Chapter 11

11

Tavi

I had liked talking more intimately with Alluresh. I wasn't sure what that said about me. My owner ruled over me. I shouldn't like anything about that. Or him.

But I couldn't deny my curiosity. About dragon culture and dragons themselves beyond what I'd read on the web.

Before the workmen finished the repairs on the castle, I'd seen some of the damage. It looked like something very large had crashed into the side of the building. It could only be Allure. He was the only large object that could create such destruction.

Was that why Alluresh lived all alone in such a huge place? So that his dragon would have room to shift if it happened from one moment to the next out of his control?

But why did he shift out of control? Did he wish to destroy things around him that were human based? The castle was his home as much as it was Alluresh's. Why would he want to destroy it?

That night, I added to my list.

Meeting Allure is a necessity.

There was a comfy couch in my game room. When we sat side by side, I could smell him, his scent growing stronger every day. Fire and salt, spicy and tart like the sea. It created mysterious tugs at my heart. It was like when I'd looked at the ocean for the first time. The horizon so far away got a little bit of itself inside me.

That feeling wouldn't go away. Alluresh sitting close to me made those feelings stronger. Also, the games lightened the tension between us. I was able to look at him more clearly, as a man. The man who would impregnate me.

This was going to happen. There was no avoidance possible. If I could find any way to better endure my fate, like finding out things about him that could ease the pressure, it seemed right that I should.

As we played and battled on screen, I spoke. "Did you ever think about having a family? Before, I mean?"

"No."

We both stared straight ahead.

"You didn't want that?"

"Correct."

Okay, this was going to be hard. I focused on the game for another minute. I was winning. His succinct answers were bothersome, distracting. I wasn't sure I wanted to ask any more questions. But they kept popping into my head, especially one pertaining directly to my future.

"After you have your heir, will you sell me?"

He put his side of the screen on pause but kept staring at it. "I think I would not like that."

I paused my own side of the game. "I'm relieved. I would like to see my child grow up."

"Add that to your list." His voice came out soft, low.

My list was requests. He was right. It made sense I could include that wish.

"Would I live here?" I asked.

"Would you want to stay here?"

"Yes. If you caged me up in an apartment away from here, I wouldn't like that."

"I never thought of doing that. When Allure made me—uh, when I bought you, I fully took on the responsibility of you. That includes your entire life span."

"I didn't know that. Aren't most set-omegas sold again and again?"

"Some, I suppose. I've never researched it. But perhaps some stay with their breeder to see to the family."

Family. A pack was a family, but not for me. Papa had been good to me, but he could not save me, nor could I ever return to him. I still hadn't texted him. I needed to cut that part of myself off for a while as I learned about my new life, or lack of it. I might never be ready to talk to anyone from my past ever again.

"Do you have any family?"

"I was fostered. Noah was a foster brother to me for years."

I thought hard about that. Foster care was a tough life for any kid. Maybe that was why he said he wouldn't like selling me. He wanted his own kid to have both parents. If that was true about him, it was nice to think about. It was a detail about him that made me believe I'd be able to endure this fate better.

"Noah. The auctioneer? He was your brother?"

"Yes."

I kept my mouth shut on my thoughts of him. Noah had projected coldness, carelessness. Alluresh had a more menacing demeanor, but it didn't go all that deep.

"I never knew my alpha father," I offered.

"That's why you agree it would be best the child knows both of us?"

"I would agree with that no matter what. Wouldn't you?"

"Yes," he replied.

"Then you can add it to your list, too," I said.

He laughed without smiling, a single chuckle. I'd never heard that sound from him before. It went straight through me like an adrenaline rush.

The next day, I decided to let him know how I felt about the elephant in the room, namely the actual breeding event.

"Do you feel nervous at all?" I asked.

"About what?"

"My upcoming heat?"

He fiddled with his controls making mistake after mistake. That was about as truthful an answer as any.

"I'm nervous. I can't help it," I said. "So there. It's said. Out in the open now."

He didn't stop playing, but he was losing fast. "Be specific and put it on your list."

At this point, the list was shared by talking about it.

"You know I've never done it before," I blurted.

He stopped fiddling with the controls. His side of the game played itself out and his character died.

"This is why I asked you to make the list in the first place."

"But how do I add that I'm nervous to the list?"

"By requesting whatever will put you at ease."

"What if the biggest part of that request is you?"

Alluresh spoke as if trying to contain some big wind inside. Then I remembered his dragon talked and was probably talking right now in his head.

"You tell me what you wish, and I, as the alpha, will fulfill it. That's all you need to do."

"But there has to be an agreement, too. Between us."

"Why?"

"Because." I leaned back and crossed my arms, letting my control fall to my lap. "What if you have requests, as well? What if you're nervous?" The way he was behaving, it was a safe question. "But of course," I added, "you've done this before."

"I have never bred an omega."

"Right. So it's new. It's different. But you've had sex before and I haven't." There. I said it out loud. "So you know what you like. Like kissing and things like that."

"Kissing?"

"Yeah. Kissing. Can breeding involve kissing? I think I might like to try that. Just once to see if it works and if it doesn't I can cross it off my list."

"When would you try it so you could leave it or cross it off your list?"

I answered quickly. "During my heat. What other time would I try it?"

He was silent.

Oh. My face heated. I'd set myself up with that last question since people kissed all the time. You didn't have to be in heat to be kissed. Or to have sex, for that matter.

My breaths became shallower.

"Do—do you even like it? Kissing?" I asked.

"I like it, but it is not a necessary part of breeding."

"I know, but it might make me less nervous. Both of us."

He closed his eyes as if the very thought pained him. Then he opened them. "It might," he replied.

He got up quickly. "There are some things I need to do before dinner."

He's running away, I thought.

And actually, he was running. He had left my game room door open and I heard his rapid steps going down the hall, down the stairs like he was flying.

I got up out of pure curiosity. What did he have to do? He wasn't going back to his office.

I went slowly to the staircase. From my vantage, I could see the huge downstairs area leading to the front door. Light flowed in from outside, the bright beams creating golden shapes on the floor.

I heard a great flurry of sound. Like a wind beneath a huge tarp.

I ran to the tower window at the end of the hall just in time to see the dragon lift up from the lawn and straight into the air.