by T. S. Joyce
Vyr’s frown wrinkled his whole forehead. “This is a big change. Are you sure you’re okay with this?”
Yes, she said into his mind and let him feel what she was feeling for just a moment. Acceptance.
Vyr rolled his eyes closed and his head back. “God, I’ve missed the feel of you.”
She grabbed her boobs and said earnestly, “I’ve missed the feel of you, too.”
He chuckled. Chuckled!
“I’ve missed that sound,” she said in a rush.
The smile faded from his lips. “I don’t know how to get back to the way I was,” he murmured.
“Maybe you aren’t meant to be the man you were. Maybe you are meant for something bigger. Growth isn’t an easy thing, Vyr. If it was, everyone would do it. You will have big phases of growth over and over, like a snake shedding his skin, until you can become strong enough to control the Red Dragon.”
“You have so much more faith in me than I deserve.”
“No. I just know what you’re capable of. No man could protect the world from the Red Dragon but you. No one else is strong enough. But you’ve done it all these years.” Riyah swallowed audibly. “Stay.”
“I can’t,” he whispered, dragging her palm to his lips.
Riyah tugged the beard that hung from his chin and shook his face gently. “Stay.”
Vyr dropped his gaze and shook his head slightly.
“Okay. You’re telling me you aren’t there yet. Aren’t strong enough to stop this yet. But I’m through the worst of the mourning—at least I hope to God I am—and now it’s time to focus on you, not our loss. And not my pain. Oh, I know you blame yourself. It’s not a coincidence you started claiming new mountains right when I lost the babies. I just wasn’t strong enough to travel and watch you spiral, too. In a way, we both had to cope on our own. That part surprised me, but everyone is different, and the both of us flinched inward and absorbed the blows. Apart. You pushed me away, and I got quiet and I waited and waited, but I’m tired of doing that now, Vyr.”
“Are you leaving me?” he asked, zero surprise or emotion in his voice.
“No, ridiculous man. The opposite.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m gonna be by your side while you spiral.”
“You support me taking over the Tarian Pride territory now?”
“Fuck no,” she scoffed. “I’m gonna bitch at you the whole time, chew loudly when I eat, interrupt your sleep, and make you miserable with my presence in general until you tire of traveling to obsess over those stupid mountains—”
“I’m in!” Nox’s voice echoed through the orchard.
Riyah and Vyr looked around, but he was nowhere to be found.
“I’m also in!” Torren, the giant silverback shifter and best friend of Vyr yelled from somewhere equally mysterious.
“Oh, we’re also in!” That was Nevada’s voice.
“Are babies allowed?” Candace called.
“Oh…my God,” Vyr griped. “Have you all been here listening the entire time?”
“Yeah,” Nox called. “We brought popcorn.”
Riyah scrunched up her face and slid her hands over Vyr’s shoulders. “What if we’d had loud welcome-home sex?”
“That’s what we brought the popcorn f— Ow!” Nox exclaimed as the sound of a slap hitting skin echoed through the orchard. If Riyah had to guess, Candace was the one who’d whacked him.
Riyah giggled. How long had it been since she’d made that sound? God, it was good to have Vyr—she studied his muddy brown aura—or at least part of Vyr home.
“There’s something that bothers me about Beaston’s vision,” Vyr said as he rocked upward and settled her on her feet.
“What?”
“You said the baby had glowing green eyes.”
“So?”
“So you’re a new-ish shifter and maybe don’t know how the genetics work on this stuff. A child would have either your eyes or mine, and neither of us have green eyes.” He looked utterly disturbed.
“Okay, well what do you think that means?”
Vyr was looking at her in the strangest way, his silver eyes roiling with some emotion she couldn’t understand. She reached for his mind, but he’d shut her out.
“Vyr, what?”
“I won’t be the child’s father.”
Riyah’s heart pounded against her breast bone. “What?”
“If you become a mother, it won’t be with me. Either something happens to me or…”
“Or what?”
Vyr sighed a frozen breath. “Or you do what you should’ve done a long time ago.”
Baffled, she shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
“You leave me and find someone who can give you a better life.”
Riyah stood on her tippy-toes and kissed him hard. It was the kind of kiss that was a little like a middle finger. It was teeth hitting his and a bite it the middle that she hoped hurt him. She wrapped her fingers around his throat and squeezed, letting her power pulse gently from her palm. After she pulled her lips from his, she whispered, “Don’t you ever talk like that again. I don’t care what the vision was. I won’t leave you. Not ever.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m the Red Dragon’s treasure.” She shoved him in the shoulder hard and then slipped her hand into his. “And you’re mine, too.”
Chapter Three
The green-eyed child haunted him. Vyr lay beside Riyah, studying the curve of her cheek as she slept. Six months ago, he’d done this every morning, except it was the swell of her belly he’d been memorizing. He’d had such dreams for his sons. His dragon… Fuck. Vyr flinched at the pounding headache that was forming behind his eyes. He would have to Change soon. He’d been desperate to control the Changes because the dragon grew more powerful with each shift. He couldn’t keep him from burning anymore. He knew he couldn’t. He could see the Red Dragon’s plans so clearly in his head.
Four mountain ranges in six months. Vyr had tried to compromise. Each territory he claimed, he found the broken ones, the shifters with nowhere to go but slamming against that rock bottom Nox had spoken of. And then he gave the mountains he claimed to them. He’d found the damned, the damaged, and he’d given them homes. Because that was the legacy he hoped some would remember when he lost control of the dragon completely. He hoped they remembered the man who tried to save as many as possible.
The dragon wanted offspring, and the man wanted to see Riyah happy, cooing to a child he had given her, crying happy tears like she had done sometimes before everything went wrong. After that awful day…
Well, she only cried sad tears now.
Beautiful mate. Her freckles were dark against her pale skin, and her brunette hair was all curled up, fanning across her pillow. That pillow would smell like her shampoo when she got up. He always sniffed it after she stumbled into the bathroom to take a shower in the mornings. He missed the smell of her pillow when he was out re-burning his territories or hunting new ones.
But for now, he was here, and she was sleeping soundly, her hand resting on his hip like she’d put it there in the middle of the night just to make sure he stayed with her. She still felt safe around him, he could tell. God, had any living creature during the planet’s entire existence ever loved another as much as he loved Riyah? He couldn’t imagine it. She really was the treasure of the Red Dragon, but so so much more. Before Riyah, his chest had been empty, but from the day he’d met her, she’d started building a heart in there. And then she’d crawled inside and made a home and made sure his heart kept working.
She was his treasure, but she was also the heart of the dragon.
His attention flickered out the window. There wasn’t movement that had drawn his gaze there; it was just the sky. Come fly. Touch the clouds. Burn everything, it encouraged him. Fill me with smoke.
The dragon roiled inside of him, searing through his veins like acid. Vyr didn’t even wince. His whole life was pain. At some poin
t, he’d just gotten used to it.
There was one strand of hair on Riyah’s cheek, and soft as a feather, he pushed it back with the tip of his finger. As his touch slid across her skin, the corner of her mouth curved into a slow smile, but faded when he lifted his finger away.
So beautiful. He cupped her cheek, sure to make his touch as soft as a breeze. The tiny smile returned.
His heart.
Burn everything.
Vyr closed his eyes against the dawn light and just disappeared into how soft her skin was. The distance between them had lifted, but that was all Riyah’s doing. She made him feel…forgiven.
“You are forgiven,” she whispered.
When he opened his eyes, her bright blue polar bear eyes were locked on his. The smile still lingered.
“You are forgiven for everything you have done, and everything you will do.”
“How can you?”
“Because I love you.”
The heart she’d built felt like it was shattering. His body broke apart a lot lately.
“You’re worried about the child,” she said. “You’ve been thinking so loud.”
He reached for her with his mind, but it felt like nothing was there…like Riyah was a ghost. Was she a ghost?
“I’m still here.”
He dragged her closer and hugged her tight against his chest. Soft curves and skin on skin. He loved that she slept naked with him. “I don’t want you to choose someone else,” he murmured against her hair right before he kissed it.
“Vyr, I wish you could see yourself from my eyes. You don’t have to worry about me leaving. Not ever.”
She slid her knee over his hip, pressed against his erection. He was always hard for her in the mornings, always riled up, always turned on. She was so soft. Vyr slid his hand to her ass and squeezed it hard, drawing her right against him as he rolled his hips.
She let off this sound that drove him crazy. Rolling his hips harder, he kissed her. Riyah’s hands eased down his chest, drawing heat where her body met his. God, she consumed him. Desperate, Vyr cupped between her legs and pushed a finger into her, making sure she was ready to take him. So wet already. Good mate. He rolled her over, spread her knees apart, and slid into her, his entire body flexing with the motion. Deeper and deeper, he pushed until he was buried all the way inside of her tight pussy. Vyr held her hands above her head and thrust into her again and again, shallow because he knew the buttons to push on his mate. She liked it hard and quick.
His whispered name on her lips made him even harder, and his control began to slip. “Come for me, Riyah,” he rumbled against her ear, gripping her wrists tighter as he moved inside of her. Deep. Deep. Quick. Fuck, he was almost there, stroking into the tight, wet space she’d given to him. He was bucking into her now like some rutting animal. “Riyah, I can’t stop. You feel so fucking good I can’t stop. Aaaaaaaah,” he groaned as the pressure in his dick released, spewing his seed into her in throbbing bursts.
Riyah cried out and arched against the mattress, fists clenched, eyes rolled back into her head, hair wild, body…his. Her tight little pussy gripped his pulsing cock so hard as they came together. He took care of her, drew out every last clench of ecstasy from her body, moving inside her until she was completely sated. He released her hands and cupped the back of her neck, kissed her gently, so she knew how much he loved her. She liked when he was sweet after he made her come. And then against her lips, he uttered the words he knew would ruin it all. “I have to leave again soon.”
Her body tensed, so he waited until she relaxed again before he continued. “I need to re-burn Grim’s Mountains. Or claim new territory. Or…something.”
Riyah rolled him to the side and hugged him up tight, leaving him buried inside of her. “Wow,” she murmured after a few seconds.
“Hmm?”
“That’s the first time I’ve ever heard you call them Grim’s Mountains.”
Vyr frowned at the window, frowned at the gray sky outside. Huh.
“What is it about Grim?” she murmured. “Of all the Crew’s you’ve helped, of all the Alpha’s, you can’t seem to stay away from him. You watch him, don’t you?”
The dragon rumbled. She was getting too close. Getting too warm. Smart and clever mate.
He stroked her back, up and down her spine.
“Silence is sometimes an answer, but not with me. I’ll keep asking. I’m ready to keep asking now.”
Riyah was changing. She was getting stronger. She was pushing more. Beautiful mate. She would need to be strong if anything ever happened to him. If the green-eyed child came to be.
“He’s the only shifter I’ve met who is kind of like me.”
“Hey, I’m like you,” she groused, pinching his side.
He chuckled and dragged her prodding fingers to his lips, then rested them against his chest between them. “Your polar bear is manageable. She’s logical. She’s a murder machine, sure, but you control her. You’ve had control since you were Turned. Grim…he has two lions, and one is like your polar bear, manageable, and one is like the Red Dragon. Unmanageable.” Burn everything. “Sometimes,” he whispered, “I want to kill Grim. He stopped me from claiming the Tarian Pride Mountains. He brought the Daughters of Beasts, and he stopped me. I want to devour his ashes when I’m the dragon, but when I’m me…when I’m the man…I wish we lived in a different world where we could be friends. Where I could ask him how he does it.”
“How he does what?” she asked, tracing a heart shape over his left pec.
“How he keeps going. How he keeps trying. We’re both absolute shit at being Alphas. Both have been thrust onto thrones we don’t deserve by Crews just trying to keep us steady. But I see him trying. I see improvement. And what have I done? I’ve broken the Sons of Beasts.”
“No,” she murmured. “You suffered something hard, and your dragon tries to protect you by focusing on anything else. He’s not a monster, Vyr. He never was. He’s just trying to help in his own way.”
Vyr huffed a humorless laugh as the dragon whispered burn everything again in his mind. “Some help he is.”
“But you haven’t burned everything,” she said lightly, lifting his arm in a flexing position. “Strong mate.”
Vyr leaned in and kissed her. It was a tender one, just like she deserved for being so understanding, one where he sucked on her bottom lip until she let him inside to taste her. She lifted the veil for just a second, and it was enough. She let him have a happy memory, the one where she’d invited all of Damon’s Mountains to the orchard he’d planted for her. The one where she’d brought everyone from his past to show them how much he was cared for. Him. An outsider all his life, but his mate had made sure he knew everything was different than he thought. That it was better. Her joy sizzled and snapped through his brain for that second, and he smiled against her lips. There was a tiny aftertaste of pain in the instant she shut down the veil of her mind again, but for that one second, he’d felt okay. God, he’d missed this. Missed her.
He eased away and rumbled, “I want you to come with me.”
“To do what?”
“To burn the land.”
Sadness washed over her face before she forced a smile. “The last time you asked us to come with you to burn territory, you put our Crew at war with the Tarian Pride and Grim’s Crew. You surprised us with that one.”
“Is that why you’re protecting their minds?” he asked.
Riyah lifted her chin higher and looked him dead in the eyes when she said, “Yes. No more surprise wars. No more Alpha orders until…”
“Finish it.”
“Until you can be trusted again.”
A knife. Those words were a knife blade, but he deserved the cut. “I won’t declare war on Grim’s Crew.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I saw him. I talked to him right before Christmas. I sat in the back of this little bar and watched him and his Crew make wishes on ten-ten. And do you know what he w
ished for?”
“What?”
“To be a better Alpha.”
Riyah brushed her fingertips down his beard. “Maybe he really is like you.”
“He will run my mountains in Oregon until he draws his final breath, and I won’t be the one to take that final breath from him. I want at least one of us to be a success story.”
“You both will be.”
“Riyah—”
“You will be.” She’d said it with such conviction echoing through her words that his dragon stilled inside of him.
Burn everything but her.
“I’m ready,” she murmured softly.
“Ready for what?”
“To leave them. To leave the orchard.” A wicked little smile took her full lips. “Let’s go light some shit on fire.” She snapped her fingers and held our palm out, creating a tiny blue flame that flickered just above her skin. But then she closed her fist over the little fire and snuffed it out. Her face turned serious. “In a controlled environment. Where we won’t get in trouble or arrested. Where I can give the local law enforcement and fire departments a heads up. And maybe Kane and your father and the other dragons just in case you go nutso. And you can’t claim new territory. Just an old one.”
Vyr chuckled. She really did have faith in his control over the dragon. “So many rules, Witch.”
“Yeah, well, you’ve been on a burning spree. Someone needs to be the responsible one. I don’t want to have to break you out of shifter prison again.”
Chapter Four