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Lerin
I’m not sure why I’d pushed back against this so much.
She was incredible.
Skilled, creative, cute, kind—and sexy enough to make me forget why the hell I was even there. If they wanted a fucking heir, they’d get one as long as I got to have her. Olive may have been a strange name, but I was warming up to it by the second.
Our bond was strong.
I’d gone to her shop to figure out a good vantage point to keep an eye on it, but after a minute or two I could smell her. She was dark chocolate and citrus, only fitting for someone who worked at a bakery. But the scent was irresistible, and having to put that custard in my mouth, instead of putting my mouth on her, had been torture.
But then, that kiss.
I was a little hard just thinking about it.
If I knew her better, if I wasn’t so worried about scaring her away, I would have pushed a little more. Explored her.
I wanted to claim her until she couldn’t even consider anyone else.
Still, I wasn’t sure if she could sense me.
There were dozens of reasons why she may have seemed attracted to me, but there was no telling if witches felt fated mates as strongly as shifters did. What if she was this open to people in general? The thought of any other man getting to kiss her made my blood boil.
I tried to remember that this was just the bond talking, but I regretted not sucking a deep and visible mark into her neck while I was there.
She wasmine.
She might not have figured it out yet, but I’d kill for her even after knowing her for a mere thirty minutes.
As I wandered through the city, sweets in hand and her lips on my mind, I watched as it slowly woke up. In my home, the Kingdom of Crystal Glass, there was a shifter at every turn. Everyone from my relatives to the servants were dragon shifters. The only nonshifters were the fleet of medical witches on staff and the girl my brother was engaged to.
At least my cousin was bound to a shifter.
Here, though, I could only sense one shifter for every nine or ten people I saw. As I weaved through the cafes and browsed the library, there seemed to be countless human beings, but the shifters were dwindling. In all my exploring, I was the only dragon shifter.
In my kingdom it was easy to trick myself into thinking our numbers were strong. Now outside of my tiny world, it was suddenly obvious how few we were.
Unless we bred, we’d be extinct within a few generations.
An entire people vanished from the Earth.
Sure, there were wandering dragon shifters outside of Crystal Glass, but knowing this didn’t make me feel any less lonely.
The hours crawled by, and I tried to get her off my mind.
It wasn’t easy.
Her thigh was so hot and soft as I slid my palm against it. That memory kept me fed as I roamed the network of now-familiar streets.
After the sun finally rose, sometime around seven, I could feel myself getting tired. I hadn’t slept in nearly twenty-four hours, and my brain was fighting my body’s need to rest. My legs stopped wanting to guide me around the city. My eyes felt incredibly heavy and tired.
It was hard to talk myself out of just laying down on a nearby bench and enjoying a short nap.
But this land was full of strangers. The only person I could trust was Olive.
She might not feel the same way about me yet, but I’d take my time getting her trust.
