Betrayal: Book 3 of the Guardians Saga

Ch. 20.1 How To Train Your Dragon To Love You

"You know how I can make your skin glow slightly?" Alex asked. "I wonder if I could light up your whole wing sail."

"Sounds wondrous."

Alex lit her hand and smoothed it over Rile's entire wing membrane. He moaned and halfway through, his back arched from the pleasure. Alex smiled and the wing became luminescent. Rile raised it to look at it. He tilted it this way and that and they both admired the shimmering golden-red sheen.

"I'm the luckiest Agama in the universe."

He lowered it over Alex.

"Please don't let me fall asleep like this. I'm afraid I'll hurt it. You know I sleep like the dead," she said.

Rile gazed down at her. "My brother never covered you with his wings?"

"Of course not," Alex said immediately. "He shouldn't have. Even now, you're making me nervous."

"Why?"

Alex bit her lip and pondered. "One, because I'm not worth it. Two, because you're vulnerable. Your wing could be hurt. That's not right."

"I'll start with the first one," Rile said. "Your worth is immeasurable." He leaned closer to whisper in her ear, "You're my first. The first to ever handle my wings."

Alex blushed up to the roots of her hair.

"The second, about being vulnerable, only you can be hurt? Our relationship is two way. We can hurt each other. That's how a real relationship works. Not only you as the vulnerable one."

Alex traced down a spar of his wing. "I couldn't stand it if something happened to you. I'll spiral out of control. Keep that in mind."

"We're in this together."

Alex stroked his wing further down, Rile moaned again, and eventually they fell asleep, exhausted by all-out pleasure.

***

Rile awoke to an empty bed and panic fluttered in his heart until he saw Alex sitting in the recliner, knees to chest, watching him with sorrow.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm waiting to see your reaction," she said carefully.

"Reaction?" Rile sat up in bed and tilted his head as he looked at her.

"The morning after reaction. Will you resent me? Look down on me? Feel trapped by me? Be filled with regret? Feel manipulated?" Alex eyes were wary and she hugged her knees tighter to her chest.

Rile realized that Gabe was a bigger idiot than he had ever thought. "None of the above." Rile did something he thought he would never do.

He knelt on the floor before the chair and looked up at Alex. "I'm not Gabe and I'm not Morgan. I love you every bit as much as I did yesterday, if not more. I thank the Creator of All that Gabe was too much of a snotty, uptight, perfect eldest son to hold onto the most wonderful thing in the universe."

Alex dropped down beside him and laid her head on his shoulder. After a long moment, she said, "That was the beginning. I was taking it slow for your first time."

"Then I am dead, but there's no other way I'd rather go."

***

Alex was as good as her word. Every night she ratcheted up the power level and every night Rile thought it couldn't get any better.

It was going so well that both were unprepared when Rile gasped, "Alex," and convulsively clutched her arms. "Don't."

Alarmed, she shut down her power cold and clung to him. "I'm sorry. I would never intentionally hurt you."

She wept and Rile breathed those shuddering breaths that were the Agama tearless version of sobbing.

"You didn't hurt me," he said when he finally controlled his breathing.

"Yes, I did. I must have." There was no controlling Alex's sobs. "I felt such fear from you."

"No, you didn't. Listen to me." He had to shake her gently before she opened her eyes to look at him. "It wasn't that. I swear: the power didn't hurt me."

"The power didn't." She repeated slowly, using it to draw out her breathing and quell her own sobs. "But I did."

"It's...I don't know how to explain. It's like you touched right through to my soul and I was ...afraid." He didn't add: afraid as in the wrenching terror of having your soul sliced open to utter vulnerability, kind of afraid.

Alex didn't say anything and more tears dropped onto his chest. "Think hard and decide if I'm worth it. I'm used to that kind of fear, but I can't make you go through it. Don't worry about me if you decide to go home to your brothers. You heard the Portal Guardian: she'll find me a team."

Rile cursed his brother again. Alex had grown used to the fear of abandonment. It was always waiting for her in one form or another. She had fought it on the Anolis world, but it had won and now she bent her knee to it.

"I can't let you outdo me in the courage department," he teased.

She didn't respond to his gentle mocking.

"Be patient with me. This is all new to me," Rile said. "I want you more than anything in creation. We'll go through it together."

Alex responded to his humility by stroking his chest with a glowing hand, a soft, reassuring power. He rolled on his side and unfurled his wing to cover Alex. Her glowing hand traced along the spars, coaxing greater bliss. When they both finally fell asleep, it was with warm contentedness.

***

A/N

Was it a satisfying ending?

Dedicated to the loyal readers who made it this far at the time of posting [if wattpad doesn't eat the dedications:

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