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He took in a slow breath, and his muscles tensed. “No one will hurt you, or our child. I promise.”
“But what if—”
“No!” Lucian growled. “There is no what if. I’m not leaving you. I’m not leaving our baby. We are bound to each other for life. Not just because of the soulmate bond, but because of that child. I am not going to abandon my future son or daughter.”
My heart fell. The man before me was honorable, and I adored him for that. But I wouldn’t take advantage of him because of that amazing trait.
I’d never be able to live with myself if he stayed out of a misplaced sense of duty.
“Don’t stay in a relationship with me simply because of the baby, either,” I whispered. “Let’s not lie to ourselves like that.”
Another growl and I actually saw a scale form on his forearm. “I am with you because I wantyou. I always will. You’ll see.”
I gazed at the scales developing on his skin and shivered at the growl that came from his mouth. “If you can’t keep control over yourself, I’m going to need you to leave. That dragon... I can accept that it’s what you are, but it doesn’t belong in this world. It’s dangerous. For me, the baby, and for you.”
He’d be locked up, or worse, if anyone from here saw him.
“I’m not going anywhere without you!” His chest puffed up as he spoke, and he got more animated by the second. “Just let a puny human try to take me on! They won’t get far!”
“Lucian!” I gasped. “I’mone of those puny humans!”
He gazed over at me and the hurt I was feeling on the inside must have been all over my face, because all of the tension left his body.
“Yes, I mean everyone else. Like the men who’ve hurt you in the past.”
“They’re not here anymore,” I said. “And I don’t plan on ever talking to them again.”
“Good.” Lucian closed his eyes and all the scales disappeared until there was only tanned flesh. “Does my dragon scare you?”
“It can,” I said honestly. “Mostly when he tries to come out uninvited. Which seems to happen a lot according to my sister. What if you get angry and...”
He shook his head. “My dragon would never try to harm you.”
I knew he believed that, but dragons were so unfamiliar to me. How did I know for sure? “You can’t do that here. You can’t change.”
“Yes, I realize that would complicate things,” he said.
We were both quiet for a long time.
Then his dark eyes lit up and he grinned at me. “We’ll go back to my realm! We can live in the castle with my brothers and your sister. There I won’t have to hide who I am. I can return to a normal life. You’ll be safe, and we can raise our child together.” He paused. “We can be a family. A real family.”
Then in a whisper he added, “Everything I’ve ever wanted.”
It was everything I’d ever wanted too. Being with him, raising our child together in a home we built together... it sounded magical. Perfect. Perhaps too perfect.
I remembered the grandness of the castle. I’d been in awe and intimidated all at once. As beautiful as it was, I didn’t feel drawn to stay like my sisters clearly had. Nice to visit, but not a place to make a permanent home.
I shook my head. “I can’t go back there. Your home... it’s so cold. It’s so far from everything I love here. My students, my father. I can’t give them up. That castle didn’t feel like home to me.”
“I see,” he said, nodding slowly and showing no emotion on his face.
“I don’t want to keep you from your own kind,” I said. “But you can’t keep me frommine, either. And if you loved me the way you claim you do, you wouldn’t try to rip me from a place I love. You’ll make it your home too. You’ll find a way to make this work. I’m not leaving. So if we’re going to be together, you have to stay here and tell your dragon to cool it.”
I hadn’t planned to have any sort of ultimatums in this conversation, but there it was. I’d laid down the gauntlet, whether I’d wanted to, or not.
Neither one of us said anything for a long time after that. I’d worried that maybe I’d pissed him off and succeeded at pushing him away. After all, he was a dragon. Clearly, Lucian enjoyed being tough and in charge.
At long last, he cleared his throat. “Then obviously, the solution is that I stay. I learn self-control, and I learn how to be human.”
