on with your normal human lifespan, perhaps marry and have children, grandchildren, before you die—of old age, it is to be hoped.”
That didn’t sound too bad. For her. “I asked what would happen to you.”
“Things will be different for me.”
Her gaze sharpened. “Vladimir, what will happen to you? I want the truth!”
He sighed. “I will spend the rest of my long life unmated and alone.”
From the bleakness in his eyes, Tanya sensed there was much more to it than that, that “unmated and alone” comprised so much more than simple aloneness. “There really is only one fated mate for a dragon shifter.”
“Yes.”
“And I’m it for you?”
“Yes.”
“So my refusing you would make the rest of your longevity a living hell?”
He gave a self-derisive snort. “Is this when you tell me you will never be my mate under any circumstances, and so ensure my living hell?”
Months ago, Tanya would have done exactly that, and felt triumphant doing so. She would also have considered it a suitable revenge for her parents deaths. She no longer felt that way.
Not only didn’t she feel that way, but she couldn’t bear the thought of a man as proud and fierce as Vladimir suffering such a bleak future.
She straightened. “How do we become mates?”
Vladimir studied her for several seconds before answering. “By an exchange of blood.”
She grimaced. “Really? Because I don’t like the taste of blood. At all.”
Vladimir smiled slightly at her expression. “It is not as unpleasant as it sounds. In fact, I am told it is quite…erotic.”
Tanya’s cheeks warmed. “In what way?”
He held her gaze with his as he spoke. “Unlike the Pendragon brothers, who bite the back of their mate’s neck during sex and inject the mating aphrodisiac while receiving some of their blood, I will bite the juncture between your neck and shoulder—”
“During sex?”
“During lovemaking,” he corrected evenly. “I will suck blood from the bite, and you will do the same to ingest blood from my wrist. That blood exchange will course throughout our bodies, binding us in unimaginable ways and making us mates for life.”
She swallowed. “And how do I suck blood from your wrist when I don’t have sharp dragon teeth to bite through your skin?”
“I will have opened the vein for you before making my own bite on your neck.”
It all sounded… Well, it sounded…
Considering the tingling and swelling of her breasts, her nipples having become hard and sensitive, and the warmth spreading rapidly between her thighs, her body seemed to think the mating ritual sounded as erotic as Vladimir had said it was.
“Does the blood exchange do anything else?” She gave a chuckle. “I’m not suddenly going to become a dragon shifter too, am I? Vladimir?” she questioned sharply when he didn’t answer.
He sighed. “The truth is I have no idea what will happen because there is no history of us mating with a human.”
“Apart from Karl.”
“Yes,” he acknowledged evenly.
“What happened to the woman he’d mated?”
“The mating had been completed and so she died not long after my brother. Which is why,” he added grimly, “you must be very sure before any of the mating takes place between us.”
“Because if I change my mind, as she did, after the full mating, the two of us will die too?”
“Yes.”
Tanya looked at him searchingly. “You really don’t know whether I’ll be able to shift into a dragon afterward, do you?”
He shrugged. “As I said, there is nothing in our history of mating with a human who has been proven to carry dragon DNA upon which to base my answers.”
“What of the Pendragon brothers’ human mates?”
“I believe they now have enhanced senses and a mental connection with their mate, which allows them to ‘talk’ to each other, but they cannot shift into a dragon or fly.”
“It seems a little unfair if you can fly off any time you feel like it while I’d be the little woman left at home.” Was she pouting her disappointment? It certainly felt like it. Vladimir’s indulgent expression also seemed to indicate that’s what she was doing.
“You are not in any way, shape, or form, the little woman,” he assured. “Nor could you ever be, able to shift into dragon or otherwise.”
But it would be rather spectacular to be able to shift into a dragon before stretching her wings and taking to the sky at Vladimir’s side—
Was she seriously thinking of becoming not only Vladimir’s fated mate but also his dragon queen?
“You do not have to decide any of this now, Tanya,” he soothed. “The two of