Lily winced at his roar, realizing for the first time that she was covered in soot and grime. She offered him a sweet smile, hoping to distract him from the murderous glint in his eyes as his attention honed in on Dallas. “It’s a long story?” she said hopefully.
Dallas hooked his arm around her neck and pulled her into him as he shifted his attention to her brother. “Somebody is making damn sure your sister doesn’t open another store any time soon.” He dragged a hand down his face. “I have no idea why.”
Adrian closed the distance and grabbed her chin, gently tilting her face up so she had to look at him. She could barely see his eyes beneath the rim of his cap, and it scared her that he was hiding himself from her.
“Are you all right?” he asked, manic violence lacing his normally quiet voice. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine.” She offered him the best smile she could manage to prove it. “Dallas is hurt, though. I need him to let Fiona look at him.”
“I’m fine,” Dallas gritted out.
The petite healer ignored that as she lifted a brow at Dallas and pointed down the hall. “Bedroom, dragon. Let’s go.”
He shot a panicked look at Lily as his hand wrapped around hers, but he did what he’d been commanded to do. He dragged Lily with him. After he closed the bedroom door shut behind them, he sat long enough to pull off his shit-kicker boots and socks. Fiona shifted her gaze to the ceiling as he yanked off his shirt and unbuttoned his jeans. He sneered at Fiona.
Because he already looked angry enough, it took everything Lily had and more to swallow back the horrified sound as the damage to his stomach was exposed. Crawling on the bed next to him, Lily slipped her arm around his waist, being very careful not to touch him anywhere that was raw.
He didn’t need her to heal. But she wasn’t sure he’d ever let anyone close enough to care when he’d gotten hurt before, and she needed him to know that he wasn’t alone.
His arm hooked around her neck. “I don’t want to be put to sleep,” he snapped.
Fiona shot a worried look between him and Lily, then focused her attention back on Dallas. “I’ve healed dragons,” she murmured quietly, her sapphire eyes steady on his, “and it’s easier when you’re asleep. Your body won’t fight me as hard.”
He scowled down at her. “Is this going to kill me?”
Fiona shook her head slowly and knelt next to him, studying the ice burns on his abdomen. “Kill you? No. Scar?” She blew out a breath and sat back on her heels. “Maybe, if you wait too long.”
His snort was humorless and mocking. “I’m not worried about scars.”
Fiona lifted an elegant brow. “You have a mate now. She may be worried about scars.”
Lily wasn’t angry at the healer for pulling her into the argument. The males wore their scars like badges of honor, and there were some wounds they refused to have healed. The scar on Adrian’s face was to remind him how easily everything he loved could be taken away from him. The lash marks that covered Luca’s back reminded him of the one person in the world he believed was worth fighting for. Daniel had a slash mark across his chest from the night he’d thought Shelby had set him up to die—the night he’d mated to her accidentally.
Dallas’s body wasn’t flawless, but it was perfect, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about him keeping those scars. Every time he looked at them, he’d be reminded of her pushing him out of the way of danger, of him almost losing her, and his resolve to keep her out of his heart would only harden.
So she nodded and raised her gaze to his. “For me, Dallas,” she murmured. “I don’t want to be reminded of tonight every time we get naked for the rest of forever, and I will.”
The vein under his left eye twitched as he turned to look down at her. “This is important to you?”
No, she thought to herself, it was important for them. But instead of saying that, she only nodded, her eyes steady on his. “Yes.”
His eyes searched hers for a long time before he nodded and turned his attention back to Fiona. “I won’t fight you, but I don’t want to be put under.”
Fiona straightened and waved her hand at him. “Alright, big boy, drop your pants, let’s go.”
The look he sent the healer was far from amused, but he did what she commanded and kicked off his jeans and sprawled out on the bed. Lily wrapped her hand around his as Fiona settled herself next to his opposite hip.
Almost immediately, a soft white pearlescent light spread from Fiona’s small hands to Dallas’s lower body. He stiffened in reaction, his chest tightening for a moment before he turned his head and locked gazes with Lily. He visibly relaxed then, but it confused her at the effort it seemed to take him. Healing didn’t hurt. Seren occasionally put them under a sleep spell if the damage was bad enough to keep the pressure off their heart and lungs as they healed, to speed the healing process, but once the healing started, there shouldn’t be any pain.
“Does it hurt?” she finally asked. She hadn’t needed a healer since the last time Porter had hurt her, and she didn’t remember feeling anything other than terror.
“No.”
* * *
WHEN SHE FROWNED at his gruff answer, Dallas tried to find the words he wanted to say. His body was all he had to keep himself and Lily safe. Scars didn’t bother him, and he knew from past experience he could live with and function under a ridiculous amount of pain, but if something happened to him or something somehow went wrong, it would leave him unable to protect his mate.
Not to mention how vulnerable she was while he was being healed.
But because he couldn’t stand the worry in her eyes, he jacked his brow up. “Don’t think we’re finished talking about what you did tonight, woman.”
She glared right back at him. “I told you. I’m not going to apologize for saving your life.”
“You could have been killed!”
She attempted a growl. “Fine, I’ll apologize for risking my life when you apologize for risking yours.”
“Ryuu, I’m a dragon!” he bellowed. “Look at my size and look at yours and tell me you can withstand the amount of shit I can.”
A scowl darkened her face as she went to her knees and glared at him. “Size doesn’t have anything to do with it. The ice could have killed you, but dragon fire is harmless to their mate. I was safe.”
A low snarl tore out of him. “Really? So when I set the entire building on fire, you were safe? And the rest of the neighborhood? Were they safe when the only thought in my head was getting to you?”
Fiona cleared her throat, cutting off whatever Lily would have said next. “You’re good to go, Dallas. I’m, ah, going to go talk to Adrian for a few more minutes and leave you two alone.”
The second the healer was out of the room, Dallas yanked his hand back from Lily’s and sat up, swinging his legs off the bed. He tugged on his jeans, needing to get a handle on this situation. “I meant it, Lily. This isn’t going to work if I can’t count on you to keep yourself safe no matter what.”
She shook her head at him as she crawled off the bed and moved to stand directly in front of him. “You can’t ask me to do something that you’re not willing to do, too, Dallas. It isn’t fair.”
“Life isn’t fair.”
This time, she did growl at him. “That isn’t an answer, damn it! I didn’t save your life because I didn’t care about mine. I saved your life to give us a chance. Because I need you as much as you need me, and I refuse to live without you if I can do something to save your life!”
He was pretty sure his brain twitched. He felt it. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand what she was saying. He knew she didn’t have a death wish and hadn’t shoved him out of the building with the intent of dying to save him, but he couldn’t get that to matter.
“My father was right,” he said quietly, the muscle under his eye ticking as he worked at systematically shutting off every emotion in his body. He felt too much and it was killing him. “Caring about someone too much is a weaknes
s. You can’t think clearly, and it leaves you vulnerable to making stupid mistakes.”
* * *
HIS FATHER. ALL the pieces to the puzzle suddenly tumbled into place, and she knew exactly why he was fighting this, and her, so damn hard.
“Your parents weren’t in love with each other?” she asked, her eyes searching his face. He was angry, yes, but she was starting to realize that he was terrified. Even more terrified than she had been. And maybe as damaged.
“No.” He sneered the word as he opened his dresser and pulled out a heather gray T-shirt and tugged it on. “Love is a weakness. It allowed them to do their respective jobs without worrying about emotions getting in the way and causing bad decisions that put innocent people at risk.”
“And the woman you had chosen as your mate? Did you love her?”
He snorted. “Portia? No. She’d never deem to feel something as base as love. She suited my needs as I suited hers.”
Her heart leapt into her throat. “You turned into The Destroyer after her death, and you didn’t love her.”
He pushed a hand through his hair. “I avenged her death and that of my parents and my younger brother. No one died that was not directly involved in their deaths.”
“But today…” She let the words trail off as hope mixed in with her soul-deep worry for him. He’d avenged Portia’s death, but for Lily, he’d almost leveled an entire Los Angeles neighborhood. She could see why that worried him, but it also meant his feelings for her went way deeper than he was willing to admit.
Daniel had gone to war for Shelby.
Adrian had taken control over the entire Hunter world for Seren.
She leapt at him, kissing him with all the love that was steadily and forever building inside of her.
Dallas was in love with her.
He staggered back a step as their emotions slammed into each other so hard neither could separate from the other. His hand shot into her hair, and she wound her arms and legs around him. Again. She needed him again. Now.
* * *
HE DIDN’T CARE why they shouldn’t be doing this. He didn’t care that he was furious with her, more furious than he’d ever been with anyone he cared about in his life. And scared. Jesus fucking Christ, she’d scared him.
He turned and backed her into the wall, then pinned her with his hips as he decided to finish what he’d started in the hallway. Need was a boil in his blood, a relentless pounding in his head that only went quiet when he had her naked and pliant and wanting beneath him.
And he desperately needed that peace now.
Not bothering to take her shirt off, he licked down her throat and over the perfect swell of her breast before he scraped his tongue over her nipple through the fabric. A raw sound escaped her. She shoved her hands into his hair, holding him against her as her body arched off the wall.
He dragged his tongue back up her throat, hands gripping her hips and yanking her to him, his cock aching with the need to be inside of her.
And that was before her hot little hand slid into his jeans, her fingers wrapping around him in a grip so perfect he almost came right then and there. “Ryuu.” It wasn’t a curse this time, but a prayer. His head dropped back on a low growl of savage need.
Desperate to get to her skin and give her the same pleasure she was giving him, he shoved up her shirt. His hands skimmed over her lightly, teasing, until her grip on him shifted, her hand beginning to move.
Dallas was suddenly sure whatever gods were out there had forgiven him for all of his sins because this much pleasure couldn’t be for the damned.
His temper and fear forgotten, their guests forgotten, Dallas’s head dropped back as her hand stroked him.
“Don’t stop, baby,” he murmured, pleading. He was used to giving pleasure, but having his mate so focused on him shook him and upended his world. Whatever he gave to her, she always managed to find a way to give him just as much. He could see on her face how much she liked watching him feel what she was doing to him. He groaned, pure need rocking through him.
He slipped his hands into her snug shorts, then gripped her perfect, biteable ass before he shoved the fabric down and let his fingers find her. He meant to tease, to give her back what she was giving to him, but the second he felt how wet she was, the fine hold he had on his control snapped.
He shoved out of his jeans, then lifted her up and drove into her in the same heartbeat, his body caging hers against the door. The dragon in him roared at the pleasure that vibrated through her. She hung on while he pounded his need into her, her fingers digging into his shoulders, nearly breaking skin.
Because his dragon’s need to reaffirm the bond with the mate they’d almost lost mixed with Dallas’s pure and simple craving for her, he forced himself to slow down. To do this right for her.
“Wrap your legs around me, baby.” He scraped his teeth over her nipple, then took a long, slow lick of it to reward her for following his command. He’d never get tired of her sweetness. His body shuddered at the intense pleasure. “Tell me what you want.”
Her eyes flew wide, and she shook her head slowly. Despite how serious he was, he couldn’t stop the slow, wicked grin from spreading across his face at her blush. “Slow?” He skimmed his hands up to cover her breasts gently, a soft caress meant to tantalize. He stroked into her, slow and deep, and made her whimper. “Or do you want it harder, faster.”
He shifted and drove into her, again and again. He possessed her breasts with his hands, then his mouth, the pads of his thumbs, then his teeth.
“Dallas.”
He nipped gently at her jaw before he ran his tongue over the love bite. “Yes, baby? Tell me what you want.”
Her nails dug into his shoulders as her body bowed into him, trembling and desperate for release. “Please…”
“Look at me.” He wrapped her hair around his fist and gently pulled her head back. “I want to see your eyes when you come for me.”
He loved how she watched him, how she met him thrust for thrust, her perfect body moving against his as if they were made to do this together. She was everything, the other half of him, and he needed her. And when her body arched with a scream as she shattered around him, he followed her over that edge, in body and in heart.
* * *
DALLAS KNEW HE was fucked when it was almost dark by the time he was able to even hold his head up again. At some point during the lost hours, he must have somehow managed to get himself and Lily to his bed. Her hand resting possessively over the mark on his heart, she must have been as exhausted as he was.
She was still naked, and against all reason, it made him smile. She trusted him completely. The shy, frightened woman he’d met only days before hadn’t come out of her damaged shell—she’d broken free, and he got the feeling it was because of the way she trusted him.
Damn if he didn’t plan on doing it for the rest of forever, too. The woman’s strength and courage amazed him, and there was nothing in the world he wouldn’t go up against to keep her safe, so she could have that freedom to live without the mind-numbing fear he’d sensed killing her when they had first met.
He snorted out a quiet laugh as he skimmed his fingers along her spine and softly tangled them in her hair. Not that her fear had stopped her from repeatedly going up against the scariest men in his clan to save his life. Though he’d never been in any danger of them except Daniel maybe, she hadn’t known that, and he had no idea how to process how much that meant to him. She hadn’t saved his life out of duty or because he had her back. She’d saved his life simply because she couldn’t stand the thought of him being hurt.
She stretched suddenly on a yawn before she curled up again, her hand in the same protective spot over his heart.
He carefully brushed the soft mahogany hair out of her face and wondered for the first time in his life if his father had been wrong. Augustus had gone up against an army of Hunters with his well-trained soldiers at his back the last time Dallas had seen him, but there had been n
o emotion, no passion behind the fight. He’d been relentlessly cold as he’d fought with a single-mindedness and determination to keep his people safe. He’d been practical, plotting out the exact course of attack, and had not varied a step during the battle.
But without passion behind him, had he been too cold? Too methodical to adapt and adjust, and use that passion to fight harder and longer than anyone else out there? Would it have made a difference?
Dragging a hand over his face, he leaned over and pressed his lips to his mate’s brow. He got out of bed slowly, being careful not to disturb her. He wanted to laugh when she immediately burrowed underneath the blanket, as if the lack of his body heat chilled her.
Although he could stand there for the rest of the evening and watch her sleep, to make sure the bad dreams stayed at bay and nothing could get near enough to harm her, he needed to talk to her brother and the other dragons. There were still the day’s events to work out and Cage to deal with. If Fiona came back with bad news, Dallas wanted to know before they broke it to Lily. Her insane need to protect the two men she loved was dangerous.
He rolled his eyes after taking in the horde of people camped out in his living room. His life had been overrun with overbearing dragons and Hunters. The oldest Shaw asshole was sprawled on the floor in front of the couch, watching cartoons, while Broderick appeared to be napping behind him. Cage was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest and doing his best to ignore Fiona, who appeared to be doing her best to ignore Gabriel, who was staring at her out of unblinking eyes. Daniel was camped out at the kitchen table, his booted feet propped against the back of another chair as he played with his phone.
They all glanced up at him when he walked into the room, and he braced himself for Daniel’s temper. They still hadn’t gone over the fact that Dallas had put the entire city at risk.
He cleared his throat. “Have you heard anything from Luca yet?”
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