“You are the sweetest offering a dragon has ever claimed, little queen.”
I scoff, but allow him to carry me to the bathroom and fill the tub without complaint. This type of mess requires more than a wet rag to clean up. His careful motions of washing me clean reminds me of how I left this place after his heat: crusty, exhausted, heartbroken, and upset with myself for being heartbroken.
It comes full circle now. With hindsight, my emotions at the time had been valid. I’d just left my mate without knowing it.
“A penny for your thoughts,” Kalos says, still naked but kneeling outside of the tub, focusing on running a washcloth up my thighs.
I hum, not needing to comb through old memories. I turn in the tub to face him. Kalos’s gaze drops to my breasts, the washcloth in his hands forgotten.
“You bit me,” I say, bringing his focus to the quickly healing wound in the crook of my neck. I suspect it will heal into another white mating mark to match the one I have on the other side of my neck where he bit me during his heat.
The mark that started everything.
Kalos presses his thumb into the wound, and the spark of pleasure surprises a gasp from me.
“Yes.” His eyes glow golden.
I grasp my knowledge of magic enough to do a check on myself. I bite my lip when I find the answer I’m looking for, or rather, the lack of.
“It didn’t complete the bond,” I say.
His eyes soften. “No, I still need to do work to strengthen that. I wanted you to carry a mark with a memory of how I should have claimed you.” Kalos caresses my cheek. “With the absolute conviction that you are mine. My miraculous mate.”
My throat swells at the tone in his voice, and I reach up, running my finger over the bloody skin and imprint of my teeth that I left on him. “I suppose that mine won’t leave a mark on you.”
Kalos hums. “I wouldn’t be too sure about that. Mating magic is unpredictable. This one may stay, and if it doesn’t, we’ll do it again once our bond is more complete. I will happily carry your mark.”
I open my mouth in curiosity but close it just as quickly.
“Ask your question,” Kalos says, but still I hesitate.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate for this moment.” I slide down into the water more, not wanting to bring up painful subjects.
“You want to know if I carry Ava’s mark?” Kalos guesses.
I sigh and shake my head. I’m not jealous, and I don’t want him to think I am. “It’s not like it’s something you control—”
“I understand, Rina. That mark faded sometime after her death.” His answer is simple, and tears prick my eyes at the starkness of it. I blame pregnancy hormones.
“I’m sorry,” I croak. It must have felt like losing her all over again.
Kalos nods, accepting my sympathy. “It was difficult at the time… but now I can see the purpose of it.”
“What do you mean?”
When he looks at me, it’s as if he can see the depths of my soul. As if he accepts every flaw and talent I hold. I don’t want to ever look away.
“I would have never allowed our night together to occur if I had still been carrying her mark. No matter the pain of my heat. A mating mark is sacred.”
I respect that. And if he hadn’t made our arrangement…
“I would have never found you,” he continues. “And that isn’t something I would ever risk. It was necessary to lose the mark of my previous mating… Ava and Luke are always with me, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t have happiness. That I can’t have you.” He swallows. “And our daughter.”
I nod. I know he still has fears regarding what kind of father he’ll be, but every second we’re together, the worries I carry about that fade. If there are obstacles, we’ll overcome them. The problems we face, we’ll solve.
Together.
“So if my mark doesn’t take, I’ll be using you as a chew toy until it does?” I tease, wanting to lighten this moment to match the certainty thrumming in my heart.
Kalos grins and goes back to stroking my skin under the water, his big hand coming to rest on my belly. Our daughter chooses that moment to kick him. His delight flavors the air and softens my soul.
“Yes,” he says simply. “I demand your mark and everything you choose to give me.”
“I love you, Kalos.” Before, I’d confessed that while in pain, and I want—no need—to give the words to him as the gift they are.
Kalos’s face softens.
“And I love you, thief of my heart.”
EPILOGUE
KALOS
The pain flares through my body again, and I pause in my work, breathing through it. I check the time when it fades and narrow my eyes, going back to reading the papers I hold with a silent grumble. There’s no call from the room above for me.
She’s pushing her luck.
It’s taken months of aggressively working with the soul witch to get the bond Katarina and I share to the place where I feel her pain, and I don’t regret it one bit. It gives me insight on her mood and what her body experiences.
Gage watches where I’m perched on the edge of my desk with wide eyes. He has his own paper reports in front of him.
“What was that?” he asks.
“Katarina has been having contractions since last night.”
If anything, Gage’s eyes get wider. “And that’s not something to worry about?”
I huff.
“She won’t allow me to take her from the studio until they’re closer together. She said she doesn’t want me hanging around and suffocating her until she’s in active labor.” Honestly, perhaps not even then. Katarina has gotten quite snappy these last few weeks.
I admit, I do not make things easier on her. The only thing keeping my worries under control is the knowledge that she will sense them through the bond.
“And you’re allowing that?” he asks, his jaw slack.
I roll my eyes at the notion that I would allow or disallow Katarina anything while she’s in such a state. I must truly seem like a dictator to my godson.
“If you are ever in the same situation, you may understand.” I keep my words careful, but Gage still frowns. His relationship situation makes how Katarina and I came together look generic.
“And where is Ben?” Gage glances around. “I’ve never known him to be absent for so long. Usually he’s attached to your side.”
“Ben has his own mess to deal with. He’ll visit after the birth.”
As much fear as I suppress, there’s a flare of excitement at that statement. Soon, maybe this time tomorrow, my daughter will be born.
It’s the hell of waiting before then that has the power to drive me out of my mind.
I suck in my breath at another flare of pain and check the time. The contractions are too close together to leave Katarina in her studio alone.
Gage stands, sensing the change in the air. “Let’s reschedule this meeting. Let me know when my sister is born, will you?”
He’s gone before I process his words. Warmth blooms in my chest that my daughter hasn’t even made an appearance in the world and her family ties are already growing. Her life will be so different than the loneliness I’ve fostered for centuries.