I frowned. ‘‘I’m not sure I like being treated like a piece of cattle. Couldn’t you have asked me first if I wanted it?’’

‘‘All members of the sept wear the symbol, here, in the small of their back.’’ He touched a spot on my lower back. ‘‘Only wyverns and their mates wear them higher, on the shoulder.’’

‘‘Let me see yours.’’

He obliged by sitting up, turning to the side so I could see the emblem that had been burned into his skin. I touched it, following the pattern. It was in the shape of a hand bearing a crescent moon. ‘‘That’s actually quite beautiful. What does it symbolize?’’

‘‘Our relationship with the sept, and nature,’’ he said enigmatically, pulling me up as he got to his feet. ‘‘It is morning. I wish I could let you have the rest you deserve, but you must first accept me as your mate so that I can make the preparations to present you to the sept.’’

I glanced down to the floor, where a few minutes before I had been writhing in ecstasy. ‘‘Didn’t . . . er . . . our lovemaking qualify as me accepting you?’’

He shook his head, his eyes still almost glowing. ‘‘You must formally take me as your mate.’’

‘‘All right,’’ I said, extremely aware that I was standing naked next to a beautiful—also naked—man who could shift into dragon form at the merest whim. My mouth went a bit dry. ‘‘What words do I need to repeat?’’

‘‘Whatever is in your heart.’’

‘‘Are you sure?’’ I asked him after a few seconds of silence. ‘‘There is Magoth to consider—’’

‘‘He will be taken care of, I promise you that, Mayling.’’

My better judgment warned me against accepting what he offered, but my heart leaped at the thought of having my cake and eating it, too.

I would trust him, trust that he was the one person who could survive being in a relationship with me. ‘‘I am May Northcott, doppelganger, and your mate. Your life is bound to mine, and mine to yours. I accept you into my life, and will do my best to make you and the silver dragons happy.’’

He pulled me into an embrace, my breasts immediately turning into strumpets as they pressed themselves against the flesh of his lower chest. ‘‘I, Gabriel Tauhou, wyvern of the silver dragons, take you as my mate, to guard and protect, to care for and cherish, to the end of my days.’’

The kiss he shared with me burned with dragon fire. I welcomed it, rubbing myself against him as it blazed through me, igniting fires I’d assumed were slumbering. With a growl, he tossed me onto the bed, following to kiss a blazing path from my neck to my breasts.

‘‘We’re going to do it again?’’ I asked, amazed but pleased to see his penis beginning to swell.