Aiona wasn't able to rest at all after that confrontation. It had been almost a full hour since Jarun had left her palace, walking off into the night. But despite her exhaustion, she couldn't fall asleep or find any peace. Her mind kept racing with worry and fear. So instead of just pacing back and forth uselessly like an anxious, egg-bound hen, she made a decisive choice. She would go to her mate, to Hunter. Being near him would calm her.
And so she simply teleported directly into the townhouse she had carefully settled her mate in—the beautiful residence she'd prepared for him. She appeared suddenly on the balcony of the second-floor master bedroom, materializing out of thin air. The balcony doors were standing wide open, letting the cool night air flow freely into the room.
Aiona walked inside slowly, gently parting the swaying curtains with her hands. And the comforting view of the huge bed positioned in the middle of the spacious room came into her sight. There, sleeping peacefully, was Hunter.
She let out a soft sigh that she didn't even know she had been holding trapped in her chest. He was safe. He was here, unharmed. She could clearly hear his soft, steady breathing and the reassuring rhythm of his heartbeat—sure signs that he was alive and well and completely unaware of any danger.
It wasn't that she genuinely thought Jarun would immediately harm the man she loved. Not directly, at least. It was just that Jarun was fundamentally unpredictable in ways that terrified her. She had known him personally for almost thirty years now, had watched him grow from a child. But that long familiarity didn't give her any real sense of being able to predict his actions or reactions. He always did something completely unexpected, something that went far beyond her relatively narrow imagination despite her centuries of life.
With Jarun, Aiona absolutely could not use the phrase she normally relied on: "I've lived in this world for over five hundred years—I've seen it all, there's nothing new." Because with him, that simply wasn't true. He constantly surprised her, and not in pleasant ways.
And that unpredictability was exactly what was worrying her so intensely right now. The uncertainty, the completely unknown outcome of her actions and choices. She was worried and worried, her mind felt like an absolute chaotic mess of fears and possibilities.
She moved softly across the room, walking over to the bed where her mate lay sleeping so soundly and peacefully. She carefully got under the covers beside him, sliding beneath the sheets. Though she was extremely careful not to make a single sound that might disturb his rest, Hunter nevertheless stirred awake anyway, his eyes opening. He looked at the intruder in his bed through the darkness, trying to make out who it was.
"It's just me," Aiona said softly and reassuringly, not wanting to startle him or cause alarm.
However, the man didn't get scared or defensive at all. He just let out a soft, warm chuckle of recognition and pleasure.
"I've been waiting for you to come," he said after that with a sleepy, deep voice still rough from sleep. "I've missed you so much." He added quietly a silent second later, the words filled with genuine affection.
Those simple words were exactly what Aiona desperately needed to hear. She immediately dove into his welcoming arms, nuzzling her face against his warm chest and breathing in his familiar scent. She was acting so adorably vulnerable. "I've missed you too," she whispered back in a low, intimate voice.
They just lay there together in each other's warmth like that silently for some considerable time, neither speaking. It wasn't an awkward or uncomfortable silence in the slightest—it was a deeply comfortable one, the kind of peaceful quiet that spoke of profound familiarity. The kind that said "I've known you for a lifetime" even though, in reality, it genuinely hasn't been that long at all since they'd met.
"What are you thinking about so hard?" Hunter was the first one to break the companionable silence. "You look troubled by something. I can feel the tension in you." He added the observation softly as he gently stroked her long hair with his fingers.
"I've been thinking about many things," Aiona started, leaning into and savoring the soft, comforting touch of her mate. "Since I was born five hundred and sixty-six years ago—my entire long life—I have only ever lived in Heinnas. I've never left this kingdom. And my mother too, she lived in Heinnas during her late years after wandering the world. And I started actively serving the Heinnas Kingdom when the sixteenth king of Heinnas, a man named Jorban, asked me personally to look after and protect his kingdom. I was only a hundred something years old back then, still relatively young for a dragon."
She paused, gathering her thoughts. "I've flourished the land extensively, blessed the waters with my magic, making the soil rich and fertile where crops grow abundantly. I've given my own blood away freely to keep the people from getting sick and to heal their wounds when they're injured. I've done so much for them consistently from generation to generation for the past four hundred years without asking for anything in return."
She traced idle patterns on Hunter's chest as she spoke. "When the people started to treat me like a living deity, worshipping me and building temples, I didn't really feel embarrassed or undeserving of that reverence and attention. Because I genuinely know my own value and what I've done for them. But I also didn't do any of that—the protection, the healing, the blessing—because I wanted to be treated like a deity or because I craved worship. That was never my motivation."
"It was because I found humans absolutely fascinating," she continued, her voice warming. "They come to earth with such tragically short life spans—barely a century at most, sometimes much less. But despite that limitation, they do the most amazing things to change the world around them. Despite all their many shortcomings and weaknesses, they are such a driven, ambitious, creative bunch. Yes, sometimes they can be fickle and treacherous and disappointing. But that's just a fundamental part of human nature—the capacity for both great good and terrible evil. And I love humans despite their flaws, or maybe because of them. That's why protecting them and helping them flourish has never felt like a burden to me. It's been a joy."
Aiona let out another deep sigh, this one tinged with regret. "But I realize now that I was so completely caught up in my own works and responsibilities that I forgot the world beyond the borders of Heinnas Kingdom even exists. I've never seriously thought to travel anywhere else, to see what lies beyond. Nor did I really have the desire to do so before. My world was here, and that seemed enough."
She shifted to look directly into his eyes. "But now—now I want to be a little bit selfish for once in my long life. I want to travel the world with you, see all the places I've never seen. I want to live my days with you, experiencing new things together. Will you be alright with that? With me leaving behind my responsibilities here?"
She asked him earnestly, peering deeply into his green eyes and searching for his honest reaction.
"Of course I'm alright with it," Hunter replied immediately without any hesitation. "I'd love nothing more than to travel the world with you by my side. But you have a responsibility here—you'll have to say a proper goodbye to them, to the kingdom. How do you think they would take the news? They've relied on you for so long."
He asked the practical question gently, slowly reaching up to pinch Aiona's nose affectionately in a playful gesture.
"I hope they understand my choice," Aiona said with a tentative smile. "I'm planning to announce my departure on the founding day of Heinnas next week. It will be eight hundred and thirty-seven years since the founding of the kingdom—a major anniversary. There is going to be a huge celebration, lasting the entire week. It seems like the right time to make such an announcement."
"Hm. That sounds like a good plan," Hunter agreed, nodding slowly. He continued to stroke her hair gently with his fingertips in a soothing, rhythmic motion. As he did so, the lateness of the hour and his earlier sleep caught up with him. He slowly fell back asleep, his breathing evening out, and his fingers came to a gradual halt in her hair.
But Aiona didn't fall asleep herself for several more hours—she lay there awake, thinking and planning and worrying. And as she finally drifted off, I witnessed something strange and profound: a dream within a dream, a vision within the memory.
In that nested dream, Aiona wore completely different clothing—a Western style of attire I'd never seen her in before, practical traveling clothes. And they were traveling together on a ship in the middle of the vast ocean, far from any land. The wind blew strongly, flowing her long hair away from her face. And somewhere from behind her position on the deck, a familiar voice called out to her.
"Aiona," it called her name gently, lovingly.
As she turned around to see who was calling, there was her mate Hunter, walking toward her across the swaying deck. And in his strong arms, he was carefully carrying a toddler—a beautiful boy who appeared to be barely three or four years old.
That child had the most striking eyes—brilliant golden in color, but with distinctive vertical slits like a serpent or a dragon. They glowed softly in the sunlight.
"Mama," the boy called out clearly, spreading his small arms wide toward Aiona, wanting to be held by her.