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  “What?”

  “You said the baby had glowing green eyes.”

  “So?”

  “So you’re a new-ish shifter and maybe don’t know how the genetics work on this stuff. A child would have either your eyes or mine, and neither of us have green eyes.” He looked utterly disturbed.

  “Okay, well what do you think that means?”

  Vyr was looking at her in the strangest way, his silver eyes roiling with some emotion she couldn’t understand. She reached for his mind, but he’d shut her out.

  “Vyr, what?”

  “I won’t be the child’s father.”

  Riyah’s heart pounded against her breast bone. “What?”

  “If you become a mother, it won’t be with me. Either something happens to me or…”

  “Or what?”

  Vyr sighed a frozen breath. “Or you do what you should’ve done a long time ago.”

  Baffled, she shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

  “You leave me and find someone who can give you a better life.”

  Riyah stood on her tippy-toes and kissed him hard. It was the kind of kiss that was a little like a middle finger. It was teeth hitting his and a bite it the middle that she hoped hurt him. She wrapped her fingers around his throat and squeezed, letting her power pulse gently from her palm. After she pulled her lips from his, she whispered, “Don’t you ever talk like that again. I don’t care what the vision was. I won’t leave you. Not ever.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I’m the Red Dragon’s treasure.” She shoved him in the shoulder hard and then slipped her hand into his. “And you’re mine, too.”

  Chapter Three

  The green-eyed child haunted him. Vyr lay beside Riyah, studying the curve of her cheek as she slept. Six months ago, he’d done this every morning, except it was the swell of her belly he’d been memorizing. He’d had such dreams for his sons. His dragon… Fuck. Vyr flinched at the pounding headache that was forming behind his eyes. He would have to Change soon. He’d been desperate to control the Changes because the dragon grew more powerful with each shift. He couldn’t keep him from burning anymore. He knew he couldn’t. He could see the Red Dragon’s plans so clearly in his head.

  Four mountain ranges in six months. Vyr had tried to compromise. Each territory he claimed, he found the broken ones, the shifters with nowhere to go but slamming against that rock bottom Nox had spoken of. And then he gave the mountains he claimed to them. He’d found the damned, the damaged, and he’d given them homes. Because that was the legacy he hoped some would remember when he lost control of the dragon completely. He hoped they remembered the man who tried to save as many as possible.

  The dragon wanted offspring, and the man wanted to see Riyah happy, cooing to a child he had given her, crying happy tears like she had done sometimes before everything went wrong. After that awful day…

  Well, she only cried sad tears now.

  Beautiful mate. Her freckles were dark against her pale skin, and her brunette hair was all curled up, fanning across her pillow. That pillow would smell like her shampoo when she got up. He always sniffed it after she stumbled into the bathroom to take a shower in the mornings. He missed the smell of her pillow when he was out re-burning his territories or hunting new ones.

  But for now, he was here, and she was sleeping soundly, her hand resting on his hip like she’d put it there in the middle of the night just to make sure he stayed with her. She still felt safe around him, he could tell. God, had any living creature during the planet’s entire existence ever loved another as much as he loved Riyah? He couldn’t imagine it. She really was the treasure of the Red Dragon, but so so much more. Before Riyah, his chest had been empty, but from the day he’d met her, she’d started building a heart in there. And then she’d crawled inside and made a home and made sure his heart kept working.

  She was his treasure, but she was also the heart of the dragon.

  His attention flickered out the window. There wasn’t movement that had drawn his gaze there; it was just the sky. Come fly. Touch the clouds. Burn everything, it encouraged him. Fill me with smoke.

  The dragon roiled inside of him, searing through his veins like acid. Vyr didn’t even wince. His whole life was pain. At some point, he’d just gotten used to it.

  There was one strand of hair on Riyah’s cheek, and soft as a feather, he pushed it back with the tip of his finger. As his touch slid across her skin, the corner of her mouth curved into a slow smile, but faded when he lifted his finger away.

  So beautiful. He cupped her cheek, sure to make his touch as soft as a breeze. The tiny smile returned.

  His heart.

  Burn everything.

  Vyr closed his eyes against the dawn light and just disappeared into how soft her skin was. The distance between them had lifted, but that was all Riyah’s doing. She made him feel…forgiven.

  “You are forgiven,” she whispered.

  When he opened his eyes, her bright blue polar bear eyes were locked on his. The smile still lingered.

  “You are forgiven for everything you have done, and everything you will do.”

  “How can you?”

  “Because I love you.”

  The heart she’d built felt like it was shattering. His body broke apart a lot lately.

  “You’re worried about the child,” she said. “You’ve been thinking so loud.”

  He reached for her with his mind, but it felt like nothing was there…like Riyah was a ghost. Was she a ghost?

  “I’m still here.”

  He dragged her closer and hugged her tight against his chest. Soft curves and skin on skin. He loved that she slept naked with him. “I don’t want you to choose someone else,” he murmured against her hair right before he kissed it.

  “Vyr, I wish you could see yourself from my eyes. You don’t have to worry about me leaving. Not ever.”

  She slid her knee over his hip, pressed against his erection. He was always hard for her in the mornings, always riled up, always turned on. She was so soft. Vyr slid his hand to her ass and squeezed it hard, drawing her right against him as he rolled his hips.

  She let off this sound that drove him crazy. Rolling his hips harder, he kissed her. Riyah’s hands eased down his chest, drawing heat where her body met his. God, she consumed him. Desperate, Vyr cupped between her legs and pushed a finger into her, making sure she was ready to take him. So wet already. Good mate. He rolled her over, spread her knees apart, and slid into her, his entire body flexing with the motion. Deeper and deeper, he pushed until he was buried all the way inside of her tight pussy. Vyr held her hands above her head and thrust into her again and again, shallow because he knew the buttons to push on his mate. She liked it hard and quick.

  His whispered name on her lips made him even harder, and his control began to slip. “Come for me, Riyah,” he rumbled against her ear, gripping her wrists tighter as he moved inside of her. Deep. Deep. Quick. Fuck, he was almost there, stroking into the tight, wet space she’d given to him. He was bucking into her now like some rutting animal. “Riyah, I can’t stop. You feel so fucking good I can’t stop. Aaaaaaaah,” he groaned as the pressure in his dick released, spewing his seed into her in throbbing bursts.

  Riyah cried out and arched against the mattress, fists clenched, eyes rolled back into her head, hair wild, body…his. Her tight little pussy gripped his pulsing cock so hard as they came together. He took care of her, drew out every last clench of ecstasy from her body, moving inside her until she was completely sated. He released her hands and cupped the back of her neck, kissed her gently, so she knew how much he loved her. She liked when he was sweet after he made her come. And then against her lips, he uttered the words he knew would ruin it all. “I have to leave again soon.”

  Her body tensed, so he waited until she relaxed again before he continued. “I need to re-burn Grim’s Mountains. Or claim new territory. Or…something.”

  Riyah rolled him to the
side and hugged him up tight, leaving him buried inside of her. “Wow,” she murmured after a few seconds.

  “Hmm?”

  “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard you call them Grim’s Mountains.”

  Vyr frowned at the window, frowned at the gray sky outside. Huh.

  “What is it about Grim?” she murmured. “Of all the Crew’s you’ve helped, of all the Alpha’s, you can’t seem to stay away from him. You watch him, don’t you?”

  The dragon rumbled. She was getting too close. Getting too warm. Smart and clever mate.

  He stroked her back, up and down her spine.

  “Silence is sometimes an answer, but not with me. I’ll keep asking. I’m ready to keep asking now.”

  Riyah was changing. She was getting stronger. She was pushing more. Beautiful mate. She would need to be strong if anything ever happened to him. If the green-eyed child came to be.

  “He’s the only shifter I’ve met who is kind of like me.”

  “Hey, I’m like you,” she groused, pinching his side.

  He chuckled and dragged her prodding fingers to his lips, then rested them against his chest between them. “Your polar bear is manageable. She’s logical. She’s a murder machine, sure, but you control her. You’ve had control since you were Turned. Grim…he has two lions, and one is like your polar bear, manageable, and one is like the Red Dragon. Unmanageable.” Burn everything. “Sometimes,” he whispered, “I want to kill Grim. He stopped me from claiming the Tarian Pride Mountains. He brought the Daughters of Beasts, and he stopped me. I want to devour his ashes when I’m the dragon, but when I’m me…when I’m the man…I wish we lived in a different world where we could be friends. Where I could ask him how he does it.”

  “How he does what?” she asked, tracing a heart shape over his left pec.

  “How he keeps going. How he keeps trying. We’re both absolute shit at being Alphas. Both have been thrust onto thrones we don’t deserve by Crews just trying to keep us steady. But I see him trying. I see improvement. And what have I done? I’ve broken the Sons of Beasts.”

  “No,” she murmured. “You suffered something hard, and your dragon tries to protect you by focusing on anything else. He’s not a monster, Vyr. He never was. He’s just trying to help in his own way.”

  Vyr huffed a humorless laugh as the dragon whispered burn everything again in his mind. “Some help he is.”

  “But you haven’t burned everything,” she said lightly, lifting his arm in a flexing position. “Strong mate.”

  Vyr leaned in and kissed her. It was a tender one, just like she deserved for being so understanding, one where he sucked on her bottom lip until she let him inside to taste her. She lifted the veil for just a second, and it was enough. She let him have a happy memory, the one where she’d invited all of Damon’s Mountains to the orchard he’d planted for her. The one where she’d brought everyone from his past to show them how much he was cared for. Him. An outsider all his life, but his mate had made sure he knew everything was different than he thought. That it was better. Her joy sizzled and snapped through his brain for that second, and he smiled against her lips. There was a tiny aftertaste of pain in the instant she shut down the veil of her mind again, but for that one second, he’d felt okay. God, he’d missed this. Missed her.

  He eased away and rumbled, “I want you to come with me.”

  “To do what?”

  “To burn the land.”

  Sadness washed over her face before she forced a smile. “The last time you asked us to come with you to burn territory, you put our Crew at war with the Tarian Pride and Grim’s Crew. You surprised us with that one.”

  “Is that why you’re protecting their minds?” he asked.

  Riyah lifted her chin higher and looked him dead in the eyes when she said, “Yes. No more surprise wars. No more Alpha orders until…”

  “Finish it.”

  “Until you can be trusted again.”

  A knife. Those words were a knife blade, but he deserved the cut. “I won’t declare war on Grim’s Crew.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because I saw him. I talked to him right before Christmas. I sat in the back of this little bar and watched him and his Crew make wishes on ten-ten. And do you know what he wished for?”

  “What?”

  “To be a better Alpha.”

  Riyah brushed her fingertips down his beard. “Maybe he really is like you.”

  “He will run my mountains in Oregon until he draws his final breath, and I won’t be the one to take that final breath from him. I want at least one of us to be a success story.”

  “You both will be.”

  “Riyah—”

  “You will be.” She’d said it with such conviction echoing through her words that his dragon stilled inside of him.

  Burn everything but her.

  “I’m ready,” she murmured softly.

  “Ready for what?”

  “To leave them. To leave the orchard.” A wicked little smile took her full lips. “Let’s go light some shit on fire.” She snapped her fingers and held our palm out, creating a tiny blue flame that flickered just above her skin. But then she closed her fist over the little fire and snuffed it out. Her face turned serious. “In a controlled environment. Where we won’t get in trouble or arrested. Where I can give the local law enforcement and fire departments a heads up. And maybe Kane and your father and the other dragons just in case you go nutso. And you can’t claim new territory. Just an old one.”

  Vyr chuckled. She really did have faith in his control over the dragon. “So many rules, Witch.”

  “Yeah, well, you’ve been on a burning spree. Someone needs to be the responsible one. I don’t want to have to break you out of shifter prison again.”

  Chapter Four

  It was the ass-crack of dawn, and Riyah was standing in the doorway of the Crew mansion, arms crossed, frowning at Nox, who was out in the front yard scooping the two tons of coal he’d dumped there on Christmas Eve for Vyr’s present. He was sitting in the excavator, working the giant metal arm while he held Mr. Diddles, the pet swan, and singing “I got ninety-nine problems and a bitch ain’t one,” at the top of his lungs. It was the dead of winter and snowing, but he wasn’t wearing a shirt. And he wasn’t even moving the coal off the lawn. He was just moving it from one pile to a pile closer to the house.

  Riyah sighed. He really was a nuisance.

  “Nox!” she yelled over the sound of the rumbling engine. He must’ve heard her because he looked over at her and started singing louder.

  An arrow sailed through the air and banked off the top of the machine with a piiiiing sound. Nox ducked, cut the engine, and shouted, “Hey, asshole, you could’ve hit Mr. Diddles!”

  Torren, silverback shifter and guardian of the Red Dragon yelled, “The first lady wants to talk to you. Shut it down!”

  Riyah pushed off the doorway she leaned on and walked far enough into the yard to look up to see Torren and Vyr sitting on top of the roof together. Torren was all mussed black hair, huge muscles, and tattoos and, goodness gracious, where was his damn shirt, too? He was holding his favorite crossbow with an arrow already loaded and aimed in Nox’s general direction. Awesome.

  “Aren’t you boys cold?” she asked, gesturing to Vyr’s puckered nipples and gooseflesh. “Where are your clothes?”

  “Nox bet we couldn’t last an hour shirtless without bitching about the cold,” Torren muttered. “He said first one who gives in is a pussy.”

  Vyr looked down at her and muttered in a bored voice, “I think pussies are awesome.”

  Oh. Fantastic.

  “Okay,” she said optimistically. “Bright side, you and Torren are finally talking. Which you haven’t done since the war with Grim’s Crew. Healing is happening!”

  “We aren’t talking. We’re sitting,” Torren growled. “I was here minding my business, shooting at Nox, when Vyr-the-Asshole came and sat by me. I was here first, so why sho
uld I move?”

  “I own this house, so why should I move?” Vyr asked coolly.

  “Well, you always abandon your house, so why should I move?”

  Riyah was looking back and forth at them with a grin. This was probably good, right?

  “Well, I’m Alpha, so fuck you. You move. This is my favorite sitting place.”

  “Well, you’re a shitty Alpha, so why don’t you go sit there on the ground, beneath me, where you belong.”

  “This is awesome,” Nox called from behind the window of the excavator.

  Mr. Diddles honked. The swan couldn’t fly and winters were harsh here, so Nox had dressed him in a little green and pink striped turtleneck and a bowtie. Ms. Tittles, their female swan, had flown south for the winter with last year’s babies, but she would be back. Swans mated for life.

  “Nox,” Vyr rumbled, “I told you to move the coal.”

  Nox grinned like the Cheshire cat and started up the engine again. He took a scoop of coal off one pile and moved it to the pile ten feet closer to the house. He didn’t take his eyes off Vyr the whole time. “I am.”

  With a deep rumble, Vyr poised himself on the edge of the roof to launch himself at the tractor.

  “No, no, no, no!” Riyah and Torren both yelled.

  A flash of movement caught Riyah’s attention. It was perfect timing because little Dane Maximus Taylor was in gorilla form charging straight this way. A little mini-Torren, the toddler silverback shifter had Changed early and was now a little hellion in these mountains. Nevada and Candace came sprinting around the corner of the mansion after him. Dane was coming straight for Riyah, but this was the game. She was part of his family group and the one who played rough with him the most, thanks to the polar bear in her middle. Vyr probably didn’t know that, though. He hadn’t been paying attention for months.

  “Vyr!” Riyah yelled, desperate to distract Vyr. “Get Dane!”

  Vyr’s narrowed silver dragon eyes dropped from Nox straight to the little baby gorilla running at Riyah as fast as his four little legs could carry him. His sharp canines had just come in, and he showed her. So cute, but that little Kong could pack a punch with his bite.