Page 25 of Mating Her Dragon

He glanced over, surprised at how easily that had landed. "Okay?"

"You had a reason. It wasn't 'because I said so.' I can work with a reason." She folded the map back up. "That's kind of the whole deal, isn't it? You don't get to just decide things for me because you're bigger and older and have historically been very bossy about it. But you do get to have opinions, and tell me why, and then I get to actually think about it instead of just being told."

Garrett was quiet for a moment, eyes on the road. "That is, apparently, a great deal harder to actually do than to agree to in principle."

"Welcome to my whole life before I met you," Sydney said, not unkindly, and put her feet back up on the dashboard.

He didn't say a word about it.

That night, they sat outside the Airstream again, no danger anywhere in sight, just the two of them and a sky full of more stars than Sydney had ever properly learned the names of.

"One thing," Sydney said.

"About the Ceremony?"

"Yeah." She turned to face him fully. "No one chooses the vows for us."

"Agreed," Garrett said, instantly, no hesitation at all.

No traditional script recited word for word because thousands of years of Guardsmen had recited it before them. No Elder standing over their shoulders dictating sacred language neither of them had chosen. They could honor whatever pieces of tradition actually meant something to them– but the words would be theirs.

"If we're doing this because we chose each other," Sydney said, "then I want the words to be ours too."

"Then they will be," Garrett said.

Sydney smiled slowly, looking out at the dark desert, at their ridiculous silver Airstream catching the last of the light from the fire her Mate had built. Then she looked at the man beside her who'd spent centuries waiting for permission nobody had ever thought to give him until now.

"We're really doing this, aren't we?"

"Only if you want to."

"I do."

Then she pointed a finger at him. "That was not the vow."

Garrett's mouth curved, slow and warm.

"Understood," he said.

6

Garrett had fought wars. Given commands that sent entire Forces of his Brethren into battle, knowing some of them would not walk back out. Reported to Dragon Kings, to Ancients, to Beings whose displeasure could unmake a man without raising a hand.

And through it all, words had never once been the problem. Yet, he'd been sitting at the little Airstream table for the better part of an hour, staring at a blank notebook page as if it had personally insulted him.

Sydney…

Nope. It wasn’t right. He crossed it out.

My Mate…

Also crossed that out. It felt too much like Fate's name for her, not his own. Fate had decided that word a long time before either of them had any say in the matter. He wanted something that belonged to him alone.

I choose…

He stopped there, pen hovering. Something in his chest settled for the first time all morning.

I choose you.