“Whichever one calls to you,” I say, then feel like perhaps there should be some kind of ceremony to this and rise from the table. Facing him, I pick up the three remaining rings and hold them in my palm. As he glances over them, Ström frowns.
Then reaches out a hand—hesitating over mine.
“Never thought I’d get hitched this way. Or at all, for that matter.” Ström gives a wry chuckle as his green eyes sparkle. I can feel the tension in him, though, the uncertainty about what’s going to happen, as he hesitates.
I get it; like me, Ström never felt like he’d ever get hitched, at all. He’s been the consummate playboy his entire life, except for when he was bound to Alfhild. Some part of him never thought he’d get true love like we share now. I reach out with my free hand, gripping his hand down at his side.
Ström startles, then grips my hand back. He threads his fingers through mine, lifting our free hands up to his lips. As he kisses my fingers, he sighs.
Then the emerald in his eyes shines, like oceans aflame.
“I’d die for you. You know that? A thousand times over.” Ström runs his thumb over mine as we hold hands.
“No less than I would for you.” I give him a soft smile, everything inside me beaming to be doing this with my best friend.
“I know that, too.” Ström smiles at me, beautiful and wistful. I feel our hearts come together in that moment. I feel our inner dragons twine together, so lovely and fully in love, passionately quiet in a way none of my other drakes can match.
Just like that, a beautiful dark fire springs to life in my palm. I feel it as Ström reaches in, drawn towards one ring that has a strange fire opal that glints green and red with gold.
That fire opal matches one on my ring that’s right near my dragon’s taloned hand. Ström takes his ring, then hands it to me, calm now. I place it on his left ring finger, holding his gaze as I feel our beautiful hearts burn.
A dark flare of magic floods out around us as Ström puts the ring on. As with Bjorn, it hauls us together, as I feel our inner dragons rush into each other and become one.
Unlike the pummeling blaze of heat and power I experienced with Bjorn, however, that just drove us to fuck, this resonance with Ström is far more subtle.
Passion like I’ve never known fills me, deep love like the furthest depths of the ocean, as Ström takes me in his arms. I feel the darkest and brightest parts of our hearts connect as he smiles at me, beaming as he touches my cheek.
When we kiss, it’s with all the love of our hearts in our lips, in our bones, and in our veins. Because I get to marry my best friend. Not everyone can do that, as I kiss Ström now with a love none other of my drakes can match.
“I love you.” I murmur at his lips.
“I know.” He quotes Han Solo inStar Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, which makes me smile, beaming from my heart as I grin. But then he gets serious. “I love you, too, Rikyava. To the end of the world and back. I do.”
“I do, too.”
As Ström and I both heave hard breaths, I know our moment is complete. We thread our hands with our rings together; I feel the massiverush of power that surges through us, twisting our dragons up and through each other, hard.
Even though it spikes my blood to consummate things with Ström like I already did with Bjorn, we have others to address. Softly, I kiss Ström’s lips again, letting him know we’ll finish this. He chuckles beneath my lips, letting me know he gets it.
Then he slaps my ass as I turn towards Mikkel.
22
TOGETHER
Ileave Ström with a laugh, before I have to get it together and give a ring to my Third Drake. Mikkel is pensive as he rises from the table, staring down at the rings in my hand. I feel his vast inner conflict as we stand together. Because although Ström felt he neverwouldget married, thanks to the number Alfhild did on him in his youth, Mikkel feels like he nevercouldget married. Because of his inner beast, Mikkel has felt unlovable his entire life.
Like he could never dare let anyone in far enough to see the real him, except Lærke.
He’s silent now as we stand together, gazing at the rings. There are only two left, and the one that is Mikkel’s is obvious. A fire opal with a strange vein of black running through it, the opal has bright streaks of copper along with shimmering light green cracks. It matches one in my ring, right near my silver dragon’s tail. I feel Mikkel’s wretched heartbreak as he looks at his ring.
Then reaches out to touch it, skating his fingers over it.
“I never dared to hope,” he says, quiet now as he takes it. As he claims it, a deep heave runs through our dragons, pulling them close as his gazeflicks to mine. As he holds the ring, I see the chartreuse in his eyes is vivid, but also the copper.
The eyes of Mikkel’s dragon searing out from his impossibly handsome face.
“Because of what I am, I never dared to hope I could ever be life-mated.” Mikkel gazes at me, intense. “I thought I could not be loved. I thought I could not love, being what I am.”
