I spend the rest of the day programing and tweaking simulations, until I'm starving and about to leave the laboratory. I step out into the late afternoon sunshine and find Uri stepping from his speeder. He has a picnic basket in his hand. He approaches me on the landing pad. I smile, seeing he's brought me food.

“Are you happy to see me, my Queen?” he asks.

“I am. What’s in the basket?”

“I've brought you an evening meal, my lady,” he says, sweeping into a bow.

All I can do is giggle to see Uri behave with such manners.

“So, have you skipped ahead in line permanently?” I ask him.

“Reese thought it would be better this way,” he says.

“I’m sure that Reese was persuaded, somehow.”

He takes my hand and leads me off the landing pad down a sandy toward the beach. We take the meandering path along the shoreline and watch white birds fly over the water.

The day is lovely and cool with the season turning past harvest. The sun is setting on the western horizon, casting lovely colors into the sky. Winter will be here soon and the land will be covered in snow, whiter than the sand.

Arcadia’s deep snowy winters and temperate summers are part of the reason so many ice dragons live here. It is why ice dragons built the Academy here. Our crystalline minds are best suited for academic work, and our bodies prefer a cool climate.

Uri and I continue to walk and it is good to fill my lungs with fresh air after so many days lost in my research. We find a secluded picnic table under a grove of windswept cypress where we sit and gaze at the sun setting over the sea. Colors radiate across the sky and over the sea. The waters of the white caps sparkle with diamond light. Umbria shines in the sky, coming clearer as the sky goes dark.

“You know, Reese is the heir to that entire planet,” I tease Uri.

“It doesn't matter what Reese is. All that matters is that we are here together.”

“Why Uri, that was positively sensitive,” I say, pressing my hand to my chest.

“I've realized that it's more important for me to connect with you than to be better than these other guys. At the end of the day it's really about you and me, not them.”

I get the sense that Flume somehow got through to him.

“I have feelings for all of you, but their individual. My feelings for Reese are not the same as my feelings for you. There's always room for more love. It's not something I can run out of. There's just different shades.”

“And what is the shade of your love for me,” he says.

“The shade of my love for you?” I say, thinking hard. It isn’t just a metaphor.

I begin to respond when a siren cuts me off. It blares through the darkness. Light circles out on the water. It grows closer with the sound of the siren. The air growing cold and damp with mist.

“It’s a Bashesda siren,” I say, grabbing Uri’s hand. “What is a Bashesda?”

“Arcadia sea serpent. Larger than ice dragons in shifted form. Deadly and fast. We need to move.”

We begin to run, Uri holding my hand and shielding me from the wind from the sea. A dark form emerges from the water, illuminated by the light chasing it. The dark figure barrels toward the shore with awesome speed. Uri shines his wrist com light on the creature just in time to see it emerge onto the shore.

“Go!” he screams at me, charging at the serpent.

He shifts, ripping from his nanotech clothing and bursting into dragon form mid-stride. I want to help him, shift myself and fight it. I should. I’m brave enough. But my moral compass tells me to go, like Uri told me.

Instead, I stand, stunned, watching my mate engage a full grown Bashesda under the planet light of Umbria. The serpent wraps its tail around Uri’s compact and muscular dragon form. Uri flaps his wings, trying to break from the beast’s tail. He lets out a hot breath of fire, charring the beast’s neck.

The serpent shakes Uri with its tail as it coils like a snake before a strike. The venom on its fangs glints in the light. I scream into the wind, my throat going raw. Uri shifts into bipedal form and slices the beast with a nanotech sword. He thrusts his sword into the beast’s neck and rides it all the way down to the sand.

I watch stunned as the snake’s insides fall onto the beach. Uri jumps back as the Bashesda’s body plummets to the ground. It flops into the sand as Uri runs up the beach to me.

“I told you to go,” he grumbles at me, wiping black blood from his face as his nanotech clothes finally cover his entire gorgeous physique.

“I wanted to fight,” I croak.

“So instead you just stood there?”

“Pretty much. Don’t rub it in.”

“At least you had the good sense to stay out of the fight,” he says, crossing his arms.

“I can’t believe you singlehandedly killed a Bashesda,” I sputter, like I’m talking to a celebrity.

“That’s why they made me a general, darlin’.”

“Right,” I mutter.

He saved my life. I mean, I probably could have flown away to safety. But I’ve spent so much time in bipedal form, it wasn’t my first instinct. I feel awkward, as I twist my arms together, looking up at Uri.

“Maybe the shade of my love for you is red like the fire in your heart,” I say.

My inner dragon roars, blowing an icy breath through my nostrils.

“I promised you a picnic, but that’s ruined,” he says, glancing over his shoulder at the crew of the Bashesda siren boat, cleaning up the mess on the beach. “Hop on my back, My Queen, and I will take you home to safety and a good meal.”

Uri’s clothes melt away and I see his body for a brief instant before he shifts into his lovely fire dragon form. I giggle and climb onto his back. There is nothing more fun that riding piggyback on another dragon.

He lifts into the sky, careful but strong. On powerful red wings, he flies me home and lands gracefully among the speeders parked in front of my palace.

I slide off his back, kissing his neck as I go. He shifts, his clothes reforming around his muscular form. I bite my lip, anticipating the continuation of our date inside.

Donte runs out of the palace, eager to see me.

“Did you hear the Bashesda sirens?” he asks.

“Uri killed it,” I say, encircling my arms around his elbow.

“You killed an Arcadian sea serpent?” Donte asks, dumbfounded.

“I did indeed. Now, please excuse me. Our lady requires rest and relaxation.”

He smirks as he escorts me into the house. We take the antigrav elevator to my room. Inside, Uri turns to me and grasps my waist with his big hands.

“I think we both need a shower before we eat,” he says, pulling off his nanotech shirt.

His red chest is exposed, still splattered with black serpent blood. I run my hand over his shoulder, biting my lip. He looks me deep in the eye and the intensity of it forces me to look away. I can't meet his gaze without feeling my body throb and my knees go to jelly.

I can feel the heat of his gaze, his dragon coming out through his eyes and his breath. I want to meet his heat with my cool, but my inner dragon is furious for his touch.

He gathers me in his arms, and I feel the hardness of his cock under me. His hands slide between my legs, cupping my sex without hesitation. His other hand grips my breasts as he thrusts his tongue into my mouth, kissing me deeply and hungrily until I can barely breathe.

“Come,” he says, letting me go.

I gasp with surprise as he taps over my wrist com and deactivates my nanotech outfit. My clothes fall away and he takes me into the washroom.

Uri is naked now too as he turns on the water in my tiled shower. Rain falls in large droplets from the entire ceiling.

“Hot like fire, or cold like ice?” he asks, dialing the water temperature.

“Both,” I say, stepping toward him.

He grins and gathers me in his arms, kissing me hard on the mouth before setting the shower. Half of the jets are hot and half are cold.

We step inside, the water temperature changing drastically from hot to cold with each step. I love the sensation. I gasp as Uri steps up behind me and grasps my wet breasts in his big hands. He pinches my nipples in his fingers, kissing the back of my neck. His red cock presses between the globes of my behind as he slides his hand down my stomach and between my legs.

His finger presses into my wet slit, tapping at the pleasure button just above my entrance. He turns me around and starts to rub soap all over our bodies. Once the soap is washed off, he looks down at me with fire in his coal black eyes.

“I will have you now, little female,” he growls.

Who needs food when I can have this?

His muscles bulge with need, and his cock is hungry and throbbing red. All I can do is quiver as he lifts me up into his arms and wraps my legs around his waist. The water rains down in cold droplets as he presses me against the shower wall.

He holds me over his manhood, pressing against the entrance of my channel. Uri looks me in the eye and impales me with his shaft. He stretches me open and I gasp at the intrusion. Uri holds my hips, slowly pumping in and out until my body can take him.

I’m mewling and moaning, clinging to Uri’s neck. My big red male holds me tight and sinks himself into me. I groan as I climax. The memory of him slaying the Bashesda flashes across my mind. I swear in an Arcadian dialect and suck his earlobe into my mouth.

After a brief rest, allowing me to get used to the size of him, he wraps his arms around me and begins to move me up and down on his cock. I groan as each thrust brings me closer to another mindless, screaming climax.

I don't want to ever think again. All I want is this. My inner dragon is ecstatic, purring behind my eyes. I can almost feel Uri’s fire dragon inside me, rubbing his long neck around mine, claws sliding over scales.

My body throbs around his cock and he thrusts deeper as I climax all over him. He moves me in bursts of pleasure, until he explodes inside me, throbbing with the heat of his fire.

Uri slides away and holds me gently in his arms in the cool rain of the shower. After several long moments, our bodies pressed closed as our hearts thwack in rhythm, we pull apart.

Stepping from the shower, I towel myself dry and reconstitute my nanotech clothing into a pair of fuzzy pink pajamas. Uri joins me in similar attire.

His fuzzy pajamas are green, contrasting beautifully with his red skin. Quintin has arranged a meal for us at my table near the window. I look out onto the night sea, a shiver going down my spine as I remember the Bashesda attack. Uri lights a fire in the hearth and I open the patio door to let in the night air.

We sit together at the table and enjoy a late-night feast of fried gow legs, puffed-cheese, sea green salad, and spiced merrow wine.

Gigi bounces over to me and I invite her up. My little puffkin jumps quickly, taking her place in my lap. Taking care of Gigi has been hard with all my mates vying for attention.

“I didn’t know you had a puffkin,” Uri says.

“I have Quintin walk her. It’s been hard for her with me being away so much. I’ve been so distracted with all my mates and everything happening around the palace.”

“I want to make up for that,” Uri says, sitting back in his chair and taking a long sip of wine. “I haven’t been myself.”

“You more than compensated by saving my life on the beach.”

“You would have been fine,” he says dismissively.

“I doubt it,” I mutter.

“You did completely freeze up like a scared gow doe.”

“Don’t rub it in,” I whine.

Uri chuckles and Gigi jumps from my lap and onto his.

“That’s Gigi,” I say. “She likes you.”

“I love puffkins. I have a bullkin named Maxxus at home. Gigi is a minikin, isn’t she?”

“Yep. You should bring Maxxus here,” I suggest, feeling warm and happy.

“He’d eat little Gigi alive,” he says in a baby voice, scratching her chin.

“On second thought,” I giggle, “maybe not.”

“In all seriousness, dear Joon, I want to make amends for my behavior. I know how important your work is to you. What can I do to help?”

“Well, honestly, just not starting fights every day would be a good start.”

“Done.”

“And you can walk Gigi if you want. Give you a little puffkin bonding time.”

“Ha. Yeah, that sounds fun,” he says, petting little Gigi.

Gigi’s tongue lolls and her bright eyes seem to cross as Uri runs his big hand over her body. It’s funny; that’s exactly what he does to me.