Page 36 of Rurik
Rurik was silent for a long while before he spoke. “What do you know of dragonmating?”
She ran over the Brotherhood file in her mind. “Um…not a lot. They say you mate for life, but I assumed that was a cultural thing, old habits dying hard, or to keep the dragon linesgoing.”
“Well, dragons do mate for life, but there is more to it than that. When we mate another being, the bond is…” He murmured a few words in Russian, as though unsure how to describe it. “Unbreakable. That is the closest I can get to describingit.”
A prickling sensation skittered along her skin, lifting the fine hairs on herneck.
“Okay.” She held her breath as she waited for him tocontinue.
“We cannot mate just anyone. It has to be destiny. Atruemate. I once had a possible mate, but I never claimedher.”
“What happened?” She shifted to lie on her side against him in the massive tub. She was bothered by the idea that he might have loved another woman, yet had chosen not to. What made her situationdifferent?
“I never succumbed to the temptation to claim her as mine. The dangers were too great. And then she died a few months ago…” Rurik’s voice trailedoff.
Charlotte was torn. She wanted to comfort him, but she feared he would not acceptthat.
“I’m sorry,” she finallysaid.
He gave the barest hint of a nod. “It is dangerous for dragons to mate.” He lifted one hand and settled it on her hip beneath the hot water, holding herclose.
“Dangerous?” She couldn’t see how something like mating would be. Maybe he meant the consequences of being in theirworld?
“Yes. When dragons mate, it’s forlife.”
“But you’re immortal,” she added. “How can that bedangerous?”
“We bond so deeply to each other that when the mate dies, we die. And if we mate amortal…”
Charlotte realized just how short her life was compared to his. For a dragon, getting involved with a human was cutting your own life tragically short. Her stomach fluttered as she sensed there was something he still wasn’tsaying.
“Rurik, please just tell me.” She turned to face him, the water splashing as she straddled him. Despite the way their bodies intimately rubbed, she was determined not to get distracted. This was tooimportant.
“As I said, I had one possible true mate before, and she died. The grief I felt was great, because I realized all that I had missed in life. I feared there would never be another chance. Then I met you…and discovered you were a possible mate aswell.”
She couldn’t process what he was saying.A true mate? How was thateven…
“I mated you, Charlotte.” He cupped her face, his thumbs brushing over her cheeks in soothing strokes. “I didn’t want to, and I tried to stop…but you areirresistibletome.”
Mated. She was mated to Rurik. Charlotte still had no idea what thatmeant.
“But, wait, you didn’t want to?” She hung on that fact first, probably because it hurt themost.
His eyes, those pure jade pools, softened to a dark emerald that made her hungry for him. “Want? I’ve wanted you from the moment I saw you. But my position means I must protect the family first and foremost. If something happens to you, I will die. And my family will be left vulnerable.” He sighed, closing his eyes, and then inhaled deeply. “But I couldn’t stay away from you, even knowing all that. And then, when you begged me to biteyou…”
“How does it happen?” she whispered, her heart thudding against herribs.
“Mating is like two pieces of a puzzle sliding into place. We’ve gotten closer and closer since we danced at my club, and just now in bed, we stood no chance of resistingyou.”
She tilted her head. “We?”
He threaded a hand through her hair. “My dragon. He and I knew we had to haveyou.”
She cuddled closer, spellbound by the look in his eyes. “What does it mean that we’re mated now?” Part of Charlotte still couldn’t believe she was having this discussion, but she had to know everything about being mated tohim.
“We share memories. We see into each other’s hearts in a way that no other species can, because we share actual vivid experiences, even thoughts. It’s as though our beating hearts become one, and when one part dies, the other cannotsurvive.”
The weight of his words finally sank in, and Charlotte’s eyes filled withtears.
