“Want you so much,” Sacha breathed over Gabriel’s mouth.

  “Back to nest. Rest for heat.” Gabriel shuddered through the kisses and pulled away, his dragon taking over with a moment of frustration. Sacha followed, shifting and nipping up his pack. Gabriel looked over his shoulder at Sacha and lifted his tail high, inviting him to follow with a promise of more.

  Sacha whipped around the trees and scrambled over rocks until they slipped back into his cave. Sacha turned his head up to where they’d disposed of the carcasses earlier, watching two small pups wrestle with the remains. He glanced back at Gabriel who stood with defensive anger and nuzzled along his side before accompanying him into the cave.

  They made their way into their nest, and Gabriel pricked his feet around, fluffing the moss and grass. He snuggled in and glanced up at Sacha invitingly. Behave. Pups come when full.

  Right as Sacha settled into the nest, carving out a spot to curl up and over his mate, his two little scampering pups snuck into the cave, sniffing cautiously.

  Papa? a tentative whisper called out in their mind. Gabriel’s chest welled with pride. They had learned certain words earlier than most pups. Sacha whined with delight.

  Gabriel’s two pups, both dettes waited politely by the nest, eying Sacha warily. Gabriel scooted over a bit, inviting them in. One hissed at Sacha. Wild dragons killed their competitor’s spawn to make a Dette ovulate sooner. They had no way of knowing that Sacha wouldn’t do that, so Gabriel tried to reassure them.

  Safe, Gabriel whispered. Promise.

  They scrutinized Sacha as they scrambled up to curl into the curve of Gabriel’s belly into little warm balls of soft scales.

  How did you find them? Sacha licked gently down Gabriel’s neck.

  Dette not survive. Twin egg. First heat. I hatch and care for. Gabriel nuzzled one pup.

  They can’t stay out here, Gabriel. They need to be—

  They are Dettes. No want them suffer. Gabriel hissed. No hurt.

  Things have changed so much, and a lot of it has to do with your pup, Gabe. He’s the worst of both of us and he’s so strong.

  Tell more.

  He’s got my hair and eyes, but he looks like you everywhere else. His scales aren’t gold though. When he shifts, his eyes turn blue, and his scales are silver. He’s got my black horns. He swears so much, and he loves flowers. The Lochs started sniffing around and an old human that was caring for him chased little Bryn off with a flyswatter... Sacha whispered through their bond, telling Gabriel about their Dette son.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Sacha

  He could wait to tell Gabriel about the other egg. They could at least wait until Sacha could tell what the cause of death was, so Gabriel had a chance not to blame himself. The pups that slept there curled up into Gabriel for protection, shifting and sprawling during the night. At some point, little pricking claws moved to snuggle beneath his chin, where he was warmest and smelled the strongest of Drake, instinctively seeking his protection.

  Have they ever worn their skins before? Sacha asked in amazement.

  Mnn. No. They’re feral. Gabriel curled up with a shiver and Sacha curiously nipped one of the sleeping pups by the nape of their neck, seeking their shifting pressure point. Easily, the small things shifted into infantile states, barely crawling even, and the other was the same, both dark hair and brown-eyed pups with sweet cupid’s bow lips.

  How are you going to care for them during your heat?

  Don’t know. Will try best, Gabriel sleepily mewled. Sacha slipped into his skin and picked up the boys, looking over their soft, dirty skin. They were at that age where they were teething in human form and stared up at him with bright-eyed wonder.

  “Do you guys want to go home with me?” Sacha blew a raspberry on one of their cheeks to force an involuntary giggle from the pup. “Now, what are your names?”

  “Raphael and Michael,” Gabriel said, his eyes hooded and dark as his flesh took over. “Good pups.”

  “They certainly are.” Sacha moved to his pack and sat the toddlers down, pulling out the wet cloth from before to daub at their faces and hands. One of them rewarded his efforts by growling a little.

  “Pa!” one cried out, reaching hands over toward Gabriel, to his surprise. He climbed over and kneeled beside Sacha, stroking over their downy heads.

  “Okay, so the plan is, I move some rocks about to make a sort of playpen on the other side of the cave. I keep them fed and cleaned between your needs, and once your heat is up, we can go home.”

  “No den? No other Drakes?” Gabriel asked.

  Sacha shook his head and leaned over to kiss Gabriel’s temple. “And I see Leo and grandpups?”

  “Yes.” Sacha found a pup grabbing up toward him for affection, wanting in on the kisses. Sacha and Gabriel leaned down to smooch their heads, and they squealed with delight.

  “Leo happy?”

  “Very.”

  “We mate for love? No for den?” Gabriel fidgeted when he asked.

  “Absolutely. So much has changed, Gabriel.”

  “Okay.” Gabriel nodded, eyes wandering in thought. Sacha went about moving some rocks in the cave, stacking them to create a barrier of sorts, a playpen for the pups. Gabriel brought in dry grass and moss to fill the inside, and eventually Sacha kept an eye on them so Gabriel could nap. They seemed enamored with their flesh and after a few times of Sacha getting up to shift them back into their skins, they settled nicely. Pups only ate twice a week when feeding raw, and they’d already had a big meal. He had to make sure he hunted in two days and brought them water a few times a day before cleaning them up.

  Gabriel groaned from the nest as Sacha tipped a bottle of water into one of the pup’s mouths. Sacha gazed over, watching Gabriel on his back and spread out, cheeks flushed and body pliant, the scent of heat taking him by storm.

  “Do you want me to sate you, Gabriel? I still remember your body well.”

  “Mate. Come. Mark. Take.” Gabriel rolled over and presented his ass, shaking his pale hips from side to side, his creamy skin folding into his pink crevice and slick channel.

  “Are you sure?”

  “I mark, too,” Gabriel said, his heated expression going dark and demanding.

  “Yes. I’ll take your mark, too, Gabriel.” Sacha slid in with a claw extended, hovering it above his cheek. Sacha swallowed hard, using his other hand to stroke over Gabriel’s hip, squeezing his muscular thighs. His hand slipped back up, fingers tracing his crevice to circle his dripping bud. Gabriel keened for penetration.

  “Mark. Breed.” Gabriel’s demands went unanswered as Sacha slipped a single finger into Gabriel’s wanton tunnel, adoring his heat and wild scent.

  An unintelligible series of French swears poured from Gabriel’s soft lips with a groan. Sacha smiled.

  “Want you inside,” Gabriel mewled.

  “I will once you use people words. Too much dragon in your voice, Gabe.” Sacha slid a second finger in and curled, finding Gabriel’s tender spot for a gentle rub that drew the Dette into a full-body shudder.

  “I want you to fuck me, Sacha, please,” Gabriel tried, straining at every word.

  “I thought you wanted me to mark you?” Sacha continued rocking his fingers on Gabriel’s spot until he crooned with pleasure. He used to love teasing, drawing the moment out until he came untouched. Gabriel’s cock bobbed between his legs, drooling a clear string.

  “Stupid Drake! Fuck this monster out of my head. Break my mind away from it. Save me, Sacha,” Gabriel cried, burying his face down into his arms as something in Sacha snapped.

  There were pups that needed Gabriel, and the weight of pain had taken its toll on him, the dragon consuming his mind year by year. Gabriel, in his flesh, wanted to stay with him.

  “Shh.” Sacha trailed his claw over Gabriel’s cheek. His claw barely broke the surface of Gabriel’s flesh, carving the sigil for his name in the ancient Draconian script, a wavering line with three crosses through it and a spear. As fast as Sacha could carve the lines, healing energy followed it with fine glory, before they could even bleed, and Gabriel threw his head back with a keening wail of pleasure, shooting over their nest with unreasonably hard and plentiful streaks.

  He must have been pent up.

  Sacha reached down to capture a streak of the spend and lapped it from his fingers. He withdrew his other fingers from Gabriel’s channel and pushed him onto his back, tears streaking his face between whimpering sobs.

  “Use your words, Gabe. Tell me what you want.”

  “Not cock yet. Just hold me.” A little clarity resounded in his words, and Sacha sighed. Gabriel’s chest shook with sheer relief against him.

  Sacha pulled Gabriel to face him into his lap and tugged free another packet of the nestblossoms. He ripped it open with his teeth and held it up to Gabriel’s face. His trembling anxiety abated, ebbing like the tide. Sacha grabbed a handful and tossed it about, sprinkling it on the bed. He barely had time to throw the handfuls about before Gabriel, one hand holding dried blossoms to his face, lifted his hips and guided Sacha’s rigid cock into himself and sank down with a sigh.

  “Gabe… Oh, Gabe,” Sacha panted.

  “You will share horde with me,” Gabriel demanded, slamming his hips down and hissing with delight. The pain from pausing preparation seemed to bring clarity to him.

  “I will. I promise,” Sacha gasped out.

  Gabriel lifted his hips again and repositioned himself. “You will not control where I go.” He slammed his hips down again, bringing the Drake to a depth he’d not explored in twenty-five years.

  “I won’t.”

  Gabriel twisted his hips and slammed again, making Sacha cry out with sharp pleasure. “You will tell me why you really came.” Rocking his hips in tiny circles, the Dette made fierce eye contact with Sacha, digging nails into his back that were close to becoming talons. Sacha hissed and his cock ached.

  “B-because.” Sacha bleated as Gabriel slammed his hips again. “Because.” He tried again, but Gabriel’s fierce hips stole his breath once more. He shoved Sacha onto his back, changed the angle of his hips and slammed his hips down, hilting the Drake into his tightest depths with hissing pleasure.

  “Tell me, Sacha! Truth!” Gabriel slammed his hips down again, tears rolling as the anger set in again.

  “Because I love you!” Sacha screamed the words, and they were a relief, pouring from his lips as his knot inflated and Gabriel’s ass swallowed it snugly. “Because… I love you.” Sacha reached a shaking hand up to brush the hair from Gabriel’s face.

  “Really?” Gabriel stared down, squeezing his inner muscles so tightly around Sacha’s shaft that he whimpered.

  “Yes. Yes, you silly Dette. Silly fucking Dette. I loved you so much.” Sacha drew Gabriel’s face down, kissing him sweetly, and this time, for the first time, he reciprocated, their lips brushing one another’s. “If you decide you never want another pup, ever, I’ll have a doctor make that happen. I became the monster I wanted to protect you from.” Sacha breathed over Gabriel’s lips.

  “Then…then take my mark. Right here.” Gabriel leaned over Sacha’s chest and pecked a soft kiss over his heart.

  “Do it!” Sacha gasped as Gabriel brought a shaking finger over Sacha’s heart and paused, shaking his head and wincing. “I’ll take it, right there. I’ll carry it there, Gabriel.”

  “I don’t remember!” Gabriel huffed, bowing his head down, coughing a soft sob.

  Sacha rocked his hips up and into Gabriel, pressing his knot deeply. “I remember it, Gabe. Here.”

  Sacha brought Gabriel’s shaking hand back and pressed his sharp claw tip into the flesh above his heart. He made the mark with a squiggle and swoop with a slash through it and a dash with a circle. Though the spell only needed gentle pressure, magic, and intent, Sacha carved it deeply. “Now trace it and do it, Gabe.”

  The weeping sigil bled over Sacha’s chest, pooling gently until Gabriel traced the cuts with his claw, letting his magic flow. The sigil healed over with a burning sear that sent Sacha shaking as his knot resolidified and hot seed shot deep into Gabriel’s belly again. Sacha jerked his hips, twitching. Sacha stared up at Gabriel, wondering at how lucky he was.

  “Do you doubt me now, Dette?”

  “Shut up,” Gabriel growled and leaned down, feeding into a deep kiss. The feral passion had returned, but less of the dragon sat in his words. “Make me come again.”

  “Greedy minx. You’ll have to give me a moment to recoup.”

  Gabriel scoffed. “Old.”

  Sacha rolled, struggling to push Gabriel’s knees up to his chest. “Tell me I’m old, again.” Sacha thrust his hips and bucked wildly into Gabriel’s depths and long after Gabriel shot up his chest and whimpered, Sacha kept going, never giving his knot a moment to recede.

  When Gabriel finally melted under him and let the knot slip free, an impressive torrent of seed drooled free. “You do something special to me, Gabe.”

  Sacha rose and let Gabriel catch his breath, wiping himself off a bit with a cloth from his pack. He stepped over to where the pups rested, and they stirred in his presence. Smelling like Gabe, Sacha held his hand out and the pups crawled up to the little border and rubbed into his hand, catlike in their affections. Papa? one of them asked. Sacha couldn’t tell them apart quite yet.

  “Papa is asleep.”

  The twins looked at one another and tilted their heads, a bond between them serving some baser instinct and purpose as they communicated. They looked back at him expectantly, trying hard to convey something like they did with their dragons, but in flesh, it didn’t work that way.

  One shifted, growling in frustration. An image of a bush popped into Sacha’s mind, almost a shout. The pup below furrowed his brow, concentrating, trying to convey the meaning. The pup tucked his tail and danced on the tips of his claws, whining.

  “Ahh.” Sacha lifted them out of the makeshift pen and the other shifted. He shifted with them and took the pups outside to do their business. Distracted by the waning sun, one pup scampered off, growling in the bush before dragging back some sort of rodent and fighting over it with their twin. Together, they walked to a closer trickle of the melting snow and got them some water to sate their thirst. Their base needs met, they were happy once more. Sacha brought them back inside and plopped them into the pen and tugged their necks to put them back into skin. They marveled at one another with infantile coos of excitement and touched their hands together and laughed.

  “I have no idea how I’m going to do this…”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Gabriel

  Gabriel stirred, drunkenly inhaling the scent of nestblossoms around him, and moved at the cool feeling of something pressing into his back. He reached back and snagged a thick gold coin and stared at it for a long moment with pure greed stretching across his face. Gold. Want. Mine. Mate. Breed.

  Gabriel touched himself, stroking over his toned chest and hips before feeling over his cock, pumping the smooth shaft with delight, making a soft whimper as he dreamed of being with Sacha, taking him deep. He thought of it like a fever dream, Sacha coming to rescue him, bringing him an impossible amount of nestblossoms, bedding him on a field of them. But that’s all it was, a heat-driven dream like all the other years he’d secluded himself and stroked his heat into submission.

  A powerful scent of Drake inundated his senses, rich and musky Drake cum, not like a Dette’s which tended to be clear and sweet. Guilt welled in his belly, and he released his cock, closing his eyes. Tears pooled, and he blinked them away until Michael and Raphael’s giggles drew his attention.

  Gabriel’s heat was so strong and he willed his mind to focus long enough for him to care for the pups. His skin stung like it was on fire as he moved to sit up, his cock thankfully softened. Then, the realization that the pups shouldn’t giggle hit him…the pups were in their skin, waving their hands up at a shifted Drake with shaggy red hair and ginger scruff inundated with the smell of cinnamon and home.

  “Sacha?” Gabriel cooed with want as his face broke into a soft smile. The pups settled and when his bare chest turned, Gabriel saw his name right over Sacha’s heart.

  “Moment of clarity, or do you want for more?” Sacha slipped over toward the nest to press a soft kiss to his mate’s lips.

  “You’re real.”

  “Is the dragon sleeping?” Sacha smiled brightly and settled over his Dette, caging him in with his arms.

  “Asshole,” Gabriel whispered, drawing his hand back to slap across Sacha’s face then moved to grab his hair and drew him in for a kiss. “You marked me.”

  “I did.”

  “Is…it… Is Leo real?”

  “We have a pup, yes. I want you to meet them after your heat.” Sacha chuckled and kissed his way down Gabriel’s neck and the storm of heat threatened to come again.

  “He’s not a pup anymore.”

  “Nope. But he has his own pups, and they’d love to meet you. He’s got a second clutch on the way, too. If we get you home in time, you might see him before he lays. His last clutch was a little hard on him.”

  “How many pups?” Gabriel snuggled into Sacha’s chest, turning with him to tangle their legs.

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

  “Six?”

  “Eight.” Sacha kissed Gabriel’s nose. He gasped, eyes going wide.

  “And how old are they?”

  “Almost four.”

  “And he’s got another clutch on the way already? Oh, Sacha…he needs his family to help, I’m sure. With no den, that many pups… I can’t imagine Sten helping and we all know Frikka…”

  “He’s just got a single egg right now, but I help when I can, when they let me. Leo’s a little bitter though. He reminds me so much of you.” Sacha pressed his face into Gabriel’s neck to scent him.

  “I need to make up for lost time. We’re idiots… I… I thought the eggs were blanks. They were so small.” Gabriel hiccupped a sob.

  “It’s okay, love. It’s all fine. We’ve got the rest of our lives to figure it out. Okay? No more dens, no more urgency to breed. Just me and you.” Sacha clutched Gabriel tighter and snuggled in with him until a hard pressure built up against Sacha’s thigh. Gabriel rocked his hips gently.