“Planning?” I admit whatever Helga had given me made me a bit slow, but even without the drugs I don’t think I would have had any idea what he was talking about.
“The reason I wasn’t here, babe, was because I was traveling. Ver’gren knew some of it, but not all since the last one happened so long ago.” As explanations went, his was for shit and didn’t make a damn bit of sense.
I could feel my face tighten, my eyebrows scrunching together as I tried to untangle his words to better understand what he was trying to say.
He laughed and bent to kiss the back of my hand. “I suppose I should start at the beginning instead of the middle, huh? There hasn’t been a true dragon-trine since the dark ages. Ver’gren says he remembers his last one but is crazy-hazy on too many facts that can’t be left to chance. So I went to South America and met with M’dobe who leads the green squad. His dragon remembered a bit more but said he couldn’t recall it all either. So I went to Southeast Asia and Hu’ang’s black dragon was able to recollect more but said I might get a better picture from the kids at the Academy in New Mexico.”
He sat back with a smile of triumph. Although I still didn’t have a clue what all of that meant. “So I got the 4-1-1, the full one and relayed it back to Re’nal. Now we know exactly how to do it!”
Either he was deep in the throes of some Kickapoo Joy Juice or the man had lost his ever-loving mind. “How to do what, Eron?”
His smile wobbled and started to slide away. “To get married and become a dragon-trine. Isn’t that what we’ve been talking about?”
Wait…what?
I snatched my hand away and glared. “Last I heard, you told me we didn’t have a future together.”
“No. I didn’t,” he corrected on a scowl. “I said I didn’t have the money or security to give you a future.”
Bullshit! I remembered exactly what he’d said and it hadn’t been that, for god’s sake. “And now I’m supposed to swoon at your feet because you’ve changed your mind?”
He lifted his eyebrows as his eyes got really big. “Yo-you don’t want us?”
“I didn’t say that!” Shit, the man was messing with my brain to the point I couldn’t think straight. Or it might have been him plus the drugs. Either way, it didn’t matter because he was doing it again, the ol’ ‘snatch and grab’ thing I thought we’d long since resolved. “You could’ve freaking asked me, you know. Every girl wants to at least be asked instead of told she’s getting married.”
He stood on a mumble that sounded suspiciously like, “another fucking engraved invitation,” that I chose to ignore. Using the back of his legs, he pushed the chair away and dropped to one knee while reaching into one of the pockets of his leathers. Holding a sparkling solitaire delicately between his thumb and forefinger, he took my hand and then sighed as he stared deeply into my eyes.
“I’ve loved you, Adrienne Votte, since the summer before I turned sixteen. Ten years later, you walked back into my life and I fell even deeper in love with the grown up version of you. The thought of not having you in mine or Ver’gren’s life is unthinkable. I know what it’s like to live without you and I don’t want to do it again. To make sure that doesn’t happen, I want to marry you, my Annie, so we can be together always.”
I waited with my heart in my throat.
He slipped the ring on my finger and canted an eyebrow.
It was time for a prompt.
“You still haven’t asked, Eron.”
Rolling his eyes, he glanced at my hand and then raised his face back up to mine. “Will you marry us and live with Ver’gren and me for the rest of our days?”
I paused and searched his face, finding only sincerity and the tiniest bit of nervousness there as if he doubted what my answer might be. “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you and Ver’gren so we are a true dragon-trine.”
A dragon’s roar filled the room before Eron jumped to his feet and leaned over to kiss me again and again, getting more and more into it with every swoop to my mouth. Every meeting of our lips, which I totally and thoroughly participated in.
I didn’t have the heart to tell him, he’d put my beautiful engagement ring on the wrong hand.
Sometimes a girl didn’t need to point out every little thing a guy screwed up on.
Epilogue
(Six months later)
“Okay, that’s it for today,” I said, interrupting Vanessa’s time with her laptop. We were in one of the empty apartments up in the high reaches of the Montana compound, putting the finishing touches on the first DragCon scheduled to begin in San Diego next November, only six months away. “So far we have three-hundred eighty-five merchants coming, all with confirmed deposits. What are the attendance figures?”
She held up a finger and plugged in a couple more numbers before her jaw sagged. “What time did the tickets go on sale this morning?”
“Uhm, seven a.m. eastern, why?”
Her shocked gaze turned to me. “I didn’t check the stats all day, because I figured, you know, it would take a couple of days for the idea of Dragon Warrior conferences to catch on.”
Yeah, I knew what she meant. We’d spent hours running ideas and numbers before we started looking at venues, trying to get a read on whether or not the public was ready to immerse themselves in all things dragon. But our preliminary info showed the world’s populace were rabid to do it—especially when they were promised an opportunity to spend time with actual dragon-pairs.
All for the low, low price of three-hundred bucks per ticket.
And offered with the encouragement to dress as their favorite Dragon Warrior while there.
“Shit, Ads,” she moaned. “San Diego, Seattle and Denver have already sold out.”
What. The. Hell?
“Ten thousand per stadium, right?” I could barely talk as my head filled with figures.
She nodded, her gaze drifting back to her computer. “With another five thousand on the waiting lists.”
Holy crap! This was incredible, above and beyond anything we’d envisioned.
“What about…,” I started but my bestie was already ahead of me.
“It’s the same freaking thing, everywhere.” She swallowed thickly as she punched the keyboard. “The U.S. is completely sold out. South America, too.”
I collapsed against the back of my chair.
Seriously?
“We haven’t even started on Europe, Africa or the rest because we still haven’t found the right venues.” Her fingers flew over the keys. “I show thirty-five thousand emails in the ‘tickets needed’ folder alone. Thirty-five freaking thousand, girl.”
My head spun. ‘Amazing’ is what my mind screamed but that word didn’t even begin to cover what I was feeling. “We’re gonna need help, ‘Ness.”
“Betcha ass we are,” she agreed. “Especially after Re’nal and I leave for Switzerland next month.”
Oh shit. I’d totally pushed her moving to Europe away from any and all of my thoughts. But she was Re’nal’s dragon-trine, his wife and the third of his heart unit. Of course she’d move wherever he was stationed. As the new dragonkind representative on the Global Militia council, he was required to live close to where the GM congress met. The fact the world’s scientific community reported their long range scanners showed Earth had another five to seven years, at the minimum, of Berstat swarms only solidified the need to have DK representation in their mix. Especially since our men, in dragon form, were the only ones capable of dealing with those god-awful bugs.
“I gotta say, sometimes I miss Toxic,” she murmured, apropos of nothing.
I knew what she was referring to, of the simpler times of pulling beers and mixing drinks, dealing with protesters too cowardly to show their faces yet creating a shit-load of work in cleaning up their mess. And of the easier, flirtier times of being mesmerized by the WarDrags, a name I only used in my head. To me, it had never been a slur, but a cute nickname.
A time when things seemed simpler even though they hadn
’t been in the least.
“At least Daryl and Leilani still stay in contact, right?” It was the only comfort I could give her in that moment.
She pushed a couple of buttons and her screen went dark before she slowly closed the lid to her computer. “Yeah. There is that. This new twist those freak-a-zoids are taking, though?” She delicately shuddered as she disconnected her laptop, stowing the cords in her bag.
“Bestiality is just a crude, icky word,” I agreed. That was the latest thing the moral majority had taken as their platform. That Vanessa, I and any other human woman who wanted, dated or damn-well married a warrior were harlots from hell and suffered cruelly when ‘forced to succumb’ to our chosen one’s ‘bestial’ desires. “But if they’re gonna give us labels; I guess there are worst ones than ‘sinning animal lover’, right?”
She shot me an understanding smile as she stood. “So it’s tonight?”
At the reminder, my stomach dropped away, landing somewhere around my knees. “Yeah.”
Moving behind me, I felt her pause before a light hand touched my shoulder. “I hope yours will be as wonderful as mine was for me.” She leaned down, her cheek pressing to the top of my head. “It’s important to them. Just remember to make it important to you too.”
She stepped away but I didn’t watch her go. That was until she stopped at the doorjamb. “The latest reports are that Brecon guy took early retirement. But there’s a lot of speculation if he was forced to after being demoted. Since he’s gone and the squadrons have accepted the oranges and reds as apprentices, things seem to be on the up and up, Adri. Remember that, honey.”
Vanessa was right. Things for the legion of Warrior Dragons were going really well. Eron and I had watched the press conference just the night before where a new general, one not so stuck on himself and the right of military might, detailed General Brecon had chosen an early retirement. As I cuddled to Eron’s side, he’d held me tighter while breathing an almost inaudible, “thank Christ” at the news. I didn’t know Eron’s history with the man and really didn’t want to. All I knew was just the sound of the man’s name made Ver’gren chuff and roar every time it was spoken.
But that was yesterday and I still had stuff to see to before tonight.
Before the dragon-trine ceremony which would unite and seal me, Eron and Ver’gren into a three-being union no one on heaven or Earth could separate.
*.*.*.*.*
Ti’eron cast his eyes over the beach and looked at the half-moon hanging just above the trees. He’d programmed the GPS in Adri’s phone himself so she should be arriving anytime now.
Stop fretting, my warrior. Ver’gren uttered on a chuff strong enough to make his human’s mouth move. I built the shelter and dug out the woefully small fire-pit you designed.
His eyes moved from the tiny lean-to his dragon had painstakingly constructed, silently and so studiously interweaving branches together to make a water-tight shelter to the rock lined fire pit which was finally filled with the branches and logs he scoured for all afternoon.
You know we did not have air mattresses back in the day. It seems a shame to break with tradition just to provide for your modern day comfort. Not to mention, it smells of plastic.
Ti’eron stomped around the campsite, his dragon-enhanced eyesight running over the landscape, over all his and Ver’gren’s efforts to make their lakeside love nest as cozy and comfortable as possible for their woman. She’s still has pain, dragon. You don’t want our Annie hurting tonight of all nights, right? Thus, the fucking air mattress.
His ears picked up the sound of a car motor and Eron’s hearts began to beat faster.
She’d arrived.
Our beloved is here!
Ti’eron quickly shifted, allowing Ver’gren’s form to emerge as he heard her car door slam. Remember, she might turn on the flashlight on her phone. I told her it’d be okay since the torches you lit might not be enough for her to be able to see her way.
I can call on my dragon-fire if she needs further illumination! Ti’eron bit back a chuckle at Ver’gren’s aggrieved tone as they flew to his dragon’s favorite spot in the large lake, just yards from the shore.
Shh, beast. Our woman approaches.
Through Ver’gren’s eyes, Ti’eron watched as Adri carefully stepped down the path he and Ver’gren had cleared and then resurfaced with pebbles from the lake. She was wearing a heavy coat against the high mountain chill and pulled a suitcase on rollers behind her.
Christ! He’d forgotten how heavy the necessary items might be for her, had somehow thought she’d be able to carry them in a simple messenger bag or duffle.
That she was able to bring them is all that is required.
As ever, Ver’gren calmed him, correcting his thinking. I just want to make goddamn sure we do it right, dragon.
The three of us are here, with an intention to link our lives together. It is right, true and pure. It is all we can endeavor to do.
She pulled a piece of paper from her pocket of her thick jacket before shrugging out of it. Standing tall in the gossamer fabric of her simple gown, Ti’eron took in her body illuminated by the torches behind her. She was too achingly beautiful for words.
Glancing at the sheet of well-worn paper once, she raised her eyes to the lake although Ti’eron wasn’t sure if she could see them from her vantage point in the weak light the half-moon gave off. “I, Adrienne Votte, am here and call to Ver’gren, dragon-paired to Ti’eron Stalwar and request an audience.”
Ver’gren’s mouth opened and flames erupted catching the water on fire as he swept his head from side to side. “I ammm the dragon you ssseek, mmmilady.”
Ti’eron could count the number of times Ver’gren had actually spoken aloud on one hand in their years together and was astounded at the sound of his other-half’s voice. It sounded like him only deeper, gruffer with only a hum on certain syllables.
As Ver’gren began to move towards the shore, the fire licking over his scales as the water rippled, Adri again looked to the paper although it was shaking so hard Ti’eron was surprised she could even read it. “Then come, beast. Come so I can make you and your other half my own.”
Ver’gren’s feet hit the uneven rocks of the shoreline, taking him from graceful to trundling in only seconds. It never ceased to amaze Ti’eron how a dragon could be so fluid in the air and in water, but so ungainly on land.
Adri bent and the sound of the suitcase’s zipper rang loud in the night air. She pulled out a large jar and unscrewed the lid. “I’ve brought sand in order to scrub you, beast of my heart.” Pouring out a handful she held it out in offering to his Bronze. And Ver’gren dipped his neck, proffering the tender underside of his neck as he allowed Adri to rub the sand into his scales.
A croon was soon heard and Adri tipped more into her palms, using her short nails to scour it into any body part Ver’gren presented.
As soon as the last of the sand left the jar, she murmured, “That’s all I brought, Ver’gren. Sorry.”
It was more than enough, our Annie. Without hesitation, the dragon turned and rose into the air on a smooth motion, dipping into the lake again and again, shaking himself as he came up and out of the water.
“I have more, my dragon.” Her call interrupted his beast’s play. “Come see what else I have for you.”
Ver’gren again trundled along the shore until he was nose to nose with the woman both he and his dragon-pair wanted to spend eternity with.
“Let me dry you with sweet grass from the delta,” she called, holding a handful of stalks high. As soon as the dragon’s head dipped, she began running the bunch of greenery over Ver’gren’s scales drying him in the preferred way of all of dragonkind, only changing it out when it was no longer absorbent. She cast her last handful, as she had done the others, into the unlit fire-pit before her hands came back to stroke Ti’eron’s dragon’s snout.
Was that okay? The sound of her sweet, feminine voice coming along his connection with Ver’gr
en caused the man to shiver within the confines of his animal.
Perfect, our love.
“I have oil,” she whispered, pressing her cheek against his dragon’s in a move so loving, so heart-wrenchingly sweet, the dragon-pair held their breath. “Can I, you know, like, rub it on you?”
“Yesss.”
She pulled out another large jar and struggled with the cap. Once it released, it spilled everywhere, wetting her hands to the elbows of the sleeves of her rough gown. “Oops!”
Ver’gren crooned on a soothing note and draped his large head over her shoulder as she ran her slick hands over his scales, her fingers igniting Ti’eron as she caressed his beast. Goddamn, but her touch was both fire and ice!
It wasn’t long though before the jar was empty even though she hadn’t made it to Ver’gren’s tail. “Did I screw it up? Because I spilled it?”
“Nnno. Perfffect.” Ver’gren’s growl more than showed his satisfaction at all she’d done. And, as custom dictated, the large beast turned his mighty head to the fire-pit and with only a slight breath, set it aflame.
“Thank you, my beautiful, wondrous dragon,” she whispered into the night, accepting his beast’s confirmation of her suitability for them when they were in dragon form.
It was Ti’eron’s turn.
As he shimmered into his human body, naked except for his smile, he wallowed in her admiring gaze.
“I think I’m supposed to be undressed at this point, too,” she murmured as she reached for the drawstring that held the neckline of the simple, old-fashioned sheathe closed. With one pull and a sensuous wiggle, the dress piled around her feet exposing all her creamy curves to his eyes.
He’d been half-hard during the transformation from dragon to man but shot to full erection before her garment even hit the rocks. But custom held sway and he restrained himself from pulling her beautiful body, captured in the firelight, to his.
She half-bent and pulled out a smaller package out of the ever shrinking suitcase. “I’ve brought you a sweet cake, made with my own hands, to show I can cook for you.” Her eyes came up to his, twinkling in the light from Ver’gren’s self-started fire. “I hope Betty Crocker’s okay.”
Bound By Heat - Dragon Shifter Page 28