Page 67 of The Arrival of the Dragons

Valerius snorted again. “Caden, even if there was, you know we cannot have children. Shifters are incapable of having children no matter what the sexes of the couple are.”

Caden frowned. “Yeah, which is why I never understood about the heat thing because--”

“That is theleastpart of those films that doesn’t make sense,” Valerius grumbled under his breath.

Caden’s mouth opened and shut before he crowed, “So youhaveseen them! You have! Oh, you bastard! You were teasing me while all along you’d watched them too!”

“Imayhave happened to see some part of one or more of them on television, but I--”

“Oh, no, you don’t! I can tell a fan when I hear one!”

Caden jumped up onto the couch, right onto Valerius’ lap, and playfully hit his chest and shoulders. Valerius had thankfully anticipated this movement and put his plate down before he had a lapful of Caden. Valerius caught Caden’s wrists to stop the pummelling. Not that he was hurting the Black Dragon King, but Caden surrendered easily nonetheless. Besides, it was far nicer to straddle Valerius’ leather-clad lap. The leather was soft and slick against his inner bare thighs.

“Did you ever want a mate?” Caden asked, knowing that he sounded a little breathy and that his cock was beginning to tent the front of Valerius’ shirt.

“No,” Valerius said quietly.

“Oh.” Caden’s heart fell.

“Not before…” Valerius stopped speaking.

“Not before?” Caden prompted.

Valerius had been looking past him, not at anything, but clearly trying to gather his thoughts. Or maybe consider what he had said or would say.

His jaw worked and Caden saw how hard this was for him to speak about it so Caden quickly said, “We don’t have to talk about this!”

Valerius fixed him with a very intense stare that had Caden squirming. “Shouldn’t we?”

“I don’t know--”

“Caden, soon all the Dragon Shifters will be here and they will all be vying for your hand. They will offer you the world.” Valerius swallowed again and looked almostangry. “They will not mean it. Not even the ones like Tez who will think he does.”

“Because Dragon Shifters don’t share power?” Caden asked quietly.

Valerius gave a tight nod. “There is so much you do not know about them… or me. The type of people we were and still are.”

“I know you,” Caden found himself saying.

Valerius fixed him with another stare, this one full of disbelief. “Really?”

“Yes. I… I know you think I’m naive and I am.” Caden let out a tinny laugh. He would have fussed with his hair or shirt, but Valerius still had hold of his wrists, so he couldn’t use the nervous movement to buy him time before he went on. “I know you’ve killed people. I know part of you likes that, because if you’re lost in that--in the blood and death--then you don’t have to feel other things.”

Valerius’ expression had changed. There was a trace of shock and hope and then it was unreadable again. “What other things?”

Caden’s smile was wobbly and not a happy one, but a pained one, yet he pressed on, “Grief and loneliness and a sense of despair.”

Valerius’ jolted for a second before he could hide once more that those words had hit home.

Caden continued, swallowing hard because his throat was so tight. “I’ve only been a Dragon Shifter for a short time, and I know you’ve been a leader for a long, long time, but I don’t think it’s become easier for you. I think it’s become harder. Because you know that so much is always at stake, and you can’t save everyone. No matter that you’re the strongest. No matter how vigilant you are. Or smart or… you’re as close to god-like as anyone and yet… yet even you have limitations.”

Valerius just stared at him. The only sound in the room was the crack and pop of the fire. Valerius finally blinked a few times and there might have been some wetness in his eyes, but he hid it again.

“You are not like us, Caden, and--”

“No, and I never will be,” Caden said, feeling sick at being this imposter. But he was the ninth Dragon Shifter now and he so wanted to do some small good thing that he could do. “But I think… I think that I can do something that maybe the others can’t.”

“I’m sure--”

---