Dragon Reunion (Dragon Hearts 8) Read online

  She gazed at him, hoping to find the answer in his expression. He looked cautious and yet hopeful. “You’re Gideon,” she stated firmly, instantly able to feel how much her decision pleased him. She turned to the brothers. “The things you need to discuss with us regarding the mating… Does it include being able to sense and feel your mate’s emotions?”

  Nathaniel smiled. “Once you are fully mated, the two of you will be able to actually talk to each other on a mental level.”

  “Wow,” Carys breathed.

  “Oh, there’s a lot more to it than that, let me assure you.” Garrett waggled his eyebrows suggestively, causing Carys to blush profusely.

  Gideon’s arms tightened about her. “Garrett, I don’t remember you being this much of a dick fifteen centuries ago.”

  His brother grinned. “I think you may have just forgotten."

  With Rhiannon’s help, Gideon now remembered everything. Growing up on Annwn, the Welsh underworld. Being able to shift into dragon at the age of thirty-five, so that they could protect their brother Arthur in the human world. The battles they had fought side by side. Until that last fatal battle that robbed them of Arthur, and Gideon of his memories.

  Most of all, he remembered his close affinity to his brothers. A closeness he could now feel again.

  Their love for him.

  Their concern that he wouldn’t or couldn’t return that love after all these centuries.

  That he wouldn’t want to remain here in Wales with them once he and Carys were mated.

  He kissed Carys lightly on the brow before crossing the room to stand in front of the other men, head held high, his arms open wide. “Brothers.”

  It felt, with all of his brothers’ arms about him, as if he truly had come home at last. His heart became so full of love for his family that it felt as if it might burst out of his chest.

  Finally, Grigor stepped back to give him a deep formal bow. “Welcome home, brother.”

  Nathaniel came next. “Brother.”

  Then Bryn. “Brother.”

  Garrett. “Brother.”

  Dylan. “Brother.”

  Aeran. “Brother.”

  Deryk. “Brother.”

  Rhys came last, the brother Gideon had been the closest to during their childhood and the early years of living in the mortal world. He hugged Gideon longer and harder than the others had. “It is so good to have you home, brother.” That emotional sheen glittered in his eyes as he stepped back to make his formal bow.

  Gideon blinked back his own tears. “It is very good to be home.”

  “The best Christmas present that any of us could ever have wished for,” Chloe murmured in approval as she and the other ladies joined them, no doubt invited to do so by their husbands through their mental link. Each of them stepped forward in turn to welcome Gideon’s return to the family.

  Afterward, Gideon returned to Carys’s side, his arm about her waist when his amused gaze once again settled on Garrett. “How about we all go up on the roof and shift into dragon for my mate to see before you tell us the details of our mating?”

  Dragon kin.

  Gideon gave a choked laughed. “My dragon certainly approves of that idea.”

  The same dragon he could feel stirring and unfurling deep inside him, as if awakening after a long deep sleep. Flexing muscles. Spreading wings scaled the same color as Gideon’s eyes. Baring sharp teeth in a wide mouth. Nostrils flaring.

  Goddess Rhiannon, all this time, he had been a dragon shifter!

  Carys had never seen anything as magnificent or as magical as the nine dragons that appeared before her once they were up on the snow-covered roof. All the Pendragon brothers, including Gideon, and all their mates. Nathaniel, a shimmer of green scales to match the color of his eyes, appeared to be the tallest at a little over twenty feet, but Gideon was almost as tall and appeared more muscular, his scales the same color as his eyes, a combination of blue, green, and gold.

  Or perhaps Carys was biased in thinking he was the most magnificent dragon of all?

  Maddox wasn’t Maddox. He was Gideon, and she was Gideon’s fated mate.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Do you believe everything they told us about the mating?” Carys chewed worriedly on her bottom lip once she and Gideon were finally alone together and both naked in his bedroom. “It all sounds a bit…violent, to me.” She gave a shake of her head as she rested against his chest. “Biting me on the back of the neck while you—you—when we’re making love so that your saliva and my blood mix together, binding the two of us as mates and increasing this sexual desire that is already almost unbearable. That there’s a barb on your—your cock, that latches on inside me as we make love over and over again, filling me with your seed.” Dylan had offered to give her an injection to prevent an immediate pregnancy, but both Carys and Gideon had refused. “It all sounds very…primal.”

  Gideon raised his head to look at her. “Didn’t seeing us all as dragon already tell you that’s exactly what we are?” he teased.

  The sight of the nine Pendragon brothers shifting into very tall and large dragons, their scales all the color of the men’s eyes, had been pure magic, and had literally taken Carys’s breath away.

  The discussion they’d had afterward regarding the mating, with input from the ladies this time, had sounded daunting rather than magical.

  Although, all the human female mates looked more than happy with their dragon shifter lovers.

  Carys didn’t even want to think of how Cristina coped with having two dragon shifter mates.

  Gideon—now that Carys had seen him as dragon, alongside his brothers, she knew he would always be Gideon to her—cupped the side of her face as he looked at her intently. “We can delay the mating if you need more time. My brothers and their wives said we have a little under three weeks before the need to mate becomes imperative.”

  At which time, the two of them would die if the mating wasn’t complete.

  But Carys didn’t want to delay the mating, had no doubt that Gideon and the love they shared was her future.

  She currently felt as if she had a swarm of bees beneath her skin, itching and stinging her. Her breasts felt so swollen, they were spilling over the top of her bra, the nipples as hard as pebbles. Between her thighs was so wet, her panties were soaked through. Her clit pulsed. And there was an ache in her channel needing to be filled.

  She swallowed before answering him. “No. I want to become yours now. To mate with you.”

  Our mate, Gideon’s dragon purred.

  Shifting into dragon a short time ago had banished any doubts Gideon might have had as to who and what he was, along with the knowledge he belonged here in Wales with his brothers and his mate.

  Carys.

  Brave and beautiful Carys.

  The woman he adored.

  Loved.

  Worshipped.

  Would cherish for the rest of their long lives together.

  “I’ll try to be gentle,” he promised again, hoping their interrupted lovemaking earlier would ensure this wasn’t too uncomfortable for Carys.

  She chuckled as she moved up to lean on her elbow. “I can’t promise the same! I literally feel as if I’ll go up in flames if you don’t soon make love to me.”

  Gideon chuckled at her honesty. “I feel the same way about you.”

  “Then make love to me now, Gideon,” she invited huskily. “Please make love to me. Mate me. Make me yours for eternity.”

  That invitation was all Gideon needed to sweep Carys up in his arms as he claimed her lips, her love, and her body for his own.

  By the time Gideon gripped her hips steady as he knelt behind her and bit her nape, Carys was too lost in the euphoria of having Gideon’s cock back inside her, stretching her, claiming her, to notice the slight sting of the mating bite.

  “Harder,” she encouraged, her hands tightly gripping the headboard as she pushed back into the thrust of Gideon’s cock buried deep inside her. “Harder, Gide
on. Please. I need it harder!” She gave a deep groan at the feel of something—Gideon’s barb?—latching onto the bundle of nerves inside her.

  She climaxed instantly.

  Then again.

  And again.

  Until she lost count of those increasingly intense releases.

  “I love you.” Gideon held her hips as he thrust harder and deeper still. “You’re mine, Carys! Always mine.”

  Our forever mate, his dragon purred in agreement.

  * * *

  Christmas Day two days later was like no other in the history of Pendragon Castle. All nine of the brothers still living, their fated mates, and children, all gathered about the Christmas tree in the entrance hall that evening to give thanks for the blessings bestowed upon them.

  Grigor and Gayle and their son.

  Nathaniel and Chloe and their son and daughter.

  Deryk and Izzy and their daughter.

  Aeran, Rhys, and Cristina and their twin sons.

  Dylan and Holly with their daughter.

  Garrett and Billie with baby Harry.

  Bryn and Tegan and their daughter.

  Goddess willing, by next year, Gideon and Carys might have their own son or daughter.

  Gideon raised his glass of champagne. “To family and home!”

  It was a sentiment every single brother and every mate seconded by raising and drinking from their own glass of champagne.

  Gideon turned to Carys. “To our forever love,” he murmured against Carys’s lips.

  “Forever,” she agreed.

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  About the Author

  Carole Mortimer is a USA Today Bestselling Author and recipient of the RWA Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award 2015, a Pioneer for Romance Romantic Times Award in 2014. She was recognized by Queen Elizabeth II in 2012 for her ‘outstanding service to literature’. Carole has written over 250 contemporary, paranormal and Regency novels.

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  She is happily married to Peter. They have 6 sons, and live on the beautiful Isle of Man. She also loves to hear from Readers!

  Other books by Carole Mortimer

  Steele Protectors:

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  LOGAN (Steele Protectors 1)

  ATTICUS (Steele Protectors 2)

  BRYCE (Steele Protectors 3)

  ROURKE (Steele Protectors 4)

  HAYDN (Steele Protectors 5) Author’s 250th Book

  More books to come in this series

  * * *

  Regency Club Venus:

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  Bastian’s Surrender (Regency Club Venus 1)

  Gabriel’s Torment (Regency Club Venus 2)

  More books to come in this series

  * * *

  Regency Men in Love – MM series written as C A MORTIMER

  * * *

  Hidden Lover (Regency Men in Love 1)

  Hidden Desire (Regency Men in Love 2)

  More books to come in this series

  * * *

  Regency Lovers Series:

  * * *

  Indecent (Regency Lovers 1)

  Obsession (Regency Lovers 2)

  Craving (Regency Lovers 3)

  Forbidden (Regency Lovers 4)

  Surrender (Regency Lovers 5)

  Scandal (Regency Lovers 6)

  Series complete

  * * *

  Regency Sinners Series:

  * * *

  Wicked Torment (Regency Sinners 1)

  Wicked Surrender (Regency Sinners 2)

  Wicked Scandal (Regency Sinners 3)

  Wicked Deception (Regency Sinners 4)

  Wicked Captive (Regency Sinners 5)

  Wicked Temptation (Regency Sinners 6)

  Wicked Sinners (Regency Sinners 7)

  Wicked Christmas (Regency Sinners 8)

  Series Complete

  * * *

  Dragon Hearts – Contemporary paranormal

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  Nathaniel (Dragon Hearts 1)

  Deryk (Dragon Hearts 2)

  Bryn (Dragon Hearts 3)

  Dylan (Dragon Hearts 4)

  Grigor (Dragon Hearts 5)

  Garrett (Dragon Hearts 6)

  Aeran & Rhys (Dragon Hearts 7)

  Dragon Reunion (Dragon Hearts 8)

  Series Complete

  * * *

  Regency Unlaced Series:

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  The Duke’s Mistress (Book 1)

  Claimed by the Marquis (Book 2)

  Taken by the Earl (Book 3)

  Pursued by the Viscount (Book 4)

  Desired by a Lord (Book 5)

  Captured by a Gentleman (Book 6)

  Pleasured by a Duke (Book 7)

  Seduced by a Marquis (Book 8)

  Tamed by the Earl (Book 9)

  Series is now complete

  * * *

  Knight Security Series: Spin-off to ALPHA series

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  Resisting Alexandre (Knight Security 0.5)

  Defying Asher (Knight Security 1)

  Challenging Gabriel (Knight Security 2)

  Capturing Caleb (Knight Security 3)

  Tempting Zander (Knight Security 4)

  Enticing Ian (Knight Security 5)

  Seducing Ethan (Knight Security 6)

  Series now complete

  * * *

  ALPHA Series:

  * * *

  Christmas Alpha (Alpha 1)

  Dark Alpha (Alpha 2)

  Shadow Alpha (Alpha 3) Author’s 200th Book

  Midnight Alpha (Alpha 4) – Gregori Markovic’s story

  Renegade Alpha (Alpha 5)

  Warrior Alpha (Alpha 6) – Nikolai Volkov’s story

  Rogue Alpha (Alpha 7)

  Savage Alpha (Alpha 8)

  Series is now complete