Chapter 27

Being in Nye's element made me notice things about him. His true nature as a predator, a protector, and a lover that one most could hardly believe, but that's because Nye loathed human-kind more than Koa and Aneth. Although I've recently had an eye on Aneth, Of all the things he could take with him, he took books. On his flights, he'd come back with books, and he'd give them to me. I'm starting to think its a love language of his, and being a woman fascinated by the written word, it made me gush. Lately, he's been reading romance stories. I could tell by the title. Since Nye and Koa had gone out, I took my chance to spend moments with him to figure out more of the personality he's developed. 

I sit beside him, he notices me and gives me a warm smile, "Do you read anything other than romance?"

"Yes, but this intrigues me. Humans have odd ways of," he pauses, "Well, they call it love." I pull my knees to my chest, looking at Aneth in wonder, "Don't dragons feel love?" 

Aneth's brows pinch together. "No, not with Dragons. I guess it's hard to explain. We mate, then leave."

My chest starts to ache. "Uh, what?" Aneth must have seen the confusion on my contorted face. He explains further, "Dragons, we are born as predators. Love is unknown to us. However, if summoned by soul-mates like you, the feeling is love." He concludes.

Good Goddess. Aneth spoke with the fascination of a librarian and the thirst to learn more. It made me want to dig deeper into his brain. "So you love me?" I playfully bat my eyes at him. He smiles, "Yes, of course."

I wanted to jump up and down like a schoolgirl. Aneth spoke with sophistication. It excluded sexy. Be good, be good, be good… I bite my lip as Aneth flips through pages, then points to something, "This Character, he loves a female who is taken. Yet, he tries to seduce and claim her as his." Aneth gazes at me, "He is my favorite." A sly smile pulls at the edge of his lips.

I tilt my head slightly. "And what happens next?" I ask, letting his amber eyes dive into me. "Hmph," he looks back at the page, a charming smile on his face. He takes her for his own. They run away together and live in a town where nobody knows them. They live happily ever after." He snaps the book closed. "The end."

I notice a shift in my soul that pulls at my humanity. The last time I interacted with Aneth, I spoke to him because he made me feel comfortable. Not that Nye or Koa didn't make me like that, but Aneth made me feel grounded. I search through my mind to find the word for my feelings. Now that I think about it, he had been the only one to go into shops in the Kingdom to see things humans did in their daily lives. He observed, watched, and then he did them himself. Aneth made her a beautiful two-piece outfit from soft furs. 

"Where did you get all these books?" I ask, noticing he has quite the collection now. Aneth places the book beside him, "I go to nearby villages. They give them to me."

"You don't have to pay for it?"

"No." He smiles, "I give them scales."

My eyes widened, "Your scales?"

"Yes," he says with pride, "My scales are worth more than men can accumulate in their lives. By giving them one, they give me anything I want." Aneth glances at my swallow belly, "Koa's whelp grows fast." I gaze down, putting my hand on my bloated self, "Yeah, he does." I had more questions than answers lately, like how Koa's kind gave birth? Underwater or Land? What about live birth, or will I push out an Egg? 

Goddess, I hope not…

As if seeing my concern, Aneth answers, "Koa's kind gives live birth. They swim out to sea." I exhale with relief. Well, I doubt they'll be going to the sea after they're born." I say aloud as I rub my stomach. I glance up at Aneth, who wears a curious look. Do you want to feel?"

"Hm?" Aneth's brows pinch. He starts to shake his head, and then I grab his hand and place it on my bump. Sometimes, he'll get rowdy and start kicking–Oh! There he goes," I giggle. Aneth retracts his hand after he feels the kick, but he does so with a smile. "I've never felt such a thing before."

"Yeah, human babies do that, too." And now I had another question, but I wasn't sure if Aneth could answer it. "I wonder what he'll look like," I stare out at the Oasis we stayed by since my whelp liked going for a swim every damn hour. Aneth sifts through books, "I found this." I take a blue leather book from him. "It seems someone took an interest in Dragonborn whelps."

What? I think to myself as I open the book. And as I read through it, I find answers to my questions. I particularly wanted to know, "Let's see—Ah, here it is." A drawing of a Sea serpent Dragon and the whelp underneath it. What puzzled me is that it wasn't in human form. As I read on, I learned why. When I give birth, I give birth to a whelp; the human part comes further along as they age. 

I stare at my whelp, "Good Goddess, I hope you don't have horns…" Aneth chuckles, and I look at him. "What's so funny?"

"You," Aneth says with warmth in his eyes. "It says the whelp will go to the sea. He'll come back–"

My smile fades as I interrupt him, "He can't do that." I shake my head, "He'll only be born for a few minutes." Aneth brows raise, "You're talking about my kind, Kamari. Whelps are made to come out fighting; if not, they die."

This wasn't what I imagined raising dragonborn would be like. For some reason, I saw myself nursing, always keeping my babies around me, like my mother did for me. "So, every whelp I have won't stay with me?" I read more about what would happen to my newborn, and I smiled when he returned to me, bigger and ready to take human form, "Oh, that's a relief." I sigh as I set the book down. "Will you save this one for me? I plan on having more whelps; I'd like to know what happens so I don't freak out." I hand the book back to him.

Aneth gazes at her, "With Koa?" 

"Hm? Oh–No," I chuckle. With all of you. Well, with whoever is "Alpha" at the time." I say, playfully narrowing my eyes at Aneth. I hope it's your turn soon…" I said, my eyes adoring him. Aneth half-smiles, "Oh?"

I bite my bottom lip and nod. Aneth made my chest feel lighter than a feather, which may be why I want to be so close to him. Why I couldn't stop oggling his chest, his skin slightly shimmered, like patches of golden scales, barely visible if you didn't look close enough. Aneth, my dragon prince charming. I think to myself.

"No one here," I tilt my head slightly with mischievous intentions. You could kiss me again." I see a sparkle in Aneth's eyes. You are awful at following rules," he says with a soft smile.

"I have bad habits," I admit as I turn to Aneth. "You would hear them if they came back, wouldn't you?" I ask, making Aneth chuckle, "Are you trying to persuade me?" 

Hell Yes. I think in my mind. I wasn't in heat, but a good goddess. I wanted him badly, and it felt like it had before when I first kissed him. "Please?" I beg. "Just one kiss?"

Aneth's gaze turns flirtatious, "Hm, what does Koa say to you when you get like this? Oh, yes," he pauses, and I can't help but smile with flushed cheeks. Aneth leans into me, " A little Harlot." He says in such a way it feels like praise more than an insult. I think my sanity gives way as I lean up to him, closing the distance between him and me, gazing up at him with heated eyes, "I can be you're little Harlot," I whisper with bad intentions.

I couldn't help when breaking in a new husband, especially Aneth. I want to taste him again, "And if I tell you no, will you listen?" Aneth whispers back, his breath heavy, his eyes glancing at my lips. "I don't feel like listening…" I whisper back. Aneth looks down and chuckles, "You don't make it easy."

I didn't care, not at this moment. I grabbed his head between my hands and melted my lips into his, and a soft moan escaped my lips as I tasted him again. Shivers run down my spine when I feel him kiss my back. His hands lay on my hips as I devoured him. Aneth groaned in his throat, and I indulged in the sounds of his satisfaction. Maybe I could get away with it, I think to myself. As I part from him and gaze into his eyes, I can only think about tangling myself up in him all day.

As I go for his lips again, Aneth stops me with a firm hand to the chest, "Their here." I feel a weight of disappointment. This felt like a huge improvement with Aneth and I, far beyond what I thought it could build up to, despite his history with Shades. I knew kissing my other husbands ran on a gray area, but as usual, I couldn't help myself. Time to be good.

 I backed off of Aneth, receding to a place where Nye considered his own space. He built a nest out of furs to keep me warm at night. I hear Nye's roar, and out of nowhere, Koa surfaces from the Oasis, his massive body out in the deep end, but I could still see him. Koa dives down again. A few moments later, I see Nye walking towards me from the forest. I had convinced him to wear clothing, just a bit so I wasn't seeing male anatomy everything I turned. It got quite distracting. I smile at Nye, and in mid-stride he halts near Aneth. My stomach drops to my bladder, knowing I had just got off of him. I swallow hard, as Nye glares down at him. Aneth grabs a good and hands it to Nye, he snarls in disgust and smacks it out of Aneth's hand.

Then Nye strides away from him, towards me. Oh Grace of Kadea… I think in relief. "You know I'm getting quite jealous of your flights." I say as I pull my knees to my chest. Nye sits next to me, "If only you had wings." He smirks. I scrunch my nose back at him, "You could always let me ride on your back."

Nye's brows furrow, "Absolutely not."

"Why?"

"You would fall." Nye says as he grabs a fur blanket and drapes it over me. Lately, Nye has been very attentive towards me, which I didn't dare mention unless I waned it to end. But it's nice to see Nye had other sides to him, rather than violence and protectivness. "You could always catch me." I said with a glimmer of playness in my eyes. Nye half-smiles, getting under the furs with me, his heat lures me into him.

Nye kisses my forehead, then says, "We'll go for a ride tonight then." I gasp, "Really?!" Nye agreeing to something so nuts made me double-blink. "Will the Whelp be okay?" I ask.

"Perfectly." Nye says as he dips his head into the crook of my neck, "He'll be on the ground with you." His husky voice makes my cheeks flush. Now I knew what Nye meant. I had promised him something I hadn't given him yet. Having to maintain the thirst that came with having a sea serpent whelp got exhausting, but I felt better today. A lot better. 

Since Koa wasn't the "Alpha" of the pride, he had to depend on Nye to take care of everything that came with his species. Dragons are such a rough species, I think to myself. But Nye did a good job, I couldn't deny that.

"Did you tell her what we saw?" Koa had slipped out of the water unheard, and it makes me flinch, "Tell me what?" I ask, Koa nudges his head at Nye, "Ask him."

Nye's body tenses, I look up at him, "What is his talking about?" Nye sighs heavily, "Nivillia. Browen has set himself upon the throne and it looks like Javall has taken Calea's hand in marriage."

No. That can't be right, not Calea. "She'd never do that to me." My chest tightness and try to fight the burn in my eyes. "I have very good eyesight from up above. They never saw me." Nye says with pride. 

"Something must have happened. Anyone would do anything to escape death. Maybe Browen threatened her." I had to think that. Please let that be the case, because I didn't know what else would make Calea do such a thing. My heart starts to ache, "What else did you see?"

"The old man taking a young bride," Nye says with disgust and I was right along with him. "Has it been that long?" I could tell how long I'd been away, I looked to Nye for an answer, "We stayed in Nivillia for two and half months, we've been gone now for almost a month." 

I curse under my breath, "They must have already planted a hedge stone for me." It's a grave thought to think but I had nothing but that. "How did the Kingdom look, the people?" 

Nye only glances at me, "I think you should rest. I doubt stress is good for Koa's kind." I could only take that answer in one way. Awful. As far as I'm concerned, Browen is no better than my dumb witted father. Taking a bride much younger than he is by force made my stomach lurch, that poor girl…