11. Dimitri

Chapter 11

Dimitri

I discovered that I very much enjoyed being mated. Sex aside, it was so much more than that. The connection with Caspian was unlike anything I had expected. Sure, I'd heard from my family just how mates connected, but hearing and experiencing it were two completely different things.

"You checked the weather forecast?" Caspian asked. I smiled.

"Yes. It is currently cold but bright and sunny. It shall remain that way until the day after tomorrow. Well, except for when the sun sets. If you are still unsure about going flying with me, we can simply work on decorating the cabin more."

Caspian shook his head. "No, I want to go flying with you. Do you think there will be other dragons out?"

I nodded. I knew for a fact there would be others out flying. "Ja. We will see them, and since we are mated, I will be able to talk to you through our bond. I will be able to answer any questions you might have." Dedushka and Yéye would be there at a minimum. If Longwei wasn't busy with schoolwork, he would most likely be there as well. I wasn't sure if Ferdinand would be joining us or not, but it was a possibility. You simply never knew who all would be at the falls.

Caspian stood there, nodding his head. Because we were mated, I could hear the internal conversation he was having with himself, and it was a bit comical. I closed the distance between us and pulled him into my arms. "If you are unsure, it is all right. It can take time for the mate of a dragon to get used to flying with him. Some never do. It doesn't mean you care less for me or that you are unsuited to be a dragon's mate. Being mated to a temperamental beast can be difficult enough. When you throw in flying on their back at high altitudes, it can be a lot for anyone." I would never pressure him to do something that he was uncomfortable doing.

"I want to. It's just that the last time we did this, I couldn't see, and then a minute after we took flight, we were hit with a storm."

I still was upset with myself. I knew we weren't really in danger. Not with as quickly as I got us out of there. But I should have looked at the forecast before taking my mate up to the skies.

"If you wish to go flying, we will do so."

Caspian nodded. That was all it took for me to lead him through the house and out onto the back deck. It would never hold my weight when I was in my dragon form, but there were stairs that led to the ground that could be used. The back deck had been designed for enjoyment. It was currently empty, but I knew that Caspian had plans to add furniture, as well as a hammock to relax in, come spring.

Caspian closed the door behind us, and his hand in mine was suddenly covered. I smiled to myself at the ability of my mate. When I glanced back at him, he was dressed in his warm wool coat and had a thick scarf wrapped around his neck. His hands were covered in smooth leather gloves, and yes, he was even wearing a hat. He looked nothing like the man I had made love with in front of the fireplace hours ago, but he was certainly still my mate.

We carefully navigated the stairs, and once we were on the ground, I started to walk away so I could shift. Caspian stopped me, though, by tightening his grip on my hand.

"Is something wrong?"

"No. I just wanted a kiss."

I grinned. I would kiss him every chance I got, and I quickly found out that Caspian loved to be kissed. My lips touched his briefly before he smiled against my lips. I pulled away to a grinning, sexy man staring at me.

"Thank you."

I tilted my head. "You're welcome. But you do not need to thank me for kissing you. I am more than happy to do so. I enjoy it as much as you do." To me, it was a part of intimacy that was beyond sexual intimacy. Both were needed in order to have a healthy relationship, and I was thankful that Caspian seemed to feel as much as I did on the matter.

"I know, but you came back and gave me the kiss. That made me feel important to you. It was something small, but to me, it means a lot."

We needed to have a conversation, apparently. We'd done some talking, but we had been spending a lot of time doing other things. Newly mated things.

"You are the most important person to me. You have become my entire world, Caspian. I will always do what I can to make you happy. If that is giving you a kiss, I will gladly do so."

Caspian's smile grew. I knew all about his last lover, Peter. He had been in a relationship with him for two years, and although they both knew they weren't fated for one another, they were committed. But Peter didn't give Caspian those little things: kisses, holding hands, gentle touches, heated looks. It was a natural thing for me to do because Caspian was my everything. Now, he was going flying with me, and that made my dragon incredibly happy. Our mate trusted us.

"Stay here until I've shifted. Then we'll take off. This time, you won't have to pat me if you need something though." I leaned in and kissed him again quickly before I removed my sweats and the shirt I was wearing. After handing them to Caspian, I moved several yards away and called for my dragon.

It was a quick transformation, as he was eager to see our mate again. My body grew, and once I had shifted, I moved around, stretching out my body. I heard a gasp from Caspian and turned my head toward him.

"I knew you were big. I did. But the last time I saw your dragon, it was inky dark."

I chuckled through our bond. "Yes, and this time, it is bright and sunny. What do you think of my dragon now that you can see him?" I couldn't help but ask. My dragon, despite knowing he was quite a sight to see, needed to be reassured by our mate. He needed to know that our mate found him pleasing to look at.

"I haven't seen a whole lot of dragons, Dimitri. Maybe one or two when I was here before visiting. But yours is by far the most beautiful one I've seen," Caspian told me. He walked right up to me, and when he reached out and started rubbing up and down the scales on my leg, my dragon held perfectly still to allow our mate to touch him as he pleased. "I have never seen a dragon the color of yours. And when you move, you have a gold sheen to your scales."

"Yes. The gold comes from Yéye. As far as we know, he is the only golden dragon aside from their children that it was passed down to."

"Do any of the grandchildren have gold scales?"

"Nyet. Gold sheen, but that is the extent of inheriting the color. Only Yéye, Ming, and Longwei are gold. Others might have a sheen or, like me, gold wings, but that is it."

Caspian rubbed up and down my leg some more before he was suddenly on my back. "Well, I think you're absolutely gorgeous. I'm ready to go flying whenever you are."

If my dragon could smile, he would. As it was, I started walking slowly. I needed to be farther away from the house in order to get a good jump and be able to open my wings without worry of hitting the house or any of the trees. Once I was far enough away, I decided to warn Caspian. "Ready?"

"Yes!"

Taking him at his word, I took a few more steps, these ones faster, and then jumped. I spread my wings, flapped a few times, and then we were suddenly airborne.

"Whoa," Caspian said as I flew over the evergreen trees. They were getting farther down as I gained altitude, moving down the mountain and into the gorge. "Do you always fly this high?" Caspian shouted.

"This is low, lyubimyy."

"What does that mean?" Caspian shouted again.

I chuckled through our bond once more. "Perhaps instead of shouting, use our bond? Although I can hear you." I made a gentle turn to the left. The falls were just ahead, and when Caspian seemed to notice them, I felt it through our bond.

"Oh, wow. They're gorgeous. I've seen them before, but it was from over there."

We were directly over the river at the bottom of the gorge now and flying straight toward the falls.

"It is a much different view," Caspian told me.

"This view is so much better." One I preferred, but I was a dragon and loved being in my scales. Caspian moved around a little, but he didn't seem to be feeling anything but happiness and contentment though our bond.

We arrived at the falls within a couple of minutes of taking off. Since we were already at the top, I did what I'd come to do: the mating flight. I got into position, then started the downward spiral. When we reached the bottom, I flew back up to the top and did it again. And again.

On the fourth spiral down, I felt it through our bond. Caspian lay forward on my neck and sighed. He was feeling the pull, the sensual flight that I was doing with him.

"This is absolutely wonderful."

"It is. I cannot tell you how much it means that I can finally do this with you."

"What does it mean?" Caspian sighed again. "And you never told me what that ‘lyub' word means."

"Darling. My darling. It is a term of endearment in my native language."

"So it's something like mi corazón."

"What does that one mean?" We hadn't started teaching each other our languages just yet, but it was probably past time that we'd done so.

"My heart. You have it, you know."

You couldn't tell, but my dragon was smiling.

"You have had mine since that first moment in the bakery," I told him. "You were so handsome yet upset about something."

"I did not expect to be the carrier. Now, I cannot imagine it any other way." Caspian sighed again. "Do you really think I'm going to be pregnant?"

"Do you not? We made sure to spend a lot of time knotted together." I flapped four times to take us back up to the top of the falls. When we arrived, I saw another dragon in the distance. Then, a second one came from behind him. I knew they had to either be associated with the council or one of the dragons from Treasure Ridge.

"Yes, but I've not detected a baby yet. I would have thought I would have by now. My fertile period was almost a week ago."

My mate was impatient, apparently. "Would it please you if I told you that your scent has started to shift?" Immediately, I wanted to take the words back. It wasn't that they weren't true; Caspian's scent had started to change. But when I said those words, he immediately sat up on my back, and it felt like he almost fell off.

"What? Why didn't you say—who is that?" Caspian asked when he finally realized the other two dragons. I'd been watching Ferdinand and Egon approach since I had first spotted them.

"The large blue dragon is Ferdinand. The red one is his mate, Egon. They are the two that settled this mountaintop centuries ago along with their son, Aleric, and his mate, Konrad."

"They won't be upset we're here, will they?"

"No. They welcome the council and especially the dragons. They have come to join us in flight, it seems," I told him when they started circling one another on their own downward spirals.

I heard Caspian sigh as he watched Ferdinand and Egon do their own mating dance. I flapped back up one last time, spiraled down with my mate once more, and then flew off down the river with him. I felt him lie back down on my neck and hold on.

"Are you tired, lyubimyy?"

"A little. Is it possible for us to go home? I think I need to be on my own feet for a bit."

I could understand that. "Do me a favor when we get home though. Would you use your magic to pop yourself into the house and onto the sofa? It's said that oftentimes, a mate's legs are a bit weak when they slide off their dragon's back. I would hate for you to be harmed." Not only that, but Caspian's scent had started to change. It had already altered once right after we'd claimed one another. The fact it was changing again told me that he had most likely caught and was with child.

"I can do that. Are you going to come in too, or are you going to continue flying?"

"I will be joining you just as soon as I shift." My dragon had no desire to fly around without our mate. Would it happen again? Of course. But we had been mated for two weeks, and he very much still desired to be with our mate at all times if possible.

I started my climb out of the gorge, and when I saw our cabin, I slowed my speed and landed as smoothly as possible.

"I'll see you inside," Caspian said, and then his weight was gone. I started walking in dragon form but initiated my shift as I moved. One moment, I was a massive purple dragon, and the next, I was walking on my human legs.

I heard a loud groan through our bond and smiled. The pain had hit him, it seemed. I wish it wasn't like that, and I'd been told it would get better, but riding on a dragon's back was a challenge for anyone.

I hurried up the steps and found my mate on the sofa, rubbing his legs as fast as he could. He saw me when I entered and looked at me with wide eyes.

"You weren't kidding."

"Nyet." I rushed to him, knelt down, and started rubbing his legs for him. "Lie back." Caspian did as told, and when I was able to, I started massaging the muscles of his inner thighs.

"Oh, that's so nice. Why does it hurt?"

"I do not know for certain, but I would imagine because dragons are so wide, and your legs are not used to being spread so wide for such a long period of time."

"We weren't gone that long," Caspian said.

"You would have been in agony if we had. I am told it does get better with time. But if you choose not to fly with my dragon, I do understand." It would upset my dragon, but he would get over it. He wanted our mate to be happy first and foremost.

Caspian held himself up on his elbows and looked directly at me. "Did my scent really change?"

I gently pushed on his shoulder. When he lay back down, I continued rubbing. "Yes, your scent has started to change. I noticed it this morning. It is still very subtle, and the only reason I noticed was because of where I was at that particular moment." I gave my mate a pointed look. It took him all of three seconds to understand when I had noticed his scent. We'd been making love, and I had been pleasuring him in my favorite way. I loved sucking his cock, and he was quite vocal about it.

"Were you going to say something to me?"

I stopped and looked at my mate when I felt the hurt through our bond. I reached up and cupped the side of his face. "I was, yes. I was going to wait another day or two to see if the scent grew stronger or if you detected a baby."

I did not know for a fact that Caspian was pregnant, but I would be surprised if he wasn't. We both desired a family, and we had certainly been knotted together enough during his fertile period.

Caspian sighed. "Perhaps my father could tell me. Or Rainier. He was always good at being able to detect pregnancies early on."

I chuckled. "You are so impatient, lyubimyy. Wait a few more days, and I am certain you will be able to tell us both if you are with child or not."

Caspian smiled. I ran my thumb over his lips before I moved my hand back down his body.

"If you roll over, I will massage the backs of your thighs," I told him. Caspian rolled quickly, and when I started rubbing where his thighs met his ass, he moaned loudly into the cushion below him.

"Oh, how did you know that was the spot?"

I chuckled. "I can feel it through our bond. Just as I feel your desire when it builds." I rubbed his thighs and ass, pulling moans and sighs from him until he was completely relaxed. My movements changed from deep, massaging rubs to gentle caresses. I felt exactly when Caspian dropped off into sleep, and I stood and went searching for my clothes. I found them folded on one of the barstools.

Once dressed, I went back to the den and sat in the chair that Caspian had added to our furniture. I went from looking at my mate to glancing around the room. My sofa was here, but Caspian's touch could be seen everywhere. There were now two comfortable chairs on opposite sides of the room. In the middle was a new low table, and there were matching side tables. Both had lamps, and one had a few books on it, while the other had some sort of marble sculpture. The television had been placed above the fireplace on the wall, and of course, there was the thick, plush rug that was in front of the hearth. I wasn't sure how a rug could be that soft, but I was certain Caspian's magic had something to do with it.

But this room wasn't the only change. Caspian's influence could be seen in every room of the house, and it made me and my dragon incredibly happy that our mate wanted to be here with us. I had been offered this cabin when I first arrived, and I'd declined. At the time, I had wanted to fit in as much as I could. Now, my only desire was to make my mate happy. This place felt like home to him, and I had to wonder if my grandparents had known something I didn't. There was only one way to find out. After locating my phone, I found Yéye's contact and gave him a call.