Many thanks to user roftlheory for their assistance with editing!
***
Valeria sat on the bed, almost as nervous as she had been on her wedding night. Yesterday her husband had told her she was ready to bear his young, and this morning her attendants had explained to her exactly what that would entail. She bit her lip, unable to stop imagining the pain she was about to endure.
She heard his soft steps coming toward her, could almost see him in the dark. He had assured her that her sharper senses were a normal part of absorbing his energy through his seed, but she still found it eerie. It was like hearing without ears, seeing without eyes. Her consciousness barely registered the input, she would just suddenly
know
.
He was wearing a robe, his human form not as warm as his dragon one. He had been delighted the first time he reached the bed without needing to shift forms. She hadn't understood at first, for she thought he simply preferred taking her in his dragon form. But he had explained it to her, the overpowering pull of her scent, the need it sent him into.
And now, after months of practice, he could even make love to her in his human form. His organ wasn't nearly as big as in his dragon form, but she had bitten back her disappointment for his sake. He made it up to her, though, by kissing her deeply, and nibbling at her flesh, and whispering in her ear all the things he was going to do to her.
The memory made her smile, despite her fear. She could make out his features now, his dark hair and golden eyes, skin tanned and muscles hard from all the time he spent outdoors in the high mountain sun. He grinned at her, and her heart beat faster as it always did when he neared her. She could smell him now, too: a musky, clean scent that sent a primal urge of lust through her body. She had asked him about this as well, but he had only shaken his head in puzzlement and said that he would ask his father.
Dragons didn't have large families, not anymore. Once a bride bore a dragonlet, she was freed of her duties, though still not allowed to return home. The fact that dragons could shift into human form was a closely guarded secret. And once their sons reached maturity, it was no longer safe for them to be around their mothers, either, for young dragons had no control over their urges in the face of human women.
So the younger women lived separately, visited only by the most senior dragon lords, who had long since mastered their lust. They became attendants to brides like Valeria, each year readying a new human woman to be a dragon's mate. She felt sorry for them, and for herself, too, knowing that would be her fate as well. It was already hard for her to be apart from her husband during the day; she couldn't imagine bearing a child and then being torn from him as well.
But these thoughts receded as Benat's scent filled her with need. He was only paces away, and she stood to greet him.
"Husband," she said softly, as he liked to be called.
"Valeria," he replied, then kissed her.
She resisted the urge to melt into him, so heady was the feeling that came with tasting his mouth, his tongue. Instead she pushed him away. He looked hurt, but she needed to be firm.
"We have to talk," she said.
He nodded reluctantly and sat on the bed, as far away from her as he could. He was being considerate, she knew, for he still had difficulty controlling himself when he was close to her, even in human form.
"They told you how it happens." It wasn't a question, just an observation.
She nodded silently, watching the light of the torches flicker against the walls of the mating hall, as he had called it.
"If there's anything you want to know, I'll tell you what I can," he offered.
"Do you remember your mother?" she asked him.
He looked at her curiously. "Of course I do. I lived with her for twenty years."
"And do you miss her?" she asked, feeling an ache growing in her chest.
"Oh," he said. Then, "Is that really what worries you the most, right now?"
"Do you think you'll ever get to meet her again?"
He was silent for a while. "My mother died two years ago."
Valeria rubbed at her eyes, trying to keep her tears away. "I didn't realize you were that old," she tried to joke, but it fell flat.
"I'm not," he replied. "She fell ill, and none of our healers could help her."
She winced. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to...." She trailed off, not knowing how to finish.
"It's alright. You didn't know. Besides, our healers are better than yours."
She nodded, understanding. It wasn't as though she would have lived any longer if she'd been able to return to the human settlements down in the valleys.
"But do you have any questions about... what we're going to do tonight?" he asked hesitantly.
"Not really. But does it have to be tonight?"
"You are very fertile," he replied huskily, and she blushed. "We will still see each other after this," he assured her. "Once you conceive, the little one will need more and more of my energy to grow well."
She nodded; the attendants had explained that part too. She imagined it was an unwelcome surprise for most brides, needing to be mounted two, even three times a day just to be filled with the magic an unborn dragon needed, lest it start to drain the life force of its mother.
Valeria squared her shoulders. She only needed to get over this one night, and then she would have months of enjoyment to look forward to.
He must have sensed her resolution, for he sat up straighter, smiling. "Should we warm up first?"
"Yes, husband."
