2. Jade

Iblink my eyes open, and I frown.

Whose bed am I in? Scratch that. Whose room is this?

Nothing about the dimly lit room is familiar.

As I sit up, the sheet covering me slides down. I’m more confused than ever when I clock what I’m wearing. A gold silk nightdress with thin sleeves and lace borders. It looks and feels expensive.

I don’t own anything like this. So where the hell did it come from?

Then the double doors on my left swings open and a dark-haired man in a pair of black pants and a white shirt stalks in the dimly lit room.

I don’t recognize him.

“Ah, awake at last.” He beams at me.

I take in the man’s handsome face, his short dark hair, bare cheeks, and bright green eyes. “Dominik?”

He crosses over to me and leans down.

I scoot away. “What are you doing?”

“Kissing my beautiful wife.”

The last time I saw him, he had a long beard, a habit of growling like a dog, and thick, matted hair. Now he looks like a fashion model with sharp cheekbones, a strong jaw, and thick, sooty black lashes.

His appearance distracts me.

Then, so does something even more important.

The blank spot in my memory.

A big one.

“I’m not your wife. We were…” My voice trails off as my head pounds. I lift my fingers to my throbbing temples.

Dominik touches his lips to mine and strides toward the wall of floor-to-ceiling windows.

I barely feel his fleeting kiss. I’m still struggling to fill the blank spot in my memory.

Something happened. Something bad.

“This is not the place I should be,” I whisper.

“You are exactly where you belong,” Dominik says. “With me.”

But I’m not.

I don’t remember how I got here, so how can I be so certain he’s wrong?

I blink.

Air blows my long chestnut brown hair into my face. Bright green eyes peer down at me. Something tightens around my waist. Then I’m soaring. Up and up, breaking through white clouds, and I can’t breathe, the air is too thin.

I blink again.

I’m sitting upright in an unfamiliar bed, and a man is calling me his wife.

Nothing makes sense.

“Why don’t I remember?”

“Your memory will return in time.” Dominik picks up a slim white remote from the top of a white dresser and presses a button.

The floor-to-ceiling blinds sweep open soundlessly.

I stumble out of bed, nearly falling as I stare out through the windows at the dusky blue-black sky. I’ve never been to New York in my life, but I recognize that skyline.

“We’re in New York,” I breathe.

“In my penthouse, yes.” He crosses over to me as I gape at a view.

Back in Atticus’s compound, he said he was from New York.

Now I’m here with him. No wonder things felt so wrong.

He’s two feet away from me when I back up, determined to keep him at a distance. “No. Stay away from me.”

“Jade…” He slows his steps, but he doesn’t stop.

“No.” I keep on backing up. “We shouldn’t be here. I was…”

The blank spot in my memory suddenly opens up.

I have the strangest sense that I’m falling as memories rush past me.

We were in a tiny town in Wilkerson, Oklahoma where someone rammed by dad off the road. Hours or days later, I woke up in a white and glass cell, the newest captive to a wealthy southern man called Atticus Chira who liked to collect supernatural beings.

I returned to Atticus’s compound to free Dominik after he gave me a chance to escape. Dad transformed into a red firedrake and set fire to his compound, freeing Shep, Isaiah, and me from a trap we walked into.

Atticus Chira shot a cross-bolt at Dad. As impossible as it seemed, that tiny bolt had made Dad fall from the sky.

The brief sound of beating wings coalesces into something that feels like a dream. This is no dream. It’s vivid, and it’s sharp. Not a dream, but a memory.

Powerful midnight wings. A bright green stare. Air on my face. I’ve never seen him in this form before, but I know this is Dominik.

I shake my head, dislodging the memory to reorient myself in the present. “My dad…”

Dominik shrugs. “Will recover.”

My back bumps into a wall.

Dominik grips my wrist, flips my hand, and presses a kiss on the center of my palm.

I involuntarily shiver. “No. I have to go back.”

“You don’t have to go anywhere at all.” He smiles, cocking his head as he studies me. “Perhaps a ceremony to celebrate our union might put you in a better mood. The concierge provided a limited wardrobe for you, but we can order something in specially. Vera Wang might?—”

“I don’t want Vera Wang,” I snap, yanking my hand from his.

I slip around him, searching for a way out of here. Away from him.

His eyes track me as I edge toward the door. “Jade…”

“No. You stole me. Atticus shot my dad, and you just left him. Maybe to die. I’m going back.”

“I can’t let you do that, Jade.”

I eye him warily. “Yes, you can. I just want to go back to my dad. This is your home. Not mine.”

Dominik shakes his head, dismissive. “There’s nothing for you back there. This is your new life.”

I bolt for the door.

His arm is suddenly a steel band around me.

He turns me, pinning me to a wall as he gentles his touch. “Your place is with me, Jade.” He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear, and his fingers drift down my arm. His gaze dips, and his hand cradles my belly. “As is our child.”

“Child?”

I search for any sign he’s lying to me about this.

And I can’t find it. He’s telling the truth.

“Why did you think I would give myself up, Jade? If not to ensure the safety of my mate and child?”

“You’re lying,” I whisper.

Please let him be lying.

Atticus wanted a firedrake child.

He didn’t get one because Dominik abandoned his escape so I could get away.

“No.” Dominik’s voice is gentle. “You are mine, Jade of House Kaida, and I mean to keep you.”