“You lost your dragon on purpose?”
“No,” he said without hesitation. “I didn’t think they could actually take him. I believe in consequences, though. I burned a town. I’ve burned several towns, but I got busted in Covington. I saw Torren go headfirst into that fight with the gorillas and the Dunn lions. He was protecting his sister and his sister’s crew, but I always have his back. So, I let the dragon have me. And I didn’t even try to stop his rampage. I just…let him do what he wanted, consequences be damned. Then I ran to my mountains, and I started thinking. And I thought and thought and thought. And my dad was telling me I needed to listen to that one-year sentence. He wanted to smooth things over with the humans and keep peace between them and shifters. He’s worked very hard to protect shifters. I understood why he wanted to give me up to the system. I hated it. Hated him for it. I wanted him to pick me over everyone else. Pick me over his precious crews, but the more I sat in my mountains, thinking, the more it made sense. The biggest change in me happened when Torren, Nox, and Nevada decided we were a crew, not just a dysfunctional group of friends thrown together. They made me alpha, and I’m shitty at it, but I don’t want to be bad at this forever. I got this deep instinct to protect them. I loved…” Vyr swallowed hard, his muscular throat moving with it. “I love them. If I didn’t come here and ride out my time, it would affect their whole lives. Our crew would always be on the run, always looking over our shoulders, and eventually they would get hurt protecting me. And that’s not how it should be. I should be the one protecting them. This time in here makes me feel like I’m a better alpha because I put them first, before myself. Before my dragon. And now I understand why my dad wanted me in here. I can see how his protective instincts over all those people in his mountains, over all shifters, could drive him to give up his son. And especially if he thought he was teaching me a lesson like the one I’m learning.”
“What lesson?”
“How to be a good alpha. And I know what I am. I am total destruction. I know what I’m capable of. I accepted it a long time ago. I had to. It was time for me to come here and pay the consequences for my actions. I will always miss the dragon.” He cleared his throat and gave his attention back to the floating stars. “I’ll never feel whole. There will always be a huge part of me missing, and I will live a half-life. I’ll always hate the people here for what they did. I’ll fight bitterness for the rest of my life. I’ll fight the emptiness. I won’t have a single easy day because every time I look in the mirror, I’m going to hurt. There’s no accepting the loss of my dragon, but I had to do this. For my crew.”
“Vyr,” she whispered, her voice breaking. She wished more than anything that she could fix his life. She had this vision of him staring in the mirror and slamming his fist against the glass, over and over, and in each frame he aged until he was gray and tired, and still, he hated his frozen dragon eyes. She was going to watch the man she loved break every day because of what happened here.
“I like what you’re wearing today,” Vyr murmured.
She looked down at her dark wash jeans, sneakers, and plain, black, fitted, cotton T-shirt. She’d dressed it up with cute turquoise jewelry, but it was the most casual thing she’d worn since she started working for the prison. “Emmitt called my high heels victim shoes, and lately it feels like I need to be ready.”
“For what?”
“For total destruction,” she said with a smile.
“I should tell you I’m not a good man. I stole a lot of things from you without you knowing. Sometimes I spend time with you in your head when you don’t realize it. Quietly. Picking through memories. Learning about you.”
“Why do you do that?”
“Because I can’t get enough of you. I want to know everything. You’re so light. So optimistic, so beautiful inside and outside. I like everything about you. Even the things you’re ashamed of. I like that your favorite color is rainbow.” He chuckled. “Whose favorite color is all of them?”
She snorted. “Mine.”
“And I like that you eat a carton of chocolate chip cookie dough when you’re upset and that you’re fine with boxes all over your house, which is insane because I’m extremely tidy. But I imagine you leaving your shit all over my house and how it’ll make me feel.”
“How will it make you feel?”
“Like you’re everywhere. Like you’re filling up all the space that used to be boring. I think a week with you, and I’ll have trouble remembering my old life.”
Her stomach fluttered. She slid over to him, pressed right against his ribs, and rested her cheek on the inside of his shoulder. He was looking at her with that same crooked smile she couldn’t get enough of.
“What else did you learn while you were being a memory thief?”
“That you want kids, but you’re afraid they would have your powers.”
“Yeah, well now I’m double concerned because you have, like, eight guards in comas, and with very little effort.”
“And I’ve turned off all the cameras for the entire lower level. One hundred percent, any babies I put in you would be little hellions. But…they would also be good. You know how I know?”
“How?” she asked softly.
“Because you would be their mother. And I can see you so clearly, Riyah. You told me once that you’re the monster, but you were wrong. You’re good.”
“A good witch,” she teased.
And he agreed. “A very good witch.”
Vyr lifted up and rolled her onto her back, cupped her cheek as he searched her eyes. Riyah gripped his wrist to keep him touching her like this. Above him the glowing stars were still rotating slowly. It was amazing the things he could control all at once when he didn’t even look like he was focusing on them.
His lips curved into a smile just as he leaned down and pressed them to hers. It was so different from their first kiss, which was rushed and violent, and his hand had been so rough on her leg. This one was love, not lust. It was tender. It was soft sipping and steady breathing and lips moving together. When he brushed his tongue against her bottom lip, she opened for him. He didn’t taste like smoke anymore, and there was a moment when that made her sad, but she squeezed her eyes closed and focused on enjoying their time together because they might not get this again. Vyr dragged his fingertips down her ribs to her hip, gripped her, and pulled her against him with a deep, sexy sound in his throat. His touch was fire, blazing against her skin as he slid his hand up her shirt. He pushed under her bra and gripped her breast so hard she gasped and her back arched on reflex.
“Mmmm, good girl,” he rumbled.