32. Maya

32

Maya

The next morning dawned bright and clear. They had breakfast with the whole family. Afterwards, Maya packed an overnight bag.

Corin frowned at it. “You’re not going to need clothes, you know.”

No clothes? That gave her all sorts of ideas. What did it mean, to make things official with a dragon?

She narrowed her eyes at him. “No, I don’t know. I’ve got no idea what to expect.”

He leaned close so his breath brushed her ear. “Would you like to?”

“Really? You … would be okay with that?”

He gave her a stern look. “I hope I know better now than to keep secrets from you. Especially about something as important as our mate bond.”

“The way you talked about it, it seemed like…” She bit her lip.

“Like every other draconic secret I’ve kept from you?” he said dryly. “No. I couldn’t tell you about it because every time I even thought about it—”

Darkness bloomed in his eyes, and shadowy wings unfurled from his shoulders, wrapping around her.

“That happened?” she asked, a smile dancing around her lips.

“Precisely.” He grimaced, but his eyes were warm. “You’re extending a great deal of trust, allowing me to plan today without knowing what is going to happen. I appreciate that. Given my previous behavior it’s more than I ever could have expected. But…” He pulled her down onto the bed where she’d been packing her bag. “Perhaps you’d like to double check my work.”

“But I’m trusting you. Specifically, about this. Putting aside all my neuroses and anxiety and trusting that you’ve got it right. Isn’t that what the mate bond is meant to be about?”

He ran gentle fingers through her hair. “Blind trust?”

“Something like that. Everything working out because it’s magic.”

“If there’s anything I’ve learned over the past few years, it’s the opposite.” He pulled her close. “We could have given in to the mate bond when we first saw each other. And what then? You would have had a mate who was so stuck in his ways, he never would have figured out how to make you happy, and safe.”

“Let alone himself. And you would have had a mate who knew how to be the perfect assistant, but had no idea how to make her own desires heard.”

“I like this version of us better.”

“Me, too.” She traced his jawline with a lazy finger. “So, this ritual…”

“It’s not so different from the human version. A ring is still involved.” He thought of his hoard, arrayed in gleaming, orderly rows in his secret lair. “A great many rings. And other things.”

“Ridiculously expensive things, with hundreds of years of history, wars being waged over, and so on?”

“Some of them.” Green flames shimmered at the edges of his wings.

Nothing caught fire, or disintegrated. The patch she’d sewn up on the comforter didn’t magically unravel.

And she felt safe.

Corin leaned down to kiss her. “I believe I can explain the whole process to you now—”

“No.” Maya pressed a finger to his lips. “I trust you. Surprise me.”

She finished packing her bag. Spent more time with her mom, and was amazed at how easy it was to just talk together, now that they were talking again.

Because of course her mom had been scared, too. Not only of the magic, though how she dealt with shifting into a dragon in her small apartment Maya still couldn’t believe.

She’d been afraid of all the other things she’d kept neatly tidied away from Maya. The family connections that had frayed and broken while she herself was still a small child. How much she’d worried about being able to provide for her only daughter.

So many echoes and reflections of her own anxieties. It’s almost like we’re related, or something , she thought with a smile.

Corin’s mother offered to help track down those broken connections. But that was a task for another day, and one for Maya and Gabriela to take on together. She was so excited to rediscover her lost family, and find out where their dragons came from.

But it was an excitement that would have to wait. Today, Maya was leaving Tomás with his grandmothers.

And setting out to be claimed.

They traveled by helicopter, Corin stern in the pilot’s seat, Maya wide-eyed at the view stretched out below. Hideaway Cove looked like a treasure chest spilled open. She would never forget how everyone there had welcomed her with open arms, as protective as the hills wrapped around the hidden bay. She’d had everything she needed to be happy there.

Almost.

She turned her eyes to Corin. Her protector. Her lover. Her dragon. He had saved her from everything she’d been so afraid of since she realized she was pregnant, as neatly as though he’d had a checklist of his own to work through. Tomás was safe. Whoever his biological father was, maybe they would find him, or maybe they wouldn’t. He had a father now, already. He would grow up surrounded by love, and other shifters, and the sort of huge family that terrified her slightly to think about. But in a good way. And she…

She had her own magic. Maybe it was locked away inside her, something to pass on to her children. Maybe it would unlock itself when she got older, as it had for her mom. But it was hers. She was part of this wild, magical world.

And the desperate longing that had plagued her since she first set eyes on Corin finally made sense. As did everything she’d done to protect herself from it and which had become armor inside and out. Armor against the outside world—and against her own heart, as well, until she couldn’t even see that she’d stopped letting herself want things for herself.

But that was all over, now. She understood the magic between them. She understood her own heart. And she couldn’t even regret it had taken her this long to discover the truth, because it meant she had her little dragon family.

Rugged coastline gave way to dense forest and, finally, sky-piercing mountains. Corin eased the helicopter into a descent over what looked like the broken path of a landslide. It was only when they were mere feet from the ground that she was able to see what the rockfall was hiding—a flat area the perfect size for a single aircraft.

Or a dragon , she thought as Corin helped her from the helicopter.

“No one else in the clan knows about this place,” he told her, leading her through a gap between two massive, cracked boulders. “Our main hoard is a shared secret, but the locations of our individual hoards are completely secret.”

He pressed a hidden switch on what she’d thought was just another stone, and the rock wall slid away.

The corridor beyond was casually opulent. The air was cool and fresh, and wall sconces lit marble tiles and polished walls.

“Your dragon’s lair?” She toed off her shoes and stepped forward onto a lusciously thick carpet.

“Our lair.” His lips brushed the side of her neck as he helped her out of her coat.

She looked around. The corridor went further into the mountain, lights dimming the deeper it went. “Are you going to show me around?”

“I’m going to watch you discover it on your own. My mate, exploring what is hers.” There was a wild light in his eyes that made her breath catch.

He prowled behind her as she padded softly down the corridor. His presence was so distractingly predatory, so deliciously, draconically masculine, that she hardly noticed her surroundings. She thought the lights did get dimmer the further she went, but was that just her imagination? The rush of the wind through the trees outside faded away, replaced by heavy silence, and the soft sounds of Corin’s footsteps behind her. He was stalking her. A dragon, hunting down the one who’d come to see his hoard. What would happen when she reached it?

The corridor turned once, twice. Darkness pressed in. It was as though the whole place had been designed to make intruders think one thing: No escape .

Maya had been chased by a dragon before. This dragon. Her dragon. But this was different. This time, desire gripped her so hard she could hardly breathe.

At last she reached a door. She only knew it was a door because thin threads of light gleamed through the sides of it. She groped for the handle and glanced back to look at Corin, but he was invisible in the shadows.

“There’s something in there, isn’t there?”

“You can feel it?”

She could. The hum of something precious on her skin. Anticipation coiled in her stomach and she pushed the door open.

Gold. Rows and rows of gold, coins and ingots and jewelry, in textures from polished silkiness to hand-beaten. All held safe under glass, and lit by a wall of softly flickering red-gold lights, like a waterfall of molten lava.

And in the middle of it all, a massive bed, piled high with pillows and blankets that had a telltale shimmer in their weave.

Something in it called to her, and something in her called back.

“This is all for you.” Corin kissed the back of her neck. His lips were like a brand, hot and possessive. “All the treasure I’ve fought and tricked and stolen for. My life’s hoard. For you.”

She was speechless. He wound his arms around her.

“Everyone knows dragons seek hoards. We all want to be the most powerful, and what better way to show our power than through precious treasure?” His teeth grazed her neck. “When we’re children, and youths, we fight for the rarest valuables, we covet the glitteriest, shiniest baubles. And then when we’re grown, we realize why. The greatest treasure in the world steps into our lives, and all the wealth we’ve hoarded is nothing in comparison. A pitiful offering to throw at her feet.” He nipped her shoulder and covered the bite with a kiss.

“I’m going to claim you,” he said, dark promise in his words. “And then everything I have, everything I am, will be yours.”

She swayed, hypnotized by his touch, his smooth, beguiling voice. “This is how dragons make it official?”

“Yes.”

She turned in the cage of his arms and put her hands on his chest. His heart beat against her palms and his eyes flamed green as he looked down at her. “Then let’s do it. I want all of you.”

He kissed her with furious need. She held onto him as though he were her only safe harbor in a raging storm, but the only storm was the one between them. Heat rolled through her, violent, agonizing need. It was only when her legs hit the bed that she realized they had moved across the room.

“I’ll be gentle,” Corin promised, chains of self-restraint strangling his words.

“Don’t,” Maya gasped, her breath hot against his lips, his neck, his hard collarbone. “Don’t be gentle. Be mine .”

He tore her dress down over her shoulders. Cool air hit her skin, and she gave up fumbling at his buttons and ripped at his shirt. His muscles gleamed in the rippling light. She fell back, boneless with joy and desire, and he climbed on top of her.

“My mate,” he said, pulling her dress the rest of the way down and staring at her with naked lust. “Will you let me make my offering?”

“Yes,” she gasped. She strained against him, desperate for more touch—and he was gone. “Corin!”

Glass tinkled somewhere deep in the cavern.

Strong arms wrapped around her from behind. “My heart,” Corin whispered, and something cold brushed against her neck. “You are more than rubies.”

A red stone the size of a chicken egg fell between her breasts. It was so brilliant it seemed to shine with its own lustrous, sinful light.

She twisted, searching for his lips to kiss, and he was gone again.

“More than diamonds.” Another burning kiss. His hands, strong and warm against her bare skin. And diamonds, this time, a rope of white fire that wound around her waist, stars plucked from the sky to perch on her fingers.

“More than gold.” A whispering, chiming song of metal on metal. Gold dripped over her in shining rivers, thousands and thousands of fine chains. The contrast between the cold metal and Corin’s burning touch made her moan, but it was the light in his eyes that brought her almost to the edge. He was wild, longing and triumphant. The sight of her covered in treasure brought out the dragon in him.

“I love you,” she breathed, taking his face in her hands. “Never think you can’t be everything you are with me.”

“You’re not scared?” He would chain himself for her again, she knew. Hold every inhuman, draconic part of himself in check to keep her happy.

It wouldn’t make her happy.

“I want all of you,” she told him. “Nothing about you scares me. Only the thought of not having you.”

He surged above her. His hands found her waist, her hips, cradled her head as he kissed her, and she wrapped her legs around him, rising to meet him. He buried himself inside her on the first thrust. Maya cried out. She was so wet, so slippery and ready for him, and she knew what to expect, but the size of him pushed all the air from her lungs as though it was their first time. There was no pain, just an agonizing, beautiful fullness.

He put one hand under her thigh and pulled it up, easing himself deeper into her without pulling out. She was helpless beneath him, lost in ecstasy and weighed down by priceless jewels. Gold shimmered across her breasts as she breathed in and he groaned.

“Be mine?” His eyes were pure fire. The golden chains seemed to tighten around her. Was that really happening? Was this part of his magic? Part of his dragon claiming her?

“Yes,” she breathed, and he rocked into her, hips rolling like the ocean, every movement drawing exquisite sensation from her body. She clamped her leg around his waist, not letting him pull back, and he stayed deep inside her, filling and stretching her until it was too much. Pleasure clamped down on her, a swell that shook the breath from her in a gasping cry. He groaned into her mouth as he came, and the pump of his orgasm inside her tore more pleasure from her until they lay panting and still together, wrapped so closely she couldn’t tell where he ended and she began.

The gold and jewels had warmed with her body. She shone with treasure and sweat, utterly satisfied in her dragon’s lair.

“My heart?” Corin’s voice was reverent. She gazed into his eyes. Dark sea-green, with a single ring of neon fire.

She took his hand and pressed it over her chest. “Yours, now.” A deep sigh broke from him as she put her own hand over his heart. “And yours is mine.”

“The centerpiece of your hoard.” His eyes glittered with pride. “What will you do with me?”

“Hmm.” She rolled on top of him and strung gold over his broad chest. It whispered against his skin. “I have a few ideas about how we could begin. But I should let you know, I intend to keep you for my own. Covet you. Possess you.” His eyes burned brighter with every word. “Forever.”

Far, far later, they lay together, exhausted at last, sleep tugging at the edges of her mind. Corin was still holding her like she was a treasure, but no longer as though he expected her to fly away at any moment. She propped herself up on one elbow, watching his sleeping face.

All those years of wondering, and now she knew for sure. Corin was hers. All her strange and terrifying feelings for him were right, and good, and he felt the same way about her.

This was what happiness was.

And they both had so many years of it ahead.