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𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟑

 -ˋˏ  𝘞𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴   ˎˊ-

˚ 　 ✫ 　　　 ˚ . 　　　 ⋆

. · 　　 +

✧

╰┈˚ · ° .  IT HAD BEEN A FORTUNE THAT  we had told my family that I was going to be away for a couple of days for my birthday. Apart from the couple of calls to wish me happy birthday, no one had disturbed us or our peace.

When I woke up from my sleep after the blocking charms had fallen off, it was well past noon. And as promised, I still wasn't alone. Zyran had surprised me with a cake— that he ate at least half of it— and a gift– a beautiful necklace, oval-shaped encastoned in pure gold. A white moonstone background with a gold crafted four-pointed star in the middle.

It was breathtaking.

He had explained that it was from his treasure, something that all dragon-shifters had. Builded over time and varied with expensive things like jewels and real gold coins to simple trinkets and stones. And from my understanding, even if he hadn't said it explicitly, I knew that what was in a treasure, wasn't something that dragons would share willingly.

And the way he smiled proudly whenever he caught sight of the necklace around my neck, it made the gift much more sentimental.

We had spent the day in or in the vicinity of the cave. He taught me how to use my new senses to not be overwhelmed by all sounds and new smells, how to use my new body that felt different as I moved, and how to use my new reflexes without it being too obvious. The wings on my back fortunately disappeared when I willed them away, but the hardship was to not let them out whenever my emotions heightened. We practiced some forms of lighter glamorous and it was actually harder than I expected it to be.

As a dragon shifter, Zyran didn't have much of the faerie magic like me as a Nymph had. The stars called to me but even if fainther, I could hear the flowers pull too, the tree and the earth, even the water.

"They are just another appendage, it's instinctive for you to use them. But they are not trained yet. It's the same thing as your legs. If you would use them after not moving them for a long time, you would most likely fall on your face. Your wings are the same." Zyran explained.

We both sat on the stone just outside the cave. The sun was about to set, the temperatures dropping with it, but I came to find that the cold was not bothering me much. I could still feel it but it was as if my body had changed to accustomed to the cold of the night.

"Just start with closing and reopening them and moving them up and down. Not to fly."

I giggled at his playfully narrowed eyes. I had already tried more than once to fly only to end up sprawled on the ground after lifting for a couple of seconds.

I nevertheless followed his directions, wincing when they pulled at an un muscle and scowling when they did nothing or the bare minimum. "They are not doing much." I complained only for them to flutter at my back with my rising annoyance.

"They are now." He pointed out with mirth.

"You are not funny." I deadpanned. "How do I make them move? How do you do it?"

"I don't have wings, Darlin'." He replied looking even more amused.

"Yes you do. Or your dragon has them." I pointed out.

He let the amusement fall, replacing it with soft confidence directed at me, "I don't even remember when I first shifted. It's natural like walking for me now. And it will be for you too, don't worry." I sighed out, his words not helping at all. "I know of some types of fae descendant from us dragon shifters that have very large wings. They have to learn how to use them, build up their muscles until they are strong enough to fly. They have some exercise that the younglings do to get accustomed with their weight and overall feeling. We can try them, if you want."

"What do I have to do?" I asked, regaining my smile.

"Can I touch them?"

The question made me stop, almost as if it had been ingraven in me to not let anyone touch them, but it quickly fell away when I remembered it had been Zyran that had asked me the question. "Yeah." I nodded my head.

I turned around, giving him my back. My heart started to race as I felt him come closer, hands hovering just out of touch from my wings. "Try to lift them up again, I will try to help by doing it manually okay?"

I tried to move my wings but as I felt his fingers brushing the tips a breath left my lips. They were very sensitive. "Zy?"

"Yeah?"

It was silent around us, air charging up with the lust that I was currency feeling.

"I'm not going to be able to do anything if you have your hands on me. Definitely not if they are on my wings."

It was the truth.

A laugh that he tried to contain in vain left his lips. The corner of my mouth tilts upwards at the sound.

Zyran, still laughing, abandoned my back to come sit again where we were face to face.

"Oh come on, we both know it's the truth." I let out a scoff filled with amusement that only made the dragon-shifter laugh even more. "Alright, stop laughing." He didn't. "Come on Zy."

In a second I was on my back, wings retracted magically into my skin. And he was above me, face hoovering inches from mine with a wide grin on his lips.

"True." He said.

"True what?" I almost stummered.

"We were definitely not going to do much studying if I kept brushing my hand on your wings." Each word he spoke, the more his tone lowered. His eyes shifted to my lips, lingering there, filling with desire until they met mine again.

"I'm kind of regretting speaking then." I whispered, gasping softly as he brought his thumb on my cheek, moving it slowly until it reached my lips.

"I want to kiss you." he murmured, his pupil dilated enough that the black had eaten away almost all the hazel.

"Then kiss me."

His lips brushed against mine, a feather-like touch that I almost followed when they retreated. "Not yet." He said it almost like it pained him to let those words out. He moved back until he was standing on his knees, eyes not meeting mine.

"You gotta be kidding me." I groaned, "Why not now?"

I really wanted to kiss him.

His gaze moved to my arm, the forearm there painted with the five white-lilac magic tattooed constellations.

"We need to talk."

───── ⋆˖⁺‧ ☽◯☾ ‧⁺˖⋆ ─────

╰┈˚ · ° .  Zyran opened and closed his mouth multiple times, he was pacing back and forth as I looked at him sitting cross legged on the bed. The stars and the moon were shining in the sky, I could feel them like they were whispering in my ear their stories, I could feel the need to reach out and touch them. But Zyran said that we needed to talk even when he had not said anything in the last 20 minutes.

"Zy, please just start talking." I said having enough of all his pacing and anxiety that started to clog up the cave. "You are kind of scaring me."

He stopped in his tracks when I admitted that. Eyes apologetic and wide.

"It's okay, just say something." I reassured him.

Zyran exhaled a breath, "Do you remember when you told me about the fox?"

"Yes, it was two days ago." I deadpanned.

He rolled his eyes, continuing, "When I was in Nàdar there were rumors about a male, a Kitsune, the only one remaining of his type. A Seishin, a spirit fox. There were a lot of rumors about him, actually. One of those was that he killed his own family so that he could be the only remaining spirit kitsune alive. In the last years he was used mostly as a tale to scare younglings. If they didn't behave, the Seishin would use his spirit foxes to kidnap children. I never knew someone that actually met him, or even knew his real name. I don't even know if he actually exists, actually."

"Spirit foxes." I repeated out loud. And as I said that, the fox flashed just behind Zyran before disappearing. The eyes of the fox, this time were of a complete milky white. And for a second, I was sure that it looked almost amused. "And he is the only one that had this ability?"

"Pretty sure, yes." Zyran nodded.

"Are you telling me that this literal myth is coming to kidnap me?" I asked.

"What? No, Meda!" He groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "He is not going to kidnap you. Probably."

"Probably?" I screeched. "What does he even want with me?"

"Just listen. I already had my suspicions, but I wanted to wait until your blocking charms fell to see if I was right. And I was." He sat down next to me letting out a sigh. "When we get the First Call from the Goddess, we get a mate mark too." He raised the already short sleeve of his shirt revealing his left bicep and the white with a bluish tint tattoo there.

"The Andromeda constellation." I whispered, resisting the urge to touch it.

"That is your mark." Then he pointed at my left forearm, at the draco constellation. "This is mine." He hesitated for a second, looking into my eyes as he spoke next, "The other four constellations are also mate marks. And they belong to your other mates."

"Other four? Oh my god." I groaned, hiding my head in my hands. "How is that possible?"

"It's normal for the fae-folk to have a mate that has more than three bonds, actually five is very common."

That wasn't very helpful. "And you think that The Vulpecula constellation is of the spirit Kitsune."

"Very likely." He offered me a half smile. "The goddess sent me first but I'm sure that now that your charms are gone they will come. It's only a matter of time."

I nodded my head at his words before letting it fall on Zyran's shoulder as I intertwined my fingers with his. "Why were you nervous about telling me this?"

He stalled for a few seconds before he sighed out his reply. "I was afraid. I don't want you to hate me. I don't want you to feel obliged to be with me or any of the others just because we are your mates." He then lowered his tone even more, "I was afraid that maybe you would have left me if you knew that there were other people for you."

I took his head between my hands, ready to expose him to my heart. "I'm not going to leave you. Ever, Zy. You are the best thing that happened to me in so long. For all my life, I felt like I had to change myself to fit with other people, but you never wanted anything more than who I was. You accepted me when not even I accepted myself. You feel right, Zyran. When I'm with you everything feels right. And I don't care if it's the mate bond or not."

I wasn't expecting it. I wasn't expecting his lips to crush onto mine.

Our lips met and danced together fitting perfectly one with the other. Our tongue touched and sparks traveled down my spine. His hands grabbed my hair, fisting it and titling my head backwards so that he could have more space to move against my lips. He was relentless in the way he kissed, all fire and blazing flames, burning all over.

Our breaths mingled once he had the strength to leave my lips. "Mine." The dragon growled as Zyran started to nip down my jaw until he was once again kissing me.

"Yours." I breathed out once we fell apart.

Echoing similar words to mine, he whispered against my lips. "Nothing felt right until you."

✎

˗ˏˋ 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 ˊˎ˗

Hello everyone!!

Excuse me?! Oh these two are going to be the death of me. They are actually very cute.

Hot end of the chapter. I intend to write smut later on so be ready for that. Maybe let me know what you would like to read.

5 mates, the girl is going to be busy managing all of them. And I can't wait to write them.

Thank you for reading this chapter, I'll see you on Wednesday!

˚ · ° . 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞 . ° · ˚

𝐖𝐞𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞!

– 𝐋𝐨𝐥𝐚 ☾