Chapter 1294 - Taming the Old World - Compulsory Reaction - 5

Chapter 1294: Chapter 1294 - Taming the Old World - Compulsory Reaction - 5

All four of them were here together, sharing the exact same space, with no favoritism and no unnecessary drama.

He had to take the step sooner or later...

Getting used to moments like this was supposed to keep him from freezing up whenever he could not address them one-on-one. When all three of them were standing in the same room, he needed to stop treating them like a delicate logistical puzzle that might blow up in his face, and start treating them like what they actually were: his future wives.

"Alright," Ren said, managing to keep his voice mostly steady on the second try. "We will do it that way. Just... one at a time, though."

But small steps first...

Larissa had been the bravest of the trio when it came to putting the request into words, yet when the moment came to actually close the distance, her feet stayed glued to the floor.

Instead, it was Liora who moved first. She took half a determined step forward, squaring her shoulders; Selphira had spent the whole morning winding her up, and a stubborn part of Liora’s pride refused to let her grandmother’s meddling go to waste.

Still, her nerves caught up with her mid-stride, and that brief half-second of hesitation was all the opening Luna needed.

The air blurred with a shadow jump.

Luna vanished from her spot on the left and materialized right in front of Ren, appearing so close to his chest that the displaced air brushed against his chin.

"Sorry," Luna said to the open room, offering the apology to nobody in particular in a smooth tone that did not sound the least bit sorry. "Today, I am taking the first turn."

Before Liora could even open her mouth to protest the line-cutting, and just like that very first day when she had ambushed him without a word of warning, Luna rose up on her toes and pressed herself against him.

This time, however, turned out to be completely different from every kiss they had shared before.

But it did not start out that way...

During the first couple of seconds, everything felt warm and familiar. Over the past few months, Ren had grown accustomed to stolen kisses in quiet hallways, lingering hugs before deployments, and holding hands when nobody was looking; all that practice had filed down the sharp edges of his old panic.

When Luna looped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his, it did not short-circuit his thoughts right away. His heart beat faster, of course, though it stayed within a comfortable, manageable rhythm.

Then, Ren closed his eyes and opened the channel to pass her the dragon energy.

The instant the golden essence crossed the threshold of their lips, it hit both of them like a religious experience.

Passing refined mana from palm to wrist was a simple, utilitarian, if a little ticklish, transaction. Passing it through a kiss was another matter entirely. The human mouth held far more sensitive nerve endings than most tamers calloused or lightly fused hands, and the distance to both the brain and the soul’s core was much shorter. As the dense, exhilarating current of the ancient dragons poured from Ren into Luna at the exact point where their mouths met, it bypassed their standard channels and lit up both of their nervous systems at the exact same time.

For Luna, who was on the receiving end of the concentrated stream, the effect was immediate. Her knees buckled beneath her within the first second, and she only stayed upright because her arms were locked tight around Ren’s neck, hanging from his shoulders as her toes scraped the floor.

Through the haze, Ren felt the sudden shift in her posture and found it unexpectedly charming. At the same time, through the intimate ethereal tether that linked their minds, he picked up a swirling storm of chaotic, dizzying emotions pouring off her side of the bond.

Curious about why the transfer was hitting her so much harder than usual, and wanting to understand what she was feeling a little better, Ren decided to draw a small fraction of the active dragon energy back into his own system while their lips were still connected.

Passing the power out already felt incredible against his mouth. Pulling it in while reading her emotions was a massive miscalculation...

The moment he drew the energy inward, it created a closed loop between them. Ren felt the full weight of the return wave as the draconic current echoed back and forth across their link, multiplying with every pass through their skin-to-skin contact, their shared bond, and the raw sensitivity of the kiss.

When they finally broke apart a moment later, Luna simply melted.

Her arms slipped from his neck, and she let gravity take her all the way down slowly.

She landed flat on her back on the smooth stone floor of the cavern, clapping both hands over her flushed face as she gasped for breath. Right above her temples, the dark, furry ears of her shadow wolf popped straight out of her blue silver hair, twitching and flicking back and forth at high speed, completely beyond her ability to suppress or control.

NO... I CAN’T HANDLE THIS... Luna screamed inside the privacy of her own head, curling her fingers tighter over her burning cheeks. THAT WAS NOT A KISS, THAT WAS AN ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION ON MY POOR HEART! NOBODY TOLD ME THAT TRANSFERRING DRAGON ENERGY FELT LIKE... LIKE THAT! WHY DID NOBODY WARN ME?! I AM GOING TO DIE RIGHT HERE ON THE COLD FLOOR... Even so... IT WAS COMPLETELY WORTH IT!

Standing a few feet away, Liora and Larissa stared down at her in genuine alarm.

Watching Luna, who was easily the boldest and most shameless of the three when it came to cornering Ren, get reduced to a trembling, panting puddle on the floor with her beast ears twitching out of control made both of them seriously reconsider what they had just demanded of him.

"Wa...Was the transfer really that strong?" Larissa murmured, her eyes wide as she instinctively took a small half-step backward.

From her spot on the stone floor, without uncovering her face, Luna slowly raised one arm into the air and gave them a shaky thumbs-up. Looking at how hard her hand was trembling, neither girl could tell if the gesture was meant as an endorsement or a dire warning.

Ren, meanwhile, stood over her and swallowed hard, his chest heaving as he caught his breath.

And then, slowly, he straightened his spine more.

As the ringing in his ears faded, an unfamiliar sense of pride settled into his posture. Somewhere in the middle of that overwhelming sensory feedback loop, caught between his initial nerves and the golden haze of the dragon essence clouding his thoughts, the usual dynamic between them had flipped on its head.

For the very first time since these romantic ambushes began, Ren realized that he had come out on top.

Instead of being left stammering against a wall with burning ears while the three girls teased him, he was the one standing tall while Luna lay flat on her back trying to remember how to breathe.

It was a brand new feeling, and he found that he liked it quite a lot.

Still a little winded, yet carrying himself with a quiet, newfound confidence, Ren turned toward the remaining two girls. He held out his good hand, wearing a crooked, slightly cocky half-smile that nobody had seen on his face in a very long time.

"Who’s next?"