Chapter 9
The meal seemed endless. Brad was sure all the other dragons were conspiring to make it take longer. Many stopped to talk to them, interrupting the eating. They brought them second helpings, and thirds.
Both Brad and Lyrian moved to sit with Nate and Kyrian for desert, and Taurian and Karla joined them. Normally, Brad would have been happy for the chance to catch up with his brother, they saw each other so infrequently. But right now, he had other things on his mind.
Nate would understand. He was in the same boat.
In fact, Brad was tempted to skip desert altogether. Who needed sweets when they had a gorgeous dragon shifter waiting for them. There was just one issue. One he’d never been too deep in desire to consider. “What about Anarian?” he asked Lyrian under his breath.
She looked uncertain too. “If we are deep in the mating bond, we may not be as aware of her as we should be.”
“Do you know anyone who could look after her?”
“We can,” Taurian said firmly. “That’s what aunts and uncles are for, isn’t it, Karla?”
His mate didn’t look quite so sure. “Do you know anything about babies, Taurian? Because I don’t exactly have a lot of experience.”
“There’s nothing to it,” Taurian insisted. “Besides, we need to start practicing, we’ll have our own soon enough.”
Karla didn’t look quite so sure about that either, but she didn’t argue. “What do we need to know?” she asked Lyrian instead.
Lyrian explained Anarian’s care to them, and Brad couldn’t help thinking her advice sounded remarkably similar to what she’d told him, was it really less than a week ago? How much his life had changed in that time. And he didn’t regret one bit of it.
With his one concern taken care of, all Brad could think about was how much longer he had to stay to be polite. He glanced around surreptitiously, to see how much attention was on them, slightly discomforted to find that just about all the dragons and humans were staring back at him. Those who weren’t staring at Nate and Kyrian anyway.
“It’s custom to tease a new couple about how impatient they are to get some time alone,” Lyrian said into his mind. Her tone was half amused, half nervous, all impatient.
Brad groaned. “And I suppose it’s even worse with a double mating. Now they’ll be judging who leaves first, Nate or I.”
“Probably,” Lyrian agreed. “We should be the last to leave, to demonstrate our commitment to the clan as leaders.”
How did Brad know she was going to say that?
“Perhaps you can talk to Kyrian and tell them to get a hurry on then?” he suggested under his breath.
His whole body ached with holding back. Although he knew it wasn’t medically possible, he suspected he might explode if he didn’t mate with Lyrian soon. He swelled and throbbed just thinking about running his hands over her smooth skin and kissing every part of her body.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t stop thinking about it.
It really wasn’t fair. Nate had been waiting less than a week for Kyrian, he’d been waiting a year.
Up until now, it hadn’t been that hard. Maybe because he had convinced himself it really wasn’t ever going to happen. When Lyrian had told him that if they slept together again they’d be mated for life, it had thrown a bit of a damper on his desire.
But now, the idea only served to make him hotter under the collar.
What would it feel like, mating for life? Would it change how he felt towards Lyrian? Somehow, he couldn’t imagine that. The love he felt for her was greater than anything he’d ever known. How could it possibly increase?
There was only one way to find out.
Kyrian leaned over to whisper something in Nate’s ear, something that put a grin on his brother’s face. When Nate glanced over at them, Brad suspected that Lyrian had taken his advice, and made a suggestion to them.
Hopefully they’d leave soon, and he and Lyrian could too.
Except they didn’t.
Nate turned to the person next to him and chatted for a while. Then he heaped another serving of desert on his plate. Just what was his brother up to?
When Nate gave him a cheeky grin, Brad realised—he was playing the game. Nate had always been the competitive one. As soon as Kyrian had hinted this was a competition, Nate was determined to outlast his brother.
Brad ground his teeth together in frustration. Surely Nate was as impatient as he was? Didn’t he love his mate? Had he just been pretending to care so deeply for her?
Lyrian put a hand on his arm. “Take a few deep breaths,” she advised. “It helps.”
Brad sucked in his breath through gritted teeth, but the ache of need didn’t diminish at all. It certainly didn’t go away.
Lyrian looked so cool and calm and collected. Was she feeling this need too?
Her fingers tightened on his arm, and she leaned in to kiss him, her lips as hot and desperate as his, reassuring Brad that she wasn’t having an easy time of it either.
He groaned, his arm going around her and pulling her up against his side as he plundered her lips, a desperate need filling him. He needed her. All of her. As archaic as it sounded, he needed to claim her as his own. As his mate.
It was such a primal feeling, one Brad had no experience of. He flattered himself that he was a modern man who considered women his equal in all respects. So where did this bizarre feeling come from?
Then again, he wanted Lyrian to claim him as hers just as much.
Every time he kissed her or touched her, the need grew. He needed the connection between them, needed them to be one.
He’d never felt anything like this before. And he couldn’t help thinking that if he’d realised it would feel like this, he might have given up everything else much sooner.
*****
The princess side of Lyrian’s mind said that she needed to hold out, to wait at least for Brad’s brother to leave, to prove that she was committed to her role in the clan. The womanly side of her mind just kept screaming that she needed to mate. Now.
It was louder than the princess side, and far less controllable. It was hard to even hear the princess under all that demanding.
And the way Brad was kissing her, his lips hot on hers, his fingers brushing the underside of her breast, his thigh pressed up against hers, wasn’t helping.
It wasn’t helping her stay under control anyway. It was helping satisfy the need that she hadn’t even realised had been building for twelve months. Having Anarian, then finding her brothers had distracted her, for a time. Now all that was all done, she could give herself over to this, just for a night.
Yes, there were enemies outside their doors, and dragons working frantically to create a passage out of the caves for them. But right now, there was nothing more she could do.
Tomorrow morning, she’d be a princess again, and put aside her passion and take care of her clan. Tonight, she was going to enjoy herself. Because if she was in the middle of the mating bond, when she could think of nothing else except the need to mate, then what use would she be to her clan?
She was almost at that point now. Her body was hot with need, and it was hard to even think of anything besides Brad, and her need to claim him as her mate.
Lyrian pulled back, out of Brad’s embrace, away from his lips.
His eyes flicked open, staring at her with a mixture of confusion and hurt. “Is something wrong?”
“No. Yes. We need to wait, just a little longer.” Damn a double mating, otherwise she would be free to give into her desires now.
She wasn’t speaking loudly, but her brothers were close enough to hear her words. Taurian winked. “If you can hold out, then you’re stronger than I.” His voice lowered. “No one can resist the mating bond once they’ve accepted it, Lyrian. There’s no shame in admitting that, no matter how much of a game we make of it.”
Of course she’d heard stories of how intense the need to mate was. She could feel the truth of them in her own body now. But nothing had prepared her for the reality.
Taurian was right. It didn’t matter if she and Brad left the room before Nate and Kyrian. It just showed how much they loved each other.
Brad glanced over at his brother, then back at her. “I won the princess,” he said with a smile. “Nate can win the willpower contest.”
Some of the guilt eased, though it didn’t quite disappear. Lyrian suspected it never would. “Fine,” she agreed. “Let’s get this over with then.”
She didn’t mean it to sound quite so resigned, and was relieved when Brad laughed, and gave her a mock salute. “Your wish is my command, Princess.”
She reached for his hand, and stood up, Brad following her. Neither of them said anything as they wound their way through the crowd. Lyrian tried to ignore the whistles and cheers, ducking her head and trying to pretend her face wasn’t quite burning.
As they passed Brad’s brother, Nate stepped forwards and held out a hand. “Congratulations, Brad,” he said quietly. Then raising his voice he added, “I always thought you had way more willpower than I did, but apparently none of your iron will can stand up to the beautiful princess. I don’t blame you.”
That just increased the cheers. Lyrian’s ears were burning by the time they escaped from the main cave, and into one of the side tunnels.
Her body was burning too, with an urgent need to mate before anything else could interrupt them.