It took everything he had to bank away. But Ash matched the maneuver, his tighter arc carrying him directly beneath Tyrez. His scent almost tipped the bigger Dragon over the edge.
In the real world, Ash was so fragile, and not ready for such intimacy. Could he cope in a dream?
If Tyrez backed away, Ash wasn’t likely to offer again, dream or not. He would, rightly, take it as a rejection, and the real Ash might never have the courage to take this step. He may never let Tyrez into his world.
That fear decided it for him. He’d let it play out, let Ash take the lead, and be ready to back off if he showed the slightest sign of reluctance.
The thought stiffened more than just his resolve. Ash was lighter, and more agile. Faster too. As with the Dragonas, Tyrez was far too smart to engage in a direct chase. Instead, he abandoned his post just off Ash’s tail, and headed up.
He rose above the clouds. Ash’s darting form could just be seen through breaks below. The smaller Dragon craned his head, looking for Tyrez. But the turquoise scales, so vivid in the daylight, were much harder to see at night.
Such was not the case for Ash. The moonlight shone off his golden scales like a beacon. Tyrez accelerated, calculated the angle of drop, positioned himself, then dove.
At the last second the smaller Dragon spotted him, but by then it was far too late. Tyrez spread his wings directly over Ash’s fleet form. The maneuver shed just enough momentum that when he wrapped one wing beneath Ash’s he was able to flip the Dragon right over.
Ash’s eyes widened in surprise, and despite his Dragon’s raging need, Tyrez held himself back. Had he read the signals right? This was an inexperienced Dragon, but instinct could only take him so far—he’d been through such brutality...
His grip on Ash’s forelimbs loosened, ready to let go at the slightest hint of reticence.
Ash’s gaze met his own. It gleamed with every color of the rainbow. And then Ash tilted his head up and away, exposing the thick scales of his throat.
Yielding to Tyrez.
What flooded the bigger Dragon wasn’t raw, carnal lust. Or rather, not just that. He’d never experienced anything like this before. This sense of ultimate control, and yet sacrifice, too, as though he were offering up a part of himself. Something powerful connected him to this Dragon, and he could no more deny it than stop breathing.
Tyrez seized Ash firmly but gently by the throat, pointed his nose to the moon, and climbed.
Ash was lighter than any Dragona Tyrez had courted, and every beat of his broad wings carried them higher and higher. Until the air grew cold as ice, and his breath danced frosted lace over his jaws and down Ash’s face.
He felt the golden Dragon shiver as he hovered. He wound his tail around Ash’s, gripped the slim body in his talons, folded his wings...
And dropped like a stone.
With the expertise of practice, he angled his wings to give them spin, and with each revolution, the two Dragons pulled closer. Until their bodies were fully entwined from jaw to tailtip, and it was difficult to see where one began and the other ended.
This was no ordinary mating dance. Tyrez reached for Ash not just with his body, but with his heart and soul. After the briefest hesitation, the golden Dragon met him halfway. Not without fear. Tyrez sensed it—and Ash’s determination to push past it.
He wrapped Ash in his energy. Took a moment to reassure, and Ash responded with a ferocity that shocked him, pushing himself tight to Tyrez. Their hearts synced, their bodies gyrated against each other, pulsing, pounding, until with a final, gasping cry, they culminated.
Tyrez threw his head back, and roared as the waves rippled through him...
He shot to all four feet on the ledge, heart pounding, body still vibrating with the dream’s after effects. But something lingered... A presence in his head.
“Ash?”His lips formed the word, but there was no one to hear him.
Silence, but not the quiet of the unheard. Rather, one of reluctance, and even fear.
Ash?Hardly daring to breathe, Tyrez pushed the query with only his mind, this time. Could it be?
At first, he thought he must have been mistaken. That it had only been a dream, and not as real as it had seemed.
Was it real?
The voice was tentative, barely audible in his mind. But Tyrez’s joy flooded through the link, and swept the other Dragon up in it.
Yes, my golden one. It was real.
Confusion.But—what does it mean?
