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“Can I ask a question now?” he asked tentatively.
“Of course,” she replied, glancing up to meet his eyes.
“When I mentioned Daria by name, you gasped, like you recognized it. Why?”
Sighing, she closed her eyes. She’d been hoping he would forget, but she should have known better. Besides, he said he didn’t want lies between them, and this would have counted as such.
“Before I escaped, I talked to Ivan. He told me about two females he found other than me. One was Adara, and one was Daria. It’s not a common name, so when you said it, I figured it was your sister he talked about. He said she put up a fight, and the man he sent to retrieve her got too rough. I’m really so sorry, Alex. Losing her to something like that must be hard.”
“It is,” he replied softly, gazing at her with guilt in his lightened, silvery gray eyes. “I never wanted a dragon to find her and force her. And I know she would have rather died than have that happen. But sometimes, I kind of wish she hadn’t struggled so hard. She would have been miserable in a forced mating, but at least she’d be alive.”
“It wouldn’t have been a mating though,” she replied gently. Seeing the confusion in his eyes, she took a deep breath before continuing. “She would have been nothing more than a breeder to Ivan. No, let me explain,” she said hastily as his eyes turned full silver with gold swirls and he opened his mouth, questions on his lips. “When I saw Ivan, I recognized him. He was the same dragon who came for me when I was sixteen, the one who killed my parents. But even though he tried to find other females, he never gave up searching for me.
“Remember how I said being a full-blood dragon was like being a unicorn for my people? He wanted that for himself. Kept calling me princess, said I was royalty. Your sister came close, he said, but your dad was a lion. My ancestors were always pure dragons. So he kept looking for me, even while he searched for other females. His plan was to mate me, and use the others as breeders. He said the world needed more dragons. I think, even had he gotten Daria, Adara, and myself, he would have kept searching for others. He wanted his own little harem of breeder dragons.”
“Jesus,” Alex breathed out, screwing his eyes shut. When he opened them again, they were full dragon. “I’m glad you killed that fucker. I wanted to long before he took you, but it was your right, and I’m so glad you did. He never would have stopped looking for you, and you saved untold female dragons from suffering that fate.”
“It was your right, too. That’s why you were so triumphant when you burned him and ate his ashes, isn’t it?”
“It was,” he replied with a nod and a smile. “And it was just as satisfying as actually killing him would have been. I always wanted to be the one to do it, but in all honesty, he probably would have killed me. I’ve tried to learn to fight, but I’m still not very good at it.”
“I’ve told you before, it takes time. You haven’t been training long enough to really get good at it. But even if you never improve any more than you have, that’s okay. You have the heart of a fighter, and that’s what counts.” He had the heart of a fighter in more ways than one, actually, because she was a fighter, and he would always have hers.
They sat in silence for a moment before he spoke again, voice hesitant. “Are we okay now? Do you understand that I wasn’t lying to you this whole time? Maybe I should have told you right away when my memory came back, I don’t know, but I wanted all the facts first. I’m still going to leave
for town, but that’s as far as I go. I’m not much of a fighter, not yet, but I can still help protect—”
Shooting out the chair, Cammie was in front of him in an instant, putting a hand over his mouth to halt his words. She put one knee on the mattress next to his thigh, then the other, and straddled him, searching his beautiful gray eyes.
“I don’t want you to leave. Besides, how much protection could you be all the way in town? But I wouldn’t need protecting at all if you claimed me.”
His lips parted in surprise as he stared at her. “Does that mean you forgive me?” he asked.
Palming his cheek, she gazed into his eyes. “You never really required my forgiveness. It’s me who needs yours. Yes,” she said when he shook his head. “I do. I never should have jumped to conclusions like I did. I should have let you explain. I knew you well enough to know you wouldn’t try to trick me like I assumed you did.”
“It’s understandable, Cammie, and I would never hold it against you. You’ve survived as long as you have by not trusting anyone. You trusted me, and you thought I betrayed you. It’s okay.”
“Something else we’ll have to agree to disagree on. But know I’ll never let it happen again.”
Not giving him a chance to reply, she pressed her lips to his. Everything in her, dragon included, sighed in relief at the contact. A huge chunk of her soul had felt like it was missing, but now it felt restored, whole again, from the touch of their lips. No, more than whole. It felt bright and shiny with happiness in a way it never had before.
This man, this dragon, was her everything, and she was nothing without him.
Breaking the kiss, she shoved him down to the mattress. She followed him down but paused, hovering over him.
“You never did respond to my not so subtle hint.”
“Hint?” he asked, eyes already dazed.
Lips quirking up, she shook her head in mock despair, unable to resist leaning down and placing a quick peck on his lips. “About claiming each other. How about it? Are you down?”
“Hell yes, I’m down,” he replied with a grin.
She gasped as he snaked an arm around her waist and quickly reversed their positions, lips immediately returning to hers for a soul-searing kiss.
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she returned the kiss with equal fervor. She never imagined she would get this lucky, always assuming she would walk through life alone. But then Alex showed up out of nowhere, first rocking the foundation of her beliefs, then blowing them out of the water.
Life wouldn’t always be sunshine and roses. Being claimed would stop the male dragons from trying to snatch her, but it wouldn’t stop hunters from coming after them both. They would always have to hide what they were. But with Alex by her side, being in hiding never looked so sweet.
