Page 126 of Embrace of Dragons

“Your pleasure is my pleasure. Your pain is my pain. And mine are yours.”

And if that wasn’t the very definition of love, Arthur didn’t know what was.

He sighed with his whole body, deeply content—

Reveling in his Mate’s everlasting embrace.

Epilogue

Memories or Dreams?

Michael stared out from Tal’s workshop toward the large tree stump where Benjamin D’Angelo chopped wood.

Ben did this with predictable regularity in the wee hours of the morning almost every day when he was home. And Michael watched him with equal regularity whenever he was around the workshop.

It was serendipitous, indeed, that Michael was around quite often, and his timing always coincided with Ben’s early morning exercise.

Where other people seemed to need fresh coffee to wake up, or an energizing run, Ben chopped wood. Partly, it was to supply Tal-Telal’s shop with materials to use for his carvings. Partly for the various fireplaces and stoves around the homestead that were wood burning.

But mostly, Michael deduced that this was how Ben released pent-up tension, perhaps triggered by bad dreams from the night before, especially over the past few years.

Why bad dreams and not some other cause?

Because Michael had them too.

Perhaps not the same dreams, but he recognized the dark circles under Ben’s eyes and the haunted light within them as if he was looking in a mirror.

Yes, Michael had been watching him for quite some time.

No matter the weather, no matter the season, Ben came out here to chop wood like clockwork. And every weekend, increasingly on the weekdays too, Michael arrived extra early at Tal’s workshop to get his fix—

Admiring Ben’s naked torso, impeccable pecs, corrugated abs, and leanly muscular, vein-wrapped arms flex from the effort, covered in a sheen of manly sweat was apparently now Michael’s morning wakeup routine.

Something in his memory latched onto this scene.

Well, not this scene in particular, but one like it. Where the being who wore Michael’s skin had once admired another magnificent male…

Age of the Twin Goddesses. Tens of thousands of years ago.

“I have a surprise for you, Seven,” her twin said one day.

It was not a good day.

The other gods had cornered Seven by the bathing pool. A test of will and power had ensued; many were wounded from the skirmish, including Seven herself.

But the others were worse off than her, at least. Ha!

It was rare that Six hadn’t been with her. She suspected the other gods had diverted her twin away on purpose. They would never have tried the ambush had the twins been together.

They were nigh invincible as a unit. Hence the snarling jealousy from their siblings, cousins and other creations of Father Jade.

“What is wrong?” Six immediately asked when she saw Seven’s black mood worn clearly on her face.

Seven forced a careless smile.

Six was terribly protective of her, as she was of her twin in return. They spoiled each other. Someone had to, for they only really had each other.

Power was a lonely thing.

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