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Yes, but River’s not the same somehow.

Great, he’s been hankering for me to mate River and now he thought my fated omega had changed.

River tossed an olive into his mouth and jerked his head at tea. “Want some? The girls said their dragons don’t like peppermint, so I made orange blossom.”

This room is too small!

What? Stop interfering, I told my beast. These moments with River were to be savored and he was messing it up.

I need to take my scales.

Not now.

“Something wrong?” River grabbed a handful of nuts.

“My dragon’s being difficult.”

He beckoned me closer and patted my chest. “Hey, in there, you can take the night off. Not much happening here.”

But my beast was agitated and wouldn’t stop bugging me, telling me he needed to shift.

Now? Can’t I just show you in my gaze?

No.

River had only just agreed to stay, and I wanted to build up to the dragon-human introduction.

“My dragon would like to meet you.”

River glanced round the pantry. “It’s a little cramped in here. Does he want a treat or something?”

“No, we have to go outside.” We’d destroy the house if we stayed here.

“I haven’t quite got my head around that when you become him, you disappear. I keep thinking of you as two separate beings.”

We were and we weren’t. He had his own thoughts and emotions that were separate and often distinct from mine.

“We can’t exist without each other.”

River asked if he should watch from the window, but I took his hand and we went out the kitchen door.

“Sit here on the terrace, and if you feel comfortable, you can get closer to him.”

“You think I’m going to cower from a dragon?” He patted my chest. “You don’t know me very well.”

“But I’ve got time to learn.” I’d almost said a lifetime but didn’t want to assume that was what River wanted until we’d talked. Usually it was my daughters interrupting, but tonight, that honor had gone to my beast.

I took off my clothes and left them on the grass. River whistled and told me I had a nice ass, so I wriggled it until I was far enough away from the building.

“Ready?”

River waved, and I told my dragon to shift. Scales appeared, roughing off the skin and taking its place. A tail sprouted, and lethal spikes shot up along my spine. My jaw elongated, and sharp fangs filled my yawning mouth. And suddenly I was no longer me. My beast had taken over.

River yelled and ran toward me.

I should have known that my mate, my River, wasn’t afraid of a dragon the way he’d been scared of staying in one place or of falling in love.

“You’re so beautiful.” River didn’t ask permission but stroked my beast’s scales, saying they were the same temperature as my skin.