Oh.
The answer. The tribe. Father… everything comes back to me like a speartip to the heart, taking away the headiness of the moment.
For a time, there’s stillness between us.
He hums low, almost in warning. “Do not think of them.”
“I can’t help it.”
“It is because they are important to you.” He sighs.
Swallowing, I close my eyes. “Yes.” No matter how hurt or angry I am with Delina. My tribe is and always will be one of the most important things to me in my life. If this journey of surrendering a future with Leith has proven anything to me, it’s this.
“We will go to them soon,” he grumbles, and I ease up against him.
“Thank you.” I mean it. So, so much. “I will make this better,” I tell him for his sake because I still feel guilty. “This thing with Father, and Delina, will be nothing soon. I promise.”
Zaeyr pulls me from the water, wraps a clean hide around me, and helps me back into my clothes, tying the strings, adjusting the shells and teeth adorned on them. It’s such a kind, unexpected move on his part that my throat tightens. All my strength has returned by the time I’m ready. He dresses in his loincloth. Finding a cape in the nearby stashes, I pull it around his shoulders and button it at his torso.
Stepping back, the only word that comes to mind is dashing. My dragon is handsome.
Wrenching my hands at my sides so as not to touch him again, I know the time has come for us to leave the cave.
We make our way to the entrance, bringing the torch to light our way, ditching it when the dawn’s light brightens the path.
The smell of the ocean fills my nose, the sea breeze whips my heavy hair away from my face. Zaeyr takes my hand and leads me into the light. We stand there for a time as our eyes adjust to the light shining down and the brilliant blue skies above.
“Not even a wisp of cloud,” I murmur as it all comes into focus. “It’s as if the storm never happened at all.”
“It happened,” he mutters.
I turn to him. “What do you want to do?”
He knows what my question means, what I’m inferring.
“I want to build a nest with you, human, and cover you in my protection.” He glances toward the turquoise water beyond the rocks. His face falls and I frown. “I had a nest built, a sapphire and pearl cave filled with all the jewels of this gulf within, with walls that were high and tunnels that ran deep—all for my future mate. Hundreds of years of my life, I prepared the space, waiting.”
My throat strangles further. “Under the mermaid kingdom?”
He nods.
“It sounds beautiful.”
He looks at me. “It was. It was all for you.”
“Zaeyr…”
“Do not,” he hisses. “I have a confession to make myself, Aida. Several, in fact. I know you harrow with guilt because you touched me, but you should not. You may have sought a dragon for a mate, but you did not seek me out specifically, and I gave you no choice. That day on the beach… I was searching for that other dragon that arrived—a rare femdragon in heat—but when I saw you… It was you who stole my mind, my heat. She wanted to destroy you but I would not, could not let her. You were already mine.”
Swallowing, I try to turn away, but Zaeyr reaches up and cups my cheek, rubs my lips with his thumb. Too much. Too much, dragon. Don’t make me fall. I don’t know how I can possibly feel any more love for you… It’s already overwhelming.
“Your touch…” His voice softens. “I wanted to hate you for everything you stole. My instinct was to punish you, to force you to be mine, to break you—not once thinking of who you were or might be to your tribe. Maybe it was the bond, or maybe not, but I could not hate you, not even from the beginning. And I tried, human, oh, I tried. I realize now those feelings never came because you gave me everything that I ever wanted: someone to spend my life with. Someone to banish away all my years of loneliness.”
I press my cheek into his palm and try hard to keep my tears inside.
“I was so lonely,” he chuckles, drawing my gaze back to his. “I spent countless years building a nest for what? Hope? I am glad it is gone, human, because it would only be a reminder of the past.” He leans down to press his brow to mine and I shutter my eyes. “So when we return to your people, know that I do not care what choice you make, whether it is to stay or for us to leave.”
“I love you,” I gasp. I can’t help it. My chest hurts; his words constrict my soul. I can no longer keep my emotions at bay. Inhaling deeply, the ocean and Zaeyr’s scent pulls into me. It’s beautiful—it’s home.
“Love?”
“Yes,” I whisper. “I love you.” I don’t care if he says it back. It wouldn’t change a thing.
“Is that this overwhelming heat in my heart that makes it heavy when I think of you?” he asks.
“Yes…”
“The need to see you all the time or I may perish?”
“Yes.”
“I love you too, little human.”
My chest explodes and I slam myself into him, curling my arms around his large form. He picks me up and takes my mouth. His primal taste fills me to the brim.
This, I realize, this is what we both have been waiting our whole lives for. No one can take this away. No one can take us away.
21
A Future Full of Dragons
The tribe’s abuzz by the time we’re pulled up the lift. Several rafts are docked on the beach, half unpacked with supplies.
If my heart couldn’t thunder anymore with contentment, it still does, knowing
