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We were in the back of a large military transport vehicle with no windows. Dom was sitting with us for some reason, instead of in the front with the grown-ups where he obviously belonged.

It occurred to me that he was making nice with my friends. And in spite of all the sour history between them, my friends seemed to be returning the sentiment.

A new and interesting development, to be sure.

Dom was sprawling next to me on a bench seat directly across from Caleb and Christian. His arm was slung casually along my seat back, and he was in a rare mellow mood.

Our evening together could probably account for that. He’d worked a lot of aggression out over and through the long hours of the night.

I touched his thigh, drawing his attention to me. I smiled at him tentatively. “This is nice,” I told him quietly.

He smiled back, his devastating eyes melting me a bit.

“Yeah, just a nice ride into the desert to an underground druid dungeon to torture one of your brothers,” Christian couldn’t help but to add. “We should have a picnic while we’re at it.”

Dom just kept smiling at me.

“You should tell him our plan,” Caleb said, ruining the spell. “We need his help.”

“What plan?” Dom asked, smile dying. He knew he wouldn’t like it and he was right, as usual.

I sighed, but Caleb was right. Our deadline was fast approaching, and we needed Dom’s cooperation for all kinds of reasons. “I’m supposed to meet with Tianlong for dinner or something. It would be nice if you could come along.”

“Dinner or something?” he asked, focusing on just the thing I didn’t want him to, of course.

“I made a deal with him for some information before I left… like a meetup sort of thing. I’m going to schedule it with him in a few days and I think it would… go better if you joined us.”

“A meetup sort of thing,” Dom repeated back, reading between the lines just how I didn’t want him to. I wondered what Sloan had told him. Everything, probably, about my last meeting with the scary, seductive dragon.

“A date,” Caleb said flatly. “She owes him a date. Can you get to the point already, Jillian?”

I glared at him.

I could feel Dom staring at me and I met his eyes. “Not a real date, of course. And there’s no rule I can’t bring you along. But, anyway,” I tried my best to breeze past that part in spite of the look of death in his eyes, “Drake’s due in town in a few days, and we were going to try to arrange the meeting then, so when we have Tianlong’s attention, Caleb and Christian can grab Drake and see what he knows about Lynn. It’s a chance we can’t afford to ignore. Will you help?”

“If you’re asking me if I’d rather you go on a date with a dragon king who wants to mate with you with or without me I think the answer is obvious.”

We just stared at each other. He broke first. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

His gaze shot to Caleb. “Be careful capturing Drake. Don’t cross the wrong line. The druids aren’t at war with those dragons. You break that peace treaty, you’re on your own.”

Caleb didn’t strike me as worried about it. “We usually are.”

We reached the compound and took an elevator down, down, down. It was a hell of a dungeon, a cavernous space that would fit a full-grown dragon, which made sense, though at the moment it held what at first glance looked like a normal man. He was tall, blond, and slender. He had beautiful, clean, even features and perfect skin. Ocean eyes smiled at me.

It was as I’d suspected. They had the good brother.

“Sven,” I called my favorite brother by his nickname as I drew close to the bars of his cage.

“Svenga,” he replied with a smile I remembered well. It had been a rare and shining light during my dark childhood.

We kept staring at each other, taking it in. We could have been twins. There was a bond here that the years apart had not diminished. It hurt to think how we could break it today.

“Sveinhild,” he said, this time softer, more heartfelt.

“Bropir,” I said. My accent was all wrong, it had been too long, and it made his smile grow bigger, warmer.

“Lillasyster,” he responded.