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“You sure they can spare you on the battlefield?” she asked him. “Baby delivery seems like kind of a weird job for you.”
“Thank you,” he said, giving the reins a tap. “That was my exact argument. And, no, they probably can’t spare me.”
She smiled at his boldness. She used to have that same high-spirited confidence, before the pleasure ships sucked it out of her.
Don’t think about it.
“Hold on tight,” Rafe said.
He gave a whistle and cracked the reins again. This time, the deer let loose. The sleigh bumped over the uneven ground, and Jade held onto Gus tightly, wondering what the hurry was.
Gus snuggled into her, as if he thought she was holding him closer for cuddling reasons.
It was toasty warm under the fur, and in spite of the clattering of the blades and the needless weaving Rafe was doing on the open tundra, she found she was enjoying herself. And baby Gus was super nice to snuggle.
For the first time in a long time, she let herself relax just a tiny bit.
After all, she was so far from her past here, it might as well not even exist.
2
RAFE
Rafe drove on over the tundra, restless energy coursing through him like rocket fuel every time he thought about the woman beside him.
Mine, the dragon roared in his head.
But Rafe ignored it.
He wasn’t supposed to be on this forsaken moon.
And if he had to be here, he wasn’t supposed to have gotten wrapped around the whelp’s tiny finger.
And if he had to care for the whelp, he definitely wasn’t supposed to be attracted to the adoptive mother.
And even if he couldn’t help finding her golden hair and blue eyes compelling, he certainly wasn’t supposed to want to claim her as his true mate.
And the dragon should have known that.
Unlike his traitorous commanding officers, who had given him the honor of this assignment in the first place, his other half was supposed to have his back. He and the dragon were supposed to be of one mind and one heart.
A true mate is not chosen, the dragon reminded him.
Rafe whistled again, pushing the lichen-stag faster, as if he could drive it from the dragon’s thoughts. He knew it wasn’t right to ask so much of the creature, but he was getting desperate.
Rafe was supposed to guard the child for the next twenty years. But if the mother was afraid of him, or thought him reckless, she might call the agency and ask for a different guard.
Then, the Invicta would have no choice but to take him back.
He might get a slap on the wrist, and have to do supply runs for a year or two as penance. But it would be better than twenty years in the middle of nowhere, watching his skills rust away.
He glanced over at the girl again.
She was canoodling with the baby. She was so busy wrapping herself around her son that she seemed to have hardly noticed his reckless driving.
And Gus was sealing himself to her chest as if to say no one had ever held him before, which was patently untrue. Rafe had carried him around like an impetuous little sack of flour for half a standard year now.
He steered the sleigh over a massive hillock, and even Rafe had to brace himself against the impact.
