Something changed after that flight.

Not that she wanted me to know it. She continued to put up a front of being angry, sullen, put-out by the sheer fact of my existence.

I didn’t press the subject, because the dragon knew what she didn’t want to admit: she felt the connection between us. And it excited her.

She’s ours, she’s ours, take her and make sure she knows it.

Night and day, he urged me, pressing the subject every time she and I went back out for another flight.

She was an addict, admittedly, always looking for the next opportunity to take to the skies. I could hardly concentrate on flying when all he wanted was for me to pin her to the ground and take her.

“She’s lucky we’re not visible to the humans when we fly,” Gate grumbled after the fourth such flight, referencing the spell placed on us prior to our leaving for the New World.

He waited until she was back in her room, at least. I guessed I should give him credit for his discretion.

“We’re the ones who are lucky, remember,” I said with as good-natured a smile as I could muster before stretching out on one of the game room sofas. It was just long enough to hold my entire body without having to hang my legs off the end. “There’s no way we could’ve existed out here for this long if humans could see us circling the mountain while they were hunting or hiking or whatever it is they do. There’s not a bird in the modern world as large as we are. We would stick out.”

“You know what I mean.” He turned his attention to the chess game he and Smoke were in the middle of, pondering his next move.

Yes, I knew what he meant.

He was still unhappy, but at least I knew his unhappiness ran deeper than he wanted to let on. It wasn’t personal. He had nothing against Jasmine or me. He wanted his mate. It was one thing for all of us to be alone when we were all alone.

The mere fact of Jasmine’s presence reminded him of what he didn’t have.

It didn’t help that we were becoming closer, either.

The four days which had passed since that first flight had been full of more than just shifting and flying. We had sat together for long stretches of time, just in front of the cave mouth, while she soaked up the sun. I told her how old we were, and in the most general of terms why we had left Scotland. I told her about my family so she would know them better—after all, she’d be there for the rest of her life, whether she liked it or not. I wasn’t stupid, however. I didn’t bring that up anymore. For her part, neither did she.

Smoke returned from getting drinks and tossed me a bottle of water. “Any thoughts on how you’ll get out of the trap I set for you?” he asked Gate with a knowing grin.

“You set a trap for me?” Gate asked, looking at the board again.

I hid my smile.

Smoke turned his attention to me. “I was just telling the others while you were out that Mary checked back in with me. There was a big storm out where she is, and it knocked out communications for several days.”

“Is she all right?”

He nodded. “Yes, but it took time to get everything back online. She has to check again with her contacts, to see about what’s happening with the clan.”

Shit. I had forgotten all about the missing heartbeats. It was still silent. Funny how their absence didn’t matter nearly as much as it had at first.

All talk of Mary and the clan ceased when Alina entered the room.

Smoke’s posture changed, and his eyes lit up. He drew her to him like a magnet.

“I’m glad you’re here,” she said, turning her attention to me.

“Why? What did I do?”

“Nothing—for once,” she grinned. “I wanted you to know that I just examined Jasmine, and she’s completely healed. Like new.”

Just like that, there was a pit in my stomach. The dragon roared as I sat up. “I’m glad,” I replied.

“So, there’s little reason for me to be here anymore. Or for her to stay.”

Smoke stood.

So did I.

“Wait a minute…” he said, then stopped himself.

I felt sorry for him at that moment, but his problems weren’t my problems. I had other things to think about. Like my mate.

I took a deep breath and tried my best to think straight in spite of the dragon’s roar in my head. “I thought you understood,” was all I could say.

“I understand that she needed to be here while she healed. But she can’t spend the rest of her life flying around on a dragon’s back. No offense.”

“And I told you and your sister that there’s no way for her to leave. You can, now that she’s better, but not her.”

“She doesn’t know where we are. She’s no more likely to reveal your location or even your existence than I am.”

“Where is this coming from?” Smoke asked.

I saw him standing there, shaking with rage and frustration, and I wondered how loud his dragon roared.

Her expression softened. “I’m sorry, but this is the way it always was. Just because I’ve enjoyed spending time here with you doesn’t mean I can stay forever. This was never about forever. Both my sister and I have responsibilities. We have lives. We can’t walk away from them.”

“What responsibilities?” I was barely able to hold myself back from throwing her against the wall and yelling in her face until terror broke her down.

Who is she to tell us what to do? Who is she to act as though her responsibilities are more important than what we need?

For once, I didn’t disagree with the dragon’s way of thinking. This girl was nothing. Only one of the fae. She didn’t have our royal blood. She was nothing.

But wouldn’t that make Jasmine nothing, too?

Alina’s deep, sympathetic frown did little to ease my growing rage. “She hasn’t told you?”

“I don’t know anything about her.” And that admission turned my blood to ice. I knew nothing about her.

She hadn’t shared one piece of herself with me.

Our connection ran deep, at a primal level—but there was something to be said for her trusting me enough to tell me about her life. Otherwise, we would always live as master and slave, owner and captive. I didn’t want that sort of future, no matter if the dragon cared or not.

“Maybe you should ask her, then. She’s in her room.” Alina stepped aside to let me barrel past.

Miles and Cash were just coming in, smiling.

I pushed my way past them, too, and went straight to the closed door. I didn’t think twice before entering the code to open it.

“Hey!” she squealed, spinning with her arms crossed in front of her.

I realized all at once that only a pair of panties stood between her and nakedness.

The dragon urged me forward. Throw her onto the bed, pin her down, drive her into it, tell her she’s ours, tell her, tell her, tell her.

“What’s your sister talking about when she says you have responsibilities? What is it you want to go back to out there?”

“Can I put something on, please?”

“Sure.” I didn’t move.

“Can you turn around?”

“No.”

We stared each other down.

“Fine. I will.” She turned her back and dropped her arms. I took in the sight of her perfect, full, firm ass and dug my nails into my palms as the dragon demanded I touch her. Grab her. Fondle and squeeze until she squealed in pain.

It was almost a relief when she slid into a pair of sweatpants, then covered up her smooth, creamy shoulders and back with a t-shirt.

“Now.” She turned back to me and sat on the edge of the bed, hands folded. “What did you want to talk about?”

“You know damn well.” My fury hadn’t cooled in the moments I’d spent waiting for her to dress—if anything, it was worse than ever.

“You want to know about the life you’re keeping me from? Is that it?”

“What could I possibly be keeping you from?” I sneered.

She shook her head, making red hair spill over her shoulders.

I caught the scent of the shampoo she used and it went to my head, spinning around and inflaming my dragon more than ever.

“Your fatal flaw is your pride,” she mused.

“What’s that mean?”

“You should ask Smoke about it, since he’s obviously a deeper thinker than you.”

“If you’re trying to hurt my feelings, you’re wasting your time.”

“Are you sure about that? It seems to me right now that you’re throwing a tantrum because you can’t get your way.” She sighed, crossing her legs. “You think your life is the only one that matters. Your world is all there is. I hate to break it to you, but my sister and I have a family—a clan—of our own, and since our parents died, we’ve taken over their positions.”

“You lead your clan?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Why is that so hard for you to understand? Because we’re women?” She scoffed, but didn’t wait for me to reply. “No. It’s not cut-and-dried. Our uncle is acting leader, but Alina is a highly-respected healer who cares for every member of the clan.”

“And you?”

“I’m my uncle’s advisor. He’s training me, I suppose you could say.”

“So, you don’t actually have a position right now. You’re only learning.”

“Something like that,” she scowled.

“And if you never go back, nothing’s actually been lost. Your uncle will still have his position, and your clan will still be under his leadership. Right?”

“You don’t understand. It’s not that simple for me.”

“What else is there?”

She didn’t flinch or even blink. “I’m promised in marriage. I’ve been promised since the day I was born.”

No! It means nothing! Tell her it means nothing! Nothing that’s happened to her until now matters!

“That doesn’t matter now.”

Her mouth fell open—then, she laughed. “You’re kidding. How can you say that with a straight face?”

“Don’t laugh at me,” I barked.

The laugh ceased immediately, like I had flipped a switch and turned out the lights.

“Your life isn’t the same anymore. The sooner you understand that, the better. You are not the same person you were before the mudslide. Why do you insist on fighting what we both know is true?”

“You think you know it, but that doesn’t make it true.”

Her body betrayed her. I could see it. Sense it. Feel it. Instead of glaring at me, she shifted her focus and stared over my shoulder. Instead of clasping her hands, she rubbed her palms on her thighs. Nervous. Arguing with herself.

“You and I both know what happens when we fly together. You change. You’re free. Isn’t that right?”

“Who doesn’t feel free when they’re flying?”

“It’s deeper than that. You know it. I feel it when you’re on my back.” I took a step toward her. Then, another. “You never feel more like your true self than when you’re connected to me that way. You trust me to take care of you, and I do. And you push me higher, harder, faster. You make me better without even trying. This is the way it’s supposed to be, the way life is supposed to work for the two of us. When will you quit fighting it?”

“Stay where you are,” she whispered when I was only a few feet away.

“Why do you keep pushing me away?”

“Because I have to.”

“You don’t want to.”

“Don’t tell me what I want to do.” She turned her face away. “It’s not entirely up to me, and I just told you why. I belong to someone else.”

“You’ll never belong to anybody but me.” I stood in front of her and took her face in my hands, turning it back to me. “Don’t you feel it?”

She closed her eyes. “No. I don’t. Just because I like flying with you doesn’t mean we’re meant for each other.”

“Look at me, Jasmine.”

She hesitated, but finally opened those big, green eyes of hers. I could’ve drowned in them. One word, and I would’ve been her slave for life.

She refused to understand. It would all be so easy, if she would only stop fighting what was a fact.

“Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t feel, deep inside, that this is where you belong.”

She started trembling. Her chin quivered. Her eyes went bright with tears. “Don’t do this to me. You’re only making it harder.”

“You’re the one who’s making things harder than they need to be. There’s not a person or a force on Earth that I wouldn’t gladly wipe out of existence if it meant your happiness. There’s not a thing you could ever desire that I wouldn’t move mountains to get for you. Nothing has to stand in our way. Nothing but you.”

I leaned in, while drawing her face closer to mine, and she didn’t resist.

Her eyes closed, her lips parted.

I let myself finally give in to just a tiny piece of what I’d craved since the moment I laid eyes on her when I took that first taste of her sweet, willing mouth. It was bliss, the way her lips moved against mine, the shockwaves of pleasure that ran through her body and into mine when I slid my tongue inside and swept around, exploring and feeling and drinking in her essence.

Her sighs sent a surge of blood straight to my cock, and the way her hands ran through my hair told me this wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t a crazy, breathless, in-the-moment mistake she would regret later.

She wanted me the way I wanted her. At a deep, instinctual level, she knew what I knew: we were meant for each other.

Just as suddenly, something changed.

“No.” She twisted her head away. “No, stop this. We can’t.”

Don’t let her do this! She is ours! We need to possess her!

After that, it was all meaningless roaring in my head, rage and frustration and the agony of thwarted desire.

I pulled her to me, but she pulled back again.

“I said, no. No, Pierce.”

There was no mistaking that. I stood up, painfully aware of the erection straining against my zipper.

My head spun, still wrapped in lust. “How can you keep pushing away what you and I both know is true?” I asked, slightly breathless.

She was even worse off than I was. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, her cheeks burned with color, her lips quivered.

I could smell the desire blooming between her thighs—it was so strong, so demanding, I had to take a few steps away from her for fear of it overtaking my senses.

“I can’t let myself when I know what I know. I already told you.” She shook her head. “I’m promised to Bradley. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

“You had nothing to do with that promise. You said it yourself, it was a promise made when you were born.”

“It was a blood oath. You must understand how serious that it. Your species assigns just as much importance to rituals as we do, especially when blood is involved.”

“There must be some way.”

“If there is, I’m unaware of it.” She was as close to looking like she was about to cry as I had ever seen her. “Please, Pierce. Don’t make this any more difficult than it already is. I have to go back, or else risk breaking the blood oath made when I was born. I have no idea how bad things could become if that were to happen, but I know it would risk a war within my clan. Maybe…” she bit her lip. “Maybe with you, too.”

There was nothing to say to that.

I left the room in spite of the dragon’s demands that I do no such thing.

I understood what my dragon, in his single-mindedness, couldn’t comprehend.

Taking Jasmine as my mate could bring war to our family.

Unless there was a way around the oath.