Ari gave me a sad smile.
“So I noticed. You seemed to believe at once that he cared for you, while the issue of my own affection and caring is still somehow in doubt.”
“I don’t doubt it,” I said uneasily. “I just don’t really…feel worthy of it.”
“Because of the way I look?” He asked, seeing me staring at him.
I shook my head and looked away.
“No. Because of the way I look,” I admitted in a low voice. He could have had any girl in school and yet he had chosen me—I still didn’t fully understand why.
Ari frowned. “Don’t you know by now, Kaitlyn, that outer looks don’t matter?”
“I’ve heard they do to your people,” I challenged him. “I’ve heard Drakes don’t think a scarred or deformed woman is fit to be seen in public.”
“Superficial fools,” Ari said shortly. “Cabrones. They know nothing of love and their Drakes’ wings fly barely above the ground.”
I wasn’t sure what that meant but I thought it was an insult.
“You need to feed,” he told me, turning his head to one side, to expose a prominent vein in his neck. “I don’t want you to feel hungry or malnourished, especially when you meet my Sire and Mother.”
My stomach twisted with hunger and my throat was as dry as a desert but I stayed where I was.
“I…I didn’t know we were going to be meeting your parents right away,” I faltered, looking down at myself. Under Ari’s shirt and blazer, I was still wearing my school uniform which was wrinkled and rumpled after hours of riding curled up on his Drake’s back.
Ari sighed. “Unfortunately, it’s non-negotiable. My Sire’s wings fly higher than mine and he has the right to command me.”
I bit my lip. “Then…what’s to stop him from commanding you to get rid of me and never see me again?”
His eyes glowed pure gold for a moment.
“You are my L’lorna,” he said and I heard a hint of his Drake’s growl in his tone. “They cannot take you from me—I will refuse such an order, even from my Sire. He will have to accept you or lose me—there is no other way.”
His statement shook me to my core.
“You’d give up your whole life for me?” I asked, hardly believing it.
“Kaitlyn…” He sat up and took my hand in his. Looking into my eyes, he murmured, “If not for you, then for no one. You are my life now.”
“Ari…” I shook my head. “I don’t know what to say. If you were going to break the Edict, like we’re doing, you could have had anyone in the school—anyone at all. Why me?”
“My Drake chose you,” he said simply. “And my heart followed his. That’s the way it is with my kind, Kaitlyn. When we find our fated-mate we just know.”
He lay back down on the leaves and beckoned to me. “Come, aren’t you thirsty?”
My stomach twisted again and my whole system seemed to cry out for his blood. I knew I couldn’t wait any longer.
I scooted back to where he was, the giant leaves rustling beneath me, and lay down beside him as Ari indicated I should. I pressed my face into the hollow of his throat, breathing him in and I felt rather than heard his deep groan vibrating through me as my tongue traced the pulsing vein just below the warm surface of his skin. My front teeth got that itchy, achy sensation as my fangs grew and elongated and I knew I had to bite.
When at last I pierced his flesh, Ari groaned again and held me to him.
“Dios, Kaitlyn,” he murmured raggedly. “Your little fangs in me feel so damn good!”
I drew his warm blood into my mouth, enveloped in the intense cloud of emotions that flowed between us whenever I drank from him. It occurred to me that this was kind of how I felt when I touched his Drake. Though the sensations were a little different, they were just as intense.
“My Drake wanted you to drink from him,” Ari told me, as though catching my thought. “But he said the time for that wasn’t here yet.”
I drew back at last and frowned at him.
“What? What does that mean?”
He shrugged, his broad, bare shoulders rolling with the movement.
“I don’t know. He’s very cryptic lately—especially when it comes to you.” He frowned. “He seems to know things that I don’t.”
“But how?” I asked. “I mean, isn’t that impossible? You’re two halves of the same being, right?”
He nodded. “Yes, but think of it this way—you might know some things with your subconscious mind that your conscious mind is unable to access.” He shrugged again. “That’s the best explanation I can come up with to explain me and my Drake.”
“All right, well…” I looked down as my fangs retracted. “Um, thanks for breakfast,” I told him.