II

Qira followed Radley to the private room. It was late and most of the children were already asleep. This was a saving grace for everyone involved as they wouldn’t suspect anything was going on. The moment they were behind the curtain of their room, Radley turned to Qira. His face was red and she could already tell that this was going to be rough.
Radley sat down on the bed on the left. He rubbed his forehead, “We were so close…”
Qira lowered her eyes, “I know.”
“What were you thinking? Why would you do that? You may have cost us our only chance at peace.”
Qira turned away and rubbed her shoulders, “I couldn’t let you die… not again.”
“Again?” Radley asked, clearly confused.
“You won’t believe me.”
“Try me. Make me understand.”
Qira let out a deep sigh, knowing that Radley would likely look at her like she was insane, “What if I told you that I’d lived this life already? What if I told you that the last time… you died.”
Radley shook his head, as though trying to shrug something off, “What does any of that mean? What are you talking about?”
“I can’t explain how… or why, but somehow, some way… a being from my world… one of extraordinary power sent me back in time to the moment that dart was fired. She said she wanted me to see… It still doesn’t make any sense. I know she was trying to drive me mad. I know that, I just don’t know why.”
“A being from your world?”
Qira nodded, “There’s… we can’t worry about that right now… but there’s a being of unspeakable evil resting in the Southern Polar area. She pulled the strings with Eutherys, though her power has been diminished. We’ll have to deal with her… some day… but, for now… we don’t have the resources.”
“What do you mean?”
Qira turned back to Radley, “She’s powerful, too powerful. At least when I faced her in the future, there was hope. Even if she had escaped, the world was healing and capable of defending itself. If we try to attack her now… if she escapes her icy prison, and we force her hand, we’re all dead.”
“She’s that much of a threat?”
Qira swallowed hard and nodded, “For now, we have to play by her rules. There’s no way around it.”
“That’s difficult to do if I don’t know her game.”
“Her game is to hurt me, and restart the Red War. That’s all I know.”
Radley sat back on the bed, “That’s not much to go on.”
“I know, but we have bigger problems to worry about right now. Those dragons are on their way to the capital.”
“Where they’ll be captured. The UPW was more than prepared for such a contingency.”
“Yes, I know.”
“Then I want to know what you mean about me dying.”
A hot tear left Qira’s eye, “I watched you die… you died in my arms. Last time, you took that dart and it killed you almost immediately, but not before…”
“Before?”
“Before…” Qira bit her lip. “Before I told you…”
“Told me what?”
Qira sucked down a deep breath, “Radley, I kept your body alive. It was only mere moments, but in that time… I… I… imprinted on you.”
“Imprinted? You mean…”
Qira nodded, “When a dragon finds a mate, they imprint on them. I kept your body alive and my mind merged with yours. I took some of your memories. I didn’t mean to, but it happened and at that moment when you told me…”
“When I told you what?”
Qira looked deep into Radley’s eyes and whispered, “Close your eyes.”
“Why?”
“Please… close your eyes.”
Radley noded and did as he was asked. The moment his eyes closed, Qira forced her body to transform. She remembered how to do it, but her body hadn’t full acclimated, making it harder. She fought through it and focused until finally, her familiar humanoid form appeared, pointed ears, pale skin, and all, “Okay… you can open them…”
Radley’s eyes opened. They went wide the moment he locked onto her, “Q… Qira?”
She nodded, “It’s me.”
His eyes traced over her form. She was completely naked, but she didn’t care, “When I was in your mind, this is how I appeared. Over time, I learned how to do it. Dragons have an innate ability to appear in another form, a form of a creature we’ve spent a lot of time with. It’s considered a lost art, but… maybe it’s the rapid evolution, but we learn to do it again. Don’t ask me how it works, it’ll take too long to explain… just… just…”
Qira inhaled sharply again, “Radley… I love you. I’ve wanted to tell you for so long, but I couldn’t… I was a coward.”
Radley took a step closer to her, “I love you too… I feel the same way. You gave me a reason to go on living. You helped me get past my demons. Everything I am is because of you. You took a broken man and you rebuilt him.”
Tears flowed from Qira’s eyes as she threw her arms around him, “I’ve dreamed of this… of everything I wanted to share with you.”
“What happened after I died?”
Qira smiled, “Later… all I will tell you is that… I took your name… after you died… You were my mate, that’s all I cared about. I was… am Qira Zall.”
Radley stared at her blankly. She bit her lip, “I… I hope you don’t mind.”
“Mind you carrying on my legacy? Mind you proudly taking my name? Of course not.”
Relief poured over Qira as she looked into his eyes, “Kiss me, Radley. Kiss me and hold me… so many decades I’ve wished for this.”
Radley moved in and pressed his lips against hers. She inhaled sharply, her whole body radiated as she felt his lips, his arms, his heart. It was all perfect. Her heart raced, her body heated up. Then something unexpected happened. It was as though a bomb went off inside her. The warm sensation became even more powerful. She felt it consume her as it flowed from her chest down to her hips. At that moment, she felt it. A small burst of fluid escaped and ran down her legs, splashing on the flood.
Radley pulled back and looked down at what had just happened, “Qira? Are you all right?”
Qira’s cheeks burned as her face turned red. She nodded, “Sorry… I guess… in this timeline… it hadn’t happened yet…”
“What does this mean?”
Qira bit down on her lip before responding, “It means… you need to take me. Radley… Mate with me. If… that’s what you want…?”
Radley’s jaw dropped open, “Qira… I… is it what you want?”
Qira nodded, “Radley, whether you believe me or not… I’ve been celibate for almost an entire human lifetime. I’ve dealt with the pain of a mate’s death, something that’s often fatal to a dragon… especially if they never got to…”
Radley fell silent. He was completely caught off guard by Qira’s request. She smiled warmly, “It’s okay, Radley. I know this is completely out of the blue for you. I’ve waited this long… I can…”
He never gave her a chance to finish her sentence. Radley wrapped his arms around her bare back and pressed his lips against her’s. Qira went wide-eyed, but quickly recovered and melted into him. Her chest was tight and it felt like her heart had seized up.
The heat inside Qira continued to build. Something inside her began to take over. She growled. It was a low, guttural sound that even surprised her for a moment.
Animal instinct took over and decades of pent up frustration and pain took over and she went completely feral. She grabbed the hem of Radley’s shirt and ripped it off before doing the same with his pants.
The moment that he was as bare as her, she pounced. Her legs wrapped around him and her arms hugged his neck. She had no patience, and no tolerance for taking it slow.
She pressed her forehead against his, “Do it… don’t wait… It’s okay… I’m ready.”
Radley nodded and slowly lowered her to his waist. Qira felt a blunt pressure between her legs, followed by a stretching sensation. She let out a shrill cry as her body spread. This was unlike anything she’d ever felt before, “Radley…”
Her heart race and she could feel him moving inside her. His eyes glossed over as he stared into hers, “I love you, Qira.”
Her eyes went glassy with tears that had been fought back for far too long, “Prove it…”
Radley leaned forward and the two landed on the bed. He pinned her down and continued to thrust in and out of her. He was relentless, going faster and faster.
After what felt like an eternity, she felt another shockwave building up within her, “Oh God, Radley… I don’t think… I can’t…”
Her words were drown out by the explosion that was building up inside her. The pressure pushed her to the breaking point. She instinctively tried to hold on, tried to hold back, but it wasn’t happening.
Radley appearance sensed her hesitance and looked into her eyes, “It’s okay, let it out… I’ve got you.”
That was all the encouragement she needed. Her muscles relaxed and she released. It was like nothing she’d ever experienced before. Her lungs and heart seized. She could barely manage a whimper as her body convulsed, uncontrollably. Oh God… was this…?
Radley looked down at her as her trembling slowed, “Are you okay?”
Qira nodded, struggling to catch her breath, “That was… that… I…”
“Shh… it’s okay, take your time.”
Qira struggled to regain control over her lungs, “Radley… you don’t know… I’ve never…”
“Never had an orgasm before?”
Qira’s face turned redder than it ever had before. She couldn’t bring herself to answer. All she could manage was to shake her head.
Radley looked at her, dumbfounded, “How?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, how did you go without?”
Qira smiled as she looked at Radley, “You humans… your physical needs are so much different than ours. Yes, of course it hurt. Yes, of course I had needs… I yearned to be touched, to be loved… to feel the affection, but a dragon’s heart has room for a single mate. You were mine, and I lost you before I had the chance. I barely got to tell you that I loved you.”
Radley shook his head as he lay next to her, “Qira, I’m still having trouble figuring this out. You’ve time traveled… normally, I wouldn’t believe it, but the way you moved when you tried to get in the way of that bullet, and now this… skin change… What happened to you?”
Qira closed her eyes, “I suppose there was no way I could fight this off for long… even with incredible sex. All right, I’ll give you the abridged version. You took the bullet for Telkath. You died moments later. I was able to share a telepathic moment with you… where we finally admitted how we felt. Then you left me… you left me alone. I couldn’t… even Haven was too painful. So I left. I stayed away for several months until finally… until finally I worked up the nerve to come back. I saw you in the children, I saw you in the walls. I saw you on the rampart. You were there. You were a part of Haven as much as it was apart of you. So I stayed. My new status as the mate of Radley Zall was recognized in honor of our actions by both the dragon council and the UPW government. As the first dragon to be mated to a human… I became something of a pariah in some circles and a symbol of unity in others. Telkath saw what you did for him as a debt he could never repay. So he sought to help me rebuild the world that you wanted to see. A world where I would be safe. He ran for the senate in the newly formed Haven Province. Then later, ran for president.”
Qira bit her lip, “When he vacated his senatorial seat, he begged me to run. The rest of Haven wanted it to. So… I did. I ran… even though I didn’t want to… and I won in a landslide.”
Radley raised his head and looked at her, impressed, “Senator Qira Zall?”
“Senator Qira Zall, The Gray Widow, Western Degenerate, Race Traitor, I’ve been called a lot of things. All I ever wanted was Qira Zall.”
“So what happened after that? I mean how did you find this creature?”
Qira turned her head so she was looking straight at him, “She found me. There’s no way for me to really explain in a way that would make any sense, but basically, the true dread lord is a massive beast, tens of thousands of years old. She’s been manipulating the dragon horde to fight humanity, and she almost won. I went with a few others to confront her, but… she sent me back here.”
“I don’t get that, why?”
“I don’t know… to torture me? To show me what could have happened? I don’t even know if any of this is actually real.”
She placed a hand on her forehead, “Radley… I don’t know what to do.”
He touched her hand, “I’m here, Qira. I’m really here. We’ll figure this out together.”
Qira nodded, “Yes, together… finally.”

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