Page 94 of Tears of Gold

But it’s not just fear compelling me.

Ava’s changed everything. She woke the beast inside, knitted me and Erritt together, added the rogue like delicious seasoning on a good meal, and she’s making me think about the future in a way I never have before. A future I want with her.

Ava knows next to nothing about dragon lore, but strangely, I’m okay with that. Maybe because I can sense the unconditional acceptance from her—to Ava, me being a dragon isn’t ‘lesser’ or something to regard with suspicion. She just likes me, and it’s an exhilarating sensation.

But I won’t allow myself to be in a situation where I can’t find her again.

Hunting for her after the Davinas took her, and then living with my heart in my throat every day waiting for her to remember me is not happening ever again.

“Almost there,” I say, my eyes picking out the shape of the tree against the sunset sky, nested in a tiny grove between several jutting slabs of rock.

“What’s the hurry?” Ava chuckles as I tug on her again.

“This is something you’ll never see anywhere else,” I promise. “Look?”

“At the tree?”

“Mhm.”

Ava flashes me a puzzled look and steps closer. “Oh, Skye!” she cries as she reaches out her hands to cradle one of the silver pods dangling from the branches. “It looks just like you!” She sticks a finger up through the long corkscrew-shaped pod, resting her nail against the flared head where it attaches to the branch.

“It’s a long-long tree,” I say, stepping up behind her and wrapping my arms around her waist. “That’s an old word for my kind. Wait and watch.”

We stand in silence, Ava slightly rocking into me as the sun slips behind the treeline and the sky fades from pink to navy. The water gurgles over rocks a few feet beside us and the first of the crickets chirp in their evening quest for love. As the light fades, a faint silver gleam diffuses from the seed pods, the glow so weak in the twilight it takes Ava a few moments to notice it.

“They’re glowing, like fireflies!” she exclaims.

“Yes.” I whuffle my nose through her hair, savoring her sweet floral scent and lingering over the hotter, spicier scent in her essence that’s always puzzled us. Perhaps it’s the imprint of a kitsune essence, however that works.

“Do the trees only grow in this area?”

“No, but the emperor outlawed the trees because they’re a symbol of the Five Claw dragons.” I cup one of the curled pods. “I’m pretty sure this is the last one in existence.”

I dip my fingers under the waistband of her pants, bringing me into contact with her emotions. Sadness throbs through her, reflecting my own.

She slides around in my embrace and wraps her arms around my neck. “There’s so much I don’t know about you, and your history. You must have endured so much. I thought the same thing the very first time I saw you.”

“And you didn’t even know dragons were real then,” I tease.

“I want to know it all,” she says, gazing up at me, her love shining bright. “About your family, and about dragon lore, and why you swear by the Dragon Stars.”

My heart swells, thumping loudly against my ribcage.

Ava sucks in her bottom lip. “I just don’t want to cause you pain by asking about difficult things.”

I drop a kiss on her shining lips. “In time I’ll tell you everything, but don’t feel sorry for me. The past is the past, and I’m more interested in the future.” I stare down into her hazel eyes, my beast vision picking out the brown and green even as the light fades. “A future with you.”

The press of her breasts against my chest, her smooth, warm skin under my fingers, and the caress of her human essence against my soul makes my senses swim until I want to drown myself in her. I’ve never felt this strongly about anyone. For years, even my deep love for Erritt has been tempered with the knowledge I’ll lose him some day, a truth I simply accepted, like the other parts of my life that I can’t control. But with Ava, I can’t picture a future without her, and now, by extension, without Erritt or Harper either.

I’m becoming greedy.

“Be mine.” I ask, digging my fingers into her hips.

“I don’t know what happens when the gate reopens,” Ava admits, shifting her head sideways so she can watch the dragon tree as a gentle breeze sets the dangling pods dancing.

“I don’t know either.” I cup her chin and lift her face toward mine. “But I know I love you and no amount of distance across the universe will ever change that fact or lessen what I feel. I’m changing because of you. We all are, and I just—” My voice cracks as I allow myself to completely feel the strength of true dragon love, the love for a mate.

“Be mine,” I ask again once, a shiver of raw dragon power vibrating through my throat with the words.