"I meant something relaxing with the children."

"Oh." She lowered herself back down.

"What I plan to do to you tonight will only be relaxing after we're done."

"Good to know." Annwyl laughed and stroked her hands across his scales, something that Fearghus had always adored. "All right, so what should I do with the children? As it is, they're never around."

"Plan something for tomorrow, so they don't have time to come up with an excuse, and start with Rhi. She always ropes in the other two. And bring that pale boy who's been lurking around."

"His name's Frederik, and from what I hear he'll be staying for a while."

"Perfect. Take them for a picnic or something."

"Will you come?"

"I'm off to Devenallt Mountain tomorrow with Gwenvael and Briec to meet with Bercelak."

"Anything wrong?"

"No, not at all. Just time to look at Mum's armies and see if we should be doing anything different. At least that's the plan. What it really ends up being is Dad and Briec arguing, me sighing a lot, and Gwenvael pissing Dad off so much that at some point he has to duck a tail to the eye. To be honest, I'd rather be on a picnic with the pale boy."

Annwyl rested her chin on her raised fist. "No eibhear?"

"No eibhear what?"

"He's not coming to this meeting?"

"Why should he? He's not in Mum's army. He's a M-runach."

"I really don't know what that means, although you all say it with that mix of disgust and horror in your voices."

"It means he's a violent bastard that can't be trusted around the army. So, no. He won't be there."

"Personally, I think you're all too hard on him. You're still treating him like a baby. He's a grown dragon now, Fearghus. Quite matured."

"Yeah," Fearghus snorted, not really seeing it. "Right. Quite matured."

Izzy reached out blindly, her hand pressing against the stone wall of the room she always slept in any time she'd come to visit her Uncle Bram with Brannie. But to be honest, at this moment, she really had no idea where she was, why she was here, or even what her name was. At this moment, all she knew was that it was a stone wall her hand was pressing against and the biggest, most talented cock she'd ever had inside her was making her come. Again.

Her toes curled, and her hard breaths turned into a short scream, her body tightening around the male currently on top of her, kissing her, fucking her.

She hadn't known it would be like this. She'd dreamed it would be like this, but she'd never thought it actually would be. Too many times, Izzy, Brannie, and often Brannie's sisters talked about the potential some male had one day and the sad disappointment he turned out to be the next. Sometimes, one of them might be pleasantly surprised or damn happy. But this?

Gods, this . . .

Izzy tore her mouth away from eibhear's because she couldn't breathe, that orgasm still ripping through her system. But pulling away was a mistake because eibhear took the opportunity to nip the side of her neck. Something that she secretly adored. And, gods, once he'd discovered that, if she didn't find other uses for his mouth, he drove her insane with the gods-damn nipping.

Whimpering, her body shaking, Izzy felt eibhear bite down on a spot right beneath her ear and somehow, some way, the bastard got another orgasm out of her when the last one hadn't quite finished.

As Izzy screamed out again, she was so glad that when this was all over, they wouldn't be talking about it. They wouldn't be analyzing it. Because if she thought about any of this too much, she'd end up back where she started at sixteen. Head over boots for a big blue bastard with gorgeous blue hair who couldn't make up his bloody mind about what he wanted.

Izzy cried out again, her amazing legs tightening around his waist. eibhear's eyes crossed at the grip her legs had on him. He'd never known a female, human or dragoness, who had legs as strong as Izzy. Legs that held him so tight he was positive he saw stars.

He reached over and caught hold of the hand Izzy had pressed to the wall and pinned it against the bed. She whimpered when he did that. Gods, he loved when she whimpered. Just the sound of it made his toes curl.

Between the whimpering, the panting, the incredibly strong thighs, and the way her pussy gripped his cock like the tightest fist he'd ever felt, eibhear could say, with all honesty, that this was the biggest mistake he'd ever made.

He knew that now because he realized he'd been right all those years ago about Izzy. He might have been young, but he'd never been stupid, and he'd known from the beginning that she was trouble. Trouble wrapped up in long legs and a bright smile. Of course, it was even worse now because he felt no guilt. None. The longer he stayed inside her-and he had every intention of staying inside her all night-the less he cared about anyone or anything except what was happening between them at this moment.

So what if his brother thought of Izzy as his daughter? So what if all of eibhear's kin considered her a niece, a cousin, a grandchild? So what if she was the most feared general in all the territories? So what if she had feet as big as Annwyl's? Who cared? He didn't. Not anymore.

eibhear pulled his mouth away from her neck and Izzy leaned up, pressed her forehead against his chin, then brought her mouth up and bit his jaw. At the same time, she tightened her pussy so that he came hard, his entire body pinning her to the bed as he continued to fuck her until he was dry.

He clung to her for a bit before he finally rolled off. Both of them covered in sweat and panting, they lay there for a good ten minutes until Izzy finally admitted, "You know . . . still not out of my system."

"Good," eibhear said as he rolled back on top of her, pushed his still hard cock inside her, and gasped out, "Because it sure as battle-fuck ain't out of mine."

Chapter 20.

"Wake up."

eibhear turned over and snuggled back into the covers. He wasn't ready to face the day yet and he definitely wasn't ready to face the wrath of Izzy. He had a feeling it was coming. After their amazing night together, he was prepared for her not to be able to face the morning. But she wouldn't put him off. Not forever.

"Get up," Izzy pushed. "We have company."

eibhear rolled to his back. Izzy stood by the open stained-glass window. She was freshly bathed and dressed, her wet hair combed off her face. She must have gone to the lake behind the castle.

"Who?"

She shook her head. "No idea. But they're armed. A small squad. Don't see any colors, though." She glanced at him. "They look like a protection unit."

"They could be here for Bram." He pushed the fur covering off and got up, walking naked over to the window to stand beside Izzy. She smelled wonderful. He wanted to kiss her good morning but decided against it. He wasn't really in the mood to be pushed away at the moment.

"Do you recognize them?" Izzy asked.

"No." He leaned in, sniffed the air. He smelled flame and power. "They're dragons."

"You sure?"

"I am."

"But no one you recognize?" He shook his head and Izzy looked back at the small group of riders on horses, long brown capes and fur hoods covering their faces and bodies.

Izzy slid her foot under her sheathed sword, which was lying on the floor, and flipped it up into her hand. "I'll take the ground, you take the air."

He nodded. "I'll meet you outside then."

Izzy slipped out the side door of Bram's castle. The previous evening, eibhear had closed and barred the front door that led to the hall, and if she opened it, she'd give away her presence.

As Izzy eased out into the brisk morning air, she heard a soft "moof " behind her and looked to see Macsen crawling up to her feet. Her dog had amazing instincts. Like a wolf, he knew when to keep to the shadows and when to attack. It helped when she was involved in night raids.

Body tense, he waited by her side, waiting for her signal. Izzy motioned with her hand, indicating he should stay by her side and low. With that order given, she crept forward, listening for anything that would tell her someone was coming from behind. She reached the end of the building and peeked around the corner. Now that she was a bit closer, she could see that these riders were trying their best to look like a small traveling party. The clothes under their capes were plain, not too expensive but not too poor. Yet she still saw that nearly all of them had weapons. A lot of weapons. And the way some of the riders moved . . . definitely soldiers.

At the front, two riders-leaders by their demeanor-looked around and one of them finally gestured to the others. Dismounting their horses, three other riders started to set off, but one of the leaders held up a gloved hand-a female, Izzy guessed from the slightly smaller frame under the hooded cloak-and stopped the men. Even though Izzy couldn't see the female's face, she could tell that she was studying the front of the building. Izzy took a small step and saw that eibhear was . . . well . . . he was standing on the front of the building in his dragonform. She'd seen him do that sort of thing before but it still fascinated her. Considering their size, dragons didn't seem to have too many issues with gravity.

But what concerned Izzy at the moment was that the female seemed to be able to see him. Or, at the very least, sense him. Yet Izzy had seen Morfyd, a powerful white Dragonwitch, look right past her baby brother, unaware she was practically walking on his head.

eibhear moved the slightest bit and the head under the cloak jerked. Perhaps she heard him. Perhaps she didn't. Izzy didn't know. She heard the female take in a breath, a sure sign she was about to unleash her flame. Something that didn't worry Izzy. Although fire dragons could use their flame against their own kind to shove or batter, the flames themselves could do no damage. Southland dragons were made of fire and their scales were an added protection.

But before the female unleashed her flame, the hood of her cloak slipped back and Izzy immediately recognized her. Recognized her and knew what that particular female's flame could do to one blue dragon who had absolutely no idea of what was about to hit him.

He felt confident the dragoness couldn't see him, but she did sense him. Could be she was a witch of some kind. His mother and sister Morfyd belonged to one of the most powerful breeds of Dragonwitches, but there were others at different levels of power. Still, it really didn't worry him. Instead he just waited to see what she'd do, and when he heard her take in a deep breath, he became even less concerned. Because of his size, some dragon's flame wasn't even going to knock him off the building, much less harm him. Yet as the dragoness leaned forward in her saddle, the hood of her cloak dropping back to reveal a very pretty human face, Izzy's scream from the far side of the building shocked them all.

"Agrippina! No!"

The She-dragon's head snapped around and the flame she was going to unleash on eibhear was instead directed at Izzy. The flame was so powerful, eibhear reared back and the stones that made up that part of Bram's castle broke apart and melted. She made stones melt.

eibhear had never seen anything like it, but he didn't have time to analyze any of that because Izzy had been standing there two seconds before.

Pushing off from the building, eibhear unfurled his wings and raced around the damaged building.

"Izzy!" he bellowed. "Izzy! Answer me!"

"I'm here!" She stood, appearing from behind a large boulder. He'd forgotten how fast Izzy could move, but he was grateful for it.

He landed beside her, the land shaking.

"Are you all right?"

Tears streamed down her face and she shook her head. "Macsen."

The dog? She was sobbing over that dog.

She pointed to the smoldering remains of melted stone and seared wood beams. "He was standing over there," she said around sobs. "I thought he was right beside me."

eibhear discreetly sniffed the air and, aye. He smelled burnt dog fur. Best not to say that, though.

"I'm sorry, Izzy. I know he meant a lot to you, but we have other things to worry about-"

"Macsen!"

eibhear blinked and watched Izzy push past him and over to a pile of still burning debris. And dragging himself out from under that debris came Izzy's dog. With his dirty, matted fur burning in some spots, the big beast stumbled away from the debris and toward Izzy. But he suddenly stopped, dropped, and rolled around in the dirt for a bit. When Izzy reached him, the fire on his body was out and with a good shake, all that dirt went flying, making Izzy laugh. Then she dropped to her knees and hugged that disgusting, bizarre beast.

"You poor thing! Are you all right?"

"Izzy!" eibhear snapped. "We have much bigger concerns than your gods-damn devil dog!"

"Iseabail?" another voice asked and eibhear saw one of the riders standing at what was left of the corner of the building. It was a voice eibhear didn't recognize.

The rider pulled the hood of his cloak back, long, dark silver hair spilling out, and . . . an eye patch. The dragon wore an eye patch.

Izzy looked up from that slobbering beast who didn't seem to be hurt at all after being on fire and crushed under all that debris, and her smile was so wide and bright that eibhear just assumed it was because she was happy her dog was safe. But then she released the dog and charged over to the one-eyed dragon, launching herself into his arms.

"Gaius!" she crowed. And that's when eibhear knew that this was Gaius Lucius Domitus-the Rebel King of the Quintilian Provinces. An Iron dragon descended from the enemies of the Southland dragons and the bastard who liked to send books with strange notes to Izzy. A dragon Iseabail the Dangerous was currently hugging.

Bugger.

"What are you doing here?" Izzy asked as she stepped back. It had been years since Izzy saw Gaius last, but that had never mattered. Their friendship had been forged in the blood-filled ending of the Quintilian Overlord Thracius. Since that time, Gaius had worked to take full rule over the Quintilian Provinces, but Thracius's daughter and a son or two still lived and still caused problems. Great problems. And there were many who felt any of Thracius's offspring were the rightful heirs to the throne. If that meant getting rid of Gaius, they'd be more than happy to make that happen.

Which told Izzy that whatever was going on was important because Gaius didn't usually leave the Provinces for any length of time. He could rarely afford to.

"I was hoping to get an audience with Queen Annwyl and Queen Rhiannon, if possible, and I knew Lord Bram could help us with that. We sent word to his assistant, Robert, yesterday. He met us in town last night and we discussed our concerns with him first. He led us back here today to stay until Bram's return, but when he saw the gate closed-which he was sure he'd left open-we had him wait down the road while we checked everything out." He smiled. "I must admit, I'm glad it was just you. It's not like I have one of my legions at the ready."

Izzy gave a short shake of her head. "I don't understand, Gaius. Why didn't you send an emissary rather than coming yourself?"

"Oh . . . we did. But we sent him directly to Garbhn Isle and apparently Annwyl felt he was lying about who he was and, uh . . ."

Izzy held up her hand, not needing to hear anymore. "You weren't close to your emissary, were you?"

"No. Varro"-the King's human general and friend-"was wise enough to send a messenger no one really liked. So when that head came back to us . . . we chalked it up to a lesson learned."

Izzy cringed and nodded. "Understood." She patted his shoulder. "Actually, this works out well. Uncle Bram is with Annwyl and Rhiannon now. I can escort you to Garbhn Isle myself."

"I'd really appreciate it. Losing my eye was one thing, losing my whole head . . . that would be more problematic."

Laughing, Izzy gave Gaius another quick hug. "Let me get my things together and then we can head out."

"That sounds fine but, uh . . ." His words drifted off and his gaze focused behind her.

"Someone you know?" Gaius asked.

Izzy looked over her shoulder and she saw that eibhear had shifted to human and now stood behind her. Naked.

Yes. Very subtle.

"This is . . . my uncle"-and the glower she got for that was priceless-"Queen Rhiannon's youngest son."

"Oh, yes," Gaius said, his entire body becoming tense under that cape. "eibhear the Contemptible."

"eibhear, this is Gaius Lucius Domitus, the Rebel King."

eibhear grunted. He grunted. Even Fearghus, a known grunter, didn't grunt at fellow royalty.