Chapter 7
Okay. Well, she’s not screaming and running yet. I’ll take that as a good sign, Caleb thought as he looked down at Kira, trying to move as little as possible lest he break the spell and send Kira sprinting off into the distance, never to be seen again.
Why would our mate scream and run at the sight of us? his dragon demanded to know, preening a little, trying to make the sunlight play off his smooth, shiny scales. We are magnificent. Now that she has seen us, she knows we can protect her. That she will always be safe as long as we are by her side.
Yes – I know that, Caleb told it. But you have to admit, suddenly seeing a dragon appearing out of nowhere could be a little disconcerting to most people, mate or not.
His dragon did not seem inclined to admit anything of the sort, and simply flexed its wings, as if trying to show them off – no, Caleb thought, rolling his eyes. The dragon was definitely trying to show them off.
It was a normal thing for dragons to do for other dragons – display themselves, comparing their power and physique – but Caleb wasn’t sure it would be as impressive to a human.
In any case, Kira definitely wasn’t saying much – she was just standing there staring, her mouth and eyes opened wide.
Caleb wanted to reassure her, but of course, as a dragon, he couldn’t form human words – the best he could do was make a soft, deep crooning sound, which dragons used to comfort each other and show they were friendly. But again, who knew exactly what a human might make of it?
He had his answer soon enough, however.
At the sound of the deep, booming purrrr emanating from his chest, she blinked, seeming to snap out of her state of shock.
“Oh… so I guess you really weren’t joking,” she said, shaking her head. “I… uh. Well, I guess the joke’s on me, because I definitely only twenty-five percent believed you when you said you could turn into a dragon. And I didn’t think you’d be quite so… uh, big.”
Caleb would have smiled if he could have. Instead, he felt a ticklish warmth in his belly – the way a dragon felt happiness.
You see? Our mate is impressed with us! She sees how capable we are. How well we can look after her!
Caleb wasn’t sure he’d go quite that far, but it definitely was gratifying to hear Kira say something that implied she thought he was imposing. His dragon’s pride found it irresistible.
“So do you… uh, breathe fire or anything like that too? Like a real dragon?” Kira shook her head again. “Sorry – that sounded weird. You are a real dragon. I meant more like… a dragon out of a story book. Is that stuff all true? Do you have a hoard of gold as well?”
Before Caleb could stop it, his dragon had stoked up the fire in its belly, letting smoke waft up from his mouth and nostrils – but he quickly tamped it down again. The last thing he needed was the dragon getting over-excited and accidentally letting a spark out, and setting half the forest on fire.
The question about the hoard was something he could only answer in human form, however. He couldn’t wait to explain how it all worked to Kira – but would she be impressed with his family’s hoard of film, or just disappointed it wasn’t gold coins and jewels?
No. Our mate is not like that.
His dragon’s voice sounded firmly in his head, and just for once, Caleb found himself in complete agreement with it – Kira wasn’t the kind of person who cared that much about gold and riches. She’d proved that with her refusal to take Heit’s money to drop her opposition to his project. If all she cared about was being wealthy, she could have taken it and never had to worry about money for the rest of her life. But instead, she’d chosen to keep fighting for what was important to her.
“Well, if it helps, I definitely believe you now.” Kira’s voice sounded from below. “Uh. And it’s not that I’m scared or anything like that, but… maybe you could change back now? I know what I said about no one coming down here, but I wasn’t really expecting you to change into a dragon when I said that. Maybe you’re better safe than sorry.”
Caleb had to agree with that. He didn’t want to cause any more problems than they had already. Summoning up his energy, he shifted back to his human form, watching the world grow larger around him as he shrank back down. He could see Kira’s face as he did so, growing even more astonished than it was already – perhaps seeing the process in reverse was somehow even stranger. She shook her head when he stood in front of her, human once more.
“Okay. Well, I’m sorry I doubted you,” she said. “You couldn’t possibly have given me a better demonstration of why I was wrong.”
“I hope I didn’t startle you too much,” Caleb said cautiously. “Though I’d understand if you needed some time to adjust to the idea.”
Kira shook her head again. “No – no. It’s not that. It’s just – dragons? Real dragons? I mean… are you guys that common? Is every second person I see around actually a dragon, or something like that?”
Caleb laughed softly, shaking his head. “No, you don’t have to worry about anything like that – not that you would anyway, since most dragons just want to live peacefully these days, without causing any fuss. But we’re really not that common. You could probably go your whole life never seeing a dragon in its human form. You might see some other kinds of shifters, though…”
Kira’s head snapped up. “Others? There are other kinds of shifters?”
“Yeah – sorry, I kind of sprung that on you too, I guess.” Caleb grimaced. “But yeah – there’s plenty of different kinds of shifters. Cats, dogs, squirrels – you name it. But mythical shifters – dragons, unicorns, griffins, for example – we’re a lot less common.” He paused. He supposed if he was coming clean about things he’d better tell Kira everything, no matter how surprising it might be. “But, uh, sorry to say, Heit is one of them. He’s also a dragon shifter. That’s the reason he was talking as if he knew my family – there aren’t very many of us, so we tend to be aware of each other.”
“Oh. Right. Okay.” Kira looked a little stunned, and Caleb couldn’t say he blamed her. When her knees started to wobble, however, he rushed to her side, taking her arm and helping her down onto the park bench.
“Kira, are you okay?” he asked, panic lancing through him. Had he told her too much too soon after all?
“Yeah… well, I guess as fine as I can be,” Kira murmured, looking at her hands. “For someone who’s just found out that the person who’s trying to steal their park isn’t only endlessly rich and powerful, they’re also a fire-breathing mythical being.”