Page 124
Aya puts her feet down and takes the steps. She walks over and slips around behind me. When she wraps her arms around my belly and pulls my back against her, the apple drops and rolls into the dirt. Aya rises on her toes and buries her face in my neck. Her warmth soaks through my shirt until the fight goes out of me. Nothing grounds me like my mate does.
Aya doesn’t budge. She whispers for my dragon to try again. He rolls toward her voice, but I’m not so sure about this with her pressed up against me. All I can picture is a bolt coming down on her.
“No, Aya, baby,” I warn her, and I try to ease her arms off my belly. “Get back.”
She tightens her hold around me instead. “Go on, Ezra. Show your dragon how much you love me, and that you’d never hurt me.”
“Now, Ezra,” my father orders. “Send the call to the heavens.”
I twist around enough to get a look at Aya. She doesn’t smell the least bit afraid. My dragon is the terrified one. He shrinks back, scared to death of what he could do to her this close. I groan, turn my face away from her, and lift it to the sky.
Heat floods behind my eyes, and I scent rain on the wind. Clouds roll in out of nowhere from every direction and darken until they blot out the sun. The hair on my arms stands on end while thunder growls somewhere far off. I pull the roar up from deep in my gut and send it to the heavens, and this time my dragon joins in. Blue lightning races through the clouds. The sky answers us with a crack that rattles the cabin windows. Wind tears across the clearing, flattening the grass around our feet. We keep every bolt up there and away from our mate. Against my back, her heartbeat stays calm. Her arms never loosen.
I pull out of her grasp and turn around while the storm rolls on over us. I take her face in my hands and stare into her eyes with all the love I have in me. I need her to feel this.
“I want you to know that the power you hold over my dragon is a dangerous thing,” I tell her.
My father watches us without blinking. “Yes,” he agrees. “It is a dangerous thing indeed.”
I don’t look at him. I keep my eyes on Aya’s beautiful silver ones until I can smell her getting lost in my gaze. Her arms fall to her sides, and she gives me complete control.
“I thank Mother Fate with everything in me,” I murmur, and I brush my thumbs over her cheeks. “The gift you’ve given me can’t be matched.”
Her lips part. “Ezra—”
I move in and kiss her. Static from the storm crackles where our mouths meet. It starts out sweet, then turns passionate. When Aya gasps between my lips, I deepen the kiss.
I slide my hand to the back of her neck and pull her flush against me. She tastes like the apple she was eating, sweet with a bite to it. Her mouth opens under mine. I sweep my tongue inside and take my time with her. Aya fists my shirt and melts into me with a needy whimper while a purr rumbles from my chest into hers. I kiss her slow and deep until she goes weak in my arms.
After I pull back, my dragon is absolutely satisfied with himself. I lift my chin to the sky and close my eyes while the Stormscale charge dies off my skin. The thunder moves off over the trees. Warm sun breaks through the clouds as the sky goes back to normal. I send up a silent prayer to Mother Fate. Thank you. I am the happiest dragon in the world.
When I finally turn my eyes back to Aya, her knees buckle, and I catch her by the waist. My father is grinning at us. I can smell the pride in his scent.
“That’s enough for today,” he announces. “I’ll go get Aya some water.”
I scoop her up into my arms. She wraps hers around my neck and sags against my shoulder. “Don’t pass out on me,” I tease.
“Shut up,” she mumbles.
We spend the rest of the day at Ash Clan. Aya drifts from porch to porch getting to know our people, and whenever I catch her scent on the wind, she’s mingling with another family. By the time I finish up with my father and Dominic, my mate is out front of our cabin, and I go stand beside her.
On the roof, Levi, Kane, and Gabriel are packing up their hammers. Kane and Gabriel hop down and hit the ground easy. Levi jumps after them and comes down wrong. He grabs his back with a grunt while they catch him by the arms. The sharp stink of pain cuts through his scent.
Aya bolts across the yard. “Dad!”
Levi straightens up for her as best he can. “I’m all right, baby.” He wraps an arm around Aya and pulls her close. He chuckles at his brothers. “I’m gonna need a ladder to finish this roof.” Kane nods, but he and Gabriel stay glued to Levi’s side.
Aya pulls back and stares up at her father. I catch the sour bite of fear coming off her. “What’s going on, Dad?”
Levi peers down at her, soft around the eyes. “I’m aging, baby.”
Grief tears through Aya’s scent, and my dragon falls silent. I lower my head with Kane and Gabriel. I already had this talk with my parents. They told me early in life that they wouldn’t live forever, that one day Mother Fate would call on them to make room for the next generation. I hoped Levi had longer than this. My stomach turns when I remember Sam and Lauren whispering about stiff joints on a wolf shifter.
“My father says the curse held the sky still for a thousand years,” I murmur, and it’s enough to make Aya look our way. “None of us could age. Now that it’s broken, the stars are moving again.” I have to stop and swallow before I go on. “Every star burns for its season. When its light goes out, what’s left of it becomes the stars that come after.”
I put my hands behind my back. Aya turns to her father and grabs a fistful of his shirt, then she sucks in a shaky breath. Smoke stings my nose. Why would House of Zorah keep this from their own pups? Maybe it was the doctor in my mother, but she made sure I knew and understood that nothing in this world is granted eternity, not even vampires. They may not age out, but death will meet them again someday.
“How long?” Aya asks.
