“So you found her.” Micah again.
“I did.”
“Did you think I wouldn’t?”
Aidan sighed. So many years had passed, he’d wondered if maybe a mate for the two of them didn’t exist. “I hoped.”
“I see our mother didn’t bother educating you on the ancient code.”
“She didn’t know anything about it. I educated myself. I still know very little.”
“She’s lying. She knows. Her infidelity damned us,” Micah said. “We’re fated for the same mate.”
“Yes, I was able to figure out that much.”
“Of course you would find her first. You, the one our mother chose and favored. But you had to know I wouldn’t be far behind.”
“I had no idea where you were, Micah. I haven’t seen you in nearly a century. I tried to find you early on for Mum. She wanted you.”
“She wanted me?” Micah let out a huff. “She’s the one who damned me. By being unfaithful to my father, she damned us both.
“You’re too late, Micah. I’ve begun the bonding.”
“How little you know, dear brother. It’s never too late. The woman will choose. Not you.”
“But the bonding…”
“It doesn’t matter. Don’t you get it? She bonds to both of us or neither. And the one she doesn’t choose will die.”
Aidan’s heart thumped against his sternum. But he was determined to present a brave front. “Then I’m in the clear. I see what you’ve become. She will never love you.”
Micah scoffed. “Who said love anything about love? I didn’t say she had to love me. I said she had to choose me. And she will.”
Aidan shook his head. “You don’t care if she loves you?”
“Why should I? All I care about is winning her choice. That way, I live and you die. Simple and efficient. I will avenge my father.”
Aidan swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat. Declan Campbell. What had happened to him? He’d been a good da…until, of course, he’d kicked Aidan and Anthea out without a thought. “How is our…your father?”
“Of course, having no blood tie to him you wouldn’t know, would you? He never recovered from our mother’s infidelity. He became a recluse and later died of a broken heart before I was eight years old.”
“A broken heart?”
“A dragon cannot live without his bonded mate, brother. Do you know nothing of our heritage?”
Aidan bit his lip. Not enough, obviously. “Then Josiah…my father…”
“Is dead.” Micah spat on the ground. “He died before my own. Once Anthea left the Highlands, neither of our fathers stood a chance. But while I was forced to grow up alone and make my own way, you had the love of our mother.”
Understanding dawned. No wonder Micah had turned to evil. “Micah, our mother loved you. Still loves you. She wanted you.”
“Not enough, apparently.”
“Declan kept you from her. He shrouded your existence in some way. Even I had trouble sensing you.”
“Doesn’t matter. I no longer care. I don’t want to see her.”
“But don’t you see? It doesn’t have to be like this. You can change.”
“I can’t. Nor do I want to. Besides, all the mother’s love in the world won’t change our fate. I want my mate, and I want to see you dead, brother.”
The death threat meant nothing at the mention of Kristen. Primal instinct raged through Aidan’s veins. Mate. Mine.
“You stay away from her,” Aidan said through clenched teeth. “I’d gladly die to keep you from her.”
An evil smirk curled onto Micah’s lips. “Good to hear you say that, though it’s not necessary. You’ll die anyway. And you won’t keep me from her. That I promise you.”
Micah turned and shimmered into a shining black dragon.
Aidan beheld his brother’s magnificence. How could something so beautiful be so evil? He’d never gotten the whole story from his mother. She’d always said she didn’t know anything, and she’d been unwilling to talk about any of it. Was Micah right? Had she been lying?
Now was the time. He would no longer give her a choice.
10
Kristen woke with a throbbing headache. Her temples burned.
Fire. Icy talons of horror crept over her arms and legs, seeped into her head, probed her brain. Pain. Sharp, pounding pain.
Micah.
The name forced its way into her mind and sliced through her consciousness with an evil grip.
Micah.
Then Aidan. Aidan. Her soulmate. Yes, damn it. He was her soulmate. Why had she fought it? Why had she not trusted him fully? Now he searched for her, trying to reach her.
Please, come to me, Aidan.
But something—or someone—held him back.
You’re mine, Kristen, a strange voice spoke into her mind. Mine and mine alone. You’ll never belong to Aidan.
She leapt from her bed. Darkness still shrouded the night. She glanced at the digital clock on her nightstand. Two a.m. Four hours since Aidan had left her.
Aidan.
Again, she felt his presence, his essence, trying to reach her through the fog in her mind.
Still the other presence lingered.
You’re mine, Kristen. Mine.