his arms, teasing Serek with it. When the baby reached out to grab the bait, Arysteon tugged it away, and Serek’s little hands clapped together. The baby giggled uncontrollably until the tail came within reach again and the process repeated.
Leyloni held many happy memories of her time with her tribe, and she would cherish every one of them until her last breath, but these moments with Serek and Arysteon…they had become her happiest. She never would have expected to find joy so soon after tragedy, and though none of this had freed her of her pain and grief, the joy shined all the brighter after so much darkness.
There was a future ahead of her. There was hope.
There was love.
As Leyloni ran her eyes over Arysteon, her smile softened, and her heart quickened. She took in his backswept horns, his tangle of long, blue hair, the flash of his fangs as he laughed, and the glow of his violet eyes. He was not human, would never truly be human, but none of that mattered to her. She knew what that warm, frightening feeling in her chest was.
She loved him.
She loved him, and that was equal parts thrilling and terrifying.
Everyone else she’d loved was gone. Loving Arysteon—and Serek, too—could not be separated from her fear of losing them. Just the thought of it made her heart ache, made a chill creep up her spine and dread pool in her belly.
Arysteon was powerful even in this form, but all his strength, all his lightning, could not protect them from every threat. He’d chosen her and a mortal life over his immortality. He was not invulnerable.
She’d known he had lived for hundreds of years, a length of time she couldn’t quite fathom, but she’d been stunned when he had told her he could have lived for thousands more had she not touched him. It had taken him some time for him to ease her horror after the realization of what that meant had settled in. He hadn’t simply given up his form for her, he’d given up countless years of his life.
Arysteon had assured her with indisputable vehemence that he wanted this—a mortal life with her. That what years he might otherwise have had without her would’ve been empty. That he did not regret their bond, that he did not regret his change.
His words had made her love him all the more.
Leyloni didn’t know what she would do if she lost him—if she lost either of them. Arysteon and Serek had become her life, her reasons to wake each morning, to smile and laugh and keep pushing onward.
As though sensing her thoughts, Arysteon turned his face toward her and met her gaze. All the love, joy, and desire brimming in Leyloni’s heart was reflected in his eyes. Her heart fluttered, and something deeper, something hotter, pulsed in her core.
His eyes flared a little brighter, his lashes fell lower, and his desire rose to the forefront. His gaze promised more pleasure than Leyloni could imagine, promised that he would make up for the last four days they’d endured without pleasuring one another due to her bleeding.
Since the night she’d used her mouth on him, he had refused further pleasure from her—he’d insisted that he would accept nothing if he could not properly give back to her. She’d argued that she took joy in giving it to him, that she relished his taste, but he’d still denied her.
Her mouth watered as she recalled the taste of Arysteon’s seed. It had been sweeter than honey, and she wanted more.
Arysteon flinched, turning his face away from Leyloni and breaking that heated connection.
Serek laughed, having finally caught hold of Arysteon’s elusive tail. The baby leaned his head forward to clamp his mouth around one of the bony spikes protruding from the tail’s tip. His little teeth clacked softly against the spike, and drool trickled from his mouth.
Leyloni laughed. “Once again, the patient hunter has caught his prey.”
“I shall count myself lucky that he does not have more teeth,” Arysteon replied with a chuckle. He returned his gaze to her; it still bore a hint of that heat. “Yet I must contest his victory. I was unfairly—though quite pleasantly—distracted.”
Leyloni couldn’t quell the swell of delight his words produced in her chest as she rose. With an exaggerated sigh and a barely suppressed smile, she said, “If that is what you must claim to protect your pride, dragon. I would not want you to face the shame of being bested by