He dropped his hands and leaned back on them to watch her. "You know how humans will bind themselves together as blood brothers?"
"Yes."
"It's basically the same thing—but with one major difference. If you take my blood into you, our mortal lives are completely conjoined."
"Meaning we will become one person?" she asked.
"No, nothing like that. Do you remember your Greek myths at all?"
"Some of them."
"Do you remember who Atropos is?"
She shook her head. "Nope, not a clue."
"She is one of the Moirae, the Fates. She's the one who assigns our mates to us at birth, and if we chose to bond with that mate, her sister Clotho, who is the spinner of our lives, combines our life-threads together. At the end of a normal life Atropos will cut the thread and cause a death. But if we are bonded together and our threads are one, then she can't cut one without the other."
"We die together."
"Exactly."
Wow, that was a big commitment. Especially for him. "So you will have a human life span."
"No. My thread is stronger. You will have an Arcadian life span."
She blinked at that. "Are you saying I could live several hundred years?"
He nodded. "Or we could both die tomorrow."
"Whoa. Is there anything else?" she asked, curiously. "Will I also get some of your powers? Mind control? Time-walking?"
He laughed at her. "No. Sorry. My powers are tied to my birth and my destiny. Bonding only extends to our life-threads."
Channon smiled as she rose up on her knees, between his legs. She crouched over him, forcing him to lean back farther on his arms as she hovered over him. She bit her lip as she stared at his handsome face, at those lips she was dying to taste.
"So, what you're offering me is a gorgeous, incredibly sexy man who is completely devoted to me for the next few centuries?"
"Yes."
She smiled even wider. "One who can never stray?"
"Never."
She forced him to lie back on the ground as she straddled his waist and leaned forward on her arms so that her face was just a few inches above his. She felt his hard erection through his pants, pressing against her core. How she wanted him. But first she wanted to make sure she understood all the consequences.
"You know," she said, "it's real hard to say no to this. What downside could there possibly be?"
He shifted his hips under hers, making her burn for him as he tucked a stray piece of her hair back behind her ear. Still, he didn't touch her, and she knew he was leaving it all up to her now.
"The Katagaria who want me dead," he said seriously. "They will never cease coming for us, and because I am banished, it will only be the two of us to fight them off. Our children will be Arcadian and not human, and they, too, will have to battle the Katagaria. But most important, you will have to remain here in the Middle Ages."
"Why?"
"Because of the electricity in your time period. Arcadians who are natural animals such as hawks, panthers, wolves, bears, and such can live in your world. If they are accidentally changed, their animal forms are small or normal enough to hide from humans."
"But if you become a dragon, then we have a Godzilla movie."
"Exactly. And in your time period, there are plenty of tasers and electrical devices that can completely incapacitate me. No offense, but I don't relish being someone's science experiment. Been there, done that, and sold the T-shirt for profit."
She sat up straight, still straddling him, as she digested all of this.
The man offered her the deal of a lifetime.
Sebastian watched her carefully. It was taking all his restraint to keep his hands off her when all he wanted to do was make love to her. He'd told her everything. Now it was up to her, and he trembled with the fear that she would leave him.
She took his hands in hers and held them to her waist. "Our babies will be normal, right?"
"Perfectly normal. They will age like human children with the only exception being that they won't be teenagers until their twenties."
"And that's a drawback?"
He laughed.
"Oh, by the way, you're no longer banished."
Sebastian scowled. "What?"
"While they were torturing Damos, the Katagaria admitted that they had tricked you so they could get the tapestry from Antiphone. But she refused to let them have it."
"Why? What was so important about it?"
"Unfortunately nothing, but they believed that it contained the secret for immortality. It seems Katagaria legend had it that the granddaughter of their creator had placed his secrets into the work she'd created to honor him. They captured Damos, thinking he had it, and when they found out you alone knew where it was, they arranged the bargain with you."
"My sister died for no reason?"
"Sh," she said, placing her hand over his lips. "Just be glad the truth is out and the tapestry is safe. Damos wants to make the past up to you."
Sebastian couldn't believe it. After all this time, his banishment was lifted?
That meant a real home for Channon where she would be safe. A home where their children would be safe.
Channon laid her body down over his and breathed him in. "Which means you're no longer alone, Sebastian. You don't really need me."
"That's not true. I need you more than I've ever needed anything else. My heart was dead until I looked into your eyes."
He cupped her face in his hands. "I want you to Claim me, Channon," he said fiercely. "I want to spend the rest of my life waking up with you in my arms and feeling your hair in my palm."
She choked as he used her words. He'd heard her. "I want you, too."
Laughing, he rolled over with her, pinning her to the ground and letting her feel every hard, wonderful inch of his body.
They kissed each other in a frenzied hurry as they helped one another out of their clothes.
Channon pulled back as their naked bodies slid against each other. "Does it count if we do this in a dream?"
"This isn't really a dream. It's an alternate place."
"You know, you scare me when you talk like that."
He smiled at her. "I have much to teach you about my world."
"And I am willing to learn it all." Channon kissed those delectable lips as she wrapped her bare legs around his. She felt his erection against her hip, and it made her burn with need.
"Axe you sure about this?" he asked, nibbling his way along her jaw. "You'll be giving up all your future Buffy episodes."
She drew her breath in sharply between her teeth as she thought it over. "I have to tell you, it's a hard decision to make. Watching Spike prance around and be all Spikey, versus a couple hundred years of making love to a Greek god." She clucked her tongue. "What is a woman to do?"
She moaned as he ran his tongue around her ear and whispered, "What can I do to sway your verdict?"
"That's a real good start right there." She sighed as her body erupted into chills and he dipped his head to torment her breast with his hot mouth. "I guess I'll just have to find another pastime to television watching."
"I think I can help you with that." He rolled over again to place her on top of him.
The intensity of his stare scalded her.
"Tradition demands you be in charge of this, my lady. The whole idea behind the Claiming is that the woman places her life and her trust into the hands of her mate. Once you accept me, the animal inside me will do whatever it takes to keep you safe."
"Like when you turned into a dragon in front of all those people?"
He nodded.
She smiled. "You know it's a pity I didn't know you in third grade. There was this bully—"
He cut her words off with a kiss.
"Mmm," she breathed. "I like that. Now, where were we?"
She nibbled her way down his chin to his chest.