Page 29 of Bite Me

“Yes. I have been blessed.” He made it sound sarcastic, but she truly was a gift. She didn’t see it that way.

“Clearly.” Steele stepped down into the room and crossed to a built in mini-bar. He poured them both a few fingers of dragon spirit. He dropped ice into Ky’s glass and then blew a mist of his healing dragon’s breath into both glasses. “Here, you look like you could use this.”

Could he ever. Imbued with Steele’s healing power, the alcohol coursed through the cells of his body, restoring and rejuvenating. His muscles weren’t as sore, and the tiredness slipped away.

His mind felt clearer too. Except in matters of Jada. Only two other dragons in the world had found mates. Steele was one of them.

“When you claimed Fleur, did she resist the mating?”

Steele chuckled and lifted his glass in a salute before taking a swallow. Ky did the same.

“For a while there, I wasn’t sure Fleur was going to accept me at all. She was pretty damn sure she was destined to mate one of the wolves.”

“What changed her mind?” It was strange asking advice from a younger dragon. But, only Jakob and Steele had been through this mating business.

Steele sat on the edge of the couch. He stared into his glass for a moment. “I’m not sure, and this is going to sound crazy, but I think it was the White Witch.”

The mate of the First Dragon. The mother of them all. Ninsy’s words rang through his mind. “Not that mother.”

Ky nodded. “Jada had a necklace, it glowed with the light of my soul shard. She said a witch in a white dress gave it to her. But, when I touched it, it disappeared.”

“Same thing happened to me when I gave Fleur my own.” Steele touched the place on his chest where his soul shard used to hang. “Do you think the White Witch is, I don’t know, matchmaking, from the afterlife?”

“But, why now?” It had to have some connection to this insurgence of demon dragons and that big black dragon. “We had a run in with the black dragon we battled for your mate tonight. I don’t think it’s a demon.”

Steele crushed the glass in his hand, shattering it to pieces. “You saw it? The bastard that took and tortured Fleur?”

“We fought him and his minions. Jada’s coven helped us escape certain death. It’s why we’re here.”

“I’ll kill him.”

Fleur appeared in the doorway and hustled through the room. She took Steele’s hand in hers and picked out the remains of the glass. She blew her own healing dragon’s breath across his hand.

She shouldn’t be able to do that. It was a dragon ability. Another gift from the White Witch?

Had she given any gifts to Jada? She stood in the entryway to the living room, looking bedraggled and so damn tired. She might not want to be his mate, but he would treat her as such and care for her.

“We’ll contact the other Wyverns in the morning and make plans. Do you have someplace we can wash up and rest?”

“Of course.” Fleur led them to a lush guest room, decorated in a range of colors, with plants, a small water fountain, a fireplace, and big windows, so that a dragon from any Wyr would be comfortable. “There’s an ensuite bathroom through there.”

He wanted to pick Jada up and carry her to the shower. Fuck it. She could rail at him all she wanted. As long as she was in his arms.

The second Fleur closed the door, he stripped off his shirt, shucked his shoes and pants, and picked her up.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing? Put me down right this instant.” She squirmed, but she was no match for him.

“Don’t fight me, Jada. You’re knackered, and I can see the salt of the sea coating your skin and hair. You can hate me for it in the morning but let me take care of you.”

“No, please. If you stay so close I…I don’t think I can control myself. I don’t know what I’ll do. I don’t want to hurt you.”

He chuckled and pushed open the bathroom door with his foot. Tucked into one corner he found a huge spa tub. Thank the First Dragon.

“You can’t hurt me,aroha.”

“You don’t understand. With the battle and everything else this week, I’m so hungry. It took everything I had in me not to attack Fleur. She’s so cute and nice, and I’m afraid some of my allure slipped out.”

A rhythmic thumping started on the wall opposite them and little daisies popped up in the planter box on the high narrow bathroom window.

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