Mairwen's laugh died abruptly and she scrambled up. I caught her in my arms, cursing myself as I found a bundle of deliciously lush curves pressed up against me.

Pin her down. Fuck her. Breed her.

It took so much effort to fight the order from my dragon that my body shook, resisting the urge to bury my face in Mairwen's neck and my cock in her soft, welcoming core.

"What estate?" Mairwen called, her own voice clear and sharp.

"Don't wiggle," I growled.

"Ronson, we have to go⁠—"

I reared back, eyes wide. "You're not going anywhere!"

"The Quincy land."

Mairwen and I both stilled, and my eyes fell shut. Fuck.

"Ronson, that's right near my home," Mairwen breathed.

Your home is here, I wanted to snap, the fiery temper of the dragon too close at hand. I forced myself to shift away, cupping Mairwen's head with one hand and brushing a gentle kiss to her temple.

"I'm coming," I called to Niall, scrubbing a hand over my face as I pulled away from my omega, turning for the nest entrance.

"Where's my chemise? Oh! My dress and corset are downstairs and—Oh damnit, Ronson, you tore my corset."

I shoved aside the curtains of the nest and looked back to find a beautifully bare Mairwen scrambling after me. My hand lashed out without thinking, lightly shoving her back into the pillows.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Mairwen gaped up at me, her hair tangled and drooping around her face, body splayed in a deceptive invitation that took a painful determination to resist. "I'm coming with you!"

"Mairwen—"

The door creaked. "Ronson⁠—"

"Don't you dare come through that door, Niall!" I roared. My voice shook in the air, and my mouth was hot and dry, a little dragon fire at the back of my throat.

The door clicked shut again and I gathered a breath, releasing it slowly, preparing to apologize to Mairwen for my temper, to urge her to stay here and keep me from losing my mind completely.

Instead, I found her standing, entirely naked, boldly glaring up at me, chin high and shoulders back like a queen. I salivated, and a growling purr rumbled in my chest.

"You can't stop me from leaving the castle," she said cooly.

Oh, I absolutely can, I thought, smirking.

Mairwen's eyes narrowed and then widened. "Are you considering tying me up?"

My knees buckled when her perfume floated around me, secretly teasing the idea she might not object to such a proposition under other circumstances.

"I am now," I muttered, forcing my steps away from the temptation that was my omega. "I need to go, to haul water. I'll be at my wit's end with you there in danger, exposed. Mairwen, I need you to stay in the nest."

"I'll be at my wit's end here, Ronson," she whispered, drawing up a sheet and wrapping it around herself. I wanted to rip it out of her hands, and I had to cover my face, shield my gaze, to try and hold onto any sense.

"I am coming. I will figure out a way to help," she said, a hard strength in her voice, one that I doubted many people realized she possessed. "That's my home, Ronson. My family."

A throat cleared from the other side of the door, and I debated the consequences of setting my brother on fire.

"It would be good for the isle to see you together," Niall suggested carefully. They don't value her the way they should. "Dress her practically. She can help me, or—Oh, quit growling, Ronson. She can help me, or she can fly with you. Better than charging there on her own and neither of us realizing."

I pulled my hands from my face at the sound of fabric rustling and was greeted by the sight of Mairwen's bottom bouncing as she tried to squeeze herself into a pair of my own breeches. It was working too, the wool offering just enough give for her ample curves, molding to her shape like a second skin.

"Fuck," I croaked, my teeth aching in my jaw. Breeches had never looked less practical.

Mairwen huffed as she buttoned them shut, spinning to face me. "I need a shirt."

She most certainly did. Because the sight of her standing in skin-tight pants, bare-chested, skin marked from my mouth and nipples pert from the cool morning air, was going to make me feral.

"Come here."

Mairwen squinted at me and shook her head. "No. You've got a look on your face."

My teeth were sharp in my smile as I asked, "A look?"

"A look like either you're going to spank me or kiss me, and we don't have time for either."

"She's right, Ronson," Niall called, his voice raising my hackles once more.

"Damn. Damn this isle, damn my brother, and damn the fire⁠—"

Mairwen waved her hands in the air and strode away. "Yes, yes. Aha! Stays. Come lace me up, and if you get handsy, I will tell Niall to come in."

"I'll break his fingers if he sees so much as an inch of you," I said, stomping after her, cursing her perfect, delectable, clever mind.

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Chapter SixteenMAIRWEN

My shoulders ached, my hands burned, and most of my front lower half was cold and wet from spilled water, but I heaved another bucketful into my arms, stubbornly marching after Niall toward the shrinking blaze. I'd had to borrow his boots—slippers wouldn't do for such an occasion—and they were too big for my feet, sliding and chafing with each step.

Niall waited at the edge of the fire for me to catch up, and together we tossed the water, scorching steam making me wince and brace as the water crashed into the flames. Niall's hand wrapped around my arm, and he pulled me along with him back to the line of men repeating the same work. There were wagons pumping water not far from here, but every bucket counted.

The woods of the Quincy estate had grown dry in the hot summer, and a stray campfire—likely from a poacher—had caught a small area on fire, leaving it to blaze overnight before anyone realized what was happening. We'd managed to stop the fire from reaching the village, but there wouldn't be much left of the estate, although with what I knew from my wanderings, it was mainly made of brambles and weeds and pine trees.

"You're tired," Niall said, pulling me aside.

I huffed and glared at him. "So are you. So is everyone."

Even Ronson's enormous dark dragon had looked weary on the last trip back from the sea, bearing his huge burden of carted water.

Niall nodded his head toward the small cluster of women who watched us work. "Rest a moment with your mother. If you drop into a pile of ash from exhaustion, Ronson will roast me for dinner. You'll be safe there. I'll keep an eye out."

And checking on me sitting in the cluster of other dragonkin women would be easier work for Niall than slowing his steps to match mine as he worked on dousing the fire. I sighed and nodded. "Fine. I'll save you a sandwich."

Niall's lips twitched as we parted ways, and I tilted my chin down to avoid the stares of the humans and beta dragons who were still working around the well. There'd been a fair amount of blustering when I'd arrived on Ronson's back and everyone had realized who I was. And then our alpha had roared and the objections had died down to whispered gossip as I hurried with Niall and set to work.

A whoosh of wings and stirring breeze swayed above me, and I paused to look up, shielding my eyes from the sun to watch Ronson's flight from the sea back to the fire, a great leather hammock gripped in his four massive, taloned feet. It was difficult to tell through the wavering heat of fire, steam, and smoke-sullied air, but I felt sure the alpha was watching me. I lifted a hand in a weak wave, and Ronson dropped two corners of the leather, a heaping flood of sea water crashing down onto the burning field.