Dragon 4 Chapter 30 - END (Patreon)

Trina scooted a second table up to ours. "I thought you said it would be hard to get a table." She smirked as she shifted the chairs to fit around the newly combined tables.

I frowned. They had done something. Polydora had gone up to the table, which had been full of men, and then walked away with them trailing after her.

As I looked up, she rounded the corner, walking back with a smug grin and none of the men following her. I hoped they weren't dead in an alley, but then that had been too quick, even for her.

She sat down near me at the table casually, a face of pure innocence.

"Should I be worried?"

"I think they decided to call it a night early." She shrugged. "I just asked nicely."

I scoffed. We both knew it was bullshit, but nobody had gotten hurt, so I'd just let it go.

A server came by, and I ordered an 'adios motherfucker'. The others familiar with the place ordered whatever variant of the three-dollar long island they preferred. They were what the college bar was famous for serving, and they were served in a small pitcher.

Copious amounts of strong, bottom shelf drink, just what every college student needed.

The dragons were frowning.

"Can I get a menu?" Polydora asked.

"Oh yeah. Totally." The server politely waved at her, but I saw it turn into a grumble as he went off to find a menu.

"Did I make a mistake?" Polydora asked.

"No, not really. It's just that, at this point in the semester, people usually know what they want without a menu," I explained.

"Ah, will this be expected of every place? Will I have time to prepare in the future?" the Amazonian dragon questioned like she was preparing the start of a military campaign.

Maddie laughed. "Chill out, it's just Zach. You don't have to try so hard."

The Amazonian bronze dragon shook her head. "You do not understand."

"You want in his pants,” Maddie said bluntly. “That’s not how you do it. I should know; I’m his best friend.”

The dragons all perked up.

"Really?" Larisa asked eagerly. "You know the secret?"

Internally, I let out a tremendous groan. Thanks, Maddie. I didn't need to be here for this.

"Be right back." I stood to go to the restroom.

A guy walked in ahead of me, practically pin balling off the walls as he tried to make his way over to the urinal.

There were several trashed men attempting to pee inside; their ability to hit their target varied greatly. The guy that had stumbled in ahead of me let out a deep sigh as he let go.

"Zach," Maddie hissed, grabbing my arm and startling me.

"Huh? Maddie, this is the guy's bathroom." I looked around, but most of the others in the bathroom seemed too focused on getting their business done to notice a girl.

"Yeah, well, this is the only place I can get you alone." She crossed her arms and her foot tapped in a way that I knew meant danger.

I understood she wanted to talk, so I grabbed her arm and hauled her to the back of the bathroom where there was, by some obligation, a baby changing area. It seemed to repel away all the drunk dudes.

"What's up?"

Frank had hinted that there was something Maddie wanted to talk about.

"Are we okay? You have barely talked to me since I started dating Frank," Maddie started off with a gut punch.

It was fair. I really hadn't talked to her much at all during the school year. "It's awkward. You are Frank's girlfriend, and I don't want to be friendlier with you than he is."

"Well, you are still my friend. I hope we will still be when this is all over." She was winding up for something bigger.

"Okay, so that's not the real issue. What is?"

"You can send home the actors or escorts or whatever they are," Maddie sighed. "Seriously, this has gotten ridiculous."

I laughed, not because it was funny, but at the explanation she'd come up with to make it make sense to her. "They aren't actors or escorts. Yev, Tyrande, Scar, Jadelyn, Kelly, and Morgana are my girlfriends." I paused. If I was going to open up to Maddie, I needed to do it right. "If I'm being honest, we're more than serious. We're essentially married."

Maddie blinked. "Right. Funny." She rolled her eyes.

But I kept a stone face. I wasn't joking.

"Are you dying?" she asked. "Like, this is one last hurrah, and they are all sympathetic to your terminal illness?" Maddie tried to grasp at a reason. "Did you come into some sort of family wealth they are after?"

"No, I'm better than ever, Maddie. Really, you don't need to worry." I tried to think of a way to explain what was happening without putting her at risk of knowing the secret, but then a guy came out of the stall next to us and did a double take at Maddie. But he seemed to let it go, moving on.

She shook her head. "Look, I bought it at two. Then you came home with four, and I was waiting for the big implosion. Honestly, part of me wondered if it was some sort of prank TV show. But this has gone on long enough."

Maddie gestured wildly towards the exit. "Twelve. That's not girlfriends, Zach. That's a cult!"

"Look, Maddie—"

"Don't 'look' me, Zach. We are better than this. What the fuck is going on? My dad is a lawyer. If you need help, maybe I can get him to help," she pleaded with me.

"A lawyer won't help," I sighed. "There's nothing bad happening, I swear."

Maddie would not let it go that easily, though. "It's drugs, isn't it? That Poly-whatever girl is totally on drugs. That or she's a terrible actor. Who the hell raises their hand and announces they want to have sex with somebody?"

The actual answer was a dragon from a formal time that really wanted dragon king babies.

"Polydora," I corrected her. "She's not on drugs; she's foreign."

"Where do they come from that having a dozen women fawn over a dude is normal?" She didn't sound convinced in the slightest.

I didn't know how to explain it to her any better. "They are mine. Never will I let them leave me or be with another. And I'll live for a long time."

"Holy shit. Maybe you are the one on drugs." She put a hand to my forehead, as if that would tell her something. "You think they are your sex slaves or something?"

I snatched her wrist and pulled her hand off my forehead. "Maddie, just let it go. No one is being hurt, nothing illegal is happening. There are just some things that I can't explain, and we all care for each other."

Maddie stared at me, searching my eyes for an answer. "You can tell me."

"No, I really can't. It isn't safe for you." Bringing a human into the paranormal world was practically like using her as bait.

"Sure, nothing bad, but it is bad for my health to know. That sounds one hundred percent kosher," she snorted.

More than a few guys were watching us now, probably waiting to see her slap me.

"We will talk about this later. I promise. Now get out of the guy's bathroom," I told her, a little exhausted at how badly my paranormal life was fitting into my human one.

***

The conversation with Maddie bothered me. She wasn't one to let things go easily. It wasn't going to blow over after a day or two; she was going to hound me or even try to investigate it on her own.

That was just asking for trouble.

"Zach, are you okay?" Jadelyn asked as our group walked across the city to Morgana's club.

"Yeah, just thinking. The two of them are getting very suspicious. Have I lost a grip on my 'normal' life?" I wondered if I could even pretend to be normal anymore. It almost seemed futile at this point with everything going on.

"No, the school doesn't care. As for Maddie and Frank, maybe we could stop coming over in large groups? That way, it isn't so in their face," Jadelyn offered.

I blew out a heavy breath. "It's a good idea, but the damage is done. They both think I'm in some sort of drug operation or other illegal trouble. How do you all manage it?"

Tyrande and Yev immediately bowed out of the question, followed by Morgana and Kelly.

"What? Okay. You two have your sorority," I pointed to Jade and Scar.

"Yeah, but we aren't besties or anything with them. Just casual friends," Scarlett clarified. "It is hard to have someone on the outside of the paranormal in your life."

They were probably right, but what was I supposed to do? Just cut them out? I played it out in my head. 'Sorry Maddie, things changed, bye. See you never.'

There was no way she'd accept that. She'd probably think I was even deeper into trouble and start stalking me. And Frank would be the same.

I'd probably have to change schools to lose them. And even the thought of cutting them out of my life hurt. Even if they hadn't gone through my latest adventures with me, we had so many memories between us. They'd always been there for me, and I wasn't ready to let go of my human life.

"You are probably one of the highest profile paranormals in the world," Morgana reminded me, even though I didn't need any reminder. "Having one foot in the normal world will be difficult. I would suggest you leave school. We can have you attend classes somewhere else."

"Amira has a Harvard Diploma in her hoard. Her or any of the other honor guard could probably teach you what you wanted," Yev offered.

"Yes, my king, we have extensive knowledge on many subjects," Amira piped up. The dragons had been staying quiet unless called upon and trailing further behind me.

I rubbed my eyes. "Maybe I'll take a break from school. Besides, I need to work on my magic, anyway. After this trip, I realized just how far behind I am in magic skills."

Jadelyn clapped her hands together. "I bet we could bribe your way into an independent study course or two to keep you enrolled. That way, it doesn't have to be a hard stop."

"It would keep a door open to the normal world if you didn't just drop out," Scarlett added.

"That's... not exactly moral, but not a bad idea. I'd still be in school, just not normal classes," I said slowly, coming to terms with the idea. "Okay, we can do that, but first I get to show off my hoard and fill it to the brim with Tiamat's gold." I knew that would make me feel better.

"Your gold now," Yev threw in.

"Mine," I growled, the beast agreeing with me.

We got to Bumps in the Night, Morgana's club, and went inside.

The club was packed, but I dodged deftly through it, finding the employee only door that led into the Atrium and ducking through without a problem. The sign seemed to do a great job of keeping out the masses.

"So where is your hoard?" Yev asked from behind me, sounding a little too excited.

"This way." I walked through the Atrium and pushed open the stone door that Morgana had given a sample of my blood to so that I could enter. Then I took the left branch after that. Morgana's room was down the right side.

Opening the door, I revealed my stately apartment. Morgana had initially set it up for me, and Rupert had bought an addition to my bathroom as a wedding present.

The dragons oohed and awed at the swooping gold dragon motif that was everywhere.

"If you like that, you should see the bathroom. The faucets are all dragons." Jadelyn pushed open the bathroom door, but instead of more appreciation, the room was met with silence.

"That's... a bathroom?" Yev asked.

I laughed. "You should have seen my first time after Rupert had it put in."

The place was a huge, tiled room with multiple large bathing pools that varied by temperature. It was also quite steamy.

Yev pointed to the largest pool. "We might even be able to give you swimming lessons."

Scoffing, I closed the door. "It isn't that big."

"Keep telling yourself that," Yev grumbled and then turned to the bedroom. "You said it was under your mattress?"

"Yes, the hoard. Come." I moved over to the bed and lifted the mattress. Then I touched a spot at the base of the bed, sliding open a loose plank. "It's a tight fight, but come in."

Getting into the hoard was purposefully difficult, and so was getting out. It would make it harder for anybody to steal from it, unless they had a spatial pocket like Morgana had in her bra, or I had in my bracer.

I went in between the planks of the bed, grabbing the ladder as I went. It was only a dozen rungs before I hit the bottom and a huge cavern opened up before me.

There was a tidy pile of gold bullion that I had earned with Morgana; it made the beast inside of me giddy seeing it again. Near it was a half-full weapon rack armed with a tainted Native American dagger and a set of twin blades that an archangel had wielded.

And finally, there was a shelf with a few odd knickknacks from when I was younger. A few geodes from when I had gone hiking in the hills with my father and two vials of panned gold.

The girls all gathered down behind me while I was recollecting where I had earned it all. But there was still a vast space left empty for me to fill.

"It's kind of small," Tyrande said, looking at the pile.

Yev gasped and covered her mouth. "She didn't mean it."

"Shall I kill her, my king?" Polydora offered.

Tyrande held up her hands. "Oh, my gosh. I didn't mean it that way." She paused. "That's probably worse than telling a guy his dick is small, isn't it?"

Scarlett laughed. "We don't have that problem, thankfully."

"No, we do not," Kelly sighed wistfully.

"It's fine. I know the pile isn't much to look at, but I've grown it through hard work. One step at a time." I smiled at the pile of gold, proud of it. Even if it would fit in a plastic laundry basket.

Larisa wandered over to the shelf. "What are these?"

"Oh, before I knew I was a dragon, I had a thing for trying to dig up gold in the mountains. There really isn't much in the Appalachians, but I sure tried. My adoptive father went panning with me several times. That's what those vials are. They are our results from panning."

"Really?!" Larisa looked at the vials. "Which one is yours?"

I pointed to the right vial. "That one."

She lifted it off the shelf reverently. "Gold pulled from the earth with a dragon's bare hands is very valuable. It imbues it with a significant amount of magic."

"Then why don't other dragons pan for it?" I asked.

"Because it is tiresome, and the gold mines are often heavily monitored," Polydora answered for her. "Our father spent some time mining gold when he was younger and has a stash of such. But he is not the dragon king and heir to both Bahamut and Tiamat. I am curious what your gold could do."

With those words, the dragons all gathered around the tiny vial, looking at it before Larisa put it down.

"I want to see mountains of gold." Kelly grabbed my arm and looked up at me with sparkles in her eyes.

"Fine. I want to free up space in my bracer, anyway. I need a place to put some canned food and replace my clothes." I stepped away from everyone and my original pile as the bracer started to spray out a steady stream of gold and jewels into the room.

I continued, walking out into the center of the cavern, leaving a trail of gold coins.

At the current rate, it was going to take far too long. But fully shifting would ruin my current shirt, and I liked this one. So I instead focused on my arm, trying to increase the mass around my bracer. I watched as my arm and the bracer grew.

It looked awkward as hell, like I was some sort of crab-man, but it didn't matter. Functionally, it was working. As the bracer increased in size, so did the opening from which it spewed.

"It just keeps coming." Kelly clapped her hands. "I can totally swim in it once it's done, right?"

I shook my head. "It is actually really hard to swim in gold. You might if you shift. You need a little more mass to push around the gold. I can do it as a dragon."

All the dragons trailed after me and nodded in agreement.

"Swimming in gold is difficult."

Morgana joined me, taking her bra off and shaking out the gold she had collected into the pile.

"You don't have to do that."

"I gathered it for you, not for me." Morgana rolled her eyes. "Besides, it was sort of your gold. Your inheritance. She was your mother, in a sense."

Jadelyn snapped to attention. "What are you going to do with the crystal?"

"Put it on a shelf somewhere she can watch from. But maybe not pointed towards a bed. No need for her to get an eyeful." I already had a shelf in mind in the apartment. My Atrium room was one of the safest, and I needed to keep it safe.

And they'd have some traffic to amuse them, unlike a room that only got used every few hundred years.

I kept walking around the room, shooting out the gold. The gold was forming a small mound, and Kelly jumped in it like one would a pile of leaves.

It didn't give as much as she expected.

"Ouch. Gold is hard." Kelly rubbed her head. "Yev, teach me to swim in gold."

"We need a little more than this." Yev slipped off her dress and padded away as green scales blossomed over her skin. She grew to the full length of her dragon form. "But you swim through gold more like this."

She pushed her head through the pile, sending gold scattering along the cavern.

A growl rose in my chest, and I rumbled in approval. "I will weigh you down with gold chains and keep you here as part of my hoard," I growled at Yev.

She laughed. "Careful, he might do the same to you," Yev warned Kelly.

Tyrande came over and lifted my arm so that I was spraying gold up into the air, then walked over such that the gold coins bounced off her chest and got stuck in her cleavage. "Our mate also seems to love seeing us covered in gold."

My eyes locked on Tyrande as she did a slow sway of her hips under the pouring of rain.

I spoke over my shoulder, "Polydora, take the girls and leave. I think I need some privacy with my harem." My voice was filled with gravel as my need surged.

"Uh oh. Now you did it, Tyrande," Scarlett chuckled nervously. "I hope you can last longer than me."

I didn't even watch as the dragons left. My arm shifted back to normal proportions, but gold continued to pour out of the bracer as I tackled Tyrande onto the pile of gold. Using my strength, I ripped her dress off of her as the other women piled in around us.

"Mine." My growl echoed off the walls of the cavern.

My mates echoed my claim, full of giggles and joy as they took turns pulling me over to them in the pile of gold.