10. Lianna

"You want a bite?"

Kind of embarrassing to sound breathless at a time like this, but funnel cake was a rare delicacy. I'd been shoveling it into my gob from the second the paper plate loaded with fried dough, powdered sugar, and fresh strawberries hit my grabby little hands.

From the way I'd gone full duck, swallowing pieces whole, barely chewing, one would think I hadn't feasted all morning back at Vidar's hoard—that I was still starving and had been for weeks. It only seemed right to offer him the quarter left, but my generosity breezed by without his notice.

I glanced up at the alpha towering by my side. He cast a tall shadow in the crowd, festivalgoers veering around us, giving him a wider berth than they would ever afford me. And it wasn't like the place wasn't wall to wall with people. Winding down into the late afternoon on the first day of this weekend-long beachfront extravaganza, fresh blood spilled in from the various entrances, families with their face-painted kids on the way out to make room for the college crowd.

"Vidar?"

He scanned our immediate surroundings with a stony expression, from the people milling around to the wall of food trucks on our right, the artisan booths selling jewelry and candles and tarot cards on our left, and the henna artists offering temporary tatts ahead. His scowl softened, however, when it dipped to me.

"No, sweet girl." He nodded to my plate with a thin smile. "That's all for you."

I hummed softly and popped a sliced strawberry in my mouth.

Today was once again a day of many firsts.

Most of which happened well after we left Vidar's island hoard.

Now that my alpha was at full strength, he had left his heart behind for safekeeping, stored in that box of nails and screws, and changed into his dragon form as soon as we reached the surface. Beneath an aggressively bright sun, a clear blue sky, the air hot and dry, I climbed onto his golden back for my first real flight. No more cowering and fainting and wanting to puke my guts out in his claw. No, this time I settled between two spikes on his back, straddling the one in front, arms locked tighter than tight.

Magic and endurance fully restored, Vidar had used another gift from the gods to whisk us safely back to Cedar Cove: invisibility. As long as we maintained physical contact, I was hidden from the world too. He flew slowly, leisurely beating those big wings over the Pacific and down the West Coast. After a few exaggerated loops that had me threatening to hurl all over his back, Vidar stuck to the straight and narrow, offering a relatively turbulence-free—albeit windy-as-fuck—journey home.

At one point, just before landing, I found my confidence—enough to throw my arms out and whoop, going full Leo on the Titanic. Queen of the world!

I mean, what a missed opportunity if I didn't, right?

We had landed about two hours ago far up the beach in a dusty fenced lot full of trailers and supply trucks. Invisible to the festival staff, Vidar changed forms the moment his claws touched dirt, and we strolled into the impending chaos hand in hand.

The second major first came shortly after, because, you know what?

Pack Synn's Summer Solstice Festival wasn't actually that bad. I had been building it up in my mind as this influencer-infested hellscape for weeks now, all because of social media gloss and the way those idiots harped on about it.

But, hey. If you liked crowds on a hot day, pricey pieces from local artisans, good albeit loud musical performances on various stages with a giant one being prepped for tonight's DJ sets, and all-you-can-eat fried foods alongside organic vegan pop-ups, this was the place to be on the summer solstice.

And, you know, with the right company, this might be a fun day of drinks and dancing. Not my personal vibe, sure, but it wasn't a total nightmare either.

At least… not in my opinion. Vidar? Impenetrable fortress, my dragon, one that only ever opened to pay for my food or shoot me a grin or to stare down an alpha who seemed a little too interested in my outfit. Otherwise, he had said very little since we joined the fray.

Which didn't bother me. We weren't here on a date. I stayed by his side, snacking, taking in the sights, while he scrutinized every little detail. From the outrageous prices to the social media photo op hot spots, to the shirtless alphas prowling omega-heavy areas, the cooling stations and medical tents and beefy security bros—Vidar missed nothing.

Just like I couldn't miss the conflict brewing in his eyes, the firm set of his jaw.

Or the fact that he was a total attention-grab everywhere we went. He may have parted the seas without saying a word, but my alpha—mine—was a brilliant flame luring in all the moths. No one seemed brave enough to talk or touch, mind you, but he had a gravitational pull unlike any alpha I'd met, and it was all eyes on him.

I mean, rightfully so. My alpha was a god.

A tattooed god dressed in pale gray Bermuda shorts, belted low on his hips, and a faded yellow tee that I had picked from his clothing hoard to help him blend in. I realized now, however, that he would never completely disappear in a crowd. Hair long and luscious, the brown waves healthy and happy, gold streaks highlighted the afternoon sunshine. With the neatened beard, the overall mouthwatering physique—he was magnificent.

Magnificent. Vidar had said as much to me when I finally settled on a creamy Grecian dress, plucked straight from his collection. A slit cut up my thigh, not high enough to expose my lack of underwear, but just enough to keep the long skirt ventilated in the summer heat. A thin braided belt nipped the fabric at my waist, and, braless, I had crisscrossed the strappy bodice as tight as I could to support the girls. The thicker fabric made sure my nipples—which tightened to little pearls every time Vidar and I so much as brushed each other, followed by a blast of my perfume—weren't the center of attention.

It was a flowy, princess-y look. Not my usual style at all.

But Vidar made me feel soft and safe, small and protected. Just this once, I was happy to look like an alpha's princess.

He had gifted me the rest of the wardrobe too, even if I had nowhere to store it. Apparently, he had been saving pieces that caught his eye through the centuries, knowing, in his heart, that one day his fated mate would wear them. Most of it belonged in a museum, but I'd wear it all first, for him, even if it was just in private.

Because it was the thought that counted. He had been waiting for me, expecting me—building his omega a nest of luxury garments she could never afford.

The one part of this outfit I could do without, however, were the strappy leather sandals with zero arch support. They fit the look, but if we kept this pace, ambling between the dirt and gravel and wood walkways, I'd need to take a break.

Maybe file a request for another of my mate's massages.

He eventually steered us down to the beach, where the coastline was cordoned off for miles except one area teeming with lifeguards. With mostly families in the water, it seemed adult swimmers had to pass a breath test before they were approved for swimming, which I appreciated. Nothing wrecked a festival reputation more than some drunk drowning in the shallows.

After slipping out of my sandals, sore feet wiggling in the hot sand, I dumped my empty funnel cake plate in a nearby trash can, then drifted over to Vidar. Back to me, hands in his pockets, he surveyed the horizon with a furrowed brow—one that lifted slightly when I looped an arm around his and snuggled in, my sandals abandoned in the sand for now.

"Hey." I squeezed him, adding another arm around his and hugging tight, and then waited until he blinked down at me. "What are you thinking?"

His long, heavy sigh spoke volumes, and as he lifted his gaze again, I followed it to the?—

Oh.

To the saddest fire wall known to man.

I'd swiped through plenty of photos from past solstice festivals, and big names just loved posing in front of the fifty-foot-tall wall of—dragon—fire.

This year, it maybe topped out at eight feet, and the only ones around it were festival staff armed with kindling.

Which went against everything written about the Synn fire wall. This was supposed to be a pyrotechnic wonder.

"It is not my vision of the solstice anymore," Vidar admitted. His gaze snagged on a couple of kids running by, dripping wet with Mom and a pair of forgotten towels hot on their heels. "It has become… another beast entirely."

"Are you okay with that?"

With another heavy sigh, Vidar extracted his arm from my chokehold, then slung it around my back, drawing me in. He kissed my forehead with a soft rumble, his hand eventually settling on the nape of my neck.

"Deathless Gods are not stagnant." He tipped his head and openly winced when the far, far end of the fire wall started to die out. Staff in black shorts and polos raced to feed it. "I am not bound to Cedar Cove… It's simply where my heart brought me."

He glanced down with a grin, then unstuck my lower lip from between my teeth with his thumb.

"I now realize," he murmured, "that my heart, my real heart, knew my fated mate would be here… one day."

All the butterflies took flight. My heart thumped, painfully full, utterly whole, wonderfully complete. Misty-eyed, I pushed up for a kiss, gripping his shirt for leverage and balance. It was a sweet, chaste touch of my lips to his, a stolen intimacy that made me feel like we were the only ones in the world surrounded by all these people. Vidar's hand went from my neck to the back of my head, cradling it, drawing me closer with a gruff insistence that I?—

"Lianna?"

I jolted back at that awful voice—and spotted Dewey Synn standing some ten feet away, gawking, wildly gesturing what the fuck? with his hands. Shirtless, shoeless, sporting a pair of navy-blue board shorts, his platinum hair slick from a recent dip in the Pacific, he looked every bit the ripped, sculpted alpha he portrayed on his socials.

Before, Dewey and his citrusy scent triggered dread deep in my gut.

Now, all I felt was relief.

Relief that I wasn't his.

He wasn't mine. Pack Synn had no fucking leverage over me now. The spinster omega of Cedar Cove had a brilliant scent match all along.

Vidar's hand dropped down to the small of my back, but there was no aggressive posturing on his part. He just stared at Dewey with a bland expression, like he'd spotted a bit of trash on the beach.

Dewey, meanwhile, popped his designer sunglasses on his head as he strode toward us, gnashing his teeth, visibly annoyed, openly incredulous. Tense posture. Sharp scowl.

And it was all for me. After a darting glance at Vidar, he zeroed in on the omega who had left him high and dry last night.

The omega he had tried to rape with his bonds.

"What happened?—"

"That's close enough, boy." Vidar raised his hand, and once again that invisible force field kept the masses at bay. Dewey stumbled like he'd been shoved back, hit square in the chest. Unable to help myself, I grinned up at my alpha, because… hot.

"Our courtship is over," I said, briefly meeting Vidar's hunter greens before pinning Dewey with the glare this fucking prick had deserved for months. "Effective the moment you shoved me to my knees."

The heir to the Synn empire blanched, then opened his mouth for what I assumed would be a barking rebuttal, something to cut me off at the knees, publicly put me in my place—but one snarl from Vidar had it snapping shut.

"Thank you, Dewey." I noted the bob of his throat as he swallowed whatever venom Vidar stopped him from spewing.

"For what?" was his stiff response. I mirrored my mate's hollow smile, because this gnat didn't deserve anything from me. Not my emotions. Not my feelings. Barely even my words.

"You brought me to my scent match." I beamed at Vidar, because he deserved everything I had to give. "My fated mate. I couldn't have found him without you."

"Hold on?—"

"No. Enough." Vidar finally stepped between us, but he offered me one hand to clutch behind his back. I took it with both of mine, threading our fingers together, and watched the show unfold from around his arm. My mate wore an icy grin, his pheromones suddenly pumping, drowning me, him, and Dewey in a scent tsunami. "Tell your fathers that my relationship with Pack Synn has run its course." If it was possible, Dewey went even paler. "You have made the summer solstice your own. In a way, you… have not broken your word, as per the contract I signed with your ancestors, but this, our day in the sun, has grown into something more." Vidar tipped his head. "You don't need me anymore. Consider our contract void. You are free to do as you wish this day and all the days to come."

Dewey motioned toward the struggling fire wall. "But your flames?—"

"Hardly what brings in the crowds, eh? It's not like you're educating them anymore on fire's purpose during the summer solstice." He then gave a thoughtful rumble, one that vibrated down his arm and up both of mine, settling heavily in my chest. "And I accept that. I will gift my fire to those more deserving of it. Those who would never force an omega in heat to her knees—ignore her cries to stop." His tone hardened. "Goodbye, little Synn alpha—and good luck."

Turning his back to Dewey, Vidar raised our jumble of hands and kissed the tops of mine, once, twice, then gently guided me away. In that moment, love stirred in my heart. Not only that, but respect—admiration. A true alpha was calm, composed, and controlled. Ruts aside, I had always thought the best of his designation were those who rarely broke a sweat, who never blinked, and who faced every challenger with a cool confidence.

That, in my opinion, was true power.

An alpha who used his words instead of his fists?

Mine.

"I-I— Wait!" The hairs on the back of my neck shot up as Dewey's bare feet slapped the sand, hurrying after us. "Let me get everyone over here. We can discuss?—"

Vidar stopped so abruptly I jerked backward. His blasé smile turned acidic, and suddenly he looked bigger, taller, felt so much stronger. He cast a monstrous shadow in every direction, in open defiance of the sun.

"Your connection…" He sneered, voice deeper, words lethal. "With Lianna of Pack…"

The fa?ade faltered for a moment when he frowned curiously at me, and I squeezed his hand in both of mine again.

"Luna."

Affection colored his grin, and his eyebrow twitched ever so slightly—like he enjoyed my family name. He was the sun. I was his moon. Fate.

"Lianna of Pack Luna," he drawled. Then, the warmth frosted over, and he scowled over his shoulder at a gawking Dewey. "Your connection to her is severed."

"This is insane, man. We just?—"

I let go of his hand just as Vidar rounded in place, and he was in Dewey's face so fast it made my head spin. The Synn alpha staggered back like he'd been slapped, though my mate had yet to touch a platinum hair on his head.

"If you contact her father or make trouble for her hospitalized brother…" Hands clasped behind his back, Vidar had to hunch to meet Dewey's anxious eyeline. "If you reach out to her via any form of communication, be it digital or otherwise, I will eat you."

I swallowed my snort, because that was a serious threat, his tone making me sweat and I was just on the periphery, but, ugh,Dewey's face?—

So fucking satisfying. The same fear I felt when he and his bonds threw me to the gravel, joked about knotting me, giving me what I deserved—it oozed from his pores now. Darkened his eyes. Made his knees weak.

"I will devour you," Vidar continued softly. His words were quiet but his scent was loud, heavy and fierce. It drew eyes from passersby—sent some scurrying away, while also giving a few alphas pause. A group of four surfers with boards and wetsuits, with hulking frames and beachy waves, hesitated. Their pupils dilated. Their nostrils flared. They sensed danger, aggression. Dewey was blood in the water—and my mate was the shark. I lifted my chin high, proud, secure as an omega in a crowd of mixed designations for the first time in my life, then tiptoed back to grab my forgotten sandals like this was business as usual.

Like my dragon wasn't threatening to consume a media darling, crown prince to a tech empire.

"I will feast on you, on your bonds, on your fathers," Vidar hissed as I shook my sandy sandals clean, dusting Dewey's quivering calves in the process. "One. Limb. At a time. I am no longer burdened."

My heart skipped a beat, and I stood by his side, rising to my full height—hair streaks, hip tatts, foul mouth and all, bold as brass, proud of everything that had made this asshole turn his nose up and judge me.

Vidar's hand found mine, our fingers weaving together loosely. "My heart is free, and it belongs to Lianna. I will go to war for her, do you understand?" He angled his body closer, puncturing Dewey's personal space—shattering it forever. "I am a Deathless God, boy, and you will heed my word or suffer the consequences. This is your one and only warning."

His aura thickened. His scent drenched me, Dewey—the beach at large. Something like thunder rippled all around us, yet there wasn't a cloud in the sky. I smirked at Dewey's wide, panicked gaze. He was searching for the dragon somewhere above, but the monster was right here, with me.

The surfers bailed. The crowds thinned. Festivalgoers gravitated toward the main event now, clearing the beach around us as Vidar's green gaze bore deep into Dewey, like he could cut through the bullshit straight to his soul.

And my mate didn't seem very impressed with what he found.

When I spotted a small army of security headed our way, I sniffed dismissively and tugged on Vidar's hand.

"Bye, Dewey."

His gaze snapped to me, and fear gave way to raw fury. His lips parted. He took a sharp breath?—

"What did I say?" Vidar flashed a feral smile, like he relished the thought of eating this idiot one piece at a time. "Any form of communication…"

Dewey shut his stupid mouth, then backed away, his head bowed and… submissive.

I let the snort out this time, hoping it stuck with him.

Hand in hand, we turned and strolled along the beach, our pace slow and leisurely. My mate's alpha energy softened, allowing us to pass groups and families without drawing too much attention. We breezed by this solstice's fire wall, which seemed to wilt in the presence of true fire, staff feeding it, stoking it, a few armed with accelerant.

Toward the tail end of it, Vidar passed his bare hand through the snapping orange flames, shaking his head and sighing. Again, just—so unimpressed.

Not that I could blame him. I saw dragonfire in the pit last night, saw its rage, its fury. His fire walls weren't a feat of Synn brilliance—but a gift from of the gods.

A gift that would go to people who wanted it for the right reasons.

Eventually, we reached the final stretch of festival grounds blocked off by signs and fences. Vidar asked—not barked—for an attendant to open the locked chain-link gate and let us through. As we crossed into a dirt lot, rocky hills snagged with thorny green rising to the right and sand sinking down to the shoreline to our left, Vidar was all smiles as he thanked the gray-haired beta by name.

"You're welcome, Vidar. See you next year?"

"No. I'm afraid not."

Behind us, Dewey, Thad, and Chad followed at a brisk power walk, all three on their phones. Farther back, more alphas joined the hunt, older, gruffer, and, unlike their heirs, not shirtless but covered in white linen instead. I recognized a few faces from my Pack Synn deep dives, but I carried on like they didn't matter.

Because they didn't.

None of them mattered anymore.

"Keep hold of me, little Luna," Vidar murmured, his reminder followed by the icy sensation of invisibility sluicing down my body. I gasped and nestled closer to him, a secret thrill warming in my chest when those Synn jerks pointed and shouted and whirled around, searching for us, for the supernatural meal ticket they had lost once and for all.

I, meanwhile, did as I was told like a good omega. I held on to my mate, my alpha, my dragon—even when he changed from man to monster. Hidden from the world, I reveled in the transition, smitten with the way the late afternoon sunlight glinted off his golden scales. Beautiful, enormous, monstruous, a dragon in all his glory, Vidar was truly the epitome of the midsummer sun. He sparkled in its rays, his scales warm to the touch, his spikes glowinglike fireflies and sturdy as ever while I used them to climb up his side.

After cresting his shoulder, I paused.

"Vidar?"

His massive head swung around, his gaze an inferno with slitted pupils and pools of molten gold. I wasn't exactly sure where his ears were in that mess of spikes around the top of his head, so I just braced one hand on his thick, steely neck, then cupped my mouth with the other, leaning up to whisper my truth, knowing he would always hear me.

"My heart belongs to you, too."

He faced the open ocean with a roar. It was a battle cry, a declaration of victory, love, and possession. It was a song for me, for my soul. As I climbed the rest of the way up his back, he flared his wings and gave another deep bellow, the waves rippling below us and the sun blazing high above.

And together, we flew for the horizon, hearts beating as one.

An omega and her dragon.

The End