
“Rawr!” Jacks roared.
“Yes, rawr.” He offered his son a warm smile. “You’re a dragon, and you’re going into heat, and I want to make sure that you understand that there could be a baby.”
“A baby? We have a baby.”
“No. I mean a pregnan?—”
“A pregnant baby? That’s not a thing.” Daniel looked at Jacks, and then back up Hayden. “I just don’t follow what you’re trying to explain if you’re using euphemisms. Though I’m not sure how “pregnant baby” could be a euphemism?”
“I’m not using euphemisms. Dragons get pregnant, and?—”
“Well, I assume so, otherwise how would you have baby dragons?”
“I’m being serious.”
“Well, I am too.”
Hayden took a deep breath. “Look, there are two types of dragons?—”
Daniel nodded. “Fire-breathing ones and not fire-breathing ones?”
Jacks rolled his eyes and flopped down on the floor, kicking his feet and laughing.
“No!” He roared.
Then he grabbed Daniel and kissed him. Not with tongue, because the baby was there, just enough to shut him up for a second. “Look, there are alpha dragons and omega dragons. Omega dragons have babies, alpha dragons don’t. I am an alpha dragon, okay?”
“Okay.” Daniel’s tone was very humor-the-lunatic, but that was not going to push him over the edge. He wasn’t going to let it because he couldn’t. This was an important discussion.
“Daniel, what I’m trying to tell you is that it doesn’t matter whether it’s male or female. An alpha dragon and an omega dragon, when they have sex, especially when the omega dragon is in heat, can have a baby.” That had to be explicit enough to get Daniel to understand.
Daniel stared at him, lips parted. Then he shook his head, pressing his lips together. “Hayden, if I had the parts to make a baby, don’t you think someone would have told me by now?”
“Not if whoever raised you knew you were a dragon and helped hide that from everyone. Honestly, how many times can you remember going to the doctor as a child?” He took a step back and crossed his arms over his chest because if he kept touching Daniel, things might happen that the baby didn’t need to see.
Daniel tilted his head, clearly thinking about that. “I don’t know, to be honest, I don’t remember going to the doctor a lot, but I must have had things like immunizations and stuff, right?”
“You don’t have the medical records?” Hayden had to tread carefully here because he knew Daniel probably didn’t have them. That was part of this whole dragon gig.
If he had been raised to believe he was human, there had to be some sort of obfuscation going on. Or people would have found out, and Daniel would have been sent someplace to be studied or something.
Daniel’s cheeks went pink, and he squirmed uncomfortably. “I don’t think so. I mean, maybe they got lost or something.”
“What about school? Did you go to school? Like public school?”
The lean shoulders wiggled again. Daniel shrugging. “Not when I was little, no. I went to a private school.”
“Sort of magical teachers, very few students?”
“If you know all this, why are you asking me?” Daniel snapped.
“Because I want you to see it how I see it, Daniel. I really think that whoever raised you knew you were a dragon or at least thought you were. And they were hiding it. Therefore the fact that you’re an omega dragon would never have come up.”
Daniel made a noise that sounded like an engine letting out steam or something. Sort of a gnnnnnh . “Do you have to be so infuriating? You don’t know everything, you know.”
“I think I probably know enough. I’ve been around a long time, Daniel.”
Daniel waved his hands in the air, really starting to look frustrated. “What does that mean? You’re like, what, ten years older than me? Maybe fifteen? I mean, that’s a little bit of an age gap, but it’s not, like, huge.”
Hayden tried really hard not to sigh. He wasn’t going to go into that right now, how long-lived dragons were. Daniel already had enough shit that he was trying to understand and process.
“Suffice to say that it’s enough. Look baby, I just don’t want you to go into this not knowing what could happen.
If you got pregnant and then hated me for it, I would never forgive myself.
So I want you to be aware of what could happen.
” Hayden held out his hand, silently urging Daniel to come take it and stop his sudden pacing.
He could feel the aggravation and the worry, and he just wanted to make it better.
Daniel met his eyes. Then reached out, took his hand, and as soon as they connected, it was as if a fire had been lit. Daniel twined their fingers together and squeezed hard.
“I think you should go in the other room,” Daniel said. “We have the baby.”
Hayden licked his lips. “Denise could watch him. She knows how.”
He didn’t want to let go. He didn’t want to go in the other room.
He would.
He would never force himself on Daniel, but he didn’t want to go in the other room.
“Okay, call her.” He swore Daniel was forming ice crystals around his nostrils, those icy blue scales making themselves known. Every so often, there was a tiny little golden yellow scale.
Hayden called out to Denise in his mind. I need you to come take the baby, please. Daniel and I ? —
I’ll be right there, she told him. Don’t worry, you just breathe for a minute.
You have maybe a minute. I… This is urgent . He was so hot that his skin burned a little bit against Daniel’s hand, and he was staring right into Daniel’s eyes. The scent of him was maddening. It was so musky and deep and strong, and it called to Hayden on a cellular level.
“I’m here. Go.”
He didn’t even see Denise. He didn’t have to. She was there, and they could go.
He swooped Daniel up and ran, his inner dragon right there, demanding his mate.
Daniel, on the other hand, clung to him, leaving sharp little bites all over his neck, his jaw, the little tiny nibbles enough to make him cross-eyed with need.
Daniel tore at his clothes, and he did the same, fabric flying, buttons and seams ripping and popping.
They fell to his bed without him even knowing they were in the right place, and he covered Daniel’s body, with his cock against Daniel’s belly, his knot already swelling.
He could smell Daniel. He could tell how much his mate needed him, and he was thankful for it, because he ached. And there was no stopping this train now that it was chugging along.
“Tell me you want me,” he growled.
And Daniel’s response was immediate and hungry. “I need you. Now.”
All right. He’d done everything he could to make sure Daniel understood the possible repercussions of what they were doing, and it was time to let them go.
So he would just go with the flow of the inevitable.
Daniel turned over, got on hands and knees, pushing his ass back towards him in a clear demand. “I’m right here. Take me.”
He reached out, grabbed the sweet globes of Daniel’s ass, and squeezed, parting them with his thumbs, sinking both of them at once into that sweet, wet heat. “You’re ready for me.”
“Quit fucking around. I said I was.”
He could see the scales popping out along Daniel’s spine.
He bent to kiss the ones that he could reach while he pushed up against Daniel’s ass. They were both naked because they had torn their fucking clothes off. All he had to do was rub the head of his cock against that hole, and it started to take him in.
So Hayden did what his body demanded and sank deep until his hips were flush with Daniel’s ass. It hadn’t taken any effort at all because Daniel was made for him. Made for his knot, and they fit so well together that he couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
Daniel moaned, body rippling around him, drawing him in deeper and deeper, massaging him, and demanding.
His knot grew, filling with a fire inside, and he threw his head back, claws digging into Daniel’s hips as he roared. He called out his passion and his happiness, the sheer, unadulterated joy that his mate had found him and ended up in his arms, in his bed, in his heart.
Daniel crawled up the headboard, clinging to the top rail, and pushing back, riding him with sharp, hard motions of his hips. The wildest sounds poured out of his lover, deep and guttural, frost spreading over the wood and the wall behind it.
Hayden was right here with his mate. Their bodies slapped together, the noise sharp, hungry, necessary.
His knot swelled further, getting monstrously thick at the base, the sensation near unbearable. “Soon, love, I can’t not.”
“You have to. So full. So right.” Daniel clenched around him, squeezing tight. “I need you to.”
He nodded, and then his knot swelled to its widest, engaging inside Daniel, locking them together.
He shot so hard that he swore his bones rattled. He knew he could hear his wings flapping, his scales clacking together as he filled his mate up with his seed, with his magic, with his hunger.
Daniel writhed on his cock, whining with a raw desperation, so he reached around and grabbed his needy prick.
Hayden stroked until Daniel screamed, the sound primal and feral, and came all over Hayden’s hand, his body clamping down until Hayden wanted to roar again.
He knew it would happen over and over today, because Daniel’s heat was at its strongest right now. He would keep begging and asking and pleading with Hayden to take him.
Goddess knew that was just fine with him.
So he kissed Daniel’s sweaty shoulder and eased them down together till they lay on their sides, his knot still fully wedged deep inside Daniel’s body.
Daniel panted, patting his hand which was wrapped around Daniel’s waist. “Is this mating?”
Hayden nuzzled the back of Daniel’s neck. “Yes, baby. This is mating. This is making a little dragon.”
Daniel laughed, breathless and disbelieving. “It just seems so impossible. I don’t know how that could happen.”
“But if it does, we’re not going to freak out, right?” He needed Daniel on board, and he had a feeling his mate would humor him. But once things started to change inside his body, that might be a different thing altogether.
“I’ll do my best.” Daniel shook with silent laughter. “I’m doing my best with everything.”
“That’s all I can ask of you, baby. That and you come to me if anything makes you feel unhappy or wigged out.” He loved that expression, “wigged out.” Made him think of the 1700s when everyone wore powdered wigs.
“I will. That I can promise you.”
“Thank you, love.” He enveloped Daniel in his arms, the shadow of his wings popping out on the wall across from them. He knew he couldn’t afford to dragon out right now, but he wanted to so badly. At this point, he was driven by biology to protect his mate from everything.
The only thing he needed to protect Daniel from right now was Jacks, to be perfectly honest, so he didn’t need his dragon form to do that. Jacks would never hurt Daniel on purpose. So, they just had to learn how to muddle through.
If that was easier said than done, so be it. Hayden was really good at logistics.