Mairwen's mother's eyes widened. "Nest? Your-your nest?"

My hard smile came easily, my hands stroking up and down Mairwen's back as I puffed with pride. "I refuse to dismantle it. Mairwen did such a superb job." My omega pressed closer, her face lifting, eyes growing bright. I raised one hand to cup her jaw, to refuse her parents her gaze as I continued, "I could not have chosen a finer omega. Not if I had scoured every isle and all of dragonkin."

Mairwen's mother gaped, but I wouldn't let my omega look away from me, not until Niall had led the Posy's out of the parlor and down the hall. Mairwen's eyes welled, glossy tears clinging against her lower lashes, and her cheek pinched in where she chewed at it from the inside.

"I'm sorry," she gasped out.

I battled the urge to go tearing down the hall, roaring and snarling and scorching the backs of the Posys. They should've been Mairwen's respite from the judgment of the dragonkin. Instead, they appeared to have been one of the worst sources.

"You have nothing to be sorry for," I said, my voice too rough and harsh.

Mairwen stiffened in my arms, braced herself, and opened her lips to say more. I dove down and stifled the words with a kiss. She didn't relax, just accepted the firm press of my lips to hers. The bitter edge of her scent eased, and she let out a whimper.

"Don't say another word on the topic, omega," I said, and this time I was able to purr through the growl. Mairwen's eyes fluttered shut, her shoulders softening with a sigh, and she wrapped her arms around me automatically as I bent and lifted her from the floor.

Mairwen was silent as I carried her up to our tower, her head resting on my shoulder. The longer she was quiet, the longer I said nothing, the more tense she grew in my arms. I needed to get her into our nest, to kiss every inch of her, to pay her every compliment, before she managed to vanish in front of me completely.

"I meant what I said to them, Mairwen."

Her breath caught, and I glanced down, my heart dropping several stories at the sheen of tears on her cheeks. She didn't answer me, but her fingers dug fiercely into my shoulder, crumpling my dinner jacket in her fists.

"I've never considered myself a lucky person, but I can only grant the moment I saw you wandering through the woods as Gamesby and Adelaide plotted my murder as divine intervention—the old dragons showing me the better path."

Mairwen's brow furrowed, and she lifted her chin. "You wouldn't have chosen Adelaide after hearing all that. I didn't need to be there."

"Discovering the plot was not the part where I got lucky, omega," I purred.

And there! I praised every star in the sky for the little puff of Mairwen's perfume.

"Then again, the first time Niall saw you, he told me you were the most interesting omega of the lot," I continued. "So perhaps I would've taken his advice while on stage."

Mairwen was silent all the way until we reached the door of our room.

"If the first words you had ever said to me were 'You'll do,' I would certainly have vomited on your boots," she said.

I laughed, and another whisper of her scent reached me. "I should've chosen those words more carefully. I should've said…" You're mine, I thought, but couldn't quite say.

"'Hello, have you considered foregoing your corsets?'" Mairwen suggested, the bright note of her voice that I'd ached for all evening finally reappearing.

I laughed again and hurried us into the nest, depositing Mairwen in the cushions and turning back to yank our curtains shut. The fire in the grate illuminated the room, and the curtains were sheer, so there was just enough light to see the tiny smile on Mairwen's lips and the tired droop of her eyelids as she fell backwards into the pillows, rolling onto her side. She had a headache, and she was bruised, my perfect, succulent little omega.

I climbed over her, and Mairwen's face buried itself into the pillow as I untied the laces of her dress. Her seamstress had altered many of Mairwen's garments—formal and intimate alike—in ways I wholeheartedly approved of, including the silk shifts Mairwen wore against her skin. They had delicate little barely-there straps and were trimmed with lace, the back and collar plunging low so that when I opened her dress, there was lovely bare skin in view.

I leaned forward, kissing the nape of Mairwen's neck, brushing my thumb over the goose bumps that rose. "I should've said, 'Hello, I know we haven't spoken'" —another kiss, this one below the first— "'but I think,'" I continued, purring and whispering, gently pushing the sleeves of Mairwen's gown down until they reached her elbows and she drew her arms free, "'you are exactly what I need.'"

The words might not have been true at the time. I had fewer doubts about Mairwen than the rest of dragonkin, but not none. Still, they were the words I wished I could've given her.

Mairwen sniffled into the pillow and I paused, hovering above her, wrestling with the urge to strip her bare, plunge myself inside of her, and bring her so much pleasure, all thoughts of her parents or the rest of society were washed away.

There was another impulse. A gentler one. Mairwen knew our bodies hungered for one another, but there'd been little time to share much else with her.

I undressed her slowly, purring all the while, stroking her back and her hips when she shuddered with tears, rubbing her legs as I unrolled her stockings, until she was left only in the beautifully-shaped silk slip, one so perfectly crafted that it wrapped around her like a breeze or the sea water we sometimes went swimming in together. If Mairwen had to wear anything at all, it should only have been those slips.

I kept that thought to myself, pulling a sheet up to cover her from any chill before undressing myself with more haste. I kept my purr rumbling. If I wasn't going to give her my knot, purring was my next best alpha gift on offer. I kept an eye on her body, the little trembles that came and went, the incredible rise and fall and rise again of her silhouetted figure.

When I was bare, I slid under the sheet, the thrum in my chest roaring as Mairwen's hand reached back for me, catching my own and drawing my arm around her. It wasn't enough. I bundled her up, tangling her legs between mine, circling her in my arms, pressing myself to her back so closely that she too rattled, as if producing her own purr.

Little by little, her quavering sighs melted to steady breaths and her perfume laced around us, even as she sank into a weary sleep. I remained awake, remained purring, telling myself it would assure that even her dreams were safe for her that night.

It was unsettling to wake the next morning and find that Mairwen had slipped away before I woke. It was even more aggravating that it was not her I found in the hall, but my brother.

"Where's Mairwen?"

"In the library," he said, as if he'd known precisely what question would be first out of my mouth.

I'd only dressed in a loose linen shirt and worn trousers, and I paused in the hall, narrowing my eyes at Niall. "Why do you know that?"

He smirked. "Because I spoke to her there."

"Whatever business you have for me will have to wait a little," I said, scuffing my hand over my hair and eyeing the stairs, wanting my omega to appear. "I need to speak with Mairwen about the Flight of Alphas."

"Mm, that's what she's working on. Researching all the families," Niall said, nodding and turning to follow me.