“What the hell is going on here?” Citrine asked, looking around, consternation on his face turning quickly to shock, then concern as he surveyed the room and the people inside it.

Kelsey kind of felt bad for him, missing it all to come back right now. He would probably feel guilty when he found out what happened.

As Citrine stepped forward, his cell phone rang, and he pulled it out. His brows lowered as he listened to whomever was talking to him, presumably angrily.

“Yes, I know,” he said. “Aegis called me, too. I was only gone an hour, if that. How was I supposed to know something would—” He groaned. “Yes. I understand. I’ll be there in the morning.” He hung up the phone and put it back in his pocket and walked forward, running both hands through his dark, mussed hair.

He stopped in front of Mercury and looked over at Adrien. “Are you all right?”

“I am now,” Adrien said. “Move back. I’m drawing in my wings.”

She took a step back and watched in awe as the large, sparkling metal objects folded in and then disappeared, leaving him looking normal and human once again. Well, except for being supernaturally beautiful.

He faced her, running his palms over her neck, her shoulders, her waist, her face, touching her everywhere, as if he had to be sure she was okay.

And she was because he was there. Ever since she’d met him, he was always there when she needed him.

“Sever might still be hurt,” she said, looking over at Sever, who was still standing against the wall.

“I’m okay,” Sever said.

“Are you sure? We can call in the sapphire dragon,” Citrine said. “He is a friend of mine.”

Sever shook his head. “I’m fine now. I promise. Thanks to Adrien.”

“Please,” Adrien retorted, walking over to his friend and looking him up and down. “You are the one who made the sacrifice play. If not for that, Kelsey couldn’t have gotten my ring off.”

“I’m sorry,” Citrine said, looking at Mercury. “If I had any idea this was going to happen, I wouldn’t have left you. I…” He trailed off, running his hand through his hair again. “I have failed in my duties.” He looked around him. “The club is destroyed. The—”

“Stop,” Kelsey said, unable to watch such a nice man beat himself up like that. “It was all part of Mercury’s plan. He was waiting for you to leave. He set it up so Robbie would go, knowing you would follow.”

“I couldn’t find her,” Citrine said. “She was gone by the time I got to her apartment. I… broke in. She left in a rush.”

Kelsey walked over to him. “Mercury told some people who were looking for her where she was. I promised her I wouldn’t tell anyone, but I had no idea she was leaving. I’ll tell you whatever you want know.”

He gave her a weary smile. “It’s okay. I know you were just trying to be a good friend to her. We can talk later. For now, I need to call in crews to clean up this place, and tomorrow, I have to fly out for a meeting with the oracle. I’ll want everyone to kind of stay low key until I get back.

Kelsey nodded as Adrien came up, putting his arm around her. “Mercury was that women who kept coming in and harassing you, too.”

Adrien narrowed his eyes. “That makes weird sense. For some reason, we can’t sense him when he’s disguised. That’s how we suspect he tricked Sever into thinking the coarse metal dragons were responsible for our near deaths.”

She blinked. “What? Deaths?”

“Oh boy, there is a lot to tell you,” he said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to all happen this fast.”

“Why don’t you take your mate back to your room?” Sever said, pushing off the wall and walking forward. “I’ll stay with Citrine, and we’ll take care of things here. Call in the right people to take this guy back to the oracle. I’m sure we’ll learn a lot more when he’s questioned there. For now, just take care of Kelsey. And yourself.”

“Thank you, Sever,” Adrien said. “Again.”

“Yes, thanks,” Kelsey added, but Sever just waved a hand, urging them to go.

And honestly, Kelsey’s legs felt like rubber after everything she’d just watched, how worried she’d been about Adrien and Sever and even her own safety.

How much she’d just learned in an hour.

Adrien swept a hand under her knees and picked her up in his arms, carrying her to the broken doors and stepping over the debris to get through them.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I really didn’t mean for you to find out this way.”

“What, were you going to wait until I was totally in love with you to tell me you were a dragon?”

He frowned. “I don’t know.” There was plaster in his black hair, and she thought they could both use a shower to wash off.

“Well, it’s too late, because I’m already in love with you.”

He looked down at her as they reached the apartment. His face was covered with scratches that were rapidly healing before her eyes. “I see. Wait, really?”

“Yes, really,” she said, leaning up to touch his face and then place a kiss on lips that were still dusty. She didn’t care. He’d fought for her. She’d seen who he really was. Wanted to know even more.

She could still feel his ring on her finger, where she’d put it so she didn’t lose it while the fight was still going.

He pulled back and looked down at her hand. “Whoops.”

“Whoops what?”

“Well, that’s part of how we seal mating. By putting the ring on our mate’s hand.”

She flushed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” She tugged on it. “Hm.”

“No,” he said. “Keep it there forever. Okay?”

“Sure,” she said. “It’s oddly comfy anyway.”

“It’s enchanted,” he said. “I imagine it became the right size when you put it on.”

“I see.” She unlocked the door and he pushed it open, and they walked together into her apartment, which felt all the more like home when he was there. “You know, when I left the restaurant, left my money with Bernard, had nowhere to go, I was sure my future was ruined. That I’d lost the only good thing to happen to me, even though life wasn’t great. I had the necessities. Food. A roof over my head, but I wasn’t happy.”

“I know,” he said. “I’m sorry. You deserved to be happy.”

“But that’s the thing,” she said. “I didn’t know what fate had in store for me. If I hadn’t run from Bernard, if I hadn’t decided to not accept that life, I wouldn’t be here now. I wouldn’t have stumbled upon happiness.”

“I see,” he said, listening patiently as they walked to the bedroom.

“I wouldn’t have met you. I wouldn’t have met Sever and Robbie and Citrine. I wouldn’t have found a home. I had so many other homes not work out. I’m glad I didn’t give up. I’m glad I kept going, kept looking for something else.”

He nodded. “Me, too.”

“I’m glad I broke into Date-A-Dragon.”

He grinned. “It’s a very good thing you did. Because I wasn’t living either.” He sat on the edge of her bed and looked toward the window. “I was always watching out, thinking of different horizons, wishing I could be in my old world that I left behind. You see, me and the others were lured into a trap and caught in an avalanche. But being frozen doesn’t kill dragons; it merely puts us to sleep. So I was awakened and lost in this new world.” He grinned. “In my world, I was at the top of the food chain, literally and figuratively.”

That explained his somewhat snobby demeanor at times, but he’d gotten so much better since he’d known her.

“In a way, you were the perfect person to be sent to me,” he said. “Just like I like to think I was perfect for you. I needed you to show me that someone could keep fighting no matter what situation they were put in, that they could still have hope. And I needed to show you that hope could be rewarded and share with you all the resources that I have taken for granted. And in the meantime, come to appreciate everything I have.”

She cocked her head. “I hadn’t thought of it like that before. I just knew it felt right.”

“Because you’re so faithful,” he said. “The angel and the cynic. It works.”

“How?”

“Because I can protect you, and you can make sure I never grow too hard.”

She sighed, putting a hand over his. “I can do that.” She looked down. “We’re getting dust all over these lovely covers.”

He shrugged. “We can buy more. Dante can produce gold at will and will give me as much as we want. Silver was more valuable in my day than it is now, but Dante can literally produce it. We can live in a mansion, buy an island.”

She blinked rapidly. “What?”

“I know,” he said. “It’s a lot to take in. Right now, let me just take care of you.” Then he picked her up again, and she let out a little squeak of surprise.

“Where are we going?”

“The shower, like you suggested,” he said. “I want to wash all the evidence of what just happened away from you. Touch and hold you and make sure you’re okay. Then I want to make sure you’re mine.”

She smiled. “I think I’m okay with that.” She wrapped her arms around his neck. “More than okay.”

She kissed his cheek, and he smiled. “How did any dragon get so lucky?”

“I told you already,” she said. “Luck has nothing to do with it. Fate, on the other hand…”

“All right,” he said. “Well, let’s go make fate happen.”

She couldn’t agree more.