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Sorin smiled with amusement on the inside. On the outside, he kept his neutral mask.
A possessive centaur male needed no provocation when his territoriality was heightened. He was well beyond rationality and reason.
But Sorin maintained their visual duel for the couple of fraught seconds that it lasted between him and the centaur warrior. For he would never bow down to anyone, no matter their power or station.
After all, he used to be, and still was, a King of Beasts. As well as the mythical Phoenix in his animal form.
The only one of his kind.
Shortly, the only unmatched maiden pulled alongside Sorin on her gelding, with Ere sitting behind her.
“Hey beautiful,” his Mate greeted with a flash of white teeth in the descending darkness of night.
“Got room for another?”
Of course he did. Questions like these Sorin never bothered to answer.
He seldom felt the need to communicate mentally, never mind speak out loud. There was no choice but to use his voice when he was human, but he never had much to say.
He preferred to let others come to their own conclusions and didn’t feel the need to point out the obvious. He would rather listen and observe than “think out loud” as Ere was wont to do. The only person he spoke more than a handful of words to, and often in private just the two of them, was his dragon Mate.
Less smoothly than Andros’ snatching of Divina, Sorin maneuvered Ere’s long, lean form from the other gelding to his own, setting the male in front of him. The moment Ere was in his arms again, the male immediately leaned into him, and he inhaled a deep, drugging breath of Ere’s intoxicating scent at the nape of his neck.
Sorin missed his male.
The separation, however brief, always made him restless. On edge. Made his heart pound harder; his soul, darken. He well understood why Andros was so impatient to reunite with Divina as soon as the danger passed.
But for Sorin, it was more.
He’d endured thousands of years, countless lifetimes, without his soulmate. He was always fearful Ere would be lost to him again. Always expectant that this heaven they’d found together wouldn’t last.
Every moment they had was precious and priceless to Sorin. He’d never take even one second for granted. Even though he hid his despair and desperation from his Mate, he knew his own truth.
He feared for them. These quests they were on at the behest of the Jade Emperor, whoever the being was…Sorin had an unshakable sense of foreboding and premonition that—
Every moment could be their last.
“Well, that worked out exactly according to plan!” Ere crowed happily.
Without seeing his face, Sorin knew he’d be smiling like an eager child. Inside, Ere might even be clapping his hands together with glee.
Even in this revived incarnation, after everything he’d been through, the black dragon would never lose his innate joy and innocence. In so many ways, he was and always would be a mischievous, wily, endearing child. Eternally young at heart.
It was one of the infinite reasons Sorin loved him beyond measure.
“And the girls are happy,” the maiden called Ariana said, guiding her gelding to keep pace with Sorin’s.
“I’m a little envious, to be honest. All of my friends and sisters have found their partners, but me.”
She took a bracing breath and raised her chin with a smile.
“There better be gorgeous centaur women in those mountains. I am determined to find my match amongst them. Who knows, maybe I’ll even have a harem.”
She waggled her brows and grinned.
“Why not,” Ere quipped. “If men can have harems, so should women be able to. As long as it’s consensual, of course. Unlike what Ixion is doing.”
Chiron pulled up on their other side, joining the discussion.
