Chapter 8

8

Alluresh

I watched Tavi explore the outside grounds from the high window of my office. I had a perfect view of the far-reaching rear of my estate, which was where he was.

First, he explored the two swimming pools. He sat for a while, dipping his feet in the one with the waterfall.

He later walked the maze of pathways through trees and gardens that I had designed. I didn't do actual gardening, but I was great at design work, almost as good as I was at investing.

I lost sight of him several times.

Go get him. Now.

Allure panicked at every little detail of my life, and now with the omega he was anxious all the time.

"He's not going anywhere. Nor is he lost."

I can't see him. I don't know where he is.

I turned away from the window and pulled up the app on my computer. It was a tracking app. It had a map of my estate and surrounding areas. On it was a red dot.

"There," I said. "He's right there."

How do you know?

"His ankle bracelet is a tracker."

He could take it off.

"He would need special tools to remove it."

Maybe he has those tools.

I sighed.

Do we have those tools?

"I do. They are locked away."

He should be chained. That would be best. Use heavy chains in concrete. The basement will work best.

"I am not keeping an omega chained in the basement."

He's our omega now. He should be kept away from the rest of the alphas.

"Are you afraid the outside world will steal him from us?"

We are power. They would not dare.

"Are you afraid he will be enticed to leave by the outside world? Our world of predominantly alpha dragons? Our culture that would seek to enslave him all over again? Where do you think he would go?"

Home?

"They sold him, too. And they would again. He already lives in a cage. You just can't see it."

Silence.

"You understand now?"

I turned back to the window, watching Tavi emerge from a copse of trees.

"Sometimes we don't get to choose how we're born. Or what we will become."

Continued silence.

I whispered my last thought. "Now you know the truth. There is nowhere else for him to go."

Tavi spent nearly all afternoon outside, coming back to the waterfall pool to dip his feet in the water again and again.

As much as I had tried to explain to Allure that Tavi wasn't getting lost or leaving us, I myself still had an obsession to track him.

I worked very little, spending more time with my desk chair turned toward my window. The trade markets were slow today anyway.

I wanted to know more about him, his thoughts. At meals, he answered my questions succinctly. He had finally started to make a list of small things he might use. Though still no list of rules about how he wanted to be treated. We had avoided the actual subject of breeding, but he knew I wanted to make rules about that very thing, as well.

His needs and wants list included:

Extra pillows.

Slippers.

A laptop for movies and games.

I could do better than a laptop for those things. I didn't skimp on anything. I gave him another large room, all for entertainment. I equipped it with a large screen TV, game devices he could choose from, and endless credit for game and movie downloads. I also furnished the room with physical games, such as pinball machines, a basketball hoop machine, skee ball, among others. It didn't take long to get the room set up. I paid dearly for overnight delivery and installation.

Even with all of that, Tavi enjoyed being outside. Away from me? I wasn't sure. He was still getting to know the place. Still exploring.

As I watched him now, he stood up and pushed down his pants, kicking off his shoes. My heart revved up. He pulled his t-shirt over his head and tossed it aside.

He was very slim, wearing only dark green briefs. He walked like a dancer, light on his feet, around the rim of the pool. At the deepest part by the waterfall, he stopped, put his arms out straight and paused. Suddenly, his arms went up as he bent his knees and jumped.

The dive was perfect, leaving very little splash or wake. Like a bird coming out of the sky and diving after a fish.

I saw his head bob up, his long brown hair slicked back. Then he began to swim back and forth from the deep end to the shallows and back again.

The other pool had a diving board and slide. Why didn't he use that? But he liked the waterfall. I could sense it.

Swim. Now.

I'd been leaving Tavi to his own devices, not bothering him, not asking to hang out with him except at meals. I wondered what he made of it all.

Swim. Now!

"No."

It was a hot day. The workers had left, the repair job almost done. There was peace and quiet as the lazy sun would be taking a few more hours to set. It was perfect timing for a swim.

You are afraid of him?

"No."

He is ours to do with as we please.

In a way, Allure was wrong. Tavi was bought to be bred and for nothing else.

Are you waiting for his heat?

"No." I realized, however, I was aroused.

I got up, then, and moved into my room where I donned shorts and a tank top. I hurried downstairs and out onto the massive back porch.

When I arrived at the patio in front of the pool, I stood, feeling the late summer breeze, the warmth on the air, and watching Tavi's narrow form cut through the water with ease. When he came up for air to make another turn, he saw me. He treaded water slowly as our gazes met.

"It can be dangerous to swim alone," I said. My voice boomed louder than I'd intended.

"I'm a good swimmer."

"Nevertheless." I found a lounge chair and moved it closer to the edge of the shallow end.

Seeing him nearly naked, wet and slippery, all that flawless skin gleaming in the golden light, did not help my state of arousal at all. Nor did Allure.

Claim him and prep him for breeding.

Ignoring that quip, I flicked my hand toward the pool at Tavi. "Continue."

Tavi dived underwater, giving me a fantastic view of his wet, brief-clad ass. He swam another lap, then drifted toward the shallow end. He shook water droplets from his hair, some of them hitting my bare legs.

"You need some pool toys," he announced.

I made a mental note to buy a large selection.

You are rewarding him for disrespectful behavior?

"I told him to tell me his wants."

He should want you. Want us.

"Why?"

"What?" Tavi cocked his head. He swam to the steps.

I shook my head to let him know I hadn't spoken to him. He had grasped quite quickly that my beast controlled a lot of my life.

Water poured off his near-naked body as he stepped out of the pool.

Without thinking about it, I got up and handed him a clean towel from the bin by one of the tables.

You allow him to cover himself when you desire his body?

I swallowed my retort. Allure was more proprietary than I'd ever known him to be. He didn't like any of my past lovers. Alphas bored him. Their dragons irritated him, and he never shifted in their presence. It made further intimacy impossible, which forced my lovers to seek it elsewhere.

With Tavi, however, Allure wanted him chained, claimed, to put on a show of ownership with a set-up of physical captivity.

I reminded him again and again of the cage Tavi already occupied by being born a set-omega.

He didn't like it. He wanted control.

I held him back, saying, "You want him to hate us more?"

It does not matter how he feels. Only that he obeys.

Allure disillusioned me time and again. As if there was a part of myself that never grew up, never learned, and remained completely self-absorbed. I didn't expect him to behave in human ways, but he was intelligent enough to observe the world. It was more a human world than a dragon-ruled realm. We built, we hoarded, we ran businesses. Dragons had the baser elements down pat. Play. Fly. Breed when it was time.

Why had I ever expected more from him?

Tavi dried himself off, faced away from me and began to dress, his long limbs gleaming.

Allure's gaze was hard and staring.

Now would be a good time.

I knew what he meant. Allure wanted a pre-heat claim.

You are not listening. Go. Show him what power is.

I turned my head away from Tavi and gazed out over the pool toward the waterfall and the rolling lawn and trees beyond.

The muscles in my neck contracted as I fought Allure, who wanted to keep all his attention on Tavi. For a moment, I thought Allure would shift. I braced for the signs, the claw tips poking through the ends of my fingers, the contractions, the swirling dizziness of an uncontrolled transformation. He could do it. He could hurt Tavi with one swipe of his paw.

I won't hurt him.

I cleared my throat to cover my relief.

What good would he be, then?

"Be careful, then."

Tavi turned, his shirt falling past his wet hair and settling on his body. "I will. I won't swim unless I tell you first."

I raised an eyebrow. He thought I was talking to him. "Good."

"My papa didn't like me to swim alone, either. I would sneak out to the neighbor's pool and swim laps at night when I couldn't sleep."

"Why couldn't you sleep?"

He sat, bringing the towel to his hair and slowly moving it over the left side of his head. "When I found out I was a set-omega, I worried a lot."

He hadn't talked much about his feelings. This moment was rare.

"I can imagine the burden of it."

"Can you?" He looked at me, wet towel in his lap.

I could, but I didn't think he would believe me.

It is not a burden but a purpose.

"I can."

You lie. You have everything and no burdens.

My burden was a particular dragon, but I kept that thought to myself.

"You're different, too," Tavi said.

We are not different, just better. Stronger. With more of everything. We rely on no one.

"Yes," I replied. "I am."

Why are you agreeing with the breeder?

I spoke loudly, as if Tavi was farther away than he was. "I have a wildness inside me that keeps me solitary."

"You've already told me."

"I haven't completely explained."

He is owed no explanation, and you are the one who is different. I am a powerful dragon.

"My dragon sees me as weak. I don't know why. It's a work in progress." It was the most I'd ever told another soul of my plight.

Well, you are weak.

"I made my wealth. I built this castle. I control my surroundings. But not him."

Tavi blinked. Such beautiful eyes. "W-what does he think of me?"

He will carry the eggs well.

"No worries," I said. "He likes you."