Chapter Six

Axlin

I couldn't get enough of Castor that night. We romped on the bed and on the floor. We romped when we thought we were done and made our way to the shower. We made love on the little table in the ship's kitchen while a casserole reheated in the oven. Then again in the shower. Finally, we fell into bed exhausted. His memories still lingered in my mind.

"Don't think too hard about that," he whispered to me. "That's Casimir's story to tell or not to tell. There wasn't another way. Not really. Not for Casimir. You'd have to be there to understand it all."

"I trust you," I said and meant it. "So ---"

He put his hand over my mouth.

"I meant it. I'm not going to explain it. If he wants you or anyone else to know the details he'll tell you," he said a second later as I fought off the urge to lick his hand.

"Okay!" I held up my hands, trying to fight off a laugh. What I saw about Casimir was serious business, but I wasn't about to push it.

"Some things can stay on Earthside. It belongs to that world. He came all the way here for a fresh start. He came all the way here so I could fulfill my dream of space travel. He's a good guy."

"From what I saw, I believe you. I--- I don't want anyone else to---"

I stopped speaking because he put his hand over my mouth again.

"I can still talk here," I said over our mating link. "I don't want anyone you love to ever feel that way again. I don't want you to ever feel that way again."

"Then keep out of the mushies."

"I don't think mushies do that."

"I hope not," Castor said and rested his head on my chest while he toyed with my nipple.

Even if my dick had responded, we were both worn to the bone from how hard our mating response drove us together. Silently, we both agreed that it was time to get some sleep. There would be plenty of time to figure out Casimir's past later.

***

The next morning, I woke up grinning. The sun shone through the ship's porthole. Midmorning. Having a lie in wasn't out of the ordinary for me, but I'd never been a morning person. That was until I woke up next to my mate. Castor was curled up around one of his pillows and I was spooned in behind him. Sleep smoothed out all the worried ‘captain lines' he carried in his forehead all day. What transpired during the claiming vows still clung to my thoughts. So I let Castor sleep in. I grabbed a shower and figured out the coffee pot in the kitchen. There was a basket to dump the ground into. Ours had built in, self-cleaning compartments to dump those into. Either way, I figured out the coffee and found the coffee fixings. I made two mugs and headed up to the top deck of the ship. Casimir sat with his legs stretched out, leaning back on one palm in the bright mid-morning sunlight reading a rather thick book by someone with the last name Radcliffe. I sat down next to him and handed him one of the mugs. He took it without looking and didn't glance at me until a few pages later.

"You can spare me the speech," he said, pushing himself upright and crossing his legs.

"Good. I didn't prepare one," I said.

"It showed you, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Hence the speech."

"No speech," I shook my head.

"Then what? If you didn't come up here to tell me not to drag him into more bullshit, then what?" Casimir didn't look impressed with the coffee.

"Do you want to come to my house with us?" I asked.

"What?" he blinked, confused for a second. "Are you hitting on me?"

"No," I said.

I wasn't letting him turn this into a joke. What I saw the day before wasn't something to joke about.

"I don't know how much you know about the claiming vows, but I saw everything from Castor's point of view. You didn't drag him into anything. You two are close. He worries about you. You two haven't been separated in a long time. We're related now. So I'm inviting you to where Castor is planning on going."

"Gotta watch the dingbats," he said, gesturing to the rest of the crew in the pool. "They're capable on Earthside or inside the ship, but the last thing we want is some culture clash causing a fucking war. In case you haven't noticed even if we count you, Elio, and Marsin we're out numbered."

"What would start a war?" I furrowed my brows.

"We don't know. That's why we're sticking together. Wars have started over some stupid shit."

"We've never had a war here."

"That's because you're all the same group. Usually, not always, but usually it takes two groups."

"But we're the same. We're dragons. If we did primal DNA tests I bet we trace back to some of the same lines of wild dragons in the Other World."

"Didn't matter back on Earthside," Casimir shrugged.

"Are you all looking for a fight?" I asked.

"No, we're here because Elio invited Fred. We're still here because the crew voted to help you all get your Other World gateways."

"So you need to stick together," I nodded.

I got it in a way. If I were on Earthside I'd probably want whoever was there from my flight close by.

"Tell Castor I'll be back," I pushed myself upright, leaving the mug of coffee behind.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"I'll be back. Just tell him that."

"You're as shut off as Cas can be. You know that?"

"So are you," I said, bringing out my wings and taking to the sky.