Chapter Thirty-Five

Garen waited until his lovers were sound asleep before moving, pausing only briefly to gaze down at them both, heart pounding with love and elation at the sight. Skye’s arm was wrapped tightly around Melody’s body, his knees tucked up behind hers and his lips still pressed against her bare shoulder as he slumbered.

He eased himself out of bed, gently tugging the covers back up over them both before retreating silently out the door and closing it behind him.

Any sane dragon would leave now. Leave them to each other. They could be happy enough together, after all. Neither of them would end up on trial. But he’d seen the truth of the situation in the last few hours. It was his curse, and his gift, seeing the truth. Nothing special as powers were concerned—anyone with a discerning eye could accomplish what he did innately. Very few people ever really told blatant, damaging lies.

The funny thing was, nobody was lying in this situation. All he’d seen in their interactions the entire afternoon was truth. It was as liberating as it was damning.

But all he could do was move on. The fact that they were damned wouldn’t change what they’d done. And there was no going back now.

There was one thing he hoped might redeem them.

He found the tiny box on the back deck, still safe in the pocket of his jeans.

Skye’s mother had considered her powers valuable enough to bind them inside the little object, and to torture her son with a task that wouldn’t have challenged anyone but him. There had to be great power inside the box, yet Skye had given it up to prove a point. The fool.

Garen still remembered the power he’d seen that swirled inside it the moment it had opened for him. It had been weeks ago, and he’d thought nothing of it at the time, more worried that Skye would be upset at his tampering. The tiny ball of energy had blazed white-hot—so bright he’d nearly turned away, but he was too fascinated, trying to discern the shapes that flickered inside the tiny cloud of energy. He didn’t try to open it again now. He just hoped that by showing it to Skye, his friend would have an opportunity to try again—so there would be no question that he’d given it up for him and Melody.

Or that it might actually open for Skye finally.

He slid his legs back into the jeans, tugged them up and fastened them, then tucked the little box back into the pocket.

Raking his fingers through his hair, he padded back into the house, aiming toward the fridge. They’d be hungry when they woke, and he loved this particular part of being a Guardian. Ensuring his wards were well fed was one of his favorite things.

Melody was a voracious woman, in all respects. The very thought of how much she savored everything she enjoyed made him distractingly hard. Feeding her had been every bit as erotic to him as touching her. More so, for him, because that was one hunger he was allowed to sate.

He grew distracted with the memory of her pretty lips glistening with the oil of a sandwich he’d made for her. When he came back to himself he cursed and laughed. She was his now. Both of them were, and all the wonderful burdens that entailed.

He lifted a hand to his shoulder and rubbed at the still tender mark Skye’s tongue had left behind. He’d given it back, too. They’d done this thing. The thing they knew was right but that the rest of their world might hate them for.

He had to remind himself that two dragons mating wasn’t taboo any longer, but there was still a strong backlash against two male dragons choosing each other as mates. Where would the next generation come from?

In the past, he could have been happy with just Skye as a partner, but this afternoon had proved that Melody’s presence was key.

She’d made time stop.

Even now, he realized he’d been cooking mindlessly for ten minutes and every thought had been about her.

Or her with Skye.

Or better yet, her with him.

Or even better still, her with them both, and his cock tucked tightly into her depths with Skye right alongside him.

“Fuck!” The sharp heat of the skillet he was cooking in sank into his skin and he drew it back, sticking his finger in his mouth. The pain subsided quickly once his saliva hit it, but the jolt had woken him up. There was no sense in what they’d been doing for the past month. This ridiculous game of theirs, forcing Melody back and forth like some crazy game of erotic ping pong. She belonged with them both. They’d made the decision in the heat of passion just a few hours earlier, and he’d seen the hint of hesitance in Skye’s gaze at the time, along with his friend’s words filtering into his mind. ~“We can null it later. Give her what she wants now—both of us.”~

Fuck that. Nulling the mark might still be on Skye’s mind, but Garen had different plans. Food first. Breaking his race’s laws needed a full stomach.

He left the sauce simmering on the stove and worked on setting the table. A tray might have been more romantic under the circumstances, but knowing the pair of them, they would come the second they smelled the food. Flowers went into a vase in the center, then he lit candles.

As an afterthought, he fished into his pocket and set Skye’s box at the head place setting, right in the center of the plate. No way he’d miss it there. The cool surface of the box zinged under his touch, and he had to resist the urge to look inside it again but had the sense that it was Skye’s turn for a change. The tiny buzz of energy that had seeped through his fingertips from that one tiny touch lingered while he kept cooking, however, left him impatient for Skye to finally have his moment of discovery.

“I was going to leave, you know.”

Garen’s hand hit the skillet for the second time and he winced. Melody’s presence had caught him entirely off guard.

He turned to look at her where she slouched in a sheer tank top and baggy pajama bottoms against the corner of the kitchen island. Her gold hair was tousled and tangled around her shoulders, her cheeks still flushed, and she smelled so good he considered ignoring her words and making love to her instead. But something in her eyes held him back—some yearning for honesty. For truth—maybe a truth he’d been unaware of.

“Leave? What for?” He turned the heat down under the sauce he was cooking and filled a pot with water to boil.

“To avoid the ridiculous decision you guys wanted me to make. I guess I’d rather not think of either of you two being miserable. I want to imagine you both happy if I can’t be with you.”

The import of her words hit him and he dropped the spatula and turned to face her.

“Melody … what happened today …”

“I know,” she said, cutting him off. “Everything is different now. But I wanted you to know where I was before today. I couldn’t even fucking ~fathom~ a world in which the two of you weren’t together. I was so in love with you both, nothing mattered beyond knowing you were happy. God, is it crazy of me to want ~that~ more than I wanted to be with you?”

The pure understanding of what she’d planned hurt him physically. His heart ached. He stared down at the cooking sauce, the deep red of its substance a stark contrast to the color of his soul.

“Have we done a bad thing?” she asked. “The two of you seem like your world has ended. I just left Skye up there brooding and saying he wanted a few minutes alone to think.”

“Yes,” he said. There was really no mistaking what they’d done. No doubt Skye was trying to figure out what their next step should be if they went through with leaving her marked by them both.

“Do you regret it?” she asked, and the tentative tone nearly ripped his heart out. She was afraid that they’d reject her for some reason. He turned to look at her finally and took in her beautiful face and wide blue eyes.

“Never,” he said. “But it does complicate things a bit.”

“After all the effort you two put into pushing me into each other’s arms, I was starting to feel like ~neither ~of you really wanted me. That I might have been right to think you’d be happier together. You were, weren’t you?”

He tilted his head back and took a deep breath. She should know everything if she was truly going to understand what was at stake. When he met her gaze again, wet tears threatened to tumble from her eyes.

“Melody,” he said, going to her immediately and pulling her into his embrace. “No. It’s complicated. Sweet Mother, you were left in the dark for too long for no reason. Alec had good intentions, but there’s no way he could have known where his actions would lead. Skye and I were too wrapped up in our own personal dilemmas to see what we were doing to you. It’s something I will always regret—making you feel this way.”

“It’s okay,” she said, sniffling into his chest. She pulled away and wiped her eyes savagely, then turned and grabbed a paper towel to blow her nose. Staring down at the floor she shook her head. “I messed up what the two of you had. You don’t have to baby me out of guilt. I saw you two together. I’m not like you—I never can be, can I?”

She gave him a look of such deep longing, tears nearly sprang to his own eyes. “We can’t make you one of us, no. You have to be born this way. But what Skye and I said upstairs … don’t mistake any of it for pillow talk.”

“Then why do I keep going back to the fact that you both ~rejected~ me? You both left. What other decision could I make today? I wanted just one more day with you, but all day all I could do was wonder what took you so long and why you both ~still~ kept pushing me away. Jesus, Garen, what the fuck do you guys really want?”

He reached for her, his fingertips grazing the wavering bubble of her aura, but she moved away, twitching her shoulders as though she’d felt his touch against that ethereal barrier of energy and rejected it. “We wanted more than we could have,” he whispered. “If you knew Skye better, you would understand.”

“Well, I don’t, do I?” She turned, more defiant now. “I’m as good as a stranger to you.”

“No! Melody, I meant …”

“I don’t even know you, either, for that matter. So why the fuck is my heart breaking?”

“Jesus, Melody! You ~do~ know us! You know everything you need to know. It’s so deep inside you I can fucking ~see~ it shining through your pores. So you tell me, why do you think your heart is breaking? What’s hurting you so much that you’re crying right now and won’t let me hold you? Be honest, please. With yourself, and with me.”

As he stared down at her, the truth hit him. She was glowing with an unmistakable inner light, her marks the most vibrant of all. Dragon marks only glowed so brightly when their holder was either ready to conceive or had just done so. The second he was about to voice the wonder and astonishment at what he knew had happened, she said the thing that tore him apart.

“I’m afraid to love you because you might leave.”