I kept trying to get Zach to hold still long enough to get a good look at it, but he wasn’t making that easy. The skin on his shoulder was discolored. I was sure it hadn’t been that way before, but it didn’t seem to bother him. It definitely wasn’t a burn or a bruise. When the light caught it there was a silvery glint to his skin that reminded me of Maks’s hide. And Ivan’s.
Eventually I gave up worrying about it and got him to sleep. The fuss had been distracting enough that I hadn’t worried too much about Maks, and by the time I was free to, he was already back.
I’d known that he wouldn’t let Ivan harm us, and I wanted to ask what had happened, but I let my curiosity go as I felt his need for me—his need to feel connected after having both found and lost his brother in such a short window of time. Questions could wait.
“The boys?” Maks asked as he came to me and pulled me into his arms. He knew that they were okay—our bond saw to that—but I could tell that he wanted the reassurance of hearing me say it.
“Both fine, and sleeping.” I would tell him about the mark on Zach’s shoulder later. “Ben is with them in the nursery. We’ll take the guest room tonight.”
Maks nodded, taking my hand and pulling me up the stairs with a grateful smile. He grimaced as we walked past the remains of our bedroom, and as soon as we entered the guest room he closed the door and pulled me against him.
“I can still feel him,” he said, and I knew he meant Ivan. “He feels so… empty. He didn’t think you were important, Dev. He didn’t understand that I could love you, rather than just use you. I’m afraid that the way he’s been taught to think of humans is going to condemn him to being forever lonely. He can’t even think of other dragons in terms of anything but a threat, and I doubt he’d be able to recognize his own fated mate if the man was standing right in front of him. I abandoned him to that life. I left him with our sire. I let him get brainwashed into a life of being so alone. It’s my fault.”
I covered his mouth with my hand, shaking my head. “It’s not your fault, Maks,” I corrected him, pushing through our bond so he could feel that it was true. “You were young, and you did your best. You weren’t the one who taught him to be that way, but you can be the one who shows him that there’s another option. Your lives are long. Don’t give up on him yet.”
“Our lives,” he reminded me, smiling down at me even though I could still feel a lingering sadness inside him. “Our lives are long.” He pulled me closer, resting his head on top of mine. “I know you’re right, love. I just wish it could be different for him. And I told him the same thing, that I won’t give up on him, but… it could have been me. He’s living the life my sire intended for me.”
I shuddered, and he tightened his arms around me.
“The thought of never finding you, of not having you… I can’t imagine it,” he went on. “If anything ever happened to you, Dev, I wouldn’t want to go on.”
I got a lump in my throat. I felt the same, and I’d never been as grateful to know that his fire truly did bind us together. As long as one of our hearts beat, so would the other. “You’ll never have to,” I reminded him. “You know I’m yours.”
“I’ve known it since the first time I saw you, love,” he said, and I could feel his gloom lift as he teased me. “I know you’re mine, and my dragon knows it, too. If I remember correctly, you didn’t seem to know it, at first.”
“I knew it, I just couldn’t admit it,” I insisted, laughing. “You can’t hold that against me—I was married. And I love you for respecting that, Maks, and for waiting for me.”
“I’m glad the waiting is over,” he said, his teasing smile turning into something hotter.
“And I’m glad this fated mate thing includes such fast recovery time,” I said, my pulse starting to race. I’d been big with the pregnancy for so long that I’d almost forgotten how good it felt to be in his arms, pressed flat against the hard planes of his chest. His heart beat under my cheek as I leaned against him, and I savored the delicious feel of his cock hardening against my stomach.
“Are you sure you’re really recovered, love?” he asked, concern flashing across his face as he sensed my rising excitement.
If I’d been human, it would have been impossible so soon after giving birth, but his fire had restored my body almost as soon as he’d taken the babies from me. And I was sure. I was very, very sure. I wanted him. I needed him—and I loved knowing that he needed me, too.