by Alisa Woods
He captured her around the waist and kissed her again, lingering there, just touching her, marveling at the fact of it. “As soon as possible, I want you in my bed.”
Her bright-eyed, tentative smile was already rousing his cock again.
He ignored that and strode to the door.
Time to share their good news.
The shock on everyone’s faces mirrored her own.
Rosalyn was still floating in a post-orgasm haze. She meant what she said to Leonidas—it didn’t seem real—but if anything convinced her that the curse was broken, it was the look on Leksander’s face. Amazed and terrified were the only words she could conjure. But definitely very, very real.
“I’ll be damned,” Aunt Gwen said, her mouth hanging open as she raked her gaze over Leonidas’s club-ready outfit. They were out on the fashionable streets of London at night, so his clothes made more sense than her rumpled-and-scorched suit. Although other than the three of them—Aunt Gwen, Leksander, and Cinaed—there was only a lone couple scurrying past a lamp at the end of the street to notice.
Leonidas slipped his arm around her waist, and just that simple motion filled her with such happiness, she was back to feeling like this was a dream.
“I can’t thank you enough,” Leonidas said to Aunt Gwen, “for bringing Rosalyn here, for helping her.”
“I, um… of course.” Gwen’s eyes were still wide. “So, that’s it? The curse is broken?”
Leonidas smiled and dropped a kiss on Rosalyn’s temple. “Love has an amazing amount of power,” he said, only he was saying it to her now, gazing into her eyes with a look that was setting her heart thrumming again. Then he turned his smile back to Leksander, who still looked stunned. “My brother, we have a few technical details to handle—matings and dragonlings and such—but then you’re up next.”
The terror on Leksander’s face stepped up a notch, taking over the amazement.
And Rosalyn knew how he felt. Matings? Dragonlings? She had no question in her mind she loved Leonidas—hell, she’d just risked her life to save him, and he was right, it was her love that sealed the deal on the spell—but mating already? And babies? It just… seemed like everything was moving so fast.
“I, um, have to make a phone call,” Aunt Gwen said, her face stricken. She stumbled away, her heels clicking down the sidewalk as she dug out her phone from some fold in her prim, tailored suit.
Rosalyn’s attention was drawn back by Cinaed coming in for a hug. He pounded Leonidas’s back. “Holy magic, you did it, my liege!” When Cinaed pulled back, he was beaming. Then he turned to her and took her by the shoulders. “And you, my lady… you’re a woman of rare courage. The world owes you a debt like you cannot even know.” Then he hugged her as well.
“Hey,” Leonidas said from behind him, and Cinaed quickly released her. “Hands off my mate.” He scowled at Cinaed, and Rosalyn wasn’t entirely sure if he was joking. Cinaed backed off quickly, though, and Leonidas’s arm was around her shoulders a little tighter now.
His mate? But they weren’t yet. And if she recalled correctly, Cinaed said the whole mating thing was dangerous. The curse was broken, but the rest of all this… the whole thing was making her head ache.
Leonidas peered at her with concern. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah,” she said, but suddenly weariness was dragging at her. “Just a little… spent.”
He smirked with that sexy smile he had, and yes, she was spent in that way too with their fast-and-furious lovemaking, but that wasn’t what she meant. “Let’s get you back home. You’ll have plenty of time to rest on the way, and when we get there…” He let that trail off, but the shine in his eyes said he had all kinds of plans for her.
“Hey,” she said softly, turning to him and ignoring the others, but loosening his hold on her. Aunt Gwen was having an animated but muffled phone conversation. Cinaed was hovering by Leksander, who was looking more freaked out by the moment. “About this mating thing,” she started but stalled out with the flash of concern that took hold of Leonidas’s face. “I want to,” she added hastily, “it’s just, I don’t know, all of this…” She gestured helplessly to her rumpled suit, her body still throbbing from their hurried sex, and that he was human again, standing on the streets of London with her.
“It’s too fast.” He still looked stricken.
“Well, yeah,” she said. “I mean, I just figured out that I’m in love with you…”
His eyes lit up with that. “I’m working really hard on not letting that go to my head.”
What? That didn’t even make sense. “You’re such a dork.”
“Probably.” He touched her cheek. The sparking was an automatic reminder of him bending her over and taking her… and how amazing that felt. It raged heat through her and massively distracted her already-tangled thoughts.
She swallowed. “I just need some time to… I don’t know, sort this out.” She was having a hard time putting words together with him touching her like that and looking at her with those beautiful, lost-in-love eyes. Holy crap, what was she getting herself into?
“I know,” he said softly, leaning in to kiss her on the forehead. “Don’t worry about any of this now. Let’s just get you back to the keep. We can talk on the way. You have to have a million questions about all this.”
She grimaced and flicked a look to Cinaed, who was having a hushed conversation with Leksander a few feet away. “Cinaed told me all about it. How most women die trying to give birth to a dragonling.”
“Did he?” The dark look Leonidas had for the hapless dragon trying to help his brother with magic-knew-what sent a shiver through her. It was instant and heated and the kind of look you followed up with a fistful of razor-sharp talons.
“It’s not Cinaed’s fault,” she rushed out.
His expression was a hundred shades softer when he turned to her. “No, it’s not. It’s mine. I should have told you everything up front. But I’ll fix that now, I promise. You should know every—” He cut off when they both sensed Aunt Gwen hurrying toward them.
“Dragon prince!” she said, quickly.
The panic on her face clamped a sudden vise on Rosalyn’s chest.
“What is it?” Leonidas scowled. His arm was suddenly around her shoulders again.
Aunt Gwen’s hustle up to them pulled Cinaed and Leksander’s attention as well.
“You’re in danger here.” She flicked a look to Rosalyn. “Both of you. You need to leave immediately. Or find a place to shelter.” She ran a quick look over the boiler room they had just left. “We could throw wards around this place—”
“What the hell are you talking about, witch?” Leksander asked. His freaked-out expression had turned dark and scowling like Leonidas’s now.
“Wards against what?” Leonidas added.
“There’s some character named Zephan, a very powerful witch—” She cut off at the look of alarm passed between Leonidas and Leksander. “What? You know this guy?”
“He’s not a witch,” Leksander ground out. “He’s fae. A prince of the Winter Court.”
“What do you know of him?” Leonidas demanded.
“He visited my brother after we left,” she said with a side look to Rosalyn. “Silas told me to call him immediately if you were successful, Rosalyn. He didn’t think any of it would work, but he said it was very important that I let him know if somehow you managed it. He wouldn’t say why, but just now…” Aunt Gwen’s face was ashen, and it was making the tightness in Rosalyn’s chest even worse. “He says this Zephan person was extremely powerful. He forced Silas to reveal where you had gone. He promised no harm would come to you unless you succeeded in this ‘misguided quest to break a curse he’d gone to much trouble to place.’ Those were his words, not mine.”
“What?” Leonidas’s face twisted with horror and disgust.
“Fucking Zephan,” Leksander seethed. Then realization dawned across his face. “Leonidas, she loves you.”
“Oh, shit.
I forgot.” Leonidas rubbed a hand over his face, and his sudden concern wracked Rosalyn with tension.
“You forgot what?” she demanded.
Leonidas grimaced. “It all happened so fast… Rosalyn, my love… your love for me didn’t just break the curse. It helps fulfill the treaty. It’s the first step. And that step is felt throughout magical space. It reverberates like a splash in a pond.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Zephan had to feel it. He would have known whether Silas said anything or not.”
Leksander faced his brother. “You need to get out of here. Now.”
“Right.” Leonidas blinked for a moment. “We can’t put her on a commercial airplane. Seattle’s just too fucking far. Maybe we should shelter here.” He looked back to the boiler room.
“No,” Leksander said. “He already knows you were headed here. In fact, he could be here any moment. You need to get on the move. No normal transportation. Make it hard for him to pin down your location.”
Cinaed’s face was as pinched as the others. “But Zephan can’t hurt her, can he? I mean, she’s human, and my lord is of the House of Smoke.”
Leonidas shook his head. “Rosalyn is a third-generation purebred witch. I don’t know how much technical human that leaves in her, but Zephan will surely try to stretch the limits of that. We can’t count on the treaty to protect her.”
“What is he going to do? Kill me?” Rosalyn’s heart was banging so hard, and her chest was so tight, she could hardly breathe.
“He can try,” Leonidas growled. “But I won’t let him have you.” Then before her eyes, he transformed into an enormous bronze dragon.
Rosalyn stumbled back, stunned by the sudden change. But this dragon form was nothing like the wild one she’d seen before. Leonidas’s bronze dragon was smooth all over, glisteningly beautiful scales, long, graceful neck, and wings that spread out into the street. A quick glance showed no one else was on the street to see this amazing creature suddenly appear.
Climb aboard, my love. Leonidas dipped down, kneeling on the pavement so she’d have access to him.
“Are you serious?” she asked, although her fingers were itching to touch him.
Please hurry. So she did. Cinaed gave her a boost up. While she was swinging her leg over and settling on the back of his neck, anchoring her bare feet—somehow she’d lost her shoes in all the craziness—against the shoulders of his wings, he mind-spoke to her again. And apparently, to everyone. I’ll take her to the keep in France. It’s buttressed against any attack if Zephan summons a demon army against us.
Demon army? For the love of magic, what had she gotten herself into?
“You’ll have to raise the wards again,” Leksander called up to him. “But you should be safe there as long as you need. I’ll alert Lucian. And we’ll get a legion of dragons to relocate there. We’ll join you shortly.”
Leonidas dipped his dragon head—not bony-ridged like before, but smooth and beautiful—then he lifted into the air.
“Ah!” Rosalyn cried out, then clung hard to his dragonfire-warmed skin. He was smooth as silk, yet hard as metal. She dug her heels in to stay anchored as he winged his way across the rooftops of London. “Won’t people see us?” she shouted over the wind. It was chilly up in the air, so she hugged closer to the warmth of his body.
We’re already cloaked, he answered. And worry not, my love. I can feel your heart pounding. I promise, I’ll keep you safe.
She just nodded against his skin and clung harder.
“That’s much better,” Rosalyn said.
She snuggled against the back of Leonidas’s neck. Now that he’d conjured a wrap-around blanket that strapped to him and held her warm and safe, she’d stopped shivering. He kicked up his speed a notch.
Sorry. I should have thought of that sooner. The feel of her soft legs against his skin was warming him in a whole different way.
“It’s fine.” She traced a pattern, slowly, across his skin, her delicate fingers playing along his scales in an erotic dance seriously messing with his internal navigational sense.
My love, if you keep that up, we might not make it to the keep.
She froze, then lay her hand flat against him. He almost wished he had said nothing.
“What’s this keep we’re going to?” Her words were whispered against his skin, a suitable replacement for the previous erotic torture.
My family home. At least, it was until Lucian lost his mate, and we moved to Seattle. He realized after he sent the thoughts that perhaps that wasn’t the best topic to bring up.
“His mate?” Of course, she would zoom right in on that. “Wasn’t she the one with the baby back at your other keep?”
That’s his new mate. Leonidas hesitated, then added, His first one was lost during the pregnancy.
She fell silent.
The wind whistled in his ears as he soared over the coast. Lights twinkled below. They’d already flown half the one-hour flight between London and Paris before he’d realized she might freeze despite holding tight to his dragonfire-warmed scales. She had spoken little before that, but the warmth of the snugged-down blanket seemed to get her talking. Only now she had lapsed into that silence that haunted the first part of their hasty flight out of London and away from the possibility of Zephan finding them. The dark fae would surely think to look for them at the House of Smoke’s ancestral home outside Paris as well, but once they had the wards up, he could bang on the door all he liked. Leonidas would be inside, in his bed, sealing his new mate and making a dragonling.
If Rosalyn would have him.
Are you warm enough? he tried.
“Yeah.” A long stretch of silence again.
The hazy lights of Paris glowed in the distance. Maybe they would just have to wait until they got to the keep to talk.
“If we mate, do we have to make a dragonling right away?”
Or maybe they would talk right now.
Yes. He hesitated… what did she really want to know? What would scare her off?
“Tell me about it.” She pressed her bare toes into his shoulders and shifted a little higher on his neck, getting comfortable, he supposed. The heat of her bare skin sparking his reminded him how badly he wanted her—all of her. Mated sex. A dragonling of their own. Five hundred years to spend exploring all the ways he felt about her.
But only if she truly wanted it.
That’s how it had to be for the treaty, anyway, but fulfilling the treaty was a distant third, possibly fourth or fifth place, in that hierarchy. He was more worried about all the things she would give up to be with him.
There are three danger points in the process, he started, committing to tell her everything there was to know. He wanted her choice to be fully informed. No surprises, not least because they could be deadly to her and their dragonling. First, there’s the sealing. That’s where we have sex—
“Wait… we have sex first? No one told me there would be sex.”
He blinked and stared at the sparkling city quickly growing closer below them.
“Leonidas, I’m joking. That was a joke.”
Right. Fuck, he was wound tight about this. Maybe we should wait until we get to the keep…
“No!” She stroked the scales on the side of his neck and dug her toes into his wings a little more. “I’m sorry. I’m still in shock about all this. My timing’s off. I’ll be funnier later. Promise.”
I plan to have you screaming in pleasure later, not making jokes in my bed.
“I can do both. I’m multi-talented.”
A huff of laughter finally worked its way up out of his chest. Yes, you are.
She was quiet a moment. Then she said, “I need to know everything.”
I know. He banked as he approached Paris, heading south toward the keep outside the city. It should still be cloaked, which meant Rosalyn wouldn’t see it until they’d almost landed. When I seal you for the pregnancy, that’s when we’re officially mated. It’s a magical process, and it’s dangerous and pai
nful. We have sex as part of it, to ease the way and to make the magic work, and the baby is made as part of that. I’m preparing your body to carry my child, Sweet Rose, and it’s the first point at which you actually could die.
“Okay,” she said, resolutely. “Have sex. Possibly painful sex. Don’t die.” She paused again. “What’s next?”
Then you have to survive the first two weeks. That’s the most dangerous part. Once you clear that, then the birth itself can be dangerous.
“Dangerous how?”
You’re carrying a dragon inside your body, my love. There are any number of things that could go wrong.
“Right.” But it was softer now. “So… have a baby. Don’t die. Is that it?”
Then live happily ever after?
She laughed, and even though he’d prefer she didn’t, not about this, it was soothing to feel her rhythmic shaking on his back.
When she settled, she said, “You know, all I ever wanted was to be a witch. Pretty much my whole life. And now I’m going to mate with a dragon prince and make babies with him? Just… not what I expected.” She was tapping on his scales now, back to that idle rhythmic dance of her fingertips on his skin. Only this time, he welcomed it. His mouth watered for it.
He would do anything for this woman.
Including let her go.
You don’t have to do this, Sweet Rose. The words were almost painful for him to think, much less push out to her.
“Of course, I do.”
No, you don’t. If you aren’t sure, if you don’t one-hundred-percent want it, then you shouldn’t. Your chances of survival go down. And I’d rather you became a witch and had a normal life with someone else than have it end that way.
She paused again. “You’re worried about me.” It wasn’t a question.
He answered it anyway. I can barely stand to think of any of it. Losing you—either way. But if I have to pick, I choose the one where you live. Fuck the treaty. He meant that deep in his dragon heart. His mate—even if she wasn’t truly—came first.
She hugged him, as much as she could, huddled under a blanket, protected from the biting winds of their flight over the French countryside. They were almost to his keep.
