Secrets in Smoke by Ashe Moon
6
Thomas
Castelle had broughtme breakfast from downstairs, freshly cooked: a plate of plump sausages, roast tomatoes, and fried potatoes covered in a white gravy. It’d been a week since Rainor had started the training with me, and the only thing that had improved during that time was Michael’s cooking. He’d made a great effort. I, on the other hand, was stagnant. I didn’t know what was wrong with me. What could be so hard about hitting a target with a glass ball? And yet, it seemed to be the most difficult thing I’d ever tried. I couldn’t get the orbs to spin right, to shatter properly, to hit their marks, even though I’d succeeded that very first time…
I was having serious doubts about my fitness to be captain. If I couldn’t do this, how could I expect to continue? Maybe I hadn’t been fit all along. It didn’t matter what I did—I was an omega, and maybe omegas truly weren’t meant for this. And, of course, I worried about what Rainor thought. I hated that I couldn’t just be strong, that I couldn’t erase these damned thoughts from my head. I wanted to be confident and capable. And I wanted him to notice it.
And I wanted him…
That was another thought I badly wanted to erase. The way I felt when I was around him, angry at every little jest but also just as happy to be teased by him. It was like I was being pulled in two directions at once, and I knew that these feelings could only keep me down. I could never achieve my potential with these feelings of desire in the way. Those were the feelings of an omega, and they were exactly why I denied that part of me.
I unlocked the drawer and pulled it open. The little bottle rolled to a stop, its contents swishing back and forth inside. For a moment, I wondered what would happen if I didn’t put it on, and the answer was swift. The crumbling of everything I’d worked for being reduced to nothing. I’d lived for so long pretending to be an alpha, I wouldn’t even know where to begin as an omega.
Finally, I picked up the bottle and shook it. Castelle stood by my door, waiting for me. “I’ve depended on this stuff my entire life,” I told her. “Never really doubting the reasons why I was using it. My mind was set, my resolve clear.” I uncapped it and dabbed the liquid onto my wrist. “You know, I almost wish Rainor had refused to train me after he’d found out. It would’ve made things so much easier.”
Castelle looked at me questioningly. “Sir?”
“At ease, Castelle,” I said, with a smile. “We’re off duty right now, let’s speak as friends.”She nodded, and I went on. “There was never any question in my mind that an alpha would never be able to accept an omega as a leader. And then, him. Everything he does goes against everything I believed. But I guess that’s the point, right? He’s a dragon. They do things differently.”
“Well, sir—I mean, Thomas—if you remember, when I first learned you were an omega, it was well after I’d become an officer. What I mean is, I’d already come to respect your qualities as a person long before that, and it never changed a thing. If anything, it made me respect you even more.”
I chuckled. “You’re different, though.”
“With all due respect, how so? Because I’m a woman? I’m still an alpha.”
“No, that’s not what I meant. Because of our history together. I know you feel like you’re indebted to me for leading you to the Watch. I don’t feel like I deserve that, but I do know how strongly you feel about it.”
“And I think there are a lot of others in the Watch who feel the same way as I do since you became captain. You’ve changed a lot of lives. And that’s why I can’t tolerate the way that dragon speaks to you. He doesn’t know the work you’ve done.”
“Maybe not,” I said. “He can be abrasive and annoying but I know where it’s coming from. He cares as much as I do.” I thought about all the times I’d failed over the past week, and every moment he’d berated, teased, and criticized. It stung hard, usually pissed me off, sometimes made me want to kill him—but it always got me fired up to keep going and prove him wrong. “If he didn't care, he would’ve quit on me a long time ago.” I grinned. “He’s kind of like you. You haven’t quit on me.”
“We are nothing alike,” she said.
I met Rainor outside at our usual training time and was surprised that he hadn’t set up any targets or brought anything for me to practice with. He stood alone in the field. We were getting to that time of the year when the occasional ocean storm rolled in over the town, and the wind tugged at his clothes and made the trees and grass wave. He tilted his chin up when he saw me coming.
“Where’s everything?” I asked.
“Weather is shit. You can’t land a target in still air, you definitely won’t be able to with this wind. And, anyway, we’ve been up against a brick wall this entire week, and continuing to smack your head against it isn’t going to help. So, let’s take a break.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” I said.
He looked surprised. “I didn’t think it’d be that easy to convince you. You seem to like bashing your head against a wall.”
“In my experience, you smash it hard enough and eventually something will give way.”
“Yeah,” he snorted. “Like your head.”
“I was thinking we do something a little different today. I’ve seen how you work. I think it’s time you see how I work.”
“Oh, I’ve seen how you work. And it isn’t much to talk about.” He smirked.
“Yeah? Come out with me today. It won’t be anything exciting like flying into a burning building, but if the fire flight and the Watch are going to be working closer together, you should work on your people skills.”
“Maybe people should work on their dragon skills,” he said. “But, alright.”
Before I’d become captain, the Watch operated entirely from headquarters, with small groups that would walk the town on foot or horseback. I’d changed things by creating established posts across town where officers would always be stationed, allowing for faster response to major trouble, and so that people felt they always had a peacemaker they could turn to for any small disputes. As captain, I would make rounds between the different posts, usually going with a small group of officers to relieve those who were out on Watch. Today, I decided to go with just Rainor.
“I’m not going on that,” said Rainor, keeping his distance from Blackeye, a brown stallion with dark markings on his face.
An officer held the reins of Hama, my horse, and I got my foot in the stirrup and easily swung myself up onto the saddle. “Why? You scared?”
“I’ll crush the poor guy,” he said.
“No, you won’t. Just don’t turn into a dragon while you’re riding him. Blackeye used to haul ore out of the mines. He can handle you. Come on, or I’ll leave you behind.”
Rainor slowly approached Blackeye, holding out his palm, and he touched the horse’s side. “Don’t mind me,” he muttered, and then turned to me and said, “A dragon never goes anywhere on anything but his own wings or legs. I’m not partial to the idea of riding something.”
“You let me ride you,” I said, and quickly added, “Your back. On your back.”
“That was by invitation. I didn’t force you to ride me, you didn’t mount me without permission.”
I spurred Hama, turning her around so that Rainor couldn’t see how red my face was. My mind was going in ridiculous directions, and all kinds of lewd images were disturbing my thoughts.
“Hama and I know each other,” I said. “She trusts me, and I know when she doesn’t want to do something. Blackeye is a good horse. Get to know him.”
“I’m used to tiny animals,” he said. “I have no idea how to do this.”
Turning to face him, I pointed and instructed him on how to mount Blackeye. Rainor awkwardly jammed his foot into the stirrups and tried to boost himself up, but he didn’t swing high enough and tumbled straight onto the ground. Blackeye snorted and moved away from him, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Dammit,” Rainor muttered, rubbing his behind as he stood.
“Is your ass okay?” I asked, grinning at him. “That’s gonna leave a bruise. You want me to give you a boost? Hold your hand?”
“Ah, fuck you,” he said.
The stable officer led Blackeye over to Rainor and held the horse steady. Rainor tried again and this time made it, but he sat awkwardly in the saddle and nearly slid off the other side. Blackeye looked annoyed by Rainor’s clumsy seating, and he trotted sideways back and forth to compensate for Rainor’s weight as he tried to settle himself. Then the horse turned around and nipped at Rainor’s hand.
He recoiled. “Gah! Dammit. Trust me, I’d much rather let you frolic in a field than have to carry me. Come on, let’s be friends. Gods, you should be thankful I like animals. Other dragons might turn you into a roast. We used to hunt you, you know?”
Blackeye neighed and turned circles as Rainor pulled the reins, trying to get him to cooperate.
“You’ll get it eventually,” I said. “Come on, follow me.”
I spurred Hama and trotted out of the stable. Blackeye followed behind me, not because of anything Rainor did—he was still fussing about like someone who’d gotten fire ants in their underwear—but because Blackeye knew to go by Hama’s lead. Rainor was grumbling to himself and I slowed down to let him come up beside me. I chuckled when I saw how he made Blackeye look like a pony. And Blackeye, despite being annoyed at how off-balance Rainor was, seemed proud to be bearing such a heavy burden.
“Would be a lot easier if I just followed in the sky,” Rainor said.
“And everyone would be afraid. No one would want to come and talk, it would disrupt the watch.”
“Sounds like their problem,” he said.
I rode onto the main street and nodded to the shopkeep sweeping the walkway in front of his store. The wind had littered the cobblestones with leaves and stray newspaper and kicked up little whirls of dust all along the road.
“Good morning, Captain Everheart,” the man said. “Any news today I should know?”
“Not much except that you probably shouldn’t waste your energy with that broom,” I said. “I got a report from the Skywatch that we might be getting rain sometime. At the very least, it’s gonna be windy for a while.”
As we continued up the street I stopped to talk to people who came out to greet me and get any news they could use. Rainor followed behind me, and while some people nodded to him, I could see they were hesitant about him. Everyone knew who he was and what he meant for the town, but it didn’t change their misgivings about dragons. Most were happy to receive their help but had no interest in actually meeting a dragon. Rainor remained silent, returning the nods given but otherwise keeping his gaze averted.
“Seems like everyone knows you,” he said as we moved on. “They all know your name.”
“Yeah. I reach out to everyone I see on my watch. It helps when there’s trouble and I need information. And it helps when there are disputes. People will talk to me because they know me personally.”
“We’ve tried that,” Rainor said. “You can imagine how it went. I think Grayson was the first human who actually was interested in getting to know me. Well, aside from you, I guess.”
“I don’t think I ever learned how you all came to be. All of a sudden, you just appeared. It was before I became captain. How’d you join? Did you volunteer, or something?”
He laughed. “No. That’s not how it works. We’re a flight. It’s what dragons call a bonded group. I don’t think humans have anything like it. We’re like a family, but not from blood. But Altair, he made it his mission to stop fires here, because no one else could. He lost his family to a fire when he was just a kid.”
“That’s awful. But…I thought dragons could withstand fire?”
“Firedrakes can resist heat, but we’re not impervious to it. It was bad. And the humans…they didn’t do anything to help. But Altair, the way he is, he wants to help everyone. Doesn’t matter who they are. That’s the kind of alpha he is. He wants to protect everyone, whether they deserve it or not. So, he started the flight. And he found me.”
“Found you?”
Rainor exhaled and was silent like he was carefully considering his words. I remembered how he’d avoided speaking about himself before and I expected him to change the subject again, but he continued.
“I was getting myself into trouble. Didn’t have anyone else, no family or flight to guide me, and no human would want anything to do with an orphaned dragon. I grew a real resentment of the humans who seemed to go out of their way to make my existence more difficult. I wanted to get back at the people who chased me away from their shops, who treated me like I was some bad omen that would bring fire on them. I started to think they were right. Maybe dragons did deserve to rain fire on humans as all their stories said. So, one day, I did it. I set fire to a tree next to a shop, thinking it would be funny to see them try to put it out, but it spread. It went to the building and covered it in flames in just a few minutes. The people on the bottom floor got out, but families were living on the top floors, and they were trapped.”
His face was dark and his eyes were fixed ahead, deep with regret. “I went in through the flames. Pulled them out one by one. The fire got so hot that it burned my clothes off. I couldn’t bear what I’d done, and I didn’t stop until everyone was out. There was a kid, his body was covered in burns. If there was a way to trade my dragon skin for his, I would’ve done it.
“After it all happened, Altair found me. He said he’d seen everything I’d done and told me he had a way to redeem me. And I’ve been with him since.”
I was overwhelmed by all of this—shocked that Rainor had done something so terrible, but also in awe of his bravery. I knew he was a good person. And I knew, more than ever, that I could trust him.
“Ah, shit,” he said, laughing. “Now you know my life story. I didn’t want to dump it all on you.”
“No,” I said, and I smiled at him. “Thank you for telling me. For what it’s worth, I’m glad Altair found you. And I’m proud of you for what you did.”
Rainor scoffed like he’d been expecting me to say something different, or maybe he wasn’t sure if I was being serious—but then he saw that I was and smiled to himself.
“No one outside of my flight knows that story,” he said.
“And no one will hear it from me,” I said.
He nodded. “I wasn’t worried about that.”
There was a warmth in my chest, an unwinding of something tightly bound. Something had changed. I felt connected to him in that moment. How could one dragon alpha suddenly make me question everything about my life?
Rainor’s eyes widened. “Oh no,” he said, and Blackeye suddenly started to trot sideways, circling like he was trying to get something annoying off his tail. “What are you doing? Stop! Hey!”
He pulled on the reins and the horse snorted and moved into a speedy trot, bouncing him painfully in the saddle. I grinned to myself and spurred Hama to go after them, and I wasn’t in any hurry to help Rainor get control. It was a little satisfying to finally be better than him at doing something, even if it was as simple as riding a horse. Rainor caught on to my amusement and scowled at me as he struggled to rein him in.
“Come on, it’s easy,” I teased, riding smoothly alongside him.
“Okay, you can have this one,” he said to me as Blackeye spun him around. “This is the one thing you’re good at.”
“A compliment! Wow.”
“Don’t get used to it.”
Eventually, Blackeye settled down as Rainor relaxed, and we rode a few miles to the northeast side of town. The post there served a collection of mixed communities, both dragon and human, though both sides tended to keep to themselves. The buildings housed several families and were clustered around central areas where crops and gardens were grown and children played. Chickens plucked around the path, picking bugs out of the weeds until our horses got too close and they clucked and darted out of the way.
“No, I want to be the dragonslayer!”
A group of children played by the side of the path, laughing and arguing over a stick.
“You be the dragon this time. Give me the musket.”
“No fair.”
They turned and all fell silent when they saw Rainor, and then ran off into the field. Rainor huffed.
“Dragonslayer,” he muttered. “Why not play firefighter?”
We arrived at the post, a small hut with a stable, a small garden, and a spring-fed water pump, which was what we used to fill buckets of water in the event of a fire. It had a half-door in the front with the top always open so that anyone could get the attention of the officer posted inside. We stabled the horses, and Rainor slid off Blackeye’s saddle and dropped to the ground.
“Thank the Gods, my ass is killing me,” he said, and as he walked past Blackeye’s rear, the horses flicked him in the face with his tail. Rainor sputtered. “What’s your problem?” He turned to me. “What’s his problem?”
“You’ll get used to each other eventually.”
Rainor waved his hand dismissively. “Not bloody likely. And I thought all animals loved me.”
The officer on watch was Jennifer Cormrand, a young recruit who’d joined up shortly after the dragon fire two years ago. She saluted us, and looked to Rainor with the nervous reverence one does with someone they admire.
“Anything to report?” I asked.
She told us about a goat that had escaped its pen and eaten all the veckwood plant in a neighboring garden, giving it stomach troubles, and the ongoing dispute over how to reconcile it. The whole time, she kept looking at Rainor and tumbling over her words.
“See? Not everyone is afraid of you,” I said as we walked out onto the road.
“Seemed like she was.”
“Fear can be awfully similar to respect, sometimes. You do know that most officers of the Watch respect you and the fire flight, right? We know you guys are the best at what you do.”
I met with the families of the eaten spinach and the runaway goat and brought them to sit and talk in the garden next to the hut. They argued over responsibilities and who was to blame, and who owed who what. The problem in these situations was usually the same. People didn’t want to listen to each other to come up with a solution to a very simple problem. As they were arguing, I looked over at Rainor and saw he was becoming increasingly annoyed, his arms squeezed tightly over his chest. His jaw kept clenching, and he seemed like he was about to explode on them. I reached over and touched his arm to draw his energy off the argument. He widened his eyes at me as if to say, “What the hell is wrong with these people?”
I raised my hand. “Excuse me. Friends, please. I think I know a way we can solve this without creating a rift between neighbors.”
I knew the family with the garden grew all sorts of special medicinal herbs but not much in the way of food, so I made the easy suggestion that they use their herblore to provide a small amount of medicine to heal the goat’s stomach sickness in exchange for a week’s worth of a goat milk and a handful of surplus eggs from the chickens. The two families discussed the suggestion closely, though I knew it was just a show to make it seem like a more difficult decision to make than it actually was, and then they shook on it. The two groups walked back to their houses together, chatting amongst themselves like they hadn’t been arguing at all.
Rainor and I continued up the road. “I could never have done that,” he said. “If there’s one thing that dragons lack, it’s patience. Especially for something so ridiculous. If that had happened between two flights, the obvious solution would’ve been to barbecue the goat and share it.”
“Talk about scorched earth,” I said.
“Dragons would have agreed it was no one’s fault but the goat’s,” he said, shrugging. “I’ll admit it, things look different from the ground. And, as much as I don’t want to say, you guys are the best at what you do as well. We’ve tried outreach. Never works out well for us.”
I smiled but concealed just how happy I was to hear his compliment. “You’ve got Grayson to help you,” I said.
“It’d be good if we had another human in our flight,” he mused. “People still look at him as an odd one. They’re wary to talk to an omega who they see as ‘taken by dragons.’”
Ahead of us, past the houses, was a large, high mound covered in tall grass with an old tree with a thick, twisted trunk at the very top. Rainor pointed towards it and said, “Do you know what that is?”
“A hill?”
“A delfun. They used to be sacred spots for humans and dragons, during the old times. Most have forgotten what they are, though. I only know because I read about them in books.”
I’d always seen the hill but had never given much thought or attention. I was curious, so we walked to it and followed a narrow path between the grass that snaked up to the top. All around us, the wind showed itself in waves across a sea of green, with colorful ripples of wildflowers that shook in the breeze. The path was steeper than I anticipated and the hill went high.
“What were these for?” I asked between breaths.
“Human sacrifice,” he said, and then laughed. “Kidding. Back then, humans and dragons bonded in flights. It was common. And, apparently, these high places were where those people came to meet dragons in the hope that they could find a mate. See? Look.”
He tapped a rock with his boot, and I saw that it was a weathered piece of stonework, maybe belonging to some building. And when I looked closer, I began to notice even more old things—pieces of pottery sticking out from the earth surrounded by the tall grass, and scattered bricks.
After a while, we reached the top where the tree was. Surrounding it were large rectangular stones scattered around, and as we approached the tree, we realized that we weren’t alone. Two boys were sitting together in the branches of the tree. They saw us and one of the kids, an omega, dropped down to the ground.
“Hey!” he exclaimed with his hands on his hips. “Excuse me! This is our spot.”
The boy still in the tree looked worried and hid behind the branches, watching cautiously.
“Don’t worry,” I said, laughing. “We’re not here to bother you. This is a great hiding place. I can understand why you’d make it your spot.”
His eyes widened when he saw my uniform. “Oh, you’re from the Watch. Whoa.” He seemed to relax, and he turned around to his friend. “Maz! Come down. They aren’t going to get us in trouble.” He eyed me. “Right? My parents didn’t send you to find me?”
I shook my head. “No. I’m Thomas. This is Rainor, from the fire flight.”
“The fire flight! Maz!! It’s a dragon, like you!”
“Elliot! Shhh!”
Maz climbed down from the tree and came over to his friend’s side. He stood slightly behind him, hesitant but curious about Rainor.
“This is my friend, Maz. His full name is Mazkar, but he doesn’t like that.”
“Mazkar,” Rainor said. “That’s a strong name.”
Elliot nudged Maz with a grin. “See? I told you. Maz doesn’t like being a dragon. I think it’s very impressive. Better than being a boring old human.”
“I’d rather be a boring old human,” Maz muttered. “At least people would leave us alone.”
Rainor crossed his arms over his chest. “What’s wrong with being a dragon, Mazkar?”
Maz slid even further behind his friend. “People call you names. And my mother said that it only makes life more difficult and that if I want anyone to like me, I’d pretend to be human all the time.”
“That’s obviously not true, is it?” Rainor asked in a stern voice that was surprisingly kind. I’d never heard him speak tenderly before, and I realized it was the same voice he probably used with his flight-daughter. “You have your friend Elliot here. Right?”
“Exactly,” Elliot groaned, and he grabbed Maz’s hand and shook it up and down. “That’s what I keep telling him.”
Maz blushed. “You’re different, Elliot. You’re nice. But if I wasn’t a dragon, we wouldn’t get in trouble for being friends.”
“In trouble?” I asked, and the two of them seemed to become uneasy. I exchanged a glance with Rainor, and I could see that he’d come to the same conclusion I had.
“Don’t be worried,” Rainor said with an easy smile. “We’re your friends. We just came here to enjoy this spot you did, not to get you in trouble. Do your parents not want you to be friends?”
They both shook their heads.
“My dad says it’s forbibben,” Elliot said, mispronouncing the word. “They say it isn’t safe to be around dragons.”
Then Maz hiccupped and a small ring of smoke puffed out from his mouth. He clapped his hand over his mouth, and Elliot laughed.
“That’s all that happens once in a while, right, Maz? I don’t see what the big deal is.”
“I wish I were a human,” Maz said sadly, looking at his soot-covered hands. “I wish I didn’t shift.”
“Hey,” Rainor said. He crouched down onto his haunches, but still managed to tower over the kid, and put his hand on Maz’s shoulder. “Don’t say that. Don’t ever apologize for who you are. Or let anyone else decide who you’re supposed to be, not even your family.”
“That’s right,” I said. “You know about Rainor and the fire flight, right? You know what they do to keep everyone safe?”
“I know. But my mother and father say they shouldn’t fly around as they do. They say not to use dragon form because it’s unbecoming.”
“Unbecoming?” Rainor said, waving his arms exasperatedly. “That’s nonsense. Did you know that a long time ago, there used to be dragons everywhere here? This very spot was used by dragons. We would fly around, always in our dragon forms.” He stood and pointed towards the ocean. “The cliffs by the ocean? Those caves were dragon dens. Filled with flights. We were powerful, we were proud, and no one worried about what the humans thought. In fact, back then, humans revered us. Do you know what that means?”
“I do,” Elliot said. “It means they thought they were really special.”
“Yup. And they even mated each other. It happened all the time.”
Both Elliot and Maz gasped.
“We used to live in the cliffs?” Maz said, looking off in the direction Rainor had pointed, and his eyes sparkled with wonder.
Rainor grinned and stepped back, and then burst into his dragon form. The two kids stood frozen in awe, their mouths hanging wide open.
“Wow,” Elliot muttered. “A real dragon.”
Rainor shook his body and stretched his wings, and his scales shimmered in the afternoon sunlight. He swooped his long neck down so that his massive head was level with the kids, and he looked at them with one bright yellow eye.
“See?” he said. “Who would want to hide this? Who would want to spend your life on the ground when you can fly? And who would want to keep their fire from burning?”
Elliot grinned and nudged Maz, whose face had completely lit up. I could see that in just these few moments, Rainor had completely changed the boy’s life.
“Someday, I want to join the Watch and fight fires with the fire flight,” Elliot said excitedly to me. He took Maz’s hand. “I want to live along with dragons. Maybe I’ll even get mated to one someday.”
Maz blushed again and looked at the ground.
Rainor’s words had reached me too, and a deep longing filled my heart that was met by a tightening ache and then sadness. I felt like a prisoner. How could I tell these kids to be who they were when I’d lived my entire life hiding? How could I smile and encourage Elliot when I knew I was supporting a way of thinking that would never allow an omega like him to become an officer?
I wished I’d had someone like Rainor to be there for me and tell me it was okay to be myself. That I didn’t have to spend my entire life with that slow-burning fear always there, always causing me pain. I’d never been able to admit it before…but I hated the way I was living. I hated the lie. Even though I’d reached the heights I’d aspired to, what was the point when a piece of me would always be empty and missing?
We watched Maz and Elliot stroll down the path, hand in hand. The little dragon had a bright smile on his face, laughing as his omega friend bumped his shoulder against him. Rainor, back in his human form, stood next to me, arms folded across his chest and a look of satisfaction on his face. He looked like a father watching his child take a first step into a larger world, and it put a deep heat inside of me so powerful that it nearly pulled the breath from my lungs. I’d never felt anything like it.
“You’re better than you think,” I said to Rainor.
“Hm?”
“At talking to people.”
“I can deal with kids. And he was a dragon.”
“I hope he can learn to love himself,” I said, and Rainor looked at me. I knew what was going through his head, and I didn’t want to return his glance and see him condemn me. “Those caves you talked about. Dragons truly used to live there?”
“Yeah. You can see the caves in the cliffs when you come up to the coast by boat or by sky. I’ve visited them before. They’ve got a power to them. It’s hard to imagine living in a cave den now, but I can see why we chose to back then. We feel safe in dark places.”
“I’d like to see them. Would you show them to me?”
He raised an eyebrow. “You mean now?”
“Yeah, why not? I think we’re all done here.”
“You do know it requires a flight? It’d take a very brave horse to reach those caves.”
I suppressed a shiver. “Yeah…I’ll deal with it. I do have to get used to it eventually.”
A grin spread across Rainor’s face.
I thought the bastard was doing it on purpose, bucking up and down like a ship on rolling seas and plummeting so suddenly that my stomach felt like it was being smashed into my throat. It seemed like I was in danger of being thrown off his neck at any moment, and I shouted curses at him that were immediately carried off into the air.
“It’s the wind!” he bellowed. “The sea wind is really blowing in. We’re almost there."
When I gathered enough courage to raise my head from his neck and sneak a glance down, I saw trees rushing below us that opened up into a shimmering ocean and white waves rolling onto a rocky shoreline. Rainor banked to the left and I squeezed my legs to stop myself from sliding off, the shape of his scales pushing hard into my skin. Then I saw the cliffs to our left, towering high above the water and pockmarked with cave entrances. Hearty and gnarled pines grew straight out of the rock face, covering some of the caves like verandas. I’d only ever seen these cliffs from the beach and a few times from the ocean, but they looked entirely different at this level. I hadn’t realized how many there were.
Rainor swooped into one of the largest caves, his wings kicking up a whirl of sand as he landed on the rock. The mouth of the cave stood about twenty feet up, just big enough for a dragon of Rainor’s size to stand at his full height, but narrowed down to where he needed to walk on all fours. He shifted to human form and I followed him into the inky dark interior. He raised his fist and a warm glow began to radiate from underneath his skin like molten metal, and soon the walls were lit and visible. Then, as we went deeper, the interior suddenly opened up again into a wide cavern. There was a small pyre filled with charcoal and old wood, and Rainor lit it with his hand. As the light grew and illuminated the space, I was blown away by what I saw.
I’d been expecting a cramped, dark, and inhospitable place; the firelight revealed what looked like a glittering palace. Clear water poured from holes in the rock that ran in winding streams back into dark places below translucent rock formations hanging from the roof like frozen honey. There were huge, shimmering crystals of all sorts of colors jutting out from the walls and floor, reflecting the light from the fire in different directions across the cave. And there were also the remnants of the people who’d lived here—pottery, baskets, and furniture made of wood and stone, all decaying on the floor of the cave.
Rainor lit another pyre on the other side of the chamber, bringing even more light and comfort to the space. I couldn’t contain my excitement—I’d never been in a place so incredibly beautiful and wondrous, and I scampered off to look at everything. I gaped up at a deep violet cluster of twinkling gems and the emerald formation next to it, and then realized even the sand was sparkling with little specks like stars in the sky.
“Feels like home,” Rainor said. “And to think, this place is right here, and hardly anyone knows it. Dragons don’t even remember it.”
“Now I understand the stories that say dragons are in love with treasure,” I said.
Rainor came next to me and admired the area I was looking at. “We enjoy rare and beautiful things. Maybe some dragons did want human treasure. But when you have all of this… a bit of gold doesn’t even come close.”
The stream of water looked so clean and refreshing, coming straight out of the rock like the freshest well water. I took off my jacket, folded it, and put it on a flat stone nearby. Then I dropped to my knees in front of the stream and dunked my cupped hands into the water and tasted it. It was sweet and cold, and I splashed my face with a handful. Rainor copied me, tasting the water first and then washing his face in it. Then he dunked his entire head beneath the water for a second and came up grinning, his hair matted over his eyes like a wet dog. I laughed and did the same. The cold water rushing around my head was an invigorating shock to the system, and when I came back up, I slicked my fingers through my wet hair and rubbed my face.
“It’s refreshing,” I said, and when I looked up at Rainor, there was something in the way he held my gaze that put a knot in my stomach. A penetrating flame burned behind his irises, and I fought the urge to look away.
“Your scent,” said Rainor. “It’s…uncovered.” Then he looked away like he’d seen something he wasn’t supposed to.
I reached for my nonexistent jacket pocket, forgetting I’d taken it off, and then scrambled in a panic to get my emergency bottle of mask. Rainor grabbed my arm and stopped me. My heart was pounding with urgent fear. “What?” I demanded, trying to tug myself away from him.
“Don’t,” he said. “You don’t need it.”
“I do.”
He shook his head. “Then at least leave it off for now. I like how you smell now. Your real scent.”
“Don’t say that.”
“I said it.”
Everything that normally would’ve told me to run away, to fight back, now seemed to be going in the opposite direction. Still on our knees by the stream, the space between us narrowed, like I wasn’t even aware I was moving towards him. His grip on my arm stayed tight, and he pulled me closer until I was just inches away from his chest, looking up at him. Droplets of water dripped from his jaw onto my cheek. And then, like there was no possible way to stop it from happening, our lips pressed together.
It felt like fire hitting dry grass. Everything inside of me lit up and went white-hot, burning out all other thoughts except for how badly I wanted more. I couldn’t stop my hands from grabbing Rainor’s thick body, and I pulled myself against him as this overwhelming feeling of need took hold of me. Teeth hit teeth and neither of us seemed to know what we were doing, but we laughed and kept kissing, kept fumbling awkwardly, and kept satisfying this deep need that had been uncovered. And even when we broke apart, it only lasted for a few moments before I was coming back for more.
Rainor pushed his cheek against mine and rubbed his nose into my neck, and I felt his breath there and shivered. “You smell incredible,” he said. “It’s driving me crazy.”
He clutched at my body. I was driven by an urge to get even closer to him and found myself straddling him, pushing up onto his legs. He held me around the waist and drew one hand beneath my ass and tugged me up so my legs were around his hips and I rested on his lap. I immediately got hard when I realized what was pushing against me. His heat was strong enough to feel through our clothes, and my body responded to it like it’d been waiting forever for this to happen. My life had been a constant series of battles against my urges and desires, always a fight for self-control, and it seemed like the first time doing anything so easy. I was flowing down a stream instead of paddling against it.
And that stream was quickly turning into a river. Now that the dam had been broken, I couldn’t stop it. Everything I’d kept in the dark was rushing up to the surface. Rainor showed no interest in slowing down, either. He tasted my neck and took deep, long breaths as he tugged and untucked my shirt. I raked my fingers upward across his back, pulling his shirt up, and he didn’t hesitate to help me remove it. His chest was warm, and I explored every ridge of his muscles while he unbuttoned my shirt and pulled it down my shoulders.
“Careful with that,” I said. “That’s my uniform.” Rainor grinned and pulled harder, nearly ripping the fabric. I grabbed his wrist and butted my forehead against his. “I’m serious,” I growled, and he tilted his head up and kissed me. I responded by biting his lip. “You’re an asshole.”
“Only because I like you,” he replied, smirking.
I tasted his neck and went downwards, feeling the heat of his flesh against my lips as I reached his nipple. I licked and nipped it playfully with my teeth, and Rainor murmured and watched me with fiery eyes. I wanted it all. I unclasped Rainor’s belt and slid off his lap onto my knees so that I could get them open. Rainor got to his feet. He towered over me, his huge hands wrestling to free the final buttons. Then his pants were around his ankles, and all that separated me from his cock was a final bit of fabric. The mound it made was impressive, like his underwear was struggling to contain him. All uncertainty in my mind was drowned out by the overwhelming volume of my pent-up need. I slowly pushed my palm to it, felt its incredible heat and its unfamiliar shape through the fabric. This wasn’t anything like mine. This was a dragon alpha’s cock. I grabbed the waistline and pulled it down, and his full length snapped up tall in front of my face. It was massive, growing wider as it moved closer to his body, with rippling ridges all up its length. I stared at it in awe, my heart thumping.
No intimidation, just eagerness. A dragon cock? I could take it.
I pushed my fingers around it, and its unfamiliar shape pulsed in my fist. Then I realized I had no idea what to do with it. I’d never done this before, never even considered doing anything like this. I didn’t know how to pleasure a dragon. But I did know how to pleasure myself. I moved my hand along its length the way I liked to stroke myself, squeezing my fist around its tapered head as I reached the end, and pushing it back again. It was hot in my grip and it seemed to get even hotter as I massaged it, and Rainor responded with a low groan. I was doing something right. As I moved faster, his eyes closed and his lips parted in a pleasure-filled snarl.
I tested it with my tongue, a little hesitant at first, just a quick lick across its tip where it was wet with his arousal. His flavor buzzed against my tongue, the strangest and most incredible sensation, and I went back for more, swirling around it, teasing it, and then drawing my lips over it from ridge to tip.
“That’s good,” Rainor murmured.
I wasn’t used to seeing him like this, and I liked it. For once, we had an even playing field. He responded to every movement I did, every twist of my hand and little flick of my tongue, and I held off from taking him inside of my mouth. I didn’t often have this kind of edge over Rainor and I wanted to draw it out as long as possible.
“I want you to suck on it,” he said.
“Do you?” I replied with a smirk as I continued to stroke it. “Does that feel good? Do you like what I’m doing?”
Rainor grinned and ran his fingers through my hair. “You’re alright.” Then he clutched my head and guided me into his cock. I ran my lips all along its length, licking from the base to the tip and then back down again, and softly teased his balls with my tongue. His scent and taste were driving me crazy. I was craving more, but I still resisted.
Rainor’s cock throbbed in my hand. “Okay, you’re better than alright,” he said. You’re damn good at that. Oh, fuck…”
I opened my mouth and he pulled my head forward. His cock slid across my tongue and into my throat, filling my mouth, and tears came to my eyes as I swallowed it down. He was so big, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from doing everything I could to bring him to his knees. I worked it down, held it there, and released it, stroking it as thick bands of my saliva hung from my lips to its length. Rainor’s moan reverberated through the chamber. The firelight flickered off his bare skin and glinted deliciously off his wet cock, and I swallowed it again, enjoying the way it pulsed against my tongue.
I was so painfully hard and so wet with need that I couldn’t keep my body still. I squirmed back and forth, squeezing my legs together in a vain effort to subdue the ache I felt. I couldn’t stop my hand from going down into my pants, and I squeezed my cock and rubbed it while I sucked on Rainor. Then he pulled from my mouth and pushed me down onto the ground. The cool earth clung to my damp skin, and I didn’t care how dirty I was getting. It felt freeing to lie there in the dust, and as Rainor came over me and brought his hand between my legs, all I could think about was having him in me. There was an empty feeling right in my belly, a need that pushed through my cock and swirled up into every part of my body. I’d felt this before and had always managed to cull it quickly before it grew too strong, but now it was way too late for that. I was on fire, and I needed him to put me out. He was the only one that could.
He had me naked, my cock standing up, and he ran his hands along my body, moving down my abs and around the area I wanted him to touch. Now he had me begging. He smirked and raked his fingertips across my thighs, and they grew hot like stones that’d been sitting close to a fire. Not enough to hurt, but enough to make me gasp in surprise. I pushed my hips up, trying to move my swollen erection to his hand, but he evaded me. Bastard!
I lifted my knees and pulled them back, showing myself to him, hoping he would take my offer. His eyes scanned me hungrily, his cock pulsing steadily, and he swooped in and pushed my thighs even further back. Then, with a thick thumb, he spread my cheeks open and pushed his face into me. I couldn’t stop a shout of pleasure from exploding out of my mouth as his tongue played against my entrance, teasing and tasting, and then his hand finally went to my cock and gripped it hard. I melted into his movements. It was so incredibly good. But I wanted more.
I held my legs back for him. I didn’t need to say anything, Rainor knew what I wanted, and it was obvious he was aching for it as badly as I was. His eyes were intense and soft at the same time, like he was being driven by a wild, primal force. I was sure the same look was painted on my face. He repositioned himself and held his length steady in front of my opening. I knew it was going to hurt, but I didn’t care. The need outweighed everything else.
He was inside, and I cried out and grabbed his forearms, but the moment he slowed, I shouted at him not to stop. The deeper he pushed the more overwhelming it was, and for a moment it felt like I was about to be ripped apart. My mind flashed white, and then, finally, he made it in. I held him so tightly that my fingers made red marks on his skin, and he held himself inside of me without moving for a moment. It was painful, but I’d dealt with worse things, and I looked up into his eyes and showed him I could handle it. And then there was that same strange sensation I’d felt on my tongue. It spread into me and suddenly the pain became a white haze that shifted into something more, something better than pleasure.
“What are you waiting for?” I muttered as he stayed frozen, teeth gritted, eyes locked with mine. “An invitation?”
“It feels too good,” he growled.
“You’ve barely started.”
“Quiet.”
Hooking my legs around him, I pushed his arms and pulled my hips to draw his cock almost all the way out. Rainor groaned and fought against me, trying to get me to stay still.
“Come on, get it together, Rainor,” I said.
It seemed like that was enough of a challenge to spark him because he grabbed my legs and wrenched them off of his body and held them in place from my thighs. I tried to move my hips against him, but he had me pinned. Then he thrust forward, burying his cock into me. The shock of pleasure snapped me back as the form of his cock hit pleasure spots inside of me I didn’t even know existed. My arms dropped to the ground and I barely had any control over my body, it was so overwhelming. And he kept going, rolling in and out of me, faster and faster, and I didn’t even realize I was begging him to do it harder. The words just came pouring out of my mouth. I had no control, and soon I was barely even aware of where we were. The cavern echoed around us, the firelight shimmering like waves across Rainor’s tightened face. His eyes never left mine, and I saw he was struggling to stay in control.
But then, it became too much. He arched his neck and gave one final pump, throwing himself inside, and his groan filled the entire cave. Heat poured out of him into me, and I was immediately struck with a pleasure beyond anything I could achieve on my own. His finish was like a rush of pure energy into my body, coursing through me to the tip of every extremity and sending my come spurting from my cock onto my stomach. There was so much of it, and it was like my orgasm wouldn’t stop. I was shaking, it was so powerful. A lifetime of denial, released.
Rainor’s shoulders moved with his breath. His skin was shiny with sweat and it seemed like there was steam coming off of his back. I reached up and put my palm on his chest, and it was like there were hot coals beneath the surface. He pulled me up against him and kissed me, and I wondered how I was going to go back to the only life I knew.
