20. A Dragon’s Courtship

20

A DRAGON’S COURTSHIP

Telos froze, his heart pounding in his ears. “What are you doing?”

Mav smiled and pulled away, leaving Telos’ skin too cold. “Wondering what you smell like.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

“I probably stink. Smoke and blood and all that. You know, the usual.” Why the hell was he giving Mav an excuse to pull back?

Because you’re afraid of getting hurt, a tiny voice said in his heart.

Mav bumped their hands together. Then he linked their fingers, and tucked his face under Telos’ jaw.

“Fuck,” Telos whispered. It was one thing for Mav to fuck him. Fucking wasn’t a promise that would give him hope. But this... “Don’t play with me, Mav. I can’t—I can’t...”

“I’m not playing.” Mav pulled away and caught Telos’ chin between his fingertips, his gaze dark in the flickering firelight. “But I also won’t kiss you yet. Not until I’m worthy of it.”

“W-worthy?”

“Yes.” Mav dropped his gaze to Telos’ lips, his heavy attention making them tingle. “I haven’t earned that right.”

Telos’ chest felt so tight. So full of tentative hope. “Why would you say that?”

“Because I want to court you.” Mav rolled his eyes, but he looked fond. “If someone’s going to be my secret mate for three hundred years, I’m going to prove that I deserve to be his.”

“I’m not yours,” Telos grumbled.

“Yeah?” Mav stepped closer, slipping his hand around to the small of Telos’ back. “So it’s okay if I walk away and find myself a blind date for date night?”

Telos’ eyes flashed. “Fuck you.”

“I already did.” Mav grinned, pulling him forward so their bare skin slid together. Telos breathed in sharply. Mav’s lips curved wider; he trailed his fingertips up Telos’ neck and into his hair, scratching his scalp lightly.

Telos shivered. “Asshole.”

“I like yours.”

Telos growled to hide his sudden blush. “Ugh. You’re impossible.”

“And yet you like me.”

“I’m regretting it.”

Mav grinned, quietly excited. Then he squeezed Telos’ neck, a safe touch, and Telos couldn’t make himself walk away. “If you want... you could have me,” Mav said quietly. “In bed.”

Telos froze. “Y-you’d let me fuck you?”

“Yes.” Mav met his gaze.

“But why?”

“To prove that I’m serious about this.”

“Even if you hate it?”

“Even if I do.” Mav nodded. “But I’ve never tried it before. I don’t know if I’d like it.”

“I’m not going to make you do something you hate,” Telos grumbled. “But—But we can experiment.”

“Good.” Mav leaned into him, tangling their fingers together.

Telos tried to wrap his mind around all of this.

Duke eventually stalked over, throwing clothes in their faces. “Not everyone’s a shifter here,” he said dryly. “Please don’t walk around naked.”

They pulled on the pants, but not before Telos reached over and gave Mav’s cock a quick grope. Mav raised an eyebrow.

“What’s yours is mine,” Telos said. “What’s mine is also mine.”

Mav snorted. “Of course, Your Highness.”

Telos clucked his tongue. “You may address me as Grand Supreme Ruler of the Universe.”

“Grand Supreme? Sounds like a pizza.”

“Fuck you,” Telos hissed.

“You’re starting to sound unoriginal, Pizza Man.” Mav bit down on his grin.

Telos lengthened all his teeth so they became needle-sharp, except Mav didn’t even flinch. Instead, Mav flattened his hand on Telos’ chest, and pinched his nipple.

Telos snarled. He pulled his teeth back in until they were human-blunt, and bit down hard on Mav’s neck.

Mav hissed, fingers gripping bruisingly tight on Telos’ hips. “Don’t make me fuck you out here, in front of everyone.”

“I’d like to see you try.”

Mav’s pupils dilated like he was a heartbeat away from pinning Telos down.

“You’re still wearing your wires,” Duke said tightly in their ears. “In case you’ve forgotten.”

Telos wanted to bury himself in the ground. “Just kill me now.”

At least he wasn’t the only one blushing—Mav was, too.

“I’d help to kill you,” Mav offered.

“With what? A big stick?” Telos shot back, glancing down.

Mav gave him a pointed look. “I’m sure you’d enjoy being stabbed . Violently.”

“Wait ‘til you have a fucking room,” Duke growled.

“How long is that going to take?” Telos whined. “Another hour?”

“Maybe four,” Duke admitted. “Cops are on their way; the transport buses will take some time to arrive. We need to make sure the victims reach their accommodations safely.”

“I’m going to perish,” Telos moaned.

Mav sighed. “Duke, I’m going to take off our wires. Send Crush over if you need us for anything.”

“What are you—” Duke began.

“I’m going to shut Telos up.”

Before Duke could answer, Mav plucked the wires out of both their ears. He wrestled Telos over to the furthest buildings and dropped their wires on the ground, before moving him to the very end of the compound.

“Wow, so much manhandling,” Telos said, right before Mav shoved him up against a wall. All of his blood swooped south. “Fuck.”

“I’d say ‘Less talking, more fucking,’ but you’d still keep talking, and I have nothing for your mouth right now.”

“Pity you can’t magic up a second cock.”

Mav growled as he yanked down the back of Telos’ pants. He pushed his fingers easily between Telos’ cheeks, probing roughly at Telos’ hole until he gasped. Then he shoved his fingers in, and buried them to the knuckle.

Telos clutched at the wall, already hard. “S-someone’s eager tonight.”

Mav scissored his fingers and began searching for Telos’ prostate. “Still loose from earlier. Good.”

He slid his other fingers into Telos’ mouth, cramming four inside so they filled him up. Before Telos could think of a smartass remark, Mav crooked his fingers inside Telos’ hole. Wet sounds filled the air between them, obscene and so fucking hot.

“That’s it,” Mav growled in his ear. “Will you take my cock like you’re made for it?”

Telos began to pant. It wasn’t fair, how hot those words made him. Mav didn’t even wait for an answer; he pulled his fingers out of Telos’ ass, and fitted his blunt tip roughly into Telos’ hole, filling him good and hard.

Yeah, maybe Telos was made for his cock.

“You feel so good sucking around me,” Mav groaned, grinding against Telos’ prostate. “I’m going to fill you up, pump you full of cum, until you know who you belong to.”

Telos whimpered. Mav held him against the wall and made him come. He fucked Telos until Telos couldn’t stand on his own, until he couldn’t even see; he kept coming so hard.

He didn’t have any more words after that.

It felt horribly strange, returning to his penthouse after the rescue was over.

There was a baby in his arms. Hilly-Billy was lugging all manner of baby accessories up from the car. The living room kept growing more cluttered with Estie’s things, and yet Telos still felt as though something was missing.

He knew what it was. He just didn’t want to acknowledge it.

“Hey, baby girl,” he cooed at Estie. She promptly stuffed her hand into his mouth. “Let’s show you your new home.”

He carried her around. The place was half-decorated because Hilly-Billy had been in the middle of acquiring baby toys, when Telos had summoned him to Utah.

“This is the living room, this is the dining room, and this is your nursery. We had to repurpose it real quick, but we’ll get it painted and put some cute pictures on the walls soon.”

She wasn’t even paying attention. She looked around at Hilly-Billy, grabbed Telos’ face, then looked around some more.

As though she was expecting to see her mom, or Mav.

Telos tried not to feel too terrible about that. He turned in a full circle, pausing when he saw Hilly-Billy leaning against the doorframe.

“So,” Hilly-Billy said.

Telos narrowed his eyes. “I don’t want to hear it.”

“He should be here.”

“Nothing happened.”

Just because he could, Hilly-Billy made his eyebrows go up his forehead, and wriggle through his hair. “You shared a bed after the mission.”

“ He climbed into my bed after I fell asleep.” Telos’ face burned. “Then he climbed out before I woke. That doesn’t count.”

“How did you know he was there, then?” Hilly-Billy smirked.

“I—I woke up in the middle of the night.” To find Mav pressed up behind him, completely naked. Telos had stroked him to full hardness, slipped him inside, and gone back to sleep. Not that anyone but Mav needed to know that.

“Believe it or not, this is the most hickies I’ve ever seen you wearing,” Hilly-Billy said dryly. “But what do I know? I’m just a butler.”

He wandered off. Telos couldn’t help remembering the awkward morning after.

Duke had called Mav off to help with the victims. Telos had taken the chance to slip away with Hilly-Billy and Estie, to return to Cartfalls first.

Mav hadn’t called or texted. Telos wasn’t sure what that meant.

At least he was home now, and all he had to worry about was his daughter.

“It’s just you, me, and Hilly-Billy,” he whispered to Estie. “We shouldn’t trust anyone else.”

She stuck her fingers into his nose.

Hilly-Billy coughed loudly; Telos ignored him and went back to making Estie laugh.

Two whole days, and not a single word from Mav.

On the third day, Telos began to grow uneasy.

Had the rescue been a dream? Mav touching him all over, almost kissing him?

He stuffed a crispy fry into his mouth, and burped.

A coil of smoke came out with the burp, and his stomach felt... strangely warm.

“What the hell was that?” Telos asked.

Hilly-Billy looked up from his phone. By then, the smoke had faded into the air. “What?”

Telos shook his head. “Never mind.”

He was about to check on Estie napping in her crib, when the doorbell chimed.

Hilly-Billy went to answer the intercom. Then he pressed some buttons, and looked slyly over his shoulder.

Telos was instantly wary. “What?”

“I’m helping to solve some of your problems.”

“What problems?”

Hilly-Billy stuck his hands in his pockets, whistled, and walked away.

“Hey! Minion!” Telos shook his fist at Hilly-Billy’s retreating figure. “I’m gonna fire you—”

The elevator dinged and opened straight into his living room. Telos froze. Someone was in the elevator, muscular arms full of boxes. In fact, there were several colorful boxes, stacked so high that the man’s face was completely hidden.

Not that Telos needed to see him, to know who he was. His heart began to pound. “W-what are you doing here?”

“Tell me where to put these, before I trip.”

“Well, maybe I want you to trip.”

“Some of them are fragile. If they break, you’ll miss out.”

“Why did you get fragile things if you knew they could break?” But Telos was already closing the distance between them, picking up one box at a time and arranging them on his coffee table.

“Open them, and you’ll see.”

Slowly, he uncovered Mav’s face—all serious, with those amber eyes and full lips, and some scruff like he hadn’t had time to shave. Telos’ heart skipped a beat.

“You didn’t even text,” he grumbled, hating that he sounded petulant.

Mav’s lips twitched. “You didn’t text, either.”

“Yeah, well, I thought you were courting me!”

“I was all over Utah looking for presents. For you.”

Telos perked up, looking more closely at the boxes on the table. “Oh?”

Mav had wrapped the gifts in different kinds of wrapping paper—all dinosaurs, actually. Some of the wrapping paper had bright cartoon triceratops, and some had realistic-looking T-rexes. There were several kinds of pterodactyls on the wrapping paper, too, from lifelike sketches to pterodactyls in comic strips, and they were all so different that Telos could only stare.

“Where did you get paper like this?” he asked suspiciously. “Did you pay someone to collect them for you?”

Mav looked flatly at him. “ No. I must’ve visited thirty gift shops up and down the state. Hadley helped pick up a couple of the smaller gifts.”

Telos’ eyebrows shot up. “ Thirty? ”

“There’s a bunch of dinosaur museums in Utah,” Mav said casually. Almost too casually.

Telos glanced up, only to find Mav carefully setting the last gift in the middle of the table. Then Mav hovered around, instead of leaving.

“You want me to open them now,” Telos deduced.

“Well, you can open them anytime you want. They’re all yours. Except for the ones with the green bows. Those are for Estie.”

Telos’ eyebrows were going to merge with his hairline. “Green bows for my baby?”

“Dinosaurs are often associated with the color green. And you want her to be a dino queen.” And now Mav just looked determined.

“Aww, you were listening to what I said.” Telos couldn’t help grinning. He sat cross-legged in front of the table and ripped open the first gift.

In there was a magnet shaped like a dinosaur bone, with a joke printed on it.

Q: What kind of dinosaur makes the best cops?

A: Tricera-cops.

Telos snorted.

“I thought you might like that,” Mav said, looking pleased.

“Maybe.” Telos set it aside and opened the next box. It contained a set of enamel dinosaur pins, showcasing a variety of species—T-rex, stegosaurus, brachiosaurus, pterodactyl, and a few others.

The third box contained some fake currency with dinosaurs printed on the different notes.

The fourth box had a set of gold cufflinks in the shape of pterodactyls.

Telos’ eyebrows went up. “These are fancy.”

Mav shrugged. “I didn’t want you to think all I got you were cheap gifts.”

“Is this the most expensive one?”

Mav shrugged again. “Keep looking.”

Telos eyed the table that was still covered in gifts, squirming with excitement. “You could bring mountains of gifts every day. I will accept them.”

Mav snorted, but his mouth twitched. “We’ll see. You might run out of space to store them.”

“Never.” Telos tore open the next box. “Wow, a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle.”

“You might want to complete that before Estie gets her hands on one of the pieces and loses it forever.”

Telos scowled. “Don’t jinx it.”

Mav grinned, then looked suspiciously thoughtful the next second.

“Don’t you dare steal a piece,” Telos growled.

“Of course not.” But Mav’s shrug was too innocent for someone like him.

The next gifts contained more dinosaur-themed items: a pterodactyl plastic brick set, a pair of long-necked brachiosaurus salt and pepper shakers, a necktie with T-rexes patterned all over it, a bomber jacket with a dinosaur identification chart, and even a blanket with a timeline that showed which dinosaurs belonged to which time periods.

“I’m impressed,” Telos said when he held up a pterodactyl shower curtain, then discovered a carefully sculpted lampshade with 3D models of dinosaurs bursting out of it. He unwrapped beautifully carved bookends, a box of dinosaur-shaped shortbread cookies, and a leather-bound notebook with dinosaurs printed on the inside pages.

Right after, he unwrapped a painting—of a pterodactyl with a large cock and balls hanging between its legs. The cock and balls were painted clumsily in purple, by another artist, and it made Telos smirk. “That’s not scientifically accurate.”

Mav coughed, his face turning pink. “I had no idea what color pterodactyl genitals were. The pictures on the internet seem... very exaggerated.”

“I could show you.” Telos grinned.

“I—I guess I should know. For science.” Mav looked wide-eyed, like he wasn’t sure if this was a trap.

Telos cackled. “I like that you went to the trouble of adding a cock and balls for me. This is going in my bedroom.”

“Where you’ll jerk off to it?”

Telos rolled his eyes. “Why would I jerk off to a picture of myself? ”

“You’re strange enough that I wouldn’t put it past you.”

“Fair enough.” Telos dragged his gaze down Mav’s body. “I have better inspiration, though.”

That made Mav straighten his shoulders, his gaze growing dark.

Finally, there was only the box that Mav had set down last. Mav seemed to tense when Telos looked at it, his gaze tracking Telos’ every movement.

Telos picked up the box carefully, weighing it in his hands. It didn’t rattle. It felt heavy. He untied the black ribbon slowly, lifting the lid and brushing aside the layers of tissue.

Set in the middle of the box was a flat, triangular black tooth, larger than his palm and shaped like an arrowhead. It was serrated at the very edges, with long cracks at the base where the tooth had dried out.

Telos sucked in a slow breath. “This wasn’t found in Utah.”

Mav’s eyebrows jumped. “How did you know?”

“This is a megalodon tooth, largely found on the east coast. Shark ancestor.” Telos checked the certificate of authenticity in the box, then turned it around in his hands, admiring the sheer perfection of it. “They don’t usually show up this complete. Or with the enamel this unblemished. The serrations are fully intact. For a tooth this large, it’s incredibly rare.”

“Yeah. I went searching for a museum-quality fossil.” Mav watched him, licking his lips. “I’ve never had you get all professor on me.”

“That’s because you’ve never wanted to know about dinosaurs.” Telos rose to his feet, the tooth still clutched carefully in his hands.

“Where are you going to put it?”

“With my hoard.”

“You have a hoard?”

Telos rolled his eyes. “I don’t have to be a dragon to have a hoard.”

He made his way through his penthouse, to the door next to his bedroom. A hand scan later, the door unlocked and slid open.

Behind him, Mav inhaled slowly. Telos had taken great care to display his fossil collection like a museum—soft lighting, pedestals for everything, each piece set apart so he could walk comfortably around it.

Mav flicked his gaze over the exhibits. “I wasn’t sure if you’d appreciate a pterodactyl fossil. Seemed a little too morbid when you like being a pterodactyl so much.”

Telos huffed. “I have one. About thirty percent of it was from one pterodactyl. The rest of its bones are from others.” He nodded at it, where it had a spot close to center stage.

“Just thirty percent?” Mav frowned.

“Skeletons that are almost complete go into museums, or are used in scientific research. It’s extremely irresponsible to buy a full skeleton for your private collection.”

At that, Mav grinned. “Sometime soon, I’d like to sit in on one of your lectures. Has anyone called you a hot professor?”

Telos gave him a hairy eyeball. “I’m going to ask you questions in front of the class, and you won’t be able to answer them.”

“I’ll just charm your pants off.”

“I’ll roast you. I’m good at that,” Telos sniped.

Mav dropped his teasing grin. “I really would love to listen to your lectures, you know.”

Telos’ heart skipped again. “I suppose you could.”

“Good. You should give me your class schedule.” Mav gave him a quick smile, and ducked his head.

“I didn’t think you could be cute, ” Telos blurted. Then he tried to suck the words back into his mouth, but it was too late.

“You think I’m cute?” Mav perked up.

“No.”

But Mav only grinned. “I think you’re lying.”

“Shut up.” Telos stopped in front of an empty pedestal. He held up the megalodon tooth to see how it would look next to its neighbors, then brought it to his work table, where he pulled out his cleaning kit. He snapped on a pair of disposable gloves and began prepping the tooth for mounting.

Mav stood nearby, close enough to touch. When Telos was satisfied with his tooth, he mounted it on a polished block of wood with its certificate of authenticity, and set it precisely on its pedestal. Then he stood back to admire his handiwork.

“Looks good,” Mav growled in his ear, his chest pressed against Telos’ back.

Telos swallowed. “Thanks. For all the gifts.”

“Are you going to put any on your mantle?”

Are you going to take down that bag Doc gave you? was the question that Mav didn’t voice, but it hung between them.

Telos sniffed. “Maybe if you give me something else.”

Mav laughed lowly. “What would you like?”

“Something good. Something big. Hey, what’s in Estie’s pres—”

Before Telos could complete his sentence, he burped again. This time, orange embers flew out of his mouth.

Mav grew so still, he might even have stopped breathing. “Telos, babe—”

“You saw that?” Telos asked warily. “Do you know what the hell is wrong with me?”

“Yeah.” Mav’s hands came up to grasp his hips. “That’s a dragon pregnancy.”