Riley’s fragile heart was beating so loud he was certain the dragons on the next mountain could probably hear it hamring against his ribs.
But even if they couldn’t, he knew the golden dragon in front of him could.
Kael’s hearing was too sharp, and his attention too focused. And right now, all that focus was on Riley.
Probing and clear golden eyes were fixed on him, unblinking, steady, and way too intense to deal with. The way Kael stared openly should have driven anyone else insane.
But that was everyone else.
For Riley, whose entire body seed to scream for this man on a spiritual, physical, emotional, psychological, and taphysical level, that stare was about a hundred tis worse.
And that was just Kael looking at him.
Then, as if rembering they were supposed to be doing sothing other than staring until soone died of tension, the dazed ex-human finally processed Kael’s latest instruction.
"Strip."
"..."
"..."
Riley’s brain stalled like soone yanked the brakes out of reality.
"...Huh?"
There was a beat.
"Huuuuh?!"
__
It wasn’t like that was the first ti such words had been said to him.
And it wasn’t like they hadn’t already done things that should probably remain securely locked in the sacred vault of Riley’s mories forever.
But unless he had gone completely bonkers, he was sure they had been talking about mana and training a few minutes ago.
So what was that golden lizard saying?
Riley’s eyes trembled.
His soul trembled.
His common sense tried to leap out the window.
He opened his mouth, ready to chastise the breathing work of art standing over him, but maybe because of the sa instincts that had kept him alive for longer, he hadn’t spoken just yet.
For he wouldn’t have survived the humiliation if he had.
Kael, on the other hand, remained a nace.
"I’m going to show you sothing about mana," the golden dragon said calmly, tilting his head just slightly in a way that should have been illegal. "But it would be harder to do it without direct contact."
He paused.
Long enough to stare pointedly at the stunned Riley.
Then, with sinful ease, added, "Unless you’re more interested in other things?"
Riley choked.
Kael leaned in like temptation incarnate and murmured, "As your mate, I would happily oblige if you’d rather do sothing el—"
That was when Riley reacted on pure survival instinct.
Both hands flew up and slapped over Kael’s face, shoving gently but desperately, because the man was too close and too provocative. A bad influence, really!
Even through his palms, Riley could tell Kael was smirking.
He could feel it.
The subtle movent of lips against skin.
Riley groaned like soone being hunted.
Cornered, overwheld, and betrayed by his own hormones, the black dragon snarled halfheartedly, then stripped with the dignity of a dying moth, cheeks burning, before sitting back down on the bed with his arms crossed tightly over his chest.
Red. Defensive. Mortified.
"Now what?" Riley muttered.
Kael straightened just enough to look down at him, eyes half lidded and unbearably confident.
"Now you watch."
Riley blinked slowly.
"?"
__
Oh shit.
That was an understatent.
Had Riley been wearing anything other than humiliation and skin, he might have recorded what was happening, because for one terrifying mont he almost lunged at Kael.
"!!!"
Yes, there was that very real urge to jump him and do things no parent should ever find out about. But more importantly, once the intense pull settled and Riley managed to get his brain back online, he finally realized sothing.
Kael was releasing mana.
Now that Riley had improved with sensing others’ mana, he could clearly feel it. The dragon lord had a layer of mana around his body. Like a second skin. A contained aura.
But before Riley could comnt, that layer began to fade.
Disappear.
And yet Riley could still feel the sa amount of mana.
His brows knitted slowly as confusion settled in, right up until Kael lifted a hand and asked, calm as ever, "Where is it concentrated?"
Riley snapped to attention. Learning mode activated.
"At the tip of your index finger," he answered quickly.
Kael nodded. "Good. You want to prioritize the index finger because you’ll likely need it when writing runes, especially since it might take ti to make them work without gestures."
Oh.
Riley ntally noted that but asked about what he found odd.
"I’m sensing the sa amount of mana, but unlike earlier it’s only at your fingertip. Did you redirect everything there?"
"You can think of it that way," Kael said. "But I’m not calling forth mana. Instead, I’m letting it leak in one area."
He tapped his finger lightly.
"For dragons with mature cores, the focus is less on how much mana we can command and more on how much we should allow to leak responsibly."
"!"
"So no, I don’t need my mana to travel to use it. It’s already travelling nonstop, and I only open an exit for it. But that’s not how it works for you just yet."
Riley’s brain whirred. Surprisingly he could follow that logic. Unlike when Kael first tried to "teach" them and the dragon had no explanation for things that ca naturally, it seed like he figured out what was different.
And no wonder the golden dragon couldn’t teach moving mana when he really wouldn’t be able to demonstrate it with his constitution being really different.
With sothing akin to overflowing mana, the guy definitely hadn’t struggled with internal control for centuries.
"Then what are we doing if we’re that different?" Riley asked.
"You said your mana is refusing to listen to you. It won’t move nor could it be coaxed," Kael replied, voice lowering as he leaned closer, "then why not attract it with sothing it can’t ignore."
"Huh?"
Riley blinked.
And then his confused thoughts evaporated.
He hiccuped.
Because Kael’s fingertip brushed—barely grazed—Riley’s knee.
And sothing under Riley’s skin jumped.
"!!!"
Like his mana recognized Kael’s mana and leapt toward it like a starved creature. Like magnet snapping to aother magnet. Like deep-seated want.
A sound escaped Riley.
He slapped a hand over his mouth, eyes wide in shock and wonder, staring at Kael—
Kael, who was smug in the laziest, most devastating way possible.
"What was that?" Riley whispered, breath shaking.
The edge of the golden dragon’s lips turned up slowly and confidently, voice dipping into sothing dangerous.
"Other dragons would likely call this subjugation," he said. "But in your case..."
His eyes darkened.
"...this is seduction."
"Holy—"
Yeah, no.
There was absolutely nothing holy about the way Riley’s leg moved up uncontrollably, like it was trying to chase that electrifying point of contact. His mana, which had refused to budge for days, suddenly behaved like a loyal puppy following Kael’s call instead of his.
And as soone who had tried to coax that stubborn energy out of his knees countless tis, the sensation of sothing else towing it upward was both foreign and intimately familiar.
Because it was moving.
It was moving obediently.
So obedient, in fact, that Riley ended up flat on his back on the bed, one hand covering his eyes, face red, back arching with every small surge of mana that followed Kael’s touch. He muttered curses through gritted teeth, deeply offended by how blatantly his mana chose Kael over him.
It was betrayal.
Warm, tingling, addictive betrayal.
Kael’s fingers moved slowly—deliberately—from Riley’s knee upward. A gliding touch, barely there, coaxing mana along a line Riley could feel under his skin like heat chasing heat. Up his thigh. Along his hip. Across his stomach. Higher.
God.
His breath hitched every few seconds, heart thudding painfully loud as he felt his mana chase Kael’s presence like a moth to fla.
If that wasn’t sensual, then he probably didn’t deserve to know his own na. It felt like a string pulled taut between them, humming with tension Riley probably shouldn’t na without dying of embarrassnt. He just hoped it wasn’t like this for every other dragon going near Kael because he likely wouldn’t survive that knowledge.
But just when he was thinking about illegal thoughts, sothing inside him clicked.
Wait.
This wasn’t just movent. Not random.
It felt like his mana was taking a path.
Sure, it was following Kael’s finger but it wasn’t particularly under it. It felt like it had no choice but to deviate a bit and would just try to return to as close as possible.
Huh.
Interesting.
Riley’s eyes snapped open.
He sat up so fast Kael’s hand paused mid-motion.
Kael’s lips curved into a tiny, knowing smile.
"Mn?"
Riley said quickly. "Wait. Do it again."
"Again?"
"Not exactly again. But can you please bring it back down to my knee first, then trace it up the sa way?" Riley asked, eyes bright with realization. "I want to test sothing."
Kael humd, amused. "Sure. But it’s going to cost you."
Riley narrowed his eyes. "Honey, there are hundreds of rooms in this estate, you know?"
Kael narrowed his eyes right back.
"So please be kind and service this poor being who could only pay you with sincerity and flan," Riley added, lifting a brow with shaless challenge.
Kael rolled his eyes slowly, like soone deeply suffering from being in love.
But then he did it anyway.
"Thank you, honey," Riley said, sweet as sugar and twice as dangerous.
Kael’s fingers returned to Riley’s knee.
Riley braced—mind sharp now.
This ti, you can bet he was watching.
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