“I figured as much.” She winked, kind of charmed by him as he found his way back to himself. Or maybe a mature version of who he used to be. “So tell me about you, Rokar. Not the sad stuff but who the guy I’m meant for really is under all the magically induced personalities.”
“There is little to tell,” he said. “Because I haven’t really lived in far too long.”
She nodded, understanding that. “You have to sort of wonder if that’s why we’re going through the fluctuating personalities.”
When he perked a brow in question, she elaborated.
“Maybe older versions of us needed to meet our new versions,” she explained. “Without that, perhaps we would’ve never seen past our current dispositions to realize how similar we once were.” She shrugged a shoulder, still theorizing. “Maybe Níðhöggr shook us up a little to help get us where we needed to be.”
“Perhaps.” His eyes sparked with curiosity. “Do you feel like you are where you need to be now?”
“I feel a lot closer,” she admitted, her eyes ensnared by his again. “What about you?”
“I feel better than I have in a long time,” he said softly. “I feel less...”
When he again searched for the right words, she told him how she felt. “A little lighter?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “And less...afraid.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes,” he replied. “You?”
“Getting there.” And she was. More so by the moment as their eyes held. “I just never want to feel like that again...but I do want to feel something.”
Rokar nodded, seeming to understand perfectly. “As do I.”
The moment he said it she swore the color of his eyes magnified, flared almost. Not with his inner dragon but with a storm that dwelt just beyond their understanding.
Something was happening.
When their surroundings shifted ever-so-slightly a moment later, they pulled their blades out and stood.
“What the hell are we looking at?” There was an unusual sheen to the rock. As if it were afire in the torchlight.
“Somewhere else.” He kept her close, his eyes narrowed on one of the towering curved entrances. “Somewhere we have been before.”
Almost the second he said it, she felt a nugget of familiarity.
Then a strong flare of arousal.
“Sonofa....” Her vision hazed red, and fire flared under her skin. “My dragon definitely remembers this place for a very certain reason.”
“Mine too.” His dragon eyes were sizzling hot when they met hers then looked past her. “And I think I know why.”
When she glanced over her shoulder, she almost got off right then and there at the claw marks and indentations in the rock. The passionate roughness almost dripping from the stone. “Holy shit, is that what I think it is?”
“Yes,” he growled, sounding absolutely certain. “That is where my dragon took yours in another life.”
Chapter Eighteen
HE WANTED TO slam Tess against the wall and reenact in human form what his dragon had done to hers. Because the moment their eyes landed on the rock, a vision of their dragons in another life surfaced. Múspellsheimr dragons, they were considerably larger and twice as aggressive as he took her so hard, they tore up the wall.
“Hell,” Tess drawled, her dragon eyes afire while she watched them just as avidly. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like that. And that’s sayin’ something because I’ve seen a lot.”
“They are...impressive,” he said gruffly. He had never wanted a woman so much as he wanted her right now.
“That they are,” she murmured, biting her lower lip so hard he was sure she’d draw blood.
“So why do you think we’re witnessing this?” Her voice was hoarse and sensual as her eyes roamed over his dragon with appreciation.
Though she might be admiring his former self, unstoppable jealousy flared, and he growled before he could stop himself. When her eyes whipped to his, and she licked her lips, he knew she wanted to taste him as much as he wanted to taste her.
So he yanked her close, wrapped his hand around the back of her neck, and kissed her harder than the first time. He’d been so determined not to be rough again but couldn't help it. While he could say watching the dragons had inspired him, it was more than that. Who they were. When she growled into his mouth and urged him on, just as hungry, he knew she felt the same way.
“There you are,” came the voice of the last person he wanted to hear.
When they reluctantly pulled apart the cave had returned to normal, the dragons had vanished, and Shea and Davyn appeared. Shea’s hair sparkled while her concern turned to a smirk. “Good to know wherever you vanished to; you were having a good time.”
Tess scowled and muttered, “A good time I would’ve liked to keep having.”
“I totally get it, Sis.” Shea cast Davyn a lustful look before her attention returned to them. “But there’s something you two should probably come see.” She glanced between them curiously. “Something I’ll bet has to do with wherever you just vanished to.” She tilted her head in question. “Where was that anyway?”
“My guess?” Tess’s appreciative eyes lingered on Rokar’s arousal. “Our former life on Múspellsheimr.”
“Ah, been there done that.” Shea waved them along as she and Davyn headed back toward the main entrance. The frown was obvious in Shea's voice as she reflected. “I don’t recall any of us just vanishing from here and showing up in Múspellsheimr, though. Do you, Davyn?”
“No,” he replied. “As far as I knew that sort of thing has only happened between Midgard and Helheim then briefly when we transition from Midgard to Múspellsheimr at the end. But that usually requires assistance.”
“We’re not sure we were really there.” Rokar stayed close behind Tess in the tunnel, wishing they could fade away into another cave to pick up where they left off. “It was more of a glimpse into another life without actually being there...or here.”
“Exactly,” Tess agreed, wonderfully blunt as she caught his thoughts and spoke within his mind. “And I’d like to get back to what we were doing too.”
He clenched his fists and fought touching her again. If he did, that would be it. Whatever Davyn and Shea wanted to show them would have to wait. Because Tess's scent was all over him. He could smell her on his jerkin, taste her on his tongue, and he wanted more. So much more. He wanted to sample every part of her, drown in everything she had to offer. Watch her squeal in pleasure as wildly as her former dragon just had.
“Jesus,” she muttered under her breath, slowing. “If you don’t stop thinking like that I’m not gonna make it.”
“C’mon love dragons,” Shea said over her shoulder. “You’ll want to see this before you, well, y’know, get busy loving.”
“What could possibly be so important,” Tess began, trailing off when thunder rumbled, and the entrance to the main cave became visible. “What the...”
“I’m guessing this started around the same time you two vanished,” Shea said as they joined everyone at the entrance.
Time seemed to stand still as he and Tess stepped outside and looked up at the unusual sky above Níðhöggr’s Realm. It might be nighttime, but they could see it clearly.
“It’s the storm.” Tess’s hand slipped into his. “Your eyes...”
Though rain didn’t fall yet, thunder rumbled far and wide, and lightning zigzagged across the whole of the Realm. Wind gusted warm one moment then cool the next, signaling how unstable the elements really were.
“You are drawing much closer to your past,” Leviathan said softly. “And your future.” His eyes met Rokar’s. “Has the Blade changed any?”
Rokar shook his head, not sure, as Tess urged him to lift his jerkin. Her eyes narrowed on his back, and she glanced at Leviathan. “What am I looking at?”
“Hope,” Soren said at the same time as the Ancient.
When Rokar met Tess’s eyes in question,
she explained.
“Though Skáld’s mark still matches your eyes, it has some blue in it now.” She touched the tattoos gently. “And the First Blade has more color too.”
“Blue,” he murmured. “Neither of our dragons or even our eye colors are blue, which was the case for our kin and their sails.”
The sails he referred to were on six ships built right here in this Realm by Uncle Heidrek and Uncle Bjorn. Both of whom remained in Múspellsheimr in hopes of keeping their minds free of Skáld who seemed to be able to manipulate those on Midgard the easiest.
Her brows furrowed and her fingers lingered on his back as though she didn’t want to pull them away. “You don’t think...”
When her words faded, he realized she thought the color might have to do with her daughter. She was wondering about Leah's soul again. So he rested his hands on her shoulders and made sure Tess’s eyes stayed with his while he spoke within the mind. “If this has to do with Leah, we will find out soon enough. I don’t doubt it for a moment.”
Her eyes widened a little as she reflected on what had happened to Kenzie, Eirik, and Dagr. “You don’t think Leah was alive in our previous life, do you?”
“I don’t know what to think yet.” All he knew was he needed to keep her grounded until they had more answers. Her emotions were far too raw to speculate one way or another when they were still so in the dark about everything. “Right now, we must focus on what lays ahead, not behind.” He squeezed her shoulders lightly, hoping she understood. “We must focus on right now. On keeping our kin safe...the entire world.”
“You’re right.” Her eyes never left his, her confidence in him unwavering. “I know you are.” She glanced from the weather back to Rokar, with absolute certainty in her eyes. “I felt it back there in the cave...We definitely shared another life together, Rokar. Lust aside, I felt our connection so strongly. So...deeply.”
“I did too.” Just as strongly. In fact, he longed to go back so he could feel it again. Connect with her like that.
“So then how does me going to Big Red then Skáld play into all this?” she murmured aloud. “If I loved you that much.”
Not a question but a statement.
Seemingly not surprised that Tess would say something so random, Shea spoke up. “You’ll figure it out soon enough, Sis.” She met Tess’s eyes. “When you do, it’ll all move forward the way it should.” Her hair, still matching Rokar and Tess’s sparkled along with her eyes as she looked between them. “You two got this.”
When Tess’s eyes returned to his, not distant, but hopeful, unexpected warmth blew through him. Like him, she wanted to push past the fear and discover something real. Something that meant risking their hearts all over again. The gods knew it was happening fast, but that was how it worked.
How Níðhöggr brought his ancestors back together with their fated mates.
When a raindrop hit her cheek, he brushed it away gently. “What do you want to do now?” He looked to the unpredictable weather that plagued their lives. “Keep traveling or wait out the storm here?”
“Here.” Her eyes never left his. “Back where we were.”
“Are you sure,” Shea started to say only for Tess to cut her off, speaking more to Rokar than her sister.
“I’ve never been more sure of anything.”
“In that case.” Soren tossed Rokar a few furs and a satchel, grinning at them. “Might we all rest well the remainder of the eve?”
“Might we then,” Rokar agreed, pulling Tess back into the cave and down the tunnel.
“This way.” She veered off before they made it back to where they were before. “I’m burning up, and there’s water in this direction.”
He felt the same way and though absently wondered why they were running so hot, assumed what anyone would. They were still aroused by what had happened earlier. So he followed with a growing need that made walking more and more difficult.
The deeper they traveled, the louder the sound of crashing water became along with the thud of their racing hearts. Her dragon was roaring to the surface as quickly as his. Eager to reenact something they weren’t nearly ready for. Or were they?
He swore he heard Bohdan drums pounding somewhere in the distance. As though they beat in rhythm to a song as old as time. A lustful, heady staccato that built their anticipation and urged them forward. While he knew it felt off, it also felt right...drawing. As though he were following Tess down a path, they hadn’t walked for a very long time.
One that could quickly spiral out of control.
“Stop,” he said softly, but she was walking too fast, too far ahead of him where moments before she had been right there next to him. “Tess, it’s too much. We’re not ready.”
Not for what he sensed coming.
Not for the raging need their dragons had felt in another life.
“Aren’t we though?” she said into his mind before she raced forward then shifted when she got to the cave with the waterfall. Her dragon’s head swung down and narrowed an eye at him, challenging him in a way he had never been challenged before, awakening something brand new. “What are you waiting for then, mate?”
Though he tried to stop, to turn back, his vision hazed red when their eyes locked.
Then it was all over.
His dragon had no choice but to respond to hers. She was the most tempting, alluring thing he had ever seen. What he wanted. Needed. He would give her anything. Everything.
And she would do the same for him.
With a half growl, half roar, he closed the distance, lost himself and shifted, pleased by the stark pleasure in her eyes as she looked up at him. Pleased by the primal way their dragons approved of each other. She smiled in a sultry way only her dragon could before she flipped her tail at him and sauntered toward a waterfall that did not belong here. Tall and majestic, its spray drifted around the cave in a wind of its own making.
None of it mattered though. All that mattered was her. Not just the way she smelled but the way she looked. Felt within his mind. Felt within his soul.
“Feel that?” she whispered into his mind. She stepped to the edge of the cliff in front of the waterfall, closed her eyes, and tilted her dragon face back to feel its heavy mist. He joined her and tilted his face to the moisture as well.
“It feels so good,” she whispered into his mind. “Soothing. Cool. Yet I’m still burning up.”
“Yes,” he agreed, suddenly understanding. He shifted closer, inhaling her scent. “This is a memory...we were here.”
“Múspellsheimr?”
“Yes.” He nuzzled his neck against hers, enjoying the feel of her scales. “The heat we are feeling was ours.”
“Our need,” she whispered, receptive to his touch. “It’s like being in heat but stronger.”
“Far stronger.” Too strong as he enfolded her in his wings, his dragon trembling, thrilled, aroused, needing her like he had never needed another. “We should shift back, Tess.”
“Why?” She rubbed against him, driving him to distraction. “I think we’re fine just like this.”
In the back of his mind, he knew that something wasn’t quite right, but the feel of her against him and within his mind snapped his restraint in half. He wanted her here and now.
As she was.
Where she was.
Yet when she growled with approval, ready, the unexpected happened.
Their dragons took over in the last way expected.
Chapter Nineteen
“WHAT THE HECK?” Tess barely got out as she and Rokar were shifted back against their will without a stitch of clothing. Which, quite honestly, was fine with her when she laid eyes on his chiseled tattooed body and heavy, rock-solid erection. It seemed he felt the same as his appreciative hungry eyes roamed over her. He yanked her against him and did exactly what his dragon had wanted to do moments before.
Picked up where they left off earlier.
His passion was as violent as the waterfall when his lips crus
hed hers, and they kissed with the desperation of dragons that hadn’t seen each other for a very long time. He braced against the wind shear and heavy spray, grabbed her ass roughly, and hoisted her. Pleased by his dominance not to mention strength, she wrapped her legs around his waist and gyrated her hips against him, urging him on as their tongues tangled.
She groaned with approval as his dragon eyes stayed with hers while he rubbed her against his shaft, teasing before he finally allowed her to sink onto him. Trembling, caught by the untouchable sensation of his blazing hot length penetrating and stretching her, ripples of pleasure coursed through her and she climaxed before he was fully seated.
All the while, he waited, the hunger in his gaze growing as he watched her head fall back in pleasure. In tune with her in a way she appreciated, he waited until she was caught in softer waves of release before he impaled her fully.
His eyes lingered on hers, tempted, before he steered her up and down so slowly she felt like she was melting in pleasure. Drowning in it like she never had before. Every centimeter of her was alive and receptive, every inch of him stimulating and sparking her senses to crazy levels. Ensnared by each other, they went from a slow, easy, desire to blazing fiery passion in a heartbeat.
She wasn’t sure who was in control as she dug her nails into his back and rode him with reckless animalistic abandon, again impressed by his strength and balance. No easy trick considering how windy and slick things were. She was so aroused and consumed in sensual pleasure that the icy spray sizzled on her scorching skin.
Seconds later, a climax screamed through her, and she lost control of her limbs. All coherency for that matter, because the next thing she knew, he was on his knees. He held her tightly, his face turned into her hair, his release inside her so strong it kept her orgasm going... and going.
For a split second she thought they were in dragon form again, wrapped around each other, but half a breath later, things returned to normal. Well, as normal as having crazy hot sex next to a raging waterfall was.
He inhaled deeply, drawing in her scent, his body trembling as he spoke within her mind. “Did you just see that? Our dragons?”
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