Chapter 31

~Kamari~

"I'm starting to think you all lied to me." I laid myself out on a boulder, soaking in the sun—a whole month. I hadn't seen any sign of Ryuu, which made me feel so hollow.

 "Do you trust me?" Koa's voice makes me look to my side at his pirate-like smirking face. I roll on my stomach and stare back at him. "No," I lie with a soft smile.

"I'm sure he's okay. I'm just—" I couldn't even find the words, "I want to see him." To go through all that labor and only have a moment with him, cut deep. I leer at him, "You better not be led by this pride when I go into heat. I will maul you and not in a good way." I smirk.

Koa bites his lip. "I'd like that." He says.

"Oh, I hate you…" I say playfully as I sit up and slide off the boulder. "Where's Nye?" I ask since I haven't seen him since morning, and dusk is brewing. 

"He went to fly." Koa says, obviously, "Do you not know him by now? Oof!" I elbow Koa in the rib cage, then chuckle, "Are you playing with me?"

"Are you going to elbow me again?" He asks, I turn towards him as he stands straight, I look him up and down suspicious. "Where is Aneth?" I ask.

Koa rocks back and forth on the balls of his feet, "I may or may not have convinced him to find more books that would please you." 

My jaw drops, "You're a little snake." I learned it was in Koa's nature to be sneaky. 

He sighs, "Well, they should know I have ulterior motives." He crosses his arms over his chest. I step forward, "Oh? And what would that be?"

Koa gazes at me, tucking my hair behind my ear. "Ryuu." My eyes widened at the mention of my whelp, "What?" I say softly, "You've seen him?"

 Koa sucks air between his teeth, "Promise you won't hit me?" Now, he acted like he had something to hide. I step back, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Depends. Did you do something stupid?" I'm not fond of secrets, and I hoped to Kadea that Koa didn't do something rash. "I've been in the waters with him," he admits.

I double-blink, then a blaze of anger bolts through my hand, and I smack him across the face. "Are you serious!?" 

Koa places a hand on his cheek, " Ouch." 

"You know I've been dying to see him, Koa!" I groan, my heart aching, "I could rip you apart! Where is he!?" I start marching toward the water. Koa's demeanor shifts to stern, "He can't come home, not until he's made his first kill."

"What?" I whip around. "You expect him to kill something when he's that little?" Koa shakes his head. "He isn't little anymore. Like I told you, my kind grows fast." 

I swallow hard. Being with Dragons is not easy, not by a long shot. How could I be a mother when I couldn't have them by me, nurturing them, loving them? Did they not need me? I start a twister of questions in my mind, and not good ones. 

Koa closes the distance between us, "We can not tell Nye or Aneth."

 I furrow my brows. "Why?" Koa licks his lips. "Humans have different ways, and so do we. Nye and Aneth fly, and I swim. In our nature, we try to kill the other when young." 

Oh, Kadea's hell…

"You can't be serious." I shake my head, "How will I ever see him?"

"This is why he has to kill; to be a part of the pride, Nye has to accept him." He says. This is insane, I think to myself. I gave birth to Ryuu; I'm his mother. How did Nye have control over whether he stayed or left? And Ryuu was heir to the Dragonborn throne. It made no sense. "He can't just tear apart my whelp."

"It's in our nature," Koa says as he places his hands on my shoulders. I will stop him if he tries to hurt Ryuu. I'd rather him harm me." Hearing Koa say that gives me a bit of relief if worse comes to worst. I wrap my arms around him. Despite your sneaky behavior, you're a good father," I say adoringly, gazing up at him. 

"Are you staying away from me during heat now?" he smirks. I bite my lip. " If you aren't the leader of the pride, yes."

"And what if I am?" Koa started walking backward until I hit a tree that stopped me, "Will you run?" His husky whisper with a devilish smile, nearly ends me, I give him one of my own, "No," I tangle my hands in his hair, "But if you fight me, and win," I pause for effect, "You better make the heavens hear me…" Koa licks his lips, and his eyes haze, "I could make that happen now." He says breathlessly, and it catches me off guard. 

I usually put the moves on them, but Koa made Nye and Aneth leave to get me alone with him. It was intentional.

"Won't that hurt the hierarchy of the pride?" I asks playfully, Koa's eyes light up. "I want you. And they aren't here to see me ravage you, Kamari." My body response to him, it knew his touch better than Nye and Aneth. For some reason, Koa affected my inner Dragon more recently, and I had a feeling it was because my firstborn came from him. "Your so bad, you know my weakness and your using it against me." And I had to admit my blood rushed with excitement. 

"Mm," he moans in his throat; he lifts my chin and locks eyes with me, "Are you ready to scream to the heavens then?"

 My thighs quiver with desire. I wanted to be suitable for Nye, and I didn't want to cause a drift between them. Not when my son could get caught up in the aftermath. I swallow hard, "Go to the water, Koa." I say to him, mimicking what they would say to me. Koa gives me a half-smile, 

"Are you rejecting me?"

"No. I want you to, but I'm not willing to put our son in danger because of it. Trust me, I'll give you everything when you lead the pride. Every part of me will be yours."

 Koa swallows hard and becomes breathless, but I feel bad that he put in all this effort to have a moment with me. "But I can give you a kiss–Mm!" He doesn't wait for me to finish; he kisses me with a fever, and his hands cradle my head, deepening the kiss. When he parts me, he brushes his lips against mine. "It's never enough…" he roughly whispers.

"I know." I swallow as I feel my chest tighten. This is the exact reason I hate this. I couldn't curb Koa's craving for me right now, and it wouldn't build up like this. That's why every time I'm with one of them, my hormones go nuts. Or maybe what they said is true. I'm a damn Harlot. "Do Dragons mate a lot?" I ask out of curiosity. Koa chuckles, "Why do you think there's so many pearls across the seafloor?" He smirks.

Oh, Grace of Kadea. At least my desires weren't abnormal. I giggle, "Yes," he says. As he dives in for another kiss, Nye's voice interrupts us.

"Having fun?" His voice was laced with venom. 

Koa's body tenses, and I glance over at Nye and Aneth, who wear dealy looks on their faces. I swallow hard, and my face flushes from embarrassment. Koa turns towards them, and he wears a twisted smile, "I thought you'd be gone longer." He says with no shame.

Nye walks up to him, and Koa stands his ground; my stomach knots from the tension between them, "You're a coward. You do not fight for the right to have her. You go behind my back!" Nye clocks Koa in the jaw, sending him stumbling back. I gasp at the sound of bone cracking.

"Fight me for it. Do you want to lead?! Prove it!" The lethalness in Nye's voice makes my chest ache. How much did he see and hear? Now, it tore at me. I gave Koa more than I gave Nye. I put my face in my hands, hating the shame that slammed into me. 

I didn't want to watch. I stood up, and as I turned around, Nye's voice roared out at me, "You stay and watch." It hit me like a forceful wind and took my breath away. I pinch my eyes closed and turned around. Nye had Koa's arm pinned behind his back, and another bent back too far, and then I heard a nasty crack as he pulled Koa's arm out of his socket. 

A whimper comes out of me as Koa cries out and falls to the ground. Nye glares down at him, his breath heavy. I start to back up, my chest burning. I start hyperventilating, my hands gripping my hair. Anger fuels the fury in my veins as my eyes light up. When Nye looks up at me, I let out a piercing scream directed at him. Aneth covers his ears, but Nye doesn't and locks eyes with me. I breathe heavily, filling my lungs with air.

"Kamari," I hear Koa say in a pain-riddled voice, "I'm fine." He groans out. Tears fall from my eyes. I purse my lips together, and when Nye walks towards me, I put my hand up, "No! Leave me alone, don't fucking touch me!" I turn, not wanting to see the look on his face. 

I had never been so scared of Nye killing someone in my life. All I wanted in this moment was my child, thinking of him made be walk to the pool I gave birth in, and plunge into it. I swam to the other end, which wasn't far and leaned over it, looking out to the waters. Being here seemed to drive their instincts mad, and in the midst of it, I was struggling with my humanity. My emotions rise and fall like a tsunami. 

"Goddess, I miss you, Calea…" I sniffle. Calea grounded me, saw the things I couldn't, and at moments, I may not have been the best person to her, and that stabbed me with regret. But if there is one thing for sure, it's that Calea was the closest thing I had to a family.