"Good grief, Matera! I'm almost thirty years old. I'm the last of my friends who hasn't had a lover yet. And if that's what concerns you, then you need to talk to your son about where he's been planting that shorter front tail lately."
Growling, Hadyn had rushed at his sister, but Sera had caught him. "Stop! Both of you! And just who have you been courting, young man?"
Before he could answer, Edena spoke for him. "Wouldn't call it courting."
He'd gaped at her.
"Hadyn? Look at me and answer my question. Why didn't you tell me?"
He'd lifted his chin defiantly. "It's not a discussion a man wants to have with his mother."
"And it's not his fault. They crawl all over him whenever you leave us."
"Is this true?"
He'd nodded bashfully. "They say that my father had incredible stamina because he was a dragon and they want to know if I take after him."
Horrified, she'd stared at her son. "And you allow them to test you?"
Unabashed, he'd grinned at her. "Every chance I get."
"You are so grounded. Go on and stand over there, and bleed."
"What?"
"I mean it, Hadyn. Go over there before I do you more harm."
Pouting, he obeyed.
She turned back to her daughter. "All right, Deenie. Your turn."
Edena moved back and shook her arms out to her sides. With a deep breath for courage, she changed forms and immediately smacked her head into the ceiling. "Ow!"
"Hah!" Hadyn had teased in his deep, raspy voice. "Told you!"
"Hush, Hadyn. Or I'll step on you."
"Like to see you try."
Seraphina growled at them. Why did they always have to fight, all the time? It made no sense to her and she wanted to choke them both. "Kids, stop!"
Satisfied they were quelled for a minute, she walked to Edena. "How do you feel?"
"Hadyn was right. It's strange. Did you feel like this the first time you changed?"
Sera had smiled at the question. "Want to know a secret?"
"Yeah."
"I've never shifted."
Both of them had gaped at her.
"Never?" Hadyn gasped.
"Never. My parents didn't believe in it for Arcadians. And since I've never been shocked ... I've always been human."
Edena had returned to being human. "Then why did you make us do this?"
She'd brushed the hair back from her baby's beautiful eyes that reminded her so much of Maxis's. "Because your father was a beautiful, proud dragon. And I wanted you to share this part of him. No one should take that from you. Don't ever let them."
Frowning, Hadyn had moved closer to them. "You loved our father?"
"I did and I'm sorry I took him from you. But never be afraid of using the gift he left you with. You are drakomai. Hold your heads up in pride of that and never let anyone make you feel inferior."
Max pulled back out of her memory to stare at her. "You really told them that?"
She nodded. "I meant what I said, Maxis."
"Then prove it."
"How?"
"Turn into a dragon."
The color faded from her face. "Pardon?"
Max took a deep breath before he explained his ultimatum. "You say that you want a fresh start? Then open your heart and show me that you're willing to bend. I want you to face the beast inside you. As you made our children shift, I want you to shift. Just once. If you can embrace the dragon inside your own heart, then we might stand a chance."
"And if I can't?"
"Then I know you're lying. If you can't stomach the dragon that lives in your body, how could you ever accept and love the one that is inside me?"
Seraphina knew he was right. But as she stared at him, she doubted she could do this. For too long she'd denied that beast. Had hidden it away. To bring it out now ...
What if she couldn't go back?
"I mean this, Sera. You gave me an impossible choice once. Now I give you one. Shift for me or lose me forever."
11
"You want me to shift here?" Seraphina asked, looking around the loft that suddenly seemed way too tiny for two full-sized dragons.
A teasing light shone in his eyes. "You'll do it?"
"I don't know ... I'm scared."
The playful light extinguished immediately. "And that's why I'm insisting. You need to understand the beast inside you. Make peace with that part of yourself. I want you to understand the gift you unknowingly gave our dragonets."
Still, it terrified her. But he was right. She'd made her children do this. In all fairness, she should do it too.
Maxis pulled back from her and rose to his feet. He held his hand out for her. "Come with me, my precious swan. Let me show you what it means to be a ferocious dragon. Trust me."
Against all reason and sanity, she did.
Her hand trembling, she took his and allowed him to pull her to her feet. One moment they were in his New Orleans loft and in the next ...
"Where are we?"
"Avalon. It's the safest place I know to take you for this. The only place I know we can go and not be disturbed or hunted." His gaze darkened before he gave her a chaste kiss that left her strangely breathless. "Now let yourself go."
She waited for him to put a little distance between them before she took a deep breath and ...
Dropping her arms to her side, she shook her head. "I can't do this."
He arched a brow as he gave her a stern look and crossed his arms over his chest. "Can't or won't?"
Won't, but she wasn't about to admit that to him. "Why is this so important to you? What does it really matter?"
"Because you fear it and me so much. I want you to understand the beast in your heart. To see for yourself what it means to be a dragon. Just one time in your life, Sera. That's all I ask. Appease me."
In all these centuries, he'd seldom asked her for anything. And as she stood there, shame filled her as she remembered those handful of times.
Whenever she was away from home, he'd asked her to let him stay in his cave where he wasn't ridiculed by her people, and she'd denied him that comfort. He'd asked her to not submit him to her tribe to be inspected like a caged animal.
She'd denied him that, too.
He'd begged her to run away with him, and start their family. To live, just the two of them, in peace. No tribe. No hatred. To start fresh and create, rather than destroy.
And the final thing he'd wanted was for her to spare him Nala's wrath.
Tears filled her eyes again as she realized how unfair she'd been. How cruel. She choked on a sob.
"Sera," he breathed, flashing himself to her side so that he could gather her in his arms. "It's okay. You don't have to do this."
And that succeeded in making her cry like a child. She buried her face against his chest and wept as all the pain and regret poured through her. They should have had a life together. Instead, her fears and pride had divided them for centuries. Had trapped her and her children as stone statues and forced him to live in complete celibate solitude.
Worse, they had hurt the one creature in her life who had never sought to harm her. In all her life, Maxis was the only one who had ever put her first. And in spite of everything, he still did.
Burying her hands in his hair, she pulled his lips to hers and kissed him. She let the taste of her dragon fill her senses as she remembered the way he'd once been. How he'd greeted her and held her. No reservations. No guile. Ever her loyal and precious mate.
Nipping his lips, she stepped back to smile up at him. "I am your dragonswan. Show me." With a ragged breath, she forced herself to leave the shelter of his arms and run toward the open meadow.
Max wasn't sure what to think. Not until he saw her spread her wings, then transform into a beautiful red dragon. Her laughter filled his ears as she ran, carefree, through the meadow.
For about three seconds, then she stumbled and fell flat on her face.
Concerned for her welfare
She tried to right herself and tumbled again ... and again. Finally, she sat down and let out a frustrated breath of fire. "It's not easy to stand, is it?"
"It is for me." He changed forms to show her. "You have to balance your weight a bit differently. Use your wings to counterbalance."
She tried. And failed. "Curse you for making it look so easy."
With a smile, he helped her to her feet and used his neck and weight to assist her ... just as he'd done for his siblings when they'd been young. "Better?"
She nodded and smiled as she finally caught her wobbly balance. Extending her yellow wings, she moved forward, then sat down again to stare at him. "You were right. It's not so different as a dragon, is it?"
"No."
"I'm still me."
"Did you think you'd be someone else?"
"No, but..."
He arched a dragon brow. "Thought you'd lose I.Q. points?"
No, something worse. "I thought I'd be less..."
"Human?"
She nodded.
"As I've said, it's the human and Apollite blood that makes the Katagaria dangerous. Not the dragon. The dragon just makes them bigger."
And apparently top-heavy. "Can you teach me to fly?"
"Best I teach you to hover for now. I don't want you to harm yourself." And so he showed her how to use her wings to lift herself from the ground.
Laughing and smiling, Sera did it after a few minutes of trying. While she still wasn't as accomplished at it or nearly as graceful as he was, she was quite pleased with her efforts. It wasn't bad for a first try.
Max shook his head at her giddy excitement. "I can't believe you've never done this before. Were you never curious?"
It wasn't as simple as that. "I've never been shocked. And ... I fought the urge to shift anytime it came over me. My aunt, Keria, always said we should never give in to the animal inside us. That we should fear it taking us over and ruling us."
"And now?"
She changed back to being human. "I should never have feared you. I'm sorry, Maxis." Completely naked, she did what she'd never done before. She embraced his dragon form.
Closing his eyes, Max savored the sensation of her warm, feminine flesh against his scales. Damn, it made him so hard that for a moment, he couldn't breathe.
"Um, I do have one question."
He opened his eyes to look down at her. "That is?"
"How do I get my clothes back?"
Laughing, he returned to being a man so that he could gather her into his arms, and press the part of him that was most desperate for her against her hip. "Are you sure you want them?"
Seraphina sucked her breath in sharply as he ran his hands over her bare skin and nibbled the flesh of her neck. "Not if you're going to do that."
And then he stepped away and released her, and started that circling thing he did that always made her so dizzy and hot. It was a combination of his scent and the sizzling way he looked at her. Like he was going to devour her, to savor every inch of her body. Which he invariably did. With a thoroughness that was inhuman and intoxicating.
And that particular combination of wild beast and sexy man was deadly.
"Max..."
He dipped down low in front of her and came up for an incredibly sweet, passionate kiss as he lifted her from her feet and held her flush to his hard, muscled body. She wrapped her legs around his waist while he lowered them to the ground so that he could deepen his kiss. Leaning her head back, she moaned at how good his mouth felt on her throat. How incredible it was to have all the hard strength pressing down on her again.
"I've missed you so much," she breathed as she explored the wealth of his satiny skin with her hands.
"And I, you." He cupped her face to stare down at her eyes. "When I heard what Zeus had done to your tribe, I want you to know that I went after you, to free you."
She blinked in disbelief. "What?"
He nodded. "I tried to barter for your release. I'm so sorry I failed you."
How could he apologize to her after what they'd done to him? After what she'd allowed them to do? "Are you the one who placed my stone under a shelter?"
Heat stained his cheeks as he gave her a bashful stare. "Since I couldn't free you, I wanted you protected. Zeus had forbidden that any of the stones be removed from where he'd placed them. He would have splintered you. So I built the shelter over you to keep your stone from harm. I would have done the same for the children, too, had I known."
She stared up at him in wonder. "You can't help it, can you?"
"What?"
"Looking after me."
He took her hand into his and kissed her marked palm. "You are my dragonswan. My Strah Draga. It is my honor to care for you."
"Is that the only reason?"
Shaking his head, he nuzzled her neck. "No." His hot breath scorched her skin and sent chills over her entire body. "You are my heart, Seraphina. And leaving you was the hardest thing I've ever done."
She sank her hand in his hair and cradled his head against her as love for him flooded her. "I'm so sorry, Max."
He kissed her lips and pulled back to offer her a sad smile. "It's all right. I was born cursed. Even now, I know I won't be able to keep you with me."
"You've said that before, but you never explained it. How were you cursed?"
He ran his fingers through her hair as sadness darkened his eyes. "My mother conceived me to steal from my father. When I refused to allow her to use me, she cursed me for it. It's why Illarion was captured as a young dragon and had his throat cut. It was done to punish me. I'm not allowed to have happiness, as others."
"Oh, akribos ... it wasn't your mother's curse that separated us. It was my stupidity. My selfishness. But I promise, I won't let anything else come between us again."
Max wanted to believe that. He really did. Yet even as she said those words, he knew that some things were much easier said than done.
And no matter the intent or heartfelt emotion, not all promises could be kept. The gods were bitter bitches who often made liars of man and beast. And mercy had never been shown to him or his species.
He'd been so hurt that he couldn't allow himself to believe in anything anymore. He knew better.
But at least he had her for a little while. And he vowed to savor what little time they were granted.
Closing his eyes, he dipped his lips to hers and breathed her in. Her body was so incredibly soft and warm. So sweet. He'd forgotten how good it felt to be held. How much he loved the sensation of her limbs sliding against his as she nipped his lips and chin. She'd always been a woman of incredible appetites. Most men would have been terrified of the way she didn't hold herself back.
He'd always loved that most about her. It was nothing for her to come home and playfully flip him to the ground so that she could straddle him. Sometimes she'd stalked him through the woods whenever he went to bathe. As soon as he'd stripped his clothes, she'd pounced like a predator, raining kisses and caresses all over his body.
Even now, she rolled him to his back so that she could lave and taste his chest and abdomen. She lived to be the more aggressive one in bed. It was as if she had something to prove to them both. And he was man enough to give her the lead and lay back and enjoy her play. To let her have her way with his body.
He hissed as she bit his ribs, then went lower to lick and tease his hip bone while her hand cupped his sac and gently massaged him to the point he could barely restrain himself.
"Sera?" He pulled her hand away as he panted with pleasure. "It's been far too long for you to do that. I fear my control isn't what it used to be."
A small pout tempted him even more. "Then I shall have to get you back into fighting shape." Her wicked little grin enchanted him until she leaned down to take him into her mouth.
"Oh dear gods," he gasped as everything spun. For a full minute, he was sure he'd explode as her mouth worked its magic on his body. But then just as he was about to lose all control, she gave one long lick to him and crawled up his body until she could smile down at him.
Max sank his hands into the wealth of red curls as they cascaded over her pale shoulders and concealed her plump, full breasts. "My Seramia."
Seraphina cherished the endearment that she'd missed more than she'd realized. "My precious dragon." Leaning forward, she kissed those incredible lips before she slid herself onto him.
They moaned in unison. Biting her lip, she took a moment to savor the large, thick fullness of him inside her. No one had ever felt the way he did. Not because he was a dragon, but because she loved him. And as he slowly lifted his hips to thrust against her, she trembled. "I want you to know that I never broke faith with you, Maxis. Since the day we were mated, I've never taken another lover."
"Why?"
"I just couldn't. No matter how bad it was during my cycle, I didn't want anyone else. I'd look at other men and they weren't you."
The smile on his face warmed her thoroughly. "Thank you."
Taking his hands, she led them to her breasts as she leaned back and rode him the way she'd dreamed of doing every night since he'd been gone. He filled her completely. And there for a minute, she forgot about everything else. About all the years that had divided them.
Max surrendered himself to her completely. But then he'd always done that. She had a way of reaching past any and all defenses he put up. It was why he'd been forced to leave her. Because she was the one thing he couldn't say no to.
Ever.
She was his sanctuary.
And his worst hell. For her, there was nothing he wouldn't do. Even consign himself to death.
When she came in his arms, he held her close and joined her there in that perfect peace. And as they panted, he felt his heartbeat speed up as the thirio rose in his blood. It was an animalistic need to combine his life force with hers so that he wouldn't be forced to live without her again. It was something all unbonded Were-Hunters felt whenever they had sex with their mates.
He'd made the mistake once of asking her to bond with him. And while her words of declination had been kind, the look of absolute horror in her hazel eyes was forever seared in his heart. It had shriveled a part of his soul to see that harsh reaction.
That rejection.
So he held her in his arms and didn't bother repeating that nightmare.
Seraphina listened to the fierce pounding of Max's heart beneath her chin as she traced circles over his chest and around his nipple. Her own heartbeat was trying to synchronize to his. To bond with it. She could even feel her teeth elongate for the ceremony that would fully unite them.
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