Page 8 of Dragon Rivals of New York (Dragons of New York #3)

Chapter 8

Kyro

F ucking Jethro. The second I reach the clearing, I land and shift, eager to get the asshole’s balls off my scales. It was a miscalculation. As I drop to all fours as a man, Jethro’s groin touches sensitive skin rather than hard scales. Way worse.

“Get your sweaty balls off me!” I duck and twist, but that just sends my mate sliding. She lands on her backside in the dirt with an oomph. “Shit, are you okay?”

“My balls aren’t sweaty.” Jethro helps Sora to her feet, pulling her against his naked body as he does.

She squirms away from him. “I’m fine, really.” Her gaze darts around, looking at everything but the two of us, mouth falling open on a gasp when she spots the sandstone temple at the other end of the clearing. “Where is this? ”

“New Jersey.”

“No, this isn’t…”

“It is, and it isn’t,” I offer. “The temples don’t really exist on this plane, the entry point does. When a horde moves, the entry point goes with them.” I shoot Jethro a sharp look.

About two hundred years ago, The Silver Horde ruled New York and our temple was where the Gold Horde’s temple is now. It was long before I was alive, but Jethro was born not long after the takeover. The Gold Horde pushed us into New Jersey and grew rich while we weren’t allowed to do any business in the city. They blocked off our opportunities to trade with the other dragon hordes too, dominating business and industry for the past century.

Every few decades we’d attack and try to take back New York, but it always ended in death. Like it did seven years ago.

I turn away from Jethro and take Sora’s hand, gently pulling her toward the temple. I should have landed closer, because now we have to walk. Not that it’s far, but my mate’s high-heeled shoes sink into the earth every other step, making me immediately regret the decisions. No matter how eager I was to get Jethro off my back, I shouldn’t have sacrificed my mate’s comfort.

I lift her into my arms before Jethro can get the same idea. Fuck, I could hold her like this forever. She feels right in my arms. Substantial and real.

“You can’t carry me,” she protests, wiggling.

I lift my eyebrows at her as if to say, “What do you think I was just doing?”

“Okay, fine. But that was in your dragon form. Now you’re… you’re…”

“He’s deliciously naked,” Jethro says, finishing her sentence from behind us.

I glance over my shoulder and catch him looking at my ass. He lifts his head and our eyes lock. He smirks and throws me a wink. Asshole.

If he succumbs to the mating illness after Sora chooses me, I’ll be glad to see it.

The temple is lit with torches that throw fire into the night, and the sound of people talking drifts out. For now, there’s no music.

“It’s like something out of Indiana Jones,” Sora whispers. Jethro chuckles. It won’t seem so much like a classic family movie when we get inside.

The rest of the Silver Horde is already gathered, along with a few key members of the Gold Horde. Since Cyrus is Midas’s brother and his entry into the Silver Horde is what brought peace between our hordes, this event is doubly significant.

When we enter the temple and Sora sees everyone naked, she shifts uncomfortably. I set her down now that we’re inside. She immediately drops her gaze to the floor. I know humans care more about modesty than we do, but her reaction seems extreme. She was just as hesitant and timid to look at me when I undressed back at Jethro’s. And we’re mates!

Her head is so low she’s going to run into something if she doesn’t watch where she’s going.

I move behind her and place my hands on her shoulders. “Look, Ara’ha. There’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Jethro takes her hand. “You wanted new experiences.” He’s close enough that only Sora and I can hear him. “Look around, lovely.”

“I… I didn’t mean…”

We’re cut off by a confident, “Welcome.”

Sora finally glances up and gasps. “She’s gorgeous.”

I smile. Adrianna Ra’a, my queen and closest friend, is stunning, but she’s nothing compared to my mate.

“Welcome to the first Night of the Goddess.” Adrianna doesn’t waste time with pomp and circumstance. She steps forward and breathes fire on the silver floor in front of the platform where she stands. The floor melts into liquid silver. She brings a blade to her hand and slices, letting the blood drip down into the pool.

Her eyes catch with mine, and she nods. I let go of Sora and walk to my queen, not thinking my little mate would follow, but she stays close on my heels. When I take the knife from Adrianna, Sora positions herself slightly between us and glares at the woman with a fire I haven’t seen from her yet. It makes my heart warm.

Adrianna gives Sora an assessing once over, then offers me a smile. She approves. I wrap my arms around my mate and bring the blade in front of us both, slicing my hand to let my blood drip down into the pool.

Each dragon in the Silver Horde will add their blood to the pool tonight. For the next seven days, the pool will be a place of prayer and devotion, a place of transformation. On the seventh day, it’ll harden again and Goddess Week will be over.

Sora gasps when I make the cut, and grabs my hand, but I hold it out of her reach, waiting for the blood to fall into the pool before I pass the knife to the next member of my horde. Once I let her see the cut, it’s already healed.

Her brows pinch as she looks from my unscarred hand to the scar on my thigh. Her gaze lifts, and she takes in the room, finally allowing herself to look as the knife is passed from one person to the next. It’s clear what’s confusing her.

“Some scars don’t heal as well as others,” I whisper.

“Why?” she asks.

I shrug.

Jethro leans in on her other side. “If a dragon is in a deep emotional state, such as grief, when they’re injured, it takes longer for the wound to heal. Sometimes those wounds scar.”

Like he would understand a state of grief. His gaze drops to the scar Sora was looking at on my thigh. His normally smooth face contorts, brows pinched tight, lips down-turned. “Did I…?”

“Like you don’t know.”

I turn away from him, pulling Sora a few feet from the pool. Wisely, Jethro doesn’t follow us this time. He joins Midas and Jeslyn, who are standing on the other side of Adrianna. Their one-year-old daughter was left with another member of the Gold Horde for the night.

“Did he give you that scar?” Sora whispers.

“And more.”

She tilts her head and gives me a long look before returning her attention to the room and scanning the crowd. “ Where’s Finley?”

“She and Cyrus are with the priests.”

“Right, sacrificing their souls,” she mutters.

“A bond is not a sacrifice. It’s a gift. A vow.”

“Yeah, well, vows can be tarnished and tossed out with the trash.”

“Not for dragons.” I study the tension in my mate’s shoulders. What happened to make her so distrusting of relationships? I pull her back, a little further away from the crowd, into the shadows, and turn her to face me. “What happened, Ara’ha? Who hurt you?”

She drops her face, but I lift her chin. I won’t let her hide from me.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” She twists, trying to get out of my hold, but my grip on her tightens, keeping her in place. She sighs. “It’s only the same tragic story that over half of marriages go through. I got divorced.”

“You lost a mate?” I draw back to get a better look at her.

Her gaze drops. “Someone I loved—thought I loved—yeah. It’s nothing. It’s common.”

“Just because something’s common, doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.”

She lifts her eyes. My grip on her chin softens, thumb stroking her cheek.

“He cheated on me,” she whispers.

Fucking fucker. “Who is he? I’ll rip his eyes out, burn his flesh, and hand you his weak little pecker on a platter for what he did.”

She laughs.

“I wasn’t joking.”

She sucks in a breath. “You can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“It’s… not right.”

With my hand still holding her chin, I pull her forward to bring my mouth to her ear. I need to be sure she hears me. “I’d happily kill anyone who hurts you.”

She shivers, and fear spikes through my center for a moment. Maybe I went too far and scared her. But when I pull back and let go, the look she gives me isn’t one of fear. Tears make her eyes glassy. Her palm spreads on my chest, then snakes up to the back of my neck. With gentle pressure, she pulls me down while she lifts on her toes. Our lips meet, a kiss full of promises. My heart soars, arms wrapping around her to pull her against me, the silk of her dress a thin barrier between us.

“I never thought a kiss could beat a Goddess Week dance for the most erotic thing I’ve ever seen, but…” Jethro’s voice is like the buzz of an annoying bee.

“Piss off,” I growl before diving back into my mate’s mouth.

“Not happening.” He chuckles, a grating sound. “I’d be more than happy to keep watching this, but it’s time for the transformation.”

“Oh,” Sora gasps and pushes back. Her gaze flies around the room until it lands on Finley, who is now standing beside Cyrus on the other side of the pool from Adrianna.

They’re both naked. Finley shifts on her toes, but then Cyrus wraps his arm around her and she calms, holding her chin high. Will Sora be like that when it’s our turn to go into the pool?

“They have to do this naked?” Sora whispers, covering her eyes with her hand.

Jethro chuckles again. That fucking chuckle of his is going to make me knock his teeth in. It’s so light and joyful, as if the world is a delight and not a disaster.

“She’s about to become a dragon,” Jethro says .

“Oh, right.” Sora drops her chin, shifts her weight, clutches her hands together in front of her, trying to make herself small. I hate it.

I cup the back of her neck and squeeze. My thumb and forefinger wrap all the way to her delicate jaw, and I use them to tilt her head up. “Watch your friend.”

“But she’s naked .”

I lean in close and drop my voice. “You will be soon, too.”

She swallows and tries to shake her head, but my grip is too tight.

“She doesn’t have to watch if she doesn’t want to.” Jethro glares from the other side of her.

“Do you want to, Ara’ha? Do you want to know what it will be like when you mate me?”

“Or both of us,” Jethro interjects.

She won’t be mating both of us. The goddess isn’t that cruel.

“I want to watch,” Sora confesses in a quiet voice. “It just feels… wrong.”

“It’s not.” Now that I know what she wants, I keep my grip on her skull. “Watch, Ara’ha.”