Shadows seep out of Aurelius, creeping up the walls and blackening the windows.
They turn day to night. The baths become the nighttime sky; the petals floating stars.
Adrenaline spikes through me.
Aurelius looks both glorious and terrible. I am drawn to him as a moth is to the sun.
Would he burn me to ash like he did the fae? Or would he burn my enemies?
“If you don’t want me, then maybe, I should stop trying and allow myself to become Hadrian for you.” To my shock, the tips of Aurelius’ golden eyelashes tremble with tears that he doesn’t allow to fall. “He’ll turn the realms to ash and bone to keep you. He’ll burn every Blood and rule over the Shadow Kingdoms as a warlord Emperor again. If you want that, then fucking call him. I can’t fight this battle to control my emotions — control him — if you can’tlove me.”
I can see the flames — death and destruction — dancing in his eyes.
Heartbroken, I reach for his hand. Suddenly, I realize how to reach him, even though he’s on the blade’s edge of destroying us all.
As his Omega, am I the only person who can save the world, rather than end it?
Tame the Golden Dragon of legend?
Throughlovingthe newly reincarnated dragon?
“Aurelius,” I gasp like his name is an incantation. “Aurelius, Aurelius…my Alpha.”
I raise his hand to my mouth, kissing along his knuckles, before nuzzling against them.
Aurelius sucks in a breath.
Slowly, the room lightens.
His shadows are drawn back into him. The sun shines down on him again, gleaming off his golden tunic and crimson cloak.
I squeeze his hand, and he tenderly squeezes it back.
“Spark,” Aurelius breathes. “My Omega.”
I glance through my eyelashes, and relief washes through me that his eyes have returned to a warm amber.
I push myself onto tiptoes and capture my Alpha’s plush lips in a burning kiss that is filled with hunger and need and claiming.
Aurelius opens his lips, thrusting his tongue into my mouth, dominating the kiss.
I lose myself, allowing him to push his thigh between mine. I can feel his hard cock through his breeches.
He tangles his hand in my hair, pulling me closer. He is shaking as much as I am, taking desperate breaths of my scent and pheromones.
I wrap my arms around him more firmly, tugging him backwards but never breaking the kiss.
He lets himself be pulled into the water.
We fall together into the petals, splashing beneath the oily water.
Neither of us break the kiss, which is life, bond, and desperation.
It’s thetouchthat keeps Aurelius anchored from Hadrian.
The touch that we are soon to lose.
The touch that he needs at such a deep level that its loss may send him feral.
