Chapter 8

8

Danon

I was usually glad to not see my face when I looked in the mirror.

Tonight was different. Now what I saw wasn't my mask, which I'd worn by choice, but what Akai saw. An old, cold dragon. Someone who you wouldn't really notice if you passed him by in the street.

Was that what I'd become? By my own decision, yes.

I looked down at the counter, then started rummaging through the drawers. I found what I needed after a while. I set everything out in an orderly fashion.

First, I picked up the scissors and started trimming away. The sink filled with gray and white hairs. A lot. I should have put down a towel.

The trim took a long while. When I was done, I rubbed shaving cream all over. Then I took up the razor. It was slow-going. So much hair. As the skin of my face was revealed, a new me appeared. I was gaunter than I realized, my jaw and cheekbones sharp. The wrinkles weren't as many as I'd predicted. I still looked young. I wasn't old , and I'd prove that to Akai. Not that being old was wrong in any way. But some younglings looked upon it as some horrific thing.

Akai deserved someone more in his age range, but that wasn't our fate.

As I shaved off the last of my beard and rinsed my face, I saw a new me—and some of the younger me—staring back. My eyes looked bigger, the brows showing more pronounced. The hair on my head shone in the bathroom light, coming around my ears, the long bangs which I hadn't cut in months, rocking loose and framing my face. Why I only grew white and silver in my whiskers was a mystery. Not a single gray hair showed from my scalp.

Akai might not recognize me, at first.

As I thought his name, a hot flash undulated through my body. He was attractive to me.

Want. Now.

Dani had almost no concept of time. Now was how he thought and acted.

"We will allow Akai to choose the appropriate moment."

Mate. For life.

"It is just to get us through this time. I don't know if he'll ever bond with me. That requires vulnerability and intimacy."

For life.

He was insistent. He had fewer filters and was less discerning. My dragon might be small, but he was a lover, not a hater. And he had never been concerned about "size matters." He left that darker stuff to me.

Cold air hit my face as I walked out of the bathroom. The last time I was without a beard I was around thirty-five and still heavily dating. That felt like eons ago.

I lay down on my bed. My door was closed but I could still feel him as if he stood in this very room watching me. His scent permeated every cell of my being, sweetly gliding over my arms, under my shirt. I turned onto my side pushing my nose into the pillow to try to escape it. The soft cotton pillowcase shocked my newly shaven skin; it was so smooth.

My cock pressed hard against the fly of my jeans, the only cushion the thin briefs I wore. My balls throbbed.

My rut was coming on fast. There was no way I could deny it any longer. I also couldn't deny it had everything to do with Akai.

I promised him I would leave for the duration. That had been my plan. Before he told me he'd gone into heat. What a fiasco.

You want him, too.

Physically, yes. Dani was right. The little imp.

Even with my head pressed to the pillow I could still smell him. I turned over onto my back. Over and over, I whispered to myself. "Not tonight. Not tonight."

My cock warmed at any thought of having him, even a thought about not having him.

Why not tonight?

We needed time to get used to the idea. We'd only just hatched it a half an hour ago. Plus, Akai was experiencing brand new feelings. Whatever he was going through, it didn't feel right to me that I should just jump on him. No, I would stay in my bedroom all night if need be.

That thought had me up and pacing my room like a caged beast. I wanted to go out there right now. Confront him. Be sure his decision was his alone, and final. We needed to talk. Three times I went to my door, put my hand on the knob and started to turn it only to back away. Maybe he was right on the other side waiting for me to appear.

I wouldn't know until I opened the door.

You're funny. Just go get him.

Not that easy.

Let me go then. I'll win him over instantly. A soft giggle danced through my mind.

I would not allow that. Whatever Akai knew about dragons, he would expect large, fierce, fire breathing behemoths. That I was sure of. I wouldn't be able to take it if I went through this rut and heat with him knowing how disappointed he was. That secret would be kept for another day.

The fourth time I went to the door, I actually opened it. The hall was empty, but the air was filled with his honeyed scent. I stood for several seconds breathing in lungfuls of that amazing aroma.

Slowly, I took a step out of my room. I could see both doors to my office and Akai's bedroom were closed. Was he in his room? Nope. My dragon senses were on alert. Akai was in the living room. He'd never left.

What to do? If I saw him again I was afraid I would go straight into full rut. But at this point I wondered how things could get any worse.

Taking a deep breath, I walked briskly down the hall. The living room was on my right. Akai heard me and immediately turned to look at me. His eyes widened. His mouth fell open. Every muscle in his body tightened as he sat up straighter, staring with what look to be outright fear.

I took one step closer, and he jumped up from his chair. His eyebrows narrowed.

"Is that you?" He put his fingers gently to his cheek.

"Who else would it be?"

"Umm, I don't know. Someone else?" He rubbed at his face as if in empathy to mine. "You shaved?"

I'd forgotten. I put my fingers to my lips which were no longer hampered by bristly whiskers. "I guess I did."

"You look… you look so different!"

"It seemed appropriate. If we're going to be together. No more hiding."

"You look so much younger. Like only thirty or something."

I hadn't been flattered like that in years. My rut quickened in my veins like a deep burn.

Quickly, I said, "I think we should give ourselves some time to get used to this agreement."

"How much time?"

"The night."

He blinked fast two times. "The whole night?"

"I think that would be appropriate." My voice sounded robotic, separate from me.

"I won't be able to sleep at all." His voice shook.

"Neither will I."

"Aren't you're supposed to face your fears head on? Isn't that what they say? That it's best for peace of mind?"

"Where did you hear that?"

"It's like a truth. You haven't heard that?"

"I have. I just wanted to know where you had read that."

"Basic psychology."

My knees quivered. I wasn't sure what to say to that. My body wanted him. My mind knew he needed more grace than I might be able to give. But I wasn't mean or old or cold like he thought. I might have some bitterness at being different, feeling outcast. But I wasn't some horrible mean dragon out to conquer innocent omegas.

"Can you do this? Face your fears?" I asked.

"Do I need to be afraid?"

"Like I said before, my ruts are rough."

"What are they like? Can you still understand me if I speak?"

"Of course."

"Then if I told you I wanted something different or for you to stop, you would?"

"I would be able to understand you. However, once I knot you, there's nothing I can do until it goes down."

"I understand that part. But I just wondered, do you go full out beastie and feral?"

If he'd seen my dragon, he wouldn't be asking that question. But, I'd had hard ruts. He deserved to know that. They weren't with mates. They were with other alphas who enjoyed bottoming.

"Depends on who I'm with."

"Like would that happen with me?"

Why did that simple question make my eyes warm? It was Akai. We were compatible. Luck or fate had brought us together. Deep inside I knew this rut would be very different from any I'd ever had.

"I think you will be okay."

"Just okay?"

Tell him he smells like honey. Like maple.

"I confess. I want to take you to my bed right now. Throw you on the mattress and have my way with you. There. I said it. What do you think of that?"

"I don't know what to do." Akai's eyes got very bright. "Will you tell me? Will you show me?"

"I can promise you I'll do my best."

"I don't want to do anything wrong. I don't want to make you impatient or annoyed, but all I ask is that if I ask a question, you be honest. Is that okay?"

Something like a soft warm breeze went straight through my chest. "I am a very honest man."

"Then I want it. Just like you. I want you to take me to your bed, throw me down, and have your way with me." He put his hand on his chest as if his heart was about to pop out.

When the beast inside you does flips, it's almost like being tickled from within. Dani could jump for joy for all I cared. I, however, had other ways of dealing with situations like these.

I walked around the couch, put my arms out in front of Akai and waited. I didn't have to wait long. Immediately, he stepped forward into my embrace and before he could utter a word, I lifted him up into my arms and cradle carried him around the couch, down the hall and straight into my bedroom.

Akai clung to me. I knew then everything would work out. Maybe not tonight. Maybe not tomorrow. But there was a possibility, perhaps, for a future. It flashed around me like a quick explosive light. This boy was mine. This set-omega was not a slave.

He was my mate.