"Zarek, no," Roxy breathed, wrapping her arms around her own waist. "I... I can’t do that. It’s not a good experience that I want to repeat. Please don’t ask me to go back to that mindset."

Zarek’s golden eyes flickered, a sudden shadow of insecurity crossing his handsome face. He swallowed hard, his jaw tightening. "You didn’t like it then? Was it truly just a cold, mechanical act of survival for you?"

"What? No! Zarek, it’s not like that at all," Roxy quickly corrected, her heart aching at the misunderstanding. She hurried forward, dropping to her knees on the soft moss right beside where he sat leaning against the stone.

She reached out, gently placing her small, cool hands against the blistering heat of his massive chest.

"I didn’t hate touching you," Roxy explained, her voice thick with genuine, lingering guilt. She looked down at her hands resting over his massive, beating heart. "But I was not meant to do that, Zarek. You were trapped in a deep, comatose sleep. I was a terrified, completely defenseless human listening to a voice in my head telling me to mate to survive. I took advantage of you." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Roxy looked up, her brilliant green eyes shining with the emotional burden she had carried in secret for years.

"I molested you, Zarek," she confessed softly, the word feeling like ash in her mouth. "You were completely vulnerable, entirely unable to consent or fight back, and I forced myself on you. Every time I think about that night, I don’t feel romance. I feel like I violated the most powerful King on this continent just to save my own skin."

For a long, heavy moment, the only sound in the glowing blue cavern was the distant, rushing water of the stream outside.

And then, Zarek laughed.

It wasn’t a mocking sound. It was a deep, rich, and incredibly warm rumble of pure Alpha amusement that vibrated directly through the stone and into her knees. The towering warlord reached up, covering her small hands with his massive, calloused ones.

"My beautiful, fragile, completely ridiculous Queen," Zarek murmured, a brilliant, adoring smile breaking across his rugged face. "Do you truly believe a fragile human could simply walk up and violate the King of the Dragons?"

Roxy blinked, her brow furrowing in confusion.

Zarek shifted, his golden eyes burning with absolute, unwavering certainty. "Roxy, even when I am in the deepest, most agonizingly comatose sleep, my draconic aura is an active, lethal shield. If any predator, any threat, or any unwanted entity had tried to step within ten feet of my unconscious body that night, my core would have instantly incinerated them into ash. I cannot be killed in my sleep, and I absolutely cannot be touched unless my beast allows it."

He gently lifted her hands, pressing his lips reverently to her knuckles.

"You bypassed my impenetrable defenses because my soul recognized yours the absolute second you knelt beside me," Zarek stated, his voice completely stripping away her guilt. "My beast welcomed you. What you did wasn’t wrong to me. It was the moment you became my mate."

Roxy frowned.

So why were you trying to mill me when you first woke up?

Roxy slowly let out a long, heavy exhale. She pressed her lips into a tight, thin line, the matriarchal fire and the deep, sensual love for her husband completely overriding her previous hesitation.

Well if it has to come to this.

"Alright," Roxy conceded, a sudden, wicked spark dancing in her brilliant green eyes. She pulled her hands free and pointed a commanding finger at the fur cloak on the cavern floor. "Lay down flat. Pretend you are in a deep sleep. And let me start you up like a car."

Zarek’s breath hitched. The entirely modern, completely Earth-bound analogy sent a wild, thrilling jolt of adrenaline straight to his draconic core. He sounded absolutely thrilled.

"Yes, my Queen," Zarek growled happily.

The colossal warlord immediately shifted, lying completely flat on his back across the thick, dark furs. He stretched his massive, heavily muscled arms out to his sides, exposing the entirely vulnerable expanse of his chest and abdomen. He closed his golden eyes, forcing his breathing into a slow, rhythmic, and incredibly unconvincing mimicry of a deep sleep.

Roxy knelt beside his massive thigh. The atmosphere in the glowing sapphire cavern instantly shifted from emotional vulnerability to a thick, intoxicating, and suffocatingly hot tension.

She leaned forward. Her dark curls cascaded over her shoulders, brushing softly against his incredibly hot skin. She began exactly as she had all those years ago, her small, cool hands pressing against his broad chest.

But this time, there was no trembling terror. There was only absolute, confident ownership.

Roxy slowly dragged her fingernails down the thick, corded muscles of his abdomen. She felt his entire body violently jerk, his abdominal muscles locking into rigid, stone-like perfection. Zarek let out a sharp, suppressed hiss of breath through his teeth, completely failing to maintain the illusion of slumber.

"You are supposed to be deeply asleep, Dragon," Roxy whispered, a wicked, sultry smirk playing on her lips as she leaned down, pressing a soft, open-mouthed kiss directly over his wildly beating heart.

Zarek groaned, a deep, guttural sound of pure agony and ecstasy that vibrated through the cavern walls. He kept his eyes squeezed shut, his massive hands gripping handfuls of the fur beneath him to keep from instantly grabbing her.

Roxy’s hands moved lower. She deftly unlaced the heavy leather fastenings of his tactical trousers.

The blistering, inhuman heat radiating from his lower half was staggering. Roxy pushed the thick fabric aside, completely exposing the terrifying, magnificent proof of his draconic arousal. He was already fully, painfully hard, pulsing with a dark, heavy need that completely belonged to her.

She reached out and wrapped her hand firmly around his thick, burning length.

Zarek’s entire massive frame violently arched off the cavern floor. A ragged, completely feral growl ripped from his throat. The contrast of her soft, cool skin sliding deliberately up and down his blistering heat was absolute torture.

Roxy stroked him slowly, using her thumbs to map the thick ridges of his arousal. She leaned over him, her own breathing growing ragged and heavy in the dim blue light. She used her hands with slow, agonizing, and entirely purposeful precision, making him incredibly hard, driving him to the absolute, maddening brink of his self-control.

"You feel so good, Zaza," Roxy whispered, her voice husky and dark as she felt a slick drop of pre-arousal coat her palm.

IRoxy released her grip. She shifted her weight, bringing her knees up to bracket his narrow, heavily muscled hips. She rose up, adjusting her posture, completely prepared to sink down and mount him, to finalize the sensual recreation of their beginning and completely overwrite the Demon King’s twisted narrative.

But Zarek had reached his absolute limit.

Just as Roxy was about to lower her hips, the Dragon King’s golden eyes violently snapped open.

Zarek’s massive hands shot up. He grabbed her hips with an iron, uncompromising grip. Before Roxy could even register the sudden movement, the world violently spun.

Roxy gasped, the breath rushing from her lungs as her back hit the soft, thick fur cloak.

She looked up, completely stunned. Zarek had effortlessly flipped her over. The towering King of the Dragons was now hovering directly above her, his massive arms caging her shoulders, his heavily muscled thighs caging her legs. His golden eyes were burning with a blinding, unholy, and completely consuming hellfire of lust.

"Hey!" Roxy protested breathlessly, her green eyes wide as she looked up at his wicked, arrogant smirk. "That’s not how it goes! You were supposed to stay asleep while I—"

"This is all I need you to do," Zarek rumbled, his deep, gravelly voice dripping with absolute, primal authority as he lowered his blistering, heavy frame perfectly against hers. "Now lay down, let me treat you right."