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Aurora felt herself wake up, but didn't open her eyes. She didn't want to see what was waiting for her. If it was her bedroom ceiling, she didn't think she could take it.
"Aurora?"
She heard her name and it immediately registered that it was Arach's voice. A hand touched her face and she opened her eyes. He hovered over her, gazing down into her face with those intoxicating eyes. She was in a bed, but it was certainly not hers. Instead of crisp blue cotton sheets and an eyelet coverlet she rested against black satin.
"Arach," she breathed, the relief so deep she could feel the tension seep out of her as she spoke his name.
"Are you alright?" he asked, sweeping her hair away from her face.
"I think so."
She sat up and drew closer to him; wanting to touch him, to smell him, and to feel him near her. Her hand came to his chest and she toyed aimlessly with the buttons on the front of his black shirt.
"No," she said after a moment's pause, "I'm not alright. What's going on? Where am I?"
"You are in my home, in Killington."
"Killington?" she asked softly.
"Yes. It is both the name of this area and my clan. I take it you have heard that word before?"
He asked the question with a tone that said it didn't surprise him, but that he didn't want to lead her.
"It was on a file in my father's desk."
"What was in the file?" he asked, still guiding her to process what was happening.
"Drawings of dragons and a few pages of information written in code," she paused and another image flashed into her mind, "And a drawing of a tattoo."
Arach didn't say anything, but brought his hands to the front of his shirt and unbuttoned it. He let the shirt slide off his shoulders and turned his back to her. A leather strap held his hair behind his head and Aurora moved it out of the way so she could fully see the tattoo on his back.
Moving behind him, she sat on her knees and ran her hands along the ink embedded in his skin. The combination of the intricate representation of his wings and the feeling of his skin beneath her fingertips made Aurora shiver.
"Your father was Lee Sanborne," he said.
"Yes," Aurora replied.
"Do you know why you dreamed of me, Aurora?"
"No," she answered, flattening both of her hands on his back and stroking them down so she could feel his rippling muscles.
"You were born for me."
Aurora curled around him so that she could look into his face.
"What?" she asked.
Arach reached behind him and looped an arm around her. He lifted her off the bed and brought her around so that she sat in his lap, her legs straddling his hips. Aurora moaned softly and nestled her pelvis closer to him.
"You were born for me," he repeated, "Made for me. Your father has been investigating the existence of my clan since before you were born as part of a top-secret security program for the government."
"I don't understand."
Arach kissed her softly, drawing her bottom lip into his mouth briefly.
"Very few people know of our existence. We like to stay private and are fairly certain the rest of you humans would probably not take too kindly to knowing there were dragons wandering in your midst. The government apparently agrees because their secret operative has been trying to get us under their control for decades. Some, like your father, want to maintain peace and keep our worlds apart. There are others, however, who don't share those same sentiments."
"What do you mean?"
"There are members of the operative who have gone rogue. Their goal is to either eradicate us completely, or enslave and essentially weaponize us. Your father worked very hard to build his relationship with the clan, and when you were born my father marked you as my future mate."
"Your mate?" she asked, "So I'm part of a breeding program? My father pimped me out to try to make, what, an army of tiny dragon hybrids?"
She was trying to climb off his lap, but Arach held her firmly.
"No. It's not like that," she wriggled again and Arach pulled her tightly up against his chest so she couldn’t move, "Listen to me. It's not like that. You were made for me. My father just recognized that and made the agreement with your father that we would be the link that would maintain peace between our worlds. Unfortunately, one of the rogue groups found out about it and threatened a war if you weren't given instead to their efforts."
"Oh my god, Greyson," Aurora said, realization dawning on her painfully.
"Yes."
"So, you're telling me that I've been a pawn since birth. My own father essentially sold my ass to Greyson to keep peace that I promise you would not last anyway. He lied to me and he tried to take away my future because he got himself in the middle of –what? Dragons and dragon slayers?"
Her mind was spinning. She was confused, furious, and deeply saddened all at the same time.
"Yes, but he changed his mind."
"What?"
"Your father. He changed his mind about the arrangement. My father had a meeting with him just a few weeks before—"
"That's why he was murdered," Aurora said quietly.
Arach nodded, releasing some of the tension on his grip so he could stroke her cheek.
"The hunters heard of his change of heart before we could properly protect him."
"Did Greyson…" she trailed off, unable to even ask the question that burned in her throat.
"Yes," Arach replied carefully.
A botched break-in, the police had called it. Aurora and her mother had come home to Lee in a pool of his own blood in the living room, the cards for the speech he was working on spread on the marble floor around him. Aurora remembered dropping to her knees beside him and dragging her father's head into her lap. He looked up at her with terror in his eyes, his face streaked with blood, and took her face in his hand. Greyson, he had whispered. Aurora had reaffirmed her promise to him then, committing herself unknowingly to her father's murderer.
"Arach?" a voice from the doorway broke through the tense moment between them.
"Yes?" Arach said to the young man standing just outside the doorway.
"They are coming."
Arach nodded and the man ran away. He lifted her off his lap and placed her on the bed beside him, immediately starting to button his shirt again.
"Who's coming?" Aurora asked.
Arach didn't answer, but stood and started toward the door. Aurora chased after him, following him out of the room and into a cold stone hallway.
"Aurora, go back in there," he demanded, not stopping, but glancing briefly over at her.
"Who's coming?" Aurora repeated.
She had to run to keep up with his long strides and the stone floor felt rough beneath her feet.
"Go back."
Aurora reached out and grabbed onto Arach, yanking him to a stop and shoving him back against the wall to the hallway. She was nearly a foot shorter than him, but she looked up at him without intimidation.
"I have had enough of men telling me what to do in the last few months. Today has truly been the wedding day from hell. At least, I think it is still today. I honestly have completely lost track. I'm still standing here in my fucking wedding dress after finding out that the man I very nearly married murdered my father. So, stop telling me to go back and instead try telling me what the hell is going on."
Arach looked startled and took her carefully by the shoulders to guide her a few steps back from him.
"My clan took your father's murder as an act of war. That is why I connected with you when I did. I needed to bring you to me before the fighting began."
"You connected with me on purpose?"
"Of course. When a dragon has a human mate, he has the ability to connect with her in her dreams so he can spend time with her without being near other humans."
"So, those dreams were real?"
"They were both dreams and real."
Aurora decided it was futile to try to understand any further.
"Who's coming, Arach?"
"The rogues did not take my removing you from your wedding well. They have made it known that they take it as a sign of aggression and are coming to take you back."
Arach started walking again and Aurora chased him.
"Greyson?"
"Yes."
"How did he explain you to the guests?"
Arach led her through a massive wooden door into a room filled with weapons. He reached up and pulled a heavy-looking sword from the wall.
"People only see what they think they should. By tomorrow it will have all been explained away and only those who already knew about us will have any idea that they saw dragons."
Suddenly Aurora heard screams from outside. Arach muttered an obscenity and pushed past her through another door. Without a second thought, Aurora wrapped her hand around a crossbow and followed him.