Chapter Twenty-Three

Meira slowly drifted her way out of sleep, trying hard to stay under, not wanting to let go of the dream that had been so real to her, she had a vague idea she’d cried out her protest at leaving it.

Blinking away the last vestiges of the dream, she couldn’t shake the pressing certainty that it had been more than that. A vision.

“Meira? Are you okay?” Warm hands enveloped one of hers where it lay on the bed.

Samael.

Memories rushed in on a swell of heartbreak, and she sucked in a sharp breath, but at the same time, the vision she’d had cocooned the pain, making it more…bearable. She turned her head to find her mate watching her with shadowed eyes. He looked as though he’d aged a decade or two, face pinched and haggard. But the emotions radiating at her reflected her own. Grief cushioned by sheer relief and…happiness.

“Sam,” she croaked, throat dry and sore.

“I’m here.”

“I just saw—” She paused and shook her head. How could she explain it? He’d think it was a reaction to the trauma she’d been through.

But she knew, that knowledge settling into her heart like a balm and yet pinning her with an urgency that was undeniable.

He lifted a hand, tracing a finger over her cheek, gaze so tender it made her ache. “What did you see?”

Rather than answer, she leaned over in the bed and placed her lips on his. The need inside her clamored, the ache growing to need at the simple touch, at the sand and fire scent of him in her lungs. The mark on the back of her neck heated and burned, but in a good way.

Samael groaned against her lips, but he took her face in his hands, pulling back gently. “Do you remember anything?”

He thought she’d had the pain of those memories knocked from her? “I remember.” The tidal wave threatened to rush back in. “Make me forget, Sam. Just for a little while.”

She moved to kiss him again, but he held back, though he swallowed hard. “I want to, Mir. You have no idea how much. But…”

“But?” She searched his face, waited for emotions to pelt her.

Except that wall was up. “We have too much to discuss.”

She knew he was right, could feel his need to unburden himself of the emotions he’d been struggling with while she slept. He’d lost a man who’d been as close to him as a father, watched her lose hers all over again, and so much more.

Meira licked her lips. “Tell me.”

“The Black Clan has voted to accept me as king and you as queen. They are aware of our mating.”

She couldn’t get a reading on how he felt about that. “Were they angry?”

“After seeing us both fight and sacrifice for them?” He shook his head. “Most are…welcoming.” At that she did sense a sarcastic edge to his thoughts.

“And those who aren’t?”

He shrugged. “Some will leave, if they haven’t already. Most will stay and wait.”

“I see.” She blew out, long and low. “I’m so sorry. About Gorgon.”

Only a small shaft of blackness pierced the emotions inside him. Guilt and grief all fused together.

She took his face in her hands. “He sacrificed himself for you. Knowing that we’d mated. He forgave you, if he ever harbored any ill will. I’m sure of it.”

Samael nodded again. “I’m sorry about Maul.”

Meira closed her eyes against the slivers of reaction threatening to set in. “My father.” She’d take ages to sort through all that. Right now, all she knew was that underneath her own sorrow and shock was…a grateful heart. “He was with us all that time. Protecting us.” She opened her eyes, tears stinging but not falling, and smiled. “I wish I’d known.”

Sam nodded. He took a few breaths, as though getting ready to speak but not sure what to say. “And us?”

As if she could leave him? As if she ever would. “We’re mates.”

“I left you—”

Didn’t he understand? She lifted her hair from the back of her neck and turned so he could see the mark there. “You figured it out in the end.”

He brushed a finger over the brand, sending shivers of gorgeous sensation skating over every nerve ending.

Then he dropped his hands from her, fisting them on the bed beside her, leather gauntlets, for once, not worn. “You say that, but how can you forgive me? I was going to leave you, die so that you could be another man’s. I—”

She picked up one of his scarred hands and pressed a kiss to the puckered skin. “You were acting like a mate. Protecting me the only way you could see. I understand.”

“You’re amazing,” he murmured.

“Not really. I figured something out through all this…”

Her mate both frowned and smiled at the same time, as though the emotions themselves were battling to take over his face even as the struggle in his heart pressed against her. “What’s that?”

“That the fates seem to know what they’re doing.”

“I thought you don’t believe in the fates?”

Meira shrugged. “I’ve seen too much proof lately to not believe. Two things have convinced me the most. One”—she held up a finger—“in the middle of when you were trying your hardest to sacrifice your life in that idiotic plan, our bond solidified, saving us both. Because I would have died without you, bond or no.”

The strongest man she knew trembled against her. “Hell, Meira…I don’t deserve you.”

“And yet I love you anyway—”

She gasped as Samael surged forward, taking her lips in a kiss that was both wild and tender, lips seeking lips, tongue seeking tongue, speaking of forgiveness and love, faith and trust, and a need too long denied. His emotions buffeted her both through her gift and through the unique link that connected them now. Relief and grief and elation and forgiveness all swirling together. Underneath that intensity, a surging need to claim, to bask in the fact that they were mates, now and always. No matter what came next.

Gods, she loved this protective, self-sacrificing man with emotions that ran deeply inside him, an underground river that only she knew.

Shoving aside the blankets, he joined her in the bed, his weight pressing into her in the most delicious way, the hard length of his cock jutting into the soft skin of her belly. Hands turned frantic, and for a second, she hoped… But then, on a long groan, he pulled away, burying his face in her neck and breathing hard.

“Don’t stop,” she begged.

He groaned again. “I don’t want to, but we’re not done talking.” He lifted his head, and finally…finally she could see hope surging through the depths of grief and self-blame in his eyes.

“You said two?” he pressed.

She smiled, that urgency from her dream surging forward. “I think I’ve had a vision.”

Samael blinked, and she chuckled. He probably wasn’t expecting that. “A vision?” he asked slowly.

She nodded. Then, unable to contain herself, she pushed forward to kiss him again. “I’ve seen our child, Sam,” she whispered against his lips. “A son.”

Her mate went rigid with shock against her. “I didn’t know you had visions.”

She tipped her forehead against his. “I didn’t, either, but I saw him. He has your hair and beautiful coloring, but my eyes. He’s tall and strong and smart, and he’ll sit on the throne of the Black Clan one day.”

“Gods above,” he choked, then gathered her closer in his arms. “When?”

Her body lit up from within, and she smiled. “Put a baby inside me tonight, Samael Veles. My heart chose you the first time I saw you in that mirror. You looked through my magic and saw me when no one else did. But I wouldn’t let myself believe.”

His erection swelled and pressed against her, but still he shook his head. “To bring a child into this world…now…”

They both had to choose this. One of the few fair things about dragon shifters—both partners had to choose to create a child as they made love.

Meira lifted a hand and gently traced her lover’s lips, his eyes. “I don’t know how we get there. I don’t even know if you and I survive his war, but our child will rule this clan. But only if we choose him now.”

Samael searched her face. Almost unconsciously, his hips started to pump, and she opened her legs wider, pressing into the slow, driving pressure.

“You want this?” he asked, voice shaking, dropping low.

“I want this.” She’d seen her child’s face. Had given him the part of her heart a mother reserved for her children.

“Gods forgive me, I want it, too. To see your belly swell with my child. To start a new life with you. A new future for our people.”

An incandescent happiness swirled through their bond, coming from both of them, to twine and merge, followed by a rush of superheated need that sensitized every part of her.

Samael took her lips, no hesitation in him this time, no need to back away.

…

My mate.

After everything he’d done to fuck it up, he could hardly believe the woman in his arms was giving herself to him so beautifully.

She moaned against his lips, tasting of Meira and smelling of jasmine and flame.

How on earth was he going to survive this woman, who’d made her his with a single look in a mirror? Whose quiet intelligence and gentle patience won over a lowborn boy from a rough life who’d grown into an agent of death and destruction.

“I’ll keep you safe, Meira. Always.” Protect this precious gift the fates had graced him with. He whispered the promise even as he tugged her clothes off her body with anxious hands.

She was soft and silky, her breasts made for his hands as he cupped her. She arched into him with a sexy shudder as he tweaked her nipples.

Wanting to make her shudder more, he lowered his head, feasting on her, sucking those sensitive points until she writhed beneath him, bombarding him with whimpers that surged through his body to his heavy, aching cock.

Samael pulled back to look at her, at his mate. Naked beneath him, all long legs and curves, her strawberry-blond curls a riot against the white pillow. In his bed and watching him with eyes gone dark blue and alight. For him.

Samael grinned, and Meira laughed, the sound shooting to his heart.

“You look like a pirate all of a sudden. Ready to take what’s yours.”

“Damn straight,” he growled.

Only he didn’t immediately take. Instead, he made his way down her abdomen, pausing to kiss each swath of skin, nipping at her hips, to settle between her thighs. The scent of her arousal only fed his more.

Mine. My mate. My love.

Keeping his eyes on her face, he watched as he stroked his tongue against her flesh, merciless. She gasped then bit into her lip with each lash of his tongue against her clit. He wanted to watch her come apart, then watch as he fed his cock to that lush mouth. He needed her. Not only for the pleasure she could bring. He needed her steadiness. Her faith in him. Her inner core of strength, iron forged in fire and tempered by her heart.

And tonight…tonight was about more.

So he devoured his mate’s body until she was begging for release, determined to bring her the greatest possible pleasure, making tonight about her. About them.

Lifting his head, he smiled at her loud moan of protest.

“I’m so close,” she complained.

“Me too, love.” Fuck, was he.

Her eyes went wide. “But I haven’t done much yet. It’s all been you.”

“It’s all been us. Together.”

He raised up, snagging her legs under the knees and parting her wider, wrapping those long legs around him as he positioned himself at her core.

His erection was hard as the mountain, pulsing with the need to lay his seed inside her. To claim her once more as his own. Deep in his belly, fire bloomed, adding to the heat raging through him.

“I need you inside me,” she demanded, gaze locked to his.

On one long stroke, Samael entered her, sheathed himself in her tight, wet heat, stretching her until he settled deep. And never took his eyes from hers. Watching the pleasure tauten the skin over her cheekbones as he slowly pulled out, then surged back in.

He wanted to lose himself in her, lose the man who only knew blood and fighting to find the man she made him into. A man who would rise to the challenge of leading his people through the worst era in their long history.

Because he could only do that with her.

“I’m yours,” he said, thrusting harder.

Meira nodded, panting as he claimed her body.

“Meira…” He dropped to his elbows, his hips still moving. “I’m yours.”

She lifted her hands between them to cup his face and kissed him, slowly, her tongue tangling with his in an imitation of what his cock was doing to her. Then pulled back and smiled. “I know.”

Samael thrust harder, and she took it with a moan. “No, love. I don’t think you do.” Another hard push. “I was yours when the heavens formed us, I am yours now, and I will be yours forever, even into the afterlife.”

With each word he pushed into her. Her body was starting to ripple around his cock, her orgasm close.

With each word, her eyes grew wider, and she searched his expression.

He stopped his thrusting, their pleasure on the tipping point hanging between them, and smoothed her hair from her forehead. “Do you understand?”

No alpha dragon shifter ceded control to anyone. Ever. Not even to a mate, to a certain extent. But he’d learned the hard way what forcing that control over his mate could do. Putting them both in danger. For this woman, he would lay bare everything, give her everything he was. Hers to command. Hers to control.

His dragon, quiet in his head, hummed his own agreement.

“I adore you, Samael Veles.” Somewhere in those words, he heard her understanding. And her acceptance.

She would never make him regret giving her that control.

Even more, releasing himself from that control lifted a weight from him that he’d hardly known was there. Together, he and his dragon let go and truly gave themselves to their mate.

Samael growled and slammed into her.

“Yes,” Meira cried out.

Setting a punishing pace, he pumped into his mate in hard, brutal pulses that only drove both of their pleasure to a higher precipice.

Then she screamed, clamping down on him hard as her orgasm slammed through her, dragging his own pleasure from his body as his balls drew up and he filled his mate with his essence, willing a child into being. Sensation so vicious he roared his own release, his fire joining them together yet again, not stopping until he’d milked every last ounce of pleasure from her.

As the slowing came over him, Samael collapsed over his mate, breathing hard, and suddenly, in his mind’s eye, a child appeared to him. Black hair and his mother’s white-blue eyes, stark against dark skin.

Their son.

Wonder flowed through him, like a river through a forest. Pure and true. Until the vision faded.

As the rush slowed and his breathing returned to normal, Meira snuggled into his arms, giving a sigh of contentment. Samael echoed that sigh. At least until the outside world intruded. And it would. But for now, they were safe and loved, and his child grew inside her.

Samael shifted to the side and curved a protective hand over her belly, the image in his mind still startlingly clear.

“I saw him,” he whispered. “He’s beautiful, Mir. Amazing.”

She dropped a kiss on the underside of his jaw and smiled. “I told you.”

“I didn’t think a phoenix could have a boy,” he said.

Meira shook her head, her curls tickling his chin. “Before me and my sisters, there was only ever one. Always a girl. It’s a new and changing world, my love.”

He wondered if they’d ever discover why. “What’s his name?” Samael asked softly.

“Zilant Gorgon Veles,” she whispered.

His arms tightened around her convulsively as her words soothed the most painful, jagged edges of his grief. Samael closed his eyes and held his mate and their unborn child in his arms and counted himself lucky to have this one, incandescently perfect moment.

The world they lived in was cruel and deadly, and they’d face that soon enough. Together. Good luck to anyone who tried to take this away—especially the Rotting Red King. They could try, but they’d fucking wish they hadn’t.