Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 129584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
Ravi’s dragon roared in his ears, and Sora suddenly laughed, making him think his mate had heard the happy shout as well. Releasing one of Sora’s hands, he grabbed his new mate and pulled him close, sealing their bonding with a hungry kiss.
Alric’s laughter filled the canopy. “It is official. May I present the newly bonded couple, Ravi Burkhard and Sora Burkhard.”
A roar of cheering flew off the mountaintop, and Ravi found himself laughing while kissing his brand-new mate. He never wanted to stop kissing this man, didn’t want to move from this moment, but they had family to greet and a celebration to get to. They had a lifetime for kissing.
Reluctantly, he released Sora and stared into eyes that now held a little ring of gold. It marked him as a mage mated to a dragon.
“I love you, Sora Burkhard. My honey bear.”
“I love you, my handsome dragon.”
They rose as one and hugged Alric before turning to the crowd. There was a rush of well wishes, hugs, and laughter. Ravi was swamped with happy friends and faces he’d grown up with, but it was several minutes before he realized that he hadn’t seen Gunter.
Yes, he’d gone out of his way to drive the dragon crazy on more than one occasion. Okay, he did it all the time. But there was no way Gunter would have missed this.
Pulling himself free of Cassie’s bone-crushing hug, Ravi moved to the edge of the crowd. He finally spotted Gunter standing off to the side, away from all the noise. Clinging to Gunter’s side was Nikki.
The mage looked alternately terrified, overwhelmed, and fascinated by all the dragons and mages milling about. Here and there a dragon would shift and dart off back toward the castle, and Nikki’s eyes would follow the dragon.
Nikki leaned up to Gunter’s ear and whispered something. Gunter nodded and replied, his gaze finally catching on Ravi, who’d been watching them intently. A small, resigned smile lifted one corner of Gunter’s mouth, and he shrugged, but Ravi didn’t miss that Gunter’s hand also tightened on Nikki’s, keeping the mage tucked close against him. Gunter might give all the signs of not being pleased with the arrangement, but he also wasn’t handing Nikki over to any other dragons.
Interesting…
Nikki was not the sort of mage Ravi had imagined would capture the dragon bookworm. They were too chaotic and impulsive for the compulsive, anal retentive dragon, but then maybe opposites did attract.
Ravi smiled at Gunter and Nikki before returning to the crowd of well-wishers. Nikki had kept to themself in the past week, rarely leaving Gunter’s library and speaking only to dragons if they could help it. Mages still made them extremely nervous, and Alric wasn’t pushing the matter yet.
Ravi would have to speak to Gunter when he could get the dragon alone. Get the full scoop.
Or maybe he should speak to his new mother-in-law. Yuki seemed to be the wonderful meddling mother type. Ravi bet she knew how to play matchmaker.
Chuckling to himself, Ravi started cooking up some evil plans. But they could wait until after he spent some time with his mate. For now, Sora needed his full attention, and he couldn’t wait.
“Married date, married date,” Ravi sang as he flew them through the skies.
Sora was a happy flyer on his back, delighted to be able to fly. They didn’t do it often—too many demands on their time—but Ravi loved that his husband was enamored with flying. They did it every chance they got.
And tonight, he was trying to make up for his original disaster of a date. On Sora’s back was a picnic basket. Well, a backpack filled with picnic things. Which was practically the same thing, right?
Right.
That was Ravi’s story, and he was sticking to it.
He had the perfect spot picked out, an area on the tip of the mountain perfect for stargazing. And he’d checked the weather report. Three times. No rain tonight. Possibly clouds, but no rain.
So, Ravi was quite confident as he swooped in on his destination, landing gently to avoid jarring the passenger on his back.
“Ravi,” Sora said doubtfully, “are those rain clouds overhead?”
“The weather report said clouds but no rain.” Ravi had to admit it smelled a little damp and heavy, though. Like rainclouds were approaching.
Sora didn’t budge, still staring suspiciously upwards. “Are you sure?”
“The weatherman would never lie to me like that. If the weatherman lied to me, then I’m going to eat him.”
Snorting, Sora finally dismounted. “I think the weatherman cannot be trusted, but alright. Let’s eat and relax. We’ve not had enough time together recently.”
That was the sad truth. You’d think that preparing for a wedding meant the couple spent lots of time together, but it hadn’t proved to be that way. At least, not for them. They’d both been running around like chickens with their heads cut off, frantic to get everything prepared for their big day. This was the first time since their wedding night Ravi’d had Sora solely to himself. Which was criminal.