He frowned.Aodh didn’t like her bringing up other people into their bed, even if they were his past lovers.“That is over.Ninki knows she wasn’t meant for me as a mate.”
Kai arched a brow at him.It didn’t appear his words had convinced her, but she didn’t verbally contradict him.“What if I hadn’t come along?”
“The Great Spirit always gives us what we need when needed.Somehow, I would have found you.”
The brown coloring of her face deepened as she blushed.“So, you’re saying that because you believe I’m your mate, my becoming pregnant is the only way you can help your thunder?”
“Yes.”
“Does your dragon agree?”
Her golden-brown gaze held his.
Her eyes were unreadable.His beast was an entirely different discussion.He drew close.Ignoring her last comment, he said, “You understand now there can be no more talk of you taking Morlie and leaving.”
Kai drew her legs to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.“Aodh, caring for my sister is important.If I feel she is in jeopardy, I can’t promise I won’t do whatever I must to keep her safe.Give her a better life than we have had.”
“I understand your concern for Morlie’s well-being.”He cupped her face and made her look at him.“As Mckenna, I have my entire thunder to provide for.That means your place ishere.I will accept nothing else.”
When she remained quiet for a long moment, he called her name, “Kai?”
She ran a hand through her hair and exhaled.“Okay.Yes.I get it.”
He wasn’t sure if she did, but he would take her word at face value.Besides, he was the dragon-king, and his word was law.Soon, Kai would come to realize this fact.
Shifting, she slowly walked her fingers down his chest and caressed her abdomen as she smiled up at him.“So, think we should practice more of this baby-making business?”
“Practice is always good.”He hauled her up into his lap and made her straddle his hard length.As he claimed her mouth in a deep kiss and angled her hips forward so he could slide his cock into her tight sex, Aodh silently admitted he hadn’t shared all with Kai.However, he believed he needed to pace the information he gave her—she wasn’t from his world.The time would soon come when he had to tell her all.But for tonight, he’d enjoy showering her body with the attention they both needed.
~YH~
Something wasn’t right.
Morlie stood amid a group of people, strangers, dancing and laughing, but she knew something about how she was acting, and the feeling wasn’t right.She’d been sick for too long, feeling her body die away one breath at a time, not to know that this strength and energy coursing through her insides should not be happening.
The concern on her sister’s face didn’t help put her at ease, either.It was one of the reasons when Eilidh showed up and suggested they leave the room, Morlie had pressured Kai to let them go.She was feeling out of sorts with everything her sister told her.They were beyond the wall with a big group of people who could heal with smoke.
Smoke.Morlie inhaled deeply and filled her lungs with the air around her.She could smell a multitude of scents but no burning or heaviness in her chest as she would have assumed someone would have after spending over a week taking in smoke.No, she felt terrific and on edge.
That’s what she didn’t want her sister to know, the anxiety that filled the very marrow of her bones.There was a sense of expectation or anticipation she couldn’t quite put her finger on.It had stressed her out trying to decipher it—another reason she’d needed to leave the room.The last thing she wanted was to have Kai worry.Her sister already kept an eye on her as if Kai expected her to fall out at any moment.
Morlie had been glad when her sister had left the hall with the massive leader.Before she left, Morlie saw Kai glance at her, her face drawn with worry.Morlie’s heart had started to pound, not because of the exertion of dancing, but because she’d been concerned that Aodh had come to collect them and Kai would make her leave.To be locked in the beautiful room once again.
So, she made a point of smiling wider and waving her hands higher to show her sister she was okay.
When Eilidh returned to tell her that Kai was leaving and her new friend would get her back to her room when she was ready to go, Morlie sighed with relief.
She wasn’t a child who needed constant monitoring.
Kai could be smothering at times.Morlie understood it.How, for so long, the burden of it all had fallen on Kai after their parents passed on.But even while their parents were ill, Kai did everything.She barely allowed Morlie to help care for their parents when the cost of food and medicine forced Kai to take on extra jobs.But her sister had no choice because Kai was a lot of things but two people; she wasn’t.Kai couldn’t be in two places at once, so Kai would leave her with pages of instructions.Morlie had wanted to scream that she was young, but she wasn’t a baby.
Then their parents died, one after the other, and a few months later, she became ill.She hid it from Kai for months.Now, she was hiding something else.
“We’ll check you tomorrow, Eilidh,” Saphira said as Anguis wrapped his arms around her waist and started kissing her neck.
“I’ll be training with the growers early, so I’ll meet you here at midmeal.”Eilidh waved the two off, not seeming too pulsed at the wicked caresses her friends displayed.
Morlie noticed that Saphira barely acknowledged Eilidh’s words before she leaped off the floor and into Anguis’s arms, who rushed her out the door.
