Page 74 of The Exiled Dragon

“Sleep,” his Dragon rumbled through his voice. I winced, knowing it was hurting him, but Creed’s passion flowed through our Dragons, having me feel his happiness. His cock was no longer as angry, his body relaxing. Breathing a heavy sigh, I felt myself drift off to sleep while Creed held me tightly in his arms.

Creed

I groaned, sitting up beside a nearby tree. My body was wrecked; I felt soreness in every part of my body, specifically my undercarriage. Gripping the tree, I pulled myself to standing, feeling the warmth on my bare chest. Blinking a few times to adjust my eyes, I found my body wasn’t back in the King and Queen’s cave. Odessa wasn’t in my arms.

It wasn’t all a dream, was it? I didn’t fall asleep and dream that the past moon cycle was all for nothing. “Odessa!” I cried out, running a few steps. Braids hitting my face, I grabbed my throat. I spoke. I spoke without using the last potion that gave me the ability to speak to my mate.

A dream, this was a dream I was in currently. However, in my previous dreams or nightmares, I could never speak, constantly having to endure the brutality of Adam and the guilt surrounding my exiled life. Breathing heavily, I danced Odessa’s name on my tongue again. I spoke again.

My Dragon rumbled in my chest, feeling his eyes roll backward. I’m glad he understood what was happening to me with my body, but I was clearly not. He pulled me to walk further down a pathway I took as a child. To the same hot spring, Adam, Amora, and I spent our time swimming when chores were done. There were so many happy times spent here when we all got along as children and were innocent to the world around us.

The light sources were sitting in a position that told me the summer season. The snow was no longer here, and the trees were bursting with blossoms on their branches. It was a different place in time. I rubbed my shoulder, feeling raised marks.

Odessa.

That part wasn’t a dream either. My Dragon again huffed inside me.

Odessa marked me. Her teeth went into my body as she let me use her for my rut. The first rut I had ever encountered and hoped I would never have again. I wanted to make my mate feel pleasure, not use her for my own selfish desires.

My eyes rolled back in my head when she told me to use her. Sometimes it will be all right if she wants it.

Our mating was now complete; we had each other. My curled smile didn’t curl; in fact, both sides of my face turned upward. Touching my lips, I felt no scar running down my eye to the lower part of my neck. My neck was now smooth; the only indentation was now Odessa’s sitting on my shoulder.

Running to the clear pool, I glanced into the water. The water nymphs scattered, only to gather and look up at me. Several waved, another turning on their lights, having my reflection show that much more. My face and neck held no scars. The flaws in my arms were now smooth; only the tattoos that adorned my body showed.

Warmth in my chest radiated around me, rubbing my face with both my hands before falling back into the dirt. My mate cured me. The bond we shared healed me. Gods, I hope I am this way when I wake; Odessa will be able to hear my whispers in her ears every night.

“Amazing what a bond can do, isn’t it?” A female’s calming voice fell on me. That voice that I had missed so much. Turning my body suddenly, I see the woman I love as much as my little fawn.

“Mother.”

Chapter Forty-Five

Creed

Itcouldn'tbe.Iblinked my eyes several times.

There she was, in the flesh, in a white dress that did nothing for her hourglass shape. Her hair was pulled back in one sizeable loose braid that lowered to the small of her back. Her soft yellow eyes flickered at me, a tiny smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"It's so good to see you, my little fledgling," she sang at me. I ran up to her, landing on my knees, hugging her tightly as I buried myself in her chest.

"Mother," I heaved a sob. No matter my size, I would always be her little fledgling. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there." My grip tightened around her waist, burying my face in her stomach as I cried. "I wasn't there to protect you." My mother's hand ran across the top of my head, her lips pressing against it.

"Creed, it was never your fault. None of it was. I'm so sorry you have had to live like this. Even I was blind to your suffering when I was alive. I hope to explain why that was so." Mother's fingers wrapped around my loose hair.

"I'm so sorry I failed you." I shook my head, gripping her tighter, feeling the rocks in the dirt cut into my knees.

"No, you didn't." I heaved a breath at her words.

"I did." Mother's hands gripped under my arm, pulling me to standing. I was a head taller than her. She smiled at me, her fangs perfectly white. The last time I saw her, she was covered in blood, her face mangled in flesh and bone. "I should have done something when I felt something was off, but I didn't. I'm just thankful Amora was smart enough to question it." Tilting my head, her hand cupped my cheeks and then led me through the summer forest.

We reached the other side of the heated pond. Mother lifted her dress, sitting on the massive rock, and dipping her hand into the water. "I met your father here, your real father." Her voice traveled across the pond, I flinched. He was a rapist who had taken advantage of my mother, and I was thankful he was dead. Otherwise, I would have spent my adulthood searching and killing.

"He met me here a long time ago as I was bathing alone. I came here a lot, each time smelling a sweet mountain of fresh air one wouldn't be able to find unless you traveled to the other side of the Great Northern Mountains." She sighed, turning to me.

"I would smell him many times for almost a year. Until one day he approached me. He looks just like you. From the dark hair and eyes down to the very body you have worked so hard to have. Nothing like your stepfather's; he had sweet features. Your real father was a dark angel, tanned darkly by the light sources because he flew so high.” She tilted her head back to the sky. "He was everything I would have hoped for in a mate."

Great, mighty Zeus.

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