FIRE IN HIS VEINS

A POST-APOCALYPTIC DRAGON ROMANCE

RUBY DIXON

FIREBLOOD DRAGONS — BOOK 6

Copyright © 2019 by Ruby Dixon

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Cover Photo - Sara Eirew Photographer

Cover Design - Kati Wilde

Edits - Aquila Editing

Created with Vellum

CONTENTS

FIRE IN HIS VEINS

What Has Gone Before

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Epilogue

Author’s Note

The Fireblood Dragons Series

Ruby Dixon Reading List

Want More?

FIRE IN HIS VEINS

I’ve wanted Andrea since the moment I saw her.

But she’s human. I’m drakoni. The only way I’ll stay sane and not lose myself to the madness that’s swept over my people is if I keep my mental walls strong. I have to give up everything that makes me a dragon. That means no telepathy, no fire breathing, and no battle form.

I certainly can’t take a mate. Andrea can’t be mine.

When her brother escapes the fort, though, she needs help tracking him down. That means I’ll be alone with her, breathing in her sweet scent, and it may be too much for my control.

What happens if I give in to my dragon? Will I take her as my mate…or tear her throat out?

WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE

(If you’ve been following along, feel free to skip this section! If this series is new to you, here’s a quick recap of the characters and events that have happened before.)

The year is 2023, seven years after the destruction of the known world. Back in 2016, a Rift opened in the heavens and dragons poured forth, as terrible and violent as the beasts of legend. Like ants, they swarmed over the human cities, destroying everything in their wake. Buildings crumbled, countries fell, and within a matter of months, humankind was broken. Guns had no effect on the unearthly creatures from another dimension. Planes and missiles were too slow. Riots broke out as men were forced to fight not only for their survival against the dragons, but against each other.

The people who survived those first brutal days took to hiding. Eventually, small groups of survivors banded together and formed forts where they could live safely and securely. In the After, concrete is the building material of choice, and people freely give up their rights in exchange for protection for their families. The forts themselves are isolated and corrupt, run by a power-hungry militia. The guns they carry might not be useful against dragons, but they’re more than enough to keep the people of the fort in line. Those who cannot obey a fort’s rules are cast out, to live as nomads. They are considered scum by fort-dwellers and view themselves as dead men walking. Without shelter or a permanent place to call home, they might as well be.

For seven years, humanity continues on, living in the cracks and hiding in the shadows.

In Fire in His Blood, CLAUDIA, a thief from Fort Dallas, is left in the wild, abandoned streets of the Scavenge Lands as bait to tame a dragon. No one expects her to live…or for it to work. Her dragon KAEL is fierce and possessive, his mind broken by the constant madness that eats at the drakoni.

With his help, she hatches a plan to rescue her sister AMY and her friend SASHA from Fort Dallas and its corrupt militia.

In Fire in His Kiss, Sasha is snatched away by DAKH, a crazed male dragon who seeks a mate to fix his mind. Though it takes time for the fearful Sasha to trust Dakh, she eventually realizes that the dragon would do anything for her and that he can love just as fiercely as any male human. When Sasha is captured by local bandits, she learns that not only are the nomads working with an old enemy of hers, but the bandits are led by a mysterious stranger named AZAR who is neither drakoni nor human, but feared by both.

In Fire in His Embrace, Sasha’s friend EMMA rescues a drakoni male captured by Azar, a crazed warrior named ZOHR. To free him, she must mate with him to establish a psychic bond. They break free, but at the cost of his wings. While he heals, he and Emma work on a plan to destroy Azar and his men. When the mated pair approach Claudia and Kael for help, Claudia’s unmated sister Amy is enlisted to be scent-bait.

In Fire in His Fury, Amy has a plan of her own. Tired of being stuck in self-imposed exile, she tosses her panties into the wild in the hopes someone will find her. Her scent pulls in RAST, a drakoni who once served as a conscripted soldier to the hated Salorians. Their journeys lead them to Fort Shreveport.

This fort is small and run by GWEN, who tries to sell them out to local nomads in the hopes of protecting her kidnapped sister. Gwen is surprised and pleased when Amy and Rast volunteer to help the struggling Fort Shreveport and eventually take on a leadership position, putting the nomads in their place.

In Fire in His Spirit, Gwen knows her fort has been targeted by a big golden male. Her friend ANDREA is convinced that the dragon, VAAN, has shown up to mate her. When they go out to confront him, though, he makes it clear that he only has eyes for Gwen. She leaves with him, sacrificing her needs for her fort yet again, only to find a love she never expected. Vaan is called by the Salorian to Fort Dallas, where he and Gwen learn that there may be a bigger threat to everyone…

Meanwhile, LIAM remains in Fort Shreveport, hiding out and pretending to be human…

1

ANDI

I 'm going to kill my brother Benny.

No, just killing won't be enough. He'll need to be tortured first, and then when he begs for mercy, then I'll kill him. Yeah, that sounds good.

I tear through my small trunk of belongings again, just in case I'm wrong. Nope. My good socks—both pairs—are completely missing. He knows I've been hiding them to wear when the bad socks (which are currently on my feet) are so trashed that they can't even be mended anymore. And because it's laundry day, I need to wear different socks under my boots so these can get washed.

Except all my socks are gone, and I know just the rat bastard that took them.

Biting back my fury, I smack my trunk shut and shove it back under my bunk. Daniela's no longer rooming with me and Gwen, and Gwen's gone to Fort Dallas, which means I'm alone in the old classroom I used to share with them. Once upon a time, I thought it'd be awesome to have a bedroom all to myself, but now it's just lonely. At least I can make as much noise as I want in here, though. I give my old metal-framed cot an angry kick, enjoying the shudder it makes, and then I head out of my room and storm down the hall toward the boys' quarters, where Benny will be.

It's early, though, and the halls of Fort Shreveport are mostly empty. I pass by a pair of moms, their toddlers in their arms, and give them a tight nod as I march toward my destination. The smell of food is wafting in the air and I can hear conversations at the far end of the hall, in the old cafeteria, which means it's breakfast time. Benny and the other boys should be up soon.

I find the classroom that all the boy children are sleeping in and ease the door open quietly. Little Lucas is still in his bed, sucking his thumb despite the fact that he's nine, but the other little boys are gone. Benny's bunk is empty, but there's a ring of discarded dirty clothes and old junk around it, just like any kids' bedroom. I know the moms of the other boys are always on them to clean up after themselves, so I try to nag Benny, too. He just rolls his eyes at me, because I'm not Mom. I'm barely eight years older than him, and so he doesn't listen to shit.

With a scowl, I march over to his messy end of the room and start to pick through his crap. There's a few dirty towels on the floor—looks like he's missed laundry day for the last while—and a few old shirts. "Dumbass," I mutter under my breath, because if Benny knew how much scrounging me and Luz and all the other girls had to do to get those clothes, he wouldn't be so wasteful with them. I poke through the laundry encircling the bed, but I don't see my socks—or any others.

On a hunch, I get down on my knees and check under his cot.

Sure enough, there's another pile of laundry. I reach out and grab one sock…and then drop it, making a noise of horror in my throat.

It's crusty.

Oh god. I just touched my baby brother's jizz rag. I'm going to vomit.

Scrubbing my hand against my jeans, I get to my feet. That little bastard. Not only is he stealing socks, but he's jerking off in them? The other women in the compound joked that I needed to worry about when my kid started stealing socks, but I had no idea what they meant. I do now. Ugh. Time to have a talk with Benny. This shit's unacceptable—the stealing, the casual disregard for clothing, and the mess. I know Benny's got it in his head to be rebellious right now because he's fourteen and the oldest boy in the compound, but he's taking it too far. Not just this, but a million other things.

The jizz socks are just the icing on the cake.

I swallow back my disgust, wipe my hand one more time, and then turn away from Benny's bunk. Lucas is watching me, sitting up, his thumb still in his mouth.

"Hey, kiddo," I say. "You seen Benny this morning?"

He shakes his head.

"Tell him he's in trouble if you see him, OK? His big sis is looking for him." With a bright smile at Lucas, I head out of the room and shut the door behind me.

If Benny thinks that getting up early means he can avoid me, he's wrong. He's been deliberately putting space between us over the last few months. Now that he's not a tiny kid anymore, he doesn't want his older sister hovering around him. Instead, he's been hanging out with…Liam.

I don't want to think about Liam right now though. Instead, I briskly head toward the cafeteria to get my breakfast and look for Benny there.

I head into the cafeteria just behind Luz's wife, Michele. I smile absently at her and scan the cafeteria, looking for my brother. The windows have their protective metal coverings lifted to let the early morning sunlight and breeze in, and a tallow candle sits atop each of the tables to allow a bit more light, the faint herbal scent of them nearly overpowering the scent of smoke, eggs and corn cakes. I get in line just like everyone else, waiting for my portion. It's funny but there's something comforting in living in an old school. I was just a teen when the Rift tore open, so being back in a school feels like coming home. I don't mind the lunch trays and the bells because it adds a bit of structure in a world that is sorely lacking it. It's kind of nice, really. Everyone pitches in, and if the cafeteria cooking is done by firepit instead of stove, no one complains. We all remember what it was like to have nothing to eat.

I notice that Amber's murmuring a soft apology with each dollop of eggs she doles out, and when I hold my tray out, she gives me a tiny spoonful of eggs and grimaces. "The chickens aren't laying much right now," she says quietly. "Amy says she's going to find us more food, though, and that it's all under control. Until then, we're stretching things." And she puts a corn cake on my plate.

I hold it back out to her, indicating she should take the scrambled eggs back. "Give mine to Grandpa Steve or Benny when he shows up, or Melissa. Someone else." I keep the corn cake and put my tray in the stack of dirty ones, stepping out of line as Amber spoons out the allotted eggs to the next person in line. "You haven't seen my brother, have you?"

"No. Did you ask Amy?" She glances back at me and then launches into her spiel with the next person in line. "Chickens aren't laying much right now. Amy's on it, though. We'll have more food soon."

Charlene just nods, relief on her face, and takes her tray without a word of complaint.

I shove my corn cake into my mouth and head toward the cafeteria exit, hating that I'm annoyed over the fact that everyone's fawning over Amy. She's the new leader of Fort Shreveport, and she's really nice and determined to fix all of our problems, and she's mated to one of the dragons so they can protect us. I have no doubt that Rast, her mate, will find more food for us—he can fly and hunt cattle down, or discover new locations for us to grow crops, or even scavenge farther out.

But my best friend Gwen was the leader for the last two years, and I'm still loyal to her. I hate that everyone's acting so relieved that Amy and Rast are here, because it feels like they're saying Gwen was doing something wrong. I hate that. I know how hard Gwen worked to keep this place afloat. I know how many times Gwen went without so others wouldn't starve. I know how many nights Gwen worried and cried over the stress of being the leader.

People are just jerks. Not that Amy isn't a sweetheart, but I hate that acknowledging her leadership makes me somehow feel as if I'm betraying Gwen. And Gwen isn't even here—she left us behind to spend time in Fort Dallas with Vaan and to act as a liaison between that fort and this one.

I feel a little betrayed over that, too. I've been left behind. All I have left is Benny, and the little shit's been stealing my socks to jizz in and won't talk to me otherwise.

I pause by the whiteboard as Shonda erases yesterday's message—"Tomorrow's Laundry Day!! Bring your clothes to Room 103 and make sure your bag is labeled!"—and begins to write a new one in bold red lettering. "DRAGON ATTACK DAY. STAY INSIDE."

"Shit. That's today?" I bite my lip, pausing to talk to her.

She taps the old planner in her hands, the dates in the corners scratched out and updated manually since printers are a thing of the past. "Yup. Laundry's going to wait until they're done."

"What about Amy and Rast?" I can't help but ask. "Why can't they chase the damn things off?"

Shonda shakes her head and draws a line under the word “inside.” "Talked to Amy already. We pulled the plants in the gym before breakfast and she and Rast headed out for hunting. She thinks food is more important than fending off the attack as long as everyone's inside and on lockdown." She shrugs. "She ain't wrong. As long as nothing's in the courtyard, we won't be bothered."

I chew on my fingernail absently. "I guess. You seen Benny?"

She rolls her eyes. "No. Can't say I mind it, either."

That's fair. Benny is kind of a shit. "Thanks, Shon." I head out of the cafeteria and then pause, thinking. The gym? Would Benny be hiding out with the flatbeds of plants, hunkered down in our tomato bushes and cukes? Nah. Someone would make him weed the pots and he'd be out of there in a flash. At fourteen, the only thing Benny excels at right now is avoiding work.

That and jerking it in socks, apparently.

I shudder and wipe my hand on my jeans again, heading for the library. I duck in but he's not there, just Carla, getting ready for the day's lessons for the little ones. He's not in room 103 when I drop my laundry bag off, either. I head to the front office—where Amy and Rast are now staying—and check the chore list whiteboard. Benny's listed under “mousetraps,” so I check the janitorial closets. No Benny. He's not in Gwen's bird coop feeding the doves, either.

He's not anywhere.

I grit my teeth, because I know what this means. Last resort. I guess I'll talk to Liam.

My belly quivers at the thought.

Me and Liam are…complicated. He first arrived in Fort Shreveport a few months ago and kept to himself. I thought he was yet another weirdo that the apocalypse had burped up and gave him a lot of leeway. After all, he had sharp teeth, golden skin, and wore sunglasses and long sleeves all the time. There's a lot of strangeness in the After, though. I saw the Mad Max movies in the Before, and when I was in Fort Tulsa, I remember seeing people going crazy with tattoos and piercings and all kinds of body decor as if they needed to make our world into the next Thunderdome. Like, because it was an apocalypse, we needed to look properly apocalyptic or something. So when Liam seemed a little unusual looking, well, I'd seen weirder. And he kept to himself, so it was easy to dismiss him.

Then we found out that Amy's golden-skinned, fanged hulk of a boyfriend was a dragon. And because Liam looked very similar to him, he was exposed for being a dragon-man. It was obvious that we'd overlooked him. Liam had golden skin like Rast, but his was a shade that could be seen as a sun-lover's tan, so no one thought much of it. Rast had long, crazy golden hair that was as thick and wiry as a lion's mane and spikes at his brow…and Liam always wore a baseball cap pulled low and sunglasses. Liam carried himself differently than Rast, but it was clear he was a dragon.

It was all especially clear after he disappeared when Amy and Rast showed up. That's a sign of guilt if there ever was one. Still, meeting Rast taught us that not all dragons are the bloodthirsty, wild killers that roam the skies and make the remnants of humanity huddle in forts. There's a few that are decent, it seems. Not long after Amy and Rast’s arrival, they left to go visit her sister, Gwen headed out of the fort to meet up with another dragon, and naturally Liam returned.

The timing was just so damn suspicious. I immediately confronted him, demanding to know if he was a dragon.

He only smiled this lazy, totally sexy smile as if I'd just figured out all his secrets. Didn't apologize. Didn't admit wrongdoing or deceit. Just smiled.

And that was that. After that, Liam stayed. He didn't cause problems, didn't make an ass of himself, and still tended to keep to himself, well, with one small exception. He hung around with me a lot. Everywhere I went, Liam was there.

I have to admit, I like it. He's a good-looking guy, even if he is a dragon. It's nice to be the center of someone's attention like that, and I fully admit that I'm lonely. Liam and Benny get along, too—in fact, Liam's the only person Benny gets along with, so I'd end up talking with Liam about my brother on a regular basis…and for a while, I thought up all kinds of reasons just to hang out with Liam.

But it's a small fort, and people started to talk.

They said I was all over Liam now that he was a dragon, and that I was “chasing tail.” They said I was jealous of Gwen with her dragon, and Amy with hers, and was trying to get one of my own. They said I was looking for the After equivalent of a sugar daddy—someone to handle all my problems and make them go away.

So I stopped talking to Liam, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't understand why. I can't stand the rumors, though.

It's really awful that they're not just rumors, they're pretty darn close to the truth.

Maybe I've got a protector fetish. I don't see how you can't after living in the After for a while. Someone to hold you close and make all your problems go away? Uh, that sounds pretty amazing to me. And there's no denying I find the dragons fascinating. No one knows that I confessed to Gwen that when her dragon, Vaan, was laying siege to the city, I thought he was here for me and went out to find him. Gwen never said a peep, which I'm eternally thankful for. If the rest of the fort knew, they'd never stop ragging me about it. Maybe they're right and I am a tail chaser.

I don't like the thought. I don't like the smirks that the others have on their faces when they see me talking with Liam. So I just…don't talk to him much. At all.

But Benny does. And if anyone knows where my tool of a little brother is, it'll be Liam.

So I head to the back of the school, to the guest quarters where Liam's currently staying by himself. I look around to make sure the hall is empty before I move to the door and knock.

“It’s open,” comes the casual reply.

I’ll give Liam credit. He speaks great English. Even hearing those two little words so effortlessly spoken makes it hard to reconcile “dragon” with Liam. Rast never says a peep. Gwen’s dragon Vaan? I’ve heard him say her name, but that’s about it. But Liam speaks English as well as the rest of us. For some reason, hearing his voice irks me and I open the door a crack and stick my head in.

“You’re going to miss breakfast,” I say, and it sounds bitchy the moment the words come out.

He rolls over in bed and scratches at his stomach, and my mouth goes dry. I’ve seen both Rast and Vaan naked—dragons apparently aren’t much for pants—but Liam always keeps himself covered. This is the first time I’ve seen so much of his golden skin, and it knocks the breath right out of my lungs. His barrel-shaped chest is taut without an inch of fat, his shoulders a huge triangle of golden perfection and rippling muscle. One big hand lazily scratches at his hairless stomach, just inches above his groin, and he gives me a sleepy-eyed look from his blankets. His sunglasses are gone—he’s been wearing them less now that we know the truth—and I can see the slow, golden whirl of his eyes, like they’re made of liquid metal. The hair he always keeps tightly hidden under a baseball cap is short (for a dragon) and stands up in thick golden spikes that look deliciously rumpled. Just barely noticeable peeking through his thick hair? Horns.

Right now, he looks so fiercely, incredibly dragonish that I don’t know how we possibly ever thought he was human.

And the look he’s giving me? His eyes are totally giving off come-fuck-me vibes.

“You came here to tell me about breakfast? So thoughtful.” Liam’s mouth quirks in a half grin, as if the sight of me amuses him. “Does everyone get this attention or am I just special?”

“Don’t flirt with me,” I snap back at him, my cheeks heating. “I’m just telling you because we’re low on eggs and if you wait too long, there isn’t going to be anything left. Though I don’t know why I’m bothering to tell you. You’re a dragon. You can just go out and get your own damn food.”

His brows go up at my nasty words, but his smile grows wider. “Are you here to pick a fight, Andrea?”

“Andi.”

“I like your full name. People are lazy and shorten names too often.” He gives a little shake of his head. “You’re the ones that choose to speak. The least you can do is speak all of a name.”

“So now you’re blaming me because humans like slang? Or shortcuts?”

He drags one thick-nailed finger over the bedsheets. I try to imagine him with claws like Rast, but his are all shorn off in an effort to look more human. “Am I?”

I give him an exasperated look. “I’m just trying to find Benny.”

“I thought you were here because you wanted to feed me.”

“You go on thinking that. I was trying to be polite.”

He looks amused. “Is that what that was? Why do you sound so angry then?”

“Because I’m talking to you,” I snap again, and it’s only made worse when his smile spreads. I hate that he’s got a gorgeous smile. I hate that he’s the most sinfully gorgeous man I’ve ever seen. I hate that I’ve never been so fiercely attracted to anyone as much as I have to Liam.

Maybe I am a fucking tail chaser. God.

“I still think you’re picking a fight.”

Also entirely possible, not that I would ever admit that to him. I bite back another snappy retort, because I think he’s getting a kick out of them. “I’m not here to argue. I’m here to ask if you’ve seen Benny.”

“You don’t think he went out? With a dragon attack today?”

I frown that he already knows about the dragon attack. “You saw the whiteboard? Or do you have the schedule memorized?”

“Neither. I just figured it was time. Females pick fights when they are in mating heat, so it’s about due.” He sits up in the bed, the covers nearly sliding completely off of him. By some miracle they remain over his hips and I don’t know if I’m pissed at that or relieved. “The ones flying in are in heat. I can sense it.” Liam scratches at his shoulder and then rubs a big hand down his arm. “Their nearness crawls under my skin.”

My mouth opens silently, and then I snap it shut again. What can I say that will make him feel better? He’s a stranger in this world, an alien for all that he looks mostly human. I don’t know how he feels. “I’m sorry” doesn’t seem to fit, not with the desolate expression on his face. “I won’t keep bothering you,” I say instead, and start to shut the door.

“Wait.”

I pause, my heart fluttering like it always does when I’m near Liam. “What?”

He gets to his feet, all sinewy movements, and the blanket falls to the ground. “I’ll help you look.”

A horrified squeak escapes my throat and I turn my back the moment all that golden skin gets exposed. It’s not that I’ve never seen a man naked before. I have. Or a dragon-man. Rast is naked all the time for some reason. But this is Liam.

That makes it different.

I squeeze my eyes shut and press my face against the doorframe. I’m still standing in the doorway itself, and for a moment I think I should have never turned around. I can still see his long, hard body rising from the blankets, the thick length of his cock against his thigh as he got to his feet, and all that rippling, lightly-scaled golden skin. I suck in a deep breath. “Put some clothes on!”

“What do you think I’m doing?” There’s such amusement in his voice. “Humans aren’t fans of naked bodies, for some reason. Why is that? This is the first chance I’ve had to ask.”

I press my lips together. For the last seven years, Liam’s been posing as human. I guess we’re the first ones that figured it out, so it does make sense that I’m the first one he can ask. But still…why me? “Because it’s not polite.”

“Such a strange people. As if covering your body does anything other than slow your reflexes.”

I say nothing, listening for the rustle of clothing. I wonder if he’s exposed himself to anyone else in Fort Shreveport? But somehow I know it’s just me. Despite the fact that his secret’s out, he keeps to himself for the most part. He talks to Benny, and he talks to me, and occasionally Amy and Rast.

Or he tries to talk to me, but I mostly avoid him unless I absolutely have to, because people talk. And if there’s anything I hate, it’s people talking in a fort. Just thinking about the rumor mill makes me break into a cold sweat. No matter how much I might like Liam, he’s not worth the rumors.

It’s a sobering reminder. I shut the door behind me and leave his room. I head down the hall, determined to return to my Benny search and forget all about Liam and his glorious body.

The door opens as I hurry away. “Andrea, wait,” Liam calls behind me. “I’m dressed.”

My entire body clenches up and I quickly glance around the hall. No one else is around. Thank god. I turn back to him, my fists balled up at my sides. “Will you keep it down? Someone could hear you!”

He’s wearing a pair of sweatpants now, but that’s it. His brows furrow together. “Why is that bad? I said I was dressed.”

“People are going to think you and I”—I gesture furiously at the space between us—“are doing something.”

“And…that is bad?” The lazy, flirty smile makes my ovaries flip.

But I remember Fort Tulsa and my reputation there. “Yes,” I say flatly. “You don’t know how bad it can be.” And I turn and leave again.

This time, he doesn’t follow me and I’m glad. Disappointed but glad. It’s easier this way. I’ve worked hard to establish myself with the group, to become someone new and strong and respected in Fort Shreveport. No matter how I’m attracted to Liam, I need Fort Shreveport.

This place is the only home I have left.

2

ANDI

I  swing past all the spots I’ve already checked, just in case Benny surfaced while I was in Liam’s room. Still no little brother. My irritation’s starting to give way to fear. Where the hell is he?

Even though it’s unlikely that he’ll be there, I head to the gymnasium. I smile at Jenny, who’s leaving as I enter, and try not to study her face too closely. Is she looking at me oddly? Is there a smirk in her greeting? But no. Everything seems normal, so no one must have seen Liam chasing after me, half naked. I murmur a greeting as we pass and then push on the metal bar to open the gym doors. Walking into the gym is like walking into a hothouse. It’s humid and moist, the air muggy. The place is dark, the windows shuttered tightly against incoming dragonfire that’ll be hitting later this morning. There’s a couple of dragons in particular that like to hit Fort Shreveport, and they all seem to be morning attackers, which is good. Once they’re done with us, we can roll the plants back out into the sun so they can soak up the rays. I breathe in the acrid, greeny scent of the tomato plants and stare out at the rows and rows of cages and potted plants. Cucumbers, zucchini and tomato are the easiest for Fort Shreveport to grow, and squash. The vines are easily coaxed onto the tall metal cages and any fruit is carefully propped up. I love early summer and watermelons, but right now it’s late summer and I’m so sick of cucumber and tomato that I could barf. But, food is food and I can’t be picky.

“Benny?” I call out.

No answer.

“Benjamin Allen Foster,” I snap, and hear my voice echo in the empty gymnasium. “I am sick of these games. I know you took my socks. Come and fess up.”

Still no response. I wander through the rows of plants, careful not to disturb the fruit hanging from the vines.

“Just come talk to me. I’m not mad.” It’s a huge lie. I’m furious, but he won’t come out if he knows I am. Benny’s not stupid. In fact, he’s too clever, the little rat. He’s good at slinking away and hiding when he thinks he’s in trouble. Lately, there’s been a lot more slinking, and that’s concerning. I’ve tried really hard to be a parent to Benny and the harder I try, the more awful he seems to get with every passing year.

If I didn’t love him, I’d hate him, but I never say that to anyone. Benny and I are a team. We’re the Foster siblings, and when Mom died a year after the Rift happened, I took up the mantle of parent. If he’s a bad kid, it’s on me.

“Benny, please,” I say, quieter. “I’m worried about you. If you’re hiding, just come out, okay?”

Silence. He’s not in here. I don’t know where he is, then. Some new hiding spot in the fort that I don’t know about, somewhere he can smoke old stale cigarettes he’s hiding away or huff on an old spray paint can. Something.

He wouldn’t leave the fort. He’s a wild kid, but he’s not stupid. He wouldn’t leave me…would he?

“Andrea?”

I turn around, jumping at the sound of my name. “You scared the shit out of me, Liam!” I put a hand over my hammering heart, gasping.

He grimaces, adjusting his baseball cap atop his head in the most human gesture ever. He’s dressed now, wearing a plain white T-shirt and the sweatpants from earlier, and his normal scarf is around his neck, as if at a moment’s notice, he can conceal his face. He’s halfway across the room, but even from here I can see the bulge of his thick muscles through the straining, thin fabric of his shirt. His arms have the spikes along the back as Rast’s do, and they’re the only thing that, looking at him, seem odd or out of place. It’s only recently that he’s started to wear short-sleeved shirts, as if he’s testing the waters for how strange he can look without being booted from the fort. In the dark, though, he looks human. So human. You can’t see his strange eyes, his sharp teeth, and the shadows hide the fact that his features are a little too strong to be normal.

Liam takes a step forward, touching my arm as I tremble amongst the potted tomatoes. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. Just…don’t sneak up on me, all right?” I pull out of his grip, hating that he’s seeing me act so weak. “What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to talk to you,” he says, and his voice is low and appealing. “You ran out of my room.”

“Because you were naked. I don’t want to be around you when you’re naked. It’s not…human.”

He grunts as if this makes perfect sense. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. You just have to think about how that sort of thing looks,” I tell him defensively, crossing my arms and rubbing my skin. I’m covered in goosebumps despite the muggy heat of the gym. “Did you find Benny?”

“I wanted to ask you about that, too. How long has he been gone?”

I shrug. “Didn’t come to breakfast this morning, but that’s becoming a thing with him lately. Small rebellions and all that.”

Liam rubs his jaw absently, his fingers brushing over his lips briefly. “And you know he’s in the fort?”

“Of course he’s in the fort. With a dragon attack looming? He’s pigheaded, not stupid. He won’t get himself killed just to prove a point to me.”

He tilts his head, studying me in the near-darkness, and I become intensely aware of how close we’re standing. I haven’t been alone with Liam many times, but he’s been hanging around me more lately. Another test of the waters, perhaps, seeing what he can get away with before it’s too much. “Are you all right, Andrea?”

Flustered, I reach for the tip of my braid and play with it. “Like I said, you just startled me—”

“That’s not it.” Liam shifts on his feet, as if he’s on edge. Nervous? Or just trying to figure me out? “I am still learning a lot about humans, you know. Seven years and I still don’t have you figured out.” In the darkness, he might be smiling. “But I thought I knew the basics. I thought you and I were…friends? But you avoid me lately. I want to know what I did wrong.”

I lick my dry lips. I don’t want to launch into my history. Not right now. Probably not ever. “You haven’t done anything wrong, okay? You’re being perfectly normal. I’m just…stressed lately with Gwen leaving and Amy taking over.”

“A lot of changes,” he agrees carefully. “But the way you have changed to me is far more recent than that.”

Busted. “I’d really not like to talk about it. Just chalk it up to more human bullshit and call it a day, all right?”

“Day called.” Liam nods. “I won’t push. For now.”

What we need is a subject change. I eye the tomatoes he’s standing a little too close to and put a fingertip on his arm, gently steering him away a step. “If you kill that plant, Jenny’s going to have your head for dinner.”

He pauses. “That’s…a joke, right?” His tone sounds far more reassured than his words. “The head is the worst part to eat. Haunches have the best meat.”

I snort with amusement. “Dude, how on earth did you blend in for so long?”

“By being quiet and unobtrusive.” Liam’s chuckle fills the darkness around me and I get new goosebumps. “But now that you know my secrets, I get to talk.”

Funny—quiet and unobtrusive are two things I might have thought about Liam a month ago, but now that I know him a little more? It’s like they don’t fit in the slightest. “You’re not quiet and unobtrusive around me.”

“I don’t want to be,” he murmurs.

My body pricks with heat, and I become intensely aware just how alone we are in here. How close we’re standing. Anyone that saw us would get the wrong idea.

A battery-powered alarm blares over the compound, jolting me back to awareness. I can’t be caught here with Liam, no matter how distracting he is. “It’s obvious Benny’s not here,” I say, and push past him. “Thanks for your help, but I’d better get back to the others. Dragon attack incoming.” I point at the air, and then I’m out the door before he can reply.

3

LIAM

I t’s been seven years since I took battle form, since I considered myself truly drakoni. In all this time, I’ve done my best to blend with the human populace of this world, to seem like them. I’ve never wanted to be one before today.

Right now, as I watch Andrea leave, I’d give anything to be human.

If I were human, her intoxicating scent wouldn’t make me wild with lust. It wouldn’t be so difficult to have a conversation with her, wondering if I’m missing subtle cues. If I were human, her nearness wouldn’t be driving me mad.

But I am drakoni, no matter that I do my best to seem human. It’s a good thing she left, because every moment she’s near, she tests my willpower. The smart thing to do would be to stay away, but I can’t seem to. It’s not because it’s a small fort. It’s because I can’t bring myself to hide away, not when I’m thinking of any excuse just to be in her presence, to drink in her scent or gaze at the shine of her pale hair. She’s pale all over, paler than any drakoni female, and leaner than them, too. I never thought the sight would inflame me so much, but just the sight of her makes me hunger for the things I cannot have.

She makes my dragon stir.

And that’s dangerous. Out of the thousands of my people that came through the Rift when the veil between our worlds tore open, I am the only one that has not gone completely insane. I know that my grip on reality has to be because I haven’t been in battle form. There’s some connection between that and the mental links that our people use, and I’ve cut myself off from both to be safe. I’m only half alive like this, though, and Andrea’s nearness makes me more and more aware of it.

The siren sounds again and following it is the low roar of the incoming dragon. I’m used to how the humans handle the attacks, but it still tears at me to know that one of my people is out there, utterly lost in their own mind. I want to help, but I can’t. If I shift to battle form, I’ll be just as lost as they are. In two-legged form, I’m just as vulnerable and helpless as any human. So I can only sit and do nothing as the female dragon screams her fury overhead and spits flames at the building.

I sit down amongst the plants that these humans take such intricate care of, and close my eyes. Overhead, the smell of smoke and drakoni scales and char hit, and they bring about a wave of homesickness. The scents remind me of home, of the bleak sandy landscape and red cliffs. Of a fresh-caught lizard, blood hot on my tongue. Of females rising to mate, a challenge in their eyes.

Instead of those females, though, I think of Andrea. Andrea, who incites my drakoni senses more than she ever realizes. For a human, she is fierce. She is tall and bold compared to some of the others, and ferociously protective of her younger sibling. She is always busy here at the fort, assisting the leader or guarding the gates. She walks with a cocky swagger to her hips when she has her shotgun over her shoulder.

It’s that little swagger I love the most, I think…or maybe her scent, which invades my dreams.

Her nearness makes it difficult to stay in the fort. My senses tell me that I should leave, slip out during the dragon attack and abandon this place. Head for another fort, another settlement, one where she is not there to distract me.

But that would mean leaving her unprotected, and the drakoni male I am cannot have that. I rub at my arms, my skin twitching with the nearness of the shrieking female drakoni in the skies. She wants a male to cover her, to challenge her, and the fierce need bleeding through into even my deadened senses is affecting me. Even though I have cut myself off from the drakoni mind-links that our people use to communicate, I can sometimes still feel them in the air, and it's never more apparent than an attack.

My body responds, my cock hard and aching with need. I'm not thinking of the female in the skies, though, attacking the human settlement simply because it offends her crazed senses. I'm thinking of Andrea, her golden hair, the flash of her eyes, and the way she moves. I think of her scent and it nearly overpowers me with how much I need her. Time to retreat to my quarters, I think. There, I will be alone. There, I can take care of the ache of my cock without worrying if someone else will happen upon me. Almost desperate, I push forward, striding out of the gymnasium and down the halls of the fort. Voices buzz in the cafeteria, and no one's around. Good. I manage to make it back to quarters without being stopped, and there, I rip at the constricting, confining clothing on my body. My blunted claws can't tear the fabric like they should, and with a growl of frustration, I manage to shove the pants down to my thighs and take my cock in hand. It's hard and throbbing with need, and I grip it tightly as I press my other hand to the door so no one can try to enter.

I imagine Andrea on the other side of it, her hand on the handle as if she's teasing me, daring to enter. She's got that fiery look on her face, her chin lifted as if challenging me to say something.

I growl as I roughly stroke myself, my grip tight as I drag my hand up and down my shaft. Only Andrea makes me this hard. Andrea and her gorgeous smell, her little smiles, and that cocky shake of her hips… With three quick strokes, my release boils over and then I come, hot seed spurting forth as my body shudders with release. My spend spatters on the door, steaming as it does. The sight of it hissing and sizzling against the peeling paint is a sobering reminder that what I want can never be.

A drakoni male can only give his seed to his mate, the one that has taken his fires. Andrea could be my mate, but I'll never know because that part of my mind is closed off, shut down so I don't go insane and turn as wild as the dragon attacking overhead even now. I cannot give her my fires, because to do that, I must reopen that part of my mind that is completely dead.

I cannot have her. I can never have her, or I will lose myself in the process.

But that does not mean I don't hunger to touch her. With an angry growl in my throat, I grab a nearby blanket and swipe my seed off the back of the door. Even that release did nothing to abate the aching hunger I have for her. I should leave, I remind myself again. Leave and never look back.

But I won't.

I SPEND the day making myself scarce. After the dragon finishes her fiery burst of anger, she wheels away and the oppressive heaviness of her thoughts lifts. I avoid Andrea and the other humans as they head back outside, dragging their plants back into the sunshine and then going about their chores. It pains me to not help out, to sit about and do nothing, but I learned many years ago that the less I'm around other humans, the less likely I am to unnerve them. So I sit back in the shadows near one of the doors and tinker with a knife, running a rough-sided rock along the edge to sharpen it. Such a human tool, only useful for a people that don't have claws or battle forms. As I pretend to look busy, I watch the others. Amy—the new leader of the fort—and her drakoni mate Rast return. Amy talks with people for a few minutes, checking on families and chatting as Rast hovers protectively, and then they head inside with newly found supplies. Rast glances over at me, but I ignore him. I know he has to be puzzled by me, and seeing him standing nearby, eyes whirling, his mane long and tangled and as wild as he is—it reminds me of how far I've had to go to change myself. I dress like the humans, hold human objects, and even talk like the humans. Even if I were to approach Rast, we wouldn't be able to speak without his mate as a go-between. I can't connect my thoughts to his in mental speech, and like most drakoni, he doesn't know the human tongue except for a few words.

It just adds to the sensation of isolation that has been my constant companion for the last seven years.

Andrea is at the gate, her shotgun cocked on her shoulder as it always is, and she talks quietly to Cass. I can't hear her from across the compound, even though her scent tickles my nose and fills me with need. I'm still thinking about the rough way I stroked my cock earlier, imagining my hand as hers, and shift uncomfortably in my seat. I watch her even as the others move about, watering plants, weeding, or just sitting in the afternoon sunshine with their young. They are all happy and content, because the dragons are gone for a few more days and they fancy themselves safe once more.

Andrea isn't happy, though. Even from here, her scent carries a sour tinge to it, one of fear and worry. That makes my senses prick, and I remain utterly attuned to her, watching from afar. She has been at the gate for most of the day, but she will switch shifts with Luz soon. I know her schedule from many days and nights of watching her closely. Soon she will be free, and then she will go hunting for her brother.

My nose tells me he's not in the fort. Not any longer. I think Andrea knows this, too, though she will not admit it to herself. She's stubborn like that. But there are only so many places an adolescent boy can hide in the compound, and his scent is on none of them. I've already looked.

Sure enough, the moment the sun begins to go down, Luz heads out for her shift. She talks with Andrea for a moment, and then the two women switch out. Andrea strides away from the gate, and there's no cocky, casual sway to her hips today. Her movements are brisk, jerky, and stiff. I know she's worried about her brother. Instead of heading toward the cafeteria to grab herself her evening meal, she heads for Benny's quarters. I get up from my spot and follow after her. The scents of human children are thick down this hall, but Benny's scent is stale. I catch Andrea just as she's turning to head toward the gym again—as if he'd somehow head there despite checking it earlier—and match my longer strides to her shorter ones. "He's not in the fort, Andrea. You know this."

"Benny wouldn't leave," she tells me tightly, refusing to look over at me. Her hands smell like metal and wood, her shotgun in a holster over one shoulder. "Not without talking to me first."

She's wrong, but I don't say that. "His scent is old down this hall."

She looks over at me, and then turns to go down another hall. Stubborn, determined Andrea. Just being near her makes my dragon half stir. I remain at her side, even when she heads down another hall and then checks inside the room where Gwen keeps her birds. After another few minutes, she casts an irritated look in my direction. "Why are you still here?"

"I'll help you look."

As she always does, she glances around to see if others are nearby before giving me another look. "Why would I need your help?" The accusing note is gone from her voice, but her scent is still filled with worry.

"Because dragons can smell things humans can't." I can smell you all through the fort, and it makes me hungry to put my mouth on you. To lick all those spots that smell so intoxicating, to bury myself in your perfumed heat.

"Oh." She chews on her lip, but when another human heads down the hall with a stack of linens, she stiffens and takes an angry step back. "I don't need your help."

"You do," I tell her, keeping the amusement in my voice.

She says nothing, her arms crossed over her chest, her body practically bristling with anger and dislike. I don't get that from her scent, though. She only acts standoffish and remote when other humans are around, so I assume it's something I don't quite understand yet. There's a reason she doesn't like to be seen with me. Is it because they know I am drakoni now? But the others welcome Rast warmly, even if they are intimidated by him. Amy's presence at his side and his utter devotion to her make it clear he is here to help.

Perhaps that is it. I don't have a mate to smooth things over for me. For a moment, my skin itches fiercely, as if my scales want to burst through my hide and make their presence known. I could shift to battle form, reclaim that part of my mind that is completely shut down, and claim Andrea as mine…

But if she's not mine, I lose myself for good. I will be another monster in the skies, empty of everything but anger and instinct and flame.

I can't take the risk. As much as I want Andrea, I don't know that I won't just tear her in half the moment I shift forms.

Andrea smiles tightly at the woman watching us, silent, until the other disappears down the hall. The moment the second female is gone, Andrea moves to my side and touches my arm, her expression changing from intense dislike to one of worry. "You can scent him?"

I arch an eyebrow at this sudden transformation, but I don't comment on it. "Of course. If I'm familiar with the human, I can follow their scent trail all over the fort. I could follow yours from many, many lengths away."

"Miles," she corrects absently. "Not lengths. Can you tell me where Benny's been?"

"I can follow his scent," I offer, and put my hand on her elbow to steer her. She hesitates, but then moves closer to me, and a predatory surge of pleasure rushes through me at her nearness.

We move through the fort, heading down halls and going across the yard, checking sheds and every possible nook and cranny that might hide a fourteen-year-old boy. I'm not ashamed to admit that I choose certain paths because I don't smell others nearby. I want to keep Andrea close to me, and if that means taking winding paths instead of the straightest ones, I'll do so.

Even so, at the end of our search, there is still no Benny. His scent trail leads to the edge of the tall chain-link fence that surrounds the fort and disappears underneath it.

Andrea's full, pink mouth flattens with displeasure at the realization. "Why would he leave the fort? It doesn't make sense. On a dragon attack day? Do you think someone took him?"

"I don't smell anyone else. His scent is old enough that it's obvious he left long before the dragons. Long before breakfast, I imagine." Humans carry the scent of their food for hours sometimes. Benny likes sweet things with his morning meal and sometimes smells like the sugary syrups he hoards away.

"That dumbass." She shakes her head and then lets out a huff. "He didn't talk to me about this at all."

It takes me a moment to realize that she's hurt. She won't look over at me, but her body is stiff and her mouth pulls down in a scowl. Her anger is to mask her pain, because she doesn't want to show it to me. The protectiveness in me rises, and it takes everything I have not to reach out and touch her to comfort her.

"He is a boy. When I was his age, I did many stupid things," I admit.

She's quiet, her hands on her hips, and just stares at the hole in the fence for so long that I start to wonder. Then, she swipes a hand over her eyes and I realize she is making water with her face. Crying, they call it. She is upset. “Andrea?” I ask, reaching out to her.

“I just…” She sniffs hard and then swipes at her face again. “I’m not crying.”

“You look as if you are,” I say, suspicious.

Andrea turns and glares at me. “I’m not.” And then she bursts into tears, burying her face in her hands

I freeze in place, uncertain of how to act at her vulnerability. A drakoni female would never show weakness before any male other than her mate, and I know Andrea struggles not to show weakness before me. It’s clear she doesn’t like this, but her emotions are spilling out of her. Her sadness tears at me and I know I shouldn’t touch her, but I can’t help myself. I reach out and pull her into my arms, stroking her hair. “Shhh,” I say, remembering how other humans comfort one another. They tell each other not to cry, I think. “Don’t cry.”

She hesitates for a moment and then buries her face against my chest, her tears wetting the front of my shirt. Just like that, she is in my arms, her scent enveloping me, and my thoughts blaze into lust. I bite back a groan, ignoring the fire burning through me at her touch. She is sad and miserable, and she cannot be mine. I should not be thinking about how hard my cock is at her nearness, or the smell of her hair or the way the loose strands brush against my skin.

I should leave this place, I think with agony. Being near Andrea is too much. Her touch makes me hunger for things I can’t have, and it’s going to break me.

“He’s all I have,” Andrea sobs against my chest, her fists curled in my clothing. “He’s only fourteen. Why would he leave here and not say anything to me?”

I stroke her hair and fight back the urge to bury my face in it and breathe in her scent. She needs comforting, not lust. “He was afraid of what you would say,” I guess. “Your brother does not like to be told what to do.” He’s like her in that way.

“That little shit,” she weeps. “He’s going to get himself killed.”

“Benny is clever,” I reassure her. “He won’t do anything foolish. He knows how to take care of himself.”

She’s silent for a moment, and I wonder if I said the wrong thing. Sometimes it’s hard to tell with humans, but I thought I knew her better. Her shoulders shake with her tears and she clings to me as a new round of tears hits her. “Why does everyone leave me?”

That splinters me. Her sadness tears at my spirit, and I know that no matter how torturous my need for her becomes, I won’t leave her side. Ever.

Andrea needs me.

“I’m here,” I tell her, stroking her braid and holding her close, my arm over her shoulders. I press my mouth to her smooth human brow, determined to hold her for as long as she needs. Another scent touches the air and I glance over her head to see one of the females walking, a basket on her hip. She glances at us and then quickly hurries on. Something tells me that Andrea won’t like that—she doesn’t like others to see her making water from her eyes. “Whatever you need,” I murmur, holding her close. “I’m here.”

4

ANDI

T  o think I wanted to murder Benny for stealing my socks this morning. Right now, I’d give just about anything to see his face pop up on the other side of the fence. He could have a truckload of crusty socks in his arms and I wouldn’t care. I just want my brother back. I want to see his lanky body, his slightly-too-long sandy hair, and the chipped tooth that flashes when he smiles.

I might never see him again, though, because he ran away from home.

I sob into Liam’s shirt for a moment longer, giving in to a bout of pity, and then swipe my hand under my running nose and pull away before I get snot all over him. I am not a cute weeper, and he’s the sexiest man I’ve ever seen. Of course I’d get all gross and disgusting in front of him. “Sorry,” I mutter, trying to compose myself.

To my surprise, his eyes are practically black, the gold in them whirling a deep, dark shade. “I don’t like seeing you upset, Andrea.” For a moment, he doesn’t look like slouchy, casual Liam. He looks infinitely more…dangerous.

For a moment, he looks like Rast—completely, wholly dragon. Inhuman.

It makes me feel…strange. I wonder how much of the Liam I see is the real Liam and how much is pretend.

Flustered, I pull away, grateful that it’s near dark and no one will be on this end of the compound. The last thing I need is for someone to see me weeping all over Liam’s brawny chest and then the rumor mill will definitely start flying then. “Okay, think, Andi,” I murmur to myself as I dry my face with shaking hands. “Where would Benny go? Where does a fourteen-year-old boy want to be more than here?”

“With other men,” Liam says suddenly.

“What?” I run my hand over my braid, distracted. “What other men?”

He shrugs, and with that small movement, he looks almost completely human again, so much so that I wonder if I imagined his momentary wildness. “When I was a boy his age, I ran away from my parents’ nest to join a warriors’ camp. I wanted to learn how to fight so I could provide better for my family, or so I said. The truth was that my father was dead and I was hungry to be around other males, not my mother and my sisters. Could it be the same for him?”

I think, tugging on my braid as I begin to pace. I try to think like Benny, try to think of all the snatches of conversation I had with my brother over the last while. We’ve bickered, but lately, all Benny and I do is bicker, and I feel a lump of remorse in my throat at the thought. Benny wanted to move into his own room because he said little Lucas was a baby and needed a glow-in-the-dark toy to cuddle at night. He said the other kids peed in the bed and he was too old to be with them. I told him no, because as the only teenage boy in our little fort, there’s no good place for him yet. We’d have to set up an entirely new room for him, and given that all the women have to share, it wouldn’t have been right. We’d argued over that.

Then there was the time that a couple of nomad men passed through and Benny asked them a million questions. Did he follow them? I think of the men, greasy and missing teeth, who leered at all the women and were asked to quickly move along. That was months ago. Surely not? He didn’t seem to like them any more than we did.

With a pang, I think of just the other day. “You think there are a lot more kids my age in other forts?” Benny’d asked me.

“We’re not going back to Fort Tulsa,” I’d snapped at him. I still have nightmares of that place. I was in the middle of cleaning my shotgun and doing inventory on bullets, and I wasn’t paying much attention to him.

“Not Fort Tulsa, dummy,” he’d said. “Other forts. This place is a fucking dump and it’s full of old ladies. I don’t have any friends here.”

“You have Lucas,” I’d told him.

“Fuck Lucas.”

“Quit fucking cussing! You’re not old enough for that!”

He’d ignored that and reached for my shotgun. “Will you show me how to shoot? You said you would when I was older.”

But we were low on bullets, and some were missing. Thievery’s bad enough, but I was also distracted with the fact that Gwen had left recently and sent back ominous reports of bad news on the horizon, and for us to be careful. So when he reached for my shotgun, I slapped his hand away.

“Fuck you, Andi,” he’d said and stormed away.

He’d been calm later that day, and I’d ruffled his hair and apologized and didn’t think anything else of it.

Maybe I should have.

“I think I’m a bad sister,” I whisper to Liam, and new tears threaten, but I blink them back. “I think he’s been unhappy here for a while.”

Liam shakes his head, and his expression is fierce. “You’re just busy. Don’t blame yourself.”

I’m Benny’s family, though. I’m his mom, his sister, and his guardian all wrapped up in one. I should have been listening. I should have been more careful of his feelings, realizing that he’s been acting out because he’s desperately lonely and unhappy. All those little fires he’s set? All the stuff he’s stolen around the fort and pissed people off? The extra helpings of food? The missing bullets? My stolen socks? That wasn’t him being a shitty teenager, that was him screaming for attention.

He’s been planning on leaving for a while now, I realize, and it’s like a knife in my gut.

“He went to find another fort,” I say, and I feel broken inside. I thought we were family. That we’d always be together. “He went to find a place to live without me.”

“He’s a boy at a tough age,” Liam says, his eyes whirling that intense, darker shade again. “He’s just looking for a…” He pauses, searching his thoughts. “I don’t know the human word. A…face? A name? That’s not right.”

“Identity?” I suggest.

Liam nods, a rueful smile tugging his gorgeous mouth. “Now you see why I don’t talk much. Your language has too many words.”

“You talk fine,” I say absently and rub my arms, thinking. “And Benny’s probably gone off to find another fort. Maybe Fort Dallas? The one Amy came from? There’s been a lot of talk about it lately…none of it good. Damn it, Benny.” He doesn’t know all the terrible things that have been coming out of there, or some of the more unsavory elements that float out of the nearby forts and make their way here. I’ve shielded him from the worst, protected him from things that I thought might frighten him…and now I wish I hadn’t.

If he knew just how bad things are outside of this fort, he’d never leave.

Despair hits me. This is my fault. I haven’t done enough to prepare him, to make him realize how good we have it here. Benny’s so young. Even though he thinks he’s an adult, he’s just a kid, and I failed to protect him. I can’t let him just go, either.

I have to go after him. If nothing else, I have to make sure that he’s safe, even if he won’t come back to this fort with me. The terrible thing is that I do understand why Benny hates it here. I get why he ran away. He’s lonely and he feels like he doesn’t belong, even surrounded by people.

I’ve been there.

But I’m still his big sister, and I’m still going to protect him even if he doesn’t want my help. “You’re positive he’s not in the fort?” I ask Liam again, though I’ve already looked in all the normal hiding spots. When he nods, I push back my fear and give a determined nod. “All right. I’ll talk to Amy and Rast. They can help me go looking for him.”

“I’ll go with you,” Liam says, and puts a hand on the small of my back when I turn.

“It’s not necessary,” I begin.

“I’m going anyway.”

I don’t argue it further. Part of me’s glad that I won’t be facing them entirely alone. Not that Amy’s scary. As for Rast, he won’t acknowledge anyone if Amy’s not around. It’s like we don’t exist to him unless she’s interacting with us. But talking alone with Amy is…weird. Rast never leaves her side, so you’re not really alone with her. And there’s always this heavy, almost oppressive feeling in the air when I’m around them. I know they’re talking in their heads. It makes me feel like they’re talking about me behind my back. I’m paranoid, maybe.

I head through the fort, and when I start to turn toward Amy and Rast’s quarters, Liam shakes his head and gently steers me towards the kitchens. I bite back a groan of dismay because that’s the one place where no one is ever alone, and that means we’re going to run into others…and Liam has a hand on my back, near my waist. I sidestep away, trying to slink out of his grip, but he just moves closer.

Dammit. “Please don’t touch me,” I tell him again, before we go through the cafeteria doors. I shrug away from his touch and avoid looking at him. I don’t want to see the hurt on his face.

But Liam only laughs as if I amuse him. “Very well.”

I push inside, and sure enough, several people look up. I freaking knew it. This fort runs on tomatoes and freaking gossip. Miranda—one of the gardeners and who’s sisters with the cook Retha—smirks as Liam follows me inside. She’s sitting by one of the oil lamps, working on knitting, two playing toddlers at her feet. There’s a few other people scattered in the cafeteria, and in the corner, I see a naked Rast’s golden backside as he stands next to a petite blonde woman in a long dress, and I head in that direction.

Amy and Rast are an odd pair in my eyes, but I’m insanely jealous of the both of them, because they’re so giddily happy together. I didn’t think happiness was possible in the After. You could be content and safe, but happy? Fuck happy. It went out the door the moment civilization did. But as we approach, Amy laughs, and the sound is a delighted trill of joy. Rast turns to look at her, and the utter contentment on his face makes me ache inside. He loves her so damn much.

I want someone to love me like that. To look at me as if I’m their whole world, as if I bring the sunshine each day. God, wouldn’t that be amazing? It’s how Rast looks at delicate little Amy, and it’s how Vaan looks at my best friend, Gwen. Dragons, when they fall for a human woman, fall hard and fall fast, and it’s obvious to anyone that meets them that their world has narrowed down to one person and one person alone.

Of course, that’s only the dragons that are mated. The wild, crazy ones are still attacking the last bits of humanity that are left, trying to destroy us.

It’s a weird time to be alive.

Amy doesn’t look like she’d be the leader of anything, much less an entire fort. My friend Gwen is tall, lean, and has a strong look to her lovely face, like she was born to shoulder your burdens and help you out. Amy is small and delicate and walks with a heavy limp. She wears colorful, flowing dresses, loves jewelry, and does pretty things with her long, silky blonde hair. She’s girly and sweet and seems younger than I am, though I guess we’re about the same age. It’s funny to me because she’s embraced her utter femininity and here I am always trying to chase mine away. I wear jeans and men’s T-shirts, keep my snarled hair in a braid, and walk around with a shotgun instead of a handbag. Ever since we left Fort Tulsa, I’ve been working hard at being seen as capable and hard. Fierce. Takes no shit.

This might also be why I’m lonely.

Oh well. You take the path given to you and all that.

“Amy?” I call out as we approach.

Rast is the first one to turn, moving closer to his mate. He’s got the same golden skin that Liam does, but the dragon heritage is far more evident on him than on Liam, who does his best to hide it. The spines on his arms flex as he turns, as if bristling to protect his mate. His claws are unshorn and wickedly long, making his big hands look deadly. His skin is a darker shade of gold than Liam’s paler one, and the dappled scale pattern is that much more evident against his muscles. His riot of thick gold hair cascades down his back in a tangled mess, and his eyes whirl dark as he glares at us.

But when Amy turns, she beams happily and touches Rast’s arm. “Hi Andi.”

I smile back, even though I want to hate her for taking over Gwen’s job. I love Gwen. I’m fiercely loyal to her. But…it’s impossible not to like Amy. It’s obvious she went out in the Scavenge Lands—what we call the barren, uninhabited parts of the old cities—because she’s got fresh flowers twined in her hair and looks like a princess. Her eyes are bright with enthusiasm, and she holds a clipboard to her chest, an old ballpoint pen in her hand.

“Do you have a moment?” I ask, glancing uneasily at Rast. Cass is also nearby, a tight look on her face. Her gaze flicks to Liam, who moves to my side and puts his hand on the small of my back again, and I want to scream in frustration when he does. I say nothing, though, trying to keep as neutral an expression as possible.

“Of course.” She glances at Cass. “I’ll get with you in the morning, all right?”

Cass nods, gives me a speculative look, and then saunters away. I’m sure I’ll hear all kinds of shit about this the next time we’re on gate duty together, but I don’t care. Right now Benny’s my number one concern.

I wait until Cass is gone, watching her leave out of the corner of my eye. “Thanks,” I begin, and then pause because Amy’s cheeks are flushed and she has a funny look on her face. It takes a moment, and then I see why. Rast has moved even closer to her and he’s idly playing with a piece of her hair, wrapping it around one finger and then rubbing the strands. It’s obvious from the look on Amy’s face and the subtle way she’s leaning toward him that she’s very aware of that small touch, too, and I’m hit with another wave of envy.

“What’s up?” Amy asks, and her voice is steady as she hugs the clipboard to her chest.

“Benny’s missing.” Just saying it aloud fills me with grief, because admitting it makes it real. “I think he left in the middle of the night to go and find another fort. Maybe even Fort Dallas.”

“Oh no,” Amy breathes, and reaches out to touch my arm. “Are you okay?”

Her sympathetic expression just makes things worse. The tears I’ve been struggling to hold back all day threaten once more, so I lock my jaw and nod. When I can speak, I tell her everything I know, everywhere we’ve checked, and how Liam found his scent trail.

She looks unhappy. “That hole in the fence is going to be a problem. I want to repair it, but we can’t while he’s gone in case he tries to sneak back in.”

I nod miserably. “I need you and Rast to go and hunt him down.”

“Of course.”

Rast growls low in his throat, and Amy shoots him a glance, frowning.

“What? What is it?” I ask, curious.

She glances between me and her dragon. “He’s just…not happy with my decision. But I know what it’s like to worry over a sibling.” She smiles sympathetically at me.

“Why is that a problem?” I can practically feel myself bristling. Why doesn’t Rast want to go rescue my brother? What’s he got against Benny?

“Oh.” Amy hesitates, then continues. “You know how we’re running low on supplies.” Her voice drops lower. “We found an old feed store that hasn’t been ransacked. There are bags and bags of dried corn and seeds and tons of things we can use, but it’s also in the path of a group of nomads heading down the highway in that direction. We’re going back tonight to grab what we can, but we need as much time as possible to clean the place out. But Benny comes first,” she continues, rushing on. “Don’t think he doesn’t. We’ll figure it out.”

Fuck. “A food supply store? Dried corn?”

“Enough to last us all winter, I think,” Amy says, and bites her lip. “We’d be set for the spring, too.”

I can’t ask them to jeopardize everyone at the fort for Benny being a dick and running off. I let out a frustrated breath. I know how important—and rare—a find like that is. Having Amy and Rast able to find stuff like that is what keeps everyone fed and safe. “You guys clean out the feed store,” I tell her, because I know the safety of forty-odd lives comes before one.

“Can you wait a day?” she asks, clasping her hands. “The world out there can be pretty intimidating. Maybe he’ll come back on his own?”

“Maybe. I can wait, though.” It’ll kill me, but I can wait.

THAT NIGHT, I’m unable to sleep. I can’t stop worrying about Benny. It’s a quiet night, with the air crisp and cool, and it’s stuffy inside my quiet, lonely room. I put on a pair of battered sneakers and sleep pants under my nightgown, and then head out to the roof of the gymnasium. I like to come here at night sometimes, when the stars are out, and daydream.

Silly, I know, but the open sky and cool breeze help me think when my brain feels all bottled up. So I climb up the ladder, find my favorite spot on the roof, and lie back and gaze up at the stars. They’re incredible now that electricity is more or less a thing of the past. Swirls of galaxies meet my eyes, the night sky smeared with pinks and purples and the endless scatter of stars. In one corner of the darkness, the sky pulses like an open wound, shot through with a sickly green. The Rift. Even here, it seems, dragons and their kind are going to destroy my peace of mind.

“Can I join you?”

I jump, startled. My skin prickles and I sit up, rubbing my bare arms. I didn’t know that anyone else was aware I went up here. I guess it makes sense that Liam could find me—he could follow my scent—but it’s still surprising to see him poke his head over the edge of the building and then climb up, glancing around. He wears nothing but a pair of sweatpants, as if he’s doing as little as possible to cover his body. I think of Rast and his constant nudity and blush, imagining Liam just as naked. “You’re here, aren’t you?” I say tartly. There’s something about Liam that makes me respond with sass.

He just grins and jogs over to my side. His feet are bare, just like his chest, and his lack of clothing makes me feel a little vulnerable. I wasn’t expecting to see anyone, so I’m not wearing a bra under my spaghetti-strapped nightgown and my nipples are hard against the fabric. I cross my arms and hike up my legs, resting my arms on my knees as he comes to sit next to me. He doesn’t say anything, just gazes up at the stars and the night sky. I peek over at him, and his small horns at his temples stick out against his golden hair, obvious without his characteristic baseball hat on.

When he remains silent, I decide to speak up. “Why are you up here?”

“You seemed unhappy at waiting overnight to see if Benny returns, so when I heard you get up, I thought I’d join you.” Liam looks over at me, his strange dragon eyes meeting mine. “He’ll come back. And if he doesn’t, we’ll find him. Don’t worry.”

“We?”

“You.” He grins at me, not irritated by my prickliness at all. Instead, he’s gazing at my arm, at the big black tattoo I got just before leaving Fort Tulsa. I got it because I wanted to look tougher, but now it just irks me. Just one of many stupid decisions I made when I was younger that I now regret.

I rub my arm and hide it from his gaze. “I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I won’t relax until Benny’s safe behind these walls again.”

“You’ll find him,” Liam says again, all confidence. He lies back to look up at the stars, resting the back of his head on his laced fingers.

He looks so relaxed that I suddenly feel like I’m being overly nervous and stiff. I lie back, too, pretending to look at the stars, but I’m really utterly focused on him at my side. “It’s just hard,” I say after a moment. “He’s the only person I have left.”

“You have me,” Liam says simply.

“I’m an asshole to you.”

He laughs, the sound utterly delighted. “Is that what it is? Do you not like me, then? I thought we were acknowledging our attraction to each other and fighting it.”

I can feel my face grow hot in the darkness. “Is that what we’re doing?” I manage to choke out. “Angry flirting?”

He rolls over onto his side and faces me, propping up his head with one big hand, and for a moment, it feels like we’re in bed together. My body reacts accordingly - I flush with heat and my nipples get even harder. “You do know that when a drakoni female is interested, she challenges the male?”

“So basically I’m turning you on?”

“You are,” he agrees in that low, sexy voice that makes me skittish and heated all at once. “I’ve been waiting for you to say something to me. To acknowledge that there’s a connection between us. But if you want to, we can pretend to keep going as we are.”

The breath catches in my throat as I watch him. How is this ungodly handsome man confessing his interest in me? I’m storky, bland Andi who’s too boring for dragons to notice…but here Liam is, devouring me with his eyes and encouraging my sass because it turns him on. “What…” I lick my lips, nervous. “What do I do if maybe I’m not interested in turning you on?” It’s been so long since I’ve flirted that I know I’m bad at it. My words are cautious, but I turn toward him, my arm under my breasts to plump them and show him through body language that despite what I’m saying, I am interested. “Maybe I’d rather let you suffer?”

He cocks an eyebrow at me. “It’s probably for the best.”

It is? That’s not what I expected to hear. Suddenly uncertain, I roll on my back again and gaze up at the sky. I shouldn’t be up here flirting with Liam anyhow. I should be out there in the streets, hunting down my brother. Hot tears threaten to flood my eyes and I focus intently on the stars above, willing myself not to cry.

To my surprise, big, warm fingers brush my cheek. I’m startled at the touch and turn to look over at Liam. There’s an intense look on his face that makes me inwardly squirm, and I wonder if he’s going to kiss me.

But all he says is, “I’m with you, Andrea. Together, we’ll find Benny. I won’t let you go after him alone.”

“I appreciate the offer,” I tell him, my throat achingly tight. “But you don’t have to promise anything.”

“I don’t,” he agrees. “But for you, I will. When I say this, I don’t say it lightly. I will always be there for you. It doesn’t matter if you hate me, or if you can’t stand the sight of another dragon and want nothing to do with me. But know that I will always watch over you and protect you.”

He’s going to kiss me, I think with wonder, and my tears dry up. I watch him, breathless.

Waiting.

And…waiting.

But Liam only caresses my cheek, and then gets to his feet, heading back across the roof toward the ladder as if he’s got somewhere to be.

I just watch him leave, utterly confused. Was that…flirting? Or something more?

LIAM

I shouldn’t have touched Andrea.

I can’t have her.

But I did touch her. And I want her so badly that my cock is an aching length of granite in my hated human pants. So I head back to my room, determined to relieve my need so I don’t return to the roof and do more than just touch her cheek.

I can’t have her.

I can’t.

5

ANDI

By sundown the next night, Benny still hasn’t returned, and when I go back to Amy to point this out, Liam’s at my side again. Amy’s filthy and exhausted from a day of hauling supplies, and she admits to me that they didn’t get nearly as much as they could have. There’s more to retrieve, which means another day of delays.

That’s fine. It doesn’t mean I’m going to stick around, though. “I’m not waiting any longer,” I tell her, my voice as gentle as I can make it. It’s not her fault my little brother’s a shit. “Benny’s my brother. I know you guys are busy, so I’m going to go after him and hopefully I can find him before he gets into trouble.”

“Oh, Andi,” Amy says, shaking her head. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

“I would feel horribly guilty if everyone starved because we were going out looking for Benny instead of getting supplies,” I tell her. “It’s fine. Timing’s important and I know this area. I can go after him. I’ve got weapons and I know how to take care of myself. If it’s all right, I’ll take a little bit of food with me and be out the door tonight—”

“And I will be with you,” Liam adds in smoothly.

I’m startled to hear Liam’s voice. I’d nearly forgotten he’s in the room with us, he was so quiet as I argued with Amy. Of course, that’s part of his survival tactic, isn’t it? To be so unobtrusive that others forget that he’s there? His face is neutral, but he steps forward and puts a firm hand at the small of my back again, as if it’s all settled.

“So you’ll go together?” Amy asks, clearly relieved.

That “together” word makes me panic. I think of last night on the roof and how confused it left me. It’s probably better if Liam stays here so I can sort my thoughts about him. “No. I’m going by myself.” I turn and glare at Liam, who just gives me that lazy grin as if to laugh at my ferocity.

Amy speaks again. “I’d rather you go with someone, Andi.”

“And you need me,” Liam says.

This time I give him a full-bore scowl. “Why do you think I need you? I’m hunting down a fourteen-year-old.”

“Because he’s good at fooling you,” Liam says bluntly. “You think he won’t know you’re coming after him? He’ll try to hide from you, and he’ll succeed because he’s small and sly and you’re desperate to have him back.”

I hate that word, desperate. I also hate it because it feels far too close to how I feel. “So I’ll see if one of the other girls wants to go with me—”

Liam shakes his head and the hand on the small of my back feels firmer, more possessive. “I can scent him, Andrea. I can follow him better than anyone else at this fort except for Rast.”

“He’s got a point—” Amy begins.

“And I can protect you.” Liam’s eyes are whirling darker, the gold in them almost turning to rust with all the shadows seeping in. “From dragons, and from other males that might find you alone.”

“Men,” I correct absently, and I shake my head. “You said you can’t switch forms and your mental speech is cut off. How can you protect me from dragons?”

“Because I still think like them,” he says. “Are you done with excuses, or do you want to find your brother?” His gaze is piercing.

I hate that he sees through me so easily. I want to find Benny, but I know if I leave this fort with just Liam, the gossip is going to go wild. But…I don’t have any other choice. “I’m leaving in fifteen minutes,” I tell him bluntly. “You’d better be fucking ready.”

And Liam smiles, all slow pleasure, and I feel both pleased and desperate at the same time.

This is going to be trouble, I know it…but what can I do?

LIAM

I watch as Andrea storms out of the room, her rounded backside bouncing with the force of her boots stomping as she leaves. Her frustration is adorably amusing, as if she can somehow show her anger with enough noise that I will somehow change my mind.

The poor human doesn’t know me very well then, because when it comes to her? I’m not changing my mind. And I’m not going to let her wander into danger alone, not when I can protect her and keep her safe. It’s true that I can’t do much against a drakoni in full battle form, not when I’m in my two-legged form…but it’s not the drakoni I’m worried about if she strikes out on her own. There’s far too many unscrupulous humans outside of the safety of the forts, and Andrea is young and lovely and sometimes far too trusting.

So no, I won’t let her go alone. Even if she refused to let me accompany her, I’d still find a way to follow behind, keep her safe. I’d stick to the shadows and trail her just so she’d have someone at her back. This may be her world, but I’ve had a lot more experience moving from human settlement to human settlement. I know what it’s like out there. For all that Andrea is capable and strong, she’s only been in two forts.

She doesn’t know how desperate some of the nomads out there can get.

I don’t understand why she doesn’t want my help, though. She took it yesterday and seemed grateful. But now the thought of traveling with me bothers her? I can’t figure her out.

I glance over at Amy and Rast. “Is there something else going on that I’m not aware of?”

“With Andi?” Amy’s eyes go wide. “Not that I’m aware of. Why?”

I shake my head, my hands on my hips. “It’s nothing.” Perhaps her brother’s disappearance is making her mood veer wildly, from anger to frustration to tears and then back to anger again. Who knows. “She just seems strange lately.”

“There have been a lot of changes here,” Amy admits, her fingers moving to Rast’s arm, and then she links her hands in the crook of his elbow, leaning against him. “Not everyone likes change. She’s had a lot shift around in the last few months. With Gwen leaving…maybe she feels Benny’s all that she has left.”

She has me, I want to say, but I don’t. I can’t claim her. Not as I am. “That must be it.” I give them a casual smile, no teeth showing, like I would to any other human to put them at ease. “Guess I’d better pack since she wants to leave right away.”

“If you need something, speak up and we’ll give it to you. Weapons? Food?”

I shake my head. “I have weapons and I won’t take food from the fort. Andrea has supplies for herself and I can find enough to eat on scent alone.”

She tilts her head and is quiet, then glances over at Rast and nods. “Of course. Keep her safe for us, Liam. And if things get too dangerous or too awful, you can always reach out to Rast…” Amy lets the words trail off, because we both know that situation would be life or death. I can’t reach out to Rast, not mentally. I cut that part of my life out as self-preservation the moment I realized what was happening to my people on this side of the Rift. For me to activate that part of my spirit again, I’d have to shift to battle form, to reclaim my drakoni side. And if I do, I will go mad.

But if things get too bad and Andrea is in danger…I nod and murmur a human-sounding goodbye, and then head for my quarters. They’re not truly my quarters, of course. It’s the room that all the “visitors” to the fort stay in. There just haven’t been any visitors other than me recently except for Amy and Rast, and they’ve already been accepted into the fold here. I’m still an outsider. No one will miss me if I don’t come back with Andrea.

I wonder if she’ll miss me? I like to think so. I think of how when she was upset earlier and her eyes made the water called “tears” that she turned to me and held onto me. It fills me with pleasure, and I hold onto that thought as I go to my room and pack up my belongings. I don’t have much. I don’t need much, truly. A change of clothing, another pair of boots, a handful of weapons, and a plastic waterskin for traveling. Everything else I can get from the land. Even in my two-legged form, I’m fast enough to catch small game…well, provided I strip off all of these ridiculous human trappings. Maybe Andrea won’t mind if I do so away from the fort.

I like the thought.

I sling my bag over my shoulder, make my bed, and then close the door to the room behind me. I step into the hall and close my eyes, sifting through the scents in the fort. They’re heavy and thick with the varying smells of humans and their trappings, along with the scents of the cookfires, the nearby plants, and various foodstuffs. One of the most overwhelming things about humans is their scent, and how they seem oblivious to the fact that so many different smells clash together. Their sense of smell isn’t as keen as a drakoni’s and as a result, they tend to add more scents to all of their things. They add flower scents to their clothing when they clean them, or spray themselves with new scents to cover the musk of their bodies. They put things in their hair and on their skin—they even add scents to the candles. It all gets overwhelming fast, and I can only imagine how it must feel to Rast. A drakoni uses two senses more than anything else—smell and spirit-sense—and they often combine together, letting emotions tinge people’s natural scents. The stink of humanity and their thoughts pressing in? No wonder my people are insane.

But as I filter through the scents, I find Andrea’s amidst all the chaos. Her scent is light and musky, carrying a hint of sweat and her natural sweetness. Just breathing her in makes my mouth water and my cock harden, and I open my eyes, following it. As I do, I can’t help but grin. As I follow the teasing notes of her trail, it becomes obvious that Andrea isn’t waiting inside the fort for me—she’s already headed to the gates.

Impatient, bold and determined. What a female.

Grinning to myself, I follow. I pass through the double metal doors and out into the asphalt courtyard. Andrea is there, waiting by the chain-link fence near the gate, an equally small pack on her shoulder, her shotgun tucked under one arm, and a scowl on her face. She looks utterly mutinous and so I grin even wider.

“Thank you for waiting for me,” I tease.

Andrea just narrows her eyes at me. “You ready?”

I nod. Of course I’m ready. For all that humans love to have a lot of possessions, I don’t really need much at all. Even the clothing I took with me was just more of my disguise—I learned that humans expect you to change your clothing every so often and if you don’t, they get suspicious. Their lives would be so much easier without clothing, but they’re also a more fragile people than the drakoni, so the clothing is probably needed.

On me, though, it’s just a damned nuisance.

But I keep a smile on my face just to infuriate Andrea, and gesture that she should lead the way.

With a tight nod, she surges forward, heading for the gates. There’s no time to watch the cocky little shake of her bottom, because I need to move in step with her. I follow behind closely and nod at the two females guarding the gate as we leave. They watch us curiously, and I notice that Andrea doesn’t look at them as we walk past. Her shoulders are stiff, her body speaking of pent-up emotions. Curious, I let her take the lead. This doesn’t feel like anger toward me or worry for her brother. It’s something else and I can’t tell what it is. It bothers me, and I clench a fist at my side because the urge to send a mental feeler out to Andrea is overwhelming.

I cannot. I cannot.

My skin itches with the need to shift, to transform to battle form, to take claw and scale as my own once more.

It will be a death sentence, though. I shudder and compose myself, forcing such thoughts out of my mind. Why am I struggling so greatly with this now? I have been able to keep myself under control for years, but in the space of a few weeks, I find that control slipping. I know why, though. The why walks a few brisk paces ahead of me, her thick blonde braid bouncing on her shoulders, her hips swaying.

Being around her is tearing at my willpower.

And even though I should leave, I jog a few steps closer, just because.

The fort itself is a large building surrounded by long lengths of pavement. Parking lots, Andrea called them. The compound is heavily fenced off, and on the other side of the fence where we now walk, there are more streets and more asphalt, but here the plants are taking over once more. Weeds poke up between cracks, and grasses snake across broken curbs and force the road up in sections, making it uneven walking. Dead leaves and debris from seasons past crunch under our feet, and all around us are smaller empty buildings, half collapsed. Houses, back when humans used to live in individual homes and not a big community one. We head down the street, walking past metal hulks of old cars and destroyed remnants of old human life, and Andrea is silent. I wonder if she plans on being silent this entire way, just to punish me for insisting that I come with her.

But we turn down another street and then the fort is out of sight. The moment it’s gone, Andrea turns to me. Her eyes are full of pain and sadness, and her pink mouth trembles in the shadows of oncoming night. “Can you find his scent, please?”

“Of course,” I murmur, my hands itching with the need to caress her, to touch her, to reassure her that I am here, that we will find him. I do none of these things, though. She confuses me and until I can understand her…well, it does not matter. I can never claim her, no matter how badly I might wish to.

Irritated at my own thoughts, I drop to my knees and study the ground in front of me. I pretend to be looking for signs of Benny’s crossing this way, but the truth is that I don’t need to look at anything. I can smell him all over the place. He smells like sweaty young human, the corn cakes that make up so much of the diet of the fort people…and something else. Something that makes my nose twitch and my eyes water. A scent-disguiser, then. If I were in battle form and half mad with the world around me, I wouldn’t be able to pick him out. As it is, I recognize what he’s doing and applaud him for the cleverness of it.

He doesn’t want to be found, and he knows Andrea will be coming after him.

That concerns me a little. I like Benny as a person—he’s bright and inquisitive, even if he’s a bit wild. He’s young and wants to see the world, and he’s tired of being confined to one space. I know how that is, because I know how I was at his age. But if I have to choose between his happiness and Andrea’s? I’m picking hers. No question.

I don’t want her to know the lengths her brother has gone to hide his trail, though. “He went this way,” I say, straightening.

“He did?” There’s a fragile wobble in her voice that guts me.

“He did. Let’s go.” When I put a hand on her back, she doesn’t pull away like she did back at the fort. Interesting.

We walk, moving up the abandoned streets and past the rows of empty, abandoned houses.

6

LIAM

I  eye the dwellings as we walk, trying to imagine the world before this, with people lined up in rows, stinking up their homes with as many scents as they can pile on, with layers and layers of their confining clothing. I imagine a male so dressed in layers that his arms puff out from his sides as if he's completely rounded, and I snort with amusement.

"What is it?" Andrea asks at my side.

"Just thinking about how humans used to live," I say. "I cannot picture it."

"It was wonderful," she says, her tone wistful. "I was safe and warm and had lots of friends. My father was an insurance salesman and Mom was a teacher. We lived in a little house with a great yard and a dog, and every Christmas there were tons of presents under the tree. There were lights on inside the house and you could flip a switch and watch a TV show or talk to people on the internet from all over the world."

I grunt. "Why would you want to talk to people from all over the world?"

"I don't know. It was just that you could." Her expression gets dreamy. "You know what was the best, though?"

"What?"

"Refrigerators. I would open the fridge and there would be tons of food in there, kept cold and ready to eat. You never had to hunt for anything. You could just open the box and there it was. And meat? It would last for a week without turning smelly or going bad."

"You're lying," I tell her with amusement. A magic box that kept food cold and unspoiled? No such thing.

"And bread," she says. "I really miss bread. The corn cakes don't cut it, but the first thing that went down were supply lines. The grocery stores didn't have anything within a matter of days and then people just started starving. But…before?" She sighs. "Before was magical."

I still think she's telling tales. "You never had to hunt? Not once?"

"No. I went to a building like the fort and they taught me lessons all day long. How to read and write and do math. When I grew up, I'd have to get a job, but the only thing children were required to do was school lessons."

I think of the young back in the fort, who help their mothers with the chores and who water the plants and pull weeds, who duck into the henhouse and get eggs from the chickens and change the straw. Even the youngest have their own tasks. "It sounds odd to me."

"I guess your world wasn't much like that?"

"Mine? No. Not like that at all." We walk as we talk, leaving the edge of the houses behind and moving to a long expanse of broken road lined with cars. A highway, I think they are called. Benny's trail—and whatever he rubbed himself in—continues this way, so I guide Andrea along in the darkness. "My home was…very different. My people —the free ones anyhow—lived in the deserts and hunted their food. We did not read or write like humans do. We lived in aeries—those are caves high in the cliffs—and fashioned our homes from those. We had some things like your people, like the bowls and such, but no clothing, no chickens, no strange buildings with water inside them." Those are Salorian things and for the longest time, I worried the humans were just as evil as them.

"So you guys were, what, living off the grid? Or just more primitive?"

"I don't like the word ‘primitive,’" I tell her. "It sounds like we were dumb and stupid. We weren't. It was just a much simpler way of life, provided you could stay out of the Salorian grasp."

"Those are the bad guys, right? Did they steal you from your home?"

"Something like that," I say, keeping my answer vague. I don't like thinking about Salorians, because it reminds me that I was captured and held and tortured before the Rift opened up. It reminds me that I’m the only sane one of my people because I’d learned to wall off my mental connection and sever myself from the psychic touch that my people used as easily as breathing.

Instead, I change the subject. "What have I done to offend you, Andrea?"

The moonlight shines down on her pale hair as she turns to look at me. She's different in coloring than drakoni. Her hair isn't the rich gold of my people but a yellow so light it is almost white. Her face, in contrast, is a warm golden shade from being out in the sunshine, with hints of speckles on her cheeks. Freckles, I have heard them called. No, she doesn't look much like a drakoni woman with her flame-red coloring and vivid hair like fire, but I like the way Andrea looks.

"Offend me?" she says, her brows furrowing together. "What do you mean, Liam?"

It's the first time she's said my human name in a long time, and I ignore the wave of pleasure it gives me. She probably says it to distract. "You avoid speaking to me or being near me back in the fort. For a while, I could come and talk to you and be received warmly, but lately you have been distant, and I don't know what it is I did to offend you."

"You didn't offend me."

"But you didn't want me to come out here with you tonight. Not even to help you find Benny."

She looks away, staring ahead at the rows of metal hulks lining the highway. "It's…complicated."

"If you don't tell me, I can't fix it. I certainly can't apologize for it."

I'm fascinated by the emotion flitting across her face. She looks frustrated and sad both, and it makes me wonder what's eating at her guts that she won't share. "If I say it's not you, it's me." Andrea turns to look over at me again. "Will you believe me?"

"Isn't that something your people joke that women say to men when they want to get rid of them?"

Andrea laughs, and I feel my entire body warm in response to that sound. My cock responds, too, but I ignore it. "Yeah, I guess it is something women say to men to get them to buzz off."

"Is that what you want me to do? Buzz off?" We step around one car with its doors rusted open, and she moves closer to me, so close that her scent teases at my senses, making my cock strain against my damned clothing once more.

"I don't know," Andrea admits. "It would be easier if you left me alone, but…"

"But?"

"But it would…make me sad. So he came this way? You're sure of it?" She puts her hands on her hips, steps in front of me, and scans the landscape ahead of us.

That's a conversation shift if there ever was one. Amused at her boldness, I let it pass without calling her out. "I'm sure of it. Come on. The path clears out up ahead."

For all that Andrea's human, she's also one of the strongest, most determined humans I've met so far. We walk all through the night, our pace brisk, and she trudges on over hills and across bridges, keeping pace with my longer steps. I try to slow down to make the walk more comfortable for her, but she just speeds up as if silently challenging me, so it becomes a game of sorts. She never shows her exhaustion, and never breathes hard even when we clamber up a steep hillside.

"I do a lot of hunting now that we're in Fort Shreveport," she tells me by way of explanation. "I don't have the luxury of being slow, not with forty-odd bellies wanting to be filled."

So a sense of duty motivates her. I add this to the ever-growing list of fascinating things I learn about Andrea. She's driven by family more than anything, and is fiercely loyal. Actually, she's just fierce overall, but there are hints of a softer Andrea, a dreamy one that has more in common with Rast's sweet, gentle mate than the sassy warrior at my side. It makes me curious as to which one is the true Andrea, and if they both are, how the two sides can co-exist.

I can't wait to learn more. This hunt for Benny gives me the opportunity to be alone with her, and I'm grateful. We've talked all night long, speaking of families and hunts, of worlds and the Rift and even our favorite foods. Out here with no one else around, Andrea is laughing and bold, teasing me back when I make a joke. I love this side of her, and it makes me ache whenever her laugh disappears and her sober, sad expression returns, because I know she's thinking of Benny.

As for her brother, we've followed his trail all night but his scent remains hours and hours old and growing fainter by the minute. His trail moves all over the place, as if Benny is discovering freedom for the first time and wants to explore the world. His scent weaves between cars, moves over a bridge and then under it, then back over it once more. We follow it and I do my best to tell Andrea of the spots where Benny's scent is thickest, where he stopped to rest, where he paused to take a piss, as if this will make the reality of finding him that much closer.

When dawn breaks, though, there is still no Benny. His trail continues, winding down the highway onward, past the endless rows of broken cars that seem to stretch on to eternity. Andrea continues forward, her expression grim, her eyelids heavy and drooping over her reddened eyes. She looks exhausted, but when I suggest we rest, she ignores me.

We keep on walking for a time, but when she weaves and stumbles over a broken hubcap in the road, I slide an arm around her waist and pull her against me before she can tumble to the ground. "Andrea," I chastise her sternly.

"Is he close?" she asks, her expression dull with fatigue. She tries to straighten and pull away from me.

I pull her closer, selfishly. "No. Benny isn't any closer. We're still far behind him. You need to rest, though."

Her lower lip quivers for a moment, and then she firms her jaw in the stubborn expression I know so well. "I can keep going."

"You need to rest," I repeat, and when she tries to fight out of my grip, I lock my arms around her. The scent of her hair teases my nose maddeningly. "Andrea, I'm not saying this to be an ass. I'm saying it because you're no good to anyone dead."

"Dead?" She scoffs, trying to twist out of my grip. "From walking?"

"Not from walking," I correct, loosening my hold before she hurts herself. I let her go and she stumbles back a half step, leaning against the hulk of an old gray car that tilts heavily on one side. "From the fact that you'll be too tired to shoot your gun if we're attacked. The more exhausted you are, the slower your reflexes. Every hunter knows that."

She presses the heel of her palm against her brow, closing her eyes. "You're sure he's not close?" she asks again, and her voice is small and pitiful.

"I'm sure."

"But we're still following him? You've still got his scent?"

"I haven't lost it." I don't mention how it's getting cloudy over time, though, as whatever he's coated himself with gets thicker. "We'll find him."

Andrea sniffs and presses her hand over her eyes, hiding the water they make. "It's just…he's the only one I've got left, you know? Daddy died in the first few days after the Rift, and Mom was dead within the first year. We lost everyone except each other. And now Gwen's gone and Benny's gone and…I'm so tired of being left behind." Her shoulders slump.

"We'll find him," I reassure her. I move to her side, leaning against the car with her, and put my arm around her shoulders, tucking her close. I expect her to rebuff my touch, but she melts against me, leaning against my strength, and I feel a fierce surge of protectiveness for this female that tries so hard to be strong in such a cruel world.

"We'll find him," I tell her again, and I mean it. "But for now, you need to rest."

7

ANDI

I  know he's right. I know stopping is the smart thing to do, because my vision's getting blurry with fatigue and I'm stumbling over everything. My feet are killing me, and I'm sure I'm going to have a million blisters from my old boots, but Benny's out there and I haven't found him yet. My heart hurts so badly that I want to scream, but when Liam looks at me, all I do is nod.

"Where…where are we going to stop?" Even now, I'm so tired that it's hard to form sentences.

He looks around us, at the dead cars lined along the sides of the highway, abandoned as they ran out of gas. He squints at one, then crosses the road toward it, and I see he's heading for a SUV, a gray one that looks less trashed than some of the others. The back is open and as I move slowly over to him, he climbs inside and rakes out the debris that's fallen in. There are dead leaves and twigs and airborne bits of old plastic that have drifted in over the years, but he swipes it out using his big hands and when the bed is mostly clean, he drops his pack down for a pillow, pats it and looks at me.

Right now, it looks like heaven.

I crawl inside, and I'm so exhausted that I don't even care that it smells musty and slightly like mildew. I toss my pack down to use for my own pillow, and close my eyes. The sun is coming up, but now that I've stopped moving, it's a little chilly and the sweat drying on my skin is making me cold. I rub my arms a little and then Liam lies down next to me.

The man's like a furnace. I'm a little shocked at the heat he's putting off, but then I remember that dragon-kind breathe fire. Of course their bodies are going to be warmer than ours.

"Come lie against me for warmth," he murmurs, touching my shoulder.

It's as if he can read my mind. I don't even hesitate, because Liam is big and delicious and warm and there's no one else around to see me slide over and pillow my head on his chest. My hand moves to his shirt and I close my eyes as he puts an arm around me. God, this is nice. It's been a long time since anyone held me with tenderness, and I didn't realize how badly I've been craving it until he touched me.

Now that I've had one touch, he might have to pry me off of him with a crowbar.

I snuggle closer, breathing in the slightly spicy scent of his skin, and he strokes my back idly. I'm so tired that I can't even truly appreciate this, and I know I'm going to drift off to sleep in moments, even with the sun in my face. "Thanks, Liam."

"Why are you thanking me?" His deep, rumbly voice sounds amused.

"Because you're here with me even though I was a bitch to you."

He just chuckles, the sound moving through his chest and reverberating against my ear. "I like a female with spirit in her."

"Sure, we'll call it spirit," I say, yawning again. "Promise me everything will be all right?"

The hand stroking my back pauses. "I can't promise you that, Andrea. But I can promise that we'll find Benny as long as we stay on his scent. We won't go back to the fort until you're satisfied."

For some reason, that response is oddly comforting. It's not a total reassurance, but it's a truthful one and I'll take it. I smile, tuck my head closer to him to blot out some of the sunlight, and drift off to sleep.

THE ANGRY SOUND of a crow cawing nearby wakes me from my sleep. Biting back a sleepy moan, I blink my eyes and try to figure out where I am. Sunlight pours in from the broken windows of the SUV, and a slight breeze ruffles my hair. It's afternoon, I think, and we must have been sleeping for hours because it's hot as hell now. The big body I'm snuggled against feels like cuddling an oven, and my thin T-shirt is sticking to my sweaty skin.

Even so, I'm oddly comfortable. Liam's just so darn nice to sleep against, or I'm hungry for affection. Maybe both. His arms are still possessively around me, and my head's resting on one hard pectoral, my hand on his lower stomach. One of my legs moved over his hip while I slept and I'm practically curled around the man. I hope he was able to sleep all right. I blink again, biting back a yawn, and start to creep my hand carefully off his abdomen.

As I do, I notice that there's a protruding tent in the front of his pants. A very large, very obvious protruding tent.

Oh.

I look up, and as I do, my gaze meets Liam's. He's watching me, his eyes heavy-lidded, and they're so very gold that they look like a sunrise. It's utterly beautiful, and this close to him I can see the colors swirling in his eyes as if they're a thousand flecks of gold of every shade. I'm also close enough that I can't help but notice how beautiful his mouth is, his lips utterly perfect for kissing.

I lick my own lips as the thought occurs to me. "Do your people kiss?" I whisper to him, unable to stop myself from asking.

"No." The sound is soft and oh-so-sexy. His gaze practically devours me and his hand slides to my hair, as if holding me closer. "But I'm willing to learn."

I’ll be the first one to kiss this sexy, gorgeous man. Oh wow. The thought fills me with curious pleasure and I reach up and touch my fingertips to his jaw even as he pulls me close. I lightly brush my lips against his, testing his reaction, and he closes his eyes and groans as if he’s dying.

I love it.

I nibble at his lower lip, teasing it with tiny nips and then soothing with my tongue. I’m in a frisky mood and my kisses reflect it—they’re all playfulness. With each flirty little touch of our lips, I just want more, and when he groans again, I take advantage of his parted lips to deepen the kiss. My tongue flicks against his and when he stiffens underneath me, his hand clenching in my hair, I feel a giddy rush of pleasure.

“Should I stop—” I start to ask.

His mouth claims mine, and then his tongue touches my tongue, and then we’re kissing, deep and hard and so full of hungry need that I’m whimpering into his mouth. I curl my fingers into the front of his shirt as he slicks his tongue into my mouth, the caress so boldly possessive that it takes my breath away. I’ve lost control of the kiss and I’m not even upset about it. He’s too good at this, and my body’s pulsing with heat and need as we kiss frantically, mouths locked together.

I rub against him as we kiss, rocking against the thigh I’m straddling. I’m not even aware I’m doing it until he presses up with his thigh, adding pressure against my pussy and it sends a spiral of heat through me. I gasp against his mouth, and then Liam’s rolling our twined bodies over in the back of the SUV and I’m suddenly under him and his hips rest between my thighs. That big, hard erection presses against the vee of my sex and I moan into his mouth even as he claims me with another thrust of his tongue. A moment later, when he tongues me again, his cock pushes against my core, as if trying to fuck me through my jeans.

It’s the sexiest thing ever, and I drag one leg around his hip, encouraging him. My mouth devours his, our tongues dancing together, and I’m so incredibly aroused that I can’t think straight. Haven’t Liam and I been flirting off and on for weeks now? He’s made it clear that he’s interested and I’ve pushed him away, but I’m tired of the distance between us. I want this. I want him. I tug at the waistband of his sweats, then slide my hand underneath, clenching one of his taut, rounded buttocks in my grip and driving him down against me.

Liam gasps, his mouth breaking from mine, and pulls away. He sits up, blinking down at me, and then runs a hand down his face.

I…guess we’re done?

Confused, I slide out from under him and sit upright, panting. “What’s wrong? What’d I do?”

He shakes his head as if to clear it, and then turns toward the faint breeze coming in from the broken window. “Smell something,” he mutters thickly.

Excited, I forget all about our make-out party and slide forward to get out of the back of the SUV. “Is it Benny? Is he coming back?”

Liam touches my shoulder and stops me before I can continue forward. “Not Benny,” he says, and he still sounds breathless, as if he’s on the verge of losing control. “Predator,” he manages.

Oh. I stop, then scoot back inside a few inches. “Dragons?”

“No,” he says, shaking his head. “Something else.” He scrubs a hand through his spiky hair. “Animal. Smells like…fresh blood. Hard to describe it.”

I slide forward, peering out the window he’s nearest, and try to figure out what he’s smelling. I don’t see anything, just the overgrown grasses on the side of the highway, tall and yellow with the end of summer heat. I glance up the line of cars that stretches along the edge of the road, and as I do, I see Liam’s looking at me, such hunger in his golden eyes. He’s gazing at my chest, and I glance down.

My sweat-dampened tee is clinging to my breasts, outlining them as if I’m naked, and my nipples jut out against the fabric. My thin, old bra isn’t doing a damn thing to hide the headlights, and my body pulses with the realization that he’s fascinated by them. It makes me want to preen, to arch my back and touch them and see if he’ll reach for me again. My nipples are so tight they’re practically throbbing and—

Out of the corner of my eye, I see something move in the grasses.

I turn, distracted, and my eyes go wide as I realize what it is. Something huge and tawny moves, slinking forward. A giant cat. At first I think it’s a mountain lion, but behind it, another cat jogs up and nips at the other’s flank, and that big, fuzzy mane of the second one is a dead giveaway.

These aren’t mountain lions. These are real lions.

Whaaaat the fuck.

My jaw drops and Liam touches my thigh, indicating I should be quiet and still. I don’t plan on moving. I just stare, fascinated, as they saunter past the car wreckages and then hop atop the hood of another car across the road and gaze out at the land around us. They’re less than a hundred feet away, and I feel that if I so much as breathe wrong, they’ll come over here and check things out.

“We’re downwind,” Liam says. “They don’t know we’re here.” His voice is low and smooth, his thumb rubbing against the denim on my thigh.

“Sure,” I say, because I feel like I should say something. “I can’t believe we just saw lions.”

“They’re not normal predators?”

“Not around here, no. We must be near a zoo. Did you guys have those? Places where exotic animals were kept caged so people could go look at them?”

His expression cools a little. “It sounds barbaric.”

Yeah, I guess it kind of does in hindsight. “It’s also to protect species that are in danger of dying out, but yeah, it does seem a little weird now. I think when the After hit, some of the zookeepers let the animals loose so they wouldn’t starve in their cages, you know? Give them a chance to survive on their own.” He just continues to stare at me. “Yeah, yeah, I know. You don’t think they smelled Benny, do you? That they’re chasing him?”

Liam glances out at the lions, now settling down to sun themselves atop the car. “No. I think his scent is too old. It’s more like they smelled our scent and are lingering in the area to see if we show up.”

Well, shit. “What do we do?”

He grins at me, and for a moment he looks just as dangerous as the lions. “We stay here and wait them out.”

8

ANDI

I  sip the last of the warm water from my canteen, swishing it around my mouth to make it last. I feel like a baked potato after sitting in the back of the SUV all day…not that I’ve had a baked potato since the Rift hit. Man, I miss potatoes. And sour cream. I really miss sour cream.

My mouth waters at the thought and I sit up, looking around the highway. The sun’s low in the sky, ready to set in another hour or two. Everything’s quiet. The lions left a short time ago, but we’re waiting to make sure they don’t come back and Liam gives the all-clear on the scent. Next to me in the car, he dozes. Or at least he seems like he’s sleeping. He’s got one hand behind his head, his eyes closed, and he looks like the picture of comfort. Me, I haven’t been able to sleep. I watched the lions for a bit, and then I watched him.

It occurred to me after we’d been here for a few hours that I could have shot the lions. I’ve got bullets, and I’m a pretty good shot. If nothing else, the noise would probably scare them away. But…it seems wrong to try to kill them just because they wandered near us. They’re so majestic and fat and happy, lolling atop the car hood in the sun. It seems like a crime to destroy them when they’re clearly thriving in the After.

At least something is. So I don’t bother to get my gun out. I just tuck my legs close, hugging them to my chest, and watch them play until they leave, sauntering off in the grass again. I’m lost in thought, trying not to stare too hard at Liam because if I do, I’ll think about this morning’s hot, sexy kiss or the way he slid me under him so effortlessly, grinding against my pussy. It’s been a long time since I’ve had sex, and longer still since I enjoyed it.

I think I could enjoy it with Liam.

I wonder if that really does make me a tail chaser. Is it because he’s a dragon? Or is it because he’s Liam and the way he touches me makes me feel like the most treasured woman in the world? Or am I just desperate and horny? It’s been a while since I rubbed one out. I squeeze my thighs together, thinking about that. How long has it been? Over a week, I think. Maybe two? There’s been so much going on lately that I’ve just dropped into bed each night and fallen asleep. Jeez, no wonder I’m all over Liam. The guy’s probably thinking I’m so starved for sex that I’ll do anything—

“You look like you’re thinking hard,” he murmurs.

“Me? Pff. I’m just daydreaming.” I hate that my cheeks are flushing. “Thinking about Gwen and wondering if she’s okay.” My “big sis” left a couple of weeks ago because her dragon, Vaan, was being contacted by Salorians. They went to Fort Dallas…and decided to stay to watch over the Salorian and to be a go-between since he’s interested in making peace. I worry about her a lot, so it’s an easy enough answer to say that I’m thinking of Gwen.

I don’t want to tell Liam I’m still thinking about that kiss, or the hungry way he gazed at my nipples earlier.

He sits up slowly, his head bumping against the top of the car as he does, and for a moment I see his horns peek out of his thick hair. “Vaan won’t let any harm come to her.”

“You make it sound like it’s so simple.”

He shrugs. “Drakoni males are very possessive of their mates. He’d bring the entire fort down if someone so much as looked at her wrong.”

Okay, that is pretty reassuring. I want to ask him if he’s ever wanted a mate, but my tongue feels glued to the roof of my mouth. That question won’t come out. I just nod absently.

Liam lifts his head, nostrils flaring, and then moves to one of the broken windows and sticks his head out. I know he’s testing the scents in the air, but when he leans out the window, I get an unimpeded view of his fantastic bubble of a butt and my mouth goes dry again. Sweatpants like that should be illegal. I know he’s wearing them because he’s built bigger than most human men and finding any clothes in the After (much less clothes that fit) can be a challenge. But did they have to outline his ass so perfectly? Aren’t people supposed to look like slobs in sweatpants? Because he looks scrumptious.

“I think we can leave now. I don’t smell them anymore,” Liam says, pulling my attention away from his butt. “If we stay upwind I think we’ll be fine.”

“Sounds good. I’m ready to go when you are.” I pack my now-empty water canteen in my pack, then sling it over my shoulder. I keep my gun out, just in case, and when Liam grabs his stuff and falls into step next to me, we’re off again.

And neither of us brings up the kiss from earlier. I don’t know if I’m relieved or annoyed.

WE WALK for the next few hours. As I suspected, we pass by a highway sign that says “Zoo ahead, next exit,” and I hope Benny was smart enough to avoid it. Liam reassures me his scent continues up the highway, and so I’m relieved. Sure enough, we get to the intersection for Interstate 20, which heads west all the way across the border and right on to Fort Dallas, and his scent turns in that direction.

That little motherfucker. He’s going to another damn fort. My worry abates for a moment and I want to choke the little bastard. Doesn’t he know that that place is dangerous? I grit my teeth as we head west along the highway, and my anger feels as hot and new as it did when I first discovered my missing socks yesterday morning. I’d love to have him back, of course, but he’d definitely get an earful from his big sister for being such an idiot.

The ruins of the old city are dense in this area, and so are the stray animals. As we walk, I see mangy dogs trotting down distant streets, and the occasional cat darting between buildings. I also see rats. Lots and lots of rats. The droppings are all over every bit of debris, and they occasionally scurry under cars as we walk past. Ugh. I rub my arms, glad that we don’t have the rat problem in Fort Shreveport. I remember them from Fort Tulsa, though, and how some of the more aggressive ones, drawn by the stink and filth of people, would climb into your bed and bite you as you slept. Horrible. But Fort Tulsa was nasty, with garbage piled high outside of houses and empty cans and dead animal carcasses lining the roads. I’m glad Shreveport’s much cleaner.

“Lots of small animals here,” Liam comments as we walk.

“Probably a lot more refuse left around.” And a lot more dead people as time passed, but I don’t say that. “There’s a lot of nooks and crannies to hide from dragons with all the buildings crowded together instead of more wide open areas.” I put my hand to my eyes, scanning the ruins around us. Building after building, most of them collapsed. Some are strip malls, some old car lots, and some buildings that are impossible to make out, their signs faded and destroyed from countless fire attacks.

“The sun’s going down,” Liam says, looking over at me. “I know you won’t want to hear this, but I think we should find shelter for the evening.”

“Shelter? But we just started walking.” I look over at him in surprise. “I can keep going!” My feet are killing me, and I’m hungry and thirsty, but I can keep going.

Liam flashes a grin in my direction. “I didn’t say you were weak. I know you’re strong, Andrea. But my concern is the animals. If there are more like those large cats—”

“Lions.”

“Lions,” he continues, “then we will be in danger. You can’t see as well in the shadows, and while I can smell things, the stench in the human-inhabited areas can get overwhelming. I don’t want you to be in danger.”

I look over at him and he’s got that twitchy look to him, as if he’s ready to jump out of his skin. His nostrils flare as I look over, and he’s right, the smells are getting to him. Stopping for the night is probably wise, even if it makes me feel like a jerk with how much I like that idea. I want to sit down, drink a ton of water, and put up my aching feet.

“But Benny…”

“We haven’t lost him yet,” Liam promises me. He puts out a hand. “Come, Andrea. Let’s sleep somewhere safe and rest up, and we’ll make good time tomorrow.”

Fair enough. “I’ll look for a good place to stop, then.”

He gives me a pleased smile, and when I put my hand in his, my skin tingles. Oh man, I have such a bad crush. I know this is going to be so much trouble but I can’t seem to help myself. I smile back.

And we keep walking. Our hands stay joined for a while, and then eventually we part, but I’m still thinking about it for a long time afterward.

Finding a spot to stop isn’t as easy as it originally sounds. As we walk, the buildings all seem tumbled together and worse than the last. I know from prior experience that it’s best to avoid hotels, motels, and food stores. Anything in this city would have been picked over long ago, and those tend to have the worst smells associated with them, from rotting food to rotting corpses. In addition, scavengers and nomads sometimes booby-trap the obvious places to catch other travelers. The trick is to find a decent building that doesn’t look too decent or comfortable.

After passing by a few more places, we find a strip mall that looks mostly intact. The roof is red and the faded red sign is completely illegible, but the few windows in the place seem to be whole. They’re covered in faded posters, which is a bonus because it means no one can see us when we’re inside. “This looks promising. Should we check it out?”

“You’re the expert,” he says easily.

I don’t know if that’s the case. Liam’s proved that he can survive with the odds completely stacked against him, in an unknown world. I don’t know that I’d be able to do the same. And he’s been to many forts before ours, so I bet he knows just as much about traveling as I do, maybe more.

But I like that he lets me lead.

So I unholster my shotgun, check the safety, and tuck it under my arm as I head forward across the small parking lot toward the building.

It looks completely deserted on the outside. That’s a good sign. That means that whatever they’re selling in here, it wasn’t a hot commodity in the After. I’m guessing something with cars, or sporting goods. No one gave a shit about baseball when the dragons arrived. The door itself is heavy glass, and while it looks fractured, it also looks whole. I give it a tug, and it doesn’t respond.

Locked.

“Give me a second,” I tell Liam, glancing down at the sidewalk I’m standing on. It’s covered in more rat droppings, so I kick them aside to clear a spot and then get on my knees. I pull out my lockpicks and get to work on the door itself. “Lucky for us, any security system they would have had is long dead. If this doesn’t work, we can try busting down the door, but I prefer to leave it whole in case we need the protection.”

“Very wise. And sticking those little metal things in the handle unlocks it?”

“If we’re lucky.” I grin and jiggle one of the bent metal picks, then put in my bogus key and turn the lock. It’s rusty and slow to respond, but it works. “Success,” I announce and the door swings open in a cloud of dust.

We both cough, waving a hand in front of our faces before we step inside.

“Hello?” I call into the darkness. “Is anyone here?”

“I don’t smell anyone,” Liam says behind me, but there’s an odd note in his voice. “Not anyone…recent.”

“Dead bodies?” I ask, turning to look at his silhouette, outlined in the fading light as he stands in the doorway.

“No.”

“What, then?”

“Nothing.” He coughs again and rubs his nose. “It’s nothing.”

“Liam,” I call warningly, my hands ready on my shotgun. “If there’s something dangerous—”

“Seed,” he admits after a moment. “I smell a lot of old…seed.” And he swipes at his nose again, making an unpleasant noise in his throat.

Seed? This is a feed store? Gardening? I look around, but it doesn’t look like any feed store I remember. There’s a row of doors in the back of the building, and one wall covered entirely with boxes that are too dusty to make out. There are a few short rows of shelves, but I can’t see what’s on them from my vantage point. Off to one side is a glass case and the cash register, both of which are covered in another layer of dust.

With all this dust, it’s clear to me that there’s no one around. Frowning at Liam’s reactions, I move to the case and swipe my hand over the glass, peering at the objects inside. At first I think it’s jewelry, evidenced by the large strings of beads. Then I see a strangely shaped glass object next to it, pebbled with little bumps, and off to the side of that…a gigantic dildo.

I skitter backwards in surprise.

“What?” Liam’s immediately at my side, his arm at my waist. “What is it, Andrea?”

For some reason, I smell smoke. I jerk away from him, and even in the shadows, I can see a curl of smoke escaping one of his nostrils. “Are you okay?”

“What is it? What’s wrong? What are you afraid of?” He moves closer to me again, and his eyes are dark as pitch. “Liam?”

“Andrea,” he warns, and his voice is thick with frustration. “Tell me what frightens you so I can fix it.”

I’m utterly shocked by his appearance. Did I ever think Liam was benign? Invisible? Good at hiding? Because clearly I’ve been wrong all this time. The man at my side is all threatening menace, smoke wisping from his flaring nostrils. His eyes are black, his big hands curled at his side in fists. His shoulders are hunched forward, as if it’s taking all of his energy to hold back from losing his shit.

He looks…scary. Gone is low-energy, easy-going Liam. In its place is a drakoni warrior.

And for the first time, I realize just how alien he is.

“Liam,” I say, keeping my voice soft as I put a hand in the air. “Everything’s all right. I was just startled.”

“By. What.” The words are gritted out through his sharp teeth.

I grimace, because I’m going to have to explain it and then be embarrassed, but it’s better than watching him Hulk out. “By a dildo. I think this is a sex shop.”

Some of the fury shuddering through him bleeds away, and the smoke stops curling from his nose. His nostrils twitch. “A what?”

“It’s, ah, a big fake dick that you can fuck, if you’re so inclined.” I wave him forward and then point to it through the glass. “And call me crazy, but I think that other junk is stuff you shove up your butt.”

My face feels like it’s never going to stop burning from the awkwardness of this conversation.

Liam peers at the objects through the glass, and then he sets his hands down, palms flat. I’m relieved to see that, as well as the easing of the tension in his shoulders. “That would explain the smells,” he says, voice oddly calm.

Smells? Oh right, he mentioned seed. Stupid me, I’d thought he’d meant for growing crops. He meant jizz. Ugh. I wipe my hand on my jeans, a little horrified at the thought. “You smell seed?”

“A lot of it. From many different males.”

“Oh, that is so gross. Here?” I snatch my hands back from the counter and wipe them on my clothes again.

He lifts his head, and his eyes are bleeding back to gold, slowly. Liam waves a hand toward the back of the store. “Moreso in that direction. You…you frightened me, Andrea.” He runs a hand down his face. “I thought…never mind. It isn’t important.”

“I’m sorry,” I tell him. “I was just startled by the sight of that big thing in the glass. I didn’t realize how you’d react. I’ll try not to flip my lid next time.”

“Next time?” he asks, and his voice is full of amusement.

“Well, I hope we don’t run into a lot of dildos in the future, but you know what I mean.” I move toward the back of the store and use the hem of my shirt to turn one of the doorknobs. I peer inside, and there’s an old couch in front of a projector screen, and a sink against the back wall.

Fucking gross. I shut the door again. I don’t care how bad the apocalypse is, I am not touching that couch.

Liam’s still standing by the counter, a curious expression on his face as I check each of the other doors and yup, each one is another private movie room and I’m not going anywhere near them. Liam smelled seed, after all, so I’m guessing cleanliness wasn’t high on the list of chores at this place. Nasty, nasty, nasty. I check out the rest of the place and it still has running water (which is nice), but the bathroom is a pit. Luckily there’s a small employee breakroom that looks cleaner than the rest of the place, and when I poke around under the counter, I find a few old bottles of water. You’re not supposed to drink them after the expiration date, but fuck it. I break the seal on one and chug it down. If I live through an apocalpyse and bottled water kills me, I figure I was done for anyhow.

The breakroom seems the cleanest option, so I grab a broom out of the closet and sweep up. There are two flimsy plastic chairs that wobble when I try to sit on them, but we’ll need someplace to sleep. I eye the floor, then go scavenging again. I find a roll of black trash bags and some masking tape in a supply closet. Score. I tear the bags open and make a hasty tarp of sorts, then tape it down to the floor. When I’m done, I’ve got an entire corner covered up and it actually looks fairly clean. Pleased, I go and sit down on the ground and cross my legs, pulling my bag into my lap.

Liam wanders in, leans against the doorframe and gives me an odd look. “Do you want to leave this place, Andrea?”

“Leave? Why?” I shrug. “It’s gross, but it’s a roof and we’ve got running water. Like you said, we can stay here and then be on our way in the morning.”

“You seemed…uncomfortable, that’s all.” He moves into the room and heads toward me, sitting down next to me and leaning against the wall. “Are you new to the ways of mating? Is that why you got shy?”

I blink at him and at the curiously gentle tone in his voice. Does he think I’m a fragile flower because a glass buttplug and a big purple dildo startled me? “I got shy because it was unexpected and weird, not because I’m new to this sort of thing. I’m not a virgin, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“No?”

There’s something odd about the way he says that single word. I look over at him as I pull out a saran-wrapped corn cake from my bag and begin to unwrap it. “Yeah, no. That ship sailed a long time ago.”

He’s quiet for a long moment, even after I break the cake in half and offer him one part. He doesn’t eat it, though. I nibble on mine, waiting for his eventual response, and he finally says, “Is there another male competing for your affections, then?”

“Another?” I choke on the dry cake.

Liam’s eyes narrow. “That’s not what I meant.”

“What did you mean, then?”

“Nothing.” His mouth flattens and his eyes seem darker than before. “Just answer the question. Is there another male?”

I make a faintly scoffing sound. “No. Who would I be hooking up with? There are no men at Fort Shreveport other than you and a few kids. And Grandpa Steve, but he’s definitely not my type, the old perv.” I shake my head. “Don’t be weird.”

“I’m not being weird. There are many females with young back at your fort. It stands to reason that even if there are not males there now, there were some previously.”

Oh. Okay, so that logic doesn’t sound totally crazy. But I know some of those are rape babies, and some are orphans, and some are just products of selling your body in an apocalypse where condoms all expired years and years ago. Shit happens. “No one left behind a husband when they came to the fort or they never would have joined us. We’re more of a haven for people that are sick of fort shit. And forts come with a lot of shit.” I gesture at the food he’s not eating. “Eat your cake. I don’t have many.”

He hands it back to me. “You eat it, then.”

“What are you going to eat?”

Liam shrugs. “I can hunt. I did so before I arrived at your fort.”

I think of Rast and his big golden body sailing through the skies as he hunted. “Um, I thought you said you couldn’t shift forms?”

“That doesn’t mean there aren’t things to eat. A male can hunt even in two-legged form.” The smile he sends my way is slightly arch, as if he knows a secret I don’t.

I’ve never seen Liam use a weapon, though I know he carries them. Something tells me that it’s another “blending” thing he does to fit in. I try to imagine Liam hunting, crouching and leaping in his “two-legged” form as he calls it. And for some reason, I think of the enormous vermin crawling all over the city. I look over at him in horror. “Please tell me you didn’t eat rats.”

He snorts with amusement.

“We can’t be friends anymore if you’re a rat eater.”

“I ate no rats.” His mouth curves in the barest of smiles and he leans in closer to me. “Is that what we are, then? Friends?”

Tension practically swims in the air around us. I feel strange, like I’m standing on the precipice of a dangerous cliff and I should step back, when all I really want to do is fling myself over. “I thought we were friends,” I whisper.

“Do you kiss all your friends?” His eyes are still whirling so dark.

“I haven’t kissed anyone but you,” I admit quietly. “Not in years and years.”

The darkness bleeds out of his eyes almost instantly and a hint of a smile touches his face, a real smile. “Eat your food,” he says. “I’m not hungry. Drakoni can go days without eating and we prefer meat.” He leans in close, and the playful look returns to his face. “If I never have to eat another bowl of that oatmeal slop they serve at the fort, I’ll be a happy male.”

I chuckle, giving my head a small shake with amusement. The oatmeal isn’t my favorite either, but while we have it, it feeds people. Unfortunately, we ran out last week and are forced to spread thin the few eggs we have…and corn cakes, of course. There’s tons of corn. I take another bite and sigh when he gets up and walks away.

Being here alone with Liam is…confusing. We’ve been doing this push-pull dance for months, it seems. He got to the fort and skated under the radar for a long time. Then, we got close when Gwen left…and then I was the one that did the pushing away. Now we’re alone together and just when I think he’s going to kiss me, he gets up and walks away. His eyes were dark, which I’ve been told means that he’s feeling intense emotion (and not good emotions) and so I don’t know what to think.

Is he jealous? Does he think that’s why I pushed him away at the fort? Because there was someone else?

I haven’t wanted anyone to touch me in years. But with Liam… I eat the corn cake slowly, even though it doesn’t do much for my hunger, and then brush my fingers over my lips, remembering how his mouth felt. I want him to kiss me again, but maybe I shouldn’t.

Maybe a drakoni is just too different from human. Ironic, because Amy and Gwen are mated to drakoni males, but Liam’s not like their men. He’s different. Sometimes he seems like any other man in the After, and sometimes he seems like he’s about to lose control and go wild.

It’s a mystery…and one that I hate I’m totally attracted to. I should like simple, easy things. I should like being solitary and single after the hell of Fort Tulsa, but…I like being with Liam. I like being with him far too much. It makes me want more.

9

ANDI

A s I finish eating, I hear Liam moving around the store. I don't get up, because I can only imagine what he's thinking as he wanders through the shelves of old porn videos, dildos, and god knows what else. Edible underwear? I wonder if those are still good. If so, I might have to snag some to munch on. In theory, it's just…candy, right?

Boy, Benny would laugh his ass off if he knew his sister was eating edible underwear.

A wave of loneliness moves over me and I suddenly miss my little brother so much that I ache. Benny's all I have. I think of his sharp face, so recently moved away from the chubbiness of childhood. His sly laugh and the way he grins and shows off that broken tooth when he's truly amused. He's a good kid. He's just…bored and miserable. That's why he acts out. Maybe I'm wrong to chase him down and bring him back. Maybe I should be escorting him to someplace that will make him happy, someplace where he can be around other men and boys his age and not feel like an outsider in a fort full of women.

But…Fort Dallas isn't that place. If anything, I still need to find him and make sure he gets somewhere safe.

"Andrea?"

I look up as Liam comes back into the break room and drops himself next to me. He's got a few tubes in his hands and shows one to me. "Is this food?" He pulls the cap off and squeezes the tube, and pink gel oozes down the side and onto his hands.

I read the writing on one of the tubes in his lap. Lubricant. Oh Jesus. "Um, no, not really."

"No? It smells like fruit." He sniffs the gel sliding down the back of his hand and wrinkles his nose. "Rotten fruit, perhaps, but it does smell like food. Is this bait of some kind, then? To trap animals?"

Awkward. "So that's, uh, for sex, actually."

He looks over at me in surprise. "Sex?"

"Yeah, it's for making a woman wet enough to take a cock without pain." The words come out of my throat a little strangled. "It's supposed to make things better for her."

Liam's lip curls and he looks down at the gel and then at me. "Your males would take a female without her being wet and ready?"

I lick my lips, trying to figure out the best way to respond. "Dragon people don't, ah, mate even if the female isn't all that into it?" His disgusted look tells me everything. "All right, so yeah, human men are a little different, I guess. The nice ones make sure the girl is into it, but not everyone does. And sometimes some women just can't get wet enough, I guess, or maybe his dick's too big and she's too small…" And dear lord, my face feels like an inferno right now because I'm picturing his dick and how well-built he is. He would definitely need to lube a female up unless she was soaking wet with arousal.

And now I'm picturing him all over a woman, making sure she's hot and wet and ready, and my thighs squeeze a little tighter together. This is the wrong conversation to have, especially with the sexual tension between the two of us already. "So…how do dragon men get a lady into bed?"

He wipes his hand off on his clothes, disgusted. "Not like this. A drakoni female is just as ready for mating as any male. She challenges him and if he bests her in a battle, she shifts back to her two-legged form and submits to him. It is very arousing for a female to be bested by a stronger male, because she knows he is strong enough to protect their young." He sniffs his hand again, his nostrils flaring at the scent of the lube that perfumes the air around us. "A drakoni male would never try to mate with a female that did not demonstrate that she was ready."

"So if she fights, that means she's horny?" I ask. "I guess that's like flirting, or kissing for your people. We're different. Some women might be interested in mating, but maybe the body doesn't respond like it should." I've been there. I've had unpleasant sex in the past just because it was easier than making a fuss or fighting back. A few minutes of dry, invasive grinding was worth being left alone. I hate thinking about that time in my life, though. "Some men don't care if she wants it or not."

Liam just shakes his head. He puts the cap on the tube of lube and tosses it aside as if its mere presence irritates him. "So your human men are this bad at pleasing their mates?"

I can feel my mouth twitch with amusement. "I guess some are, yeah."

"This both pleases me and makes me sad for your race."

I nudge him with my shoulder. "Why does bad sex make you happy?"

He looks over at me, his expression arch and somewhat arrogant. "Because it tells me that the competition is weak."

"Are you competing?" My breath catches in my lungs.

His gaze gets heated, focuses on my mouth. "I shouldn't. I can't."

But I think we both know he is. I'm suddenly very aware of his nearness, the heat of his body, and the fact that we're sitting so close that it wouldn't take much to move over and be in his lap. To have his big arms around me and tucking me against him, our breath mingling like it did the other day and…

I shouldn't be thinking of things like that. I should be focused on Benny and Benny alone. Flirting with Liam won't lead anywhere good.

But he's staring at me, too, and his eyes are growing more and more gold by the moment, until they're practically a deep, rich amber that makes me get all squirmy at the sight of them. "No male," he says slowly, his gaze locked on me, "should touch a female if he can't smell her cunt sopping with heat."

His words take my breath away. Smell her cunt sopping with heat? Oh my god. "You—you can smell that?"

"I can."

I squeeze my thighs tighter together, as if that will somehow fix the ache deep between them. I want to ask if he can smell anything right now, but I don't dare. I know I'm turned on. I know if I slid my hand into my panties, my pussy would be slippery and aching, my folds hot and puffy with need.

I wonder if he can smell me right now.

Before I can ask, his mouth curls into a heart-stopping smile. "Oh yeah, I can."

Oh, dear lord. I make a strangled sound in my throat as his gaze focuses on my mouth. My lips are parted and I'm panting, just a little, with the hot need curling through me.

"I want to kiss you again," Liam murmurs. He tosses his baseball cap aside.

"Okay," I breathe out, because even though this is trouble, I want it, too.

He leans in close, and I tilt my face up. Instead of putting his mouth on my lips, though, he rubs his nose against mine and murmurs, “If you were my mate, your cunt would be a river before I sank my cock into you. I would make sure of it.”

I whimper.

“I would press my lips to your skin and taste you everywhere.” His breath fans hot over my face as I whimper, but he continues. “Explore those pretty breasts of yours until your nipples ache. I wouldn’t use my hands, either. They’re too big and rough to do anything other than hold you down…unless you’d like that.” His hot gaze meets mine. “If you did, I’d pin your hands above your head so you can’t squirm away, and then I’d lick you all over. My tongue would glide all over that pretty cunt of yours until you were begging for me to conquer you, Andrea. I’d taste you and if you weren’t wet enough, I’d lick you over and over, until you soaked my mouth and my face with your pleasure. Only then would I give you my cock, Andrea. Only then.”

Oh god. My nipples are so hard that they ache. Goosebumps cover my skin, and I can’t move. I’m mesmerized by the erotic picture he’s painting.

His eyes blaze into mine and then he inhales…and groans. “Your scent,” he murmurs, sliding a hand behind the back of my neck. “It’s been driving me wild for weeks.”

Does he mean my normal scent? I haven’t been a walking puddle of arousal for weeks. “My scent?”

“All of it,” he murmurs, and then his mouth is on my skin, nipping gently at my jaw and moving to my ear. Delicious shockwaves ripple through my body and I bite back another moan. “When you wake up and touch yourself. When you sweat. When you walk past me—I love all of it, Andrea. And it makes me hungry for more.”

He even likes it when I sweat? I open my mouth to protest, because that’s not a human thing to say, but then his mouth is on mine and he’s giving me a hungry kiss full of need and I’m utterly lost. Our tongues tangle and I lose myself in his touch. There’s nothing outside of his mouth, his lips, his tongue, his heat. We kiss for so long that I lose track of the world around me. I only know that my hand is clutching at the front of his shirt, his is on the small of my back, and our mouths are locked in an endless, delicious kiss, and it’s still somehow not enough. I need more of him. I want his hands everywhere, and I want to put my hands all over him. I want to drag my nails across his skin and feel him shudder. I want to bite him. I want him to throw me down and fuck the daylights out of me.

I want all kinds of crazy things, and they all revolve around him.

Liam breaks the kiss, panting, and his hands are in my hair, dragging it free of my braid. “You smell incredible, Andrea. I want more.”

“I want more, too,” I tell him, panting.

“Let me taste you.” His eyes are vivid with need. “Let me put my mouth on your cunt and taste that sweetness.”

I cling to him, his words making me dizzy. My mind fills with images of Liam and his mouth on my pussy, Liam with his tongue delving between my folds, Liam with his hands on my naked thighs as he buries his face…and then I remember the filthy, filthy floor and where we’re at. I shudder. “Much as I want that, I’m not lying down on this floor, Liam.”

His tongue flicks at my lip, and I feel the rough texture of it against my skin. Odd how I don’t notice that when we’re kissing. It makes me shiver to feel it, as if he’s teasing me with how it’ll be against other parts of my body. “If you won’t lie on the floor, then stand up.”

I suck in a breath. Should I? Is this a bad idea? It’s clear Liam wants me—has wanted me for weeks. I want him, too, and now that we’re safely away from the fort, does it matter if we indulge ourselves? No one’s around to see, and I’m not a virgin. “Stand…up?”

He nods, his eyes utterly hungry.

No one’s ever looked at me like that—like he’ll die if he doesn’t get to touch me. I can’t resist. I detangle myself from his grip and get to my feet, my legs trembling with the anticipation of his touch.

Liam’s big hands immediately go to my waist, and he undoes the button and zipper on my jeans. I’m grateful that he’s careful with them—they’re old and worn, but I don’t have many pairs. When they’re loose around my waist, he eases them down over my hips and I squirm just a little, because the panties I have on aren’t cute and flirty. They’re faded cotton, bleached white from a million washings, just like my bra. But he groans at the sight and shakes his head slightly. “You humans and your layers of clothing.”

“It’s for hygiene,” I tell him defensively, feeling awkward, especially when I have to put a hand on his shoulder to steady myself as he eases the jeans all the way down my legs and I lift each foot so we can take them off.

“It’s because your people are obsessed with how displeased they are with their bodies,” he murmurs, tossing my jeans onto one corner of the black trash bag tarp I’ve made. “They don’t appreciate how they smell, how they look…or how they taste.” He gestures at the discarded lube containers nearby, his hand a dismissive flick. “Do you know what I see when I look at you?”

“No, but I’m sure you’ll tell me,” I say nervously.

“I see Andrea,” he murmurs, gazing at my panties intently. One big hand caresses my hip, and he watches me with a fervent gaze. “I see a strong female who is loyal to those she loves and wants to do her best by her people. I see someone who is brave but still manages to be playful. And I see beauty. It is in your long legs and your pretty breasts and your gorgeous, gorgeous scent. It’s in your smile when you look at me.” He leans forward and buries his face against my navel, groaning. “And you make me want things.”

I shiver, reaching down to lightly touch his hair. It’s the first time I’ve ever touched it, and the feel of it is…different. It’s not soft like I imagined. It’s sleek, but the hairs are thick and almost wiry, as if they’re made of copper strands that have been hammered into shape. They spike up all over his head, and I run my fingers through his hair and then lightly caress one of his horns. “What kinds of things?” I ask, my voice a mere whisper.

But he shakes his head and doesn’t answer. He presses his mouth against the material of my T-shirt and then reaches under it, grabbing the waist of my panties and jerking them down. Oh. I’m startled by that sudden motion, and my hands go back to his shoulders as I steady myself.

He groans again, the sound full of hungry need, and then presses a kiss to my lower belly, just above the curls of my pubic mound. “No wonder you smell so gorgeous,” he murmurs. “Look at all this beauty.”

I hold my breath, waiting to see what he’s going to do. It’s been a long time since I’ve had fun, playful sex, and I feel completely out of my league at the moment. Heck, I almost do feel like a virgin.

“Your scent.” He groans again, his hand stealing up to twist my shirt and hold it up, revealing my waist and everything below it to his gaze. “I don’t know which is better—the sight of you like this or the scent of you.” Before I can make some nervous crack, he looks up at me, his eyes liquid with heat. “I bet it’s the taste.”

With that, he leans in and presses his mouth to my pussy.

I jerk in surprise, clinging to him as he drags his tongue over my slit. His tongue is slightly textured, like a cat’s, and it’s the most startling thing I’ve ever felt. A cry dies in my throat, but he only murmurs something under his breath and then gently eases my thighs further apart with a nudge of his hands. I do it, spreading without thinking. He locks an arm around my upper thigh, anchoring himself, and then nuzzles deeper, burying his mouth in the folds of my pussy.

It’s absolutely obscene…and so damn good. I cry out, hands clenching, as he gives me an aggressive, deep lick that brushes over my clit.

“Oh no,” I moan, even as I hold him closer.

“Tell me to stop, then,” he murmurs, rubbing his mouth back and forth before he drags his tongue over me again. “Tell me you don’t like me tasting your cunt. Tell me you don’t like me hungry for you and I’ll stop.”

“Don’t you dare fucking stop.” I put a hand atop his head, on that wild hair, and grab a fistful when he chuckles.

“I love the taste of this cunt,” he murmurs, and one hand slides up to drag a blunted finger through my folds. “Look at how fucking wet you are, Andrea. It’s like you know this is mine. You’re mine.” He looks up at me, and his eyes are swirling both dark and gold. “Mine.”

He says it so strongly it makes me wet all over again. New slickness coats my folds and I shudder against him. “Is that what I am? Yours?”

“You shouldn’t be.” Liam’s voice is a low, angry growl. “But I can’t help myself. This taste…I’m going to need this every day now. Now that I know how sweet you are? How wet? Every day, Andrea. In my bed, your thighs over my shoulders, me licking every drop of sweetness from your cunt until you’re screaming for me.”

Oh god. He’s going to make come just from the filthy things he’s saying. I’m panting, clinging to his hair—and the horns that are in just the right spot to grasp onto. He pushes backward, and then my upper back’s against the wall. He pulls my hips forward just slightly, and it’s like I’m practically thrusting up against his mouth as he tongues over my folds. Dirty-talking Liam has vanished, and now he’s just utterly ravenous, his mouth moving over me with such hungry intensity that it doesn’t matter that he’s not hitting my clit. He’s devouring me with every hungry stroke of his tongue, seeking out any hint of wetness and claiming it for himself.

And god, it’s sexy.

His furious tongue strikes across my clit, and my entire body jerks in response. “Oh!”

Liam pauses, looking up at me. It steals my breath away, looking down at his flushed, deep-gold mouth as his tongue flicks over his lips, tasting me. “Too sensitive?”

“No,” I breathe, pressing a hand to my forehead because I feel like I’m about to come apart. “Good. Too good.”

“No such thing,” he murmurs, and swipes his tongue over my clit again.

I cry out, arching up against that damned textured tongue, and then when he does it again, I follow. He licks and sucks at my clit, and I shamelessly grind against his face, all the while panting his name. He works his tongue over me, and when I think I can’t take any more, he pushes a finger deep inside me and then I come, release exploding through me. Another gush of fluid soaks my pussy and he laps it up, even as I rock my hips against his face.

I let out a little mew of protest when he releases me, sliding bonelessly down the wall to collapse in his arms.

“Andrea,” he murmurs. “My Andrea.” He lightly kisses my face a dozen times, and I taste myself on his lips.

“Oh,” I breathe, and when he drags me into his lap and strokes my hair, I curl up against him. “Just…give me a minute to catch my breath.”

He chuckles. “Take all the time you need, my sweet human.”

“Then it’s your turn,” I tell him, stroking my hand down the front of his shirt. It has big, stretched-out handfuls where I got a little too enthusiastic with my gripping. Whoops. I’m so distracted by the fact that I’ve practically ruined his shirt that I almost miss his response.

“No,” he says quietly.

It takes a moment to register, and then I look up at him. “No?” I’m so dazed that the word doesn’t quite sink in. “Why not?”

He presses a kiss to my brow, ever tender. “Let me just enjoy you for now.”

I bite back my frown, since he’s still kissing and petting me. Doesn’t he want me to touch him? But he’s not acting like there’s a problem, so I settle in against him and try not to let his refusal bother me.

10

LIAM

T  here is no pain quite like the unfulfilled mating heat in my groin.

Andrea curls up against me, her intoxicating scent filling the air around us. I understand why Rast is so protective of Amy, his human mate. I understand Vaan’s utter focus on Gwen. I get it, now. As Andrea shudders in my arms, her breathing heavy, I rub her back. Just moments ago, she came so very sweetly against my mouth that it nearly stole the control from my body. She’s so fragile yet spirited. I could crush her with my grip, but she trusts me implicitly. I love that I could pleasure her, but with the aching strain of my cock in my confining, irritating human clothes, it reminds me that I cannot do more.

I cannot rip off my pants and bury my cock between her thighs.

I cannot claim her pretty throat with my bite or give her the mating mark. I cannot give her my fires.

If I do, I’ll lose my sanity. I’ll become another ravening beast in the skies…unless she’s my mate.

But to make her my mate, I’d have to access the parts of my mind that I’ve walled off. And there’s no guarantee that I’ll be able to give her my fires in time before I lose control of my sanity.

It’s a risk.

For seven long years, I’ve lived in the shadows of human settlements, trying to blend in to survive, in the hopes of one day returning to my land and my people. That if I can survive long enough, I can figure out how to get home. That this blankness in my mind, this loss of communication with any drakoni is nothing but temporary.

As I hold Andrea, I realize that the life I’ve been living is a cruel joke. I’m not drakoni, nor am I human. I’m an outcast in both worlds, and after seven long years of hiding, I’m coming to the realization that we might never get home.

I might never be able to communicate with my people ever again. I might never feel the warm comfort of another’s thoughts touching mine. Might never feel the simple pleasure of just knowing there are others nearby of my kind, having the constant sense of “belonging” that our joined connections brought.

I will never have a mate, either.

This thing between myself and Andrea…it cannot be. I can’t claim her. I can’t be human enough to be her male, and I am far too drakoni to make this work. If she touches me, I fear I’ll lose control. That all the careful mental shields I’ve put up will crumble, and I’ll attack her with the need to claim her.

Worse, that I’ll forget myself and spend my seed inside her and hurt her. My body temperature is much higher than hers, and her skin feels cool against mine. I know my seed would boil inside her and burn her from within.

“Liam,” she breathes, and I want to tell her that that’s not my real name. That I am Atalim, a drakoni warrior. I am not Liam, who pretends to be human and cannot be whole.

But…that’s who I am now. So I say nothing.

If I could choose, though…if I could claim a female as my mate and not lose my sanity?

Andrea would be mine.

SLEEP ELUDES ME THAT NIGHT. I need less sleep than most humans do, anyhow, but even when I lie down on the strange plastic sleeping space and pull her smaller form against me, I cannot relax. My drakoni senses are slowly flaring to life, and that worries me. I know the feelings swamping my mind are those of a drakoni male with a potential mate, because the urge to protect Andrea as she sleeps is overwhelming.

It would be so easy to give in. To turn her over and claim her pretty, pale neck. To sink my fangs in, open my mind, and give her my fires…and hope I do not tear her throat out. I don’t know if how I feel for Andrea—possessive, protective, obsessed—is because she truly is my mate, or if these are just human reactions because I grow increasingly distant from my drakoni half by the day.

That worries me and it only adds to the reasons why I cannot sleep.

Morning comes soon enough, and I leave Andrea’s side for a time, because I know she likes privacy to relieve herself and wash. Her cheeks are bright red with embarrassment when she looks at me, but she smiles and it makes my spirit sing just to look at her. In seven long years, I have never felt such joy. Perhaps even longer.

I hate that this thing between us cannot be more than this, though. Perhaps it will be enough for her if I mate her cunt with my tongue instead of my cock, and if I give her pleasure. If she is content with that, then I will be, too, I decide.

As Andrea does her morning rituals, I go outside and prowl around the building, taking in scents. Benny’s is still on the ground, but it grows fainter with every day that passes, and that worries me. I promised Andrea I would bring her brother back to her, but if we lose his trail, it might be an empty promise.

I cannot fail her. I must remember our purpose, so I’m not distracted when she’s at my side, her cunt smelling of her need and her eyes shining up at me.

Just thinking of it makes my cock ache, and I crouch low, closing my eyes and focusing on the mental strengths that have kept my mind locked for so many years.

Every drakoni is born with a mental link to his people. It is how we communicate with parents, how we acknowledge others in our territory, and how we speak. We do not use mouths and babble like the humans do. We let our spirits touch and open our minds on a different level.

It was when I was captured by the Salorians that I learned a different way. Because I was one of the strongest of my people and one of the largest in battle form, they wanted me to break and to recruit me into one of their armies. When I was captured, though, I wasn’t in battle form, and out of stubbornness, I refused to shift. Several torture sessions later and with the loss of many claws, I was tossed into the dungeons below the Salorian stronghold. There, I met an old drakoni male who’d been in the dungeons for many, many seasons. He was completely unbroken and ignored by his captors. Fascinated, I wanted to learn his secrets. To prevent the Salorians from taking over your mind, he told me, you have to close it off entirely. A bridge that is destroyed cannot be used against you. Old Jannis taught me how to visualize the walls to place in my mind, to detach from that part of myself that wanted to share my spirit connection. Putting up these walls meant cutting myself off from much of who I was. I could not switch to battle form, because in that primal form, my mind would be open like an outstretched palm. Like a muscle weak from disuse, I learned how to become better at such things—to the consternation of my Salorian captors. They tried to break my body, to force me to switch to battle form, but I resisted. When they could not make me bend, they tied me up and were to send me off to the deep mines, where I would be dumped with the other useless slaves, those too weak to fly and who served no purpose to the Salorian empire.

But even as the prisoners were transported behind the line of battle warriors, the skies opened up and tore the world apart…and when I awoke, I found myself here. Other drakoni sailed through the sky, screaming out their madness, and the females were all flushed with mating heat. I watched as they destroyed the world around me and knew they’d gone insane…

And because I could do nothing to help, I found shelter and hid away, their oppressive thoughts so wild and heavy that I could practically feel them in the air around us.

I shake my head to clear the memories. Those were dark days, and I do not care to relive them. My mind is stronger now, even if I feel isolated. I have had years to build my walls, and if it means I am alone, then I must be alone.

So be it.

A fat chicken waddles past, then perches atop a nearby rusted car hulk. I eye it. I could catch it and eat it raw, but it is not a human thing to do, and I’m not sure what Andrea will think. I could roast it…but I cannot use my fire. I clench my hands, hating how helpless I am like this. It has not bothered me this much in seven years. Why is it making me antsy now?

Of course, I know why. The reason comes out of the building a short time later, her hair pulled into a fresh braid and her cheeks pink as she smiles at me. She smells freshly scrubbed, with the floral scents of the soaps these humans like covering up her good natural sweat scent. Her clothes are changed as well, and in her bag I can smell the last traces of her arousal-scent on her clothing…and something else. Something from inside the store with the mating objects. Curious, I wonder what she brought.

Is it because she plans on mating with me?

Hot need surges through my body and blasts at the mental walls. I close my eyes, grinding a palm against my forehead as I try to concentrate.

Andrea is dangerous in her sweetness. Even her scent reminds me of last night, and the taste of her on my lips. Perhaps I will not even get that, if it weakens my defenses too much. Perhaps I cannot touch her at all. The thought is one that makes my spirit ache.

“Hi,” she says, and there’s an eager, shy note in her voice that rouses my drakoni side. I immediately move closer to her, drinking in her scent, studying the way she moves, the bit of hair she tucks behind her ear. “Got the scent?”

I nod and try to seem normal, composed. “Ready to go? Do you need anything from inside?”

She pats her bags. “I refilled my canteens and grabbed a few trash bags and, uh, some other stuff.” Her cheeks grow pinker. “I’m good, though. How about you?”

“Ready,” I say, and she looks surprised when my tone is a little curt. “I smell rain in the distance,” I explain. “I don’t like the thought of losing Benny’s trail, so we should get going.”

Her soft expression immediately changes to one of worry, and I want to bite off my own tongue for admitting that the trail grows weak. “You might lose his scent?”

“We’ll find him,” I promise her. “I won’t let you lose him.”

She thinks for a moment and then smiles at me, as if my promise has reassured her. “Let’s get going, then.” Andrea hitches her shotgun and pack over her shoulder, and when I point, she heads down the road.

I pause just long enough so I can watch her cocky, adorable swagger, my heart aching.

I need to pull back. Touching Andrea is too dangerous. It makes me want things…things I can’t have.

“GOOD GOD, I’ve never seen so many damn rats,” Andrea exclaims as we walk. “They’re everywhere.” She kicks at one that scurries near her boot and steps closer to me.

It takes everything I have not to reach for her, to put my hand to her waist and drag her close. I’m doing my best to keep my distance, so the hunger brewing in the corners of my mind remains distant. I know that one touch and I’m going to lose all control, so I pretend to concentrate on the invisible scent trails that scatter all over the concrete.

We’ve been walking through the city all day, passing old buildings called “casinos” and crossing under broken underpasses. Trash and debris from the remains of the human hive is everywhere, but the stink of them is long faded, except for the thread of Benny’s scent.

Andrea’s not wrong, though. The rats are indeed everywhere. They dart out from under garbage and cross the road ahead of us, peek out from storm drains, and their stink is overwhelming. They’re not clean creatures, these rats, and I get why she’s horrified at the thought of me eating one.

I glance over at my companion, and I notice that she’s walking oddly again. She favors her feet from time to time, trying to hide it from me, but I’ve caught her stumbling and picking at her steps when she thinks I’m not looking.

So I pause at a tree that’s cropped up next to an old red sign with human words on it. “We’ll take a quick break here.”

“I can keep going,” she says defensively. She shakes her head and surges forward, as if to prove me wrong.

“Andrea,” I call out, warning. “I am stopping here.” When she turns to give me a hurt look, I add, “For a few minutes only.”

Her jaw clenches and then she heads back, moving to my side. She sits on the edge of the curb next to me, not looking in my direction. I love her stubbornness, but not when she is in pain.

“Are your feet bothering you?” I ask.

She shakes her head, still ignoring me.

“Shall I remove your boots and check your feet for myself?” I keep my tone teasing, but she shoots me such a glare that I know I’ve struck a nerve. I laugh. “That’s my answer, then. Andrea, if you destroy your feet, I’m going to have to carry you. If we must, we’ll take breaks. We—”

“Every hour that slips away is another hour Benny’s ahead of us.” Her quiet voice makes me stop. “I don’t care if I have two blisters or twenty, but I need to find my brother. I can keep walking.”

I get to my feet, because even though she’s stubborn, I understand her. “Then we’ll keep walking.” I extend my hand to her.

She takes it, and I’m surprised at the surge of lust that washes over me just from the touch of her cool fingers. She casts a smile in my direction, and it takes everything I have not to grab her by her hair and pull her against me. I stay still until she walks past once more, and then follow behind her a few steps.

My reactions to her seem to get stronger with every day that passes. This is…not good for my mental walls. At what point will Andrea destroy them entirely?

11

LIAM

T  hat afternoon, new problems arise.

Storm clouds roll in overhead, changing the scents in the air and making the world around us humid and muggy. Andrea casts a few anxious looks at the dark clouds. “I really don’t want to be rained on.”

I don’t care about the rain. I just worry that it’s going to destroy all traces of Benny’s already thin scent-trail. But I don’t say this aloud because I don’t want to worry Andrea. I’ve promised to bring her brother back and I will.

As the wind shifts, it brings with it new scents, and one is a distant dragon. That might be trouble if it comes any closer, and I say so to Andrea.

“We’ll go for as long as we can, then.” She looks troubled, but she’s also practical. Sore feet she might be able to ignore, but not a dragon in the sky.

So we continue on, and then the rain begins to patter down on us. I stop looking for Benny’s trail and start looking for a shelter nearby as lightning crackles overhead. “Shelter,” I tell her. “Pick one.” I gesture at the fallen buildings around us, but none seem particularly good spots to stay in.

She immediately gestures at one with a big golden sign. “The arches, of course. I used to love eating there as a kid.”

We head toward the building, and I notice there’s a big, windowed area with colorful plastic slides and a pit full of balls that’s also filled up with leaves and debris. Andrea ignores that, though, heading inside where there are tables mounted to the floor and a counter across from them. It doesn’t look all that hospitable—most of the glass windows lining the building have shattered—but it’ll be dry enough.

Andrea moves to one of the tables and sits in the chair, sighing. “Gosh, this brings back memories. I remember how much Benny used to laugh and laugh when I took him out to the slide. And he’d always get a kid’s meal with nuggets. I’d get one too, just so he could have two toys.” She traces a finger through the dust on the tabletop as I move to her side. “I really miss those days. Everything was so simple and the food was so good.”

My hand twitches. I want to touch her shoulder, caress the braid of hair snaking down her back, but I don’t dare. Touching her means giving in to my need, and I have to fight it. “Should we look for food, then?”

“Oh, if there was food here, it’ll be long gone.” She props her chin up on her hand. “But as shelter, this’ll work.”

I grunt a response, and as she tosses her bag onto the table, I move around to check out our surroundings. The area behind the counter smells like old grease. There’s a pair of doors past all the tables, and from experience, I know these are the waste-rooms humans used to relieve themselves. There’s no doorknob, so I push one swinging door open and I’m surprised at the scents that hit me.

For one, it’s surprisingly clean. I recognize the astringent scent of the cleaning products that they use back at the fort. It’s old and faded, but it still lingers on all the surfaces. Whoever left this place behind wanted it to be left tidy. I also smell Benny here, which means he stopped in this building, and stopped in this room specifically. His scent is all over the stalls, and I flare my nostrils, then head back out of the room and down the hall to another door. This one has no signs on it, and it has a handle on the door, which makes it different than the others. Not a waste-room then. I test the round knob, and it opens easily; it’s been broken. I open the door and it smells like stale cigarette smoke. There are papers all over the desk, and a boxy thing that I’ve been told is a computer…and a small window with wavy, rippled glass. It’s open just a crack, and Benny’s scent leads here. I lean over the desk, pry open the window, and gaze outside. It leads to a few dumpsters and the parking lot, where a few old cars are still parked.

Interesting thing though…there’s a new scent here. A male, and he’s got an animal with him. A hunter? I lean out and Benny’s scent continues outside. He came in this room and left out the window, then.

I pace back out, following the scent. Andrea looks up at me curiously as I head out the double doors at what must be the front of the building, and look around. Benny’s scent is heaviest here. It smells like sweat and human boy and the corn cakes that Andrea nibbles on frequently. I glance around, then move toward a metal contraption that has the familiar, odd scent I’ve been picking up next to Benny’s scent for the last few days. I know a lot of human words, but this one escapes me. It looks like a metal frame of some kind, with two wheels and a set of handles.

“What is it?” Andrea asks.

I gesture at the thing. “This smells like him.”

“A bike! Where did he get that?” She leans forward, checking it over. “Chain’s good and tires have air. No wonder we haven’t been able to catch him.”

“I’ve smelled this,” I say, tapping one of the black wheels. “Ever since we left the fort.”

She swears under her breath. “If he had a bike this whole time, he could be miles and miles ahead of us.” Andrea drops to a crouch and presses a hand to her brow.

I can practically smell the despair on her and it bothers me. I’ve failed her. “It gets worse.”

She lifts her head and looks at me, her eyes shiny and wet. “What is it?”

I take her hand—even though I know I shouldn’t touch her—and lead her inside. I retrace Benny’s steps, taking her along his path. “He came in here,” I say, taking her to the clean waste-room. “And then he went back down the hall and into this second room here.” I take her to the one that smells of stale cigarettes, a stink that I hate more than the perfumes humans like. “He opened the window and that’s when a second smell appears.”

“A second smell?”

“An unfamiliar male. He had a creature with him. It’s possible he was hunting and Benny talked to him. Either way, they left together.”

Her eyes widen and she clenches her hands. “He was meeting someone, wasn’t he? He’s been planning this for a long time.”

I have no answer. I just shrug. “We can follow their trail, see where it leads—”

Thunder crashes overhead, and then the skies open up, letting out a deluge of heavy rain. Andrea’s face falls as the room grows darker around us. I know what she’s thinking. She’s torn between going after Benny and staying here, in the shelter. Her eyes look wet once more.

I put my hands on her shoulders, squeezing. “If you want to go out and keep going, we can.”

Thunder crashes and the skies light up with lightning, as if making a mockery of my words. Andrea stares at me, then shakes her head slowly. “I know it’s not wise. If we both catch colds we’re no good to anyone, and my feet hurt. We’ll stay here tonight.” Her eyes plead up at me. “Do you think he’s all right?”

“I smell no blood,” I admit, and when she gives a trembling nod, I pull her close against me. Touching her is dangerous, but…how can I not? She needs me, and I’m starting to worry that I need her, too.

12

ANDI

T  he storm crashes overhead with depressing amounts of violence, reiterating the fact that it was smart for us to hide out inside. I know that getting soaked while traveling is bad. I know that I’ll catch a cold, or worse, it’ll ruin my gear. I know it’s smarter to stay inside and wait, because Benny’s likely miles and miles ahead of us and hiding out somewhere warm himself.

Oh, but my heart aches. It doesn’t understand that I want to be out there in the downpour, a few steps closer to finding Benny.

I think Liam gets it, though. His expression is gentle as he rolls out a blanket from his pack and invites me to sit on it in a clean corner of the old fast-food restaurant’s strangely sparkling clean bathroom. It’s the best spot to hide out; the windows are blown out, so a damp breeze constantly comes through, ruffling my hair and making everything feel misty. So we shut the door to the bathroom and sit in the darkness.

I’m quiet, my legs pulled up to my chest as I think about Benny.

My brother met someone out here. He met a stranger, a man, and left with him. I can only think of two possible scenarios—that Benny has had his escape planned for a terribly long time and made plans with one of the random nomads that occasionally passes through the fort. I try to think if there were any Benny took a particular interest in, but I can’t think of anyone.

It’s either that, or someone found my brother here and stole him.

That idea scares me.

A warm hand reaches out in the darkness and grazes my cheek. “Andrea?”

Liam’s voice is like silky, rich butter…and just like butter, he makes my mouth water. “Sorry I’m not very good company tonight. I’m just worried about Benny.”

“You are always good company,” he chides me, and his hand moves to my knee, and then he touches my boot. “I understand fretting over him. You’re allowed to worry.” And he unties my shoelace.

“What are you doing?”

“You said your feet hurt earlier. I am going to rub them for you.”

“Why?” I feel like a doofus for asking, but he’s the first man that’s ever wanted to do something like that that’s just for me, that he gets nothing out of. Of course, I think of last night and how he tongued me until I came and got nothing out of that, too, and my cheeks heat. Maybe that’s his fetish. He gets off on getting me off, or something. But…it’s odd. I’m not sure I like fooling around with someone in such a one-sided manner. It makes me feel like I’m not holding up my half of the bargain, or worse, that he’s not truly interested.

Liam pulls my boot off, though, and then I’m wiggling my foot in my worn, heavily mended sock. I’m glad it’s dark so he can’t see how threadbare it looks. Of course, thinking about this sock makes me think about the socks Benny stole and I feel like crying all over again.

“You’re thinking hard,” he says. “Want to talk about it?”

“What’s there to say?” My voice is hoarse. “Benny’s either in terrible danger or he’s been plotting to leave me because I’m no longer important in his life. That about sums it up.”

He removes my other boot, and then both of my feet are in his lap. His body is insanely warm and when his hands clasp one foot and then the other, it feels like they’re being warmed by heated oven mitts. God, it feels good. “We don’t know what happened with Benny,” he tells me. “You are assuming. Focus on the truths you know and don’t make new worries.”

His fingers rub at the instep of one foot, and my leg jolts in response. I moan. “Oh.”

Liam’s low, sexy chuckle is making me want to rip my panties off. “Feel good?”

“Yeah, but I don’t get why you’re doing it,” I admit.

“I like touching you.” His hands stroke over the arch of my foot and then rub my other instep. He’s making sure to give attention to each foot equally, and all the aching places seem to ache a little less while he does it.

“But you don’t want me to touch you back,” I venture, almost afraid to hear his answer.

I expect him to protest, to say something that will make me feel better, but he only sighs. That lone sound hangs in the air for a moment, and then he finally speaks.

"I owe you the truth."

"That'd be nice," I say nervously. I feel the urge to pull my feet out of his grip, but he hasn't let go of me yet. Is this truth going to be bad? Something in me suspects that it will be. That he doesn't really like me. That what we did last night was some sort of manipulation and it didn't mean anything to him…and that might break me. "What's going on?"

Liam's fingers move on my foot. "You obsess me, Andrea."

That…wasn't what I was expecting to hear. "You make that sound bad."

"It is for me."

I wait for him to continue, because I want to—need to—know what he's talking about. I'm afraid if I speak, I'll derail the conversation. So I wait in the darkness, hoping that he'll start talking before my nervous sweat becomes overwhelming.

"I am not like other drakoni," Liam begins. "You know this. I shut off the part of my mind that connects my spirit to the others of my people that are here. That's the only way I've managed to stay sane while they fight madness. But because of that, I've had to be very careful with myself. I cannot let anything threaten my control, because if it does, I could lose everything."

A funny feeling starts in the pit of my stomach. I have an idea of where this conversation is headed, and I don't like it. Is this the dragon version of “it's not you, it's me” and he's going to let me down nicely? I should have expected it. There are no good guys in the After, there are only disappointments. "I see."

"I want you so deeply that it threatens my control," he admits, and his voice is low and fervent. "Your nearness drives me to distraction. Your scent is in my nose when I wake up, and it surrounds me when I go to sleep. My hands twitch with the need to touch you. My cock aches with the need to bury myself deep inside you and claim you as mine. My fangs ache to give you my fires. Everything I am wants to possess you."

I can't breathe. "Oh," I manage. My pulse pounds in my veins, and I'm all too aware of his nearness.

"So far, I have managed to keep my control and feed my hunger for you by touching you." His fingers skate over the arch of my foot and then up to my ankle, teasing the soft skin there. "I know I shouldn't even allow myself that much, but I can't help it. Touching you is such pleasure that I can't stop myself. I'm addicted."

I shift in my seat, heat pooling through my body at these ardent words. If he's trying to push me away, he's going about it all wrong. This is just making me want him even more.

"That's why I haven't asked you to touch me," he murmurs. "Because my control is already tenuous. I find myself doing things that another drakoni would for his mate. I watch over you while you sleep. I want to feed you. I'm fascinated with your neck."

My neck? I touch it in the darkness, blushing. "Why my neck?"

"Because I want to sink my fangs into your pretty throat and give you my fires," Liam says, and his words are so low and fervent that they make a little shudder of need ripple through me. "I'd pull you close and hold you against me and claim your throat, marking you as mine for all time. No other male would ever look at you ever again, because he would smell me on you and know you're claimed."

Oh god, this should not be making me wet, but it's definitely making me wet. Haven't I been jealous of Amy and Gwen and what they have with their dragons? I've wanted what they have, dreamed of being the center of someone's world…and now Liam is confessing those feelings for me? I want it. I've been attracted to him for what feels like forever, and this feels like the best of both worlds. "So why don't you do it?" I slide my fingers across my collarbones, trying to picture where he'd bite me. Just under my ear? Or lower, near my shoulder?

He groans low, and I can feel his entire body stiffen. The hands caressing my feet clench and then stop. "I cannot. If I did, I'd have to open my mind to that part of me I've walled off. Instead of claiming you, it's very likely that I'd lose all control and hurt you instead."

I shiver and pull my feet out of his lap. "Hurt me?"

"I wouldn't want to," he rasps, and it sounds like he's on the verge of losing control as it is. "Nothing terrifies me more than the thought of you coming to harm, Andrea. But I wouldn't be able to help myself, any more than the dragons in the skies want to attack everything in sight. They can't help themselves. They're utterly crazed…and I fear I would be, too. That the pull of a mate wouldn't be enough to conquer the madness."

"Oh," I say softly again. Silence falls between us. "I don't want you to lose your mind just because we kiss," I venture. "But I'm not going to lie, I'm going to be really disappointed if we can't touch each other anymore. I liked being with you." If he's being honest, I guess I can, too. "But I understand—"

He groans. A moment later, his big arms are around my waist and he's pulling me against him. Liam buries his face against my neck and for a moment, my pulse races and I think he's going to bite me like he said he would…but he only breathes deep.

For a moment, I’m filled with bitterness. Of course I find a guy that I’m crazy about, one that touches me with love and respect and gives me everything I want…except we can’t be together. Maybe I just won’t be lucky enough to have the happiness that others experience.

And the next moment, I think…fuck that.

“Liam,” I murmur, lifting his head and caressing his face with my hands. In the darkness, his eyes practically glow and I can see them swirling deeper gold, a darker shade than they should be for me to be safe. I don’t care, though. This is Liam and I know he won’t hurt me. “You don’t have to take me as your mate, do you?”

He stiffens, pulling back. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, we can still touch each other. Give each other pleasure. We just don’t have to take that final step. No biting. Everything else is on the table.”

“Andrea,” he breathes, voice raspy. I wish I could see his face in the darkness, but I can imagine the stark look on his hard, handsome features. “No—”

“Shh,” I whisper, and put a finger to his lips. “Hear me out.” I trace the finger down his chin, touching his jaw, caressing him. “We can kiss. We can touch. We can do whatever feels good, and if it’s too much for you, we can stop. We’ll just play it by ear and do as much as you can handle. If we can’t have everything, then we can’t have everything. We’ll just work with what we can.”

He’s panting, as if even this conversation is firing him up. Maybe it is, because I’m getting all aroused myself. “My seed is too hot for you to take inside your body—”

“Then you don’t come inside my body. That’s not a big deal.”

Liam stiffens. “It…you don’t consider this an insult?”

Is it an insult for his people? “Nope.” I lean in and press a kiss to his mouth, feeling a little daring. “And we have condoms to give a bit of a barrier. Or…I could just watch you touch yourself. That’d be sexy.” I give a little wiggle in his lap, because the thought of him stroking himself to completion? Oh yeah, I’d watch that all day long.

But he pauses. “Condoms?”

“Yup. I brought some from the sex store. It’s a sheath you put over your cock and it catches all the semen. I’ve heard they dull the sensation, too, so maybe that’d be a good thing?”

“I don’t know.” His hands clench and he pulls me tighter to him. “Do you know what you ask, Andrea? We could be playing with fire.”

“I trust you, Liam.” And I do. I really don’t think he’d hurt me. I’m flattered he thinks I’m testing his control, but if he’s gone seven years without breaking, a little hanky-panky won’t do it.

Hopefully.

He touches my face. “Don’t call me that.”

That jars me out of my desire-filled haze. “What?”

“It’s not my real name. It’s just a human name.” He pulls me closer, his fingers lightly skating over my face and then down the front of my shirt. It’s like now that I’ve given him permission, he’s going to be bold with touching me, and oh, I love it. He brushes over one of my hard, aching nipples, and I arch against him. “When I first got here, the man that found me thought that I’d had a stroke, or been hit in the head and forgot my language. Drakoni don’t use spoken words, remember?”

I vaguely remember him telling me that, but my mind is scattered, distracted as he teases my nipple. “Mmhmm,” I manage to whimper out. “Go on.”

“It took me a long time to fit my mouth around your words. The only part of my name I was able to say was the second half, and that’s what stuck.” He plucks at my nipple, then leans forward to taste my lips. As he does, his mouth whispers across mine. “If you must call me something when I touch you, call me by my real name. Atalim.”

“Atalim, then.” I try to pronounce it like he does, with the latter half a breathy sigh. It sounds wild and fierce, just like him.

He shudders against me, and his fingers dig into my arms. “Say it again for me, Andrea.”

Is this why he never calls me Andi? Because he hates that his own name was taken from him? I slide a hand to the back of his neck and hold on, kissing him lightly. “Atalim.”

His groan echoes in the darkness, and he pulls my thighs apart, until I’m straddling the hard length of his cock as I sit in his lap. He presses me down against it, grinding. “Tell me to stop touching you,” he demands.

“Not gonna say that, Atalim,” I tease, leaning forward to nip at his ear. “I want you too much. We can do all kinds of things that are just for fun, you know. No one has to be mated, Atalim.” I keep throwing his name in there, because he gives this sexy little shudder every time I say it.

“I want to mate you,” he growls against my throat. “I want that more than anything.”

My pussy clenches to hear that, and when he drags his thumb over my nipple again, I want to cry with how unfair this is. I want him to mate me, too. But I’ll take what he can give me. “Let’s just enjoy here and now, Atalim.” I slide my hand under his shirt, feeling the scorching hot wall of muscle that is his chest. “Is it okay if I touch you?”

He growls again, but that’s not a no. If it was, he’d push my hand away. Instead, his fingers curl in my shirt and he holds me closer, even as he continues to tease my breast with his other hand.

“Then you’ll just have to tell me to stop,” I murmur, pulling at his shirt until he gets the hint and lifts his arms up over his head so I can slide the whole thing off. Then there’s nothing but naked skin in front of me, and I sigh. “I want to light a candle so I can look at you. So unfair to hide all this gorgeous skin in the dark.”

“Light one. I want to please you.” His voice is raspy with emotion, his body shifting under mine, and his big dick keeps rubbing against the inside of my thigh, distracting me.

He really wants me to light one? It’s a frivolous use of something so precious, and yet he’s not chiding me on it. He wants this as much as I do, I realize. Does he like the thought of me eating him up with my eyes? With a little shiver of pleasure, I give him another quick kiss, detangle from his lap, and then fumble for my bag in the darkness, looking for my lighter and the emergency candle-bowl I brought along with me.

I manage to get it lit despite my shaking hands and set it down on the tile floor. When I turn back to him, the sight of his big golden body takes my breath away, as does the hunger in his shadowed eyes.

Oh. Reverently, I put a hand on his chest. “Look at you, Atalim. How did you ever manage to hide all this gorgeousness from me for so long?”

Liam—Atalim—groans, reaching for me. He touches my braid, which has nearly come undone with our caresses, and lets my hair drift through his fingers. “I’ve told myself over and over again that I can’t have you. Do you know how difficult that is? How long I’ve wanted to touch you, Andrea?”

“Well, you can have me,” I say lightly, feeling breathless. “Just not all of me. We won’t do anything that’ll endanger your control, okay?” I trace my fingers over his mouth, fascinated by the way the flickering shadows play over his skin. “You take the lead if you need to.”

He nips at my fingertip. “I like you leading.”

Oh god, I can practically hear my panties soaking as his teeth scrape over my skin. Reluctantly, I pull my hand back from his mouth and let my palms drift down his chest. I touch him all over, exploring his body. For a guy that’s been hiding out in one shitty fort after another for the last seven years, eating our poor food, he’s built like an absolute bulldozer. His pectorals are things of beauty, and his traps—the muscles around the back of his neck and shoulders—are thick and prominent. God, I just want to lick this man all over. I squeeze one big arm, fascinated by him. “How have you stayed so muscular in the After on what we eat in the forts?”

He laughs, the sound breathless and full of surprise. “I don’t always eat what you do? Sometimes I sneak out and go hunting.”

“Well, whatever it is, keep doing it.” I move my hands down his rippled stomach. There’s not an ounce of fat on the man, or a hint of give. He’s just…perfect, right down to the massive log pushing against the front of his sweatpants. “Oh, hello there.” I drag my hand over the front of his pants, outlining his length.

The breath hisses out from his lungs and he jerks away from me, falling backward.

I stumble back a little myself, clutching my hand to my chest. “Are you okay? Liam? Atalim?”

He pants, staring up at the ceiling. One hand fists at his side, then slowly unclenches. “I just…was not expecting that.”

“Should I not touch you there?”

Liam sits up slowly, his eyes hot slits of golden need. “I should tell you to stop, but I can’t.”

I bite my lip and then smile at him. “I’ll call out any moves before I do them, how’s that? OK to put my hand on your cock again?” When he gives a jerky nod, I carefully grip him, encircling his girth with my fingers—or trying to. The man’s thicker than anyone else I’ve ever touched, and even through the soft fabric of his pants, I can feel the fabric catch across the top of his cock, as if it’s got a texture of some kind there. “Man, I bet those idiots that run the sex store feel stupid now,” I say, fascinated as I slide my other hand down to cup his balls. “They don’t need dildos or anything crazy when there’s men like you around.”

“Am I not built like human men?”

“They wish,” I mutter.

He laughs, but it turns into another strangled groan when I squeeze his length again. “Your hands, Andrea. Be mindful of my seed.”

I give him a sultry look. “Is it all over the head of your cock?”

Liam bites back another growl. “Yes.”

“Then wipe it away so I can put my mouth there.”

He pants out a huff of a breath and then pulls his pants down, revealing his cock. It’s just as thick and gorgeous as I remembered, with the head a deep gold. Drops of pre-cum bead the surface, and a curl of steam rises. My mouth waters at the sight, because I desperately want to taste him, but if he says it’s dangerous, I believe him. He swipes his hand over his cock, brushing away the moisture there, only to growl in frustration when more replaces what was removed. “You keep looking at me like you’re hungry and now I can’t stop.” Liam brushes his hand over his cockhead again, then groans. “This isn’t going to work.”

“You want a condom then?” I move over to my bag and dig through it, looking for the little foil packets I snatched from the sex shop. After rummaging for a few moments, I find it and pull one small packet off the strip, then hold it out to him.

Liam gives me a curious glance. “Tell me how this works again?”

I rip open the pack with my teeth, then pull the ring of latex out and offer it to him. “You roll this down your length and….”

We both look down at his hard, erect cock. It’s enormous, the head thick and meaty, and the rest of him is so thick that I can’t even get my grip completely around him. The condom in my hand—extra large, even—doesn’t seem adequate for the job.

“Uh, maybe not.”

“Humans manage to stick their cocks in this?” He takes the condom from me and frowns at it, then tries to unroll it. Immediately, it rips and then he stares down at his fingers, now covered with spermicidal lubricant.

“Yeah, I guess that was a stupid idea. You’re not built like human men.” I grab a dirty T-shirt from my pack and wipe the lubricant off his hands. “The damn thing’s expired anyhow.”

“Expired?”

I shake my head. “Don’t worry about it. I have a new idea.” And I lean forward to give him a kiss.

His mouth is hungry on mine, and our tongues tease until we’re both panting.

“What’s your new idea?” His eyes are that sexy deep gold again, and I notice that his hand’s on his cock, pulling it up against his belly as if trying to make sure he doesn’t hit me with it. Is he truly that hot to the touch?

I reach out and brush my fingers over the head of his cock before he can stop me, and gasp at how scalding hot his semen feels. I immediately wipe my fingers on my jeans, but they throb in response even after I’m done. No wonder he can’t come inside me—that would take any pleasure out of our mating. “Fuck, you’re right, that is hot.”

“Which is why I must give you my fires,” he tells me, frustration edging his voice. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

I nod. Temporary setback. We’ll figure something else out. For now, I just want to go on feeling sexy with him. I lean forward and touch his face again, then nip at his lower lip. “It’s all right. We can do a lot of things without penetration.”

“We can?”

“Oh yeah.” I don’t tell him that I learned all kinds of ways to get a guy off without him coming inside me, out of necessity from my time back in Fort Tulsa. I learned that as long as he got his nut and I was creative and sufficiently sexy? It didn’t matter that his dick didn’t get to home plate. Back then, it was necessity. Now, I just want to give Liam pleasure and show him how much I like him, even if we can’t go all the way. I didn’t expect Liam to sound so very startled, though. “Humans can get pretty creative, you know.”

“I’m learning that,” he murmurs, his gaze devouring me with a look.

I slide my hand down his chest, careful to avoid his cock. “Do you ever touch yourself, Liam?”

He groans, closing his eyes, and his body leans towards mine unconsciously. “While thinking of you? Yes.”

Oooh. I clench my thighs, because that visual image is sexy as hell. “What are you doing to me when you stroke yourself? In your mind?”

I’m fascinated when his lips part, and I see a hint of fang graze his lip. His hand tightens on his cock and he runs his fist down the length, as if unable to help himself. I lick my lips, waiting for his answer, and when it doesn’t come right away, I pull my shirt off. My nipples are outlined through the thin fabric of my bra, and it’s the next thing to go.

He groans again, stroking his cock, his gaze glued to my tits.

I sit up on my knees, close to him but not close enough to touch. With a little wiggle of my hips, I put my hands on my breasts and tease my nipples, plucking at them and toying with the points. “Did you have your mouth here?”

Liam gives another hissing breath and strokes his cock, harder. He’s entranced by my words, his gaze flicking between my mouth and the nipples I’m playing with.

“Or was it lower?” I murmur, and slide one hand to the waistband of my pants.

“Your cunt,” he rasps. “Take your pants off and show it to me. I want to see how wet you are. I want to smell you.”

“Oh no,” I murmur, with another sexy little bite of my lip that catches his gaze. “Maybe I’ll just let you hear how wet I am.” I wiggle my eyebrows and then sit up on my knees, undoing the button on my jeans. I slip one hand inside my panties and then slick my fingers through my folds. In the quiet of the bathroom, the movement is obscenely noisy. I’m soaking with need, and I love the way his eyes flare when he hears it.

“Are you going to finger yourself while I stroke my cock?” he asks, his eyes the most vibrant shade of gold.

“Something like that.” I turn around, though, and present my jeans-covered ass to him.

He reaches for me, his fingers going immediately for the cleft between my thighs and gliding between them.

I’m not prepared for how good even that touch feels. Blunted by the denim separating us, I knew it wouldn’t be as good as his fingers would be if they were buried deep in my pussy, but the heightened sexiness of this moment is making me crazy with need. With a whimper, I lean forward and press my cheek to the blanket spread on the floor. My ass is in the air, and I spread my thighs apart even wider as I sink my fingers deep into my heat.

Liam gives a low, feral growl at the sight. “Mine.”

That’s the only warning I get before I feel him grab my hips and pull me back. His big cock drags against the denim of my jeans, then prods at my core as if he can somehow tear through the fabric and sink deep. I moan as he thrusts against me and my fingers skate to my clit instead, rubbing it frantically.

“Atalim,” I pant. “God, yes. Push against me.”

“Say my name,” he growls, utterly demanding. “Again.” And then he thrusts against me once more.

“Atalim!” I cry out, and then I say it over and over again as he grinds against me, pushing against my jeans with every hard thrust of his cock. It’s the most erotic thing I’ve ever felt and it makes me crazy with lust even as it fills me with yearning. I want him deep inside me, filling up this hollow ache as my pussy clenches and clenches on nothing at all.

He gives a feral snarl, wedging the head of his cock against my core and thrusting hard. Wet heat scorches against my clothing, making me jerk as I realize he’s coming all over my backside. The denim burns my skin, just enough to make me gasp, but my fingers are working so intently against my clit that I don’t even care. I come with a little cry of my own a short moment later, rubbing and rubbing to pull every bit of pleasure from that orgasm that I can. When I can’t touch myself any longer, I make a little whimpering sound and then sigh, closing my eyes.

Liam’s hands are still clenched tight around my hips. His body still trembles against mine, and I realize belatedly that the hard length of him is still pressed between my thighs, as if he belongs there.

I lift my head and look back at him. “Liam? Atalim?”

I’m shocked at the sight of him. Normally his eyes are filled with that vibrant, delicious gold, but when I look back, I can’t see them in the shadows. It takes me a moment to realize they’re almost entirely black, and the hands digging into my hips are clenching me tight.

“Liam?” I say again, because maybe hearing his human name will jar him out of this.

His lips part, and I’m surprised to see his fangs look longer than ever. They drag against his lower lip, and then quickly retract. A split second later, gold bleeds into his eyes and he blinks—

And then jerks away from me, pacing. His hand goes to his brow and he groans deep.

“Are you okay?” I ask, sitting up. My jeans are hot and sticking to me with his release, and the smell of sex is thick in the air.

He laughs and gives a shake of his head. “Fine.”

LIAM

The humans have a saying—playing with fire.

I thought it was a foolish statement, but the longer I am around Andrea, the wiser it seems. Playing with fire? I am absolutely doing so. I am skating a thin line when I hold her close to me as she sleeps. The line grows ever thinner when I press my mouth to her neck, imagining my fangs there as I give her my fires.

I do not sleep. The very real need to protect the female at my side grows daily. Is she my mate or am I simply imagining her to be so? How do I know that I won’t sink my teeth into her throat, claim her as mine, and regain both halves of myself easily?

I don’t know that. Perhaps all of this is just misery I put myself through…but I can’t bring myself to make that jump. Not yet.

I want Andrea. I want her badly. But I might not be myself if I let down my mental walls. Instead of claiming her as my mate, I could destroy her.

So I hold her close and do nothing at all, and feel my control slipping away with every day that passes and she is near. The smart thing would be to take her back to Fort Shreveport and leave her behind. Never return. Find a new place to live, a new name to assume, and continue to lurk in the shadows, where no one will notice yet another silent stranger.

But I can’t. Even the thought of leaving Andrea’s side tears me apart.

I will stay with her until it destroys me or she asks me to leave. There is no other choice.

13

LIAM

A ndrea crouches at my side as we hide behind the twisted metal hulk of one of the cars that line the old streets. I can feel her trembling next to me, but I don’t know if it’s from fear or anger. “Is that him?” she asks, her voice a low whisper. She’s got her gun in her arms, and she fingers it as if waiting for a chance to use it.

“It is,” I tell her, and put a hand on her shoulder just in case she has a mind to go leap out and confront the man.

It’s taken an entire afternoon of tracking to hunt down the scent of the male that was outside the restaurant. We left early this morning once the rains cleared, and Benny’s scent mingled with this man’s as we went along. There was no fear scent, I tell Andrea, and even the rain can’t hide the fact that Benny’s scent was paired with this man’s, equally. They walked side by side when they traveled, so Benny went willingly. His scent doesn’t disappear from the ground as if he was carried. This is good, I told Andrea, and was happy to see her bright smile of relief.

But when we found the male in a field, throwing a ball with a black and brown four-legged creature, Andrea’s demeanor changed. Benny wasn’t with the stranger, and she pulled out her gun and clutched it close. As she crouches at my side, I worry that she’s going to bolt and attack the male.

I don’t care if he dies, but I do care if she gets hurt.

Plus, I can’t figure out what he’s doing.

I watch the man from afar, squinting as if that will possibly help me figure out his actions. He laughs at the black-and-brown creature, whistling and snapping his fingers. The thing bounds back toward him, a bright orange object in its mouth. It dances around in front of him in some sort of aggressive distraction tactic, then drops the orange object on the ground. The man says something, picks up the orange object, and flings it through the air. For a moment, I think he’s distracting the creature so he can make a getaway and tense, ready to spring and stop him. Except…he doesn’t move. He just waits, hands on hips, as the creature bounds through the tall grass in the nearby field and then brings the object back to him once more.

They do this several times, and I look down at Andrea. “Can he not figure out that the creature will keep returning if he throws it?”

She looks up at me, startled, and her mouth twitches. “Babe. That’s his dog. He’s playing fetch.”

“Babe?” I echo, my brows furrowing. “Do you refer to me?”

Her cheeks flush and she gives me a bold look despite the color in her face. “It’s a term of endearment. If I call you by your real name, you’re gonna get a massive boner and we need to stay focused. Unless you’d rather I call you Liam?”

A term of endearment? I grunt, considering this. I hate the name Liam, but she’s not wrong—if she calls me by my full name, I probably will feel the need to throw her down to the ground and rut all over her jeans-clad bottom like we did last night. Even the memory of that makes my cock stiffen, because it was so good.

Too good. I did not tell her, but I came very close to losing control. I can’t let that happen again—what we did was amazing, but it can’t happen regularly. Not until I figure out how to rebuild my crumbling shields and strengthen my mind.

“Babe is fine,” I decide. “And what is a dog?”

“It’s a companion animal. People used to keep them for companionship back before the Rift. Once it hit, most of the pets disappeared. People didn’t have the food to feed themselves, much less an animal. It’s kind of nice to see one again.” Her expression grows soft. “I had a dog as a kid. He didn’t survive the Rift, either.”

A dog. I consider the creature as it bounds forward again, returning the orange thing once more. I wonder why the man and creature keep doing the strange toss-and-retrieve game. Can he not figure it out?

“Is Benny around?” Andrea whispers, turning toward me.

I shake my head. “His scent continues down the road. The man’s does, too, but he’s clearly here.” I gesture at him in the nearby field, and then study him as I would any other male human—looking for weaknesses, and for weapons. He has a leather belt that hangs off his hip and has something metal holstered there. A gun, I bet. I’m not familiar with all the shapes and sizes of human weapons, but I know they’re fond of the fire-spitting ones. He wears jeans like my Andrea does, and a white shirt with no sleeves. His arms are bare, showing black drawings tracing up and down his arms. He wears a baseball cap like I do, but the hair sticking out of the back is a dark jet black that flicks against his neck.

He doesn’t smell like Benny, either. That worries me, that her brother’s scent is nowhere near this man.

“What should we do?” she asks, looking over at me.

I consider the man in the field for a moment and then look down the road. “The scent continues that way,” I indicate. “And there’s a lot of scents in that direction, some of them old, some newer. They might have a settlement there, and that might be where Benny is.”

“Raiders,” Andrea agrees, her mouth thinning out with displeasure. She looks over at the man as he throws the orange toy again, and hesitates. “Should we charge in, then? Or try to befriend this one?”

I have two minds to this. The old Liam, the one that’s been in hiding for the last seven long years, would suggest talking to the male and getting information about their encampment. Feigning injury or sickness to be brought into the encampment is another possibility.

But the Atalim with a sensual, beautiful female at his side? A female that isn’t covered in mating scent? He wants to rip the male’s throat out and charge into the camp by force.

So I say nothing, unable to decide. Instinct wars with sense, and I’m frozen, unable to think clearly. I don’t like the sight of this male so close to where Andrea is. I don’t like that she’s not wearing my mark, and that the scent of my seed has been scrubbed out of her jeans. She should be covered in my scent, wearing me all over her like the humans wear the floral scents they love so much.

“Right. I’ll take the lead here,” she murmurs, pats my knee, and then stands up. “Hello?”

I freeze just as the man does. Hot darkness rushes through my thoughts, and instinct slams into me. I grab ahold of the car frame in front of me so I don’t grab Andrea and drive her to the ground, sinking my fangs into her throat to claim her before this other male can. I hold it tight as the male turns, his hand going to the weapon at his waist, and the dog at his side rushes forward, tail wagging.

“Who’s there?” the man calls, and I want to grab Andrea when she steps forward.

But I can’t do that to her. She’s not mine.

Slowly, I unclench my muscles, trying to fight through the rage battering at my thoughts as Andrea strides across the road toward the man. She has a hand in the air, her gun lowered.

“Hi stranger,” she calls out brightly. “My friend and I are looking for someone. Can you help us out?”

The man looks over at me, then at Andrea, and I can practically see his eyes flicker with hunger as he gazes at her. She is a beautiful female, all long legs and golden braid, and he’s noticing the sway of her hips as she strides forward.

The car frame bends in my hands as I clutch it, groaning.

Andrea pauses, looking over at me in worry. “You okay, Liam?”

I manage a nod. The man waits, several feet away from her. His hand hovers near his gun for a moment longer, and then drops away as his dog rushes toward my female, circling her excitedly, tail wagging back and forth.

She smiles at me and then drops to her knees to pet the dog. “Hi, puppy! Look at you! What a pretty boy.” Her voice is unnaturally sweet, gushing with enthusiasm as she speaks to the animal.

“His name’s Scooter,” the man says.

Andrea laughs, pleasure in her voice, and I can feel my eyes going black with jealousy. No, Atalim, I remind myself. Calm. She is not your mate, and he is just another human. They are everywhere.

But…I want to rip this one’s throat out for looking at her.

“What a fierce name,” she murmurs as she rubs the dog’s ears, a wide smile on her face.

The man chuckles, crossing his arms over his chest. “Yeah, well, I think it should be obvious that he’s not much of a guard dog. My name’s Gabe. Where’re ya’ll from?”

She turns her smile up to him as I move stiffly forward, sliding my sunglasses over my eyes as I do so this male won’t see how odd they are. “I’m Andi, and this is Liam. We’re from Fort Shreveport, and we’re hunting my brother Benny. He’s about fourteen. Have you seen him?”

The man—Gabe—looks surprised. “That’s your brother? He told me he was an orphan.”

Andrea gets to her feet, giving the dog one last caress. “I’m about to be the orphan because I’m going to murder his little lying ass when I find him.”

Gabe throws his head back and laughs, clearly pleased with Andrea’s response. He gives her an appreciative look that makes the fire in my belly surge, and hot jealousy courses through me. I storm forward to her side, putting a protective arm around her shoulders. It takes everything I have not to bare my teeth at this man, because I know from experience that I can’t show my fangs until they’re used to the sight of me.

But the male only smirks in my direction, nodding acknowledgement. He sees me claiming my female.

Andrea glances over at me, but her focus returns to the other man. I can feel the tension in her body. “Where is he? Is he all right?”

The man just gives us a half-smile. "If you're looking for Benny, you've missed him by about two days."

"Two days?" Andrea exclaims, and I can feel her sag against me. She looks up at me in distress. "How are we so far behind?"

"I take it you've been chasing him for a while?" Gabe kneels and his dog goes to his side, tail wagging with excitement. He puts a hand on the beast and continues to watch us. I notice his gaze skates over to me several times, with wariness. He's far more welcoming to my Andrea, which just makes my protectiveness surge.

He can't have her. My fingers tighten in the fabric of her shirt as I hold her close.

She puts a hand on my chest and pats me, as if to acknowledge my reaction. "I have to hand it to Benny, he's determined. Can you tell us where he went?"

"Maybe," the man says. "But how do I know you are who you say you are? Lots of unsavory people out there would love to get their hands on a kid."

"Which is why I'm hunting him down," she says angrily, her fists clenching.

I'm secretly pleased by her irritation at this man. I move to comfort her when the wind shifts and a new scent rises in the air—a dragon. Female. And close.

Just as I stiffen, Gabe looks over at me, his eyes narrowing. He scans the skies and then pulls out a black pair of tubes, raising them to his eyes and looking through them. "Did you see her?"

"See who?"

"There's a dragon that's in love with this area," Gabe says, still pushing those tubes to his eyes and looking up at the sky. "It's about time for her to swing by and say hello. I was out here…well, never mind why I'm out here. I should head back in to camp if she's about to show up. You're welcome to join us and sit down for a meal."

Andrea looks over at me, uncertainty on her face. "What do you think?"

I lean in close, my mouth brushing against her hair. My lips caress over her ear and for a moment, I'm lost in her scent. The possessive need nearly swallows me and I clench her tight. I force myself to pay attention. The need to claim her, to cover her with my scent, is nearly overwhelming, but I force myself to focus. "There is a female dragon. He's not wrong. But I will follow your lead."

Gabe calls out to us, "I give you my word you won't be hurt at our camp. It's just me and a few of the guys."

That sounds ominous to me, but Andrea tosses her braid and gives the male a defiant look. " Liam and I can take care of ourselves."

Pride surges at her ferocity. I love that she is telling this male she is not afraid of him. She holds onto me and I realize she feels protected in my arms, and my drakoni side, the one I fight so hard to keep under control, surges, too.

If we're going to be staying with these humans for a time, I need to get under control. I allow myself to nuzzle Andrea one last time, pressing my lips to her brow. "I will follow your lead."

And then I release her. I have to, or else I'm going to destroy everything in sight.

14

ANDI

We walk through the old city streets, Liam at my side, Gabe and his dog a few paces ahead of us. Despite his possessive show in front of Gabe earlier, the moment we head out, he puts some distance between us. I can’t help but watch him out of the corner of my eye and notice that he’s a little twitchier than usual, and I think about what he said about losing control. Something tells me that behind his sunglasses, his eyes are probably darker than they should be.

So I give him space.

I try not to talk to Gabe too much, either, though I have a million questions. I study him as he walks. He’s dark haired and handsome, with a short beard covering his lower jaw and tattoos up and down his arms. He’s built pretty nice, and he’s tall, but he doesn’t compare to Liam. I guess I’m ruined for human guys after being around him. He’s clean, though, and friendly, and he has a dog. I can see why Benny went with this guy, for all that he’s a stranger. At least, he’s a stranger to me. Has my brother had a secret friendship with this man that I’ve been unaware of? I want to ask, but with Liam being twitchy, I suspect it’s best if I pretend like I’m not interested in Gabe at all.

I’m only interested in the mystery of him, really. As a man? Not so much.

“Not too much farther,” Gabe says as we turn down another street. He points up ahead, and I see an old multi-level parking garage up ahead, a familiar sight for fort dwellers. In the After, parking garages allow safety from the skies above while still giving space and relative freedom, so they’re natural shelters from the dragons who never really land, just flame overhead when they’re in the mood.

And as if the distant dragon can sense my mood, it lets out a bloodcurdling shriek that carries on the wind. My skin prickles and I automatically move a little closer to Liam for protection. His hand goes to my waist and clenches there, and I can practically feel the tension and body heat coming off of him.

Gabe turns back to look at us, grinning. He gestures at the sky. “I think she likes me.”

“How do you know that it’s a she?” I ask, feigning ignorance. I never thought about the gender of the dragons that attacked regularly until Rast and Amy showed up. Then, I found out that the smaller reds—the more frequent, more vicious attackers—are female and the big golds are males. I’m pretty sure it’s not common knowledge, though, so I’m curious how he knows the distant red dragon is female.

He shrugs. “Just a hunch. Come on. Her usual method of saying hello is to bellow a few times and then swoop in for the kill. We’d better hustle if we don’t want to be dragon appetizers.” And he begins to jog forward, Scooter bounding at his heels, tongue out.

As he jogs, I notice he has a bit of a limp, a leg he seems to favor more than the other. Interesting. I glance at Liam and then jog forward myself, mentally assessing the situation. It doesn’t look like an ambush, but then again, an ambush never looks like an ambush. I didn’t come this far to just get fried by a passing dragon anyhow.

We make it into the parking garage’s safety and follow Gabe farther inward as he heads down one of the ramps that lead underground. The moment we do, the entire parking garage seems to shake and the dragon overhead roars wildly, as if angry her prey’s gotten away.

Gabe just laughs like this amuses him. “Another day, lady,” he calls at the sky.

I slide a little closer to Liam as we walk and touch his hand with mine. “You okay?” I whisper.

“It’s a lot,” he murmurs, and there’s strain in his voice. “I just need to focus.” His gaze is distant, and he scratches at his arm absently.

Oh. I know what that means. I let a bit of space between us and release his hand. “If it’s too much for you, let me know and we can leave.”

“Not with a dragon overhead,” Liam says, his tone harsh. “We’re stuck here until she leaves. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.” Before I can respond, he reaches out and grabs my hand. “Just one request.”

“What?”

“Don’t touch him.” He nods at Gabe, ahead of us heading down the ramp.

It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask why on earth I’d touch him anyhow. Does he think that the moment another human man shows up, I’m going to fling myself at him? I’m a little offended. “I don’t plan on it.”

“Good, because I think if you did, I’d have to kill him.”

I laugh at his weird joke, but when Liam doesn’t smile, I realize it’s not a joke. Oh. My laughter dies away quickly and I give Liam just a bit more space. I’m crazy about the guy, but right about now, I’m realizing I don’t know him as well as I should. There’s always going to be a part of him that’s completely alien and foreign, no matter how hard he tries to pass as human.

And I rub my arms, suddenly cold despite the muggy heat.

There’s a fire up ahead in an old metal barrel, the only light underground, and it illuminates the area around it in orange. I can vaguely see three men sitting near it, and instinctively, I hitch my shotgun a little closer to me.

“It’s me,” Gabe calls out.

“Just in time, boss,” one of them replies, getting to his feet slowly. Judging from the scratchiness of his voice, he’s an older man. “Your ladyfriend is up to her old tricks.”

Gabe just laughs, and his dog bounds ahead, all wagging tail. “Nothing in the traps,” he tells them as he approaches the fire. “But I did make a couple of new friends.” He turns back toward Liam and me. “What did you say your names were again?”

“I’m Andi,” I say, stepping a little closer to the fire. As I approach the light, I see that the three men sitting there are all old and frail. There’s one in a wheelchair who watches us with narrowed eyes, and next to him, a man with a lined brown face and snow-white beard adjusts a lawn chair, his weight leaning heavily on a cane. Across from them is the speaker, who has a long, scraggly beard and wears a white tank top and shorts and looks a bit like Santa Claus on vacation…and a diet.

I don’t need my gun around these men, I realize, and put on the safety, feeling ashamed. I glance behind me and Liam has his arms crossed, still hanging out in the shadows with his sunglasses on. He looks a little forbidding, and I can see they’re casting him suspicious looks.

“This is my boyfriend Liam,” I say, gesturing at him. “You’ll have to forgive him if he’s not much of a chatter. The After fucks with all of us, you know?”

The one with the cane nods and sits down in his lawn chair again. The moment he does, I’m surprised to see a scrawny cat immediately jump into his lap and butt her head against his hand. Another one emerges from the shadows and begins to clean its paws, and I catch a gleam of cat eyes off in the distance. More pets?

“We know how that is,” Santa says, stroking his beard. “I’m Major. The one with the cats is Charlie, and that’s Lester.” He gestures at the man in the wheelchair, and then at Gabe. “And you met him, of course.”

“Him and Scooter both.”

Charlie just shakes his head, petting the cat in his lap. “Worst damn guard dog ever.” But he chuckles.

I move a little closer to the fire, pretending to warm my hands even though it’s stifling underground with no breeze. Gabe unfolds a lawn chair and sets it down next to Charlie’s, and then finds two more and holds them out to me. “Help yourself.”

I take them and offer one to Liam.

He shakes his head, his mouth hard, and I get the impression his gaze isn’t focused entirely on me. Overhead, the dragon roars again and I inwardly wince. This has to be hard on him. I set my chair up and sit down across from the others. The moment I do, Liam is suddenly at my back, his hand stroking my braid, his other one on my shoulder. It’s like he’s staking me as his claim in front of the others, and I notice that they see the movement, too.

I touch Liam’s hand briefly and then smile at the men. “So, um, you guys are…nomads?”

The word doesn’t fit, not exactly. Every nomad I’ve ever met has been hard and rough and would sell his own mother for a chocolate bar. Most are criminals and rapists, and cluster together with other criminals and rapists because they’ve all been booted out of every fort they come to. That’s why it’s so dangerous to meet up with strangers in the After. The only ones that travel are the ones no one wants around.

That’s why I’m so terrified for Benny.

“Nomads?” Charlie scratches the ear of his cat absently. “That makes it sound like we do a lot of moving around.”

The one in the wheelchair—Lester—snorts.

“Let’s just say we left the last fort when we had a difference of opinions,” Major says.

Charlie laughs. “That’s a nice way of saying they didn’t want to feed the elderly anymore.”

Gabe’s mouth draws up in a half-smile, but he isn’t as amused as the others. Scooter puts his head on Gabe’s knee and he strokes the dog’s muzzle, his expression hard to read.

“Forts can be pretty shitty places,” I agree. It doesn’t surprise me that they booted out the elderly. In a place that doesn’t have a lot of food, people start looking for excuses not to share. I can see them wanting to get rid of those that can’t contribute. It doesn’t make it right, but I know it happens. “You guys seem to do okay for yourselves. How many cats do you have?”

“Six,” Charlie says proudly. “Some of ’em are in hiding though.”

“Six?” I gape at that. “Six and a dog?”

Major nods proudly and reaches over to clap Gabe on the shoulder. “This boy’s a damn good hunter. He’s able to keep all of us fed and happy.”

“I have a soft heart, what can I say,” Gabe drawls, but he gives Major an affectionate look.

Something tells me he really does. “I’m looking for my brother,” I begin again.

“Before we get into that,” Gabe says, and sits forward in his chair. “I think we should bring out the big guns.”

“Company time,” Lester crows, clapping his hands. “I like this.”

I look at them, confused, and I can feel Liam’s hand tighten on my braid. Am I missing something?

Gabe gets up and I automatically reach for the hilt of my shotgun again. He rummages through one of the many boxes of goods they have stacked around them, and then pulls out a small dark bag. “Tadaa. How long has it been since you had coffee, Andi?”

I gasp. “Shut the front door!”

All of the men hoot with laughter, except Liam. If anything, I can feel him getting tenser than before.

“It’s a little warm for coffee, but we save it for guests,” Gabe says, admiring the bag. “We don’t have much, so we try to make it last.”

“I’d love a cup,” I tell him, my mouth watering at the thought. One of the cats—a pretty tortoiseshell with only one eye—wanders close to my leg and rubs against me, purring. I reach down and pick her up, and she cuddles in my lap while Gabe gets out an old percolator pot.

This is downright cozy. If it wasn’t for how stiff and uncomfortable Liam is, I’d be having a wonderful time. As it is, I’m acutely aware of him, and I ache for him. I know this has to be hard. I pet the cat for a few moments and then ease it back to the ground. “Can you tell me about Benny?” I ask again.

Lester points at me with a trembling finger. “Sat right there not two days ago and drank a cup of coffee himself.”

“Scrappy kid,” Charlie says with a nod. “I liked him.”

Major studies me. “You look like him. Except the tooth, of course. Same face, though.”

My heart flutters with excitement at the mention of Benny’s tooth, as if that small detail brings him that much closer. “How was he? Was he okay?”

“He was real tired. Been riding his bike for hours, he said, but it was hurting his ass.” Lester cackles with amusement.

Well, that explains why he abandoned it.

“Told us he came up from Fort Orleans,” Charlie adds. “Said they booted him after his sister died.”

I gasp. “That lying little shit!”

They all laugh. “He’s a teenage boy,” Gabe says, ruffling Scooter’s ears. “Not sure what you expect.”

“He had a home at a perfectly nice fort! We’re from Fort Shreveport and it’s not like most of the others. Everyone’s welcome there. We’ve set ourselves up to be a haven from shitty forts like the one we came from, because everyone deserves to have a safe place to live and something warm to eat.”

They’re silent, and I’m not entirely sure they believe me. It probably sounds a bit like a fairy tale. I scrub my hand over my eyes, frustrated and tired. “I didn’t know Benny was so damn unhappy. Not until he just up and left. I knew he was lonely but…not that bad.”

Charlie pets his cat a bit more and shakes his head. “Benny wanted to stay with us. Said he liked hanging out with us.”

That surprises me a little. There’s old Grandpa Steve back at the fort and Benny never showed any interest in him.

“More like he liked the dog. And the cats. And Gabe,” Major counters.

“Everyone likes Gabe,” Lester agrees.

I look around at them, trying to hold back my frustration. “You didn’t let him stay? You kicked him out?”

Gabe narrows his eyes at me. “Do we look like monsters to you?”

“I’ve seen a lot of monsters in the After,” I tell him bluntly. “They don’t always look like monsters.”

A low, ominous sound starts behind me, and when the hand on my braid tightens, I realize it’s Liam and he’s growling. Oh fuck. The sound is low enough that I don’t think the others have heard it yet, but one of the cats skitters away and Scooter’s ears prick. I put my hand over Liam’s and twine my fingers with his, giving him a squeeze to remind him that I’m here. I hope some of my calmness bleeds over to him…and then I remind myself I need to be calm. Chill.

These people don’t realize Liam’s a dragon and far more dangerous than they’re aware of.

But Gabe starts speaking again. He crosses his arms over his chest, slouching in his chair. “We told him this wasn’t any place for a kid. It’s hard enough out here for the four of us, but if he got into trouble, I don’t know that we could help him out of it. And with that dragon that’s got her eye on me like I’m her next snack?” He shakes his head. “Just didn’t make sense for him to stay. So we took him to Fort Justice up the road.”

“Fort Justice? I’ve never heard of it.” I bite back my disappointment. Part of me was hoping that Benny would pop out from behind some of the boxes scattered in this garage, that he’s just been in hiding, waiting to trick his older sister. Instead, we have to keep going, and this hunt is starting to feel endless.

“Fort Justice,” Gabe drawls, and I don’t miss the sour looks on the old men’s faces. “The place that kicked us out. They take kindly to children there, of course. Lots of families. And Benny’s young and strong. They’d like him.”

I want to protest. Why on earth would they take him to the same crappy fort that booted them? But I know my answer before I even speak. A fort won’t kick out a strong, healthy kid that can turn into a provider and a protector. It’s the elderly and weak that they don’t want. It’s different for Benny. Awful, but true. “So you think he’s there?”

“Unless he packed up and left in the last two days. It’s only a couple hours’ walk from here. I took him there,” Gabe says, with a slow nod. “Seemed like the best place. Bunch of families split off when Fort Eureka bit the dust a few years back, and they’re real strict on rules but there’s a lot of kids his age. I thought he’d be okay there. We can head out in the morning if you like. I need to do some trading with them anyhow.”

Another delay. I squeeze Liam’s hand because he’s been so utterly silent, and try to sound cheerful. “That’s really nice of you, but if you can give us directions, we’ll be on our way.”

“With a dragon attacking overhead?” Gabe shakes his head. “Sorry, but I know this gal.” He points at the sky. “You’re gonna be pinned down until morning. And besides, you wouldn’t be able to find Fort Justice. The place is hidden and near impossible to find without help.”

“I appreciate the help,” I admit grudgingly. “Is there a price?” Everyone always has a price, and I want to know what I’m getting into.

Gabe’s eyebrows go up. “Nice offer, but I’m not interested in fort pussy.”

I bite back my gasp, but it’s too late. Liam surges forward, a snarl on his lips. I barely manage to get to my feet and block him before he can tackle Gabe, who’s also on his feet.

“Liam!” I put my hands on his chest. “Hey! Calm down. Look at me.” I tap a hand on his chest. “Look at me, Liam. You know I wasn’t offering that. No one’s going to touch me, babe.” I emphasize the nickname, trying to remind him of what we’ve shared.

I’ve never seen him so wild. His entire body shivers, as if trying to hold back pent-up rage. For once, I wish his sunglasses and baseball cap weren’t hiding his eyes entirely—I need to know how dark they are. I can guess, though.

“Babe,” I whisper again. “Come on. Focus on me. Take deep breaths.”

He jerks his gaze toward me and scratches at one arm furiously. “Andrea.” The word is breathless and half-growled.

“It’s all right. I promise. No one’s touching me.”

“If you’d let me finish,” Gabe begins, and I want to slap him across the face for being an idiot. “I was gonna say that there’s no price. We have everything we need and I don’t like using people. If you’ve got extra bullets, I’ll take a few off your hands, but other than that, we don’t want anything.”

Liam doesn’t even glance in his direction. His fists flex, clenched tight at his sides.

“See?” I whisper. “It’s okay.” I give him a tremulous smile, my heart aching for my poor dragon. He’s never been this wound up in the past and I can’t help but feel responsible. I’m the one that insists on kissing and touching, after all. His lack of control has to be my fault.

Liam’s head tilts slightly, and I realize he’s glancing down at me. I can see myself in the reflection of his sunglasses and I breathe a sigh of relief.

“Just tonight,” I murmur to him, wrapping my arms around his waist. “Tonight and then we’ll be on our way tomorrow, okay?”

“If…anyone tries to touch you…” His voice is all gravel, all danger.

“They won’t,” I promise him quickly. I release him and turn around, looking at the others. There’s wariness on their faces, the open friendliness from earlier gone. The distrust and resignation on their faces—as if they’re looking at their doom—breaks my heart. “Do you have some place we can sleep tonight in privacy?”

“Big garage,” Gabe says, gesturing at the open space around him. “You’re welcome to wherever.”

“Okay.” I start to say more, but Liam’s arm snakes around my waist and he buries his face against my neck, inhaling deeply, and I’m too distracted to continue. I touch his cheek, worried that he needs these touches…and just as worried that the more I caress him, the more I’m pushing him toward the edge.

But what other options do I have?

“I’ll take you up on that coffee,” I say, caressing Liam’s arm. My fingers brush over one of the spikes and I notice that Gabe’s gaze lingers there for a moment, his mouth flattening.

The dragon roars overhead once more, and the entire parking garage seems to shake with the ferocity of her anger. In the distance, I smell new, fresh smoke.

It’s a welcome distraction. “Are you sure that the dragon’s going to attack all night? That’s not the norm.”

Gabe’s smile is tight. “Told ya. It’s because she likes me.”

15

LIAM

I t’s only a matter of time before I completely lose control.

Being this close to Andrea, feeling her caresses, breathing in her scent, but not being able to claim her? It is torture, and I can only hold out for so long. Have I prided myself on my strength at holding my mental walls high for seven years? I am a fool, because I have never been truly tested until now.

The female drakoni roars overhead, venting her anger with fire and blistering fury on the building, and for the first time in a very long time, I understand her rage. I was near to that when the male suggested that Andrea service him. Even thinking about it, hours later, fills me with unholy anger.

After my initial snap, I managed to calm myself for a time. Andrea sat and drank the foul-smelling coffee with the elders, while the one with the dog—my rival—watched me from afar. I glowered at him as the others talked, letting him know my displeasure. He thinks I am not aware of his tricks? He invites my female to his home and entices her with gifts, parading his animals in front of her and appealing to her soft heart? He shows her that he can take care of elders and small animals, proving himself a good provider.

It is all a ploy to win her away from me. I know it.

If I were in my battle form, I would challenge him in a heartbeat. The thought of fighting him, tooth and claw, until his neck was laid open beneath my fangs and his blood spilling on the floor…a hot surge of pleasure rushes through me at the thought.

Except my claws are shorn down.

And I can no longer take battle form. Not without destroying myself.

So I must sit and suffer in silence, clenching my fists. I touch Andrea often, reminding myself that she is at my side, and showing the male who she chooses to be with.

It is brutal and wild of me, and I feel all the vestiges of humanity that I have worked on for so long shredding in the face of a rival. Andrea would make a fine mate for him. I know this. She is tall and strong and fearless and has the sweetest-smelling cunt. She is clever and loving, and I have no doubt that if I was not at her side, this male would be all over her, courting her with human words and human kisses.

But I am drakoni, and I have staked my claim on her. It doesn’t matter that I can’t take her as my own—not truly. I will destroy anyone that tries to take her from me, and that is a promise.

“Liam? Babe?”

I look up from glaring at the fire. Andrea is on her feet, a soft smile on her face. “Let’s go to bed, shall we?”

I glance at the others, still near the fire in their chairs. The elders watch me with wariness, but there is no fear on Gabe’s face. His eyes are narrow and his hand calm as he strokes his dog’s ears. He shows no fear and that makes me want to destroy him, to show him exactly what he should be afraid of.

“Babe?” Andrea asks again. “Bed?”

I look down at her once more. I can see the worry on her face. She suspects I am struggling…she just does not know how much.

A sudden thought occurs to me. Yes, we can go to bed. We can go to bed…and I can take Andrea in my arms and bury my face in her cunt. I can lick her until she is screaming with pleasure, filling the ears of the others with her joy. I want them to smell her cunt, soaked with need. I want them to realize that it is Atalim that possesses her, Atalim that mounts her, even if it is only with tongue.

And I snarl with pleasure, pulling her close to me. “Yes. Bed,” I manage, the words thick on my tongue.

She looks surprised at my reaction, but her arm goes to my waist and she smiles at the others, murmuring soft goodnights and reminding them to wake her at dawn so we can retrieve her brother from the fort.

I do not care about dawn. My thoughts are of only the next few hours in the darkness and how many ways I can claim her. The breath pants from my lungs, and I can feel fire building in my chest.

No.

No. I must not. I cannot lose control. Andrea needs me. I promised myself this would not happen.

I close my eyes as Andrea takes my hand, leading me away from the fire. We grab our packs—I do not need eyes to snag mine—and I let her find us a private spot as I fight for control with my thoughts. I imagine cool walls, blocking out the flames burning in my mind. I imagine peace, and running water. I imagine Andrea’s sad face as I lose control and turn into another ravening monster.

My skin itches.

We head to the back of the garage and there’s a couple of cars fitted together at an angle, as if one was trying to leave and crashed into another. They make decent walls, so Andrea unrolls our blankets and makes a bed, while I stand and watch her, clenching and unclenching my fists, trying to get a hint of control back.

The moment she turns to look up at me, though, all of that control withers once more.

I drop to my hands and knees, grabbing at the front of her shirt. I kiss her, rough. She makes a little noise of surprise, her hands fluttering against my shoulders before she kisses me back, and that’s enough for me. I move to the waistband of her jeans, tearing at the fasteners. I want to sink my fingers into her cunt and cover my hand with her juices. I want them to hear me pleasuring her. I want—

“Hey, hey!” she whispers, pulling away from me. Her gaze is shocked, her mouth slightly open and wet from my kisses. “You’re growling!”

I pause, and in that moment, she pulls my sunglasses off my face, peering at my eyes.

“Babe,” she says with a little shake of her head. “Your eyes—”

“I don’t care,” I say harshly, sliding lower and burying my face against her pussy. I don’t care if she’s covered in clothing, I’ll lick her until—

“Liam!” She puts a palm on my forehead and pushes backward, knocking my cap off my head. “Stop!”

I snarl at her, lifting my head to glare up into her eyes. I’m feeling territorial, and the fact that another rival is so close by and she’s unclaimed is making me crazy. “You’re mine. No one else will touch you. If I can’t claim you, I’m going to cover you in my scent, instead. You’ll be wearing Atalim’s seed all over your soft skin and—”

She shoves at me again, hard. “What the fuck?” Her voice is a low hiss, and it occurs to me that she doesn’t want the others to hear us arguing. “Why do you think someone else is going to touch me?” When I’m silent, her nostrils flare and her eyes grow furious. “You think I’m fucking offering?” Her small fist hammers down on my arm, laughable in its strength. “You son of a bitch. I don’t spread my legs for anyone that says jump. Not anymore—”

And then she bursts into tears.

The sight of her making water from her eyes wakes me up. I jerk to my feet, pacing, as her soft crying rips at my spirit. “Andrea, please…I’m sorry.”

She sniffs, swiping at her face, as if angry that she’s weeping. “You think I can’t tell when I have to offer a little pussy to get what I need? I have tons of experience with that, thank you very much. But these people? They’re just being nice.”

What does she mean, she has experience with that? I drop to my knees, crouching in front of her, and place one hand on the ground. When she doesn’t swat that away, I reach out and touch her knee. “Tell me what you mean, Andrea. I wish to know.”

“You want to know?” She sniffs again, blinking rapidly. “I was the fort ho back at Fort Tulsa.”

I don’t know what that is, but guessing from her tone, I can guess it’s bad. Her shoulders hunch with shame, and I reach out and brush my knuckles over her cheek, wanting to take away the pain of her memories.

“See, when the Rift hit, my dad died right away. Mom lived on for a few more months, just long enough to get me and Benny to safety at Fort Tulsa. But then she died, too, and we ran out of ways to support ourselves. So I did whatever I could, odd jobs here and there, mostly cleaning or cooking or doing laundry. And I met a boy named Grant. He was sixteen to my fourteen, and I thought he was the sexiest thing ever. We’d kiss and have fun just making out and being stupid. I lost my virginity to him a few months later, and I just loved being with him. But then, of course, we broke up. And I started hooking up with someone else, because it was fun and what else was there to do in a fort, right? And then I started hooking up with someone else after that. And he was a soldier, and we got caught fooling around. He bragged to his friends, too, making up all kinds of kinky-sounding stuff that I was apparently game for. And I got a reputation. If you wanted a girl that would jump in the sack, you talked to Andi Foster.” Her voice turns bitter. “The shitty thing about reputations is that even if they’re not true, they can end up that way. Here I thought I was in love, and the guy I was hooking up with just thought he was getting his dick wet. And then of course, he brought a buddy along, and because I was slutty Andi Foster, they were shocked when I said no. They threatened me, made it seem like I’d regret it if I didn’t do what they wanted. So I did. I learned the hard way that when you don’t have anyone to look out for you, you can’t say no. To anything.”

It grows quiet. The dragon roars overhead again, but it’s nothing compared to the anger blistering through my chest. Suddenly, I don’t want to blend in at forts. I don’t want to mingle with humans.

I want to burn everything to the fucking ground.

Andrea swipes at her eyes again, sniffing. “Anyhow, that’s why I left Fort Tulsa. And that’s why I was careful about who saw you with me back at Fort Shreveport, because I didn’t want to get a reputation again, you know?”

I reach out and tip her chin up, forcing her to look at me. Everything in my mind is going crazy, my thoughts blazing to wildfire, but I somehow find it in me to stay calm. Collected. “You are the only good, perfect thing in this world, Andrea Foster. I love you. And I never want you to feel as if I am forcing you like they did.”

She tips her head slightly, rubbing her cheek against my fingers. “It wasn’t really forcing. I went along with it, but—”

“But you didn’t have any other options,” I say gently, even though I have murder in my heart, murder for all of the males out there who would think to take from someone so precious. “That is forcing, no matter how many smiles you wore on your face.”

Her eyes brim with tears again, but she presses a kiss to my hand. “Thank you, Atalim.”

I am not worthy of her sweetness. But I pull her close and stroke her hair and curl up next to her, breathing in her scent, because I cannot murder all the awful human men that walk this world.

She has left her past behind. If I am to have a future, I must do the same. I must be Liam.

I must.

16

ANDI

I  stare up at the demolished building in front of me. "Okay, you win. I wouldn't have found this place on my own."

Off to one side, Gabe grins, slapping a hand against his thigh to call Scooter back to him. The dog's bounding around with excitement as if he knows this place. Maybe he does. Gabe said he came from here once upon a time.

I'm glad he's with us, because I never would have found this spot. It's genius.

The “entrance” to Fort Justice is nothing more than a half-collapsed, nearly demolished moving company office. It looks like fire ate the entrance at one point, and rain and weather took care of the rest. It's large, the size of a small supermarket, and those ever-present rats scurry behind lumps of garbage in the street, as if waiting for us to leave. Behind the store, though, hidden in a blind alley and choked by dead vehicles and trees, is the real entrance to Fort Justice—a storage unit center once attached to the moving company's front office. Back in the day, I'm guessing that people rented a moving truck and had the option to store their stuff in the same place, but thanks to the geography and now the wreckage, you can't see the long rows of storage units from the street. You have to walk right up to the place to realize that they're even there.

As forts go, it's clever. A bunch of storage units might not be the most comfortable of locations, but you're safe from dragons thanks to the metal roof and walls, and you're safe from nomads thanks to the seclusion.

I glance over at Liam to see if he's appreciating the ingenuity behind the entrance to this particular fort, but he's staring off into the distance. His eyes are hidden with the sunglasses, and his cap is low over his head. Today, he's wearing long sleeves despite the fact that it's blazing hot, and I tell myself it's because he's trying to hide just how dragon-like he is from Gabe.

Sometimes I think the layers are to add another layer of protection between us, too. He's been vague all day as we traveled, not talking, not paying attention as Gabe and I made small talk. Every so often he would stop and drop into a crouch, or pause to stare at the empty skies, and it worries me.

He's acting less and less like Liam every day and more like…well, Vaan and Rast.

I worry our flirting is destroying him.

Another rat scurries over my boot, dragging my mind back to the present. I kick it aside, shuddering. "If this is the fort, they have a serious rat problem."

"Who doesn't?" Gabe drawls.

"Me. Where I'm from. We don't. You're just inviting disease with this shit." I shake my head. "So how big is this fort?" I ask as we approach the front of the burned-out store. No one's come out to greet us, but I suppose that's not surprising. I am a little shocked there are no guards up front, but that might destroy the whole “hidden fort” vibe they've got going on.

Even so…

"About thirty people?" Gabe shrugs. "A few more might have left since I was here. Like I said, they're kinda strict with the rules. I get it, what with two forts imploding out from under them, but I can't feel sorry for ’em."

"Two forts?" I ask, curious. "Seriously?" I pause as we head in to the store front, wondering if we're about to meet a fort full of the most unpleasant people ever. Then again, I can't blame them. I'm starting to get real annoyed with Gabe for sending my little brother here if they're dirtbags.

He nods, surveying the store front. "Fort Eureka and then New Fort."

New Fort? "Never heard of it."

"It was the first branch off from Eureka. Turned into a lordship pretty fast and he demanded tithes from everyone in the fort if they wanted his protection, so a lot of people left." He gestures at the store. "They made Fort Justice instead."

Ugh. Is there a single fort out there that's not full of assholes? Oh right, Fort Shreveport…but it's also ninety-five percent women and children. Figures. "So I guess you and Lester and Major and Charlie didn't want to come back to New Fort after Fort Justice booted you?"

Gabe gives me a disgusted look. "If it's all the same, I've had my fill of forts for now."

I know how that feels. When I left Fort Tulsa, I vowed to never be in another…until Gwen settled us and made Fort Shreveport. "I hear that." And I chuckle.

Liam starts growling, that ominous rumble building in his chest.

Fuck. I immediately move to his side and take his hand in mine. Every time Gabe speaks to me, I worry that Liam's going to lose his shit. He's acting jealous and more than a little crazy, and I know it's not his fault. He's struggling. I just don't know what to do, though. So I squeeze his hand and wait patiently at his side until his growling subsides and he looks over at me.

"Andrea," he murmurs. "Sorry."

"It's okay. Are you going to be all right to go inside? There's going to be a lot of people in there." I know Amy has mentioned that Rast struggles when there's a lot of people around because of the smells and how they affect dragon-kind. Maybe Liam needs to wait outside…but I know that idea will never fly. He won't want to leave me alone with Gabe for a second.

He nods, the movement crisp. "The smells are not too bad here, which is odd." Liam runs a hand over his jaw, rubbing his mouth. "Unless I'm becoming immune to the stink."

"It's possible? Do you want to wait out here?"

He looks over at me, his expression unreadable thanks to the sunglasses and hat. "No. I'm not leaving your side."

"Are you sure? I know it’s difficult—"

Before I can say anything else, Liam wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me against his chest. In the next moment, his mouth is on mine, hard and demanding, and he's kissing me with such ferocious intensity that I'm left breathless and dazed. He releases me just as quickly and looks over my shoulder, and I get the impression that he did that for Gabe's benefit more than mine.

Which is irritating, but he gets a pass since he's really having a hard time today. I'd rather Liam be possessive-boyfriend Liam than crazy-staring-at-empty-skies Liam. So I hold his hand and walk forward with him.

Hopefully Benny won't be too weirded out by the fact that I'm hooking up with his buddy. I know he hero-worships Liam.

Gabe gives us a patient look, his dog sitting at his feet. Scooter seems oblivious, tongue lolling, but I sense Gabe's impatient. "Shall we go in or do you two need more time?"

"We're fine," I say crisply, stepping forward. "And if I were you, I'd tell your friends here at Fort Justice that even if they're hidden, it's still a good idea to have guards or lookouts, you know? We could be raiders. It seems foolish to not have eyes at the front of your fort."

His brows furrow and he glances at the front of the old, burned-out building. "That's kinda odd, because they normally do."

My senses prickle. We all go quiet and no one steps foot inside the store. Even Gabe seems to be waiting for something.

"I don't hear anyone," I say softly. "Shouldn't we hear people?" Even in Fort Shreveport, there are children shrieking and playing, and the slam of doors and a million other sounds of a few dozen people living in close quarters.

Here, it's just quiet as a tomb, the only sound the wind ruffling my hair.

"I don't like this," Gabe says, and his hand slides to his gun.

I let go of Liam's hand and pull my shotgun out of my holster, checking the barrel to make sure it's loaded.

"Wait here," Gabe says to me.

"Fuck you," I retort, readying my gun. "I'm not a little girl waiting for a man to save her. If my brother's in there and there's a problem, I'm going in."

"Fine, then." He slips around the back of the store and doesn't wait for me to follow.

I move after him, and Liam's at my side without even asking. Wait here. Fucking really.

We move around to the back of the building and there's a big ten-foot-tall chain-link fence with barbed wire across the top. There's a gate that's shut, but not locked. Inside, a lone chicken wanders across one of the alleys of the storage blocks. I can see row after row of units, most of them decorated and spray-painted, some clearly being used as dwellings. One on the far end looks like it's set up as a barn and I can see the back end of a cow.

But…there are no people.

"Hello?" Gabe calls, putting a hand on the gate. He opens it without a hitch and then steps inside. "Mika? Jennifer? Simone? Bill?"

No response. Cold fear washes over me. Where's my brother?

Better yet, where is everyone?

I look over at Liam, my frustration and fear about to bubble over.

He's calm, though. Liam kneels on the ground, his hand to the earth, and then he raises his fingers to his nose, breathing in the scents. "There are many people that live here," he murmurs. "But they're all gone."

"All of them?"

"Their scents are at least a day old." His nostrils flare and he looks up. "They passed through this gate. A lot of them, at once."

"Do you smell Benny?" I have to ask, even though I dread the answer.

"He's with them," he tells me. He tilts his head ever so slightly, then sniffs his fingers again. "There's an odd flavor to their scents."

"What do you mean, odd?"

Liam shakes his head. "I can't place it. Just…odd. I've never smelled such a thing before."

That could be anything. Liam's not human, and they could all have found a skunk for all we know. I tell myself that it's nothing. That Benny's fine and there's no need for me to worry. I take a deep, steeling breath and then go into the fort, my gun in my hands.

The fact that Liam falls into step behind me is depressing. It tells me before I even go down the very first “street” of the storage compound that there's no one here. Liam's so protective that if there was a hint of danger, he'd never let me take the lead. They're really all gone.

I blink back tears of frustration as I stalk down the alleyway. The storage units are all lined up like rows of mini-garages, and once upon a time, people used to park their trucks or cars in these alleys so they could unload their stuff into the rented storage space. Now the alley is covered in colorful sidewalk chalk drawings and the doors have been spray-painted with colorful scenes instead of the old plain orange they were before. Chickens scatter as we walk through and I move toward one “house” with a pull-rope at the bottom and lift it. The storage unit opens and reveals a cozy little nest someone's made for themselves. There's a bed with an old mattress, a rack full of books, and a shelf full of canned goods. There's even a vase with fresh-picked dandelions that haven't yet started to wilt. The bed is made.

But no one's here.

I turn around to look at Liam in frustration. "I don't get it. They left their chickens and their food?"

"And the cow," Gabe calls, jogging up to meet back up with us. "I did a quick circle around the fort, but no one's here."

I don't tell him we already figured that out. "Raiders?" I ask. "Nomads? Why would a bunch of families abandon their settlement?"

"No clue," Gabe says, and his face is drawn, his mouth a flat line. "They had a lot of children, families. They wouldn't just up and leave."

"Can't be raiders," Liam says, and there's a hint of strain in his voice, as if speaking up this much costs him. "They would have stripped the place and killed the chickens."

Gabe grunts.

He's right, I realize. Raiders wouldn't leave a thing, especially canned food. "They're not captives, then. Where did they go?"

With a heavy sigh, Gabe rakes a hand through his hair as Scooter leans against his leg. "Hell if I know. Maybe they ran out of water and had to leave?"

"Then why not take the chickens and food?"

He shakes his head, telling me without words that he has no answers. I don't either.

I gesture at the dog at his feet, who’s wagging his tail and completely not helpful in the slightest. “Is he good at tracking people?”

Gabe gives me a weird look. “I don’t know if you noticed, but Scooter’s not good at a lot of things. His brains are pretty scrambled. When I found him, he had a massive boot mark on his head. Don’t think he’s been right ever since.” He touches the dog’s ears, as if to reassure him.

Scooter just looks at Gabe, tail wagging and tongue lolling, as if they’re having a fun walk instead of hunting for answers.

God. So he’s useless, just like the rest of this trip.

I stalk out of the unit that was once someone's home and jog down the alley, looking for signs that Benny's been here. I make it all the way down to the end of the units, and even though I know I won't see anyone, I open each door that I can, hoping for a note, or signs of a struggle.

Fucking something.

Anything.

But there's nothing. If Gabe had never said there was a settlement here, if there weren't cows and chickens and canned food and abandoned beds…

I drop to my knees, crouching. I can't even cry. I'm just…blank inside. Empty. I don't know what to think.

A hand touches my hair and then Liam's crouching beside me. "Andrea," he murmurs, his hand sliding to my shoulder. "They were here. They left. Don't let this upset you. We'll just follow their scent trails."

I rub my forehead and then get to my feet, putting my gun away. "I'm just so tired. How can one boy get so far so quickly?"

I know the answer to that, though. He was on a bike ahead of us. Meanwhile, I waited at the fort hoping he'd come back. And then I took my sweet time coming after him, because I foolishly thought he'd be on foot and I've been eager to spend time with Liam. I've been kissing him and making out with him when I should have been walking through the night to go after Benny.

And look where that's gotten me—I'm falling in love with a guy that can't return it because he'll lose his mind, my brother's nowhere to be found, and Liam's still on the verge of losing his shit anyhow.

This is just a shitshow.

Liam puts his hands on my shoulders, sensing my despair. "We'll find him, Andrea. I made you a promise."

I lick my lips, nodding, and then impulsively fling myself into his arms. I bury my face against his chest, letting him comfort me. I love that his big arms wrap around me and he strokes my hair, murmuring soft noises to soothe me. In his arms, I do feel better.

And then I remember just how much he's struggled lately and I feel like the world's biggest asshole. How selfish am I? I slide out of his grip and force myself to walk away, as if I'm on a mission. "Let's find the scent trail again," I say. "Just to make sure."

"Of course." Liam says nothing about my quick retreat. Maybe he realizes it's for the best.

I cross my arms and follow behind Liam as he heads back toward the front of the compound. He moves to the front fence, steps through the gate, and then continues out for a few feet. "That way," he says, pointing off in a new direction, past the broken buildings and down the road in the opposite direction from which we came.

"North," I murmur. "Okay, then."

"What's that way?" Gabe asks, coming up behind me and nearly making me jump out of my skin.

Liam is silent. He looks at me, waiting.

"That's where they went," I answer, my expression guarded. "Whoever left this fort behind, they went as a group and headed in that direction."

"You can see their tracks?" Gabe kneels down to the dirt and studies it. "I don't see anything."

"Just trust me."

Gabe gets to his feet and I notice his gun is holstered again. He rubs his jaw, where stubble is growing in. "North's where New Fort is. Something must have happened here and they went back. That has to be what it is."

"New Fort? Great. That's where we're headed, then. We'll go introduce ourselves to whoever's in charge there." This stupid little trek my brother’s gotten us into will just have another stop, and then hopefully we’ll be done.

Gabe shakes his head. “I should go with you. They’re not big fans of strangers and would just as soon as put a bullet in you as shake your hand.”

I don’t like that Gabe has to accompany us. He’s a really nice man and I don’t think he means harm…but Liam’s already on edge and the more that Gabe’s around, the more feral Liam seems to get. I don’t tell him that we don’t need him to track Benny down. Now that Liam’s got his scent again, we can find them easily. “No thanks—”

“They won’t let you through the gate,” Gabe warns.

“I don’t want to go through the gate,” I tell him, exasperated. “I just want my brother.”

“Even so. I’m going.” He crosses his arms over his chest and gives me the same look I’ve given Benny a hundred times before, that protective older sibling knows best look.

I know he’s right, but I hate it because it’s making Liam crazy. Frustrated, I tug on my braid and stalk back inside the compound, scanning the place and looking for something I could use as an excuse not to have Gabe come with us. Some sort of item that might tell them we come from Fort Justice, a symbol or a seal, an old family photo that someone will recognize…something. There’s got to be a way to protect Liam and send Gabe on his way.

How did trying to find my brother turn so incredibly complicated? I rub my forehead in frustration as I walk, my temples throbbing. I just want Benny home so I can scream at him a little for scaring me like this…and then hug him for hours on end. As I walk, I head toward the back of the compound. There’s a second gate back here, and greenery. I’m drawn toward it, and see the healthy vegetable patch that these people are growing. It’s not covered up or protected, which seems silly to me, but the plants are thick and healthy and their tomatoes are clustered with bright red, ripe fruit.

I don’t understand why they’ve abandoned so much food. It doesn’t make sense, and I need to make sense of this. I need to understand why they’ve left this place behind and packed up to head off to another fort. I move past the rows of tomatoes and see cucumbers, beans, carrots, and even some cantaloupes. Oh wow. It’s been years and years since I’ve had cantaloupe, and I move toward them as if drawn. I want to take one and bring it back to Fort Shreveport with me so we can have the seeds. A small one, so it won’t destroy food that others are waiting on…not that anyone’s here. I pick my way around the vines crawling the ground, looking around.

And that’s when I see them.

Graves.

Fresh graves.

Not just one, but several. I count them as I get to my feet, pulled forward by a mixture of horror and fear. Seven graves, all with freshly turned dirt and little metal crosses at the head of each one with a name hastily scribbled across the front.

Please don’t be Benny’s name. Please don’t be Benny’s name.

One by one, I force myself to read each grave’s marker. Jennifer Proust, aged thirty-seven. Rebecca Smith, aged forty. Avery Graham, aged three. Doug Graham, aged thirty-one. Melissa Graham, aged twenty-eight. Will Hamilton, aged fifty. Brad Proust, aged fifteen.

I stop at that last one, my heart skipping a beat as I read it over and over again.

Brad, not Benny.

It’s not my brother. It’s not. But it’s clear it’s the newest of the graves, and a little choked sob escapes me.

“Andrea.” Liam’s at my side, his hands roaming all over me. “I can smell your fear. What is it?”

“It’s not Benny,” I manage through sniffles. “But for a moment, I thought it was…”

“Shhh,” he murmurs, and pulls me close to him again. And again, like the weak idiot I am, I burrow in his arms for comfort instead of pushing away. It just feels so right, so automatic, to go to him for comfort. I press my face to his shirt, breathing in his warm scent, feeling his arms around me. This is real, I remind myself. No matter what happens, Liam’s with you and it’ll be okay.

“What the fuck is this?” Gabe’s harsh voice interrupts us, dragging me back out of my reverie in Liam’s arms.

I reluctantly pull away, gesturing at the graves to Gabe. “I found these. They look new.”

He crouches in front of them with Scooter at his side, reading the names with a look of disbelief on his face. “Fuck. Jennifer? Will? Avery?” He rubs a hand down his tanned face and when he gets to his feet, he looks ten years older. “I was just here two weeks ago. I saw them. Said hi to Jennifer. Brought a toy for Avery. Everyone seemed all right.” He shakes his head. “I don’t understand this.”

“Me either, but if my brother’s at New Fort, that’s where we’re going.”

“I’m going, too,” Gabe says immediately.

I touch Liam’s arm, feeling him tense. “We don’t need the help, really. You can go back. I imagine Lester and the others will be waiting on you.”

But Gabe shakes his head. “I had friends at this fort, no matter what happened. I knew these people. I need answers.”

I want to argue with him, but weirdly enough, I understand. Seven people don’t just die in the space of a week. A settlement doesn’t just up and abandon their home and leave behind all their supplies. Something strange is going on and I’m getting more worried for Benny by the day. Truth is, I can’t stop Gabe from coming with us, no matter how much it bothers Liam. “If you—”

Liam’s hand clenches on my arm, and his body goes taut.

My words die off and I forget what I’m saying. “Liam?” I whisper, worried when he remains completely and utterly still.

“The dragon’s coming. The female.” Liam turns toward me, his face hard and unreadable. “We need to take shelter.”

“You’re sure?” I ask, and then feel stupid. Of course he’s sure. He can smell her from a dozen miles away. “We’ll stay here until she goes, then.”

“What?” Gabe asks, moving in front of us. There’s a look of disbelief on his face, and open skepticism as he looks between me and Liam. “What do you mean, a dragon’s coming? How do you know?”

“Just trust me, he knows.”

Gabe’s gaze settles on Liam, on his sunglasses and hat, his golden skin and slightly otherworldly features. His eyes narrow. “What are you?”

Liam just smiles, baring his fangs. He pulls off his sunglasses, revealing dark, whirling eyes streaked with gold.

Gabe stumbles backward, reaching for his gun.

A growl erupts in Liam’s throat, as if there’s a silent challenge he’s all too ready to acknowledge.

“No! Stop! Both of you stop it!” I push in front of Liam, spreading my arms wide before Gabe can get some crazy idea about shooting him. I don’t know if that kills dragons when they’re in their human form, but I’m not taking any chances. “He’s with me, okay?” I tell Gabe. “He’s a good guy. That’s all that matters.”

“That’s not all that matters,” Gabe spits, his hand hovering over his gun. His gaze darts between us, and I can tell he’s wary. Something tells me he could shoot both of us and it wouldn’t keep him up at night. He’d do it, just to keep Lester and the others safe.

“Liam’s…different. Okay? But he’s on our side and you don’t have to worry.” I reach back and Liam puts a protective hand around my arm, as if claiming me.

“What is he that he can talk with them?” Gabe asks again. “How does he know what they’re up to?” His gaze moves to Liam. “You’re one of them, aren’t you?”

Liam just laughs and pulls me closer to him. “Does it matter?”

17

LIAM

Heat courses through my blood.

I stare at the male with a wild grin on my face, a challenge in my eyes. I’m daring him to try and take Andrea from me, to try to get between us, to threaten her. Just give me an excuse to tear his throat out and I’ll do it.

It’s clear the male wants my female. He watches Andrea closely and casts her admiring looks when he thinks I’m not paying attention. Well, let him just try and take her from me. He’ll figure out soon enough that she’s my mate—

But no.

The realization is like a slap in the face.

Andrea cannot be my mate. I cannot claim her. Ever.

It would be far wiser for me to back away and let him pursue her. She deserves to be happy with a strong male at her side…but I cannot do that. I can’t back away. I can’t let her go to another man because everything I am, everything in my spirit roars in agony at the thought of my female being touched by another man.

This thing between us is no good. It’s only going to cause pain for both of us…but I can’t walk away from her, any more than I can give her over to the human Gabe.

So I do my best to ignore him as I walk inside the abandoned encampment with Andrea. It’s full of old scents, many of them tinged with a strange flavor that I don’t recognize. I don’t care about that right now, though. I only care about getting her to safety before the red female that pushes so oppressively at my mental walls appears and attacks this settlement.

“Shelter,” I tell Andrea. “Pick a place, as long as it is safe.”

She nods and rushes inside the walls of the fort, and I am glad that she’s so levelheaded. There are no protests or silliness in her, no dawdling. She is a survivor and knows what must be done to survive. Her steps are quick and to my surprise, she immediately heads for the cow. “We have to make sure their animals are safe,” she tells me. It’s not a soft heart that declares this, but a practical one. A cow can feed many mouths and provides milk and butter and all the things a settlement needs. It’s incredibly valuable.

I’m proud of how sensible she is. “I’ll take care of it,” I tell her. “You round up the chickens.”

“Got it!”

We split up and I move to the cow’s pen, ushering her inside and shutting the door of the strange dwelling so the dragon can’t get to her. The animal smells like hot blood and good meat, and I hesitate for a moment, my drakoni side warring to dominance. My skin itches and I gaze down at the thing, imagining how good the warm gush of blood would taste in my mouth…

No.

I must be human. I must be Liam. I must.

I make sure the damn thing is enclosed and then hastily retreat, just in time to see Andrea disappear into one of the open dwellings, a clucking chicken tucked under her arm. I jog over to her, just as the heavy scent of the female dragon seems to pour in from the skies. The female screams out a warning overhead, and I fling myself into the shelter and shut the door a split second before the first rush of fire pours down atop us.

“Are you okay?” Andrea asks, panting. It’s dark inside without the sunlight pouring in, and my eyes take a moment to adjust. I smell chickens, and their pwuck pwuck noises bounce off the walls. I smell my mate….

And I smell Gabe and his animal. Damn it all. He couldn’t find another shelter?

“I’m fine,” I say quickly, my voice curt.

“I’ll get my candle,” Andrea says, and I can hear her rummaging in her bag. I smell the moment she pulls it out, and then a second later, she flicks a flame up through her lighter and a small, orange light illuminates the darkness. The stink of the chickens—and Gabe—fills my nostrils and makes my stomach turn.

I look over at the human male, irritated that he’s here. “Why is that red stalking you?”

He looks shocked. “What do you mean, she’s stalking me?”

“It’s the same female that attacked your encampment. She obviously has your scent in her muzzle. What did you do to get her attention?”

“I didn’t do anything.” His gaze narrows, suspicious. “Why do you think I did?”

I ignore his surliness. “She’s insane, but somehow through all of this, she remembers you. What did you do?” Part of me just likes pricking at him, but part of me also really, really wants to know. He’s somehow managed to make himself unforgettable to the female dragon and I need to know what he did so perhaps Andrea won’t forget me when I turn…

“Both of you, stop it,” Andrea murmurs, but she sets the candle down and moves to my side, sliding her arms around my waist.

I pull her close and kiss her hard, this time not for Gabe’s benefit but for my own. I need to fill my senses with her. I want her scent all over my skin and in my nose, I want her taste in my mouth, driving out all the other things that are slowly itching at my skin and making the day that I turn wild and crazy inevitable.

Because I’m not going to make it like this forever. I’m going to snap at some point, my need for Andrea chasing away all common sense. I’m going to need to claim her, to make her mine.

And to do so, I’m going to have to risk everything.

She returns my kiss, breathless, and then casts a shy look over at Gabe.

I don’t care about him. I grab Andrea by the hand and pull her after me. “We’ll find you when it’s time to leave in the morning,” I tell Gabe. “For now, we need privacy.” I lift my head, trying to cut through the scents, to find open air instead of this choking stuffiness. At the back of the room, the air clears a bit. There’s a doorway cut into the metal wall to join two of the storage units and make one big dwelling. I drag Andrea behind me into the new area. I can smell better air over there, fresher air, and I bring her in that direction.

“Liam,” Andrea whispers, and I can hear embarrassment in her tone, even as she follows me. “He’s going to think we’re needing to be alone because…you know.”

“Because what?” I shut the door behind us and then it’s dark once more, the candle left behind with Gabe. I can smell bedding, though, and I tug her in that direction and pull her down with me. “Because he’s going to think we’re mating? We are, because I need the taste of your cunt.”

She gasps. “What? But you—you said—”

Oh, I know what I said. I live with it every moment I am awake. I dream of sinking deep inside her and feeling her cunt clench tight around my cock. I dream of my teeth in her throat, filling her with my fire, and then her delicious scent changing to mine. I dream of a life with her. Of never having to let her go.

And tonight, I decide, I want to risk it. As the humans say, fuck waiting. Fuck everything, except for Andrea. I’m taking control of the situation.

I pull her forward, and she clings to me as the backs of her knees hit the mattress. She tumbles backward with a sound of surprise, and then I am on her, my hands furious with need as I pull at her pants. I waste no time, undoing the snaps and then shoving them down her hips.

Andrea gasps, and I can tell she's shocked at the hunger in my touch…and turned on, too. She realizes just how much I need her and it's making her cunt fill with her perfumed scent. I groan, deep, and push her jeans down her legs until they catch at her ankles, stuck at her boots. That doesn't matter, she's bare enough as far as I'm concerned. With one hand, I grasp the thin material of her panties and rip them off.

"Hey!" she protests. "I need those—"

"You don't," I rasp. "I want the scent of your cunt everywhere. All over me. I want to wear it so others know I've claimed you."

She sucks in a breath. "Jesus, Liam. Atalim."

I groan as she says my name. There's no greater pleasure for me than to hear my name, my true name, on her beautiful lips. I push her thighs apart, breathing in the hot scent of her, and then drag my tongue over her cunt. I take in her taste, and the flavor of her explodes on my tongue, hot, sweet, and so full of need that my cock surges in my pants, fully engorged and aching.

"Ah, my Andrea," I manage, though it's taking everything I have not to go wild with my own need. There's a violence building in my veins—not against her, never that—but the need that rages inside me needs an outlet. It has to go somewhere. So I pull her closer and move up her belly, pushing her shirt out of the way and kissing up her stomach, then make my way to her mouth. I claim it, enjoying the startled sound she makes, and then loving the way she moans when my hand moves back between her thighs, caressing her slick folds. There is one good side to pretending to be human—my claws are blunted to mere stubs, and that means I can touch her freely, explore the soft petals of her skin here and not have to worry that I'm hurting her.

"Liam," she pants against my mouth, her hips arching up against my seeking fingers. "But…maybe we shouldn't…he's going to hear us…"

I snag her lower lip between my teeth and nip at it, then soothe away the bite with a flick of my tongue. "You don't want him to hear? Because I do."

She gives a soft little moan, and my fingers dance over her cunt, seeking out the little nub nestled between her folds. I find it and she whimpers, getting louder, and then her mouth seals shut, as if she doesn't trust herself not to lose all sense of control and start screaming.

She doesn't realize that's exactly what I want—I want my female, my mate, letting the other male in my territory know she's being claimed by me. I want him to hear me pounding into her, giving her pleasure, claiming her body as mine. His nearness, the thought of him even daring to harbor a claim on her is making me crazed, and I'm going to take it out on Andrea's sweet pussy.

"You want that?" She gasps as I drag my thumb over her clit, teasing her. "Oh god, Atalim…why?"

"Because he needs to hear it," I say, claiming her mouth as mine again with another deep, intense kiss. When I lift my lips from hers, I add, "He needs to hear me taking you, so he knows there's no chance he can have you."

"I don't want him," Andrea pants, holding onto me. Her hands flutter over my shoulders, my chest, as if she can't decide where to touch me first. "I don't want anyone but you, Atalim. I just don't want you to lose yourself—"

I kiss her again to silence her. I know she's worried, but the beast raging inside me won't be silenced any longer. I need her and I'm going to risk this, because I can control myself for a while longer. I won't be able to if he keeps looking at her, though. I'll murder him with my shorn claws if I have to, just for daring to dream that he could touch my Andrea.

So I coax her pleasure higher, moving my thumb against her clit and sliding my fingers deeper between her thighs, to the well of her core that's so slippery and hot and good. She moans against my mouth when I sink a finger deep inside her, thrusting. Her cunt is impossibly tight, and I love that she seems to suck at my finger when I push into her.

That's how she's going to hold my cock inside her, I think with deep, aching satisfaction. She's going to grip me so tight with her wet sheath that nothing will ever be the same after that. A harsh growl breaks from my throat, and I nip at her mouth, then press quick, demanding kisses against her jaw as she arches up against my hand. "Your cunt is ready for me," I murmur to her. "Look at how good my finger feels inside you. You're so wet that you're more than ready for more. You want more, my Andrea?"

She whimpers against me, the sound sweet, and then nods. Her nose brushes against mine as she does, and then she gives a sharp cry, her fingers digging into my shirt when I pair a second finger with the first and pump into her again.

"My cock's bigger than that," I warn her. "Much bigger. But you'll be able to take me, won't you? You're so wet and juicy that I'll just slide right into you."

"You can't," she moans.

That just makes my hackles rise. "Can't I? Can't I claim my mate?" I thrust into her again with my fingers, pushing into her as if it's my cock, and she moans, the sound loud and needy.

"I won't hurt you, sweet Andrea," I murmur, and when my hand slides away from her cunt, she makes a whimper of protest, as if she already misses the feel of me there. "But I am going to claim you."

And with that, I sit up and flip her over, then pull at her hips until they're thrust in the air, perfect for mounting. She moans and in the darkness, her fingers dig into the blankets, but she spreads her knees a little wider, readying for me.

I kick my boots off, then shove my pants down and strip off my shirt. When I'm naked, the air feels good against my skin. It feels right. Like I'm becoming what I need to be again. And right in front of me? Her sweet ass in the air as if she's just lost a challenge and needs me to cover her? My beautiful Andrea. I move forward, drawn to her, and rub my face against one of her bare flanks, nipping and biting at the rounded flesh.

She whimpers again, and there's another hot rush of her arousal scent, flooding her cunt. "Atalim," she whispers, and I love the sound of my name on her lips.

"You're going to say that when I'm inside you," I tell her, unable to resist the lure of her slick cunt. I dip my tongue into her folds, teasing at the entrance to her core, and she cries out. "I love when you say my name," I tell her, practically growling the human words that feel more foreign by the minute. "But I'm going to love it best when I'm deep inside you."

"If you're sure," she pants, and her words die when I thrust into the hot well of her core with my tongue, thrusting into her with it like I want to with my cock. "Oh god. Oh, fuck me, that's good."

I love the sounds she makes. It feeds the hungry, angry beast inside me, and I lap at her cunt until she's squirming against me, her hips shuddering in my grip, her taste on my tongue and my lips. I can't drink all of it, I remind myself. She has to be wet and slick for my cock, because she's small and tight and I'm big and throbbing. So I force myself to ease back, to toy with her cunt with fingers instead of tongue, brushing over her clit and then tracing the entrance to her core with one fingertip until she's soaking once more. It makes my mouth water to feel how wet she gets, but she needs to coat my cock with her sweetness, not just my mouth.

"Tell me you want me inside you, Andrea," I demand. The drakoni in me wants her to acknowledge my mastery of her, that she's lost some sort of challenge and has to bend to the victor that will conquer her. "Tell me I've won you."

"I'm yours," she breathes. "If you think you can take me without losing control, I'm all yours."

Control doesn’t matter any longer.

Nothing else matters other than claiming her, marking her as mine.

Mine alone.

I run a hand over my cock and find the head slick with pre-cum. I can't have that—it'll burn her. I wipe it away and force myself to wait until I've calmed a bit, my hand on her rounded ass. I manage to get a bit more control, and when I wipe the head of my cock and it comes away clean, I know I can take her…for now. I settle my hips against hers, my cock sliding along the slick folds of her pussy and wetting with her essence. She moans, arching back against me.

"Oh, god, Liam—Atalim—you feel so good." She lets out another little cry when I rock against her, and it tears at me.

I can't wait any longer. I fit the head of my cock to the entrance of her core, and she's so wet and ready that I thrust into her. No waiting, no teasing, just one swift motion and I'm in her to the hilt.

She gasps, her back arching, and cries out with pleasure.

Heat floods my brain. Heat, and primal need. The walls I've built for so long, maintained so meticulously, never let relax for a moment? My mind shudders, and I can feel them weakening. Hot, wild need overwhelms me, and for a moment, I'm nothing but a mindless beast, rutting into her with quick, hard thrusts. Take. Take. Take. Take her as your mate.

Take her, and then…destroy.

Kill the male. Kill him for looking at her. Violence shoves through me, hard and thick and startling in the viciousness of it.

In that moment, Atalim is lost. For a brief span, I don’t exist as a drakoni or a person. I’m nothing but anger. There is no self, only the hot madness and violence that this world breeds in the minds of my people.

It's gone in the next moment, and I stumble backwards, my cock sliding free of her cunt's perfect grip.

She sits upright, turning over to look at me as I put a hand to my head. "Li—Atalim? Are…are you okay?"

I shake my head to clear it, because the lingering ferocity in my thoughts is terrible and overwhelming. It takes everything I have not to give in to its call.

"Are you…is that smoke I smell?" she asks when I don't answer her.

That explains the tickle in my nostrils. I'm losing control…and I nearly hurt her. If I'd let any of my seed inside her, she'd have burned from within.

Or worse. I could have let the drakoni side of me take over and torn out her throat. I think of the violent anger I felt toward Gabe, and I'm not altogether certain I wouldn't have turned it on her. I drop to my knees in a crouch, hating this.

"I can't touch you again," I tell her. "This was a mistake."

Because if I touch her again, I'm not going to be able to stop. And I don't know what the consequences will be.

18

ANDI

J ust like he swore, Liam doesn’t touch me for the rest of the night. He doesn’t sleep next to me. He just gets dressed and leaves the room, and I’m left alone on the bed feeling abandoned and used and a little stupid.

And horny. Really, really horny.

I don’t finish myself off, though. Not after that horrible ending to what was some really amazing sex. Even this morning, as we leave the settlement and head east toward New Fort, I'm still thinking of how he felt when he sank into me, the hot length of him and how big he was.

God, no guy has ever felt so good inside me. He was so big and thick that he pressed on spots I thought only existed in dirty fairy tales.

Of course, they might as well be dirty fairy tales, because I won't get to experience that again. This morning, he keeps several steps between us and gone is the hand holding and occasional touches. He won't go near me.

Gabe notices it, too. He walks beside me, Scooter bounding around us, being a derp while Liam keeps a few paces ahead.

"Trouble in paradise?" Gabe asks, his tone mild.

I shoot a look over at him, trying not to frown. "I don't know what you mean."

"It's clear you and your dragon boyfriend had a fight last night. He won't even look in your direction. Was it the red? Is she an old girlfriend or something?" He cocks a grin at me.

My fingers itch and I want to make a fist and punch him in the face. "It's none of your business, and no, that's not it at all. We're fine." I hate that Gabe irritates me so much. Once upon a time, I'd have been all over him like jelly on peanut butter. He's handsome as hell, with a close-trimmed beard and dark hair. Tanned. Likes animals. Tall. Lean. Nice teeth. Friendly and competent.

But that was BL—Before Liam.

He's ruined me for everyone else. It doesn't matter how nice Gabe is, or how normal, because I'm thinking about Liam. I'm thinking about his smile, and that deep, booming chuckle…and his possessive growl when someone else gets too close to me. I love that he's protective and hovers. I love that he's got a bit of an animal side to him.

Oh god, I really love the dick, too. And his fingers. And his tongue. It's an amazing package.

But I think…I think he nearly lost control last night. I don't think he was as in charge as he thought he was, and it's freaked him out. I'm not an idiot. I know that's why he's putting so much distance between us. That's why he pulled out mid-thrust and left the room.

I'm not dumb. But it makes me ache deep inside because I know that what I want with him can't be. He's going to lose all that he is if he gives in to his need, and it's clear he'd rather be human than be drakoni. I can't even blame him for that. How can I? I've seen how crazed drakoni are. Even Rast and Vaan aren't entirely there sometimes. How can I ask him to give up his mind in exchange for a relationship with me?

I can't.

Unfortunately, we're going to have to just be friends. I can't ask him to do more, and the thought is like a knife in the heart. It's a sharp pain in my chest that I've carried with me all day, and it feels like a lead weight has dropped on my shoulders. I'm just…tired.

Really, really tired. I feel like this world has finally defeated me. You win, apocalypse. I give up.

"I don't like to judge," Gabe begins, interrupting my thoughts.

Oh boy, here it comes. "But?" I prompt, knowing there's a “but” in there for sure.

"But I don't understand how you can be with him." He shakes his head. "Dragons are murderers. Monsters. They destroyed our world. They eat people and tear them apart. They've killed billions, Andi. And you're hooking up with one?"

Like I haven't had this argument in my own head before? But it's surprisingly easy to dismiss. "People kill people all the time, but we don't assume every single person is a murderer. Liam's a good guy. He hasn't hurt anyone. He's not crazy like the others."

"Are they crazy, then? Or just wild and savage and like the taste of people?"

"They're crazy," I reply. "There's something in this world that makes their minds go haywire. It's something to do with their psychic communication. Liam shut that part off in his brain. It's the only way he hasn't lost his mind like the others have. That's why he's safe."

Gabe just shakes his head, watching Liam as he walks. I wait for him to piss me off further, to make some crack about how I need good human dick instead of dragon dick. How I'd be better off with him instead of with Liam. He doesn't, though. "I never knew they could be human," he admits. "Can all of them do that?"

"As far as I know. He's not the first one I've met that can switch from form to form." He's the third. But whatever. I'd rather put Gabe in his place than argue semantics.

"I didn't know," he says again, and his words are more thoughtful than angry, as if he's trying to put together some sort of mental puzzle.

"Yeah, well, I guess you don't know a lot," I say baldly, trying to pick a fight. I'm having a shitty day and I would just love to take it out on someone else.

But Gabe only looks over at me and grins. "I guess I don't. You learn something new every day."

It's hard to hate the guy when he's being so reasonable. I give him a half-smile, though my heart isn't into it.

"So…when the dragons are in human form, does that mean they're not crazy?"

"I…don't know for sure. The ones I've met that were in human form were still a little wild-seeming, but for the most part, they were pretty human. Liam's the most human one I've met." And the handsomest. And funniest. And smartest. And most thoughtful.

But I’m biased.

"Maybe it's connected," Gabe agrees. "So instead of fighting the dragons, how come we don't try to figure out how to get them to switch forms instead? Problem solved."

I have no answer for that. I never realized…and of course it seems so simple. Why don't we do something like that? "They're crazy, though. You try getting a crazy, hard-headed, violent person to do what you want."

"Guess we just need to make the switch appealing enough," he tells me with a grin.

I roll my eyes. Count on a man to think he's got all the answers. "Good luck."

We pause in our journey for a little to eat lunch. My corn cakes are stale and there's a hint of mold on them, but I pull one out and offer it to Liam anyhow. He hasn't eaten in days and it's worrying me. I don't know how often he has to eat, but surely this isn't normal.

He shakes his head and wanders off from where I'm sitting with Gabe. "Not hungry. You eat it."

I watch him go, biting my lip as he moves forward, touching the ground occasionally as if to reassure himself of the scents. He's been distant all day, and part of me knows that it's smart, especially after last night.

But I hate it. Oh god, I hate it so much. I want nothing more than for Liam to laugh and smile at me. I want him to kiss me and touch me as if he can't stay away. I don't know if I can handle this as our “future,” him being distant and me enduring it.

For a moment, I hate that we've done this to ourselves. I can't resist him any more than I can resist if someone threw a plate of cookies in my direction. I love him, and I'm so worried and afraid of what the future holds for us. Surely we'll catch a break at some point, right? Surely we can have what Amy and Rast have? Or Gwen and Vaan?

"Here," Gabe says, nudging my arm and offering me a chunk of meat. "It's jerky. I smoked it myself."

It smells amazing, my mouth watering, but I shake my head. "You eat it. I'm good." It's not that I don't want the food, but I'm thinking of Liam and his almost-feral responses to anytime I smile or laugh at Gabe. How's he going to act if Gabe feeds me? It's a bad idea all around. I finish unwrapping my corn cake, brush off the mold, and take a bite.

Yum, yum.

He shares his meat with Scooter instead, the dog wagging his tail and licking at Gabe's fingers. I can relate.

Once we finish eating, we refill our waterskins with runoff from an old gutter. It's fucking terrible, but it's water, so I make myself take small sips of it as we walk. We continue on to New Fort, and I mentally wonder what it's going to be like. Clean and quiet like Fort Shreveport? Small and hidden like Fort Justice?

I know we're getting close when Liam's steps pick up and he starts to jog ahead. I watch him for a moment, my heart pounding, and then I notice he's pulling his shirt over his mouth and holding it there, as if to filter the air. I race up toward him, touching his arm. "Are you okay?"

He gives his head a little shake as if to clear it and then steps away from me. "The stench. It's just…a little much."

Stench? "What is it you smell?"

Liam makes a choked sound. "You'll see." And he pulls away and moves forward again.

I hate this. I really do. I follow behind him a few steps, giving him space, but I want to be at his side. This is a nightmare.

We walk a few more blocks, and then it becomes obvious what's causing him to gag. I know his sense of smell is very sensitive, so I can only imagine how awful this is for him.

It's obvious that New Fort is the shopping mall up ahead. That makes sense—lots of supplies, large enough for a ton of people to live inside, and not a lot of greenery outside that can burn and cause problems. They've made a half-ass barricade of cars and old fencing that stretches in front of the parking lot, separating them from anyone that might have wandered through. Again, sensible.

What's not sensible is the garbage.

It's everywhere. Garbage is always a problem in a fort. Even in the After, there's trash and no friendly truck is coming around to dispose of it any longer. It was a problem in Tulsa, and the place was filthy because no one bothered to take care of it. We’re better about those things in Fort Shreveport. What can't be re-used gets broken down, and what can't be burned we cart away a couple of times a month to a safe spot a few hours distant. You can't keep it near your home, because it draws pests and predators and rats.

No one at New Fort got the memo on that, though. There's trash everywhere, and it's clear that they just bag it and toss it over their barrier. The thick stench of rotten things hits me like a wall the moment the fort comes into sight, and I gag, my hand going to my nose. "Jesus Christ."

"Breathe through your mouth," Liam tells me in a choked voice. "It helps…some."

"I wish I didn't have to breathe at all," I tell him, but do as he says. It muffles the smell, a little, but now I feel like I can taste it. I'm horrified by the mountains of refuse that line the wall. There are broken bottles and cans, dead animal carcasses and piles and piles of wrappers and old diapers and just…a mess. It's ridiculous. And just like you'd expect with such a disaster, there are the rats. They're everywhere, the piles practically moving with the sheer number of them. They're bold, too, scurrying around in broad daylight. Scooter chases one, tail wagging, only to be called back by Gabe.

"You don't want that in your mouth, buddy," he tells the dog.

Scooter just barks happily and bounds around Gabe. Definitely not the brightest dog, bless his heart. I guess it makes sense that one of the survivors is just one that's too dumb to realize what a crapfest the apocalypse is. The other dogs that are still alive are probably too afraid of humans to hang around us much anymore.

"Where's the entrance?" I choke out, my eyes watering at the stink.

Gabe points. "This way." He's not surprised by the smell, it seems, though his nose does twitch regularly.

We follow him, and I glance over at Liam, wondering how he's going to feel about Gabe being in the lead. He's not wearing his sunglasses or hat now that Gabe knows what he is, but his expression is distant, unfocused, as if he's concentrating on something that's not here.

Does he hear the female dragon again, I wonder? "You okay?" I ask, dropping my voice so Gabe won't hear us.

He glances over at me, his eyes more gold than black, which is comforting. "I'm just…trying to figure something out."

"What is it?"

"Benny's scent is here, along with the other scent markers from the last fort, but…" He shakes his head. "There's something wrong with them."

"Wrong with the people?"

"Wrong with the scents," he clarifies, rubbing a finger under his nose. "I might be wrong. There's so much stink it's hard to tell, but I've been smelling it for a while."

What could be wrong with their scents? "Could they be disguising themselves to ward off other dragons?" Benny knows that trick from me.

"It's possible." But Liam doesn't look convinced.

"Hello?" Gabe calls out, cupping a hand to his face. His hand is on his gun belt, and we approach a makeshift gate with two plastic chairs parked in front of it. Both the chairs are empty and there's no one around.

My heart sinks. "Is this place deserted, too?"

"One way to find out," Gabe says, and tries the gate. It falls open, unlocked. He looks over at us, frowning.

I shiver, because this is creepy. Another abandoned fort? And why? I think of what Liam said about the scents being wrong and look over at him.

He's unfocused again, staring off at the big building of the mall, but says nothing.

"Liam?" I prompt, and when he finally looks over at me, I ask, "Do you smell the scent trails leaving again? Like at the last place?"

He shakes his head. "No. Whoever went in didn't come back out. Benny's scent ends here, unless he left via another route."

"Don't think there's another way out of the fort," Gabe adds. "Least not that I recall."

"Okay, then they're here. Theoretically." I get my gun out of its carrying case and check my ammo. "Might as well go inside and check this out."

I’m trying to sound like I’m in control, like this is no big deal, but my hands are shaking and I can’t stop trembling. Something’s happened to Benny, I know it. The universe is trying to keep me from finding him, and now I’m going to find out what terrible thing has happened to make so many people disappear.

“Andrea.” Liam’s hand covers mine, resting atop my shotgun. “It’s going to be okay.”

“You don’t know that,” I say, choking on the words. There’s something about this utterly silent gate, the trash pile around their fort walls, all of it just has this lingering sense of doom. I feel it weighing on me, and I worry I’ll never see Benny alive again.

It’s like it’s all really hitting me now. Before, I was just retrieving a runaway little brother. He might be dead and it’ll be my fault because I waited instead of going directly after him.

“I don’t know that, you’re right,” Liam says, and his voice is so calm, so wonderful that it makes me ache deep inside. He eases the shotgun out of my grip and puts the safety on it, then hands it to Gabe. “You need to be calm, though. And you need to realize that whatever happens, I’m not going to leave your side.”

My lower lip trembles and I bite down on it, determined not to break. I nod, over and over again, as if the more times I do it, the more I can convince myself. “If he’s dead, I don’t think I can bear it,” I whisper to Liam. “I can’t.”

“You’re a survivor, Andrea.” His arms go around me and he holds me close, tucking me against his chest. I know it’s hard for him to touch me, but oh, it’s so good that I can’t help but lean in, listening to the steady rhythm of his heart. “If it truly is the worst, then we’ll get through it together. I mean it when I say I won’t ever leave your side. Even if this thing between us can never be, it doesn’t mean I’ll abandon you.”

That just makes me ache even more. But I nod again and then push away from him. “We’re wasting time,” I say, and flex my hands and shake them out as if that will ease the trembling in them. I calm myself, then take my gun back from Gabe. “Let’s go find my brother.”

19

LIAM

T  he fort is silent as we walk inside, and I can smell the fear-scent coating Andrea. She’s terrified, not for herself but for her brother. I know without asking that she’s thinking of those graves at Fort Justice and imagining Benny in one. I want to reassure her with more than just emotional words. I want to tell her that he’s safe, that I can smell him and he’s just inside the enormous building they call a “mall” that we approach even now.

But I can’t reassure her because I can’t tell.

Benny’s scent, and those of the others, have been easy to follow. They’re not trying to mask their trails like Andrea suggested. They’re not chasing the scent-trail through streams or around buildings or circling it back in an effort to mislead. It’s a straight line that heads directly to this fort. The strange aroma that has attached itself to them lingers, too. I don’t know how to describe it to Andrea, that there’s a faint miasma to his scent. It’s not quite like fear-scent, but something else, something that takes Benny’s normal adolescent smell and makes it slightly sour, slightly off. The other smells of the people with him are subtly changed as well.

I want to see if they’re different here inside the fort, but the stink of the humans and their discarded trash outside is overwhelming. I can barely smell Andrea and she stands right next to me. If we had a psychic connection, our minds linked—

I can’t think like that. It can never happen. I have to come to terms with the fact that I can never have her. Guard her, yes. Take care of her, yes. Ensure she is safe, yes.

Touch her and take her as a mate? Never. If I tried and failed, I’d leave her unguarded…and I cannot have that. At all. I walk at Andrea's side, lost in my internal struggle as we enter the fort. It's for my own self-preservation, because if I don't focus on how much this place stinks of human, or how badly my mental shields are crumbling…then I won't lose control of myself.

"It's so quiet," Andrea says, her words shaky and distant. I focus on the perfume of her scent, the rich delicious musk of her, and my thoughts strengthen. Surprising, but aren't Vaan and Rast clearest when they're with their mates? But Andrea's not mine. I can't anchor myself to her, can't share my spirit. Even so, I slide closer, feeling protective. She's nervous, the fear-scent coating her, and the human male Gabe smells sour with fear as well.

"Should we split up?" Andrea asks.

"Stay together," Gabe says, and I agree silently with him. I don't like this place. There's something wrong.

We pass by a white and red vehicle, one that’s boxy and unfamiliar looking. It’s close to the building itself, and the sight of it sets Andrea on edge. “Well, that’s not a good sign.”

“What is it?” I ask, curious.

“Ambulance. And they left it here instead of moving it with the rest of the vehicles. I’m sure it means nothing, just…” She purses her lips and then shakes her head. “Just being superstitious. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

Gabe grunts.

The main building has glass doors that aren't guarded, another thing that has Andrea and Gabe uneasy. They open them and then we step into a musty, human-stinking building. It's dark inside, with glass windows above that are covered in a thick layer of dust. There are two enormous floors to this building, and what look like many smaller rooms set inside them. Fake plants and a water fountain are in the center of the long hall, as if this is supposed to be an enjoyable place to walk and stroll, like a garden. Odd. I have no idea what such a place is for, but both Gabe and Andrea seem to recognize it.

"Hello?" Gabe calls, and his voice echoes, bouncing off the corridors. "Is there anyone here?"

"Benny?" Andrea shouts, a note of desperation in her voice. "Benny, are you here? It's me!"

There's no answer, and we head farther in as Gabe calls over and over again.

Andrea turns to look at me, fear making her eyes big and dark. "Can you smell anyone?"

I touch my nose and shake my head. "The smells are overwhelming. I can't make anything out." I don't tell her that the strange miasma that touched Benny's scent is even thicker now that we're inside. The sense of wrongness continues, but I can't identify it as danger. Until I know what it is, I stay close to Andrea and remain on guard.

Then, I hear something.

I grab Andrea and pull her behind me. "Wait."

Gabe stops, glancing over at me. I stare ahead, at what sounds like…footsteps. Faint, slow ones. "Someone's there up ahead."

"Should we go—"

"No," I say, cutting off Andrea. "We wait here. They'll show themselves."

So we wait. The moments seem to last forever, but eventually, a woman appears, stepping out of one of the rooms. Her face is drawn and pale, and she stinks of sweat and the miasma.

"You need to leave," she says, wiping her hands on a white cloth she has tied to her waist. Her hair is pulled back in a dirty gray-and-brown ponytail and her clothes smell as if she's slept in them for weeks. "Everyone's sick."

Andrea tenses at my back, peeking out from behind me, her hand on my arm. Just that small touch distracts me, to the point that I lose focus. "…what do you mean, sick?"

I blink, trying to pay attention.

The woman steps forward a bit more, and then stops, leaving a drakoni's battle form in length between us. She won't come any closer. "I mean they're sick. All of them. People have been dying all day and if you come any closer, you'll get it, too."

"What is it?" Gabe asks.

The woman shrugs, and even that small gesture seems to be a great effort. "Flu? Pneumonia? Does it even matter? There are no doctors, no drugs, no nothing. We're going to die."

"What about the people from Fort Justice?" Andrea asks, taking another step forward. I reach out to grab her in case she moves too close to the woman, but she stops a few paces away from me, lowering her gun. "Is that what happened there? We went and found no one, just graves."

The stranger nods slowly. "They came here, looking for help. And they brought it to us. Now they're going to wipe out both forts." She shakes her head, as if saddened.

"What about my brother? His name's Benny, and he's a young boy. He'd have come with the Fort Justice people," Andrea says, the words rushing out of her. "He's got a chipped tooth in front and he's about fourteen…"

The woman's expression turns sorrowful.

"No," Andrea cries weakly. "No, no, please." She stumbles forward and I catch her. "Where is he?"

The woman sighs. "In the sick room with everyone else. It's easier to take care of them if we're all together."

Andrea turns to look at me. Her eyes are shining with determination and tears. "I'm going to him," she tells me, pushing my hands away.

"No." I don't understand this “sickness” the humans have. It's not something that happens with drakoni. I've seen humans that say they don't feel well, that vomit and sweat and then get better in a day or two. I thought it was bad food, but this female is scaring Andrea and makes it sound as if it's something else entirely…and that means I don't want her going anywhere near it. "If she says you should stay away, you should. I will not risk your life, Andrea."

"Bullshit," my female says, just as quick. "You don't understand, Liam. It doesn't matter. If it's something contagious, we could already have it. I slept in one of their beds last night. I touched their things. That's all it could take for me to catch whatever flu they have."

Horror dawns on me. "What happens if you catch it?"

"I die, or I get better." She gives me a faint smile.

I won't let her die. Just the thought makes me feel wild inside, my mental walls cracking apart. I grip her arms and resist the urge to drag her against me and protect her from whatever unseen horror this is. "I do not understand what this is, Andrea. I don't like it."

"It's a sickness," she tells me patiently, reaching up to touch my face. "And there's nothing to do. If I'm infected, we'll know soon enough." She turns to look over at the woman, who stands and waits, stinking of the miasma that must be the sickness. "Maybe I'll get lucky and be spared, like her."

The woman shakes her head, the movement slow. "Who says I'm not sick? I'm just doing what I can until I can't stand upright any longer." She watches us, waiting, and I notice her eyes are slightly glazed, her skin flushed with beads of sweat. The hands she clasps in front of her are trembling.

I step in front of Andrea, as if I can shield her from this woman and her sickness. "No," I growl.

"I have to see Benny," Andrea says gently. "Liam, if he's in there and sick, I need to take care of him. I need to be at his side. I'm not going to let him suffer through this surrounded by strangers." Her voice chokes a little.

"If you come in, you're dooming yourself," the woman warns, and I want to grab her and wring her skinny neck. "We've had seven die this morning and five last night, and there's more to come. Everyone here's sick. Everyone."

"He's my brother," Andrea says simply. She takes her shotgun, puts the safety on, and then slides it into the carrying case and slings it back over her shoulder. Her expression is calm and she looks over at me and Gabe. "Gabe, you shouldn't go in, though. You have Lester and the others to think about."

He shakes his head. "I can't go anywhere until I find out if I'm sick or not, either. I slept there last night, too."

I cross two steps and lean over to sniff him. He smells like Gabe—sweat and human male. "I don't smell it on you." I move back to Andrea's side and try to take her hand. "Or on you."

"Do you smell it on me?" the woman asks.

The room grows quiet. I get the feeling that I'm pronouncing a death sentence when I admit, "I can smell it on you from here."

But she only nods, as if tired, and turns around to head back into the room she came from.

"That must be what you were smelling that was different," Andrea says. "It makes sense now. That's why they left everything behind. They thought someone here could help and they'd come back. But…it sounds like it's worse than they thought."

"Which is why you can't go," I growl.

She refuses my touch, though, shaking her head. "I'm going to my brother. We could all be sick. I’m not going to let him suffer alone.”

And because I cannot blame her, I follow.

20

ANDI

T  his is a nightmare.

I slowly walk inside the old clothing store, telling myself that this is all not happening. That Benny's playing the world's unfunniest prank and he'll hop up from behind a counter somewhere and laugh his fool head off. As I move forward, though, the reality of this slowly hits. There are rows and rows of people in rough pallets on the ground, little more than blankets and pillows spread out on the floor. Some of them have containers next to their beds, and there's the occasional coughing, but it's quiet.

So very quiet. And that's the scariest thing of all.

I stare at the rows of people. There have to be at least fifty lying out here in sickbeds. More, probably. The woman said they'd already lost twelve, and I can only imagine how many more are going to die. It looks like the whole fort itself is sick. The room feels hot and stuffy with no windows, and I can practically feel the sickness on my skin. I rub my arms as I step forward, looking for Benny. One blanket-covered lump looks the same as any other, though, so I lean over the closest person and check the face.

It's a woman, her eyes glassy as she stares up at me. Her face is flushed and her hair is sweaty, but she's shivering. Blood flecks her slack mouth.

"Hi," I whisper, trying to smile. I feel so guilty just looking down at her that I instantly want to help. "Can I get you anything?"

She just continues to shiver, ignoring me, and so I tuck the blanket close to her again and move on.

There's a mother and child curled in the next set of blankets, so I move on. I don't want to see their faces. I don't want to know. A man is in the next pallet, also too big to be Benny, and his arms thrash wildly as he turns back and forth, lost in his fever. I look over at the woman who's been tending to everyone, but she doesn't move over to the man to help him. She just calmly wets more towels in a bucket and moves to the closest person, pressing one to a sweating brow.

I guess she's doing the best she can.

I move past another person, and this one's about the right size for Benny, but when I pull the blankets back, it's a young girl…and her eyes are open and staring at nothing. For a moment, I think she's like the other woman, but then I notice the waxy cast of her skin and she's not breathing. Oh god. I pull the blankets over her face and mentally say a little prayer. "I'm sorry," I whisper.

There are so many people that I'm crying before I reach the end of the first row. There's another dead person, a balding man, and there's a few more that it's clear are going to be dead soon. The worst is the children, thrashing in the grip of a fever and there's nothing to give them. I want to help everyone…and I want to run away in sheer horror.

Every day is already hard enough in the After. Do we have to deal with sickness like this, too? It's so unfair. Every pharmacy out there has already been cleaned out, and there are no doctors to give flu shots. We're so vulnerable to even the most common viruses now, and I'm all too acutely aware of it.

I routinely turn another sick person over, and it takes me a moment to realize I'm looking down at my brother. Oh my god.

I drop to my knees next to him, touching his sleeping face. In the week or so that he's been gone, he looks as if he's dropped ten pounds. He's already a skinny, gangly kid so he looks positively skeletal and it breaks my heart to see his cheekbones so pronounced. His eyes are sunken and his sandy hair is dark with sweat. His entire body is shivering, and I want to burst into tears at the sight of him.

Benny opens his eyes, and for a terrifying moment, I worry he's going to stare right past me. But he gives me a crooked, tired smile. "Andi?"

"Hey," I say softly, smiling down at him. For some reason, the tears don't come. I'm calm. I'm strong, because he needs me to be.

"I'm sick."

"I know, buddy. It's okay. I'll take care of you."

"How did you find me?" He blinks slowly, sleepily, as if it's a great effort to do so.

"I'm your sister, dork," I tease gently. I stroke the sweaty hair back from his face. "You think I wouldn't come after you once I heard you flew the coop? Liam helped me find you."

His face creases in a tired smile. "Liam's here?"

I fight back the ache of jealousy that my brother should get so excited over Liam instead of me. Now's not the time. "Yup, he's here."

A big, warm hand clasps my shoulder and in the next moment, Liam's crouching next to me beside Benny's blankets. "I'm here," he says.

"Hey, Liam. How's it going?"

Liam chuckles, but his grip is firm and reassuring on my shoulder, as if telling me he's got me. "You scared the shit out of your sister."

"Sorry, Andi," he says, and his eyes fill with tears. "I just wanted…friends, you know?"

"Oh, don't apologize, Benny." I stroke his forehead. "I'll kill you later, when you're feeling better. For now, you just rest, okay? I'm sorry I didn't realize you were so miserable. I'll try to be a better sister."

"Not your fault," he mumbles, and then gives a long, violent shiver. "I'm thirsty."

"I'll get you some water." I pull out my canteen and then pause. If he's sick and I'm not, him putting his lips on my drinking vessel won't help matters. With an aching heart, I get up and approach the woman who greeted us. "Do you have any cups?"

She gestures tiredly over at a table that's set up in a corner. I see supplies there, as if people realized they were going to be violently ill soon enough and would need things nearby. I pick up a plastic cup from the stack and notice that the buckets full of water are nearly empty. There's a few old faded cartons of snack foods that someone must have been saving for special occasions, but they're out now. I can't even get excited about that. I snag a cellophane-wrapped Twinkie for my brother—he used to love them as a tiny kid—and fill up the cup with water and then return to his side.

Liam's there, holding his hand and talking softly to him. My heart squeezes at the sight and I sit down again, helping Benny upright so he can drink. He only takes a few tiny sips, little more than enough to wet his lips, and then pushes it away.

"I'm tired," he murmurs, lying back down.

"Are you hungry? They have Twinkies," I say, putting a cajoling note in my voice.

He shakes his head and closes his eyes, going to sleep almost immediately. My heart clenches again, this time with fear. I look over at Liam, whose face is grim. "What was he saying to you?" I can't help but ask.

Liam's mouth is a tight line. "He wanted me to look after you when he's gone."

"He's not going anywhere." I don't care if he meant gone as in off to another fort when he gets better, or if he means…gone. Either way, I'm not letting my brother go. I take his hand in mine and gaze down at him as he sleeps, full of determination.

He's not fucking dying. He's not.

21

LIAM

T  his “sickness” thing is confusing to me. My Andrea is utterly focused on her brother, not leaving his side. She bathes his forehead and talks quietly to him when he wakes up, but she won't leave even to take a break. She doesn't want him to wake up and think she's gone.

I understand it, but it leaves me at a loss of what to do with myself. Back in my world, I was a warrior. Even when I was slinking through the outskirts of the human settlements, I did what I could to help out with hunting or tending gardens. I watch over Andrea for a time, and then I turn to the human Gabe to see what he does.

He has been a curious one to watch. He left his dog Scooter at the entrance to the building. The moment we encountered the sick, he took a stick—a pen—and wrote a note, then attached it to Scooter’s collar.

“I’m sending him home,” he tells me and Andi. “So Major and the others don’t worry…and so they don’t come looking for us.”

He sends the dog off, a grim look on his face. Then, he heads back into the room and immediately goes to the sick. He moves from bed to bed, touching foreheads and wiping down faces. He holds someone up as they vomit and cleans them when they are done. His expression is calm and grim, and when the woman steps outside to catch her breath, he continues on to the next bed, as if tireless.

He does this for hours.

I watch him, then move forward as he bathes another's forehead. Perhaps Gabe has the answers I seek. "May I ask something?"

"You can if you get more water," he tells me. "We're running low."

I can do that. I'm glad to be given something to do. I don't like sitting around and feeling useless. I need to be helping in some way, if only to support Andrea in her quest to get her brother better from this mysterious “sickness” that makes him so weak. So I take a few of the buckets and follow the scent-trails throughout the large building. There are paths that people walk regularly, and I follow one to a large pool with a decorative stone fish in the center. The water here smells like soap and bathing, so I continue on until I find one of the spouts that the humans use back in Fort Shreveport. I turn it with a creak, and sure enough, fresh water spurts, and then pours out. I fill up the buckets, return to the dwelling where all the humans are piled in, and then fill every other bucket I can.

I look over at Andrea when this is done, but she's lying down beside Benny, talking in a low voice, her arm around her brother's shoulders and hugging him against her. I study her face, tense, waiting to see if she starts pouring sweat like the other humans, or for her to shiver, but she seems fine. I deliberately walk close and breathe in her scent, testing it, but there is no clinging miasma. Good.

The human male is sitting near a new person, and the stink of feces hits me like a wall. I choke, covering my mouth, as he pulls the blankets over the face of the human. Dead, then, and his bowels voided as he passed. Even though I hate the thought of touching such a stink, I approach Gabe. "Can I help you move the bodies?"

He nods, rubbing a hand over his face. "We'll cremate them later, I think, but for now it's easiest to just get them out of the sickroom. I appreciate the help."

I want to tell him that I'm not doing it for him, or for any of the others that lie here. I want the dead and the sick as far away from my Andrea—and Benny—as possible because I do not understand this thing that has felled so many. So I help him wrap the body of the woman in the sheets, and then we each take an end and carry her across the building, to another room where there are many more laid out. Twenty, now, a handful of them from after when we arrived.

We gently set the body down and I look over at Gabe. "Now that we are alone, explain to me this 'sickness.'"

He gives me a skeptical look. "Your people don't get illnesses?"

"Drakoni? No."

"Coughs? Sniffles? Something that makes you feel ill or raises your body temperature? Anything?"

I spread my hands. "I do not understand any of this."

"Then you probably won't catch it, but I think Andi and I are in danger." He rubs a hand over his face and then shakes his head. "So…illness is something that you can catch from another human. It might be from a touching of hands or even breathing air. If this is the flu like we think it is, you get infected from being around others. Once it's in your system, you either wait for your body to fight it off or…"

I look down at the dead, stinking and covered in sheets around us. "Or you end up here."

"Right."

"What can I do?" I want to protect Andrea and her brother, but I don't know how. If I can't see it, how can I fight it?

"You can do what I'm doing. Give people water. Keep them hydrated. Make them comfortable. And wait. Back in the day we used to have all kinds of medicine for this sort of thing, but now I don't even have a fistful of aspirin." He shakes his head, frustration on his face.

I grunt acknowledgement, but I don't like his answer. There must be more we can do. "Can we go looking for aspirin? Or medicine?"

"If there's a pharmacy within a few miles of here, it'll be picked clean already." Gabe gives me an assessing look. "A dragon could fly a lot farther than a human could walk in a day."

"I can't shift forms," I tell him harshly. "Do not even ask such a thing." Because if I could, I would have done so a dozen times over. Benny would not be here. Andrea would not be here.

None of this would have happened.

THE AFTERNOON PASSES SLOWLY. I fetch more water as Gabe moves amongst the sick, and Andrea tends to her brother. Benny isn't doing well. He's thin and sleeps more than he's awake, and I can tell that Andrea's worried.

The woman that greeted us at the entrance of the fort lay down a few hours ago and hasn't gotten back up. Gabe moves to her side, sighs heavily, and then puts a wet cloth on her forehead like he does for all the other sick.

"Liam," Andrea murmurs, her voice low and soft.

I turn toward her, drawn.

She remains at Benny's side, a towel in a bowl of water next to her hand. Benny's asleep—or rather, unconscious. He thrashes in the bed, his face covered in sweat. His smell is more sour than ever, and Andrea's lovely face is drawn with worry.

"What can I do to help?" I murmur, crouching next to her. I devour her with my eyes, wanting nothing more than to touch her face and hold her close, but she's stiff and defensive, as if I'll tell her something she doesn't want to hear.

She studies me for a long moment, then reaches out and takes my hand in hers, surprising me. "I need you to promise me something."

"Anything, Andrea. You know I would do anything for you."

Normally she'd blush at my fervent words, but today, she doesn't. She just looks sad and tired. "If we die, I need you to take the news back to Fort Shreveport. Tell Amy and…tell Gwen." She swallows hard, her eyes glassy with unshed water.

A low growl forms in my chest, and I have to fight the urge not to drag her against my chest and hold her against me protectively. I can't do anything against the unseen dangers that attack Benny and the others. More than anything, I wish I had my battle form so I could grab her in my claws and just fly away from all of this. "Andrea, no."

"You won't? Should I ask Gabe?"

"You're not going to die," I tell her fiercely, and this time I can't stop myself. I grab her shoulder, then her fat, yellow braid, winding it around my hand as if it'll somehow keep her here. "No one's going to die. Not you. Not Benny. I won't let it happen." I feel the wildness surging up inside me, and for a moment, a burst of violence flares in my brain. I want to fucking destroy this entire building and raze it to the ground—

"Liam," she says softly, her hand covering mine. "Atalim. Stay with me."

I take three deep breaths, nostrils flaring, and then I bury my face in her hair, drinking in her scent. "You're not going to die, Andrea."

"I'm just saying…just in case." She touches my jaw lightly. "Maybe it won't hit me. And Benny's doing all right, I think. Better than some of the others."

"Yes," I say, because what else can I say? He's not dead, but I don't think he's doing better than the others. I think he's sinking a little more with each hour.

Andrea smiles up at me, her expression sweet. "You've been so good to me, Liam," she murmurs. "I just wanted to say thank you for being there for me. Always. Every time I've needed a friend, you've been there."

"You are more than just a friend, Andrea. You know this." I reach up and touch her cheek anyhow, because I have to. I must.

She leans into my caress, closing her eyes. "Sometimes I wish we were just back up on that roof together. Everything seemed so simple that night. And now…"

"Now it is still as good," I promise her. "The days change, but the feelings do not. You are still everything to me, Andrea. You always have been."

Her eyes open and she gazes up at me. "Atalim…"

Benny cries out, his body stiffening. She jerks away, immediately reaching out to her brother. He rolls to his side and vomits, the spit on his lips dark and frothy. That's not a good sign. I've carted off enough dead with Gabe to know that those that died all threw up blood before they went.

"It's okay, Benny," Andrea whispers over and over. "I'm right here. It's okay." She holds him while he retches, and when he finally collapses into the bed again, she brushes his hair off his forehead. "You're hot. I'll bathe you and we'll cool that fever down, okay?"

Benny doesn't answer. His eyes slide shut and he falls unconscious again, drifting back into sleep.

My Andrea doesn't notice that, though—or she doesn't care. I recognize the determined look on her face as she wrings out the cloth and then gently moves it over his face and neck. She's going to give everything she has to Benny and I hope it's enough. I touch her braid one last time. "Can I get you anything?"

"More water?" She looks up at me, apologetic.

"Of course." I brush my knuckles over her cheek and then move to the buckets so I can refill her bowl. I know she's tired. The hours grow late, but I know she won't sleep, just like she won't eat. She's too focused on her brother.

It makes me feel helpless. I want to do something, but I know there's nothing to do except wait and help Gabe. He's another that hasn't taken a break since we arrived. I glance around the room and I see he's holding a cup of water to a sick woman's mouth.

Even though he is not drakoni, even though he eyed my female, I have grudging respect for the man. He could have left, stealing these people's food and supplies. It's out for anyone to take and they are far too weak to protect themselves. Instead, he risks himself to help the dying.

Benny cries out in sharp pain, drawing my attention. I move quickly to Andrea's side, where she's staring in shock at her brother.

"What is it?" I ask.

She looks up at me, her face bleached of color. For a moment, I think she's going to tell me that he died, but Benny's still panting, lost in fever. "His arm…I just touched it and he cried out. Something's wrong with it." She bites her lip and then looks up at me. "Can you hold him?"

I nod and move to his other side. It pains my heart to grab her sick brother by his thin arms and hold him while she examines him. He cries out in pain when she gets near his armpit, and when we gently ease his arm up, Andrea gasps.

"Oh god," she moans, her hand fluttering over the ugly thing revealed.

There's a large black lump under Benny's arm. It's dark and the skin around it is taut and reddened, and when she gently touches it, he screams out in pain again, thrashing.

"I don't understand," she says, shaking her head. I gently ease him back into the bed and he immediately tucks his body close, curling around his arm and hiding the spot from sight. "This…this isn't the flu."

"What is it?"

Her face is ashen as her eyes meet mine. "Plague. I think…I think it's the black plague. Oh fuck, the rats." She presses her hands to her forehead. "The fucking rats!"

"I do not understand," I say slowly. "Tell me what the difference is between the plague and the flu."

Andrea closes her eyes, and when she opens them again, tears stream down her face. "The difference is that people generally survive the flu. The Black Plague wiped out half of Europe. I thought it was gone but…we never had to worry about rats in the Before." Her fingers press to her mouth. "I can't believe it."

“What do we do?” I ask.

“If it’s a plague, there’s no hope.” She shakes her head, expression bleak. “There’s nothing to do except wait to die.”

22

LIAM

Benny sleeps, and he sleeps heavily. He’s no longer thrashing with fever, just still and quiet, as if waiting for the end.

Andrea cries herself to sleep in my arms. She tells Gabe her suspicions, and they check a few of the others and find the hard, black lumps on every person. Some are in armpits, some at the neck or behind the ear. One unfortunate dying man has them on his genitals. It is plague, she tells me as she sobs against my neck. An old, deadly one brought on by rats and their filth.

I hold her as she sleeps, her breath shuddering as if she still wants to cry in her dreams. It’s quiet, the entire building dark and gloomy. There were a few candles lit on the tables, but we’ve let them all burn down except for one. The smell of the dead and the sickness grows worse, and I repeatedly bury my face in Andrea’s hair to try and chase it away. The wildness gnaws at the back of my thoughts, and I hate that it comes for me, even now, when I want nothing more than to be here for Andrea, to support her as she waits for her brother to die.

Because it does sound like he’s going to die. Another eight people have passed. There are a few more that won’t see the morning, and the room is getting slowly cleared out. The woman who tended to everyone is one of the ones that won’t see the morning; she’s been vomiting blood for the last hour, and Gabe rests at her side, offering her drinks and helping her through the worst of it.

I hold my female close, trying to imagine this sickness. The drakoni have nothing like it. We don’t weaken or get ill from outside factors. To think that I could lose her to something like this frightens me beyond anything I can imagine. I’m still coming to terms with the fact that Andrea can never be mine. I never thought I would be in danger of losing her so quickly to something like this.

I press my lips to the top of her head and hold her close.

Andrea shivers against me.

My body goes stiff. No.

She’s just cold.

I caress her cheek, rubbing my fingers along her skin. She feels warm, warmer than before. Flushed. Her skin is dewy with heat and I lean forward and take a deep drink of her scent. There. The smell is there. That awful, clinging, dark miasma has invaded her scent.

She’s sick.

“No,” I growl, holding her close. I cup her head and pull her tight to me. “Andrea, no. You will fight this. You will not get sick.”

“Mmm, what?” She rouses from her sleep, but her movements are languid, as if her limbs are too heavy.

“Look at me,” I demand, gripping her jaw between my fingers and tilting her head back. “Andrea, look at me.”

Her head lolls back and she blinks sleepy, unfocused eyes at me. And then she shivers again. “I’m so cold, Liam.”

Hot, fierce rage rushes through me. No. No, I cannot lose Andrea. I hold her close, but her smell makes my body react. The aching hunger I have to possess her is added to the helpless rage I feel until I know I’m coming apart at the seams. I picture her, wrapped up in sheets and in the room with the dead and white-hot fury blasts through me, making my skin itch and my entire body flare.

I’m going to utterly lose my mind.

I close my eyes and take several deep, long breaths. Andrea murmurs something unintelligible and then drifts back to sleep. I hold her for a moment longer, and then because it’s making the possessive fires in my mind go wild, I lay her down gently next to Benny and tuck the blankets around her.

She shivers and shivers, and the rage eating away at my mental walls grows.

No.

This is not fair.

I get up and leave her side, even though it’s destroying me to abandon her. I can’t stay there, though. If I keep breathing in her sickness-touched scent, it’s going to make me lose control.

If my mind is gone, I cannot help her. There has to be something I can do. There must be. I refuse to just sit and let this happen.

I will not let my female die.

I pace the room, lost in my furious thoughts. The female dragon’s mind is distant, but it weighs heavily on me, as if waiting for a chance to touch my own. The pressure from her does not help, either. Focus, I remind myself. Think of your mental walls. Make them strong.

I’m so lost in thought that when Gabe touches my arm, I round on him, snarling. I know without seeing that my eyes are black with fury, and I can smell the smoke curling from my nostrils. “What?” I grit out, clenching my hands.

“Two more dead,” he says grimly. “Help me move them?”

I don’t care about the dead strangers. The only person I care about is in bed with Benny, shivering next to her brother. “Andrea is sick,” I tell him.

“Yeah. I think I’m coming down with it, too.” He puts his hands on his hips. “Gonna keep going for as long as I can, but it might not be that long.”

I notice for the first time that his skin is reddened across the cheeks and his eyes are glazed. For a moment, I am utterly furious at him. “You cannot be sick, too. I need your help!”

“You think I want this?” He gives me a tired smile. “Trust me, I would like nothing more than to go home, but I don’t have that option.”

“Tell me what I must do.”

“Bury us?”

I growl again. “I am not giving up.”

“No, I guess you’ve got too much fire in your belly for that.” Gabe looks at me, speculative. “You’re not sick?”

I shrug, furious. “Why would I get sick? I’m not human.”

He reaches out and puts a hand on my brow, then peers into my eyes. “You feel fine?”

I bat his hand away. “I am as I ever was, except I am growing angrier by the moment.”

“Are your people magic? Is that how you change forms? How you breathe fire? Or is that something that’s genetic?”

“Why?” I ask, impatient. I want to return to Andrea’s side, to hold her for as long as I can. If this human will not help me, I need to figure something else out. “Why does it matter if I’m magic or not?”

“Because you’re not sick. And because I am.” He gives me a faint smile. “And because Andrea’s sick. And I’m trying to figure out how to fix that.”

He has my interest again. “Go on.”

Gabe rubs his hairy jaw. “So…one of the ways that people prevent illnesses is to infect someone with a small amount of the same thing, so their blood knows how to react to it. I’m just wondering what would happen if we added a bit of your blood to a human’s blood.”

“It would burn Andrea,” I tell him, imagining my fires tearing at her from within. I think of how close we came to mating and how I would have burned her. “Even with fever, your bodies are not hot enough to handle my blood without pain. We have fire in our veins, the drakoni.”

“Magic, then,” Gabe continues to rub his jaw. “Have you ever had anyone take your blood?”

“No.” I look at him skeptically. “You think if we give them my blood it will cure them?”

“Probably not, but I’d rather try something than just sit around on my ass and wait for the end to come.”

I like this idea. It fills me with hope. Is my blood not part of my spirit? Perhaps whatever living magic I have can help Andrea and Benny survive. “It will burn them,” I caution him again. “And you, if you want to try it.”

“Pain is better than dead,” he says bluntly.

I agree. If I must hurt Andrea to save her…then I must. “Show me what we must do.”

GABE OFFERS TO GO FIRST. I want to save Andrea first, of course, but if this is a deadly idea, it's good to try it out on the male instead of my love. Gabe finds tubes and needles, and then tells me in great detail what he's going to do. He's going to locate a vein in my arm, connect to my blood, and then transfer it over to a vein in his arm. It seems a foolish thing, but humans apparently share blood often? He says he used to do this back in the Before, when he was something called a “paramedic.” So he pushes at my skin and eventually sinks the needle in, then puts it into his own arm. The small tube fills up with blood and I watch as it moves over to his arm.

The moment it hits, I can tell. His face contorts with pain and he grabs at his arm. I grab at it, too. "I told you it would hurt," I warn him.

"Fuck. Right." His face gets wild eyed and he clenches at my hand, but doesn't pull it out. His breath pants between gritted teeth and the smell of burning flesh begins to perfume the air. I look down between us and his arm is blistering around the needle, the skin red.

He waits for as long as possible and then rips the needle out of his arm. It's less than a minute, tops. "I can't do more. I'm sorry. It's like I'm being burned alive." He gets up, clutching his arm, and paces around as if that will somehow take care of the pain.

I watch him as he paces. "Do you feel better?"

Gabe looks over at me, his face pale and sweaty as he clutches his arm. "Are you kidding? I feel like shit and my arm's still fucking killing me."

I snort. "I told you."

"I know. I know." He sits down and closes his eyes, trying to compose himself. "We won't know for a while if this works or not. Do you want to wait to try it out on Andi and Benny?"

I look over at my female—because in my head, she is mine. She is quiet and still in the bed next to her brother, who is racked with chills. I don't like how silent she's been. Some of the others that got quiet right away never woke up. The room around us is emptier by the hour, and it worries me. "I do not think we have time to wait."

"I think you're right." He gets up and grimaces, flexing his arm, then wraps a cloth around the wound to protect it. "You might want to tie her down."

The thought is revolting to me, but I saw how much Gabe fought, even though it was his idea. The pain was too much for him to bear, even knowing it was coming. I won't tie her up, but if I have to, I'll hold her down with my good arm.

When I sit down next to her bed, though, her eyes open and she gives me a tired smile. "How's Benny?"

"Sleeping," I say, then launch right into it. "Gabe has an idea we're going to try."

She sits up and sees where Gabe has bandaged his arm. She looks over at me, and when Gabe pulls out the tubing and needles, she seems surprised. "Blood transfusion? With you, Liam?"

"I am not sick," I point out. "Not at all. My people do not get such things."

"So a blood transfusion to try and pass your immunity to us?" She catches on quickly, my smart, beautiful Andrea. "Good idea."

"It will hurt," I warn her, hating that she's going to be in pain. I reach out and smooth the sweaty hair back from her face. "Gabe said it was intense, the pain."

"I can imagine. It's because your blood is so hot, right?" Her eyes are tired, unfocused, as if even this small conversation is too much for her. "Will you hold me when you do it?"

"Of course."

She takes my hand in hers. "Do Benny first."

I hesitate, because she is the one I want to save most of all, but I know this is important to her. "If you want."

Andrea nods. "Please."

So we move to Benny's side of the bed instead. He sleeps on, completely unaware even as Gabe inserts the needle in his arm and then hooks the tubing to me. A moment later, though, the screaming begins. Andrea goes pale as she leans over her brother, pressing down on him with her weight. Gabe does the same, his knee holding down Benny's arm and his hand on his shoulder so he doesn't rip the needle out. He thrashes under their grip, sobbing, and I hate the stench of the burning skin, the way his skin blisters around the needle. Gabe lets it go on for what seems like forever and then pulls the needle out, rubbing a cream over his arm. "Antiseptic," Gabe says, and covers the wound with a bandage as if that will somehow stop the pain.

They let him go, and Benny curls up around his arm, his breathing raspy. Andrea touches his head and murmurs to him, but he doesn't respond to it any more than anything else. Only the pain gets a reaction.

When she's satisfied that Benny's quiet once more, she turns to me and gives me a sad smile. "Do you really think this will work?"

"I don't know," I admit. "I don't know anything about any of this. But if I can give you my health, I will."

"Will you give it to the others that are sick here? They deserve a chance, too." Her eyes plead with me.

How can I refuse? "I will do anything you ask, Andrea."

She holds out her arm and gives me a tired smile. "I love you, Atalim. If this doesn't work, it's okay. I know you're trying."

My heart squeezes to hear her say my name. "It will work," I tell her, determined. "I will not lose you."

But I move to her back and rest her against me, her shoulders pressing against the front of my chest. She sags back against me, weak and tired, and the hand that clasps mine feels more fragile than ever. I breathe in her scent, pressing my mouth to her sweaty hair. I hate that the miasma of sickness is all over her scent. I hate that I am so helpless.

Her fingers clench on mine as Gabe inserts the needle and then readies my arm. He attaches the tubing and then we both wait, and I hold my breath as my blood reaches her.

She whimpers, her hand tight on mine. I know she tries hard not to fight, but the pain becomes too much and she cries out. Gabe holds her other arm back and I lock mine around her, whispering words of comfort as she thrashes against me.

It is an eternity before Gabe takes the needle out and she collapses, sobbing, against my chest.

I hold her, stroking her soft skin and touching her hair. I caress her neck…and she jerks back with a little cry.

"Shh," I tell her, moving her hair aside so I can see it. Sure enough, there's one of the hard, black lumps behind her ear.

My poor Andrea. I press my mouth to her forehead. "Rest, love. I've got you."

I've never been more terrified in my life.

23

LIAM

We move through the sick in the room. Gabe warns me to let him know if I feel lightheaded because then we need to stop.

"Can't have you dying on us, too," he says with a faint smile.

Ten minutes later, he topples over.

I recognize the flush and shivers that rack his frame, and help him over to a bed that was recently vacated. The room is quiet, the only sounds those of Andrea's teeth clacking together as she trembles with a cold that no amount of blankets seem to fix.

I make Gabe comfortable, thankful for the male's idea to help Andrea and the others. In a short period of time, I've gone from hating the man to having respect for him, and I'm sad to see him flattened by the same sickness that's taken everyone else. Maybe I can keep going without him.

The next person I move to is dead, though, and I pull the blankets over the man's face and then carry his body out of the sick room. There are more dead than alive, now, and no one has recovered. My heart feels hollow and I hate this. I hate all of it. I want to grab Andrea and Benny in my arms and take to the skies and never look back…but that's not what she wants.

And it's too late, anyhow.

I move back to Andrea's bed, where she rests next to her brother. Benny's been sleeping for most of the day, and I worry for a moment that he's dead. I touch his brow and he doesn't stir, his forehead hotter than any human's should be. His arm is blistered and raw, the redness spreading from under the bandaged spot where he got the blood. Still…he's not dead. At this point, I'm taking that as a good sign.

I sit next to Andrea and take her hand in mine. It's limp, her fingers sweaty. I try to think of more ideas, of ways to fix this, of more things I can do. She needs to eat. Good, fresh meat, I think. These people have nothing but stale, sugary things or canned food that lost its flavor and nourishing vitality years ago. She needs real food. Fresh water.

Maybe even more blood. I hold her hand in mine, tracing the bluish veins under her pale skin. Does my blood mingle with hers or is it killing her, burning her from within? Is that why she's so quiet?

I look over at Benny again, but he sleeps. It's impossible to tell if he's healing, or if any of them are.

I'm the last one left.

The woman who greeted us moans and tosses in her bed. Even though I care nothing for the other humans, I can't let her suffer. She's one of the humans that tried to warn us, after all, and she took care of the others for as long as she could. She needs my blood, too. Reluctantly, I move away from my sleeping Andrea to the woman, but I can't get the needle into her arm like Gabe did. She thrashes too much and won't hold still.

This is a two-person job.

Frustrated, I move back to Andrea's side and touch her cheek. To my surprise, her eyes flutter open and she looks at me. "Liam," she whispers. "Benny?"

"Sleeping," I murmur, aching to hold her tight, to kiss her, to taste her. "How's your arm?"

"The burning's gone down, but it still feels hot. Feels hot all over." She licks her lips. "Water?"

I get her some and then carefully bring a cup to her lips. More of it dribbles down her chin than into her mouth. She takes a few sips and then rests again, her eyes closing. For a moment, I think she's asleep, but then she opens them again and looks at me. "Gabe?"

"He's sick."

"Benny?"

My heart sinks. She doesn't remember asking about him just a moment ago? But her eyes are fever-bright. "Sleeping next to you."

"Is he better?"

"No worse," I say gently.

"But not better." She shakes her head slowly. "Maybe we need more blood." She reaches out, twines her fingers with mine and then pulls my hand to her mouth, kissing my fingers. "Give him another round in the morning, maybe. Maybe it needs more than one time."

"I'll do what I can," I promise her, but her eyes are already closed and her grip slack in mine. A moment later, she coughs, then begins to vomit. I roll her onto her side, hating that it exposes the enormous black lump on her neck. It's a reminder that she's still sick. They're all still sick and I'm the only one left.

I tend to Andrea, wiping her face when she's done and giving her more water. She passes out after drinking a little, and I hold her hand, waiting for a sign that she's getting better. Some sort of hint that we've done the right thing.

But she only shivers and quakes, lost in the sickness. At her side, Benny is so very still. I look over at Gabe, a few beds away, and he thrashes wildly under his blankets.

If they all need more blood…I can't do it alone. I don’t know how. If I could, I would give my blood to Andrea until I have no more left. She can have every last drop. I pull her hand to my lips and brush my mouth over her knuckles.

But I can't do this by myself.

We need to give them more blood, and I need help. I need to get back to Fort Shreveport, to Amy and Rast.

With one last kiss to my Andrea's soft hand, I tuck her hand against her chest and make sure her blankets are tight around her. I smooth the sweaty hair from her brow and drink in the sight of her.

"I love you," I murmur, using the human words. The drakoni have no need for such sayings, because such things are felt in the mental connection. But Andrea's mind is closed to me—just like all minds are closed to me—and so I must use the human sayings. "I hate everything in this world but you," I tell her. "You make everything good, and when I'm with you, I'm not sad or alone. I love you, and I hope you know that. Never forget it."

Her lips part in a little sigh, and I hope she hears it.

I force myself to get to my feet, and I move to the table of supplies, digging through things until I find one of the sticks that they call a “pen” and a book. I rip a blank page out of the front and take the pen and the page over to Gabe's bed and sit down next to him.

I shake his shoulder. "Gabe. Wake. I need your help." He's the least sick of all of them, and I hope he has the strength to help me.

The man jerks awake, his eyes fever-bright. "Water," he rasps.

"I will give you water, but you must make human words on paper for me," I say, handing him the page I ripped out. "I must go to Fort Shreveport for help, and I need you to write the human words on here to tell them what is wrong."

He gazes up at me, his eyes red and sunken. "Too far to walk," he murmurs. "We'll be dead by the time you get back."

"I'm not going to walk it. I'm going to fly." I don't know how that's going to work, but I have to try. "That's why I need the note. If my mind goes…the note will get there." Hopefully. Even if I can't keep my mind intact, I'm hoping that the urgent need to get help from Fort Shreveport, which I feel in every fiber of my being, will remain and arrow me toward them.

Or my mind will stay as it is and all of this worry will be for nothing. But…just in case.

"I thought you would die if you tried that—"

"I have to try." I look over at Andrea, where she's sleeping. She's listless, her shivering given way to a deep sleep that frightens me almost as much. "Better to be mindless than to watch her die when I could have saved her."

Gabe grunts, then takes the pen in shaking hands. Even that small gesture seems like a huge effort for him, the sickness sapping his strength. "What do you want me to write?"

A SHORT TIME LATER, I have the note encased in a small, fireproof metal container and I hold it in my grip. I sit by Andrea's side for a bit longer, drinking in the sight of her as she lies unconscious.

For seven long years, I've risked nothing. I've hidden from my own people, desperate to save my own skin.

But for Andrea? I'm going to risk everything.

There's a slim chance this will work. Maybe my grip on my mind is strong enough —like Rast—that I'll keep a large chunk of my sanity. I'm hoping it's enough to drag me back toward Fort Shreveport and within range of the others so I can pass on the news of the sickness and get help for Andrea and the others. If there's a chance that more drakoni blood can help them, then I have to try. I can't do it alone, and Gabe's fading fast. Just to be sure, I tried to donate my blood to Andrea again, but I only managed to stab her arm a few times and cause her pain. I need someone that knows how human bodies work, so they can put my blood in her.

"If this works," I whisper, holding her hand to my lips, "Nothing's going to keep us apart. If I can become drakoni safely, I'm going to claim you as my mate. You just have to live for me, Andrea. Please. Live."

I stare at her, her hand at my mouth, silently willing for her to open her eyes. To smile at me. To give me one of those clever smiles.

But she sleeps, her breathing shallow, and I cannot wait any longer.

Dread churns in my gut, and I force myself to focus on the task at hand. Fort Shreveport, I remind myself. Think of nothing but Fort Shreveport. I repeat the words silently as I walk out of the sickness-infested building and into the open air. I shed my human clothing and stand out in the open, ready to take battle form for the first time in seven years.

Please work.

Andrea needs me.

Andrea. Fort Shreveport. I clutch the metal container tight in my hand. Remember who you do this for.

And with that…I let the mental blocks I've kept so carefully for so long…go. I stretch out with my mind, seeking the parts of it I've held at bay for so long.

My body shifts. Scales cover long limbs and my wings form. I feel hot, surging joy as I shift into my strong, fierce battle form. This is who I am. This is who I am meant to be, who I have been fighting to be for so long.

For a moment, there is nothing but pure joy.

And then…violence.

Anger. Fury. It soars through me, flooding my senses. The need to kill, to harm, rushes through my mind. The stink here is foreign, full of humans. The need to get away is instinctual and pours through me. With a roar, I push off with my strong hind legs and fling myself into the skies, my throat erupting with fire.

I'm free.

Free to destroy and take my fury out on this terrible, stinking world.

Something works at the back of my mind. Something small, a reminder of some kind. Golden hair. A scent. I clutch a metal thing, impossibly small, in my blunted claws. But then the rage takes over and it all washes from my mind. With a fierce growl, I cast the useless thing down to the ground and fly higher, seeking the clouds.

Time to hunt. To destroy.

24

ANDI

Everything hurts.

I squeeze one eye open, trying to figure out where I am. I feel utterly flattened, exhausted in ways I didn't know I could feel. Even just opening one eye is effort. God, why am I so tired? I smell, too. I smell like sweat and vomit and…

I remember now.

Plague.

The fucking black plague.

I open both my eyes and try to sit up.

"Hey, hey, careful," says a man's voice. "Take it easy, Andi."

Andi. Not Andrea. I look over and squint, but the man talking to me isn't Liam. Of course it's not. The voice is completely different, but my brain is just desperate to see the man I love. It's Gabe, who comes to sit next to me and offers me a cup of water.

"Where's Liam?" I ask, sitting up to take a sip. It spills all over my face as I fumble for the cup, and I feel as weak and useless as a baby.

"Careful," Gabe warns again. "You're exhausted. Give yourself time."

I take tiny sips from the cup as he holds it, letting the water coat my dry throat and sandpaper tongue. I'm so tired I want to go back to sleep right away, but I have a million questions. I study Gabe's face as I drink, trying to read answers from it. There's something about him that looks different. His face is drawn into grim lines. His hair is dirty and wild, and his eyes are sunken and hollow as if he hasn't eaten in days. It surprises me. "Did…did you get sick too?"

He nods. "Everyone got sick. No one was spared."

"What—"

Before I can continue, someone moves behind me. "Andi?"

Tears fill my eyes and I try to turn around. "Benny?"

My brother drops to his knees in the blankets next to me and flings his arms around my neck. "You're finally awake," he says, relief in his voice. "I'm so glad."

"Benny!" I try to hug my brother, but I can only muster the energy for a brief clasp, then let my arms slide off of him. "How are you feeling?"

He sits back on his heels, grinning at me. "Like shit."

I drink in his face, smiling like a ridiculous fool. He says he feels like shit, but he's alive and he looks better than when I saw him last. His face is still thin, but he's not sweating and pale. His hair's been washed and slicked back from his face and he's all energy once more, crossing his legs and sitting beside me.

"You look good," I manage. There's something different about his face, too, and I study him for a moment, but I'm too tired to figure it out. The urge to lie down and go back to sleep is overwhelming. I fight through it, though, because I'm eager to hear more about Benny. "How are you feeling? How's your underarm?"

He lifts one arm and that single movement just makes me exhausted. There's a big bandage over where his black lump used to be. "Gabe lanced it. It was so fucking gross, Andi. You should have seen it."

I wrinkle my nose. "Pass."

"Yours was nasty, too."

"Mine?" I touch under my arm, but it's as smooth as ever.

"Behind your ear." He makes a face. "I'm serious, it was like it exploded when Gabe put—"

"Okay, okay," I say, putting up a hand. I swallow hard. I don't want to know anything more about it. "Spare me the details. But you're feeling better? Stronger? No fever?"

"Mine's been gone for about two days," he says. "It's been me and Gabe trying to help the survivors." He actually seems…happy. Settled. "Man, I was tired when I woke up. You wouldn't believe how heavy my arms and legs felt. Like they were made of concrete."

"Oh, I believe it. I feel like that right now." I manage a smile. "I'm so relieved you're okay, Benny."

"Me, too. Just don't yell at me for leaving, all right?" My brother reaches out and takes my hand, squeezing it.

"I'll save that for some other time. Promise." I hear someone else cough, and I think about what he said about survivors. "How many people lived other than us?"

"Six." His face is somber. "There's so many dead, Andi. You wouldn't believe how many bodies."

Only six? This room was full a few days ago. I can't believe so many died. It's utterly horrifying. An entire fort—no, two—has been completely decimated due to the plague. "It was the rats," I murmur. "Rats carry black plague."

"Well, everyone that didn't die is on the mend. We don't have to worry about more plague, I don't think. Did you know you were out for three days?"

Oh dang. "Was I?"

"Yeah. You were impossible to wake up. You want something to eat?" He holds out a wrapped, smushed sweet. "I think this was a cupcake."

I shake my head. "I just want to sleep again. Where's Liam?" I'm craving him and my hand itches to touch him. Funny how I'm excited to see Benny doing well, but I'm absolutely filled with longing to see Liam, who wasn't even sick. It was like I missed him while I was unconscious, and now I can't wait to fill my senses with him again.

"Liam? We haven't seen him since he left." Benny shrugs and unwraps the cupcake, taking a huge bite out of it.

I struggle to sit up. "Wait, he left?"

Gabe moves over to the bed, putting his hand on my shoulder again. "Stay down, Andi. You were hit pretty hard. You need to rest."

"Liam," I say again. "Where is he?"

"We weren't sure if the blood transfusions were taking, so he flew to Fort Shreveport to get help." Gabe touches my forehead, as if making sure I'm not fevered, and then offers me more water. "Drink this. You're dehydrated."

I do so automatically because I'm incredibly thirsty. As I do, I try to make sense of what he said. Blood transfusions. I vaguely remember talking to Liam while I was sick, and then him holding me down. And pain. Lots and lots of burning pain. I look down at my arm, and it's wrapped up in bandages. Once Gabe takes the water away from my lips, I pluck at the bandage on my arm and reveal severely reddened skin, and blisters. Lots of them. "He gave us his blood?"

"Yeah. Duh." Benny licks his fingers. "That's why our eyes are gold now, like his."

I blink in surprise at that, studying my brother. He's right. His normally dark eyes are now a bright gold. I look over at Gabe, and his are golden, too. "My eyes are gold?"

"Everyone that got his blood has gold eyes now," Gabe says, reaching over and rewrapping my arm. "And whatever is in his blood, it worked, because most of us that got transfused lived."

Incredible. "And he was able to switch to dragon form without it taking his mind?"

"Taking his mind? I don't know." Gabe puts a hand on my shoulder. "Rest, all right? Liam's a big boy. He can take care of himself."

I nod and close my eyes, trying to relax. Liam gave us his blood to try and save us, even though the transfusion was obviously a painful one on our side. Was it painful for him? Is he okay? Is he talking with Rast at Fort Shreveport even now? I can't wait to see him again. I want to see his gorgeous smile, hear his low, delicious chuckle.

I want to tell him how proud I am that he saved us.

How much I love him. I hope he's back soon.

THE LONGEST WEEK of my life passes while I recover and wait for Liam’s return.

I spend the first few days doing nothing much but sleeping, recovering from my sickness. Benny's a surprisingly good nursemaid, hovering over me and shoving food into my hand every time I wake up. I can't even be mad at him for leaving, because how could he have possibly known he was walking into a plague situation? Those kinds of things aren't normal for us. So I don't even yell at him. I'm too tired and I'm just happy he's alive.

Other than Benny, myself, and Gabe, there are six people that survived. Two are a husband and wife from Fort Justice, but everyone else is New Fort. There's a teenage girl and her younger brother, a widow named Mikaela, and a man named Jeremy who lost everyone else in his family. It's horrible to think about everything they've lost, and most of them are in shock. I notice Benny's spending a lot of time nursing the teenage girl—Katrina. Good for him. Everyone needs someone.

I have Liam, after all.

He's still gone. I miss him in a painful way, but I'm content to wait, knowing that he went to Fort Shreveport to get help. I'm a little surprised no one flew in to help us, but I figure maybe they're going over land? Maybe Rast and Amy are needed at the fort for protection of some kind and anyone being sent is on foot. Even so, it's a little surprising that the days pass and no one comes to check on us.

About four days after I wake up, Lester, Major, Charlie and Scooter show up at the mall with the note Gabe sent. Gabe berates them for coming to a place infected with plague, but he shuts up when he finds out they ran out of food and it was stay and starve or take their chances meeting up with us.

Still no Liam, though.

Benny, Jeremy and Gabe take off for Fort Justice a day or two later and return at sundown with the chickens, a few carts full of food, and the cow led on a rope. It makes sense, because there's only two people left from Fort Justice and they're not all that interested in returning. Even the New Fort survivors talk about finding a new place to live, one without so much death.

I suggest Fort Shreveport.

It makes sense. We're open to all, welcoming, and as long as you work hard, you'll always have food in your belly and a safe roof over your head. The only part that makes it hard for them is the whole “dragon friendly” situation. They can't seem to grasp that dragons aren't always the enemies, but when they realize it's Liam's blood that saved them, they bitch a lot less.

Well, a lot less in my hearing, at least.

So the rest of the time in New Fort is spent preparing to leave. Everyone rests and gathers up their strength, and everything of use is packed up into a few shopping carts that can be pushed easily on the long walk there. The wobbly wheel on Lester's wheelchair is fixed, and the dead are memorialized with a spray-painted picture (courtesy of Katrina's tagging art) on the outside of the mall and a Viking funeral is held, complete with funeral pyre and lots and lots of tears.

And there's still no sign of Liam. Or anyone from Fort Shreveport.

After a week, I'm really worried. I think of my Liam, his laughing smile, and the way he struggled so hard to keep his mind under control. I don't like that there's no word from him. A thousand worrisome scenarios float through my mind—what if he got sick and brought it back to Fort Shreveport? What if a dragon attacked him and killed him? What if Rast challenged him and drove him off? What if the Rift sucked him back through again?

What if he lost his mind entirely the moment he changed?

There are no answers, though, so I try to stay busy. If I'm occupied, I won't worry as much. If I focus on everything that needs to be done to move the survivors to Fort Shreveport, I won't stare at the skies or fret over just how long it's been since I talked to the man I love.

He said he'd never leave me. He said he'd always come back for me. I have to trust in that.

IT TAKES another week for our slow-moving party to go to Fort Shreveport. Every day that passes feels like eternity and a half, but I'm too weak after my sickness to speed things along. Our group is slow moving and burdened with a lot of things. Poor Mikaela nominated herself to be in charge of the chickens and they constantly fly out of her cart and wander away, and she has to stop and retrieve them. Eventually she finds a large piece of plastic and tapes it down over the top of the cart to keep them in, but then they squawk and flutter their wings so much that they give everyone a headache. The carts are laden with goods, and sometimes it takes a lot of effort to get one up the road, especially when things slope uphill. No one wants to leave anything behind, though, so we slow down when we have to, and we help each other.

Gabe is a great leader, I have to admit. He's patient with everyone, even the slowest, most distracted of us. He makes sure we're all keeping up, rations out food, and goes scouting for safe places for us to sleep at night. He seems to know when a dragon attack's going to occur before anyone else does, and we always manage to find shelter before it starts.

Benny's been great, too. I thought my little brother would return right to his old ways, causing problems and being his usual teenage self, but he's calmed down a lot. Perhaps striking out on his own made him realize how good we have it in Fort Shreveport. Or maybe it's Gabe's influence…or Katrina's. Either way, he's been exceedingly helpful and spends most of the time pushing Lester's wheelchair because Lester is too tired to push it himself.

Each day of travel is surprisingly exhausting. I'm used to having tons of energy, so I'm disappointed in my body when I'm the first one to collapse at each break. It's taking all my effort to keep up with the others.

"It's okay," Benny tells me at some point. "You and Katrina were two of the sickest. She's having a hard time, too."

It doesn't make me feel any better, though. I need to get back to Fort Shreveport. I need to find out what's keeping Liam. Every day that passes, I get a little more worried and anxious. My dreams are full of bad things, and I imagine the worst-case scenario every time I close my eyes. I'm half-convinced that we're going to get to Fort Shreveport only to find it full of dead bodies.

After all, maybe he caught the plague too but it just took a bit longer for it to show up in him. Who knows? I'm not a doctor.

I'm relieved and excited when I see familiar streets and scavenging grounds. We're within a few hours of the fort itself, even at our current pace, and I'm eager to get there. It's getting dark, and my feet ache, and I want to fling the shopping cart of goods away from me and never look at it again because it feels like I've pushed it over half of Louisiana's highways.

But I look at our group and know we won't make it there tonight. Lester looks half-asleep in his wheelchair. Benny's pushing it as gamely as before, but he's slowing down. Katrina looks exhausted, leaning heavily on her cart. Everyone looks wiped out. I'm feeling wobbly and weak myself, but I don't want to stop. I can keep going, if I have to, because I know what waits ahead for me—Liam.

"Dragon," Gabe says, rushing back through the group as we walk along the highway, pushing our shopping carts. "Everyone take cover!"

"Where?" someone asks. "I don't see anything!"

"Just trust me," Gabe says, grabbing Lester out of his wheelchair and pulling him toward the nearest vehicle.

I glance up at the skies, my heart hammering. Is it Liam? Somehow, though, I sense it's not. I don't know how I know that, I just do. So I park my cart next to an old pick-up and pull open the door, hiding inside with Benny and Katrina. "It's the wrong time of day for a dragon," Katrina cries, clinging to Benny. "He's wrong, isn't he?"

"No, he's good about sensing dragons," Benny reassures her, patting her arm. "If he says there's one, there's one."

I'm wondering about that, too. But as I watch, Gabe climbs into a nearby car, Scooter hopping in after him, and then we're all quiet, waiting for the inevitable attack. There was no time to hide the foodstuffs, and the chickens are squawking madly in their cart a few paces away. The cow tugs at her guide-rope, which someone tied to a car door mirror.

Then, a large shadow falls overhead.

I hold my breath. Please be Liam, please be Liam.

My heart races with excitement as the big golden body flicks its wings and then settles on its haunches a short distance away. The big dragon turns toward us, and I know instinctively that it's not Liam. There's something about it that just…doesn't seem like him. The dragon looks around, his nostrils flaring, then gently releases something in its claws.

A blonde woman in a fluttery blue dress.

Amy.

It's Amy and Rast.

I watch for a moment as Amy limps forward, and then I'm climbing out of the truck to greet her. "Amy! It's us!"

Her eyes widen with genuine pleasure. "Andi! Oh, wonderful! Rast said there were travelers, but I didn't realize it was you!" Her steps pick up and she looks around with curiosity. "Who all's with you? Rast says there's several. Did you find Benny?”

My little brother piles out of the truck after me, giving Amy a sheepish look. "Hey."

She smiles at him, still slowly moving forward until she reaches me, and impulsively gives me a hug. I'm surprised at the movement but hug her back. Rast remains in dragon form, waiting nearby, and I suspect it's so he can guard her in case anyone tries anything. The sight of him makes me ache, and I open my mouth to ask about Liam.

Amy stands back, studying me. "You're so thin. Benny, too. Are you guys all right?"

"You don't know?" My gut clenches.

"Know what?" She looks around, confused. No one else is getting out of the cars they're hiding in. Even Gabe's waiting, Scooter in his lap as the dog pants and drools all over the window of the car. She looks over at him, then pauses. I know that vague look—it's one when Rast is talking to her mentally. After a moment, she focuses in on me again. "Who are all these people, Andi?"

Dread is curling in my stomach, though. "Amy, this is what's left of Fort Justice and New Fort. These are the only survivors."

"Only…survivors?" She studies me a bit longer and then blinks. "Have…have your eyes always been gold? Rast says your scent is different, too." She looks over at Benny, then back at me.

"You haven't seen Liam?" I ask, knowing the answer before she speaks.

She seems surprised at my question. "I thought he went with you. Did he leave you?"

"When we all got sick, he went to Fort Shreveport to get help. That was over a week ago, almost two." I feel numb.

Amy's eyes widen and then she gives me a look of sorrow. "We haven't seen him. He…changed forms?"

I nod. "He had to. The sickness was taking everyone."

"What sickness?"

I look at her squarely. "Plague."

Her face pales. Rast makes an unhappy sound, moving forward as if he wants to scoop Amy up in his arms and steal her away from us.

"Tell me what's going on." Amy takes my hand and leads me over to the side of the car and leans against it, easing her weight off her bad leg.

So I tell her about everything I can. I tell her how Liam and I followed Benny's scent to Gabe's group of outcasts, and then we went on to Fort Justice. I tell her how we found the dead there, and then went on to New Fort, only to realize that everyone was dying. As I speak, Rast creeps up closer and closer, the massive dragon moving in and casting a shadow over our group until he's practically on Amy, his breath ruffling her shiny hair. He probably wants to snatch her away, but Amy keeps listening as I talk, her expression grave.

"His blood saved us," I tell her. "But he wasn't sure if it was enough, and then Gabe was sick and I guess he left. He was supposed to bring you guys a note…" I trail off, fighting back tears. I can fill in the blanks after that.

Amy shakes her head slowly. "I'm so sorry, Andi. We haven't seen him since you left with him."

"Then he's gone crazy. He shifted forms and lost his mind. I know he wouldn't leave me behind like that. Not when I needed him."

The words fall out of me brokenly. I feel dead inside. Liam’s gone. He’s utterly gone. I’ve lost him. Grief and horror choke me, and I wrap my arms tight around myself, because I feel as if I’m about to fall apart.

Liam’s…gone.

"Maybe…maybe it's not as bad as that?" Amy asks, a hopeful expression on her face. "He's lived in a lot of forts before he came to us. Maybe he decided to just move on?"

"He wouldn't," I say firmly. I have utter faith in Liam. That's not who he is. He loves me and I know he would never just move on. Never. "He knew I was sick. He was terrified for me. For Benny, too. He loves me, Amy. He wouldn't leave me behind."

She reaches out and touches my hand gently. "Of course not. Well, you're all welcome in Fort Shreveport." She smiles brightly at the others, still hiding in the other cars. "We have food and shelter for everyone. Just to be on the safe side, we'll keep you separate from the others for about a week or so to make sure no one catches anything, and then you're more than welcome to live with us. We have a wonderful fort and it's very family friendly." She gives Gabe and Lester a warm smile.

Gabe just nods, looking to me.

I nod, too. Everyone will be safe there. "Once everyone's settled in, I’m going to go after Liam. I have to find him." I bite my lip and look up at Rast, his golden eyes swirling. "You guys haven't seen any new dragons in the area, have you?"

"Just a red that's been hanging around recently," Amy begins.

That gets Gabe's attention. He opens the door to the car and steps out. "A red?" When Amy nods, he snorts. "That's my red. She follows me wherever I go."

Amy's delicate brows furrow. "I…see."

"Maybe I shouldn't go to the fort with everyone," Gabe says, rubbing his jaw.

"Nonsense," Amy says briskly. "Rast will protect us from anyone that comes through. And he can help us look for Liam." She touches my hand again. "If he's out there, we'll find him."

"I can go," I begin.

She cuts me off, a bit of steel entering her gentle voice. "You can, once you've rested up. You're weak and recovering from sickness. You need a few good nights’ rest and some meals in you—in all of you—before I'm letting you do anything."

I hate that she's right. Even now, standing here, I'm exhausted. But I can't abandon Liam. "Amy…"

She shakes her head again. "You don't understand, Andi. A few more days won't matter to him. If he's lost to the madness, there's no sense of time for him at all. He won't know anything. It truly is best if you're strong because if you're going to try and call him home, you're going to need everything you've got."

She's right. It doesn't make it easy, but she's right.

25

ANDI

I  dream about Liam every night.

I’m sandwiched into a small room at the far end of the Fort Shreveport compound with the other “survivors” as we keep separate to make sure we’re no longer contagious. Amy stays with us, because she’s been exposed, but after a few days, it’s clear no one’s sick, and Amy remains as healthy as ever. So do Major and Lester and Charlie, who never got sick in the first place. I spend my time in bed, pretending to nap and hugging my pillow. In reality, I’m thinking about my dragon-man.

Aka, cry time.

I miss Liam so much that I ache inside. I think of him and cry myself to sleep, hugging my pillow. Sometimes I wake up after dreaming about him, and it feels like he's right there with me, holding me close. When I open my eyes, though, I'm alone and miserable.

And horny.

I masturbate almost as much as I cry, which is new for me. I haven't felt particularly sexual ever since leaving Fort Tulsa—and I was happy not to be. I haven't had the slightest interest in anything sexy until Liam came into my life, and then all of that pent-up need seems to be roaring through me like a fireball. Touching myself doesn't help, though. It only reminds me how much I miss him, and it makes me cry even more.

It's not just the sex. I mean, it can't be—we never had official full-on sex. I just miss Liam. I'll take him back any way I can. If he can only be human and we can't touch, I'll take that, too. I can still be happy and complete with him in my life…just as long as he's in it.

Just as long as he's not lost.

I feel so fucking guilty, too. Days pass and I sleep and eat and regain my strength, and as I do, I can't help but think about how hard Liam worked to not turn into a mindless monster. How hard he worked at being human so he could blend in with us, start a new life.

And he gave it all up to try and save me. In the end, I didn't need the saving and he's the one that lost everything.

So yeah, I spend a lot of time crying. I spend a lot of my time alone, too. It's easy enough considering that everyone just wants me to rest up and stay away from the others in the fort while we're not sure if the sickness is still contagious. Left to my own thoughts, I can worry endlessly over Liam, turn over the moments we shared in my head over and over again, and die a slow death every time the dragon alarm goes off.

Because the dragon alarms go off practically daily, and it's never Liam. It's always that blasted red that's got a thing for Gabe.

That red has been a pain in my ass ever since we got back. She comes by every damn day, flying low and swooping over the settlement and making everyone panic. Unlike the normal red attacks, though, she never uses her flame. She just bellows and roars and tears at the buildings as if she wants something inside them.

I can guess that it's Gabe, but Rast says he's tried talking to her and there's nothing there. He thinks it's impossible for the female to fix on a human, because they're ten times more lost to the berserk rage than the males are.

Me, I still think she's after Gabe.

Either way, it's utterly frustrating because since she's constantly coming to the fort and attacking, Rast has to spend his time guarding us and shooing her off instead of hunting for Liam. He goes out when he can, but for the most part, he sticks close to the fort.

That drives me crazy. I know Liam's out there. He's strong in mind, and clever. I know that if Rast can just talk to him, he can try to get through to him. To get him to change back and turn human again.

I know if he knew I was alive, he'd come back for me.

But Rast is busy, and the red is lurking, and Amy won't let me leave the fort until Rast “finds” Liam. So I sleep in my room under quarantine, eat the meals brought to me, and worry over Liam.

I never thought I would miss another human being so much. This is different than when my mother and father died. It's different than when Benny ran off. Those felt like painful abandonment, of loss of family.

This feels like I've lost my soul. My other half.

My reason to smile.

I've never felt so connected to someone as I have to Liam. He's the only person that's ever truly “seen” me. I adore Gwen and think of her as my big sister, and I respect and like Amy. I like a lot of people at the fort, but I didn't realize how utterly alone I felt until Liam was gone…and I realized that my loneliness had disappeared when he was there. Now, it's like I've lost a limb or one of my senses.

I just want him back.

Most nights, when the fort settles down and gets quiet, I sneak up to the roof, thinking of that night a few weeks ago, when he told me that we were flirting. That we were attracted to each other and just fighting it. A night when I first started to realize that maybe, just maybe, this thing between me and Liam might be something real. I stare up at the stars and think of Liam.

Please come back to me, I tell them silently. Please come home, Atalim. I miss you so much.

There's never an answer, just the endless shine of the stars dotting the night sky and the greenish pulse of the Rift, visible even in darkness.

If Liam's out there, he doesn't know I exist.

"ANDI?"

I look up from the mop I'm swishing over the tile floors of the old school. It's been raining for the last few days, and while it's good for the crops, it means that the floor gets muddy from the dozens of feet moving back and forth over it. This is the third time I've mopped today, but I don't mind. Work keeps me busy.

Busy means I don't worry about Liam. Or rather, I worry less. I still worry all hours of the day and into the night.

My heart races as I push the mop back into its bucket and raise a hand to warn Amy as she heads toward me. "Floor's all wet. Let me come to you."

She nods, waiting at the end of the hall. There's a look on her face that's sorrow and pity both, and I can feel myself stiffening in response. I don't want to know. I don't want to know.

Oh god, but I need to know. This can only be about one thing—my wonderful, handsome, smart, missing Liam. "Tell me what you found out."

"Rast found him," she says, her expression calm even as her eyes are so, so sad. "He's south of here by a few hours. When the drakoni go wild, they get territorial. This area's considered Rast's territory, so most avoid it. It looks like he's staked out land of his own to prowl over."

"Rast talked to him?" I ask quickly, popping up the folding WET FLOOR sign and dumping it in the middle of the tile. "Can I see Rast?"

"Of course. Come on. He's outside." She takes my arm gently and pats my hand, as if comforting me, and I inwardly bristle. I don't want comforting. I want answers.

I want Liam.

God, I want Liam.

There's a huge knot in my throat as we go outside, into the courtyard. It's steamy with the lingering heat, the ground wet and full of puddles. The potted plants are lined up on their rolling beds, drinking in the late afternoon sunlight, and I see a couple of people moving between the rows, looking for newly ripened vegetables to add to tonight's dinner. In the middle of the blacktop recess area, Rast leans against the old monkey bars, his arms crossed as he gazes out on the people moving about. He's completely and utterly naked, his thick cloud of tangled hair flowing over his shoulders and down his back. I used to think he was pretty freaking glorious, for a male specimen.

But then I realized just how gorgeous Liam was. Now Rast doesn't hold a candle to him.

His gaze flicks over me as Amy approaches, and then rests on his mate with that possessive look of pleasure that makes my heart ache, because Liam used to look at me like that.

"What did you find out?" I ask, biting my lip. I don't realize I'm clenching Amy's hand in mine until Rast frowns, looking down at our hands.

Amy pauses and then speaks up. "He says that he found Liam. Or at least, it's a dragon he's pretty sure is Liam. She says his mind is so wild it's impossible to say for sure."

I stare at Rast for a moment and then blink, looking over at Amy. Why did she answer for him? It takes me a moment to remember—none of the other drakoni speak with words except for Liam, who worked so hard to learn our language. I didn't need to be face to face with Rast, because Amy could have said everything that needed to be said. I feel like an idiot. Even so, I look at Rast, my eyes full of pleading. "You don't know if it was him? You can't tell?"

Another pause, his eyes swirling. He glances at Amy.

"He says that he never touched minds with Liam before, so he's not entirely sure if it's him or not. But he caught his scent in the area, and there is a male dragon lost to the madness in that area, so…it could be him."

His scent. It's not much to go on, but it could be enough. "So it's either Liam, or that dragon ate Liam and you're smelling his remains. Is that it?"

"Don't think of it like that, Andi," Amy murmurs gently. "Liam's strong and capable. He can take care of himself. We'll find him. If it's not this dragon, it's someone else."

My heart aches and aches. I need this to be him. "Did you try talking to him?" I ask Rast, searching the hard planes of his face. "Did you mention my name? Did you say 'Andrea' to him? Not Andi but Andrea?" I can't keep the eagerness from my voice. "Because he doesn't think of me as Andi."

Rast's gaze is steady as he watches me.

"He tried to talk to him," Amy says softly. "But there was nothing there. The madness was too great. He says nothing got through to him at all. Not a greeting, not a challenge, not your name, not anything. He sits atop his tower nest and roars, utterly mindless."

I want to scream with how much it hurts to hear that. But I knew it would be bad, didn't I? Because I know that my Liam would come back for me. He wouldn't leave me when I'm sick and just fuck off. Something bad happened.

I knew this. I knew it but it still hurt to hear. "Will you take me to him?"

"Of course," Amy says. "Can you be ready in an hour? We can fly you out there and then be back here before it gets dark, in case the red returns this afternoon."

They're going to leave me there? I'm shocked…and then it sinks in. Of course they're coming back. Like Amy said, dragons—drakoni—are territorial. Liam's going to attack if Rast stays around, and they're needed here at the fort. "I'll be ready. Just let me talk to Benny and pack a bag."

"Of course. I'll get some food ready for you in the kitchens. Meet you back here in about an hour." She smiles at me, her expression full of comfort. Rast moves right past me, drawing his mate into his arms and pulling her against him. He breathes in her scent, his face buried in her hair, and she giggles at something he says, her arms locked around his waist. They look so happy and in love that it makes me miss Liam even more.

"I'm coming for you, Atalim," I murmur to no one at all as I race to find my brother. "It won't be long now."

Benny's surprisingly easy to find. I hear his laughter as I move toward the plants lined up near the gym. I see his shaggy hair before I see the rest of him, and when I hear a girly giggle blending with his laughter, I realize he's with Katrina. I round the tall tomato plants, wondering if I'm going to catch them making out, but they're just standing together and talking, heads bent. Katrina plays with the fingers of her gardening gloves, a smile on her face, and Benny, well, Benny looks like he's in love.

I clear my throat.

Benny looks over at me, his face turning bright red. "Don't you knock?" he retorts, looking like the gangly, embarrassed teenager that he is.

"I would if there was a door," I say, keeping my tone light. "Can I talk to you for a second? It's urgent."

A serious expression comes over my brother's lean face and instead of giving me more shit, he nods at Katrina, and then jogs over to my side. My heart aches at the sight of his golden eyes, so very solemn. I know my eyes are golden now, too, but seeing the changes in him just reminds me how close he came to death.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," I tell him, walking a few paces away so Katrina won't overhear. "I'm not trying to be an overbearing sister, I promise. I just wanted to let you know that Rast thinks he might have found Liam and I'm going after him."

"He found him?" Relief moves over Benny's face. I know he feels guilty that we 'lost' Liam because of his running away. He adores Liam as a friend and a father figure, and he knows that Liam is important to me. "Is he coming home?"

"Not exactly." I tell him the recap of the conversation I had with Amy and Rast. "He's completely lost," I explain, continuing. "So they're going to drop me off and see if I can bring him back to his senses."

"Are you gonna mate with him like Amy mated with Rast?" He wrinkles his nose. "Did you come to tell me you're gonna get laid?"

"I don't know what it's going to entail, and I wanted to tell you because you're my family and I love you, and I might be gone for a few days." Or forever, if Liam's so crazy that he attacks me and kills me for being in his territory. I won't entertain that thought, though. Rast and Vaan didn't kill their human mates. A human woman is just about the only thing that can bring a dragon out of his insanity. "Getting laid is the best-case scenario, though."

Benny gags. "Thanks for sharing that, sis."

"Just…please don't leave again without talking to me first, all right? I promise that whatever your concerns are, I'll listen like I'm supposed to and if you want to leave, I'll help you, but just don't run off, okay?"

The look he gives me is as scornful as a teenage boy can muster. "Why would I leave now? Katrina's here." He flushes, his gold eyes bright in his red face. "I just wanted people my own age. It wasn't that I hated being here. Or that I hated you. I was just…you know."

"I know," I say softly. Because I do know. Loneliness sucks, and it can consume you even when you're surrounded by other people. I feel a little jealous of Katrina for having so much of his attention. Since we've returned, I've been wallowing in my worry over Liam, but my brother's also been completely preoccupied with her. I'm second place now. I'm happy for him, though, happy that if nothing else, he's healthy and he gets happiness.

Impulsively, I reach out and hug my skinny brother against me. He's practically as tall as I am now. When did that happen? When was the last time I hugged him?

Benny makes a horrified sound and slides out of my grasp. "Jeez, Andi. You're only going for a few days."

"I know," I say, and can't resist teasing him. "I must be hormonal and about to start my period."

"Fuck, don't tell me about that!" He makes another gagging sound and gives me a horrified look. "Gross, Andi!"

I chuckle. "I love you, Benny."

For a moment, I think he's going to make another crack, but he just crosses his arms over his chest and watches me. "Bring Liam back, okay? He's a good guy."

"That's the plan."

Either I'm coming back with Liam, or I'm going to end up dead under his claws. But one way or another, I'm finding him.

26

ANDI

T  he flight south seems to take forever. I huddle inside Rast's claws, clutching my bag of supplies to my chest as I scan every cloud, hoping that Liam's hiding behind the next one.

But hours pass, and still no Liam. Eventually, Rast circles lower, landing on the ground. He gently sets me down and I stretch my cramped limbs, pushing my wind-tousled braid off my shoulder.

"You good?" Amy calls out from above.

I turn to look at her. She's up on Rast's back, between his shoulder blades, a saddle rigged to allow her to sit. She wears goggles and her own hair is hidden underneath a hat, her braids sticking out underneath. She looks a little ridiculous in swim goggles and with a scarf over her mouth, but judging from the amount of bugs I accidentally swallowed as we rode, I figure it's smart and next time I'm going to take her up on them instead of pooh-poohing the offerings.

But there won't be a next time. I'm going to find Liam, I remind myself. There's no way I'm going to return without him. "I'm good," I tell her, giving a thumbs up.

She points off into the distance, and I follow her gesture with my eyes, seeing a tall building situated above the rest. "Rast says the dragon's scent is all over that building, probably because it's the highest spot in the area. We'd take you closer, but we don't want him getting Rast's scent and having it make him wilder.”

It looks like it's at least a mile away, as the crow flies. "That's okay. I can walk."

"Are you sure you want to do this, Andi?" Amy asks. "We can turn around and go back."

I shake my head. "I'm staying. I love him, Amy. I can't let him end up like this."

"He could hurt you." Her voice is soft. "He might not even realize it’s you."

"I know." I know he's madder than any dragon they've run across and I'm flirting with danger by going after him, but I also know that if I return to the fort and act like he didn't exist, I'll die inside. Even now, I feel like a puppet being dragged through the motions—the old Andi left when Liam did. I won't be whole until he's back in my life. So I say, with grim determination, "If he's in there, I'm going to find a way to bring him back."

Amy nods. "I thought you might say that, but I wanted to be sure. We'll come back to this spot in five days if you haven't returned to the fort by then."

"Thank you," I say, and give them a wave to let them know I'm ready to go. I've heard nothing but warnings ever since I told them I wanted to go after Liam. I know it's risky. I know he's insane.

I don't care. He's my other half. I love him. If our roles were reversed, he wouldn't hesitate to come after me, so I'm going to do my best to bring him home.

Amy smiles, and then Rast leaps back into the air, the beat of his wings as he takes off so strong that dust flies in my face and my hair fights to get free from my messy braid. I watch them leave, waiting until they disappear before I turn to the ruins and give a hard look to my new surroundings.

It's the typical downtown ruins of any old city in the After. There are collapsed buildings, destroyed billboards, and lots of charred ruins and car-littered streets. The building that Amy pointed out rises above the rest, easily five stories, maybe more. A sign for an old banking company is near the roof, the red lettering burnt out and destroyed. Most of the windows are gone, but the building itself is still standing. I study it, wondering if it's safe to go to the top or if I should set up at the base. Guess there's no reason why I can't check out everything. It's not like I'm in a time crunch.

Well, sorta. I have three days. If Liam doesn't come by in all that time, I'll just have to have Amy and Rast pick me up and try someplace new. I'm not giving up on him, though. If it takes months to meet up with him, it takes months. I just need to set my expectations and not hope for too much. I scan the quiet, cloudy skies, but there's no sign of a dragon anywhere. I bite back a sigh, heft my bag onto my shoulder, and stride toward the bank building.

Everything here is so very quiet. I notice this as I cross over broken roads and move around cars and gutted buildings. A lot of ruins have some level of noise to them, usually animals in the streets. Occasionally you can hear a gun go off—a sign of another scavenger in the area or nomads. But here? It's all quiet. There's no sign that a dragon's been here, either. There are no beasts flying overhead, no dead, half-eaten animals, no still-smoking ruins, nothing.

That doesn't mean anything, of course. It could just be coincidence that I see no signs of him, but I have to admit that just seeing one recently burnt-out building would make me feel a ton better. It would be an instant confirmation that yes, a fierce, hungry, world-destroying dragon is in this area. But it's all quiet. I try to think about when Vaan was lurking outside of Fort Shreveport, waiting for Gwen to emerge. Were there signs that he was there? Other than the incessant attacks?

I guess I can always wait for the inevitable dragon attack.

As soon as the idea crosses my mind, I reject it. Fuck that. I've already waited weeks to come after him. I'm not waiting a day longer if I don't have to.

I've already been without him for far too long.

So I think as I walk, trying to decide what's the best way to draw a dragon out of hiding. The answer hits me as I pass by a dead skunk on the sidewalk.

Smells. Liam's attuned to smells. I need to find a way to get him my smell. Of course. It's so incredibly simple that I want to laugh with pure joy the moment I realize it. He can smell tracks from days ago, and people from over a mile away. I just need to get my scent to him and he'll find me. It's the perfect answer.

And when I get to the bank building and see a flagpole, I get an entirely new idea. There's a remnant of a tattered flag at the top, and I work the cords until I figure out how to get it down. Once the pole is empty, I consider which of my garments would be the best to carry my smell to him.

The answer's obvious, even if it's a little bizarre—my panties. I toss my bag to the ground, glancing around the old plaza. There's a few stone benches and some overgrown shrubbery in front of the building, and the cobbled courtyard under my feet that's covered in leaves and debris. No one's around, though. It feels weird to strip out in the open, but I'm not going to let modesty get in the way of my plan. I take off my lace-up hiking boots, and then my belt. I have my jeans halfway off my hips when a new thought occurs to me.

If he likes my scent, I should give him a lot of it.

Biting my lip, I pull my jeans off. Instead of removing my panties, though, I slide my hand into them and begin to touch myself.

It's not sexy. In fact, it feels downright awkward. I glance around the empty plaza again, inwardly cringing, and my pussy remains completely dry. I need to get wet so I can coat my panties in my smell, but this isn't doing it. Shit.

Utterly frustrated, I take a deep breath and try to relax. I close my eyes, imagining Liam. I think of that first night on the roof, the first night our flirting went to the next level and he made me aware that he viewed me as more than just a good friend. That I'd been clueless about him for so long. I remember how many times he's made me blush, and the feel of his mouth parting under mine as we kissed the first time…and how quickly he took control of the situation.

I think of him grabbing me by the hips and thrusting into me from behind. Oh god, that had been so fucking sexy. Or when we'd gone to the adult store and he'd made me stand up so he could lick my pussy. A little groan slips out of me and my fingers move faster over my folds. I touch my clit and imagine that it's his tongue there instead, his arms gripping my thighs tight and pulling them apart so he can taste me as deeply as possible. My nipples are hard against my T-shirt, and I toy with one even as I continue to play with my pussy. I'm wet now, and I circle my clit hard, imagining that Liam's overtaken with need for me and devouring me between my thighs. The image is so arousing, so delicious that I start to come, and with a little cry as I climax, I keep playing with my clit until I've wrung every ounce of my orgasm out of my body. Panting and exhausted, I look around the plaza, but no dragon has shown up to watch me get off. Well, drat.

Panties up the flagpole, then.

I step out of my underwear and rub them over my slick folds, getting them good and soaked with my release. When they're utterly fragrant with what a horndog I am, I knot the panties around the flag clasp and then use the cords to raise my little pink panties up into the sky.

"Come on, panties, do your thing," I murmur.

Nothing happens right away, of course. I tell myself he could be upwind, and I have to wait for him to pick up the scent. He could have moved on to a new territory entirely. He could have left and another dragon's going to smell my panties and think I'm his. The thought fills me with sudden dread.

What if this dragon isn't Liam?

I press my fingertips to my temples. No. No. No. This has to be Liam. There can't be another explanation for it. If my scent can't call him toward me, maybe my thoughts will. He's psychic, after all. His shields are down and his mind is open.

Please, Liam, I silently beg. Please, Atalim. Hear me. Smell me. I'm waiting for you. I'll be your mate. And if you don't want that, I'll just be your friend…just come back to me.

Over and over, I repeat the words like a mantra. I hug my knees, completely naked from the waist down as I sit in the plaza and wait for him. I don't want to run the risk of covering up any of my smell, so I strip off my T-shirt, too, and sit there in nothing but my bra and my braid.

And I fill my mind so full of hope and of Liam that I ache.

I love him so much.

I miss him so desperately.

A heaviness forms in the air. Not a physical heaviness, but an awareness. The hairs on the back of my neck prickle, and I get the feeling that I'm not alone. I get to my feet and look at the skies, hoping to see a flash of golden wing. "Liam?" I call out, my voice ringing in the empty plaza. "Are you out there? Atalim?" When there's no response but the wind, I scream it even louder, standing on my tiptoes as if that'll increase my volume. "ATALIM! I'M HERE! IT'S ANDREA! COME AND FIND ME!"

Nothing.

Frustrated, I sigh and drop back down again. Maybe I'm just imagining things. Maybe I didn't feel anything at all and it's just my brain planting thoughts.

A shadow falls over the plaza.

I watch as the shadow skates down the highway and over the building, eagerness making my heart hammer in my chest. "Liam?" I call again. "Atalim?"

It's quiet again for a long moment, and then I see him—a golden dragon, swooping back around and flying low. As I watch, he descends, maneuvering between the buildings with graceful flicks of his wings.

If this is my Atalim in dragon form, he's massive. I stare up in awe as the dragon moves forward with sinuous grace. Despite his enormousness, he's moving like a panther, predatory and silent. His neck is long and sinuous and spikes jut from his brow down the back of his neck, all the way to his spine. His head is flatter and wider than Rast's is, with more deeply set eyes. His wings tuck against his big body, and then the long, serpentine tail slaps against a nearby car.

The dragon's nostrils flare, and then the massive head lowers and looks me directly in the face.

The eyes that meet mine are entirely black.

Oh fuck. A prickle of worry moves over my skin, but then I remember that he can smell that, too. "Atalim, is that you, babe?"

There's no response. His head is low on the ground, watching me, and the hind legs are raised, tail flicking. It reminds me of when our old cat used to pounce on her toy mousie, and right now, I'm feeling like the mousie. I rub my gooseflesh-covered arms, but I don't retreat, because I don't want to act like prey.

He looms over me, utterly magnificent and terrifying.

"Say something," I prompt him. "Do something. Show me that it's you. Please."

The dark, whirling eyes fix on me, and one foreleg casually reaches for me.

I sidestep, not wanting to be trapped—and gasp when I realize that all of his claws are blunted. "It is you!" I exclaim, excited. "Oh my god. Liam, I've missed you so much." Hot tears spring to my eyes and I laugh, full of excitement and misery both. "Please, please change forms and talk to me."

One blunt claw reaches for me again, as if he can't decide what to do with me. I know it's him, so this time, I don't move. I wait to see what he's going to do.

The claw touches my chin, scraping at my skin, and then moves down my front. It's still sharp for all that it's been squared off, and when he drags it through the center of my bra, the thin, worn material snaps and flutters to the ground. Now, I'm really naked. He doesn't stop there, though. He keeps dragging that claw lower, as if testing my reaction.

I'm determined not to react. "Remember that first night on the roof?" I say, trying to keep my voice cheerful and even. "Remember how you said you'd always be there for me? Well, I'm not calling you a liar. I know shit happened. I know you're struggling to control this, but I want to take you up on your promise. I want you with me, Liam. I want us to be together. I love you so much. So if you could try really hard to transform and come back to me…"

The words die in my throat when that blunted claw pushes between my thighs. I gasp and stagger backward, slapping at him. "Don't do that." I love Liam with all my heart, but I'm not interested in making out with his dragon form, especially not when he's like this. "If you want to touch me, you have to switch to your human side."

An utterly terrifying low growl builds in his throat. The black eyes narrow at me, but when he reaches for me again, I push him away.

"I said no. Atalim, change back. Please."

He recoils, and for a moment, I think he's a snake about to strike. His teeth are bared, his eyes two pools of midnight. I'm a little broken-hearted at the sight, and also just a tiny bit hopeful. He hasn't killed me yet, after all. That's a good sign, I hope.

So I keep trying. "Atalim, if you want to touch me, I need you to change forms and ask. That's all that I request. If you do, you can touch me however you want. I don't even care if you burn me." I gesture at the old burn wound on my arm from my “cure.” "Well, I'm lying. I care if you burn me. But if you want me to touch you back, I'm willing to risk it, just because I love you so much and I miss you like I miss chocolate cake. More, even."

The dragon lowers his head again, and he inches closer to me. His tail lashes back and forth, slamming against a nearby car and knocking it on its side. I do my best to ignore that sight, because I don't want to show fear. I just want Liam to see the love I have for him.

"Do you like the sound of my voice?" I ask, adding a sexy, throaty note to it. "Is that why you're coming closer? Do you remember it?" I reach a hand out, wondering if he'll let me touch him like this.

To my surprise—and relief—he leans in and presses his scaly nose against my hand. Each nostril is so big that I could put a fist through it, and his breath smells like char and smoke. I ignore the sight of his big teeth, and the fact that he could eat me in a bite, and gently caress his nose. In human form, Liam's skin feels like human skin—as soft and pettable as “normal” skin, just with a hint of scale patterns rippling through the gold. This close up, his scales are magnified, and each one feels like a rough chip of stone. No wonder Amy wears a saddle. I caress his nose, letting my fingers play over his scales. I want to feel that intense love, that possessive need that I've always felt from him in the past, but all I feel right now is that worried churn in my gut that he might be too far gone.

"You said you'd never leave me," I remind him, my voice dropping to a low whisper as I gently touch his scales. "I can't think you'd want to lie to me. I thought I meant more to you than that."

The dragon moves. He surges forward so quickly that I yelp and stagger backward, falling onto my ass. His claws flex on air, and I wonder if he was trying to snatch me—or just scare me.

Either way, he looms over me, his eyes dark and terrifying as he gazes down where I'm sprawled on the plaza cobblestones. My butt throbs from my fall, but I ignore it. I can't even breathe, because I'm convinced that with the wrong move, Liam's going to snap and eat me.

The dragon lowers his head, and then suddenly he's pushing his muzzle between my thighs.

I gasp, thumping back onto the cobblestones again. I'm flat on the ground as his nose rubs against my pussy, and he lets out a breath that feels like a blast of heat. I make a small noise of protest, but he doesn't move.

In fact, he's not doing anything. It's like he's frozen on the spot. A moment later, he inhales deeply, and I realize he's getting my scent.

I want to fist pump with excitement. Yes! Finally! "Breathe it in," I encourage. It feels weird to be delighted that a wild dragon is sniffing my pussy, but if anything's going to bring Liam back to me, it's that. "You smell me? Do you smell how I touched myself while I thought of you? How wet I got for you?"

The dragon growls again, but this time there's no menace in it. Some of the heavy malice and anger in the air feels like it's lifting, and I want to scream with joy. Instead, I focus on bringing him back to me even more. With one hand, I gently push his muzzle away from my folds. He lets me push him away, even though he's a hundred times larger than I am. His scales are a little damp from pushing against my private parts, and that gives me an idea. I keep my hand on his nose since he's not moving away, and I spread my thighs wider. I slide my other hand to my pussy, and for the second time that day, I start to masturbate.

This time, it's not hard to imagine getting turned on for Liam. His presence—no matter how lost he is—gives me hope. So I slide my fingers through my folds, seeking remnants of moisture from before, and then smooth it over my clit, making it wet and slick. "You want me to come for you?"

The dragon's nose pushes gently against my hand, as if trying to lower to my pussy again.

"No," I tell him, slightly breathless as I work my clit. "You can look but you can't touch. Not like this. You have to be human."

His tongue flicks out against his scales, and brushes against my hand. He's tasting me on his snout. I moan, imagining that it's getting through to him that it's me. That I’m here, performing for him. Enticing him.

Encouraging him to come back to me.

I'm already sensitive from the last round of self-pleasure, so it doesn't take much for me to come again. A climax shivers through me, but I play it up, moaning wildly and gasping when my juices trickle through my folds. It's not the best orgasm I've ever had, but I go all theatrical and make it seem like I'm fucking dying, just to get his attention.

I have his attention, all right. The dragon pushes against my hand again, but I smack his nose lightly. "No," I tell him. "Atalim, you have to be human."

The growl starts again.

"You want this?" I ask, and take my passion-slicked hand and slide it over his scales. "Then ask me for it."

The dragon's tongue snakes out again. His head lowers, and for a moment, I could swear there's gold in his eyes.

Then, suddenly, the dragon's gone. There's a man striding forward, heading directly for me.

Liam. Oh god, it's my Liam.

I let out a sob of joy at the sight of him. He's utterly filthy, his hair standing straight up in short, wild hanks, and he's got scratches and dirt covering his golden skin. He's completely naked, and the way he stalks toward me isn't human at all. He's still the dragon, cornering his prey.

I don't care. He's Liam again. There's gold whirling in the midnight black of his eyes, and when he stalks toward me, I open my arms wide, encouraging him.

He stops just short of me, his hands flexing into fists and then opening wide again. He's twitchy with movement, as if he can't quite figure out how to approach, pacing to one side and then back again. His gaze is locked on me and where I still lie sprawled on the ground, utterly naked.

Why won't he approach?

"Atalim," I call gently. "Come to me."

But he doesn't. He crouches low, one hand touching the ground as if he's just waiting for a chance to spring up again and attack. It's like he's waiting for something.

What, though? What more does he need?

I slide my hand toward my pussy again, and his eyes flare with even more gold, but it makes him start to pace once more. A low snarl builds in his throat. Not that, then. Something else?

Oh.

A challenge. He told me once that dragon males—drakoni males—are challenged by their female. It has to be a fight. The dragon women are fierce and combative, and they let a male know they want his attention by attacking him.

All right, then.

Sucking in a deep breath, I get to my feet and approach Liam with slow, measured steps. He stops his pacing, his hands flexing, and waits, staring at me.

I reach out and slap him across the face as hard as I can.

27

ANDI

His eyes flare utterly black again for a moment, and in that brief second, I think I've made a mistake. I've pushed him too far, and now he's going to kill me. But then gold floods into his gaze and he reaches out, grabbing my braid and pulling me close. There's a feral look of excitement on his face, like a predator that's just caught his prey. But he's not hurting me, and he's in his human form. This is progress.

So I reach up to slap him again.

He grabs my hand, his teeth bared, and when I try to struggle free, he pulls my trapped wrist to his face and sniffs it. A low rumble starts in his chest, an ominous purr, and I can feel myself getting aroused. I know this is Liam, no matter how wild he is. I know the feel of his body pressing against mine, skin to skin. This is the man I want, the man I need. The man I love.

I lean forward, trying to entice him into a kiss, but his eyes only flare and his grip slides to my waist. He tugs on my hair, indicating I should sink down, and I lower myself to the ground. Does he want a blow job like we did before? My heart skitters with a frantic, excited beat.

Am I giving in too quickly, though? With that thought in mind, I reach up and lock my hand to the back of his neck, and when he pulls me down, I pull at him, too. A feral grin lights his face up and my heart skitters with excitement as we both lower to the ground. I keep my hand clenched on him, our faces inches apart, as if neither of us is willing to give the other any ground.

I lie back, watching him, and Liam's wild gaze moves over me, darting and quick, as if he's absorbing the sight of me naked and under him for the first time. One big hand moves to my jaw, then skims lower, brushing over my breasts and then lower still. He watches his hand as it moves down my body, and when his thumb grazes over my navel, my breath catches.

Liam glances up at me then, his eyes whirling with a mix of black and gold.

"Do you want me to challenge you again?" I whisper. The last thing I want to do is challenge right now. I want him to touch me, to say my name. I want him to claim me as his. But my struggles make him pay attention, so I half-heartedly raise a hand, as if to strike him again.

He bats it away as if it's nothing, rumbling low in his chest, and skims his hand lower, pressing over my mound.

I gasp at the intimate touch.

Liam presses against the inside of one thigh, and I part my legs for him, breathing hard. Say my name, I mentally beg. That's all I ask. Say my name and tell me that you know who I am.

My dragon-man growls low in his throat, and then his mouth is on my pussy. He makes a sound of pleasure, his arm locking around my thigh as if to hold me still, and then his slightly raspy, impossible to ignore tongue is moving over me, lapping up my arousal, and flicking over my clit.

I whimper, my hand pressing to my forehead, as if pushing against my brow can somehow stop my brain from exploding in pleasure. "Atalim," I moan, arching up against his hot, enthusiastic tongue strokes. "Oh, fuck."

He's voracious, not bothering to take his time with my pleasure. Instead, he's on me, insistent and eager, flicking over my clit and delving deep with his tongue as if he can memorize every inch of me with taste buds alone. It's been so long since we've touched and I'm so sensitive from touching myself that it doesn't take much for me to spiral towards an orgasm. I can feel it building, my toes curling against the cobblestones as he ravenously devours my pussy, his tongue everywhere. And when he sucks on my clit? I shatter into a million pieces, crying out with pleasure as the climax rips through me and my pussy floods with release.

Liam lets out another low growl of pleasure as I undulate against his mouth, his tongue moving slower and more gently against my flesh. I don't know when one of my hands went to his hair, but when I look down, my fingers are knotted in his golden strands, brushing against the horns that crown his brow.

I suck in a deep breath, and as I do, he looks up.

"Andrea," he says thickly, his mouth wet with my release. He licks his lips and then says my name again in another sultry purr. "Annnndrea."

"It's me, babe." Tears of joy spring to my eyes and I sit up, excited. I practically tackle him with my excitement, flinging myself against him until he's on the ground underneath me and I'm peppering his gorgeous face with kisses. "You remember. You remembered my taste. Oh Liam, I've missed you so much."

His hand curls in my hair, and he forces my head back, ever so slightly, revealing my throat. Not enough to hurt, just enough to remind me that he's in control. "Mine," he rumbles, and his eyes are still shot with black emotion as he leans forward and scrapes his teeth over my throat.

"Yours," I agree, breathless. "All yours. Take me."

"Andrea," he says again, this time more insistent than before. "Mine." And he sits up, maneuvering both of us until we're upright. I sit, waiting, as he gets to his knees and then locks his hands on my hips, anchoring me in place as he moves behind me.

All right, we're going to do it from behind, it seems. I don't care. He knows who I am. He won't hurt me.

I'm more than ready as he positions my hips, and I lower my head, arching my lower back and spreading my thighs to present myself to him. He groans, his hand skimming over my flanks, and that's the only warning I get before he notches his cock at my entrance and then thrusts deep.

I gasp, still shocked at how he feels inside me. He's big and thick, and the feel of him invading me twinges for a second, and then it's nothing but intense pleasure. A low moan escapes me as he thrusts into me again, his fingers digging into my hips. "Atalim," I breathe. "My Atalim."

He groans again, thrusting hard, and then a hand anchors onto my shoulder. He leans over me, nuzzling at the back of my neck, his big body covering mine. I tilt my head, giving him access to my throat, and he locks an arm around my waist and pulls me backward as he sits up. His cock is seated deep inside me even as I'm pinned against his torso, both of us on our knees. One hand roams over my belly and then cups my breast, teasing the nipple, and it sends a jolt of pleasure all the way through to my core.

"Andrea," he murmurs again, and then his teeth scrape against my throat, hard.

I gasp again, because that wasn't a gentle nip. Even so, my body responds, my nipples hardening and my pussy clenching around his length.

I reach back, touching him everywhere I can, caressing the side of his face. "Are you going to make me yours?"

A hard, searing bite is my response. My entire body quakes into another brutal orgasm as his teeth sink into my throat. It hurts as much as it feels good, and it's a struggle to remain completely still against him, because his fingers are strumming over my breast and his cock is so deep inside me that I'm feeling every ripple all the way through to my core. His tongue flicks against my neck and then the bite feels…hot. Strangely hot. I whimper as the heat spreads through my neck and then into my veins. It's like fire is coursing through me.

Liam whispers my name again, lifting his mouth from my throat. His teeth lightly scrape against my jaw and then he licks my skin, his breath searing and fanning against my cheek. He holds me tight against him and won't let me go, not even when the world starts to fade and go black around me.

Something tells me that he'll never let me go again. It's the only reason I don't panic as I sink into oblivion.

Liam's got me.

28

LIAM

I  growl against my mate's throat as her scent changes, slowly mingling with my own. The taste of her is on my lips, on my tongue, the feel of her small body quaking against mine, her cunt gripping me tight. She sags against me, her eyes closing, and I hold her close, waiting.

Andrea.

I remember her now.

Memories are starting to trickle in, memories clouded by the madness.

I…have not always been mad. I know her. I know her scent, and I know where she comes from. Other faces flash through my memory. A boy with a chipped tooth. A man with a dog. A dark-skinned woman that is friends with my Andrea. More and more faces flit through my memory, but Andrea's is the one that keeps coming up. Andrea laughing as she guards the gate to the fort. Andrea with her shotgun on her shoulder as she walks. Andrea's hips with that little saunter. Andrea's wistful expression as she gazes up at the stars. Andrea as she gasps, holding on to me as I make her climax, my face between her thighs as she stands over me.

My thoughts are full of Andrea, and they bring me joy.

That feeling of joy washes more of the madness away. It hovers at the edges of my thoughts, ready to flood forward if given the chance, but the scent of the woman in my arms keeps them at bay. I hold her close as we lie on the stone-covered ground together, cradling her against me. I touch her strands of golden hair, so soft and silky compared to my own. I touch her delicate pale skin and the curves of her belly. I touch the curls that hide her cunt from my view but capture her fragrance so wonderfully. Just touching her settles my mind.

My mind is still murky, but the longer I sit and hold her, the more my thoughts return.

Sickness. I remember this. I raise one hand into the air, a vague memory of a metal tube with a note in it. I held it once…how long ago was that? A few hours? A day? Two? However long it has been, it's gone now. My shorn claws have grown out some, the ends jagged, and I study them. I will need to keep them short so I don't inadvertently harm my Andrea. I bury my face against her neck and breathe in her scent.

Wake soon, I tell her impatiently. I miss you.

There's no response. Not yet. I can feel her mind gently opening to mine, though, like a desert flower unfurling petal by petal. She's coming to me, but she's not there yet. So I stroke her, and wait, and try to remember human things to counter the stench of the human place around me and the madness that sends little tendrils through my mind.

When she wakes up, we will talk. We will kiss, and mate, and I will fill her with my seed, and her mind will touch mine…and then I will be whole again. My cock aches, desperate to pump into her body, to fill her with my spend, but I cannot take her while she adjusts to my fires.

There will be time enough for that later.

I croon soft sounds at my mate and tuck her against me, closing my eyes. Even though my body aches fiercely with the need to claim her, and the madness threatens at the edges of my mind…I feel content for the first time in what feels like forever.

She has given this to me.

My Andrea.

The human world is quiet around us as she sleeps, my fires seeping into her scent. I love the way it’s changing, absorbing my essence into her spirit, until her scent becomes maddeningly intoxicating. It was already irresistible. Now that she smells like I’ve claimed her, she’s that much more appealing. I breathe in deep, enjoying her scent and the way her body curves against mine. She twitches in her sleep, and I feel in her mind when she begins to rouse.

Her thoughts immediately go to me, full of concern and hope.

I am here, I tell her, and gently nuzzle her throat.

I can feel the wonder in her thoughts. Oh. Oh…your thoughts are in mine. Are we joined?

I can’t help but tease her with a little thrust of my hips. You can’t tell?

Pleasure spirals through her, evident in her thoughts. She responds, distracted. You…you know what I mean. We’re connected in our heads.

We are. I rub my nose against her cheek, loving both the touch of her mind and her body pressed to me. My thoughts are full of her, and there is no room for the madness. Does it bother you?

Bother me? It’s amazing. Wonder floods her mind. I’ve been so jealous of the closeness Amy and Rast have. How connected they are. Now I realize just how incredible it is. It’s like there are no boundaries between us any longer. She lifts one hand to mine, lacing our fingers. We’re together in all ways. I love it. I love you, Atalim.

My heart, I tell her. I love you, too. Finally you are mine.

I was so worried about you. Her thoughts are tinged with fear. That you wouldn’t be able to return to yourself.

I’m not entirely as I was, I admit. I can feel the madness ready to creep in, and now that my thoughts are open once more, I will be vulnerable to it. But you brought me back. With our spirits linked, you will always be there to bring me back. I press a kiss to her neck.

Oh, I’m so glad.

Her scent is intoxicating, and the presence of her thoughts twining with my own heightens my desire. My need for her is overwhelming, because I can feel her body’s reaction to me. I can feel her awareness of how big my cock is as I am seated inside her, the press of my length into her cunt. The way I fill her to the point of distraction. You are the one who is distracting, I tease, clasping our joined hands and stroking deep into her again.

God, she tells me, even as she gives a little gasp aloud. I never knew it would feel like this. You’re everywhere…everything’s so deep.

We’re connected at every level. I nip at her ear even as I stroke into her again, and her cunt shivers around my cock in response. I can feel her arousal, and I let her feel mine, sharing my thoughts and the sensations that ripple through my mind. Connected. I thrust again. Forever.

And you’ll never leave me again. She pushes back against me when I rock into her, adding to the friction of our bodies.

Never.

I love you, Atalim. So much.

Hearing my name in her thoughts and the emotion attached to it makes me utterly wild. I drive into her over and over, dragging our joined hands between her thighs. She gasps when I toy with her clit using our twined fingers, and in the next moment, she cries out as the climax overtakes her. The moment she comes, I allow myself to release, too. I bury my face against her neck and growl my release as I surge into her. I pump into her clenching channel and empty my seed for what feels like an eternity.

Slowly, our panting breaths return to normal, and I continue to nuzzle her neck. I can’t get enough of her scent, her touch, the flutter of her thoughts against mine. My mate. How I’ve missed you.

I’m just glad you remember me. She squeezes my hand and I can feel her smile.

I would know you in this world and the next, I promise her. The moment I drank in your scent, I knew you were mine. Even in the madness, I knew. I brush my lips over her skin. But even so…it’s different than I recall. You are still you, but…changed?

It’s your blood. It’s changed us in little ways. Gabe can hear dragons. Benny, too. Not as clear as how we’re speaking right now, I don’t think, but Gabe says he can make out snatches of conversation here and there. I can pick up the emotions when they fly overhead, sometimes. It’s like a thundercloud settling over the fort just before they attack.

Surprising. But when I give her my fires, isn’t that a union of our spirits? Perhaps the blood gave her a bit of drakoni life force, as well. Now that she has mentioned her sickness, I compare the female in my arms to the one in my memories. She’s thinner, her cheekbones more prominent, her ribs easily counted. Have you not been eating?

Andrea gives a tiny snort. I nearly died, Atalim. These things take time to come back from. Look, you can still see my scar. She pushes her hair away from her ear, revealing an ugly jagged red line that’s bright against her skin. The black lump was called a bubo. I did some research in the medical books we have at the fort. We had the black plague and it nearly killed us. So I’m going to be a little weak for a bit longer.

Her mind fills with memories, recent images of the others. Of Gabe, his healthy face thin and sallow, eyes hollow. Of Benny, whose messy hair turned dry and fell out in clumps for a week. Of another young female, Katrina, who was so sick that her skin looked translucent, her blue veins prominent. Of Andrea gazing down at her own wrists and seeing nothing but bones and tendons under the skin.

I run my hand possessively down her arm, studying her. The Andrea I hold doesn’t match the one in her memories. She looks better, healthier, and the scar behind her ear is healed over. How long did you say I was gone?

Weeks. The simple reply is filled with devastation. So many weeks.

You must have thought I abandoned you. The realization sickens me and fills me with self-loathing. I am not a good mate for her to abandon her the moment she became ill. I could have lost her. The madness floods in again, my mouth rushing with saliva even as I feel my eyes go black. Red clouds my vision and my surroundings blur away.

Kill.

Hurt.

Destroy.

Tear this world apart.

“No, Atalim. Be calm, baby. I’m here.”

Andrea’s whisper is a splash of cool water on my mind. The madness bleeds away as quickly as it came on. I realize I am still on the ground, my mate in my arms. At some point I sat up, though, and our joined bodies separated. My throat rumbles and I realize I am growling.

She faces me, her hands cupping my jaw as her eyes—bright gold—search mine. Are you with me, Atalim?

I am here.

Focus on me. Slow your breathing. I’m right here with you. I’m not going anywhere. Her thumbs stroke my skin.

I do as she bids, and when I am myself again, I let out a long sigh and pull her close against me. Now that my mind is open, I must be more careful not to let my emotions rule me.

“You have me. I won’t let you lose yourself,” she says, and gives me a sweet smile.

I nearly lost you.

“No, you saved me,” she corrects gently. “And you shifted forms to try and save me. And I’m going to spend the rest of my life saving you each and every day. We’re a team.”

“My beautiful Andrea,” I murmur, and then decide that I like mental speech better. It feels like a return home, comforting and familiar. I never have to use human speech again.

“Yes, but I like the way you say my name,” she tells me, putting a hand on my chest and pushing me backward to the cobblestones. “It’s sexy.”

I rumble with amusement. Her thoughts are pricking in an interesting direction, mating on her mind as she bears me to the ground. A flashed image picked up from her captures my attention. She…wants to straddle me?

Oh yeah. Her thought is husky with arousal and paired with a mental image of her guiding my cock into her cunt as she slides down on top of me and then rocks her hips over mine, driving me into her body. Is it okay if I’m on top? Or is that not done?

I don’t care if it’s done or not. I watch avidly as she slides one thigh over my hip and then moves over me, her slick folds moving against my cock. Now that I’ve seen it in your mind, I want it.

You did say humans were creative, remember? We can do this in all kinds of ways. And she fills my mind with images of us together. Of me, mounted on top of her, our faces close together instead of me taking her from behind. Of her rising atop me. Of both of us on our sides, our mouths between each other’s thighs…

I growl with lust, grabbing her hips and dragging the wet heat of her cunt over my cock. I’m aching with need for her, but I want her to feed me into her cunt like she did in the mental image she sent. Do it, I tell her. Quick.

My teasing Andrea only gives a throaty little laugh and arches her hips, rubbing her cunt against my length. Or what?

Or I will spend my seed on your skin and shame us both.

“Oh, my love,” she murmurs, her fingers gripping my length as she raises her hips. “There’s no shame in anything we do together. Sometime soon I’m going to let you paint my face with that seed of yours, and you can see how sexy it is.” She licks her lips, looking feral with need, and it makes need slam through me.

She grips me, teasing the head at her slick entrance. With another playful move, she circles her hips, her cunt enveloping just the head of my cock before she flexes and pulls away again. I growl at being robbed of her warmth, and when she does it again, this time I plant my hands on her hips and thrust her down on my length, driving into her.

Andrea’s gasp and the flood of arousal in her mind are delicious. “Cheater,” she manages in a choked voice.

Are you complaining? I arch up against her, rocking my hips to drive into her.

“You’re backseat driving,” she protests, gasping. Her back arches. “Armchair quarterbacking. I’m supposed to be in control.”

You are, I promise her, and then lift her slightly, only to thrust her down onto my length again. You’ve mounted me and claimed me as your own. I’m just…helping.

“Oh god,” she moans, and her hands move to my chest, spreading wide as if she needs to hold onto me. “Keep helping, that feels so good.”

I watch, fascinated, as I shuttle her hips up and down over my cock. I like this position, because I can look down and see her cunt sucking me deep every time I pull her down over me. More than that, all I have to do is look up to see her breasts bounce each time I drag her cunt down in a reverse-thrust. Her mouth works in a silent cry, her head thrown back, and her nails dig into my flesh.

I like the way humans mate, I decide, and when her cunt clenches tight around me with her release, I growl and pin her hips against mine as I spurt my seed deep into her, filling her with my fires again. This time, when her release finishes gripping her, Andrea collapses over me, her breasts rubbing against my chest as she lies atop me. I enjoy the feel of her sweaty skin against mine, her cunt still clasping me in her body, her thighs pressing against my hips. Her hair falls against my shoulder and she sighs, pressing her cheek against my chest. Her scent is sweaty and musky with mating, and she wears my scent more with every moment that passes.

It makes me growl low with pleasure. I like this.

Andrea chuckles low, and her breath fans over my chest. “Of course you do, you’re a man.”

You didn’t like it?

“I didn’t say that.” I can practically feel her blushing. “I just don’t feel the need to declare it aloud.” Her thoughts grow pert. If I didn’t like it, I’d tell you. And she sends me a mental image of her small fist crashing into my jaw.

A laugh rumbles up my throat. You know that’d just turn me on.

“Freak,” she mutters, but she sounds happy.

29

ANDI

We lie in the courtyard in front of the bank building all glorious afternoon and fuck like bunnies. By the time the sun starts to set, my skin is sticky enough that leaves are sticking to my ass and I’m pretty sure I’ve picked up an inch of dirt and dust from all the rolling around on the brick cobblestones that we’ve done. Liam—my sexy, sexy Atalim—looks just as delicious as ever, of course. His hair’s wild and crazy, sticking up in every direction, but it somehow just makes him look more dashing.

Me, I probably look like I fought with a possum and lost.

You’re beautiful, he tells me, nuzzling the inside of my thigh as if he’s ready to go down on me again for the fourth—fifth? sixth?—time in the last few hours. I could drink in your scent and the sight of you like this forever.

His words just make me thirsty, though, and I realize how parched my throat is. “I need to hydrate if we’re going to keep going,” I point out, and glance over at my bag. It’s about twenty feet away, near the base of the flagpole, and it might as well be twenty miles. I can’t muster the energy to cross the short distance to get it.

You’re thirsty? I can feel his thoughts change, his protectiveness sweeping aside his lust. You should have said something earlier. I don’t want you making yourself sick. And he jumps to his feet, his hard erection stabbing the air instead of my pussy as he gets up and walks away.

Hmph.

“Okay, I guess we should take a break,” I tell him, eyeing my naked body as I sit up. It’s pink and flushed all over and I wonder if I should have stopped to apply sunblock before the Dragon-Fuck-A-Thon. Oh well. I glance up at the skies, and even though the sun is setting, it looks like a thick wall of clouds is rolling in. As if to punctuate that point, thunder rumbles. “I think that’s a sign. That and the leaves I’m going to be picking out of my buttcrack.”

He crouches next to me, touching my jaw and then running a hand down my arm. I can feel his craving in my head, his incessant need to touch me, to remind himself that I’m there. I don’t mind that at all, honestly. It’s nice to feel so utterly wanted. It’s a little intense to feel his thoughts in mine, but I trust him. We should get you someplace safe.

“Safe sounds good.”

I’ll take you to my tower. My nest.

“Your nest?” For some reason, it surprises me to hear that. When I hear “nest” I think “home” and I never thought of this place as his actual…home. Just as a place he was hiding out. In my mind, his home is with me, and my home is still Fort Shreveport.

My nest, he agrees, his eyes whirling gold with pleasure as he helps me to my feet. He dusts leaves and twigs off of my skin with gentle fingers, looking over me protectively. Drakoni instinct tells me that I must have a nest to protect my mate. Even madness can’t drive out all instinct, and protecting that which is mine? That always comes first. He brushes a sweaty lock of hair off my brow and smiles at me. I think, somehow, I knew I was waiting for you. I wasn’t surprised when I smelled you on the wind. It was more of a relief. Like you’d finally found me. So perhaps I’ve been waiting for you to come all this time.

“Whatever it was, I’m here now.” I beam up at him, feeling so happy and light that I feel like a human rainbow. “Show me your nest, then.”

He grins, all flashing sharp teeth, and in the next moment, Atalim’s “human” face is gone and in its place is the monstrously huge golden form. Dragon wings unfurl, and massive legs stretch, his tail flicking on the street as he uncurls his enormous body.

I freeze, instinct warning me to run and hide. Dragons are danger, my lizard brain reminds me. Dragons kill. And for a moment, I feel his brain stab through with violence, his sudden surging lack of control piercing my thoughts. I can feel, just for a brief second, everything that pushes against his mind. It’s like a television station where there’s nothing but static dots, and each of those thoughts is a violent, bloodthirsty image.

It’s gone just as quick as it arrives, though, and then Liam lowers his enormous head, his eyes level with mine.

Are you afraid?

“No, just not used to it,” I admit. I reach out a hand to touch his snout. “It’ll take me a little time to get used to the idea of you supersized like this.”

Take all the time you need. He gives his head a little side-to-side movement, as if indicating I should scratch his nose. Or rub more of your scent on me, he teases. I liked that.

I tap a finger against one scale in a chiding manner. “I was trying to get your attention.”

Oh, you got it all right. He rumbles, and it feels like amusement.

I run my hand along the very end of his snout, a little awed by how big he is. The scales here are practically palm-sized, and his eyes are the size of hubcaps. They’re as gold as his scales, though, which makes me incredibly happy. “Look at how gorgeous you are,” I murmur, studying the long, elegant wings tucked against his body and his serpentine tail. “You look amazing as a dragon, Atalim. Not that you’re not sexy as a human, too.”

The dragon snorts, and his head nudges me. Never human. You take that back. That is just a two-legged form.

I give his nose another teasing thump. “But you don’t mind that I’m human?”

Not at all. I love everything about you. The big nose rubs up and down my belly, and then lower, to my thighs. Especially your scent.

I push his nose away, blushing. I can feel the arousal starting to flood through his thoughts, and I know if we get distracted, I’m going to be on the cobblestones all night long. And while the idea is a pretty delicious one, it’ll be hard on my hands and knees. “Concentrate, Atalim. Nest, remember? I hope you’ve got someplace comfy for a bed, because I have a feeling we’re going to be in there for a while.”

Hours and hours and days and days, he agrees, and reaches for me.

My heart skitters in my throat as the claws enclose me, but a moment later, he’s rubbing his muzzle against my hair and my mind is filled with loving, affectionate thoughts, and I remember there’s absolutely nothing to be scared of when it comes to this dragon.

He’s my dragon.

Entirely yours, he agrees.

Thunder booms overhead, making me jump.

A rumble of laughter echoes in my mind, and then Liam's blunted claws gently close around me. He lifts me and pulls me against his chest, tucking me close, and then hands me my bag, the heavy thing dwarfed in his massive golden foreleg. Hold on, he tells me, and then his big body surges and we're in the air.

I jolt in his grip, feeling weightless and slightly seasick as he lunges into the air and I'm pulled back and forth as he flaps his wings, surging upward. I knew dragons were powerful, but it's like I can feel every muscle of his moving and it makes for a very rocky ride. My stomach does not approve, and I press a hand over my mouth to try and stop the inevitable vomit that rises. I was never good on rollercoasters, either.

It is not far, he promises. Do you need to be let down?

No, I'm cool, I tell him, even as my mouth waters and fills with saliva. Totally cool.

He makes a sound in his throat and then tilts his claws until I'm lying on my side, prone, and in the next moment, I vomit on the cobblestones below.

Cool must mean something different than what I thought.

Motion sickness, I tell him. I just need to get used to the rough ride.

It'll be better if we get you a saddle like Amy has, he promises me as his wings flap harder and we rise higher. You won't move around as much. As if to help out, he clasps his other claws around me, doubling his grip, and I'm less jostled as he tucks me even closer against him.

Not sure that's wise, I tell him, feeling faint and nauseated as I press my forehead to his scaly chest. I can feel his muscles move, flexing as he flies.

You can puke on me, my fires. It won't change how I feel. He sends a wave of sympathy and affection through his thoughts. Isn't that one of your human vows? Through sickness and health?

I think we've had enough sickness to last us a lifetime. Let's just be done with that part. I try to burrow closer to him, even though it feels a bit like snuggling up to a furnace. He's giving off all kinds of crazy heat in dragon form, but being closer to him helps, oddly enough—as does the fact that he's gliding in the air instead of muscling upward to gain height.

Liam's right, though, the flight's a short one. We're not airborne for very long before he lands with a thump and a muted apology in his thoughts, and then he's gently setting me on the ground. My eyes are closed, so I feel in his thoughts that we've arrived before my feet touch the ground, and when I open them, I see his “nest.”

It's a hoarder's paradise.

The building must have been an office at some point—most of the tallest buildings are—but it's clear that this was the big guy's private chambers, because it's a massive, open room with a massive, warped wooden desk that snakes around the missing windows. There's a gigantic hole in one side of the building, which is how we got in, but on the wall there's a water-damaged painting that's bigger than my old bedroom and a cluster of office chairs.

That's not all, though. There's just…stuff. So much stuff.

I have no idea how he got so much crap up here so quickly, but it's obvious he's been working hard. I step forward, stunned past my nausea as I gaze at the couches clustered together against a wall. On the opposite side of the couches are a few chairs, and I'm pretty sure I see a bed in the distance. There are also bicycles, empty planters, dishes, a claw footed tub, shopping carts, and boxes and boxes of random stuff. One wall is full of rusty, oversized cans of food and I'm pretty sure there's a children's jungle gym tossed over something in the back.

"What is all this stuff, Atalim?"

It's for you, he tells me. I think…if I smelled something that was for humans, or if it pinged a memory, I took it. He lumbers into the room and then nudges a pile of oversized, tasseled pillows and they go tumbling to the ground. Sit. Get comfortable.

"This is just so weird."

Is it? I was making a nest for my mate. Even in my madness, I was trying to think of things that would appeal to you. Is it that bad?

My gaze falls on a shopping cart full of toys, and a little giggle escapes me. "Just a bit random, I think."

I'll blame the insanity then. He nudges me with his big nose. Sit. Relax. You don't feel well.

"I'm okay," I promise him, but I do as he says. I step over the weird piles of pillows and sit down on an oversized, striped sofa. It's slightly faded and musty, but comfortable. I tuck my legs under me, pull out my canteen, and take a few sips. "How long did it take you to gather all this shit?"

The dragon cranes his long neck, looking around at the office. I have no idea. I might have stolen some from another dragon's nest. There's a faint scent of another here.

I freeze, canteen halfway to my lips. "There's another dragon nearby?"

Long gone. His scent is old. Maybe he's the one that collected a lot of this stuff.

Oh. "Do you recognize who it is?"

No. Just that the scent is that of a male dragon. His thoughts grow possessive and his eyes flare just a little darker. I'm not sharing you.

"I'm not interested in being shared," I admit. "So calm down."

He looms over me, hunkering down directly across from my sofa and flicking the pillows out of the way like an enormous cat. I will be territorial of you for a while, fair warning. You're mine finally and I'm not going to let you get away.

"I am totally and completely okay with that." I look over at one of the shopping carts, see a sex toy in a box, and choke on my water just a little. "Ah, so what's the plan?" I ask between coughing fits.

For now? Your stomach gets better, and then I feed you and claim your body over and over again until you wear my scent like a robe. His eyes gleam, as golden as his scales.

I squirm a little to hear that, pleasure shooting through my body. "Sounds like a pretty good evening to me. And tomorrow?"

Tomorrow? Mm. He considers for a moment and then focuses that intense draconic gaze on me again. Tomorrow, I think…I will feed you and then claim your body over and over again until you wear my scent like a robe. Again.

"Well, they do say consistency is key." I keep my voice light even as I squeeze my thighs tightly together. "So the game plan is lots of sex and food." His eyes seem to gleam even brighter, and my mind flickers with a lot of sexy mental images that slide in from his thoughts. "But I meant…what about the future? Do you want to go back to Fort Shreveport ever? Or is this your home now? You mentioned territory…does that mean you'll never want to leave it?"

Benny is there.

"He is," I agree, sipping more water. My stomach is churning nervously again for some reason. "But I've learned that Benny doesn't need me nearly as much as I think he does."

But he is your family, Liam continues. Fort Shreveport is your home. I want you to be able to go to your home, but…my instincts might fight me on that. A drakoni with a mate stakes out territory for himself and their young. It might be difficult for me to be in Rast's territory with you and not view his presence as a challenge. I feel stable right now, and in my right mind, but that could change. He leans in, nuzzling at my hand as if he can fit his enormous head into my lap somehow. I would hate to tear his throat out if he looked at you.

"Whoa, whoa," I murmur, putting the cap on my canteen and tossing it aside. I put my hands on his scaly snout, trying to focus his attention. "Rast would look at me at some point. He can't just avoid gazing in my direction because it'll bother you."

Why not? I avoid looking at his mate as much as possible.

Huh. I can tell he's not lying. Even in his thoughts, Amy's face is clouded as if he doesn't want to think about her, and her presence is less individual and more “Rast's mate” in his head than “Amy.”

"I don't think Rast is looking at anyone sexually other than Amy," I tell him, stroking his nose. "But I get what you're saying. I would like to go back, but we'll figure it out. If we can't stay, then we can't stay. It's as simple as that."

Liam goes still against me. In the next moment, the dragon disappears and I'm holding onto empty air instead of his muzzle. Liam walks across the crowded floor of his “nest,” kicking aside pillows, and then slides next to me on the couch, his arms going around me. "You would leave everything behind for me?" he murmurs, the thought echoing in his mental speech. I can feel his shock—and pleasure—at my response.

Silly man. "Why do you think I'm here?" I tell him gently, my thoughts so full of love for him that I feel like bursting. "You're everything to me, Atalim. Everything in the world. I'm not whole without you by my side." I cup his jaw in my hand, admiring his gorgeous face. "How can you possibly think I'd go back to Fort Shreveport without you? There's nothing for me there if you're here."

"Your brother…"

"Can survive on the occasional visit," I tell him, letting my fingers trace his gorgeous mouth. "He'd probably prefer that to his sister hovering over him. And me, I have to realize that he's his own person and I'm allowed to be mine." I smile up at him.

"I'd rather you be mine," he tells me, his eyes heating.

Oh, I'd rather be his, too. I slide my arms around his neck, but when he leans in to kiss me, I avert my face. "You probably don't want to kiss me right now," I tell him with a little shake of my head. "Not until I rinse my mouth out a few more times."

"As if I care about that?" But he lightly brushes his lips over my cheek instead. "I love you, Andrea. My sweet fires. I still can't believe you came after me."

"I'll always come after you," I promise him. "No matter where you go, I'm going to follow. I won't leave you. You were there for me in my darkest moments, and I plan on doing the same for you."

Liam's eyes go dark. "I left you when you needed me. I abandoned you when you were sick."

"No," I correct gently. "You risked everything to try and save me. You gave up everything you had to try—no one could ever ask for more."

"You are everything to me, my mate," Liam murmurs thickly, tracing a finger down my cheek. And I feel it in my head, and in my heart, and I let him know that I feel exactly the same way.

He's perfect.

30

ANDI

I  wake up, hours later, squeezed against him on the couch. His big body takes up most of the room, but I don’t mind because his arms are wrapped around me, holding me close. It’s as if he thinks I’m going to disappear while he sleeps, so he has to hold me extra tight. Even as I slide out of his grip, his arms tighten around me.

Stay, he tells me sleepily.

I’m coming back, I promise him, the mental speech still feeling a little strange but oddly intimate. I have to find the bathroom.

I will come with you. His eyes open and his possessiveness surges.

God, no. Let a girl take a pee by herself please. When his thoughts flare at the thought of me leaving his side, I poke his nose and try to bring him back down. Do you smell anyone else nearby?

No, he admits grudgingly.

Then I’ll be fine. I promise I won’t be long. I lean down, kiss him, and then head off to find the bathroom from last night. There’s one here, and while the toilet doesn’t flush without me pulling on the chain in the tank, the sink works. I do my business and then primp in the mirror for a few moments, trying to smooth out my terrible hair. I give myself a quick freshening up, rinse my mouth out to get rid of morning breath, and eventually re-braid my still-awful hair.

You’re beautiful, Liam sends to me, his thoughts sleepy. I like your hair messy. It makes me think I’m the one that disheveled you.

I can feel his thoughts take a decidedly sexy turn, and it makes my body quiver deep inside. That’s because you grab my hair a lot, I tease back. I feel so light and happy that it’s like I’ve swallowed the sun. I hope he can feel my joy. My Atalim, my love, my gorgeous, sexy man, is back and waiting for me to return to his side so we can make love again. Was ever a girl so very lucky?

When I return, my gorgeous dragon-man is sprawled on the couch, one arm above his head. His torso is nothing but rippling muscle, and he watches me with sleepy, whirling golden eyes that take my breath away. Actually, all of him takes my breath away, especially the half-erect length of him resting on one big thigh. Even like this, he's bigger than any man I've been with in the past, and I'm drawn to him like a moth to flame.

I like it when you look at me like that.

"Are you kidding?" I murmur, moving forward. My fingers are itching to touch him all over. "Now I can touch you without worrying if you're going to lose control, so get ready for me to look at you like this a lot."

Oh, I'll still lose control.

"Yeah, but that's the point." I sit next to him on a tiny slice of couch, just big enough for my hip to rest on. "I want to see you lose control. I want to be the one that makes you lose control, too." I watch as his big, beautiful cock stiffens and grows even more erect under my gaze, and I sigh with pleasure. I forget all about going back to bed and decide that I've had enough sleep. It's time to explore my Liam's gorgeous body.

I lightly trail my fingers down one rock-hard side, admiring the flat planes of his belly. He's not hollow from starvation, or flabby from a lifetime of leisure. Instead, he's rippled with muscle, and so damn appealing that I want to lick him all over.

It reminds me that while he loves to spend time between my thighs, he's never let me reciprocate, not how I wanted to, because he was afraid he'd burn me. But…that was before I took his fires.

A wicked grin curves my lips.

Your thoughts. I can hear all of them. His lips are parted, the tips of his fangs showing, and he's panting slightly.

"I guess there's no surprising you in this relationship, then," I murmur, even as I sink to my knees on the floor so I'm at the proper height to do this.

You constantly surprise me, he admits, reaching out to caress my braid. With how eager you are for my touch. I am the luckiest male in the world for you to see me and look at me with joy and hunger instead of like I'm a monster.

"Never," I tell him. "You're the best thing that's ever happened to me." When he sits upright, I put my hands on his big, golden thighs and lean forward. His cock stabs at the air, mouthwateringly close to my face, but I want to play a little more. I let my breath graze over the tip, noting that it's already beaded with precum. "I'm glad you're mine. I think I'd scratch the eyes out of any woman who looked at you. You can't walk around naked like Rast. I'm too jealous."

He growls low in his throat, pleased at my covetous thoughts. Because you don't want them to look at me?

That's right, I say, letting my thoughts speak instead of spoken words. I lightly brush my lips over the head of his cock and taste a sweet spiciness, almost like cinnamon. Amazing. I lick his flavor from my lips, loving that I can do this now. You're mine and I'm a possessive bitch. I'd have to fight anyone that thought she could take you from me.

Liam growls again. Are you saying such aggressive things because you know it turns me on? That drakoni men like a fierce female?

Maybe. But it's the truth. I curl my fingers around his length, testing his girth. My, but he's thick. I should know that, since he's been deep inside me, but I'm constantly amazed at him every time we touch. That something so perfect could be mine to touch and caress, mine to lick and stroke and take deep into my mouth and—

Andrea.

The ragged need in his thoughts makes my pulse race. I waste no more time, lowering my mouth and taking him deep. I slide his length along my tongue, pulling him as far in as I can, wanting to blow his mind with this new way of pleasure. Think of my mouth like my pussy, I tell him. Hot and wet and clasping you tight.

His breath shudders and his hand goes to my braid. He winds it around his hand twice and then grips it tightly, holding me pinned against him. You…like this?

Doing this to you? Oh yes. So much. I love the heat of him filling my mouth, the taste of him, the feel against my tongue when I pull back and then take him deep again. I love how he's so big that it makes my jaw ache and my lips feel tight as I strain to take him in, and how I can't even take half of him into my mouth because he's so big, so I tighten my grip on his shaft and use my hand to try and stroke the rest of him. I want to suck on him, but he's too big. All I can do is take him deep and work my mouth over his length.

Not that it matters to Liam. I can feel the pleasure exploding through his mind, and his hips move in a small thrust, pushing deep until he hits the back of my throat. His thoughts touch mine, as if making sure that I'm still enjoying, and then he participates more, pushing my head down and forcing me ever so slightly deeper with each motion, because he knows it excites us both. I work him with lips and tongue and fist, utterly lost in the moment, his scent enveloping me, his taste in the back of my throat, and the overwhelming power of him in my mouth. I'm so caught up that I don't realize I'm moaning around him until it echoes in his thoughts, how much he loves the sounds I'm making, and how the scent of my arousal hangs heavy in the air.

Liam's hand tightens on my head, and I can feel a shudder ripple through him. Pull away, Andrea. I need to spill my seed inside you.

I hold tighter, taking him deeper, until I'm practically choking on him. You're inside me right now.

With a fierce growl, he floods my mouth with his release, his cock shuttling in my mouth even as he comes. It spills over past my lips and down my chin, overwhelming me. His taste is incredible, but more than that, I love feeling his release through our connection. I can tell how sexy he finds me, how much love he has for me, and suddenly blow jobs just might be my favorite thing in the world.

You should have let me come in your cunt, he chides me, collapsed back against the couch, his hand stroking my hair as I lift my head and swipe a hand over my lips. Female drakoni do not let a mate spend anywhere but deep inside them.

Then it's good you mated a human, I tell him, crawling into his lap, because we are freaks in the bedroom.

He pauses, his hand going around my waist. Should we have been in the bedroom?

Figure of speech. Just a saying.

His eyes gleam. Good. His hand steals under my clothing, his fingers pressing against the hot, wet heat of my pussy. Because now it's my turn.

And who am I to argue?

31

LIAM

A fter another day of repeated matings, Andrea is so marked with my scent that it’s difficult to tell where her scent ends and mine begins…which is just how I like it. And because she’s so covered in my scent, her blood singing with my fires, we decide to chance a return to Fort Shreveport.

“If nothing else,” she says as she gets dressed for the flight, “We can get the rest of my things and return here.”

I love that she is so willing to be with me, no matter what it costs her, but I want to try to return to the fort. I know she loves it and her people. I know her brother is there, and her friends, and it would be hard for someone as protective as my Andrea to leave them all on their own. We’ll try to return, and I hope it won’t be as bad as I worry it will. I hope that I have enough control that Rast’s presence doesn’t bother me. He’s a good guy, and devoted to his mate.

Even so…I worry I won’t be able to hold it together for Andrea.

“It’ll be fine,” she reassures me, and she must have picked up my worry from my thoughts. She moves to my side and wraps her arms around my waist, pressing her cheek to my chest. “Just that you’re trying is enough for me.”

I hope that she’s right. I hold her close, breathing in her lovely scent and enjoying the feel of her body. It’s distracting, though, and our mating is new enough that having her like this makes me want to claim her again. She chuckles and pulls away, her thoughts promising that we can do whatever we want tonight, but for now we should fly out while it’s not raining.

She packs her bag full of her things, and throws in extra clothing for me that she found somewhere in this mess, and then she’s ready to go. I give her one last, thorough kiss before I shift to battle form and take her gently in my claws. Since we’re higher up, my launch isn’t as rough on her, but I still feel the sickness well up in her belly as we take off. I need to do better, if nothing else so my mate can fly with me in comfort…because I’m never letting her out of my sights again.

Being in battle form and flying is hard on my mind. The constant change of scents carried in the wind, the feel of power in my wings and the burn of smoke in my lungs allows the wildness to creep in. I try to keep my focus on Andrea, and when she senses my struggle, she starts a constant stream of conversation, telling me about each building that we pass and what its purpose was back in the Before. This building was just televisions, she tells me. This one for cheap items, this one for crafts. Of course, then she has to explain to me “cheap” and “crafts” and it’s enough to keep both of us focused until Fort Shreveport appears on the horizon. There’s a scent of old smoke in the air and a female lurking nearby, but as I approach, the female takes off.

She is not interested in challenging, a voice offers, touching my mind. She is just curious. She watches more than she attacks now.

Rast. I know him without seeing him, and a moment later, when the gold launches into the air and wings out to greet us, I can feel Andrea tense against me. Hello, I greet cautiously, using a human phrase. Long time no see.

How do you fare, Liam?

Atalim. And I struggle, but it is easier with my mate at my side. I flood his thoughts with possessive pride in my claiming of Andrea, letting him know that not only is she mine, but that I will tear apart any that try to come between us.

I can feel his acknowledgment, and he sends a similar barrage of mental images and scents of Amy, his mate. He is sending me the same warning, and for some reason, it makes me feel better. He will not try to interfere with my mate, for all that I am in his territory.

I understand.

Will you be staying?

I am not certain, I admit, as we angle low, flying in.

Tell him I said hi, Andrea calls to me, patting my scales. Her thoughts interrupt Rast’s connection, flooding my mind with her sweet presence. That’s Rast, right? Tell him and Amy we’re coming to visit. And tell them I’m going to beat Benny’s ass if he took off again.

I love the surge of her thoughts in mine, and send a flood of affection to her. Rast flits away on the wind, soaring past and then settling on the roof of a nearby building. He shakes his wings out and keeps his head lifted high, and I recognize his stance. He’s not relaxing—this is a watchful drakoni lording over his territory.

You are welcome here, he tells me. But this is my nest.

Agreed. I hold Andrea closer to my chest. I will tolerate Rast’s lordship over us temporarily, but I do not know if I will be able to endure it long term. Already my thoughts prick with irritation, demanding a confrontation, a battle for territory. The need to attack flares at the edge of my mind, sending in red tendrils of anger to pollute my thoughts.

I’m here, Andrea tells me. There’s no need to attack. We’re not interested in taking over his territory. Her hand is small and cool against my scales, a welcome distraction. We’ll visit and then go home, okay? We don’t have to stay. Her thoughts are soothing, as is the love she pushes into my thoughts with all the grace of a sledgehammer.

I adore her for it. You would make a new home with me, then?

Pfft. As if you can leave my ass behind. I’m going to bring new definition to the term “clingy girlfriend” so be ready for that.

Her thoughts make this sound as if it’s a bad thing. I like the thought of you clinging to me. What are you wearing in all this clinging?

Andrea’s laughter peals through the air. As little as possible?

I rumble with amusement, even as I settle on the roof of the gym at Fort Shreveport for a landing. Tell me more. I like this clinging idea.

I’ll save that for later, when we’re alone. She looks up at me, her gold eyes shining bright with affection. For now, let’s go say hi to everyone, okay?

Very well. I set her down oh-so-gently, watching as she plants her feet on the roof and stretches, working out the cramps in her legs from her long ride. She rolls her shoulders and then does a little bounce that reminds me of that cocky swing of her hips that I love so much.

With a toss of her fat braid, she looks over her shoulder at me. Can you shift forms? I’ll get your clothes, unless you want to show the world how utterly badass you are in dragon form.

I love the pride in her voice, and it makes my possessive side surge again. The need to grab her and drag her out of Rast’s territory flares through my thoughts. To take her far away, rip her clothes off, and claim her again.

Just as quickly, Andrea’s thoughts touch mine and she cools the ferocity warring in my head. We can do that later. I promise. I’ll even wear something you can rend with your claws if that’s your kink.

I rumble with laughter, and in the next moment, I’m in my two-legged form, crouching low on the roof and utterly naked. My mate walks up to me, that delicious swagger in her hips, and holds out a shirt. “You’re doing fucking fantastic, baby. I’m so proud of you.”

She knows just what I need to hear, it seems, and I straighten, give her a hungry kiss, and then take the shirt from her hands. I still hate human clothing, but it reminds me of how to be Liam instead of Atalim, so I put it on. “Thank you, Andrea,” I tell her as I put on the sweatpants she hands me next.

“For what?” I can feel her genuine curiosity in her thoughts.

“For keeping me centered when my thoughts veer off course.” I kiss her again, just because I love kissing her and love the way her mind responds when I do, how it goes blank and then slowly fills with pleasure, as if she forgets the world when my mouth is on hers.

“We’re a team,” she tells me between kisses, and I can feel her fierce protectiveness of me. “I’m yours and you’re mine and we’re in this together.”

No wonder I love this female so much.

ANDI

To my relief, Liam seems to calm once he’s in his human form. Maybe it’s habit that when he puts on human clothes, it’s time to shore up the mental walls, but whatever it is, I’m relieved when I feel his mind quiet. We go down the ladder to get off the roof, and the moment we step inside the gym, my brother Benny rushes up and gives me a hug.

“Welcome back, sis,” he gushes, uncharacteristically affectionate for a teenager.

Startled, I hug Benny close. Was he worried about me? How sweet is that? Maybe he needs his big sister after all.

The moment I think that, he pulls away, clears his throat, and then nods at Liam. “’Sup. Glad to see you’re back, bro.”

“You too, bro,” Liam says, and manages to sound relatively normal, which is hilarious. Surprisingly, he offers a fist, and Benny bumps it. What? I told you I was good at fitting in.

Yeah, but I didn’t realize you were that good.

There’s a lot of stuff I’m that good at. His tone is sultry and amused at the same time.

I can feel my face go crimson. “So how are things?” My voice is a little too light and shaky to be casual. “How’s Katrina?”

He rolls his eyes at me. “Fine. You gonna bust my balls about having a girlfriend?”

Oh my god, she’s his girlfriend?

Her scent is all over him, Liam tells me.

The parental part of me is freaking out. Benny’s too young for that sort of thing. But I know my brother, and I know he’s as stubborn as I am, and that lecturing wouldn’t do a damn thing. Plus, I’ve decided to go with Liam, haven’t I? I can’t expect to keep an eagle eye on Benny when I’m running off on my own. It’s time to let him grow up a little and give him space. The world’s different now, and maybe the same rules don’t apply like they used to. “No ball busting,” I promise him. “Just swear you’ll use condoms, expired or not.”

He groans. “Jesus, Andi. We’re barely holding hands.” He crosses his arms at me, his face bright red.

“Holding hands is a good step.” I want to reach out and tousle his hair like he’s six years old, but I can’t do that anymore, I guess. “I think that’s great. Let me know if you want us to look for something when we go out into the city again. I bet she’d like a present. A surprise.”

Benny gives me a grudging look. “That’d be great. I’ll make a list.”

A list? Here I was thinking a makeup mirror and I’m going to get a shopping list? Hope you’re ready to go scavenging, Atalim.

Always ready. He wraps an arm around my waist and presses a kiss to my cheek. “We’ll be staying overnight,” Liam tells Benny. “And we’ll be coming in regularly a few times a week, so no rush on the list. Take your time.”

“Cool, so you guys aren’t staying?” Benny looks impressed. “You got a home set up somewhere else, then? Amy says her sister has a place at the top of a skyscraper with all kinds of furniture.”

“Liam has a place about two hours from here,” I tell him. “We’re still setting up. Maybe you can come visit for a few days sometime.”

“Wicked. It’d be nice to have my own room for a while.” He nods at me. “Glad you two finally got together. You seem happy.”

What a surprisingly mature and sweet thing of my brother to say. I beam at him. “We are. Now fill me in on what we’ve missed since I’ve been gone.”

Liam and I walk with Benny towards the main building, and he tells me all about what’s been happening. I’ve only been gone for a few days, but Benny talks about everything that’s been going on for the last few weeks and I realize he’s filling in Liam, too.

Gwen’s birds are mostly gone, so the old choir room has been cleaned up and adjusted so now all of the chickens share the much-larger indoor coop with the pigeons, and the cow has a stall there. The kids in the fort take care of the animals, and the cow’s not producing anything right now, but they’re hopeful to find a bull and get a calf—and then milk—out of her.

Scooter’s great and loves being in the fort, Benny tells me. No one seems to mind that the dog’s a bit slow, because he’s super friendly and great with even the babies. Major, Lester, and Charlie brought two cats with them, but the others were hard to catch and they’re talking about going back and getting the rest and bringing them to Fort Shreveport.

Gabe’s red dragon has been flaming less, but she’s still lurking, which means Rast is constantly on alert.

That worries me a little. Is Gabe going to get booted out of the fort for the trouble he’s bringing in? People have been kicked out for less, and I’m sure Gabe could handle being on his own, but it still seems unfair.

Liam touches my hand, his fingers lacing with mine. Rast says no. He says they’ll figure it out, but no one’s being kicked out.

Oh good. So the red isn’t as lost as the others?

Oh, she is. Liam squeezes my hand. I can feel her thoughts and they’re completely and utterly chaotic. There’s no reasoning with her or talking to her. I might as well talk to air. But I’m guessing Amy and Rast have a plan of some kind.

“I think Amy’s in the kitchens,” Benny says a brief moment before he opens the door to the cafeteria.

I’ve been so distracted with my mental conversation with Liam that I didn’t notice where we were. It’s lunchtime, so the cafeteria is full of people, young mothers and children, Luz and her wife, Melissa and her sister, the survivors from Fort Justice, and in the corner I see Major, Lester, and Charlie, who raise a hand in greeting.

Everyone’s staring, and for a moment, I shrivel inside. I freeze up, because my mind can’t help but go back to Fort Tulsa, and the smirks whenever I was with a man. The trouble those rumors caused. The men who’d confront me late at night or sneak into my room, wanting a “taste” of what I was handing out, and how unsafe I felt.

That’s not going to happen, Liam says in my mind, and his thoughts are possessive and fierce. He loops a casual arm around my shoulders and pulls me close even as Benny strolls in, and holds me against him, nibbling on my ear and making it quite clear to everyone that I’m his and his alone. Those people aren’t here. These people know I’m a drakoni warrior. They know you’re mine, and I’ll gut anyone that tries to touch you. Just because you weren’t safe in the past doesn’t mean I’ll ever let you be unsafe again.

I relax. He’s right. I look at the faces in the cafeteria, and while there are knowing smirks as Liam makes out with my ear, for the most part, people are smiling in our direction. They look happy for us.

That’s…new.

It’s because they like you, Liam tells me, nipping at my earlobe. They want you to be happy. Even if it’s with a freak like me.

For some reason, tears rush into my eyes. I sniff. I am happy. And you’re not a freak.

I can be, my sweet human. He leans back and winks at me.

And now I’m turning bright red again.

“Damn, Andi, are you gonna sit there and make out with Liam in front of everyone or did you want to talk to Amy?” Benny’s disgusted voice cuts in.

Did I say I wanted to live near my brother? Clearly I’m delusional. I can feel Liam’s rumble of amusement as we start forward again. “Sorry,” I say meekly. “Show me the way.”

It looks like a meaty chili is on the menu for the fort today, and it smells delicious. We find Amy ladling out portions, talking with Retha in the kitchens, and her eyes widen with pleasure as she sees us. “Oh, you’re back! Great!” She hands the ladle over to Retha and wipes her hands on the white apron that covers her pretty yellow dress. “Do you have a minute to talk?”

“Of course,” I reply automatically, and Liam gives my hand another squeeze in agreement.

“I’m going to eat. I’ll catch up with you later, Andi,” Benny says, but he’s not looking at me. He’s looking past my shoulder. When I glance over, I see Katrina waving from a spot in the cafeteria, indicating he should join her. My brother grins at me, pats my shoulder, and then heads off.

I’m definitely second place now. Maybe I should feel a little more hurt, but I’m mostly relieved that he’s preoccupied so I can spend my time with Liam. Is that wrong?

You’re allowed to be happy and do as you please, Atalim tells me. It’s your life, too.

It sounds so practical and obvious when you say it like that, I grumble.

Amy’s quiet as we head down the halls. Our pace is slow so we can keep up with her limp, but I don’t mind. I suspect she’s lost in conversation with Rast as I am with Liam. It’s weird, too, because as we walk, I feel a curious sense of relief that I can’t quite figure out. Is it seeing Amy again? For some reason, the relief continues to grow as we head toward the quarters Amy shares with Rast.

It’s Rast, Liam tells me, and he’s surprised. He is pleased we’re here because now Amy will worry less. You can pick up his thoughts?

No? Not really. It’s just a general feeling I couldn’t quite place. I can’t hear him. But now that Liam mentions it, that reminds me. All of us that took your blood, though, we can sense when a dragon attack is coming. The air feels heavy. It’s like we’re all a bit more sensitive to emotions now.

Interesting. Your scents are all different, too. Benny smells slightly changed. You do, too, but in all the best ways. And his eyes gleam with a heat that makes me blush…and makes me aroused, too.

Save it for later, or else we’re going to freak out Amy, I tease him as we enter her room.

Liam just sends his amusement to me. There’s that “freak” word again. I’m starting to get excited every time I hear it, wondering what you have in store.

I’m blushing as Amy sits down heavily in a stuffed, padded chair. My brain’s completely distracted, but I do my best to pay attention as she gives us an awkward smile. “Thanks for coming back here with me. I’m sure we could have talked in the cafeteria, but there are far too many ears, you know? Plus, I really wanted to sit down.” She grimaces, rubbing her bad leg.

I feel a bolt of displeasure out of nowhere and step closer to Liam.

Rast again, he tells me. He doesn’t like that she works so hard. You’re sensing that, too?

Yeah, it’s weird. I rub my aching forehead. I don’t like that I’m picking up Rast’s emotions. That’s…new and more than a little unsettling. Maybe it’s heightened because I took your blood and now we’re mated?

And your mind is connected to mine. Interesting. Except Liam doesn’t sound interested.

He sounds a little displeased.

Not displeased, he corrects, picking up my thoughts. Worried for you. Is it too much for you to be here?

Only way to find out is by being here.

“Everything okay?” Amy asks, watching us closely.

Should we tell her? I ask Liam. When he agrees, I’m relieved. I don’t like secrets, and I’m glad we’re on the same page. I pull up a chair across from Amy and sit down. “Minor problem,” I tell her, and confess the emotions I’m picking up.

She comes to the same conclusion that Liam did. “Something with the blood, then? It amplifies your psychic connection to Liam? And through him, you can pick up traces of the others?”

I spread my hands. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

Amy drums her fingers on her lips, her expression distracted, and I can feel that she’s having a conversation with Rast. “Is it going to be a problem for you to stay here for a few days?” she asks. “Because I have a favor to ask.”

She looks at us expectantly and Liam turns to me. Is it my decision, then? “I’m not sure,” I admit. “It might be hard for Liam to be here with Rast here, and I don’t want him to suffer.”

I’ll do my best if you’re needed here, he tells me silently, brushing a finger over my cheek.

Just because you can try doesn’t mean that I want you to. I love you too much to watch you struggle, and you’re still re-learning a lot about your control. You’re having a hard time right now, aren’t you?

Maybe. Behind his amusement, I can feel a hint of strain. It’s Rast’s presence, he admits. It didn’t bother me before, because I couldn’t feel him. My instincts were turned off. But now that they’re awake…

Everything’s a mess, I agree.

Amy raises a finger to get my attention, and I sheepishly realize we’ve been silent, lost in a mental conversation. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be. I know how it feels.” Her smile is full of sympathy and understanding. “But before you dig in too deep with an argument, I wanted to point out that I’m asking you to stay because the fort needs protecting and Rast and I want to leave for a few days.”

“You won’t be here?” I echo, confused. “What do you mean?”

“My sister’s pregnant,” Amy says. “We’ve been trying to keep in contact via Gwen’s birds, but the last one she sent was a few weeks ago. She mentioned she wasn’t feeling well and that her belly had swelled up quite a bit. It’s concerning to me because she’s only been pregnant for about four or five months. She’s definitely not due anytime soon. I sent a message back, but I haven’t heard anything and I’m worried.” Amy bites her lip. “So we want to go visit and stay for a few days, just to make sure everything’s all right, but with the female dragon camping out right in front of the fort, I feel like we need someone here to watch over things and protect everyone in case she tries anything.”

“And since we showed up…”

“Exactly.” She gives me a hopeful look. “Would you mind? We promise to come back as quickly as possible. I just need to know that Claudia’s all right. She’s the first person to be pregnant with a half-dragon baby and I worry about her.”

And she touches her stomach.

Oh.

I’m thinking her sister isn’t the only one pregnant with a half-dragon baby. “I’m fine with it if Liam can handle it.” I turn to my dragon—my mate—and I feel a fierce sense of pride at the thought. He’s all mine.

He smiles at me, all gorgeous golden skin and flashing teeth. “If Andrea doesn’t mind the stress of keeping me grounded, I’m good to stay.”

“Stress?” I sputter. “How is it a stress for me?”

Because you’re going to have to keep me preoccupied.

Oh. I blush again. That doesn’t sound bad to me at all. It sounds like…a pleasure.

For both of us, my dragon-man agrees.

32

ANDI

T  he afternoon turns into busy distractions, as Amy rushes about to prepare for her trip. She packs a bag while telling me all of the things going on in the fort, some of which I’m aware of, and some I’m not. Melissa’s daughter just started menstruating and is a bit hormonal. Dani and Mara moved in together (which I knew about) and are wearing rings, which I did not know about, but I’m happy for them both. I knew they were close, but I guess I didn’t realize how close. Gwen will be thrilled, and I wish she was here to share with. Maybe once we’re done here, we can visit Claudia and Kael ourselves, and somehow get word to Gwen and Vaan in Fort Dallas for a meet-up…but only if it’s safe for Liam.

I won’t risk him.

Some of the food has gone bad, so Amy’s been scouting local areas and has a marked map of places with supplies. If the red takes off, we can head out to pick some up. If not, well, there’s still plenty of unexciting corn and beans and the occasional deer that wanders too close to the fort. Amy’s fussing like a new mother that’s never left home before, though, and it’s kind of amusing. “Jemma’s baby is teething,” she reminds me. “So she’s going to be fussy. There’s been some griping by her roomies, so you might have to step in.”

“Or give her a new room,” I joke. “She can have mine.”

Amy blinks, then grabs my arm. “You’re a genius. You have the space?”

“Dani moved out weeks ago to be with Mara, remember?” I point out. “And Gwen’s gone. And I’m going to be with Liam, so I can stay with him. Problem solved.”

She smiles brilliantly, then hauls her overstuffed bag off her bed. She said she was only going for a week, but in true female fashion, she’s packed enough clothing to supply a fort all on her own, plus food supplies, a canteen, toiletries, and extra shoes. The moment she hefts it onto her shoulder, though, Rast comes storming into the room, an irritated look on his face. He’s utterly naked, his big, wild mane of hair cascading down his back. He snatches the bag from her, a growl erupting from his throat.

“Oh, you,” Amy says, exasperated. “It’s not that heavy.”

I say nothing. It looks rather heavy, and Amy’s slender and delicate. I glance over at Liam to see how he’s handling Rast’s appearance.

I’m fine, he promises me, and his thoughts are strong and untroubled. He clasps the back of my neck, though, in an intimate and possessive gesture, and I decide I like it. If being manhandled and possessed and constantly claimed as his property keeps my Atalim calm, I am all for it.

I secretly like it, anyhow.

You have no secrets with me, he purrs in my head. I’m going to remember that you like being manhandled the next time I’m between your thighs.

You…I begin, and then stop. I can feel Rast’s flare of annoyance as he silently argues with Amy, but beyond that, there’s something else. Something…new.

Liam’s eyes flare black, and Rast goes still.

I go still, too. It’s like there’s a ripple going through all of our minds.

“What is it?” Amy asks, curious. “What’s going on?”

I shiver, suddenly cold. And ravenous. My mouth waters and I’m so upset that I feel like crying. It’s so strange. I rub my arms, puzzled. “I’m freezing. And hungry.”

“It’s…a child,” Liam says slowly. “A new one.” He looks at me with wonder. “That’s who’s speaking.”

“A child?” Amy asks, and then sags. Her mate catches her before she tumbles down onto the bed. “Claudia’s child?”

A newborn, Liam tells me, his thoughts full of wonder. Its mind is so strong…I’ve never felt anything like it. He presses a hand to his brow as another rush of anger and hunger rolls over me. “She’s quite the little broadcaster.”

“But she’s okay?” Amy asks, and then before anyone can answer, she looks at Rast and nods.

She’s fine, Liam reassures me before I can ask. Just hungry and cold and angry at the world, like all new young.

“I can’t believe you’re hearing her from here,” I tell him, surprised. I can’t believe I’m picking her up, either.

“Perhaps it’s the mix of bloods,” Liam says slowly, his gaze focused on me. “Your abilities have been magnified with my blood in you, and increased now that we’ve mated and you’ve taken my fires. Maybe this is what human and drakoni create when they get together.”

A baby with a strong mind and enough psychic power to touch people from hundreds of miles away.

And a name, Liam tells me. She’s all but shouting it in our heads. He winces, and as he does, I get a faint mental “glimpse” of what he’s hearing. It’s the psychic equivalent of an angry baby’s wail, and through it all, there’s a name. She’s practically bludgeoning my poor Liam with it.

Sallavatri.

A good, strong, long name, Liam tells me, and then gives me an awed grin. Her sire is going to have his hands full with that one.

AMY AND RAST EVENTUALLY LEAVE, after Amy’s re-packed her bag, this time stuffing as many baby things as she can possibly fit into one satchel. Sallavatri’s mental “shouting” continues for a while, but the hunger fades and I’m guessing she settled down enough to eat. Thank god babies sleep a lot, because I don’t know how I’d handle the constant blast of hunger and newborn crankiness. I can only imagine what Liam’s feeling.

It’s not so bad, actually. I like it. It reminds me of home. Young ones there would touch minds with their community, but not nearly so vocal as Sallavatri. His thoughts are amused. She’s a strong one.

Strong despite how “early” she is, though no one’s entirely sure that she is early. It seems that drakoni gestation is a lot shorter than human gestation, though Liam can’t say how short. I’m no female. I don’t know these things. A month? Two months? The fires quicken swiftly in our females, though.

Which means if we have a baby, I get a few months to get used to the idea, and then boom, I’m a mom to someone that arrives with the psychic equivalent of a bullhorn and her own name to boot.

I…actually don’t hate the idea.

I don’t either, Liam tells me. He’s playing with my fingers as we lie up on the roof, watching the stars. Jemma’s taken over my old room and I’ve packed my things into my trunk, which sits in Benny’s room, waiting to be taken to our new home. We’ll stay in Fort Shreveport until Rast and Amy get back, but then we’re off again to make our nest in “our” territory. It’s another idea I don’t hate. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I like it. Alone time with Atalim? Living without walls and fences for the first time in years and years? Privacy to make love as noisily as we like?

I am all for all those things.

Until then, we’re in the fort, though, and since it’s stuffy inside, we’ve taken a few blankets and pillows out onto the roof. It reminds me of that night so many weeks ago, when Liam sat with me and reassured me that all would be well with Benny. That he’d never leave my side.

It feels like it’s been a million years since then…and it also feels like no time at all.

Look, Liam tells me, pointing at the sky. Can you see them?

I look over to where he’s pointing and for a long moment, there’s nothing. Then, I feel a new presence just as I see a flash of wing in the moonlight.

A dragon.

Then, another presence touches my mind. A second dragon.

I gasp, holding his other hand tightly. “Two dragons?”

Don’t worry. Can you feel them? They’re not a danger to us.

I do feel them, but it’s not the oppressive cloud of anger and rage that normally comes with an approaching dragon. There’s nothing but calm…and curiosity. Who are they? Do we know them? Are they sane?

I’ve asked their names but they’re ignoring me. That, or they don’t know them. They’re on their way to see the child. Sallavatri. Her mental touch must be calling them.

Oh. The drakoni instincts must be kicking in when it comes to a new baby. Are Claudia and Amy in danger, then?

I don’t think so. Liam’s thoughts are equally calm. They merely want to see who touches their minds. I do not think they will harm her.

I hold Liam’s hand tightly and try to pick up emotion in his thoughts, to see if he wants to follow and go visit the baby himself, or if the nearness of the other dragons flying overhead is going to incite madness.

I’m fine, I promise. He pulls me closer, tucking me against him. I have no desire to see the baby, and no desire to attack anyone, unless they decide to come and get a closer look at you. Then, I might have to bare my fangs.

Fair enough. You think we’ll see more dragons going to visit the baby, then?

Undoubtedly. He chuckles, the sound reverberating through my head and his big chest. I don’t envy the parents. I hope they’re expecting a lot of company, because they’re going to get it.

That might mean Amy and Rast are gone for longer, I tell him, a little worried. Are you okay with that?

I am, he tells me, and his thoughts are calm. Being in my two-legged form helps…as does having you by my side. I will try to stay in this form as much as possible.

That worries me a little. Gabe’s red still lurks around the edges of the fort, just far enough away to not be confrontational, but too close for comfort. “And what about Gabe’s little friend? Is she going to see Claudia and Kael’s baby, too?”

I don’t think so. I haven’t tried reaching out to her tonight, but I don’t get the impression that Teva’s leaving.

Teva? Hearing a name gives me a stab of jealousy. So she has a name? When did this happen?

Suddenly Liam rolls and I’m under him on the blankets, his bright golden eyes smiling down at me. “I can feel your jealousy, you know.”

“Well, you should. I’m not hiding it.” I push at his chest half-heartedly. “If she’s so crazy, how does she have a name? Are you two chitchatting on the sly?”

Liam snorts. He leans in and rubs his nose against my jaw, then presses a kiss to the side of my neck, right where he bit me just a few days ago and gave me his fires. “You want to hear what she says?” His teeth scrape lightly over my skin, sending shudders through me even as he opens his mind to me.

A new mind curls in through Liam’s thoughts. It’s definitely female…and desolate and as unhinged as anything I’ve ever felt.

There is a baby. I want a baby. Where is my mate? Why won’t he challenge me? I want a baby. Where is my mate? There’s a pause, and then it starts over again, a little wilder than before. There is a baby. I want a baby. Where is my mate? Why does he hide away?

I shake my head slightly, and he closes the link, silencing the female. His tongue flicks over my skin, sending shivers of pleasure up my spine. “All right, point proven. There’s no need to be jealous. So she doesn’t think you’re her mate?”

Definitely not. She smells my fires on you. She knows I’m taken.

Then…Gabe?

She’s fascinated with him, but I don’t think it’s occurred to her that he could be her mate. I think it’s just the ramblings of an unbalanced mind.

But she knows there’s a baby, so she’s not entirely gone.

He pushes my shirt up and drags his rough tongue over my nipple, distracting me. I whimper, holding his face to my breast as I close my eyes, losing myself to his touch.

She’s not having it with me. Liam’s thoughts are silky and full of need as he kisses one aching tip and then palms the other. I have someone else I’d rather give a baby to.

I gasp, both at his words and the gentle nip of his teeth against my breast. You want to have a baby?

He lifts his head, his eyes pure gold as they meet mine. Don’t you?

Well…yes. But what if it broadcasts to the world like Claudia’s baby? Sallavatri?

Liam lowers his head again and kisses a path down to my navel. I know he’s heading for my pussy, because the man could spend all day there and never get enough. Sallavatri is sane, as far as I can tell. She’s healthy. And if our baby brought a lot of company, she’d be the safest child in two worlds, because no one would ever hurt her. There’s nothing but joy in the minds of the dragons racing to visit. They’re excited for her presence.

Then let’s make a baby, I tell him, utterly breathless.

My sweet Atalim presses a kiss to my mound, then gives me a long, delicious lick that makes my legs slide apart and my body sing.

That’s not how you do it, I tease him, gasping.

So impatient, he tells me. Don’t worry, my sweet mate. I’ll give you everything I have.

And as I gaze up at the stars overhead, he does.

EPILOGUE

Elsewhere

CLAUDIA

“C an I hold her?” I ask, putting my arms out. “You’re hogging the baby.”

Not hogging. She likes being with her papa.

Kael moves toward me, his gaze locked on the tiny creature in his big arms. I bite back my exasperation because the picture of him entranced by his daughter is too sweet for words. The baby holds onto his shorn claw, gazing up at him adoringly.

“Is she hungry?” My breasts hurt and leak, which is a pretty new sensation. Then again, all of this is. I was still getting used to being pregnant and then in the space of what felt like a month, my belly popped out like a turkey thermometer, and then the next thing I knew, I was in labor.

Now, Sallavatri’s here, fat and sassy and with a full head of bright golden hair, a name that she apparently chose, and a mental set of lungs that brings every dragon for miles out to our tower to see her.

Kael sits down on the bed next to me and hands her over. She misses your warmth.

I try not to feel jealous as he hands her over. “It’s so unfair that you can hear her and I can’t.”

She is broadcasting her thoughts like any drakoni young, he tells me, caressing my cheek as I put my child to my breast. Sallavatri latches on, suckling, and gazes up at me as she nurses. I haven’t seen a human baby in a while, but she seems fuller in the face and far more alert than most newborns. Or maybe that’s just the proud mother in me. Either way, I smile and think encouraging thoughts in her direction as she nurses and watches me.

I am here, Kael tells me. His eyes are pure gold as he watches me feed our daughter. Even if you cannot hear her, I can share my connection to her. You will not be left out.

I smile at him. “I’m not trying to pout. She’s just so amazing and I want to be as much of her world as you are.”

You are everything to both of us, my fires, he tells me, and when he gazes down at me possessively, I feel warm and content.

I thought I had a bit more time to get used to the idea of being a mom, but I can’t be sad that she’s here early.

She’s perfection.

THANK you so much for reading! Keep turning pages to read my end notes, hints at what’s next and for links to other books in the series! Everything I write is in Kindle Unlimited, so if this is your first time (aww, you’re a Ruby virgin!) go borrow like mad! <3

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Hello again!

I hope you’ve enjoyed Andi and Liam’s story! I’ve wanted to write about Liam, oh, for about a year or more now. I fell in love with the idea of a nomad-that’s-not-really-a-nomad and a drakoni man blending in with the rest of the world, trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Liam’s choices set up all kinds of delicious problems with his attraction to Andi, and it was so much fun to write their push-pull relationship.

As for Andi, there were a lot of aspects to her personality that I wanted to explore. She tries to come across as kind of a badass toting around her shotgun, but the moment she fainted on page, I knew she was a liar and just pretending really hard. That interested me, and digging in, I learned she had a tricky past and that was also something I wanted to play around with. Sometimes it’s easier to be the girl that says ‘yes’ instead of ‘no’ and every woman has experienced situations that she might have later realized was a bad idea. Compound that with the small, closed-in feel of the forts and the powerlessness that most people had (and the power-hungry ego of those that did have power) and I could see it as a situation ripe for abuse. It’s one of those tricky situations where ‘just because you said yes doesn’t make it consent’ sorts of things and I could also see that affecting how she reacted in the future when Liam showed interest in her.

Also, I’m starting to sound like a huge dork in these author notes. I’ve always been one of those people that says she doesn’t have a muse and yet here I am talking about how characters introduce themselves. It’s okay to roll your eyes - I am, too! It’s just that I have definite ideas for some characters, whereas others show who they are when they arrive on the page. Liam I had a general idea for - Andi I did not until I wrote her hoisting around that shotgun and tossing her braid.

And then, of course, she just had to be a heroine. :)

A minor housekeeping note - in this book, Benny is 14. In FIRE IN HIS FURY I believe he was 14, and in FIRE IN HIS SPIRIT his age was mentioned as 16. I’m officially going on the record here and saying his age is 14, and I’m going back to correct the earlier instance. Right now, there are a few of you slapping your foreheads and wondering how such a thing gets missed, right? Don’t worry, I’m slapping my forehead, too!

Of course…I am that someone that doesn’t remember names or dates or why I walked into the kitchen. Basically, I live in a bubble. My husband can tell you all about how I didn’t remember his birthday for the first five years we were together and I still have to pull out our marriage license to remember what our anniversary was (it was a Tuesday! That’s all I remember!). So you’ll have to forgive me if I get dates and ages wrong from time to time.

You might also be saying to yourself, doesn’t Ruby have worldbuilding bibles? Yes, yes she does. She also forgets to reference them…

Like I said - I live in a happy bubble of my own making where dates don’t exist, like gray hairs and calories. :)

I’ve got two more books planned in this series at the moment. Gabe will have a book, which should be obvious after reading this one! I’ve had SO many people write me and ask why the lady dragons haven’t gotten their own book. My answer has always been the same - if I can think of a story, I’ll do one! And for the longest, I couldn’t think of a story. But in writing this one, I had an epiphany and I think that book will be fun to write and a nice, interesting shake up!

Azar and Melina’s book is tentatively planned as the last book in the series, but if I think of others or have new stories to tell, I might squeeze another in there. I love the dragons, but they’re also a lot harder for me to write than barbarians, so I don’t know if this series will go on as long as that one. I try to give all my series equal love but I also have to acknowledge that not every series can go on for forever.

(I am always open to fan input, though! So if you have something you’re absolutely DYING to see or feel I’ve neglected a particular storyline, drop me a line on Facebook!)

Audio for this book will be out in about 3-4 months. I know it’s a bit of a wait, but they have to have time to schedule the narrators and work it into their schedules. I’ve asked to keep the same narrators throughout the series because as a reader I find it jarring to have narrators switch out, so I hope you guys don’t mind the wait for the good stuff! <3 I think they do a fantastic job and can’t wait for them to bring Liam and Andi to life.

As for what’s next, I’m currently juggling my schedule at the moment and trying to fit together the pieces of the puzzle. I’ve got a New York book to squeeze in this spring (under my secret name) but I’m determined to keep Ruby’s release schedule hopping. So I’ll release that information soon enough on Ruby’s Facebook! Stay tuned.

If you’ve read this far, I just want to gush on a few people. Kati, for always making my covers spectacular and over the top. You really are a total genius and you can make something amazing out of my totally hand-wavy suggestions. I’m constantly in awe of your talent and thrilled to be your friend. Also, to my editor Eagle — your comments always make me laugh. I promise someday I’ll learn the difference between lay/lie and ‘there are’ vs ‘there’s’ but I figure I need to give you something to do. Yeah, that’s it. ;)

For my readers — you guys are the best fans and I can’t thank you enough. Please know that I read all your comments and suggestions and you guys always make my day better. You guys are an utter dream and I love all of you!!

<3

Ruby

PS - If you are the type to leave a review, would you be so kind? It helps the book ‘stick’ on Amazon and helps me as an author. And if you’re not the type to review, that’s okay too! No pressure at all. <3

THE FIREBLOOD DRAGONS SERIES

Just getting started? Here’s a quick run-down of the other titles in this series!

Fire in His Blood

For breaking the law, Claudia’s chained up and left as an offering to the ravenous dragon attacking Fort Dallas. But that ravenous dragon wants a mate, and he picks Claudia.

Fire in His Kiss

Poor, fragile Sasha’s been kidnapped by Dakh, who’s utterly lost in his crazed thoughts. The only thing that gets through to him is her touch. Does she dare mate the dragon?

Fire in His Embrace

It’s Emma’s fault that Zohr’s been captured by the bad guys. It’s up to her to save him, but there’s only one way to tame a dragon…with a mating!

Fire in His Fury

Amy’s dreamed of someone that could love her with every breath in his body. But when wild, terrifying Rast shows up, she’s not sure that’s exactly what she had in mind.

Fire In His Spirit

Mating with Vaan means that Gwen must give up her friends, her family, and her leadership of her fort for a stranger…

Like Audio? You can also listen to this series on audiobook! (Audio is released about 3-4 months after each book.)

RUBY DIXON READING LIST

FIREBLOOD DRAGONS

Fire in His Blood

Fire in His Kiss

Fire in His Embrace

Fire in His Fury

Fire In His Spirit

Fire in His Veins (this book!)

ICE PLANET BARBARIANS

Ice Planet Barbarians

Barbarian Alien

Barbarian Lover

Barbarian Mine

Ice Planet Holiday (novella)

Barbarian’s Prize

Barbarian’s Mate

Having the Barbarian’s Baby (short story)

Ice Ice Babies (short story)

Barbarian’s Touch

Calm(short story)

Barbarian’s Taming

Aftershocks (short story)

Barbarian’s Heart

Barbarian’s Hope

Barbarian’s Choice

Barbarian’s Redemption

Barbarian’s Lady

Barbarian’s Rescue

Barbarian’s Tease

The Barbarian Before Christmas (novella)

Barbarian’s Beloved

CORSAIRS

THE CORSAIR’S CAPTIVE

IN THE CORSAIR’S BED

ENTICED BY THE CORSAIR

DECEIVING THE CORSAIR

STAND ALONE

PRISON PLANET BARBARIAN

THE ALIEN’S MAIL-ORDER BRIDE

BEAUTY IN AUTUMN

THE KING’S SPINSTER BRIDE

THE ALIEN ASSASSIN’S CONVENIENT WIFE

BEDLAM BUTCHERS

Bedlam Butchers, Volumes 1-3: Off Limits, Packing Double, Double Trouble

Bedlam Butchers, Volumes 4-6: Double Down, Double or Nothing, Slow Ride

Double Dare You

BEAR BITES

SHIFT: Five Complete Novellas

WANT MORE?

For more information about upcoming books in the Ice Planet Barbarians, Fireblood Dragons, or any other books by Ruby Dixon, ‘like’ me on Facebook or subscribe to my new release newsletter.

If you want to talk barbarians on Facebook, there’s also a fan group called Blue Barbarian Babes who love to discuss everything on the ice planet — and the dragons! I’d love it if you check them out.

Thanks for reading!

<3 Ruby

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Contents

FIRE IN HIS VEINS

What Has Gone Before

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Epilogue

Author’s Note

The Fireblood Dragons Series

Ruby Dixon Reading List

Want More?