“There’s got to be something we can do.” I stood in the center of the library, staring down at my brother.

He sat with his elbows on the arms of the chair, fingers tented under his chin as he stared into space. The way his forehead creased told me he wasn’t daydreaming.

I had told him the whole story, every bit of it. I wouldn’t normally have opened up like that—none of us would have, it wasn’t our nature—but he was my brother and probably the smartest man I knew, and I needed help.

The thought of flying straight to that mansion outside Roanoke and tearing it to the ground appealed to me more than I could say. Brick by brick. Crushing anyone or anything who dared stand in my way.

That would cause her pain, which was something the dragon didn’t understand. Subtleties of emotion were lost on a creature that relied on instinct to survive.

“I wish you would say something,” I muttered when Smoke remained silent for longer than I liked.

“I’m thinking,” he snapped.

“Could you think a little faster?”

“No, in fact. I can’t. This isn’t simple. There are too many moving pieces.”

“I have to have her.” I could barely choke the words out. “You know that, right?”

“I know it.”

“As long as we’re on the same page.”

His head snapped up, eyes meeting mine. “Page.”

“What?”

“Maybe there’s something about blood oaths in one of the scrolls or books. Something I can use.” He stood, elbowing his way past me. “I mean, there’s over a thousand years of wisdom in this room. There has to be an answer.”

“Can I help?”

“No.” He looked at me and grinned. “Make yourself scarce. You’ll only slow me down. I have a system here. I know where everything is.”

I felt less than hopeful as I looked around.

The library looked like a tornado had torn through and always did. Stacks of books piled as high as the eye could see, so many they covered up the books already lined up in double rows on the shelves which lined all four walls. Smoke used a ladder to get to the tops of the stacks.

“If you say so.”

“Stay close by,” he advised, hurrying up the ladder to examine one of his thick, dusty books.

“You couldn’t pay me to stay away,” I promised as I left.

Having him on the job gave me a measure of peace. I trusted him with more than my life. I trusted him with my fate.

I hadn’t spoken to Jasmine since that scene in her room earlier in the day. I wasn’t sure I trusted myself. Knowing her taste, her scent, could only make it more difficult to maintain a distance between us. The dragon could only handle so much rejection without lashing out.

I had to fly, to work off some energy. Nothing cleared my head the way that did. I broke into a run halfway down the tunnel. Anything to get away from there, away from her, away from the silent questions of the rest of my family. The dragon waited, anticipated his chance to take over for the second time in a single day. Unlike the others, I looked forward to the days when I spent twenty-four hours guarding the entrance to the cave and the treasure inside.

I peeled off my clothes and left them in a heap by the cave’s mouth. The dragon stretched, taking over my form, expanding until my body could no longer hold it. I closed my eyes and let the change move through me. When I opened them again, I saw as the dragon saw: sharper, clearer.

My wings unfolded, and I crouched, then sprang. In moments I was airborne, flapping the bulky-yet-delicate appendages to take myself higher. I was deliberate in my movements, working hard, determined to exhaust myself before I returned to the compound. It would be better that way. I couldn’t face her or any of them with a war raging inside me.

Jasmine would be mine. It was inevitable. I would spend the rest of my life with her. I had never felt complete before meeting her. I had never known what it was like to care for someone else more than I cared for myself—I knew duty, I knew honor, I knew the responsibility of protecting my family and the treasure we guarded. But I had never known what it meant to throw caution to the wind and go out of my way to help someone when it could mean destruction for me.

The worst part was knowing I would do it all again in a heartbeat, even knowing the way things had gone up to that point.

I would risk Gate hating me forever, sowing discord in my family, bringing an outsider to the cave if it meant saving Jasmine. She was all that mattered.

What I couldn’t do—wouldn’t do—was let her go.

It was as though she heard me thinking about her.

She might have, for all I knew.

No sooner had I shut down the thought of letting her leave me than I detected motion at the rear entrance of the caves. Where I had first brought her in.

She couldn’t do anything to hide that red hair of hers. It stood out like a beacon.

I dove, shooting straight down like an arrow. She only felt my presence at the last second, when I was close to reaching the ground. I landed with a crash so hard it shook the trees.

Instead of dashing back inside, she ran for the trees.

You think you can get away from me? I roared in my head, while the roar which came out of my mouth had no words. Nor did it need any.

Birds took flight all around me, beating their wings in their haste to get out of the way of my rage.

I was the dragon, and she didn’t know what happened when the dragon’s passion was fully roused.

I stretched one of my wings out in front of her, blocking the way.

She stopped dead in her tracks, falling on her ass and scrambling back to her feet.

“Please!” she called out to me.

I heard the terror in her voice and liked it.

She was right to be afraid. If she were any being but the mate I had waited my entire life for, I would’ve made short work of her and tossed aside whatever was left for passing animals to feast on.

She looked up. “Please, Pierce! It’s better this way!”

Better? She thinks this is better? Running away from us?

I roared again, or the dragon did. Maybe we both did. It was impossible to separate us now.

I decided to make it easy. Rather than leaving her to have a one-sided conversation, I shifted back to my human form. Soon, we were face-to-face.

“Oh, wait a second.” She held her hands up to her face when she realized I was completely naked.

“I’ve already seen most of you, so don’t worry about seeing me. Aren’t we beyond this point yet?”

She lowered her hands slowly, but I noted the way she didn’t dare allow her eyes to drift lower than my chest. “I didn’t know you would be out here.”

“Obviously. Well done, sneaking out the back like that. Where we would be less likely to spot you. Don’t you know one of us is out here at all times?”

“Yes, I knew that. I thought I could get into the trees before whoever was on duty caught sight of me.”

“Why are you doing this? After everything we talked about—”

The color rose in her cheeks. “Yes. Yet another example of how you don’t listen, Pierce. Just because there’s something between us, you think it erases everything else. Nothing exists except you and what you want. That’s not the real world—at least, it’s not the world I live in.”

“This is what you want. Isn’t it? Don’t deny that we’re what you want, because I feel what’s happening to you. I feel the conflict.”

“There’s more to life than what we want, Pierce. There are sacrifices, too. Isn’t this a sacrifice?” She gestured to the cave. “Living here all these centuries, cut off from the rest of the world. You have a duty. Right? I know that means something to you, or else you wouldn’t be here.”

“Of course, it means something. It used to mean the world to me, before I met you.”

Her shoulders fell as she sighed. “Pierce. I wish I could make you understand. I have a duty, too.”

“That doesn’t absolve you from trying to run away without saying a word. Could you have lived with yourself if you got away from me?” I closed the distance between us and saw the way her body trembled harder with every step I took.

She wanted to run—I could smell the fear all over her, but there was another scent. Just as strong, maybe stronger. I had smelled it earlier, in her room. Desire.

“I didn’t want to,” she whispered. “You have to believe that. I thought if I took myself out of the picture, you could go on without me.”

“That could never happen. The sun would burn out, the mountains would crumble, before I would ever be able to go on without you.”

I cupped her face, and she tilted her head to lean it against my palm with a tiny whimper.

“This is already complicated enough. Please, Pierce. We can’t make it worse.” Her body told another story.

The desire built until her scent surrounded us both, wrapping us in a cloud of deep, primal need.

I could almost hear her heart pounding as I stroked her warm, flushed cheek with my thumb. The end was inevitable.

I only waited for her to admit it.

“Pierce?”

“Yes.”

“I need you.”