7. Dimitri

Chapter 7

Dimitri

M y mate was more enticing than I was certain he realized. More than once, the temptation that he was had pulled on me. But I knew that once I got a taste of him, it would be too difficult to pull away, and we would end up in bed together. That was why, despite both of our desires, I hadn't yet kissed him.

I had done as I'd told him I would last evening. I cleaned up after our meal, contacted Master Edison, and then had a very long shower. What he didn't know or realize was that I had little control over myself in the shower while thinking about the gorgeous man who was passed out in my bed. I'd stroked myself to completion twice before I was sure I would be able to lie next to and scent him throughout the night without doing something that I felt we would regret.

I would, of course, never force myself on anyone, let alone my mate, but even I could only be tempted so far before I needed to remove myself from the situation. With the way Caspian was looking at me this morning, it was becoming a very close thing. That was why I suggested we go flying. My dragon wanted to meet him, and it would be a good way to distract both of us, as far as I was concerned.

"Are you really going to take me flying?" Caspian asked as we descended the stairs.

"Ja. Unless you do not wish to go flying?" I could tell he was torn. I stopped just in front of the front door and waited. "We can simply go look at the houses. I have the house numbers, and they are not locked."

Caspian's eyebrows rose. "Houses? There are houses to look at?"

I nodded. "Ja. There is one next door to your brother, then another on the other side of the street. If you do not like either of those, then there are a few others on the other side of the neighborhood to choose from."

"Right beside Sebastian?" Caspian said.

I couldn't keep from smiling. When talking to Master Edison last evening, and he had informed me that the house next to his brother's was available, I chuckled and told him that would most likely be our choice. Just from the little bits of conversations that I'd had with Caspian by that time told me how close he was to his brother. Master Edison then pointed out that Benjamin lived on the other side of Sebastian. I worked with Benjamin, every day. We were on the same team. I had no issues with the warlock and actually liked him quite a bit. If Caspian's brother and cousin were both right there, I had no doubt we would end up in that house.

The plan was to take Caspian flying, get something to eat, and then take him to the house and show it to him. If he agreed, we could be moved in shortly after everyone else on the mountain was waking and getting ready for their day. Possibly. That was the hope, at least.

Caspian opened the front door, and a blast of cold air hit us immediately. Instinctively, I moved in front of my mate and pulled him behind me when I stepped outside.

"You can't go out without a coat," Caspian said behind me.

I looked back and grinned. "If you think so. But you're really going to be upset with the fact that I'm about to strip naked out here."

Caspian's eyes widened in the porch light. "You wouldn't." Caspian looked around. There was nothing to see. It was still the middle of the night, and aside from the enforcer or two that was on patrol, there was nobody out here.

"I would. You have to remember, you might be cold, but I'm not," I told him. "I have fire within me, even in this form, and it will keep me warm. Even if I were to become dangerously cold in my human form, my dragon will not allow any harm to come to me. He will push himself out in order to protect me."

Caspian nodded before he looked up at the sky. I thought about it for a moment and wondered what he was thinking. "Will I be warm enough up there?"

"Just as my dragon will keep me warm, you on my back will be plenty warm enough. If you feel you are becoming too cold, all you need to do is tap me twice on my neck, and I will return us to the ground."

With that, I pulled my shirt off over my head and handed it to my mate. It might have been dark and windy, but I could certainly see him observing me as I removed my clothing. Caspian realized I didn't have any shoes on when I pushed my jeans down and off without any issue. I handed those to him as well, and when I caught him staring at my now flaccid dick, I smirked. Caspian finally met my eyes, and when he appeared to be embarrassed, I shook my head. "It's all completely yours to look at whenever you wish. But perhaps we should get in the air, and then maybe you can explore as you wish later?"

"How much later?"

"Just as soon as I take you flying and then we have a bite to eat. Of course, we must first pick a house and let Master Edison know which one we have chosen."

I thought for sure Caspian was going to pout, but instead, he took a deep breath and then nodded in agreement. "Do we really need to choose a house? Can't we just pick the one next to my brother and be good?"

I chuckled again. "We can most certainly let him know that is our house of choice. But you must take into consideration the time of day." I glanced up at the sky before looking back to my mate. "Or rather night. Master Edison will not be awake for several hours yet, most likely. We cannot call him in the middle of the night for anything other than a true emergency." I took several steps away, moving out into the area in front of my town house. "I promise you my dragon absolutely will not harm you. I understand his size can be quite intimidating, but he only wishes to meet you and will always protect you."

"I understand that." Caspian took a step toward me, but when I held out my hand and shook my hand, he stopped.

"After I shift, I will lie down on the ground so you can climb up on my back. You will know where it is best for you to sit. There is a break in the spines, and that is the perfect spot for you to climb onto."

"You know you don't have to lie down with me, correct? I can simply pop up there without any issue."

I was going to respond but then stopped when I realized that he was absolutely correct. My mate was magical. That was going to take time to get used to. "Very well, then. When you are ready to take off, simply squeeze my neck with your thighs and then hang on." It was bitterly cold out here, and although I wasn't necessarily feeling the bite of the temperature, I was sure Caspian was starting to. That would all change once he was on my dragon's back. That meant it was time to shift and take care of my mate.

I knelt down and called for my dragon. It only took a moment before I felt my body start to transform from the average-sized human to the massive scaled dragon. Seconds after calling for him, everything shifted, and I was looking at the night sky through my dragon's eyes.

"Whoa."

I heard my mate despite the fact that he had said the word just barely above a whisper. I turned my massive head his way, and of course, my dragon took a long breath, getting his first deep scent of our mate. I wish we had already claimed each other so I could talk to him, but that would come soon enough. For now, I bent down, getting close enough to Caspian so he could reach out and touch my nose if he so chose.

"You are massive," he said as his hand reached out. "And you weren't kidding when you said you were warm. I can feel the heat coming from you already."

I slowly nodded my head up and down. Even without him being a warlock and having magical abilities to keep himself warm, my dragon would be able to keep him warm. I felt a hand touch my nose and closed my eyes. My mate was touching me. That was everything to me. Well, to dragons in general. We understood we were intimidating when in our scales, and more than a few times, mates ran away screaming when they first saw their dragon mate in their magnificent scaled version.

"I'm going to get up there now," he told me.

I nodded again, suddenly wondering if I really did pick the right thing. It was bitterly cold and windy. I wouldn't have any issues with flying, but I had never flown with anyone on my back before. I would rather die than allow anything to happen to my mate, but it was inky dark out, and when I looked skyward, I could see a lot of cloud cover up there. Perhaps a short flight for now. Then I could go show him the house, and if he agreed to it, we could get, at minimum, a bed in place, and, well…then the fun times would begin.

I felt Caspian on my back suddenly, his weight minimal on my massive form. I took a few steps farther away from the building and then jumped. When I did, I opened my wings and then flapped once, twice, a third time before I truly caught air.

I heard a shriek from my mate, and then his body was leaning over onto my neck, and he was holding on for all his might. I didn't know if he would enjoy flying on my back or not, but at least at the moment, he didn't have the daylight to show him just how high we had gone already.

My dragon could see just as well at night as my human half could during the day, and what I not only saw ahead of us but scented now that we were over Dragon Falls told me I needed to get my mate inside. My dragon rumbled at our first meeting being cut so short. I rolled to the left a bit, trying not to bank too steeply because of the precious cargo on my back. It wasn't enough though, and the wall of snow hit us.

I heard Caspian call out, and then his legs tightened around my shoulders as I tucked my wings backward and downward, away from the storm. It didn't take long for me to get ahead of the squall, but I knew it would quickly catch up with us.

I was now flying just above the buildings on the mountaintop, and when the lights of the council building came into view, I made the decision to abandon our plans and turned toward my house. If we'd only woken even ten minutes later, the storm would have been here, and we never would have been out in it.

My dragon landed a bit more roughly than I had hoped, but Caspian was suddenly off my shoulders and standing in front of me. He was covered in snow in places, and I spread my wings to shield him against the line of snow that was arriving in seconds. Caspian's eyes widened, and he thankfully seemed to be unharmed. He started to walk backward, then turned and hurried to the door that we'd left only moments before. He opened it, then stood just inside and called out to me.

"Dimitri! You must come inside."

My dragon wasn't pleased with our mate's upset tone, and thankfully, he understood that I needed to be in my human form in order to take care of him. I shifted quickly, my scales and the protection they provided against the weather disappearing before I was once more in my human form. The snow hit, pelting my skin with stinging bites. I rushed to the doorway, and when I was through, I wrapped my arms around Caspian's waist and picked him up and out of the way as I kicked it shut behind me.

"Are you all right?" I asked, worried. "I never would have taken you up if I had known we were going to be getting a storm."

Caspian smiled. "I'm good. It was cold for about a second, but I'm not harmed in any way." Caspian's hands slid up my chest and then around my shoulders and into my hair, which I was certain was standing every which way. "You're naked."

I couldn't help but chuckle. "Ja, but you are fully clothed."

Caspian raised an eyebrow at me. "I can remedy that in a blink."

"You told me you wished to be claimed not in single enforcer housing. Have you changed your mind?" I would try to behave, I truly would. But I wanted nothing more than to explore Caspian's body with my mouth and hands.

His entire body sagged against mine. "No. It's silly, I know, but at least for a time, I would like to be able to look at the place that we shared together. I can't do that if we claim each other here."

I nodded. That was true. "We have two options. Three, really. We either let me get dressed, or we go back to bed and try to behave." Caspian scowled, which caused me to chuckle. "Not option one, I see," I said. "You either pop us over to your brother's house, or we rush across the yard, and we check out the house next door and hope it's the one you want."

"That's promising. I like the sound of that one."

I chuckled again. "The other option is for you to take us to your home in Spain and we claim each other there." There truly were no other options that I could think of.

"I'll take option two," Caspian said. I felt two things at once: my body was suddenly wearing the clothing I had on earlier, only this time, I was wearing shoes, and then my stomach felt a gentle roll. The air around us was once again cold, and the wind could be heard howling from my right. We were outside, and it didn't take long to realize that we were standing in front of mated enforcer houses.

"Which one is Sebastian's?" I asked.

Caspian pointed to the house that was behind him and in front of me. I knew the large house on the end was Benjamin's. That meant the house to my left was available, and I hurried that way, tugging Caspian along with me. We were once more chased by the snow, but as promised, the house was unlocked, and I was able to open it without issue.

I reached for the switch that was on the wall just inside the door, and when the entryway was suddenly illuminated, Caspian looked around. His arms were still around my neck but then slowly slid down my chest and then to my sides.

"So this is it, huh?"

"Ja. Your brother's house is next door, and your cousin at the end beside him."

Caspian nodded, then took my hand and pulled me into the house. He walked slowly, checking it out. I could scent his indifference, which was unexpected.

"What is wrong? You do not seem pleased."

Caspian turned back toward me and shook his head. "I don't know. I thought I would feel something. Some sort of connection to this place, but I don't."

"Do you wish to look at other houses? We can return to the one I'm currently in, and once the sun is up, we can come back to look and see what else is available." I truly did not care where we lived. If he wanted to be in Spain, I would go without a thought. If he wished to be here, then here we would be.

Caspian turned in a circle, and when he was facing me again, he had half a smile on his face. It dropped, along with his shoulders, once he was looking at me. "This isn't it," he told me. "I know I said I wanted to live next to my brother, but this doesn't feel like home. This isn't the one."

I nodded before I closed the distance between us. "Then we will keep searching." I wrapped my arms around Caspian's shoulders before I pulled him close. "If you could do your thing and pop us back into the other house, we can discuss it further if you wish."

My stomach flipped in response, and when the familiar scents of the place I'd called home surrounded us, I reached for Caspian's coat. I stopped, though, when a thought occurred to me. "Can you use your magic to get us anywhere?"

"Within reason. Certainly, if I've been there before. I might struggle with a place if I've not been there or at least nearby before."

I nodded, still thinking. "You know where the council building is," I said. "It's just south of us a bit."

"Yes. What about it?"

"My dedushka and yéye live in a house over by Dragon Falls. I have a cabin about ten minutes from them if I choose to live there. Perhaps that place would feel like home to you?" It was a gorgeous house and had a beautiful view of the falls. It was actually farther away from the falls, but the view was still there. It was near the other dragons' cabins, and although I didn't necessarily feel I rated a cabin away from the others, I understood the reasoning for it.

"Is it not for someone else? Is it truly yours?"

I nodded. "Mine. I chose not to live there. Perhaps I was waiting for you to come along before I moved in. The other dragons live close by, all within walking distance, and with you having magic, you would not have issues with visiting your brother and his family." I would move into the cabin if that was where felt like home to Caspian.

"I've not been there. How will I know I'm in the correct place?"

I didn't know how to describe the surrounding area. "Have you been to any of the other dragons' houses?"

Caspian slowly shook his head. "When we visited, we were always here to see Sebastian. I did go walking before though, back in the spring while Seb was at work. There were some houses here and there. I remember one had a large back deck and chairs and a swing on the front porch."

Without a doubt, that was Reinhold's house. He'd been there. "Can you take us there? To that cabin?"

"Is that yours?"

I shook my head. "Mine is about a ten-minute walk from there. Is it possible for you to try and get us there?"

Caspian shrugged seconds before my stomach flipped again. I expected to be on or near Reinhold's porch, but instead, we were standing on another porch. This one was completely bare, except for the snow that was piled up on it. How my mate had gotten us to the cabin, I wasn't sure, but I would ask once we were inside and out of the storm. I pushed the door open, and after tugging my mate inside, I shut it, closing out the storm.

I heard a gasp, and when I looked over at my mate, despite the darkness in the place, there was a radiant smile on his face. Apparently, this place felt like home to him, which was perfectly fine with me. It made no difference where I lived as long as he was with me.