As Bree sat next to Aegis, still trying to figure out what was going on, she saw something incredible happening out in the middle of her huge backyard.

Titus’s friends had arrived and were fighting the others, but as Titus and Sever faced off, they were changing.

Titus first, growing into a huge, shimmering form with a long, lashing tail covered in silver spikes and huge unfurling wings that glittered and reflected the gray storm clouds.

His huge head looked back at her, covered with hard, bright metallic scales, but his eyes were the same familiar icy blue she’d fallen in love with.

He really was a dragon.

She didn’t know how her brain was conceiving it without passing out, but it was.

Aegis spoke from beside her. “I know this is kind of a shock, but deep down, you should be able to handle this, given that you were fated to be a dragon’s mate.”

“But how do I know that I am?”

Aegis raised an impatient eyebrow. “Oh, I don’t know,” he said sarcastically. “Maybe because there is a big, giant dope of a dragon out there fighting for you with his very life on the line.”

She blinked, her lips parted, her breath bated as she watched Sever transform as well. His dragon was slightly larger but much less shiny, a darker gray like his hair and eyes, with an odd patina of markings over his scales and wings that almost looked like engravings.

His tail had spikes only at the end, unlike the ones that ran all the way up Titus’s back.

“Holy shit,” she said. “Dragons.”

“Yes,” Aegis said. “Dragons.”

“Why didn’t he tell me? Why didn’t he?” She pressed her hands to her temples as she saw Titus’s dragon rear back, avoiding a strike from Sever’s tail. Good heavens, they were the size of a small house.

Titus stomped forward and roared, releasing gray smoke and a silvery substance, and she prayed they wouldn’t burn down her forest.

“Don’t worry,” Aegis said. “Metal dragons rarely use fire.”

As she watched, she saw Sever roar and struggle against a streaky cage of metal that had been blown over him. With a scream, he broke free, sending metal flying everywhere, and struck back at Titus with breath of his own.

“Holy shit, they’re going to kill each other,” she said, desperately wondering how she could help him.

“That’s odd,” Aegis said. “That you would want to help him. I thought you were mad at him.”

“I don’t want him to die,” she said. “I want to talk to him. I want to hear everything. I want to support him…” She trailed off, trying not to let tears hit her eyes because it wouldn’t help anything right at this moment.

“You love him,” Aegis said quietly.

She nodded.

“Then maybe accept this. That dragons have only one mate and they have to do anything they can to win them. It was never about trapping you. Only about making you happy because you’re the only shot at happiness for him.”

“But how can someone love someone at first sight?”

“It’s hard to explain to a non-dragon. But when someone is perfect for you, when you know you want to make only them happy forever and that you can make them happier than anyone else, that’s a mate.”

“Oh,” she said, starting to comprehend it. If she could comprehend the fact that dragons were fighting in front of her, surely she could comprehend a different kind of love.

“I know it sounds weird to you, as humans date and figure things out as they go, but for dragons, we just know. And I think if you look back over Titus’s actions, you’ll see it’s true. I imagine it always felt different with him than anyone else you’ve known.”

Aegis was right. There was something that had always been easy about it, even with everything she’d gone through before. Always a feeling that Titus knew something she didn’t. That he was holding back from her.

And she realized he hadn’t had any choice. After all, if he’d told her about the fact that he wanted her, she would have grouped him up with the other men who had taken advantage, and he wouldn’t have wanted that.

It was all one big mess.

“Don’t worry,” Aegis said. “It’ll all work out. Things were far more fucked up with my mate, and we still ended up together.”

“And you love her?”

Aegis looked at her with serious eyes. “More than life itself.”

He turned back to the fight.

“Oh,” she said, feeling her heart pounding.

Looking at Titus, fighting hard just for her, she felt her heart melting. Even in that huge, monstrous form, she felt love for him. Even realizing he’d lied to her, that he’d been trapped in some ways just like she was, she wanted to go to him. To work things out.

“Is there anything I can do to help him?” she asked Aegis, pulling Biff close and stroking his head, trying to calm down.

“Nothing we can do but watch for now. Those six have a lot to work out.”

* * *

Titus’s dragon was wild with the need to protect his mate, and though he wouldn’t use fire, so as to not harm her land or her home, he would use anything else at his disposal if it meant dispatching the opponent in front of him.

He didn’t know what was eating Sever, but at this point, it was too late to find out.

He and Sever clashed, melting metals, swiping and dodging with claws, and making huge swings of their tails to try and hit vital organs or eyes.

They were both out for blood.

Beneath him, he could hear Liam and Dante arguing.

“I don’t understand this,” Liam said, grunting as he pushed his sword up against Dante’s. “I’ve never understood this. Ever since we all awakened, you three have had swords up your butt, and we’ve had to deal with it.”

“The only sword up anyone’s butt is going to be mine up yours when your dead body lies still in front of me,” Dante snarled back.

“Ew,” Adrien called back. “That’s disgusting, Captain.”

“No,” Dante said. “What’s disgusting is the three of you challenging us to a fight in an awful, rundown castle just so you could trap us there with an avalanche!”

All the fighting stopped as the dragons looked toward Dante. Titus, Liam, and Magnus were all instantly confused. Everyone was frozen in the midst of the battle.

“What?” Liam asked. “What are you talking about?”

“Him,” Adrien hissed, looking at Titus in his dragon form. “He came to us, in human form of course, and delivered a notice of challenge. He said it was over Sever’s mate, Amelia.”

Titus looked at Sever in confusion. The other dragon was watching him with unmitigated hate welling in his huge, dark-gray eyes. “Sever, is this true?”

“You would know,” Sever said, taking a step toward him, making the ground rumble. Titus took a look back at his mate, just to reassure himself once more that she was still safe. “You delivered it.”

“I didn’t,” Titus said. “There was never anything between me and Amelia.”

“Then explain this,” Sever said, transforming back to his human shape so he was in his human clothes again. Part of the magic that made dragon transformation possible meant when they shifted back, they were the same as before. Sever reached in his pocket and pulled out an old, crumpled piece of parchment, handing it up to the dragon that was Titus.

Whatever this was, it was important enough that Sever had turned human even when facing a fully shifted dragon.

Titus shifted down as well.

Ignoring the fact that they were both covered in ash and smoke and bits of broken metal, Titus walked forward and took the note from Sever. “This is not my handwriting.”

“It’s signed by you,” Sever said. “And delivered by you. Explain that.”

Liam and Magnus walked up behind them, looking solemn. “I think I can explain it,” Magnus said.

“You can explain how someone who looks exactly like Titus, but wasn’t Titus, delivered that note and sent us to our doom?”

“Not your doom,” Liam said, “because obviously, like us, you were awakened. But let me see that.” He took the note from Titus and read over it. “This is indeed not Titus’s handwriting.”

“How were we supposed to know that?” Adrien asked, folding his arms defiantly.

“You weren’t,” Magnus said. “You were supposed to ‘despair and die.’”

“How do you know that?”

“Because this person attacked me and my mate only a little while ago. It’s the mercury dragon, and he has the ability to take any shape.”

“What do you mean?” Dante asked, not getting it. Looking closer, Titus could see Dante was a little thinner than he remembered, and the suit he wore was a little the worse for wear, though Dante was still extremely muscled, like any dragon.

It didn’t look as if things had been going very well for the noble metal dragons.

“I mean the person who brought this to you wasn’t Titus,” Magnus said, grabbing the note and bringing it up to Dante’s face, shoving it right in front of his eyes.

Dante stepped back with a growl and yanked the paper away from him. “I don’t believe you. A likely story.” He pointed his rapier at Liam. “You’re just trying to get out of fighting us.”

“I don’t want to fight you,” Liam said. “This world needs every good dragon it can get. I’m tired of fighting the three of you, and if there’s any chance that this is just a big misunderstanding or, worse, exactly what Mercury wants, then I’m not doing it until we figure it out.”

“I agree,” Adrien said, shoving a hand through his hair and letting his sword disappear with a flash. “I want to get to the bottom of this.”

He and Dante peered at the note while Sever pulled out another one, looking down at it with trembling hands.

Titus had a feeling that whatever this was about, it was what was truly bothering Sever.

It looked painful for sure.

Sever held out the note limply, his eyes burning into Titus’s. “Then tell me this. Was she lying?”

Titus took the old parchment and unfolded it. Written in beautiful, feminine script was a note that comprised only a few sentences.

Sever, I can’t choose between you and Titus. He is delivering a challenge with this letter. Please accept it and prove your love for me.

Titus lowered the letter. “Sever, your mate should never have said this to you.”

“Shut up!” Sever’s voice thundered out over the open landscape. “You know nothing about it! You know nothing about anything! Your group just took off with my mate, carefree, while we were buried in ice!”

“Not so!” Magnus corrected. “We were buried in ice, too. Under the ocean.”

“What the fuck is going on?” Dante asked, looking around at all of them.

“I think I can shed light on this,” Aegis said, walking toward them, Bree trailing behind. “If you’re all done being dragons and risking humans seeing you.”

That was a good point, Titus thought.

“Not that any have. That’s part of why I came. I could have heard their thoughts and fixed their memories. But since I don’t have to worry about this now, I think I can help you.” He jerked both notes from the respective dragons and read them. When he was done, he tossed both to the ground. “It’s easy for anyone not emotionally involved in this.”

“How so?” Titus asked.

“Simple,” Aegis said. “He sabotaged your boat so you three would drown. But he wanted their crew gone as well. So he posed as Titus—probably after you three had set sail—and delivered this bogus note to Sever and his crew to lead them into a trap. That way, he took care of all of you.”

“But why would he want to?” Adrien asked.

“Who cares?” Sever said, his voice dull and ragged. “It doesn’t matter anymore.” He looked at Titus. “So if you weren’t with Amelia, what happened?”

“We set sail, and our ship went down in the storm,” Sever said. “We only found out recently it was sabotaged.”

“You know what a good builder Magnus is, if nothing else. It makes sense that it wasn’t his fault,” Liam said.

“I think it was fate,” Magnus said. “Leading us all to our mates. You three can find your mates, too, now that you’re here in the modern world and our crews don’t have to fight anymore.”

Dante lowered his rapier, and it disappeared in a little poof. He hung his head, letting his beautiful hair hang down in front of him. Then he lifted his eyes to face them. “So we were bamboozled. What now?”

He sat back on his butt, and Adrien stood beside him. Sever was off on his own, looking lost again.

“We’ve been living only for vengeance,” Adrien said. “What do we have now? And what happened to Amelia?”

Sever looked over sharply. If anything, he looked even worse off now. “Perhaps she was just another trap laid by Mercury. Perhaps I didn’t have a mate at all.”

“Did you feel she was?” Dante asked.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Sever said, turning away from them to look out at the tree line.

Titus felt genuinely bad for him. Of all of them, Sever had been the most hurt by Mercury. Because while Mercury had taken all their lives from them, he had also wounded Sever’s heart.

He walked over to his former friend and put a hand on his shoulder. Sever didn’t push him away.

“I’m sorry I misjudged you,” Sever said quietly.

Titus looked at Bree, silently asking her to just give him one more moment. Then he could run into her arms. She nodded.

“It’s fine, brother. I’m glad we got it sorted.”

“I’m still going to be mad for a while,” Sever said. “It’s not that easy to change a heart.”

“I know,” Titus said. “I just wanted to ask you. What made you think Amelia was your mate?”

Sever sighed. “I suppose because she said so, now that I think about it.” He folded his arms. “I felt happy around her. Now that I think back, I don’t know if that was how it was supposed to be. How am I supposed to ever know, if I got it wrong that time?”

Titus shook his head, clapping Sever on the back. “Trust me; you’ll know. When the time comes, it’ll be clear as daylight breaking through storm clouds, knowledge so blinding you can’t deny it. I know, because it was for me.” He looked back at Bree warmly, enjoying the heat in her eyes.

She still wanted him. That meant she would give him a chance.

“Then you forgive me?” Sever asked.

“There’s nothing to forgive,” Titus said. “I understand you now.”

He and Sever walked back to the group, and Titus ran to his mate, who was standing a few steps back, and pulled her into his arms, twirling her.

Then he realized he was covered in dust and set her back, but she flung herself forward anyway and kissed him.

Several of the dragons wolf-whistled, but Aegis cleared his throat loudly to get them all to look at him.

“What now?” Sever asked. “Do we go with you?”

“You could,” Aegis said slyly. “There are some benefits to our side.”

“We can help you find mates,” Liam said.

“We have a beautiful castle,” Magnus added.

Aegis looked harried. “I don’t know if you’ll be with us, but the oracle has the power to do lots of things to help you, if you agree.”

“Our castle is moldy,” Adrien said.

“And cold,” Dante said. “We accept.”

“I suppose,” Sever said. “So what now?”

Aegis grinned cruelly. “Collars.” He removed his hand from his pocket and was holding several chains, which he threw at the noble metal dragons.

As each had a chain wrap their neck, they grabbed at it in shock, looking furious.

Dante began to try and shift, but he was well and truly trapped, the fine chain emitting little sparks as he struggled.

“What is this magic?” Dante asked.

“Something to make sure you’re behaving,” Aegis said. “Don’t worry. I had one, too. You can earn your way out.”

“Outrageous,” Adrien said.

“Expected,” Sever muttered.

“Okay,” Aegis said. “Now that that’s decided, Liam, Magnus, and I are going to fly you all back.” He turned to Titus. “Say good-bye to your friends.”

Titus walked over to Sever. “You can trust them. They’re good people.”

“Thank you, brother,” Sever said.

“And remember,” Titus said. “If that wasn’t love, then it just means you have a chance at a real one. I believe you definitely do.”

“I hope it’s someone like her,” Sever said, looking over at Bree. When Titus scowled, he chuckled. “But she’s yours, and you deserve her.”

“Thank you,” Titus said as he watched Bree say her good-byes to Aegis. “I hope she agrees with you.”

“I’m sure she will,” Sever said. “Best of luck. Be seeing you.”

And then he was cloaked and carried invisibly off into the wind with the rest of the dragons.

Titus watched them for a moment and then turned back to his mate.

She smiled softly. “Titus? Let’s go back home.”