Jake looked at her.

He looked at Ankerita who was looking at the women with an expression that was doing something between shocked and calculating.

He looked back at the kneeling women.

"I need," Jake said carefully, "someone to explain. Because I have had an extremely long day and my brain is not currently equipped for mystery."

The woman’s tears fell, but she smiled. It was a complicated smile. Relief and grief mixed together in a way that made Jake’s chest hurt to look at.

"We are the Dragon Maidens of House Raikarndel," she said.

"And we have come to bring you home."

Jake’s head was spinning harder than when the cauldron had drained him.

"House Raikarndel," he repeated slowly, because saying the words out loud might help them make sense.

They didn’t. "Dragon Maidens... my mother."

Raani Anuki—because apparently that was her name, and apparently she’d spent the last twelve hours chasing him through a forest on dragonback—kept that complicated smile on her face. The tears had stopped falling, but the tracks were still there.

"We were able to trace you quickly because you have awakened, young master. Your mother had made sure that we can find you through your blood, so we can come find you."

"Your mother, Lady Raaya," she said, and there was something in how she said the name. Reverence, maybe. Or grief. Or both at the same time in a way that made Jake’s chest do something uncomfortable.

"She was the greatest blood magus the realm had seen in three generations. Feared, yes. But also respected. Loved by those who served her."

"She formed this legion," one of the other women said from where she still knelt.

"Eighteen years ago. When she knew you were coming. She wanted to make sure you would be protected."

Jake’s brain tried to fit this information into the mental file labeled Mom and found that the file was way too small for what was being described.

His mother had been good at magic, sure. But feared across the realm was a different category entirely from good at magic and his brain was refusing to process the upgrade.

"We misunderstood the situation," Raani said, and now her voice had gone quiet in the way voices went when someone was admitting something embarrassing.

"When we saw you traveling with the Valdriana Covenant—" she gestured at Ankerita, who was still standing there with blue light around her hands and an expression that suggested she was recalculating several assumptions, "—we thought you were being taken. We didn’t know you were traveling willingly."

"You chased us," Jake said flatly.

"With dragons. For hours."

"Yes."

"You nearly killed us several times."

"We were very careful not to," Raani said and had the audacity to sound slightly offended.

"We’re professionals, young master. We know how to herd without harming."

"Your dragons breathed fire on us."

"A very small fire. And we aimed for the wheels."

Jake stared at her. His brain was trying to decide if he was angry or just so tired that anger was beyond his current processing capacity. The tiredness won.

"This is insane," he said.

"Yes," Raani agreed pleasantly.

"But it’s also true."

The door opened again.

Nobody had knocked this time either. Jake was starting to think knocking wasn’t a big priority for people who rode dragons.

Ankerita’s entire posture changed when she saw the woman who just came.

"Maudlina," she said, and the relief in her voice was so obvious that Jake felt it in his own chest.

Ankerita’s older sister and the person who’d stayed behind to hold off three dragons while everyone else ran, walked into the room like she owned it. She looked at the kneeling Dragon Maidens. Looked at Raani. Looked at Jake.

Then she grinned.

It was the kind of grin that suggested she’d just won a bet with someone.

"I told you," she said to Raani. "I told you he was traveling willingly. Did you listen? No. You had to go full dragon chase through the forest because listening is apparently beneath the mighty Dragon Maidens of House Raikarndel."

Raani had the grace to look embarrassed.

"We were concerned," she said stiffly.

"Lady Raaya’s son disappearing with a cunn—"

"They were on the road," Maudlina said.

"With guards. If he was being kidnapped it was the politest kidnapping in history."

"We didn’t know!"

"You could have asked!"

"We tried! You ran!"

"Because you were shooting fireballs at us!"

Raani opened her mouth. Closed it. Opened it again.

"They were very small fireballs," she said weakly.

Maudlina looked at Jake. "I talked to them after you all got away. Took me three hours to make them understand they’d made a mistake. Three hours of explaining basic logic to people who ride flying lizards for a living."

"Dragons," Raani said automatically.

"Flying Lizards."

One of the other kneeling Dragon Maidens made a sound that might have been a suppressed laugh. Raani shot her a look that could have curdled milk.

Jake sat back down in his chair because his legs had filed a formal complaint about standing and his brain had filed a matching complaint about consciousness in general.

"I need," he said slowly, "some time. To process all of this."

Raani stood up. The other five Dragon Maidens followed her lead with the kind of synchronized movement that came from years of practice.

"Of course, young master. We’ll be in town. When you’re ready—"

"When he’s ready," Maudlina interrupted, "he’ll come find you. If he wants to. Don’t go lurking around his hotel room like creepy dragon-riding stalkers."

"We don’t lurk," Raani said with dignity.

"You flew attack patterns around a running carriage for two hours. That’s lurking with extra steps."

Raani looked like she wanted to argue. Looked at Jake. Looked at Maudlina. Sighed in a way that suggested she’d lost this particular battle and knew it.

"We’ll be at the inn in the city," she said to Jake.

"Whenever you’re ready to talk. Or if you need anything. Or if anyone threatens you. Or if—"

"They get it," Maudlina said.

"Go lurk somewhere else."

The six Dragon Maidens filed out of the room with impressive dignity considering they’d just been kicked out by someone who’d spent three hours calling dragons flying lizards.

The door closed behind them.

Ankerita let the blue light around her hands fade. She sat down heavily in the other chair and looked at her sister.

"You held off three dragons by yourself for three hours."

"Two hours," Maudlina corrected.

"The third hour was mostly talking once I convinced them I wasn’t going to die easily and they should maybe stop and listen."

"How are you alive?"

"I’m extremely good at not dying." Maudlina looked at Jake.

"You look terrible."

"I feel terrible," Jake said honestly.

"My mother was apparently a feared blood magus who commanded a legion of dragon riders?"

"Sounds about right."

"Did you know this?"

"I knew she was powerful. Didn’t know about the dragon maiden thing specifically, but House Raikarndel has always had weird traditions."

Maudlina pulled out the third chair that Jake hadn’t noticed was there and sat down.

Jake’s brain seized on that like a drowning man grabbing a rope.

"I need to get home. My auntie is going to be worried sick."

"We’re leaving for Midnakar City in the morning," Ankerita said.

"You can rest here tonight and we’ll—"

"No," Jake said.

"Now. I need to go now."

He stood up. His legs filed an immediate protest, but he ignored them because Chelsea had been expecting him back and he’d been gone for way longer than he was supposed to be, and she was definitely worried and possibly panicking, and he needed to get home now.

Maudlina looked at him for a long moment. Then she nodded.

"I’ll arrange transport," she said.

They left within the hour.

Maudlina had connections, apparently. The kind of connections that could get you a fast carriage with good horses and a driver who didn’t ask questions when you said you needed to be in Midnakar City before nightfall.

The ride took six hours.

Jake spent most of it trying to sleep and failing because his brain wouldn’t stop replaying dragon riders kneeling in front of him and saying young master like it was something he was supposed to understand and accept.

Ankerita sat across from him and also didn’t sleep. She watched the landscape go by through the window with the expression of someone doing complicated thinking.

Maudlina rode up front with the driver and periodically made comments about the horses that suggested she had opinions about proper horse handling.

They reached Midnakar City just as the sun was setting.

The city looked exactly the same as when Jake had left it. Same walls. Same gates. Same guards who waved them through without much interest. Same streets full of people going about their evening business.

It felt unreal.

Eskar was nowhere to be seen. He made sure to hide among the group; he didn’t come before Jake again.

Jake had been gone for—what? Two days? Three? It felt like a month. It felt like he’d left as one person and was coming back as someone completely different. But the city didn’t care. The city just kept being itself.

The carriage dropped him at the end of his street.

Jake got out. Looked at Ankerita.

"Thank you," he said.

"For everything."

She smiled. It was a tired smile but a real one. "We’ll talk soon. You know where to find me."

"The baron estate?"

"Or any tavern with decent wine. I’m not picky."

The carriage pulled away.

Jake walked the last block to his house on legs that were threatening to stop working entirely.

The door was unlocked.

He walked in and the smell hit him immediately. Home. The specific smell of the house he’d grown up in. Chelsea’s cooking and old wood and the weird scent the fireplace made when it had been burning for a while.

Chelsea appeared from the kitchen.

She looked at him.

Her face did something complicated. Relief and anger and worry all happening at once.

Then she crossed the room in three steps and hugged him so hard his ribs sent in a formal complaint.

"You absolute idiot," she said into his shoulder.

"You were supposed to be back two days ago. Two days! I thought you were dead. I thought something had happened. I’ve been sending messages to everyone I know trying to find you and you just walk in here like—"

She was crying now. Jake could feel it against his shoulder.

"I’m sorry," he said.

"I’m so sorry. A lot has happened, and I don’t have the energy to talk right now. And I’m really tired, Auntie. I’m so tired."

She pulled back and looked at him. Really looked at him. At his torn clothes and his bruised face and the way he was standing like someone who’d been running for two days straight.

"Go to your room and rest for now," she said firmly.

"We’ll talk when you’ve slept."

"I need to tell you—"

"Bed," Chelsea repeated.

"Everything else can wait."

Jake didn’t have the energy to argue.

He made it upstairs. Made it to his room. He fell onto his bed, still wearing his boots and his torn traveling clothes and everything else.

He was asleep before his head finished hitting the pillow.

***

Jake opened his eyes and allowed himself a leisurely yawn. He shuffled under the sheet, noticing it stretched tightly over his naked body and also the one that lay next to him. As he turned from the side to lie on his back, his nascent morning wood poked through the taut covers. It formed a visible protrusion as it rapidly engorged to its full, throbbing hardness.

He smiled -- nay, he grinned: cheekily, from ear to ear -- as he felt the rush of blood filling his sizeable manhood. There was no surprise that he was in such a good mood; indeed, for the lucky eighteen-year-old boy it was all but totally expected. Nowadays, there was truly no better way for him to wake up than with a fully hard, raging erection.

"Geez," he let out, followed by a soft chuckle. "Rise and shine, huh?"

Like most guys his age, Jake was often at the mercy of his relentlessly overactive hormones. But unlike many other guys his age, the horny teen didn’t have to wrestle much with his youthful lusts and urges. He had a perfect outlet for his strong carnal desires, which he was permitted to take advantage of whensoever he pleased.

Shuffling again, more carefully this time, he slowly rotated his body so that it ended up on his other side. As he did that, he deftly maneuvered his jutting erection; it wedged itself between the shapely thighs of the gorgeous woman who lay with him in his bed. Biting his lip, as he felt the smoothness of her skin grazing his hard dick, he took a quiet breath and moved it up, little by little, until it finally rested against the palpable warmth and dampness of her slit.

There was a soft moan, something akin to a contented purr, and it made the boy pause and freeze momentarily. It soon became clear, however, that the woman was still fast asleep. She had her back turned to him, the thin sheet covering the enticing curve of her butt and the sleek lines of her legs.

That sumptuous butt was now gently pressing into Jake’s crotch. While her luscious pillows offered some meager resistance against his advances, they couldn’t deter the eager young man from thrusting his hard-on along the glistening folds of her mature pussy.

He started it slow, gliding his long shaft along the dripping wetness, but ultimately the boy’s composure couldn’t last much longer. Though he had gained tremendous sexual experience in those last few weeks since losing his virginity, in the end he was still an excitable teenager who didn’t pay much attention to anything besides his own pleasure.

As such, he quickly stopped caring about waking up his still-sleeping companion. Impatient hands embraced her voluptuous body, finding the large teardrops of her breasts and giving each one a groping squeeze. He relished the feeling of those perfectly firm yet pliant jugs: they yielded to his probing fingers and grazed the undersides of his palms with their surprisingly hard nipples.

Groaning lustfully, he snuggled even closer, practically draping his tall form over the shorter stature of this curvaceous beauty. He was stroking his throbbing erection between her thick thighs, rubbing it against the increasingly wet opening to her sizzling hot pussy.

Finally, in response to him wantonly taking liberties with her lush body, the woman let out a breathy gasp and a moan.

"Oh?... Oooh... T-Jake?" her voice barely rose above his grunts. "Honey, oh... Is this...? Oh my!"

"Sorry, auntie, I... uh... I just couldn’t help myself..."

There was another husky moan, which was then followed by a sultry, almost girlish giggle. "Aww, my poor boy! You really like your auntie’s body, huh?... Oooh... That’s... that’s fine... but let me do this first..."

As she said this, she steadied his thrusts with a hand which she swung over and placed on his muscular ass. She then grabbed her son’s hard cock and gently guided it inside her, giving a soft whimper of delight when it speared her moist tunnel.

"Ahhh," he groaned, as her slick wetness enveloped his aching shaft. "Oh yeah! This is much better!"

She giggled again. "Of course it is! Your big cock is now inside... oh!... inside auntie’s little pussy. That huge stick of yours has gotten very used to it, hasn’t it?"

Spooning her from behind, Jake kept pushing his thick rod deep into the lusciously wet vagina of his smoking hot auntie. He was quite distracted by the exquisite sensation of her loving embrace, as it massaged every inch of his rigid manhood, so he only grunted in response and continued to plow his auntie’s tight snatch.

Chelsea wasn’t at all surprised by his singleminded enthusiasm. She had long since learned to expect it. Truthfully, she very much appreciated her son’s eagerness, even though his appetite for sex could at times get seriously overwhelming. She had experienced it repeatedly, several times a day, over the course of those few intense weeks since the start of their incestuous relationship.

And she didn’t regret it in the slightest. Indeed, his unbridled desires had only reassured her she was doing the right thing. When the mature stunner offered her voluptuous body to Jake, it was under the assumption that it would protect him from the malicious online influences. After hearing about this threat from her best friend Kelly, Chelsea simply couldn’t bear the thought that some awful, misogynistic creeps might turn her sweet but virginal boy into a full-blown, woman-hating incel.

And so she did the simplest, and in her mind the most obvious thing.

"Ooooh, yes!... Your cock... It’s filling me so good!"

She had sex with her son.

"Fuck me, honey! Oooooh... That’s right, fuck me deep!... Oh, oh, oh, oooh..."

And it wasn’t just a one-time thing either.

"Ahhh... Keep fucking me, sweetie! Don’t stop! Oh my god, I’m... I’m getting close..."

Quite the opposite, really.

To make sure Jake would never feel celibate again, Chelsea had promised he would be able fuck her whenever he felt the urge. Her juicy MILF vagina, along with the rest of her voluptuous physique, was now his to use at all hours of the day and night.