Page 20 of Dimitri

“Just as my dragon will keep me warm, you on my back will be plenty warm enough. If you feel you are becoming too cold, all you need to do is tap me twice on my neck, and I will return us to the ground.”

With that, I pulled my shirt off over my head and handed it to my mate. It might have been dark and windy, but I could certainly see him observing me as I removed my clothing. Caspian realized I didn’t have any shoes on when I pushed my jeans down and off without any issue. I handed those to him as well, and when I caught him staring at my now flaccid dick, I smirked. Caspian finally met my eyes, and when he appeared to be embarrassed, I shook my head. “It’s all completely yours to look at whenever you wish. But perhaps we should get in the air, and then maybe you can explore as you wish later?”

“How much later?”

“Just as soon as I take you flying and then we have a bite to eat. Of course, we must first pick a house and let Master Edison know which one we have chosen.”

I thought for sure Caspian was going to pout, but instead, he took a deep breath and then nodded in agreement. “Do we really need to choose a house? Can’t we just pick the one next to my brother and be good?”

I chuckled again. “We can most certainly let him know that is our house of choice. But you must take into consideration the time of day.” I glanced up at the sky before looking back to my mate. “Or rather night. Master Edison will not be awake for several hours yet, most likely. We cannot call him in the middle of the night for anything other than a true emergency.” I took several steps away, moving out into the area in front of my town house. “I promise you my dragon absolutely will not harm you. I understand his size can be quite intimidating, but he only wishes to meet you and will always protect you.”

“I understand that.” Caspian took a step toward me, but when I held out my hand and shook my hand, he stopped.

“After I shift, I will lie down on the ground so you can climb up on my back. You will know where it is best for you to sit. There is a break in the spines, and that is the perfect spot for you to climb onto.”

“You know you don’t have to lie down with me, correct? I can simply pop up there without any issue.”

I was going to respond but then stopped when I realized that he was absolutely correct. My mate was magical. That was going to take time to get used to. “Very well, then. When you are ready to take off, simply squeeze my neck with your thighs and then hang on.” It was bitterly cold out here, and although I wasn’t necessarily feeling the bite of the temperature, I was sure Caspian was starting to. That would all change once he was on my dragon’s back. That meant it was time to shift and take care of my mate.

I knelt down and called for my dragon. It only took a moment before I felt my body start to transform from the average-sizedhuman to the massive scaled dragon. Seconds after calling for him, everything shifted, and I was looking at the night sky through my dragon’s eyes.

“Whoa.”

I heard my mate despite the fact that he had said the word just barely above a whisper. I turned my massive head his way, and of course, my dragon took a long breath, getting his first deep scent of our mate. I wish we had already claimed each other so I could talk to him, but that would come soon enough. For now, I bent down, getting close enough to Caspian so he could reach out and touch my nose if he so chose.

“You are massive,” he said as his hand reached out. “And you weren’t kidding when you said you were warm. I can feel the heat coming from you already.”

I slowly nodded my head up and down. Even without him being a warlock and having magical abilities to keep himself warm, my dragon would be able to keep him warm. I felt a hand touch my nose and closed my eyes. My mate was touching me. That was everything to me. Well, to dragons in general. We understood we were intimidating when in our scales, and more than a few times, mates ran away screaming when they first saw their dragon mate in their magnificent scaled version.

“I’m going to get up there now,” he told me.

I nodded again, suddenly wondering if I really did pick the right thing. It was bitterly cold and windy. I wouldn’t have any issues with flying, but I had never flown with anyone on my back before. I would rather die than allow anything to happen to my mate, but it was inky dark out, and when I looked skyward, I could see a lot of cloud cover up there. Perhaps a short flight for now. Then I could go show him the house, and if he agreed to it, we could get, at minimum, a bed in place, and, well…then the fun times would begin.

I felt Caspian on my back suddenly, his weight minimal on my massive form. I took a few steps farther away from the building and then jumped. When I did, I opened my wings and then flapped once, twice, a third time before I truly caught air.

I heard a shriek from my mate, and then his body was leaning over onto my neck, and he was holding on for all his might. I didn’t know if he would enjoy flying on my back or not, but at least at the moment, he didn’t have the daylight to show him just how high we had gone already.

My dragon could see just as well at night as my human half could during the day, and what I not only saw ahead of us but scented now that we were over Dragon Falls told me I needed to get my mate inside. My dragon rumbled at our first meeting being cut so short. I rolled to the left a bit, trying not to bank too steeply because of the precious cargo on my back. It wasn’t enough though, and the wall of snow hit us.

I heard Caspian call out, and then his legs tightened around my shoulders as I tucked my wings backward and downward, away from the storm. It didn’t take long for me to get ahead of the squall, but I knew it would quickly catch up with us.

I was now flying just above the buildings on the mountaintop, and when the lights of the council building came into view, I made the decision to abandon our plans and turned toward my house. If we’d only woken even ten minutes later, the storm would have been here, and we never would have been out in it.

My dragon landed a bit more roughly than I had hoped, but Caspian was suddenly off my shoulders and standing in front of me. He was covered in snow in places, and I spread my wings to shield him against the line of snow that was arriving in seconds. Caspian’s eyes widened, and he thankfully seemed to be unharmed. He started to walk backward, then turned andhurried to the door that we’d left only moments before. He opened it, then stood just inside and called out to me.

“Dimitri! You must come inside.”

My dragon wasn’t pleased with our mate’s upset tone, and thankfully, he understood that I needed to be in my human form in order to take care of him. I shifted quickly, my scales and the protection they provided against the weather disappearing before I was once more in my human form. The snow hit, pelting my skin with stinging bites. I rushed to the doorway, and when I was through, I wrapped my arms around Caspian’s waist and picked him up and out of the way as I kicked it shut behind me.

“Are you all right?” I asked, worried. “I never would have taken you up if I had known we were going to be getting a storm.”

Caspian smiled. “I’m good. It was cold for about a second, but I’m not harmed in any way.” Caspian’s hands slid up my chest and then around my shoulders and into my hair, which I was certain was standing every which way. “You’re naked.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Ja, but you are fully clothed.”

Caspian raised an eyebrow at me. “I can remedy that in a blink.”

“You told me you wished to be claimed not in single enforcer housing. Have you changed your mind?” I would try to behave, I truly would. But I wanted nothing more than to explore Caspian’s body with my mouth and hands.

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