Maiden Flight

  *

  “So you have claimed your mate. You know what this means, don’t you?” Kelvan’s voice sounded through Gareth’s mind the next day, lower than usual and more excited. Kelvan looked over at his partner with a curious tilt to his head. “Now that you have found your mate, I am free to take mine.”

  “You already have a female in mind?”

  “I do.” The dragon’s rumble sounded suspiciously gruff.

  “This sounds serious. Have you waited long to claim your lady love, Kelvan? Truly, I had no idea I was holding you up.” Gareth was only half teasing.

  “You know it’s not safe for a fighting dragon to mate before his human partner. I knew you would find your mate sooner rather than later and I think I have exhibited extraordinary patience with you. Of course, as it turned out, I even had to find your mate for you to speed things along.”

  “That you did, my friend, and I’ll thank you every day for it as long as I live.” Gareth watched his little mate a few yards distant, moving gracefully in her way. She literally took his breath away. To think, she was his and his alone—at least until Kelvan took his mate. Then they would probably expand their circle of love to include Kelvan’s mate and her partner. “So who is your lady?”

  “And more importantly who is her partner, right?” Kelvan supplied with some humor. “Don’t worry, Gareth. We dragons take all into consideration when we choose our partners and mates. The Mother of All has no little influence in it either. Seldom has there been an incompatible partnering among our kind. You know this to be true.”

  “Yes, but I still worry about exactly who I’m expected to share my mate with.” Gareth’s skin itched to think of the possibilities. He’d never had to confront the reality of mating among dragonkind before and had never really considered the problems it could cause to their human partners. He began to sweat as he thought of what would come when Kelvan finally took his mate. It could be glorious. Or it could be disastrous.

  “You will be pleased then, I think, to learn that my mate is Rohtina.”

  A huge grin spread across Gareth’s face. “And Lars is her partner. Kel, this couldn’t have worked out better!”

  The dragon dipped his great head. “The Mother of All knows what She is about after all.”

  “That She does.”

  A speculative gleam entered his eye. He and Lars were close. He knew and trusted the man and they worked well together. When their dragons mated, they would become part of a fighting unit, partners that would share everything—including the pleasure their dragons found in each other with the sole human female among the tightly knit group.

  If Gareth had to pick a man to bring pleasure to his beloved mate, he could not have chosen better himself. Lars was a good man and he would love Belora as much as Gareth did. He would also help Gareth give her the greatest sexual pleasure a human woman could know. The dragons would see to it.