Cai pressed his knee between Ember’s legs and sank inside her body.
She was filled with him, her body and soul and her mind, and her body rose in his arms with her cry.
He opened his mouth on her shoulder again. Warmth flowed over her shoulder, and then her chest, and then into her heart, and then it burned deeper into her flesh.
Her body bonded with his, a deep tethering that reached into her soul and the source of her magic and rooted. She reached for the cord growing between them and held on, clinging to it. His love poured through the nexus, finding her longing and need for him, and transformed into a union that joined them irrevocably, impossibly, and forever.
As the cord between them finished binding them together, the magic fed back into Ember, and everything became pulsing light.
The Ramifications of Being A Dragonmate
THE next morning, Ember sat straight up in Cai’s bed, gasping.
The tattoo of a dragon was emblazoned on her shoulder in jet black, crimson, and royal blue ink, or whatever magic had turned into ink under her skin. She touched it gingerly, expecting it to be sore, but the tatt felt perfectly smooth and healed. “Oh, wow.”
She had worried that it would form a keloid scar, but the tattoo and her shoulders where he had bitten her were perfectly smooth. Indeed, a bump of a scar near her neck was gone.
Beside her, Cai stretched in the sheets and smiled up at her, blinking his perfect, green eyes that were filled with dragonfire. A matching, vibrant tattoo stained his shoulder, though it looked even brighter on his lighter skin. “Good morning, dragonmate.”
“Your eyes,” she said, leaning over and looking at the emerald, glowing fire rushing through his irises toward the center.
He glanced up at himself in the mirror above the bed and grinned. “Yeah, they’re back to normal. I also slept better than I have in a month.”
“You’re a snugglebunny,” Ember told him.
Cai laughed. “I have never been accused of that before, but with you, I guess I am.”
She laid down next to him, and his arm and leg curled around her, drawing her closer. “You’re not a snugglebunny for anybody else?”
“Nope. I’ve never stayed the night before. I’ve never woken up with a woman in my bed before because I never bring women to my place.”
“Wow, so I’m your first.”
He laughed and cradled her closer to his side. “You’re my first and only all-nighter.”
She propped herself up on her elbows and smiled down at him. “So, you didn’t run away last night.”
“Nope, and I never will again. It’s been a rough month.”
“No kidding!” Her stomach rumbled under the sheet like she had eaten an earthquake. “How about some breakfast? I’m starving.”
He kissed her temple. “There are probably some things I should have mentioned about being a dragonmate.”
Uh-oh. She turned back. “Like what?”
“Like, dragon metabolism. You’re going to be hungry a lot, especially these first few months.”
“Ugh, I hate being hungry, but that explains why Bethany and Willow have been plowing through those revenge lobsters, potatoes, and chocolate cakes.”
“Yes, you’re going to need to eat a lot to keep your weight up.”
Weight up? No one ever said that. “Say, what?”
“Most women are used to eating less than a dragonmate has to. You’re going to need to at least double the calories you ate before. That’s what Math and Arawn said about their mates, anyway.”
“Oh,” Ember said. “That doesn’t sound bad. Can we get bacon with breakfast? I never eat it because of the fat grams.”
He reached for the phone. “I’ll just get two of the hungry-man breakfasts that they have.” Her stomach growled again, and he glanced at the sheet over her belly. “Maybe three.”
He ordered, though Ember added, “Tell them real cream for the coffee. And extra toast.”
Later, while they were eating at the dining room table in the penthouse, Ember kept sneaking peeks at his eyes.
Cai’s gorgeous, bright-green eyes reflected the afternoon sunlight from the wide windows beside them.
All the darkness had fled.
She asked, “So, are your eyes okay now? Is the dangerous part gone?”
He reached across the table to take her fingers in his. “It’s gone. I’ll live a long life now. Two hundred years or so, barring motorcycle accidents.”
“Oh, that’s problematic.” This part felt weird. “You know that witches have lifespans like humans, right? My grandparents died in their sixties.”
“You’re not a witch anymore,” he said, forking eggs into his mouth.
“I’m not? Wait a minute. No one said anything about giving up my magic. I have a couple of hundred elementals in bottles that will destroy Las Vegas if I can’t control them. I mean, all the way down to the bedrock!”
Cai laughed and wiped his mouth with a napkin, but he squeezed her fingers. “I said that wrong. You still have all your witch powers. But now, you’re a dragonmate. Your normal lifespan should be about two hundred years, the same as mine.”
“So, I’m going to live a long time, and I don’t have to eat kale to do it?”
“Welcome to being a dragon.”
“Okay, this is awesome. What else?” She stuffed an entire stick of bacon in her mouth.
“Have you looked in the mirror yet?”
“Um, no?”
“Your eyes have the same dragonfire as mine, though darker, of course.”
“Okay, cool.” She could do all kinds of things with eyeliner and mascara to highlight that.
“When we choose, we’ll make a dragonling. From what I understand, it’s the same process as mating, except that we form a new life from the bond between us.”
Ember swallowed hard. “So, I can go off the Pill?”
“Yes. We’ll decide when to do that, and it won’t happen until we do.”
“Oh, thank the Ladies. I gain weight so easily on those things. But I don’t have to worry about chubbing up, either, do I?”
“Nope. Have another croissant.” He passed her the bread basket.
“Oh, wow. Dude, I am so here for this. What else?”
“I mentioned I’m a duke, the Duke of Wyvern. And now, you’re my duchess. We’ll have to go and see your new home on the ducal estate in New Wales soon. I’m told it’s nice.”
“You’re told? Have you been there?”
He laughed. “I grew up in one of the twenty-two bedrooms.”
“Oh, modesty. Cute.” Ember’s mind was boggled by the number. “Wow, oh wow. Jeez, Cai. Anything else?”
“I’m in the running to be the Dragon King of New Wales. We’re currently in the process of picking a new one. Do you want to be the Dragon Queen?”
Ember dropped the croissant, and it banged on the plate. “Are you serious?”
He shrugged. “It could happen. At the first trials, it came down to Math, Arawn, and I—”
“Wait, Bethany and Willow’s husbands?”
“The very same, though none of us quite closed the deal. We three will be watched carefully this time, but anything could happen, of course. Someone else entirely might win the crown.”
“So, when does this next trial happen?”
“The day after the casino’s gala opening. We’ll have to fly back that morning to attend it. You’ll be an object of curiosity, the woman who caught the infamous Duke of Wyvern.”
Ember choked on the croissant. “Are you infamous?”
He shrugged. “I work with rock stars. Everyone makes assumptions.”
“Holy cauldrons, Cai. Do you want to be the king?”
He squeezed her fingers but lifted his other hand in helplessness. “Every dragon wants to be the king. It’s the biggest, shiniest bauble of all, and adding the throne to your proverbial hoard would be an amazing experience. But, I’m not sure I’m the best choice. Luckily, it’s not up to me. Ther
e’s a magical item, the Dragon Scepter, that chooses who the next monarch will be. It’s much better than the trials by combat that used to take place. A generation of dragons sometimes died, trying to take the throne.”
“Wow, so in a couple of days, huh?”
“In the meantime, let’s go see those flatulent sea serpents.”
“Yeah, and I’ve got to talk to Willow and Bethany, too. But after those donuts. Dibs on the double-chocolate ones.” She squeezed his hand. “This still feels funny.”
He held her hand tightly, too. “Math and Arawn said that we’ll get used to it, but they also said that mating is a new adventure that changes a dragon entirely. It’s like being reborn, they said, and I feel it. I feel like my whole life, I was waiting for you. Now that you’re finally here, everything has changed.”
She put down her croissant and crawled into his lap. “I’m so glad you didn’t die of mating fever.”
He nuzzled her hair at her temple. “Me, too.”
She giggled, but she choked up a little. “Do a lot of dragons die of mating fever?”
“Some, if they can’t seduce their fated mate into mating with them. Some survive the senescence and recover, but they’re never quite the same.”
“It’s a wonder there are any dragons left at all!”
Cai nodded. “In the olden days, the fated mate was an evolutionarily successful trait. Dragons lived in caves, alone. Such a hermitage doesn’t lend itself to meeting women. We’re all sort of introverted, even now. Back then, a dragon would fly over a village and see a maiden. Bada-bing, bada-boom, mating fever. He grabs her in his talons, carries her off to his stronghold, and dumps her on his huge hoard of gold and diamonds. Then he transforms and offers her a deal: she can be his dragonmate and live like a princess for the rest of her very long life, or he can dump her back in her village where they’ll probably burn her for being a witch because a dragon was flying her around, or she’ll certainly die the next time the Plague comes to town. Most girls went for it.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” Ember laughed.
“It’s a less evolutionarily selected-for trait now.”
“You’re sciencing it?”
“I don’t know why any woman would go for the fated-mate thing now. ‘Hey, we just met here,’” Cai sang, “and I may be crazy, but here’s my number, so let’s mate for all eternity maybe.’ That’s insane.”
“Yeah, that does sound crazy,” Ember agreed and snuggled up closer.
Cai rested his chin on the top of her head and rocked back and forth a little. “It’s a completely insane situation. It’s actually even worse. ‘Hey, we just met here, but now I’ve got a magico-biological imperative to mate with you-crazy, So, what do you say I bite you and fill your bloodstream with a mild neurotoxin until you’re semi-conscious and then I’ll burn you with dragonfire, and if everything goes according to plan, we’ll have nifty matching tattoos, but if it turns out that I was wrong and you aren’t my fated mate, you’ll probably spend the next six months in a hospital’s burn unit—maybe.’ So, yeah. I don’t know why I wasn’t having to beat the women off with a stick.”
She chuckled and rocked with him. “I love you.”
“I love you, too, my mate. I did not understand how lost I would be without you. If I had understood just how wonderful this day is, I would have proposed in the HR office the very first moment I met you.”
“Squidly would have had a heart attack, and I might have, too. Maybe it was better to take it a little slower, though the running-away stuff freaked me out.”
He pressed her head to his chest, and Ember could hear his dragon’s heart beating under his ribs and heavy muscle. “I promise never to do it again, Duchess Wyvern, my dragonmate.”
Walk of Flame
GIRLS, Ember swiped on her phone screen as she trotted out of Cai’s penthouse wearing last night’s wrinkled clothes. Can you meet me at the fountain out in front of the casino real quick?
Bethany texted back, Sure, we’re just drinking coffee and snacking. Be right down.
Snacking. Ember suddenly understood all their references to eating and snacking now.
Ember could eat.
She texted back, Bring me one of whatever you’re having.
Ember was already outside in the almost-noon sunshine and staring at the fountain by the time they arrived. She heard their shoes clicking up behind her on the sun-heated cement of the courtyard.
Fresh air blew around the fountain, while the air elementals sucked the sea serpents’ fart-methane up into their funnels.
The Pleiades fire elementals swarmed around the fountain, dive-bombing the serpents who kept sticking their scaly tails out of the water as they released their flatulence.
Sometimes, the tiny fire elementals managed to zoom past a sea serpent’s sphincter in the nick of time, causing a jet of flame to blast across the fountain.
Sometimes, the air elemental managed to vacuum up the methane, and then the fire elementals lit up the vortex into a fire whirl.
Then, the fiery air elemental dipped its tail into the fountain, sucking water up into its funnel to extinguish the fire, and blew the water out of the top of its funnel to rain back down into the fountain.
The water jets and waving curtains from the fountain’s real water show elements added some extra splashing to the sea serpents swimming around and slapping water at each other between blasts of farts.
Bethany and Willow walked up to Ember, both of them drinking something tall with whipped cream peeking out of the top and noshing on something baked and frosted.
Willow handed Ember a bearclaw and peered into her eyes, scrutinizing her irises. She turned to Bethany. “Yep, just as we suspected, Bethie. They mated.”
Bethany laughed. “Whelp, so you’ve tamed your wild dragon. Nice.”
“Yeah,” Ember said, examining the bearclaw to determine the best angle of attack. “It’s too bad that your handfasting is in two days. I’ll still be your maid of honor, though.”
Bethany laughed. “Oh, honey. That gorgeous sheath bridesmaid dress that you picked out comes in a bridal version, too. We made sure that they had a white one in your size, just in case. All you have to do is call the store and go in for a fitting today. Then, we’ll have the triple wedding we always wanted.”
“Really?” Ember teared up. “You did?”
Willow nodded around the cinnamon bun she was stuffing into her mouth. She sprayed crumbs when she said, “Yep. We got you a nice, long veil, too.”
“Oh, I always wanted a long veil. Is it cathedral-length?”
Bethany laughed. “Embie, we’ve been best friends since kinder. We made our wedding wish-lists on Wanderest together. Of course, we got you a cathedral-length, gossamer veil with a tiara.”
At that, Ember lost it.
She sat there and blubbered, mopping her face with the napkins that Bethany and Willow slapped into her hands while they hugged her, until she emptied herself of all the crazy from the last few days.
“I’m sorry,” Ember sniffled. “It’s just that elemental witches—”
“—run hot and cold,” Bethany and Willow finished for her.
They all laughed, but Ember got a prickly feeling on her neck that they were being watched.
And the fountain was suddenly silent.
The three girls turned around.
A trio of enormous air elementals, seven sparking fire elementals, and six sea serpents were staring at them, eyes wide. The ones with mouths had dropped their jaws.
Ember yelled at them, “What are you staring at? Get back to work!”
They all shook it off and went back to their odd dynamic equilibrium.
“I must admit,” Bethany said, “the fountain sure smells a lot better, and the fire and water displays are beautiful. Those sea serpents look like they’re having fun, snapping at the water and fire elementals. I can hardly wait to see what it looks like at night.”
Willow waved the air toward her, sniffing.
“I can’t smell any serpent fart at all. Is this a long-term solution?”
“Yeah,” Ember said. “I’ll have to switch out anybody who wants a break, but I think the three of us should be able to keep them happy. We can probably even delegate the daily feeding and vitamin potions and check on them just when we need to. I think the stinky sea serpents, the bored air elementals, and the rambunctious fire elementals have found themselves careers.”
Gala Opening
THE next day, Ember walked into the gala opening of the Dragon’s Den Casino with her head held high and on the arm of the Duke of Wyvern, her husband, whom everyone flocked to as soon as they entered the room. Music blasted from the bar as a cover band played every party anthem in quick succession. They had the crowd on the wide dance floor jumping to “1999” by Prince. Their last song had been Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life.”
She stepped backward as half the room rushed them like a tidal wave.
Cai grabbed Ember’s hand and tugged her against his side, his burly arm wrapped around her waist.
With his other arm, he shook everyone’s hand, even women who tried to divebomb him for a hug and a kiss. He introduced Ember to everybody as his wife, for the naturals, and as his dragonmate and duchess to the witches, mages, vampires, fae, and the cornucopia of shifters. Magic poured off them like heat waves.
The natural women seemed less impressed, still trying to get close to Cai before he turned his shoulder to them and pushed farther through the partying crowd.
The supernaturals didn’t even look Ember over before they stepped back. Cai had mentioned that it’s unwise to come between a dragon and their dragonmate. Sometimes, people got a little scorched. Sometimes, they lost their spines.
Bethany and Willow were standing with their dragons, two more tall, muscular specimens of the dragon-shifter type.
Mathonwy, the Duke of Draco stood next to giggly, little Bethany. His dark hair made him the epitome of tall, dark, and classically handsome, but when he glanced at Ember, his eyes glowed with molten gold and sparks. Bethany was a home and hearth witch, and most of the time, her domestic apparitions could clean, organize, and polish a room in minutes. Sometimes, they infested fountains and tried to eat people.
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