The bottom fell out of Moss’s stomach.
Eggs. Dragon eggs. He’d never seen dragon eggs before, but what else could they be? They were the size of ostrich eggs, but like they’d been carved out of precious stone. They caught the narrow band of light from the flashlight and reflected it in a rainbow of colors.
The case must have been specifically designed for them. They were nestled into padded indentations the perfect size and shape to hold them safely. Carol checked them over one by one, carefully turning them over in the case and then lifting each one separately and holding it in her cupped hands for a moment, her eyes closed.
The dragon sniffed each egg as she put it back into the case, chittering softly to them and patting them with her little claws.
“They’re both fine.” Carol’s voice was shaky with relief. She looked up at Moss, and for the first time, he saw her features clearly.
Out in the storm, her eyes had been dark. He hadn’t realized how dark. They were a deep, inky black from side to side, entirely without whites.
His breath caught in his throat. Who was this woman?
5
Carol
She shouldn’t have looked at him.
Moss’s expression was one she’d seen too many times before. Wide eyes. Slack mouth. That first moment of shock, in the split second before it twisted into horror.
She looked away before she could see what he truly thought of her, now that he’d seen her face.
Whatever you’re afraid of can wait.She’d been so worried about the dragon eggs that she’d forgotten her greatest fear.
That she would meet her soulmate, and he would look at her like she was a monster.
She wanted to curl up and close her eyes and never get up again.
“Those are dragon eggs. You have a dragon with you.” Moss’s eyes were a warm, deep brown, sharp and confused and painfullyhuman. “You—are you sure you aren’t hurt?”
She blinked. Of everything she’d expected and feared he would say, that wasn’t it.
“No worse than you’d expect,” she said automatically, and heard her own voice like a recording. “Less… less hurt, actually, than you’d expect. After falling out of a plane.”
“You’re sure?”
His voice was soft and rough. She shouldn’t have been able to hear it over the roar of the storm outside, but it was somehow stronger than the battering of waves and rain. She couldn’t place his accent—not American, not British, something strange and exotic andhome.
In the firefly glow of the tiny flashlight, he reached out and cupped her face.
All the breath left her body. His hand was big, and warm, despite the chill in the air, and he touched her as gently as she’d touched the eggs, checking them all over for any sign of damage.
His eyes softened. “You’re caught in your shift,” he said.
It took a moment for his words to register. When they did, she flinched.
“Caught—?” she stuttered.
“It happens sometimes.” He grimaced, and then added with a wry smile, “When you’re under stress, for example. When you’re in a terrifying situation, and your body is screaming at you to shift into your animal form and get the hell out, but your mind knows you have to stay human to keep others safe.”
A shadow passed behind his eyes. Carol’s heart was in her throat.
His thumb brushed against her cheek. “I wondered why you didn’t shift into your shark form. Now I get it. You wouldn’t have any way to keep hold of the little dragon here, or those eggs. You needed to stay human to keep them safe, even as all your instincts tried to get you to shift to keepyousafe. So you got stuck partway.”
“Oh,” she whispered.
Notno, I’m not caught in my shift, I always look this way.Notthat would be a great excuse, but the truth is…
