Twiceborn Endgame (The Proving Book 3) (33 page)

I pulled back from Garth, giving myself room to admire his hard body. His sculpted chest was thick with hair, as were his arms and legs. Werewolves always had a lot of body hair. Just as well pretty smooth-skinned boys weren’t my thing.

His eyes opened, and his aura blazed with orange fire as he dragged himself fully from sleep. Like a wild animal, he seemed to have a sixth sense that told him when someone was staring at him.

“What?” His tone was gruff, but his lips curved in a welcoming smile. Those lips were full and oh-so-kissable, I was discovering.

“Nothing. Just admiring the view.”

“View, my arse.”

“I’m happy to look at that too. You might have to roll over, though.”

He growled, but he was still smiling. He looked ten years younger when he smiled, and he was smiling a lot these days. It was as if the goblins had stolen grumpy Garth and left this grinning changeling in his place.

“I was thinking about Jason,” I said.

He cocked one eyebrow. “Why? You fancy a threesome?”

“Get your mind out of the gutter.” I swatted at him, but he caught my hand and started trailing kisses up my arm. “I made sure to tell the girls all about him.” It had been a full and satisfying account of all my ex’s many character flaws. “There’s no way any of them could take him in, is there?”

“You asking me or trying to convince yourself?” His grey eyes sparkled down at me as he paused in his kiss trail.

“Bit of both. I can’t imagine that he’d manage to fool one of them, but you know what Jason’s like. He can be very charming when it suits him.”

“Forget him. He’ll probably go into real estate in some pokey little town and fleece rich divorcees out of their money.”

The thought was cheering. Not for the rich divorcees, of course, but the idea of Jason reduced to a salesman to make ends meet held definite appeal.

Garth had kissed his way to my shoulder, where he was distracted by my hair, drawing strands of it across his face, nuzzling into it.

“I’ve always had a thing for redheads, you know. Can’t believe I’m waking up next to one in my bed every day.”

I smirked up at him. “
My
bed.”

He gave me a challenging stare, then laughed, a sound of mingled joy and disbelief. “Our bed.”

“Yes.” I liked the sound of that. “Our bed.”

Our bed. Our lives, together now. I felt at ease with him in a way I’d never experienced with Ben. Garth not only accepted me for who I was—dragon and all—but rejoiced in it. The fierce pride and love I saw in his eyes when I took trueshape was a reflection of my own when I saw his wolf. Ben had never accepted me as a dragon, but with Garth there were no reservations. We were two predators together, glorying in each other’s strength and ferocity. Right for each other.

If only he’d been a dragon. Wolves lived no longer than humans did. Neither did half-breeds, who always inherited their human parent’s genetics, so Lachie was fully human. Whereas dragons … I pushed the thought away. It was unbearable that I would outlive both Garth and Lachie, probably by centuries. That future would destroy me.

Live in the now
. I reminded myself of that every day, seeing Lachie off to his new school.
Live for today
. So many joyful moments. My mother’s face when she realised her own daughter was the infamous queen of Sydney, oh, and by the way, her grandson wasn’t dead either. Meals around the kitchen table with the crew. Nights with Garth.
The present is all we have.

And the present was pretty damn hot, even if it had a shocking tendency to argue. I met those warm grey eyes and smiled. To think I’d ever found this man frightening. He was my joy, from his greying buzz-cut hair right down to his toes.

“I could eat you,” I whispered into his ear, then gave his earlobe a playful nip.

“I’d like to see you try.” He threw me onto my back, pinning me down with his naked body.

“Hold that thought.” I wriggled out from under him, feeling the loss of his warmth as I slipped out of the bed. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

He lay back, arms behind his head, and watched me as I crossed the carpet to the en suite. I shut the door and hurried through using the facilities, eager to return to him. As I washed my hands I leaned forward, checking myself in the mirror. I looked tired, which was hardly surprising given the events of the last few weeks. The delicate skin under my eyes was so grey it looked bruised. I needed to get some more sleep.

I couldn’t help grin at my own reflection. More sleep? What I was doing instead of sleeping was way more fun.

And then I saw something else … Surely it couldn’t be—? I leaned closer to the mirror, eyes widening in shock.

“Oh, my God!”

My shriek brought Garth slamming into the bathroom, stark naked but ready to do battle on my behalf.

“What’s wrong?” His gaze darted around the small room, as if he expected to find an assassin lurking in the bathtub.

With a sharp tug, I had it in my hand. My eyes filled with tears, but they were tears of relief, and I was still smiling as the tears welled over and rolled down my cheeks.

“I found a grey hair.”

“So?” He took the hair from me and dropped it on the floor, then enclosed my hands in his big ones. “I know I said I liked redheads, but really I don’t care what colour your hair is.”

A single grey hair. Such a small thing, but such a momentous meaning. He wasn’t seeing it, but I knew what it meant, and my heart filled with joy.

“Dragons don’t get grey hairs. Not until they’re centuries old. But humans do, even twenty-nine-year-old humans.”

He frowned at me, still confused.

“I’m unique among dragons, in that I have a human body. Sure, now it’s stronger and faster and has enhanced senses, blah, blah, blah, but it’s still basically human. That means—” My voice shook, and I had to swallow hard. “That means I’m only going to have a human lifespan.”

It was so enormous, I felt as if I’d just been handed the world’s greatest gift. I beamed at him through the tears, but Garth stared as if I’d lost the plot entirely.

“And that’s a good thing?”

“Of course it is! I’m not going to outlive you and Lachie!”

“Okaaay. Most people would be kind of happy to have the lifespan of a dragon.”

“Would they? Really? Sure, it sounds good on paper, but imagine seeing everyone around you die, while you go on and on into the centuries alone.”

“Well, I can see this causing a few problems with your sisters down the line. Another domain to fight over.” He shrugged. “But if it makes you happy …”

He was right, there could be problems when it came time to pass my domain on. But I had big plans, and hopefully by then my sisters—and the whole shifter world—would be used to a different style of rule. I meant to introduce a council to share my rule, with representatives from the main shifter groups. In time I hoped to persuade my sisters to do the same. Lessening the stranglehold the queens had on power would go a long way towards reducing the general resentment toward dragonkind.

Yes, big plans, and only a human lifespan to implement them. But I had a good team at my side, starting with this man.

“It does.” I threw my arms around him. “It makes me very happy indeed.”

“Then if you’re finished in here, come back to bed and make
me
happy.”

I scrubbed the tears from my cheeks. “You can’t boss me around, I’m your queen.”

“Yeah, you’re the boss. Whatever. So you can be on top.”

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed
Twiceborn Endgame
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If you enjoyed this trilogy, don’t miss the prequel, coming soon. You’ll find out how Garth became a werewolf, and what he did to get himself exiled from his pack. Sign up to my newsletter for updates on this and other new releases, plus $0.99 deals and book news.

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Thanks once again to my beta readers: Mal and Mal, Peter, Geoff, Chris, Pauline and Christine. Your feedback helped make this a better book and I’m very grateful to all of you. Thanks also to Lachie for his advice on airports.

Marina Finlayson is a reformed wedding organist who now writes fantasy. She is married and shares her Sydney home with three kids, a large collection of dragon statues and one very stupid dog with a death wish.