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A odh’s long strides ate up the ground as he exited the assembly room where many of the Thunder met for their evening meals.

Most of the day, the immense space was used to congregate and discuss various things from work to life.

There had only been a few groups gathered and talking when he’d entered to find Tana, his attendant, and give the older Drahkelle orders to assist Kai.

His mother had assigned Tana to him once he’d reached maturity.

Tana was gentle and strong but never overstepped her place by mothering him.

From the beginning, the older woman respected him as the rising McKenna.

Once he fought and won his position, his birthright, he’d kept Tana.

He considered one day when he mated that Tana would assist them with any offspring.

However, he never expected the Great Spirit to link him with a human mate.

Kai would need Tana’s support and assistance.

He knew Kai would need orienting t” his’world. The responsibility of her sat heavy on his shoulder. But Tana would be kind. His attendant also would know not to cross certain lines regarding what to tell Kai and what to leave for him to explain.

It was also why Aodh didn’t send a younger female Drahk or one of the few humans living among them to Kai. He would not be able to control what they would share with her.

Kai .

Just thinking of her name caused heat to burn in his gut and head south. The thickening of his cock in his pants urged him to make an about-face and return to his suite above the hall. Drag Kai in his arms and initiate her into what it would be like to be his mate. Now.

His beast growled. Not so much in agreement of who Kai was to them, but a simple acknowledgment of the connection.

Aodh admitted he desired her, and his beast did as well.

There wasn’t a doubt. Drahks were intensely sexual creatures.

Their first goal was to grow the Thunder, but a close second was pleasure.

Sexual. After that, they lived for soaring then food.

Aodh considered going on a flight, maybe gliding high in the clear, mauve sky with the odd-colored sun beating down on his scales, then he could forget about the lush, thick curves of the woman holding up in his suite.

Fuck, if that was true. Knowing that shortly, Kai would be in a bath with water glistening all over her bare skin made his flesh feel too tight around his beast. His need for her was more potent than any other female when he was around Kai.

It did not make sense to him. Celibacy was a foreign concept to his kind.

He’d been with plenty of females, but none stirred his body and beast. Even though his beast hadn’t approved of her yet, it still reared its head and perked its ears toward Kai when she spoke.

It wasn’t a guarantee, but it gave him hope.

He needed to mate with Kai and sire offspring to save his Thunder.

Aodh growled and felt the stretch of his dragon’s claw lengthen his nailbed. His body was warring with itself on so many levels. “Shit. Shit. Fuck.”

“Sir?” Yeongi fell in step beside him.

Aodh grumbled a response. He barely spared his aide a glance as he strutted beside him toward the conference room where the meeting with the leadership assembly met.

Aodh would have hoped having his aide beside him would help him steer his mind away from the sexy woman in his room, but his mind and body didn’t seem to give a flying fuck about who else was around.

Both were focused on one goal—Kai. Not just seeing the appealing woman but touching her.

He wondered what her skin would feel like, if it was as soft and supple as it appeared.

He wanted to watch her remove her tattered clothing.

Clothing that made Aodh want to yank one of his broad swords from the wall and slice every one of the leaders in two for not caring for their women, all of their people.

Kai wasn’t the first of her kind to end up on the other side of the wall.

Oh, no. She was just the first to come on her own.

Snapping his teeth together, Aodh felt the pressure in his jaw.

His beast wanted out. It wanted to chew up and burn down things.

Even though his beast had no claim on Kai and had not accepted her into the fold of the Thunder, it still offered protection.

Protection. Yes, it was something Aodh had given the moment he saw her. There hadn’t been a choice.

Just like there would be no choice the next time he saw her, he’d claim her. He needed to for multiple reasons.

“What is before me this day?” Aodh wanted to know. Typically, the assembly meetings were during the day, but Aodh knew from the appearance of his brother that the Wise Ones who operated as council members would want to know what had brought the humans to their borders.

“Mckenna.” Yeongi glanced down at his paper tablet. Electronic devices were made obsolete by the massive level of destruction. “There is trouble in Europe. It will need your attention. I have a report from the com division.” He continued to move at the pace Aodh had set.

Their territory was huge, encompassing a chunk of the mid-west America and central Canada.

The Mckenna building—housing the large hall, his suite, and one of four healing chambers sat in the center of their territory.

However, the leadership offices where he worked were only ten miles from it.

It worked for them, and they respected the preternatural magistrate law to only build in clearings and flat lands.

There was a respect for nature as it had never been before.

“Would you like me to brief you now?”

“No, Yeongi. If it can wait until tomorrow, I will pull in the heads of the divisions, and we can set up a course of action if we need to intervene.” He looked to his right, taking in the medium stature of his aide.

Yeongi was massive and still impressive compared to humans.

In his Thunder, all Drahks were respected equally for what they provided, not just those who could soar along in the first line of defense.

“What draws you from your bed at this hour?”

“I was with Calida when she was notified about the incoming communications.” Yeongi shook his head. “A squawking radio is hard to ignore, no matter how hard one tries.”

Chuckling, Aodh understood what Yeongi and his mate had possibly been doing at this hour when Calida got called in to work. Calida was one of Aodh’s top com technicians. She was second in line to run that division. Since the world changed, she and Yeongi had been mated, with no young. Yet.

The thought of his aide and mate being unable to have offspring added more pressure on his shoulders. Most of his Thunder respected his position and would never say anything to him about being restrained by his refusal to claim a mate.

Aodh sighed. “Well, thanks for being quick on the intel.”

Shadows filled the land, heralding the coming dawn.

Others passed him and nodded in respect as they started their day, but still, it was quiet.

Aodh glanced up and saw a handful of gigantic shadows soaring.

He would have already been at his building if he had taken flight.

However, he knew the same thing now that he did upon walking out of the hall; he needed to burn off as much energy as possible.

If he did not, rushing back to his suite and taking Kai would be too easy.

Not to mention, until he was sure how his beast would react to Kai, he needed to keep it locked within.

Kai .

Fuck. His cock was thickening again. The last thing he wanted was to walk into the council and sport an erection like some young dragon unable to control his urges.

It would be bad enough that they would not only detect the acrid aroma of sickness that cloaked Morlie but also Kai’s musky notes on him.

The thick, wild, sweet headiness of her arousal was still playing in his nostrils.

When he had kissed her, it had taken the strength of Samson for him not to lower himself to his knees and follow the path to where it originated between her thick thighs.

The woman had tempting curves. The mating lure that weaved around them urged him to bond with her.

Mate her. Claim her. Making her his was like a mountain inside his lower gut.

The only thing giving him balance was his beast, who was using that mountain of desire like a cat with a toy, batting it around and keeping it in check.

Soon, it would not matter what his dragon wanted or didn’t want.

The Drahk, the man, would have her. He had needs.

Kai was not the first person he’d lain with that the dragon had not marked.

Fuck. None of the women or female Drahk had been accepted.

It was their way of life. But their dragons didn’t stop them from having all the sex they wanted.

It just burrowed deep and slept, ignoring what happened.

Aodh was partly glad when he spotted his two-story office building finally coming into view. If it was as he suspected, based on Liekki’s appearance and the murmurs of the few groups in the hall, all the wise ones would be present and waiting on him.

“You don’t have to attend this meeting with me, Yeongi.”

“I know, but I figured since I’m up and my mate is away, I might as well work.”

Recognizing his aide’s dedication, Aodh gave him a firm pat on the shoulder as Yeongi opened the ash-gray stone door.

Taking the immediate left, Aodh went into the conference room instead of taking the stairs to his office on the top floor.

Only single or double-story buildings made up their territory.

No skyscrapers as the humans were fond of building.

Because their dragons enjoyed claiming as much sky as possible, they used the canopy of the tall trees that grew wild and unhindered to keep them secluded.