by Alisa Woods
“Adara just had her baby,” Ketu tries.
Niko is staying silent, watching them, letting them work this out. I wish I could melt into the floor. I wish more that I could not cause any of this, even tangentially.
Renn shakes her head. “They have their hands full. It needs to be Shujin.”
He frowns. “She and Rhox have only had one.”
“Yes, exactly. Plus Lukaz and Kashin already play together. They’re like brothers.” Then she stops, and there’s a crack in the façade—a single tear she quickly wipes away. To Niko, she says, “When do we leave?”
“As soon as you’re able.” The price it costs Niko to say those words shows up as a flinch in his shoulders. And somehow that’s just too much. Seeing it breaks something inside me.
I have to stop this.
But Renn’s already moving forward. To her mate, she says, “We need some kind of plan of attack. Perhaps your brother would be good for that.” She gives him a tiny smile, and Ketu crosses the room and embraces her. Renn kind of melts into him.
I take that moment to grab Niko’s hand and haul him to the side of the room. “We need to talk!” I whisper.
He scowls. “About what?” He looks back to Ketu and Renn who are whispering something to each other, Ketu’s hands holding her cheeks.
“About this!” I splay an open hand toward the obvious tragedy that’s about to unfold. “This is all my fault.” Then I march back toward the door, hoping he’ll follow.
“What?” He’s keeping his voice down, and sure enough, he trails after me. Once we reach the front door, out of sight of the main room, he adds, “What are you talking about?”
“It’s my fault Cinder’s where she is.” I cross my arms tight across my chest because it feels like my heart’s going to explode.
Niko’s expression turns incredulous. “You know how the Vardigah found her?”
“No,” I admit, waving that off. “I don’t know how any of that works. But it’s my fault she was in such a bad place. I never should have put her in that situation—”
“What situation?” Niko’s alarm keeps stepping up. As it should.
“The documentary!” I’m practically shouting, so I lower my voice, glancing toward the main room of the apartment to make sure no one’s coming to see what the hell we’re arguing about. “I should never have talked her into that. I knew she was upset about the stuff we saw overseas. I know how she gets. She’s sensitive—way more than I’ve ever been in my life. She sees things in the world that I never would. It’s why she’s so good behind the camera. But the world gets inside her head, and it hurts her…” Tears are stinging the back of my eyes. “She came home because she couldn’t take it anymore. And I pushed her into doing the project. I thought that doing something—making a difference—would help bring her out of that dark place, but it just made it worse. And then that little girl who was killed. Right in front of her. It just… pushed her over the edge. Then she holed up in her apartment and then she disappeared…” I’m gasping for breath. My heart is giving me pains so bad, I’m clutching at my chest.
Shock and horror have frozen Nico—he’s just staring at me as I rant.
“I don’t know…” I gasp through the pain. “I don’t know how these creatures found her, but she was damaged and vulnerable because of me. And if I know one thing, it’s that the vulnerable get caught up in these things, these horrible things…” That was why I thought she’d been trafficked at first. It was like my nightmare coming to life. “This is my fault.” I draw in a breath. “And I can’t let these people risk their lives to fix it.” My shoulders slump. The tears surge now that I’m not fighting them anymore. My heart just throbs with a dull pain, like whatever attack it was having is finally done, now that I’ve decided this can’t happen. I can’t let it. Cinder’s pain and horror are my fault. But I can’t let that spread to anyone else.
Niko’s shaking his head. He takes me in his arms and hugs me. I’m not even sure why until he pulls back and wipes the tears from my face. “Bad things happen to everyone, Ember. It could have easily been you the Vardigah found.”
“I wish they had.” Now the tears are everywhere. I scrunch up my face in a ridiculous attempt to stop them.
“You can’t do that.” He says it so tenderly, with a soft touch on my cheek.
“Do what?”
“Wish away bad things by punishing yourself.” His smile is pained. “Believe me, there were a lot of years when I thought the lair would have been better off if I’d perished in the fire.”
“What?” I swipe angrily at the tears on my face. “That’s crazy.”
“So is wishing you were the one taken.” His expression is way too kind.
I scowl. “This is different.”
“Not really.”
I ratchet up to a snarl. “Whatever. The important thing is that I can’t let this family get torn apart. Not even to rescue my sister. It has to be me. I’m the one who has to fix this.”
“And how are you going to do that?” He says it like he thinks I’m confused. Not thinking straight.
But now that I’m not having a heart attack about all this, it’s becoming even more clear. My panic, my fear, my desperation—it wasn’t all because of Cinder. It wasn’t even about Renn and Ketu and all their kids. It was me being terrified about what I felt during that kiss—what I knew was true the moment Niko pinned me against that wall with his body and his lust and his love.
He’s my soul mate.
And that changes everything. It changes it fast, hard, and completely.
I sniff back my tears and look him dead in the eye. “I’ll become a mated dragon.”
“What?” It’s like the words didn’t even make sense to him.
“We’ll mate, I’ll get all those powers you talked about, then I’ll go rescue my sister.”
His mouth drops open. “I… Ember… that’s not how this works!”
Ketu peeks around the corner. “Everything okay in here?” He’s understandably concerned.
Niko grits his teeth. “We’ll be back.”
I lift my eyebrows, too surprised to say anything. Ketu seems at a loss for words as Niko throws open the door. Then he grabs my hand and hauls me out of the apartment.
Eight
Niko
“We are not getting mated.”
I can’t believe I have to say those words. I kept them locked inside all the way back to my apartment until we could be behind closed doors for this. Not in front of Renn and Ketu. Not in the hallways of the lair where anyone can overhear. But the instant I close the door behind Ember, those words come spilling out of my mouth.
“We’re staying unmated precisely so you don’t die!” I’m shouting at her. Which I hate. I cover my face with my hands and tip my head up to the ceiling, eyes closed, drawing on every bit of patience I have. But she’s my soul mate—I can’t help but be crazed about her being in danger. “Ember, you just don’t—” When I open my eyes, she’s not standing next to me anymore. “Ember?” I call out. Then I stalk out into the main room, hunting for her. She’s on the balcony, in the bright noon-time sun. It’s startling how little time has passed since she walked into my lair and my life—just last night, I was grappling with her in my office. But time doesn’t matter when you know someone is your other half. When the fates throw them into your path, it changes everything.
“Ember.” I’ve stepped up behind her.
She hears me, she’s just staring out at the water and the sun sparkling on the waves. “I know you’re trying to protect me.” She turns to face me. “I know it because I feel it too. You’ll have a better chance in this if you have the powers of a mated dragon. And if I’m a mated dragon, I can go too. I can help.”
“It doesn’t work that way,” I protest. “In any normal situation, we would have all the time we need. We’d get to know each other better. Renn and Ketu were together for a month before they were sure. Well, Ketu was sure at the first kiss, but he was
a dragon. He grew up knowing how it worked. Renn was the daughter of a Senator in Athens. She had no idea—he had to break it to her in stages, and even then, he had to win her love. Mating is a fusion of two halves of a soul, but sometimes the soul isn’t ready. Sometimes… the Dragon Spirited are just really stubborn. And they don’t want anything to do with this life. And now? With our people dying out? I can understand that. This isn’t something you can rush, my love.” I move closer because her eyes are filling with hope, and I still can’t keep myself from touching her. I brush her cheek with the back of my fingers. “You don’t even know how much I wish it were different.”
“Because you love me,” she says, eyes alight.
I laugh a little. “Even before the kiss. You’re a dangerous woman, Ember Dubois. Dangerous to my heart.” And I kiss her… because I might not have too many more chances. It thrums through me, the mating urge. The dragon rearing up and hungering for her.
She breaks the kiss. “What if I’m ready?” Her amber-green eyes are gazing into mine.
“You just want to—”
She puts a finger to my lips and leans closer to whisper, “What if I love you?”
My heart lurches, and the dragon stirs hard. “You couldn’t… you can’t just say it, Ember.” But my heart is thudding painfully. “The mating is a connection. Your love has to be real. And you didn’t even feel it when we kissed—
“What if I did?” She’s so close, fingertips on my cheek, her words caressing me across the air. “What if I lied because I was so scared… afraid of what it meant. Afraid of how it made me feel. Like now. When my heart is beating so hard, I don’t know how I’m still standing.”
“Ember.” I want this—her—so badly. I slip a hand to the back of her neck and take what I want, just for a minute. My lips on hers, hot with need. My tongue plundering her mouth. Then I reach down to her bottom and lift her up, still kissing her as I carry her back inside. I get as far as the nearest couch and lower her down, climbing on top of her and laying her back, her body under mine, her sweet curves exposed my roaming hand.
“I just want you so badly,” I pant against her neck, where I’m busy consuming her with nipping kisses. My cock is painfully trapped in my jeans. But just as the haze of lust threatens to overwhelm me—she’s arching up into me, encouraging me with every point we touch—I regain some sense and pull back. “But this is crazy.” I climb off her and stand back, running both hands in my hair. I don’t even know if this will work. And if it does, it’s irreversible. She doesn’t know half of what she needs to make this decision.
She lifts up on her elbows, looking at me over her still prone body. “How can I convince you?”
I rub my hand over my face then reach for her. “Come here.” She’s up in my arms in an instant. I kiss her quickly, then lead her back to my bedroom. Because she’s right. She shouldn’t have to convince me to make love to my soul mate—to join with her, even if the danger is there. Who did I think she was? The kind to shy away from danger? She’s Dragon Spirited—of course, she will run headlong into danger if it’s the noble and righteous thing to do. But I can make damn sure she knows what she’s getting into before she does.
I bring her to my bed—it’s wide and firm with wrought iron posts and a canopy overhead. I’ve pleasured a lot of women in this bed and used those posts to bind them when that was the game we were playing, but all of that pales compared to the ways I’ll pleasure and bind this woman if she takes this leap with me. Not with ropes or cuffs, but with an unbreakable soul bond that will last our entire lives.
A smile plays across her lips as I sit on the bed and pull her into my lap, straddling me and facing me. I push her long dark hair back, my mouth literally aching to taste her again.
But I’m dead serious about this. “Even if you truly love me, I still don’t know if the mating will work.”
The playful, excited look fades. “Why?’
“Because you’re a twin.” The words are thick in my throat. “I’ve never known a Dragon Spirit to be twinned. Maybe it’s weakened or split between you. And the fact that you didn’t feel the soul bond when we kissed—”
“I did,” she insists and presses her hand to my chest again. “I felt it again, just now.”
The awareness of her as my soul mate is so much a part of me already, I scarcely noticed the extra zing when we kissed. “Okay. Let’s say it works. Let’s say we make love, and our souls fuse. You’ll never have another man. No one will satisfy you like I will.”
“Arrogant much?” she asks, but it’s teasing. Her eyes are on fire with those words.
“That’s not what I mean.” I’m fighting the tremendous desire to rip off her clothes with my teeth. She’s in my bed. She’s straddling my body. She wants this. But I need to make sure she knows what it means. “You’ll have all the powers of a dragon I told you about. But you’ll be forever bonded to me. Forever, Ember. That’s a long time for a mated dragon. That’s why my friends and I were out sleeping our way around Europe, fucking anyone who would have us, because we were young and stupid and thought we would get bored and boring after we were mated. Having one person for all the rest of our long lives seemed incomprehensible. I was so wrong. I knew that when I returned to the fire. I’ve known that during centuries of being unable to find my soul mate. And now, here you are, and you have no idea how much I’m burning for you. But you need to understand. This is it. This is forever. And if I, as a stupid young dragon couldn’t understand that, how can you as a human who’s known about the dragon world for all of two minutes, really comprehend it? How can you understand what sleeping with your dragon soul mate will mean? Especially if by some miracle, you truly love me?” I’m all out of breath, and honestly, out of the will to stop her. She could simply say, “Shut up and fuck me!” and I would. Because that’s all the resistance I can manage.
But her expression is serious now. “I think it will mean babies.”
“Only if the Vardigah don’t kill us.”
She narrows her eyes. “I think it will help keep the man I love alive long enough to make some babies.”
It affects me more than I thought it would. “Say that again.”
“Babies, babies, babies.”
The laugh erupts out of me. I grab hold of her hips and rotate to lay her down on the bed, side by side. “Say that you love me.” I’m searching her eyes—I want to see her while she says it.
She touches her finger to my lips, outlining them with her touch. “I love you so much it scared the hell out of me. I just about had a heart attack.”
“You’re incredibly romantic.” But my own heart is bursting.
She laughs, and it’s light—sweet. Like she’s accepted this, whatever it will be, and the worries are gone now. I didn’t know that was the signal I was waiting for, but when I hear it, I can’t hold back. I press her back into the bed, my mouth on hers, my hands skimming her body once again. As I slide my lips to her neck, my hand finds its way up her blouse. I’m calculating the fastest way to get our clothes off.
“I think…” She’s panting, and her hands are digging into my shoulders, encouraging me. “I think I’ll get to wake up every morning next to the hottest man I’ve ever met.”
It flushes me with pride, but I can’t resist popping my head up. “Aleks is going to be in our bed?”
She growls—which is the sexiest sound I’ve ever heard—and shoves me over. I fall on my back, grinning, and she goes up on her knees, ripping her shirt off over her head. I take advantage of that pause in the action to unzip and shove off my jeans. It takes way too fucking long, but by the time I have them off, she’s completely bare, crawling over the bed to the pillows at the head of the wrought iron frame. I tear off my shirt and go after her, catching her ankles and dragging her down and flipping her onto her back. She giggles, and holy fuck she’s even more beautiful naked. Full breasts. Curved hips. Toes that look imminently kissable, so I do, making her giggle more.
“Next tim
e, I’m in charge of removing your clothes.” I kiss my way up her leg.
“Is that right?”
“I’ll make it worth your while.”
Her breath hitches as I reach her inner thigh and spread her legs, readying to dive in. Her Oh, God and the dig of fingers in my hair as my tongue gets to work flushes raw, electric pleasure through me. And judging by her moans and the writhing under my face, the pleasure is rushing through her as well. She grabs at the comforter, and I have to hold her down as I bring my fingers in on the symphony I’m playing with her sweet, hot spot.
“Oh my God,” she squeals. “How do you—uhnnn…” She arches up into me, then convulses, crying out my name and a string of curses that make me smile so much I almost lose my rhythm.
Then I feel it hit—the pulse of magic, like a hot flush that runs radially out from my heart. There’s an electric pulse in its wake, and I’m suddenly feverish, head to toe, with an insane need to drive my cock into my mate and complete the process. The mating magic. It’s only half activated, sizzling and electric on every nerve.
“What is that?” Ember gasps, sitting up and staring at me between her legs. It’s not me she’s talking about—for her, the magic has to be twice as strong.
“That’s your body,” I pant. “Turning dragon.” I crawl up her sweet curves, feverish skin against silky softness. “And I need to fuck you so hard right now.”
“Oh my God yes please now yes.” She’s babbling as she falls back on the pillows, and I love it.
I brush the hair back from her face—the heat of the transformation is making every inch of her skin damp. I kiss her deeply, as I ease into position. My cock is aching to be inside her. I reach for her wrist and bring it over her head. “Hold on,” I instruct. It takes her a second, but she gets a good hold on the wrought iron railings. I hook my hand under her knees and open her wide. I’m not small, and I want nothing but pleasure for this gorgeous woman I love, but the dragon inside me is thrashing and urging me to ravish my mate, claim her hard and long so that she’ll forever remember our first mating as it sears everything dragon into her.
