I combed my fingers through the thick, dark strands, soothing us both. "It was only instinct," I said softly.

Ronson nodded, turning his head to rest his cheek against me, his fingers tightening on my thighs. "A very good instinct."

I blinked, and my breath hitched.

"I should've bitten you the first time I had the urge, Mairwen."

My eyes widened and I stared down at him, but he was hidden against me, his words soft and warm, rumbling with his purr.

"My omega," he rasped, turning his face back into my belly, nuzzling there, hunching lower. I gasped as his mouth opened, teeth biting dully against me. "My mate. Ohhh, yes. That word tastes almost as good as you do, Mairwen."

"Ronson." I tightened my fingers in his hair, trying to make him lean back to look at me, but he only moaned at the tug, and he was much stronger than me, lifting me off my toes and settling me down on the edge of the table, the silk of my slip sliding up so easily at his urging. "Ronson, it's-it's⁠—"

I whimpered as he burrowed his face between my thighs, purring against my sex, breathing roughly there.

"Permanent," he moaned, and he nodded, his nose just barely rubbing at my clit. "Yes, Mairwen. That's the best part."

A rough sob cracked out of my chest, my body crumpling, but Ronson was fast, standing up, arms circling my back and giving me a cradle to fall into. His face wasn't unreadable now. He was radiating warmth, pleasure, pride, just as he had last night.

"Shh, it's all right, omega." He drew me into his chest, tucked my head beneath his chin, and heave in air as I clawed and groped at his back. "I know. I know what they made you believe, what they let you think of yourself. But it isn't true. Not a bit of it. You are everything an alpha could want. I just happen to be the extremely lucky fool who had the chance to claim you."

I wasn't crying, not with tears, but I couldn't catch my breath, couldn't contain the voices in my head that contradicted every word Ronson spoke. I whined and tried to climb into Ronson as if he were shelter I might take. He lifted me from the table and sat back in his chair with me nestled against his chest.

"I want my mark on you. I want a life with you—my whole life, not part of it. I want you to have my strength, and I desperately need yours, Mairwen. I don't want an heir. I want a child. Your child. Ours. When and if you're ready." He stiffened and then tipped me backwards, frowning. "The tea? Will it still work?"

He was asking me a perfectly reasonable question, while I was busy falling apart because I was so relieved, so happy, so honored by him that for a moment, I could only squeak and stare up at him, hiccuping for breath.

"I love you," I gasped out.

Ronson's face went slack, and I was too stunned to even doubt the words, to doubt that he might want to hear them.

I reached up and grasped his face in my hands. "Ronson, I love you."

Sound roared from his chest, a shocking thunder of a purr. The room swung around me, then my back was pressed awkwardly over a mismatched collection of open books—books far too old for this treatment—and the weight of my alpha was making the table groan, his mouth tenderly and sweetly and reverently pressed to mine.

"I forgot," he rasped, nodding and then kissing me again. "I forgot to say that last night, didn't I?"

I could fly, after all. That was the only explanation for the soaring sensation racing through me.

"Forgot what, alpha?"

Ronson groaned, nose digging into my cheek, chest heaving against mine as he gulped for air. "I love you. I love you. I love you, Mairwen."

And for some reason, I didn't doubt for a moment that he meant it.

"Nest, alpha," I murmured against his ear.

"Nest, mate," he corrected.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter Thirty-FourRONSON

Mate, I marveled, laying Mairwen back inside of our nest, crawling in over her.

Mate, my dragon thundered in approval. Mine.

It had been a fact I hadn't known the word for, and now that I did, the truth rested perfectly in place, a brilliant jewel in a precise setting. Mairwen was my mate. My clever, beautiful, desperately sweet mate.

And she loves me. My breath caught in my chest, and I gazed down at Mairwen, at the soft glitter in her honey eyes as she stared back, the way she eyes traced over my features in equal wonder. Her fingers smoothed around my jaw, and then brushed the backs of her knuckles against my cheek. I turned my head and kissed there, nipping at her knuckles and earning a soft giggle.

My hand on her waist slid to the tie of her robe, but for once, I wasn't impatient. I wanted to unwrap my mate slowly, savor every bit of her. Mairwen wiggled beneath me and the robe parted, sliding over her smooth skin and off her shoulders, revealing more of the bruises on her left side that I'd been both proud and ashamed of. Now that I knew why they were there, why I'd been so obsessed with marking her, biting her, I admired the restraint of not actually breaking her skin.

Yet.

I leaned down, smiling as Mairwen released a soft, eager sound and arched in offering, lifting her bruised skin to my lips. I kissed softly over the patterns I'd made, faded watercolor circles of pink and purple and yellow.

"Do you want my mark, Mairwen?" I murmured, unable to resist the urge to suck softly over my most recent work. Mairwen gasped, hands tearing at the snaps of my shoulders, wrestling away my own clothing to rub her silk-clad skin to mine.

"Yes, alpha."

"It's permanent," I reminded her, settling myself on top of her, knowing well enough by now that she liked my weight. And sure enough, Mairwen moaned and sighed, sagging into the soft bedding of our nest. She blinked drowsily up at me as I shifted. "You thought that might be a concern for me. And so it might be for you," I said, catching her hair behind her neck, freeing it gently and draping it back over a pillow so it wouldn't tangle beneath us.

"I want to be yours. Your mate," she said, blushing but not looking away from me.

I purred, my eyes falling shut, enjoying the moment of Mairwen's lush form beneath mine, her full thighs cradling my hips, her hands ghosting over my back, her perfume full and rich, layers of the satisfaction I'd given her coating our nest. I'd never imagined such a sense of rightness with any omega I might choose, not this completion and ease, this imperative understanding that I could love Mairwen and no other.

"How long have you known about the bite?" I asked.

"Since the day before we left for the Flight of Alphas," she said.

I nodded. There hadn't been time before now to tell me, and there hadn't been much chance of me going so far as to bite her while we were traveling. She'd thought to warn me last night.

"I'd found mentions of mates, but nothing that connected to you wanting to…" She blushed again and squirmed.

I grinned down, moving just enough to coax the slip up over her hips. "Bite you," I prompted, glancing at those marks on her throat.

She nodded. "But then Beatrice and I found old portraits—Oh, I meant to show you!"

"Later, Mairwen," I rasped, too eager now that her warm skin was wrapping around me.

She laughed and lifted her hips, her chest, arms sliding back to allow me to strip her bare beneath me. I swallowed hard, forever dazzled by the vision of Mairwen beneath me, so much exquisiteness on offer.