Her Dragon King (Her Dragon King Duet 2)

If that happened, then their exile could soon be over. For if he was in the throes of Reverence, he’d find it as impossible as Xenon had to deny his fated mate her beloved sister. Everything would turn out fine and the twins would be allowed to return to the land of America in Zone 8.

However, if it didn’t…

His flame flickered a terrible blue at the thought. Damianos was stronger than most drakkon. And tenacious. And if his cousin wasn’t swayed by the twin sister of Treasured Mate, then all would come to ruin.

Xenon had been researching Damianos of late on one of this planet’s rustic computational devices. What he’d found out about his cousin had not reassured him.

Damianos had used the solar rotations wisely. And from what Xenon had assessed, he’d god spoken his way into becoming one of the richest and most powerful beings on the planet.

Xenon and his family had managed to hide out from Damianos, but Ola had visited them here. Only once. But once was enough.

If he’d been watching Ola, then Damianos knew where they were. And if he knew where they were, then Damianos was playing with them. He’d let them have their illusion of peace and safety; however, it was only that. An illusion.

If his relationship with Ola did not turn reverent, then it was only a matter of time before he came for them.

At first, when months of morning, noon, and night perimeter rotations had passed without so much as a glimpse of his enemy cousin, Xenon had believed the best.

Ola must have gone into heat. Borne the baby. If not, Damianos would have come for them by now.

But then when three months became four, Xenon began to worry. From what he had gleaned in his studies of the lupinhominids, a she-wolf’s heat came on almost immediately once fated mates were placed in the vicinity of one another. Under those conditions, Ola would have surely laid her hatchling by now.

So then why hadn’t she come to collect her sister?

However, if Ola were dead, the Nightwolf Brothers would have felt honor bound to come tell Treasured Mate of her sister’s death.

But that hadn’t happened either.

He wanted to continue to believe it was only a matter of time before Ola reached out to them. He wished to enjoy these last few days with his family upon the hidden island with the knowledge that they might soon be returning to the land where the twins were both conceived and born thousands of years apart.

But there was another possibility. Dreadful and sickening.

What if Ola were dead?

And what if there was no one left to relay the news of her demise because Damianos had killed her entire family, just as he’d always planned?

What if Xenon and his family were the last targets to be eradicated on his cousin’s list.

“Aw, another perimeter search?” Treasured Mate whined when instead of coming straight to bed, Xenon headed toward their room’s large open balcony. “Eos already did one earlier and I was hoping you might be into searching something else tonight.”

After centuries of giving study to human inflection through the television Damianos had placed in his room to drown out the screeches of his Widower’s Madness, Xenon could easily translate his mate’s words as an invitation to copulate.

His Reverence instinct reared. Demanding that Xenon worship the mother of his progeny in the way she deserved.

But Xenon’s uneasy flame would not let him give in.

“Please, wait for me, Reverence,” he requested over their mate bond. “This perimeter sweep will not take long.”

Xenon did not wait for her answer before stepping from the balcony and unshelling in mid-air. He feared he would not be able to resist her if he stayed and talked.

As it turned out, he was not lying. The perimeter sweep did not take long. Less than a minute into his flight, he saw a sight that extinguished his flame.

Another drakkon upon the beach. Not golden like his son, but the darkest of blues, the same as Xenon. The water still sloshing off his scales told Xenon he was newly arrived. It also revealed how he was able to make it all the way to their beach without detection.

The King of Drakkon had swum up to their hidden world and was now here on this island looking up at the house where Xenon’s two girls were sleeping peacefully.

Rage exploded with Xenon’s flame at the sight to the cousin who had tortured him. The dragon king who had not only taken his crown but forced and his family into hiding.

Well, that all ended now.

No…

Xenon might no longer have been the King of Drakkon, but he would not let his cousin do this. He would not allow that treacherous beast to so much as lay eyes upon the family he held so dear.

Damianos had found Xenon and his family, but he would pay for this discovery with his death.