She swallowed, but shook her head. “I’m not ready.”

  She wasn’t ready for forever with him. The only thing holding the slicing, lay-him-open-and-leave-him-bleeding pain at bay was the knowledge that she’d still chosen him. He cupped her breast, kneading, his own need still riding him hard.

  “You need time?” he asked.

  She swallowed, arching up into his touch, but nodded.

  “Okay,” he murmured. Then he pressed a long, sweet kiss against those lips swollen with his kisses. They didn’t have time to wait, but he’d move heaven and hell to give her what she needed. He’d damn well breathe easier when she was fully his, but she was his mate. Hurting her in any way, even just rushing her a little, would level him.

  She twined her arms around his neck. “Good.” Then she pulled him into her, deepening the kiss, exploring his mouth with a boldness that lit him on fire, figuratively speaking.

  A soft tapping, as if someone was knocking on glass, sounded in his periphery. Fallon was so far gone, he didn’t stop what he was doing, his every sense tuned to the woman beneath him.

  But then another knock came. With a frown he lifted his head, cocking it to listen.

  “Fallon?” Maddie questioned.

  There it came again. Someone was definitely knocking on the glass doors in the living area which led out to a private balcony. Only one or two scenarios occurred to him as a reason for the interruption at this time of night. None good.

  He dropped his head to Maddie’s shoulder, breathing hard. Why now?

  “Fallon?” she asked again, hands exploring his ass.

  Of course, still human, she wouldn’t have heard. “Someone is at the balcony doors,” he murmured.

  “What?” she squeaked, eyes going wide.

  He held up a finger to her lips. “We might be in danger. I can’t explain right now, just know that it’s possible. I need to check it out. Stay here?”

  She nodded.

  As he rose from the bed, she snapped up her PJ top, yanking it over her head.

  Fallon left the door to the bedroom open as he went to the balcony doors. A face peered out of the darkness through the window, and part of Fallon relaxed. Not Cole. But still not good. Immediately he knew what was going on. “Shit.”

  “Who is it?” Maddie asked from where she stood in the doorway.

  “Asher.” His training kicked in, and Fallon went into “get it done” mode. “I’ll explain in a minute. Can you get dressed while I talk to him? Something warm.”

  Because they would be flying soon, unless he missed his guess.

  Maddie disappeared to do just that.

  She trusts me.

  He ran a hand through his hair. Damn his mate was incredible. No doubt she was apprehensive, but she was still levelheaded enough to know when to save questions for later. Fallon opened the door with a quiet click and Asher moved inside.

  “Is it happening now?” Fallon asked straight away.

  Asher nodded. “Do you remember a man named Ladon Ormarr?”

  “Yeah.” He could picture the guy, about the same age as Asher, so roughly a hundred years older than himself. “Decent guy. Scary fighter, but fair, as I remember it.”

  “He’s challenging Thanatos for the crown.”

  Holy shit. No one had challenged a king in centuries in any clan as far as he knew. The last one was for the gold throne a long ass time ago, and the man who won was still king today.

  “Exactly,” Asher said. Not that Fallon had voiced his thoughts, but he was sure the shock reflected on his face.

  “If he succeeds,” Asher continued, “then the other clans won’t trust blue dragons. Ladon is an open critic of Pytheios.”

  The Rotting King of the Red Clan—and the de facto High King—who all the other kings bowed down to, wouldn’t like that.

  “And that puts you and your mate…”

  “In a fuck ton of danger. Potentially.” Fallon ran a hand through his hair again as he thought through the ramifications and his position as an Enforcer. “Do I have time to get us back to my team?”

  “No.”

  “Damn. What’s the plan?” No way would a man like Asher not have a plan.

  “We head to Scotland.” Where the Blue Clan was headquartered inside Ben Nevis mountain. “If Ladon is successful, we’ll find safety there.”

  “And if he’s not?”

  “Then we pretend you’ve decided to bring your mate home, rather than return to the colonies.”

  “The Council will refute that.”

  Asher shook his head. “Macon has decided to stay, siding with the current regime of kings. He wants to retain his position as an Alliance member in the Americas. If Thanatos wins this fight, he’s…agreed”—Asher gave a grim smile—“to inform the Council that you were eager to show off your new mate to your king and you left with me.”

  Fallon put his hands on his hips, eyeing the man in front of him closely. “Who are you to Ladon Ormarr?”

  “Right now? I’m his insider. When he wins, and make no mistake he will win, I will be his Beta.”

  “Why aren’t you there fighting?” Fallon asked, not bothering to hide his suspicion.

  Asher cocked his head, though a grim light darkened his already fathomless eyes. “Plausible deniability should this thing go south. Ladon will still need me on the inside.”

  Fallon relaxed, dropping his arms to his sides. Made sense.

  “Besides…he said he owes your brother.”

  Finn? Since when? “What about the others?” Jorrah, Paolo, even Cole.

  “All the other blue dragons have left here.”

  Instinct had kept Fallon alive for this long, in a job that saw more fighting than most among his kind. The desire to get back home to his team dragged at him, but that instinct also told him Ladon would win and the other clans would immediately hold all blue dragons for questioning. What if the Council members separated him from Maddie? Just not worth the risk. Not with his mate—who wasn’t completely his yet—in the mix.

  “If you’re coming, we need to move quickly,” Asher said.

  “Yeah. We’re coming with you.” Fallon spun on his heel and hustled back to the bedroom. Maddie was already dressed and, to his surprise, filling a backpack with clothing.

  “What did you hear?” he asked.

  “Enough.”

  And she was ready to go with him on the basis of that alone? Gods he loved this woman. He crossed the room in a few long strides and gave her a long, hard kiss. “You’re amazing.”

  “True.” She grinned.

  He stepped back and happened to glance down, then grinned because she was wearing a black T-shirt that read, “Surely not everybody was Kung Fu fighting.”

  He had his Maddie back.

  “What about Cole?” she asked, pulling him out of his head.

  He just barely held in a growl. She was still worried about that asshat?

  His opinion must’ve shown in his eyes, because she swatted his arm. “He was a friend and took care of me. I can’t just leave without at least trying to help him. Even after his little display earlier.”

  Fallon had to grudgingly admit she was right. “He’s already gone.”

  She grimaced but nodded. “Okay.”

  After that, everything was a rush. He pulled on jeans, a dark shirt, and boots, then stuffed what things he could in Maddie’s backpack. He couldn’t carry his duffle when he was flying. It would be too small for him to grasp with his talons.

  Ready to go, they followed Asher out into the night. The balcony had a spiral staircase leading to the ground floor. They took it, then, sticking to the shadows, made their way away from the castle into the countryside beyond.

  Just beyond the long, still reflection pond, Asher changed direction, heading outside the fencing into a field beyond. Once they were far enough away, Asher stopped in a clearing. “Here.”

  Last chance to back out and choose to stay, give the Mating Council the benefit of the doubt. Jagar had upheld Maddie’s choice today. Fallon trusted the system and the clans—hell, he’d been upholding their laws—for centuries. He should trust them now.

  Except Maddie wasn’t his yet. Her vulnerability in this scenario scared the shit out of him. He should’ve insisted they mate. She’d understand better if she’d could feel connected to the shifters their bond would make her part of, and she’d be harder to kill. Harder to take away from him.

  Did taking her away, thrusting her so immediately into the violence of his world, mean he would lose her? Death or injury weren’t the only risks. She could witness something that might make her run from him.

  But if she asked him to let her go, no way he could ever do that. He’d go rogue, forsaking his kind to be hunted by them all his life, so that he might live as a human by her side, helping her with escalating dragon sign. But let her go? Never.

  We can’t stay. He knew the decision was right. Man, did the timing suck balls, though.

  Fallon nodded and turned to Maddie. “Have you seen a dragon shift yet?”

  …

  Maddie

  Was it bad that she was a little eager to see Fallon as a dragon, even when she knew they were in danger? Maddie nodded. “Cole had to show me to convince me.”

  Fallon grimaced at the mention but didn’t comment. “Good. Once I’m done, I’ll lie on the ground so you can climb up on my back. Use the spiked ridges as an anchor.”

  She nodded, though the way he’d kept her close, tension riding his lean body, as they snuck through the shadows had her own danger radar pinging off the charts.

  He took her face in his hands. “Don’t worry. I would never let anything happen to you.” He gave her another hard kiss and she leaned into him, chasing more, but knowing they didn’t have time.

  The one thing she’d asked for was time, but maybe she’d made a huge mistake.

  He backed up and shifted, watching Maddie closely as he did so. The silent process took a small amount of time to complete. According to Cole no pain accompanied the change, no sensation, just the odd realization of the change in size and perspective.

  To Maddie on the ground, shimmering disturbances in the air surrounded his body, giving him a blurry sheen, as though he were disappearing from her sight while staying right there. Skin and clothes disappeared, replaced by steel blue scales, almost grey in the darkness. His wings flared out from his back, then settled with a sound like the crinkle of leather against his back. He wrapped his tail around his body, only just avoiding felling a few trees with the dangerous spikes that shot from the tip.

  Maddie couldn’t help it. She’d seen Cole shift, but had been focused mostly on not being terrified and the new reality that dragons really did exist, inside human bodies no less. But with Fallon…the raw power and subtle grace combined to make a beautifully formidable creature. She stared at him with an open mouth and he waited, watching her closely, and somehow she knew he was nervous for her reaction.

  “You’re beautiful,” she murmured.

  Fallon snorted a laugh, smoke curling out of his nostrils with the sound. “Not the word I would’ve chosen.”

  She jumped a little as his voice sounded in her head. In dragon form, Cole had told her his kind was able to communicate telepathically, aiming the thoughts to individuals or to groups as needed.

  “That was a bit loud,” she complained. More like piercing.

  “Sorry,” he said in a quieter tone.

  “Let’s go,” Asher broke in.

  The dragon beside Fallon was dark navy, appearing black in the moonless night. One side of his tail was missing, as though someone had cleaved the tip of his tail in two, leaving only half of it. There had to be a story there, but Maddie knew better than to ask right now.

  Fallon lowered to the ground, and, with zero hesitation, Maddie scrambled up his side and squeezed herself between two of the series of spikes forming a ridge from the back of his skull to the tip of his tail. She sat at the juncture of his shoulders and his long neck. The spikes were surprisingly smooth, while his scales were both soft and hard beneath her, shifting slightly with each breath he took. Below she imagined she could hear a low rumble of the flames burning inside him.

  “Hold on tight,” he instructed.

  She wrapped her arms around the spike. Following Asher’s lead, he unfolded his wings. Giving a great heave, he launched his body into the air, the force of the action making her glad for the spikes to hold her in place. Quickly, they gained altitude.

  Maddie wondered if night was better, or maybe day for these two. During the days before the mating process, Cole and then the Council had given her a crash course in dragon shifter-ness. Of all the dragons, blue dragons faded into the sky the most, though that applied most during the day. Black dragons were more camouflaged at night.

  They circled the castle from the air, and she didn’t dare speak to ask why. Not given shifters’ enhanced hearing. At a guess, Fallon and Asher were checking for any sign that they’d been discovered or followed.

  After a second go round, Asher tipped his wings, heading due northwest, and Fallon followed suit. After a few minutes shivering, a sudden warmth beneath her surprised her. A glance down showed Fallon’s scales glowing ever so slightly, like a faint nightlight. His fire keeping her warm. From high in the air to those below, she imagined he appeared like another glittering star.

  “Hold tight, luv. This will take a while.”

  Chapter Ten

  Maddie

  They’d had to stop several times for Fallon and Asher to rest. Dragons’ bodies were big. They took effort to keep aloft. Apparently, that meant they couldn’t go great distances without pausing. No ocean crossings for them.

  The last time they stopped, Asher brought them to a small cabin in what she thought had to be Scotland by now, tucked into the side of the mountain range that apparently held their intended sanctuary. The structure was barely a single room with a roof.

  “Stay here while I find out what’s happened,” Asher said.

  The navy dragon had been silent most of the trip. Fallon had explained to Maddie who Asher was and what was happening. Leaving the fighting to his friends while Asher had no idea of the progress couldn’t be easy.

  Fallon inspected the cabin from top to bottom, which took less time than it took to extinguish a tea light, then flopped to the ground, as the space held no furniture. He scooted back to lean against the wall and waved Maddie down to him. She dropped the backpack then sat and curled into him, giving a contented sigh. She hadn’t done any of the work but was exhausted nonetheless.

  In seconds, wrapped in each other, they were both out.

  She had no idea how many minutes or hours had passed when Fallon jerked against her, pulling her out of her sleep. With a hiss of pain, he sat up, gripping his hand. “What the hell?”

  Maddie sat, too, listening for signs of disturbance and danger. “What’s wrong?”

  Rather than indicating an outside threat, Fallon pulled away one hand to reveal the mark between his finger and thumb to be glowing white hot. As she watched, the intricate design shifted, like a den of slithering snakes, until a new design formed.

  Fallon’s lips pressed flat, but she couldn’t tell if pain had him grim or something else.

  “What does it mean?” she asked.

  “A new king for the Blue Clan. The house of Ormarr.”

  Given what Fallon had told her, Ladon Ormarr must have won the throne. What did that mean for blue dragons the world over?

  Including me. As soon as they mated. The impact of that fizzed through her in an odd combination of anticipation and reservation.

  Grogginess fading fast, Maddie glanced around. Darkness had fallen again, which meant they’d been here for hours. Fallon smiled, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, caring in the small caress transmitting through his fingertips to her heart.

  Her mate.

  “Damn, you’re the most precious thing I’ve ever seen,” he murmured, low and gravelly. Flames lit his eyes for a millisecond before dimming, his smile faltering. “What kind of world am I bringing you into?”

  Maddie snuggled into him, her heart melting at his sincere concern. “A world I was born to be part of. I’ve felt the truth of that since the moment I found out what I was.”

  “Good.” His breath stirred the hair at her temple.

  If they weren’t in a cabin with zero furniture, she might think about taking advantage of being alone.

  Before she could make a move, Fallon loosened his grip. “We have company.”

  A sharp rap preceded the door opening. Asher entered, both hands lifted. “It’s me.”

  “What the hell happened to you?” Fallon asked, as he got to his feet, helping Maddie to hers.

  She’d been thinking the same thing. The man was covered head to toe in blood.

  Asher’s lips flattened, his eyes going dead and glassy. “We won.”

  Not with ease, by his appearance and the fact that he’d joined the fray against Ladon Ormarr’s orders.

  “Are you injured?” Maddie asked at the same time that Fallon stepped forward. “Do you need my blood?”

  That’s right. He was a healer. “How does your blood help?” she asked.

  “Dragon blood has healing properties,” Fallon explained. “I’m a universal donor. Every dragon can take my blood.”

  Handy.

  Asher shook his head. “This is not my blood.” Before she could absorb the fact that a man was soaked in someone else’s blood, he held the door open. “Follow me.”

  They shifted outside and Maddie climbed up onto Fallon’s back. As soon as she was settled, they took off into the brisk night air. The crisp scent of snow drifted on the winds, and Fallon again warmed his scales for her.

  “How much longer?” she asked.

  “Not long. Just another—”

  “Fuck. Dive!” Asher yelled.

  …

  Fallon

  Trained to obey orders like those without hesitation, Fallon slammed his wings back and arrowed down. Maddie screamed at the sharp drop, but managed to wrap her arms around him and hold on. The navy dragon did the same, keeping pace with him.

 

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