Page 68 of Dragon King’s Duty Bride

“I’ll admit that I thought she was crazy at first. Then I just accepted it, but I wasn’t certain until tonight.”

“My eyes,” he muttered.

“Your eyes,” she agreed. “They turn molten when you’re scared for them. Not overly obvious that everyone would notice, but I did. Your dragon was itching to get out and find your baby girl.”

Heat crept up his neck. He hadn’t realized.

“I never said anything,” she continued. “Because I didn’t know if Dian had betrayed something sacred. And because…” She hesitated. “I didn’t want to push you into telling me before you were ready.”

That landed square in his chest.

“You’re not… afraid?” he asked.

“Of you?” She shook her head slowly. “Lucas, you just carried your child through a storm and saved her from what could have been a tragic night. Not to mention Spirit. Whatever you are, you chose them.”

The tightness in his lungs eased in increments.

She studied him with frank curiosity now. “But, I’ve never seen a dragon.”

His pulse skipped. “You might not want to.”

“And on the flip side, maybe I do.”

There was no challenge in her voice. Just wonder. They leaned against the counter together with their shoulders nearly touching.

“I am curious though. About the girls,” she said softly. “If you’re a shifter… can they, you know, inherit your traits?”

He’d thought about that more than he’d ever admitted aloud.

“It’s possible,” he said. “It’s not always predictable with girls. Sometimes the traits skip females in a family, which is why males are always the heirs. Sometimes in females, they show up in small ways.” He gave a faint, crooked smile. “You know. The stereotypical ability to stand heat. Unusual stamina. A tendency to hoard shiny rocks.”

She huffed a laugh. “That explains the mason jar of marbles they have.”

He groaned. “I was hoping that was just a phase.”

Her expression turned thoughtful. “If they do have something… we’ll handle it.”

We. The word slid into place like it belonged there.

“They wouldn’t be alone because they have us,” she added. “And neither would you because you have me.”

He hadn’t realized how much he’d been carrying until that moment. All of the caution and choosing distance over risk. He had never pictured this. A kitchen warm with emotion. A goat snoring down the hall. And a woman who knew and did not recoil.

Outside, the last of the thunder rolled away over the mountain peaks.

Sia set her hand lightly over his wrist. “Is it over now?”

He listened, not with his ears, but with the deeper sense that hummed beneath his skin. The storm had moved on and the air felt rinsed clean.

“Yes,” he said. “It’s over.”

She stepped back and gestured with her chin toward the door. “Then show me.”

For a heartbeat, fear flared again. Not of her, but of losing this fragile, impossible thing that he had never daydreamed would be possible.

Then he remembered the look in her eyes when she’d said she knew.

Lucas walked toward the door. He took her hand and led her out into the damp night. The wet grass glistened under a newly revealed moon. The scent of wet earth and scattered flowers drifted in from all directions.