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She glanced back over her shoulder and eyed Aodh. “Something to say, mate?” she whispered.

Aodh only winked and wrapped both his sinewy arms around her.

As you can see, Aiden didn’t want to go to his longtime friend and ask him to relinquish his eldest daughter.

But the Mckenna feared Draig running away with the girl, a risk since Aiden had no sons to carry on his line.

So, Aiden had no other choice. He offered Siel gold from his hoard if his old friend agreed to allow Jaseena to be Draig’s mate.

When Siel heard his daughter’s confession of love for the rising Mckenna, the Moor agreed, but only if the union was also sealed under a marriage covenant.

Siel said he had to know that the human world would recognize his grandchildren as legitimate.

Kai tried to hold back her gasp, feeling the weight of her worries in the recess of her mind.

She loved Aodh and didn’t truly care what the world thought of their relationship.

However, a small part of her still fantasized about knowing Aodh was not only her mate but also her husband, like what her parents had—and now she knew even her great grandparents.

Aodh sat still under her and behind her. She hoped that she kept her feelings in her heart and thatthose thoughts had not entered her mind. Kai didn’t want Aodh to think she didn’t believe he cared for her and held her as the most important to him outside of his responsibility for his Thunder.

She declared , “Because there were rings, I can assume Draig and Jaseena got married in some small traditional service.”

Yes, they mar-ried , Drago’s voice broke, sounding winded as he moved back to his belly on the crest of the pearly hill.

It was clear he was tiring, but the snowy-white dragon continued to talk.

There is nothing traditional or small about it.

At the time, an enclave of Mage was residing within our borders; there had been for millennia.

Our agreement with them and a union or two through centuries of our past is responsible for our shifting and smoke abilities.

Aiden provided the gold for the blacksmith to melt into two rings.

One thing about Mage: they are wily sorcerers, so you must be careful about what you ask them.

The head Mage soaked the rings in what she called a binding mix for three days before the nuptials.

After my brother and Jaseena slipped them onto each other’s fingers, the Mage made them hold hands andthen wrapped a crimson-fire silk ribbon around them.

She then smiled at Draig and Jaseena and declared they were bonded as one until death but added that their unity would continue through their generations as it was to be a firstborn for a firstborn—Mckenna and human.

“We had no choice. We are fated.” She would have thought the words came out too soft for anyone to hear them, but Aodh’s words confirmed he heard her.

“Yes, fated mates, little flame,” Aodh agreed.

She linked her fingers with his at her waist as her heart pounded, matching the tempo of Aodh’s against her back.

When the Mckenna heard the words and realized what the Mage had done, he was enraged.

The last thing he wanted was to allow humans a way to infiltrate the Drahk, not even for a man who had served him loyally.

Aiden could not risk our people's secrets to possibly get out. The highlanders knew of our dragons. But they didn’t realize we were shifters.

Aiden commanded the enclave to leave the highlands... and they did. Drago closed his lids and rested his head as he curled his talons deep into the pearls.

Kai stared down at the gold band on her left thumb, which she had held in such high regard, and felt her connection to it honored her parents’ memory. But should she? Was it cursed by a sorcerer?

She and Aodh waited. They glanced at each other, concerned if Drago had the strength to finish. But, as soon as Aodh was set to move her aside and rise, the beast opened his eyes.

“There’s no record of Draig as Mckenna or even of Jaseena. What happened to them?” Aodh pressed.

Drago inhaled slowly and long. When he pushed himself up, he turned his head and shot a thin stream of fire into the hearth close to him.

War. With renewed vigor, Drago went on. England and Scotland fought over a crown and throne.

It had come to our lands and forced many young men into battle.

Since the Three Kingdoms War in the fourteen hundreds, when a few of our dragons were felled with spear launchers from all sides, our beasts no longer flew in the battles of men.

Draig, a husband of only a few months and not Mckenna yet, was restless and wanted to fight alongside other Scots to defend the land.

The beast swayed its large head from side to side .

I couldn’t stop him. Jaseena refused to remain at the keep without him.

So, she went to provide aid with many of the other wives who had traveled with the soldiers' camps and nursed the wounded.

The war was long. Highlanders were fleeing Scotland under fear of death or imprisonment by the decree of the English monarch after the Battle of Culloden.

Draig was gone for more than a year when we got word of his death. None of us knew Jaseena had conceived a child, or they would have not only been ordered to return, but Drahk warriors sent out to escort them to ensure a new babe, third in line for the throne if a male, didn’t draw questions.

The white dragon sighed and released a wisp of smoke.

However, Jaseena sent a letter that Draig had been killed while trying to protect her and several women from British soldiers' merciless attack on the camp.

She said she was returning with his body and was with child.

The Mckenna dispatched a group to go to her and escort her back safely.

Aodh’s fingers were tense on her waist.

Kai’s chest felt tight as she sat in Aodh's lap and listened, anxious to know more of the story. Something must have happened if Aodh had said there wasn’t any record of her great-grandmother.

“What happened?” Aodh spoke the words that Kai’s throat was too tight to release.

They were too late. Drago’s voice was low and strained as if it took every ounce of his strength to finish the story.

Water filled Kai’s eyes, and a whimper broke from her throat. No .

When the Drahk detail, including me, finally located the small encampment where they had stopped to rest when Jaseena went into labor, we discovered Draig and Jaseena dead in a tent at each other's side.

We also found that Draig had known Jaseena was pregnant and ordered a young Drahkelle, who attended Jaseena, to accompany his mate-wife home.

However, before the females could leave, the enemy attacked the base.

You see, Draig's choice to fight in human form made him vulnerable to gunfire.

The baby? Kai had to know.

Apparently, Jaseena pleaded with the midwife to take her child to her family.

She gave the woman their wedding bands to prove the child’s parentage.

After we got their bodies home, I rode out to Jaseena’s father’s property; they had already fled along with other highlanders on ships.

We traveled to America to try to locate them.

However, since the young one had not had its first shift, our dragons could not mentally reach out to the child, and without elder guidance, a young shifter never learns how to call forth its beast, especially one that was only half Drahk. So, the child was lost to us.

From what I know, my father’s family, through the eighteen hundreds, lived throughout central and western Canada for decades before settling in Washington State and Oregon , Kai informed Drago and Aodh.

Ah. We were looking in the wrong area . When we returned without the offspring, Aiden was furious and decreed that Jaseena and the union be stricken from Drahks’ history and forbade anyone to discuss them again.

At least my brother was honored in death by having his mate's body burned alongside his. Aiden attempted to declare me as his successor. I refused and Aodh’s grandfather won the battle of dragons and became Mckenna.

Drago’s head drooped, and his eyes became glassy with flames so white they appeared like dancing ghostsas he whispered in a voice so distant it seemed he was as far from them as the clouds.

Kai. I have only heard great things about you within the Thunder.

You are more like your grandmother than just your appearance.

To know Jaseena meant loving her for her beauty, warmth, kindness, and nurturing soul.

His gigantic form settled deeper into the pearls.

Less than half of him was left uncovered.

I am...pleased...I was able...to...see.. .my brother’s legacy before...I di—

Drago never finished his final word as a steady stream of dense, icy, white smoke poured out his dragon’s nostrils, filling the room with death’s chill.

A tidal wave of emotion struck Kai, and she cried.

There was joy in knowing her family history, but the sorrow inside of her was like a gulf ready to swallow her up.

She wasn’t sure if the pregnancy hormones were exaggerating her emotions, but she didn’t believe it to be the case.

She wanted to rush up the hill of pearls and wrap her arms around the only family she and her sister had left, and now it was no more.

She was heartbroken. All this time, someone in her lineage was within reach, and she hadn’t had a chance to get to know him.

Aodh pulled her face into his broad chest as he shifted her body, then gathered her legs to pull them over his knee. He wrapped strong, sinewy arms around her, rubbing her back and letting her weep.

“He is gone,” Aodh announced.