Buried in her treasure, Elaina woke, tired and aching with pain. Why was she so exhausted?
Oh... The events of however-long-ago came back to her in a vivid nightmare.
She couldn’t deny any longer that she loved Alex. Months before, she’d marveled at his strength for enduring years of abuse to protect his mother.
She’d thought she’d never be capable of such a thing. She’d proven herself wrong.
Bittersweet tears made tracks down her temples. Like her mother, she’d chosen love over her life. But at what cost?
She was in love with her enemy. A man who was driven to kill her.
She pushed up to her elbows to scope out the situation. Coins jingled off her as she moved. Something shifted alongside her and pressed against her back, helping her up.
Her eyelids didn’t want to open. A gasp beside her told her why. She wasn’t done healing, and her eyes hadn’t yet recovered.
Being ninety-nine percent dead tended to require a lot of energy to heal. And she’d used up this pile.
Well, whoever was beside her was either going to kill her while she was helpless and blind or not. There wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it except ask for help and see if it came.
She rasped out the barely intelligible words. “Need new treasure.”
“This other pile over here?”
She shouldn’t have been surprised to learn it was Alex next to her, but she stiffened anyway. Then the whole I’m dead either way attitude came back to her.
“Yes.”
He lifted her to her feet and led her forward. Stuck in darkness, she could only follow. The toes of her boots hit another treasure mound, and he assisted her in lying down.
The reason for Nastav making his bed on the coins was immediately apparent. This pile was decidedly less comfortable, with sharp corners and gems poking her from all sides, especially as Alex buried her under a layer.
Maybe he was making sure she was at full-strength before killing her. If so, that whole “wanting a fair fight” thing was buying her more time, but for what? A long and drawn-out death instead a peaceful one in her sleep?
Metallic scrapes and clangs nearby indicated he cleared a spot and sat next to her. She wanted to protest that she didn’t want him there, but that wasn’t true. If he did kill her now, at least sharing this time with him would be her last conscious memory.
After settling in, she molded the metal objects around her body for comfort and in the process, claimed the hill of treasure. As one mound rolled into the next, her claiming encompassed half the riches in the cave.
The new energy under her control immediately went to work knitting her body back together. In her delirious state, she’d have sworn she felt Alex’s hand connect with hers, but sleep came too quickly for her to confirm.
When she next woke, her body felt whole once more. Her fingers twitched, but dream or not, Alex’s hand wasn’t within her grasp.
She sat up. Golden cups and bowls clattered to the ground, waking him where he lay several feet away on the rocky floor.
A sword—the same sword she’d used on Nastav—rested on the ground beside him. The torches throughout the cavern had long-since burned out, and now only a single torch lying near Alex filled the cave with flickering light that couldn’t compete with the glow from her recharged, full-dragon heart.
An eager glint in his expression outshone the feeble flames. “You’re better.” He scrubbed the back of his neck. “You are, aren’t you? You’re healed now?”
“Yes, I think so. Close enough anyway.”
It probably wasn’t smart to let an enemy know she wasn’t up to full strength yet. Then again, he’d had plenty of chances to kill her already.
He stood and leaned, checking out her head from the side. “Even your hair grew back.”
Her hand went to her scalp. “My hair was gone?”
“How much do you remember about your injuries? And how did you make it into your treasure pile anyway? When I left to fight your father, you were...” He wiped his face. “I found you by following a smeared trail of blood and chunks of flesh.”
At the description, she recoiled, her lips pulled tight. “Well, I remember that everything hurt a lot at first, but then the pain went away.” She rubbed her forehead at the memory. “I thought I was dead. That I’d died.” She scanned the battlefield, trying to remember. “I think a puddle of melted coins dribbled down to my fingers. That gave me the strength to crawl to my treasure.”
He grunted an acknowledgment but didn’t say anything.
“How bad was I?”
“I don’t know if I should tell you.” Before she could protest, he relented. “The reason the pain went away is because your skin and nerves were gone. You were one big open wound.”
“Eww.” She shuddered, her stiff, blood-soaked-and-dried clothes giving evidence of his words. “I’m glad I didn’t realize that.”
His chin angled toward the cavern’s ceiling. “It was rather...” He took another deep breath. “Horrifying.”
“I’m sorry.” She wasn’t sure what she was apologizing for, but he seemed traumatized by the experience.
His gaze latched on to hers. “Are you?”
“Am I what?”
“Sorry that you saved me? Sorry that you endured all that for me?”
“No, I’m not sorry about that. I’m—” One corner of her lips curved up. “I’m sorry you had to see me like that. So much for thinking I’m beautiful anymore, huh?”
“How can you joke about that?” He strode toward her, but stopped when she shrank back. “I saw you as a dragon. I’ve never seen anything more amazing in my life, and then to witness you destroying yourself for me?”
He swore under his breath and looked away. “I don’t deserve such a gift.”
She knew the answer, knew he would say he didn’t deserve her sacrifice when he was going to kill her anyway, but she asked regardless. “Why?”
“Your father was right. I am a knight.”
Even though she’d known that truth, his simple statement landed hard enough in her gut to drive stinging moisture to her eyes.
He nudged the blade on the ground with his foot. “This sword bonded to me, probably similarly to how you connect to your treasure.” His arms hung limp. “I was able to see your father’s heart, and I killed him.”
His voice quieted. “His last words were asking me to tell you that he loved you.”
She pressed her fingers against her lips. A confused mess of love, despair, and guilt bubbled beneath the surface. Her father had finally admitted the truth to himself, but it had been too late to save his sanity, to convince him to trust his feelings.
The bloodied shreds of Alex’s sleeve and pants made it obvious the two had fought. Brutally.
All those years of struggling to get stronger, and when it was necessary, she couldn’t hurt her father. Alex had no such trouble.
Honestly, she was grateful he’d done what needed to be done. What her father had probably wanted her to do—release him from his guilt-driven insanity. Alex had saved her father from his mental anguish and her from her cowardice.
She climbed out of the pile and met her enemy. “Well, you’ve been even more patient than Inigo Montoya waiting to kill the Man in Black. I’m ready now.”
“What?”
“You know, The Princess Bride? You were waiting for me to heal enough so you could kill me honorably. The whole ‘fair fight’ thing.”
Of course being a coward, she would have preferred him to kill her in her sleep, but she didn’t confess that fact.
He grunted and ran his fingers through his hair. “Is that what you think of me?”
“Yes.” What was he getting at? “You’re a great and noble warrior. I meant it as a compliment.”
“So we’re supposed to fight to the death now?”
“No. I won’t fight back. I—” Her arms crossed in front of her against her will, and she forced them to relax at her sides. “I’ve discovered I’m a coward. I’m not brave enough to hurt someone.”
“You are the furthest thing from a coward possible.”
She ignored his placating words. Her right hand sought the ring on her left finger for strength.
“I can’t hurt someone—especially when I love them.”
He took a half step back, his eyes widened, and his mouth hung open for a second. “You...” His voice lowered to a hesitant whisper. “You love me? You’re actually saying the words? You love me.”
“Yes. I love you.” She gave him a teasing smile. “You don’t think I’d go through all that for just anyone, do you?”
“I’m confused. You love me, and yet you’re prepared for me to kill you.”
“I don’t blame you for what you have to do. Instinct is instinct. So yes, I love you even though you’re going to kill me.”
He ambled toward her, and despite her brave words, she moved back. Accepting that she would die was different from being ready for it this second.
He sighed and scrubbed his face. “I’m not going to kill you, Elaina.”
“It’s okay. I understand. Please... Just don’t lie to me.” Her heart couldn’t take any more lies.
“But I’m not going to kill you. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever.”
She couldn’t breathe. Hope and denial battled in her lungs, leaving no room for air. She shook her head. “No more lies. Please, no more lies.”
His tone grew dead serious. “I swear on my mother’s grave that I’m not lying to you.”
“No.” She stomped her foot and swept her hand in front of her, indicating everything she’d witnessed. “I heard you. You admitted you needed to contain, oppress, and kill us. And I saw you. You were shaking with the effort to hold yourself back from attacking my father. You’ll go insane like him if you try to deny those urges.”
His brow lifted, making him too sexy by half. “How I felt about your father is entirely different from how I feel about you. He insisted I could never prove I won’t hurt you. I’ll prove him wrong.”
She scoffed, mostly to convince herself to hold on to her anger and ignore his attractiveness. His words weren’t evidence of anything. Not when it came to the murderous impulses of a knight.
“So you’re claiming you don’t have any urges to kill me? Pick up that sword. Show me.”
He hefted the sword and tossed it from hand to hand a couple of times. Then the blade became a blur as he spun and danced, fighting and parrying an imaginary enemy. The air sang, the metal whistling through the space around him.
The sight was beautiful and terrifying. She should have used the opportunity to put a few more yards between them, but she stood awestruck by his skill and the nimble motions of his body.
This was why she’d always felt the tingle of danger from him. Before, only the potential of this power had resided within him. Now he’d unleashed it. And fool that she was, she still wanted to be with him.
If anything, seeing him like this had increased her desire. His dangerous aspects had been a turn-on before, but now they were irresistible.
As quickly as he’d started, he straightened. The flat of the blade slapped his palm, and he swaggered toward her.
“Nope. I still don’t want to kill you.”
She shrank back from his power. The cavern wall right behind her interrupted her retreat, and she nearly bumped into it. She scooted around the edge of the treasure so he couldn’t trap her against the rock.
He followed with his slow stride. The more arrogance he showed, the more she wanted to go to him, surrender to him, put herself at his mercy.
She resisted.
Until his hand stroked her jaw and slid into her hair.
Then her legs weakened, and she dropped to her knees in front of him. She stared up at him, and her breath caught at the sexy image of his dominance.
“You submit to me, beautiful?” His voice was low, rumbling, and even more dangerous.
She couldn’t answer, but if her expression reflected any of the take-me-now craving burning through her body, he probably guessed the truth.
“And that’s yet another reason why I’ll never have the urge to kill you.”
She lowered her gaze and broke the spell. No, a knight’s instincts couldn’t work like that. Could they?
She had to make him stop these lies before hope let her heart believe. Words still weren’t enough to prove anything. Maybe there was a way to get him to take her seriously and back off at the same time.
She scrambled backward and stood. “What if I change to my dragon form?”
That had amplified Alex’s reaction to her father. Surely, it would do the same for her.
His eyes flashed in the dim light. “Yes, I want to see that again.”
She blinked. His response wasn’t quite what she’d expected, and she wasn’t positive she knew how to transform. Last time, her intuition had taken over.
She closed her eyes and imagined herself as a dragon, bigger, stronger, winged. Energy gathered around her, coalescing, and her body complied, growing into her dragon form.
Air swirled with an experimental flap of her wings, and she checked out the parts of her body she could see. Her tail swished happily at the view of white scales and changeling wings. Nothing like her father’s appearance. For a second, she forgot to worry about Alex.
He approached, his swagger gone, his sword lowered. “May I touch you?”
His tentative tone caught her off guard. She held herself still and answered in Drakish, her dragon tongue unable to handle English. “Yes.”
His hand skimmed over her scales, her wings, and her tail, exploring her body. The touch of his skin against her, massaging and stroking, once again filled her with warm tingling—the good kind. Hope tickled the back of her mind.
Then he placed his palm against her snout. “You’re beautiful. Renaissance artists had it all wrong. Angels should look like you.”
Her head pressed into his hand, just as she did in humanoid form. In Drakish, she asked, “You do not want to kill me?”
He blinked slowly, entranced. “I want to worship you.”
She wanted to believe him. Oh, did she want to believe him. But one last test of his instincts remained.
She pulled back and moved to the edge of the remaining unclaimed treasure. “What if I become more powerful? Will that not make me more of a threat?”
He followed and captured her jaw between his palms. “Do it. Claim it all.”
She reached across the cave with her senses and sought all of the unclaimed riches. One after another, the priceless objects fell under her control.
Her wings spread, unable to contain the energy. Power surged through her, and she shuddered with the effort to keep from flying in the constrictive cavern.
He yanked back and shook out his arms as though they’d been shocked. “That’s right, beautiful. Be stronger.”
Once her collection encompassed the entire hoard, she curled her neck back and peered down at Alex. His adoring gaze never left hers.
She had to concentrate over her dizziness to form her question. “You still do not want to kill me?”
He sank to one knee, bowed his head, and raised both hands, lifting his sword in offering.
“I hereby do homage and swear fealty to the life of Elaina Drake, Angel of the Dragons, to serve her in all things, to enrich her with my talents and abilities, and to never cause her harm. Here by my honor, my sword, and my heart swear I, Alexander Wyatt.”
His words rang with authority, filling the cavern with resonant power. If there was any truth to the mysticism of knights, he’d pledged his life to hers with an unbreakable oath of loyalty, no matter what urges his knightly nature might provoke.
She returned to her humanoid form and accepted the offered sword. An instinct beyond her understanding brought the words to her lips.
“I accept your homage and fealty and pledge to you that from this day forward, I will honor and trust you, just as I will protect the trust with which you have graced me.”
At the final word, tingles burst over her skin, as though their mutual energies celebrated their bond, their claim on each other. He stood and wrapped one arm around her waist. His other hand took the sword from her grasp and laid it on the ground.
He slipped his fingers into her hair, concentrating the tingles to her scalp. “Everything you wrote in the letter was a lie.”
“Yes.” A lump formed in her throat, and her voice cracked over the obstruction. “I’m sorry about that. I was trying to protect you, keep you from following me into who-knew-what dangerous situation.”
“I forgive you.” He raised his hand, showing the ring he’d never taken off, even after all the hurt she’d inflicted. His eyes glinted with the power of steel, but warmth rippled under the silvery-gray. “I believe in us.”
He caressed her cheek, and her head pressed into his palm. The advice James’s girlfriend, Peggy, had given her months ago for how to know when a relationship was real floated in from a memory.
Commitment? Between his oath and wearing of the ring, he’d proven his commitment to her both as a knight to a dragon and as a man to a woman.
Respect? This arrogant man had bowed to her and made himself defenseless by granting her his sword, all in his determination to respect her concerns.
Best friends? He understood her like no one else on the planet.
And on top of all that, he loved her, and she truly loved him.
Teasing danced in his eyes. “Does this mean you’ve claimed me again?”
“Yep.” She stroked his biceps, grateful he’d healed. Tingles along where they touched were all present and accounted for. “This time for keeps.”
His expression turned serious. “And now will you marry me?”
The warmth spreading through her chest competed with the fire in her heart. Her answer came easily. “Yes, of course. Yes.”
He kissed her as though there was no yesterday and no tomorrow, no worries and no lies. Truth, only truth, between them now. His lips and tongue meshed against hers with equal parts gentleness and passion, and all hurts were forgiven and forgotten.
Her giddy energy rush made her want to climb on top of him, but he leaned back and scanned her. “I’ve been waiting for this. No knights, no dragons, no fathers, no fear. Just us.”
Her heart felt lighter, but she still worried. “I don’t understand. How is it possible? Why aren’t your instincts forcing you to defeat me?”
One side of his mouth curved up in a devilish smile, and he edged her backward, closer to the pile of her hoard. “Oh, I do want to defeat you. But not on the battlefield. When it comes to you, all my urges to dominate come out in a different way.”
“A different way?” Were his words alluding to what she hoped?
He lowered her onto the treasure, which she reformed to get rid of the pointy bits. His breath floated in her hair, and he nestled near her ear.
“Yes.” He trapped her wrists with one of his large hands. “With you...”
His other hand gathered a fistful of her shirt and yanked, ripping the stiff fabric away.
She gasped, and her heart raced in anticipation, thumping wildly in her belly. She did love this about him.
His palm molded her breast, and his thumb stroked her nipple. “I want to control your pleasure.”
She arched into him and moaned. Oh yes, she’d missed this. Very much.
“I want to own your body.” He unzipped her pants and maneuvered them down her legs.
“You have it. Take me.”
“I want to own you.”
“I’m yours.”
He removed the tatters of his jeans and set himself at her opening. His expression hardened and became fierce.
If he were anyone else, she’d be terrified. Instead, she squirmed with need. She needed him, in all his arrogant, domineering, controlling glory.
He separated her wrists and restrained them on either side of her head. His hips pressed threateningly.
His eyes glinted like steel. “I want to fuck you so hard I break you.”
She wiggled her brows in challenge. “I want to see you try.”
And with that, he thrust into her.
The force of his impact, repeated again and again, set off a landslide of treasure, nearly burying them in priceless riches. She laughed, unable to contain her happiness.
This was everything she’d ever wanted. And more.
This time, when they both came, she was the one to shout. “God, I love you!”
His yearning sounded in her ear as he crushed her to him. “More than anything else, I want to keep you forever.”
The words resonated deep within her, revealing the truth: Their future was whatever they wanted it to be.
She’d proven she’d give up everything for him, and he’d done the same. But now, they didn’t need to give up anything.
She could claim the fortune waiting in her father’s cave, and Alex could use the spent treasure for his philanthropy projects. Now that her body was mature, they might even be able to have the children he wanted. All in all, they had as much chance to make it as any other couple.
The world might want them to be enemies, but they didn’t have to submit to anyone or anything but each other. In fact, now that she thought about it, a dragon and knight could be an unstoppable team.
She squeezed him in return, matching his intensity. “Forever.”