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He stood and held his hand out again. This time, she took it.

When she was back on her feet, his hand was at the small of her back, pulling her body flush against his and his soft, warm lips were on hers, eager and so hungry it stole all of her strength.

Desire hooded his eyes when he pulled back.

There was a moment where she thought she saw something more of Alessandro than he intended for her to see.

Black scales ran in streaks alongside his jaw, two great horns erupted from his forehead and his eyes were slit reptilian.

Underneath the scales, she could almost see light dancing in a lazy wave.

She saw it only for a second before suddenly he wasn’t with her anymore.

Moisture tracked down her cheeks and when she pulled her fingers away from touching them, she saw blood.

She’d had previous encounters with demigods.

They could travel all over their realm unlike their full-fledged counterparts, but never had they made her bleed just by looking at them, and he’d been in the astral plane to boot.

It was a concrete fact for her then. Nothing she had run into before had been as lethal as the Dragon King.

Chapter 15

Alessandro was seething. Why had he done that?

Blood had trickled down her cheeks, but more concerning was the way she looked at him, as if she’d underestimated just who she was dealing with.

It teetered on the edge of fear. He’d seen the look plenty of times before, but this was the first time that it made nausea instantly settle in his stomach.

He wished he had more time to wipe it away, or question her about it, but there was an urgent knock on his door.

“Come in.” He swung his legs over the side of his bed. His voice was gruff, and he didn’t know if that was because of its lack of use, or his irritation.

Aqua stepped in, her long white nightgown trailing behind her. Ambrosia-laced wine he could smell even with her distance from him had her cheeks flushed. Her electric hair was down and it swept over her shoulders. The sweet scent of her arousal flowed into the room with her.

As one of his Elemental Generals, Aqua was one of the few dragons that he swore to keep out of his bed, so her demeanor made his entire body go rigid.

“My King, I’ve had a dream.” Her voice trembled as she edged closer.

Growing hyper aware of his bare chest, the Dragon King created a distance from the bed and led the woman towards a small sitting area, making sure he took the armchair and she the love seat.

He almost didn’t want to ask, but he had to rectify this situation if it was what he thought it might be. “What kind of dream?”

Her hazy eyes locked on him. “I believe,” her voice was strained. “It was a vision of the past. Of you and the elf woman.”

Alessandro raised an eyebrow. Aqua cast her eyes away and took a deep breath.

“You were engaging in coitus.”

Well, fuck .

Alessandro winced, recalling the lack of tenderness or shame in the shared moments with Rowan. If Aqua had seen it, it wasn’t a surprise she had been so heavily aroused, nor that she was drinking in excess.

It was a rare exercise to rut outside of the Thunder. The privacy of being a dragon made it favorable to be with another dragon who could be privy to all aspects of their lifestyle. Outsiders weren’t as disciplined in keeping secrets.

Expectations for Alessandro demanded he keep his interests in the Thunder as he searched for his Dragon Queen. The idea of an outsider becoming his partner, even as a short fling, was outrageous.

“The way you looked at her.” Aqua shot him an accusing look. “Your eyes were silver. Is she to be our Queen?”

Alessandro opened his mouth to deny the question, but her words seated themselves in his head and he leaned back. “Are you sure?” He asked. “Perhaps it was a trick of the light. Maybe an odd angle.”

Aqua let out a disbelieving breath and her hand gripped the fabric of the nightgown on her thighs. “Alessandro, you and I know my visions are clear. Your eyes turned silver. You were nibbling all over her. I saw you kiss her.”

He wondered how many women had to comment on his lack of kissing for it to be common knowledge that he rarely engaged in it.

He could fuck all day and night, but kissing like he had enjoyed with Rowan was rare for him to indulge.

Somehow it had become a marker that he was serious about courting someone and so he withheld it until he was sure he wanted to proceed.

He hadn’t thought about the kisses. They had seemed natural with her, perhaps an unconscious realization that she didn’t know of his aversion to the act.

Anytime the scenes of their coupling played in his mind, they focused on her facial expressions during certain moments.

How she had sunk to her knees and opened her mouth wide for him, or how when he had awoken the next morning it was to find her curled tightly around him, peace relaxing soft flushed face.

It had half broken his will to leave without waking her up.

Silver. The color of any shifter’s eye when they found a potential mate. It had happened without his knowledge.

Rowan Dahl was more dangerous than he had believed, and he did not think of her as a demure kitten.

Shit.

“You didn’t know.” Aqua’s voice was soft. “How could you not have known?”

Alessandro growled, “I don’t know. Isn’t it supposed to hit you like a freight truck when you get the mating feeling?”

A bright blush lit Aqua’s cheeks. He wanted to roll his eyes. Here she was confronting him about the event and she was embarrassed to hear him talk about it.

“The Houses won’t accept an elf to lead us.”

“I know that, Aqua.”

“Then you must not see her again. We can’t take the chance if your beast is insistent on it. He will mark her and the Houses will try to get rid of her and then there will be a cold war between you and the Thunder and there will be chaos.”

He scoffed, “Is that a vision or your imagination running wild?”

“I’m a seer, but one doesn’t require my particular gift to see where the path you’re on leads.”

“I will not allow it to go any further than it has.” He growled.

Aqua narrowed her eyes. “So you won’t see her again?”

Surprised by the vehemence, Alessandro responded. “I can’t make that promise. Somehow the woman seems to have gotten entangled in the shifter attacks and I will use every source I have to make sure I get to the real culprit behind Elaine.”

Aqua’s lip trembled and her eyes watered.

“Is this an excuse to see her? I don’t mean to be so assertive, but Terra isn’t here a-and Blaise would just kill her to get rid of the problem-” She flinched when he growled at her and she spoke her next words softly, “How can you not see that this is a problem, my king?”

Alessandro did. And that was what was pissing him off.

How could his dragon have been so incredibly wrong in finally choosing a mate?

He sighed and forced himself to calm down. “Allow me to think of alternatives.”

“Perhaps I could help.” Aqua looked desperate.

As gently as he could, Alessandro said, “I’ll take care of it.”

Aqua looked concerned, but she gave in and took it as her cue to leave. She bowed and whispered, “I’m sorry, Alessandro.”

And he believed her. He really did.

XOXOXOXO

The bastard really had left!

After promising to help her. After showing her his beast.

Her real annoyance had nothing to do with that, though. Her annoyance was that he’d kissed her, stirring up the succubus she’d been working hard to suppress all evening and then leaving her high and dry.

Without instruction Rowan wasn’t sure what the next step was, so she gently placed the pot into the plant room, watched the cabin shuffle it around before settling it near the sky light full of subtle streaks of moonlight.

When she got back to her room, she checked her phone to see if the Dragon King had messaged her with an explanation for his abrupt departure, but besides a few texts from her sisters and a couple of friends, there were no messages.

Was he letting her stew? Next time she saw him, she would emphasize she definitely wasn’t afraid of him, just surprised.

Bastard.

It was nearing midnight. She supposed it was time to turn in for the night, but the grimoire right beside the clock was mocking her. She only had ten more days with it. Didn’t she want to know the secrets it held?

She sighed and slid it onto her lap, relaxing against the collection of pillows littering her bed.

Even with Kin’s and Dew’s explanation on how to navigate the book, Rowan didn’t have enough Coven history knowledge to figure out where certain entries should appear. So, still unsure, she opened it to the middle page.

This time it was an entry on how to get the most juice out of the eye of newts to get the best quality potions. She flipped the pages, finding that none of them had the feel of secret ancient knowledge she had assumed the pages would hold.

“Were you only meant to show Kin the relationship between shifters? Why would the Elder give you to me and not him?” She questioned out loud, “Am I supposed to be researching a secret code she’s left?

Or is this really a show of good faith between the Coven and me?

I feel like I’m losing a hold of myself.

I don’t even know how to use my power properly.

” She shook her head and turned the page, and then she stared.

There was a diagram of chakras neatly labeled. Underneath the diagram there were instructions.

Now that you’ve determined which chakra points will put out your highest quality of magic, try using two at the same time.

Some have found it helpful to envision push buttons at the chakra points they are intending to use, which they then try to press at a set rhythm of an eight count every second pressing a different button.

After you get a hang of two at a time, check back with me to see what’s next.

No way.