Chapter Four

Nycto

"I like it when you're all flustered, but did you see the crystals flicker?" I asked Izora as we headed down the hallway.

"I did," he nodded.

"That was us. They absorb extra magic to keep everything going. Our mating response magic almost murdered them. They drew some of it into themselves, but it'll build back up again. All magic always does and when we finally mate I don't want to rub my knee scales off on the stones. So, the nest it is. Plus, you should know I build excellent nests. I don't even need one of those stupid packs to do it."

"Are they stupid if they cover a skill gap?" Izora asked. "Would you rather have broken eggs everywhere? I wouldn't."

I rolled my eyes. He was such a townie. It was sorta cute. Okay, it was sexy on him, but that was only because it was my eggs he'd guard in the future. We could've talked about the townies' lack of nest building skills all day and night, but I let it go. There were more important things on the horizon. I sniffed the air to double-check that my mate didn't take personal offense. He hadn't, but my head swam with his scent and I stumbled over a step. Izora took my hand in his, entwined our fingers, and kissed the back of it.

The warmth of his lips spread down my hand and arm and then over my whole body. My dragon roared inside of me and the magic was again tugging at me from right behind my navel. I pushed Izora back against the wall and he grunted as I claimed his lips in a hard kiss. This time I plunged my tongue into his waiting mouth, licking and twirling. I leaned my body against his so that he couldn't get away even if he wanted to. He kissed back, hard. His teeth scraped against my lower lip, and I tasted blood. Everything inside me stood on edge. Despite cumming not so long ago, I was hard and slick and needed him all over again. We might never make it to the nest at this rate. Then again, being lost in a romping labyrinth with my newly met mate didn't sound like the worst certain doom a dragon could encounter.

"You're hot to the touch," Izora whispered.

"You did that. You jump started the magic," I said and kissed him again.

I spotted the raised, taut skin covering his claiming gland out of the corner of my eye and almost claimed him right then and there – romping or no romping – to satisfy my dragon's need.

"Nest?" Izora asked, his voice laced with husky need.

"That way," I said, jerking my head in that direction.

"Off we go," Izora said, lifting me over his shoulder.

"I could get used to this," I laughed. "It's a nice view from back here." I patted his ass.

By scent or instinct, Izora navigated that ‘cave' part of my home with little guidance from me. He slid down the dark, narrow passageway that led to the nesting room without banging either of our heads on the wall. The nesting room was lit with tiny orange and purple gems and crystals that I pressed into the walls one-by-one when I was first designing my home.

Izora kept his arm around my legs to hold me in place while he took in the nest room. There was no big overhead lighting, but with the glowing rocks everything was lit up the perfect amount. I couldn't see the nest that was in the furthest corner of the room as he took it in, but I knew its every piece and part by heart. I was the one who put it together, after all.

"Blankets or giant leaves?" Izora asked.

"I used both."

"Won't the leaves rot?"

"Not down here. Not with the way I did it," I shook my head. "Too much magic in here for them to rot away. We'll have to change them out and wash the blankets and other reusables between clutches, but they won't die of natural decay."

"It's big."

"Well, yeah. I'm a dragon. You're a dragon. We can't sit around in flesh form all the time."

"It's as large as some studio apartments back in London."

"What's a studio?"

"A small apartment where it's one room for everything except the bathroom. Bathroom's usually tiny too."

"Sounds dreadful."

"Eh, it worked for me well enough while I was in uni."

"Why would they make students live like that?"

"Who knows?" Izora laughed and stepped toward the nest.

"Wait!" I said, trying and failing to squirm out of his grasp.

"Did you booby trap it?" Izora laughed.

"No, but that is a good idea, huh? You need to wash your feet before you get in. I do too."

"Where's the bathroom, mate?" Izora sighed.

"Turn around, please," I said and slapped his ass on the left side because that was the direction I wanted him to turn towards.

A shower head hung from the wall there to make it easy to clean up before getting into the nest. Dragon hatchlings were hardy, but one shouldn't take unnecessary chances with their unborn children. Without asking questions, he headed across the room and under the shower. The cold water hit right on my ass and I roared and pinched his. He laughed before finally letting me slide onto my own two feet. I kissed him and sucked his bottom lip into my mouth as the water washed down over both of us. I pushed the hidden button between two rocks and the water turned soapy so that we could have a quick wash and rinse.

When the water shut off, I grabbed his hands and tugged him across the room to the nest before he could supercharge the magic again. I really didn't want stone burn on my knees or ass when we finally exchanged our claiming vows. My dragon was only patient enough to give him a few seconds to take in the fact the he could barely see over the edge of the nest before I showed him the place I made to climb up in my human form. I patted his ass, indicating he should go up first. That way, I'd see right away if he misstepped and compromised the nest in any way.

Kudos to him because he managed to find each hold perfectly without putting undue stress on the structure. Once I was sure the nest wall was still structurally sound, I climbed in behind him.

"It's bigger than the swimming pool back at the estate," Izora said, looking around the nest's interior.

I was mostly a tidy dragon. A few apples, books, and pillows were tossed here and there from the last time I slept in this nest, along with a few of Waj's fish plushie toys. He was probably the last one who slept here while I was kidnapped into the sky by my own inner beast.

"It's a very nice nest," Izora said.

"I know," I said and plopped down on my back.

I held my hand out to Izora to join me, but he didn't take my hand right away. Instead, he raked his eyes up and down my body. I spread my legs and tucked my arms behind my head to do the same to him. He was fucking gorgeous – muscles as far as the eye could see, covered in soft hair as if he couldn't make up his mind on whether he wanted to shave or not. I jerked my head for him to join me and this time he accepted the invitation. He stretched out beside me on his side and ran his big, warm hand up and down my chest and belly.

"I'm almost certain you're about to roll your eyes at me," Izora said softly.

"Only if you're about to tell me that you prefer the pack nests to mine," I teased him.

"No, not that. I prefer this one with you inside of it," he said.

"What then?" I asked, putting my hand over his with every intention of taking it to devious places.

"This is an Earthside thing, but you do want eggs, right? I didn't bring any condoms with me, but I have a friend who'd fly them out if we needed them."

I thought about rolling my eyes at him but didn't. I did indeed want eggs and hatchlings, but it was sweet that he actually considered my feelings and my freedom. For the first few years of hatchling rearing freedom was a scarce resource. It was the price we paid to keep them safe, healthy, and not gobbled up by predators.

"I do," I nodded and decided to turn his question around on him. "Do you?"

"I do," he nodded and then added in a whisper, "I haven't told Castor and the others but I'm not going back to Earthside. Not even for a visit. My family has mostly moved on and I want to grow old somewhere without wars. I want to work family medicine again and have the biggest emergency to be something caused by an inner beast egging on someone to do something incredibly git like in their fleshy form. That's what I want."

"Good because eggs take a long time to reach adulthood," I nodded, "and I don't want you to leave."

"Hell, mate," he said and rubbed his forehead against my arm. "I'm not sure I even want to go back to the estate."

"You will," I reassured him. "My dragon thinks he could forgo hunting for a month because you're here now. He cannot and will not, but it's a nice thought, isn't it?"

"It is," he said, kissing my arm. "We could stay right here forever."

"We can try," I nodded and turned on my side to face him. "I'm not against the idea."

Our lips met in a long, slow kiss. I'd witnessed plenty of mates kissing like there was no tomorrow and had a few okay kisses myself during my life, but nothing prepared me for wanting to kiss Izora forever. I ran my hands over his skin wherever I could reach him, wanting to commit every inch of his flesh to my memory. My dragon purred again, and two smoke rings drifted out of my nose. Izora chuckled against my lips and murmured something about my dragon being unhappy again.

"Not unhappy," I shook my head, our lips barely apart enough to allow me to speak. "Impatient. Purring is sorta happy, but very impatient with all the smoke rings. He can wait, though. He's spent so much time in charge of our life that I think it's my turn for a while."

"Good," Izora growled and kissed me again, harder this time.

I lifted my leg over his hip and leaned in closer. He didn't have as many scales as I did in human form. Probably because he hadn't spent as much time in the wild as I had. Would his scales start showing up more as I pulled him into the safe peace of my world where thunder and lightning might chase after dragons, but war never found us?

"Better," I said against his lips because his kisses made everything better.

The storm raged outside, and I buried my face in Izora's shoulder. I rubbed my cheek over his claiming gland. My dragon roared again, but I swallowed down the sound. It morphed into a moan deep inside my throat and he kissed me harder. The magic zipped back and forth between us like we were two lightning rods caught outside in the storm.

Reaching between our bodies, I took his thick, hard dick in my hand and stroked him. I loved the smooth curve of him sliding against my palm. He was thick inside my fingers. Without speaking, I wiggled around until I could slide him between my cheeks. He rocked his hips as I let go of him, coating himself in my thick, slick arousal. I bit my lip and let out a sigh. I'd waited a long time for him to show up. For a while, I wondered if I didn't have a true-mate at all because I was a wildling, but that was bullshit because he was here now rubbing his shaft all over my omegahole.

"Don't make me beg," the word came out closer to a roar than a whimper, but I meant every word of it, nonetheless.

Izora captured my mouth in a hard kiss and sucked my bottom lip into his mouth for a second as his hand slid between our bodies. A second later, the plump head of his dick brushed against my slick omegahole, and I let out a sigh. He let go of my lip and I bit it again, grinding my teeth down against my flesh as he slid inside me. His girth brushed against every nerve it passed over and the air caught in my lungs as my brain wrapped itself around all the new sensations pressing inside me.

"You gotta breathe, mate," he said, his voice deeper than before.

I breathed out and smoke drifted from my nose. I wiped my face and Izora thrust up deeper inside me. A moan drifted over my lips and my nails dug into his arm.

"You okay, mate?" Izora asked.

"Call me that again," I whispered.

"Mate. Mine."

"Again," I said as he slipped further inside me aided by how slick I was from laying close to him.

"Mine," he growled in my ear, and I growled the word back at him.

He pressed his forehead against mine. It was intimate – so intimate that I wondered if it came from when his flight had crescent scales on their foreheads. I leaned in closer, trying to line up our stars, but the position made it damn near impossible. Then I lost myself for a long moment. I wasn't a man or a dragon. I was pleasure incarnate and I was never going to come up for air. Our bodies ground together with him sinking deeper and deeper. The heat built inside me from all the thrusting and grinding between our bodies. I was close – too close since we hadn't exchanged our vows yet.

Leaning over, I licked his claiming gland. We hadn't talked about how we might go about it, but instinct was taking over now. Everything inside me was on fire – gloriously warm and burning bright. I bit him hard, and he cursed under his breath and thrust hard inside my slick body. His memories oozed into my mind as the clear magical fluid inside his gland did the same inside my mouth.

London. The name of his home city swirled through my thoughts. Sounded like it should've been someone's name, but it wasn't a dragon. It was a city. A city of tall buildings and short trees. The dragons there weren't all that tall either. The faces of family and friends drifted through. Most were gone now – war, sickness, old age doors showing up. Then there was fighting and medical school. Not that his stress levels knew the difference between the two. Friends and lovers came and went. Then the stillness of space sank into his very atoms. He spent the whole flight here reading books he always meant to on Earthside but had never gotten around to. There was a depth of loneliness that I wanted to chase away from his soul. He'd lost a lot of people in the war. His childhood home razed to the ground. At least his parents weren't around to see that one. Small fucking mercies. I lost myself in the spirals of his emotions flooding over his spiritual brim as the memories faded away. The clear stuff inside the gland never gave the whole biography, just enough so no one thought they were a nut job for being in love with someone they just laid eyes on.

I was still panting and trying to not think too hard about what a war here might look like.

"No wars here," my dragon panted. "I'll eat them. The whole flight will eat them – townies and us."

My dragon was right, and he was happy – happier than he'd ever been before. Maybe he was just more satisfied than he'd ever been before now that he was with the dragon who dwelt within Izora. I was so lost to his twirling emotions that Izora caught me off guard when he shifted our position slightly, sliding his dick further inside me, and biting me. I dug my nails into him as the fluid fled from my gland now that there was an opening in the taut skin. He licked it up like someone might lick an ice cream cone. I saw what he witnessed. My life wasn't all that interesting. It was pretty normal for a wildling. His eyes lit up over and over with different flight memories flooding into him. I loved being in the sky – rain or shine. I avoided lightning when I could, but sometimes I just had to fly anyway. My parents were there and some of my siblings. Mostly it was the house – every step of the way, I added more and more until it was finally finished and ready for the family I always hoped to have.

"Build it and he will cum," my dragon said, chuckling at his own pun.

Izora and his dragon laughed too as the last of the clear fluid was licked clean from my skin. With our mating link open wide and clear his pleasure squeezed me. He reveled in how my muscles moved against him and how tightly I squeezed him inside me. I lost myself to us – to the fast, deep movements. My nails dug into him. If I wasn't careful, he wasn't going to have any damn skin left for later. Each thrust and rock brought me closer and closer to the edge of oblivion. Then I was there! We were there!

I came hard between our bodies, pleasure shaking me to my core. Izora tightened his grip on me and with one, two, three more hard thrusts the proof of his passion exploded in warm, sticky streams inside me. We kept moving together until there wasn't a drop left in either of us. Panting, I clung to him. We might be done with our first time, but I wasn't ready to let him go. I'd show him a whole new way to live – one that didn't lead to his friends dropping dead every time someone woke up with a wedgie.

An apple rolled across the floor squeaking and bumping along the way.

"At least he's polite enough not to peek over the ledge," Izora laughed and kissed my forehead.