I hurt her. I knew I would, but seeing the evidence makes it real.
I get a warm cloth and clean her gently, wiping away the blood and my seed. I change the sheets beneath her, dress her in a fresh nightgown, and then I climb back into bed and pull her against my chest.
"I'm sorry," I whisper into her hair. "But I'm not sorry enough to regret it. You're mine now, Adelaide. Completely mine. And I'm going to take care of you. Protect you. Love you."
I wrap my tail around her legs, my wings wrap around her body, cocooning her in my embrace.
"Sleep, my treasure. Sleep and dream. And when you wake, if you wake, I'll make sure you understand. This is love. This is safety. This is everything you need."
My eyes drift closed, and I fall asleep with her in my arms, my bite mark on her neck, and my scent all over her body.
Mine.
Forever mine in every way.
PROLOGUE
THE PRINCESS
A year ago, a man with the most beautiful eyes I'd ever seen led me through the castle corridors. They were yellow, flecked with amber, and when he looked at me, I felt like I was falling into the sun.
"Just through here, Princess," he'd said, his voice smooth as honey. "Your father asked me to show you something."
I should have questioned it. Should have wondered why a stranger was in the castle, why my father would send someone I'd never met. But those eyes, God, those eyes, they made me trust him. Made my entire body hum with awareness. Made me follow him up the winding stairs to a tower room I'd never seen before.
There was a spinning wheel in the center. An old one, covered in dust.
"Touch the spindle," he said against my ear, his voice different now. Deeper. Commanding. Vibrating through my entire body
My hand moved before I could think. The sharp point pierced my finger, and I watched a single drop of blood well up, impossibly red.
The drowsiness hit me immediately. My legs gave out, and he caught me, lowering me gently to the floor with the most careful hands. As my vision blurred, I saw him change. His body stretched, grew, scales rippling across his skin in waves of the most beautiful iridescent blue I’d ever seen. His face elongated slightly, became something between man and beast. Wings unfurled from his back, strong and large. A tail lashed behind him.
Seven feet tall. Clawed hands. A dragon.A monster.
My last conscious thought, as the darkness pulled me under, was absurd:He's still very handsome even as a dragon.
Then nothing.
Except it wasn't nothing.
I'm awake. I've been awake this entire year, trapped inside my own body like a prisoner in a cell made of flesh and bone. I can't move. Can't speak. Can't even blink. But I can feel everything. Hear everything. Think everything.
Every morning, he carries me to the bathing chamber. His clawed hands are so careful as he undresses me, as he lowers me into the warm water. He talks to me while he bathes me, his voice that same deep rumble that made me follow him up those stairs.
"Good morning, my treasure. Did you sleep well?"
I want to scream that I don't sleep. That I'm here, conscious, aware of every touch, every word.
He washes my hair with gentle fingers, works soap across my skin with a tenderness that would be sweet if it wasn't so horrifying. He dries me carefully, brushes my hair until it shines, braids it with practiced ease.
"You're so beautiful, Adelaide. More beautiful every day."
He dresses me in silk nightgowns, sometimes lace. He tells me the color they are as he dresses me. Red, blue, green, gold, white, a different color each day. His claws never once scratch my skin. He's learned how to touch me without hurting me.
Except he's hurting me every moment I'm trapped like this.
He carries me back to bed, arranges me on the silk sheets like a doll. Sometimes he reads to me. Sometimes he just talks, telling me about his day, about the castle, about how much he loves me.
