Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 161615 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 808(@200wpm)___ 646(@250wpm)___ 539(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 161615 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 808(@200wpm)___ 646(@250wpm)___ 539(@300wpm)
Good. It is not empty.
The sight made something in her chest purr with satisfaction, even as her human mind tried to make sense of where she was.
Next, Sol's breath caught as she became aware of the bodies pressed against her. The warmth radiating from her left—a sun-soaked heat that seeped into her bones. The cooler presence on her right—not cold, but temperate, like shade on a summer day.
She turned her head slowly.
Korin.
He lay facing her, one muscular arm draped possessively across her waist, his golden eyes closed in sleep. Even at rest, he was devastating—all sharp cheekbones and full lips, his dark hair spilling across the pillow like ink.
His bare chiseled chest rose and fell with slow, even breaths, and Sol's gaze traced the planes of muscle, the golden skin that glittered faintly along his shoulders and down his arms, not fully hidden even in human form.
He’s my. . .mate.
Sol swallowed hard and turned her head the other way.
Pyrran.
To her shock, he was awake.
She tensed.
Those terrifying silver eyes watched her with an intensity that made her skin prickle—but there was no cruelty in them now.
No cold amusement.
Instead, she saw something that looked almost like. . . wonder.
“You’re awake, my queen." His voice was low and rough, as if he too had only recently surfaced from sleep. "How do you feel?"
Sol opened her mouth to answer—and realized she didn't know.
Her body ached in unfamiliar places. Her muscles felt wrung out and exhausted in ways she couldn't name. But beneath the fatigue, there was something else. A hum of power still thrumming through her veins. A heat pooling low in her belly that had nothing to do with temperature.
The dream rushed back to her.
The colors.
The flight.
The spiraling together in pleasure through clouds. . .
She swallowed and sat up. "I don't know how I feel."
Pyrran's lips curved—not quite a smile, but close. "You flew magnificently. For a first shift."
"I crashed into a mountain."
"Magnificently," he repeated, and this time there was definite amusement in his voice.
Sol didn't know what to do with this version of him. The Pyrran who had dropped her from the sky had been easy to hate.
This one—soft-voiced in the candlelight, watching her like she was something precious rather than something to be destroyed—felt far more dangerous. Like he was seconds from eating her up.
"You tried to kill me." Her words came out more quietly than she intended.
“I did.” Something flickered across his face. "I am sorry."
"I don’t accept your apology."
Pyrran blinked. "I was a fool. I will spend decades making it up.”
She frowned. “I thought I was going to die.”
“You are a dragon, my queen. It would take a lot more than a fall to kill you.”
Sol swallowed.
And then his eyes widened with excitement. "You're real, and you're ours."
The words landed like stones dropped into still water. Sol felt them ripple through her—through her human heart that wanted to reject them, and through her dragon heart that rose up purring in response.
Ours. Mates. Claim them.
Korin stirred beside her.
His arm tightened around her waist, pulling her closer against his chest. His eyes fluttered open—molten gold, still hazy with sleep—and when they found her face, they softened with something that made her chest ache.
"Little queen, you're awake." His voice was a warm rasp against her ear. He sat up and his lips brushed her temple—barely a kiss, more a nuzzle—and Sol felt her resolve crumbling like sugar in rain.
She was naked between two dragon kings who had hunted her across the sky.
She should be terrified.
She should be fighting.
She should be anything other than this—this melting, this wanting, this desperate ache building between her thighs as their heat pressed against her from both sides.
"How long was I asleep?" she asked, because she needed words, needed something to anchor her to reality before she drowned in sensation.
"Several hours," Korin answered. His hand traced idle patterns on her hip, leaving trails of warmth in its wake. "You shifted back on your own about an hour after we found you. We brought you here to rest."
"You stayed with me?"
"We will always stay with you," Pyrran said from her other side. His fingers found a strand of her hair, twisting it slowly around his knuckle. "You are ours now, little queen. Where else would we be?"
The possessiveness in his voice should have infuriated her.
It didn't.
It made the heat between her thighs pulse harder.
What is wrong with me?
But she knew the answer now. She had felt it in the sky when her dragon body had betrayed her—the wanting, the needing, the instinct older than thought that recognized these two males as hers.
She was a dragon, and dragons took what they wanted.
Sol lay back down and closed her eyes. Korin followed because soon she felt their heat pressing against her from both sides. She also felt the hum of power still thrumming beneath her skin and the last of her resistance crumbling into ash.