It turned out that Lori wasn’t the only human involved with Sever’s group of shifters.

Ella, a kind, sweet woman who was married to Sever’s friend Dante, had been welcoming and helpful in the past few days as they had settled into Dante and Ella’s massive home.

Sever had casually informed her that he had a great deal of wealth, along with the ability to generate pure platinum, and so they could go anywhere they chose. They had both decided to wait until the oracle, a kind old lady who seemed to be in charge of the dragons, got more details on Taylor’s family.

Taylor had taken to following Dante around, who was more than happy to regale him with tales of epic dragon victory hundreds of years ago.

Sever was the quieter type, not apt to brag, so he was happiest just sitting with Lori, watching the others talk, watching Taylor come to accept being part of this new world.

Speaking of which, she looked over from her seat in the living room to see Sever leaning against the doorway, looking over at her, eyes intense and focused. The most beautiful eyes in the world.

Careful, mate, or I’m going to be unable to resist claiming you.

But I thought you already did, with the ring.

That’s only half of it, Sever replied. The rest involves you, me and a bedroom.

Dante, who’d been talking avidly to Taylor, stood up abruptly. “Gross, you two. Take it upstairs.” He gestured for Taylor and Ella to follow him as he made to leave the room. “Come on, let’s go outside and practice shifting again.” Dante and Ella had a huge amount of private acreage on which to do so, which worked out well. Just as they were about to go through the door frame, Dante leaned back in and gave Sever a wicked wink before disappearing.

Sever just laughed and looked over at her, as she let out a little groan.

“Your friends are really something,” she said, laughing. “Does Dante read my mind as well?”

“No,” Sever said. “But he reads mine, since that is how dragons communicate. Since I was being obnoxiously obvious he probably couldn’t help it.”

“So embarrassing.”

Sever walked over and reached a hand out for her, and her heart started pounding. She’d been staying with Taylor in a room with two beds, making sure he felt safe in a new home.

But she had missed sleeping by Sever. He felt like her new home now.

“Come on,” he said. “Taylor is fine. I trust Dante with my life. Let’s go spend some time together. I need you.”

She needed him too.

She walked hand in hand with him up the stairs, down the hallway, to a large bedroom at the very end of it.

“I was hoping this would be our room together while we stay here. Taylor is old enough to have one of his own.”

“I agree,” she said softly, looking around the room at the beautiful navy blue and gold furnishings. Elegant. Luxe. Like something in a hotel she could never afford to stay in. As she sat on the bed and looked at the window that looked out on the grounds, her body started to remember all of the delicious things Sever could do to her.

Her heart started to skip like a stone thrown over water.

Sever closed the curtains, leaving the room lit only by warm, overhead lights. He walked to the door and locked it as well. Then he came over to sit on the bed with her.

He brushed her hair back. “You’re amazing, you know that?”

“I know,” she said with a giggle. “You’ve said so, remember?”

“Well, I’ve been looking up some other words, since I don’t want to be redundant.”

“Of course not,” she said playfully.

“Beautiful,” he said, brushing her hair away from her ears so he could lean in and kiss the upper shell of it. “Incredible.” He kissed down her ear to the lobe, caressing it gently with his lips. “Sensual.” He kissed the little spot where her jaw met her neck, and she jumped slightly at the sensitivity of it. “Inimitable.”

“That’s a good one,” she said, turning to him with an invite in her eyes.

He looked at her lips. “Ultimately desirable.” He leaned forward and kissed her, and she felt it all the way down to her toes.

When he pulled back, she scooted back on the bed and he pushed her down onto it, propping himself on all fours above her, making her feel small and safe and protected.

“Beloved,” he said, his hands running along her sides, and cupping her breasts. “Exquisite.” He leaned done to kiss one captured nipple that was pressing against her bra. She arched and let out a little cry and his eyes lit with pride.

“And mine. That’s the most important one. Mine. Forever.”

“Forever,” she said, reaching toward him to cup her hand against his face. It was amazing the difference just a few days could make. Amazing that she’d gone from fear, to confusion, to accepting a whole new world simply because he was in it. Though she supposed she would have had to eventually because Taylor was in it too.

She didn’t want to think about what would have happened if Sever hadn’t come to them.

“Don’t think about it then,” Sever said quietly. “I couldn’t have not come. Those letters called to me. I didn’t know it then, but it was fate, bringing me to you. To my mate.”

“Explain the mate thing again?” she asked.

“We only get one in a lifetime,” he said. “Our dragons know them. They are more important to us than our own hearts. You are more important to me than anything in the world. I would die for you. Live for you. Fight for you, to my death if needed.”

“I don’t think so,” she said. “I don’t know who would try to take out a dragon.”

His eyes grew stormy. “There are those who would try, if they could. There is a lot going on in my world, a lot changing. And there are still things about my past you don’t know. Things that happened before I met you. Things that—”

It was her turn to put a finger up to his lips. “I trust you,” she said. “It’s like you said. It’s not our past, it’s our future. If you want to share those things with me, then great, I accept them. But if you want to move on with me, eyes focused on the horizon, then I’m okay with that too.”

He sighed. “How did I ever get so lucky?” He raised her hand and looked at the ring on it. “I know that working in jewelry, you may have certain preferences. I promise to get you whatever you want.”

She shook her head. “I love this. And since you make metal, maybe something else if you choose to make it.” She wound her arms around his neck, pulling him closer for a kiss. “I want everything to do with you. I want to be part of your world. I want to be at your side with what you and your friends are fighting.” She leaned in close to his ear. “Make me yours, dragon.”

* * *

Sever couldn’t believe his own ears, as Lori’s lips brushed against him, telling him to take her.

He looked down at her, curvy and beautiful and home.

She’d accepted everything here so wonderfully. Been so strong for Taylor. Held her own with Adrien (who visited a couple of times) and Dante.

It helped that she got along with Ella, who could help her understand their world too.

Still, he guessed it shouldn’t have surprised him that a woman who would be brave enough to leave her life behind to help out the grieving child of a friend would then be willing to move once again.

But despite the move, despite him trying to give her some space, she still hadn’t told him she loved him. He felt she did, saw it in her eyes when she didn’t think he knew she was looking at him.

He felt her desire.

He’d seen her relief when he came back from the fight unharmed. He’d seen her eyes well with emotion when he’d found and talked to Taylor, that day he’d first transformed.

But for some reason, it wasn’t enough. He wanted to hear the words from her. And he wanted her to be his and his alone, officially and forever.

That meant one more claiming after she’d accepted his ring.

He pulled his shirt over his head and saw a gleam of approval in her eyes. “Are you sure?” he asked, as her hazel gaze roved over his muscles. “There’s no going back after this.”

“I’m sure,” she said, unbuttoning her blouse and shrugging out of it. The sight of her curvy, soft body still drove him nuts every time, like it was his first time seeing it. “Besides, didn’t you say it was already permanent?”

“Well, the ring is the first step. After this, it’s complete. We’re together. I guess to humans it would be like marriage. Do you want to get married?”

She shook her head. “I mean. We could, for legal reasons. But there is so much going on right now. I’m okay with both of us knowing. As long as we’re proper in the shifter world.”

He nodded. “There is nothing more proper. Or sacred,” he said. He started working on the button of his jeans, but she pushed his hand away, wanting to do it for him.

“Dang, you’re huge,” she said.

“Dang, you’re tiny,” he said.

“What?” She gestured to herself, grabbing a handful at her waist. “No one has ever accused me of being tiny.”

“No,” he said. “Not tiny that way. I don’t want you tiny that way.” He knocked her back into the bed, nuzzling against her, loving the soft feel of her body under his. “I mean you’re tiny in general, at least compared to me.”

She sighed and threaded her hands in his hair, then grinned up at him. “As long as you like it.”

“I’d like you however you were. I know dragons like curves, and I’ve heard it’s the same for other shifters, but I promise, my love is for you, no matter how you look.” He stared at her, noting her pert nose, her soft lips, her little freckles. Her heart-shaped face.

He traced a hand down to her camisole and slid one strap off, tracing a finger over one smooth shoulder. “But you do look extremely perfect to me.”

“I’m glad,” she said. “Because I couldn’t picture any better.” She slid her camisole the rest of the way off and then reached around to unhook her bra. He reached for her pants and slide them off, his pulse rising, body growing more eager with every second.

When she was naked beneath them, when he’d flicked even her panties away with a single claw, he took a moment to just take it all in.

Then, he shed the rest of his clothes and came over her, spreading her legs beneath him. Her warm, wet center greeted him, and his cock twitched at the thought of being inside her. But he focused on her face, on her expression, welcoming and aroused. On the heat between them, the tension in the room.

And the love he felt for her, as he slowly guided himself inside her, her hips gently urging him on, as he brought them together as well.

When he was finally seated, she looked up at him in wonder, and he found himself staring back. Just being together like this was so wonderful, and now they would have a lifetime of never being apart.

He could do this with her every night, feel this closeness, this bond.

He began to move slowly, intentionally, and she arched back against the bed, her hands twisting helplessly in the covers. As he increased the tempo, her arms shot up to wind around him, and her legs wrapped around his back, as if trying to pull him closer. She began to move with him, eager and panting, her breath coming faster as he felt the tension inside him begin to build.

She began to writhe faster, letting out little gasps and moans every time they came together, clashing like waves at high tide. Every time they were one he felt like bursting, but he held back, watching every expression on her face, every moan, every lip bite. The way she kept struggling to be even closer to him, lifting herself up so she could wrap her arms further around his neck.

Her movements were becoming frantic, her floral scent in the air tantalizing, and as she bit into his shoulder, he could tell she was close.

He slowed things for a second, pulling out until he was just barely inside her, and let them both breathe for a moment. Then, he drove in, bringing them as close together as they could possibly be, and she cried out, arching back as release took her.

She screamed again and again, thrashing beneath him as he pumped a few more times and then found his own release, shuddering as hot pleasure overwhelmed him. As he watched her through the haze of his own orgasm, he felt utter love overwhelm him. Pure protectiveness, as she slowly calmed in his arms, glowing from the effects of her release.

She grinned up at him, watching avidly as he finished, and then she pulled him down into her arms for a kiss.

He was still shaking from the power of everything that had just happened, still aware of the roar of triumph in his heart that she was totally his.

Then she whispered in his ear the words he had longed for.

“I love you, Sever. I love you so much.”

He curled an arm around her and resisted the urge to weep from how lucky he was. After so many years of searching, he had finally found what he was looking for. He could die a happy dragon, if he didn’t have so much to live for.

“I love you, too, sweetheart,” he said, rolling onto his back and pulling her onto him, holding her closer.

“You’re not going to let me go for a while, are you?” she asked, turning in his arms as she lay on his chest, facing him.

He brushed a hand through her hair and shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. You’re stuck with me now.”

She laughed but he moved his hand to cup her face gently, loving the feel of the most precious thing in the world in his arms.

“You know,” she said. “In jewelry, they say platinum is lasts forever. You can dent it or scratch it, but the metal just moves out of place, never chips or falls off like gold. Most feel it just becomes more beautiful with time, as the scratches form a patina.”

“So you’re saying I have a patina, is that it?” he asked, reaching a hand out to take hers.

She shook her head, entwining her fingers with his tenderly. “I do know some of what you’ve been through. I’ve been living in a house with Dante and Ella for two days, so I know about Mercury. And Amelia.”

Sever’s eyes shuttered. “I was tricked. I swear I—”

“So I’m just saying it makes sense that you’re platinum. Because you’ve been through so much, lived two different lifetimes, and you’re still here with me. Steadfast, gorgeous, and strong.”

He didn’t know what to say to that. It was so accepting, so loving, and he had never expected to hear it from her lips.

So he just kissed her, trying to let his touch communicate all the things he couldn’t find the words to say.

That like platinum, his love for her would last forever, and get better with time. Over the years, the memories sustained between them would become a kind of patina that was uniquely theirs.

He looked forward to creating that beauty together.

* * *

* * *

I hope you enjoyed the third book in the Date-A-Dragon series! If you enjoyed Sever and Lori’s story, I hope you’ll leave a review to help other readers find it. I really appreciate all your support.

Thank you so much for all the requests on Citrine’s story! He’s coming up next, and it’s going to be soon!

So make sure to sign up for my newsletter here so you can find out about it:

Sincerely,

Terry

Have you read my other dragons?

If you’ve read the other metal dragons, have you read my Awakened Dragons boxed set? The complete series starring the gemstone dragons, the precursor to the metal dragons:

The other metal dragons are here:

And if you’ve read all of those, I have my very first dragons, my Dragons of New York, here. BEWARE! These dragons share a mate between each pair of them, and these books have sexy menage. My only menage series.

If you’re not in the mood for dragons (gasp) or you’ve read all my dragons, I have a new bear boxed set on sale too here, plus a sample on the next page:

And in case you missed Adrian’s story, there’s a sample on the next page.