“You are not one of our women, Isabelle,” he said quickly.
She nodded. “But I would still like to learn your ways.”
He looked down at the woman in his arms, a frown creasing the soft lines in his forehead. “Why?” “We are married so I would like to know what’s appropriate,” she replied softly, her delicate fingers coming up to stroke his chin in a soothing caress.
“Fine,” he said, suddenly tense under her light touch.
“If you mate though, you don’t mate for life right?”
He shook his head. “No, we do not.”
Isabelle hummed thoughtfully and shifted against him, appearing to get more comfortable. “So this must feel strange for you, right?”
Faolan shrugged and sighed loudly. “It’s…different…I suppose. It certainly isn’t what the others my age are doing in their own clans right now.”
“What are they doing?”
“Fighting mostly. They have to get stronger. Clyce, the dragon that challenged me, used to be quite powerful. He could have matched my father and possibly won if I hadn’t been just as powerful as him. Although I do have the advantage in speed,” he said proudly.
“You do?”
He smiled slightly at her. “You need to pay attention more when there are a group of us in our natural forms.”
“I was a bit distracted by all the blood and the bones breaking,” she said with a scowl.
“Yes, I suppose you might be sentimental like that,” he teased her gently. Before she could say anything though he continued on. “I’m smaller than most of the Draconian males my age. This smaller size makes me not as strong as them, but I’m far more agile, and I’m faster. I can do twists in the air they can only dream about.”
“I’d like to see that,” she said with a smile.
“Really? Would you now?”
Isabelle’s smile widened into a grin that he easily returned. “Yes I would. You are very beautiful in your natural form.”
“Beautiful? That’s the best you could come up with?” he teased lightly.
She grinned back at him. “What would you prefer? Manly? Dashingly handsome?”
He scoffed. “Dangerous? Powerful?”
She nodded thoughtfully. “You are those, of course you are, silly. But you are also beautiful. Lysander wasn’t beautiful. Not really. He is a dragon, as I have always thought of dragons.”
“And how have you always thought of them?” he asked, his muscles tensing against her to hear what she really thought of him.
* * * *
“Dragons are brutal and quite powerful,” she said instantly, feeling his arms tighten around her and frowning slightly at the increased pressure.
“And us?” he pressed.
“I did not know of your existence before Andrew decided to fill my head with his nonsense about you all being rapists and murderers. He knew you were dangerous, but not in the ways he thought,” she said with a warm smile, sighing inwardly as she felt him relax against her.
“Dangerous, huh?” he replied with a small smile.
“Oh quite dangerous. Now, if you don’t mind, my big powerful and also quite dangerous prince, I’m going to take a bath,” she said, untangling herself from his arms and rising from the bed. She smiled slyly at him as she began untying the straps on her gown. “Would you care to join me?”
Faolan didn’t have to be asked twice. In seconds he was standing before her, leaning against the doorframe and waiting.
* * * *
Hours later, wrapped in each other’s arms, a sudden roar cut through the still night air. Faolan sat up suddenly, his eyes scanning the darkness beyond the balcony. Rising swiftly, he pulled on the first pair of pants he could find and went to the wide opening. Breathing in deeply, he could smell them, the females of his kind as they danced through the air.
“What is it?” Isabelle asked groggily from the bed.
“Mating season,” he called back to her, the surprise evident in his voice.
“Already?” she asked, sitting up and watching him in the dim light.
He shrugged and continued to watch the distant shapes. “They came early this year.”
“You may join them if you wish, Faolan,” she said softly, her eyes refusing to meet his although they never strayed from his stoic form.
He turned back to her, a deep frown marring his face. “You are far too forgiving of a wife to suggest such a thing.”
* * * *
She shook her head gently and continued to watch him. She didn’t want him to go. Of course she didn’t. But he wasn’t her kind, wasn’t really her husband, and as much as she had already grown attached to it, this child wasn’t hers to keep. Despite how she felt about him. She knew, somewhere deep inside her heart that he belonged out there with his kind, that he needed that in his life as much as she needed her brother. “Forgiveness has nothing to do with it,” she told him softly. “You are my husband in name only, I know that. I will not stand in your way if you wish to be with a woman of your own kind tonight.”
“I wish for no such thing,” he said quickly.
Relieved, she teased him, “Then is it the bloodshed that draws you to the balcony tonight?”
He snorted loudly. “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s just that…”
“What?” she asked.
He sighed softly and slumped against the wall. “My mother, she could be out there.”
“Your mother?” she asked.
He nodded and came to sit next to her on the oversized bed.
“Tell me about her.”
Faolan slowly stretched out next to her, the lean muscles of his chest and arms bared for her to see. “I think about her every year when the mating rituals begin.”
“Why don’t you go see her?” she asked softly as her fingertips moved to stroke his arm.
“I can’t.”
Her hand stilled and she frowned at him. “Why not?”
“Because I don’t know who she is,” Faolan replied simply.
“What? Surely your father…” she said.
Faolan quickly shook his head no. “My father had eight sons by eight different women, he couldn’t remember my mother’s name even if he wanted to.”
“Again, I am sorry about what happened to your brothers. How did they die?,” she whispered, gently pressing her lips to his shoulder.
“They were killed.”
She gasped and shook her head. “That’s awful.”
He shrugged and turned away quickly to hide his cringe “It’s the easiest way to ensure a clan’s demise. Before I was born my family’s clan would have died with my father. A leader only has power through his sons. They protect him and carry on his power. Without sons a leader is open to attack and will eventually be overtaken by a rival clan.”
She huffed softly, tired of it all. “First the fighting and now this? Is your world entirely based on violence?”
“It is how we have existed for thousands of years.”
She narrowed her eyes slightly. “That doesn’t make it right.”
The hardness of his eyes stilled her heart as his eyes locked on hers. “It doesn’t make it wrong either.”
“I…” She gulped nervously and lowered her eyes submissively. “Why didn’t your brothers’ mothers protect them?” she whispered into his chest.
“Women have no contact with male children after birth,” he replied softly, the anger in his eyes fading quickly.
“What about the child inside of me? If it was a girl instead of the son Kylin claims it to be, who would raise it?” she asked him.
“I will,” he said without hesitation.
“Do you already have other children?” she asked.
He shook his head. “No, I have never before been old enough to mate.”
“Then I was your first,” she said matter of factly.
* * * *
In her eyes he saw something akin to mirth. It
made him squirm uncomfortably. “Yes.”
She smiled softly at him. “I didn’t know.”
He met her eyes briefly. “Would knowing have changed anything between us?”
She pursed her lips. “Probably not.”
“Then don’t worry about it,” he said. “But what about you? What is your mother like?”
“She died giving birth to Caden,” she said softly.
He nodded. “I’m sorry.”
She smiled faintly. “Thank you, but that was years ago. She was sweet and young and seemed so innocent. She had always been weak and sickly and I remember days when our healer would ask her to stay inside all day for fear she would get even more sick. But she still always made time for Andrew and I and she always read to us and told us stories.”
His eyes widened slightly. “She took care of Andrew even though he wasn’t hers?”
Isabelle nodded. “She had to, his birth mother didn’t care much for him so when father remarried after her death, I guess my mother thought she needed to make it up to him.”
“She sounds very nice.”
“She was,” she replied.
He smiled at her. “You miss her.”
“Yes, I do.” She returned his smile.
“What of your father then?” Faolan asked.
Isabelle shrugged and dropped her gaze, sighing softly. “My father is a descendant of Cortisa, more than that is unimportant.”
“Then you do not care for him?”
Isabelle met his eyes briefly and said, “He abandoned us and in his absence a horrible man sits on his throne, a throne that one day Andrew will take over and from there I have no doubt that my home city will quickly fall to his selfish greed.”
“Is there no one in your family that you care for?” he asked gently.
She shook her head. “Only Caden. Beyond him, they are lost to me.”
“The people in the city are your kind, your clan almost. Have you no sympathy for them then?” Faolan asked.
“I care for them of course, but without the power of the council to lend strength to my words and decisions there is little that I can do,” she replied flatly, a note of disgust in her voice.
“Ah yes, the council,” he spat. “I wonder how those self-righteous creatures will feel when someone of Draconian blood again has a say in the Phaedran Empire.”
She smiled softly. “I had forgotten that your kind was banned. How long has it been now?”
He snorted. “Nearly two hundred years.”
“The look on Andrew’s face will be perfect when he realizes who sits on the Feeorin throne when this child is old enough to take power,” she said with a giggle.
“Feeling a bit like revenge, are we?” Faolan teased.
“There is nothing wrong in taking pleasure from any misery that I can bring him after what he attempted to do to me and what he could have done to this child,” she almost growled.
“Agreed. You should have let me rip open his throat when I had the chance,” he said wistfully.
She lightly smacked his shoulder. “Hush you. I do not agree with murder.”
He nodded. “Unfortunately.”
She laid back against the pillows beside him. For a few comfortable minutes, she lightly brushed her fingers over the top of his hand. “Will you show me now?”
“Show you what?”
Isabelle smiled softly. “I want to see you.”
He grinned broadly and rolled on top of her, pinning her to the bed below him. “If you wanted me in your bed again, dear wife, all you had to do was ask.”
She laughed loudly and pushed against his broad chest. “You are such a pig, Faolan!”
He smiled down at her. “Oink.”
Face flushed with laughter, she grinned up at him. “Be serious! I want to see!”
His eyes flashed mischievously. “Do you really now?”
“Yes. I really do,” she replied, eyes bright.
Suddenly serious, he met her eyes. “Are you sure?”
She smiled up at him, gently caressing his cheek. “Yes. And I want to see all of it. I want to see you change. No rushing off and then coming back like some stupid magic trick for children. I want to see everything, Faolan. Please.”
He sighed softly and nodded. “I must do as my lady wishes. Stay on the bed. I…I will not be myself for a few moments during the change. You’ll probably be able to tell when this is. But if not, remain calm and still during it all. When I’m alright, I will come to you. But you must not come to me. Do you understand?”
Hesitantly, she nodded. “Yes.”
He had to be sure, so he asked. “Are you sure?”
She chuckled nervously. “So many rules! Yes I’m sure, Faolan. You said you’d do as your lady wished. I’m your lady and I want you to show me this. Now do it.”
He grinned at her. “How come you’re not this bossy all the time?”
She threw a pillow at him, which he quickly laughed off.
He rose from the bed and walked to the middle of the room, taking deep breaths. “Alright. Now remember what I told you,” he said, catching her gaze just before he closed his eyes.
“That you worry too much?” she teased him.
He smiled at her, keeping his eyes closed as he began to concentrate. “Yes. Among other things.”
“I remember, Faolan. And I trust you.”
Her voice sounded so strong, warming his heart. “Good. Remember that,” he said softly.
Faolan took a deep breath and closed his eyes, focusing on the beast just below the surface of his frail human skin. Instantly it awoke, a surge of raw power washing over him. Within a second, breathing became difficult. A moment after that his sight went red and his skin began to stretch and grow, slowly being replaced by a hardened skin of black silken scales. After a few more moments he was standing before her fully transformed. He took a step toward her, but she quickly backed away from him, scrunching into a ball and pulling her knees to her chest. He sighed and then lay down like a cat on the floor, watching her intently.
Eyes wide, she stared at him, trembling slightly. “I could tell. When you weren’t yourself I mean. I could tell.”
His large black head nodded.
Isabelle gulped loudly. “I…You looked like an animal.”
Again he nodded, his eyes watching her intently.
“Like a crazy, wild, very powerful animal. I was scared.”
Her voice cracked slightly, but he could tell that she was trying to slow her breathing. He nodded again and sighed softly. He knew that this would be hard for her, but he didn’t mean for her to be this frightened.
“But now, now you’re the dragon that I sat with. The one that I spoke to,” she continued. Her lips pursed for an instant as if she was thinking, then her cheeks quickly turned a dark crimson red. “I spoke to you about you!” she gasped.
He chuckled, a low rumbling in his throat.
“Is it safe for me to come to you now?” she asked after a few more deep breaths.
Faolan agilely raised himself up and came to stand next to the bed, his wings kept closed in on his sides so as not to accidentally touch her in case he would frighten her. But he did stay close enough for her to touch him if she had wanted to.
“You’re kind of really beautiful,” she whispered to him as she reached out to stroke his cheek, causing him to blush faintly.
She smiled softly at him. “Come sit with me, this bed was made for you in this form wasn’t it?”
He nodded and hopped lithely up next to her, his long form stretching out beside her.
She pressed herself up against his warm side and sighed contently. “I like this. Being near you like this, I mean. Thank you,” she whispered faintly.
He ran his nose against her cheek as she slowly drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Ten
“I asked you here to see how you’re doing,” Kylin said, seeing the questioning look
on her face as she came through the door the next morning. She was dressed comfortably in a long loose gown that didn’t really hide her visibly rounded stomach.
She shifted her weight uncomfortably. “Okay…”
Frowning, Kylin pressed on. “And how are you doing?”
“Fine I suppose.” She sighed softly.
“Any more nausea?”
She shrugged. “Not really.”
Kylin pressed his lips together in thought and began fingering a vase resting nearby. “What about pain?”
Isabelle eyes met his briefly. “Isn’t it normal to be in pain?”
His chin tilted to the side as he considered her. “Possibly. Describe it for me though would you please?”
Again she shrugged. “Like a giant child’s ball is in my stomach I suppose.” She paused, frowning slightly to consider it. “It’s more uncomfortable than anything really.”
He smiled softly at her. “Well that’s understandable, considering how far along you are.”
She met his gaze, appearing uncertain. “And how far is that?”
“You, my dear, are in the home stretch. Not too much longer now,” Kylin told her with a smile.
Isabelle was suddenly quiet. “Oh. Well I suppose that’s good then.”
“Yes, it is. Not too much longer and you and Caden can be on your way home.” He was testing her and she knew it. But she was too far distracted to care.
“Yes. Home,” she said blandly.
Kylin looked pityingly at her. “Wherever that may be for you both now.”
Isabelle snapped back into reality, meeting his gaze evenly. “We’ll be fine.”
“Oh of that I have no doubt, my dear. From what I hear from Faolan you’ve always managed to survive even the worst that life has to throw at you,” Kylin said.
She nodded once, keeping her gaze locked on his. “I should be going.”
“Of course. Have a good morning,” he said.
Isabelle muttered a quick goodbye before quickly leaving the room. She immediately went to find Faolan which wasn’t too hard since he hadn’t moved from the bed where she had left him earlier when a guard had come to take her to see Kylin.
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