When Tyrez began to stroke, sending electric jolts through her, Dani desperately tried to disengage. She was just a voyeur in all this. This wasn’t her body. It had assets that a female body lacked.
But she was trapped inside the big shifter’s mind. She couldn’t pull free.
Then she was yanked in another direction, swept up in Ash’s raw, achingneed. She trembled as every nerve came alive, and her body arced against the stone.
When Tyrez pulled Ash’s wrist to his lips, and sank his teeth in, the world exploded, carrying her away on wave after wave. Dani’s body writhed, and she cried out.
“Hey. Are you okay?”
Dani blinked up into a set of dark eyes framed by red hair. The Dire alpha, Alex.
Her face flamed as red as his hair. She rose to shaking feet and struggled to get her breathing under control. He raised a brow, his nostrils flaring.
“I’m fine,” she said, fighting the waves that still throbbed through her.
The second brow joined the first. “You’re sure? You—cried out.”
“Yeah. Sorry about that.” Dani pushed past him, wincing as he stiffened—her scent must be like a beacon to a Dire. Fortunately, this one was safely mated to another.
He stared at her oddly. The mate bonded Dire wouldn’t be any stranger to mindlinks, but he’d have no reason to suspect she was part of one. She escaped back up the tunnel and took the fork that led to her quarters much higher in the cave complex. Her heart hammered and refused to calm.
No matter how hard she tried to block it, the sensations played over and over again, and her body trembled.
But she needed to get a handle on this. Because neither of those Dragons were hers.
And they never would be.
* * *
With a last blaze of scarlet glory, the sun vanished below the horizon of the Gryphon realm. The night wind ran across Ash’s scales and through the golden hair drifting around his crest spines, lifting it as though it had a life all its own.
Below him, ran the path he’d climbed to reach the peak of this mountain. The mountain range rose at his back and the grasslands stretched out before him. This high up, he could see how they carpeted the ground for miles, fading to the horizon beyond where even his Dragon eyes could see.
They were alive, those grasslands. Home to millions of tiny creatures concerned only with filling their bellies or finding a mate.
They needed to run. Now. Far and fast, from what was coming.
The timelines never lied, but they could be deceiving. He’d climbed up here to get away from the busy mountain, in order to make another attempt at getting the timeline. They knew Rindek was coming, but they desperately needed to know when.
No matter how he pushed, he still hadn’t nailed it down. So Ash had clambered up here. Even shifted to Dragon, hoping it might add clarity—his most vivid revelation had happened right after he’d transformed.
But nothing.
Tyrez was helping his brothers deep inside the mountain. He was only a mental whisper away, but Ash let him be. Much as Tyrez helped him sift through the surface confusion, Ash had to work to keep some things hidden deep within him.
Even thinking of the turquoise Dragon caused his blood to heat. With the power of what now linked them, it was difficult to keep his secret buried. But he was driven to do so. Because if Tyrez caught even a glimpse of what Ash could foresee, it could end it all.
Their only chance was for Ash to keep those futures a secret. What they revealed made every moment he shared with the big Dragon more precious than his own lifeblood.
He only hoped Tyrez would forgive him, if by some miracle, they saw this through.
Below him, the mountain teemed with new life. Dires, hundreds of them, had been pouring all day through the gates the Watchers had built in the foothills. They’d filled the lower caverns and tunnels in human form to conserve space.
Ash closed his eyes. He could foresee them. Milling around, standing in groups, but always with their packs. Packs linked by family ties tended to get along with each other, and the Dragons had respected those ties. Those with close family links would fight better together.
Ash’s heart fluttered. Maybe they weren’t real. They could be another trick of his talent, showing him things that might come true, but might not.
No, they are real, my golden one. It’s noisy as hell down here.
