Page 53 of Dark Dragon’s Mate

“Well… I was flying. So her teeth couldn’t reach me.” Emon sat down next to her. “Plus, you know. Dragon hide? So no. Although she did threaten to kill me,” he added. “It was cute.”

“Cute.” She-Wolf attacked everyone. She was a killer. And Emon was calling her ‘cute’.

“Yeah. She and my dragon kind of hit it off, actually, in a murdery we-hate-everyone sort of way.”

Trish could not even.

Emon went on, “But she’s black, and she loves the night. So I dressed you for her. Except for the shoes. Those are all you.”

The shoes? Trish extended one leg, and her heart mooshed a little.

He’d given her glitter sneakers.

Sunset colors, she thought, though it was hard to see in the moonlight. Swirls of red and orange and gold and maybe hints of purple around the edges.

“Thanks,” she said, trying to ignore her sudden teariness. “These are cool. Do I get to keep them, or do they disappear in a puff of smoke after I take them off?”

“No, they’re real,” he said. “You can keep them.”

She leaned over and kissed his cheek. “You rock. As a boyfriend. And a stylist. And a homicidal wolf wrangler.”

He looked startled, then pleased. “Here,” he said. “Come to the edge.”

Emon turned and dangled his feet off the edge of the cliff. After a second, Trish scooted forward next to him. It was a long way down, especially if you couldn’t fly. But the heat of his body was comforting, and she knew if she ever fell, he’d fly down and catch her.

Emon rested his shoulder against hers. “Look,” he said softly. “Look at the night.”

Trish leaned against him, and instead of looking down, she looked up.

The moon was huge and round, with a strange blue cast to it that reminded her she wasn’t on Earth anymore.

And beyond its brightness, the whole sky was once more full of stars. Galaxies with faint washes of color, and constellations that were no longer strange, because Emon had told her their stories.

A sparkly, glittery tapestry that came out every night while the world slept.

Below that was the valley, mostly different shades of dark, but she began to see patterns. Forests and a river, and open land with warm glowing lights here and there. Farms, and a village maybe.

Lots of people all snug in their beds, while their nightmare dragon kept watch.

And tonight, a nightmare wolf.

A feeling of peace stole through Trish, something she hadn’t felt since she was a little girl snuggled up in her dad’s arms. Like the night was a safe and beautiful place, where she would never be alone, and nothing would ever hurt her.

As if he sensed her feelings, Emon reached over and hooked his fingers around hers, drawing her hand to his lips and pressing a kiss on her knuckles.

“Welcome to my world, Nightmare Wolf.”

They sat there for a long time, until Trish finally got up the courage to ask the question that was burning in her mind.

Chapter 26

“What’s she like? Did she talk to you at all?”

Emon still couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that she and Layla had no communication at all.

His dragon was an asshole killer, but at least he was still talking to Emon. They hadn’t given up on each other.

It must be so lonely.