Once Maxsym was safely asleep in his dwelling, Zayd ushered Niva straight to his own quarters.

As soon as the doors closed behind them, he took her face in his hands and pressed his lips against hers in a searing kiss. The fear that had radiated from her had pulled the cord that ran from his gut directly to her heart and drove him to seek her and Maxsym out. Now that he had her in his arms, he couldn’t keep his hands off her.

He pulled her tight against his chest and kissed her. His tongue darted forward, seeking out the taste of her. He wanted to swallow her, consume her, keep her safe and with him at all times. The burning need to fill himself with her scent drove him into a frenzy that had his hands moving over her body, squeezing and caressing each muscular curve.

She turned her head away, and he let out a whimper, a plea to maintain the connection even for just a moment longer. When she placed her hand on his chest and pushed him away, his need for her turned to anger.

“You can’t just shove me in here and kiss me like that. I deserve to know what’s going on.”

Zayd turned his head so his hair fell in front of his face, a familiar and comforting way to hide from prying eyes. One more way to protect his innermost feelings from those who might hurt him. “What the fuck were you doing with Maxsym?”

The words came out harsher than he’d intended, but without the feeling of her skin to reassure him she was safe, all his fear morphed into fury.

“I was getting haksiba.”

“I understand that. I saw the bag you dropped off in the cooking house. That’s not what I mean. What the fuck were you doing out there with Maxsym? Why were you riding?” Zayd’s hands turned into fists at his side. His gut clenched at the words. The idea of her, his Niva, astride any other Draqon made his stomach roil.

“We were just trying to go quickly so we could get back in time to make a batch up for dinner. It wasn’t a big deal.” Niva pushed her hair away from her face and approached Zayd, but the closer she came, the more he could smell Maxsym’s Draqon on her.

He backed away from her. “You are not to ride other Draqons.”

“Well, you are not to tell me what I can and can’t do.” Niva’s voice was soft, quiet. She never rose to the bait of fighting with him and never tried to taunt him with a challenge. Her words were simple, clear, and uncompromising.

“You don’t understand.” He paced the room, turning himself in circles. “I’m not trying to be unreasonable. You… you don’t understand what it does to me.”

“Then tell me. Does this have something to do with what Maxsym said?” Niva’s eyes focused behind him, and she moved her weight from one foot to the other.

“Maxsym said a lot of things,” Zayd said, avoiding her question.

Niva stepped closer, and Zayd sidestepped her again. He couldn’t bear the idea of being touched by her just then. He knew if she did, he’d never let her go.

“Don’t pretend to be coy. You know exactly what I’m talking about. And don’t treat me like I’m stupid. Just because I wasn’t born a Draqon doesn’t mean I don’t understand what someone means when they call another person their mate.” Her eyes targeted his, tiny green lasers demanding he submit to her will and confess the truth.

“You heard what you wanted to hear. But as long as you live in this hive, you’re not to ride another Draqon.”

Fire sparked behind Niva’s eyes, and he saw the ember she held so close, never allowing it to blaze into the inferno within. She was a fighter, and she would make him a glorious Queen. His mouth dried at the thought. Sotu was his Queen, and he couldn’t let himself think past that. No matter what it did to him to know Niva had been astride another’s back.

“Stop trying to control me. You may be the leader here, but I’m not a Draqon. I did nothing wrong, and you know it. I didn’t do anything the other unmated women don’t do all the time. And I didn’t hurt Maxsym. You can’t blame me for what happened.”

“We were lucky you were there with him,” Zayd admitted. “He may have seriously hurt himself if you hadn’t gotten through to him.”

“Is this what happens to unmated males when they shift?” Niva’s anger drifted away as she thought of Maxsym. “Is this the madness everyone talks about?”

“What you saw in the cavern is only the beginning. When one of us is completely lost to the madness, it’s impossible to bring them back. Thank you for helping him. He’s my best friend, my brother. I don’t think I would’ve survived the last five years without him.”

“I know. I felt it. I felt the need to save him, a feeling that I couldn’t bear to live if he didn’t transform back. But those weren’t my thoughts. They were yours. Why do I feel you like that? Why did I feel your pain when the Hylas hurt you?” Niva stepped closer, and Zayd stared at the ground.

“Just promise me you won’t ride again,” he begged.

“Unless I ride with you?”

He hesitated and nodded, still not meeting her eyes.

“That’s not fair. I’m a great rider.”

“Sotu was a great rider.” Zayd took a deep breath, and his words rung in his ears. He waited for Niva to question him or demand more of the story, but she stood and waited. Her presence washed a peaceful wave over his soul, and for one rare instance, he felt forgiven for his crime.

Niva laid a soft hand on his chest but didn’t pressure him further.

The heat of her touch spread across his skin, soaking in deep and easing the chains wrapped around his heart. When she placed her other hand on his scarred cheek and brushed her thumb along his cheekbone, the coil of pain he held on to for clarity deep inside his chest began to unwind.

“So much sadness,” Niva said. “You carry it around like an anvil strapped to your heart. I can’t imagine what you think you’ve done to deserve such punishment.”

The bubble in his chest rose up his throat and escaped, a tiny gasp as he finally shared the depths of his agony with another person. It wasn’t fair. Niva didn’t deserve to feel this despair, but it was beyond his control. He couldn’t help but share it when she opened her heart to him.

Zayd could see the moment when his emotions flooded her system. Her face twisted with pain and sadness. But she didn’t look away. She didn’t pull her hands from his body or narrow her eyes in accusation. Instead, she stepped closer and wrapped her arms around him.

“Tell me.”

Zayd wanted to bury it down inside, stuff it beneath the surface so he could carry on the way he had for the last five years as if nothing had happened. But when she asked again, he couldn’t deny her. He knew he could never refuse any request she asked of him.

“Sotu’s death was my fault.” His mind flooded with images of their last flight together, the battle they’d waged, the Draqon who had flown off course, and the harrowing fall Sotu had taken. All because he’d been unable to maintain control. He looked into Niva’s eyes and watched as she relived his memories of the girl he’d loved since childhood, who he’d mated with too young and against the advice of the elders, and who had died because of his foolishness.

She gasped as he remembered watching his mate fall through the fire and acid he had spit upon the enemy. And when he dove through his own flames to rescue Sotu, she touched her cheek as if feeling his skin melting away.

When he remembered her body shattering across the stone ground, Niva dropped her hands, tears spilling over her eyes, and the ache in his chest doubled as he felt not only the loss of Sotu, but Niva’s judgment too.

“Zayd,” she breathed out. “I’m so sorry.” She reached back toward him with no hesitation. She pulled him tight and cried. She wept the tears he had never shed—that he never would. And as she cried against him, he wrapped his arms around her waist, nuzzling into her neck and feeling her acceptance and forgiveness.

Not judgment. She would never judge him.

“You couldn’t have stopped that. Nothing you did could have stopped it,” she said as she stroked the back of his neck.

Zayd took a strangled breath. “Most of me knows that. But if she had been my mate, my true mate, she wouldn’t have fallen.”

Niva tilted her head back, looking up at him in confusion. Her green eyes were backlit with a deep understanding, but she needed to hear the words.

“Sotu and I were in love. And we were mated. But a true mate, a mate whose soul is bound to another’s completely, would’ve never fallen. It’s one of the reasons why an unmated pair flying together is so dangerous. They can’t communicate, and they don’t fly as one.”

Niva’s eyebrows drew together. “With Maxsym, I couldn’t anticipate his movements. I couldn’t adjust to his flight the way I did with you. He was erratic, and nothing I did could calm him. It felt completely out of control. It was completely unlike when we flew together.”

Zayd nodded, easily picturing her memories of the flight from their connection. “If a pair’s love is strong enough, sometimes they can cross that bridge. For most pairs, that’s enough to fly into battle safely. The connection isn’t as strong, but the love they share can keep them focused.” He took a deep breath and forced himself to say the words, to tell her the truth. “But when an unmated male rides with a female mated to another, his mind rejects the rider, and it can drive him insane.”

“What happened with Maxsym was my fault?” Niva asked. “I’m not mated to anyone. I’m not…” She met Zayd’s eyes again, and he felt as her understanding began to dawn.

“I knew when we flew together,” he admitted. “But I didn’t want it to be true. Draqons only mate once in a lifetime. And if you’re my true mate, it means Sotu never was. It means that we were never bonded deeply enough for me to have saved her, no matter what I did. It means her death was my fault.”

“You are insufferable,” Niva huffed with exasperation as she walked away from Zayd and poured herself a glass of water from the pitcher on his table. She took a drink and set it back down before turning to him, her gaze sharp and insightful. “You’re so insistent on making everything your fault. Maybe there’s nothing you could have done about Sotu. Maybe you were in love, and you were young, and sometimes that feels like the most important thing in the world. How could you have possibly known anything else?”

She pulled out the tangled strip of leather that had been holding back her hair, letting it cascade down her back. Running a hand through the wind-swept ends, she turned away and continued speaking without looking at him. “And if you knew I was your mate when we flew, why didn’t you say anything? I came in here just yesterday asking you to talk to me about whatever was going on between us, and you said nothing.”

He couldn’t speak. He had no excuse. He should’ve said something. It was cowardly to have avoided the conversation for so long. He put them both in harm’s way all because of his guilt.

“I said a few things.” He smirked, remembering their kiss and the way her body had felt pressed against him.

“Don’t flirt with me. I’m mad at you,” Niva said, color rising up her neck and giving her dark skin a reddish glow.

“You’re right, I should’ve said something. I was going to say something.” He implored her to believe the truth of his words. “I didn’t imagine you would fly with someone else. It didn’t even cross my mind as a possibility. I felt the moment you climbed onto his back, and it was like having part of myself ripped away, like someone had dug out an internal organ with their nails. And then your fear…” His body trembled as he remembered the panic that had rushed through his veins along with the image of her falling from the sky and crashing to the ground.

“So,” she began, her voice hesitant. “What does this mean?”

He made certain his voice was steady before he said, “This is something important, you said so yourself. You’re the only rider I can ever take. Probably the only one I ever should have taken.”

Niva rushed to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Why do you make everything so hard?” she begged before pressing her lips to his.

The kiss was simple and sweet, something tender after the past few years of horror. Zayd pulled her small body against him, lifting her up so he could run his nose along her cheek and down her neck. He set tiny kisses along her jawline and made his way down to her collarbone, where he licked and nibbled, sending shudders of pleasure through her body. She wrapped her legs around his waist and brushed his hair from his face, fisting it and pulling his head back.

“If I’m your rider, then you have to be my Draqon,” she said, and a swelling of peace rose within him.

“Yes.”

Without another word, she kissed him, pulling his lower lip into her mouth. She nibbled on it, sending a groan through his body that would have sent him careening to the ground if he hadn’t been carrying her, desperate to make his way to his bed.

When he got there, he set her down and crawled over her body, pushing her long hair away from her face and tracing the lines of her beautiful features with his fingers. He kissed her again, and their tongues danced together. They no longer explored as if hungry and desperate like their stolen moment on the rocky cliff. Instead, this was a kiss of homecoming. A moment of ecstasy as two halves of a whole came together.

Zayd slid his hands under her halter top and pulled it up, exposing her pert brown breasts. She sat up against him as he whisked it off over her head before lowering his lips to her perfect mound. He sucked a nipple into his mouth, and she exhaled in a rush. Her skin came alive under his fingertips. And every place he touched her, his own body tingled.

As they rolled together on the large bed, chest to chest, their hands and mouths exploring each other’s bodies, their connection overwhelmed him, and when Niva slipped a hand inside his leathers to grip his cock, he reeled back in pleasure.

She pumped him, gripping his erection tightly, rolling the foreskin with her thumb, and pulling his skin along the steel rod within. He ached with the need to be inside her, the painful drive to take her spinning wildly through his mind. He pulled away and grabbed at her pants, jerking them off her hips and legs.

Niva laughed, a sound of pure joy that calmed his heart and soothed his desperation. “You don’t need to rush.” She lounged against the pile of pillows at the head of his bed. “I’m not going anywhere.”

She reached out with both arms, inviting him to share the bed, to share her body, to share her life.

He made short order of removing his leathers before climbing back onto the bed and situating himself between her legs. He ground up against her, and she wrapped her legs around his hips, running her hands up and down his back. His scales trembled with pleasure. She kissed her way over his shoulder, placing her lips against their brightly hued tips.

“They don’t bother you?” he asked, curious as to how a human saw his Draqon self.

“They’re beautiful.” She ran her fingertips across his shoulder and down his arm, making the scales tremble. “They’re so sensitive. You’d think they would be hard or sharp, but they feel more like feathers than scales. I just want to touch all of you.”

She shifted her hips, rolling them over so that she straddled his lap. She moved softly, her slick center sliding along his hardness. She threw her head back, long black hair tumbling down her back like a waterfall as she lost herself in the feeling of their bodies moving together.

Zayd placed his hands on her hips and pushed up against her, eliciting a cry of pleasure as his cock ground up against her clit.

Niva leaned forward, placing her hands on his shoulders and holding him still. She kissed him, undulating her hips, moving her body against his in an erotic dance that would never lead to the fulfillment he longed for.

He groaned, tightening his grip on her hips and moving his hands down to grasp her thighs. He panted against her mouth as she hovered above him.

“Are you trying to kill me?” he pleaded, trying to maneuver his body into position so he could enter her.

“Is it working?” She smiled with a glint of the devil before lifting her hips up, allowing his cock to spring upright before lowering herself onto him and pulling him inside her fully.

She cried out and sat up, widening her knees so her body sank deeper against his hips. For a moment, they were perfectly positioned. Zayd couldn’t imagine a single thing in the world more right or beautiful than her face as she began to move, taking pleasure from his body. She twisted her hips, moving up and down slowly at first before building to a frantic pace.

He gripped her waist and thrust his hips up to meet each movement, slamming his cock deep inside her.

She moaned and placed a hand on his chest. Pulling one of her knees up next to his side as leverage, she increased her pace and rode him with abandon. Her eyes glazed over, lost in the pursuit of her own release.

Zayd gasped, panting as he tried to hold back. He wanted to watch her for as long as he could, letting her take the lead, the way a true rider would. His body longed to flip them over and hold her tight against him, to pound himself deep inside her until they both screamed in ecstasy.

But he held back, letting her drive them further into passion. No matter how many times he’d had sex before, he realized this was the first time he’d ever felt so wholly owned. His body pulsed with his impending orgasm and sparks flew across his vision. He reached up and grabbed her neck, pulling her down against him.

They kissed frantically with a hunger that consumed him. Their mouths and hips moved together until they were one creature, one body vibrating apart into stardust.

When she came, he swallowed her scream in his mouth. He thrust into her, hard and frantic. Her core clamped down around his cock, and he spiraled out of control with his own orgasm.

They panted, arms and legs haphazardly wrapped around each other, but unable to stop the tiny kisses they spread over each other’s lips and faces.

“I have to say, I really do enjoy riding you.” Niva giggled, sending shivers across his skin.

He shot her a grin. “And I think you’re spending too much time with Maxsym.”

“We’ve already been over this. I’m never going to ride anyone but you ever again.”

At her words, his cock stirred again. This time, he flipped her over onto her back, rising above her as she laughed.

“Prove it,” he growled.