Page 22

TWENTY-TWO

The sleep cycle made the ship’s systems dim the lights, signaling rest, comfort, safety—things Cerani still didn’t wholly believe in but was starting to trust, little by little.

The door to her quarters slid open with a soft hiss. She turned on the overstuffed seating cushion at the center of the room just in time to see him step through. Her breath caught.

Stavian filled the doorway like he always did—broad-shouldered, regal, walking like war still clung to his boots. But his face was soft tonight. Not unguarded, exactly, but open in a way he’d saved only for her.

He came to her without a word.

Cerani stood, moving toward him, steady now despite the way her heart kicked. She stepped into his arms and he pulled her flush against him, his mouth brushing her temple. His breath was warm as it skimmed her hair.

“Hi,” she murmured.

“Hi,” he echoed, wrapping his arm around her lower back and tucking her close.

“How are you?” she asked softly. “After this cycle.”

His hand slid over her back. “Shaken,” he admitted into her hair, “but whole.”

“Quite the family you have.” She tilted her face up toward his. “We have.”

His chest rumbled with a faint laugh. “I noticed.”

Cerani smiled and tucked her face against his shoulder. His skin still carried the faint scent of steel and storm. “They’re arrogant and impossible.”

She felt his grin against her scalp. “Yes.”

“And brave,” she added after a beat. “And good.”

He pulled back slightly to look at her. “So are your Terian sisters.”

“I missed them more than I knew,” she said, her voice cracking with the truth of it.

“I know.” His fingers traced a slow, comforting path down her spine. “I’ve never seen you glow like this.”

“I’m happy,” she whispered. “Not just because of them.”

Because of you. And she didn’t need to say it. He knew.

Stavian brushed his hand over her cheek like he was trying to memorize her. “Your eyes are gold fire tonight.” He slid his fingers down the side of her throat. “You don’t know it, but that’s what you are to me.” He leaned in, brushing a soft kiss to the corner of her mouth. “Blinding.”

“Undress me,” she whispered.

He didn’t answer. Not with words.

Stavian reached for the tie of her wrap shirt and tugged it slowly open. His hands were careful, reverent, every motion soaked with significance. When the fabric parted in the middle and his eyes swept over her now-bare torso, he exhaled like all the air had left his lungs.

“You’re breathtaking,” he said, his voice rough.

Cerani didn’t look away. Her heart thudded against her ribs. She let the shirt slip to the floor. Her pulse kicked when he leaned in and kissed her shoulder—just once—slow and unhurried, like he wanted to press the words I love you into her skin.

He brushed her hair back and hooked his thumbs in the waist of her leggings. They slipped down her hips with a whisper, leaving her bare to him. Cerani stood still as his eyes traveled every inch of her like she was a world he was only just beginning to chart.

“I will never get over the way you look at me,” she said, voice trembling.

“Good,” he said. “Because it’s never going to change.”

When his mouth met hers, it wasn’t rushed. It was soft, deep. His hands skimmed over her waist and hips, grounding her even as her knees went weak. She ran her fingers down his chest, featherlight, until she reached the edge of his shirt and tugged.

“You too,” she breathed between kisses. “Everything.”

He stripped off his own tunic, unfastened the belt beneath, and let his pants fall. When his body pressed against hers—skin-to-skin—she sighed, melting into the contact like gravity no longer knew how to hold her up.

“I love you,” he whispered into her ear as she pressed her forehead to his chest.

She closed her eyes, her hand curling gently over the spot where his heart beat strong and sure beneath her fingers. “I love you too. I didn’t think I’d ever feel this way about anyone.”

“Nor I, but I do. Sweet stars, I do,” he said, and in his voice was everything that mattered—hope, certainty, promise. “We’re going to Zarux. Our final brother is there, but he’s… He’s in the highest levels of the Axis leadership. I don’t know if we can get to him, let alone change his heart.” He shook his head. “No matter what happens, Cerani… I’m yours. And I will spend every cycle proving that I’m worthy of you.”

She kissed him again, deciding to leave the worries of the future for another cycle. Now, they were here, in each other’s arms and that mattered. She lifted her arms and he carried her to the bed. They fell together in a tangle of limbs and warmth, the soft lighting above them dimming to gold as the ship drifted quietly through space.

Cerani curled into him, skin pressed to skin, her breath slowing as their heartbeats sank into the same rhythm. The sheets were cool at first, but warmed quickly beneath them. He tucked one wing gently around her, the curved ridge fitting the length of her back like it had always belonged there. She traced lazy circles over his collarbone as he wrapped his arms around her waist. For once, no alarms blared. No hunger pressed under her ribs. No unseen forces plotted in the dark.

There was only this. This soft, steady now.

Stavian brushed her hair behind her ear and kissed the shell of it, his voice barely more than air as he said, “Sleep, Cerani. We’ve done enough this cycle.”

She couldn’t answer at first. Too full. Too safe. But then she tilted her head just enough to kiss the center of his chest, right over the place she’d come to recognize as his heartbeat. “I don’t want to sleep. I want to feel.”

He grinned, and with a rough growl, scooped her up and shifted her beneath him. “As you wish, my lovely mate.”

Outside, the stars wheeled in silence as the vessel made for a planet long forgotten—a cradle of rebellion, of history, and of truth. A place where the Axis had stolen everything from them.

They were going back not to kneel, but to rise. And wrapped in each other’s arms, there was no fear. Only fire. Only love. Only forward.

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Get ready for the sixth and final part of the Zarux Dragon Brides saga with Possessed by the Dragon Alien .

Madrian is one of the twelve ruthless members of the Axis elite. The little Terian female brought to work the lands surrounding his stronghold should be nothing. Invisible. A faceless worker who will never escape imprisonment.

But once he sees her, he knows in his dragon heart that she is his, and that will be his undoing.

Nena was abducted from her penal colony by raiders only to be dumped at…a different penal colony. But unlike conditions at Settlement 112-1, this one is lush and lavish and filled with the most deadly leaders of the Axis. One never wishes to be noticed by them , but Nena can’t escape the attention of one so beautiful, so forbidden, loving him could only end in a painful death.

But one does not ignore the of the twelve, and once Madrian has her in his sights, Nena’s fate is sealed. Or so she thinks…

Coming July 28, 2025