She knew she’d been playing with fire, but she didn’t care. She’d spent the past long months in mourning and simply wanted to feel alive again. And right now, she shook with excitement, lust, and a heady dose of fear. Who knew that fear lent itself to becoming another aphrodisiac? She wasn’t afraid of these men hurting her physically in any way, only of where this might lead. Hopefully, they’d enjoy one another and perhaps even meet up to do this again. She’d be up for that once or twice, or three times more!
Aiden finally broke the kiss, panting and leaving her out of breath too, and he stood by the bed as he began to strip off his clothes.
“You need to get undressed, too.” Aiden pointed to Steffan, who seemed engrossed with nibbling at her neck.
“Yes, off, off, off,” she giggled.
Mia loved this moment of freedom. Of being able to have fun and do something crazy and wild for once. In a few days, she’d be back home in her quiet house and her familiar, safe routine. Content enough, but not exactly zinging with excitement at being alive. Not like in this moment.
Aiden shucked his pants and straightened, wearing only boxers now. Black silk boxers, she noted. His body was tan all over and strong. His muscles were gym-honed and sexy as hell, his skin smooth and unblemished.
Steffan pulled his shirt off, and the movement caught her eye, tearing her gaze from Aiden to the man on the other side of the bed. As his T-shirt slipped off, she nearly gave an involuntary round of applause. Good Lord, the man’s torso! His broad build and the huge slabs of muscles looked as if they’d been carved out of the same hard rock as the walls of his strange home.
He hesitated a moment before undoing the fly on his jeans, and his eyes slid away from her and to the floor as he pushed the material down thighs strong enough to hold up a damn bridge. But then she saw it and gave a small gasp. A livid red scar, glowing in its intensity, marred all the insane levels of male perfection he had going on. She didn’t care one jot about it affecting his looks, but it must be painful. Couldn’t have been very old. There were others there, too, but they were faded and not concerning.
“You need to see a doctor.” She spoke before she thought.
Steffan’s eyes narrowed. “It’s fine. Leave it.”
“What? No.” She knelt and shuffled on her knees to the edge of the bed. She reached out with shaking fingers and brushed over the edge of the scar. Steffan sucked in a sharp breath, and she pulled her hand back. The skin around the scar burned as hot as hell itself.
“Oh, my God. We need to get you some medical treatment.”
“There isn’t any. It’s too late.” Steffan sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Look, if this…if it bothers you… I mean, I know it’s not the most attractive thing, and—”
She cut him off. “Steffan, I don’t care about how it looks. You’re…” She didn’t have the words for how blindingly beautiful he was, so she said the truth. “You’re so beautiful it hurts.”
Steffan’s eyes widened, and he blinked at her once, slowly.
“I’m worried you’ll get sick from it if you don’t get help.”
“There is no help. It happened a long time ago.”
Aiden joined her on the bed, dipping the mattress with his weight. “She’s got a point, Steffan. Not that I want to put a downer on this moment, but there must be something we can do, someone who can help?”
Steffan fixed them both with eyes turning an increasingly cold shade of silver. “There isn’t any help, and there isn’t any we.”
Wow. Okay, well, that told her. She hadn’t been sure what she expected from this. Some fun for sure, but hopefully, a friendship and the chance to do it again if they all enjoyed it as much as she’d hoped. Now? Her eyes stung as tears threatened to spill over. She didn’t understand her crying. She didn’t want a we either, did she?
Steffan’s face softened. “Mia, don’t go crying, baby. Please. Okay, I promise. I’ll ask again if there’s anything to be done. But I’ve carried this a long time, and yes, it stings like a bitch, but I’m still here, okay? So don’t get upset.”
She sniffed and blinked away her tears. How unsexy. Crying, for God’s sake. There wasn’t any bigger mood-killer.
Aiden lifted the hair from her nape and kissed the side of her neck. “You smell of strawberries.” He let her hair drop, and it swished against her bare back, making her shiver.
“You wear silk boxer shorts.” She pointed at them and giggled with a little sniffle at the end, feeling better by the moment as the heavy mood in the room dispersed with each caress from Aiden’s fingers.
“What’s wrong with boxers?”
She giggled again. “Nothing. But black silk boxers?”
Steffan snorted and smiled too, and she wanted to lick the twin indents of his dimples—two blinking beacons of softness in a sea of harsh features and strong lines.
“You can snort all you want, big fella, you’re wearing plain old boxer briefs.”
Steffan pushed them down his thick thighs with his thumbs and shrugged. “Not anymore.”
Mia took in all of him and swallowed. Holy crap, the guy was huge. Half-hard, his cock hung heavy along his thigh. She ought to have been offended he wasn’t fully at attention, but she doubted the detour into scar territory had helped the matter.
His eyes tracked hers, and a small twitch of his lips told her he wasn’t immune to pride in her delight at what he possessed down there. She almost rolled her eyes. Men, whether human or dragon, some things never changed.
In front of her gaze, he began to harden, and she refused to look away. Movement to her side took her by surprise as Aiden reached past her to grab Steffan around the back of his neck with one hand and pull him in for a kiss.
The two men’s mouths met in a hard, punishing kiss, their tongues immediately finding one another and their teeth clacking as they fought for dominance. A rush of moisture gathered between her thighs at the gorgeous sight. They were both so big and strong, and neither seemed willing to give any quarter.
Steffan moved to the bed and grabbed on to Aiden’s face, holding the other man steady as he plundered his mouth. He tore his lips away after another long, hard kiss and turned pure gold eyes on her.
She had the urge to run again for a moment, only this time, for real, not pretend as before.
He beckoned her to them with one crooked finger, and she moved to their side. His arms pulled her into them, and blessed warmth surrounded her as two hard male bodies pressed in on her from both sides. Steffan took her mouth in a demanding kiss, but one much less forceful than he’d shared with Aiden. For which she felt grateful as it nearly brought her to her knees.
Aiden kissed her left shoulder and down her arm to her elbow and back up again. He licked along her shoulder to the juncture of her neck and blew warm breath over her cooling, wet skin.
Her whole body responded to their touch, and her nipples hardened painfully. The sensitive flesh between her legs throbbed and ached, and she squirmed for relief.
“I think our girl needs some help,” Aiden murmured low and sinful in her ear.
She nodded and gave a small moan in answer. Yes, she did need help. They’d barely touched her, and she’d never been so turned on in her whole life.
But she wanted to touch as much as to be touched, so she ran her fingers tentatively over both men’s chests, savoring the different feel of them.
Aiden’s pecs were meaty, giving way to a strong six-pack, whereas Steffan was pure hardness. His massive chest tapered to a narrow waist and two of the most impressive side muscles she’d ever seen. What did you even call those things? Those gorgeous slabs of muscle either side of a man’s waist, pointing right to his groin? She had no clue; all she knew was they made women crazy. She wanted to lick them.
As her fingers trailed over their bodies, she noted their reactions. Aiden shivered and his flat brown nipples pebbled. Steffan simply followed her progress with hooded eyes, but his ridiculously big erection twitched against his belly.
“I want to taste you both. Come closer.” Oh, Lord. She’d entered some sort of alternate universe where she’d become a porn star for the night. She’d spent many a lonely evening with only her vibrator and sexy internet sites for company, and she’d seen a few images and videos of a woman giving two men oral at the same time. She suddenly wanted to try it. More than anything.
Nervous, but giddy with excitement too, she shuffled close to them both. They knelt in front of her, on their knees with their cocks right in front of her face. Aiden’s was as golden and beautiful as the rest of him and the perfect size too. Not too long, not too thick, not too small, like a Goldilocks dick or something. The guy looked airbrushed.
Steffan flat out intimidated her due to his size, more his girth than his length. She wrapped her hands around him, and yep, her fingers didn’t meet. She had to swallow back an inappropriate joke about him having a third limb between his legs.
Tentative and a little unsure, she looked at them both and saw nothing but desire reflected back at her. She leaned in and blew air over Steffan’s swollen tip and was rewarded with a pulse of precome leaking out of the slit.
“Tease.” The word snarled out on a grunt, but his eyes were warm and crinkled slightly at the edges in the hint of a smile.
Not wanting to leave Aiden out, she turned to him and, feeling a little bolder, leaned in and licked a long stripe up his shaft, swirling her tongue around his head. When she wrapped her lips around him and sucked him into her mouth, she moaned at the taste of him.
“Gods.” The groaned exclamation didn’t come from Aiden but from Steffan, and when she dragged her eyes to his, he was watching her suck Aiden with a hooded gaze. “Move your hand, baby. I’m dying here.”
She did as he asked and moved her hand up and down his silken shaft, giving a little twist at the top as she’d seen in one of her favorite naughty videos.
She built up a tempo with her mouth on Aiden and then switched it up, pulling from him with a pop. Using her hand to keep working him, she turned her attention to Steffan’s monster. She almost sniggered again and wondered if she ought to give it a pet name.
She widened her jaw and took him inside. Fuck, she didn’t dare think about having sex with him; she wouldn’t walk for days after.
“Oh, yeah. Like that.”
She moved her head, bobbing up and down and doing lots of clever swirling with her tongue, and another pulse of precome filled her mouth, making her moan at the delicious taste of him.
Between her thighs, her sex throbbed with need. That turned her on way more than it should. No one was even touching her, and yet, she honestly thought she’d come from a mere ghost of breath across her sensitive folds. Why did this act turn her on so much? Because there were two of them, or something more fundamental? Their taste sent her to heaven. She’d done this before but never been so hot from it. She liked men and liked giving oral sex. It had been…nice. Fun. This…it threatened to blow her mind.
She moaned again around Steffan and clenched her thighs together.
“Fuck, it’s so strong.” Aiden spoke to Steffan, and she looked at them, pausing in her rhythm, not sure what he meant.
“No shit.” Steffan nodded.
“Here, baby. Lie down,” Steffan instructed. “I wanna taste you now.”
Oh, boy. She did as told and lay back. Steffan grabbed one of the pillows next to her and placed it under her bottom, lifting her. For a moment, he simply stared at her folds.
“Beautiful. You’re as gorgeous here as the rest of you.” He slid one long, thick finger through her cleft, swirling the moisture there around and parting her, opening her.
Then he lowered his head, and she yelped when his tongue touched the exquisitely tender flesh either side of her clit. He hummed, a soft, low sound deep in his throat that vibrated through his lips and into her flesh.
“I need a taste, too.” Aiden grabbed Steffan’s hand, the one he’d used on her moments ago, and sucked two fingers into his mouth.
Holy fuck! Her mind short-circuited at the sight, and her brain went offline. She would come embarrassingly quickly, if only Steffan used his tongue in the right place. But he seemed intent on torturing her. He swirled it around and around her pussy, but he never touched her clit once. Instead, he licked either side, teasing her beyond her ability to take it.
“Steffan.” She grabbed the hair on either side of his head and ground herself into him. Not caring how it looked. Reduced to nothing more than a vessel for her body’s desperate need.
He chuckled against her skin and pulled away. “Why don’t we let Aiden here have a proper taste of you?”
Oh, okay. She could deal with that. And maybe Aiden wouldn’t be such a damn tease.
Aiden crawled between her thighs, almost knocking Steffan out of the way in his drive to get to her, and it became another turn-on.
He kissed the juncture of her thighs, the top of her mound, and Steffan busied himself palming her breasts in his big hands, squeezing them together and brushing his rough thumbs over her aching nipples.
“You’ve got the most gorgeous tits I’ve ever seen.”
Aiden looked up for a moment before dipping his head back down and resuming his exploration of her most secret place.
When he finally reached her center, he didn’t tease as Steffan had but instead flicked his rigid tongue across her clit, making her cry out and arch her back. He pushed one finger inside her as he carried on licking at her, and she pushed herself onto his face and hand shamelessly.
Steffan straddled her head, legs either side of the pillow, and lifted her head gently. He piled another pillow under her and gave her a wicked grin as he pushed his cock toward her mouth. He raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to give him a sign. She did one better and lifted her head to take him into her mouth.
Soon the sounds and scents of hot sex filled the air. She moaned and whimpered around Steffan as Aiden moved his fingers quicker inside her. The sound of her frankly soaking pussy as he plowed into her revved her up all the more. She had an inkling Aiden had been with a lot of women. He knew his stuff and did things to her with his fingers no man had done before.
Steffan groaned and pulled out of her mouth. “I’m going to come.”
She wanted him to come right down her throat, so she held him in place firmly, sucking him deeper still, her hand gliding over the half of him she couldn’t take.
“Oh, fuck.” He stilled and pulsed into her mouth, filling her with hot seed, and she swallowed him. Every last drop. The taste of him set her off, and no sooner had he pulled out of her mouth than she threw her head back and cried out as she came, convulsing around Aiden’s wicked fingers.
When it ended, she simply lay there for a moment, useless and boneless. But more desire washed over her, and she needed to feel them against her. She pulled Steffan to her and they kissed. And as they did, she rubbed herself against him like some sort of damn cat. Aiden crawled up her body and took Steffan’s mouth from her, using his fingers to grip the other man’s jaw and pull him around to face him. They kissed hard and desperately, and Aiden tangled his fingers into Steffan’s hair.
“Want you to fuck me so bad,” he whispered.
Oh, yes, she’d love to see that.
“Me too,” Steffan said. “But we can’t.”
Why couldn’t they? She was about to ask, when Steffan stopped her train of thought by pushing Aiden onto his back on the bed and taking hold of his straining cock. He brought it to his mouth and swallowed Aiden, taking him deep. Yikes, she’d never be able to do that.
Aiden’s hands flailed next to him and slammed hard on top of the mattress. “Holy shit.” He yelped the words.
Not wanting to be left out, she crawled over to them and kissed Aiden’s stomach, licking at the rock-hard flesh covering his six-pack and down his side to his hip, where she gave a small nip.
She possessed a bit of a weird kink for being bitten. Not that she’d experienced it much, but she’d played around with it in her relationship with the German backpacker. She liked the sharp sting of pleasure/pain and the tiny mark it left that only she knew the reason for. She knew it would mean so much more with these guys. For her to carry their mark on her skin after they’d messed around would give her a thrill like no other. If only it could be permanent. What? Wait. Where the heck had such an aberrant thought come from? She didn’t want permanent marking, as if she belonged to them or something. Did she?
On a deep, physical level, she possibly did. Panic sliced into her at the thought. No way. This was only a fling. A night of fun before she went and spent some time with her sister, with maybe the opportunity to hook up again in the future.
She didn’t do anything more than flings. Didn’t let people in because she didn’t damn well fit anywhere. All her life, she’d been a square peg trying to squeeze itself into a round hole, and in the end, she’d decided to give up trying. Why change now? She’d rather be true to herself and alone, than living a lie surrounded by people. And while this might be fun, and she found these guys hotter than the surface of the sun, she didn’t need to go getting all deep about it. These might be her people, but she hadn’t grown up with them, didn’t know anything about their way of life. She may find herself as much on the outside here as she’d been in the human world.
The thought saddened her for a moment, so she pushed it away. The sights and sounds in front of her brought her slap-bang into the reality of the moment, and she shook her worries off, not wanting to ruin this.
“Stop.” Aiden panted the word and grabbed Steffan’s head. “Stop, I want to come on Mia.”
He turned those green eyes to her. “Can I, babe? Can I come on those beautiful tits?”
Oh, crap. The idea made her squirm with excitement. Yes, yes, he damn well could.
She nodded, and he pulled himself up until he knelt over her and took himself in hand, his big fist wrapped tightly around his erection. Aiden didn’t stroke himself slowly or gently. Instead, he tugged at himself hard and fast, and she filed it away in her brain to remember how he liked it. Just in case she got to do this again.
His eyes fluttered closed, and his lips tightened into a straight line. He gave a grunt, and a big arc of come shot over her breasts. He opened his eyes and watched hungrily as two more spurts splattered over her. A final, long stream of come dribbled out of him and ran down his cock, and Steffan shocked the shit out of her by trailing a finger along Aiden’s still throbbing dick and gathering it up to suck into his mouth.
She might have only come a few minutes ago, but already she was more turned on again than any other time in her life. The two guys flopped either side of her and wrapped arms and legs around her and around one another, but she couldn’t keep still. She squirmed against them, doing her damn cat impression again. As if she were a feline and these two men were made of catnip. She’d clearly gone out of her mind with lust.
Their big, warm arms cocooned her in a shell of utter safety, and their breathing matched her own. Wow, she’d pay good money for this sort of experience. It felt like a form of physical therapy. A golden moment where only their breath, their warm skin, and the soft covers beneath them existed. But still, despite all the Zen she’d got going on, she couldn’t dampen the fire building in her yet again. She needed something…more to quench it.
“I want you to fuck me. One of you. Or both of you. Take it in turns.” There, she’d put it out there, no shame in being a confident woman who went after what she wanted.
Steffan shook his head and sighed, long and deep. “We can’t, angel.”
“Oh.” Didn’t she feel stupid now? Her face burned with the rejection.
“Hey.” Aiden placed one long finger under her jaw and turned her to face him. “He said can’t, not don’t want to.”
“Why can’t we?” She swore she’d explode if they didn’t take care of her and make love to her.
“It’s too far…too much.” Steffan kissed her ear. “We’re dragon shifters. We bond hard and fast if we let ourselves go the whole way.”
“Yeah, and we don’t want to end up tied into something here we can’t get out of.” Aiden sounded as if he half wanted to convince himself. “I mean, you don’t know anything about us or our way of life yet. You might not want to stay within a dragon clan when you do. I go on lots of digs, and Steffan here… Sorry, dude, but you’re hardly mate material with the way you’ve shut yourself off from all society, holed up in this cave for centuries.”
Steffan flinched. A brief, almost minuscule tightening of his lips and jaw. A small nerve ticked under his right eye, but he merely nodded and climbed off the bed. “I’m going to take a shower.”
The moment he’d left the room, she punched Aiden in the upper arm.
“Ow. Hey, what the fuck?”
“How could you say such a horrid thing?”
He considered her for a long beat, his green eyes carefully neutral as he watched her. “I didn’t say anything that isn’t true. I said it about us too.”
“No. No, you didn’t. Not in the same way.”
Her heart ached for the fleeting pain she’d witnessed flash across Steffan’s face.
“Look, sweetheart. This has been about having a bit of fun. No way can it be anything more, so don’t go getting yourself all hung up on the big guy. He’s messed up. You saw the scar on his leg. It’s physically eating away at him. And there’s other stuff eating away at him emotionally. He’s in no place to bond with us or make a commitment to us, even if we wanted him to. And you’re Havsa, so no way can you and I be anything more than this.”
“Havsa? I thought I was one of you…a dragon.”
He shook his head. “You’re a dragon, all right, but you’re not one of us.”
What? Her heart started to pound. “But, I thought you brought me here to meet my people. Those were your words.” Her voice rose.
“We did. You are our people, but you’re also not. You’re of our kind but not of our clan… In fact, you’re sort of our enemy.” He sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “Look, sweetcheeks, it isn’t my place to tell you this. Ask your sister and Nathan tomorrow. They’ll fill you in.”
Anger burst within her, bright and acrid. “Sweetcheeks? Fuck you, you arrogant shit!”
Aiden winced but didn’t say anything.
“Get out.”
He laughed then. “It’s not your house. You can’t throw me out.”
“No. But I can.” Steffan stood in the doorway, a towel wrapped around his waist, but skin dry. He must have overheard some of their conversation. “Fuck off, Aiden. Go home.”
“No. I need to stay. We need to make sure Mia is safe until Nathan and company get here tomorrow.”
Steffan laughed low and so pissed off. The sound clanged jarringly against the walls, the bitter edge magnified by the stone. “I don’t need you, thanks. I can take care of Mia more than ably on my own. I’m much more powerful than you. Your help isn’t needed.”
“But…” Aiden trailed off, and Steffan walked into the room, grabbing jeans and a shirt from the floor as he did. “Take your fucking clothes, and go.”
He roared the final word, and Mia shrank back against the headboard. Aiden paled and snapped his mouth shut. He nodded once and began to pull his clothes on.
Well, this was awkward. What a horrible shitshow their night of fun had turned into, and to top it off, she guessed any moment now she’d cry. And she hardly ever cried. Even when depressed, she tended to stew rather than let it all out. But damn it, twice in one night? These men were bad for her emotional equilibrium. She’d believed she’d be coming to meet her kin, and instead, she’d been brought to a clan where people hated her? And no one had bothered to tell her. What about Kate’s seeming friendship? Had it been faked? She wanted to go home, but she needed to stay and see her sister.
The moment Aiden finished getting dressed, he turned around and shook his head at them. “You’re both idiots. I can tell you’re letting your feelings get in the way, and that’s stupid. We can’t let it happen, okay? I’m the good guy here, and you’ll realize it when you get your heads out of your asses.”
He strode from the room without turning to look at them. Steffan muttered a curse under his breath and stalked after him. Two minutes later, he reappeared. “Had to let him out the damn doors.”
She rubbed at her eyes, tired suddenly.
“Don’t let him get to you.”
“It’s not…or at least, not only him. He says I’m not one of you. The whole come meet your people speech is a lie.”
“Angel.” He held her gaze, and his eyes went from cold, hard steel to warm, molten gold as they watched one another.
She forgot her troubles for a moment, fascinated by the light show going on in Steffan’s face. “Why do your eyes change color so dramatically?”
He shrugged. “It’s a part of me, is all. It’s damned annoying at times, as it lets people know what I’m thinking.”
She nodded but said nothing more. Her face twisted, and she glanced around the room, her discomfort clear, the mood well and truly broken. “I ought to go to bed. Did you call Nathan?” She turned away, and he let her have the space she clearly needed.
*****
Damn him. With everything going on, he hadn’t called Nathan. Steffan pinched the bridge of his nose. His head banged. Dragons rarely suffered with headaches, but after the stress of the evening, it didn’t shock him.
He’d nearly walked away from the whole thing when Mia had seen his leg, and now, given Aiden’s unforgivable meltdown, he bloody wished he had. Furthermore, he worried he already felt far too much for both of them. Despite being fuming mad at Aiden, he still wanted the other male. And he cared about him. Something about Aiden niggled at him. Worried him. The young male behaved so at odds for a dragon of his age. For himself, all battle-scarred and having suffered so much loss in life, wanting to shut himself off didn’t come as a surprise. But why did Aiden back away from any sort of commitment? He should be bonded to another male and searching for a female mate, not living all alone and running away to scrabble around in the mud with humans.
As for Mia, gods help him, but he wanted to keep her here with him. To protect her. He knew it was idiotic; Nathan, Claire, and Dom were more than capable of protecting her, and she didn’t face any threat at the Scottish clan anyhow. But he couldn’t deny the deep biological urge to keep her here with him. They never should have for a moment believed they could play with a bond so strong.
“I’m going to grab my shower and call Nathan. Make yourself comfortable. You take my bed, I’ll take the couch.”
He gave her a kiss on the forehead, about the only place he dared let himself kiss her, and walked into the bathroom. After a quick shower, he threw on some sweat pants and padded as quietly as possible through the bedroom, shooting a glance at Mia, who seemed asleep, and on into the lounge where he picked up his phone and dialed Nathan.
“Steffan.” The other male’s voice resonated down the line. “Is she okay there with you guys? I take it the clan are behaving themselves?”
“Yes, of course. There’s no threat here now that Ellie is gone.”
Nathan’s mate had been horribly attacked by two of the Welsh clan, so he didn’t blame the other dragon for being wary. But none of the others would behave in such a way. Robert had laid down the law good and proper. It had been one of the few times Steffan had seen their leader truly fired up.
“I know. But I’m glad you’re with her. To be honest, if you weren’t around, I’d have told Robert to leave it and we’d have come for her, despite it probably causing renewed tensions between our two groups. It’s only because you’re there that I trust her safety.”
Steffan had to tell him. Oh, gods, he didn’t want to because he had no clue how Nathan would react, but he didn’t want to lie to his friend. He braced himself for anger as he spoke.
“There’s something you need to know. I was sent to fetch Mia with another male from here called Aiden. He and I… We’re a good bonded match. Okay, we’re an excellent bonded match, but seeing as neither of us wants to be bonded, or wants a mate, it’s irrelevant.”
“Go on.” Nathan’s tone turned serious, hard.
“Or at least, it was irrelevant, until we met Mia. Nathan, she’s a perfect match for us. Couldn’t be more so.”
“Fuck.”
“Yes. Precisely.”
There lingered a long beat of silence down the other end of the phone, and he wanted Nathan to say something, anything.
“You can’t help it if you match.” Finally, the other male spoke.
So, not pissed, but clearly about to tell him to ignore his feelings. Yeah, Steffan couldn’t help matching, Nathan was right, but he ought to be able to control how he responded to the match. The unspoken words hung heavy in the air, and he waited for Nathan to say it outright.
“Why don’t you mate her?”
Steffan sucked in air. What the fuck? Not what he’d been expecting. “Because she doesn’t fully know our way of life or what she is. She has a life of her own, and it isn’t here. And Aiden doesn’t want to take a mate, and neither do I.”
“Why not?”
Steffan paced as they talked, his long legs eating up the space while he strode back and forth. “You know why. I have something I’ve got to do.”
Nathan snorted. “You’ve been supposedly doing that something for centuries.”
He growled in the back of his throat. How dare Nathan mock his need for revenge? “I’ve been trying.”
“Yeah, but it isn’t easy to fight an enemy who isn’t there. We don’t even know if Rhyndor is alive. And if he is, he may not be the dragon you think he is—not anymore. You’ve heard the stories, how those who claim they’ve seen him say he refuses to fight, is beaten down and ruined by life. He’s either dead, or he’s a living wreck. You’re wasting away, wasting your life. For what? A revenge you may never get. How many more centuries are you willing to throw away? Do you think your mates would have wanted this for you? Because I don’t, and I knew them well.”
Steffan bit back his angry response and tried to hold on to his temper. “I’m not even going there with you. But let’s say I did decide to stop trying to avenge my mates. It doesn’t change anything. Aiden doesn’t want to bond. I can’t take a mate as a single male, and Mia is still a total stranger to our ways.”
His friend laughed. “Yeah, right, and Claire understood everything about our ways when we met her. When she was a tough cage fighter and called herself Ice. She knew it all, didn’t she? Do you think it stopped me? I got Dom down to the city, and we did everything in our power to make her ours. Mate matches are rare—you know this. And you say it is a strong one? If it’s anything as strong as ours, then you’re looking at a one-in-a-million chance. Don’t waste it.”
Steffan didn’t know what to say. “I’ve got to be honest, I didn’t think the call would go this way, friend. She’s your mate’s sister. I imagined she’d be off-limits, and you’d be royally pissed.”
“Any other male, any other male in the world, and you’d be correct. I’d be on my way there right now. But you…fuck, Steffan, you’re the best male I know, besides Dom. You’re stronger than me. You’re intelligent. You’re one of the best of our kind, and you match my mate’s sister. Don’t you think I want the very best for her? And she’s going to find it hard to adapt. She won’t fit into the human world as she matures, you know as much. She’ll find her magic becomes stronger, and she’ll need to know how to use it. She will be a stranger both in our world and in her old way of life. Lonely as fuck place to be, if you ask me. But with a mate, she’ll be so much more secure and safe…in herself, as well as in the eyes of our society. And males everywhere will want her. A young female, as beautiful as she is? Gods, there’ll be all sorts after her, none of whom I’d be happy to see her with.”
Steffan had no words. For a moment, he allowed himself the fantasy. The idea of taking the gorgeous female and making her his, with the blessing of her sister and his friend.
“Wait, you’re saying all this, but what will Claire think about it?”
“I’ll speak with her, but I have no doubt she’ll be happy once I tell her what a truly great male you are. Of course, there’s the matter of me not knowing this other fellow, this Aiden, but I presume if you say you bond, then you think he’s a decent dragon? I imagine you wouldn’t even bother mentioning it if he weren’t worthy.”
Aiden. The young male’s features popped into his mind: cocky, brash, but with a sadness behind those green eyes Steffan had only just recognized. “I think he’s an honorable male deep down, but he does have some issues. And all of this is irrelevant, as he doesn’t wish to be bonded or mated.”
Nathan laughed, and it boomed down the phone. Steffan had to smile as he imagined his friend, head thrown back, guffawing it up at whatever the hell struck his funny bone so hard.
“I’m glad I amuse you, although I’m not sure why.”
“Because, Steffan, if you want him and you are a great match, I doubt he’ll be able to resist for long, whatever his views on settling down. And if Mia is a perfect mate match for the pair of you, then he’s done for. Biology is a bitch, and she always wins.”
He had no answer. But still…his leg. He knew Nathan was aware of his injury, but he doubted the other dragon understood how much it plagued him these days. He recalled Rhiannon’s words about him needing something to live for, and a diamond-bright chunk of hope blossomed in his heart. Could Mia and Aiden be the thing he needed to beat the poison? He’d go and speak with the healer in the morning, before the guys arrived from Scotland.
“What time can we expect you tomorrow?”
“Oh…not sure we can make it tomorrow, now.” Nathan’s tone told him the other dragon must be smiling…or smirking, the bloody bastard.
“Ha-ha, very funny. What time?”
“No. I’m serious, I’ve remembered a very important meeting. I’ll talk to Claire, of course, but I’m sure we won’t be able to get there for a week or so.”
“She’s in Welsh clan territory, Nathan. She’s Havsa. Really?”
“And who is going to challenge you? Of course, you won’t be able to let her out of your sight. Either you, or this other male, will need to stay with her at all times. Yes, you’ll need to stick very close.”
Fuck. He ought to tell Nathan he wasn’t as strong as he had been. But even with the insidious poison resurrecting its vile power within him these last decades, he’d still win outright against any dragon in the clan. Only someone like Nathan could probably beat him now. But he’d have to make sure Mia stuck to him and Aiden like glue. Which, of course, was Nathan’s plan all along.
Part of him vibrated with excitement at the prospect—an emotion so alien he hardly knew what to do with it. The other part of him wanted to change form, fly to Scotland, and rip Nathan’s smug head right the fuck off his neck for dropping him into this mess. Shit. What should he do?
“Friend.” Nathan’s tone turned serious. “Give it a day or two, and then call me. You don’t want to do this, or she doesn’t want it, or this Aiden person is set on not wanting a mate, we’ll come get her. But…I’ve been worried sick about what might happen to her. And I never in a million years thought you’d match with her. What are the fucking odds? But now that you have, I’m relieved as fuck. So, give it a chance. For me. I know this is another favor I’m asking of you, but please. If we find more of Claire’s siblings, I’m going to have my hands full trying to integrate them into dragon life. This way, Mia will be safe and cared for in a manner I’d honestly never even hoped for. I’ve got the female in the US being watched right now by two clan healers. Turns out she’s dragon? That’s another one we’ll most likely be bringing here.”
Steffan clenched his fists and threw his head back, eyes on the ceiling. For a moment, his brain whirred and whizzed, computing all the ways for this to crash and burn. But his body thrummed with the desire to say yes, yes, yes. Fuck it. He’d never forgive himself if he didn’t at least give this a day or two.
“Two days. That’s it. In two days, I’m calling you, okay?”
“Deal. Now go and look after Mia, and sort your Aiden fellow out tomorrow. Maybe he needs sorting out, you know, with some good old-fashioned discipline?” With a chuckle, Nathan hung up on those final words, without saying good-bye.
He’d kill the fucker, really and truly, he would. But now…now, he needed to go tell Mia her sister wouldn’t be coming for a day or two.
He headed into the bedroom and stopped short at the sight in front of him. Mia had curled into a tiny ball under the covers. Her arms were out of the sheets, and her hands were in tight fists under her chin as she breathed deeply. The sight punched him hard in the gut. She looked so vulnerable and peaceful at the same time.
She stirred and blinked open one eye, then the other. “Hey.”
The redness around her eyes told him she’d been crying. She’d be feeling messed up to hell, poor kid. Only in her twenties, no age for a dragon, she’d have no idea how to deal with the maelstrom of emotions and hormones whirling around in her. And she’d been dragged out of the only life she’d ever known and brought here, somewhere alien and new, only to find, even here, she didn’t quite fit. But she did belong somewhere, didn’t she? She fit him.
“Hey. So…I’ve got a bit of bad news.” He brushed a strand of her gorgeous dark hair from her forehead. “Claire and her mates can’t get here tomorrow. It’ll be the day after, probably.” A small white lie, but he figured she’d probably be skittish over the idea of any longer.
“Oh.” He sensed her immediate disappointment, but something else churned underneath, emerging as the seconds ticked by. Something like hope, his senses told him.
“We should sleep now. Tomorrow, I need to go and talk with Rhiannon, and I also need to have a good long chat with Aiden.”
Her face crumpled at the other dragon’s name. “I sensed he didn’t like me, you know. Right from the get-go, but after everything we did tonight, I thought I’d got it wrong. But I didn’t, did I? He doesn’t like me, not one bit.”
“Angel, he more than likes you.” Something snuck up on him then, an understanding of Aiden’s behavior based on his centuries of experience. “In fact, I think you’ll find it’s exactly how much he likes you…and me, which has him so riled up and angry. You’re probably reeling from it all a bit, too. I mean, your human culture, it doesn’t do the whole bonding at first scent thing.”
“I’m so freaked out by everything, it’s not even funny, but I know when I’m with you both, I feel …right, somehow. You scare me some, but I still feel right with you.”
She’d have caused less pain if she’d slapped him, because her words hit him full force. “You’re scared of me?”
He didn’t want her to feel that way about him. It hurt his heart.
“A little. You’re so…I don’t know, you’ve got this aura. This potency. It’s more than a little intimidating.”
He didn’t even bother trying to deny it. He wasn’t bigheaded, but he did have an awful lot compared to most. He’d lived for so long and seen and done so much. He’d earned his strength and wouldn’t deny it. But she’d got it all wrong.
“Move over.” He indicated for her to scoot up under the covers, and she did.
Steffan got in next to her, but he didn’t get under the covers. He lay beside her, on top of the sheets but with his arm around her, pulling her into him.
“You’re right. I am very…potent, for want of a better word, and your dragon side senses it. I’m not going to deny it or sugarcoat it, it’s a simple fact of our existence that some of us possess much greater power than others. But, angel, there’s no need for you to fear it. Even if I wanted to, even if I were an utter bastard, I’d never use this force against you. Never. You’re my mate match. Do you know what this means?”
She shook her head.
“To us, it means everything. It’s rare and it’s awesome. I’m not saying every single relationship between dragons is perfect because, of course, that would be bullshit. But often, if there are problems, it is because males and females who aren’t true matches mate because they want a relationship. So their scent might not be the perfect combination. Their hormone profile is a little off. When they are together, their hearts aren’t quite in sync. Of course, many dragons can make this work because they do what humans do—they fall in love, they put effort into it. But other times, they can’t or don’t make it work. Those times things can fall apart and get ugly.”
He paused, then dropped an impossible to resist kiss to the back of her head, inhaling the faint strawberry scent of what he guessed must be her shampoo. “So, yes, we have issues the same way humans do. But when a match is perfect, strong, those issues don’t occur. It’s like building a house from the strongest foundations imaginable. Your heart rate syncs with mine perfectly, as does Aiden’s when he’s with us. Our scent profiles and our hormonal profiles are off the charts with how brilliantly they complement one another. In a weird sense, it’s as if you’re a part of me. I don’t know how else to explain it. I could never physically harm you. No matter how angry I get or what you did, I’d never use all this strength you sense against you. This power. This thing about me which scares you…it’s for you.”
She turned to him, her eyes wide. “For me?”
“Everything I am and have is for you now that I’ve found you. If you want it. It’s the way of our kind.”
Shit, talk about putting it out there. His heart sped up as she stared at him for a moment, blinking her big eyes slowly.
“Do you want it?” She bit her lip.
Wow, talk about the million-dollar question. He’d known her mere days, hours even, but yes, he wanted her. He’d tried his damned hardest to deny it at first. Told himself he didn’t want anything to do with her, and anyway, he couldn’t take a mate, but he did desire her. More than desired her, wanted and needed her around him like he needed air. The idea of her leaving him, of not having her scent around, physically stung if he let himself fully imagine it. He had not been letting his mind go there, skimming over the fact of her leaving. But when he examined it, he knew it would half kill him to see her walk away. Nathan’s words had merely opened the floodgates that were already bursting at the seams.
“I want it, angel. But you need to know something. I have things I need to do in this life, and even with you and Aiden by my side, if this works out, I’ll still need to do those things. And I won’t take the next step in this until you know what you want. Because once we go there, there’s no turning back for any of us. You need to be certain. Otherwise, it will get a whole lot messy between us all. Aiden, too. Because once you say yes to this, you’re mine. And I don’t let go of what’s mine. Do you understand?”
Those wide, amazing blue, green, and gold eyes blinked at him twice, and she bit her lip as she nodded.
He pressed a chaste kiss to her full lips and smiled at her. “You don’t need to make any decisions now. We’ve got some time before your sister can get here. Let’s enjoy it. I’ll show you how we dragons live. Now, go to sleep. You must be exhausted.”
She nodded once more, then reached over and kissed his cheek, which flipped his heart in his chest. With a yawn, she turned away and curled back up in her ball. He wrapped himself around her and held her as her breathing evened out, and she fell asleep in his arms.