Page 4 of A Story of Mates and Temptation

“A week?” My stomach drops. “A fucking week. A week he’s had his hands on her. A week where he could be hurting her. Again. A fucking week.”

I collapse to my knees, running my hands over my face. “I failed her. I failed everyone.” My voice cracks. “I can feel her in my heart, in my fucking soul, and I would walk to the ends of the earth for her. If that is my last moments, then so be it.” I don’t look at Ruelle anymore.

She steps closer, tired and weary, and places the necklace around my neck. “The ashes of your dragon, here, next to your heart. You’ll do something extraordinary and I’ll guide you, Ziven. Like I always have done. Come with me.” I follow her through the caves until we get to a place that has always made my blood feel cold. Right in the centre of a domed cave is a pit, dug into the ground with a red ring drawn around the edges. Brythan isn’t warning me not to go near it this time. Mymother’s warnings of this place echo in my mind. The home of the legendary shadow dragons, who have never been ridden by anyone and aren’t alive. They are beings of shadow and nothing else.

Ruelle stops when we are standing by the edge. “When you were born, I had a vision of you here, and I told you to jump. I didn’t know if it was real, and then one day, I was speaking with your mother. She knew you would have a mate in the Twilight Dynasty, and only mates of the Twilight Dynasty would stand a chance in there. Even I believe the deities are leading us, trying to help us find a way, and they want you to go here. Visions are gifts to us, and magic…it is exceptional, but we know it comes at a price.” She touches my arm, her touch cold even through my burnt leather shirt. “I made sure you trained, you fought and learnt to be wise. I knew this day was coming for me, and it has been…it has been such a privilege to be your family, Ziven.”

A roar echoes from the depths, and my eyes tug to the pit. I can’t look away. It’s calling to me. “You need to jump in here,” she coaxes. “This is how you save them all. This is how you save your mate and make her your queen.”

“I will die in there.” I can’t explain how I know, but a deep feeling tells me as much.

She smiles faintly at me. “Yes, but this isn’t about dying…it is about so much more. We need to believe in magic and fate and destiny. Our deities must be freed. We need a king—not of the Moon Dynasty, or the Sun Dynasty, or the fae, or the Twilight Dynasty, or any of the old names. No, we need a King of the Dragons. There’s never been one.”

The king of the dragons is a myth, an old fairy tale my father once told me about. He explained how there was once a god, sopowerful because the dragons made him that way, and he saved our world so the fae could live in peace. It’s not real.

“Every title is made up by someone. Make yours a myth, Ziven. You want your mate alive? Your niece? Your people? All of them need a king of legends, because otherwise, the vampyre king will rule. You need to be stronger than anyone who’s come before you. You need to be stronger than the dragons.” A halo of red glows around her for a moment, but I blink and it’s gone.

“My dragon’s dead,” I whisper.

“Your first dragon, yes,” she softly whispers. “And I’m sorry, Brythan was an amazing dragon, but he knew his time had come. You will fly together again one day.” She looks me in the eye and cups my face. “I look forward to seeing what you become, and I am always with you.”

She disappears as quick as a gust of wind, leaving me alone in the cave. My heart pounds as I stare at the space where she was, and I look in the distance, seeing a body lying at the foot of a dragon. Ruelle’s dragon. “No!” I don’t know how it was possible she was here, but it was a gift. She wanted to save me and say goodbye, to lead me here. I look up at the top of the cave, imagining the stars. Goodbye, Ruelle. I wrap my hand around the necklace and think of Story—her long red hair, her beautiful curvy body, and her smile that makes me feel alive. I remember how she transformed from a woman who turned up at the mansion, broken—literally broken down to her soul and covered in enough scars to show her battles.

I thought no one could come back from that.

I wanted her to. Desperately. I thought I could push and push and push until she came back from the brink. Fuck, she did,and I fell in love with her. She came back fiery and brilliant. Extraordinary.

If I want to be hers forever, and her mine, then it’s time to do something extraordinary, too. I need to be more.

Without another thought, I dive straight into the pit, doing something my ancestors warned every single rider never to do.

As I fall into the darkness, I hear the blast of wings in the air. “You’re going to die down here, King Ziven.”

Chapter Three

Catherine

Page Three. I love my wife, even if powerborn and lessborn cannot be forever. Our child is our only forever.

Istare at the box right in front of me, wondering what the hell happened as I wake up in a haze. It’s the first thing I see when I sit up, rubbing my head and feeling a lump there, along with several cuts. My body is sore everywhere, but I struggle to remember what happened until it hits my mind like a brick. I was flying away from the mansion with the book that was locked in the box, which Story gave to me to protect, when three of those creatures got to us. My dragon took one of them with fire and the other with his claws. The third one managed to bite his leg, and we went down with it. I remember screaming, falling, and then just nothing. My dragon’s grumble makes me aware of the warmth at my back—my dragon. I look at him, seeing his leg has a bandage, a worn black fabric with holes in it, wrapped tight around the bite. “I am well. I will fly tomorrow.”

My shoulders drop as Ululia’s voice echoes in my mind. He is okay. But still, how? Someone had to have helped us, and where are we? It’s cold, but I am covered in old blankets, which is keeping off the chill, along with the warmth from my dragon. As I look around, I realise we’re in some kind of broken house in the forest still… The forest trees have grown up through it, creating a makeshift roof of branches and leaves. Light flickers through in streams, making it strangely bright in here. Glancing around, I ask my dragon out loud. “Did you get us in here?”

“No,” comes a different male voice. “I suggested this place. After I watched you and your injured dragon fall from the sky, I caught you,” he continues. “Your dragon followed me in.”

I back up a few steps as the vampyre I saved from the creek walks into the room. The gold sword I pulled out of his stomach is clipped to his back in a holder, and he is very awake. I was right about him being tall. He is towering at over six feet, and he looks even more muscular now he is moving. His arms flex with the movement as he crosses them and meets my eyes. He’s still wearing the same black clothes, torn still on his stomach, and I can see ripples of muscular still pale skin underneath that makes my heart race. His silver locks are curly, bouncing slightly as he moves. His pure red eyes settle on me, and there’s a coldness in his gaze that seems to echo around the room. When he smirks slightly, a flash of his fangs makes me almost jump.

“Before you scream and run away, those flying creatures out there are close and listening always. They are searching the forest every night, but even in the daylight, they are listening,” he warns, and he isn’t smirking now. “At night, they roam with vampyre riders, and you must be silent. The sun will set within the hour.”

“Don’t tell me what to do, vampyre,” I snarl, but I keep my voice quieter than I want. I want to scream and run away. “They are your people riding those things!”

“My people, but not my friends. I’m not on their side, and I do not bow to the king of the vampyres unless forced.” He offers a truth. I don’t know what to make of it. Of him. “I suggest, since it’s nearly night now, that we keep our voices down, stay for the night, and travel in the morning. Your dragon will be able to move by then, I believe.”

She growls low at him. “Not if she doesn’t burn you to flames first, vampyre.”

“Don’t you want to know my name?” He quirks an eyebrow. “Fae, I’m inquiring about yours, and I’ve been thinking of what it could be while you’ve been resting and recovering in my protection.” He draws out the wordprotection. “I’m sure you told me it but I was struggling to not die.”

“We’ve saved each other. We’re even now.” I cross my arms, mirroring his stance. “I don’t owe you anything.”

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