Still not mad.

I know some of it is the post-sex glow and that good sex doesn’t solve all your problems, but it definitely helps. It doesn’t change the fact that I’m probably exiled from Fort Dallas and can never go back, or that I’m cavorting with the enemy. But it makes the cavorting a heck of a lot more fun.

Dakh rumbles with amusement at my thoughts, and he slides a hand over my butt. We can cavort more, if you like.

I pat a hand on his chest. “Let a girl catch her breath,” I tell him sleepily. Then I sit up as I realize something, touching my neck. “You didn’t bite me this time.”

No need. I already gave you my fires. As long as you take my seed regularly, my scent will continue to mark you as claimed. No other can take you from me.

Well that’s a relief…I think. “So wait, I was in danger of another dragon snatching me? As a mate?” I’m freaked out by the thought.

Your scent will call others no longer. Now you smell like you have been thoroughly mated. He inhales deeply. And it is the most delicious of scents.

Oh jeez. I can only imagine what that smells like, and I blush again. “That’s a weird thing.”

It is drakoni ritual.

“Is that what you are? Drakoni?”

His thoughts are full of assent. I do not remember much from the time before, but it is trickling back now that I have you to anchor my thoughts, my Sasha.

I worry that he might remember something that will make him abandon me. “What about family? A wife? Kids?”

No mate before you. I can only give my fires once. It is a sharing of my spirit.

Oh. “And you saved up all this time for me?”

When I am around you, my thoughts are clear. You are fertile and young. They are all good reasons to choose a mate.

I shouldn’t be offended, but I’m a little hurt. “So basically any girl would do? Don’t I feel special.”

He caresses my cheek with those deadly claws. Do not be upset, my Sasha. I have had many opportunities to replace you with another, and I decided to keep you.

“Wow, you’re really giving Prince Charming a run for his money, aren’t you?” I say dryly. And because I’m feeling feisty, I give him a light punch in the shoulder. “That’s for considering other females, by the way.”

His lips twitch with amusement and he pulls me back down against him, ignoring my wiggling attempts to escape his grasp. I never wished for another after I saw you. The ravens tried to make me hurt you, but I ignored them.

The ravens? That’s what he means when he’s suffering from madness.

Yes. There is something in this world that makes it impossible to think straight. The ravens make me want to harm, to destroy. They get into my mind and feed me anger. I think they do so to others of my people. That is why they attack the human hive—they want to destroy it.

I shiver at the thought. I remember so many dragon attacks and the fear of wondering if this one would be the one that leveled what was left of the city. “Is there a way to get them to stop? The other dragons?”

If there is, I do not know it…other than to get them all mates.

I remember Claudia and how the militia sacrificed her to the dragon. Someone else out there knows that dragons want mates. I’m uneasy at the thought. Do the people running Fort Dallas know more than we think they do? It’s always been a mystery to people why dragons constantly attacked the city. We knew the how, but not the why. Dakh has the answers.

I just have to unlock them.

Of course, I don’t know what I’ll do with the information once I get it, since I’m now an exile, but there are people in Fort Dallas—good people—that still deserve saving.

I do not wish to save any of them, especially the one who hurt you.

“It’s a problem for another day, I suppose.” I pat his chest. “We’re not going to argue about this.”

There is nothing to argue over, he agrees, and pulls me against him so he can bury his face in my hair. Dragons sure do like sniffing, I realize. And not any female would do, he tells me. I am certain other females have crossed my path, but only you calm my thoughts.

I feel a little more flattered at that. “Why do you suppose that is?”

Perhaps we have a strong mental connection, and it only grows stronger when I anchor my spirit to yours. He rubs my backside again. Or perhaps I just liked your scent.

I yawn, considering. I don’t suppose it matters as long as I’m special to him in some way. For some reason, it’s important for me to matter. I guess because I’ve been abandoned by everyone for so long. Even Claudia and Amy had a bond that I didn’t. I’ve always been the third wheel, the extra. It’s nice to think that I’m first in someone’s eyes.

Even if it is just because I smell good.

If it makes you feel better, you did not smell good when I first snatched you from the skies. He nuzzles my hair. But I kept you anyway.

A muffled laugh escapes me. “No, actually, that doesn’t make me feel better.”

You are and will always be first in my heart, my sweet fires. Dakh holds me tighter. Never doubt this.

And for some reason, I believe him.

26

SASHA

I nod off at some point during our post-sex snuggling, I think, because I wake up a short time later to find that Dakh’s back in his dragon form and we’re flying through the nighttime skies. I send a sleepy thought up to him, and he coaxes me to go back to sleep.

We are flying home. Rest. I will keep you safe.

I trust him—either that or I’m exhausted—because I fall back asleep and I don’t wake up until he’s carrying me into the store.

Sleep, he tells me.

I shake my head, rubbing my eyes. I need to bathe. I’m sticky and sweaty, and I don’t want to get into the blankets like this.

He changes course and instead of taking me to my blankets, he takes me to the kiddie pool I’ve got in the break room. The water’s from yesterday and still relatively clean but cold. Dakh takes care of the cold thing while I wait, and then I slide into the pool, and he holds me and washes every inch of my body with intent concentration. When I’m done, he towels me dry and then scoops me into his arms again, carrying me to bed.

“I’m able to walk, you know,” I tell him, and ruin my strong statement by yawning.