Page 45 of Visions of You
"Yes." Jaron shifted closer to Keegan on the bed, their thighs now touching. "A dragon's mate isn't chosen by fate. Not really."
"Oh?" Keegan made no effort to move away.
Jaron looked down at their thighs, organizing his thoughts. How to put into words a truth that was as old as his kind? "A dragon's mate is the other half of his soul, separated by the goddess a long, long time ago," he recited the stories he'd heard growing up. "If the two halves meet again, they cannot be kept apart, but not every dragon finds their mate. In fact, most dragons never do."
Keegan's gaze fixed on Jaron. "So, you're saying our meeting was more like a cosmic coincidence than fate?"
Jaron waved the question away. That wasn't the part that mattered. "I don't know if it was fate that led me to you, but I know it wasn't fate that made you my mate." He reached out, his fingers gently tracing the line of Keegan's jaw. "You would be my other half regardless."
"Is that so?"
"Yup." Jaron put both of his hands on Keegan's shoulders and pushed him backward until he lay on his bed. Then he climbed on top of him, pinning him to the mattress. He half expected Keegan to fight the treatment, but he didn't. Instead, he gazed back up at him with those piercing blue eyes that always seemed to see more than anyone else did, making Jaron's heart race as he looked down at the vampire, his mate, the missing piece of his soul. That moment, he wanted nothing more than to claim him, to make Keegan his in every way possible.
"I don't care about fate." Jaron leaned down, pressing his forehead against Keegan's. "I care about you."
"You don't know me."
"And yet my soul recognizes yours." Jaron leaned up and smiled his best smile, knowing it would disarm Keegan.
Keegan huffed. "You're being corny."
"Maybe, but I'm not wrong. You and me, we're meant to be together. You know it's true." He kissed the corner of Keegan's lips. "I care about you."
Keegan let out a shuddering breath, his eyes closing. For a few seconds, they stayed like that, frozen in time.
"I wish…" Keegan started, then paused. He opened his eyes, meeting Jaron's gaze with a look that spoke of all the longing he kept in his heart, all the things he hid from Jaron for reasons Jaron could not understand.
"Tell me," Jaron urged. "What do you wish?"
Keegan smiled at him then, but there was a sadness to the curve of his lips. "I wish our story could end happily."
Jaron swallowed hard at the weight behind those words. This was more than Keegan had been willing to share so far. He'd seen some kind of terrible ending for them—and no way to avoid the tragedy.
No wonder he was so reluctant to give in to their connection.
But Jaron refused to surrender. "How far away is our ending?"
"I'm not sure," Keegan admitted.
"Days, months, years?" Jaron prompted.
Keegan hesitated. "Impossible to tell."
"In that case," Jaron leaned close to press a gentle kiss to Keegan's neck, breathing in the scent of him, "shouldn't we make the most of the time we do have?"
Keegan's hands slid over his shoulders and into his hair. "I don't?—"
Before Keegan could finish that sentence, Jaron kissed him, effectively shutting him up. Whatever Keegan had been planning on saying, Jaron knew he wouldn't want to hear it. So what if this was going to end badly? Was that reason enough never to have it in the first place? Never to have each other?
No. No, it wasn't.
It didn't matter that he wasn't going to get a fairy tale ending. He'd never expected one.
Even if he only got to spend a few days with his true mate, that already made him luckier than he'd ever thought he would be. Luckier than most other dragons out there.
Oh how they'd laughed at him on the playground, the little dragon who couldn't breathe fire. 'Not a real dragon,' they'd called him. Well, who was laughing now, huh? He had something they would never have. He'd found his other half.
He wouldn't give that up for anything, no matter the consequences.
