Page 19

I close my eyes with my hand on my belly and picture our place with a little one underfoot and Ezra burning dinner while I supervise. I fall asleep smiling.

Ezra’s scent wakes me. I wrinkle my nose through a yawn and roll onto my back to sniff again. It’s way too thick and strong to be a dream. My wolf is already up and pulling me toward him.

I turn to the cracked window. Ezra is standing in my room in the dark with his hand in my dresser. Of course it’s my panty drawer. He freezes when he catches me watching and shoves whatever he’s holding behind his back, like that’s going to help his case.

I sit up with my mouth gone dry. I’m not even mad about my panties, because I know how dragon shifters are about their mate’s scent. What scares me is him sneaking into House of Zorah territory without proper clearance. That’s going to make winning my father’s approval so much harder. Mother Fate, he’s going to get himself killed.

I try to speak, but he presses a finger to his lips and tips his chin toward the hallway. He’s right. If I make a sound, my parents will hear it and my father will⁠—

My father throws my door open and fills the frame. His scent pours in hot and bitter. He looks from Ezra by my dresser to the window behind him.

“Did you think I couldn’t smell your scent in the trees?” he snarls as he steps into the room. “I knew you were here. I was just waiting for you to be stupid enough to try and sneak in here, and of course you did.” He jabs a hand toward me with his canines bared.

I scramble out of bed with my nightgown swirling at my thighs and hurry over to them. “Dad, no, wait, hold on⁠—”

He cuts me off without turning my way. “This is a conversation between your father and your future mate. Stay out of this.”

Ezra nods at me. I back up and drop my eyes. I learned from watching my parents to let them think they’ve won. My wolf isn’t bowing to anyone, and I’m not done either.

My mother shows up in the doorway behind my father with her robe cinched at the waist. She shoves my brothers back when they try to crowd past her. Amos and Arlo aren’t stupid enough to fight her on it.

“You panty-sniffing, nasty dragon.” My father’s lip curls. “You think you can just climb into my daughter’s bedroom in the middle of the night? You think that’s how you win my approval?”

Ezra doesn’t back down. His blue-green eyes glow as his dragon rises to the surface. “I came to check on her.” Smoke leaks from his ears and burns my nose. “I saw what happened in the clearing tonight. I saw how upset she was.”

“So you decided to trespass on my land and sneak into her bedroom like a creep?” My father smiles, and there’s nothing good in it. “You’ve got balls, boy, I’ll give you that. But balls won’t save you from what’s coming.”

“I am not a boy,” Ezra growls.

My father plants a foot in his chest and sends him flying backward through the window he came in by. Glass explodes across my bedroom floor. I scream and lunge for the sill with shards crunching under my bare feet.

Ezra is partially shifted by the time I get there. He lowers himself to the grass on his dark wings. Smoke trails from his nostrils as he stares up at me.

My father pushes past me and jumps out after him. He comes down in a crouch and straightens to face Ezra.

Behind me, my mother throws out an arm to block my brothers. “Stay here. Your father can handle this.”

I lean back out over the sill on wobbly knees, gripping the frame. My uncles Gabriel, Kane, and Micah are already spilling out of their cabins. Jacob comes around the corner to join them. They circle Ezra and my father while my wolf howls to get down there.

7

EZRA

Aya is asleep in her bed. I’m standing in her room like a fucking creep, but I don’t care. My dragon pushed me here against my better judgment. Now that I’m inside breathing her in, I can’t make myself leave. Her heartbeat is even. I could listen to it all night.

The window was easy enough to open. I sat out in the oak tree for hours until every light in the cabins went dark and the house fell quiet. Is it stupid? Hell yes, it is. I still don’t give a damn.

Her dresser drawer is open a crack. I know I shouldn’t, but my dragon is greedy for her and so am I. I ease it wider and take out a pair of silk panties. I bring them to my nose and breathe in wild berries. He rumbles as my dick stirs and thickens with her scent in my head. I’m hard and aching in no time. I don’t bother fighting. I’m being nasty and I know it, but I love how she smells and how my body answers her. I’ll take these back to my cabin and keep them close when she’s not with me. Hoarding our mate’s scent is a dragon thing. I’m not ashamed of it.

When Aya wrinkles her nose in her sleep, I freeze with the panties in my hand. She blinks awake all groggy and turns over to find me at her open drawer. Her eyes go wide.

It’s too late by the time I whip them behind my back. She knows exactly what I was doing. My dick hasn’t gotten the message, either.

She sits up with her nightgown slipping off her shoulder. My dragon purrs at all that bare brown skin. I have to force myself not to cross the room and pin her to the bed.

She opens her mouth. I put a finger to my lips and point at the hallway. Her parents sleep down there, and if she speaks⁠—

Levi throws the door into the wall and bursts in. He catches me in his daughter’s bedroom with her window up, her drawer hanging out. His eyes glow with his wolf.