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The door opened soundlessly—seamlessly—and I walked through. It closed behind me, and I was left in darkness. I could see the faint glow of fire somewhere in front of me and I headed toward it.
The heat was intense inside the hidden room, and my dragon did lazy somersaults inside me, loving the feel of the warmth. I knew that this heat was created by Julian. I could sense his presence, his magic, everywhere around me. I also knew that anyone else who tried to find their way down these secret halls would be crushed under the force of his magic and reduced to ash where they stood.
But not me. I was his lifemate, and his fire was mine.
I followed the curve of a staircase deeper into the ground. It smelled of earth and dust, and I could feel the rush of water from somewhere nearby.
It also smelled of gold. My dragon began to move faster and faster, anticipating the treasure that surely awaited her.
I reached a point where I couldn’t go down any deeper. A metal door stood in front of me. It was warded by magic, and I automatically took a step back when I felt it strike out against my power.
But I stopped my retreat. It wasn’t striking out at me. It was trying to grab hold and pull me closer. With my shields down I was aware of Julian as I never had been before.
There was something wrong. I’d known it since we’d first spoken this morning. And I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he needed me.
I breathed in his magic that warded the door. It tingled along my spine and caused my dragon to growl with pleasure. The tie between us was still strong and pulsing, so I pulled his magic into my body and absorbed it.
I touched my hand to the metal door and met no resistance. The metal was like liquid mercury beneath my fingertips, and I slid my hand through easily. I pulled back and stared at my hand. It looked just as it should have. And when I looked back at the door it was already whole again. Amazing.
Are you going to stand out there all day?Julian asked.
I pushed my hand through the metal once again, but this time followed it with the rest of my body. I was blinded for a few short seconds, and then I was on the other side of the door. Julian stood close in front of me and looked rather pleased with himself.
“Very good, Rena. You are becoming more receptive to using your Drakán powers since the mating ritual.”
His voice caressed across my skin like a whisper, and chills raced along my skin. My shields were still open, and my dragon responded to his call. She would always want him. She belonged to him now. As he belonged to her.
I slammed my shields tightly closed and breathed deeply. My dragon might be good at many things, but common sense was not one of them. Now was not the time to get distracted by mating.
I moved away from Julian and turned my back to him, trying to gain focus. I looked around the spacious cavern. It was larger than the great room above us, and to my amazement, it wasn’t filled with black marble. This room was old. Very old. And it held everything Julian valued most in his life.
“Oh, my,” I said.
My dragon was envious of his hoard. She wanted it fiercely, and if she could have gotten away with it, she’d have taken every last thing in the room for her own. Mounds of gold were piled into big, heaping hills. There were diamonds and sapphires and rubies. There were sculptures and paintings from every era of time. Rare books and artifacts lined shelf after shelf as far as the eye could see.
And at the center of his hoard was the big black bed I’d woken up in. Lust slammed into me like a wrecking ball. It consumed me. My breathing changed and my dragon fought to get free. She wanted to make love with Julian in the middle of such wonderful treasure. I wanted it too.
I turned to find him, to seek him out and claim him for my own. He was suddenly there in my sight and I rushed toward him with a speed I’d never possessed, hitting his body hard with my own. I clamped myself around him, but as I raised my mouth to his, I realized the hands that squeezed my waist were pushing me away. Not pulling me closer.
“Rena. Look at me.” His face was shuttered, and he was saying my name over and over again, trying to break though the lust that controlled me.
I didn’t want to be stopped and anger replaced the lust, my fire igniting just beneath my skin. I roared and sulfur and smoke escaped from my mouth and nose.
“Rena, stop!” he commanded.
But he no longer had the control over me he’d had before we were mated. I pushed against him hard, and we both ended up in a heap on the floor. We rolled over and over across the floor, arms and legs tangled. It was obvious his body wanted me, but he was still trying to stop me.
“Rena, you are the Enforcer. You must get yourself under control. Our people need you.”
His words slowly started to penetrate the fog of lust that had consumed me. I was the Enforcer. I had a duty to my people. Not just a duty to my own people, but to Julian’s now as well.
My eyes cleared and I looked up at Julian. His eyes were wild with need, but they also held caution and regret. His breath heaved in and out of his chest. There was blood on his cheek from where I’d clawed him, though the wound had already healed. His hardness still pressed against me, but my body belonged to me now.
“What was that?” I asked. “I don’t know what came over me. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
“Don’t apologize for wanting me. This is what we are supposed to feel for each other. And if our people didn’t need us, I would have matched your desire with my own. Stopping you was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.”
He meant it. His honesty rushed through me and joy filled my soul at his words. He leaned down and kissed me softly—with a gentleness I didn’t know either of us possessed.
