Mia had taken a long bath to soak her ankle and to try to stop the crazy churning emotions running riot in her body. Aiden made a meal of some sort in Steffan’s kitchen. He’d been quiet and subdued since she’d gone over on her ankle.
The bath only partly worked. Every bit of her burned for more time with the two men who drove her crazy. She wanted to do what they did last night all over again. It might be her last chance. Once her sister came for her, she’d leave this place. Leave Steffan and Aiden. The fact caused her to gasp and bend over as something akin to grief washed over her.
What the hell was happening to her? This made no sense. She’d known them a few days, for God’s sake. Oh, she’d chatted to Steffan about it. She’d also talked to Kate after Aiden left her with the other female for twenty minutes to have her leg patched up. He hadn’t left the house, but he had taken himself off to another room to take a long phone call.
She’d found out much more about her heritage from Kate, who’d threatened bodily harm to Aiden if he upset her again. She had learned she’d been part of a warlike clan who’d done immense harm to the Welsh dragons. In response, the Welsh clan had taken terrible revenge and wiped her people out. Only she and her siblings survived. They believed there were six of them in total, and they’d been secretly adopted to hide their identity from anyone wanting to murder them, too. Her brain ached when she tried to get her head around all she’d learned.
Then Kate had explained the mating bond and how strong it grew to be. Added to the small amount of information Steffan had told her the previous evening, Kate’s words confirmed Mia, Aiden, and Steffan were somehow meant to be together. A beautiful biological miracle. But it went against everything she’d learned growing up. Love supposedly grew over time. Yes, people fell in love quickly, but that usually meant within months, not days. And she understood the idea of instalust, but this proved deeper. She wouldn’t call it love, not yet. After all, it didn’t feel deep and endless like the emotions she’d held for her mum. But it was strong. It caused her to want to build on this foundation of lust and addiction to these two men and create something more permanent.
If Steffan and Kate were right, the biological building blocks they possessed meant, with time, they’d become a deeply committed triad. She’d belong. To the two men, to this community. The idea thrilled her, enticed her, but also scared her. What about her life back home? She loved her art, and she’d miss the sea. The views here were spectacular, but she wanted to clamber out of the mountains and see what lay beyond the steep peaks. Here, nestled away from the world, claustrophobia stalked her. The wide-open expanse of sea relaxed her. She’d miss her home terribly.
She’d dressed in casual clothes, towel-dried her hair, and now wondered what the hell to do about the mess she found herself in.
A commotion in the main part of the house snagged her attention.
She walked out of the bedroom and along the long corridor to see Steffan enter the living space, two sheepdogs at his side. Marlow ran into the room, and the three dogs sniffed at one another. For a few long moments, they circled one another warily, then one of the sheepdogs gave a high-pitched yip, and all three ran down the other corridor, tails wagging.
“Mia. Steffan.” Aiden sauntered into the room from the direction of the kitchen, looking absolutely delicious.
His hair stuck in odd directions, and his face held a light smattering of stubble. The whole deliciously rumpled thing he’d got going on made her want to eat him up.
“What’s for dinner?” she asked, trying to distract herself from climbing all over him.
“Chicken in a pot.” Aiden laughed as he answered. “Most things I make are in a pot.”
“You said there might be a sort of gathering with the other villagers, didn’t you?” she asked.
Steffan nodded. “Yeah, but Robert’s not sure. He says you’re welcome, Mia, but he’s not sure a gathering and feast would be a good idea when there are still Dragonea who lost their families to the Havsa. I’m sorry.”
“What? Why didn’t you fucking challenge him?” Aiden blew up in that way of his, and Mia rolled her eyes.
Steffan snorted and cocked his head to one side, regarding Aiden with something akin to boredom.
“Why would I? Mia is leaving us in a day or so. She won’t see anyone from this clan again.”
Mia swallowed thickly and blinked back tears at Steffan’s indifferent words. So, he didn’t give a shit? His talk earlier meant nothing?
“Well, I mean, yeah, maybe. But she’s still—”
“She’s still what?” Steffan raised his arms then dropped them by his thighs with a slap against his denim-covered muscles. “What is she? A friend? A quick bit of fun in the sack?”
“Don’t fucking talk about her in such a way. She’s standing right here!” Aiden’s nostrils flared.
Mia didn’t get what the fuck was going on, but she didn’t like it one bit.
“Why not? I ask you again, why not? She’s nothing to us, right? And we’re nothing to one another.” Steffan’s voice had risen, and her arms goose bumped in response to his anger and the way the air fairly crackled with electricity. “We’re going to fuck around a bit tonight, have some fun, and all walk away from this. No harm done, yeah? We won’t see her again. And you and I will go back to giving one another a nod and hello if we pass on occasion.”
“No. I mean…yeah, but…” Aiden scrubbed at his jaw. “Maybe we can all see one another sometimes. You know, meet and have some more fun.” He attempted a weak smile.
That had been her plan, before she’d realized how deep her feelings went already after only days with these guys. She now believed if they didn’t at least attempt to forge some sort of relationship, she’d need to walk away to protect her heart.
“Doesn’t work like that.” Steffan pointed a finger at Aiden, almost poking him in the chest. “You know what’s happening here. You’re scared of it, is all.”
“Oh, so you suddenly want this? From being some sad, freaky, cave-dwelling loner to mate material in, like, three days. How does that work?”
Aiden’s harsh laugh got cut off as Steffan pushed into him and hauled him up by the front of his T-shirt. Aiden sneered, and the two men faced off.
“No!” She drew herself to her full height and faced Steffan head on. His cold, silver eyes scared her, but she didn’t believe he’d harm her in any way. Aiden, she wasn’t so sure about. As far as she knew from the little she’d learned, males bonded and then found a mate. Their mate, if the match was a true biological one, became someone they needed to cherish and protect. She’d been told the males also had extremely strong feelings for one another, but she wasn’t sure about the whole cherish-and-protect thing. Maybe between two men—males, she needed to remember that—things were more…volatile.
“Do you see this?” Steffan shook his head. “Your female is protecting you. Pathetic.”
Aiden pushed his way around her and got right up in Steffan’s face.
“You’re so fucking insufferable.”
“And you’re a scared little boy who can’t see what’s in front of his face.”
“Christ, I don’t know if I want to fucking hit you or…”
“What? What else do you want to do?”
And Aiden grabbed the other male and pulled him in by fisting his hands into his thick, dark hair as his mouth smashed into Steffan’s.
Crikey! Life with these two might prove to be too hot to handle, even if she did want it. They were a combustible pair for sure.
Steffan broke the kiss and pushed Aiden to his knees. “Why don’t you show me?”
Aiden looked up, and she swore she saw a battle raging in his eyes. His teeth gritted and his warm face turned hard, but he undid Steffan’s fly. Mia tried her best not to get turned on, because this moment needed to be all about these two men and their strange internal battles. But when Aiden pulled Steffan’s already hard dick out, she almost gave a whimper. So sue her, but she liked watching.
“Fuck, yes,” Steffan groaned when Aiden’s mouth wrapped around him.
After a few moments, he pulled Aiden to his feet, and they were kissing once more as Steffan fiddled with Aiden’s fly.
Steffan turned to her, and she gave a squeak of surprise, for his eyes glowed yellow in his face.
“Come on.” He grabbed her hand in his and took Aiden by his T-shirt again and dragged them both down the corridor to the bedroom.
Her knees hit the bed as he pushed them both in front of him. His gaze flicked from one to the other.
“Christ, you’ll both be the death of me.”
Then he began to kiss her, and it wasn’t like any of his other kisses. It felt as demanding and harsh as the kisses he’d given Aiden. Steffan claimed her mouth, and in the moment, he owned her.
Hot breath hit the back of her neck, and Aiden kissed her there, lifting her hair at the nape and pushing it over her shoulder to one side to give him better access.
Hands were all over her. Running up her side, over her back and shoulders, down her arms. She didn’t know who touched her where, and all the while, Steffan kissed her. Her mind went blank, a fuse or circuit somewhere in her body well and truly blown. These two men, their scent, their warm bodies so close, and Steffan’s hungry kiss proved too much for her to take in.
She ran her hands under Steffan’s tight Henley top and delighted in the hard play of his muscles under her fingers. His chest broadened out into the slabs of muscles that made up his pecs, and she trailed the tips of her fingers over his small nipples, enjoying the way he broke off from kissing her for a moment to inhale sharply.
Aiden’s heavy erection pressed against her behind, and she pushed back, wiggling and earning herself a heavy groan.
Steffan looked obscene standing there with his hard cock jutting out, the rest of him clothed. She filed the image away to use as part of her fantasy jill-off spank bank.
Aiden nudged her arms from behind, and when she lifted them, he pulled her top over her head, wasting no time in working the clasp of her bra. As soon as it fell to the floor, his big hands palmed her breasts, and she shivered at his touch, letting her head fall back onto his shoulder.
Steffan knelt and kissed her stomach. He planted soft butterfly kisses all over her skin. Then his deft fingers worked the knot tying her loose sweat pants. He slid the warm cotton down her legs, and he kissed all the way down one thigh and up the other. She stepped from the material pooled on the floor. Now in only her panties, she trembled in anticipation once more.
Steffan kissed the cotton of her panties and pressed his mouth to her mound, making her sigh. “Can’t get enough of your taste and smell,” he told her.
He pulled the panties down her legs, and she kicked them off. Aiden’s warm hands were still playing with her breasts, and Steffan kissed between her legs. He didn’t tease today, but instead pushed her thighs apart and dove in with his tongue and mouth licking and suckling her, causing her to cry out. It took her only minutes before she found herself coming hard against his wicked mouth. All the while, Aiden pinched and plucked at her nipples, heightening the sensation.
Then they were all kissing and tumbling onto the bed, the men removing their clothes with haste, and hands roaming everywhere each time they took a momentary break from throwing off a T-shirt or shucking jeans.
They were all beyond rational thought. Part of her screamed they shouldn’t do this, but the rest of her wanted it so bad she didn’t care about the consequences anymore. All her worries about being trapped in this village up in the hills fled, and she existed on a different plane. One where feel and touch and sounds and scents mattered more than thoughts and rational sense.
“I need you both,” Steffan sighed against her hair.
She stilled. How did this work exactly? Two of them, one of her? Did they expect… Oh, she wasn’t sure about that. Hadn’t done much more than have a finger in her ass and wasn’t convinced she wanted to take either of these men there. Most especially not Steffan with the size of him.
“I, erm…guys, I’m not sure I’m ready for, you know, taking the both of you at once. I’ve not done much anal play.” She tried to make a jokey announcement of it, but neither man laughed.
Steffan grunted, and Aiden nipped her neck.
Aiden spoke. “It’s okay. We must be crazy anyway to be pushing things this far.”
“We can always stop. Make a nice cup of cocoa,” Steffan deadpanned.
“I’ve already lost leave of my senses, it seems. So why start to be careful now?” Aiden held Steffan’s gaze with an angry, hot glare.
“Why don’t you fuck the lovely Mia, here,” Steffan said. “And I’ll fuck you. You wanted it bad enough last night. Plus, it’s probably going way too far if I take her. So, I’ll take you instead.”
“Shit.” Aiden’s cock twitched against her back, and she felt the warm and wet as he smeared precome across burning skin. “Okay. If you insist.”
Steffan broke away from the attention he’d been lavishing on her breasts and pulled open the bedside drawer. He took out a tube of lube.
“Wait. Don’t we need condoms?” she asked.
“No need.” Aiden nibbled at the shell of her ear, making her shiver. “We don’t carry diseases, and you won’t get pregnant.”
“Why won’t I?”
An uncomfortable silence descended. What the hell?
“Why won’t I get pregnant?” She didn’t want kids. Never had, and it worried her because society judged women who didn’t as if they were utter freaks of nature. She sighed and fixed Steffan with what she hoped resembled a stern stare. “You can tell me. I’m not some special snowflake, and I don’t even want kids. If you’re about to tell me your dragon senses are somehow saying there’s an issue there…with me, that’s fine. I’d been about to go see a doctor about it anyway and get checked out. Because my periods are frankly screwy. I hardly ever have any.”
Steffan gave a heavy sigh of relief. “I would have told you, but to be honest, with the whirlwind that has been this thing between all of us, I kept forgetting. You are a latent, as you know, and as far as we are aware, latents can’t have children. But if you wanted them, if you ever changed your mind, there is always the possibility of adoption.”
She wanted to know why, but Aiden nipped her neck again and murmured, “Girl after my own heart. Young are so tiring.” He palmed her breasts from behind, rough fingers pinching her nipples, and her mind short-circuited all over again. She’d ask more about it in the morning.
“So no condom? Is that okay?” Steffan asked.
She nodded. His cock bobbed in front of her, and she swallowed at the thought of Aiden taking it all and turned to him. “Do you want to let Steffan fuck me and you fuck him?”
Oops, she might have spoken out of line. Steffan clearly had the whole alpha male thing going on here, although Aiden more than stood up for himself. But maybe in their society, the alpha guy didn’t let the other guy fuck him. Once again, she played, possibly quite literally, with fire and didn’t know what the hell she was doing.
Steffan shrugged and smiled. “Fine by me, if it weren’t for the fact that me and you being fully together might be too much. I’m the dominant male and if we go there, we might push this way too far. Still…” His eyes went wistful.
“Nah.” Aiden chuckled. “I want you in me. And I want to be in Mia.”
“He’s…you know…” She glanced over her shoulder to see Aiden smirking. “Kind of big.”
Steffan choked and coughed, and Aiden burst out laughing. “I can take it.”
Oh, shit. Why did those words turn her on so much? It all did such a number on her. These two guys together, and then with her…it felt taboo, but oh-so-right all at the same time.
“Come here.” Steffan turned his head to Aiden and pulled the other man toward him from around her side.
They kissed for a long moment, and Aiden’s hands ran up and down Steffan’s massive arms, fingers brushing over his intricate but faded tattoo. They were beautiful together, so different in some ways, but alike in others. Her heart gave a pang of something almost melancholic, and she realized with a twinge of concern that she’d miss them. Not just the sex and the lust and the heat, but them. How could it be she’d miss them after such a short period of time?
Aiden broke off the kiss and looked at the ink. “Did you do this the traditional way?” His question pulled her out of her own head and had her looking at the tattoo.
“Of course.” Steffan smirked.
She didn’t get it.
“Using traditional tools. Very painful,” Aiden supplied.
Steffan shook his head once. “They didn’t have tattoo guns back when I had this done.”
If she hadn’t been burning up from Aiden’s hands roaming over her breasts and pinching her nipples, she’d have latched on to that rather awesome tidbit, but as it was, she couldn’t focus too much on what they said.
Her skin ran hot, and sweat beads formed between her breasts and shoulder blades. She wondered if she was losing her mind because she swore each time they touched her, a sort of pleasant, light electrical current followed in their wake.
Steffan’s fingers dipped between her folds, and he brought them to his face. “You’re soaked. Are you ready for Aiden, angel?”
She nodded, her eyes wide.
Aiden moved until he faced her. “How do you want to do this?” he asked Steffan.
“Mia,” Steffan commanded. “Lie on your back, angel.”
She did as he said, and Steffan gave her a smile. “Good girl, now spread your legs.”
Seriously, his bossy, at times close to demeaning, orders should not turn her on so much she panted. But they did.
She opened her legs, and Aiden crawled up her body until he lay between her thighs. He took hold of his dick and rubbed it between her folds, caressing her already oversensitive clit. She closed her eyes for a moment, but when she heard Aiden gasp, she opened them.
She presumed Steffan had started to prep Aiden from the way he panted openmouthed. She’d seen enough porn in her time to know all about anal sex. But she’d never fancied it herself. Maybe, one day, with these two, she’d go there. For now, this was perfect.
“You ready?” Steffan asked.
“Yeah, not made of china and dying here.” Aiden waved a hand in the air and shot her a devastatingly sexy wink at Steffan’s huff of annoyance.
Aiden lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her hard and fast as he pushed into her in a long, slow glide. He didn’t stop and withdraw, simply kept going until he’d buried himself all the way to the hilt.
The sensation nearly killed her. She worried her heart might give out, it pounded so hard. Her body burned again, and the strange tingling electric sensation she’d been aware of before returned, this time suffusing her whole body.
“Oh, fuck.” Steffan bit out the words as he pushed his way into Aiden. “You’re so fucking tight.”
“Been a while for me. I don’t let many people inside.” Aiden’s words were loaded with meaning, and she looked over his shoulder to see Steffan’s eyes widen.
Steffan withdrew and then pushed in again, and although Aiden remained still inside her, she could tell what Steffan did by the subtle movement of Aiden’s pelvis in response.
Slowly, Aiden moved, and they soon set a rhythm. Steffan held his weight on his arms so he didn’t push Aiden onto her, and she was grateful for his strength.
Their speed increased, and her body buzzed and burned, the heat in her increasing until she grew fearful. “What’s happening to me?” she gasped out. “I think we might need to stop. I’m burning.”
“It’s dragon sex. It’s what happens between us when we find a great match,” Steffan panted. “Don’t fight it, angel. You’re about to have the experience of your life.”
She tried not to fight it, but part of her remained panicked at the same time the rest of her reveled in the overwhelming sensations. Her skin tingled from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. Each whisper of breath from between Aiden’s lips became sweet torture as it blew on her and made her shiver and moan.
Steffan bit Aiden’s neck, and the possessiveness and dominance in the action startled her. Aiden gave a grunt and swore. “Shit, I’m going to come.”
His words, the desperation in his voice, the sensation of him hitting her clit with the base of his cock, all conspired to push her toward release, too. She came with a loud cry, and Steffan swore as his hips slammed erratically into Aiden.
The three of them came together, and it burned so bright it threatened to obliterate her.
Something jerked within her, as if part of her soul wanted to break free. As her orgasm subsided, she regained her senses enough to realize there seemed to be something deeply wrong. She panicked and tried to sit to push Aiden off. Was she dying? Something deep inside her tore away from its anchor and pushed against her skin.
“No fucking way!” Steffan’s concerned voice didn’t help her growing anxiety attack.
“Shit, shit, shit,” Aiden swore and went to move, as if to pull out of her, but Steffan slammed his hand between the other male’s shoulder blades and held him in place.
“Don’t move, either of you. It can destroy your dragons if you do.”
She froze, not sure what the hell happened, as hot tears leaked from the corners of her eyes.
A stunning, ethereal dragon, small and emerald green floated right in front of her. Right out of her fucking body and into the air. A multicolored bigger beast joined hers, swirling around it, this one from Aiden’s body.
Steffan gave a grunt, and from his body, a large, dull red dragon lazily flew toward the other two and joined them in their strange dance. The creatures twirled and moved together, swirling until they became nothing but a mix of colored smoke and movement. And then the animals tore apart and descended back into their hosts.
When her dragon entered her, she convulsed once, twice, and then she screamed.
Something lived inside her. Something strange and new and terrifying. Oh, God above. She sensed Steffan there. His presence right in her heart, her soul, and alongside him, Aiden. She didn’t understand it. Couldn’t fully describe it. It wasn’t as if she read their minds. Nothing so simple and straightforward. Instead, something like their essential emotional essence filled her. Connecting her to them in a deep way.
She cried in earnest then, and Aiden pulled out of her, his own face a mask of… Well, frankly, the guy looked terrified. Pale and shaking and bewildered.
“This shouldn’t have happened,” he said, shaking his head. “We haven’t mated. Haven’t had the ceremony. We fucked, yes. But we haven’t mated. We didn’t both take her either. How has this happened, Steffan?”
The other male knelt on the bed staring at them, his jaw tight, face grim. “I don’t fucking know. But it has happened. You can’t run away from it.” He gave Aiden an apologetic look.
“What’s happened? I swear, if one of you doesn’t start talking to me, I’m going to freak out. I saw dragons. They came out of our bodies, then they went back inside. I can feel you two. Here.” She slammed a hand over her heart and began to sob.
“Angel. Baby?” Steffan took hold of her hands and held them in his, up in front of her as if helping her pray or something. “It’s okay. Breathe, Mia. Okay? Breathe for me.”
She tried to do as he asked, but it wasn’t easy when Aiden seemed about to crack up by her side.
“I can’t fucking believe it. No way. This isn’t happening. It can’t be. I don’t accept this. We didn’t consent to it.”
“What?” Steffan dropped her hands and turned to Aiden. “Are you saying I…what? Somehow forced you into this? Force-mated you?”
“You’re the only one in this room with enough power to make something like this happen.”
Steffan roared. He actually roared, and Mia instinctively covered her ears. “I would never do such a thing, and even I can’t do this. It has to be something else. Our bond, maybe? It’s so powerful.”
“You must have known it was a possibility. Holy fuck, Steffan, what have you done? Do you think this will keep me shackled to your side?”
Steffan pulled one of his big arms back and plowed his fist straight into Aiden’s cheek. The other male’s head snapped back, and blood leaked a lazy trail down his chin from the corner of his mouth. She screamed and scrambled from the bed. She knew getting between them this time wouldn’t work. She ought to get help.
“Get out of my fucking home.” Steffan pulled Aiden forward by his hair, and Aiden responded by standing and kicking Steffan between the legs.
He howled and bent double, and when he looked up, his eyes were watering. Aiden stormed from the bedroom, and as he pushed past her, she caught her ankle and she went down onto the floor. He stopped and looked at her for a moment, eyes wild, and tore off down the long corridor. She stood clumsily, not sure what the hell to do. The fall hadn’t hurt her, but she’d seen the look in Aiden’s eyes. The guy had lost it.
“Open these fucking doors,” Aiden yelled from the entranceway. “Come here right now and open these fucking doors.”
“I’m going to kill him for harming you.” Steffan’s low and deadly voice scared her even more than Aiden’s unhinged gaze.
He took off after Aiden, and she grabbed his T-shirt and pulled it on over her head. She slipped on her panties and followed the two men, praying they didn’t murder one another.
Once she’d sorted this out, she’d be leaving. No one needed this. Except, the moment she thought of leaving, her heart clenched painfully. She put her hands on the wall for a moment and forced herself to breathe. Jesus, what the hell was going on?
She heard an almighty crash and ran to the front of the cave to see Steffan standing naked, chest heaving, with Aiden on the other side of the now-broken glass doors. His nude body lay sprawled on the ground. Oh, fuck. Was he dead?
“You fucking lunatic,” she screamed at Steffan, but he didn’t even look her way. Then movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention. Aiden stood and backed away until he reached the entrance of the cave. He didn’t seem to have many cuts or scratches. The air around him stirred, and she knew from the way the leaves and debris gathered, he was beginning to change.
Steffan stalked forward and powered into a full-on run, the wind whipping his hair as if he’d created his own mini hurricane. As Aiden changed into a dragon and lumbered about on the grass, Steffan leapt into the air at the mouth of the cave, and right in front of her eyes, changed into a huge, terrifying beast. Not in the slower way Rhiannon had, but quick as lightning. In mid-fucking-air!
The size of Steffan’s dragon dwarfed Aiden’s, but the other male didn’t back down. He flapped his bright wings and flew straight at Steffan, breathing fire.
She didn’t stop to watch for another moment. Bare feet flying over glass, she took off out of the cave and down the hill, not even caring about her screaming ankle. As she neared the houses, she began to shout and holler. Rhiannon’s door opened, and lights went on in some of the houses.
“My child, what is it?” Rhiannon’s alarmed face poked out of her ajar door.
“Steffan and Aiden are fighting in dragon form! I think they’re going to kill one another.”
“Oh, gods, no. We don’t need this idiocy.” She clapped her hand over her mouth. Then she shouted something in a strange language into the house behind her and hurried outside. She banged on the door of the house next to hers, and a middle-aged man answered.
“Owen, go get Robert and the council. And Kate! Aiden and Steffan are fighting. It sounds serious.”
“Take me to them.” She grabbed Mia’s arm and looked at her bare feet.
Mia followed the other woman’s gaze and frowned. Oh, her poor feet. At this rate, she’d end up hobbling around for the rest of her life.
“What the hell happened?”
“We made love, all three of us.”
Rhiannon stopped her and gave her a piercing look. “Did they both take you at once?”
Oh, the mortification. Face burning, she shook her head. “No, erm…Steffan and Aiden, and then Aiden and me…we… You get the picture.”
Rhiannon frowned. “I don’t see the problem.”
“These, like…smoke dragons appeared from out of us…and merged.” Mia dashed angrily at her tears, totally exhausted from it all.
Rhiannon swore, “Fuck. Shit. I mean, shitty fucking fuck.”
Mia almost laughed at the other woman’s swearing jag. She’d seemed so sedate and calm until now.
“Then Aiden lost it. I think he panicked, and he started to accuse Steffan of doing it on purpose. Of forcing it on us. Steffan lost his temper and they fought. I think they are going to kill one another.”
“They won’t. They are bonded and mated now. They won’t seriously do any damage to one another. This I swear to you. But this isn’t good. You’re not ready for this level of commitment.”
“Don’t worry about me,” she wailed. “You didn’t see them. Steffan’s going to kill Aiden.”
“He won’t, child. He’s an ancient, extremely powerful dragon and with his age and experience comes great control. He’s fuming with Aiden, but he won’t go further than teaching that young male a lesson. What Aiden suggested is a form of heresy amongst us. It’s the worst insult, the worst accusation. But Steffan and Aiden are bonded. Males can be violent, and Steffan may, as I say, teach Aiden a painful lesson, but he won’t kill him or seriously harm him in any way.”
Rhiannon turned to side-eye her. “You, on the other hand, have gone and mated yourself to two incredibly volatile males. Or at least, they are when they get together.”
“What do you mean, mated?”
“The thing with the dragons?” Mia nodded. “You mated with one another. There’s no going back now. It’s a done deal. Signed on the dotted line. No wonder Aiden’s losing his mind. It’s not supposed to happen without you wanting it to, and it normally happens after the formal mating ceremony. But I have known of cases such as this. Not for hundreds of years, but your bond is even stronger than I believed.
“The males will be fine. I’m not worried about them. But you, my child. You’re in for a crash course in what it means to be a dragon.”
They reached the top of the steep incline, and Mia nearly fainted with relief when, instead of dragons fighting, she saw two naked men lying on the ground. Aiden’s shoulder bled, and Steffan had deep scratches all over his chest and arms.
“I see you two males have sorted your differences out. You’ve terrified your mate in the meantime. What kind of a welcome to our way of life is this for her? Just when she needs help and caring and a gentle hand, you two lose it.”
Neither said anything, but Aiden picked himself up and brushed the dirt and mud from his body. “I cannot deal with any of this. I’ve got to go and pack.”
Steffan sat. “What? You can’t leave.”
“Watch me. I’ve got to go to a dig. You don’t own me, and you can’t make me stay here in this shitty village as nothing more than some sort of half male, fetching and carrying for my mates. I don’t want that life. I won’t end up like my father.”
“Who? Hedron?” Rhiannon’s brow knitted together.
“Yes. I’m not going to waste my life full of regrets as he does.”
“His life is not full of regrets.”
Aiden pushed by them and headed down the hill, seemingly unaware of being naked and ignoring Rhiannon thoroughly.
“Aiden,” she called after him. “You have this wrong. Speak with your father.”
Steffan scrambled to his feet and started go after him, but Rhiannon put a hand on his chest and shook her head.
“Let him go. He needs some time.”
She turned to Aiden and called after him once more, her voice carrying down the mountainside. “Aiden, listen to me. You have your father all wrong. You ought to speak with him before you mess up your own life and your mates’ lives too. Go and do whatever it is you have to. Take some time, but make room in your temper tantrum to speak to your father.”
Aiden nodded once and carried on down the hill.
Mia realized tears were streaming down her cheeks and didn’t know why.
“Hush, child. He’ll be back. What a baptism by fire. I suggest you spend a week or so here, learning our ways and our history, and perhaps you and Steffan ought to go and spend some time at your abode by the sea. Some painting and time getting your head around all of this you’ve learned may do you much good.”
Right then, she only wanted to curl into Steffan’s arms and be held by him. As if reading her mind, he wrapped one meaty arm around her shoulder and pulled her into him as half the village clambered up the hill toward them.
“I’ll deal with this lot now the danger has passed.” Rhiannon smiled at Steffan. “I didn’t believe for one moment you’d hurt him. But I didn’t think I ought to leave it to chance. The bite you gave him will drive him crazy over the coming days.”
Steffan gave a low laugh. “Yep, that’s the idea.”
“Why? What’s with the bite?”
Rhiannon smiled at Mia. “These days, most dragons take a vow in front of their clan and let their spirits join. We don’t do some of the things we used to. One of which would be to mark and bite our mates. The bite burns and itches, but it also fills us with pleasure. I have one.”
She slipped her dress off her shoulder and showed Mia a large bite mark. “It slowly fades, and as you become more closely bonded with your mates, it stops driving you as mad. But at first, it’s like the world’s most pleasurable itch. One you need to scratch over and over again. There’s only one way to scratch it, though. If you know what I mean. Aiden’s going to go out of his mind wherever he’s going.”
She glanced at Steffan’s leg. “It already looks much better.”
Then she took off down the hill.
“Come on. I think you need a large brandy, a hot bath, and then bed.” Steffan pulled her after him and glanced at the glass on the floor of his cave. With a frown, he swung her into his arms as if she weighed nothing.
She didn’t disagree. The fact they’d had the whole conversation with Steffan naked as the day he was born had been quite surreal enough without all the rest of the day’s events.
She followed Steffan back into the cave, wondering how the hell he’d fix the doors…and where did they go from here?