“Truthfully, I feel like shit, but I’ll live. The important thing is that Sora got through it without a scratch. That’s all I care about.”
“I know what you mean.” Cyrus looks through the doorway to the bedroom where his mate and mine just left. “How are you feeling about being mated to Kyro, too?”
“Oh, you know how much I love an ornery grump.” I wink. “He’s perfect. And goddess, how that man talks in bed.”
“Yeah, that’s more than I want to know. I’m out.” Cyrus leaves the bathroom, and I follow him to the living room where Midas, Jeslyn, Kyro, and Adrianna are waiting.
The way everyone is avoiding the stain on the couch has me smiling, despite our dire circumstances. Yeah, I’m pretty happy with this mating arrangement—if we can just figure out how to get the three of us into a pool.
“Where’s Sora and Finley?” Kyro asks as we walk in.
“Finley took Sora for a ride,” Jeslyn says, as if it’s the most normal thing in the world. Midas is bouncing his child on his knee as he talks to Adrianna about the best strategy for an attack.
“What?! You let her leave when the Ruby Diamond Horde is here in New York?” Kyro yells.
“I didn’t let her do anything,” Jeslyn says, a firmness to her that makes her the perfect queen. “She wanted some space to think. You can’t just lock her up.”
I touch Kyro’s shoulder, rubbing my palm down to his back, steadying myself as much as him. “I’m sure they didn’t go far.”
“We need to talk about what we plan to do,” Adrianna says. “Midas and I agree that it’ll be easiest if we go to the Silver Temple immediately. We don’t know how long it’ll be before they have more dragons there.”
“That would be a lot easier to do if my mate was actually here!” Kyro’s voice is deadly.
Adrianna doesn’t flinch. “A team is securing the Silver Temple as we speak. By the time your mate returns, it’ll be ready.”
I’m going to mate my girl. By sunrise, she’ll be a dragon. I’ve waited so long for this and now, with our hordes at our back, it’s finally time. I take Kyro’s hand and squeeze it. He doesn’t pull away, but squeezes back.
There’s a tension in the air as the severity of what’s about to happen lands on all of us. By sunrise, I won’t just have a mate. I’ll have a new horde. Possibly a new ruler.
Chapter 26
Sora
Finleyfliestothetop of the empire state building with me on her back. She shifted into a dragon easily enough, but her flying isn’t as smooth as Jethro or Kyro, and her landing is even choppier. I tumble off and scrape my knee, a small problem in light of everything else tonight.
“Sorry,” she says. “Still getting used to this.”
I laugh, because what else am I supposed to do? My best friend is adragon!
“You’ve been a dragon for just a few days. I think I can forgive you for not getting the landing perfect.”
I toss her the blanket we stole off Jethro’s bed, and she wraps it around herself so she’s not sitting naked at the top of the empire state building. Yeah, how is this my life now?
“Alright, so, you want to talk about it?”
I shake my head. “I really don’t. The hordes are going to attack to get their temples back. I know that’s what Midas and Adrianna will do, and I understand it. But I hate the thought that people might die so I can get dicked down by two men for the rest of my life.”
“Speaking of dick…” Finley wiggles her eyebrows. “Want to talk about that?”
I giggle like one of my first graders. Sitting here with her, making inappropriate comments, I feel feel ten times lighter than I have all day. “I don’t kiss and tell.”
“Hey, I told you about the theater.” She smirks with a dreamy look on her face. Finley’s always been free with her sexuality. More comfortable with what she wants.
I envy her that.
Trying to channel my inner Finley, I drop my voice low and whisper, “All I’m going to say is we went to a sex club.”
My cheeks burn like I just stuck my face too close to the oven.