Page 20 of The Sapphire Dragon Prince
A quiver of new fear shot through my gut. “Is everything alright?” I asked.
Azurus’s frown turned to confusion for a moment before he pulled his hand back and glanced up at me with a smile. A tight, almost fake smile. “Everything is fine, my love,” he said.
“Are you certain?” I asked, the tight feeling in my stomach turning into a knot. “Do you need help lighting the fire?”
Azurus took a long time to answer. “Perhaps I do,” he said, stepping away from the circle of stones and going to fetch his pack. “It’s been a long time since I lit any sort of fire. I hope I remember how it’s done.”
I could tell from the sudden tension in Azurus’s back and the way his reassuring smile dropped as soon as he turned away from me that there was something he wasn’t telling me. That was just one more thing to make me anxious and fill me with doubts about what we were doing.
I wasn’t going to let it bring me down, though. For Azurus’s sake, I needed to at least pretend to be brave, even if I didn’t feel like I was at all.
“I don’t think I’ll be much help,” I said lightly as Azurus returned to the firepit with a tinderbox, “but I have at least made a fire before. Or rather, assisted Rumi when he made a fire. We used to make small fires in Papa’s garden so we could roast things and have impromptu picnics in the summer sometimes, like Papa used to do with us when we were children.”
“That sounds lovely,” Azurus said, his smile returning in a more genuine way as we crouched beside the pit and went to work on the fire.
“It was,” I said, letting myself fall into the memories of those days for a moment. “Life with my brothers hasn’t been all bad, you know. The six of us are very close. I love them all dearly. I’mso happy that Tovey, Selle, and Leo have found their fated mates and started families.”
“They’ve made my brothers very happy,” Azurus said, striking the tinderbox several times, falling into a frown as he did, before the kindling under the logs finally caught and started to burn. “I’m sure your two remaining brothers will make Emmerich and Argus very happy as well.”
“I’m worried about Rumi and Obi,” I said, helping to fan the flaming kindling so that the bigger logs would catch. “I cannot imagine how the two of them are getting on in our father’s castle all by themselves. Father must be livid that the rest of us are gone.”
“They are not entirely alone,” Azurus said, leaning back to stare at the fire once it started to burn. “Argus is there in the castle looking out for Obi, and Emmerich spends as much time shadowing Rumi to make certain he’s safe as he does performing his governing duties in the castle in this realm.”
I sat back to watch the fire as well, scratching the back of my neck for a moment as a wealth of thoughts zipped through my mind. “How exactly do fated mates work?” I asked. “I know that the six of us were fated for the six of you, but it all seems so mysterious and strange. Did any of us really have a choice about who we fall in love with or was it written in the stars from the dawn of time?”
Azurus huffed a laugh. “I don’t really know,” he said. “I can’t say whether there is some magic at work that makes six alpha brothers the perfect mates for six omega brothers or whether, as family, we each have enough similarities to create perfect partnerships with each other. For all I know, Mother might have a hand in it.”
“I knew from the moment I saw you that you were my mate,” I said, lowering my voice and my face a little. I felt sheepish, mostly because I wasn’t certain those feelings werepolite to talk about. Then again, Azurus was my mate, even if we hadn’t bonded yet. “You made me feel safe from the moment you smiled at me. You made me feel even safer when you first touched me. Usually, when an alpha touches me, it terrifies me.”
A quick, dark cloud passed over Azurus’s expression at my mention of other alphas touching me. Even that warmed my heart. I liked his possessiveness. I wanted it and needed it. Everything that pulsed behind that instinct to possess and protect me was exactly what gave me the confidence that Azurus would never let any harm come to me.
“I was drawn to you straight away as well,” Azurus said, inching closer and sliding his arm around my back. “I took one look at you and saw such glorious sweetness that I knew you’d been made for me.”
I blushed, feeling warm from more than just the fire.
“I’m not certain I deserve you,” I said, lowering my eyes to watch Azurus’s free hand as he took my own and threaded our fingers together.
“Shush,” Azurus said, his voice growing deeper and more amorous. “I don’t want to hear you speaking of yourself that way. You’re my mate, the mate of a dragon. You are special in so many ways.”
I glanced up at him, my heart beating hard and fast. I’d longed to hear someone, a good, strong alpha, say those words to me for so long. I still didn’t really think someone as broken as me deserved someone as magnificent as Azurus, but I blossomed with love all the same.
Azurus must have felt something of what I was feeling. He studied my face for a moment, his gaze landing on my lips. I parted them as I breathed out, willing him to kiss me.
Blessedly, he did. He leaned in, shifting to hold the side of my face with one hand, and slanted his warm mouth over mine ina kiss that was as passionate as it was sweet. His lips molded to mine and his tongue reached out to explore.
I closed my eyes, reveling in the connection I felt with him because of that kiss. It was so powerful, and all I wanted was to open everything I had to him and to give myself to him forever.
I pushed up enough to swing one leg over his and to sit straddling him. Once I was fitted against him, I clasped the sides of his stubbly face and kissed him from the bottom of my heart. It felt so good, brought us so close. My body pulsed and shivered…but that was it. There was no tightness or insistence in my core, no growing heat spreading through my body, and most significantly, no slick pooling within me or leaking out of me. My heart wanted everything, but my body was still dry as a bone and my womb was still asleep.
I heaved out a breath and turned my face away from Azurus.
“What?” Azurus asked, his voice low and dusky. I could feel the bulge in his trousers between my legs, but even that did nothing for me. “What is wrong?”
I swallowed hard and shook my head. “Nothing,” I lied. “We…we can continue. I’ll do whatever you want me to.”
Even saying those words made my voice quiver. Without my body producing any slick, making love, even with my fated mate, would be painful. In more ways than one.
Azurus stroked my side and leaned in to kiss me again, but I could tell he knew what my problem was.
