I glance at Nevada, and she grins at the look on my face. “Dexar’s tribe doesn’t do this, but when he heard about our tradition, he said it sounded like it represented his and Alexis’s relationship.”
I turn back to the happy couple. Alexis has her arms wrapped around Dexar’s neck, and his mouth is on hers as they ignore the whoops of the crowd.
“That part is meant to come later,” Nevada laughs.
Rakiz steps forward and murmurs something to Dexar, who pulls his mouth away from Alexis with a grin. Then he places her back on her feet and makes a show of pulling his hands off her, holding them up in the air.
The crowd laughs, and Rakiz hands him two golden bands.
“Lexi,” Dexar says, and my eyes fill with tears at the pure love on his face. “These bands represent our bond. Strong, true, and never to be broken. Will you accept them?”
Alexis is crying now. “I will.”
Dexar ties the bands around her wrists, and then Beth steps forward, handing Alexis her own bands.
Alexis smiles at him through her tears.
“Dexar,” she says, her voice cracking, and she takes a shuddering breath. “These bands represent our bond. Strong, true, and never to be broken. Will you accept them?”
His green eyes are practically glowing as he nods.
“I will,” he says solemnly, and she ties the bands around her warrior’s wrists.
Nevada leans close to me. “With this act, she’s telling everyone that she’s his equal and he’s hers, just as she’s his,” she murmurs.
“It’s beautiful.”
I brush more tears off my face, embarrassed. God, I’m losing it. Some of the reason is that the ceremony is lovely, and Dexar and Alexis are clearly so in love that their happiness practically shines like a beacon.
And part of it is that I so deeply miss my dragon that it’s taking every ounce of my self-control not to turn on my heel and walk out of the camp gates, through the forest, and up the mountain until I find him.
I blink as I realize the ceremony is over, and then I line up with the other women to hug Alexis while the Braxians slap Dexar on the back. Rakiz is grinning like a fool as he examines Dexar’s mating bands, obviously happy for his friend.
Alexis wraps her arms around me.
“Congratulations,” I tell her, forcing myself to smile. “What happens now?”
She grins back at me, obviously ecstatic. “Now we eat, drink, and dance.”
Tables have been set up around the clearing, and food appears as if out of thin air. This ceremony was a last-minute arrangement, yet you’d never know by the bunches of wildflowers sitting in tall wooden vases and the platters of food waiting for us to dig in.
I take my seat and can’t help but laugh as someone begins playing an instrument similar to a violin and Beth drags her huge warrior onto the small area being used as dance floor. He looks exceedingly uncomfortable, but he gazes at her like she hung the moon and the stars as she wraps her arms around his neck and beams up at him.
One by one, couples pair off. Ellie is sitting on Terex’s lap while he murmurs into her ear. Nevada is obviously teasing Rakiz because she elbows him in the gut and says something to him with a sly smile. He glances down at her, buries his hand in her hair, and takes her mouth in a kiss that has me fanning myself again.
Alexis and Dexar are still talking to well-wishers, although Dexar has his arm wrapped so tightly around her that it’s like they’re one person. She grins up at him, and the look he gives her is so tender that I have to glance away.
Even Zoey is dancing with her stone-faced warrior, although he insists on a slow, gentle swaying motion as she gives him an exasperated look.
And Ivy? Ivy is currently pressed against a tree on the very edge of the clearing, and I can see nothing but her arms around Vrex’s waist as he leans down and kisses along her neck.
These warriors obviously have no problem with PDA.
“Nothing but love around here,” Vivian murmurs, sitting next to me.
“How do you deal with it?”
She raises her eyebrow. “How do I deal with what? Being alone?”
I feel my cheeks heat. “That’s not what I meant.”
She laughs. “Well, first, I’m not currently pining for a guy who I lived with for several weeks, so that helps.” She shoots me a meaningful look, and I sigh.
“I miss him. I look around at all these happy people, and I just want to find my way back to his mountain.”
“So why don’t you?”
I chew on my lip. “I guess…if he can’t put his hatred for the Braxians aside and help us fight, then it doesn’t matter. I miss him so much, but he said he doesn’t belong here. And I’m not going to let those purple bastards win.”
Vivian is silent for a long moment. “I saw the way he looked at you. It was like it was painful for him to look away. I’m sorry it didn’t work out.”
“Yeah. Me too.”
Dragix
My family is buried on the east side of our mountain. Beneath trees that have stood here since my father was a youngling.
I never brought Charlie here. I’m not sure why. She would never have judged me for my grief.
Maez is kneeling by my mother’s grave, and she looks up, her eyes widening in surprise at my presence. I don’t know what it says about me that I do not come here. That I can’t stand to see the place where my family rests without me.
I glance at where Maez has been gardening, tending the area and making sure it does not become unkempt.
Something I
