Page 32 of Dragon's Captive

This is the most dangerous development of all—finding comfort in the arms of my captor, pleasure in his body, engagement with his mind. The lines between resistance and acceptance blur with each passing day, with each surprising kindness, with each moment of connection that has nothing to do with force and everything to do with growing recognition of each other as beings rather than symbols.

I place my hand protectively over my still-flat abdomen, feeling for changes not yet visible but undeniably present. The twins growing inside me represent the ultimate evidence of captivity, yet increasingly feel like something more complicated—a bridge between worlds, between species, between the woman I was and the person I'm becoming.

What terrifies me most isn't Kairyx's possessiveness or even carrying half-dragon offspring. It's the growing suspicion that what began as forced claiming might be evolving into something far more dangerous:

A bond I might actually choose, if choice were truly mine to make.

CHAPTER 14

MIDPOINT CRISIS

The universe hasa sick sense of timing. Just when I've begun finding something like peace in this gilded prison, when I've started allowing myself small comforts between the larger indignities of captivity, everything shatters with the abruptness of glass hitting stone.

It happens in the library, of all places. The space that's become my sanctuary, the one corner of Drake's Peak where I can almost forget what I am—claimed omega, breeding vessel, captive turned reluctant collaborator. I'm balancing on the rolling ladder, reaching for a volume on pre-Conquest agricultural techniques that might assist with the territory proposal Kairyx asked me to review, when the first pain strikes.

The sensation is nothing like the morning sickness that's finally beginning to fade, nothing like the stretching aches as my body adapts to pregnancy. This is sharp, sudden, like a blade twisted deep in my abdomen. My vision whites out. The book tumbles from my nerveless fingers, and I nearly follow it, barely catching myself on the ladder's rail as a cry tears from my throat.

For one suspended moment, I hang there, halfway between floor and ceiling, as my brain struggles to process what's happening. Then the second pain hits, stronger than the first,radiating outward in concentric waves of agony. My grip falters. The world tilts.

I'm falling.

The impact never comes. Instead, scaled arms materialize beneath me, catching my plummeting body with such precise timing it seems impossible. Through tear-blurred vision, I recognize Kairyx's golden eyes, narrowed with concern rather than their usual predatory focus.

"Clara?" His voice sounds distant despite his proximity, as if reaching me through layers of water. "What's wrong?"

I can't answer. The third spasm steals my words, replacing them with a whimper I'd be ashamed of under any other circumstances. My hands move instinctively to my abdomen, still barely rounded at eleven weeks of accelerated dragon-hybrid gestation. The healers said I should be showing more by now, that the twins should be larger, more developed. Warnings I'd dismissed with the desperate hope that perhaps my body was rejecting what had been forced upon it.

Now I recognize the truth with terrible clarity—the twins aren't being rejected. They're in danger. My body is struggling to accommodate their hybrid nature, to provide what their partially draconic genetics require for survival.

"The babies," I manage, the words scraping my throat like shattered glass. "Something's wrong with the babies."

The transformation that overtakes Kairyx happens too quickly for human eyes to fully process. One moment he's in his more humanoid form, the next his features elongate, scales spreading across his skin like dark water, obsidian ridges erupting along his spine. His massive black wings unfurl with a sound like sails catching violent wind, stretching to a span that seems impossible in the confines of the library.

Yet it's his eyes that terrify me most—human intelligence receding behind primal draconic focus, golden irises engulfed byvertical pupils so thin they nearly disappear. This is no longer the calculated commander I've come to know. This is pure instinct, ancient and unstoppable.

Before I can process the transformation, he shifts me in arms that have elongated into scaled forelegs, cradling me against his chest with surprising gentleness given the lethal talons now tipping each digit. Without warning, he turns toward the library's massive windows.

"Wait—" I start, but it's already too late.

Glass shatters around us as his massive form launches through the opening, jagged shards glittering like deadly stars in the afternoon light. The mountain air hits like a physical blow, knocking what little breath remains from my lungs. We're airborne, my stomach lurching with sudden weightlessness as Kairyx's powerful wings snap downward, propelling us away from the fortress with terrifying speed.

The day, clear and bright moments before, has transformed with the sudden caprice of mountain weather. Dark clouds boil on the horizon, racing toward us like harbingers of doom. The wind shifts, no longer merely cold but actively hostile, battering against Kairyx's wings with violent determination.

Another pain spikes through me, sharper than the others, wringing a cry from my throat that's instantly torn away by the howling wind. Kairyx's massive body curls more tightly around my smaller form, his scales radiating protective heat that shields me from the worst of the elements. Against all reason, I find myself burrowing closer to that warmth, instinct overriding intellect in the face of immediate threat.

"Hold on," he growls, the words distorted by his partially transformed jaw, yet somehow still comprehensible. "Medical facility. Eastern ridge. Best healers."

The blizzard hits with the suddenness of an ambush. One moment we're flying through turbulent air, the next we'reengulfed in swirling white fury. Ice crystals sting my exposed skin like miniature daggers. The temperature plummets until each breath burns in my lungs, frozen daggers stabbing from within. Only Kairyx's draconic heat keeps the cold from becoming immediately lethal, his massive body a barrier between me and winter's wrath.

His wings battle the gale-force winds with obvious strain, each powerful beat fighting against nature's determination to dash us against the mountainside. In the swirling white, all direction disappears. If not for draconic senses that transcend human limitations, we would surely be lost, just another tragedy claimed by the Appalachian peaks.

Time loses meaning. There is only pain and cold, punctuated by moments of lucidity where I recognize the desperation of our situation. The twins' lives hang by threads grown more tenuous with each spasm that tears through me. My own survival seems increasingly uncertain, human fragility exposed by both pregnancy complications and elemental fury.

When solid stone finally appears through the whiteout conditions, I almost believe it's hallucination—a mirage born of desperate hope rather than reality. But Kairyx's wings fold partially as he adjusts our descent, the change in momentum confirming we've reached some destination.

The landing is rougher than his usual precision would allow, the blizzard conditions forcing compromise between safety and speed. His talons scrape against stone as we touch down on what appears to be a wide ledge carved into the mountainside. A massive opening yawns before us, golden light spilling out to create a beacon in the storm.

Figures rush forward—some human, others clearly draconic, all wearing expressions of controlled urgency that medical professionals across species seem to share. Their voices blend into meaningless noise as another contraction rips through me,this one accompanied by wetness between my thighs that sends terror spiking through my system.

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