Page 219

I exhaled hard into her skin. My dragon was furious with me, gnawing at me from the inside. This was ourfated mate, in our lap, neck bared, asking me to claim her. And yet, I had to say no.

“I thought this was what your dragon wanted,” she said. “The connection’s only one-way now, right? I want to be able to feel you too, Steph.”

I pulled away enough to look into her bright, confused eyes. My rejection had hurt her, and that pissed my dragon off even more than he already was. “It’s too dangerous. We can’t do this, not right before I face Sean for the last time.”

“Why?” she pressed. “Because of the bond? Because if—God forbid—something happened to you, it’d hurt me?” She ran both hands up my arms to my shoulders. “I’d be hurt without the bond, Steph.”

“It’s more than that.”

“I don’t want you to go into this without me,” she said. “I want to have our bond completed. I want to feel what you feel. I want to be there with you in a way. I want to give you strength so youwillcome back to me.”

“I want that. More than anything.” So did my dragon. He wanted it so much, it was burning my insides.

“Then do it,” she whispered. “Show me you want me.”

God, my dragon was going to kill me. Was this how Sean felt all the time? Barely able to control his dragon’s desires? I wasn’t as weak as he was, so there was no risk of me doing something insane like claiming her right now, but the desire was like a flame ever-burning inside me.

“If something happened to me, it wouldn’t just hurt you,” I explained. “It would cleave through your soul. Leave you broken, forever. It’s not something you can recover from.”

Her eyes widened.

“You’d never be able to take another partner,” I said.

“I wouldn’t want to. I only want you, Steph.”

My dragon preened at that, and I squeezed her waist in acknowledgment. “I know. I feel the same. But… If I’m killed, Harley, the pain wouldn’t fade. Not in a year. Not in five years. Not in ten or twenty. Every day it’d be like it had just happened. The bond would always, always cry out for me, and it would never get any easier.”

She said nothing, but I saw understanding begin to build in her gaze.

“It’d be torture,” I said.

She nodded, barely ducking her chin, her eyes still wide with shock.

“I won’t take that risk, Harley. I won’t condemn you to that life.”

Harley slumped forward against me and tucked her face into my neck. “Thank you,” she whispered.

I wrapped my arms tightly around her and ran my hands up and down her back. “What? What are you thanking me for?”

“For caring about me. It’d be easy for you to claim me now. I know your dragon wants to—your eyes look crazy.”

I huffed a small laugh.

“But you won’t, because you’re worried it would hurt me.”

“I don’t want to hurt you,” I said. “Ever. No matter what. I think I’ve done that enough.”

She pulled back, then cupped my face in both hands and kissed me briefly. It was soft and sweet, and my frustrated dragon was soothed by the gesture. “But you want to claim me, right?”

“More than anything,” I said in a low growl.

“Then when this is all over. Promise me.”

“I promise.” I kissed her neck, right where I’d put my bite.

“Mom?” Dylan’s voice called down the stairs. “Is Dad back?”

I smiled and kissed Harley again, a brief, hard kiss. Like a promise. “Yeah, kiddo, I’m here.”