Brand is mine. Woe to any dragonesses or their minions who thought to take him. They just had to wait twenty-four hours, maybe less if she got some sleep-not likely with Brand around. In just under a day, she'd have more Dust to unmake her enemies. Which made her wonder if perhaps Aunt Waida had been right when she'd said, "Buy a gun, it's quicker."

"Sorry, moonbeam, but we're going to have to split up. Unless you brought a pearl to flip me back?" She shook her head, and he shrugged. "Then I'm not going to be much good to you. Guess we'll have to devise a new plan for my sister."

"You need to stop being a Debbie Downer." She reached up to rub his cheek, loving the fine-ridged lines. "Haven't you realized you don't need the bead? You obviously have more control than you realize. You managed to shift into your hybrid shape. Now shift out of it."

"I can't."

"You will if you want me to blow you." The dirty promise caused them to dip as his wing strokes faltered for a moment.

He recovered. "You don't play fair."

Nope, she didn't. She nibbled his jawline as she murmured. "My mother always taught me to win by any means necessary."

"And is that all I am, a prize to be won?"

He was more than just a prize, more than the sum of all her treasures. "You are mine."

Softly said, and yet he hugged her tightly, and she felt his pleasure at her words through the bond connecting them. His need.

The neon lights of a gas station lit the dark sky, and as promised, he landed before they could illuminate his presence. However, when he placed her on the ground, she turned and grabbed his hands, ignoring the scales covering them and the talons tipping the fingers.

"You're coming with me."

"I can't-"

"You can," she insisted. "Close your eyes and relax. You seem to forget you own this body. You choose its shape. Relax and take control."

He closed his eyes and grimaced. "This is dumb. It won't work. Don't you think I tried and tried to shift at will when I was at Bittech?"

"Perhaps you lacked the right incentive." She leaned forward and lightly pressed her mouth against the hard seam of his lips.

The entire length of his body tensed, and through her bond, she felt panic, shame...longing.

She wound her arms around him and spoke softly against his mouth. "Change for me, Brand. I need a man. My man. I need you."

A shudder went through him, and she loosened her embrace. The second time she kissed him, his lips were as human as hers, but his tongue had a mind of its own as it inserted itself and stroked hers.

His hands palmed her ass as the embrace deepened, and she sighed into his mouth.

Then she almost bit him as he said, "There's a car coming."

Indeed, a Jeep pulled into the service station, the driver a fellow who reeked of weed but who thought nothing of offering them a ride when he heard their friends had ditched them as a prank.

He dropped them at a motel on the outskirts of a major city, and Brand frowned as he looked around.

"This is where you want us to stay for the night?"

"What's wrong with this place?" she asked, cocking her head.

"Because it's the kind of place my family would stay at, not someone like you."

"Are you accusing me of being a snob?"

"Aren't you?"

"I am. I could never stay in a place like this. I mean, really, have you seen the inside of those rooms?" She shuddered. "The carpet requires a good fire cleansing, and there is not enough bleach for those sheets. No dragon should ever sleep in such a pit."

"So if we're not staying here, then why did you have us dropped in this location?"

"Because this is the spot." Lights bobbed at the end of the street, moving quickly along, the engine roaring with a deep V-8 growl she coveted. The dark-tinted muscle car shot past, screeched to a halt, and reversed.

A window rolled down, and a head popped out, sporting silver curls with hints of red. "Is that you, bratface?"

"Hey, Natty." Aimi waved. "That's my cousin," she informed Brand as she dragged him by the hand toward the vehicle. "She's our ride."

He braced himself against her tug to ask, "How did she know to pick us up here?"

"What do you think I was doing with our last driver's phone?"

"I don't know. You called your mom by the sounds of it and didn't say much other than we're all right. You never even mentioned the name of this motel to anyone."

She rolled her eyes. "Of course, I didn't. What if someone was listening in?"

"Says the girl who didn't take her paranoia pill today."

"Seeing as how you're the one who was experimented on and is running from more than a few folks, I'd say you should take lessons from me in staying safe. First lesson, always assume someone is spying."

"Like me," Natty chimed, "and hubby over here. Totally not giving you any privacy on account you're interesting."

"It's not spying if I can see you," he pointed out. "And I am still waiting for an explanation on how your cousin found us if you didn't tell your mom we were here. Is this a setup of some sort? Did you intentionally have the plane attacked and have us fly all night so we'd land here?"

Suspicion clouded his gaze, and she could have beamed in pride. "You just mastered lesson number two. Always assume someone is out to get you."

"Is lesson three the one where I kill all the crazy people?"

"Only if I get to help." Aimi winked. Then laughed. "Just kidding. I only kill if I have to."

"Not entirely reassured."

She leaned forward to whisper, "Have you forgotten I feel what you feel? And right now, I feel how hot you think I am."

"The fact you're sexy doesn't detract from you not telling me everything. How did your cousin know to come here?"

"If you'd been paying attention, then you'd know when I told my mother that we were delayed and thinking of stopping in for a chalupa before renting a car that I was really saying we were safe, on the ground looking for wheels in Flagstaff. All part of the contingency plan."

"A contingency plan that assumed the plane would crash?"

"First off, I doubt the plane crashed." Her twin bond to Adi still held strong, and the adrenaline in it had given way to irritation, which usually meant Adi was dealing with paperwork and idiots. "Second, have you already forgotten your second lesson? People are always out to kill us. Humans or dragons. It doesn't matter who we prepare for. Our kind didn't survive this long by not planning for every possibility, and that includes having to bail on the flight." Ever since their father's fiery demise, Mother never let them fly without going over Plan B, C, and D. "We have rendezvous points pre-set up around the world, especially here in the States."

"Still, though, we just got here, and we didn't even have to wait for our ride. Your cousin just happened along right after."

"The tracking chip probably helped with the timing."

"You're wearing a GPS?"

"Yup." She grinned before swinging into the back seat of the car. "And so are you."

"You microchipped me like a dog?" he bellowed, and quite indignantly, too.

So she popped her head out to add, "And you might have gotten a few shots to ensure you were germ-free, too, while you were passed out. You'll be glad to know you're protected from every known disease to man and dragon now, including ticks and fleas."

"Does anyone have anything to protect me from crazy women?" he grumbled, and yet a glowering Brand joined her in the vehicle.

Curls bobbing, Natty turned around in the front seat to peek at them while her husband, Sam, put the car in gear and shot off again.

"Nice duds," Natty snickered.

Tugging at the fabric, Aimi grimaced. "I could have done without the flowers and stripes. But I don't want to talk about my new fashion statement. What happened to the plane I was on? Did it land all right?"

"Were you on the plane that went down?" Her eyes widened. "Shoot, no one told me that. I was just told to get my ass to the motel and do a pickup."

"So there's news then about the flight?"

"Only public stuff so far. According to the media, some plane had to make an emergency landing in the middle of bumfuck due to mechanical failure."

"If by 'mechanical failure' you mean the gaping holes in its side on account we were attacked, then yes."

"No way!" Natty's eyes widened. "Who did it?"

"Wyverns led by a red dragon."

"They wouldn't dare attack. It would start a war."

"Oh, it will, and they might not be the only ones to try. The Silver Sept has recently added something of possibly incredible value to the hoard."

"What?" Natty couldn't help the avarice that shone in her eyes. No dragon could.

"I can't say yet. All in due time. Meanwhile, you haven't met my mate yet. Brand Mercer, meet my cousin, Natalia Silvercrest. And that's her husband, Samuel. His brother, Leopold, is married to my older sister, Mika."

"Apparently, the fact that our families are married doesn't mean shit. How did you get mated without me hearing about it or being invited to the party?" Natty glowered and pouted at the same time.

"It happened suddenly-"

"As in like a day ago," he muttered.

"And it's not official yet." Something she really needed to rectify now that there was attention being turned his way.

"What Sept is he from? I don't recognize him." Natty leaned closer and sniffed. "He's not silver."

"You'll never guess his color."

"Because I don't have one. I'm not a dragon." Silly man just couldn't admit it. Probably a good thing for the moment.

"What does he mean he's not a dragon?" Natty took a longer inhalation to truly absorb his scent. "That definitely smells like dragon. Honey"-she turned to look at Sam-"you've got a good nose, what does he smell like to you?"

"Dragon. But I don't know his Sept either."

"What color is he?" Natty's head cocked as she perused Brand, who simply shook his head and muttered a low, "The crazy gene lives on in all of them."

"His color is a surprise." The biggest surprise. "And you'll learn about it at the reception we're going to have to celebrate our joining. So keep an eye open for an invite."

At her side, he grumbled. "You're assuming a lot of things, moonbeam."

"Assumptions are for those who don't know the truth." She turned to snare his gaze. "I know everything I need to know about you." You are mine.

And was it her, or did he finally have his emotions shuttered enough that all she heard was, Ditto.

"Sounds as if you have an interesting courtship to relate. I can't wait to hear all about it." Cousin Natty might have managed to hide her envy in her speech but couldn't exactly conceal the coveting in her eyes. Poor Natty might care for her husband, but theirs was an arranged marriage. They were just lucky it worked out.

"I promise to spill the details as soon as I can over at least two bottles of Mother's finest. Now, enough about Brand and me. I need more news on my sister and cousins. Do you have a phone I can borrow?"

A bedazzled smartphone appeared. Pretty. She snared it and might have stroked the real diamonds glued to it before dialing. The phone was answered on the second ring.

"Rim jobs for five dollars." Her sister uttered it with the grace of a professional barker and then snickered. "How's it going, sis? I see Natty found you."

"Nice to see you're alive and not a meat pie. Did everyone else make it, too?" Because when she'd called her mother, they were still trying to get proper details.

"The girls and I all made it, most of the other passengers, too, but there was a bunch of boys on the plane... Yeah, they should have buckled their belts. So tragic." Snicker. "Not."

"Are we clear?" Aimi asked.

"You can talk. I've secured the line."

"What are the surviving passengers saying?"

"They were all passed out from the pressure by the time the plane landed." And those that weren't, probably got a sharp rap to the noggin. "When they regained consciousness, they tried to blab about monsters and dragons. Odd how the cousins and I saw sharks and snakes. Officials are dismissing our recollection of events as hallucinations caused by the depressurization of the cabin."

"And the pilots?"

"Saw nothing."

"So what's the status on those missing? Are they looking for bodies?" In other words, were they sure the wyverns had died? She knew the dragoness had, but that still left her accomplices.

"It's doubtful any survived a fall from that high. Since officials can't be sure where the bodies landed, they're just putting out a general notice to law enforcement to be on the lookout along the flight path of the plane for heaps of meat."

"Any more news?"

"Yes, there's a stewardess from our flight currently on suspension given she missed the fact that two of her passengers went missing before takeoff. It's truly incompetent how our flight attendant didn't notice you and Speedy arguing as you left the plane before she sealed the flight deck."