by Tami Lund
Talia. And who the hell was holding her in his arms? His dragon prowled restlessly in his head, ready to rip someone’s head off.
He moved closer, and once his pupils were dilated enough, he recognized the couple as Talia and her sister.
Whew.
Wait. Who was crying, Talia or Jasmine?
“Uh… are you crying?”
The two women jerked apart; Talia sniffled and swiped at the wetness on her cheeks, clearing her throat and not looking him in the eye.
“Are you…are you okay?” he asked.
She nodded and lifted her face to the ceiling, blinking rapidly. “I’m fine.”
“Why are you crying?”
“Um…”
“That little speech about fated mates,” Jasmine explained.
“Really? You’re crying over that?”
Talia finally looked at him, although it was a watery glare. He had to bite his lip to keep from grinning at how affronted she appeared.
“Did you need something?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
They both looked at him, clearly expecting him to explain. When he didn’t elaborate, Talia said, “Well? What do you need?”
“You.”
Jasmine said, “Eep,” and pressed two fingers to her lips, while Talia stared at him, her eyes so wide they took up half her face.
He cupped the back of his neck. “I, uh, like I said, I think you really are my fated mate.”
“Oh my,” Jasmine whispered.
“But…you don’t want a mate,” Talia said.
“I didn’t, until you came along.”
“I’ve been here for five years, Gabe.”
“And I’ve needed you that whole time. I just didn’t realize it. Well, I did, but I didn’t think it was in this way. I thought it was purely business. But really, it’s in every way.”
“This is so romantic,” Jasmine murmured.
Talia flung around to face her sister. “Could we have a minute, please?”
“Oh, right.” Jasmine glanced at him. “Sure. I’ll, yeah. Um, bye!” She shot away into the darkness, back into the auditorium or deeper backstage, Gabe had no idea. And he didn’t give a hot damn either. Because Talia was looking at him in that way she’d started to shortly after they flew together for the first time. Like maybe she liked him, too. Or maybe…maybe more than liked.
“I’m sorry I’ve been avoiding you these last couple weeks. I just… I didn’t know what to do. I was still trying to figure out how to handle the fact that, despite everything, I still wanted to be with you. And I’m sorry I lied about the condoms.”
She wrapped her arms around her waist. “I’m sorry I lied about Ruby being your daughter. I never meant… I was trying to protect her.”
He scrubbed his hand through his hair. “And fix me.”
“No. I mean…”
“I get it, Talia. It doesn’t make your actions right, but I understand. You wanted me to be a better person.”
“The person I knew you could be,” she whispered. Tears glistened in her eyes. These weren’t left over from earlier. These were fresh.
“I was scared,” he said. It was time to go for broke. “Of what I felt for you. The people who were supposed to love me the most in the world abandoned me when I was too young to understand. And I’ve spent my entire life fearing it would happen again. That’s why I kept everyone at arm’s length. And then when I suspected you were my fated mate, I was even more afraid. Worried you’d leave me too. So I figured the best way to ensure I wasn’t deserted again was to avoid making it official. That’s why I lied about the condoms.”
“I understand,” she said.
“I won’t do it again. I swear.”
“Me neither. I promise. And I will never abandon you, Gabe. I couldn’t.”
They stood facing each other, close enough to but not touching, their gazes clashing and shifting away, until the silence became so deafening, Gabe blurted, “I think… I-I love you, Talia.”
“You do?” She startled, her arm raising as she drifted closer, until she touched his bicep. When her fingers grazed his skin, they closed, wrapping around his arm and holding on like she never intended to let him go. Which sounded like a marvelous plan.
“I do.” He slipped his arm around her waist, tugging her to him. She fell against his body, sighing as she melted into him and rested her head against his chest.
“I’ve fallen in love with you too,” she said, so quietly it was barely more than a breath of air. But it was enough. His dragon roared his approval, and Gabe could almost swear he heard her dragon roar too. Then she looked up at him, cupped his face, and kissed him, hard, open-mouthed, loaded with hot desperation.
He twisted one hand in her hair and grasped her ass with the other, walking her backward until she hit the wall. She lifted her leg and twined it around his, widening her stance and rubbing against him like a damn cat.
“Let’s go back to the house, make it official,” he said between kisses.
“Uh-uh. I can’t wait.” She shoved her hand into his pants, wrapped it around his happy-to-feel-her erection.
“Talia, the entire damn colony is right—” She squeezed. “Never mind.”
He tugged her skirt up to her waist and shoved her panties down her legs. She wiggled out of them and then focused on unbuckling his belt. Before she could push his pants down to his knees, he grabbed his wallet out of his back pocket. “Condom,” he said. “Fuck, I can’t wait either.” He ripped off the wrapper and sheathed himself as quickly as his shaking hands would let him. As soon as he was covered, she leaped into his arms and wrapped her legs around his waist.
He grasped his pecker and dragged the head along her seam. She was soaked, hot, wet, and ready to do this. Why the hell had he waited so long?
“Are you going to do it already?”
He shook his head. Now wasn’t the time to dwell on how stupid he’d been these last few weeks. Now was the time to make Talia his mate.
“You ready?” he asked.
She threaded her fingers in his hair and looked him in the eye. “More than.”
He thrust. She met him, letting herself drop at the same time, so that he damn near slammed into her as they consummated their love.
“Mate,” he said, a growl in his voice, his teeth clenched, as he thrust again and again. Non-sex had been pretty damn amazing, but this, this was something altogether different. From everything. For all his experience, all those nameless women, none of it prepared him for this. For…for utter perfection. Ecstasy. If humans were to name this mating ritual, they’d call it heaven. He never wanted it to end, except—
“Gah!”
Talia made a gurgling noise and pulled his hair to the point of pain while her inner muscles clamped around him, milking him as her orgasm overcame her, pulling him along with her. He gladly followed her over the edge. He’d follow her anywhere.
They clung to each other, hearts beating erratically but yet in rhythm, both breathing in pants, their dragons doing a celebratory waltz in Gabe’s head, until someone—not Talia—cleared their throat.
“Shit.” He pulled out and stood in front of Talia, his back to the intruder, while she smoothed down her skirt and he slipped off the condom and tied the end before dropping it in a nearby wastebasket and tugging his pants up over his hips.
“So,” came a voice that sounded a lot like Adelbern. “You’ve decided to take a mate?”
Gabe glanced at Talia, who gazed back owlishly.
“Um, yeah.”
“Good.”
“Sorry,” Gabe said. “I didn’t think we were being loud.”
Adelbern chuckled. “You were shaking the rafters. Half the colony thought we were in the middle of an earthquake.”
Talia snickered. Gabe reached down, found her hand, and twined his fingers with hers.
“Well, now that we know it wasn’t a natural disaster, I’ll leave you two to work out the details.” Adelbern shuffled away, a
nd Gabe blew out a breath.
“That was slightly awkward,” Talia said.
Gabe shrugged. “He didn’t see anything. And it isn’t the first time he’s caught me in a compromising position.”
“Not what I want to hear.”
He leaned forward and kissed her nose. She flattened her palm on his chest and then tightened it into a fist, twisting his shirt and pulling him close so they were eye to eye.
“Do you remember when I first brought Ruby to you?” she asked, narrowing her gaze. “And you said if you had to take a mate, I’m the one you’d choose?”
“Yeah.”
“And do you remember why you said that?”
“Uh…”
“Just so we’re clear: I’m not okay with you going off to get a piece of ass from someone else.”
He barked out a laugh and pulled her into his arms. “Good to know. And just so you know: no other woman has existed, as far as I’m concerned, since that first time we flew together. You are the only piece of ass I’ll ever be interested in, for the rest of my life.”
She smiled and kissed him.
“So you know what this means, right?” he asked.
“That we’re mates.”
“Fated mates.”
Her smile could only be described as sappy.
“Know what else it means?” he said, tugging on a lock of her hair.
She eyed him warily, like he was about to revert back to the reeve she’d been tolerating these past five years.
Not a chance.
“It means one of these days, I’m going to knock you up and you’re going to give me another kid.”
With a laugh, she swatted at his chest. “Don’t get ahead of yourself there, mister.”
He chuckled and swung his arm around her shoulder, guiding her toward the exit. “Come on, let’s go fly. Somebody recently told me that when fated mates fly together, it’s like foreplay.”
“Then we’re doing it backward.”
“No, we’re not.” He glanced down at her. “You didn’t think that was the only time tonight, did you?”
She snorted and then slapped a hand to his chest. “Wait a minute. You really want six kids?”
He laughed and grabbed her hand and pulled her out into the night, running across the lawn and shifting, soaring into the sky, his mate by his side.
Six?
We got this. Together.
Always.
Epilogue
Talia sat next to Gabe at the Elders’ counsel meeting, listening to Adelbern recap everything Gabe’s father said the night before. She’d heard most of it already. She hadn’t burst into tears and left the stage until the man said his mate had run away after the curse was cast.
Although the part she missed was one of the most important pieces of information: Gabe was half Rojo dragon.
“The good news,” Adelbern explained, “is the colony is so aflutter over learning the origin of the curse, they barely noticed when he said your mother was Rojo.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that she is,” Gabe said, his voice edged with annoyance. Talia reached under the table and placed her hand on his knee. He covered it with his own.
“No,” Adelbern said. “All it really does is give us a place to start looking for her. If she’s still alive—and I certainly hope that’s the case—it stands to reason she would have gone back to her home colony when your father jilted her.”
Gabe nodded. “Did he tell you anything else after I left?”
“Only that he swears he’s been searching for a way to break the curse all this time.”
“Seems unlikely,” Gabe said. “He knew she was Rojo, so why wouldn’t he go to that colony to seek her out? I think it’s more likely he’s been searching for his mate all this time. And because of the curse, they can’t sense each other, so unless she wants to be found, he’s shit out of luck.”
She and Gabe had this same conversation last night, while they lay in bed, sated from making love yet still too keyed up to sleep. And they’d agreed: It didn’t make sense that Gabe’s father had unsuccessfully searched for Dahlia for the past thirty years. Unless he thought he could break the curse without her help, but that, too, seemed unlikely. Maybe for a few years, but eventually, a sane person would have given up and gone to the source.
Exactly what Gabe told Talia he planned to do. Well, sort of. He gave Talia’s hand a squeeze before speaking. “We’re going to send scouts down to gather information, see if they can find my mother.”
“You have someone in mind?” Adelbern asked.
He nodded. “Petra.”
She’d told him about Petra’s confession. Gabe had been annoyed mostly because, if only she’d spoken up five years ago, he would have given her the damn job and wished her luck and gone about his merry way. Now he was vested. Talia knew he wouldn’t let his colony down or force them to start over with a new reeve. Not anymore.
But he admitted he felt sorry for Petra too. By all rights, the position should have been hers. He didn’t know why the Elders had passed her over. But she was Talia’s friend, and he wanted Talia to be happy. So he offered Petra a compromise: Find his mother. Figure out if she created the curse. If she did, convince her to break it. Take the glory. Then get on with her life.
She’d been annoyed at first, but she was a smart dragon, and she knew her options were limited. Plus, the woman clearly could use a vacation.
“And what about you?” Adelbern asked. “What will you do?”
Gabe gave Talia a blinding smile. “I’m going to practice being a better reeve. And practice being the best damn mate any dragon’s ever seen.”
Talia grinned back. That sounded like a marvelous idea.
The End
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Into the Light
Shifters dominate the human world, while Lightbearers stay hidden away in their magically-protected coterie. That is, until Olivia Bennett, princess of the Lightbearers, is captured by the most powerful shifter of them all—Quentin Lyons, who believes that to kill a Lightbearer is to inherit her magic.
His son, Tanner, doesn’t believe his father’s theory. In the ultimate betrayal, Tanner rescues Olivia and vows to return her to her home. Along the way, he discovers two other Lightbearers who have left the safety of the coterie, not to mention an attraction to the Lightbearer princess that becomes increasingly more difficult to ignore with each hour he spends in her company.
The attraction makes no sense. Lightbearers and shifters have been mortal enemies since the dawn of time. He’s supposed to feel the urge to kill her, not … well, you know.
Turn the page to read the first chapter…
Chapter 1
They found him in a no-name bar in a no-name town, playing pool and getting hustled by a human. Tanner spared a moment to determine he would rather continue to be hustled out of his hard earned cash than to talk with the two shifters who stood at the other end of the pool table.
He bent at the waist to take his shot, brushing an errant lock of hair out of his face as he did so. The redheaded woman in the pink shirt and blue jean mini that barely covered her ass noticed the gesture. He wondered how fast he could get rid of the two reminders of a life he’d left behind ten years ago, so he could make a move on the human.
Tanner took his time taking his shot, partially as an excuse to size up the intruders on his shifter-less life. Finnegan Hennigan, coppery hair, pale blue eyes, same age as Tanner, arguably the best tracker in Tanner’s former pack—if not the country. Not surprising they’d found him, with Finn assigned to the task.
The other one was Mickey Rollins, dark hair, dark eyes, a young punk who co
uldn’t be more than twenty, was probably more like seventeen or eighteen. Tanner remembered him as one of the many in the pack who idolized the pack leader and everything he stood for.
“Your father sent us,” Mickey said when Tanner made no move to acknowledge their presence.
Tanner did not take his gaze off the pool table. “There’s a shadow on the table,” he commented in a gravelly voice that was rough as sandpaper from lack of use. Tanner didn’t talk much. He didn’t have anyone in his life worth talking to.
Mickey scowled, but obligingly shuffled to the side. Finn smirked. Tanner took his shot, a sloppy one that nonetheless landed in the corner pocket. His human opponent nodded his approval and offered a word of advice for the next time he had the same opportunity. Mickey looked enraged that the human was even speaking to Tanner, let alone offering him advice on playing pool.
“He wants to see you, Tanner.” Mickey tried again to pull Tanner’s attention.
“I don’t give a fuck what that bastard wants.” He took another shot and succeeded in pocketing the cue ball.
“He captured a Lightbearer.”
Tanner didn’t even lift an eyebrow. “Again? You know, Wyoming doesn’t have a very large human population to begin with. At the rate my father is going, he’s going to wipe them out.”
“It’s for real this time,” Mickey assured him. He glanced at the human pool player, who appeared oblivious to their conversation as he proceeded to run the table.
It’s always “for real this time.”
“Quentin Lyons rules the most powerful shifter pack in the country. He has everything a shifter would want. Why the fuck does he keep wasting his time chasing myths?”
He even had women, any and all the women he could possibly want, Tanner thought ruefully as he eyed the redhead again. Unlike Quentin, Tanner sometimes had to work to attract a warm, willing body into his bed. At a young age, Tanner had become aware that Quentin made a habit of sleeping around, despite having been mated to Tanner’s mother for nearly forty years. Shifters may mate for life, but in Quentin’s world, that didn’t mean they had to stay faithful for life.