“As you wish.” Shane slid into her, his hands gripping her horns to hold her steady. Or so he told her. “I wouldn’t want you to think I was trying to disobey and get you to come just by stroking them, right?”

She growled. “Stop and die, Shane.”

He kissed the tip of her nose. “Tá mo chroí istigh ionat.”

She didn’t even know what it meant, but she looked up at him with love. “Tá mo chroí istigh ionat.”

Shane began to move inside her, desperate now to feel her come around him. “My heart is within you,” he translated. He wanted her to know exactly what he said to her, what she meant to him.

She cupped his jaw. “My heart is within you.” She gasped, shivered and came, squeezing his cock like a vise.

He kept his movements smooth, nowhere near ready to come. “A grá, mo saol.”

She panted beneath him, a small smile on her lips. “A grá, mo saol.”

He shuddered as the Gaelic phrase dripped effortlessly from her lips. “My love, my life.”

Akane’s eyes cleared. She gazed up at him, her expression fiercely possessive. “My love. My life.”

Shane jerked, startled, as his orgasm tore through him, blinding him to everything but his wife’s brilliant, loving gaze.

Akane held Shane as he panted, exhausted, above her. His back was slick with sweat, his hair, that beautiful red-gold hair, darkened still by his run-in with Black Court poison. Her jaw clenched, cold fury overriding everything else. Shane belonged to her, and someone had almost taken him. “I almost lost you.”

“You didn’t.” He lifted his head, the weariness he’d fought to pleasure her deepening his blue eyes nearly to black. Dark circles ringed them. He’d made love to her without his Seeming, but his vibrant colors were dulled. A faint scar remained from where Jaden had first cut him, a vivid reminder of what had almost happened.

“Sleep, love.” She caressed his hair, smiling when he leaned into her palm. “Rest. I’ll protect you.”

He smiled against her hand. “I know.”

The utter confidence in his reply, the complete faith in his gaze almost undid the fury.

Almost.

“When do you go hunting?”

She blinked. “After.” He tilted his head, but the yawn he’d been fighting ever since he came broke free. “After I’m sure you’ve rested.”

Shane kissed her gently. “I just Bound you. You should be exhausted.”

She allowed her brows to rise arrogantly. She was a dragon. She could go days without sleep if she absolutely had to, but she’d pay for it by sleeping for days on end.

It was worth it, for Shane.

“Ruby was out for days when Leo Bound her. From what my parents tell me it was one of the strongest Bonding rituals they’d ever witnessed. Akane? I think ours was just as strong.”

Ruby was human. Akane was not. “Our lives are one now.” She could feel him inside her, his exhaustion threatening to drag her down too. “I need you to rest, Shane.” She licked his chin, tasting salt and Shane. “Rest for us.”

For just a split second his expression was shocked before carefully blanking once more. “Oh.”

“What?”

“I just understand what something meant, that’s all.” He rolled off of her, leaving her cold. “Good night, a ghrá.”

She sniffed. “You’re evil.” Now she was going to wonder all night what he was talking about.

“I know.” He pulled her into his arms and she curled around him, kept her mate warm when exhaustion proved too much for the hybrid to hold off any longer.

Akane almost blew a raspberry, but the man had finally fallen asleep, truly asleep, for the first time since he’d been taken. She rubbed her hand up and down his side, enjoying the feel of his warm skin. He’d been so cold when she’d first found him she’d been afraid he’d never be warm again.

Akane stopped, frowning when she noticed something on her arm. She lifted her hand and had to stifle a gasp. On her forearm was a golden spiral triskele, three joined, glittering swirls of light bound in the center by a single symbol. The center of the triskele was a dragon curled around a golden human form. The arms of the triskele rotated away from the dragon and her mate, the golden spirals glittering in the light like a Sidhe’s skin. Akane smiled at the sign that her mate accepted her protection until she got a closer look at the figures.

The tiny human figure held a dagger in one hand and a shield in the other.

Akane tsk’d. Why was she not surprised? “Stubborn man.”

Shane shifted against her, and Akane held her peace, afraid she’d wake her sleeping mate.

Shane woke to the knowledge that his wife was no longer in bed with him. “Damn it.” He shifted, stretching before he opened his eyes. “Akane?”

Silence. His wife was gone, probably out hunting the ones who’d harmed him. He wasn’t surprised. She’d been ready to hunt last night, but his exhaustion and her need to protect had overwhelmed her need to hunt. Shane slipped out of bed and headed for the shower, eager to get the dirt of the day before off his skin. He turned on the bathroom light and reached for his toothbrush. His mouth tasted like an open sewer grate. He had the feeling if he lit a match and blew he’d breath flame like his lover.

His hand froze as he got his first good look at himself. “Son of a bitch.” Shane reached up and fingered his hair. He’d forgotten to slip his Seeming back on the night before, and now he was seeing the effects of the poison Klaussner had pumped into him.

“Akane’s going to freak.” His hair was definitely a shade or two darker than it had been, the gleaming copper tarnished. The gold dust of his skin had also darkened, shadowed by poison. He blew out a quick, shaky breath of relief when he realized his eyes had remained the same sapphire blue as always.

He started the shower, hoping against hope the last of the darkness would wash off, but no such luck. The water was disturbingly clear of fae grime. The only thing that washed away was the dirt of the circle he’d fried in and the blood that had seeped from his wound. Shane fingered the cut, grateful Akane had figured out the solution before it had been too late. If she hadn’t burned out the parasite he’d be heading straight for the Black Court and a life of horror as Bres’s bitch.

Still, the one thing he’d expected to happen hadn’t yet. He was glad the initial ordeal was over, but if his vision had been correct then something else still needed to occur. Something painful.

Shane was still marked, but it was faint, a hint of what could have been. If Akane had delayed at all he’d be forever tainted, yearning for darkness in his soul. A daily battle within himself he could eventually lose, giving the Dark Queen access to his visions and an edge given to no other court. Access to possible futures was something the Seer made sure was either withheld completely or given to all courts equally. If the Dark Queen could have a sane seer at her command it had the potential to take the animosity between the courts and force it into open warfare.

Shane shivered, a chill racing across his skin at the thought. He upped the hot water, hoping to drive the coolness back, but the shivers intensified. Something stabbed him behind his eyes, the vision painful, eager to be built of glass, metal…and blood.

Oh. Shit.

Another vision hit, this one even more violent than the first one. Shane’s back bowed, his head aching, his hands twitching. He had to bring the vision to life. He had to.

The vision switched, changed into a new one, and Shane realized what was going on. It had finally hit, and now Shane would have to do his best to ride it out. If things went well, the prophecy would be fulfilled. He didn’t want to think about what would happen if it did not. The possibilities were endless, the visions of what could happen in the worst case scenario, torturous.