"Yes."
"Trestair Dragonwing, Nevair's assistant. You can call me Tres."
Lian reached across the dragon nose to shake Trestair's hand. "Lian Blythorpe."
"That's not a dragon name," Trestair's snappish tone put Lian on the defensive.
He didn't know what he'd done to get on the guy's bad side, but he didn't back down.
"No it's not." Lian thought Trestair kind of rude, but if Nevair depended on this guy Lian didn't want to cause conflict.
"Ah," Trestair acted as if he'd uncovered some deep dark secret, but since Lian never claimed to be dragonkin, he couldn't even imagine what the blond thought he'd discovered.
Lian could tell the man wanted to interrogate him further, but Nevair bared a fang in Tres's direction. "He's kind of snarly," Lian commented.
"That's because you're not bound. Your proximity to an unattached male incites his dragon," Trestair explained as if Lian was a gradeschooler.
Lian frowned. "What do you mean bound?" Somehow his studies hadn't covered that part of dragon culture.
"He believes you are mates, so anyone around you is a potential threat," Trestair explained, impatiently.
Lian's heart skipped a beat and his body chilled at the thought. "My father always called my mother his mate but that didn't stop him from killing her and then himself." In Lian's experience, the mystical mating process caused more harm than good.
Tres gave him a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry to hear that. Many cultures have mates but few have them to the extreme of dragonkin. Once you're mated, it's forever and you belong to each other until death. If you are true mates a mark will appear on your back within forty-eight hours of intercourse."
"What kind of mark?"
"A large dragon resembling Nevair in dragon form would be your mark if the two of you are mates," Trestair explained.
For the first time Lian understood how women felt while waiting to find out if they were pregnant, a combination of hope and stark terror. "You think I'm your mate?" Lian asked the dragon.
A flash of light poured from the beast. Lian watched wide-eyed as Nevair transformed from dragon to human. Naked human.
Wow!
"Here!" Tres handed over a bag. Distracted by the large dragon, Lian hadn't even noticed the man had carried one. It was probably why Tres followed Nevair in the first place. Lian wondered how long a dragonkin could hold his animal form.
"Thanks," Nevair accepted the bag, but his hot gaze remained on Lian.
Nevair dressed quickly in the robe he pulled out. Embroidered dragons covering the front gave the simple garment a luxurious appearance. Once dressed, Nevair grabbed Lian, yanking him close for a kiss. Despite his trepidation, Lian allowed the embrace. His entire body melted at the first brush of lips against lips as if it had been waiting for the moment they were reunited again.
Lian sucked in his breath. He'd never been the focus of such intensity before. He'd had men attracted to him in the past, but none who appealed to him as much as this man.
Eventually Lian's larger head prevailed and he pulled away from Nevair.
"You can't just shift into a dragon and scare off my friends." Lian scowled at the sexy man. A difficult feat when every inch of him longed to be back in Nevair's arms.
Nevair wrapped his hands around Lian's hips. "I will have more control after we're properly mated."
Lian stepped back. "What if I don't want to be mated, did you think of that? What if I came to do a job then planned to leave? I can't leave if we're bonded."
Nevair's handsome face hardened. "You don't get a choice. It is the will of the goddess."
Lian folded his arms. "Maybe the goddess needs a little talking to."
"Sacrilege!" Tres shouted.
Sighing, Lian turned away from the men.
