“Yes your highness,” he teased. She stuck her tongue out at him, making him want to take it in his mouth. As he leaned in, he was sourly interrupted by a grunting noise of disappointment. He looked up to see Stipus sitting proudly on his horse. He let go of Warmth and smiled at her. “Looks like it’ll have to wait til next time.” She tilted her head, unaware of what Draco had planned to do to her. Oh and there was so much he wanted to do.

Draco scowled and looked up where the other dragon had ran off. “Should we worry about him?” Stipus grumbled. Warmth’s hand touched Draco’s chest, pushing him lightly. Warm.. Draco thought letting her back away. Her knees seemed to tremble and she seemed very unbalanced without him for support.

“Mr.Stipus, we must do something,” Warmth questioned as Draco put her arm on his shoulder, “If word were to get out...”

“If I remember correctly, it’s not forbidden in the dragon kingdom, my lady. A princess should know,” Stipus mentioned. Draco and Warmth both looked to him, shock in their eyes. “It’s only a human law, trying to prevent war and chaos.” Draco clenched his jaw.

“The war was years ago!” Warmth snapped. Draco knew of the war, Stipus told stories about it when Draco was young. He made them so less dangerous and gruesome back then, but Draco was able to wrap his head around them. “And the dragons surrendered!”

Stipus bit his lip. “I’m afraid whomever told you that was lying to you princess.” Warmth seemed to back up still hanging on to Draco. Stipus hopped off his horse and pet it’s nose. “I was young when the wars started, so I was forced into being a... soldier.” Draco sighed and shifted his feet, making sure he’d be able to hold Warmth through this story time session. “At first it wasn’t against the dragon’s kingdom. Actually quite the opposite, they were our allies. The dragon king actually was the leader of most of the recruits. We all had the same goals, the same enemies. We were so close to a victory, until...”

“Until?” Warmth asked.

“Until the beloved king released an attack on the dragon kingdom,” Draco regretted saying those words the minute they crawled out of his mouth. But he couldn’t lie to her, especially if he wanted her this badly. She looked at him concerned.

“Wait... my dad?” Draco nodded, returning her concerned look, but for different reasons.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Yes, our king, who at the time was new to the royal throne, issued an attack on the dragon kingdom. I think it was to expand our own kingdom, but sadly there were still civilized dragons at their homes...” Stipus and Draco exchanged sad expressions to each other. “Including the queen.” Draco knew who else was caught in the attack, his real parents. They were slain, with no hesitation. Back then, he was not yet a hatchling, but not knowing, it stung.

“Since dragons can only have one mate in their lives, you can imagine how the king felt. Sadly he was the first to find her. And so the war was declared.”

“Did you still fight for my father?” Warmth asked sounding as though she was on the verge of tears.

“No at this time, my years of service had been used up, so I tried to stop it. I made a small group of humans and dragons who disagreed with the war. We went to the dragon kingdom, both the times I had been there before showed that it’s beauty became tainted..” He scratched his head  and rubbed his temples. “Going to the king was not an easy task, he wouldn’t change to his human form, actually refused it. I could see the pain he had, felt it as though it was my own pain. Anyway I asked if there was anything the humans could do to make things better, a treaty, anything. At first he declined our offer, saying that the humans will burn for the betrayal the king had caused. I kept pestering him, saying there had to be a way.” Draco looked to the princess, her eyes were full of worry, and she was hanging onto Draco’s arm. He placed his hand on hers and gave a reassuring smile. “Finally, the King listened to my plea and presented a speckled egg. He said that your father must care for the egg, raise the child as his own.

“My group rode back to the kingdom, telling your father about the agreement of the dragon king, a way to end the war. He refused.”

“Refused? Why?” Warmth asked, confused on her foolish father’s decision.

“You were about to be born. The queen had announced that a princess would be coming into the world. The king didn’t find it appropriate to raise a dragon and a princess together. I begged him to do something. The kingdoms were suffering, our kingdom was running out of resources, the dragon kingdom had suffered casualties. Our king decided to meet with the dragon king, if I attended it with him. They had decided that I would raise the hatchling as my own,” Warmth looked at Draco, her eyes wide, “and a law would be made that dragons and royalty are never to meet, your father’s decision once again.”

Stripus walked over to Draco and put his hand on his shoulder. “And I never would change that choice.” Draco looked up at him and smirked.

“That’s touching Stripus,” Draco laughed as Stripus lightly slapped his face. His laughter was stopped by two warm arms wrapping around him. His heart skipped a beat when he noticed they were Warmth’s. He looked at her, smelling her so closely it was going to intoxicate him again.

“I’m happy Draco’s here, that’s for sure!” she smiled. Stripus sighed making Draco look at him.