32. Blaze

Istayed awake all night, just enjoying being held so tightly against my mate. Alfie's body pressed me down and curled around me but he never let me go, even when he changed position.

I'd never felt so treasured in my life.

All night long, I kept raising my hand to my neck and touching the fresh scars there. I had been claimed. Alfie had chosen me, chosen to keep me forever, and we couldn't be parted now, no matter what his family said.

If nothing else, I'd get to stay with my darling and see him every day. They'd have to let me. Dragons didn't let their mates go. Everyone knew that.

The thought settled me. I hadn't wanted to admit how afraid I'd been that I'd be… replaced. That Alfie would find a whole load of other, more suitable people to mate with.

His arms tightened around me as though he could sense my residual anxiety. As soon as I felt that, my worry dissipated. While he held me like that, there was no doubt that Alfie wanted me. Perhaps he felt it through our bond. He'd always said we had one, and the way he described it as beautiful and bright had always made me happy and a bit proud. I liked having a special bond with Alfie. I'd never had a bond with anyone else before.

When the first rays of sunshine peeped through the window, I twisted round to look at my mate.

"Wake up, my darling."

"What is it? Are you okay?"

His voice was sleepy and slurred but his arms tightened around me again, adjusting to our new position. I laughed as he pulled me closer, even though we were already almost as close as we could get.

"Yes, I'm fine. I had a wonderful night."

"Good."

He closed his eyes again as though he were going to go back to sleep, and I wanted to laugh.

"You need to get up, my darling. You need to get back to your room before anyone realises you're missing."

He opened one eye and it focused on me.

"Why?"

"So that we don't get in trouble. You weren't meant to come here last night."

"But they'll all need to know we mated."

He said it as though it were obvious. And as though he expected his family to welcome me with open arms.

The fear I'd had flickered back to the surface. They'd be angry about our mating. They'd be angry that their golden dragon had mated just a fire spirit.

"Blaze?"

Alfie sat up so he could look down at me and see me more clearly but, as he did, I caught sight of my claiming mark for the first time.

I stared at his chest, where I'd burned him. My flames had seemed to shoot straight out of my heart and burn their way into his and I'd thought that was just a feeling, but it wasn't.

There, on Alfie's chest, was a bright flame right above his heart.

I reached out a hand to touch it, wondering if I'd feel the heat of those flames, but I didn't. It was burned into his skin, a tattoo.

He looked down too and touched the mark just like me. Our fingers brushed. Then Alfie grabbed my hand and held it to his chest, pressing it against my claiming mark.

"You marked me," he said. "You marked me like I marked you."

"Is- is that okay?"

His grin nearly split his face in two. "I love it! It's such a beautiful mark, Blaze. And now everyone will be able to see that I'm claimed."

"Not everyone, not if you keep your shirt on," I muttered.

Alfie kissed me until I didn't mind the thought of other people seeing his claiming mark any more and then we were just starting to sink lower onto the bed, about to make love again, when Alfie's stomach grumbled loudly.

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe I did that."

"Are you hungry, my darling?"

"I'm starving!"

I pressed a kiss to his lips, just because I could.

"You did a lot of work last night. You shifted and flew round the castle, and then you made love to me twice."

Alfie looked flustered but pleased. He blurted out. "I was hungry before then."

"Oh?"

"Maybe shifting is a lot of work. I was hungry right after that."

"But we went to the kitchen after you shifted for the first time. Why didn't you have some of that apple pie?"

He nuzzled my hair and I realised he'd been doing that more and more, getting my scent in his nose, claiming me in public.

"Mrs. Wilson didn't give me any."

"You could have asked for some. She likes feeding people."

He shrugged sheepishly. "I didn't like to. She's a bit scary."

I couldn't help but chuckle. Alfie was such a darling. I'd need to look after him.

"Perhaps we should go down to the kitchen now and see if she'll give us some breakfast."

He nodded and we clambered out of the bed together. As he stood, I ran my hands over his body. I was fascinated by the flame above his heart, proud that he'd let me mark him. It shimmered and looked like it was flickering, like a real flame.

I put my mouth on him again, and wondered if I'd ever got tired of doing that. Of making my mate come into my mouth.

Once we were clean, Alfie dressed me again and we climbed onto the window ledge together. I didn't like being that high up. When I looked down at the ground, so far below me, I whimpered and Alfie wrapped his arms around me.

"Don't worry, I won't let you fall. I'm going to shift and that will take up a lot of room but I'll be careful of you."

We shuffled round until Alfie was at one side of the ledge and I was at the other, and then he shifted, filling the space with his golden scales. They shone in the early morning light.

I had to gather my courage to climb up onto his shoulders and I clenched my eyes shut as soon as I was on him and trusted him to get us down to the ground safely.

Of course he did that. He would never let me fall.

Once we were inside the castle again, Alfie took my hand and ran up to his room, where he dressed. And then we snuck down to the kitchen again together. Mrs. Wilson was already there and she had me sat at the table straight away. Alfie only sat down next to me because we were still holding hands. He kept glancing at Mrs. Wilson as though he expected her to tell him to get out.

She didn't. She plated up food and set it in front of us, bustling round. We were just finishing when she suddenly went still. Her head tilted to one side, as though she could hear something we couldn't, and her mouth pressed into a thin line.

I opened my mouth to ask what the problem was but the siren sounded before I could. And that answered that question, too.