The flowers I had presented Ari with had made thier way below his balcony when I stepped out onto it the next morning. I saw it wasn't quite how I had arranged it, but smiled down at it anyway as I hugged the sides of Ari's jumper I was snuggled within.
Ari came up behind me to kiss his way down my neck and press a cup of hot drink into my hands that wrapped around it to savour the warmth.
"Good morning, beautiful" he murmered, kissing my neck again and swaying with me.
I giggled and let him continue before placing the cup down so I could face him.
"Good morning to you too, handsome" I ran my fingers gently over his stitches "how are you?"
"Much better, now that I know you aren't going off to do something dangerous again" he smiled and let me kiss him, making my way to his neck to tug on the skin with my teeth "someone is in a good mood."
"Someone is just happy to have you here to love" I purred back and dragged him close to me.
Last night had been a huge weight lifted off both our shoulders. I had told Ari about everything I had discovered and what we had to expect within the rest of Vaughn's life. He had reacted the way I had when hearing it; with a mixture of shock and happiness that made us both shed tears and embrace.
And that embrace had turned to something more. We had been locked in some of the most passionate love I had experienced yet. Ari made it feel like we were the only two here in the heat of the moment.
And now that he was here again, I was keen to feel his arms and legs around me again.
I had six days. And without any threats, I was going to enjoy them freely with Ari.
We wasted most of the day playing around and spontaniously making love. Whenever Ari wanted to wander too far, I dragged him back to pin him under me again. We didn't leave the room until it was well into the afternoon and his reminder of my promise pulled me away into the skies with him.
"My room looks quite bare for something meant to be swimming in sunflowers" he teased from my back.
I flew low and gradually ascended. I kept my movements slow so I didn't scare Ari who was already shaking when he held onto me, trying to fool me into believing he was braver than I saw.
"I would rather take you to the field so we can choose them together" I grinned back "the place is incredible. You need to see it yourself to appreciate it."
"I can appreciate them just fine on the ground" he chuckled nervously "where I can't fall."
"I won't let you fall" I reassured "not again, OK?"
"And look forward to having more pain when they sew me up again?" Ari snorted "I'll trust you on that."
I smiled at him and felt him finally relax against me before I lowered us down to the field.
It was still a great distance to the house. But I wasn't here to make a trade just yet. I wanted Ari to enjoy the spectacle first.
I heard him gasp when he slid down me to reach out and touch the sunflowers around the pile I had crushed on landing. He darted around the closest ones that easily dwarfed him, laughing happily up at the faces tilted to the sun behind us.
"This is incredible!" he reached upwards "I can't even touch them!"
I took in the sight of his innocent wonder as I shifted to find myself surrounded as well.
It made me nervous to have something towering over me, but the sight of Ari playing and running through the leafy stems made that nervousness dissappear.
I grabbed Ari when he darted by and dragged him back by his arm to make him see me. His eyes traveled over me before I shoved him over and saw him sprawl in the dirt.
"Hey!" he laughed out, throwing a handful at me "that isn't fair!"
I lowered myself into him and sat there, pinning his hands beside him.
"It isn't, is it?"
"Scala" he murmered and grew nervous "anyone can come out here."
"It'll take them a little to get here, so we should be quick" I smirked back and tugged on his pants eagerly.
He helped and giggled when I grasped onto him and moved forwards to unite us.
He groaned out with me but didn't have time to say anything before I was already crushing him beneath me.
The thrill and fear of being caught was very exciting. We were against time itself, and that pushed me to new limits.
I wanted the danger. The possibility of Ari having to fight again for me only made me more excited. He had taken on a dragon; he could take on a human.
No doubt the angry man would be the one to come investigate. His family would have seen me land, but he was the one with enough rage to run blindly towards a dragon.
Especially one expecting him.
Ari cried out and grabbed me when I forced his finish. I smiled at the feeling rushing through me and savoured it before it could leave.
I pulled Ari to his feet and watched him adjust himself while I listened for sounds of anyone approaching. When there were none, I shifted back to head to the house for another trade.
Ari's room was spilling with sunflowers, as promised. Every surface was covered in them and thier beauty. The carers who came to tend to him even returned with what looked like the mansions entire vase collection to keep them all fresh. Some even practised trading with me by offering small crystals they had bought in exchange for some sunflowers.
I was more than happy to grow my horde and see them run off in excitement to thier colleagues.
Some humans were just entertainment in themselves.
Ari was giggling at the excitable woman when I closed the door and turned back to him.
His smile quickly faded and he held out a finger towards me as he backed up, laughing.
"Scala, get that look off your face" he laughed, stumbling on the bed he pulled himself around to back into the closet "not again!"
I closed the doors to the closet when I stalked in and made my move before he could get away.
Ari was mine for the next two days. I stalked him down as my hormones raged and begged for more of him. They didn't want anything else, just him.
And I was more than willing to listen to them. I could tell it was the pull of the season driving me to hunt down my mate relentlessly before it ended for another year. The two day spike was heightening everything to make sure I was successful. It was torture and ecstasy at the same time.
Every moment not near him made me feel like I was a failure. And when I had him in my grasp, I was on top of the world.
I was buzzing with so much yearning want, that I would have rolled over for any keen male who crossed my path. It was a dangerous time that tested my limits and the temptations that lingered when I hunted down Ari through the halls. I had already pinned down three others before finding him again. I didn't mate with anyone but him, since the others wouldn't allow it.
Even my children were kept locked away in the time frame when I prowled after the scent I tracked.
I was a monster reduced to just basic instincts and feral needs. It turned me into something I wasn't to fill me with hope.
I didn't think or feel anything else until the third day rolled around.
I didn't know I had my nails dug into Ari's shirt until I withdrew them.
Ari groggily woke at the movement, moaning out in defeat when he saw me staring at him.
"Now?" he buried his head back into the pillow.
"Just sleep" I reassured him with a stroke down his back that jumped at the contact "I'm just checking on you."
"I'm so happy to hear you say something other than a snapping noise or a snarl" he smiled "you were insane."
"I can see" I chuckled back when I saw the nail marks on his body and bites around his neck and nape "sorry about that."
He snuggled into the pillow and chuckled. I rested my head against him then bit my lip when I saw what had happened to everything else around us.
The silk curtains on the supports above us were shredded to ribbons. All of the sunflowers were broken or crushed on the surfaces. I saw a few vases had been spilled over or had cracks running in them.
I leant over to see the clothes in Ari's closet pulled down onto the ground. One pole had been broken and there were obvious claw marks in the wooden floor.
"You should see the bathroom" Ari mumbled and I saw him smirking at my shocked face "you really, really like that rock. And the balcony..."
He blew out a breath to make me retract.
I didn't move. I was afraid what I would find in the bathroom or outside.
"I'll get you more flowers" I cringed under the covers "and fix the clothes."
"And fix the taps, and the tiles, and the floor, and the curtains, and the..."
"I get it" I grumbled back to his fingers he held up and wiggled "and a new mate?"
He flopped his hand down and closed his eyes again.
"Just let me rest. Perhaps sort out the new nest" he mumbled out before falling asleep again.
The new nest? I really didn't like the sounds of that.
I carefully dragged myself from the covers to creep towards the balcony. I saw claw marks scratched into the side of it, but nothing more.
Perhaps it wasn't as bad as I was thinking?
The nervousness was easing up when I stepped through the door and out onto the balcony that was still bare.
It couldn't be that bad then. There was nothing h...
Then I saw it.
Over the edge of the balcony, where the flowers had been gathered, was a nest.
Nest was an understatement. This was a whole collection that put Milena's one to shame.
The whole flower artwork had been scratched together into a pile to nestle together twenty gleaming eggs. All of them ranged from purple to blue to even black. They were colours and shades I had laid plenty of times before.
How on earth hadn't I remembered that? Twenty?!
And in two days?!
I felt fine too. There was nothing in me that indicated I had been through that much strain. It was only the darkness of when I had been in that insane peak.
Bee was going to have his hands full. He already did by the looks of it as he examined the pile i looked over in shock.
I must have been guarding them too to not have any of them moved. That sounded like something I would do.
"I'm sorry!" I called down to Bee who rubbed his head in confusion at the sudden influx "I had no idea either!"
I leapt down to him, using a brief shift of my dragon wings to buffer my fall.
"Scala" Bee gasped out "h-how?"
"No idea" I replied and leant over to close his gaping mouth with a smile "you need these, right?"
I picked one up to take it to his car. He watched me tuck it in then pick up another to do the same.
He knew I trusted him now. And with something as bold as me personally loading them, he had nothing to worry about with our tight bond.
I went to retrieve another, rolling it toward me, before stopping. One in the pile had upturned scales. The black scales shimmered in the sun and sparkled with flecks of white around the tips.
A valid egg?
I abandoned the others and pushed them aside to reach it. I saw another beside it was upturned, with two more near the top of the cluster.
Valid eggs. Actual living babies. My babies.
I hadn't been mated to anyone other than Ari lately. And Barebone had already given me his three. He wouldn't still be offering more from one session together?
Ari and I had countless of unions now. And with the last two days boosting everything, could that have also increased the chances between us?
There were four here. Four chances.
I found two more when Bee moved the ones beside them to the car.
Six chances.
There were no more in the cluster. All six were here and waiting for me. Waiting for the warmth of thier mother.
Bee went to roll the black speckled one closest to him before I threw an arm out to stop him and point to the other beside it. He obeyed and rolled it away instead, leaving me to quickly start gathering the precious ones together at the back of the cluster where they would be safe.
Once they were nestled together, I shifted to my dragon form and scooped up two in my mouth to take them to my actual nest.
These ones didn't need Knot or Milena's help. These were all mine to nurture.
I felt bubbly inside just thinking about the success of seeing all six hatch.
Bee was steadily progressing through the brood as I moved the ones I was keeping out of his grasp. It was a quick three trips to my room before I returned to help Bee with the last few.
The poor man was struggling with where to put them all. He had the back seats fully stacked and the front passenger one. He was loading more into the boot of the car that was ready threatening to spill outwards.
With the last one unable to be shoved in, Bee decided to put it in his lap for the trip.
"Now, Scala, you aren't going to let me take those others, are you?"
I shook my head at him when he carefully got into the car.
These were precious to me. They were from the love Ari and I shared. They didn't need some brood mother caring for them when I was capable.
I smiled and watched Bee start his steady trip down the bumpy driveway. As soon as the car had rocked a few meters away, I raced back to my full nest.
The sight of them there had me beeming when I wrapped myself around them and heated up the eggs with a quick flick of flames.
I couldn't see the tiny quivering lives inside these ones since none were transparent like Barebone's had been.
The black one with white speckles was nestled beside a white one with flame coloured crackles. An orange one was behind it that gradually graduated to red at the bottom. Another black one was beside it with each scale having the same flame coloured tips as I did when the light hit it just right. There was another white one beside it that didn't have a single other colour on it, and the last was a bright white with a spiral of deep red splatters around it.
They were the most beautiful things I had seen.
I warmed them again and snuggled into them to indulge in it myself when it danced up my scales and along my face.
Ari would love this. His body would be so little compared to his children.
His children.
The sound of it made me giggle with glee. Would they turn out like Ari or me? Or maybe a mixture of us both?
Either way, Ari was going to have a hard time with the massive eggs before they hatched. It was going to be so funny to see him struggle with the huge size difference.
He was going to be a perfect father. He probably didn't even know it yet, but I couldn't wait to see him when he realised.
We weren't out of the woods yet. I had to make sure they hatched properly before we could relax. Once they were here, we could marvel at our success together.
There were no natural predators to worry about in a nest so high up. And with the carers now co-operating with us, our babies would never know danger.
They wouldn't know what it was like to go hungry either. We had good hunting grounds with plenty of horses and the forbidden cows nearby. Only a few hours away was the ocean; obvious from the catches Milena and Knot hauled in for thier own brood.
And with the new additions, they wouldn't go cold. This room would insulate nicely with my fire that would make sure they were always warm.
After all this time, nothing was going to take them from me. I was prepared for anything.
I pitied whatever would tempt that fate. I hadn't even seen my babies yet, but I knew I would lay down my life for thiers to protect them. And I wasn't going to be merciful to whatever was going to be that daring.
All I had to do was keep the safe until then; welcoming in even more to my growing nest to wait impatiently for the scales to turn around and raise my hopes again.
ns 15.158.61.51da2
