Vyktor was relieved beyond belief to have Aria in his realm. Eldor’s portal had taken much longer to get to work than he had hoped, and he’d known how much danger she was in. It had been the most powerless he had ever been, at precisely the moment he most needed to be powerful. If Eldor were not the only one who understood the technology, Vyktor was afraid what he would have done to him. As it was, Eldor had gone into exile a good way off immediately following the successful activation of the portal. A wise choice on his part. Seeing Aria in that horrible little cell, his child fluttering in her belly—Vyktor would have torn Eldor’s heart out if he had been anywhere in the vicinity.
She was safe, but there was no denying that he had failed his mate by allowing himself to be betrayed by Eldor, and he hated it. For six long weeks she had been at the mercy of her humans, and they had been cruel in a way Vyktor could not fathom. They had deprived her of all company. They had denigrated and alienated her. They had made her the scapegoat for the entire invasion, though she had been nothing but a servant willing to give her life in the fight to defend their cities.
During the day, she would smile and when he made love to her, she responded as eagerly as ever. But in the dark of night, when she thought he was asleep, he would hear her begin to whimper and then cry. He let her have her grief one night and then the next, but finally he could not stand it. As much as she wanted her privacy, he could not bear to listen to her pain go on and on like this.
As she sat in the window, tears rolling down her cheeks, Vyktor rose in the darkness and wrapped her in his arms. “I have you, pet. It is okay. You are safe now.”
“I’m sorry,” Aria sniffled. “I don’t know why I’m crying. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“You have lost your world,” he murmured. “It is a real loss, one you should grieve. And you are pregnant. In my short time on Earth, it became apparent that human females become exceptionally emotional at this time. There is nothing wrong with you, and you have nothing to be ashamed of.”
“But… I’m happy here!” She looked up at him with a watery smile and burst into tears all over again. “I don’t know what’s wrong.”
“You were brave for so long, pet,” he said. “You denied your fear and your anger and your sadness, but it’s safe here and maybe some part of you knows that. Maybe what you’re feeling now isn’t what you feel about what is happening now. Maybe it is all those feelings you couldn’t have before.”
“Maybe,” she sniffled. “I guess.”
“Come back to bed,” he said. “If you cry, I want you to cry on me.”
CHAPTER 21
When finally all the tears had been cried, Aria discovered that she was happy. As happy as she had ever imagined she could be and more. Happier even than when they had lived on the little island in the Aegean for those months. Cradled in Vyktor’s arms, she felt as safe and loved as it was possible to feel.
He was probably right. It was probably the hormones. Every day her body was changing, the life within her becoming more evident. As the days passed, slowly her nighttime tearfulness abated and she began to enjoy life in the dragon realm.
It was as stunning as she had seen in the visions Vyktor had shown her. Everything seemed to be constructed on a super scale. The mountains were higher, the beaches were longer, the sea was bluer. The dragons did not construct cities in the human sense. They made their homes in the natural formations of the earth, much like they had in the Rockies. Unlike that simple military base, dragon homes were ornately carved, the doorways marked with sigils and writings that Aria was learning to read. There was art in everything they did. To the dragons, the world was something to be sculpted.
Vyktor’s home and the homes of many of the military forces were located in naturally formed high white marble-like cliffs. The stone of the land was strong and pale and from it they had created a city that jutted out over the water.
Vyktor’s home put every dwelling they had stayed in on Earth to shame. She would have thought that a home tunneled into a cliff face would be dark and oppressive, but the dragons knew how to filter light into even the deepest rooms, and there were balconies and windows of generous proportions all over. His home—their home—occupied a natural corner of the cliff, so the light could flood in from both sides over the carefully polished floors.
Expansive balconies and pathways ran along the cliff’s edge, connecting homes and the commercial parts of the city, which housed all number of craftspeople. They were narrow in places, and the polished stone could be slippery when it rained, but that was not a problem for dragons who rarely used the steps and stairs, and could take their flight form long before they hit the water.
If Aria had dared have but one complaint, it was that she was grounded in the dragon realm. There were no planes, of course. Why would there be planes in a world where everyone could fly? Sometimes she would sit in one of the window balconies and watch the dragons wheeling above. They were only doing relatively mundane tasks, but Aria envied them. Of all the things she missed from Earth, having access to the sky was the one she missed most.
She did not complain about it though; she knew she was fortunate not to be spending her life staring at the wall of a cell. And there were plenty of things to do besides stare into the sky. The water was teeming with life, the ocean so clean she could seeseveral feet down into the water to watch brightly colored red and orange fish playing in shoals.
“Please be careful, pet,” Vyktor said for what felt like the hundredth time, catching Aria by the back of her tunic before she could plunge over the edge as she leaned over one of the lower ledges to watch the fish play. “You’re front heavy.”
“I’m huge,” she laughed, running her hands over her belly. She barely looked like herself anymore. Her face was rounder, her skin was much more tan, and her body was softer all over. She liked feeling this way. She felt full and complete, and she knew she was totally loved and adored.
Vyktor drew her into his arms and kissed her thoroughly. “It will not be long soon, pet,” he murmured. “We will be three.”
“Are you ready for this?” She asked him the question as he smoothed his palm lovingly over her swollen belly.
“Am I ready to meet my son? Absolutely.”
“Our son, and maybe daughter,” she reminded him with a smile. Vyktor was as loving a mate as could be, but in human terms, he would have been regarded as a traditionalist.
“It’s a boy,” he said confidently.
“How could you possibly know that?”
“I can just tell,” Vyktor smirked.
Aria laughed at him. There was no way he could possibly tell, but she did not tell him so again. Instead, she let him have his imaginations. Judging by the cramps that had already start low in her belly, it would not be much longer.
* * *
