Then finally, Sasha signaled the start of her release, lips parting for a moment before he claimed them with his own.
And orgasm overtook them both.
Sasha cried out his name in heated oaths, and Dare found no words on his lips other than the name of the woman that was now his forever. White-hot light seared him through body and soul as her body writhed in tandem with his.
And from the ashes of release, something new flickered inside him. A part of him that he’d felt but never known existed until now.
He heard a distant roar and saw wings, black red, spread far above the ground.
Dare’s body jerked several more times, the slightest movement of Sasha enough to tease a few more drops of release from him. Even as it abated, he didn’t want to leave. He wanted to stay like this for as long as possible before they stepped forward into an unknown dawn out of darkness so pervasive Dare thought it could never end.
Finally, when he was ready, Dare slipped out and pulled Sasha close, her warmth a gentle reminder that none of this was a dream.
“Mate.” Dare clutched her close, both of them looking out the windows into an endless sky glittering with possibilities.
“Mine.” Sasha squeezed his arm, and he squeezed back.
It didn’t take long for Sasha’s harried breaths to quickly calm to a long rise and fall of air, interspersed with the cutest of snores.
Dare just stared out into the night. Way out there, lights in the sky were twinkling, reminding him of the woman in his arms.
He might still be in the darkness, but he’d finally found the stars.
Epilogue
Dare stared awkwardly up at Nathan, hands shoved in his pockets, as he and Sasha stood on the porch of his brother’s mansion.
Why had she even insisted he come here to make things right? Surely he would have done it on his own, eventually.
Nathan’s dark waves were tousled, and as usual, his eyes were kind and bright, and he had his arm around his human mate, Lillian.
“Dare. We weren’t expecting you,” Nathan said carefully.
“I can leave if you—” Dare looked at the ground, wondering why on earth he was doing this. He and his brothers hadn’t been close in a long time, and—
His thoughts were interrupted by his brother jerking him in for a hug, enveloping him in surprisingly strong arms. “It’s good to see you. I hated that you cut me off.”
Dare rubbed the back of his neck as he drew back from his brother, red in the face from all the mushy stuff. “Sasha said I should stop it. So I did.”
Nathan’s eyes turned warmly to Sasha. “Thank you. I’m glad you did.”
Sasha smiled as she took Dare’s arms and dragged him up the stairs and through the front doorway, to where Lillian waited.
“Lillian, this is your brother-in-law,” Sasha said. “That you should have met earlier. I mean, since mating is like shifter-married.”
Lillian looked cautiously hopeful as she extended a hand to Dare.
For a moment, he just looked at the small, soft appendage, then he reluctantly took it in his and gave it a shake.
“Nice to meet you,” he said in a low voice. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you.” She gaped up at him. “You look so different than you did when I first met you. Still, I’m glad you’ve decided to be a part of our lives.”
“Me too,” he said, releasing her as she turned her attention to Sasha.
“Now I need all the details!” Lillian squeaked, grabbing Sasha’s hand and pulling her to go chat in the corner.
As the girls talked animatedly, looking at Lillian’s ring on her finger, Dare stood awkwardly next to Nathan in dead silence.
Nathan cleared his throat. “So. What’s, um, next for you two?”
“I guess I’ll have to get her a ring now, thanks to your mate,” Dare said with a small smile.
“Sorry about that,” Nate said. “They do love jewelry.”
“I’m looking forward to it, to be honest,” Dare said. “Anything that marks her as mine, I want to do it.”
Nathan sent his brother a side-long glance. “Funny how that happens, right? One moment we’re a world away from humans, the next a human is our whole world.”
Dare nodded. “Sometimes I just worry about keeping her safe, with everything changing. They aren’t immortal, like us.”
Nathan exhaled. “No, they aren’t. I think we’ve both signed up for a heartbreak.”
“I’m not sure,” Dare said. “I’ve met up with someone who works with shifters in the world. An oracle. And I think she may be able to help.”
“Oh?”
“Yes,” Dare said. “I’ve also talked to another dragon, and he says their mates can take their lifespan while mated. So maybe that can happen with ours. The oracle said she needs to do more research.”
“But she isn’t the oracle that made the promise with us?”
“No,” Dare said. “Apparently, that’s her sister.”
Nathan simply nodded, lips pursed. He’d never been as concerned about the oracle situation as Dare. Nathan had always just wanted to be a part of the human world. Once he’d achieved that with Lillian, he didn’t much seem to care about their origin or the woman who’d created them.
As for Theo, who knew where he was at? Theo was always the quiet one, always keeping things to himself.
“I hope that’s the case,” Nathan said. “I’m willing to help her with any research she needs, to find out more about us. Even testing.”
Dare shuddered. “Better you than me.”
Nathan turned to him, a serious expression on his usually pleasant face. “Dare, I never thanked you properly. For protecting me in the lab when we were little. And for all the watching out for me you did in the real world. You had to grow up quickly, and it couldn’t have been easy for you.”
“Yeah,” Dare said, folding his arms awkwardly. “But we’re family. It’s no problem.”
“From now on, we’ll tackle things together, okay? If you want, you can even move in with Sasha, here with me and Lillian. We can watch each other’s backs.”
It was tempting, knowing there would be double fortification, but Dare wasn’t ready yet. He still wanted time alone with his mate.
“Maybe when we’re done with the honeymoon,” Dare joked. “Right now I can’t get enough of her.”
“I don’t think that’s ever going to change,” Nathan said with a smile. “After so many years of loneliness, being allowed to be with someone is like being in the sun. Except you can’t get sunburned, and it just feels better the longer you’re out.”
“True,” Dare agreed. “It’s incredible.”
Nathan smiled bashfully at his brother. “It’s nice to talk like this again, right?” He gestured to his study. “You want to go have a drink together? Talk more? The girls can chat for hours.”
Dare groaned. “I want my mate back. But sure.” Spending time with his brother wouldn’t be so bad either. Talking to someone, connecting with them, felt a little like using a muscle that hadn’t moved in many years. A little painful, but it felt good in the end.
They were in the study, and Dare was listening to Nathan extol the benefits of different types of Scotch, when they heard the loud rumble of an engine coming up the drive.
No car sounded like that.
Nathan raised an eyebrow, sharing a puzzled look with Dare. “Could that be…”
“Theo?” Dare finished. “Does he know that you live here?”
“I don’t know,” Nathan said. “He hasn’t visited. You know him. Keeps to himself, workaholic. And for the last couple of years, none of us have been close.”
Dare walked over to the window in the study and pulled back the drapes. A man was riding a fancy-looking, probably Italian motorcycle, speeding up the drive with no helmet or protection as only an immortal nightmare should.
Short dark hair, pale skin, sunglasses that shaded the eyes. Gloved hands on the handlebars. Long legs hugging
the tank and booted feet propped on pegs.
The motorcycle turned and skidded to an unnecessarily stylish stop, and the man threw a leg over, dismounting.
As he started up the walkway to the front door, there was no mistaking him or those striking, handsome features, so sharp they could cut glass.
“Theo,” Dare said quietly.
Nathan also stared at the window, hands on his hips. “Damn, he looks angry. Why is he here?”
Dare watched as Theo whipped off his sunglasses, revealing blazing, light-blue eyes. Theo preferred to wear really light contacts compared to the rest of them, probably an extra measure to hide his bloodlust.
Theo was more wary than any of them of being caught.
He disappeared from their view as he walked up the steps to the door and they heard a loud, precise pounding on the doorway, in a neat little rhythm.
“Oh god,” Dare said. “What about the mates?”
Nathan pulled out his phone. “I’ll tell Lillian to stay in her room with Sasha, just in case.”
Dare nodded jerkily. “Not that I think Theo would hurt someone, but—”
“Better safe than sorry,” Nathan agreed, sending the text and sliding his phone in his pocket.
The loud knocking on the door sounded again, and it seemed to Dare as if it could rattle the building.
“Should we go then?” he asked Nathan.
“Yeah.” Nathan threw back a glass of scotch he’d been pouring before they heard a motorcycle, and shook his head vigorously. “Okay, I’m ready. Let’s go.”
They walked to the front door, and Dare took the lead, pulling the door open, letting in brilliant, mid-day light.
Theo just glared at him, arms folded in a stylish, white and blue leather jacket.
Nathan stepped out beside Dare, making a welcoming gesture inviting his oldest brother inside.
Theo continued to glare at him.
Of all the brothers, Theo might be the most handsome, but Dare knew his icy gaze and prickly personality probably kept any humans from coming close.
It was how Theo managed to stay totally undetected by humans while still working daily with them closer than Theo or Dare would have ever risked.
As a world-renowned surgeon, he even went inside them and patched them up.
It was a clever way of getting black on his ledger, without ever having to connect.
Theo’s icy eyes continued to accuse them, and Nathan let out a nervous laugh. “You know, it’s hot out there, and it might be more comfortable to glare at us inside.”
Theo’s mouth quirked down in a frown and he took a step backward stubbornly. “I don’t think so,” he said in that crisp, smooth voice he’d always possessed. “Not while you have humans in there.”
“Our mates,” Nathan said quietly. “You don’t have to accept it, but that’s what they are.”
“I don’t accept it,” Theo said sharply. “How could you be so careless?”
“We’re careless?” Dare asked incredulously, stepping in front of Nathan. “You’re the one who works elbow to elbow with humans.”
“In a mask and gloves,” Theo said. “I do my work and then I go home. I don’t talk with them, or touch them. And I definitely don’t live with them.” He rolled his eyes. “I get that it’s lonely, but couldn’t you have gone with a different type of pet?”
Dare heard an angry growl from Nathan, felt him shove his way forward.
“That woman is everything to me,” Nathan said. “She’s not a pet, she’s not my food, she’s my everything. There’s something else inside us, Theo, and it bonds with humans quite closely, if we let it.”
Theo looked to the side, letting out a hiss of frustration. “I can’t believe the both of you could be so stupid. Getting lazy and domesticated.”
“It’s not bad,” Dare said. “In fact, I think it’s the first time in my life I’ve been happy.”
“Me too,” Nathan said.
“Maybe happiness isn’t for creatures like us,” Theo said. “We can still make our way in this world. Our mark. But we aren’t meant to live like this.” He gestured behind Nathan at the mansion. “On our asses.”
Nathan rose indignantly at that. “You don’t get to tell me how to live my life. Not when you barely know me.”
Theo narrowed his eyes and folded his arms, squaring broad shoulders. “I know you better than any human.”
“No, you don’t,” Dare said. “You know your hospital. You know your clients. You don’t know us at all, Theo. You’ve been too busy watching your own back.”
“We were better off alone,” Theo said quietly, turning his back to them and sitting down on the steps. He hunched slightly. “Now the world is going to get more complicated.” He looked over his shoulder at Dare. “I heard you’re even getting involved with other shifters.”
“Where did you hear that?” Dare asked.
“Your thoughts, when I arrived here.”
“Oh, damn,” Dare said. He’d forgotten that Theo’s gift was to see the present, what anyone was thinking or where they were at. A huge gift, and a burden to be sure. Not that Dare understood all the specifics.
Theo stood up abruptly, fixing an icy stare on his brothers. “And who is going to protect you, now that you’re domesticated? You can’t even transform every time.”
“You saw that too?” Nate said bashfully. “I mean, we can still transform if—”
“You don’t really know, do you?” Theo asked. “You don’t really understand anything of what you’re doing. Whether you’ll get to be with your so-called mates forever, whether the shifter world you’re trusting will hunt you down, or whether the so-called oracle will help you. You don’t know any of this and you are willing to let your guard down, cuddle up to a human, go into the light.”
“I couldn’t live in any more darkness,” Dare said. “And I can protect myself and my mate if it comes to that.”
“Me too,” said Nathan.
Theo gave a huff and a shake of his head. “Why do you think I work as a surgeon? I can do good in the world and I don’t have to get close. At the end of the day, I can go home alone, as I should be.”
“Or hunt,” Dare said.
“Or that,” Theo said sharply. “But I’m not sitting with my back turned, fucking a human and waiting for something to stab me.”
“Good god, Theo,” Nathan said. “Is that what you think sex is?”
Theo pressed his lips together. “Maybe you haven’t seen the same world I’ve seen.”
Dare was sure Theo had seen some pretty ugly things. But enough to make him actually feel threatened? He was a nightmare, for heaven’s sake.
“What are you so afraid of?” Dare asked quietly. “I don’t get it.”
“You wouldn’t, would you,” Theo said with a scoff. “Dare, always the brave one, always the troublemaker. You never had to deal with the mess.”
“What mess?” Dare asked.
“Never mind,” Theo said quietly. “I understand. You would put these women ahead of your own kind. I guess there’s nothing for me to say here, but I think you’re both being incredibly stupid.”
Dare’s jaw dropped and he had to make an effort to snap it shut. “Don’t do this, Theo. I know it feels like betrayal. I even cut off Nathan when he found Lillian, but we’re better together. Come meet them, and—”
“Humans?” Theo said. “Are you crazy? You want me to expose my identity to humans? I have a reputation. Do you think I’d be allowed to do my life-saving work if anyone got a hint of what I was? No.”
“So you do like humans,” Dare said. “You like saving them.”
Theo smiled. “I like seeing what they look like inside.”
Dare grimaced and saw Nathan fight back a gag. “Uh…”
Theo’s gaze grew slightly unfocused, and he slid his sunglasses back on as he looked out at the horizon. “I guess, yes, I like some of them. That doesn’t mean I’m delusional enough to think I could ever be part of their world. If
they knew what I was, they would hate me. Hunt me. Experiment on me. They would be no different from the shifter world.”
“Listen,” Dare said, putting a hand on Theo’s shoulder. “The shifter world here isn’t like the one we came from. They aren’t like we thought.”
Theo shook Dare’s hand off him, a bitter expression on his face. “You don’t know that. You don’t know anything. And you might just be trapped in human form when they come for you, helpless and soft and unable to protect what you love. Don’t expect to come crying to me when that happens.”
And then Theo was striding away, pulling his gloves on and heading for his bike.
“You’ll understand when it happens to you,” Nate said, taking a few angry steps to follow his brother. “I don’t feel weak. If anything, I feel even stronger.”
Dare nodded. The longer he was with Sasha, the more he became aware of another creature inside, one who was starting to spread its red-black wings. One larger and more powerful than his nightmare form.
“I’m telling you, Theo. There’s more to us than we thought. And we can’t figure it out on our own. Be open to finding that someone who can show you who you are. Maybe it’s time for all of us to be out in the world,” Dare said.
“As if,” Theo replied acerbically. “You two weaklings may have given in, but I’ll never let it happen. No human can make me give up my power. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to my work, where I will definitely not make the mistake of falling in love with a human.”
And then he was throwing a leg over the motorcycle, revving it and taking off, speeding away like a bullet of silver and white.
Dare just sighed, folding his arms and cocking a hip as he watched him. He looked over at Nathan and a smile curved the corner of his lips. “He’s so gonna fall for someone.”
“So hard,” Nathan agreed. “He won’t even see it coming.”
Then they both laughed and walked into the mansion, where their futures, their loves, their mates awaited them.
Nightfall (Nightmare Dragons Book 2) Page 18