He felt his own orgasm kick over at the thought of her coming all those times and grated out her name as he came with her, loving the way her tensing muscles seemed to go in time with his.
It wasn’t just the pleasure shuddering through his body that he loved at this moment; it was the way she was free and released, the way her tousled hair flew around her as she thrashed, the way their bodies felt so joined that he didn’t know how they could possibly be two separate people.
The way it felt like home in the most exciting way possible.
As she finished and found him watching her intently, she was reluctant to move off of him, as usual. It took him a little while to get soft, and he liked staying inside her, so it was fine with him. He liked cuddling after as well, though he found it hard to admit it.
At times, he was still the stubborn, hard-hearted Aegis he’d been for so long. But with Opal, he mostly found it easier and easier to be kind, to be vulnerable, to trust.
He was even getting along better with the dragons, though he hadn’t seen that much of them as he and his mate were busy honeymooning, coming out only to get food and water and then retreating back to their love cave.
He grinned. Dragons knew how to honeymoon.
He finally rolled over with her, coming out of her and grabbing a bedside towel to quickly wipe off. Then he pulled her against his chest. “How long ‘til you want to go again?”
“I don’t know,” she said with a yawn. “Maybe I’m ready for a nap.”
“Sure,” he said, loving the curvy feel of her body, the velvety skin, the soft hair all around him. He didn’t even care it was in his face.
“You really outdid yourself today,” she said in a pleased voice, reaching back to stroke his face.
“I can’t help it. You’re too beautiful. I have to see you come an absolutely ridiculous number of times.”
“Mm,” she said, rubbing her butt against him. “On second thought, maybe I don’t need that nap after all.”
Aegis nuzzled her neck and moved a hand around in front of her, lightly touching her nipple and rolling it in his fingers as she began to writhe.
Then a confounded knock on the door sounded. Aegis let out a curse.
“Who is it?” Opal called out.
“Go away!” Aegis shouted.
“Are you two always going to be fucking?” Sapphire asked. “Or are you ever going to come out of your own volition?”
Aegis grumbled against Opal’s shoulder. “Sapphire’s getting too bold for his own britches.”
“Because he’s your friend,” Opal said. “Admit it.”
Aegis sighed and sat up, reaching for his robe. “Fine. I admit it. I’ll talk to him.” He tied the robe and made sure Opal was covered and walked to the door, blocking it with his body. “What is it?”
“I know you don’t want to be bothered, but the oracle is coming in a couple hours.”
“What?” Aegis asked. “Why does that concern me? I have my collar off. I already helped. Everyone agreed I could have a break with Opal before setting off on the next adventure.”
“Well, we’ve all been waiting to see what the next adventure is,” Sapphire said. “And we’ve been pretty good at not bothering you. Baby Luc misses you, though. And I’m sure Cuddles does as well.”
“You’re wrong there,” Aegis said smugly. “For your information, Cuddles took up with Pumpkin weeks ago. Even though he’s been neutered, they’ve been inseparable, humping all over—”
“Stop,” Sapphire said. “I don’t need to hear it.”
“And as for Luc, the joke’s on you, because I’ve been sneaking out to see him in the nursery sometimes, and you just didn’t know it.”
Sapphire narrowed his eyes. “What?”
“I’ve been mentoring him. I’m his namesake after all. But don’t worry. Opal was there every time to make sure we don’t get into too many shenanigans. But even though I could ignore the rest of you, I couldn’t neglect him.”
“Hm,” Sapphire said.
“I promise he’s adorable with him!” Opal shouted from behind the door.
Aegis moved in front of it, closing it so there was no chance of her being revealed. “Anyway, what does the oracle have to do with me? Why can’t she just leave me alone?”
“I don’t know, but she’s coming to meet with us, and she said she wanted to talk with you in particular.”
“Hm,” he said. “I assume she isn’t planning to remove me from here, because you need me here for the births.”
“True,” Sapphire said. “Though we are still wondering if perhaps Dom can keep the baby calm enough to keep it from shifting. Then you may not be needed. Just in case for some reason you can’t be around.”
“Not be around.” Aegis huffed. “As if Opal would stand for that.” He sighed. “All right, I’ll get ready and come down. But I honestly don’t see what she could want after everything I’ve already done. No thanks to her and her collar.”
“She did sort of help you work things out with Opal. The collar did play a role in taming you for a while.”
“Humph,” Aegis said, finding it hard to admit any kind of gratitude for someone who had enslaved him, even temporarily or for his own good. “Anyway, I’ll come down and we’ll see.”
“And bring Opal,” Sapphire said. “So she can hear everything, just in case.”
“Right,” Aegis said. “We’ll be right down.”
Opal watched her grumpy mate as he slumped at the table and waited for the oracle to arrive. They’d showered together, and he’d been more than a little upset they’d had to rush through a few orgasms and then get out because there were things to get done.
She found it kind of adorable just how obsessed he was now that she was reaping all the benefits.
When the oracle finally entered, escorted by Zach as all the other dragons were seated at the table, she looked weary. Having an evil sister would probably do that to someone.
Her aged, usually kind-looking face was tired and lined, and her misty, white eyes were sharp but somewhat miserable. She allowed Zach to help her into her chair and then sighed.
“So much misery in the world,” she said. “And I owe all of you an apology. I should have been here to help you. But with civil war breaking out on Pride Island, I was trusting you to handle it. I’m afraid there is still more I will have to trust you with.”
“What do you mean?” Aegis asked, leaning back in his chair, green eyes narrowed suspiciously. Opal put a hand on his leg to calm him, which usually worked.
Today, however, he seemed warier than usual.
The oracle let out a long sigh. “I’ve been… interviewing my sister.”
“Torturing her more like,” Aegis said sardonically.
“Aegis,” Opal warned, and he shut his mouth.
“Anyway,” the oracle said. “I’ve been getting more info about the holdouts she left. We took down her main wyvern force and pretty much everyone working with her at her castle, but she and the shifters she had joined up with had been working on other projects, too. She got a little too hasty, attacking you all like that. Losing Opal and Aegis at the same time must have really set her off. Because they had a good long-term plan set that is pretty much ruined now, though it can still do a lot of harm.”
“How?” Aegis asked. “And how does it involve us?”
“Well, there’s a lot going on right now. There are the civil war problems on Pride Island, but I have some of the paired dragons and my lions helping with that. It takes pretty much all my attention. However, recently, I tried to bring in some other help, and… it pretty much didn’t go well.”
“What kind of help?” Zach asked, looking suspicious now as well.
“Well….” The oracle trailed off, looking guilty. “I suppose I thought the awakened dragon experiment went so well that when I had the opportunity, I thought I would continue it.”
“Continue it how?” Sapphire asked. “All the dragons who were put into cryo are
out.”
“Not exactly…” the oracle said. “You see, I felt a psychic resonance a while ago, paired with a vision of a sea in the Nordic region.”
“Oh no,” Ruby said.
“And I went there, only to find that submerged in the ice was an ancient ship, full of what must have been something like Vikings, sunken and totally frozen.”
“What…?” Aegis said, staring blankly. “Don’t tell me.”
“And the crew, because they weren’t human, went into cryo instead of dying. I was able to transport them with a portal and awaken them, and—”
“They were dragons?” Zach interrupted, his knuckles whitening as he gripped the table.
“Yes,” she said resolutely.
Zach sighed, putting his head in his hands on the table. “I hope you aren’t looking at me to train them. I have enough on my hands with this group, and I need to watch out for my mate.”
“Actually, I had Aegis in mind for this,” the oracle said, turning his way.
Aegis’s head snapped up. “What? Why me.”
“These dragons, they’re different than gem dragons, but they’re strong. Maybe even stronger in some ways. But they’re…”
“Unruly?” Aegis finished drily.
“Unmanageable,” she admitted. “That’s where you come in.”
“Wait, so there’s like a whole bunch of them?” Ruby asked. “What were they doing, rampaging as a whole group of dragons?”
“I’m not sure. You’d have to ask them,” the oracle said. “But right now, they’re back in cryo. You see, when I first woke them, they were suspicious but well behaved as they figured out the world. But once they felt they had a handle on things, there was a mutiny in the castle, and we had to—”
“Put them back on ice,” Zach said, shaking his head. “You shouldn’t have woken them. I’ve heard of dragons from other ages. None of us are peachy, but some are really bad. You should be careful.”
She shrugged. “I’m trying to be careful, but I’m also trying to save my world. It seems for every good move I make, evil comes up with another counter. I think these dragons are our only hope to turn the tide. You all were able to stem it, but if we want to take control, this is the path.”
“Take control?” Aegis said skeptically. “Now you’re starting to sound like Irial.”
“No,” the oracle said. “Because I don’t want control for myself or over others. I simply want to protect those who can’t protect themselves. If we can’t do that, why are we here?”
“To enjoy life?” Aegis asked. “What about that?”
“You have a better chance of doing that if we can turn the tide in our direction,” the oracle said. “But I won’t force you. All of you have helped more than you can imagine. But I know you have mates, and I’ve asked a lot of you.”
“But why Aegis?” Opal asked. “Aside from his obvious powers.”
“Well, the mind control is crucial,” the oracle said. “But additionally, his mate is a powerful dragon. I think between the two of you, you could keep them in line. The collars I’ve made them don’t work perfectly. They keep them from shifting and using certain powers, but they’re still giant, invincible brutes who will stop at nothing when they want something.”
“And what if they go after my mate and I have to kill one?” Aegis said.
“They won’t,” the oracle said. “They have an odd sense of rigid honor. Though they were basically pirates. They wouldn’t look at another shifter’s mate. At least, that’s been the case with the other lions and dragons I’ve had around them.”
Aegis sighed. “You’re taking a lot of risks.”
“I would have Citrine go with you. I’ve been talking to him, and he has already agreed.”
Aegis glared at Citrine. “You did?”
Citrine nodded. “I think you would be perfect for the job.”
“I’m no leader,” Aegis said.
“Yes, you are,” Citrine countered. “I saw you in the birthing room, when you took control of things. You read a situation and you fix it, even when emotions are running high and many people are involved. You would be the perfect person for this assignment.” His lips crooked up at the corner. “More to the point, I think you would enjoy it.”
“You would have my full permission to punish them adequately if they misbehave,” the oracle said, sweetening the deal.
She watched Aegis lean back in his chair thoughtfully and could tell he was considering it.
He was probably thinking about how delightful it would be to make the big guys punch themselves in the face if they got out of line.
“Fine, I’ll think about it,” Aegis said. “But I need to talk it over with Opal. We make all our decisions together. What exactly would it entail?”
“We’d get you a mansion, somewhere remote,” she said. “Maybe snowy so it feels like home for them. And of course, we’d arrange for you to leave when there were any births for you to help with.”
Aegis nodded.
The oracle went on. “We’d want you to continue training them, getting them used to the world. And if you can control them, potentially even take them on raids.”
“Raids where?” Aegis asked.
“One of the projects the oracle was working on was kidnapping dragon hearts, like Lana, and hiding them in various locations with guards until they could figure out what to do with them.”
“That’s true,” Lana said. “There have to be others like me, waiting for rescue.”
“And the dragons actually made a request of me just before I put them in cryo again. They said if I got them out, they wanted to find mates. I told them they’d have to earn it.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Aegis said, waving a hand. “Let me get this straight. You want me to hole up in a castle with these crazy people, dragon, things. You want me to train them and take them on raids to rescue human women. And then you want me to potentially help them mate those human women?”
“Help them win them over. After all, they’re big, beautiful men. It shouldn’t be that hard,” the oracle said.
“Even big, beautiful men can be terribly obnoxious when they want to,” Erin said with a snort, leaning her cheek on her hand. She looked up lovingly at Zach. “But I suppose they can be good when they want.”
“Exactly,” the oracle said, looking more excited about her plan by the minute. “And these women will likely need guarding for the rest of their lives anyway. They are known dragon hearts. Someone will want to mate them. They may even be planned for pairs now. I don’t know. I only know they have disappeared, and my sister has helped hide them. I can only hope for the best.”
“Hm,” Aegis said. “I’ll go talk it over with Opal.”
“Think about it,” the oracle said as he took Opal’s hand and pulled her along with him out of the room. “A long vacation in a beautiful locale. Time alone with your sweetheart. People you can beat up!” That last part was shouted somewhat desperately, and Opal stifled a smile as Aegis quickened his pace and took her up to his room.
When they were inside, he shut the door and pulled her over to the bed. He had her sit on the end of it and pulled a chair up to face her.
“What do you think?” he asked, taking both her hands in his, stroking over her skin in a way that made her shiver.
“It sounds like they need us.”
“But things were just calming down,” he said. “I was enjoying it.”
“Oh, come on,” she said. “I think if it got too calm, it’d be boring. Especially for us. Isn’t this just what we like doing? Going off on adventures together? Plus, with us mated and you feeling more secure, you shouldn’t feel like beating everyone up, unless they deserve it.”
His green eyes twinkled as he grinned at her. “True. Well, if you think we can do it.”
“I think it’s an adventure,” she said. “I think you’ll enjoy it.”
“And you?” he asked.
“I think I’ll be immensely entertained.”
<
br /> He raised an eyebrow, standing and getting on the bed with her with a mock threat in his eyes. “Oh, entertained, are you? Find me entertaining, do you, Opal?”
She giggled as his hands found her sides and rolled desperately, trying to escape his fingers as he tickled. Finally, he had mercy and rolled over next to her, spooning her from behind, making her feel safe and cradled against his long, muscled body.
She loved how everything was fun with him. She was sure this next step in their journey would be as well.
“All right,” he said, placing a kiss on the back of her ear. “If you have faith in me.”
She nodded. “Always. I love you.”
“And I love you, always.”
She snuggled close and felt his body tighten slightly. “What is it?”
“Do you think we have to go tell the oracle now, or is there time to celebrate our decision first?” he asked, a teasing note in his voice.
“Aegis!” she said, turning to face him and giving him a gentle shove to the chest. That was a mistake because the hard, rounded muscles there were her favorite. She let out a sigh and bit her lip. “Maybe a little time for celebrating.”
He pulled her close so they were nose to nose. “Just a little.”
“We are doing her a big favor,” she said as his lips came closer.
“True.”
And then his lips met hers and their legs intertwined and her heart felt full, and Opal knew it would be quite a while before the oracle got to hear their decision.
But that was okay. Good things were worth waiting for.
The man in her arms, the love of her life, was proof of that. And she had eternity to enjoy him.
The end! Well, until we see the new dragons, right? ;) I hope you truly enjoyed Aegis’s story. It was a challenge in a lot of ways to give this character his happy ending, but with so many requests from my dear readers, from the very first book where this semi-villainous character appeared, I knew I had to give him a chance.
And I’m so glad I did, because he really spoke to me! I hope Aegis and Opal’s story spoke to you too, and that you enjoyed the ending to the Awakened Dragons series. We’ll be seeing much more of Aegis and Opal and their friends in the upcoming books, after a short break.
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