Page 85 of Dragon AU

A hand reached toward Milo and Rowan’s dragon came roaring. His wings burst from his back, violent and red as they covered Milo and caged him between the wall and his body. He hunched around him, creating a cave that shielded him from the outside world.

“Don’t touch either of them,” Rowan heard someone say, acutely aware of everyone around them.

The dragon counted. The heartbeats, the voices, the threats. He noted each one. Any one of them could get a dumb idea and reach for his mate again. Any one of them could try to take Milo away, and he wouldn’t allow that.

He couldn’t.

Because the world he’d barely belonged to before now finally felt like his. Like things were slotting together, empty spaces filled and dark corners lit. It felt like coming home.

And suddenly he could think of nothing but taking his mate to his nest and sequestering them from everyone and everything else.

He turned his head to the side, his eyes flashing warnings at everyone. Smoke was filling the air. Smoke he was letting out as a threat. As a clear claim over the man wrapped in his arms.

“Move!” he growled at everyone.

“Milo…” someone called, and Rowan spat a tiny ball of fire at the man he recognized as his mate’s friend.

He saw Ruben approach the man and place a hand on his shoulder, shaking his head gently. Ray turned to look at him, poised to argue, but Ruben pulled him out of the way.

Like he knew. Like he saw it coming.

And he probably did.

Rowan’s wings tensed. He pulled Milo tighter into his arms and charged toward a large window.

Someone jumped to open it, but it was too late.

Rowan curled around Milo and with a final roar of warning for nobody to follow them, he burst through the glass and took to the sky.

Carrying them to their nest.

Notes:

Did anyone bet on the mate thing?

Did you win?

26

Milo

Being a Milo was exhausting and confusing and a lot.

Being a Milo and a dragon added a layer of shit on top of it that made things chaotic and barely manageable.

Being a Milo, a dragon, AND a mate was supposed to be the worst possible combination. It should have just amplified all of the confusion and the chaos and made him unmanageable. And yet…it didn’t.

It gave Milo roots. Where he’d felt like he was adrift his whole life, Rowan anchored him. He felt like he was whole. Like he was right. Like all the wrong things about him weren’t wrong, just…unseen by the people who were supposed to see them. And he had that now.

The feeling reduced Milo to a ball of instincts. He slithered his way into Rowan’s chest, gripping him hard and kissing, licking, sucking, biting. He felt the need to give himself to Rowan. To repay what Rowan was giving him. He wanted to find a way to make Rowan feel just as good as he was feeling. Just as right. Just as irrevocably correct in his existence.

So he gave himself wholly as Rowan carried them through the air.

And that…was a trip in and of itself.

Mouth full of Rowan’s scales, hot on his tongue, he peeked and caught glimpses of roofs, treetops, birds. Stuff that made him exhilarated and scared in equal parts. Stuff a human shouldn’t see from this perspective.

But that was the thing, right?