“Draven!” Lila’s voice cut through the chaos, sharp with alarm.
Suddenly her warm hands cupped his face, forcing his wild gaze to focus on her. Her green eyes blazed with fierce determination, steady and unafraid even as he fell apart before her.
“Open your eyes fully and look at me,” she commanded, her voice carrying the authority of someone who’d talked countless people through similar crises. “Don’t look at anything else. Just me.”
He tried to obey, but his vision kept fracturing, reality sliding in and out of focus.
“Breathe with me,” she continued, her thumbs stroking across his cheekbones. “In through your nose, out through your mouth. Follow my breathing.”
She demonstrated, her movements slow and exaggerated. Despite the panic clawing at his mind, his dragon recognizedits mate’s voice and began to settle, focusing entirely on her presence.
“In... and out. In... and out. That’s it. Keep your eyes on me, Draven. Listen only to my voice.”
Gradually, his ragged gasps began to sync with her steady rhythm. The iron band around his chest loosened incrementally as precious oxygen flowed back into his lungs. Through the mate bond—that golden thread connecting their souls—he felt their heartbeats beginning to align, his frantic pulse slowing to match her calm one.
The world stopped spinning. The walls retreated to their proper positions. The suffocating weight lifted from his shoulders as clarity returned like sunshine breaking through storm clouds.
He stared into her eyes, those beautiful green depths that held no judgment and no fear—only compassion and unwavering strength. In that moment, with her hands still cradling his face and their hearts beating in perfect unison, the truth spilled from his lips.
“Lila, you are my fated mate.”
Those words hung in the air, heavy with eighteen years of longing and terror. His alpha nature demanded he reach for her, claim her, and make her understand that she belonged to him completely. But fear paralyzed him as he waited for her reaction.
This is it. This is where she runs.
She didn’t say anything. Didn’t move. Didn’t even blink.
The silence stretched until it became unbearable, each second feeling like an eternity. His dragon paced nervously, desperate for some sign of acceptance or rejection—anything other than this terrible quiet.
She’s going to leave. She’s going to call Gerri and demand to go home. I’ve just lost her before I ever really had her.
ELEVEN
LILA
Lila’s hands remained frozen against Draven’s face, her fingertips still registering the warmth of his skin and the slight roughness of morning stubble. The words he’d just spoken echoed in her mind like a bell that wouldn’t stop ringing.
Fated mate.
She remembered Nyra mentioning something about Draven waiting for his fated mate, how that was why he’d remained single for eighteen years despite countless suitable matches being presented to him. He’d even admitted the same thing this morning about how he was waiting for that fairy tale love and a soul-deep connection.
But her? How could she possibly be his fated mate?
“I’m human,” she whispered, the words barely audible. “Not a dragon shifter. How can that even be possible?”
Her mind raced with questions that felt too enormous to process.
What did it mean to be a dragon shifter’s fated mate? What would that entail for her future?
Her life was back on Earth—her patients, her brother Liam, and her best friend Harper. She had responsibilities, commitments, and a career she’d worked years to build.
But what about this pull you’ve felt since the moment you arrived on Nova Aurora? That strange sense of belonging and recognition?
The thought made her chest tighten with something that felt dangerously close to panic. She couldn’t think clearly with Draven so close, his golden-brown eyes searching her face with a piercing intensity that made her feel exposed and vulnerable.
Lila abruptly pulled her hands away from his face and stood up from the bed, the midnight-blue slip swishing around her thighs as she moved. She needed space, somewhere to breathe without drowning in his intoxicating presence.
The morning light streaming through the tall windows beckoned her forward, and she walked toward it on unsteady legs. The twin suns of Nova Aurora cast everything in that surreal golden glow she’d come to associate with this beautiful, impossible planet. But even the calming effect of the alien landscape couldn’t quiet the storm of emotions churning inside her.
