Chapter Fourteen

"WHAT IS IT?" Magnus exclaimed when Zoey bolted upright, rousing him from sleep. He manifested a dagger, positioned himself to defend her, and frowned as he took in their surroundings. They might still be in bed, but it wasn't where it was supposed to be. Rather, they appeared to be in some sort of torch-lit underground room.

"Look," Zoey whispered, pointing at her little black dragon. She sat impatiently nearby, looking at them in distress with big, wide, unblinking eyes. "It's me again in my other life, and I think she's, I'm trying to tell us something."

No sooner did she say it than the tiny dragon looked from them down an earthen hall, then tip-toed that way, glancing back once as if urging them to follow but be watchful.

"What's going on?" Zoey looked at him in confusion as they got out of bed, and he chanted them into clothing. Almost the moment he did, the bed faded. "Are we dreaming? Witnessing a memory somehow?"

"Possibly." He kept her close and looked around. "It feels more like a memory than a dream."

"And that can happen outside of the Forest of Memories?"

"I think when it comes to Valkyries and our past, anything is possible." Drawn to the little dragon every bit as much as he was to Zoey in this life, Magnus kept his weapon at the ready and followed the wee beast. Yet, despite his curiosity, his thoughts never strayed far from what lying with Zoey had been like.

Never strayed far from how it had felt to let go inside her.

To know his seed might have taken root at that very moment.

And how glorious it had been getting there. He'd lain with enough women, including his late wife, to know he enjoyed sensual pleasure. What he hadn't realized until lying with Zoey was how much better it could be. How much more intense and addictive. Because he was most certainly addicted to how it had felt being inside her delicate little body. How untouchably good it had felt owning her flesh as only he could. Bringing her immense pleasure. Knowing she might soon carry his offspring. That he would keep her well pleasured and her belly round for as long as he could.

Just the thought of having her again made him want to turn from where the baby dragon led them and hoist her against the wall. He craved sliding into her hot, tight, welcoming sheath and losing himself all over again with an intense ferociousness. Longed to feel the way their pleasure mingled with their groans. How they became one in the best way possible.

"You have to stop that," Zoey whispered hoarsely, the scent of her arousal letting him know she followed his lustful thoughts. "Or we won't see what we're meant to see." She slowed and cocked her head. "Do you hear that?"

"I do," he murmured, keeping her hand in his and his weapon drawn as they followed the torch-lit tunnel, slowing when the voices of a man and woman became clearer.

"What is this?" Zoey said telepathically as they stopped and remained in the shadows when they spied wooden bars on a chamber off to the right just ahead. "Is this a prison of some sort?"

"I would say so,"he replied when he sensed himself in a strange way and knew they were witnessing their past life again. "I think I'm in there. I think..."

He trailed off when the young woman who had once been Zoey appeared, sneaking down the hall. Like before, he was struck by how utterly beautiful she was, with her long, ebony locks and smooth, flawless skin. How her delicate features somewhat mirrored her current visage.

The young woman glanced back nervously before she grasped the wooden bars and blinked back tears as she looked at someone inside. "I told you to stay away." She shook her head. "That we could never be together. I thought you understood."

"I do...did," came a familiar voice before the man who had once been Magnus appeared out of the darkness and wrapped his hands around hers over the bars. "But in the end, none of it matters." He gazed at her with his heart in his eyes. "All I care about is you. Us. Being together as we should be."

"This is where my men brought you,"Zoey said into his mind, her internal voice undoubtedly echoing the anguish she'd felt in this memory. "This is where you were taken after you stormed into my lair and tried to defend me against..."

She trailed off in shock.

He soon learned why as the memory unfolded.

"Yet we both know we can't be together as we should," Zoey's incarnate said hoarsely, tears streaming down her face as she rested her cheek against his hand. "You are destined to marry a human, and now that I have taken my brother's place and am Queen of the Shifters, am destined to marry a full-blooded dragon to bring even more peace. It is a good move, too. A sound move during these trying times, however heartbreaking it might be for you and me and the life we wanted."

Magnus wasn't sure what shocked him more. That Zoey had been locked into a pre-arranged marriage with a full-blooded dragon, or that she'd been Rafe's sister, as he had once been King of the Shifters before he chose another route.

"That's who that huge dragon was racing toward us,"Zoey exclaimed telepathically, equally stunned. "He was the dragon I was meant to marry." She flinched. "Never a man. Always a dragon." A shiver visibly rippled through her, and she whispered aloud. "An unbelievably powerful one. So very powerful...a king. The king. Here, fresh from your homeworld, Múspellsheimr." She shook her head. "A beast unlike any other."

As she said it, they had just long enough to see her incarnate unlock the cage in which he'd been imprisoned and plead for him to flee. Marry his human bride straight away lest he suffer the wrath of the beast meant for her.

"It was him," Zoey said, stunned. She sank down against the wall. Her teary eyes met his when he crouched and cupped the side of her neck and waist, making sure she stayed steady. "It was Zane, Magnus. He was that dragon, and I was supposed to marry him. Like your marriage, it had been planned when we were young."

Furious all over again at his errant brethren, Magnus sat against the earthen wall and pulled her onto his lap. Held her as she cried. Felt her anguish as if it were his own. Remembered, as she did, how difficult it had been for them in that life. How deeply their incarnates had fallen in love, just as Rafe and Quinn had. It explained much. Allowed him to finally understand the pact he and Quinn made after Rafe was gone. How much they had respected one another's love for someone they were not allowed to be with.

"Yet you and Quinn ended up married, however platonically," Zoey said softly through sniffles. She lifted her head from his chest and met his eyes. "Which means—" her lower lip wobbled— "I must have married Zane."

Over his dead body.

The idea she'd married his enemy, the very nemesis who"d allowed his wife and daughter to be slain, then carried his child's body off like a trophy, made him sick to his stomach.

"What of my nightmare, though?" Zoey squeezed her eyes shut as though trying to stamp out the images it invoked. "Why were you on that ship beneath the northern lights? Why did I feel you were being so foolish? Why..."

When she trailed off and swallowed hard, he rested her cheek against his chest again and stroked her hair. Soothed her the best he could, given the terrible unease rolling through her. The uncertainty and heartache that had no explanation other than their last life hadn"t been easy in the end.

"Yet you lived," she whispered, breathing in his scent as she followed his thoughts. "You lived and married Quinn. Had a life together, however free of intimacy."

He wrapped her up more tightly in his arms, closed his eyes, and rested his chin on top of her head. Breathed in her scent every bit as much as she was his. Longed for her just as much at this moment as he had in their last life. Felt that life filling his bones with every breath he took. Once again, he experienced the immense love he'd felt for her then.

The unbreakable love he still felt for her now.

"We're back," she eventually whispered. "We're back in bed in your lodge in your father's kingdom."

When he opened his eyes, he realized they were. Almost as if they had never left, he leaned against the headboard with her cradled in his arms. The fire was down to embers and the storm outside seemed to have abated some. Icy pellets still tapped against the door, and the skins over the windows gusted inward every so often, but for the most part, all was quiet and peaceful.

"Time to rest, min lille droning." He lay her down gently and pulled her into his arms beneath the furs. "We will explore this further in the morn, ja?"

"Ja," she whispered so softly he barely caught it as she settled in against him, her back to his front, as he enfolded her in his arms. A position he realized in little time would prove difficult for both the man and dragon in him. How could it not with her sweet little bottom nestled against his cock?

Pulling on more willpower than he thought possible, given his raging arousal, he kept her wrapped up in his arms and safe. Free of harm and all that had once tried to separate them. Made sure she felt loved because she was. More than she could imagine. More than he ever thought he could feel.

He had loved his late wife, but it hadn't been like this. Not so all-encompassing in a way he knew would never wane. Could not because he'd come together with his fated mate. Held her human and dragon in his arms and wings in a way he could no other. Understood her on a level he couldn't explain.

Something he knew Zoey felt as well and made clear when he must've dozed off because when he roused awake, their clothes were gone, and she was moving her backside against him in a way that told him she needed him. While she should rest because tomorrow would be busy, he couldn't deny her if he wanted to.

More than that, the day would be busy because she would become his in all ways that mattered. Not just his mate but his wife. Queen. The woman who would bear his next child. And the thought of that made his cock even harder than it already was.

So he nudged his leg between hers, lifted her thigh, and delved his fingers into her moist folds. Needing her so much it was painful, he rested his arousal against her backside and thrust slowly against her buttocks, letting her know what was coming as he tilted her head and suckled on the soft, smooth side of her neck. Nipped her gently as he built her up by rubbing the nub at the center of her pleasure. Their breathing grew hot and heavy as he felt her pleasure scream toward her pinnacle.

So close.

Too close.

"Not yet, min lille droning," he murmured in her ear, wanting to be inside her when she let go. "Almost."

Lifting her leg further, he positioned himself and thrust deep inside her, pleased to find her so wet. So ready for him as she clenched the fur and whimpered in relief and pleasure. Better still, she let go with a ragged cry when he nipped her neck, pinched the nub between her thighs, and pressed in deep enough, a pinnacle spiked through her, making her clamp down so hard on him he nearly let go, too.

Yet somehow, he found the strength to hold back because his inner beast wanted it that way. Even more so than his human half, if such were possible, given his dragon's sole drive, his unabating need should be to impregnate a female in heat.

"Yet he holds back," Zoey murmured once she finally found her voice. "Holds back so I feel loved rather than used. Cherished rather than a means to breed."

"Ja," he managed hoarsely, the sweet scent of her arousal almost too much to bear now. "He seems determined to make sure your dragon understands..."

"That dragons can be gentle and caring," she murmured. "He wants me to know the human I fell in love with in another life is still very much inside you. That I need not fear laying with a dragon... I need not fear a dragon I don't want to be with."

They both understood what their inner beasts were doing. How they were trying to ease their souls into this new reality. Show them there were no more barriers between them.

They were one this time.

They were the same.

"And I don't fear dragons," she said huskily, rolling onto her stomach. "Not anymore." She rested her bent arms on the pillow, her cheek on her clasped hands, and nudged her backside against him enough to let him know she was ready for him. "So your dragon need not hold back anymore."

While tempted to whip away the furs and see all she offered, both the man and beast craved intimacy in a way they never had before. He didn't want to slam into her roughly, not this time, but be as close to her as he could. So he didn't toss aside the blankets and feast his eyes on her but rolled over the top of her, braced the headboard, moved aside her hair, and kissed the back of her neck.

Then he kissed so much more, tasting every bit of her delicious soft skin from her head to her toes. Eventually, he ran his tongue up the length of her spine, making her buck in pleasure just enough that he seized her around the waist and pulled her up not all the way to her knees but enough that he could thrust deep inside her.

"Magnus," Zoey groaned into the pillow. She clenched the fur and shuttered with pleasure. Sensations he felt just as strongly. So strongly holding back was no longer an option.

"Min lille droning," he groaned in return, thrusting into her in long, deep strokes that felt so good he couldn't slow down. Could not stop from moving faster. Couldn't keep things as romantic as he'd hoped when her sweet scent wrapped around him, and her soaked, tight sheath welcomed him to take all.

And take all he did, thrusting into her so fast and deep she braced an elbow on the bed and wrapped the other around his forearm as he thrust. In fact, he slammed into her so hard near painful pleasure shot down his spine, tightened his ballocks, giving him no choice but to hold her in position as he thrust deep one last time, release a ragged groan he didn't recognize as his own, and exploded inside her.

She gasped choppily as if trying to catch her breath before she white-knuckled the fur, dug her nails into his arm, and released just as long and hard as him.

Like before, they stayed that way, locked together, enjoying the lingering sensations they wrung from one another until he eventually pulled her into his arms, and they drifted off to sleep. A slumber where he slept more soundly than he could ever remember sleeping. Slept until they were awakened by the sound of a commotion outside.

Activity that revealed good news indeed.