Deryk (Dragon Hearts #2)(28)

He nodded. “I’ll mention it to Grigor when I return to the palace.”

“How did your brother get here so quickly?”

“He was spending some time at his cave in Alaska. We all have a cave, Izabella,” Deryk added dryly at she raised her brows. “Our dragons occasionally need that solitude. More so of late, when the drive to mate seems to have become more intense for all of us.”

“Where’s your cave?”

“Scotland.”

“I— If we mate, will you take me there one day?”

“If you want to go, yes, of course. Anything I have, all that I am, is now yours, Izabella.”

Izzi wanted to be angry with Deryk for putting her in this irredeemable position. But the more he told her about dragons, the more she realized he was as helpless against this mating as she was. Given a choice, she doubted he would have chosen a twenty-two-year-old Russian virgin as his mate.

So what did they do?

Both make the best of it?

Or both die?





Chapter 10


“Are you absolutely sure you want to do this?”

Was Izzi absolutely sure she wanted to become the fated mate of a dragon shifter?

Absolutely not.

Was she absolutely sure she didn’t want to die, or for Deryk to die either?

Absolutely yes.

“It seems we have no other choice if we both want to live,” she told Deryk firmly.

At her instigation, the two of them had returned to the privacy of her apartment to complete their mating rather than going back to the palace. Izzi would have felt distinctly uncomfortable having full-blown sex with Deryk with her parents in the same building.

“We don’t have to rush this,” Deryk insisted. “We have time.”

“A little under three weeks to decide whether to live or die?” she scorned. “I already know I’ll choose to live.”

“I still think you should take the time you have left. To allow yourself more time to accept the mating. To accept me.”

She gave him a mocking glance. “I doubt three weeks is long enough for me to accept either of those things, so why wait?”

“All this will become even more intense once we’re properly mated,” he warned. “Once I’ve bitten you to complete the mating, your blood mixing with mine and your body taking in more of the aphrodisiac, the two of us won’t be able to be apart for too long at any one time.”

Izzi frowned. “You already told me that, and said you’re willing to remain in Russia until after I’ve finished my degree.”

“If Vlad gives his permission for me to do so, yes.” He nodded tersely.

She looked at him searchingly. “Is there now some reason why you think he won’t do that?”

Deryk grimaced. “Apart from the fact I made it perfectly clear earlier I think he’s an arrogant asshole, and he made it equally as clear he believes the same about me?”

“That’s because you’re both alpha males,” Izzi dismissed ruefully.

He nodded “From totally different dragon clans.”

“Because your mother is a goddess?”

“That’s part of it, yes. But there could be other differences too that I don’t know about without talking more in depth with the Romanovs.” Something he doubted was going to be possible right now.

“Such as?”

“We have almost three weeks to talk about them.”

“What else are you hiding from me?”

“I’m not deliberately hiding anything from you.” His gaze met her searching one unflinchingly. “I just don’t want to overwhelm you with too much information all at once.”

Considering Izzi was still having trouble accepting the whole mating concept, perhaps Deryk was wise to do that. “How did you and the Romanov dragons meet?”

He smiled. “Grigor and Vlad got into a fight.”

“Oh my God… Who won?”

“According to Grigor, it was a draw. We’re now all trying to work together in our search for our mates but this visit to Russia has shown that cooperation is better done from a great distance than in each other’s faces.” Deryk’s nostrils flared. “If I remain here, I would have to learn to curb my natural instinct to rip Vlad apart.”

She laughed softly. “Poor Deryk.”

“You have no idea!”

Oh, Izzi believed she did. She had lived with Vlad Romanov’s arrogance all her life, and she’d had plenty of opportunity to witness Deryk’s for the past two days too. It didn’t surprise her in the least that the two alpha dragons were at loggerheads. “But you would do it for me, wouldn’t you,” she prompted.

“I would, and will, do anything for my mate.”

“Then we don’t have a problem.”

Deryk’s eyes narrowed. “It also works in reverse, Izabella. That’s something else you need to realize about mating a dragon. Our hearts will be joined. Our bodies will crave each other. Our emotions will be open to each other. Our thoughts too, once the mating is established. And our memories. You will never be able to hide anything from me.”

“Or you from me?”

“Yes.”

She tilted her head, noting the shadows now in those magnificent golden eyes. “Do you want to hide anything from me?”