No wonder he’d avoided answering it. Now she felt terrible for having pressed the issue. “I like it, and it suits you better than Veles, I think.”
A twisted half smile curved his handsome lips. “I’m going to take that as a compliment.”
“Good, ’cause I meant it as one.… And tell me, Lord Falcyn, what does the dragon who has lived so long value?”
She realized too late that was the wrong question, as his eyes flared to a deep, dark red and he slowed his walk. More than that, he clenched his fists and lowered his head.
“Why would a Daimon leader want to know?”
“I was only making conversation. But I see now the depths of your mistrust. Not that I blame you. You’ve lived long enough to know better than to open yourself to a stranger. So I won’t fault you for that suspicion. You are a wise dragon, indeed.”
He pulled her to a stop. “Tell me what you value.”
“Nothing, really. Just my mother and Davyn. Some days my father and brother.”
“Only some days?”
She let out a bitter laugh. “Sad, right? I still barely know them. I want to love my father, but it’s hard to forgive him for what my mother went through. For all the centuries I watched her cry for him.”
“And what of Urian?”
“I love my brother because he’s my brother. But by the time I came to know him, he served Acheron—our worst enemy, who hunts us and who trains Artemis’s army to kill us. How can I trust someone who’s in service to my enemy? I understand his hatred of Stryker. I won’t fault him for despising someone who cut his throat and murdered his wife. But at the same time, I’m not dumb enough to trust Urian with anything more than a sister’s love. I carry no expectations of him beyond that.”
“Yet you sought him out in this matter?”
“Only because I trust in his love of Davyn. While I might not be able to put Urian at my back, his history with Davyn is such that I doubt he’d betray his one, true brother. They’ve bled far too often for one another in the past and have too much history with each other. I trust Davyn and Davyn trusts Urian.”
Falcyn scoffed as they came to a jagged edge. He turned to help her up the small embankment. “That is some screwed-up logic, my lady. Sad that I understand it and can relate. As you said, we are similar creatures.”
Medea didn’t speak as he lifted her effortlessly to stand by his side. He was a massive beast. Stronger than any man she’d been with in a long time. And she’d always been a sucker for great strength.
Worse was how much she liked the scent of his skin. He was intoxicating.
Even now, she could still taste his lips from the kiss he’d given her. And when he met her gaze, she knew that those thoughts were bare to his sage dragon sense.
Before she even realized what she was doing, she leaned in to kiss him again.
Falcyn closed his eyes as he tasted her and the sweetest passion he’d ever known. Unlike Tisiphone, she didn’t judge him for a birth he couldn’t help. Or think him unnecessarily harsh for the feelings and grudges he had against a brutal world.
She understood. Especially since she now knew he was a war god. A secret he never let anyone else know.
And he’d never been held by a similar creature before. Because dragons shared a common gene pool and history, he’d avoided sleeping with one, as he viewed all their females as his sisters.
His hatred for his mother had kept him away from demons. So most of his lovers had come from humans and the fey. Never had he been with an Apollite or Daimon. Since they were Greek in origin and he despised the Greeks for what they’d done to his race and his brethren, he considered them disgusting creatures.
Yet there was no scorn inside him for this woman. Not even a tiny morsel of it.
She fisted her hands in his shirt, pressing him closer against her body. Breathless, he deepened their kiss, wanting her more than he’d ever wanted anything.
Terrified of where those feelings might lead him, he tore away from her lips.
“Push me away, Medea,” Falcyn said raggedly. “Tell me how much I repulse you and that you don’t want anything to do with a sullen, self-pitying bastard who has no use for this world or any other.”
Medea frowned at his unexpected words. Who had said such to him?
“I don’t find you repulsive, dragonfly. Far from it.”
He cupped her face and stared at her. His eyes were dark and filled with a soul-deep torment she didn’t quite understand.
“Say it, Medea,” he insisted. “Because right now, all I want is to be inside you out here in the woods like the animal I am. And I know how very wrong it is to crave you when there’s nothing for either one of us. I know you deserve better and that we don’t have time for it. But honestly, I don’t give a shit about that or anything else. All I can think about right now is you and how much I want you.”
His words shocked her as much for his sincerity as for the ragged desperation she heard in his voice.
Worse, it made her body hot and shivery. Needful. Things she hadn’t felt in so long that she’d almost forgotten what it was like to be this way with another. This wasn’t just a biological itch. There was more to her feelings for him.
Something scary and demanding.
Something she didn’t want to deny.
She’d felt it since the moment she’d walked into Sanctuary and first seen him in the crowd.
Strange, she’d always wondered what it would be like to lay with one of the other species—either a man or Were. In her wildest fantasies, she’d sometimes imagined how they would take a woman. If they’d be violent or tender. Or as gentle as her own husband, who’d won her heart when she’d been nothing more than an innocent girl so long ago in their ancient world.
But it was this fearsome dragon who called out to her now. A fierce, harsh beast who held tolerance for none. His anger was so evident, it was practically tangible.
Don’t.
The word hovered in her mind like a breathless phantom. It would be all kinds of foolish to sleep with him. He was the son of two of the most powerful ancient bloodlines and she was the daughter of a cursed race and a god at war with his pantheon.
A race he hated. They had no future together at all. How could they?
She might even conceive his child. And then where would they be?
But instead of horrifying her as it’d always done in the past, the thought actually made her heart leap. The fear of having another child was no longer there. Because she knew that Falcyn would protect their baby with the same insanity that he used to keep Blaise safe.
That he used so that he could shield her.
How much more determination would Falcyn show for his own?
No …
This dragon wouldn’t allow a mere human to harm their baby. Ever. He would give his life before he saw it skin its knee. He’d be the kind of father she’d dreamed of. Unlike her own, he would never leave. Never allow his child to be alone or be harmed.
And for the first time in centuries, she saw a future for herself where she wasn’t alone. One that wasn’t bitter.
Stop it, Medea!
It was too late. The floodgate was open and all those repressed dreams rushed over her. All she’d ever wanted was a baby to love. A life to share with someone else.
Her mother had always said her reckless heart would lead her astray.
Today it had led her straight to Falcyn Drakos. And even though she knew this was complete and utter insanity, she refused to back down.
“Make love to me, Falcyn.”
9
Falcyn was completely stunned by her words. Medea was supposed to curse him and shove him away from her. Slap his face or cut out his heart.
She wasn’t supposed to want him.
A decent man would pull away from her. But he wasn’t decent. Nor was he a man. He was feral to the core of his dragon being and harder than hell. A dragon who took what he wanted, consequences be damned.
It was what had gotten him into trouble with Igraine. Drugged and reeling, he’d acted out with her in the heat of passion, and then paid dearly for it.
In the blink of an eye, and as a result, he’d lost everything.
Because he didn’t believe in rules or refinement. Those were for Max and his brothers and sisters. They were the ones who paid attention to Savitar’s rules and dictates. Those who abided by the pacts and politics of the gods.