Independence

A/N Hello people, I'm BACK! Yes, feel wecome to throw eggs and rotten cabbages at me. I'm soooo sorry for taking so long to update. So anyway, enjoy the chapter! It's a late Easter present from me to all my lovely readers out there. Enjoy!

Btw, this chapter was not beta-d, so do ignore the grammar or whatever mistakes you might find in the chapter.






Chapter 11: Of Rooms and Baths



It was raining by the time they left the medical center.

Lightning flashed through the darkened sky, the rumbling thunder following in its wake. A loud 'boom' cracked through the sky startling Lex and making him jump a little in surprise. Thunder had always sounded less intimidating when he was on the nice stable ground. High up in the air however, the roar of the thunder seemed exceptionally louder and much more nerve-wrecking. Streaks of lightning danced around the pair, one flying through the rain unbothered by its presence and another slightly jumpy at being in the very midst of the storm.

As if sensing the discomfort of his smaller passenger, the large dominant tightened his hold around the Ri. Claws retracted in further to form a ball like cage around the submissive, hiding the Ri away from lightning and the roaring thunder.

Lex squeaked a little in surprise and indignation at being encased further in his companion's claws. It was not like he was that afraid of thunder. After all, he wasn't some perpetually timid submissive that needed to be coddled. Lex however could admit that being held like this was somewhat comforting.

It reminded him of when he was a hatchling still encased in his safe and warm shell. He was content then, trapped in the middle between sleep and awareness as he waited for the time when he would hatch. He remembered hatching and clawing his way out of the soft earth, emerging as a newborn Ri into the sunlight for the very first time and experiencing the affectionate touches and gentle sniffing of his brother as they curled up side by side, taking in the sight and scents of the new world into which they had come into.

The feel of raindrops falling chillingly onto his bare skin woke Lex up from the light doze he had been in. The very first thing he saw as he opened his eyes was silver and grey, or more specifically silver grey. Smoldering silver grey eyes stared deeply into his own, making Lex shiver with an unknown emotion. Those eyes were practically piercing into his very soul, making him feel exposed and slightly vulnerable in the presence of the dominant.

'Huh, we must have landed,' he thought absent-mindedly, still looking into those deep silver grey eyes.




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“ You must be cold,” said the Ro, feeling the submissive shiver slightly in his arms. Well, it was no wonder of course, he had been standing in the rain with the Ri in his arms for more than a couple of minutes. Somehow, just looking at the blue-eyed Ri was enough to distract him and make him lose sense of time.

Mathew would have laughed and called him a love-struck idiot if he had witnessed the scene. After all,an almost-a-millennium old Dragon was not supposed to act like some green-eared teenager out on his first date. ' I need to stop acting like a love-sick hatchling,' he thought, berating himself by getting distracted by a pair of beautiful blue eyes.

With purposeful strides, he headed towards the back door leading into his mansion. The flight back from the medical center in the rain had probably not been a good a idea. The poor Ri was naked and,with the addition of the cold raindrops,was probably freezing to death. Lucien berated himself for not thinking to cover his poor mate with robes or with a raincoat before flying back to the mansion in the storm.

Punching in the security code, Lucien waited for the door to slide open before he entered into the warm interior of the mansion. He was greeted by the sight of the head servant and his young red-headed son, waiting patiently for their master near the front parlor of the mansion.

“ Albert,” he acknowledged his head servant, with a nod of his head.

“My Lord, it is good to see you and your intended mate arrive home safely,” said Albert McKain with a bow.

Observing the duo, Lucien could tell by the younger one's stance that he was nervous. The red-headed lad had not stopped fidgeting ever since the Ro had seen them from the entrance. Noticing that the dominant was staring at him, the lad dropped his head and stared fixatedly at the carpeted floor below.

“My son, my Lord, is here to apologise for the trouble he had caused to happen earlier today,” said the head servant, as nudged his son into looking up.

“ I'm sorry, I really didn't mean for that to happen,” apologised the lad, avoiding direct eye contact with the intimidating Dragon. “ I promise I won't ever be so careless again,” he added quietly, sweating nervously in the looming presence of the master of the house.

“ My mate could have been seriously injured or worse thanks to your actions,” stated Lucien in an low tone. He saw the boy flinch and taking pity on him, added in a more even tone, “ Make sure that it never happens again.” Seeing the boy nod frantically, he left the pair and made his way towards the western wing of the manor.

Usually the dominant would have more than a few sentences worth of things to say to a careless servant but the presence of the submissive in his arms reminded him that the welfare of his Ri always came first. He was a creature who had always demanded perfection in his servants and up till a few days ago he had thought discipline was a major aspect of his household. Recently however, everything in his mind had narrowed down into a single subject, his mate.

The welfare, comfort and happiness of his Ri now thoroughly and vastly occupied his thoughts. Everything else seemed to have drowned out and lose its importance in the face of his intended. It's quite funny really, having changed from that cold and stern creature to this creature whose whole world seemed to have narrowed down to a being with beautiful sky-blue eyes, which looked to be glaring sternly up at him.



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Lex was glaring sternly up at the dominant who carried him deeper into the interior of the mansion. 'It wasn't the boy's fault,' he thought to himself, after listening to the boy apologise for his mistake. But it wasn't a mistake, because after all submissives didn't know how to turn doorknobs and it wasn't the boy's fault the master of the house had brought back one who did know how to open doors.

' Poor boy, he looked so nervous too. Crescent didn't have to scare him that much,' thought Lex again, recalling how terrified of the Ro, the red-headed boy had been.

Looking up again to catch those silver grey orbs staring into his own again, he thought, 'And Lucien Crescent is not THAT scary.'

The dominant had never even raised his voice at him the entire time he had been in the older Dragon's presence. And the only looks he got from the Ro ranged from concerned,to adoring, to plain out lust. Hah! The dominant had never even given him a stern look even when he was jumping from one balcony to the other in their earlier game of Catch-Me-If-You-Can. Somehow, Lex didn't know why he was feeling rather smug at that thought. Perhaps he was just hungry?

Maybe.

The dominant carried him through multiple sets of corridors and staircases before stopping in front of a pair of large wooden double doors. There were intricate carvings on the door depicting Dragons in midflight in the sky. The Dragons were nothing if not beautiful in their forever unchanging forms, suspended in the created sky with their wings outstretched and dancing in mid-motion in various patterns across the wooden doors.

Fascinated by the masterful design, Lex reached out gently to touch a dragon which looked to be flying over a large cloud. He traced the carved dragon with his fingers, going over the dragon's large wings right down to its long tail.

“Beautiful, isn't it?” asked the voice of the dominant holding him.

Lex almost agreed out loud before recalling his plan of acting like a submissive through and through. Quickly, retracting his arm, he tried to look at the carpeted floor beneath them, purposely ignoring the dominant.

The dominant gave an amused chuckle before pushing open the set of double doors with his shoulder. The scent of sandalwood and lavender invaded his nose the moment the doors gave way to admit them into the room.

Lex looked around the large room. 'Large is an understatement,' he thought as the dominant carried him further into the room. If Lex had thought that his room earlier had been large then this was simply gigantic.

' This place's as large as my whole bloody apartment,' he thought glancing around the majestic room. The first thing that caught his eye was the roaring fire that burned steadily in the fireplace at one end of the room. A large painting sat above that fireplace, depicting a battle between Dragons and what looked to be humans. He had seen a copy of that painting in an art museum once, and the history behind that painting was not a pleasant one. Lex wondered why Crescent kept a reminder of the war with the humans in his very own room.

'It can't be pleasant for him to remember,' he thought. Lex himself was too young to have been born during the war but from history books, he had gathered that it had been a terrible one.

Glancing away from the painting, he turned to look at the first piece of furniture which caught his eye. There was a large chair in front of the fireplace, a large comfy one by the looks of it.

'Crescent must spend his time there readng in front of the fire,' he thought, before backtracking and wondering why he was pondering on the dominant's habits.

Looking away, he caught sight of the large shelves full of books which lined a whole wall. 'Must be his personal library,' he thought in envy. It had always been Lex's dream to have a personal library of his own in his room. But with the lack of funds and space, the only things that lined his walls were wallpaper and the built-in cabinets full of clothes, towels and bedsheets.

There was an open window at the opposite end of the room, revealing a large lake at the bottom of the hill on which the mansion had been built on. The full moon reflected on the surface of the lake created a dream-like scene which reminded Lex of a background of a play he had once seen which had involved swans and dancing ballerinas.

There was a large armor,set in one corner of the room, complete with a large shield and a deadly looking sword displayed right next to it. The armor looked worn in, like it had seen hundreds of battle in the past. There were dents all over the metal plating, and what looked to be cuts in the parts where it was made of leather. Just by looking at it Lex knew that it had be the same armor Crescent must have worn in the war.

Shivering slightly, for reasons he couldn't decipher, he turned away.

The one thing he had been studiously avoiding now seemed to be taunting for him to look at it. That piece of furniture stood out like a snake in a chicken coop, making Lex turn to study it only after he had run out of things to look at.

The bed.

He had been avoiding looking at the bed for very obvious reasons. The thing was monstrous and covered about a whole quarter of the room. It was by far the largest poster bed Lex had ever seen in his life. ' It could probably fit Crescent even in his dragon form, ' he thought. Of course, that was clearly an overstatement but Lex had always thrown rational thoughts out the window the moment he panicked.

The poster bed was draped in silky midnight blue drapes, and the sheets were a touch lighter in colour. Altogether it looked to be a very tasteful and comfy bed but to Lex, it looked like his own personal torture contraption.

' Okay stop panicking Lex,' he thought silently to himself. ' It's not like the big bad dominant is going to just throw you on it and mount you like a dog in heat,' he thought again, clearly trying to calm himself but getting more agitated by the second.

“ Looked around enough, blue eyes?” came the voice of the dominant he was trying very hard to ignore. It was however, proving difficult to ignore the Ro when he was carrying Lex in his arms and making soothing circles on Lex's thigh with his fingers.

“ Come on, you must be cold. Let's get you into some warm water before you start shivering again,” said the dominant before carrying Lex towards a sliding door which he had missed whilst studying the room.

The door opened to reveal a large bathing area which looked too grand to be called a bathroom. A large pool with a small running waterfall at the end of it reminded Lex of one of the Japanese hot springs he had seen in some movies. The pool looked to be steaming hot too, as evidenced by the smoke-ish vapour which gathered in certain parts of the room.

The water was crystal clear and Lex could see steps which led down into deeper parts of the pool. ' Bloody hell, this has got to be paradise,' thought Lex, gaping at the pool like a country bumpkin.

He was startled out from his thoughts the moment the other Dragon started lowering him into the water.

Lex started struggling at first but stopped the moment he was put into the steaming hot pool. ' Ooh, this is soo goood,' thought Lex as he sat on the bottom of the pool. The water wasn't that deep at that end, only coming up to his neck once he was sitting down.

Escape? What escape? Why would he want to escape? Lex never ever wanted to get out from this wonderful, wonderful pool.

With his back to the wall of the pool Lex, merely sighed in ecstasy, letting the hot water relax all his tense muscles and aching sprained foot. He drowned out everything else, not bothering to check what Crescent was doing and merely closing his mind to the world for some much needed r & r.

Lex almost fell into a doze but the feel of strong arms picking him up and away from the hot water brought him back to reality. He turned to look behind,watching as the dominant started carrying him away from the pool. He struggled in response, wanting to get back to that comforting heated water but the dominant merely ignored his struggles.

“Shh, it's okay I'll bring you back there later, but for now, we need to get you cleaned up,” the other Dragon spoke softly, carrying the Ri into a different part of the 'bathroom'.

There was a smaller tub-like pool there with large shower nozzles built along the walls. In another section of the area was what looked to be a standing shower but the dominant carried him towards the tub which was already half full of water.

' So, that's what Crescent had been doing after he dumped me into the pool. I thought he had left,' thought Lex not dwelling on why he had felt somewhat upset at that thought. It was not like he cared if the Ro left or not. Hell, the other Dragon could be off to visit and ogle the other Ri's in the Ri reserve and he wouldn't even bat an eyelash.

Probably.

Lex was lowered into the tub and it made him wonder if he had to rely on the Ro to get to places until his foot was healed.

The submissive, sat demurely on the base of the tub, wondering how he was ever going to escape and save his little brother from the pretty-boy Goldwind if he couldn't even walk. ' Maybe I can get a wheelchair and wheel myself over to save Angel,' he thought silently to himself. ' Maybe not,' came the rational thought.

It wasn't until strong hands came over his waist that he did he snap out of his thoughts. Arms came around him to hold him place before settling him in between strong muscular thighs.

'What the hell?!' thought Lex as he struggled to get out of the dominant's hold of him.
Bloody hell, he hadn't even noticed the dominant taking off his clothes and coming into the tub!

“Shh, calm down, blue eyes. I'm only going to wash you,” the voice whispered into his right ear, making shivers travel down his spine.

'Wash me?! People don't wash people by placing them between their naked thighs!!' he thought with alarm as he started struggling even harder. The older Dragon's hold on him was too strong for him to push through so he hadn't even managed to get an inch away from where he was currently seated.

“Shh, settle down. Your struggling is not going to work and it's only making me more, shall we say, excited,” whispered the dominant again into his ear. There was no mistaking the undertones of arousal in that voice, and the 'thing' poking into his back only added to the whole effect. Lex quickly stopped his struggles, growing still and trying to lean away from the dominant's erect 'thing'.

'It's a cock,' said a voice inside his head, ' Not a thing.'

But Lex was quite happy to regard it as a 'thing' as the word 'cock' brought him down the road to other words such as 'hole' and 'penetration'.

Lex knew he was panicking because his mind was already a mess of thoughts. So instead, he concentrated on his breathing and the warm hand that began rubbing comforting circles on his tummy.

“Shh, it's okay. It's okay,” the voice kept repeating in a gentle tone.

The sound of a nozzle being turned on distracted Lex away from his thoughts. The shower nozzle was soon placed above his head and warm water cascaded down his hair. Large hands began massaging through his hair and Lex soon began to calm down.

When the hands left his hair, Lex almost whimpered in lost but was soon greeted by the scent of a sweet smelling fruit wash. He could hear the nozzle being switched off and when the hands returned to his hair with the scent of shampoo in them , he smiled a little,relaxing at the feel of those gentle fingers massaging his scalp with the scented solution.

“You don't know how long I've waited for you, my mate,” came the whisper in a tone that spoke volumes of longing.

Lex tensed up, being the object of lust was one thing but being the object of longing was a different matter altogether.

“Hundreds and hundreds of years, just waiting to find you,” came the whisper again, making Lex' s heart speed up for reasons he didn't think he was ready to accept.

Those large hands left his hair again and Lex distractedly heard the nozzle being switched on. Lost in his own thoughts, Lex absent-mindedly felt the nozzle washing away all the soapy studs from his hair as Crescent's hands gently threaded through his brown locks.

Lex really didn't know what to do with these feelings which had suddenly appeared. Emotions he had ignored and kept under a tight leash all these years,resurfaced at that moment. Every last wish of wanting to be loved, of wanting to be looked after and protected bubbled up the surface.

For so much of his life he had been independent and as a human, one certainly did not expect to be put in the position of a helpless submissive in need of smothering. But then again, Lex knew that he was not truly human. He was after all, very much a Dragon, who although had grown up in the human world, was still undoubtedly part of the Dragon species.

Lex always thought that he was little bit of both, part human and part submissve Dragon. In the human world he had lived entirely by their rules, keeping the Dragon part of himself and all his Dragon-like emotions and instincts buried under the human persona.

For so many years, he had only lived by emotions and wants of what the human part of him thought rational and ignoring the baser Dragon instincts in him. Well, to the best of his ability anyway.

When day broke and night came upon the earth, those instinct like the darkness of the night would envelope, making him desire things the human persona in him would never have considered if he had been truly born a human.

It made him want to shape-shift into his alternate form, to prowl the land and to feel the earth beneath his paws. It made him want to run back to his brother, to the island which he had once called his home. It made him desire, desire a touch that was as dominating as it was protective. It made him want to seek company, to touch that ethereal figure in his hazy dreams. It made him want to love and be loved in return in a way that no human could never imagine.

' Who am I kidding,'Lex thought, shifting through his jumbled thoughts and emotions. ' I am definitely a submissive Dragon,' continued his thoughts.

'Doesn't mean I'm going roll over and transform totally into one though,' came the next trail of thoughts. The human part of him was still a big part of his life and Lex knew that he simply couldn't give that part of him up. He was still going to escape from the dominant.

Right?

“You're so beautiful, my mate, it takes my breath away,” whispered the voice into his ear again, efficiently breaking off all his trail of thoughts. Large hands soon traveled down his collared neck to chest, soaping his body with another sweet-smelling solution.

'Smells like coconut,' Lex thought, trying to distract himself enough to not blush, but failing anyway.

No one had ever called him beautiful before, and definitely not while they had their hands traveling up and down his naked chest. It was making him flustered and Lex certainly never liked feeling flustered.

'Ooh,' Lex thought, feeling a hand ghost over a nipple. He honestly didn't know if should feel embarrassed or indignant to being washed so thoroughly like this.

“Where have you been hiding all this time, blue eyes? I've been waiting for so long, I had almost given up hope of finding you, my mate,” came the whisper again, the Ro's breath tickling his ear with each word.

Said by any other person perhaps those words would have sounded corny and oh-so-fake but the amount of sincerity and desire in those words made Lex's body even more flustered from hearing them. This wasn't some cheap one night stand trying to seduce him but a few centuries old Dragon who had legally and frighteningly claimed him in front of hundreds of other dominants.

Lex truly wondered why only thoughts like these surfaced now. Up till recently he had been working really hard to despise the Dragon and trying his best to escape his clutches with nary a guilty thought in mind. But now however, he was starting to feel
slightly guilty for making the dominant chase after him all around his own household earlier that morning.

'I wonder what's gotten into me? I shouldn't be feeling ANYTHING for Crescent, after all, he's not the one who had been put in an exhibition NAKED. In fact he should be the one feeling guilty not me, I was just trying to get home,' thought Lex in defiance to the guilty feeling.

Perhaps Lex was just feeling grateful towards the other Dragon for saving him from certain death and for taking him to see the doctor earlier that day. The Ro's kindness had been surprising to Lex who was used to only relying on himself. Perhaps taking care of submissives was some sort of a seduction technique which dominants regularly employed to soften the Ri's regard towards them?

Well if it was,it certainly was working.

'Ooh, a little lower, that's right,' Lex thought as the dominant began massaging his back with the coconut smelling soap.

'But I am still getting out of here,' Lex thought silently to himself. He had to, before he fell too much and too deep into Lucien's seduction.










A/N To all my wonderful reviewers out there, I am so happy to be your writer.(Err.. is that even right?)So, anyway, I would like to give you all big hugs and kisses for supporting me even when I've not updated for a very very long time. Your reviews were the inspiration I needed to write this chapter. So thank you, thank you.....Muah!

Until next time, which will hopefully be soon. (Maybe...lol)