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Morlie went with, matching her steady pace.

Kai couldn’t believe it. She was getting married.

Kai gasped and glanced to her right. Her eyes were wide as she heard the extraordinary melodic voice of her sister.

In all the trauma and tragedies, Kai had forgotten that Morlie had a voice like an angel, just like their mother.

It had been years since she heard her sister sing.

Having her little sister walk her down the make-shift aisle created by the two lines of big dragon-shifters in the Thunder she’d come to love made her heart soar and her body flood with tremors of emotions.

“Let Me Love You” by Lena Horne was a song Viola Conley, their mother, sang often to her husband and children before sickness ravaged her body.

However, Kai still recalled their mother lying on the bed, her skin coated in the gray of death from the XD87867.

Viola’s eyes remained closed even as her body curled toward her dying husband, his body a mirror of his wife’s, as she faintly hummed a few of the notes.

Now, her sister’s voice brought the love and memories back as she held her hand and strolled beside Kai toward Aodh. However, Kai didn’t feel sadness but joy because her parents had such great and lasting love, and now she would have the same.

“You remembered,” she whispered to Morlie, lightly bumping her shoulder with her sister as they continued through the rivers of petals.

Morlie didn’t pause in stride or verse but ran her thumb over their father’s ring on Kai’s thumb.

Serenaded by her sister's beautiful voice, Kai kept her gaze on Aodh.

He didn’t look at anyone else but her.

She was glad the people gathered didn’t stand as was customary in human ceremonies, but with the Drahks being so huge and so many at the moment, they would have towered over her and Morlie.

Their gigantic shadows would have smothered and overwhelmed them, blocking out all the light and creating a dark tunnel for them to walk through.

Kai could do without that effect on such a heart-lifting day.

Perfectly timed, her sister finished the song just as they reached the last row of seats.

Morlie kissed her on the cheek before handing her off to Aodh. Her sister stepped to the side, opposite Liekki and directly before Chanin, who sat beside Tana and Khuzaimah.

“Hello, my stunning little flame.” Aodh tugged her forward, closing the space between them but not crushing her bouquet.

“Hi, Mckenna.” She watched the flicker of the cornflower-blue flames in his eyes, a representation of his love for her. More powerful than the intense, sapphire-blue flames of lust often filling his eyes when he stared at her.

Every time she saw that color now, she knew Aodh’s dragon was telling her it loved her, that beast and man loved her.

“If you two are ready to begin,” Apophis’s voice broke into the cocoon that surrounded her and Aodh.

Aodh glanced at Apophis. “We are ready.”

Kai looked at the Thunders’ spiritual leader and nodded.

“Then you both may speak what is in your hearts, and I will seal it. Kai, you first.” Apophis stood calm, linking his hands low at the front of his body.

Licking her lips, nervous, Kai realized with all the excitement and her not knowing what was going on moments ago, she had not thought about what she would say. She’d had all day to get her mindset for her great-uncle's final flight ceremony, but this wedding was sprung on her.

Her hands began to tremble. She looked around at all the expectant faces as worry caused her eyes to burn. She feared she would not put her words together perfectly to express to Aodh how she felt.

Lifting her shaking hand to his mouth, Aodh set a kiss in the center of her palm.

She glanced back toward him.

“Little flame, there is no pressure to say what is perfect. You are perfect. No one else matters here but you and me. If you said nothing but I love you, it would be enough . Aodh lowered their hands, still joined, and waited patiently.

Kai inhaled as she lifted her chin and kept her gaze steady on Aodh. She allowed the genuine depth of her feelings to flow out. “I love you, Aodh Brandr.”

Aodh smiled and exhaled.

“You fortify me,” Kai continued. “For years, I had to be strong in many ways and for many reasons. I feared I would fail at everything if I weakened or faltered, even for a moment. But then I met this man with shoulders wide enough to block out the sun, who shields me and lets me know it's okay not to be strong. Because when I can’t stand, he is right there to hold me up. You hold me up, Aodh.”

The sight of him was becoming wavy in her eyes while her tears flowed as freely as her words.

She pressed on through the tightness radiating along her throat muscles, threatening to lock in her voice.

“You let me fly with you and always ensure I know I am flying beside you. You are the leader of your people and my heart.”

She felt his hand tighten around hers, not enough to cause her pain, but so that she knew how what she said affected him.

“I wanted to be loved, and the Great Spirit brought me to you.”

When she was finished, Aodh cupped her face with his free hand as he leaned down and pressed his forehead to hers.

They stood that way for a moment before Aodh started to speak.

He leaned back just enough to hold her gaze again.

“For centuries, I struggled. For a dragon to live life with a hole in his heart is painful and not an easy task. Drahks are meant to live with a mate by their side. Besides fire and the Thunder, it is our very nature. As a leader, my people wanted and needed me to find a mate. Produce an heir and help heal our Thunder. But I could not do this. Could not give my heart and commit myself...until you. Until a beautiful, curvaceous, fiercely gentle soul, bold enough to command a dragon-shifter to help her stood before me.”

Aodh linked their fingers and brought them to the center of his chest.

She could feel the furnace that made up his dragon heart, warming her skin, sending caresses along her arm, and surrounding her heart. Her tears streamed from her chin and down her neck.

“I thought I wanted a mate, but what you gave to a man half living is life in all its abundance. Because of that, I willingly love you, strengthen you, and commit myself to stand before you, behind you, and beside you for eternity, little flame. I love you, Kai Conley, no more.”

Through his words, it was as if Aodh reached inside her and cupped her heart where it would always be safe. Kai dragged their hands to her mouth and kissed the back of his, soaking them both in the rivers of her tears.

Aodh wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. Not caring any longer, he crushed the flowers between them. As he lowered his head to kiss her, Liekki cleared his throat.

The rough, heavy sound halted Aodh.

But Apophis spoke, “I believe you have something you would like to present to Kai.”

The older Drahk’s words jarred Aodh out of the moment, but he gave Kai a wicked smile that promised everything he wanted to do to her after the wedding.

Aodh released her hand, stepped back, and then turned toward Liekki.

Confused, Kai watched the brothers but could not see much beyond Aodh’s wide shoulders.

When he faced her again, he said, “I need your hand, love.”

She started to hand him her free one since she still clutched the bouquet in her left hand.

“The other one.”

“Oh.” She frowned. She started to switch the flowers, but Morlie was quicker and reached around and took them from her.

“Thank you.” Kai smiled at her sister, whose face was also wet.

When she looked at Aodh, she placed her left hand in his.

He opened his left hand, where a ring sat on his palm. “I figured it didn’t make sense to have a wedding without me ensuring you have a ring that always reminded you that you’re my heart.”

Kai gasped as she watched him begin to slide it onto her ring finger, and the black obsidian chips of his dragon’s hearthstone, artfully embedded around the steel, winked at her.

Pure delight filled her as she glanced from it to the man before her and back. “It’s exquisite. I love it. I love you.”

“If you all will join your left hands,” Apophis directed.

“Wait!” Morlie cried out as Kai started to take Aodh’s hand.

She saw everyone's gaze shift to her sister. Kai glanced back at her sister.

Morlie clutched the ring around her neck, a small replica of the one on Kai’s thumb.

She wondered what emotions were running through her sister right now.

Had the wedding been too much for her sister?

A reminder of what they had lost. Perhaps Aodh should not have invited them if this event was too much for Morlie.

Kai stared at her sister and tried to read her expression, but it was a blank mask. “What is it, Morlie?”

“You gave me Mom’s ring because these rings, passed through generations, symbolize the parents we lost. You wanted to make sure we both were connected to them. However, Sissy, it was also a representation of a legacy of commitment passed down.”

Kai nodded, confirming her sister's words. She felt her sister might need assurance and said, “I love you, Morlie. And our parents loved us.”

“Always.” Morlie stepped forward and kissed Kai lightly on the cheek. “Now do as Father instructed and give your husband the ring. It’s rightfully his.”

She couldn’t believe she had not thought of that. The excitement of the day and Aodh giving her a ring he had designed for the occasion slipped her mind. “Yes. Thank you.”

Quickly, Kai yanked the ring from her thumb and held it to Aodh. “Do you mind?”

She wanted to make sure her mate didn’t feel some way about wearing her family’s heirloom.

“Never.” Aodh held his hand out.