Chapter 441: A dragon spirit wants my virginity

I gasped for air, clutching the handle of my crutch so hard my knuckles popped to keep my weak legs from collapsing under me.

Images that felt foreign but familiar all at once—memories that my brain had entirely rejected as a trauma response—came rushing back in broken, jagged fragments.

​It was the day of the college camping trip. I remembered walking away from the group since I wasn’t needed and then seeing a pretty flower at the edge of a cliff. There was slippery mud at the edge of the cliff but I still decided to climb it anyway.

And then I fell.

I remembered the terrifying, weightless sensation of falling, the branches ripping at my skin, and then the final, bone-crushing impact at the very bottom of the ravine.

I suddenly remembered lying there in the dirt, paralyzed, staring up at the gray sky as my blood pooled in the dirt underneath me.

​And then, the wind had stopped blowing.

​A presence had drifted out from the shadows of the ancient mountain rocks. It hadn’t been a park ranger. It had been something massive, ancient, and invisible to human eyes.

​"Are you still alive?" A voice asked and I barely blinked. "Hm, can you hear me, little bird that lost its wings?"

Once again, I barely blinked. It felt like my mind was playing tricks on me at the verge of death.

"Do you want me to save you?" the voice had asked again.

That question particularly stood out. ​And what had I said? Lying there, broken and invisible to a world that never cared about me, I had closed my eyes and barely whispered into the dirt: "No. Don’t save me. I don’t like this life anyway."

​My breath hitched as the memory fully locked into place. I stared at the man on the sofa, my chest heaving as the pieces finally came together.

​"You..." I whispered, my voice shaking violently. "You were there. At the bottom of the cliff. You’re... the one who spoke to me."

​"I was," he agreed, leaning back against the leather cushions, a predatory, amusement-filled glint in his golden eyes. "I found you highly peculiar. Most humans beg for their pathetic lives when faced with the end. But you? You simply wished to fade. When I asked what it was you truly wanted, you told me you would rather live in a world of your own choice. A beastworld."

​He pointed a finger at the book clutched against my chest. "Your backpack had burst open from the impact. Your handwritten notes, your unfinished manuscript... They were scattered all over the wet dirt. I picked them up and I read your little story."

​He gave a small, dismissive shrug. "I found the plot mildly entertaining, though certainly not something I would recommend for a grand epic. So, I decided to indulge you. I created that world for you, Stephanie. I gave you the main character role, and I ensured that your fated mates would sniff out a scent so special they would dismantle their own lives just to be by your side."

​The lounge seemed to spin. The silver stone walls, the selective tiger pregnancy, the births of my six beautiful children—it wasn’t a random cosmic accident. It wasn’t just a silly draft come to life.

​This man—this dragon spirit living within the forgotten mountains of the human world—had built an entire dimension out of pure whim, just to answer the desperate, dying wish of a lonely wallflower. A bird with no wings.

He was the Beast God. He was the creator of my paradise.

​"Why?" I choked out, a tear finally spilling over my lashes. "If you gave me all of that... if you gave me a family... Why did you write this ending? Why did you bring me back here?"

​"I didn’t do it out of charity, Stephanie," the Dragon murmured, leaning forward and resting his chin on his crossed hands, his golden slit-eyes locking onto mine with an overwhelming weight. "I helped a miserable soul because I was bored. But a god does not bestow such a massive gift without a price. I brought you back to ensure you didn’t forget exactly who granted your paradise. And to see..." 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

​He smiled, a sharp, dangerous expression. "...just how you intend to repay me. Now tell me, Queen. What are you willing to do to return to your beastworld?"

​I caught my breath, my hands shaking against my crutches as I looked at the god who held the keys to my home. "Anything," my voice came out cracked and steady at the same time. "I will do whatever you want to tell me, what do you want from me?" I asked, tears slowly flowing down my cheeks. "Tell me how to repay you so I can go back."

"It’s easy." He said. "I want your virginity."

My body went completely still at that moment and I felt like my heart stopped.

"My... what?"

I stared at him, my brain stalling out as it tried to process the sheer absurdity of what had just come out of his mouth.

​I was standing here, shivering in an oversized hoodie, balancing my atrophied body on a pair of clanking metal crutches with a literal cast on my left leg, and a literal ancient deity was casually asking for my virginity like he was ordering a coffee.

​"You heard me," the Dragon God said, completely unbothered by my sheer, unadulterated bewilderment. He leaned back against the leather sofa, crossing one long leg over the other. "Before your kind decided to pave over the mountains and lock yourselves inside concrete boxes, the tribes used to offer virgin brides to the peaks to ensure a mild winter. I am a creature of old habits, Stephanie. And frankly, in this modern era where I am entirely forgotten, finding a pure, untouched offering is an absolute chore."

​He let out a soft, amused hum, his golden slit-pupils tracing the contours of my pale, trembling face. "You never did indulge in the flesh during your twenty-one years in this realm, did you? You were too busy being invisible and one with the shadows, writing your little stories and getting ignored. Arinya might have four husbands and six children, but Stephanie? Stephanie is entirely untouched and pure. I want the original vessel."