Page 149 of The Dragon Warlord
“He was a fine man, and wizard. I saw how much he loved you every time he looked at you, Riv. I see plenty of him in you.”
“Thank you for saying that. It makes me think I can keep part of him here with us.”
“Of course, honeycake.”
River cries on and off for a long time. The rest of the family come in to check on us and offer their condolences when they hear the news. Corrik—who can’t stand to see me upset—has learned that when River’s upset, so am I, and it sets off a chain reaction. He leaves to destroy things outside.
Denny, who lost one of his parents too young, less than a year ago, crawls in with River. “It’s gonna be okay,” Denny says. “When I was sad, Tristan told me some good stories. I’m sure he’ll tell them to you too.”
That got River to smile.
When everyone is gone, River cries himself to sleep in my arms and I pass out beside him.
* * *
It’s still dark when I wake up. River’s sitting along the bay window, wrapped in a thin sheet, with a dazzling full moon scintillating over him. Fresh tears are drying on his face. His hair is wild. He’s smiling.
I pad over to him. “Riv?”
“He came to me in a dream. Simone.”
I comb my fingers through his hair. “That’s wonderful.”
“It still hurts, but he doesn’t feel as far away. We’ll see each other again someday.”
“Sorry, Riv, but not for a long fucking time.”
“A long, long time. You’re insane if you think you’re getting off that easy—we’ve only just begun.”
“Just begun? We’ve been together for twenty years.” I pull him off the ledge—he’s too far away from me—and I mold him to my body, burying my nose in his hair.
“Yet there are no cuffs around these wrists.”
We decided not to get married as Elves would, but to do as dragons do even though one could argue it’s the dragon form of getting married. He’ll get a special set of cuffs from me, and I’ll put them on him during a ceremony.
“I see my cheeky self has been rubbing off on you.”
“I’m … I’m going to be a little bolder. Just a little, Alpha. Something Simone said in the dream, and it gave me a surge of ‘I don’t want to miss a thing with you’.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, and I want that baby we talked about. A lot.”
I’ve put all Tristan babies on hold because I don’t want my child wearing a collar but have been able to get around that through adoption and using Alrik’s baby-making seed for Luken.
Everyone called it though. They knew River would be the one to break me. I won’t say no to him. “Anything for you, honeycake. Absolutely anything.”
“N-Not yet. We have enough children for now, but I want to look forward to doing that with you.”
“C’mere.” Turning his chin up I kiss him. He tastes like salty tears. “I look forward to it with you. Any other requests?”
He nods. “I want you to fuck me like dragons do. I want you to give yourself over to your dragon completely and take what’s yours.”
* * *
He needs a distraction. To stop thinking. To stop missing. He needs his alpha to be his alpha.
“Please,” he begs.
