He was already on his way back, and the knowledge made me relax. I held back from actively “talking” to him, trusting that he would be here soon enough. I could sense the ocean under him, the salt air cooling his ever-present heat as he winged toward me from the west. He’d told me that there weren’t that many dragons in the world, and it seemed unlikely that another of his kind would just happen to find this remote island unless they were looking for my mate. No doubt Maks would know our visitor.
The huge creature landed on the rocky shore in front of me, his wings flaring out to slow him as he touched down. He was a gorgeous creature, and I still got a little thrill at the sight of something that shouldn’t have existed. The dark dragon shifted seamlessly into human form, scooping up a bag he’d brought and slipping into a pair of loose pants before approaching me.
His hair was darker than Maks’s and his build was slightly smaller, but he had the same pale blue eyes as my mate—and he was smiling, which put me at ease.
“Я ищу Максим,” he said, then shook his head with a little laugh at my look of confusion and tried again in English. “I’m looking for Maksim.” His eyes dropped to my obviously-pregnant belly. “You are his human?”
This man looked young—even younger than Maks—but if he was a dragon, that didn’t mean much. His accent was Eastern European, and I remembered Maks’s comment about his father’s territory being there. I smiled in welcome. Maks had said that they’d had a disagreement, and I loved the idea that maybe the rift could be mended before our baby came. Family was important.
“Yes, I guess am,” I answered. “I’m his mate. Are you his father? Er, ‘sire,’ I mean?”
The man’s eyes widened, and then he burst into laughter. “Ah, human,” he said once he’d caught his breath. “No, I am not that old beast. I am Ivan, Maksim’s brother.”
Maks had a brother? I suddenly flashed back to Ty, Wes’s brother, and how head-over-heels that dragon-loving man was about his niece. I would love for our child to have an uncle, too. I wondered why Maks hadn’t told me.
I sent my mate the happy news through our bond.
I wasn’t prepared for what he sent back.
“Are you okay, human?” Ivan asked, coming close enough to clap a hand on my shoulder. “Does the child pain you?”
I clutched at my stomach as I tried to catch my breath and focus on the here-and-now, and not the sudden blast of fear and anger that had just erupted from my mate. I knew it wasn’t directed at me, but it had been so unexpected that it had almost brought me to my knees. I was still shaking.
Maks was not happy to hear that Ivan had come. He was terrified that his brother meant to hurt me. I had no idea why, but I trusted my mate, and he wanted me away from his brother. Now.
Unfortunately, I had no idea how to accomplish that.
Ivan kept a firm grip on my shoulder, and now I could see that his smile was predatory, rather than friendly. The eyes that I had thought were the same as Maks’s weren’t at all. Where Maks’s glowed with a warm, blue heat, Ivan’s were like ice.
“Where is my brother?” he asked, glancing behind me at the house.
“Close,” I said, wishing the answer were “here.”
Ivan smiled coldly. “I can tell he is close, but your answer means he is not on the island, nyet? Good. You will come with me then, human.”
He said the last part with the echoing vibration that I recognized as a dragon’s power to compel. If I hadn’t had Maks’s fire in me, I would have had no choice but to obey.
“No,” I said, shaking his hand off. “I won’t.”
His eyes widened in surprise at my resistance, but then we both realized that he didn’t need that particular power to make me do his will. In his human form, he was both bigger and stronger than me.
And then of course there was his otherself.
“Why do you want me?” I asked, backing away and trying to stall.
An ugly look flashed across his handsome face, and he spat something out in bitter Russian that I didn’t understand, grabbing for me again. The venom in his voice scared me, and I covered my stomach in a vain attempt to shelter the child within me from whatever he intended.
And then a shadow moved across us, and Maks was there, diving out of the sky like an avenging angel. Ivan cursed and leapt away from me, shifting as his feet left the ground and engulfing my mate in a blast of dragon fire as he launched into the air.
Our bond suddenly cut off, and my heart seized in fear.
Maks.
23
~ Maksim ~
I had never felt anything like the terror that filled me when I found out my brother had come for Devin. Thank God I was close, and the last stretch of ocean passed under me in a blur as I extended my senses ahead of me, pushing myself to reach him in time to save him from… I didn’t know what.