"I thought at first that maybe this was just an urge between any alpha and omega," she said softly.

I shook my head, frowning. "Not possible. No man could resist wanting a woman as much as I want you," I said.

Mairwen gasped, and her eyes glittered with tears. "Ronson, you are so⁠—"

"Devastatingly in love with you," I finished for her, ducking down to kiss the swell of one breast, then the other. "Yes, I know."

My father was certainly not a man of restraint. If he'd wanted to bite an omega, he would've. And this craving hadn't been there from the start with Mairwen, although I thought perhaps the start might've been sooner than the rut. The night I'd found her in the nest, surrounded by books, shockingly sweet and lovely.

"Wonderful," Mairwen sighed out as I trailed a damp line of licks and kisses down between her breasts to her belly. "Ronson, I need you."

As much as it thrilled the dragon in me to hear her call me alpha, it made me ache in an altogether more tender way when she used my name. We were alpha and omega, and the bite was an instinct I'd barely managed to resist up till now, but this was more than a base urge, more than my dragon's desire. I loved this woman, her appetite for knowledge and for story, the core of her that had persevered with humor and curiosity, in spite of being so constantly discouraged by those around her. I'd spent my many decades as alpha attempting to be fair, catering to men I didn't respect. But if I was going to be worthy of Mairwen, I need to be as good as her, as strong for all of the island as she seemed to think me capable.

I rose up only long enough to work my way out of the loose trousers I'd donned for our trip to the library, falling back into Mairwen before she could follow and chase my touch.

"Bite," she pleaded, arching her throat until the muscles were taut, offering me that divine stretch of skin I'd claimed.

No, I'd claimed all of her. I'd claimed her on the stage, in full view of dragonkin and the human locals. I'd claimed her on the floor of the library with my lips and hands, in our nest during my rut, in front of the other alphas at the Flight. Even in front of her parents.

The bite was not my claim. It was my means of survival. Because if I lost Mairwen, in childbirth or simply in her too-short lifespan, I was sure my dragon would wither and so would I.

I wrapped Mairwen's legs around me, stilled her eager wiggles and squirms by finding my way to her opening, just barely poised to enter, and then took her face in my hand.

"I love you, Mairwen," I said again, because the words were a relief and a joy.

She softened, sparkled up at me like the treasure she was. "I love you, Ronson."

I swallowed hard and then flexed my hips forward, watching her pupils grow, her lips part on a pant. "I love you, mate," I corrected, grinning.

Mairwen's voice cracked sweetly, a pleading note, and her hips tilted into mine, pink tongue flicking out to wet her bottom lip. "Mate," she rasped, begging.

I groaned, and my eyes fell shut, thoughts sinking helplessly into Mairwen's heat and warmth and wonderfully soaked core, narrowing down to the simple and primitive ache and complete solace of being inside the only woman I'd ever really wanted.

Mairwen met me stroke for stroke, her hunger a match for an alpha's, a match for mine. I licked the skin of her throat, syrupy perfume filling my lungs, coating my tongue. My hands were full, one massaging her breast, the other cupping her ass to hold her close. I wanted to lick her arousal from the source, wanted to put her on her hands and knees and grip the back of her neck, and pound into her to make her scream, wanted to be everywhere on Mairwen all at once.

But I opened my eyes and found her face, her beautiful stare and lips begging to be kissed, and wanted nothing more than this—our chests pressed, arms wrapped tight, to be as near to her as I could until our heartbeats hammered together and our rocking thrusts dawdled, savoring every slide of slick flesh.

I smiled as Mairwen's gaze went unfocused, her eyelashes fluttering and a slow, deep moan rising from her lips. Oh, yes, she liked this. My lovely, greedy omega liked when I was patient and thorough, when I filled her as completely as I could, rubbing my knot against her clit. Her hands squeezed low on my back, a high sigh released as her eyes squeezed shut when I pushed inside of her, a tremulous whimper as I pulled nearly out.

"Ronson, yes, please," she breathed, turning and arching for a kiss.

I licked into her mouth, gave her my groan as her wet sex squeezed my length, pressed a little harder against her, debated knotting her, biting her, making her mine forever right at that second. But she made such magnificent, tormented, pleading sounds as I eased back, and I could be patient, could make her unravel for me and then take her there again faster with my knot, drive us both to the brink of oblivion. And this time, I would let it take me.

I rolled Mairwen's nipple between my fingers, bit gently at her bottom lip as she cried out, hiked one leg up higher to her side. Not long now. I knew her so well, knew what pleased her, what drove her past reason. I knew she grew shy when I kissed her belly but also so wonderfully wet. Knew she shuddered and fluttered around my cock when I gripped her tightly, almost to bruising. She loved my possession as much as she bloomed for gentle brushes and kisses.

If I rose up on my knees, I could find the angle that would make her shout and twist and tremble on the bed, losing control completely, but it would leave her limp and embarrassed after, so I stayed close, grinding myself against her until she lost the ability to speak, to breathe, her nails digging into my ass. I released her breast and caught her chin.

"Look at me, my lovely siren," I hissed. "I want to watch you as you come for me."

Her eyes fell shut, but she opened them once more for me, and now I knew that the sounds she made as she fell apart, as she clutched and soaked my cock with a body that fit me perfectly, were a good match for the hauntingly beautiful way she sang.

I couldn't help myself. I gave her my knot without waiting, watched her eyes widen in shock and fresh ecstasy as it drove her back up to the height of her release before she'd finished falling. I allowed myself one long study of her as she whimpered and sighed and clamped down on my knot, her cheeks and throat and chest flushed, her hair tangling behind her head, her lips bitten rosy, and then I surrendered.

My mate. My omega. My love. Mairwen.

I groaned and bucked, drawing out the flutters and quakes of her tight core on my knot, the pulsing squeeze slowly shredding the thin thread of control I'd gripped so tightly. My wings beat at my back in a chorused agreement of movement and urgency. Mairwen chanted praise, my name woven with the words love and mate and yes.

My mouth watered and my teeth ached, and her pulse throbbed on my tongue, calling to me in steady waves of perfume—a plea or an invitation or both, I didn't know. I didn't care.

Mairwen was mine, and this would make her even more so. I purred and found her skin against my tongue, the muscles of her throat flexing with babbling words of encouragement. So gentle. So sweet. So tender as it gave beneath my hungry teeth. Her arms clutched and she froze beneath me, the first squeak of discomfort like a distant alarm in my foggy head. Then copper and honey syrup laced the inside of my mouth, and Mairwen melted, moaned. I bellowed as tension snapped, heat and lightning racing through me, velvet softness and electric crackling. I snarled into the throat of my mate and collapsed into the cradle of her body at last.