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replied innocently, “But I just dried off. Maybe you should get out and join me here. The sun feels nice.”
    Hallie seemed to ponder his suggestion and started toward the rock he reclined on. A few feet away from him, her determination faltered and a cloudy look passed across her face.
    She raised both hands and buried her face in them. “What the fuck am I doing?” she asked in a muffled voice behind her palms. “I’m sorry, Kris. I can’t.”
    “Can’t what? Get out of the water?”
    “No, I can do that. Just not to do what I was about to.”
    “Which would be…?” He continued playing dumb, even though he knew precisely what she’d been considering because that was what had gone through his own mind, too, in vivid detail. He quickly quashed the thoughts before they caused more trouble than they already had.
    With that, the palpable tension wilted and Hallie sighed. She swam the last few feet to the rock and hoisted herself up beside him, close enough that the cooler temperature of the water radiating off her skin was tangible to his heightened senses. She stayed just far enough to avoid touching him outright.
    “Something completely inappropriate and unprofessional. That’s what I was about to do. Jump your boner … er… bones . Sheesh, I’m a mess.” She glanced sidelong at his lap. “You don’t look much better, come to that.”
    “If I ignore it, it’ll go away,” he said, sitting up and giving his stiff prick an irritated look.
    “True enough,” she said. “If only all of life’s little annoyances worked that way.” After a contemplative pause, she changed the subject. “So, Mr. Jungle Guide, how soon until we reach this fancy dragon burial ground or whatever it is?”
    “It’s a temple, not a grave. The dragons there are very much alive.”
    “Ah. These dragons Erika’s so hot for. Don’t tell me you buy into her crazy ideas.”
    “Not exactly.” Kris had taken the measure of the group’s leader and realized that in spite of Erika’s adherence to science, she was very much an acolyte of dragon lore. Her ideas about what to expect were only half correct, however. She definitely wasn’t expecting the ritual he was diligently leading them to. He hoped he’d be able to convince her of its value once inside the temple.
    “Not exactly… You don’t believe her? Or… Please do explain, because us sane people are a little outnumbered at the moment.”
    “Do you believe in destiny, Hallie?”
    Hallie didn’t answer for several beats and Kris looked over at her. Her expression had grown even darker and she rested one hand lightly over her abdomen. In a shaky voice she said, “If you had asked me that a year ago I’d have said no, but now? Yeah, I think I do a little bit.”
    “Good, because tomorrow we’re all going to meet our destinies. All seven of us.”

Chapter Two
    L ike all dragons, Issa believed everything happened for a reason. So when Eben, the lovely human man who’d awoken her, made her stop midway through servicing him, she considered it a sign.
    Roka had humbly apologized for the interruption, and continued doing so for the entire intermission while Eben and Camille intimately conferred. She only felt the merest pinprick of regret that she hadn’t yet marked the man, but the more she watched him with the golden-haired virgin— former virgin , she corrected herself, giving Roka an appraising glance—the more convinced she was that this was the natural order of things.
    “They belong together, and she belongs to you, my friend ,” she said to Roka.
    Her large, white-haired friend nodded at her from across the room, replying with a thought. “ Don’t let our Shadow hear you speak that way of belonging . Besides, the woman will be the one with two mates, not I. Perhaps my first child will have a human brother.”
    “Or sister,” Issa replied.
    “Or sister. If that’s the case I will name her Issansaelethessis.”
    In truth she was relieved. Eben, seemed