All right.

And I assume you’re bringing that Rider with you?

Gaius laughed. You know my mate adores you.

She calls me the weak one!

With affection!

Oh, shut up and go to sleep.

I am tired. I’ll talk to you when we arrive back in the Southlands.

All right. And Gaius . . .?

Uh-huh.

I love you, brother.

And I love you, sister. Forever and always.

* * *

The two suns rose and Brannie instantly woke up. And, as soon as she did, she wished she didn’t have to.

She’d had too much to drink, that was for sure, but it didn’t matter, she’d had a great time. And now it was over. Done. She could walk away from Aidan and not look back. They’d just be good friends from now on with no regrets.

Pleased with that, she started to get up. She knew she’d have to get her troops moving. Bercelak wanted them heading back to Garbhán Isle in the next few hours and she wasn’t about to be the one to get on the wrong side of her cranky uncle.

But when she tried to get up, she realized Aidan’s arm was around her, holding her tight.

Laughing a little, she reached down to pull his arm away. But instead of human flesh . . . she felt scales under her talons.

Brannie froze, eyes wide. Especially when she realized that Aidan wasn’t just holding her . . . he was inside her. And his tail was entangled with her own.

“That mother—”

* * *

“—fucker!”

Aidan snapped awake, his arm reaching out for his sword, assuming he was under attack.

And he was . . . from Brannie.

“We had a deal!” she screamed at him.

“What?”

“You lying, son of a—”

Aidan grabbed her forearms to stop her from tearing his scales off and . . . and . . .

Oh, shit.

Aidan looked down at himself. He was dragon. Brannie was dragon.

And his cock was still wet.

Brannie swung at him, but Aidan rolled away and to his feet. They squared off against each other on either side of the cove.

“You tricked me!” she accused.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me! You got me drunk and you tricked me! But that doesn’t mean anything! That means nothing!”

“I tricked you? I got you drunk? Because suddenly I’m a human male and naturally do horrible things to females?”

Aidan used his tail to grab the bottle of Northlander ale. He held it in front of Brannie and flipped it over. Half the bottle—the remainder—poured out.

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.

“I’ve seen you put away three bottles of Rider ale that left you almost comatose. But half a bottle of Northlander ale that we shared? You might as well be drinking water.”

“Your point?”

“You weren’t drunk. We both knew what we were doing last night. We both remember every second of it. And since we’re putting it out there—”

“Don’t you dare say it.”

“—I’m in love with you. There. Said it. Now what? Now what are you going to do, Captain?”

The fireball hit Aidan right in the face and a lesser dragon would have been knocked back for miles, but his bastard brothers used to throw fireballs at him as entertainment from the time he could crawl.

But when the flames subsided, Brannie had flown off, leaving Aidan alone by the bay.

Head bowed, he took a moment to calm down. He wasn’t about to chase after her. Capture her. Chain her up. Demand she listen.

No, no. That’s how other dragons did things. Aidan was not like other dragons. He’d always known that long before Rhiannon the White had said as much to him upon their first meeting.

But he’d be damned if he’d let Branwen the Awful just storm out of his life!

If that crazy She-dragon thought it was over, she was very, very wrong.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Bram the Merciful stood on the top step and watched as Ghleanna dropped to the ground. She pulled in her wings, shifted to human, and walked toward him. Right behind her landed Brannie, and Bram let out a breath he’d been keeping in far too long.

Mother and daughter walked toward him, but Brannie was walking faster and Bram quickly realized his lovely daughter was pissed beyond all rational thought.

“Brannie?” he said as she walked past.

She stopped, came back, kissed Bram on the cheek, and then disappeared into the castle.

Ghleanna smirked as she walked up to him and hugged him tight.

“What’s happening?”

Laughing, she said, “You don’t want to know. I’ll just say . . . stay out of your daughter’s way for a bit.”

* * *

Celyn walked into the bedroom he shared with Elina Shestakova and stopped to stare at his baby sister’s feet sticking straight up in the air on the other side of the bed. He was sure it was her feet not only because of the size but because of the scar from where Celyn once bit her during a family brawl.

He moved farther into the room and found his sister was bent so that her head and most of her torso were under the bed.

Celyn placed his travel bag and sword in a corner, faced the bed, and took off running. When he was near the bed, he jumped, arms and legs spread wide, so that he landed hard on the mattress.

“Motherfucker!” his sister screamed out, the lower half of her body rolling forward so that her legs slammed into the floor.

Celyn laughed, even when his sister scrambled onto the bed and began pummeling him with her fists.

As he used his arms to protect his face, Elina and Kachka walked into the room, speaking to each other in their native language. Elina grabbed her bow and a quiver of arrows and left. Probably to do some hunting with Kachka.

“What, Kachka?” Celyn called out. “You can’t say hello?”

Kachka stopped in the doorway. “You are busy getting slapped like whore by own sister. Did not want to disturb.”

Elina closed the door, leaving Celyn alone with his baby sister and, by then, Brannie had worn herself out.

She stopped swinging her arms and dropped next to him, the pair gazing up at the ceiling.

“Feel better?” Celyn asked.

“What made you think something was wrong?”

“You only go upside down when you’ve had a bad day. The last time I saw you like that, you were pissed because Mum wouldn’t let you start your Dragonwarrior training. So what’s wrong now? Keita?”

“No. We found a way to work together.” Brannie turned her head to look at him. “Did you know she was a Protector of the Throne?”

“Everyone knows she’s a Protector of the Throne. I’ve told you myself that she was a Protector of the Throne, but you would just giggle and say, ‘Go on!’ After a while, I stopped trying to convince you.” He bumped her shoulder with his own. “Now tell me. What’s bothering you? It’s not a male, is it?” He frowned in disgust. “Please tell me it’s not a human man.”

“Gods, give me some credit!”

“But it is a male?”

“It’s nothing.”

“It’s not Caswyn, is it?”

Brannie snorted. “No. It’s not Caswyn.”

“Don’t give me that tone. You’re the one who’s always liked them big and stupid. Just tell me if you need me to beat someone up.”

“No.” Brannie scratched her head. “Probably not.” She let out a breath. “We’ll see.”

* * *

Aidan easily found his baby sister by searching in the rafters of the queen’s stables. She was curled into a corner, doing her best to stay as hidden as possible.

“Have you been living up here since I left?” he asked when he’d finally tracked her down.

Orla rubbed her nose with the back of her hand, smudging dirt across her lower cheek. “I like it up here.”

Aidan sat down on one of the wood beams across from his sister. “Where’s our mother?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen her in—”

“Years?”

“Months. I don’t think she’s missed me, though.”

“I hear there’s going to be celebrations tonight in the Main Hall. Are you coming?”