Chapter 23: Spring Fever
The heat of the spring was a balm on Taichi’s aching muscles, but nothing could soothe the restless, burning pressure within. Two months. That was all it had been since the Seeing Pool, and his body was a foreign landscape. His belly was a taut, heavy globe, mapped with silvery stretch marks that caught the moonlight. Beneath the steaming, sulfur-scented water, he could see the dark, sinuous shapes of the twins moving, turning over one another in a slow, liquid dance that made his skin ripple.
He waded, clumsy and gravid, toward the far edge where the water deepened. Each step was a careful negotiation with his new center of gravity. The smooth stones underfoot were slick. His back was a constant, dull throb, and a deeper, more urgent ache had settled low in his pelvis for days—a persistent, hollow need that heat and water couldn’t touch.
Ryuu watched him from a rocky outcropping, a silhouette of coiled power against the star-flecked sky. The great, leathery sweep of his wings was folded tight against his back, the sharp tips brushing the mist that rose from the water. He was in his in-between form: largely human, but for the wings, the faint pattern of scales along his shoulders and the lethal, elegant curve of black claws tipping his fingers. His eyes were pure, reflective gold.
“The water is no longer enough, is it?” Ryuu’s voice was a low rumble that vibrated in the steam.
Taichi shook his head, a flush that had nothing to do with the heat creeping up his neck. He was panting slightly just from the walk. “It’s… inside. It feels like a hollow tooth. But everywhere.” He leaned back against a submerged rock, the water lapping at his collarbones. “Hana says it’s my body preparing. Says it’s… normal.”
“It is preparation,” Ryuu agreed, pushing off from the rock. He entered the water without a sound, moving toward Taichi with a predator’s grace. The water parted for him like a sigh. “But ‘normal’ is a human word. This is not a human process. Your body knows what it needs to complete the shaping. It is asking.”
“Asking for what?” Taichi whispered, though he knew. He’d felt the pulling tightness, the way his senses had sharpened to a single point of want whenever Ryuu was near.
Ryuu didn’t answer with words. He closed the distance, the heat of his body surpassing that of the spring. His scaled hands came to rest on the monumental curve of Taichi’s stomach. One claw-tipped finger traced a particularly vivid stretch mark. A shock of pure, electric sensation jolted through Taichi, making him gasp. It wasn’t pain. It was a live wire, connecting directly to the knot of need between his legs.
“They are restless,” Ryuu murmured, his palm pressing where a small foot or elbow pushed out. “They feel the world nearing. They feel their sire.” He leaned down, his lips brushing the shell of Taichi’s ear. “They feel your hunger. It calls to them. To me.”
Taichi’s head fell back against the rock. His cock, thick and heavy, strained against his belly in the water. The shame was gone, burned away by the relentless, biological drumbeat of the last two months. There was only this desperate, animal truth.
“Then stop talking,” Taichi growled, the words scraped raw from his throat. He reached for Ryuu, fingers digging into the hard muscle of his arms. “Fuck me. You know what I am. What you made me. So fucking use me. Fuck me like the broodmare I am.”
A savage sound ripped from Ryuu’s chest, half-growl, half-triumph. His claws tightened, not quite breaking the skin, but claiming it. He hauled Taichi from the supportive rock, turning him with shocking ease. The water sloshed around them. Taichi’s front met the rough, warm stone of the spring’s edge, his massive belly cradled against it. He braced his arms, spreading his legs wide in the water, offering himself.
He heard the slick, hungry sound of Ryuu spitting into his own palm. A moment later, the broad, blunt head of Ryuu’s cock was pressing against him. It wasn’t human. It was thicker, ridged, and unbearably hot, a brand even in the hot spring.
“Yes,” Taichi hissed, pushing back. “No condoms. No waiting. Just fucking give it.”
Ryuu obliged.
There was no gentle slide. Ryuu sheathed himself in one brutal, shattering thrust. Taichi screamed. The stretch was catastrophic, a blinding white split that melted almost instantly into a brutal, filling perfection. Ryuu’s claws found his hips, holding him immobile as he buried himself to the hilt, his groan a seismic event against Taichi’s back.
“Mine,” Ryuu snarled, the word vibrating through Taichi’s spine. “My bearer. My mate. Dripping with my get.”
He began to move. It wasn’t a rhythm for pleasure. It was a piston-stroke, deep and punishing, each drive aimed at the very core of that hollow, aching need. The water churned around them. Taichi sobbed, his fingers scrambling for purchase on the wet stone. Every impact jolted through his swollen belly, and inside, the twins reacted—not with distress, but with a sudden, violent euphoria. They moved, tumbling, as if cheering on the claiming.
“Fuck! Fuck, Ryuu!” Taichi babbled, his mind dissolving into sensation. The brutal fullness, the scrape of scales against his back, the animal sounds ripping from the dragon above him. “Harder. I can fucking take it. Give it all!”
Ryuu changed his angle, hiking Taichi’s hips higher. The next thrust hit a place that unspooled Taichi’s vision into sparks. He came instantly, with a choked, guttural shout, his cock pulsing untouched, his climax wrenched from him by pure, brutal friction. His channel clamped down, milking the thick, invading length.
Ryuu’s thrusts became erratic, frantic. His teeth closed on the junction of Taichi’s neck and shoulder, not a bite, but a firm, possessional anchor. His hips stuttered. Taichi felt the hot, surging flood deep inside him, a claim that went deeper than skin or soul. It was biological, magical, a seal. Ryuu pumped into him, grunting with each pulse, filling that hollow ache until Taichi felt impossibly, wonderfully full.
They stayed locked together, panting, as the water settled. Ryuu’s weight was heavy, real, and grounding. His tongue laved over the mark his teeth had made.
Inside Taichi, the restless movement had ceased. The twins were still, sated, as if the raw act had settled something for them too. The constant, hollow pressure was gone, replaced by a warm, liquid fullness and a profound, bone-deep tiredness.
Ryuu withdrew slowly, his hands gentling, turning Taichi in the water. He supported his weight, cradling him against his chest. He looked down at the mess he’d made of Taichi—the flushed skin, the water beading on his lashes, the blissed-out slackness of his face.
“The shaping is complete,” Ryuu said, his voice rough but tender. He placed a hand over Taichi’s belly. “They are ready for the world now.”
Taichi nuzzled into the scale-kissed skin of Ryuu’s throat, utterly spent. The memory of his own filthy demand echoed in him. Broodmare. He didn’t flinch from it. It was true. It was his choice. It was his power.
“Good,” he murmured, his eyes already closing. “Let them be ready. I’m tired of carrying the little dragons.”