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He took a moment before speaking, remembering to offer her the description in words she could understand; dragon’s tongue was hard to comprehend for those not born to it.

“ Deatach glan heyl means pure smoke healing.” He gestured to the room with his chin.

“There is a difference in the smoke we can create through our dragons. As I explained before, we don’t have the needs of medical attendants as humans do.

However, there are rare times when our kind is attacked in walking form, and they can’t shift to their dragon.

If helped in time, a healing smog can save them.

We discovered years ago it worked on humans as well. ”

“How many humans have you healed of XD87867?”

“Enough.” This was not the time to share the history of what had transpired between her people and the council. Gazing through the smog to see her sister on the bed, he knew the discussion would raise itself soon. “We will return once you have refreshed yourself. Come.”

Her steps started tentatively behind him. They gained confidence as she followed him.

“If my sister doesn’t pull through, I will hold you responsible, Aodh. And it will be you on that bed.” She brushed past him out the door into the sunlight.

Aodh admired her strength, even as the scent of fear still braided through her aroma. He couldn’t bring himself to snuff out the courage in her threat by telling her that, as his mate, she would never be able to cause harm to him. It would kill her.

~YH~

“Right.”

Kai followed Aodh’s direction and opened the entrance on her right.

In her anger, she’d acted hasty and forgot she had no damn clue where to go when she walked out of the room where Morlie fought for her life.

She stopped inside the glass door. Rumbles and laughter came in waves along the rough, stone-crafted corridor before her.

She couldn’t see where it led, but she was intrigued to meet others of his kind.

“Up the stairs to the right.”

She glanced over her shoulder and eyed the big shadow behind her. “Why up?”

“There’s privacy for you. I’m sure you would rather be in a more presentable state when I introduce you to my thunder.” Aodh sniffed and arched a brow at her.

Did he just smell me? The rudeness . She knew she smelled.

A place to bathe wasn’t easy to find in the Dispatch District, especially when she’d sold her and Morlie’s home weeks back for money for medicine and food.

But the massive man didn’t have to make it seem like people would fall out in her wake from her stench.

She stomped up the high stairs. It frustrated her that the thick stone seemed to absorb her weight, mocking her.

The other thing that aggravated her was her response to her shadow—the dragon-shifter .

Kai had no damn clue what that meant. She would have to unpack that later.

Too much had happened on this day, and she couldn’t process everything.

Now, the man. When she stood close to him, her eyes met his chest, and oh, what a chiseled chest it was, decorated by the same colorful tattoo-like designs that covered his arms. They fascinated her.

Her fingers tingled with the desire to reach out and touch, trace them.

His size dwarfed her, and she wasn’t a short person or small for that matter.

From his intense, magical, turquoise-opal gaze to his strong, square jawline, the man had a face that took her breath away.

She couldn’t deny it, not to herself. His thick, ebony brows seemed to make his gaze foreboding.

Aodh’s stare made her heart beat with trepidation.

..and anticipation. Before her parents’ death, she and Morlie had a good, simple life.

In the education center, she’d flirted with guys and even found hidden corners for stolen kisses.

None of them short-circuited her senses like Aodh.

The man’s perfectly formed fire-kissed lips captivated her, even when she didn’t want them to.

After they had begun to establish life above ground, between work and sickness, men weren’t even an afterthought.

But around Aodh, the man, the king, the shifter, he consumed her thoughts.

It made her feel guilty because her mind should be on her sister.

However, since the moment he stood before her beside the truck, she could feel him.

No other way to describe it. When he was close to her, her body felt the heat of him.

It was like standing just close enough to a furnace; it was seductively warm.

However, you knew that if you touched it, it would burn fast and hot. That was Aodh.

Even with the alerts going off in her mind, her body yearned to lean into him and find comfort and...

No . She balked. This man held her sister locked in a room. Until Morlie was healthy, she would have to keep her distance. She must.

“Take the next set of stairs on your left,” Aodh commanded when she reached the next landing.

“Are you always this bossy?”

His grunt was her only response.

How he managed to make a noise that sounded like rocks tumbling down a mountain, she didn’t know. She grumbled hard to show him that two could play that game.

“Hah.” At least his short chuckle was something different.

When she reached the top, there weren’t any more stairs, so she crossed the floor to the only door. Not waiting for another order, she turned the knob. The smooth stone door, different from the textured walls, refused to budge when she tried to open it. She wondered if it was locked.

Before she could turn and say something to the massive shadow of a man following in her steps, one of his big hands pressed against the center of the door before her and pushed the heavy structure open. Smoothly and soundlessly.

She whispered a thanks as she moved forward away from the tempting warmth at her back.

The room she stepped into was large and imposing. If she had stood on Aodh’s shoulders, she would not have been able to reach the ceiling.

Like everywhere else she had seen of this place, the walls here were stone, too.

But what captured her attention was the massive floor-to-ceiling window that took up the entire room wall.

From where she stood across the great room, outside the bay window was what she would describe as a landing instead of a balcony.

The space was flat and wide but lacked the sides that would provide safety to keep someone from falling off.

At such a height, it would kill a person.

Glancing around, she took in the furnishing of the spacious area.

It was an open floor plan concept. The center of the room was empty, vastly so.

There was such a great distance from the heavy, plush furniture of the sitting room to the bed across the way that there was no chance a conversation could take place.

She folded her arms and tried to take the chill away. Even with her father’s service jacket on and the warm weather outside, the stone and glass made the area cool and breezy.

“Are you cold?” He came up beside her.

“Some.” She focused on the dining room area to her left instead of looking at the dark-haired man next to her.

“Like steel, stone doesn’t hold much warmth but it’s sturdy and familiar to our beasts.”

Beasts . There was that word again.

“You look around and familiarize yourself with this space. I will set the fires.” His body brushed hers, setting off sparks as he moved past her, heading to the sitting area.

Her body warmed enough to drop her arms and walk the place.

The wood table sat six people. It made sense by the size of the place, even though she’d only seen the one large bed.

Her family’s place in the underground community had barely been larger than the sitting area here, and there had been four.

Her and Morlie’s dwelling was much smaller, a one-room space before Kai had to sell it, and circumstances forced them to live in her dad’s old truck.

“Whose place is this? Will they mind me using it while my sister is getting better? I don’t want to put anyone out. ”

“It was mine. Now it is ours, mate.”

She stumbled. Mate . Halfway across the room, she’d heard him. Shocked at his words, she turned. She stared at him. He was kneeling before a fireplace cut into the wall before a long, wide couch and table.

“Aodh. Look, we need to talk about this. I may have agreed to be yours.” She swallowed.

She wasn’t an idiot. With the intense way he looked at her and the heat in her core responding to his stares and touches, she knew whatever happened between them involved sex.

“But once Morlie is better, we will be going. Somewhere.”

He inhaled, then let out a burst of flame into the grate. “No.”

Kai tried to look around his shoulders. Did he have a match or something in his hand? She saw nothing.

She set her hands on her hips and eyed the big man. “No?” Raising her voice to ensure he could hear her across the room, she continued, “If you’re concerned, I’ll renege on my word. I won’t. I’ll do my part, but we don’t need to commit to anything permanent.”

Aodh rose. He didn’t shout, but his words reached her. “You being my mate is all the need.”

“I’m sure you shifters...or whatever....

Have a different way of life, but we humans don’t believe in soulmates or anything like that, especially since we went underground.

If two people like each other, then that’s it.

When it’s over, that’s it.” She swept a hand to the side, turned away from him, and started around the room again.