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But there was no blood relationship there.
“Oh... fuck, it’s cold.” I shuddered against the frozen, hard ground, passing in and out as the bleak daylight slowly faded into night.
The fact that Veronica would never know the real reason I’d teased and tortured her was my only regret right now. That, and the fact that my death was going to destroy my family. I may not be the heir to the throne, or the favorite son, but my parents had loved me. Always.
“At least I had that. More than some people have.”
I began to laugh, the last words of a dying man. How ridiculous. And ironic. My own voice was the last thing I’d ever hear. I had hoped it would be my wife’s, or at least one of my siblings. Or perhaps a child, if I’d ever had the chance to produce my very own heir.
Being the son born five years after a set of triplets that were bonded like no other hadn’t been the easiest thing. It had felt more like growing up as an only child.
But damn, what I wouldn’t give to hear Anselm’s voice right now, telling me what I was doing wrong. Classic older-brother-future-king type of shit.
I loved him, though. And I know he loved me.
I dashed away a tear that dropped onto my cheek. Yeah... I was going to die down here. I stared at my leg once again, considering the option to tear my body away from the limb. Would that give me more chance of survival, or less?
I closed my eyes. I was out of options. I was too weak to shift. And if I did somehow manage to get out from under this massive rock, I’d bleed out before I could crawl out of here.
“Iain! Iain!” Veronica’s voice echoed in my head again.
I chuckled and lay my head back on a rock. “I’m here, sweetheart. I’m here.” So, the last thing I was going to hear was my fated mate’s voice inside my head. That was better than anything else.
“Iain! We’re coming. Just hold on.”
I opened my eyes and struggled to sit up. “Veronica?”
“Yes! It’s me.”
My jaw dropped and a strange surge of warmth filled my chest. “Ah... I’m dreaming again, right?”
There was a huge creak and groan as some of the huge boulders around me were lifted and firelight sparked around me.
The fire caused a silhouette highlight of dragon wings above me, moving the wood and boulders and stone. Dust clouds made me cough and I covered my mouth, trying not to breathe in any more of the crap around this abandoned house.
Footsteps sounded on the ground outside the house, and then a figure appeared.
“Veronica?”
It was truly her. How was this possible? She was naked and trembling, her body more beautiful than I could ever remember. Her time away had done her the world of good, it seemed.
I glanced away, not wanting to look at her like that, when she had no choice about her nudity after shifting.
“Iain, oh my God.” She hurried down beside me, putting her hands on my face, on my arms, on my leg. “You’re hurt. Your leg.”
I groaned as my shifter began to rise inside of me, wanting to shift with my mate now in sight.
“Are you in pain?” she asked, shaking a little as though she was as freezing as I was.
“Yes,” I said, to cover the fact that I was really struggling now. My shifter had kept to his slumber when Veronica had been underage. When he’d seen her at Anthony’s wedding, I’d barely been able to keep him together.
But now... she was nineteen, she was beautiful, and she was here, rescuing me.
“Arghhh...” My spine arched as I fought off my dragon. “Fuck.... I’m going to shift.”
“But... why? How?”
My eyes had already shifted and my night vision made her body even more beautiful.
