GWEN

I don't think I've ever felt so content. I lie next to my dragon, utterly replete. My body's humming and I feel slightly feverish, but I suspect that's because he injected something very similar to poison in my veins. Gave me his fires, he said. Amy had mentioned I should expect to feel under the weather for a day or two afterward, but mostly I just feel really happy. And I feel a bit like an idiot.

Why idiot? The voice moves into my mind like rich chocolate, and Vaan brushes his lips against my shoulder. His large body is pressed against mine, every bit of our skin touching, and I don't even mind how overheated it makes me feel, just because it's so very nice.

Because I waited so long, that's why. It's still a little surprising to hear his thoughts in my head, but I don't mind it. I'm excited to finally hear what he's been saying all this time. Hi there.

Vaan's hands slide over my front, caressing my breasts and stroking over my belly. I love your mind. I love your thoughts. So much better than the endless noise you humans make with your mouths.

I giggle at that, because the mental image he sends me is one of Mara with flapping lips. That's how humans speak to each other. We don't have mind-links.

Pity.

But you can speak human, too. English, I mean.

If I must. He teases my nipple, rolling it between his claws ever so carefully and sending a pulse of heat straight through my body. But I no longer need to.

Because we're connected now. I close my eyes and lean against him, sinking into the sensation of being petted by the delicious golden man at my side. I can feel his cock pressing against my thigh, a hard iron bar of need. Have I been asleep for long? I'm pretty sure I napped, but time's kind of murky right now. My thoughts are sliding back and forth, overwhelmed by the new presence lurking there. I love it, but it's a lot to get used to because my head suddenly feels twice as noisy.

I can be quiet, he tells me. It is a lot to adjust to for you.

You don't have to, I tell him. I like you being there. I turn my head slightly and he leans forward, brushing his mouth over mine even as he teases my nipple to a hard, aching point. I spread my thighs and he puts a hand on one leg, parting them further and pushing into my body. I suck in a breath at the sensation of being filled by him again, and my mind blanks out for a moment.

My Gwen. How perfect you are. He strokes into me, his movements languid as he holds me against him. I can feel his thoughts flitting through my own and pick up that he wants me to come before he does.

A man that wants to make sure his lady gets off before he does? I really am the luckiest girl in the world.

Of course I will give to you first. Your pleasure is mine. He leans in and lightly nips at the side of my neck, and my entire body clenches in response. I can feel it in your thoughts, in the way your cunt tightens around my cock. There is nothing I like more than the taste of your honey on my tongue.

Except maybe your dick in my pussy? I tease, but I'm a little distracted and breathless by all the sensations rocketing through my body. He moves slowly and surely as if he's got all the time in the world to leisurely fuck me, but I'm already going a little wild, rocking back against him as he pumps into me from behind. It feels good—so good—but I'm not there yet.

Being deep inside you is good only if it is good for both of us.

It's the perfect answer, but I don't sense any deceit or mocking. He's utterly serious, and that makes things all the more delicious.

I would never lie to you.

I'm learning that. It's just new, having someone to trust entirely. Even in Fort Shreveport, I have to be careful not to become too unguarded, too open or else it might get back to the wrong ears. Andrea—who I love dearly—is too trusting and runs her mouth because she assumes everyone is as open and honest as she is, and so I can't tell her some of my secret worries and fears.

But Vaan…he'll see everything and there's something comforting about that.

Let us not think of comfort right now, he tells me, and his teeth graze the shell of my ear. His hand slides away from my breast and I whimper a protest, only to feel his fingers glide over the folds of my pussy. I'm spread wide, my knee resting on one of his legs so he can fuck me, and as he touches me, I gasp with pleasure. Let us think of deeper, more intense things, like your honey and how it coats my fingers. Your cunt and how it throbs for me. Your folds and how slick they are. This little bud and how it makes you react. And his fingers glide over my clit.

I cry out, tensing up against him. Oh god. That is just the spot. Vaan!

I have you. His tongue swipes over my ear and then he sucks on my earlobe. I have all of you. Leave yourself open to me and I will give you everything I am. His fingers stroke the sensitive skin hooding my clit and I nearly come apart in his arms. Everything in me tenses and clenches with sweet anticipation, and when he nips at my skin again, that, combined with the steady, insistent stroke of his fingers on my clit, makes me come hard and fast. I cry out and my mind floods with his satisfaction. He starts to move against me, stroking deep, and I'm brought to another orgasm quickly, his own release following mine.

That particular mating was short but sweet.

Should I have taken longer? I can.

I chuckle to myself. No, that was perfect. I'm too tired to even think about moving more than that. He's still seated deep inside me, and I wiggle against him, enjoying the sensation. I'm just happy to touch you, to hear you, to be here with you.

Vaan grazes his knuckles along the line of my jaw. I feel the same.

I want to know everything about you, I tell him. Even though I'm exhausted and I feel hot and achy, I'm hungry to hear his voice and more than that, his story. Tell me where you came from.

His arms tighten around me and he rests his chin on my shoulder. This is not easy to answer. I have flashes of memory, but when I try to focus, it moves away. It is like a cloud—solid in the distance but turns into smoke when you try to grasp it.

That makes sense. Amy said Rast had a hard time remembering parts of his past, too, and that some struggled with memory more than others. Maybe it'll come back with time.

Perhaps. He pauses, and images of different places, red deserts and an orange-tinted sky flicker through my mind. After that, I see buildings made of cool white marble that enclose green gardens away from the desert itself, but there's an ominous sense to these civilized places, and Vaan's mind skitters back toward the deserts, which feel more comfortable. They are home to him, I realize—craggy, desolate cliffs, dunes of sand populated by large lizards and snakes, and roosting atop the cliffs, basking in the sunshine, are other dragons in various shades of gold. The memory fades away again, and a sense of loss returns. That is the past, Vaan tells me, and his thoughts turn back toward me. It is lost, I think. If there is a way back, I do not know it.

I don't think there is, I tell him gently. I imagine if there was, someone would have found it by now.

I am happy here with you. He buries his face in my hair and breathes deep of my scent. What of you? Where do you come from?

Here? I guess?

This hive?

Hive? I guess so. We made this place a few years ago after leaving Fort Tulsa. I try not to think about that place, because the memories aren't good ones. They're mostly of desperation and bullies, men who wanted sexual favors in exchange for the smallest freedoms, and feelings of despair. I was somewhere else for a while, but it got to be too much and I left. They wanted to strip all women of their freedoms, force us to be dependent on men because we weren't as strong in their eyes. At first it was just a few small law changes, like not going out into the streets at night. It always starts small, you know? Then by the time you realize what's going on, it's too late.

He grunts.

After a while, they kept changing more things. A woman who dressed provocatively was just asking to be accosted in the streets. They actually changed the law to say that no man would be blamed for taking what was dangled in front of his face. Bile rises in my throat just thinking about it. After that, they changed more stuff. Women got fewer rations than men unless they had a protector. Women couldn't have their own guns. Women could be traded like cattle. Sometimes a girl would get killed, and the law would look the other way because women didn't really “count” toward the population suddenly. Not really. It kept getting worse and worse until we were more like pets instead of human beings and we wouldn't be able to survive unless we either whored or found a man as a protector so we could privately whore. That wasn't a choice.

I shudder, remembering the abusive, bullying men of Fort Tulsa. Fuck those guys.

His grip tightens possessively on me, and I pat his hand before continuing. A few friends and I decided to steal away one night, but when it came time to go, there were twenty of us that wanted to escape. Some had babies. Some were beaten so badly they could hardly walk but still wanted to get away. How could I say no? So we left. We took our chances on dragon attacks and just left the night before a scheduled attack so they wouldn't be able to chase us.

Scheduled…attack? He sounds baffled.

Uh, yeah. You guys attack in patterns. It took a few weeks for us to figure it out, but granted, we were reeling from the chaos. The reds attack for several days in a row and then nothing for three weeks, while the golds usually attack every three days and then fly off.

Reds? Ahhh, mating females. They are flushed with the heat of their own fires.

Amy mentioned that, yeah. Would you have been better off with one of them instead of a human mate? I can't help but worry about that, just a little.

Never. Yours is the only scent that called to me out in the madness. He presses a kiss to my shoulder. Out of all the humans in this world, yours is the scent I like. Even if a dozen strong drakoni females were in front of me, I would turn to my Gwen. You are all I need.

I love this man. Dragon. Whatever. It no longer matters to me. All that matters is that he's mine. I tuck his arm against my chest so he's hugging me and snuggle against him. I'm glad we're together.

I am glad you finally decided I was worthy.

I feel a twinge of guilt, because I know I stalled for forever and a day. You've always been worthy. I just had to be convinced I wasn't going to fuck you up by attaching my life to yours.

Never.

You say that, but I don't have a great track record. Plus, I wanted to make sure you had someone to anchor to save you. I didn't want you going gray-eyed again.

Vaan stiffens against me. Gray-eyed?

Liam said he'd seen it before. You know what I'm talking about?

Darkness and anger descend on his thoughts. I do. Salorians—the old overlords of my enslaved people.

Yes. I hate that one touched his mind and nearly took him from me. You turned away from me and started walking as if you were going to leave. You said “Fort Dallas” aloud.

I do not know of any place called that.

I do. I hold him close, trying not to let worry leak into my thoughts. It's another human place. Amy came from there, and she said her sister did, too. She said there's a Salorian there. Do you think it was him?

I hope so. I do not like the thought of there being more than one Salorian here in your world. One is bad enough. He holds me close, pressing his mouth against my skin in an almost-kiss. They can enslave a drakoni male with a touch of the mind. It seems I have been polluted.

Polluted?

Once you have been touched by a Salorian mind, they can re-take you at any time, force you to do their bidding. Anger burns in his thoughts. Not even this terrible place is safe from their kind. I am surprised he let me go. That is not like them.

He didn't—I kissed you and pulled you back to yourself.

Mmm. The love of a human mate is stronger than a Salorian's grip. This is interesting.

It's one reason why I didn't want to wait any longer. I won't have anyone take you from me. The thought fills me with terror. Even now, Vaan might not be safe from them if all it takes is a brush of the mind to attack him from afar. What do we do?

Wherever they want us to go, we do not go there. And we wait for him to strike again. He will try once more, I suspect. When he does, you must do your best to bring me back.

I will. I'm going to watch my dragon like a hawk to make sure he's never alone. I'm going to be on his ass like a barnacle. I hope Amy comes back soon.

The other human mated to a dragon?

Yeah. I need to talk to her about this. I don't like the thought that you're vulnerable. And I'm curious if she knows what's going on back in Fort Dallas. We're not close to it. From Dallas to Shreveport's a bit of a stretch. There have to be dozens of dragons between here and there. Why is he trying to drag you back?

I have no answers.

Me either, and I don't like that at all.

I'm still feverish and hot with Vaan's fires when I wake up the next morning. A drink of water. That's what I need. Water and more sleep. I roll out of bed, wrapping a sheet around my body, and stop in surprise. Vaan's at the window to our room, and he's thrown open the metal shutters and gazes out onto the old playground, where scorch marks still show on the dirt and weeds.

My skin prickles when he doesn't turn around to greet me. "Vaan?" When he doesn't respond to that, I try to reach out with my mind, though it feels like a weak muscle. There's no answer, no comforting touch of his thoughts to mine. With a gasp, I race to his side and grab his arm, forcing him to turn around and look at me. "Vaan!"

He blinks, slowly.

His eyes are deep, deep gray.

I feel sick. This feels something like rape, because he's being used and abused against his will. Carefully, I touch his arm. "Vaan," I whisper. "Remember me?" I've still got his seed on the inside of my thighs. This can’t be happening. When there's no answer, I reach up and run my fingers over his lips, lightly caressing them. I try again, this time with a surge of my thoughts. Vaan, it's me, Gwen. Your mate. Come back.

The gray remains in his eyes, clouding them over.

Fuck. This isn't fair. I don't know what to do. How can I have my mate for less than a day only to lose him again?

"Fort Dallas," he says again, and I know it's not Vaan. He pronounces things all wrong for it to be Vaan. The inflections are all wrong.

"Fort Dallas?" I echo. "Why Fort Dallas?"

"Truce."

"What truce? What is it? Who are you?"

There's no answer, and my fear and frustration bubble over. A hot sob catches in my throat, and tears flood down my cheeks. You can't take my mate, I tell the voice. Vaan is mine! You don't get to have him! I press my forehead to his shoulder, my hands caressing his lower arm, feeling the muscles, the strange softness of his skin that looks like scales, the dangerous spikes that grow out of his arms that he's always careful not to scratch me with. I love every bit of him, and I’ll be dead inside if he's gone, if all that's left is this shell. More tears streak down my face and I sniff loudly. I'm blubbering and I don't care. Nothing matters without Vaan.

A hand touches my hair.

I stiffen, waiting.

After a moment's hesitation, the hand strokes down my curls in the same hard, overzealous way that Vaan always pets me. Your eyes are sweating, he says, and to my relief, it's Vaan's voice in my head. His thoughts curl around my own, and when I raise my gaze to his, his eyes are swirling black and gold once more.

This time, I really sob.

My fault, he tells me. I forgot to stroke your hair so your eyes would not sweat. He pulls me close and pushes at my hair so hard I feel like he's going to leave a bald spot with the force of each big mitt swiping over my hair.

"W-what?" I manage as he pets my hair.

Your eyes. They sweat. I will help you.

I have no idea what he's talking about. I don't care, either. "It's you, right?"

It is me. Did I leave? He cups my chin, looking down at me thoughtfully.

"Your eyes were g-gray," I choke out. "You said ‘Fort Dallas’ and ‘Truce.’ Why?"

I do not remember anything. He seems disturbed by this. The Salorian touched my mind again? When I nod, he pulls me closer. But you called me back? I heard your voice. Felt your eye-sweat on my skin and felt your distress in your thoughts. It woke me.

All good things to know. I cling to him tightly, hoping I never have to call him back again.

Truce, the voice said.

What kind of truce, I wonder? And why? Who calls a truce when you can steal all the playing pieces on the board?