Chapter 3

It took me a full week to shake off the lingering cold.

The moment I recovered, Draken came to me with flushed cheeks. His gaze darted everywhere but refused to meet my eyes. And when he finally spoke, his voice was barely a whisper.

"That thing you did to me… could we do it again?"

I blinked and immediately buried my face in the covers, feeling the heat rushing to my ears.

Panic crept up his voice as he went on, "That shift was an accident! I didn't know how it happened, but I swear it won't happen again!"

"Please stop!" I practically leaped up and clamped a hand over his mouth, feeling my face burning like it was on fire.

But when I pounced on him, he caught me in his arms with gleaming eyes. And with one practiced motion, he ripped my robe in two.

I groaned inwardly. That robe was expensive, and I'd been saving it for special occasions. Now, on the first occasion I wore it, he just had to tear it just like that.

But I didn't have time to mourn the robe either, because Draken nuzzled against me like an eager pup. The change in his body was plainly visible.

"Litha, I feel terrible… Please help me, alright?" he murmured softly and needily as if begging for affection.

My body melted. I couldn't even tell when I stopped thinking at all as my hands moved on their own, following his lead.

When that massive, searing heat entered me, I finally snapped out of the haze in my mind and gasped. Draken shuddered with exhilaration as though he'd finally found his vent.

I could barely remember anything about the storm that followed. All I could recall was the sensation of being tossed around like a boat drifting in the violent sea, until the waves finally flung me into the clouds.

For the entire month that followed, I hardly ever set foot out of bed.

As for showers, Draken carried me to the bathtub himself, only to have our bodies pressed flush the whole time. Each of those shower sessions seemed to last half a day.

Eventually, I had had enough and shoved him out the door with wobbly legs. "Starting today, you're not allowed to set foot in my chamber!"

Draken whined and pouted with every trick he knew, but I held firm for an entire month, until he couldn't take it anymore.

One night, he shifted into his dragon form and burst through the windows again to barge into the bedchamber. As he coiled his dragon form tightly around me, I shivered under the cold press of his scales.

"Actually… We could try it in my true form…" he hesitantly suggested.

I hated to admit it, but something in me stirred. But we never got to try it out because not long after, I discovered I was pregnant!

Draken was overjoyed, though there was a faint look of regret on his expression. He clicked his tongue and sighed. "Guess we'll have to wait until the baby's born, then."

Meanwhile, I couldn't stop smiling as I rested a hand on my belly, feeling far more content than I'd ever been.

Three months later, Arya came to me again. "Litha, why didn't you tell me about the lions' horrible traditions? If I don't conceive within a month, I'd have to mate with multiple beastfolk!

"Please help me! How did you manage to conceive an Aetherborn in your past life?"

She looked nothing like her smug past self. Her face was pale and desperate, while panic and blame swam in her eyes.

I calmly rested a hand on my belly. "How was I supposed to know the lion clan had such barbaric traditions? If you're struggling to conceive, did you get examined to check whose problem it is?

"And what was that about a past life?"

She studied me for a long time before flashing a smirk that was more smug than genuinely malicious.

"Just watch! I'll be the first to get pregnant and bear a golden lion cub! And my husband will rule the beastfolk!"

Yet, I never expected her words to come true because two months later, news swept through the lion clan—Arya was pregnant!