Page 11 of Omega Haunting

“Oh! Gravy,” Astral laughed. “Mom makes it up really good. It’s an Appalachian specialty. That’s deer gravy too.”

I tried it and it wasn’t bad. It was creamier than I expected and saturated with deer fat, but we had our own gravy recipes back on 1. We just didn’t cover most of our breakfast with it. Though, by the end of the meal I’d grown fond of it.

“I’ll see if someone else can take Morgi’s wards today. He prefers when I do it, but he can deal,” Astral said as he rinsed our plates at the sink.

“I’ll go with you if you need to go to work. I understand that currency is a major part of life on your planet. Currency is used for everything and not merely measuring how much food to produce for any given year,” I said.

“You guys don’t have money?” Astral blinked at me. “How do you get anything?”

“Points or barter but even if you’re out of points you eat. It’s a measurement for the councils,” I shrugged.

“Morgi pays for the year upfront. Mostly in barter because food in the fridge is worth a lot more than money in the bank. I’m torn, though. I don’t want anyone else messing with my magical setup, but I don’t want to go,” he sighed, drying the dishes and putting them away.

Slowly one by one and then in pairs and small groups the children had disappeared from the kitchen to be dispatched to wherever their young lives were directed.

“Do you not like Morgi?” I asked.

A sudden need to protect Astral from anyone who might annoy him filled the atoms between my scales. The magic tugged and pulled on me until I found myself standing with him in front of the sink.

“Morgi and I are close. Well, as close as I am to anyone outside my family. I don’t dislike him. I just like you more than him which sounds outrageous when I say it aloud. We just met.”

“This time,” I pointed out. “We’ve known each other before and I’d love to know how those lives played out. How did you go from being a dragon to being a wolf? Perhaps there were more furry shifters in our flight than the councils and leaders want us to know. I know some flight members remained behind because their mates couldn’t handle flying through space.”

“Maybe you were a wolf in one lifetime,” Astral smirked.

I clenched my jaw. This wolf was going to be the death of me. Alone in the kitchen with him, I was already hard again. My dick throbbed for attention. Lifting him up and carrying him out of the kitchen would’ve been easy. Too easy. I could take him to one of the many caves in the surrounding area and make love to him again and again until neither of us could cum anymore. I could coax the pleasure out of his lean, muscular body until he couldn’t stop writhing and had an egg….

“That’s exactly why I don’t want to go to Morgi’s,” Astral whispered, snapping my attention back to the present but the fantasy still lingered in the back of my mind.

I glanced down. My mate was hard too, and I knew if I took a deep breath, I’d smell how slick he was. Astral ran his hands up and down my arms before finally entwining his fingers with mine. I tried to imagine standing like this with him for the first time in the Other World and smiled despite how many brain cells we both lost since meeting an hour ago. Brain cells usually returned to their full functioning by the time newly met mates had been together for a few years. We were all made of magic after all.

“What about your family? Your flight? Are they worried?” Astral asked.

I cocked my head to the side homing in on my brother over the flight link. He and his family were still on Earthside helping clean up after the wedding. For a microsecond I felt guilty but that’s why we’re a flight. Not everyone could function at one hundred percent all the time. Sometimes you had to drop out of being a functional member of society so that you could function even better later.

“Have fun. I wish you would’ve told us you were leaving but I get it. I mean, I dragged Fred across the universe just to have him by my side. Let us know if you need anything and I meanANYTHING,”Elio sounded off in my thoughts over the family link.

“Thanks, Elio. I can’t wait for you all to meet him. Only, I can wait because even sharing him with his own family and pack is torture.”

“That gets easier. Mostly easier anyway,”Elio chuckled.

“They’re okay,” I told Astral a second later. “I think our flight link reaches further than some links here. Our scientists and psychologists believe that’s because the ancestors had to hone the skill while they were traveling through space. Being able to communicate over long distances accurately allowed them to scout larger swatches of space at once without losing each other in the dark, cold void.”

“I’ve always said I’m more of a magic than science guy, but I think I could listen to you talk about anything for the rest of my life,” Astral said, locking his gaze to mine.

“Magic and science are lovers. One doesn’t function without the other,” I said and cupped his chin because I couldn’t resist touching more of him. Then, remembering that most furry shifters loved to scent mark, I ran my fingers over his cheek and he nuzzled into my hand. Phantom fur brushed against my skin and my dragon sat up. He wouldn’t officially meet Astral’s wolf in the place our inner sanctums merged into one until after our claiming vows but that didn’t stop him from pining away.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Dern said, walking into the kitchen.

Astral startled away from me like we were teenagers caught in some forbidden embrace, but Dern pretended not to notice.

“I was on my way out and wanted to let you guys know that if you stopped by I’d lend you some of Ormund’s old clothes. I don’t think anyone else around here has anything that will fit you and I don’t think you want to spend the rest of your time here running around in a suit.”

“Was Ormund a dragon too?” I asked, taking Astral’s hand in mine.

Dern chuckled and glanced to the empty space on his left. Was that where Ormund would’ve walked by his side if he was still on this side of the door of life and death?

“My Ormund’s a lot of things but he’s not a dragon,” Dern said. “His clothes should fit you, though. He had a lot of torso like you do.”

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