Page 39 of The Eternal Choice

I sink my fingers into her hair and let our mouths collide into a passionate kiss. Swallowing her groan, I swirl my tongue around hers and deepen the kiss. I need it, she needs it, as a reminder of being alive after everything that happened.

Pulling back, I watch as she slowly blinks and stares up at me in a dazed cloud of lust. “Okay, if you keep kissing me like that, I might love you already.”

A chuckle slips from me, and I keep an arm around her as we start to walk in the direction of where her family is. I keep my gaze away from my brothers’ bodies and focus my full attention on Tony.

“Start talking,” I snarl.

Finally, an expression of fear on Tony’s face, and he starts to stammer, “Talk about what? A truce? What do you want?”

“How about you start with why his brothers betrayed him and we’ll go from there,” Lilliana snarls.

“It’s all your fault.” Naryssa smirks. “Bitter pill to swallow, isn’t it? We had them all in on our plan until you ruined it. Basically, you’re the one who killed them. You took his brothers, and if he took the deal like he should have, they would still be alive today.”

Lilliana has Naryssa by the throat in the blink of an eye. “Any dragon shifter…hell, any supernatural respects the bond of a mate, even if one rejects the other. How the fuck can you say it’s my fault and then put the blame on my mate for not accepting a deal that could have been easily solved by you picking another male from our clan? You’re a selfish, money hungry bitch who needed the connection to save your clan. Don’t even get me started about believing in fated mates and picking an arranged marriage with an unsuited partner above that. And if my mate had taken the deal? You would have killed him too, just like you did with your first husband, and the second. So, don’t fucking say shit you have no valid opinion about.”

Tony’s face becomes the visual of pure anger. “Oh, don’t you dare think you’re better than my daughter or talk about lowstandards and respecting the bond. It was Leandro who didn’t respect the bond of a mate and started a war. You guys thought it was us while all along it was Leandro who fucked my niece and discarded her when she didn’t fall pregnant. He didn’t believe in the bond, in fated mates, and he was the one who walked away. Sienna didn’t know who he was when they met and mated, it was a chance meeting. He knew when she was picked up at the gate by his father and still didn’t say anything. She refused the arranged marriage, and explained to your father, but Leandro denied it. He lied straight through his teeth to his father’s face. Regret only came when he discovered Lilliana was pregnant, showing the fated mates wasn’t shit in legends and that she in fact is some fucking legend. Bullshit reasons to make him change his mind, but it was too late, by then he couldn’t refuse working for me.”

My mind is reeling with the outpour of information, and Tony’s not done when he continues to rant, “He even had his brother, Nario, seeing the solution. Finally, Nario could become clan leader the way he should have been many decades ago. They fucked it up when Leandro tried to end it by taking out Nario and then trying to kill me. We might have failed, but you’re the one who lost it all, Ernestino.”

Knowing the why and how, insane reasonings, acts and consequences, doesn’t do shit when things are in the past while we’re figuring things out in the present with our eyes on the future. The only sane option is to start over and eliminate the evil tainting the good we were trying to achieve for our species.

The old dragon man in front of me is caught by surprise when I jump forward and have a firm grip on his head. I use all my strength to quickly rip off his head. Naryssa screams and there’s an abrupt silence that follows.

Glancing to my left I see the woman’s head is separated from her body, and the bloody hands of my mate. She has my back in any decision I make, no matter what. I return the slight inclination of her head, as if she knows what just went through my mind.

“You should warn enemies never to stand too close while arguing,” Lucian remarks with a slight chuckle after his words.

Lilliana shrugs. “They had it coming and it was the only way to end everything and start over. I’m sure they have a second in command or will choose another leader for the Marshgloom clan. We will reach out and negotiate a truce and set up a new foster system.”

“And you think they will accept? Just like that?” Creed asks.

“Yes,” my mate states with determination. “They will once we show them evidence about the fertility of our clan.” Placing a protective hand over her belly she adds, “I’m pregnant with the clan leader’s baby, and his sister and her mate are also expecting.”

“Damn. What caused the fertility change?” Alrigo asks.

I step closer to my mate and place a kiss on the top of her head. “Some legends, along with dreams, do come true.”

Sisley glances at Alrigo. “We’re all too aware of legends and the truth that lies within. Doesn’t make things easy and there will still be complications to face.”

“Easy is pouring coffee into a cup, it’s making the perfect black liquid that makes all the difference,” Lilliana states.

“Coffee? Seriously?” Sisley chuckles. “We’re talking about legends and building things up from the ruins of war and you’re bringing coffee into this?”

I chuckle when Lilliana shrugs and simply says, “It’s been a hell of a day and we all could use a break before facing shit with a clear head.”

I couldn’t agree more.

EPILOGUE

Thirty years later

– LILLIANA –

“We should leave them at home.” I wince when those words tumble from my lips.

Where my mother forced me to show my face at a gathering, I’m suggesting keeping my daughters away from the one happening tonight. Crazy, I know. Especially when you think about the fact that my parents, my brother, and I found our fated mates at one of these gatherings.

Yes, daughters. Dragons don’t know and can’t predict everything. Ernestino’s inner dragon might have thought I was pregnant with a son, turns out I was pregnant with twin girls instead. Ugh. Even after thirty years, with them being full adults, I still want to make decisions for them to keep both girls safe. As if they need protection. Well, maybe Grazia, she’s a few minutes younger than her twin sister, Velenza.

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