Somehow we’ve been at this all day. And as the sun begins to lower to dusk and the comet’s rays ruddy the land, I clear my throat.
Mother, Father, Leith looks at me. I hold their gazes. “Zaeyr and I have decided to stay. As long as we’re together.” We won’t let them force us apart. They can keep us as is, or not at all.
Finally, some pressure lifts—it vanishes completely when Mother smiles. I can’t help but smile back at her. Excitement for the future and everything it will bring with it fills me.
Father raises a cup of spirits, clapping it against Zaeyr’s—it’s more of a response than I could’ve asked for—and we all raise ours in celebration.
Then Issa, Tulia, and even Milaye grab hold of me and drag me to my hut.
22
Mating Ritual
Watching my mate get pulled away, I stop myself going after her, calmed by the laughter and the grin on her face.
I have never witnessed such happiness. Her tribe is not only a place of safety but community too, and love. The love she offers so sweetly to me.
I am beginning to understand humans. They are not at all the wretches we dragons make them out to be. If they can survive this world, like us, they must be great in their own way. Intelligent, emotional, strong…
As Aida disappears with her tribe’s women, my eyes drift back to Kaos.
Even from where I sit, I could sense the young in the belly of Kaos’s female—its life. Though now she is with Aida, I no longer feel the child.
To be so near another alpha dragon’s young and his mate—for him to be so close to mine—is unheard of. But here we are, humans both, not trying to kill each other. Succeeding.
Kaos notices my gaze and leans back. Stiffening, I watch him rise and move toward me. He keeps his wings retracted. I keep my tail relaxed in response. He sits.
“Good journey, ancient one,” he says.
“Good journey,” I tell him back. Kaos is an alpha dragon too, but younger than me. He is a dragon born of two other elementals: Earth and Water, and it is his water half that aligns us. Somewhere, far back in our ancestry, we may have shared a relative, but with so many years between then and now, we will never know.
Though, I wonder…
We sit in silence for a time watching the fire. Fire that, at one point, lived in our bellies. It grows as more wood is added, fighting off the coming twilight.
“You did not answer me that day I roared for you,” I muse at last.
He shrugs. Such a human gesture. “I had no reason to,” he answers.
I try shrugging myself. “It is for the best.”
“Yes.”
“You kept your wings,” I say.
Kaos hums. “You kept your tail. I say we are equal.”
I find myself chuckling. “Are we though? Really?”
“Perhaps we will find out in the years to come,” he muses. “Perhaps we will never know. I do not think our mates will like us battling.”
“You may be right.”
“I know I am. Aida is your mate’s name, is it not?” he asks.
Hearing Kaos say her name makes my heart pound. “Yes.”
“Issa has been worrying about her often since the storm. She was afraid you might destroy Sand’s Hunters, Aida and Leith with it.”
I stiffen, snarl. “Leith.”
“You do not like the young male?”
“He kissed Aida.”
Kaos growls. He understands. Dragons do not share, are deadly possessive and protective of their mates for as long as they have them. And I know, when it comes to human females, we will have them forever.
Growing antsy, my gaze goes to the hut Aida entered. Where is she?
Issa is gone too. Kaos must sense my unease. “Do not worry. She will be out soon. They are preparing her.”
I glance his way. “What do you mean?”
“Just wait and see. It will not be long now.” Before I can inquire further, he rises and returns to his previous seat. My attention returns to the hut. My brow furrows.
An eternity passes before the door opens. Or maybe several lengthy minutes. And it is then I realize that the entirety of Aida’s tribe is around me and the bonfire.
The three other females appear first. Milaye I already know, and Tulia I believe to be second. Kaos’s mate is third, smiling big. Her bright eyes find Kaos and she goes to him.
I wait for my Aida to emerge.
Preparing her for what?
When she doesn’t appear, I rise, planning to seek her. But then a shadow fills the doorway and I see her.
My feet stop mid-stride, stunned.
Aida steps from the threshold and into the evening glow. Awes fills me to see her in such a mesmerizing way.
Enchanted, her dark eyes catch mine, and I am lost. The firelight spark and even a glint of red shine in her gaze, all framed by black chalk that goes from her eyes to her hairline. My mouth waters.
Her long, beautiful hair is pulled away from her face, sharpening her features, hanging down her back in enticing waves. A twilight goddess of golden sands. Or a seductress coming from the deepest fires of the earth.
My eyes slip to her body. Her skin has been donned in glittering shells, gold and twinkling. Adornments go up her arms, her legs, even her fingers and toes have accessories—intent to seduce my gaze everywhere at once.
I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. I do not even try to hide my shaft, threatening to slip from my loincloth. She is dressed in dark green snakeskin that barely conceals her sweet parts. White pearls are sewn over her breasts and the crux of her sex. Pearls I want to tear off with my teeth. My water
