VERONICA

When I open my eyes, my dragon's scowling at me as if I've done something wrong, and my body feels like it was beat with a hammer. Uh oh. I lift my head—or try to—and then fall back on the blankets, weak. I lick my lips, but they feel like sandpaper. Ugh. "How long was I out this time?"

"Three days," Ashtar says flatly. "What did you do?"

Damn. He looks furious at me, but that explains why I feel like death warmed over right now. I put a hand on my forehead, because I feel a headache coming on. "Can you help me sit up?"

"I would rather throttle you," he tells me, but moves to my side and tenderly lifts me in his arms, propping me up. Aw. He doesn't want to throttle me after all. He's just mad and worried. I'm filled with a rush of love for the big guy as I rest my head against his chest and he helps me drink sips of water. "These have been the longest three days of my existence. I hated every moment of it."

"I'm sorry. I hate that you were scared. It was just a tough healing."

He caresses my cheek, those dangerous claws dancing over my skin. "They are all tough healings, it seems. You put yourself too far into them and I worry you won't come back to me."

After that last healing, I worry about that, too. It felt too easy to just sink into the nothingness and forget all about my body. That scares me a little. "Maybe after things settle down, I can go study with the healer at the other tribe and she can give me pointers."

"I think that is a very good idea." He caresses my cheek and nuzzles my forehead, still holding me close against him. "You must rest, first."

"Resting is good," I agree, because I don't feel like moving at all. Far too much effort involved. I need to pee, too, but for now I'm just happy to be cuddled by Ashtar. "Are we still in Gren's cave?"

"Mmm. I am sure they would like for us to leave, but I refused to take you anywhere until you recovered."

"They want us to leave? Really?" I'm shocked and more than a little hurt at such ingratitude. "That's rude. I mean, I worked my ass off to heal the guy and…"

And I'm having a hard time concentrating on what I want to say next because there is a hell of a lot of moaning going on somewhere in the background. I go quiet, frowning to myself as I try to figure out what all that noise is. Is someone hurt? Having a nightmare?

Then, I hear Willa cry out something that sounds distinctly like a “yes.” Followed by something that sounds a lot like a “harder.”

Oh. Oh dear.

My cheeks flush as I hear some rather distinctive grunting and moaning, most definitely the sexy kind. They're very loud. Very enthusiastic. Very. "Exactly how long has that been going on?" I whisper to Ashtar. My cootie's picking up speed because it's hard to listen to someone else's enthusiastic (really, really enthusiastic) sex and not get turned on yourself.

"Two days," my poor dragon says grimly. "Over and over again for the last two days."

"How…"

"The moment you passed out," he begins, and gives me a sour look to show just how little he approves of that, "he awoke. His wounds have healed very quickly and by the next morning, the infection was gone. Your friend Will-uh decided to help him bathe and then they were tearing at her clothing. They did not care that I was in the cave watching over you. Nor have they cared every time after." Ashtar shakes his head. "The mating heat has gripped them both quite fiercely."

"I can tell," I manage as Willa's cries fill the air, along with Gren's snarled responses. Wow. They're literally across the cave from us and going to town on each other. Definitely an awkward moment.

"What I wish to know is if you had something to do with that," my dragon murmurs as he brushes his mouth against my forehead again.

Am I causing them to make out like rabid wombats? "I don't think so. I think that's all his cootie. It was so busy trying to hold his janky system together that it couldn't pay attention to anything else. I guess once I fixed that, things kicked into place."

"Jank-ee? What is this? I don't have that word."

"It means he was held together by paperclips and bubblegum and all the pieces were starting to fail." I look up at my beautiful Ashtar and compare him to Gren. There's just no comparing, not really. Ashtar's like a gorgeous god, and Gren is…well, Gren got the short end of the stick. I'm sure he has a great personality, and then I hate myself just a little for even thinking such a thing. "You know he's got some drakoni in him? I saw it when I saw the claws, and when I was healing him, I felt it. He's got some of the blue guys, too. And some human. He's like a big mishmash of pieces. I don't see how that works."

Ashtar doesn't look surprised to hear that. "The gladiator arenas are…strange places. Sometimes slaves are bred to try and make bigger, stronger slaves for future fights."

"That's not so strange."

"Sometimes they skip the breeding and ask their scientists to 'make' them a fighter."

"Oh, ugh. They're making people? Like in test tubes? Purely so they can fight?"

Ashtar shrugs. "This surprises you? I thought you would have guessed such a thing after seeing Vordis and Thrand."

Now I'm confused. "Because they're twins?"

"Because they are the same. They do not come from the same womb. They come from the same material. They are copies of each other."

"They're clones?" I screech out, and the moaning quiets for a brief second…and then starts up again. Guess Willa and Gren don't care much about clones at the moment.

"They are," Ashtar says. "You are not very observant, my mate."

I narrow my eyes at him. "I've been distracted."

"Is that so?" He chuckles.

"Yeah, see, this big gold goof resonated to me the moment I got a cootie, and he's a bit of an attention hog." I shift in his arms, getting comfortable. It's so nice to lie against him, and I stifle a yawn as he wraps his arms tighter around me. "He's always 'me me me' and demanding I spend time with him. It tires a girl out and makes it hard to notice things like clones."

Plus, who really thinks of clones when they see two similar-looking guys? Really now.

"Mmm. Perhaps this big gold gwoof—"

"Goof, though I do like the sound of ‘gwoof.’"

He tilts my head and nips my ear to shut me up. For a moment, there's nothing but the sound of Willa and Gren—and my god, those two are noisy fuckers (literally) and distracting as hell. Then Ashtar continues. "Perhaps this big gold goof wishes to claim his mate and share his fires with her and things keep getting in the way."

I sigh, because they really do. "I want that, too."

He nips my ear again, sending shivers through my body. My cootie starts its engine and I feel a pulse of heat low in my belly. Willa moans again (sounds like he's killing her over there, in the best sort of way), and it only heightens my need. "I don't suppose you want to put your hand down my pants right about now, do you? Because I'm willing to do the same for you. I'm just throwing it out there. Dual handies. Everyone goes home happy."

"No," he tells me, and I want to pout. "You need to rest. The moment you are better, I am shifting to my battle form and taking you somewhere private so I can give you my fires. So we can mate." He drags the tip of his tongue—that textured, textured tongue—against the shell of my ear, and then continues. "And so we can make even more noise than they are."

I bite back my own moan of response. "What about your wing? I still need to heal the other."

"My wing has been destroyed for more than twenty years. It can wait until you take my fires. I would rather have that than anything else." His gaze burns with heat, and I shiver with how much I want him.

"And then we go back to the tribe?" I ask.

He's quiet.

Damn it, not this again. "Ashtar," I warn. "These people need a healer."

"They need to learn to take care of themselves." His mouth flattens in an angry line. "We do not need them."

"Sure we do." I struggle to sit up, pushing off his arms. I don't want him to cuddle me, not right now when I'm trying to be angry at him. "What if I went unconscious like this when we were in the middle of nowhere? Who would have your back?"

Now his unhappy expression flattens into an outright scowl. "No one 'has my back.' I do not need someone to 'have my back.'"

"You do!" I poke his rock-hard stomach that I desperately want to lick if I didn't feel so trampled. "I need training and you need friends. And we both need supplies."

"Bah."

"No 'bah.' I'm serious. I want you to have friends. You don't want to end up like Gren." I keep my voice low for the last part so no one will hear me. Of course, I don't think they'll be able to hear anything over their own noise-making. "People and relationships with people are important."

His eyes flick darker. "The only person I want a relationship with is you."

Is he going to play hardball? Because I can do that, too. "You want a relationship with me?"

"Yes."

"You want me to run off with you somewhere private?" He nods, and I continue. "Then you need to prove to me you can make a friend first. Just one. You do that, and I'll go off to some cave with you and spend however long we need to fulfill resonance, and then we can decide where we want to stay afterward."

Ashtar scowls at me as if I've said something grossly offensive.

"I need to lie here for a few days to regain my strength anyhow, right?" I fake a yawn and flutter my lashes at him. "Plenty of time for you to befriend Hassen. Or Zolaya. Or even Gren or Willa."

"You will hold this over my head? Refuse to mate with me simply because I do not care for others?" Ashtar looks furious, and I can feel his body tensing as he holds me. "You will say this to me after I have watched over you for days, worried about you and cared for you? And now because I do not like other people, you will withhold yourself from me?"

I sigh. When he puts it that way, it is a dick move. "No. I wouldn't hold myself back from you, Ashtar." I reach up and caress his beautiful, angry face, because I need to touch him. "I don't think I could if I tried." His expression softens, and I rub my thumb against his strange golden skin. "I just want you to try for my sake. Is that so terrible a thing? To do something because I'd like it, even if it doesn't match what you want to do? Because I would like to be part of the tribe. You may not need people, but I think I do."

He gazes down at me for so long that I worry he's going to refuse me again. Instead, he takes my hand from his cheek and presses a kiss to it. "For your sake, I will try."

"That's all that I ask," I tell him happily.