"Brantley!" she exclaimed. "Oh my God!" Dawn pressed her mouth with her hands. "What are you doing here?"

Brantley hopped down from the boulder and landed on his feet. He brushed his palms and his pants and walked to her. Wearing a green leather pants and a black shirt, the man looked too handsome to be true. His only minus point—the green hair. That reminded Dawn that even her hair were turning green slowly and every time she practiced magic, she had a few more strands that were greener.

​​

When Brantley looked at his future mother-in-law, he cringed. The girl was too young to even become a mother, let alone mother-in-law. "I am here to tell you what not to practice and what you can now hone your skills. You are almost five months pregnant and I simply can't take risks." He walked to stand behind her and then without touching her weaved those warm red lights around her tummy.

"Ever so protective!" she remarked.

"Have to be. Been waiting for her from two thousand years!" He gave the answer quickly.

His dragon Rirsyr was circling the sky overhead and he screeched as if in excitement.

"What is he saying?" she asked.

"Even he wants to see my mate."

Dawn tittered. "How did you come so fast over here? I thought you have to be summoned via Ulfric."

"I just created a portal now that I know the location of Ensmoire. Plus Quetz is in regular touch with Rirsyr. I had told to keep a watch on your next visit," replied Brantley.

"Interesting!"

Over the next few hours they trained together and when Dawn was exhausted, they sat down to take rest before leaving,

Dawn was munching on the plums that Eoben had offered her when she said, "Brantley, I wanted to say something very important to you."

After breaking a twig in his hand, and chucking it far, he turned his gaze towards her as he rested his bodice by reclining back and supporting it on his hands. Dawn had his full attention.

She didn't know how to say but it was something that was gnawing her. "I want my children to grow up free from any sort of burden. I don't want my daughter to know that you— you are— her—" She bit her lip.

Brantley narrowed his eyes. His face became red with anticipation and his muscles became stiff.

Dawn avoided his stern gaze and then finished her sentence, "She shouldn't know that you are mate right from the beginning."

"Dawn!" Brantley shouted at her. He got up from his place and clenched his teeth.

Dawn flinched. She dug her nails in her palm because she knew that he was going to be furious as hell.

"How can you deny me that?" he said in a menacing tone baring his fangs with a snarl. "That is my mate we are talking about!"

Dawn turned her head to look at Quetz who was just as shocked as Brantley. 'That is a terrible thing to say Dawn,' he admonished her.

She took a deep breath in and said, "Brantley, you need to hear my logic first and then you should react."

"Logic?" He glared at her as he spoke with teeth clenched and neck muscles corded. The attraction he felt for his mate even before she was born was so great that denying him her even for a minute was painful to think. "What logic is there in saying that she shouldn't know that I am her mate? I have waited for her for so long that civilizations have changed. And you say that she shouldn't know about me?"

"Yes!" she nodded. "I don't want my daughter to grow with a burden about her duties towards you. Look at me. I feel I am too young for all the burden that God has given me. Should I make my daughter feel the same? Isn't she entitled to have fun without knowing that you are her mate? I want her to spend her life like Cole is spending. Only with those experiences she is going to be a full woman."

"That can happen in my presence too!" he barked. "No one takes what's mine!"

Dawn had heard those words before. It reminded him of Daryn. Mate bond was too intense.

"No one is taking what is yours. But you have to give her a chance to grow like a normal girl. She should have a life that is carefree." She looked to meet his stare. "That's all I am asking."

"Shut up!" he roared. "Do you want me to watch her having boyfriends while I feel miserable in the shadows?"

"Haven't you had girlfriends? From whatever little I know you even maintain a harem," she countered.

"How dare you compare me with her? I lived for two millennia under the impression that I won't ever find a mate. There was so much hollowness in my heart. But right from the day she will be born, she has me! I will see that all her needs are fulfilled even before she speaks about them."

"Those needs will be fulfilled by her parents, and not by you." She got up to her feet. "What are you going to tell a young toddler or to a child who is five-years or to a girl who is fourteen? That you are her mate? Are you insane?"

Brantley stared at Dawn. A muscle ticked in his jaw as his eyes bulged at her with fury rising in his chest. "I will not tolerate a day of separation from that child. You will not snatch what is mine. I will turn this world upside down if you do that."

"I am not snatching!" she corrected him. "All I am saying is that she should live without the responsibility, the load that she will become the Queen of Aztec. Only then she will be able to come up as a reasonable, logical human."

"I don't agree with you!" he replied mulishly. "And don't you dare say that again!"

"Brantley! She is my child. We will her guardians till she is eighteen. Don't you dare me about my rights."

He snarled at her and had she not been pregnant with his mate, he would have snapped her neck in two.

Dawn stepped away from him. She was scared at the way he looked at her. "Think of it calmly. If you want a woman who should rule with you with a strong character, you have to let her develop, you have to set her free. You won't interfere in her growing up by helping her at every step because she needs to fall and then get up. She needs to fail to understand the importance of success. If you will feed her success right from the beginning, she would never be able to deal with failures, with sorrows and with rejections. And that can only be done when she goes through hardships."

He raised a finger to her and said, "Don't speak a word more. And don't even think of denying me the pleasure to be with my mate. Even I know what to do with her. She is too precious to me!"

"Then you should redefine your feelings for her. That's all I can say," she said and started to walk away.