Page 7 of The Dragon’s Stone Hearted Mate (Mori’s Mementos #1)

Chapter Eight

Rho

Camp Air

I’d forgotten how much dragons worried and mulled things over.

Every great shift in their lives caused them to be consumed by thought and ponderings.

Perhaps, when I lost my pants, my dragon’s thoughts would return to me.

After all, we had a lot of catching up to do.

I rose back up with my hands still resting on his chest.

“Where shall we go or shall we stay out here under the stars?” I asked him.

“That depends on what you’re in the mood for,” he smirked.

“I am in the mood for many things. I have an endless supply of questions about your modern life and the lion you have chosen to share the cabin with.”

“Uh… You know that I didn’t choose him, right? I think we’re sort of friends or might be in the future. We only met today on the way here.”

“You made an interesting choice in companions,” I told him.

“Why do you say that?” he asked.

“Merely because of who he is. Never mind. It’s not important. I’m sure he will be a good friend to you,” I assured him, smoothing out his hair. “He will not be like your brother. He will be more annoying than him, like Teal.”

“You saw that, huh?” he asked, running his hands up and down my arms.

“I saw your whole life but that only left me with more questions.”

“We have forever,” he said. “Well, we have until my door shows up at least.”

“That is forever,” I whispered and kissed him again.

Sometimes the only way I could shut up his brain was to kiss him.

I slid my hands under his head as we kissed.

Sooner or later, he needed to return my claiming bite, but I wasn’t in a rush.

I’d waited all this time after all and beneath me his cells vibrated with sorrow from his musings.

“We are forever.” I whispered between kisses.

“That is if you still want forever with me?”

He shifted positions under me to cup my face in his hands.

His gaze met mine as he searched my eyes for some clue to our past. To me, we’d always be us, no matter how much time had passed or how much the form that carried him around changed.

I hoped that was what my mate saw when he stared into my eyes.

“It takes you this long to find an answer?” I asked him, trying not to smirk. I already knew the answer was yes. He’d never have let me sip from his well of memories if the answer was anything else.

“I am looking into forever,” he said. “My dragon knows you. He---”

“He what?” I asked, leaning into the warmth of his big, strong hands.

“He wanted to--- Er--- He wanted to see your butt earlier. The first time you fell over.”

“Are you blushing?” I asked as my dragon’s cheeks turned a lovely, barely-there shade of pink.

“I am not,” he said, his voice dropping deeper to compensate for the fact he was one hundred percent indeed blushing.

“Blushing about my butt. That sounds like you,” I nodded. “Tell him that he will see that and everything else too, eventually.”

He kissed me again and I leaned in against his warm body, cursing the lineage of whoever invented the idea of wearing so many clothes. He even had a bag on his back like the lion always seemed to. Was he turning into the paranoid sort that the lion was? For the sake of my sanity, I hoped he wasn’t.

“Morvan?”

“Yes?” he asked between kisses.

“That is your name? I heard it correctly?” I double-checked.

“Yeah, I’m Morvan,” he said and slid his tongue back inside my mouth.

It was nice to know he enjoyed kissing as much as I remembered.

For a long time, I gave into his warm, hungry mouth.

Reaching for his hands, I moved them to my ass.

He’d been a gentleman the first time we met too but his thoughts were warm to the touch and hungry.

If he needed a little encouragement to follow them, I was happy to provide it.

For the first time since I returned to my primordial element I was hard in only one place and very slick in another.

“Wait? You remember before?” he asked, leaning back as far as the grass allowed so that he could meet my gaze.

“It was a very long time ago, but I remember some of it, yes,” I nodded, raising back up to straddle him again.

He moaned under me, and it took every ounce of self-control I had not to wiggle all over his hard, throbbing dick. Still, if he wanted to discuss the past, it was better than him musing on some haunted future, wasn’t it? Maybe. The past could be just as haunting as the unknown tides of the future.

“Did we have kids?”

“We do,” I nodded. “I assume they are somewhere out there. Probably guarding their own little domains. I mean, as far as I know, there are not many dragons like them. Dragon like you and rock like me. They were happy last I knew. I think I’d know if they were in trouble. That might’ve ‘woken’ me up too.”

Morvan blinked and sank back inside his head.

He thought in circles about what all of it meant until I interrupted to remind him that our children were now ancient and it was very unlikely that they would need him to fulfill a fatherly role.

Maybe a super-great grandfather if they came looking for us but that was unlikely too.

They were all scattered across different planets as far as I remembered.

“Do you want to forget the past?” he asked me.

“No, but I don’t think it should cause you concern either.

If it moves into the present we will greet it then,” I smiled at him.

“Seriously, relax if you can. Or should I kiss lower? Will that make you stop thinking so much? Or do you want to bite me? Or perhaps go into the cabin and moan at the lion’s ghostly enemies? ”

“Yes? Yes to all of it,” he laughed and pulled me back down for another long, slow kiss.

“You’re such a good kisser. So warm and soft and tasty.

Oh!” he leaned back again, and I swallowed down a groan of frustration.

Dragons are excellent kissers but sometimes they won’t just shut the heck up and kiss you!

“Yes, mate?” I asked, trying to relocate my patience before I pinned him down and kissed lower until I found the exact spot that made him stop thinking so much.

“Are you hungry? You haven’t eaten in so long or had anything to drink—”

“I do not need nourishment or watering in that form. As Rhodonite I take my nourishment from the ground itself. It’s where I came from after all.”

“If you need anything you have to let me know.”

“There’s that adorable draconic instinct!” I grinned and kissed him. “That instinct to feed and water me before you put another egg inside of me!”

“Uh… We can talk about that too.”

“Or we could just do that,” I said.

“In this world?”

“On whatever world you like,” I laughed and kissed him again, rubbing my hard dick all over his through our clothes.

Morvan let out a little growl that only made me kiss him harder. That’s all these modern creatures did. They talked and talked and got nowhere.

“Do you want to have kids? Is that why you asked me about them?” I inquired a few minutes later.

“I—I wanted to know because it feels like something I should know about. Like what if they need me?”

“Then they will find us. They know how,” I shrugged. “What about now? What about in this form you take? Do you want children? I have seen enough mating near my standing spot that I know there are ways to prevent that now.”

“I---”

“This is another long musing on the evils of existence, huh?” I asked.

“Get out of my head,” he laughed.

“You are a slayer of the evildoer. You are the asskicker of the asshole. You burn up ghosts and leave their ashes behind for other people to clean up. I have no doubt that you can protect another round of hatchlings.”

“I couldn’t let them kill Torvan,” he whispered.

“Oh.” I sat up and frowned at him. “That’s what’s really bothering you. Your brother betrayed you. He tried to kill your best friend and his mate, and you couldn’t see that he was bad. Am I understanding the memory juice correctly?”

“You’re black magic. I haven’t told anyone else that. Hadn’t even let myself think about it.”

“Do you have any more brothers?”

“Only if you count Teal.”

“Do you think he’ll blow up the children?” I asked.

“No. He’d off someone for trying.”

“Then we have little to worry about, dragon. I adore you. There hasn’t been a day that’s passed by that I haven’t thought of you – haven’t longed for you. Children or not, I am glad you stumbled upon this sad camp, but if we do have kids we will both protect them if the need arises.”

“Is that how--?” he started but I shook my head.

“You were old. Ancient. You went to rest and I waited. I’ll do it all over again if that is what is to be.

I am not afraid of the stillness as long as I get to have my years with you in between and what great years they will be.

We will build a home and sleep in a nest again.

We will have good times because we are together.

And if another brother turns on you, I’ll destroy him for you.

You won’t have to worry about being blind to how he is.

I’ll see for you, and you’ll see for me.

We have always covered each other’s blind spots and I see no reason to change that now. ”

“Should I find Sherry and ask her for a private cabin?” Morvan asked, changing the subject in the direction I hoped he would. It was so hard to think clearly with our claiming vows only half complete and dragons liked a little romping with their biting.

“They are all filled with sad campers,” I informed him. “The rabbit talked about it while pacing in front of me. I think in my solid form, I made her feel less alone.”

“Do they leave just as sad as they showed up?” Morvan asked, suddenly remembering I knew how well or how badly the camping experience usually worked.

“Not always. Not most of them. There is something they enjoy about being sad together,” I said.

Neither of us said anything for a long moment. I rested my head against my dragon’s chest and let his thoughts roll by until he was ready to speak again. His head was full of the past and the future and trying to figure out how the present tied into them.

“You know, if you let his death dictate how you live, it’s like he killed you anyway,” I said when the silence began to ring in my ears.

“Before meeting you, I’d have said it would’ve been better that way. Now, I’m not so sure.”

“I am,” I told him. “I’d rather have you here with me than your brother walking around as a murderer. It doesn’t sound like a very pleasant life for either of you. Murder has a way of circling back around to gobble you up.”

“Do you think Cutter would forgive us if we slunk off into the forest?” Morvan asked.

“Probably. He seems to be a very forgiving cat,” I nodded.

“Just don’t offer to carry his pack.”

“Some things we cannot set down,” I shrugged.

“I don’t know what he has in there but he’s not keen on anyone touching it,” Morvan said, rising to his feet and lifting me up with him.

“I always did like it when you show off how strong you are,” I said and stole a kiss. “Which direction would you like to go?”

“Um… I was going to ask you that question. You’ve been here forever.”

“In one spot,” I shrugged.

“Let’s just pick a direction and start walking,” he said.

I wasn’t sure that was the safest thing to do in the Other World, but I’d stood rigid in one place so long that walking anywhere sounded like an adventure.