“Dragon-heart,” Drake said, letting out a long breath as he folded his arms. “I’ll be damned.”
Draven was still on his knees, his huge body hunched, his blue eyes wet with unshed tears. “I thought I’d lose both of you.”
She lay back on the pavement, waiting for her heartbeat to return to normal. But it didn’t feel like it would. It didn’t feel like anything would ever be the same again.
Her prior life flashed before here. The loneliness. The pain. The sense that her family had left her behind before she’d even gotten to know them. The sense that everyone had a family but her.
As she looked around the dragons in the room, staring at her intently, she realized she had a new family now.
She couldn’t wait to start eternity with them.
Ran crawled over to her and pulled her into his lap, and she enjoyed his warmth, his huge body surrounding her. She could sense the gigantic dragon inside him but didn’t feel threatened anymore.
Draven watched them with haunted eyes until she beckoned him forward, motioning for him to join them. He did, wrapping his large arms around them as they huddled in a heap.
Somehow they’d made it. Against the odds, they’d all come together.
Draven’s dragon shield went up automatically, protecting them from the world. Her healing calm moved through each of them, bringing a restful peace to the situation, and Ran’s strength, his determination to always protect their triad using the powerful dragon inside him.
For the first time in forever, Melissa felt truly complete.
Damn, did she love these men.
* * *
When they arrived back at the apartment, everything seemed different. On the roof, Draven and Ran changed back to their dragon forms, and the three of them walked to the exit and down the stairs that led to the elevator.
Draven pressed the button to their floor, and they all piled inside with a tired huff.
She eyed Ran, standing tall and looking more peaceful than she remembered him being before. He’d always had a light, calm expression, but she’d been able to sense the turbulence underneath. Now his features were relaxed, his beautiful, long-lashed green eyes blinking lightly, his perfect lips pursed. She wanted to reach up and run a finger along the line of his jaw that could have been made with a ruler.
He caught her looking and gave her a knowing smirk, making her heat down to her toes as she turned her focus back to the elevator doors as they closed.
But she could see Draven standing behind her in the reflection. Tall and intimidating, legs splayed shoulder width apart and hands clasped in front of him. She gulped.
Now that they were out of danger, she became aware of a soul-deep hunger for them that was stronger than before.
She needed them, her mates, inside her. She needed it now. She leaned on the door with both hands, taking a deep breath.
“It’s the mating ritual,” Draven said in a low voice, coming behind her to wrap an arm over her chest and pull her against his warm, solid chest. “We have to complete it. Have to make you ours completely.”
She gulped. “What does that mean?”
“You’ll accept both of us completely.”
Her heart sped up, beating so hard she felt sure her mates could have felt it. Two men. One night. And they were both really hers, forever.
“Honestly,” Ran said. “Compared to risking death by putting poison blood in your veins, I can pretty much promise this part will be better.”
She bit her lip as a shudder of lust pulsed through her. She believed him.
The doors opened and they walked into the hall, down toward their apartment. When they opened the door, darkness greeted them. Draven flicked on the light, and Ran walked in and took off his jacket. Then he turned on the light in the kitchen and opened the fridge.
“Are you hungry?” he asked Melissa.
She ran her tongue slowly over her lips as she studied Ran’s tall, muscled body and gorgeous features. “Yes.”
He laughed, throwing back his head with a sound that felt like music to her, and pulled a bottle of something out of the fridge. He tossed it to her and she caught it. “Take this. Can’t have you fainting on us during the ceremony.”
“You want anything, Draven?”
“I can wait ‘til after,” Draven said in a low voice. His square jaw tense as he looked her over. “You?”
“Waiting,” Ran said.
Melissa opened the bottle shyly and drank. She had a feeling this would be more… energetic for her than for them.
They were both so tall, so powerful, and looking at her with an intense expression that bespoke a forever kind of wanting.
She felt heat pool low inside her as she finished the shake and tossed it aside.
“I’m ready,” she said. “What’s next?”