Epilogue - Stryker

Two Weeks Later

I knock on the door, waiting for confirmation that it’s safe to go inside the room that’s been reserved for Camilla’s training.

Last week, a freak incident had me paralyzed on the floor for two hours before Camilla figured out how to undo the effects of the Agony Potion, she learned how to brew that day. With Abuela’s insistence, a high dose of dragonclaw was plucked from the gardens of Aurora Island and used in the mixture. Along with a bunch of other herbs and plant essences, the potion was potent enough to work on me.

As a dragon shifter who isn’t usually susceptible to ordinary potions, it rendered me immobile while I writhed on the floor from the torment it presented

Though I can handle anything thrown my way, and I’ve willingly volunteered, Camilla has been adamant about not using me as a test subject. She claims that she can’t see me in pain, and she’s kept me away from her experiments, using my brothers as subjects instead.

“Come in!” Camilla calls from inside the room, and I breathe a sigh of relief before heading inside. I love seeing her at work, her tongue pressed in her cheek while she focuses and measures her ingredients. Watching her as her aura exudes strength and determination while she practices her craft is refreshing.

Keeping me out of her “potion room” is one thing. But I barely see her these days, except for the nights when she returns to our bedroom when she doesn’t need a specific moon phase to make a certain potion.

It’s been hellish trying to get her alone, but I’ve spoken to Abuela and begged her to give her granddaughter the night off.

I open the door to find Camilla leaning over the silver cauldron on the burner, hot blue flames licking at the base of the pot while she stirs it with a golden spoon. The subtle scent of aloe vera fills the room, along with sweet notes that hint at almonds.

Ever since Camilla has been practicing making potions, I’ve been learning how to decipher different scents. But her own sweet scent of jasmines remains the only one that beckons my senses.

“Thanks for letting me in,” I offer as I join her at her workstation.

“I’m only letting you in ‘cause I’m not afraid you might get hurt,” she giggles. “I had you in mind when I mixed this one. It’s a chilling potion,” she explains. “It counteracts fevers and fires, and helps soothe burnt skin.”

“Hm…” I hum in recognition of what she’s referring to—that time I fought Rakon in the mortal world, and he burned my face. “Although, that won’t happen again.”

“I hope not,” Camilla laments, taking her spoon out and turning off the heat on the burner. “Have you heard any news?”

I shake my head. “Rakon is still at large,” I sigh discontentedly. My only consolation is that he won’t be after Camilla now that he was last seen consorting with a different coven of witches. It seems he wasn’t after my mate to exact his revenge on me. He wants more than revenge—he wants the whole bag by taking over the Fire Force clan.

At least, that’s the conclusion we’ve arrived at. Today’s meeting with the Council only had us coming to a dead-end. Rakon is out there, still posing an unknown threat to the dragon clans, but we’re all on high alert, waiting for him to strike again.

“I hope you guys find him soon,” Camilla laments as she wipes her hands on her apron. She sighs, and I feel the air shifting with her grievances.

Stepping forward, I place my hands on her shoulders and perch my chin there. “You have nothing to worry about, Camilla. I won’t let any danger come to you.”

“I know,” she sighs sullenly again. “But I know there’s something more I can do to help the Aurora Dragons.”

“You’re already doing more than you should,” I interject, but she shakes her head and turns to face me.

“I told you about my premonition,” she reminds me with raised brows.

Just last night, Camilla woke up in a cold sweat, begging me to check up on my sister, Kairo. Even though the two women hadn’t met, Camilla dreamed about her last night and was visibly shaken when she woke up. She thought Kairo was in some sort of trouble. Her dream was more like a nightmare, in which she had vivid images of Kairo tied to chains in a dark dungeon.

Though it was strange, even I became worried. It’s been more than a month since I’ve seen my sister, and I had to check in with her. That’s when I sent a mind link to Kairo, checking up on her in the darkest hours of the night. Kairo is still exploring the world, and she was simply enjoying a cappuccino in the streets of Rome, unharmed and joyful.

Despite putting both mine and Camilla’s worries to rest, she remains unsettled, even now, as she stares at me despondently.

“I like that I’m learning how to do all of this…” she gestures to the cauldron. “But making potions isn’t what makes a witch powerful.” She stares at her palms and sulks. “I can do so much more with my hands.”

“Have you been practicing your skills?” I ask with a hopeful tone.

Camilla nods, her eyes lighting up like starlights. “I can manipulate water. Not fully, but Abuela has been giving me lessons.”

I reach for her hand and nod at the window. “You have to show me.”

“Right now?” She glances hesitantly at her pot. “Abuela will be—”

Pressing a finger to her lips to hush her, I smirk mischievously. “Abuela isn’t coming in today. I requested she give you the rest of the day off. Besides…” I shrug. “Diego has offered to take her on a boat ride.”

Camilla’s shoulders drop when her tension eases, and she giggles. “Fine. I’ve been dying to show you, anyway.”

“Good,” I muse, pulling Camilla toward the window. “There’s something I’ve been dying to show you too.”

I don’t give Camilla a chance to question me, since I know how much she hates surprises. Instead, I get us onto the balcony, shift into dragon form, then sweep my mate into my arms and whisk her off to the top of Mount Aurora.

She gasps while we hover above the mountaintop, taking in the picture of perfection I was trying to achieve when I set up the picnic on a checkered blanket and spread-out flowers amongst the variety of snacks and foods I prepared.

Pride swells my dragon’s armored chest when she turns golden eyes of appreciation on my reptilian ones.

“You did all of this…?” she murmurs in disbelief.

I nod my dragon head, gliding to the surface and gently setting her onto her feet. She goes ahead to the picnic blanket, the gentle rays of the setting sun on the horizon magnifying her beauty as it kisses her tanned cheeks. My dragon is disarmed momentarily, taking in the sight with sore eyes in which tears surface.

A few months ago, I would have never guessed that Camilla would become the most important person in my life. Back when I only considered her a human woman, I could never truly understand what my brothers found with their mates until I felt it myself with Camilla.

My fated mate, my soulmate, has me feeling more than I ever thought was dragonly possible. She strokes the human side of me, unearthing the deepest emotions that have been buried for almost a millennia.

As I shift back to human form, I realize that I'd been hypnotized from the moment I first laid eyes on her. Not because she’s a witch, but because she’s just so unapologetically her. When I step forward on human feet, Camilla somehow manages to trip over her own two feet, but I catch her effortlessly and spin her in my arms.

I’d fantasized over this moment long before I met her, gazing deeply into her eyes while we swayed to the silence in which love filled our eyes like a gentle melody. Dancing on the mountain while the golden sun sets behind us, I twirl her around, then tug her forward into my arms while bowing over her.

“You are the air I breathe, the only sustenance I need to continue this life,” I profess, the words falling from my lips without much thought. Just feeling. “You deserve every grand gesture of love and romance, Camilla Torres, but I thought we’d start somewhere. I wish to show you the world, my love. Just as you have shown me the world through your eyes.”

Tears well in Camilla’s eyes, glossing them over with how immensely deep she’s moved by my claim. She reaches up and touches a hand on my cheek. “This is all I will ever need,” she smiles.

I lift her and steady her on her feet, sliding a hand through the dark curls of her hair as I press my lips to hers. My free hand settles on the small bulge of her growing belly as I keep the kiss slow and unhurried, wanting this moment to be as intimate as it should be.

When I pull back, Camilla is already flustered, batting her eyelids with deliberate intent.

Thanks to our bond, I already know where her mind is drifting. I take her hand and lead her to the blanket, guiding her to lie down before I spread out beside her.

“I love you, Camilla.”

“I love you too, Stryker.”

As I gaze into her eyes again, preparing to lose myself in them, I know I couldn’t be happier than I am right now.

“I’m gonna make love to you all night, Camilla Torres…” I warn before dipping my head at her neck and peppering open-mouthed kisses toward her ear.

She sighs contentedly, dropping her head to permit me the sweet pleasures of bestowing upon her bodily pleasures as a testament to my love for her.

“I was supposed to show you how I manipulate water…” she whispers.

“That can wait for now…” I rasp against the shell of her ear, nibbling on the lobe. “Why don’t you show me all the ways you can manipulate my being…?”

“Hmm…” she hums, surrendering completely to promises of the future.

A bright future in which I have the honor of loving a woman as extraordinary as Camilla. As I let my hand drift beneath her skirt to find the warm essence of her womanhood, already deliciously moist with arousal, anticipation for that future builds inside me.

For now, we’ll bask in the present moment, my throbbing need desiring nothing more than to sink between her walls in the physical embodiment of unison, united as one body of pleasure and love beneath the Aurora skies.

*****

THE END