Free Forever Rowan by Violet Summers Page A

mate was marking him. In that moment he and Rowan were surrounded in the amethyst light of their combined auras. They truly were one body, one soul. As their shared orgasms ripped through their bodies, their pasts ripped through each other’s minds.
    He felt her pain, humiliation, her disgust with herself. Her death wish, her love for her sisters and her hatred for her father. He absorbed every one of her emotions as they sank into his skin. They melded and became a part of him, just as his were becoming a part of her.
    He watched as her face changed with each new feeling she was experiencing from him. Just as he’d seen her soul, she was seeing his. Every hate-filled moment since Fiona’d been taken. Every minor victory and every major defeat. She witnessed each without flinching.
    He knew of this sharing, every young dragon was instructed in the ways of mating when they reached sexual maturity. This was a joining between mates which only occurred when their emotions needed release, during times of deep love or severe stress. He guessed theirs was the latter. He and Rowan had been alone for so long, sad and empty. Now they were filling each other up. Their souls were trying to drive away their pain. He wasn’t sure that was possible for either of them. He couldn’t imagine them in the real world, beyond their prison walls. At thirty-five, Aidan was set in his ways. He didn’t know how to share his life with a female. But, God, this felt so sweet. Fuckin’ scary as hell, but so very, very sweet.
    He lay there trying to catch his breath, his hand grasping hers and lacing their fingers. He felt raw, naked. He’d shared who he really was with her. All his secrets were now her secrets.
    When his breathing finally calmed, he rose and helped her to the bed. He kissed her on the forehead and went into the bathroom. Returning with another strip from his t-shirt he sat down next to her. He needed to take care of her, an urge he’d never experienced before with a lover.
    “I need you to open your thighs for me.” She complied, but not before he watched her skin pinken. He loved when she became shy. The women he surrounded himself with were never modest in any form, and he’d always liked that about them. But Rowan wasn’t just any woman. She was his munin . His mate. His wife.
    She’d gifted him with her virginity. It was considered a sacred and rare gift among his people. Their sexuality was so open that virgins were a rarity by the time a dragon reached his or her wedding night. Rowan would never know what an honor she’d bestowed on him.
    He wiped the evidence of her innocence on the rag, cleaning her, as was tradition with his people. It fell to him to prepare her meal and bath. He would take care of her this night, give her what she needed, and then he would make love to her again. This time slowly, properly, with the care a woman of her position deserved. How proud his father would be of him at this moment, following the dictates of a society he’d shunned for over fifteen years.
    He left her to dispose the torn t-shirt. As he returned, he heard the outer door’s slot rattle, and the unmistakable sound of a tray being pushed through. He retrieved the food left for them and headed for the bedroom.
    Rowan had pulled the sheet up to her chin. Sitting down in front of her he removed the sheet, letting it pool around her hips.
    “Don’t ever hide your body from me, Rowan. I prefer you naked in bed,” he ended on a chuckle.
    He placed the tray of food between them and they both dug in without a word. He watched her eat with gusto and it made him smile. It was important for her to stay nourished; after what they’d just shared they both needed to be replenished.
    When she pushed her plate away, he took it into the main room, and when he returned he found Rowan fast asleep on her stomach. He lay down next to her and studied her back. The pain she must have experienced over the years swamped him, filling him with a red