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LACHLAN

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” I asked as I set a bowl of ice cream in front of Chloe.

She lit up at the sight of the French vanilla drizzled with chocolate syrup. “If I wasn’t before, I am now.” She leaned her elbows on the penthouse’s kitchen counter and dug her spoon into one of the creamy mounds. Her hair was damp from the shower, and her nipples were hard points under the thin silk of her robe. There was beard rash on her neck, and her lips were swollen from my kisses.

Or Alec’s. Probably both.

I reached down and adjusted my cock, which pushed painfully against the front of my trousers. In the week since the vampires tried to abduct her, the three of us had hardly left the bed.

And still I wasn’t sated. Even now, I wanted—needed—more. It was a damn good thing she’d agreed to stay. Because letting her go wasn’t an option. Each time we joined, our bond grew that much stronger, its presence so obvious it was hard to believe I’d ever questioned it.

Over a thousand years of living, and I was still a fool. Fortunately, Chloe wasn’t. She’d forgiven my prejudice.

And I would never stop being grateful.

Alec walked into the kitchen and stopped. “You’re having ice cream without me?”

I gestured at the cell phone on the counter. “Chloe is going to call her mother.”

Chloe scooped more ice cream and held her spoon aloft in invitation. “Don’t worry. I share.”

Alec grinned and sauntered around the counter. “Careful, lassie. You’ll put wicked thoughts in my head with talk like that.” He dipped his gaze to the bulge between my legs and raised an eyebrow. “Having a hard time?”

I leaned a hip against the counter. “Just eat, Alec.”

His eyes gleamed with a mixture of heat and merriment as he put his palms on the granite and stretched toward Chloe. “Oh I plan to,” he murmured, holding her gaze as he took his time licking ice cream off the spoon.

She blushed and bit her lip. “I didn’t know dragons like ice cream.”

“We love it,” he said as she fed him another bite. “Give us something sweet and wet, and we gobble it right up.”

A curious sensation spread through me as I watched them alternate between flirting and sharing the dessert. The feeling was more than happiness. It was…joy, I realized. And lightness. For the first time in centuries, the constant ache in my soul was gone. I was whole.

Fate had given me not one but two perfect mates.

My eyes burned, and I swallowed against a suddenly thick throat.

Alec turned his head toward me, a soft smile playing around his mouth. “Come here,” he said, extending a hand.

I took it and let him pull me to his side. He used his other hand to grip one of Chloe’s and then nodded toward the phone. “You don’t have to do this to make us happy, sweetheart.”

Her heart rate picked up, and she licked her lips, anxiety rolling off her in waves. “I know…but I want to do it.” She squared her shoulders. “I need to do it.”

I reached across the counter and took her other hand. “Draw from us, then, love. Just like we practiced.”

Some of the tension left her shoulders, and a hint of amusement entered her blue gaze. “That’s a good idea. If there was ever a time to borrow some dragon power, it’s before a call with my mother.”

A sense of humility spread through me—something that probably wasn’t going to stop happening anytime soon. I’d questioned fate because I hadn’t wanted to be saddled with a weak human for a mate. I’d thought Chloe beneath me.

And fate had delivered the ultimate sucker punch by giving me a female who could siphon magic from any of the Firstborn Races.

“Okay,” she said suddenly. “I’m ready.”

Alec lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. Then he swiped her phone screen and dialed.

Her mother picked up right away, her clipped tones filling the kitchen. “I knew you’d see reason. I’m swamped with work so I won’t be able to get you from the airport—”

“I’m not coming back to New York,” Chloe said.