May

The passion of Aldronn’s kiss sears everything else from my mind. Who cares if the dragon has two dicks? My guy also has two, and one of them vibrates!

I moan, my tongue tangling with his. My hands fist in his long hair, pulling him closer. All the teasing I’ve done since I heard his blow-job thoughts has teased me, too. My new panties are already soaked.

A slow clap rings through the glen, far louder than the waterfall, which has become background noise from being around it for so long.

We jerk apart to find the dragon—now wearing the linen equivalent of gray sweatpants—staring at us with a sardonic expression on his handsome face, his hands slapping together in sarcastic slow motion.

Fuck me sideways! And here I thought Aldronn could be arrogant. Hah! This guy takes it to whole new levels—the cock of his eyebrow, the slight sneer that uncovers one fang—he’s a master at haughtiness.

Lukendevener drops his hands. “Are you quite through?”

“Nope!” I turn back to Aldronn and wiggle in his grip, brushing against his erection with my thigh. Fuck, he’s so hard my core clenches.

He growls and kisses me again, sharp and hot and far too quickly. When he sets me down, I cling to his arms for a moment, my knees gone weak, and he flashes me his wicked, knowing smirk.

I bite my lower lip, sucking the plumpness into my mouth to wet it thoroughly before letting it go.

Aldronn groans, his fingertips digging into my shoulders.

“By the goddess, are they always like this?” Lukendevener asks.

Aldronn’s head whips around. “Just wait until you find your mate. Then we’ll see how you react.”

“I’ve met every dragon in Alarria and Duralia. I don’t have a mate.”

Aldronn huffs with amusement, and I wonder what his premonition magic has told him. Then he grows serious. “Tell us what you learned in Avalon.”

“I ask again. Where is Sheevora?”

“We’ll meet with her this evening.”

“Then my news must wait. I cannot tell you before I tell my own queen.”

That muscle in Aldronn’s jaw jumps, but he nods. “The others of our party are off hunting. If you wish to join them…” He gestures toward the woods.

“No, wait.” A thought strikes me. “I keep hearing that dragons are scholars. Are you one, too?”

“Of course I am.” Lukendevener looks affronted. “I’ll have you know I’m the realm’s foremost expert on several subjects.”

“Great.” Excitement rocks me forward onto the balls of my feet. “What can you tell me about reading minds?”

Ten minutes later, Aldronn and Lukendevener sit at the other two points of a triangle, all of us facing inward toward each other, so close our knees almost touch.

“What can you tell me about your telepathy so far?” The dragon asks.

“It happened the first time with the Moon Goddess,” I say, then launch into the story of how she brought me to Alarria.

He nods while I talk, his brows pinched in thought. His arm disappears into his invisible pocket, his shoulder moving as if his hand searches for something. It emerges holding a massive rolled-up parchment, and he immediately reaches in for more.

Next, I tell him about her attack in the woods, the one that made us head north.

“Interesting. This might be the very first time anyone’s seen her manifest in daylight.”

“Yeah, well, you wouldn’t find it that interesting if she gave you a migraine that lasted for days.”

Luke—because I’m already tired of calling him by his long-assed name—ignores my comment and says, “So you’ve only heard the goddess so far. That doesn’t sound like true mind reading to me.”

“Nope, you’re wrong.” I bristle. No way in hell did I finally get something as special as my new witch power and this asshole’s going to devalue it! “I’ve heard an ogre and Aldronn.”

“Recount those instances.”

I tell him all about the ogre, and how I knew he was lying.

Luke says, “And with Aldronn?”

“Well, uh.” I shoot Aldronn a “help me out here” glance.

“My bride and I share thoughts and feelings during… intimate moments.”

“Any other time?”

“A few,” I say. “When he caught me after I jumped off the standing stone. Some other times since.”

Luke leans forward. “What was the most recent?”

“It happened this morning. Sheevora flew off, and the wind from her wings was so strong it knocked me backward. Aldronn caught me, and I heard his thoughts.” His dirty, filthy thoughts, all about me on my knees sucking his cock. My thighs squeeze together.

“Were these lascivious thoughts?” The dragon cocks that eyebrow of his.

I shift on the soft moss. Fuck, I’m usually not shy, but admitting all of this to Mr. Arrogant is painful as hell.

“Yes.” Aldronn says, sparing me from needing to answer. “My thoughts were… lascivious.”

“Right, then.” Luke twists and opens one of the massive scrolls, the parchment spooling out across the green moss to display writing, each rune-like character as tall as my fingers. I don’t understand a single thing. He makes umming noises as he reads and gives lots of little nods.

I hold out as long as I can, but patience has never been my strong suit. “What is it? What does it say?”

His dark amber eyes meet mine. “I don’t think you’ve truly read minds except for the ogre.” I open my mouth to protest, and he holds up a hand. “I don’t mean you don’t have the ability. What I mean is that I don’t think you’ve actually used it yet. Not really.”

“Explain,” Aldronn says, his tone snapping with command.

“I think you communicated with the goddess successfully because of her great power,” Luke says. “She basically has such a loud mental voice you couldn’t help but hear her.”

“Okay.” I nod. “I can buy that.”

When Luke’s brow creases in puzzlement, Aldronn says, “It’s one of her colloquialisms. Continue.”

“I believe what you’re experiencing with Aldronn is happening because of your nascent mate bond.”

“Is there a way to be sure?” I ask.

“It seems as if touch helps your ability, so let’s test my theory.” Luke stretches out a hand. Once I grab it, he says, “I’m going to think one word over and over very loudly. Tell me what it is.”

I grip my crystal with my free hand and close my eyes, muttering to my magic to read his mind. My face scrunches as I try harder, but after several moments, I give up. “It’s not working.”

“That’s all right. In fact, it confirms the rest of my theory.” He points to something on the scroll. “I think you heard the ogre because it was a life or death situation. Your magic could sense that you needed this information to survive, so it worked without conscious thought on your part. There are several recorded instances of dangerous incidents sparking the ability in elves in the past.”

“Elves?” I ask.

“They are the fae known to have this ability.”

“So you’re saying my bride has to be put in danger in order to practice her magic?” Aldronn scowls, his voice a deep growl. “I will not allow it.”

“What I said is danger sparks mind-reading abilities,” Luke says dryly. “I didn’t say it was how to train her.”

“So how?” I lean forward, ready to start.

“I need to do some more reading.” He turns away to unfurl another scroll.

I lean close to Aldronn. “How come the scrolls are so big?”

“I can still hear you,” Luke says, not bothering to look up. “And I’ll have you know they’re perfectly sized.”

“The dragons have only been able to access their smaller dual and fae forms since Naomi opened the doors of Faerie about a month ago,” Aldronn explains. “Before that, they spent the last three-hundred years locked in their dragon forms.”

“Ohhh.” Light-bulb moment. No wonder everything’s huge. God, what must their libraries be like?

Shadow and Rune return with two of the orc guards, each carrying a deer. Aldronn gets up to help prepare the meat. We’ll eat one of the animals tonight for dinner, and they’re going to cook the others and store the meat in more of the leather bags bespelled with preservation magic.

“Would you like to read about your ability?” Luke asks, sliding the original parchment closer to me.

I spin back to him. “Yes!”

“I have prepared a few translation crystals for just such an occasion.” He reaches into his invisible pocket and pulls out a small crystal and presses it against the back of my hand.

The rune-ish characters on the parchment swirl in a dizzying dance, reforming into English. The letters are huge. It’s like reading a billboard while standing only a foot away. But I don’t care. Excitement zips through me as their meaning catches my eye, and I read out loud: “‘His thoughts came to me as clearly as if he spoke them directly into my ear.’

“Oh, hell yeah!” I pump a fist in the air and unroll the top of the parchment to start at the beginning.