Right.
He could hear me. I kept forgetting.
“You choose to forget.”
Right on that too.
He smirked.
Right. Again.
“Sorry.”
He shook his head. “No. It’s entertaining.”
“So, you and Rakon, huh?”
A faint smile from him. “Once Rakon felt you were hurting, there was no stopping him. He rose on his own, and he never does that.”
Mate.
We both heard him and shared a smile.
“There’s that, huh?”
His eyes met mine, staying. Growing somber. “Right.”
A pressure was building inside of me.
I felt like I was going to burst, so I did what every normal person would do.
I changed the subject. “Where does Rakon usually stay?”
It was a question every supernatural being knew about because dragons were the top of the chain. It was also known that there was an under-universe, like the flipside of our surface of another world. Dragons lived there. I thought it’d all been a fantasy story, until I found out Kieran existed.
“Do other dragons live there?”
He nodded. “Rakon’s the only one that’s merged with a sire.”
It was another reminder how ancient, and how powerful Kieran was.
I’d never felt smaller.
He grinned, but taunted me. Scared?
I laughed, my voice hitching on an uncomfortable note. Maybe.
I don’t blame you. It’s taken me a bit to admit it myself.
“Really?” My lips parted in surprise.
He nodded, his gaze returning to my mouth. “I felt it. As soon as I felt your energy in the area, I knew who you were to me. Then you came to me, and I found out you were sent by Quessadiline, and I was furious. I wasn’t accepting you, what you were to me, and you didn’t seem to know yourself.”
I remembered that first night in the blue velvet room. “Uh, I felt something that night, just thought it was a side effect to you analyzing me.”
A full smile came from him. “No. Most aren’t aware of me ‘analyzing’ them. That reaction was a mate reaction.”
That word again.
“You don’t seem happy about that.” I was going out on a limb here, my heart was picking up, pounding harder.
His eyes flicked up to mine, but returned just as quick to my mouth.
He spoke, but he did it very quietly. “I’ve not had a mate for three centuries. It’s…an unusual feeling to have again.” He looked away. “And there’s changes that need to be made.”
Changes.
Unusual feeling.
He so wasn’t happy about it.
I sat up, bringing my knees up and I wrapped my arms around them. I hugged them to my chest, propping my chin on top of one. “Nothing has to change, you know. I mean, Rakon said my creature was his mate—” I stopped at the look Kieran gave me. “What?”
“You are your creature now. When we brought you back here, Rakon claimed you.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“He breathed on you. The mating mark surfaced over you, that’s what helped merge you and your creature together.”
I—I have no idea what to think about that.
You know about mate marks.
I did, but they were almost as mythical as Kieran himself. It was an age-old belief that was believed to be, well, in the ages.
“Where is it?”
“On your back.”
“I don’t remember that.”
“You had passed out.”
“Is that why I’m hurting?”
He shook his head. “Mate marks don’t hurt. Do you want to see it?”
I nodded. Oh boy, did I.
He came over, and he bent down. His arms slid under me, and whoosh, he picked me up.
I squawked from the suddenness of the action, my arms going around him in reflex.
Most of it was reflex. Some of it. I was totally melting on the inside all over again.
Kieran’s gaze moved to mine, and he stayed there, watching me as he carried me into his bathroom.
He set me on the vanity and stood between my legs. Still holding my gaze, his hands moved to my shirt. I was in a tanktop, and he pushed up the bottom, lifting it up and over me. I was still in my bra from last night.
His gaze trailed behind me.
I looked back, and gasped.
It was beautiful.
A full winding dragon stretched over my entire back. The edges were detailed and looked as if the dragon was on fire. Its mouth was raised toward my neck, open, and it looked as if fire itself was rising upwards.
“That came because he breathed on me?”
His hand flexed next to my leg. “That and because we held you in our mouth when we flew you here. The combination of both.”
I’d never seen something as beautiful as that mark, and I felt an underlying pulsating inside of me. As if feeling it too, Kieran moved closer into me, his voice coming out rough, “That’s Rakon. He can feel you.”
I lifted my eyes in the mirror, seeing Kieran looking at me and the intensity in his eyes stole that breath from my throat. I almost gasped, but then Kieran turned to the mirror and his eyes found mine there. There was a fierce emotion mixing with his intensity and a warmth was spreading inside of me, just from seeing it.