“You need to make a choice, Melody,” Trent warned her.
Worried, her gaze shifted between the two of them. A choice? How could she?
But Trent laughed. “No, sweetheart. Not between us. Between us and bonding. Either the three of us take this back to your cabin and explore where it goes, or you take the dragon down to the arena and bond his sorry ass. Either way, you’ve roused him beyond reason and only those two things will soothe his beast.”
Melody looked back at Nick, startled to see that ruby red scales crept down his arms and up his neck. His face had elongated, longer teeth jutting across his lips. The wildness in his gaze told her that Nick was nowhere to be seen, this was all his dragon.
“They’re losing control, Melody,” Trent told her gently, rubbing her arm. “They’ve waited over half a millenium, and here you are in front of them, but still out of reach. It’s worse than ever, because they know that their salvation is so close.”
Nick still hadn’t moved, predatory eyes watching her, waiting for her decision.
“You haven’t noticed, but I have. They’re touching you more and more. Hell, we all are. We need that connection from you. The danger you’re in only heightens that.”
Melody frowned. No, she didn’t want this, she didn’t want to be pressured. This was supposed to be about her making her own choices.
“I enjoyed our interlude in the bedroom, but I want more from you, Melody, and we’re already bonded. Think how much harder it is for them. I know you want your choices, well, you’ve got one. Start bonding us, or you’re going to hurt us all. Choice isn’t just about the chocolate cake or the caramel. It’s about the consequences too. Cake makes you gain weight. Waiting hurts them, makes them crazy. Dean wouldn’t have carried a screaming witch into a classroom before he met you. You’re changing him, changing us.”
Everything he was saying made sense. She knew he was right, but something still made her hesitate.
“I’ve never held a bond for longer than an hour,” she said, finally. The two of them listened intently.
Trent nodded when she didn’t continue.
“I’m still learning how to juggle three of you. I can feel all of you pulling at me all the time. You’re asking me to add four more. That’s a lot of bonds, even if I am a strong witch. What if I can’t manage it? What if you go feral?”
Nick’s nose nuzzled against her neck, sliding up to the base of her ear and along her jaw. Melody just wanted to melt into his touch.
“Three of us have magic, Melody. You don’t think we can’t help prevent that?”
“But what if you three are the ones who go feral,” she countered.
“Melody, my soul is attached to yours. Kitsune mate for life, the only time I’ll go feral is if you die before me, and if that happens, I’m a dead man walking anyway.”
Nick kissed across her chin and across the other side of her jaw, nipping and nuzzling down to her other shoulder, and effectively blocking her view of Trent.
“The only way he’ll go feral is if you walk away from him right now,” Trent continued. “It’s painful, but he’s trying to give you a choice.”
“How do you know?” Melody asked.
Trent sighed. “Because he’s crying inside my head, Melody. I’m here convincing you to accept him, like he’s not good enough, like he hasn’t waited long enough. You’ve already turned down Justin once, and I don’t think Nick is strong enough to walk away from that if you do it to him.”
Hundreds of years bonded to these shifters. That’s what she had to look forward to. If it didn’t work out, she wouldn’t be able to have the bond broken, because they’d need a witch capable of taking it on, and she was the only one. Their only hope.
It was like a switch flickered on.
Hundreds of years. Only hope.
Suddenly she saw not only her future stretched out in front of her, the wondrous possibilities, but the past. She saw them, waiting, wanting, pining. And here she was. What they had was inevitable, and she was denying it, denying them.
Melody felt awful. All she’d ever known was slavery, so these few precious freedoms were wondrous to her. But they had known freedom before they were trapped here. They’d had it taken away, and now it was being dangled in front of them, it was torture, and she was the one causing the pain.
“Arena,” she gasped, as Nick began nibbling up her neck again.
“Trent, get us to the arena. We need to do this now.”
Everything blurred.
One moment, she was crushed between Nick and the wall. The next moment she was in the arena, Nick panting in front of her.
“Are you sure?” Trent asked, standing beside Nick whose golden eyes shone.
“I’m sure, challenge me, Nick.”
But it wasn’t Nick’s voice who spoke, it was Trent’s.
“He can’t speak, his forked tongue doesn’t work like that. I’m translating for him.” Trent tapped his temple and she knew that Nick was talking to him there.
“Melody Canticum, I challenge you.”
Melody blinked and found herself nose to nose with a ruby dragon. The sunlight glimmered off his wings as they beat the air, and cool fire sizzled against her skin. It didn’t hurt, in fact, it tickled a little, but she was too distracted to think about it too much.
She kissed the giant snout, then took a step back, raising her arm in front of her. It wasn’t necessary, but it felt right.
“Shift,” she told him in a ringing tone.
Nick fell backwards, but just as quickly he was on his feet again, whirling around with her in his arms.
From the other side of the campus, a trumpeting roar sounded, and a huge black beast shot into the sky, quickly hidden by the clouds.
Melody looked at the man in front of her, wondering at the beauty of their bond. For all that she’d bonded
