Page 737 of Love Bites

“Are you supposed to be in dragon form when you burn your mate alive?”

The king laughed. “No, I think the woman would probably explode or something. It might work if the woman was the dragon shifter, I suppose, but that’s still weird.”

“My father had to breathe fire onto my mother andburnher?”

King Llywelyn sat back in his chair. “You make it sound like it’s a bad thing.”

“Burning people is bad! Didn’t they teach Bronwyn that when she was a dragonling?”

“It’s not like that.”

“You’re a mage! How did you even survive?”

“It’s not that bad. As a matter of fact, it’s not bad at all.”

“When Cai and I were in kindergarten, we got into a fight, and I scorched him a little. I got in so much trouble, and he was hurt pretty badly. He handled it well after his mother got there. He’s tough.” His dragon shrank at the memory, ashamed of his childish rage. “I can’t do that to a woman I love, not that I’m in love with Bethany Aura.”

King Llywelyn regarded him, his head tilted to the side. “Aren’t you?”

“No!”

“I’d say you’re about three-quarters of the way to the mating frenzy, Mathonwy. It’s not up to you anymore.”

He flipped his hand in the air, dismissing the superstition. “Oh, so it’s that whole fated mate thing, again. I don’t believe in fated mates.”

The king stared at him. One of his gray eyebrows drifted up. “Dragons have fated mates, Math.”

“We aren’t animals controlled by our biology or magic or whatever. We have free will.”

“All that is debatable, but what’s not up for debate is that a dragon soul resides inside us. Our supernatural nature makes us very different than the naturals and even the non-shifter supernaturals. They can choose their mates, and they can divorce. They can fall out of love. When our dragon finds a person who resonates with them—whether that person is a natural human or another dragon or a witch—the dragon creates a magical, unbreakable bond. It changes both the dragon shifter and the dragonmate in profound and fundamental ways so that our dragons can produce a new dragon soul for children.”

“So, love has nothing to do with it.”

“That’s not true. Most dragon shifters are so in love with their mates before the fever hits that sometimes, they don’t even notice. Like you, someone has to tell them what it means. Dragons feel things deeply, Mathonwy. Dragons love deeply. It’s not surprising that there’s a magical component to it, too.”

Math stared at King Llywelyn, horrified. “So, I have no choice in this?”

“Well, you do, but it’s not a good choice. If you stop seeing her, or if you try to mate and she refuses you or won’t surrender to the mating—”

There it was again, tosurrenderto the mating. Math didn’t like that wording, and he suspected Bethany wouldloatheit.

“—then you will become senescent,” the king finished.

This just kept getting worse. His dragon uncoiled, agitated. “What the hell issenescent?”

King Llywelyn said, “You grieve the loss of your mate, essentially, even though the mating never occurred. You’ll lose the distinctive eye characteristic of the mated dragon. Your dragon’s color will dim. Your energy will plummet, and you’ll become quite feeble for a time. Your mind wanders, and it will be hard to concentrate on anything earthly. Eventually, you’ll regain your strength and be able to look for a mate again.”

That sounded horrible. “Does that last, like, a couple of weeks?”

“Usually thirty years or so.”

“Are you kidding me?”Fire shot from Math’s mouth and singed the carpet in the king’s office. The rug was highly flame resistant, of course, like everything in the den development.

The king lowered an eyebrow and stared at the charred spot on his carpet. “Not in the slightest. Mating isn’t a joke.”

“Do dragons go through decades of senescence if their matedies?”

“Oh, no.”

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