“It was just far is all.”
“Are you— Are they—” She looks behind me, which hurts a little, looking for her mates.
“They can’t come,” I say. “I checked the cell next to me before I left…” I trail off as I realise this was the wrong thing to say because she leaps out of bed and storms—hobbles, to my dismay—up to me with pure rage in her eyes.
“Did you just fucking saycell,Xander Drakos?”
I see it in stark definition. The rage that carried her to Clawson House and tore it down. “I’ve always known there was dragon fire in you,” I say softly, meeting her rage with pure, solemn awareness.
Her eyes drop to my neck, where my new, black mark shines with all the light of midnight. Those sapphires are engulfed by her pupils and I watch in fascination. She casts her gaze away, glancing at the room behind her. “Ghoul didn’t come either,” she sneers.
“He’s likely unable to step away considering the chaos right now.”
“Right.” She sounds disappointed.
A growl awakens in my chest. “Are you— You can’tlikehim, Aurelia.”
Her eyes narrow, dark lashes framing her rage. “What a strange thing foryouto say, Xander.”
I take the hit, like I’ll take every hit from her from now on. “Point taken.”
Her power surges around her in an aura of red and black—something I’ve never seen from her before—eyes glistening, posture feral. She is wild in a way that I once would have sneered at because I didn’t know what it meant. Now I understand that it’s her full force coming out. She’s showing who she really is underneath all the shields. She’s showing everyone what real power looks like.
It gives me goosebumps.
It’s then that I notice a tremble at the edges of her being. With some alarm, I see that she’s depleted her power. “Have you eaten?”
She scowls at me, her rage only growing. “I hate you.” Whipping around, she paces the room, her sore leg giving her an uneven gait. “Tell me about these cells my mates are in. Are they being fed? Is she hurting them?” A regina in full force. Slightly unhinged, but in full control. No one else could be regina of my brothers. “Wipe that fucking smile off your face.” Her eyes are murderous on me, staring unblinking at my form. Her nostrils flare, unconsciously looking for my scent.
“If you’re going to kill me, I’ll wholeheartedly let you,” I say. “But can it wait a week or so? We need to plan?—”
“Fuck your plans. Fuck everything!” she hisses, stepping up to me threateningly.
Yes, baby,yes.
Even being the second-worst-mate in existence, I know what my regina needs. I step around her rigid body and lean down to whisper in her ear. “Let me fuck your fury out of you.”
Aurelia shivers, her bare shoulders trembling. But she wants to be angry. Whirling around, she smacks me across the cheek with the full force of her body. Before now, she’s been too tired, in too much pain to be furious at me. At the world. But with her dragon at the forefront, with fire threatening to split her veins, she has finally given herself permission.
So I don’t move. Don’t so much as flinch. I take it with my eyes closed, savouring my regina’s furore. “Good girl,” I whisper. “Now do it again.”
She stands on her tiptoes. “Don’t tell me what to do,” she whisper-yells right into my face.
Once, I might have pulled away. Now, I press closer, touching my forehead to hers. “One of the things I always thought I hated about you was your need to fight for those you love. For your friends. For Savage, Lyle, and Scythe. A part of me wished someone would have fought for me when?—”
She shoves at my chest with a choked noise, storming away for all of three steps before she storms right back, poking me hard in the sternum. “Let’s get one thing very fucking clear,Xander Drakos. There is no one inanyworld who can take my mates from me. There is nowhere you can hide. Nowheretheycan hideyou. I will destroy everything and everyone in my path until you are all back in my nest.Including”—she bares her teeth at me—“your cursed ass. Is that understood?”
My hand flies to my heart as something crumples in me. I didn’t realise how much I needed to hear that. How much my soul needed to hear my regina declare herself for me. It’s my dragon that comes forward, his voice nothing but gravel and smoke as he steals the words from my mouth. “Yes, my queen. You are ever merciful.”
Her eyes simmer as she glares at me with pure, feral grace. “Call me regina!” she cries, her voice near shrill.
I can hardly believe it—my luck, the gift she’s just given me. I have to wrangle my excited dragon back so the human in me gets to drop to his knees and whisper, “Yes, regina.”
The movement seems to placate her as she grabs my chin in a painful grip and demands, “Now kiss me.”
I surge upwards, crashing my mouth into hers. She claims my bottom lip with her teeth, biting hard enough to drawblood. I groan, catching her around the waist and pulling her down onto me. It doesn’t fucking matter that I’m in astral form, apparently; when a Boneweaver regina wants to fuck her non-corporeal dragon-mate, she will. Her legs come around me as she drags her fingernails up my arms and rips my shirt open. Astral buttons go flying to either side before she wrenches the material off me.
Aurelia almost tears her tank top when removing it, and I can’t help but drag my teeth down the column of her neck. She cries out, grinding against me. “Fuck, I can taste you,” I say as her scent, her sweat, fills my nose and mouth. She is sweet and salty, fiery and smoky all in one. Like golden vanilla lit on fire.
