Dragon 2 Chapter 1 (Patreon)

“I said to hold on to him!” Morgana yelled as two more red puffy darts lodged themselves in the mortar beside the troll.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” The world around me pivoted as the troll used me like a wrecking ball on the old abandoned building. So much for luring it and its friend out into a trap. The wall bounced, or maybe that was my head, as the hulked out para continued to thrash me.

“You should be able to hold a stupid troll. You’re a dragon.” Morgana spat. “How can you still not shift at all?”

I would have rolled my eyes if the world wasn’t still spinning. It was totally an inappropriate time to rib me for my draconic shortcomings. She knew it was a sore spot.

The moment was broken as I was slammed into the ground again. This time my leg came loose from his grip, and I had a moment of reprieve, like sleeping in a concrete tomb.

But then he picked me up to start it all over again. Luckily, he swung me at a new angle and I got a chance to curl up like a ball, grabbing his wrist and making myself a smaller target.

I heard the staccato puffing of Morgana’s dart gun behind me, watching as the little red dart tuffs pepper the troll’s chest.

“Whew. Good going there. You really had him.” Morgana chuckled.

I was more concerned with the troll’s eyes as they rolled back up in its head; clearly he was about to go down. I used my legs to kick off its arm to clear myself just in time for the one ton paranormal to crash to the ground. Soon after his crash landing, he reverted to a pale naked guy covered in tribal tattoos. I was even more glad I hadn’t ended up under the naked man.

“Fuck.” I cursed and grabbed his arm to haul him over my shoulder. “So, you said these are swamp trolls?” I started moving back towards Morgana’s reinforced van, throwing him in the trunk. Morgana had already deposited the lovely lady troll he’d been with in the back.

“Yup.” Morgana replied, far closer to me than I’d expected.

I turned around to find Morgana right behind me. She was wearing her normal leather pants and a corset that pushed up her chest for the world to see. The drow vampire wore it like it was everyday wear. But she was also a badass mercenary and my guide into the paranormal world. Leather just fit her like grass was green.

But as she stood there, she seemed to split into two Morganas, and then three. She said something in response to what I’d said, but it sounded miles away despite her being right next to me.

“Something’s wrong.” I mumbled, but my tongue felt like it had grown three times its size in moments. The world spun as I took a stumbling step and fell into Morgana. My head landed on the open cleavage of her chest, and I nuzzled in ready to sleep right there.

“Oh my. The dragon has already come home to roost? I thought I had more time.” She cooed and pressed my face deeper into her cleavage.

Then she let out a chuckle, and I felt a pinch between my shoulder blades and looked up to her holding a dart between her fingers.

“Haha, ah, that makes sense. Whoopsie? Let’s get you some of T’s antidote.” She dragged me over to the side of the van and threw me along the center seating row.

The van looked beat up on the outside, but it was one of the most expensive cars in her garage, and that was saying something. It was armored and outfitted to be better than a tank. But it was still a waste next to all the premium sports cars if you asked me.

Morgana came back around to the side of the van and plugged my mouth with a vial. It tasted like death, but my senses came back to me in a rush, as if the world just seemed to light back up.

“Woah.” I sat up straight. “That stuff works well.” I touched my cheek. It was still warm from being pressed into her chest, making me blush. Which, in turn, annoyed me. Dragons shouldn’t blush.

The beast inside of me agreed.

My abilities from my beast were still limited, as Morgana had pointed out. It was getting in the way of my work, too. Morgana had been harping on me about my inability to shift for the last few weeks; she was getting frustrated trying to train me.

“You wouldn’t have needed that if you could shift. Because you ARE a several ton dragon. That much tranquilizer shouldn’t put you out like that.”

There it was, right on cue.

“We’ve tried.” I growled, and the beast joined me in frustration. It had been three months of trying. Finals were just two weeks away, and I still hadn’t made any progress on unlocking more of my draconic heritage.

Sitting up, I was feeling jittery, so I went to walk around the scene of mayhem the two swamp trolls had caused, righting a dumpster as I walked.

“Oh yeah. Now no one will notice that something went down here.” Morgana snorted. “Leave it and we’ll get you back to your foxy friend. I’m sure she’s still waiting at the bar.”

“What can I say? We are two peas in a pod.”

The vampire rolled her eyes. “More like disgustingly in love. I thought a dragon would have had his prick in a dozen waiting holes by now.”

“First off, no one knows I’m a dragon besides you and Scarlett. Second, there aren’t a dozen women after me.”

“There are at least two, who you are pointedly ignoring. At least Kelly isn’t still hanging around the club trying to pin you down like some lovesick sheep.”

I looked down the street, not wanting to talk about the situation with Kelly. She and the wolf pack had become so insistent that I come and compete for alpha that they actually started causing problems with Scarlett and me.

At that point, I completely frozen them out, and not because Scarlett had said anything, but because I could see how uncomfortable some of the girls had made her. They — well, they got too aggressive, and I was afraid that Scarlett was going to come in on them mobbing me naked at one point and misunderstand.

Kelly got the message loud and clear, although she hadn’t taken it super well. It had been radio silent from that point forward.

And then there was Jadelyn. Things between us had been… trickier.

We both were awkward around each other. It felt like something was bubbling just under the surface. But I had promised Scarlett that I’d wait until she was ready. Which would have been easier if I could have also avoided Jadelyn more easily. But Jadelyn was Scarlett’s best friend and employer, so that was a no go. Sighing, I re-checked the trolls and hopped into the passenger seat.

As I sat, I realized I needed to readjust myself. I was starting to get excited, which made little sense. Sure, I was thinking about attractive women, but not in that way.

“Morgana… are there any side effects of T’s antidote?”

She coughed as she started the car, and her eyes flicked down to my crotch in a knowing way. “We’ll get you back to Scarlett ASAP. Remember, if it lasts more than 4 hours… don’t go to a doctor. Just find a brothel or something. Docs won’t be able to fix T’s special blue juice.”

Turning in my seat, I fixed her with the biggest glare of my life. “You said it was an antidote.”

“It functioned like one, right? But… he might sell them for other purposes too. A bit of a pick me up in several ways, you know…” She didn’t even try to hide the smile that was stretching so wide I could see her fangs.

“Fuck me.” I planted my head on the dash even as my cock became so hard I was pretty sure it could bend steel.

“If you say so. I’ll grab a strap-on when we get back.”

“Not. Funny.” I took a deep breath. “At least we got the trolls. Why did this job have such a big bounty?”

Morgana looked a little more serious and watched me out of the side of her eye as she ran over a curb to get back onto the street.

From there, she gunned it down the road. I was glad it was at least empty, and there wasn’t anyone for Morgana to implicate if she crashed.

“You didn’t read the job close enough.”

“Huh? Stop the trolls causing trouble. Uno, dos. Two trolls no longer causing trouble.”

Morgana pressed her lips into a thin line as she suppressed a laugh. “Of course you don’t know. Right now it is swamp troll migration.”

“Swamp troll what?” I did a double take. “They migrate? Like birds?”

“Swamp trolls are very susceptible to the cold. They migrate from the great lakes region down to Florida every year, passing through Philly in the process.” She explained.

I looked in the back of the car at the two naked trolls that looked like they would fit right in at a trailer park. “And this is a bad thing. Why? Can’t they just hop a flight if it’s such a big deal?”

“Swamp trolls… and well, most troll subspecies… aren’t exactly the sharpest tools in the shed. Evolutionarily, they haven’t needed to be. Their regeneration causes almost zero consequences in them doing dumb shit during their early development and learning.”

“How dumb are we talking?”

“The stupidest shit. You wouldn’t believe it. I’ve seen them take turns shooting each other in the face for fun.”

That reminded me of a certain meme. I pulled out my phone and searched ‘Florida Man’. “Like this level, stupid?”

“That’s a troll.” Morgana informed me with one look at the article about a drunken man ripping a urinal off the wall to take it to go.

“What about this one?” I flipped to another story.

“Troll. What is that?”

I looked at the meme with a new light. “Uh, a joke on the internet about stupid things people in Florida do… shit, it just hit me.”

“Yep. Welcome to swamp troll migration. We need to get them through the city and on their way so they can do stupid shit in Florida, not here.” Morgana chuckled. “Otherwise, our city may become the joke. Philly Man. I can see it now.”

It was comical and terrifying at the same time. I definitely didn’t want to spend my time cleaning up their mess in perpetuity. “Anything else I need to know about them?”

“Don’t feed the trolls. They like to stick around if you feed them.”

“Got it. So we are driving down to the south side and dropping these guys off? They won’t just come back?”

“They operate a lot like any migrating animal. They’ll wander down to Florida on their own from there. We just need to make sure they keep moving. Once we drop them, we can get you back so you can take care of your very noticeable problem.”

My pants were stretched tight as they tented noticeably. I was glad that there was no one around and the trolls were knocked out, but the remainder of the drive to Scarlett felt like it took forever.

As soon as we got back to the bar, I left the trolls to Morgana, unable to handle it anymore. I ignored her laughter as I charged through the place, finding Scarlett and dragging her away in a hurry.

***

Scarlett fell backwards into the sheets, letting out deep breaths as she relaxed on the luxurious bed with dragons designed into the headboard.

Mine.

A greedy part of me, a part that I knew was tied to my dragon half, demanded that she never leave me. Even though we were just dating, my beast and I had sunk our claws in deep; she wasn’t going anywhere as far as my dragon and I were concerned.

“Zach. I love it when you look at me like that.” Her pink lips curled up into a satisfied smile. “You always have that look after we have a great time in bed; it’s like the same look you get when you put gold in your hoard.”

I guffawed. “There’s a look when I put things in my hoard?”

We were in the suit that Morgana had given me in the space attached to her bar. Underneath this mattress was a spatial vault that held my hoard, and Scarlett had seen me more than once check on it or store earnings from my job with Morgana within it.

I had a nice little mound about the size of a laundry basket of gold and jewels at this point. It filled me with a little draconic pride every time I saw it.

She nodded. Her hair was matted to the top of her head and only her little fox ears bounced with the movement. “It’s like a very dominant sort of contentment. I feel safe, loved and secure in so many ways when you do it.”

“Good. You should be all those things. And mine. Most importantly, mine.” I let my chest rumble as I nuzzled her neck and took a deep inhale of her cloves and vanilla scent.

“Yes, all yours.” She stroked the back of my head and planted kisses of her own on the side of my head as her two fox tails softly batted my back.

I could feel myself rising to the occasion once again as her kisses trailed along me. Scarlett was soaked in sweat from the four sessions we had just finished, but maybe she could do one more. T’s potion had really packed a punch, and I was still itching for more.

Prodding her with my newest erection, she opened up and lay back in the bed, sleepily smiling at me. Seeing her laying there content, spread for me, filled my heart with warmth. But when I penetrated her lower lips, she winced. I quickly pulled out, my brow furrowing.

She let out a little whimper, then groaned and looked up at the ceiling. Her gaze was distant, like she was thinking over something difficult.

“Talk to me Scar. We don’t have to go again.”

“I — shit.” She pinched her eyes closed, and I sat up, watching and waiting for what she’d say next.

But time continued to pass in silence, and it began to grow awkward. I could feel my possessiveness flare up. It felt like she was pulling away. “Scarlett, spit it out.”

She let out another frustrated groan, and in her hands appeared an illusion of a white flag that she started to wave in my face.

The whole act snapped me out of the possessive spiral I had been starting down. “Wha—”

“I surrender.” She said, as if that explained everything. “I tried, I really did. But a dragon’s libido cannot be tamed by a single kitsune, no matter how foxy I am. Zach, I’m sore as hell. Even with those tinctures I’ve been getting from Morgana, I can’t keep up.”

“Wait, what tinctures?” I frowned, trying to remember when she’d been taking them. “Nevermind. We can talk about that later. But Scarlett, it’s fine. We can slow down if you want.”

She rolled her eyes. Apparently, that wasn’t what she was trying to tell me. “I’m not talking about slowing down. I mean that I give in. I need help. You have my permission to play the field, my sexy dragon. No doubt you won’t have any trouble finding others interested in you. We both know there’s already a few.”

“You want me to… find another girlfriend?” I was confused by her sudden change of heart. We’d known it would come eventually, but I didn't expect it this quickly. While my dragon was interested, the part of me that had grown-up human was adjusting just like Scarlett.

She looked confused. “I thought you’d be happy. Don’t you want to just stick your dick in every hot girl you see? I mean, you have the stamina for it. Twenty-nine times.”

“Twenty-nine?”

“Times we have had sex in the last week.” She grabbed my face and stared into my eyes. “I love you Zach. But I need you to stick that massive prick of yours into someone else from time to time. It’s time you bring somebody else into this bed. Ideally somebody who isn’t a bitch.”

I was shell-shocked. She hadn’t given me even a little warning that she was close to ready to expand this relationship. And I’d been pushing everyone away because I was afraid that with my nature, Scarlett would misunderstand.

Now… my mind short-circuited and rebooted several times like a computer with a booting error as I tried to reconcile the alternative path my life would go down. Twenty-one years of expecting a normal, monogamous relationship that would eventually lead to marriage and kids was a lot of societal expectations to undo, even with my draconic urges.

Although if I was honest with myself, those draconic urges weren’t even satisfied with the twenty-nine times we’d gone at it. The potion Morgana had given me had led to the most recent times, but even without it, I lasted beyond Scarlett every time. I just accepted it and went with what she could do.

But now Scarlett had thrown a flag on the play. The rules had changed, and I wasn’t prepared.

“Zach… you got awfully quiet.” Her ears had drooped and her tails were just resting on my back rather than their normal lively selves.

“Thinking?” It came out as a question. “You just dropped this on me a little suddenly. I don’t even know what to do next. Do I just go hit on someone? Then what? Tell them at some point that I have this other girlfriend who isn’t going anywhere, and she’d be number two?” Life as a human hadn’t prepared me for starting a harem.

Scarlett started laughing so hard tears squeezed out of her eyes. “Oh, my god. It’s not that hard. Just walk up to Kelly, or any of the wolves for that matter, and drop your pants. They’ll be on you in seconds. Or maybe, just maybe, you could stop avoiding Jade. Or if none of them are interest, go to a bar and grab somebody else. I just ask that she’s para so she understands this a little more.”

I blinked. “The wolves aren’t like that.”

She sobered up in a snap and gave me an incredulous look. “Do you realize how many gifts I’ve gotten from the college pack? How many of them are now my BFFs after realizing going through you was a lost cause?”

I paused. Had I really been that disconnected from it? I needed to lie down.

Rolling off of Scarlett, I plopped down in the bed hard enough to make the whole thing bounce. “Okay, you need to start sharing more. I froze them out because I was worried about my promise to you. As for Jade… well, let me handle that one. She knew the deal. Just send her your blessing so she’s at least a little prepared for this.”

“I can do that.” Scarlett rolled against me and kissed my shoulder. “Never thought I’d be doing this, but I’m going to try to help you get another girlfriend. I’ll be your wing woman.” She chuckled.

“This is new for me, too. But I want you to promise me, no matter how much of a break you want, this doesn’t come between us. I love you, Scarlett, and even if I love another girl here eventually, you will always be my first. My love for you won’t diminish one bit.”

She snickered. “I’m okay if your physical love tones down a little.” Her fingers found my hand, and she entwined hers in mine, holding onto me tight. “I love you too. Now, let’s get cleaned up. Finstein posted tonight that there’s a pop quiz tomorrow.” She rolled her eyes. “I hate it when professors do things like this to try to make their stupid websites important and force us to look at them.”

“Bleh.” I agreed. “At least I’m up to date on that class. I’m running a little behind in biology.”

Scarlett made an unamused humming noise and tapped her lips like she was thinking. “Now, if only you didn’t find every reason to skip biology. It’s almost like you were avoiding someone.” She ended her ‘thought’ by leveling a glare at me.

“Message received. Talk to Jadelyn. But I need to study first.” Scarlett had said she wanted to help, but I was the one that needed to step it up. Apparently, I was entering the dating pool once again. “And before that, I’m going to cuddle and love on my favorite kitsune. No thoughts of sex. Just time with you.”

“I’d like that.” She smiled, rolling over onto my chest. I wrapped an arm under her and stroked from her bright orange hair down to the small of her back until we fell asleep.

AN: And so it begins again! I've been pumping out the words for this one, the story is pretty clear and... *checks file* I'm on chapter 9 for my first draft, almost a third of a book in a week. I hope you enjoy the swamp troll migration and our MC rejoining the dating pool. He's got a little ground to make up on Jadelyn and Kelly, and of course I have a few twists and a larger problem cooking for you.