Seaton felt Aegis uncloak beside him, back in human form. He appreciated the backup, but he would be the one to save his mate.

“I have no idea who this Mercury person is,” Seaton said. “But you will release my mate. I don’t have to be the calm sea dragon.”

The stranger keeping Jenny captive, which in Seaton’s mind meant asking for a gory death, just shook his head. “You will tell me where Mercury is or you will never see her again.”

Aegis stepped forward, putting a hand up to Seaton. “Let me deal with this. What are you to Mercury?”

“He is part of my extended family. I am here to retrieve him.”

“Ah, so you’ve come a long way,” Aegis said, a curious tone in his voice. “What is your name?”

“Lead,” the stranger replied.

Seaton just wanted to get on with beating this dude’s ass so he could hold his mate in his arms again.

“I don’t even know what is going on,” Jenny said warily. “But if you have this guy’s friend, can you just give him back to him so I can go? I don’t think he wants to hurt anyone.”

“She is correct. I don’t,” Lead said.

“He saved me from Drew,” Jenny said.

“I don’t care,” Seaton said. “You have about ten seconds to let her go before I unleash hell on you.”

“I am not afraid of you, sea dragon,” Lead said haughtily.

“What about us?” Marina asked, appearing beside him, holding a ball of spinning water above each of her hands.

Kai came up beside her, electricity crackling around his hands. “Yes. What about three sea dragons?”

Lead took a step back, holding Jenny. “What are you…? You can’t…”

“We don’t need our dragon forms to be terrifying,” Seaton said. “We all have our own unique abilities on top of what we get from the sea.”

“Yes,” Aegis said from beside him. “You might have heard of the Zircon dragon?”

Lead whipped his head around. “You are related to the gemstones?”

“Distantly,” Seaton said. “Our first loyalty is to the sea. Well, my first loyalty is now to the woman you are holding, so I suggest you let her go.”

Lead’s expression grew frustrated. “I cannot. She is leverage for finding my countryman.”

“Which is it, family or countryman?” Aegis asked.

“They are the same,” Lead said. “And it is my duty.”

“Well then, your countryman is in prison, where he belongs, frankly,” Aegis said.

“Impossible,” Lead said. “Someone of Mercury’s lineage would never commit a dishonorable act.”

“Oh, I have met him, and I can assure you he is the definition of dishonorable. Sorry to disappoint you.”

“Take it back,” Lead said, letting go of Jenny and releasing her chain so he could step forward to confront Aegis.

“I won’t,” Aegis said. “He’s simply the worst.” He got right up in Lead’s face. “The most dishonest, dishonorable—”

Lead led out an enraged roar and made to head-butt Aegis, but Aegis jumped back, letting the bigger man stumble.

Lead shook his head as Aegis turned to Seaton. “He’s not touching Jenny. Your turn, Zircon dragon. Show us what you can do.”

Seaton closed his eyes and felt the air swirling around him. “My name is Seaton. My loyalty is to the ocean and to Jenny.” He looked up darkly at Lead, who seemed off balance and a bit nervous as Kai, Marina, and Seaton all closed in on him. “And you will regret taking my mate,” Seaton said with a snarl.

He spun his hand slowly as he directed the air to surround Lead, whipping faster and faster. The he nodded to Marina.

She lifted both hands and blew the spinning balls of water into Seaton’s wind, creating a mini cyclone. Seaton knew he could have just used wind to suffocate Lead, but the man had scared Jenny, and he deserved to suffer.

“I don’t have to be calm,” Seaton said. “I don’t have to only bring balance, despite my gemstone and my name.” He whipped the air and the water inside it faster and faster as Lead put up both hands to block his face, struggling to find a way out of the mini storm wrapping around him.

He was gasping now, frantically trying to escape the walls of water and wind, his dark hair flying around him and into his face. His eyes were furious as his face began to redden from suffocation.

Seaton stepped forward, wanting to watch closer. Wanting to look in this man’s eyes as he repaid him for harming his mate.

Kai stepped forward, raising a hand of crackling energy. “Should we kill him?”

“I don’t know why he hasn’t tried to transform,” Marina said, folding her arms and watching Seaton control the wind and the water.

“He can’t,” Aegis said. “He is bound by an odd sense of honor.”

“Not for much longer,” Kai said, walking forward. “Sneaky bastard needs to die for grabbing Jenny.” Lightning flew down from the sky in a bright flash, Landing in Kai’s hand as he caught it.

Seaton looked over at Jenny, who was sitting in the sand, still chained at the hands, her eyes wide as she watched what was happening to Lead.

Slowly, she got to her feet and stumbled over to them, careful to avoid the swirling mass of storm around where Lead stood.

She stepped up in front of Kai. “Don’t kill him,” she said.

“Why not?” Kai asked.

“He saved me,” she said, looking nervous. “Look, I appreciate you all standing up for me, but don’t kill him. Let him explain… or something. Drew was going to kidnap me, and he didn’t let him. He is weird, I get that. But so were all of you, and I gave you a chance.”

Seaton felt rage and guilt mingle in him because someone else had to save his mate, that he hadn’t been here for her. He knew he would have been here as soon as he could and that he and Kai would have hopefully gotten to Drew before he could do anything, but still, if this stranger had truly helped his mate, he couldn’t let him die miserably in his own personal thunderstorm.

He put a hand up to Kai. “We will just knock him out.”

Jenny looked at him hopefully. “Thank you.”

“You don’t know what you’re asking,” Kai said. “He could be dangerous.”

“He didn’t hurt me. He just wants Mercury.”

Seaton clenched his hands into fists, pulling the water into a tight bubble around Lead, lifting him off the ground as he struggled in the water, clutching his throat.

“Don’t kill him,” Jenny cried out.

“I won’t,” Seaton said. “I told you I can bring balance. I don’t like it, in this scenario, but I can.”

Finally, Lead threw his head back and stopped struggling, going limp in the water. Then he fell back against the sand in a soaked heap.

Jenny made as if to go over to him, but Seaton put a hand out.

“Please,” he said, reaching down and grabbing the metal holding her hands. He focused and was able to cleanse the magic there, causing the metal to melt away.

He was a little impressed by how much he could actually do in his human form. He was so used to being in dragon form in the ocean that he had never really explored everything he could do outside of it.

Yet, instinctively, when his mate needed him to fight for her on land, he knew exactly what he could do.

Knowing he had more strength in him than he’d ever imagined was just one more thing he had to thank Jenny for.

“How did you do that?” Aegis asked, looking at Jenny’s now bare wrists.

“One of my gemstone powers must be purification,” Seaton said. He walked forward to kneel beside Lead. “What should we do with him?”

Aegis swirled his hand in front of him, and a cloud of sparkling green appeared, growing larger and larger. “We’ll take him back to the oracle. Make sure he’s breathing.”

Seaton walked forward, and when he saw that Lead wasn’t moving, he gently sent air into Lead’s mouth, making his lungs rise and fall. Lead choked and then coughed up water, struggling onto his knees. But before he could get up, Aegis closed his hand and encased him in a cloud of green sparkles that melded together to form one glowing, gemstone prison.

“Only the best for a friend of Mercury,” Aegis said sardonically.

“So you do know him?” Seaton asked, curling an arm around Jenny as she ran into his embrace. Her soft body, familiar scent, everything about her soothed him now that she was safe.

He wasn’t ever leaving her sight again.

“Mercury is a real piece of work,” Aegis said. “I’m hoping this guy isn’t more of the same. But I’ll have to take him back to the oracle to see. A lot of the dragons are gathered right now because I thought I was bringing you back to see them.”

“Who is there?”

“Ruby, Sapphire, Onyx. Everyone you might remember.”

Old memories swirled through Seaton. It was so odd to think about his old world when his new world was here in his arms. And he had so much to tell her.

“I know,” Aegis said. “I’ll take Kai and Marina with me. I assume you’ll have wings of your own soon.” He winked.

Seaton felt himself flush as he looked down at Marina. “I just have to tell her?”

“And get her to agree, once she knows all it entails.” He sighed, folding his arms. “Can you handle that, sea dragon?”

“I can,” he said, tightening his hold on Jenny.

“Good,” Aegis said. “Then I’m taking these three and we’re going.”

“See you soon,” Marina said.

Kai just waved, looking disappointed that he hadn’t gotten to use his lightning, as he walked over to Aegis. And then all of them, including Lead in his emerald prison, disappeared.

Seconds later, Seaton heard the flapping of dragon wings rising overhead.

Then all was quiet, and he knew they were gone.

Jenny still had her arms wrapped around him, her face buried in his chest. He sat down on the sand with her, legs feeling weaker now that adrenaline was leaving him.

It wasn’t the short fight that had bothered him. It was all of the worry. The sheer stress of not being by her side.

“Jenny,” he said. “I’m sorry about all of this. I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you, and I’m sorry you got dragged in—”

She put up a hand, gently touching his lips and silencing him. “There’s nothing to apologize for.”

“What I said before, with Aegis, in the bar, that was because I didn’t trust him. If he knew you were my mate—”

“That Lead guy talked about that, too. What do they mean I’m your mate?”

Seaton released her and turned to the ocean. He had to think clearly if he was going to explain everything, and he couldn’t think with her soft body pressing into him.

She crossed her legs and stayed in the sand beside him.

“So as you have probably guessed by now, I’m a dragon. A dragon who can shift into a human. Or a human who can shift into a dragon, or—”

“You’re terrible at this explaining thing, aren’t you?” she teased.

“Yes,” he replied with a sigh of relief that she understood.

She put her hands on the sand and leaned back. “Is there a book I can read?”

“I’m sure there is.”

“Let’s do that, then,” she said. When he opened his mouth to protest, she shook her head. “Seaton, I’m just glad you came back for me. I was in a bad spot.”

“All I wanted was to come back to you. I had no access to my dragon form, and with Aegis, I was worried a fight would go badly.”

“But Aegis doesn’t seem like a bad guy.”

“I agree,” Seaton said. “But he used to be. And I couldn’t let him know what you meant to me until I was sure.”

“So you’re like a superhero protecting your girl?”

He grinned. “I would like to think so. I guess I do have superpowers. I never realized how much I could do on land. I guess it’s good since I’m going to be spending most of my time here.”

“Can you show me?” she asked.

He nodded. “But not until you agree to be my mate.”

She sighed. “What does that even mean?”

“It means we have to stay together, no matter what. It might mean you have to close the bar for a while and come back with me to see Aegis. It might mean being by my side as I fight in wars. I don’t know. But mate means you are mine and I am yours. As far as I’m concerned, I knew you were my mate from the moment I saw you.”

“When you rescued me from Drew at the bar?”

He shook his head, feeling embarrassment flood him. Still, if he was giving her the truth, he might as well give her all of it. “We can cloak, and when we were living on the beach, I used to watch you.”

She smiled at him, auburn hair framing her face. The sun was getting lower in the sky, and it was nearly sunset. He couldn’t wait to see the rays on her gorgeous skin and shimmery hair. “I don’t know whether to be pleased or creeped out.”

“I know it’s all weird to you,” he said. “I know it may take time to accept. I’m willing to stay here with you and wait. I’ll even fight Aegis, if that’s what it takes.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “All I ever wanted in life was adventure. And now it seems like the greatest adventure will be loving you.”

He blinked at her in shock. “You love me?”

“I do.” She smiled warmly.

“When did that happen?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “Probably the moment you walked into that bar, looking like a something from Swiss Family Robinson.”

“From what?” he asked, confused.

“I’ll show you later. What matters is that I love you,” she said, leaning in and cupping his face, pulling him in so she could kiss him.

Her warm breath soothed him, and his heart felt like it was beating normally for the first time since he’d left her that morning. He curled an arm around her waist. Somehow, just at this moment, everything was right.

She loved him, and he couldn’t think of anywhere he’d rather be.

He pulled back and rested his forehead against hers. “I love you, too, Jenny. More than my own life. More than anything in this world or any other. I’ll always protect you.”

She smiled and threw both arms around him, holding him close. “Stop. You’re embarrassing me.”

“I can’t stop loving you,” Seaton said. “I will probably keep embarrassing you for life.”

She giggled and dug her nails lightly into his back. “In that case, I’m looking forward to it.”

They pulled back, looking into each other’s eyes, and let out a deep breath simultaneously before breaking into a laugh.

“So you agree to be my mate, with all it entails?” he asked nervously.

“I’ll follow you anywhere.”

“It’s like what you call marriage but more serious.”

“Perfect,” she said. “Because after today, I never want to let you out of my sight. I can’t be without you. We can work out any other details later.”

“At the castle,” Seaton said.

“Castle?”

“I would guess so. That’s how land dragons always lived before.”

“Wow,” she said. “So they’re like medieval time dragons or something?”

He cocked his head. “I don’t know.”

“You’re right,” she said, shaking her head. “I’ll figure it out in the books.”

He loved that his mate was willing to be so open for him. He should have known that a human who would rescue three homeless dragons and take them into her home was truly in a league of her own.

“Okay,” he said, standing and feeling power flood through him as his dragon truly processed that she loved him, that she accepted him as her mate.

It felt as though the flood gates were releasing burning energy into his body, and he walked into the ocean just to be safe.

“Now I’ll show you something you aren’t going to see in any book.” When he was waist deep in the water and sure Jenny was at a safe distance, folding her arms against the evening wind and watching him, he let the transformation happen.

He felt like he was bursting, growing, and a cool sensation went over him as he rose out of the water into his dragon form.

He was huge now, and Jenny seemed tiny as he looked down at her.

He was surprised when she waded into the water, pushing past waves to reach him. He curled his tail around and gently caught her at the waist, lifting her and setting her on top of him. She looked up into his face.

“It’s really you. I think I’m going to faint.” She sat down on his back, which was covered in luminescent blue scales that flashed in rainbow shades of purple and green depending on how the light hit him.

Seaton had always felt that sea dragons had the best looks.

“You’re so beautiful,” she said. “It’s still hard to believe this, yet…” She rested her hand on the scales of his face as he brought his head down to look at her. “When I look in your eyes, I know it’s you.” She sighed. “I guess I always knew I was caught up in something bigger than me. I just didn’t know how big.” She sank back with a sigh. “So what now?”

“We can go to your place. Pack up if you’d like,” he said. “And then we fly off into the horizon.”

“The horizon?”

“Well, to see Aegis.”

“And then?”

“Then we just see how things go,” he said.

She tilted her head thoughtfully as the wind whipped the hair on her head. “As long as I’m with you, I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

He nodded. “I’m transforming. Hold on.” He closed his eyes and focused on the change, wanting to hold her in his human form. She shrieked as his dragon form disappeared, dropping her out of the air. But he was there to catch her in his human arms, holding her against his chest as the waves swept into him, splashing over his waist.

“Got you,” he said. Then he lowered his lips to hers in a kiss that he put his entire heart into, hoping it could communicate everything he was feeling right now. All of his love and hopes and dreams for the future.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back with everything she had.

It didn’t matter if he was on land or sea anymore. Now that he had Jenny, he knew his heart could truly be calm.