Chapter Six
Galen
Mac called me adorable and laughed at me. Me!
Dragons were the most formidable creatures on Ignitas. From what I had seen of Earth, we could dominate their plane, as well.
"Why were you laughing?" I asked when he finally stopped and removed the key card from his pocket.
"I'm worried the other dragons might try to kill me for being your fated mate," he said, "and you're freaking out about shrinking a little smaller."
The door latch popped, and he cranked it open and stepped out of my way. He gave me plenty of room for this smaller body, but I brushed past him into the room. His chest was still pleasantly warm where I'd been leaning against him, but I didn't want to think about that now. I was still angry.
"A little? Kobolds of old would come up to a human's knee. Punky and Lark's children are twice as tall."
I let my horns pop back into existence, and the world seemed to right itself around me. The breeze from the air vent beneath the window rushed past them, centering me in a way I hadn't felt since I'd first morphed into this human body.
It was bad enough to force my greatness into such a tiny package, and then I had to clothe it! My magic made it easy, but nothing about holding this form felt right. I wanted out.
As soon as I heard the door click shut, I released the spell for my clothes.
Mac sucked in a breath. "What are you doing?"
"Do you know how uncomfortable clothes are to someone who has never worn them?"
"Yes," he said. "I hated wearing them as a child. I still do, sometimes."
Yet he wore them around me. "Why do you wear them when we are alone in my cave?"
He kicked off his sandals. "Tradition?"
The word smelled wrong. I closed the gap between us to sniff again. "Don't lie to me."
"Embarrassment," Mac admitted. "I'm a mess around you, and it would be really obvious without clothes."
"A mess?" That word smelled … confusing.
"I'm attracted to you." He blushed and looked at the floor.
"Obviously. You're my fated mate."
I relaxed my tight hold on my form, letting my shoulders expand and lifting me a few inches taller than Mac. It was far from my dragon form, but being larger than Mac felt more appropriate. Mac was struggling with his emotions, and I wanted to hold him and make him feel safe.
Instead, he glared up at me. "I didn't know I was your fated mate until two days ago!"
"But I knew. I have always been grateful for your attraction to me. I don't understand the problem."
He tugged at the buttons on his polo shirt and pulled it over his head. Once the shirt was off, so was his glamour. There was my gorgeous kobold beta mate without the shimmering human facade.
"You made one comment about copulation that first night, and then you ignored me for three years." Mac untied the drawstring of his shorts and pulled them off.
"I did not ignore you! I very much enjoyed having you near and scenting your growing attraction for me. I was thrilled."
Mac growled in the back of his throat.
I grabbed him gently by the neck. "You are unhappy."
"I'm—" he took my free hand and dragged it along his side, over his smooth skin, coarse scales, and downy soft hair between his legs. He wrapped my fingers around his hard cock. "I'm so turned on, it's not even funny. Even when you've got me by the throat and I know you could kill me with a squeeze."
"Why would I do that?" My neck was far shorter in this form, so I adapted, tilting my head to listen to the steady beat of his heart. His heart wasn't scared of me, at least. I remembered a time when he had smelled equally of fear and arousal, but his scent had shifted to pure arousal over the years.
"Why are you grabbing my throat?"
"To wrap my arms around you?" I'd heard the words before, but without having arms, I had no way to practice before now.
Mac chuckled. "No. That's how you choke someone, if you're strong enough to do it with one hand, which you are."
He pried my hand away from his throat and dragged his fingers up my chest. When he reached the strange boxy shape of my shoulders, he slipped his arms around my neck and behind my head, pulling me closer. "This is how you wrap your arms around someone."
"Mmm." I couldn't say anything more because Mac pressed his lips to mine. His kobold snout felt strange against my human face. I wanted to be more like myself, so I relaxed my form even more, returning to the kobold/human form I'd taken in my cave.
Mac tightened his grip around my neck and wrapped his legs around my waist, grinding our cocks together as he continued to kiss me. It felt divine, but also like we were moving too fast. All I'd wanted was to hold him and confirm he wasn't angry with me.
I walked him over to the bed and sat him on it, extricating myself from his legs.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"I think we need to talk. You were angry."
"I'm sexually frustrated as fuck," Mac said. "You've been cock teasing and cockblocking me simultaneously for three years. I am not angry, Galen. I am beyond ready to share orgasms with you. I don't even care if you participate or watch."
"I want to participate." I did. "I just don't know what I'm doing."
He blinked up at me. "What?"
"This body is new to me, and you aren't a dragon." When dragons fucked, our ovipositors docked together to add pleasure to the experience. I still had both, but Mac did not.
Mac blinked up at me. "You've never had a hand job!"
I stared at him a moment, trying to figure out how those words went together, and what they meant.
"You've never had hands!" He waved his hands toward my face.
That, I understood. "No, I haven't."
He reached for me, but hesitated. "May I touch you, Galen?"
I loved when he was so polite. "You may."
His hand on my cock was both too much and not enough. "Ooh." I couldn't resist making noise as he continued to stroke me. "I need to sit down."
"Come lie down."
He scooted across the bed and lay on his side with his head propped on his arm. I eased onto the bed beside him as near as I dared. It wasn't close enough. He tugged at my waist until his cock once again nestled against mine.
I felt a burst of magic, and then Mac's hand was on me again, this time coated with a product that smelled like water but didn't feel like it on my skin.
"What is that?"
"Personal lubricant. It's a human invention."
"It's glorious," I said. I had nothing to compare it to. "Is this what kobold omega slick feels like?"
"I wouldn't know," Mac said. "I've never fucked an omega."
I had questions, but I forgot them as he continued to move. I lost myself in the sensations of his hand gliding over my cock.
My ovipositor reached for him, wanting in on the action, and I howled when he brushed the tip with his thumb. He continued to circle it slowly and stuck his thumb inside the opening. When he grabbed onto it and pumped them both with the same rhythm, I couldn't hold myself up anymore. I rolled onto my back, and he followed.
"Do you like this," he stroked my ovipositor, "or this better?" He ran his thumb around the opening and pressed it inside.
"Your thumb," I said, unable to find more words in my addled mind. I lost track of everything but the sensation of his hands on me, working me into a frenzy.
"Wait," I said. "What about you?" I motioned for him to straddle me, and he was there, his solid weight pressing down on me as he took both of our cocks in one hand. He added more magical lubricant, and I sank further into the pillows, thrusting my hips upward with each stroke.
I dripped with sweat, something I didn't have in dragon form. When I reached the highest summit of pleasure, I thrust up into his hand, impaling myself on his thumb while my cock jetted cum like a fountain over my chest and abdomen.
My ovipositor clenched around Mac's thumb, and he moaned as his cock spurted over mine and added to the glorious mess.
"Fuck, that's so hot." He dropped to one elbow over me and kissed my jaw. "Do you have any idea how gorgeous you are when you come?"
He must have been able to tell from my confusion that no, I did not know how I looked when I came. We didn't have mirrors lying around our caves, unlike the abundance of them in the kobold villages.
"Next time, I'll show you," he said. "There's a huge mirror in the bathroom."
Thank all the gods, he wanted there to be a next time. If he wanted me to stand before a mirror, who was I to stop him?
* * *
Once I could breathe again, my mind returned to my earlier questions. "Why couldn't you copulate with omegas? Weren't there omegas at The Spike without mates?"
"Yes, but we make it a priority to find their mates as soon as possible. That's why we have the meetups. We host the one for the fortress, and then we put the unclaimed omegas on dire weasels to the next village over."
The dire weasels could travel long distances the same way they traveled to other planes. The distance from the village to my cave was too short for accuracy, and they might fall off the mountain. Longer distances, like a village two hours away, were easier for them to navigate.
"Your grotto has been cold for some time," I said, thinking aloud. "Why did you not move all your alphas and omegas to another village?"
"We didn't want to draw your attention with so many dire weasel trips," Mac said. "If a couple failed three times to produce live hatchlings, we sent them to another village, but not before."
"You would have been sending all of them in another year," I said.
"I suppose that's true."
"You keep all your betas?"
"All those born here, yes. Someone has to do the work."
That statement rang false, not because Mac didn't believe it, but because I knew it wasn't true. "Your alphas and omegas do their own work and raise their children."
"We grow the food, clean the fortress, raise the animals?—"
If we continued this discussion, I would be raging mad on Mac's behalf. He was so much more than a servant to me.
I growled, and Mac changed the subject. "We should get cleaned up. Maybe do that again in the shower?"
"What is a shower?" It sounded like rain, which I liked.
"You're going to love it." He rolled off the bed and offered me his hand.
I did love it. The focused droplets cleaned the sweat from my brow and ran in rivulets down my horns, making me shiver.
"May I touch?" Mac asked.
This time, I didn't know where he wanted to touch me, but I nodded. I trusted him with my body, even this weaker alpha kobold one.
His hand tentatively stroked my horn, tracing the path of cascading water to my scalp. "Gods, you're so beautiful. I don't get a chance to touch much of you in your dragon form, but I've always loved your horns."
I grunted as he wrapped his fingers around the base and stroked my horn the way he'd massaged my cock earlier.
"They're sensitive?" he asked.
"Incredibly. I use them to gauge the wind."
"What does this feel like?" He gripped my other horn and stroked them both at the same time.
"Like I could orgasm without a touch to my cock." I'd never felt anything like it, but I wanted more. "Keep doing that."
I didn't want to leave him hanging. I turned toward him and almost tripped. The tub basin wasn't very large, and I was clumsy in this body. Mac was there, holding me, guiding my hands to his hips to hold myself up. Once steady, I grasped his cock, and he raised his hands to my horns again.
The water cooled as we stood, rocking against each other, hands moving at the same time, breath coming in harsher and harsher pants. In no time at all, he had me back on the edge. I collapsed against him as my untouched cock spilled on his abdomen.
"Fuck," Mac groaned as he leaned against me, pressing our mouths together. His hot cum was a welcome contrast to the cool water pelting against my back.
He broke the kiss, laughing. "So much for a hot shower, but it was worth it!" He turned me around again and began scrubbing at my back with soap and water. I didn't mind the cold, but I yelped when he spun me around and grabbed my still-sensitive cock. He soaped the rest of my body and spun me around again to rinse. Then, he guided me to the back of the tub while he finished cleaning himself under the cold spray.
"Someday, we'll stay at a hotel with plenty of hot water," he said.
I had something else in mind. I could heat the waterfall near my cave using my magic. I'd never thought of it before. I was afraid to try it here, where I didn't know how much heat the human construction materials could handle. Back home, the obsidian stone beneath the waterfall could withstand any temperature we wanted.
Already, I'd learned so much to take back to Ignitas.