Leyloni’s sex clenched around his finger, still sensitive from their mating, still yearning for his tongue.
She had never thought that she would have this—a mate of her own.
Not only a mate, but a son. And soon… I will carry Arysteon’s young, as well.
This was her family, her clan.
She’d gained so much more than she ever could have hoped for in the wake of tragedy. Her heart, though still heavy with grief, was near to bursting with happiness.
Arysteon’s gaze remained locked with hers as he delicately withdrew his finger and settled his palm over her belly. His lips quirked into a grin that flashed his sharp teeth, making her insides quiver anew. “Soon, my mate, life will grow inside you, and our clan will grow with it.”
Leyloni placed her hand atop his, brushing her thumb over his knuckles. She had seen many of her tribe sisters with their bellies round, carrying little ones that would eventually fill their people with joy, that would be the future of their tribe. She’d never been chosen for that honor, and her only taste of it had been through those other women—through Atalla.
What would it feel like to have a baby growing in her womb, knowing it was Arysteon’s? What would it feel like to have it move inside her?
And what would their children look like? Would they have scales or skin? Would they have horns, claws, and tails? Would their features be mix of human and dragon, not unlike the form Arysteon was in now?
There was only one certainty—she loved those children already, just as she loved Serek, just as she loved her dragon.
Serek continued babbling, his legs in the air as he held onto his feet with both hands.
Leyloni smiled and drew herself up, catching Arysteon’s face between her hands and pressing her mouth to his. He groaned and leaned closer, nipping at her lips, but she pulled away before the kiss could go any further.
“I am sure Serek’s good mood will only last for so long before he demands to be fed,” she said.
Arysteon hummed thoughtfully, sitting back on his heels. “I suppose you have tended to my hunger enough for the time being.”
She chuckled as she rose, caressing Arysteon’s jawline and horns with her fingertips. “I will tend to more of your hunger later. And you can be sure to…quench your thirst.” Her cheeks warmed.
He stood up as well, lifting a hand to brush the backs of his fingers across her cheek. “My heartsong, we could share a thousand lifetimes and my thirst for you would never be quenched.”
Leyloni’s heart quickened. She couldn’t look away from him, couldn’t break eye contact. That little spark of lightning that had formed in her chest when she first touched him was alive and thrumming, having blossomed into something deep and powerful, and it responded to him just as strongly as the rest of her, if not more so.
It was Arysteon who finally broke the spell, stepping away from her with a soft, knowing smile upon his lips. “Tend to our fierce little dragon. I will see if I can find fresh food for our morning meal.”
Her chest constricted and suffused with alarming heat as she watched Arysteon disappear into the foliage. She swallowed thickly against her sudden distress, fighting the urge to get up and follow him, to keep him in sight.
A soft, questioning sound from Serek drew her attention to him.
He grinned, displaying his gums and his four tiny teeth, cooing and laughing as though she’d said something amusing. That quickly, the anxiety that had taken hold of Leyloni eased. Everything was all right. They were fine.
Leyloni chuckled. “One moment, little one.”
After hurriedly straightening her clothing and retying its laces, she gathered and folded the blankets, stuffing them into the bags. She felt Arysteon’s seed leak from her as she moved, wetting her inner thighs. Biting her lip, she used a spare cloth and water from the waterskin to clean herself, silently mourning the loss of physical contact with her mate.
After she was clean, she tended to Serek, who had thankfully remained in good spirits despite his undoubted hunger and soiled diaper cloth.
This morning had presented a simple routine to which she could easily grow accustomed—the dawn of a new day, yes, but also of a new life to share with her mate and son. Her body ached from yesterday’s attack, sporting several dark, blotchy bruises, and she knew her anxiousness had everything to do with it, but she could move on from it so long as Arysteon and Serek were with her.
When Arysteon returned, the camp was tidied and Serek was in a fresh diaper cloth, chewing on the last of Leyloni’s stash of sunfruits. Leyloni grinned at the sight of her dragon, and that grin only widened when he lifted his hands to display the fish he’d caught from the nearby river.
Soon enough, the three of them were sitting around their small fire, eating the tender, flaky fish in comfortable, appreciative silence. Arysteon picked little pieces off his portion with his claws, ensuring there were no tiny bones within, and passed them to Serek. The baby accepted each one happily, shoving even the smallest pieces into his mouth with his entire palm and smacking his lips.
“We still have a long way to travel before we reach the far edge of the forest,” Arysteon said as he divided another of the fillets with his claws, “but we must plan for the possibility that the comet will still be in the sky when we find the Snow Tree tribe. If that is the case…we will need to wait for it to pass before making contact with them.”
Frowning, Leyloni placed a hand on Serek’s back and helped him drink from her waterskin. “Why would we need to wait?”
“Because the Heat will only intensify as it continues, and it will increasingly affect me. And you are my mate.” His expression darkened as he met her gaze. “I cannot be certain of how I will behave in the presence of other males. It is likely that I will see them as threats to my claim on you, and the Heat will drive me to act upon it.”
“Oh. I…I did not know. Our stories speak of the world being more dangerous under the blood moon, of beasts becoming far more aggressive…” She paused when Arysteon arched a brow and quirked his lips. Then it dawned on her. He was a beast—a dragon. Being in human form did not change that. “Oh.”
When he spoke again, his voice was gentle. “The stories are correct about that. The world is more dangerous with that comet in the sky, and many creatures will be more aggressive—but most will be concerned only with mating. We must keep traveling, and we must remain vigilant.”
Arystreon leaned closer and caught her chin. “But you must know you need not fear any beast, my heartsong. The most fearsome of them all is already at your side.”
Leyloni reached up and curled her fingers around his wrist. Her heart quickened at the ferocity and love in his eyes, and she knew without a single doubt that he would do whatever it took to keep her and Serek safe.
18
It was impossible for Leyloni to shake the feeling that she was being hunted as she, Serek, and Arysteon continued through the forest. The vague directions her father had given her—and the hope they inspired—seemed like phantoms, unsubstantial and intangible compared to the very real pain and suffering inflicted by the Bone Wraiths.
Arysteon had killed that hunting party, but not the threat they represented. How far were the Bone Wraiths willing to rove in their search for males?
Leyloni knew Arysteon harbored many of the same concerns as she. He was more focused, reserved, and alert than she’d ever seen, his eyes in constant motion and his tongue repeatedly tasting the air. Together, he and Leyloni did all they could to obscure their trail without overly delaying their journey.
Of course, the Bone Wraiths were not the only shadow looming over Leyloni and her family. Even when it wasn’t visible, the comet remained a dark, pervasive presence, silently exerting its influence on the forest. During the day, everything looked normal, but the woods were filled with incessant mating calls from all manner of beasts both familiar and unknown. Leyloni had never heard anything like it. And some of those calls—especially when they grew aggres
sive—were downright chilling.
The comet’s effects on Arysteon strengthened as days passed, and Leyloni had no doubt they were more and more the reason behind his demeanor. Whenever they stopped for Serek to nap—and when the baby was asleep at night—Arysteon mated her. Heat blazed off him during their joinings, fueling his fierce, desperate movements.
Each time they came together, it was a little more intense than the last, and only heightened his craving for her. Even when they spent what must have been hours mating beneath the blood moon, Arysteon’s hunger would be more pronounced the next day. Whatever relief he was afforded always seemed short-lived.
Despite his ferocity, despite his ravenousness, despite the wild gleam so often in his eyes, Leyloni always felt a deeper connection with him when they mated. Even when that gleam was in his gaze, it was never the comet’s influence she saw there—it was only him. Through all his struggles, Arysteon was always with her. He was always there.
Leyloni knew all the pleasure they shared was real, and she knew he felt it, too—she sensed it through that sizzling bond they shared—but she could not help her distress over his condition.
However calm and stoic a face he presented outwardly, Arysteon could not hide his discomfort from her. Yet she admired him all the same for it. He pressed onward without complaint, often carrying far more than his share of the burden regardless of what form he was in, leading Leyloni and Serek toward their goal.
Toward a village full of humans. Full of strangers.
How would he feel there, in a place where being male would set him apart nearly as much as being a dragon would? Was that what he really wanted?
Could he be happy there?
She couldn’t hold back a pang of guilt for having not considered all that before, for having not asked him what he wanted from all this. But she held that guilt down, refused to let it run rampant. So much had happened since the night her village had been attacked, and it had all happened so fast. The only thing she’d had to focus on—the only thing that had kept her going early on—was reaching the Snow Trees. She hadn’t even considered what she wanted from all this, beyond Serek’s safety.
All she’d had before the attack were dreams she’d never believed would come true. There’d been no need to look ahead; her life had seemed as though it was stable, as though it would remain familiar and relatively comfortable—if a bit unfulfilling—until the end of her days.
Everything had changed—including Leyloni, the girl who had once thought herself content to go unnoticed, to watch everyone around her move on and enter new parts of their lives. That girl would never have imagined someone like Arysteon taking her as his mate, much less his only mate.
Though he could cover much greater distances while carrying Serek, Leyloni, and all their supplies in his dragon shape, Arysteon assumed his natural form less and less as the days passed. At first, Leyloni thought it was due to the pain of those transformations, which she felt through jolts in their connected sparks. The likelihood of more Bone Wraiths tracking them diminished over that time, and she came to again appreciate the extra time their journey would take with him in his man shape—because it would mean more time with him to herself.
Well, herself and Serek.
But he told her the reasons for his reluctance to take on that shape as they ate beside their campfire one night, and she came to understand how wrong her guess had been.
First was the unwanted attention Arysteon’s transformations undoubtedly drew toward him and his clan. Every time he changed, it was like a lightning strike, complete with a thunderous boom that could likely be heard for miles around. That would seem suspicious to any intelligent creature within earshot, especially humans, on most any day. Second—and foremost, according to his tone—was his need.
Arysteon’s shape changing, no matter the energy it must have taken to accomplish, did naught to diminish his desire for Leyloni. Even as a dragon, he yearned for her desperately and was constantly struggling against that yearning.
Obviously, there were some…physical incompatibilities between little Leyloni the human and massive Arysteon the dragon. He felt it was safer for him to remain in his human form as much as possible. And, though she trusted that he would not harm her either way, Leyloni agreed with him.
Five days after the attack at the river, the sky clouded over, gray and dreary, as though to mirror the grief at Leyloni’s core—as though to force her to acknowledge it. But she refused to let the weather drag down her overall mood. She was happy with Serek and Arysteon despite their struggles, and, more often than not, their mere presence was enough to chase the gloom from her heart. Even with the sun hidden, even when the world was stained crimson at night, even through the choruses of wild howls and roars, her happiness beamed.
They were alive. They were moving forward. They were family.
On the sixth day, the clouds darkened, and a chilly breeze crept through the air. That breeze carried the first raindrops, which landed heavily upon the surrounding foliage with a quickening pace.
Within moments, it was raining in earnest. Though it could not compare to the violent storm during which Leyloni had met Arysteon—there was no howling wind, no thunder and lightning, no torrents of rain thick enough to obscure vision—this rain brought its own form of misery. It was cold, just like so many of the storms that blew in from the north, and was just heavy enough to soak Leyloni from head to toe.
Even in Arysteon’s arms, sharing the dragon’s body heat, Serek was shivering and fussy within a short while.
Were it not for the rain, they could have continued traveling for another half a day. But Arysteon, who seemed unbothered by the rain and cold, called for them to find shelter almost immediately.
The rain fell suddenly harder, as though to admonish his decision.
Leyloni angled her face downward to keep the rain from her eyes, barely suppressing the shudder that threatened to course up her spine.
Arysteon extended his tail in offering, and Leyloni took it without question. She held on firmly as he led her forward, and she kept her face down, focusing on the obstacles before her—tangled roots and uneven depressions in the ground, primarily.
The air was redolent of the rain and damp earth, but soon took on a hint of another scent—the perfume of flowers. A new sound rose amidst the falling rain even as that floral smell grew more apparent, but it was more difficult to discern from the rainfall. Was it…running water? Perhaps runoff collecting and pouring down to the forest floor in a concentrated stream?
She looked up to take in her new surroundings, and for a few moments, her breath was caught in her throat. Despite the rain and gloom, this place was beautiful.
They were in a lush glade flanked on one side by a tall, rocky rise. A stream ran from atop that rise, tumbling over exposed boulders in several tiers before reaching the pool at the rise’s base. Water flowers of white, purple, and pink bobbed on the surface of the pool, and the surrounding vegetation was filled with countless flowers in those shades and half a dozen more.
Even as Arysteon led her beneath an overhanging rock that provided shelter from the rain, Leyloni could not help but stare in wonder. This glade felt at once a natural part of the forest and entirely separate from it, a tiny slice of tranquility, of paradise.
Leyloni jarred herself from that wonderment when Arysteon passed over Serek, who was still wet and crying. She tended to the baby as Arysteon left their little shelter to search for dry wood, checking the ground beneath trees with the thickest boughs and leaves, though he remained close and within sight.
After Serek’s diaper cloth was changed and he was wrapped in a dry blanket, Leyloni removed her clothing with trembling fingers. Each time Serek tried to crawl out from beneath his blanket to reach for her, she stopped what she was doing and returned him to his place, wrapping the blanket around him just a bit more snugly.
“Just a moment, little one. I will hold you soon,” she said between gentle shushing.
> Once her clothes were laid out to dry and she’d wrung the excess moisture from her hair, she pulled a blanket around her own shoulders and spread two more on the dry ground. She gathered what rocks she could find nearby and arranged them in a ring for the fire. That done, she took a small, cloth-wrapped bundle from her bag and sat down, pulling a fussy Serek onto her lap.
“Shh, it will be okay.” Rubbing his body vigorously with the blanket to warm him, Leyloni kissed the top of his head. She set the cloth bundle aside and opened it, revealing the purple berries inside. She plucked a couple out and presented them to Serek. “Here.”
His cries ceased as his watery eyes fell upon the berries. He hiccupped and reached for them, wrapping his whole hand around the little berries before shoving them into his mouth.
Leyloni smiled and had another waiting for him on her palm when he was ready.
As Serek was stuffing his next berry into his mouth, Arysteon returned, hunched over with a bundle of sticks and dried leaves clutched to his chest. Leyloni held another berry out to the baby while Arysteon arranged the sticks inside the stone ring. Once Serek accepted the berry, Leyloni moved to assist her mate in his task. They had a small but respectable fire burning in short order.
Leyloni’s eyes settled on Arysteon. His long hair hung about his shoulders, weighed down by the water. Droplets sparkled upon his scales, and she watched as water ran in rivulets down his body, following the contours of his muscles and the grooves of his scales. His lack of clothing allowed her full view of his taut backside and, thanks to the Heat, his fully erect cock.
To Love A Dragon; Venys Needs Men Page 17
