Page 31

TWENTY-FIVE

MAC

I only had a couple of drinks over several hours—nowhere near enough to get a dragon drunk or even tipsy—but I feel giddy and lightheaded as we materialize inside my hoard.

Drax’s arms are wrapped tightly around me, holding me against his chest, and our skin is sweaty from grinding together on the dance floor to dozens of songs in a row.

I laugh and sway into him, groping his bare chest greedily and grinning at my demon.

Drax feels just as drunk as I do, and he drank even less.

I can sense the dizzying swirl of joy pulsing between us, making everything else feel foggy and distant.

If I didn’t know any better, I might worry someone spiked our drinks or put some kind of spell on us, but I don’t think there’s anything magical going on here. I think I’m just fucking happy.

“Don’t judge me, okay?” I murmur playfully, my lips only an inch from his.

“Why would I judge you, mate?” Drax cards his fingers through my hair, and I can feel the heat of his swelling cock against mine through our clothes.

Santorini wasn’t quite as horny as the sex den, but the pheromones are still clinging to my skin and clogging up my nose.

All I want to do is replace them with the scent of my mate all over me, filling me up, drowning me until I can’t smell anyone or anything else.

I shrug and my heart beats a little faster. I know he can feel it, not only through our bond but against his chest.

“Because I’ve stolen a lot of things from demons over the centuries.

It’s a bad habit of mine. My dragon is obsessed.

He has been for as long as I can remember.

Maybe it’s the thrill of coveting something so dangerous?

Maybe it’s the demon magic on everything that my dragon craves?

I don’t know. All I know is that demon artifacts are my drug. ”

“Maybe your dragon was preparing for me,” he murmurs in a throaty voice, brushing his lips teasingly over mine.

My scales ripple and a hot shiver runs through me.

“You think that’s it?”

He nods, a slow smile curling the corners of his mouth as he walks me backward towards the bed, piled high with gems and coins, reeking of too many nights spent here alone, jerking off to my precious things.

“How can you be so sure?” I’m ready to choose Drax. I already have. But he seems so sure that this is fate, and I need to know why. I think I want him to convince me that this is more than just lust and compatibility, that we were truly meant to be together.

“Because, silly dragon…” He stoops just an inch, catching the backs of my thighs in his powerful hands and hoisting me off my feet without warning. I gasp a laugh and wrap my arms and legs around him as he lifts me up. “All of these pretty demon artifacts are mine.”

My breath catches in my throat.

“No.” I shake my head. “I’ve had other demons come after me for some of this shit. I stole a ring from another demon, and he’s mated to my brother now… Aaaaand I’m just realizing that was probably a mating ring too.” I huff out a laugh.

“Fate,” he says. “She works in mysterious ways, but she always works.”

He tosses me onto the bed, my treasures rattling and clanking around me.

Some coins scatter noisily onto the floor and some stick to the overheated bits of exposed skin on my arms and the back of my neck.

Drax just keeps grinning. He turns and picks up the dagger I lovingly placed on top of a pile of books.

It’s the same dagger I ran my tongue along while I jerked off on the night I mated myself to Drax unintentionally.

He leans over the bed and pulls my tank top away from my skin.

“I forged this dagger myself a millennium ago. The words carved into the blade are a prayer for the souls of anyone whose blood is spilled by it. I traded it to another demon in exchange for a favor.” He uses the blade to slice through my shirt, then drags the tip lightly from my belly button back up to my throat, not leaving a mark.

He sets it aside and picks up a necklace with a silver snake pendant.

“This was a present I carelessly lost decades ago.”

He unclasps the chain and lays the pendant in the hollow of my throat.

I lift my head so he can fasten the clasp behind my neck, my mind spinning over everything he’s saying.

Drax picks up the chalice I was carrying when Auri found me.

The chalice I simply had to have, even though I knew there was no way to take it without getting caught.

“This chalice belonged to my father, and then to me. It was stolen by a faerie.”

“How…” I gape at him, pushing myself up on my elbows to look around at my hoard again. “ All of this was yours?”

Drax nods, then stops and waffles his head.

“To be fair, I can’t confirm that the coins and gems ever belonged to me, but every demon artifact in here was mine at some point.

I knew the first time I set foot in here.

” He tosses the chalice aside and I don’t even wince at the clatter of it hitting the floor.

I didn’t think it was possible, but the items in my hoard feel so much less important than everything he’s telling me right now. “I told you we were fated, Mac.”

I choke out a laugh that sounds more like a sob. “Well, you could have fucking told me I’ve been hoarding your shit since I could walk.” I laugh again, and this one sounds looser.

“Would you have believed me?”

I shake my head. No, I wouldn’t have. I would have thought he was full of it, trying to trick me. I would have felt suffocated by the inevitability of it all if I had believed him. I wasn’t ready to know that fate really did have a hand in this until right now.

“I would have picked you all on my own, Drax,” I whisper, my throat starting to burn with the fire that’s desperate to find a home inside of my demon. “But I’m glad fate approves.”

He climbs onto the bed, sending more coins skittering across the floor beneath us, and hovers over me.

“I couldn’t have picked a better mate myself.

” He strokes his fingers through my hair again, his human glamour falling away.

His claws drag delicately against my scalp, just as gently as he drew the dagger across my skin, even though he knows he can’t really hurt me.

“I love the mischief in you. I love your passion and your heart. I love that you considered risking your own safety when you thought Auri had bad intentions for that cursed amulet. I love you.”

I make a choked sound again, my whole body quivering and my heart thundering. I can feel his heart speeding up too, and the nerves fluttering inside him as he bleeds his feelings out for me.

“I love your patience and your goodness too, Drax. I never thought a demon would be the kindest person I’ve ever met, but you really are. I love you too.”

He groans with the kind of relief I can feel echoing inside of me, quivering in my gut and pulling my dragon close to the surface. I need him. I need to feel our connection completely. I need to claim him more than I need my next breath.

“Fuck me, Drax, and let me feed you my fire.”

DRAX

I knew Mac was holding back. I knew he was afraid of what was between us and that he wasn’t sure how things would work if he left Auri and I stayed.

What I didn’t know was how right and perfect and fucking transcendent it would feel for the floodgates of our bond to open and for every emotion inside of him to pour into me so freely.

“Yes,” I groan. “I want your fire, I want your heart, I want all of you.”

“You already have—” His words get lost between our mouths, swallowed up by my lips. But I can feel the intention of them all the same, the devotion and love weaving itself into the strands of our bond as my tongue sweeps into his mouth so I can devour him.

His tongue sizzles against mine, and our lips smolder together with the rhythmic push and pull of the kiss.

Mac’s fingertips tease the base of my horns and his cock strains against mine through his clothes.

I let the glamour of my own clothing fade away and tear his pants to shreds with my claws.

He gasps, and I chuckle against his lips.

“I already ruined your shirt. I figured you wouldn’t mind.” I toss the scraps of fabric out of the way then carefully run my fingers along his belly and thighs, teasing his scales to the surface, swallowing his needy whimpers, letting my cock nudge against his without any relief.

“I can buy new clothes,” he says breathlessly, sinking his teeth roughly into my bottom lip as his hips jerk. The tang of my blood on my tongue before my skin heals makes my heart race even faster and my cock throb against his.

“I want your fire,” I growl, sweeping my tongue into his mouth again, like I can coax his flames to the surface if I just kiss him deeply enough.

Mac’s laughter is muffled by my lips, and the shape of his smile against my mouth feels better than any touch I’ve felt before in my long, long life.

Better yet is knowing it’s only just beginning.

The thousands of years I’ve lived before now without my dragon by my side will be a distant memory, a sad dream compared to the many thousands of years we’ll spend together.

“You’ll have my fire. But first, I want your cock.”

“This is a negotiation without losers,” I say, and he laughs again.

“Touch me, Drax,” he pleads, and I can’t think of any reason to ever deny him something I want as badly as he does.

We fall into another kiss, more frantic this time.

The bed isn’t huge, but that doesn’t stop us from rolling and writhing, scattering coins and drawing creaks of protest from the bedsprings.

Both of our cocks drool with anticipation, grinding together just as eagerly as our tongues tangle and slide, our hands groping and our teeth taking turns drawing blood, making tiny wounds that heal in an instant.