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He wasn’t claiming me, then.
At least there was that.
That was a hell of a lot better than being grabbed and fucking raped, like I’d assumed was going to happen.
My heart still pounded like crazy, though.
The man started jogging. I didn’t ask how he could do so with bare feet—I doubted I wanted to know the answer. Even if I did, I didn’t want to hear it from him.
I jogged with him, and ignored the fact that he was moving slowly enough for me to keep up.
As we ran, I noticed that my exhaustion seemed to have faded a little. My feet hurt less than they had earlier, too.
That must’ve been the adrenaline kicking in. Maybe this bastard should’ve found me earlier.
We jogged in silence, and I noticed that the forest around us remained just as quiet as it had gotten earlier, right after the dragon had passed.
After a few minutes, I started to accept that he wasn’t going to attack me. Some men were snakes—I’d definitely seen that in juvie. You had to hold your breath around most of them.
But some of them weren’t awful. He seemed like he might be one of the not-awful ones, at least for the time being. And we were running in the same direction I’d already been going, so if he was lying about where he was taking me, it wasn’t like he was doing any real damage to the distance I’d put between myself and the others.
My stress and curiosity got the best of me, and after a few minutes, I asked, “Why is the forest so quiet right now?”
“The creatures around us know an apex predator when they see one,” he said, as if that answered all of my questions.
“What the hell does that mean?”
His lips quirked upward, in that hint of a smirk he’d shown me earlier. “I told you, I’m a dragon. You’re a phoenix, but until you’ve shifted, the land won’t recognize you.”
What the fuck?
Did he mean…
“You can actually turn into a dragon? I demanded. “What color are you?”
He had to be the gray dragon I’d seen flying over my head, right?
“Quite an offensive question, but you don’t mean offense,” he mused.
Shit.
Time to change the subject.
“What kind of animal is a phoenix?” I checked, since I was pretty sure it was more than just the little bird I’d seen in that one Harry Potter movie years ago.
“A massive bird made of fire, earth, and liquid gold.”
Damn.
“And you think I can turn into one of those?”
“I don’tthink, female. Youcanshift into the form of a phoenix, and you’re just as indestructible as they are.”
“Don’t call me female. I’m not my fucking gender,” I finally shot back, after far too long of a pause.
“You haven’t told me your name,” he countered.
Bastard.
