Page 51

Zyair

I barely heard what Xandros and Rhodes were discussing with Jaz.

Rhodes leaned past me to enter coordinates into the navigation system. “Everything is set.”

I watched as our mate expertly negotiated the starhopper out of Givnia’s atmosphere and locked in the autopilot. She might lack combat experience, but she was a shaftzing good aviator.

Our departure was uncontested. The navcube showed the battlecruiser on the far side of the planet. Kurt’s ship was in its tractor beam. By the time they transferred him on board, and found out he was not us, we would be well away.

For the first time in hours, I was able to breathe, even if every inhalation hurt.

I felt as though I were burning alive.

I had never been so hot. If I had been in dragon form, I would have flown to where my breath frosted my scales, far above the clouds.

It was a relief denied to me in my humanoid form. Instead, my wings, taloned fingertips, and tail radiated heat. Along with something else that strained against the fabric of my cloak .

I was certain it was heating up the entire bridge.

Shapeshifting to my dragon was not something I could do with my muscles twitching uncontrollably. The pain was only made bearable by the raw, primal lust that coursed through me. Beneath the cloak, I was so rigid that it hurt.

And hot . So very hot.

Face it, I was a mess. My only recourse was to hold on until we could get to Amelia, and her healing talent.

The Drolgok watched me with concern written on her heavy features. “I can try to put you into a resting coma with the regenerator. It might slow the effects.”

Rhodes shook his head. “We tried that last time. I think it made it worse. It put him under too deep.”

“If the venom continues to spread, he’ll fall into a coma anyway,” Xandros said. “The matebond is our best bet.”

Yani sighed as she stroked Sookie. “I’ll stay here,” she offered. “You guys have somewhere else to be.”

We did? I clearly hadn’t been following the gist of the conversation. Then a scent drifted over me—so sweet, and compelling.

Jaz. Standing in front of me.

“We can help you, Zyair.”

The words were almost purred, and I blinked up at her perfection. Her eyes gleamed a metallic violet—as vivid as Drake eyes, but in her human face.

I did not understand the transformation. It was beyond beautiful, and I reached to drift trembling fingers over her cheek.

“You are so perfect.” My voice was a ghost of its usual self.

She folded her hand around mine, and tugged on it until I rose. When I staggered sideways, Xandros caught me.

“Come with us,” he said.

“The last time you said that, we ended up in a Cagliwok jail,” I pointed out.

“How was I to know that flirting with a Cagliwok was illegal?” Xandros protested.

“It is only illegal if she is mated,” Rhodes stated from behind us. “Considering how lethal Cagliwoks can be, we were lucky to just end up in jail.”

From my other side, Jaz arched a brow at Xandros. “You were quite the lady’s man, I take it.”

“Lady’s Drake ,” Xandros corrected warily. “That was then. This is now.”

“That would be why I used the past tense,” she affirmed.

Xandros cleared his throat. “There is no other for me now. Only you.”

“That is a good, healthy point of view,” she said. “I would hate to experiment with castration via talon.”

Rhodes laughed.

Her easy inclusion in brotherly banter resonated deep inside me. We were mates . The impact of that was only just starting to sink in—I had not dared to dream it could ever be possible.

It made me want to live. Very, very badly.

“Where are we going?” I husked as we stumbled down the hall.

“We are here,” Rhodes answered, slipping past us to open the aft storage bay door. I had long since given up trying to figure out how he managed to move like that. He had always been able to do it.

I noted the repairs to the exterior—then my gaze fell to the mattress in the center of the room.

It was surrounded by tiny lanterns that Rhodes now lit. They gave the bay a warm feel despite the metal walls. He moved them back from the mattress and offered me an upward twitch of his lips that allayed some of the worry in his gaze.

“We will need more room,” he said.

That worry was for me. I knew it. Just did not think there was anything I could do about it. Especially since I collapsed to my knees on the mattress as soon as Xandros let go of me.

When Jaz kneeled beside me, my juggernaut of a brother vanished with Rhodes back out into the hall .

“I’d ask how you are feeling, but I already know. I feel everything you do,” she whispered to me.

“You do not have to do this,” I said. “I am so twisted up right now I can barely function.”

She waggled her brows. “With what I’m getting from you, I think you’re functioning just fine.”

She was not wrong. But as desperately as I wished to fondle her until she was begging for culmination, I could barely get my arms to move.

“I am useless like this,” I protested.

She slipped a hand beneath my cloak. “Useless is not the right word.” I sucked in my breath as her fingertips made contact.

“Irresistible. Delicious. Impressive.” The tip of her tongue extended to lick her lower lip, and a surge of pure lust swept through me.

Then she tilted her head to regard me through lowered lids. “I cannot find the right word?—”

I silenced her with a kiss, which I managed to not screw up. Our tongues tangled deliciously just as Xandros and Rhodes returned with crates.

“Xandros convinced me we needed them,” Rhodes said.

“Elevation is always good,” Xandros added, setting his container down and arranging the second one beside it. As I set out to prove my tongue was a fast learner, I noticed they were two different levels.

“Not as important, though, as lighting.” Rhodes moved a couple of the lanterns.

My imagination tried to come up with possibilities for either—but I could not do anything more than stare into Jaz’s beautiful eyes.

Her fingers stroked something that wished, very badly, to be more than just stroked. I broke off the kiss and pushed my nose into where her neck joined her shoulder. I breathed her in. Ours . She was ours.

She must have caught my surge of possessiveness. Because she smiled, and ran fingers along my jaw, before they closed on it, ever so slightly.

“You. Are. Mine ,” she stated.

I swallowed, and gave her the only answer I could.

“We are yours,” I whispered. And Xandros rumbled his agreement.

Jaz turned her head to capture Rhode’s gaze. “Repeat after me. You are mine.”

He snorted a laugh. “We belong to each other.”

“Say it,” she insisted.

I caught his eye, and lifted my chin. He pulled a lip back from a canine, and his eyes flashed garnet at me.

Then, he said, “We belong to her.”