We might not always get along and we might not like each other, but until today, they’d never harmed me. In fact, they did everything in their power this morning to keep me safe when Reece attacked me.
I relax my body and try to enjoy soaring over the treetops. Lee lowers us so we’re flying just above the treetops, and when I see civilization up ahead, I realize why. We’re close to Storm Dawn. I’ve heard of this town, but I’ve never actually been here before. Still, it’s easy to recognize. The buildings are quite unique and carefully designed. Besides, it’s the only town within a day’s flight for the dragons. It couldn’t possibly be anywhere else.
Are we going to the town?
Lee swoops lower and lower, but doesn’t go near the town, instead, he moves around the outskirts, careful to stay out of sight, and then goes behind a mountain where we completely disappear from prying eyes. He stops, carefully drops me on the ground, and shifts back.
“Where are we?” I ask.
“Come,” he says quietly. He offers me his hand, and this time, I don’t make him wait. I just take it. I’m ready to follow him anywhere. No matter where he wants to take me, I’ll go. Whatever we’re about to discovered together, I can handle it because Lee is with me. He won’t ever do anything to hurt me. He’s not going to injure me. He’s not going to damage me.
He’s just going to help me.
We’re in this together.
We walk up a little path. Lee is naked after his shift, but the twigs and small rocks on the dirt path don’t seem to bother him in the least. They don’t seem to hurt his feet. I suppose that’s another one of those great things about being a shifter: small annoyances are just that: annoyances. They’re not something you have to worry about or stress about.
“I’m sorry,” I tell him as we walk. The trees narrow over us and the path becomes smaller. I can see why he shifted for this part of the journey. Wherever we’re going would be hard to reach in dragon form.
“For what? Running? You don’t have to be sorry. It’s been a long fucking day, Nicole. You deserve a break.”
“Not for that,” I shake my head and stop, looking up at him. “I’m sorry for not being thankful that the dragons helped me. Your entire clan...you didn’t have to take me in, but you did. Nobody locked me up. Nobody kept me prisoner. If anything, you gave me a semblance of normalcy by letting me work at the bakery. Thank you.”
Lee just looks at me for a long minute, and then he places his hands on my face.
“Nicole, you are important. You may have fucked up, but you are important. You have value. You know this, don’t you?”
“Maybe I used to,” I whisper. “But that is not something I’ve heard in a long time. Probably not since we were dating, actually. You used to say that all of the time.”
“I meant it.”
“And now?”
“I still mean it.”
“Lee, when I told you no...”
“I thought there was someone else,” he says quietly, shaking his head. “I thought you didn’t want me. That wasn’t it at all, was it?”
“No,” I shake my head as the tears start to come again. “I was just young. I was scared. I didn’t know you were a shifter and I certainly didn’t know you wanted to be with me forever. It was just a lot of information to take in at once. I should have reacted differently.”
“I should have given you time,” he says quietly.
“We can’t change the past,” I tell him. “It doesn’t matter now.”
“Nicole,” he says, and his lips are closer now, hovering over mine. I can feel his breath on my mouth as he whispers. “We can’t change the past, but we control the future, sweetheart. The future...that’s ours. This,” he whispers. “This is ours.”
And then he kisses me.
Lee the Dragon kisses me softly, and then quickly, and then everywhere in between. He kisses me like nothing else matters and right now, nothing does. The years we’ve lost seem to disappear as his tongue presses against my lips, gently nudging them open, and then I’m completely lost.
Enveloped in his arms, I forget everything around me.
The sadness disappea
rs and is replaced with something else: something stronger.
Passion.