Ever Mine (Dragon Lore)

by Eden Ashe

  “Where is the line?” He demanded. “Where are the guidelines to what is deserved and what is not?”

  * * * *

  Katenia took a step back. Not because of fear, but because she could see the way this ripped at him. He assumed she thought he was weak, but that was so far from the truth it was laughable. He didn’t trust himself, and because of it, he fought to protect everyone from something that could be inside of him.

  Holy stars, the man was beautiful. Inside and out. With his chin-length black hair pulled into a ponytail at the back of his head, it emphasized the brutal blue of his eyes. The sleeves of his gray plaid flannel shirt were rolled up to his elbows, showing off the angel wing tattoo wrapped around one forearm.

  Yeah. She nodded to herself. She wanted to devour him and protect him all at the same time.

  Aware he was still waiting for an answer, she crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her chin up. “You don’t have it in you to hurt someone innocent, Nathan. If you did, you’d have left me to figure out my own life when I appeared in your office yesterday.”

  “You’re not getting it, Katenia. I am the head of a firm that fights for the protection of abuse victims. We provide shelter, safety and all the help we can possibly get them. The last thing they need is the person behind their rescue harassing women half his size.”

  His hands had tightened into fists, the corded muscles of his throat flexed with every swallow, and his left eye ticked. But it was the ferocity in his blue eyes that made up her mind.

  She nodded once and grabbed his hand. Without a word, she turned and headed for the house. All of the fears boiling under the surface for the last two days had vanished, leaving her only with purpose. And peace.

  She smiled. Nathan’s head was going to explode, and she couldn’t wait to see it.

  His aunt and uncle were waiting on the porch as they climbed the steps. Behind her, she could feel Nathan’s body tensing tighter with every step they took. If this place and these people made her uneasy, it felt magnified for him. It seemed the closer she got to him, and the more emotionally involved she became, the more amplified his thoughts and feelings were. She tightened her hand around his.

  “Good, good,” Thad said, a grin spreading across his mole-like face. “Come, come.” He opened the old screen door and stepped back to allow them entrance.

  Nathan leaned down to murmur in her ear. “Stay next to me.”

  She nodded, wholeheartedly agreeing with him. She had no intention of letting him go, let alone move. Instead of following, though, she stood her ground and smiled at Mellie. “I’m sorry, but we can’t come in right now.”

  A warning growl came from behind her. “Katen, don’t…”

  She ignored him as she watched the confusion ripple over his aunt’s face. “But the potion…?”

  “I don’t want it.” She squeezed Nathan’s hand, her smile going wider. “I’m sorry for the effort and putting you out, but I’ve decided to stay human.”

  “The hell you have!” Nathan roared.

  She squeezed his hand again. “Breathe, Nathan.” Despite feeling completely calm about her decision, instinct had her taking a step back when Thad appeared in the doorway again. The sight of him had dread pooling in her belly, and had her fighting the urge to run.

  The odd, mole-like man smiled at her, showing off yellow teeth as he reached out to grab her wrist. “Come in.”

  “I don’t want to.” His fingers closed around thin air as she darted behind Nathan, her hands gripping his shirt.

  “Give us a minute.” Nathan reached out and slammed the door shut in his uncle’s face, before he spun around to glare at her. “What the hell do you mean, you’ve decided to stay human?”

  She winced. “You don’t need to yell, I can hear you just fine.” When he took a step toward her, she worried about the vein pulsing in his temple. She knew she was being contradictory, but she was doing this for him. She reached up and brushed her fingers over his brow and down his face. “I want to be with you. All the way, totally and completely, in-it-to-the-end want to be with you.” She stepped back and crossed her arms over her chest. “Tell me you don’t want to be with me, too.”

  “That’s not the point.” He pointed at her. “We had a deal, damn it!”

  She grabbed his hand and laced their fingers together. “I know. But I want you.”

  His face hardened. “No. You’re just afraid to go home, I get it. But you love being a fairy, and I’m not going to let you throw that away and give up everything that matters to you on a crush.”

  There wasn’t time to argue with him. The door opened behind him, and his aunt stuck her head out. “I’m ready.”

  “I’m not,” Katenia snapped.

  Even as Katenia shook her head, Nathan barked out, “Yes, we are,” and grabbed her arm, hauling her straight past his aunt into the middle of the living room, where Thad was waiting. He handed her a steaming glass of tea.

  Mellie patted her sympathetically on the back. “It’s to calm your nerves, dear, before we do this.”

  She wanted to yell that she didn’t need to calm her nerves, what she needed was for them to listen and accept that she’d made up her mind. She looked up at Nathan. “I know what I want.”

  * * * *

  She took a sip of her tea as she glanced around the room nervously, and the urge to protect her, cherish her, keep her, slammed into his chest with the force of a sledgehammer. She was his, and he didn’t want to ever let her go.

  But his father had let his wife give up everything for him, and it had destroyed her in the end. Nathan wouldn’t repeat that mistake. No matter how much letting her go was going to tear him apart.

  He saw the change in her immediately. She swayed on her feet and blinked rapidly as she stared at him, as if trying to bring him into focus. He caught her around the waist as the china cup slipped out of her fingers. “Katen?” He tilted her head back, and swallowed the panic when he saw how ashen she’d gone. “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t feel…” She blinked at him, her head lolling to the side. “What’s happening to me?”

  Thad clapped his hands like a giddy schoolgirl. “Fairy mine, fairy mine, fairy mine.”

  Still holding onto Katen, Nathan’s free hand flashed out, grabbing his uncle by the front of his stained shirt and hauled him forward. “What did you do?” When Thad only grinned and bit his hand until he released his grip, Nathan shifted his attention to Mellie, who had tears streaming down her face.

  “I’m so sorry, Nathan,” she sobbed. “I had to.”

  He didn’t have to ask what she meant, because no matter how hard he tightened his grip around the fairy in his arms, he couldn’t hold onto her. She was shrinking right before his eyes.

  Chapter 17

  Ice cold terror ripped down Nathan’s spine when he saw the net in his uncle’s hand, and the sound of his aunt’s chanting filled the air. He lunged for Thad as the net closed around Katenia, slamming into him as the floor fell away. The wind rushed out of him on a whoosh when he hit the ground, sending mud flying into the air. Katenia’s screams turned into choked gasps as she landed on top of him.

  He sat up and pushed the net off her. The second she was free, her body hit his, a broken sob tearing out of her. She hugged him so tight he’d have been worried about her crushing his windpipe if he wasn’t so grateful he’d gotten to her in time. He slid his hands into her hair and tilted her face up to his, his mouth bruising on hers as he tried to devour her.

  “Nathan.” She gripped his hair and kissed him in desperation, before she tore her mouth away from his and turned her head, her body collapsing against his. Her chest heaved as she struggled to drag in air. “What happened to us?”

  He shook his head. Her tea had been spiked, but he had no idea how he’d ended up here. He hooked his arm around her waist and held her to him as he looked around. A storm raged around them, a large plant-like tree covering them from the pounding rain. With madness boilin
g in his blood, he got slowly to his feet with Katenia clasped to his chest. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” he shouted against the elements.

  He felt the second she realized where they were. Her body stilled against his before she shoved free, her eyes wild. “No. No no no no no!”

  “Hey.” He grabbed her shoulders and forced her to face him. “Katen, look at me.”

  Her eyes flashed with fury as she rounded on him. “Nathan, they shrunk you!” she yelled over the roar of the storm. She gripped his shirt and yanked on it, her wings fluttering madly. “I can’t fix you. I can’t send you back!”

  Because he’d figured that out, he didn’t curse. One of them needed to remain calm. “Hey.” His voice was firmer this time, a snap behind the words he’d never used with her. Her eyes widened as the tears dried up, replaced with temper. He nodded once in approval. For a tiny fairy, she had a backbone of steel when needed. “It’s not the end of the world, and I get to be with you.”

  He forced a smile when her mouth dropped open. He’d meant what he’d said. He’d be happy as long as he was with her, but there was too much rage in him to settle yet. Too many unanswered questions he wanted his aunt and uncle to answer for.

  Just then, the plant that protected them from the pounding rain collapsed, leaving them faced with raindrops the size of boulders. He grabbed her hand and ran for cover, heading for a hole in a tree. The sky split again, showing a tall, regal man standing in their path. His large, iridescent wings were eerily still behind him, as if impervious to the rain and wind lashing through the meadow.

  His voice shook the earth beneath Nathan’s feet. “You dare touch my daughter, human?”

  Nathan bared his teeth at the insult. The man may be a fairy with magic, but even in his new form, Nathan had inches on him. And a penchant for fighting dirty when the need arose.

  He flicked the male a sneering glance, his hand perceptibly tightening around Katenia’s. “Yes. I do.”

  She twisted his shirt with her free hand. “Nathan, stop, you don’t know what you’re—”

  “Silence!” The man bellowed. “Do you know what you‘ve done, Katenia? Have I taught you nothing? Do you care naught for the shame you bring to me, our ancestors, our Council?”

  Nathan had enough. He shot forward, startling the male as Nathan’s hand wrapped around his throat. “Listen up. You’re going to want to stop talking to her like that or I will pull your spine out through your nostril, then feed it to you. Do you understand me?”

  “Just like a human.” The male spat. “You threaten and trample and destroy all in your path. You ruin everything you touch. Did you ruin my daughter’s innocence as well?”

  * * * *

  Katenia saw the murderous rage rip through Nathan, and she reacted without thinking. “Stop!” she screamed, darting around him and putting herself in front of her father. Her arms flew out to her sides in a futile effort to protect the man she loved. “Please,” she begged, tears welling in her eyes and spilling over, “please don’t hurt him, Father.”

  “You.” The look he shot her was so full of scathing disgust she felt something inside of her wither. “You protect that filthy animal.”

  “Listen here, you tiny asshole—”

  Katenia’s magic pulsed out, planting Nathan in place before he could do something to get himself killed. She lifted her chin, meeting her father’s icy gaze head on. “I love him.” With her arms still outstretched, she took a step toward her father. She’d adored him all of her life, had looked up to him and worshipped him, while fighting to accept his failings and prejudices. He was not a cruel man. She knew it. His family had been broken by humans once, and he’d protect his children from a similar fate to his dying breath. Even if it made him a bastard. “I love him,” she said again, her voice stronger this time. “He saved me, protected me, clothed me, fed me…”

  “Used you.”

  “Loved me,” she corrected softly. “That’s why he’s here. He risked his life to save me from the people who kidnapped me—his own family, Father.”

  Behind her, Nathan’s voice was tight with more fury than she’d known he could possess. “Katenia, unlock me, right now.”

  “No,” she said, shaking her head. She glared at him over her shoulder. “I’m not going to let you get yourself killed after everything you’ve done for me.”

  He gritted his teeth, a vein in his throat throbbing. “So help me, Katen—”

  As she took in the savage beauty of Nathan while the storm raged around them, her heart broke. There was so much desperation and terror and need in his blue eyes that she would have given anything—anything—to be able to walk up to him, wrap her arms around him, and never, ever let him go. Whether he’d admit it or not, he needed her.

  “Let him go,” her father snapped. “If he thinks he can save you, let the human try.”

  Impatient, he waved his hand, undoing her magic with an easy flick of his fingers. Nathan lunged forward, setting her behind him before charging her father. And for the first time in her life, Katenia saw fear flash over the great Paetyr’s face as Nathan grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off his feet. He slammed him into the ground, his knee on Paetyr’s chest as his fingers tightened around his neck.

  “Now you listen to me, you bastard. I know all about your plans to banish her, or use her as a broodmare to keep your bloodline sanitized.” He gritted his teeth again, his jaw clenched so tight she thought she heard it crack, and when he spoke, his gruff voice was laced with pain. “I will walk away if you promise to protect her. Promise she’ll choose her own future, and stay in the valley and be adored and taken care of, and you’ll never have to see me again.”

  Her father laughed. “You have nothing to barter with. I have no reason to promise you anything.”

  “True.” Nathan nodded, his hand tightening around her father’s throat. “But I have your life in my hands, and if breaking your neck won’t kill you, I’m sure I can find a way.”

  “Nathan, what are you doing?” She whispered, pain spreading across her chest.

  “Letting you go home.”

  As if to prove he’d held all the cards all along, her father flicked his fingertips, sending Nathan sprawling into the mud. Paetyr rose to his feet and casually brushed the grime off his backside. When he was pristine again, he turned to Katenia and lifted a silver brow. “Daughter, what do you want?”

  Confused by the question, though not by the answer, she lifted her chin and met his gaze without any hesitation. “Nathan.”

  “You just met him.”

  She swiped her fingertips over the tear tracks on her cheeks, and let out a watery snort. “So? Father, he’s my life-mate. I’d have him until the ending of time, if there was a way.”

  His always imperious face twitched once. “He’s human, and mortal.”

  She lifted her chin again. “Then I will become mortal, and live in the human world with him.” She knew they were stuck in her world at the moment, but he’d asked her what she wanted, and she was telling him.

  “His family brought danger upon you.”

  Her temper ignited like a firestorm inside of her. She took a step forward and drilled her finger into his chest. “You would have me banished, or used as a sex slave good only for bearing children. You don’t get to judge, Father.”

  He watched her for a long moment through wide eyes, before he turned his attention to Nathan, who was just getting to his feet. Blood dripped from a wound on his temple, but there was no hesitation when he gently lifted her and set her firmly behind him again, protecting her from the perceived threat. Her father raised a brow. “You know what you are facing if I send you back to your world? You think you can protect my daughter from a witch? That you could keep her safe and happy in a human world?”

  “I think I would die trying,” Nathan said simply, quietly. “No one will get to her without going through me. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for her happiness.”

  “Including givi
ng her up.”

  He set his jaw, and nodded. “Yes.”

  “Including threatening her father.”

  Nathan barked out a laugh. “No, not a threat. Threats are for people who don’t want to go through with it. That was a promise.”

  Paetyr nodded. “Then it’s all I need.” He started forward, only to snarl when Nathan blocked his path to Katenia. After one heart-stopping moment, Nathan finally moved to the side, and before she knew what was happening, her father wrapped her in a hug. His shoulders shook. “Take care, my daughter. We will see each other again.” He shifted his gaze to Nathan. “The witch has promised your uncle power in return for my daughter. Protect her from that and you will have my blessing.”

  Nathan raised a brow. “Great. How do I stop a witch?”

  “Love.” He grinned. “And this.”

  He handed Nathan a long, sheathed blade. With one last look at Katenia, he clapped his hands, and she and Nathan were human-sized again.

  Chapter 18

  The storm silenced as they appeared in his aunt’s yard, leaving nothing but their heartbeats, and sending unease rippling down Nathan’s spine. He gripped Katenia’s hand and pulled her in close to his side. “Stay with me,” he said as he turned in a circle, trying to get his bearings.

  She tightened her hand in his and gripped his forearm with the other one as she tucked herself in close behind his arm. “Not going anywhere. What’s going on?”

  Hell if he knew. He spotted the house in the distance, darkened and spooky, and dragged her toward it. It wasn’t the safest place in the world, but it would be out of the elements. “I think Rhiannon is playing games.”

  “What about your aunt and uncle?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know.” They climbed the porch and he let go of her hand long enough to unsheathe the knife her father had given him. It was a long, lethal-looking blade, words in a language he didn’t recognize etched into the silver. “None of this makes fucking sense.”