Chapter Nine

S AVANNAH WASN'T ENTIRELY sure how she went from complete terror in a past-life nightmare to melting in Zane's arms yet again, but here she was, once more, only this time she was in a far more vicarious position.

And this time, she wanted all he offered up.

Not to say she hadn't after witnessing their first shared memory. She had. With everything in her. This time, however, they were alone in a cave on a bed she didn't remember arriving at, and she was on his lap. Better still, sitting on an erection so hard, she wouldn't be able to walk away from it if she wanted to.

How could she when he dared her with his dark, beguiling eyes?

Dared her with his submission?

While a part of her worried she might hurt him with her powers, she craved him far too much, so she pushed her concerns deep down inside and straddled him. Then, she rested her hands on his broad shoulders, looked him over with appreciation, and bit her lower lip hard so she didn't bite him instead. So she didn't devour him in ways no twenty-first-century shifter could ever handle. Likely no other shifter here besides him.

Before that, though, before she raked her nails over him and did all the viciously ruthless things she wanted to do in the heights of pleasure, her human half wanted more...normalcy. So much so it managed to miraculously override her inner beast, and she cupped his cheeks. Kissed him, not hard and hungry like her dragon wanted her to, but softly...gently even.

She knew right away by the way Zane clenched his fists at his side without touching her that somehow, someway, the gentle touch of her lips affected him every bit as much, if not more, than her taking him roughly the first time. It affected her just as much, too. As if some part of them had longed for this. Needed this. Had wanted it in a way neither understood. Fought for it because the moment it became more, it would mean trouble.

Too much trouble.

So she kissed him softly. Gently. Like two humans kissing for the first time. Testing without tasting. Feeling without drowning. Skirting the edges of sensation without losing themselves to it.

No tongue, just lips.

Just this.

Them in a way that yet again felt needed.

"Because we had no choice," he whispered against her lips, clearly feeling all the same sensations as her. "Even as dragons, we had no choice."

"You're right," she murmured, sensing even more. Sadness mixed with fury. Loneliness with frustration. "If we did, other dragons would sense it. He would sense it."

"But not anymore," he growled, clearly losing his willpower at the mention of the monster who had imprisoned her in their last life. "Nothing is stopping us now." He clamped one large, strong hand on her ass, wrapped the other into her curls, and shook his head once. "And nothing will ever again."

Before she had a chance to respond, he squeezed her against his erection, angled her head, closed his mouth over hers, and kissed her hard. Hungrily. Wrapped his tongue around hers in a dance they seemed born to do. A dance that made her world explode in a burst of excitement and lust unlike anything she'd ever felt before. A near-electric feeling of pleasure zigzagged over every part of her, from the delicious feeling of his tongue tangling with hers to the needy, aching throb between her thighs.

Some might say it was too soon to sleep with him, especially given how she'd felt about him a mere day ago and that he was, in many ways, a perfect stranger, but her inner beast disagreed entirely. And clearly, her human half was on board because she couldn't pull away from him if she tried. Instead, a delicious shiver of awareness rippled through her when he wrapped his hand more tightly in her hair and kept her right where he wanted her while forcing her to slide back and forth on his arousal.

She'd never let a guy take control like this because, typically, it didn't turn her on, but something about Zane doing it made everything inside her ignite. Made her so aroused and aware of what was happening to her body she closed her eyes, let her head fall back, and groaned in pleasure as he brought her to peak without doing much of anything. Yet he seemed to sense it was coming because he'd released her hair and allowed her to experience the moment the way she needed to.

There was an odd vulnerability to the whole experience because, as a rule, she'd never been able to climax when a man became too dominant. Nor had she been able to show the few men who had achieved it when she'd dominated them that they had given her an orgasm.

Yet here she was, thoroughly immersed in the sensations ebbing and flowing through her. Lost to them until she lifted her head and opened her eyes to find Zane watching her with something akin to rapture mixed with a lustful, predatory gleam in his dragon eyes. His skin had sheened red with his inner beast, making the flames flickering in his steady gaze much more tempting.

In turn, red hazed her vision as her beast responded to his once again in a way it never had another. She wanted to bring him the same pleasure he'd just brought her. Taste and feel everything he had to offer at last. Because that's how it felt more by the moment. That they truly had been kept apart in their last life, and now nothing stood between them.

With that certain knowledge and unquestionable truth, no matter how aroused or how much she wanted him, she became not just confused and curious but, once again, uncharacteristically jealous.

"You knew I was out there," she said softly, her arousal fading. "You knew I was alive somewhere, yet you slept with others. Many by the feel of it." Her chest tightened, and she swallowed hard. "Too damn many."

Without a doubt sensing her building frustration, his skin and eyes returned to normal, but not his cock. That stayed wonderfully, frustratingly hard.

"Por cada una de ellas, apostaría," she muttered under her breath, saying, "for every last one of them, I'd bet," as she climbed off of him.

She felt his inner conflict and even a dash of regret before he grew just as frustrated, surprising her with his response as he manifested food and drink on a small table with chairs coupled near a firepit.

"You gave me little choice," he grumbled. "Even if Rune had not warned me away, you made it more than clear you wanted me nowhere near you."

"What do you mean I gave you no choice?" A strange little chill rippled through her. She ignored the food, crossed her arms over her chest, and frowned at him. Rather than sit, she stood in front of the fire, surprised she needed warmth given how hot he'd just made her. "According to what you said earlier you only ever watched me from afar."

"I lied because it was nobody's business but ours." Zane sat in one of the chairs and stretched out his long legs before crossing his arms over his chest, too. He met her frown with furrowed brows and dropped a bombshell. "Rune didn't tell me about you when I first transitioned into adulthood, but much sooner and I tried to keep my distance but couldn't help myself. Not when it came to you. I first approached you in the twenty-first century when we were around eleven winters old because I felt your distress and wanted to be there for you. Knew you needed a friend after what had happened to you."

She shook her head slowly in disbelief. The moment felt surreal. Out of control in a way she couldn't explain. Welcomed yet dreaded. There's no way he knew. Not all of it. "Why are you saying that? Why are you lying?"

"I'm not, and I imagine it's only a matter of time before you realize that. Better still, remember me." He eyed her with a mix of what appeared to be hope and continued frustration. "I visited you as often as possible, which wasn't nearly enough, but I didn't want anyone here to know about you. I wanted—" he paused for a moment, seeming to think about it— "I wanted to connect with you before you ever traveled back in time. I didn't want to wait for fate or destiny but to form our own bond together."

That sounded eerily like something she might say.

"Impossible." Discomforted by his revelation because it implied she might be going insane or, at the very least, suffering some sort of early-onset psychological issue, she shook her head again. "I don't believe you."

"That doesn't surprise me," he granted. "I wouldn't if I were you, either." He poured himself ale without taking his gaze off her and shrugged. "But I did, and I can prove it."

She narrowed her eyes. "How so?"

"Because I know at eleven winters you hadn't met Zoey yet but desperately needed a friend," he said. "And you needed one because you'd just lost your parents, not to a car accident as you've since led everyone to believe, but because they were murdered."

Everything inside her went icy cold. "You could be getting that from our dragons bonding because we both know they are."

"I could, but I'm not." There was no mistaking the compassion in his eyes when he looked at her now. "You spent nearly the first decade of your life in Brazil before you and your parents immigrated to the United States. Things had been very difficult where you came from. Food was sometimes hard to come by, violence surrounded you often, and you grew up learning how to sleep with one eye open, as you called it."

"Again, you could be getting that from our connection," she managed, vividly recalling her younger years. While she'd loved many aspects of her homeland, things hadn't been easy. Not at all.

"And again, I'm not getting this from our connection." Zane poured a second cup with mead and joined her by the fire, his voice as compassionate as his eyes. "Your father, who was no more dragon than your mother because the gene had skipped a generation, got involved with the wrong people in Brazil and fled to protect you and your mother, but in the end, it was not far enough. He and your mother were tracked down and slain." He shook his head once. "It's a wonder you survived."

When she didn't reply but clenched her teeth against emotions, he wiped away a tear she hadn't realized fell, pressed the cup into her hand, and went on.

"I would say your survival was a miracle, and your inner Valkyrie at work because you weren't sent back to Brazil but put into the foster care system in the States and set on a path that would lead you here to this very day." He gently wiped away another tear, tenderer than she ever would have thought a man and dragon like him could be. "Lead you to this very moment."

Somehow, his touch, on top of his compassion, allowed her to see how truthful he was. He had been there. Had known her when she was young.

"Yet I don't remember meeting you back then," she managed, trying to sift through her emotions. All she'd felt in her youth. Brief flashes of happiness with her parents. Smiles at birthdays then fear for their safety. Dark nights. Fleeing. Terrified. New beginnings full of hope yet dread around every corner. "How could I completely forget you?"

"I don't know other than perhaps Rune made sure of it." He urged her to drink to ease her nerves. "When last I saw you, it was...difficult between us, but you still knew me. Still remembered me visiting you over the years."

"And how many years was that exactly?" she wondered, finally taking a few sips. Remembering what had happened to her parents was never easy. Now Zane was telling her he'd been there for her during that terrible time? By the sounds of it, had perhaps been a good friend?

"Almost four years," Zane revealed, shocking her. It almost seemed like he was searching her eyes as he continued looking at her. As if he were desperate for her to remember their time together. "We were just shy of fifteen winters when you shunned me."

That same strange chill raced through her again, and she shivered. "And why was that?"

"You claimed it had grown too uncomfortable visiting with a Viking dragon boy from another time," he said softly, clearly pained by her words. Clearly still entrenched in what he'd felt back then. "You said I couldn't possibly understand the changes happening in your life. While you would always remember how I had been there for you, it was time to move on. You wanted to be with boys from your era, not..."

"You," she said softly, feeling it rather than actually remembering the conversation. Almost like a dream she forgot to remember. "I didn't want to be with you." She rolled her shoulders, trying to shake off the odd flailing of her inner beast. "Because you wanted to be with me. Wanted me to come home with you. Be with you."

"I did," he said without pause, hoping more memories would come flooding back to her. That she would push past whatever blocked her memory. He traced his finger along her jawline like he had earlier, looking at her not just with desire this time but something that felt strangely familiar. For lack of a better way to put it, with his heart in his eyes. "And I told you as much. Kissed you for the first time and pleaded for you to return home with me. To become my mate and, when you were ready, my wife." He hesitated before it seemed he couldn't help himself. "I told you I loved you, Savannah. Would always love you. That I only wanted to be with you."

He meant it. She could see it in his eyes. Feel it in every part of him, both man and beast. Yet she couldn't remember what had so clearly been an important moment for him. A heartfelt, life-changing moment by the sounds of it.

"Yet I still shunned you?" she said because she had to. Honestly, given her dragon's reaction to him now, it made no sense. "Why would I do that?"

Outside of her friendship with Zoey, her teenage years hadn't been all that great. Most of them had been awful, and the guys she'd dated weren't much better. Nothing next to what she imagined Zane would have been at the time. A boy from another era? A fellow dragon? She would have found him exciting and interesting. Undoubtedly attractive.

"I couldn't say why you turned me away, only that it was...difficult for both my human and dragon halves," Zane rumbled before he sat again, almost as if he needed to put distance between them. He took a swig of ale and sighed before his gaze settled on the fire. "Neither side of me took it well, and I changed. My kin thought it was the transitions we go through at that age combined with my various personalities, but at root, it was pride and heartbreak. I became cruel for several years and thought nothing of taking any female I wanted. Relished it if only to punish the girl lost to me."

Savannah had no idea what to say to that. All she knew was she felt his inner angst and renewed heartbreak as if it were her own. Felt the torture he'd endured when he lost her. So she sat beside him and continued to try to make sense of things. While one part of her wanted to bring him back to bed and pick up where they'd left off, another felt like she should keep her distance for now.

That he kept more secrets.

Because he did. She was certain of it. Things didn't add up based on what he'd just shared. If she had ended things, why had he kept haunting her dreams? Why had it felt like he'd been playing games with her? Why had he seemed to be waiting for her to arrive here and understood she had darkness attached to her? Had she back then? If so, why not mention it? Warn her? She glanced around the cave. Moreover, if she'd shunned him and he became so unhinged, why was this place free of any female scent? Better still, the bed scent-free?

All questions she was about to ask when she caught the distinct odor of sulfur and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. With good reason, too, given what happened next.