Chapter 21: Pleasures of the Moment

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"I'm strong enough now, I could alter Tania's curse" Evenfall says, "Instead of sleeping until mother dies, you could be awakened by true love's kiss."

"True love's kiss," Auberon laughs, "Where do you get such ideas?"

Evenfall pouts,  "I thought it would be sweet, for you and mother to be reunited that way..."

"It is a lovely thought, my daughter," Auberon says, "But have you considered the confusion it was cause your mother if I were to return to her now? She has a mate, and two children with him. She loves him, does he not?"

"Yes," Evenfall says, "Ardax is a good man, and he's been like a father to me. But it isn't fair that you have to stay trapped in the dream realm..."

"I am not trapped here, not truly," Auberon says, "Dreams are what I am made of, and this realm is more home to me than the world you were born in."

"The world I was born in..."  Evenfall sighs, "Mother's people are not unkind, exactly, but they know I'm not one of them, that I don't belong..."

Tegan's reasons for leaving his mate had nothing to do with the kin they'd left behind, but being here to see his daughter's first child born is the best reason to be happy about his decision.

"You aren't staying the night?" Aeaea asks when he gets up to leave them after they've shared dinner.

"Not tonight, daughter," Tegan says, not giving her an explanation, knowing she won't pry. His frequent visits to her nest are unusual enough for an old dragon like himself. There was a time when an adult male would not enter another's nest for anything but the most dire of circumstances. Visiting one's adult offspring was simply unheard of; once they left the nest to start their own, they were no longer your concern. But all that has changed in the years since Aithne and her followers left; because of Aymeri's influence, males have a voice in the council and the tight structure of their society has loosened considerably. 

Tegan lifts his young grandson to snuggle him before he takes his leave. The younger dragons, like Aeaea and her mates, have adjusted well to the change, like they were just waiting for someone like Aymeri to make it possible. Change has been harder for the elders dragons, but Tegan has taken to it, and even turned down several offers to join other nests as a mate, choosing to live mateless in in Aymeri's highly non-traditional nest, enjoying his new freedoms, being able to come and go as he pleases, to stay in his daughter's nest for days or weeks at  time, answering to no one but himself.

Between his daughter's nest and Aymeri's, Tegan meets with Tania, as they'd planned. It was a spell that brought them together, he knows that, and many times he's wished he could shake them both free of its grasp, this need that rises between them once in every moon's turning that drives them to met like this, in secret. He sees it in her eyes as well, the desire and the revulsion, and something she wants from him, something she cannot take.

He always means to resist, while knowing he won't be able to; once the need arises, it drives him, and nothing will stop him until he's had her.

Tania gives herself over to hr desire more readily, as it is the nature of the fae to live in the moment and take whatever pleasures the moment brings. But it's more than pleasure she wants from the dragon that Auberon's spell has bound to her, she wants what Auberon has been unable to give her, what Shayeleigh's dragon has given her, a child.

And once again, when the heat of their passion is cooled, Tania weeps in disappointment. No new life has sparked in her womb.

"Why can you not give me a child?" she sobs, clutching his knee.

Tegan strokes her hair gently, not seeing the need to respond.

"It's not fair," Tania continues her tearful complaint, "Shayeleigh got pregnant the first time she lay with her dragon."

"Yes, she did," Tegan agrees, leaning over her to soother her with a kiss, "And if you've seen Riain and Shayeleigh together, then you've seen the bond that formed between them. They are mated forever, while you and I...we've kept our affair secret for more than a dozen years, now. Perhaps it is for the best no child has come of it."

In her heart, Tania cannot deny the truth of his words, but she cannot bring herself to accept it, either, so she just continues her sobbing, while he tries to comfort her.

"Evie," Talfryn whispers, "Wake up."

"Talfryn?" Evenfall murmurs sleepily, opening her eyes, "Talfryn!" she whispers his name to keep her parents and siblings from waking, but shows her disapproval through her tone while keeping her voice low, "You can't be here! Your father..."

"Neither my father nor any dragon laws can keep me from you, Evie," Talfryn answers, crouching over her. The dragons have relaxed their laws about being seen by the fae kind, and now they are allies, but they are still forbidden to be seen by mortal eyes, and if Aymeri knew where his son was at this moment...Talfryn puts that thought out of his mind, as he has more pleasurable things to think about.

"Not here," Evenfall insists, "My sister is right there, and my brother is just behind you."

"Then come with me, we'll go somewhere else."

"Honestly, Talfryn, you're just looking to make trouble," Evnfall grumbles affectionately, cuddling against him once they've gotten far away enough from her mother's village to satisfy her.

"I was just looking for you," Talfryn laughs, "Why do you live with the mortals, anyway? You're fae, you should be with your people."

"My mother is my people," Evenfall says, "My sister and brother are mortal, too, and I will only have a handful of decades to be with them. You and I will live forever, I think you can wait that long."

"You know I'm not good at waiting," Talfryn laughs as they slip out of their clothes to make love beneath the stars. "I want to nest with you, as soon as we come of age."

"Maybe," she sighs, and gasps,"It will be hard to live with you and not be able to tell my mother or my sister about my dragon lover."