Page 14 of Henry & the Dragon
The next morning, Henry awoke and headed for the coffeepot. One thing he’d learned from his sojourns to the past was that coffee made waking up much easier. He wasn’t surprised to find Kai, hunched over the table, working on something already. Many nights his husband would get a flash of inspiration and awaken in the early hours to work on it. When he stepped into the room and made his way toward the workstation he noted Kai coming rising and coming toward him.
“Henry, my love, what are you doing?” Kai asked, a moment before he brushed a kiss over Henry’s neck. Even now, fifteen years on, Henry trembled when Kai did that.
“I’m writing our story down,” he said. “I wanted Dmitra to have it for her remembrances after I pass.”
Kai chuckled. “Our physicians will ensure you have many years remaining, you know.”
Just as they did for mother, who was hale and hearty. Father’s sword resided at her home, where he could keep a protective eye on her. He found it interesting how she could sit an talk with him for hours, even though he couldn’t answer. Henry and Merry thought it was good that they were still so deeply in love.
Henry had found he loved traveling to different times and places. He’d made one such sojourn, Arissa and Kai, along with Kai’s brothers, went to visit Earth in the twenty-first century. Henry was amazed at how different things were. Although Kai told him there were still places similar to Innernook, the bulk seemed to be towering buildings, throngs of people, and giant metal birds which screamed through the skies, causing Henry to drop to his knees and cry out in fear the first time one flew overhead, the sound deafening. Even louder than Kai’s dragon. Only kind words from Kai and Arissa, and the brothers telling their own stories with visiting different worlds made him feel less stupid. Henry vowed never to return to that time period.
Maybe.
Still, he and his family had settled in on Shilan, made a home for themselves, and found friendship among this plane’s people. Or, in Dmitra’s case, found love.
“Henry? Where has your mind gone?”
He jerked upright to find Kai smirking at him.
“I’m sorry. What did you say?”
“Our physicians will see to your health, just as they do to all our people. You will live a long, happy life.”
“Yes, I’m aware, but I had no idea what else to get Dmitra for her wedding. I find it amazing that our daughter will be marrying one of your brothers. Especially not Kenric. I always thought he was hard and angry.”
“That’s because he is. Well, to everyone but Dmitra. Our child seems to have tamed the great beast, if his besotted expression every time he sees her is evidence of it.” He kissed Henry’s lips. “Our daughter will make a fine queen one day.”
Just the thought of it scared Henry. What had Dmitra’s mother seen for her future? Would she be pleased? He had to think so. “I must know. If Dmitra and Kenric have children, will they be human or dragon?”
A soft chuckle. “We won’t know until it happens. From the discussions the great minds are having, they think the child could well be an amalgam of both parents. Perhaps a human with wings. Whatever they are, they will be loved, just like you are.”
Henry peered up at Kai. He was still the most amazing person Henry had met, doing everything he could to make their lives better. Once they’d arrived, the queen had their doctors treat mother, and now at seventy-four, she was healthier than she’d been in many years, easily able to keep up with her grandchildren and teach cooking classes to the young dragons at their school. He’d never seen her happier.
“It’s hard to believe you’ve been here for all these years. It seems like only yesterday I met you in the woods,” Kai said, sliding his fingers through Henry’s mostly silver hair.
“For both of us. It seems like I blinked, and was suddenly an old man.”
“Hardly old,” Kai reminded him. “I do believe it was you who wore me out last night.”
He slid a hand down Henry’s back until it came to rest on his buttocks. He sighed. Ass. All these years, and he still defaulted to the language of Innernook far too often. He would double his efforts to move beyond those dark days.
“I’ll do it again tonight, if you’d like,” Henry teased, stroking a hand over Kai’s chest.
“Nothing would give me greater pleasure.”
And now, Henry wanted Kai to take him. To feel as he slid home, his cock in Henry’s ass, bringing him to greater heights of ecstasy.
He turned in his chair and regarded Kai, who smiled at him. “I think…. No, I’m certain, this was meant to be. I cannot believe there is a place where I would have been happier, and that my family would discover that they could find love amongst your— our —people.”
“As am I. I am so grateful for the day we met. It seemed that what was missing in my life, was now found and I was whole. You gave me so very much. A husband, a partner, someone who shared my passion for exploration. I cannot believe how lucky I was.”
He peered down at the pages Henry was working on and an exasperated look came over him. He leaned in and blew a gentle breath on Henry’s neck, which caused goose bumps to pebble on the fair skin Kai loved so much.
“Please tell me, why are you using a pen? You could dictate your story and our computers would make it much easier on you. They could even add pictures and sounds to make the gift more interactive.”
Biting back a grumble, Henry said, “Because this is a chronicle of Innernook and my life there. It’s also about how I met a man who showed me there was more to life than being indebted to someone, and how he freed me from the thoughts that were chaining me to that existence. It also says how we all came to be here, living with that man and his people. It seemed wrong to do it on that accursed machine of yours.”
Fifteen years, and the computer still perplexed Henry. Not that Kai hadn’t tried many times to explain it. Even Euric picked up its use faster than Henry and used it to design amazing creations that thrilled the dragon-people and those who came to visit.
“And I must ask, why did you stop with us gathering at the farm to discuss the future? What about our adventures in the ice caves? Or meeting the fairy people, or—”
Henry squeezed Kai’s hand and smiled. “I have to keep something to tell our grandchildren don’t I?” He grabbed Kai’s shirt and tugged him down, claiming his mouth. He wanted Kai to take him, here, now, so that he would always remember one truth.
No matter what road he took to get here, Henry Cabot was finally right where he belonged.