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Chapter 2
Gravor
“Mate,” I snarled, still locked in that halfway point between dragon and man. I’d lived in that state for what felt like forever after I destroyed those who’d tortured and tried to kill me.
I was flying when I caught her scent. It roared through me, calling to my soul like nothing and no one ever would again in my life. In that instant, I knew she was mine, and I would belong to her forever. I soared down, grabbed her, and flew far out into the forest.
“You.” She stiffened her spine and stared me down.
“Me,” I said, though I wasn’t sure why.
Her arms locked across her chest, and she smacked the toe of her sneaker on the ground. “You’re . . .” She bit off whatever she planned to say and shook her head. “How dare you pop back into my life like this after you bailed on me?” She choked off a sob. “Go away.” Her hands flicked toward me. “Run, fly, or crawl away again like you did five years ago. Only this time, don’t ever come back.”
If we’d met years ago, I would remember her long auburn hair. The fire flashing in her pretty green eyes. Her curvy body. And the freckles peppering her cheeks like I’d tugged down a handful of stars and tossed them toward her.
“Do I know you?” I asked, forming the words with considerable difficulty. I’d spent almost all the past I could remember as a dragon, first for the protection my beast gave me after I was captured, and later because they stabbed and burned my flesh whenever I changed back into the male I used to be.
Pain ricocheted through my mind at the memory of what they’d done, and a growl ripped through me.
“Growling, huh? Well, fuck you,” she snarled, pivoting and stomping across the meadow. “How dare you ask if you know me? You asshole.”
“I don’t . . .” I frowned. “I don’t . . .” A fleeting memory shot through me of her and me together—in a bar? Of me planning to . . .
I couldn’t remember anything else.
She spun around and rushed back to me. “Take me back to the road. Hell, drop me downtown.” She poked my chest so hard; I nearly took a step backward.
Clouds that had drifted across the moon parted, and light stabbed down, outlining us both.
“Take me to town,” she said, poking me again. “After that, I never want to see you . . .” Her breath caught, and she gaped at my chest. “You—You’re covered in scars.”
I slapped my palms over the thickest ones raking across my chest, wishing I could hide them. They were ugly, just like everything inside me.
Her face softened, and she sent a sympathetic glance my way before focusing again on the network covering my entire body. “Who did this to you?” Tears glistened in her eyes. “Who did this to you?” she shouted.
“They did, but I killed them all.”
“Wait . . .” Her eyes pinched closed before she opened them again. “Did you just say you killed someone?”
“They captured me,” I bit out, speech coming a little easier. “Hurt me. They wouldn’t stop, so I razed them and everything around them to the ground.”
“Someone captured you? When?”
I shrugged. “I can’t remember.”
Chapter 3
Mazie
Everything inside me told me to run away, to slip back into my simpler life.
But this was Asher’s father and . . . Damn. Not only was he Kuunik’s brother, but he was a dragon shifter.
“Hold on,” I said. “You’re saying you were captured five years ago?” The timing would be right.
Maybe he hadn’t left me. Not intentionally like I’d thought.
“I think it was five years ago.” He rubbed his head. “I had no calendar, but I tracked time by the seasons. I was with those men so long. Too long.”
