Page 736 of Love Bites

“So, like you dipped her in a dragon’s hoard.”

“Just a little bauble or two.” It had only been fifteen hours. They’d been asleep or busy for most of that. He hadn’t had time to buy much.

“Any new markings?” the king asked.

“No. Why would I get a new marking?” Llywelyn meant the dragon tattoo that all mated dragons bore on either the front or back of their shoulder, which was different than the dragon marking on Math’s back and ribs that he had been born with, evidence that a dragon soul inhabited his body. “Isn’t that part of the wedding ceremony, getting the tattoos together?”

Llywelyn stared at him, the blue glitter of his eyes flowing slowly inward. “Do you know how mating works?”

“Of course. One of you proposes. You buy a ring. She buys a dress. There’s a party. Everybody eats and drinks too much.” He thought about it a second. “There’s cake.”

The king nodded, but Math got the feeling he was actually shaking his head no. “That’s how naturals get married, but that’s not how dragons mate.”

Math stared at his computer screen, but the numbers fuzzed and swam in his vision. “I am not talking to you about this.”

“You are Cedrych’s son, aren’t you?”

Cedrych was his father, dead for ten years now. “Obviously.”

“So, when you had sex with her—”

“Dude!Some privacy, you know?” Even though he’d already admitted it.

The king leaned forward. “How was it? Was itreallygreat?”

“She’s a witch. I assume she cast some tantric magic or something.”

“Like firecrackers up your spine and that moment of unthinking bliss went on forever?”

Heat filled Math’s face. Fire wafted out of his nose. “I amnottalking with you about this.”

“So, that’s a yes?”

“Yes!”

“You’re mating with her.”

“I am not!”

Math’s unease awoke his dragon, who growled somewhere near the back of his skull.

The king said, “Mathonwy, I would say you’re nearly at the stage of the mating frenzy.”

Math looked up at him aghast. “You’re the second person who’s said that.”

“Because it’s obvious. You need to prepare yourself and Bethany for it.”

“Prepare?What would I need toprepareus for?”

The king bit his lip, gathering himself, before he said, “The marking is burned into the mate’s skin with dragonfire.”

“What!”Math stood and paced, running his hands through his hair. “That’s barbaric! Who the hell thought that up?”

The king’s tone became rather dry. “No one thought it up, Mathonwy. It’s biology. That’s how mating works.”

“You—youburned a brandinto Queen Bronwyn to mate with her?”

“She’s the dragon, but that’s how everyone does it.”

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