Chapter 15
Medwin
Moonscale London Under the Reign of Clarence Moonscale and Medwin Smokescale
Days passed in a blur. Clarence was taken to a Moonscale hospital, and I lived there for the three weeks he was unconscious.
Our meeting and relationship may have been publicized if not for my carrier and Volex.
Pras was gone and Haen wasn’t answering any of our phone calls.
I stayed by my mate’s side hoping that if he died, that I did too, because soon Volex would go home and most of our other friends were dead.
I didn’t want to be alone, and I didn’t think I could face the world without Clarence.
“You can. You just don’t want to,” my dragon chimed into my thoughts. “Besides he’s not dead. His injuries have healed up. He’s in a dragon sleep. He’s probably working out all the details of what happened.”
I cried into Clarence’s chest over and over and I was having one such crying spell when a big arm wrapped around me and he kissed the top of my head.
I froze. This had to be another false alarm, right?
We’d already had a few of them. He pulled me close a few times and once made to shove Volex away when I told him I didn’t want to talk.
“Medwin,” my name rolled off my mate’s tongue, and I sobbed into his chest, fearing that if I moved it would all stop. “Medwin,” he cooed to me. “It’ll be okay. It’ll be alright. We’ll figure this out. He’s gone, right?”
“Pras is dead,” I said, thinking he was asking about his brother.
“Ferrick?” he asked.
“Him too. Pras took care of him,” I said, because it wouldn’t be until years later that I knew the exact part my carrier played in it.
We were all en route to the castle, but it was my carrier who knew not only the air currents but also the Other World gateways that allowed him to reach the scene first. He was also the first one to administer first aid to Clarence.
“Good. Pras, though…”
I explained the book spell to him to the best of my ability. It hung in the bloody satchel from the end of the hospital bed because no one knew what to do with it.
Slowly, over the next few days Clarence woke up more and more.
Several times nurses had walked in on us kissing until Volex started playing bodyguard and blocking the door whenever we were sharing a private moment.
I reveled in those tiny moments because they made me feel alive.
I didn’t know we were only days away from explaining to the public that we met at the hospital where Clarence was being treated for wounds he suffered in his final battle with Ferrick.
We didn’t know then that my parents had already spun the story of the brave heir turned leader after discovering all of his carrier’s crimes, giving him credit for taking Ferrick’s life.
They were building us a foundation to lead from and ensuring that the Moonscales loved Clarence.
To this day, I’m still not sure how my parents convinced them of their version of the story when the flight link existed.
I figured people wanted to believe that their new leader was brave and honorable.
Clarence was both of those things, but he hadn’t been the one to defeat Ferrick.
Though, I wasn’t surprised that in the end it had to be another omega to take him out.
I wasn’t an egg anymore, but my carrier never stopped protecting me.
I know everyone expected our first time to be romantic and not in a lavish hospital room, but it was there fresh out of the shower that the magic finally overtook us.
Showering together probably had something to do with it or maybe it was the fact that somehow we were alive and together and standing on the edge of a proverbial cliff.
Once we stepped off it, our lives would never be the same again.
Still, there he was, whole and hale and wearing nothing but a fluffy towel.
The one thing my parents hadn’t thought of is what he might wear once he emerged from the hospital.
Fortunately, Volex had thought of it and had taken his measurements sometime before Ferrick ever died under the guise of finding him some proper workout clothes.
The workout gear never showed up but yesterday he’d swaggered into the hospital room with several garment bags full of possibilities.
He’d even brought a sword. I was better with a sword than Clarence would ever be but though the sword was combat ready, it was more about the pomp than it was about using it.
Volex was ready to go home and be done with all the Earthside bullshit.
He was our friend, but he was also the friend, brother, and son to many other people in the Other World where his family now dwelt.
I figured he was long over do for those eons’ long naps that older draconic shifters took when their true-mates have been gone for too long.
Clarence stood with his back to me, sorting through the dark garment bags because he had yet to settle on an outfit.
His back was still damp, and his wet hair stood up at every angle.
The towel did little to hide his round firm ass and the cock of his hip showed off a stretch of muscular thigh that made me bite my lip.
I was slick. It felt sacrilegious to be so damn horny when Pras was dead.
The bitter taste of grief souring every sweet bite of life wasn’t something I was unfamiliar with.
Only, this time it pushed me forward instead of holding me immobile.
I dropped my own towel on the floor to be picked up later.
Volex was standing guard outside the hospital door as he did any time one of us took our clothes off.
The whole of the Moonscale Dragon Flight awaited our emergence from the hospital and Volex stood firm on keeping the vultures at bay.
My parents took care of urgent matters and the mundane running of things.
I savored the nectar-sweet thoughts of how pissed off Roster Moonscale would’ve been about that.
I tiptoed across the hospital room as if Clarence might tell me no if he heard me moving before I wrapped my arms around him.
He didn’t startle when I hugged him from the back, but put away the new clothes and zipped up the garment bags without budging my arms from his muscular abs.
I kissed his shoulders and the back of his neck, savoring the taste of his clean, wet skin.
I let him go only when he turned around to face me.
Our eyes met first and then our hungry mouths.
We’d talked our intimate lives in circles over and over again and fantasized about the moment when we could finally throw caution to the wind.
This was it. Here in this hospital room that the staff kept trying to make fancier because one day Clarence would need to reapprove their funding or expand it.
I pressed my body against his and his dick came to life as our tongues danced between our desperate mouths.
Wrapping my arms around his neck, I let go of myself.
For the first time in many years, I just existed for me – for us – and not for every heart beating in the Moonscale Territory.
I kissed him like I was a dying dragon, and he was the only cure for the void that had grown inside me with each minute we had been forced to spend apart.
Clarence’s big warm hands traveled up and down my body, exploring what he already knew with a new delight because now, barring egg making, there was nothing to stop us.
We hadn’t discussed children yet, but knowing I wasn’t ready, I’d gotten the shot a few days before.
There would come a time in our lives when hatchlings would be loved and adored but this wasn’t it.
For now, all of the Moonscales were our kids and up until a few weeks ago they’d suffered at the wings and talons of some very unloving parents.
Still kissing me, Clarence walked me backward toward the hospital bed. It was larger than the one in my bedroom back at my parents’ or at my flat. The hospital staff called it ‘alpha-sized.’ I made a mental note to buy such a size for our own home.
“The castle isn’t standing anymore,” my dragon whispered into my thoughts, keeping his voice low as if fearing Clarence and his own dragon could already hear him. “Whatever magic died with Ferrick took the damn thing down.”
Clarence and I both already knew this. A new house was already under construction. We’d stay with my parents or at my flat until it was ready. Leaving the hospital meant facing not just all of Moonscale London but also the whole territory.
“Stop thinking so hard, mate,” Clarence whispered against my lips.
I stretched out under him, reveling in the strength of his body pressing against mine. It didn’t matter what the future might bring as long as we were together, we’d make it work. We had to. If Moonscale London fell, we’d never know a moment of peace.
Clarence kissed me again and I let go of my thoughts.
His nimble tongue stole them all away as it twirled around my own until he kissed down my throat and across my collarbone.
Then his mouth found my claiming gland. Over the past few days, it had begun to ache and throb at odd moments as if the magic whispered that it had used up all its patience and we better get our scales in gear.
“Condom?” Clarence murmured against my lips.
“Birth control,” I countered.
“Condom because right now we cannot risk an egg, mate,” he groaned.
“Over there in the nightstand drawer,” I pointed to the drawer where I stashed the box of condoms my parents had stuffed into my bag when they brought me some clothes. They hadn’t mentioned it but they shared Clarence’s sentiment that we couldn’t be too careful.
He rolled to the edge of the big bed and tore open the drawer to grab a handful of condoms.
“How many times do you plan on going?” I teased him as I snatched one from his hand.