Kian set himself down gently inside the perimeter of the shields around the property, and Everly slid from his arms. She looked up at him in his half-shift form, still unable to fully believe that this man that she had come to adore was really a dragon.

“I can tell you're still afraid,” he said. “I will explain everything.”

Cato landed beside him and handed him baby Ember. Aiden and Dax landed next and everyone shifted back into their human form. They walked back to the mansion.

Kian and Everly took Ember to the nursery, where they changed her and got her ready for a bath. Standing over the bathtub together, they watched Ember splash bubbles happily in her baby tub. She seemed fully recovered from the trauma of the kidnapping.

“Children are so resilient,” Everly mused.

“So are you,” he said, touching her hand as she slid a sponge over Ember’s shoulder.

She looked up at him and she saw a concerned father and kind man. Moments ago she had seen a scaly dragon warrior. She let out a deep sigh and her shoulders relaxed.

“Tell me, where did you come from? Why are you here?”

Now that she had seen what she had seen, there was no going back to the world as she knew it before.

“We came from the planet Dragonia at the far end of the galaxy,” he said.

He pulled Ember out of the bath and wrapped her in a hooded towel with a little ducky on the head. They walked back into the nursery to dry her off. Everly chose a pair of footed pajamas with balloons on them and brought it over to the changing table for Kian. He put on her diaper and dressed her in her pajamas.

“Why did you leave your planet?” she asked as he sat in the rocking chair with his daughter and fed her a bottle they’d brought up earlier.

“There was a cataclysm,” he said.

She sat across from him in the other rocking chair and watched him feed his daughter. Ember sucked hungrily on her bottle.

“What happened? How did you end up on Earth with Ember?”

“Our sun was dying for a thousand years. The dying star caused the female birthrate to plummet. But the elders refused to leave until it was too late. Just before the sun finally went out, there was only one female dragon left in existence. She was a Female Prime. She could mate with any male, even dragons who weren't her fated mate. The leader of each house sent his seed to the Female Prime, and she gave birth to one child for each house. Ember was her daughter. She died soon after the eggs had hatched, the birth of so many young being too much for her body to recover from.

“Those who were left escaped Dragonia as the sun finally went dim. Members of each house took their final heir and escaped. I am the prince of the House of Flames. We are all fire dragons. The dragons who escaped searched the galaxy for a new home. We finally found the planet now called Earth.

“The planet was primordial when we found it. Determining we could eventually live here, the houses scattered the souls of their ancestors across the land. We seeded this planet with our DNA in the hopes that someday when we awoke, there would be Dragon Souls among the native population.

“Back then, the creatures who became human were not what they are today. We had hoped that through generations of selection Dragon Souls would enter the human genepool. A million years later, humans have evolved into beings who look very much like a shifted dragon. We believe that our seeding may have had something to do with it.”

“Are all humans Dragon Souls?”

“No. Only .001% of the population are Dragon Souls. At least, that is our calculation. But just the influence of the Dragon Souls in the genepool has helped humans to develop into what they are today.”

“And what about the vampires? How did they get here?”

“We don’t know for sure.”

Kian rocked Ember to his shoulder and patted her back, helping her burp out the air bubbles in her stomach before standing and placing her in her crib. Ember was exhausted, and her eyes fluttered closed almost immediately.

He cocked his chin toward the door, and they quietly crept out of the nursery. They sat together in the sitting area of her bedroom, looking out the window as the sky opened up with rain.

“The vampires,” he said with a sigh. “We still don't fully understand how they got here. But they were the ancient enemy of our race. They fed on every other creature in our neighboring star systems. We had always been able to defend the others in our Galactic Collective. But as our sun began to die, we lost our strength and over time the vampires’ grew.

“When we departed, they were still ruling that part of the galaxy. Cato has run computer simulations that suggest they destroyed all the other civilizations with their relentless hunger and carnage, thus destroying themselves. At some point in time, they may have needed to escape their home planet and by chance ended up here.

“They're not the same as they were when we left. They don't appear nearly as powerful, and they have lost their technology.”

“This is all so crazy,” Everly said, shaking her head. Kian’s story made sense, but it still didn't fully seem real.

“The vampire said I’m a Dragon Soul? They called me your fated mate.”

“Yes,” he said. “You are a Dragon Soul. We ran an analysis of your DNA and it came back positive. As for you being my mate, I sensed it from the start, but I couldn't be sure. Over the years, dragons began to lose their inner senses as the sun died and our females grew rare. But I knew the rumblings of my dragon and my deep attraction for you must mean that you were my fated one. We ran the analysis, and it took quite some time because you are a human, but it came back positive. We are fated mates. You are the one for me, and I am the one for you.”

“I'm not sure what that all means,” she said, shaking her head.

She put her palm to her forehead and crinkled up her eyebrows. She was so very confused. She knew that from the moment she'd met Kian, she was deeply attracted to him. She wanted to trust him. She wanted to believe him. She loved his daughter as if she were her own, and the greatest wish of her soul was to be with this man.

She wanted to take care of him and Ember and feel the protection of his arms forever. But this idea of fated mates, it just didn't make sense to her. People sometimes talked about soulmates. But everyone knew that that was just a fantasy. Could it really be real? Could her soulmate be a dragon from a distant faded star?

“I know this is a lot to take in,” he said, looking down at his hands clasped in his lap. “That's why I didn't tell you all at once. I didn't want to shock you.”

“I understand now,” she said. “I'm not sure what I would have done if you had told me all this before.”

“I'm so glad you understand. I was afraid I had ruined it all. But then you were taken, and my only thought was to get you back.”

“Thank you, Kian,” she said.

He stood and walked to her, offering her his hand. She took it and stood before him. She could feel the heat of his body radiating off of him and every impulse in her body screamed for her to throw her arms around his neck and kiss him hard on the mouth. She wanted to accept him, but she was still so confused and afraid.

“What will happen if we don't mate?” she asked.

“That's not your concern,” he said, taking her hand and kissing the sensitive skin of her knuckles.

“Tell me the truth, Kian.”

“Very well. The truth is, as soon as we awakened, it activated our mating impulse, most likely due to the presence of Dragon Souls combined with the long stasis sleep. We all must mate soon, or it would tear us apart. Our dragons are screaming to be mated and there is no way to reverse the process.”

“What do you mean your dragon will tear you apart?”

“The mating impulse is strong. We may not survive if not mated in time.”

“But how will you protect me if you're gone?” she whispered against his chest as he held her close to him.

“I will find a way. And even if my dragon tears me apart, I will make it the duty of every other dragon on this planet to protect you.”

“But I don't want anyone else to protect me. I only want you.”

She looked up at him and placed her hands on his cheeks. She ran the pad of her thumb over his cheekbone, and he let out a long, groaning sigh.

“I love you,” she said.

“And I love you, little human,” he said, leaning in to claim her mouth with his.

“I want to be your mate,” she said as she pulled away. “I've wanted that from the start. It's what I want more than anything in the world. To love you, to love Ember, and for us to be a family.”

“Oh, my darling,” he said, kissing her again. “You are everything to me. You're everything I've ever wanted. And I swear to you, I will give you that happy life. I will give you everything you've ever hoped for.”

As his tongue slid between her lips, and he pulled her against the hard planes of his body. She knew in the depths of her soul that he would.