“This place is unreal,” Mallory said as she stopped to catch her breath. She turned slowly and took in the sweeping valley below. “It feels…I don’t know. Pure.”
Jakob swallowed. “It is.”
She gave him a curious look. “You say that like you know for sure.”
He forced a shrug. “When you spend enough time in the wild, you start to feel it.”
That wasn’t a lie. Just not the whole truth.
They climbed the final stretch in silence. Jakob led her carefully as he guided her steps away from unstable snowdrifts and positioned himself between her and sheer drop-offs. Instinct demanded it.
Guard her. Protect what is precious, but you know you’re not supposed to bring her here, the dragon warned, low and insistent.
But something inside Jakob, something selfish and reckless, needed her to see it. Needed to give her wonder instead of fear. Beauty instead of the truth he could never share.
They crested the ridge. The winter sky above them was darker than normal, as if it were closer to night than morning.
Mallory gasped with a soft, breathless sound that struck him square in the chest.
The sky above them shimmered in ribbons of green and violet, luminous waves rippling across the darkened sky. Light spilled over the snow, turning it to silk and glass. The ancient auroras unfurled overhead, alive and breathing.
His people believed the lights were the breaths of ancient dragons that lingered in the heavens.
Mallory stepped up beside him. “Jakob…” Her voice trembled. “Oh my God. It’s incredible.”
He barely heard her. He watched her face instead to see her wide eyes, her mouth parted in wonder, and her breath fogging in little bursts. The way the colors reflected in her eyes made something ache deep in his chest.
His dragon stirred, pleased.Bring her closer.
The wind cut harder at the ridge. Mallory shivered and hugged her arms around herself. Jakob didn’t think. He stepped behind her and draped his coat around her shoulders and pulled it snug before she could protest.
Her breath caught as her back pulled up tight against his chest.
She turned just enough to look up at him. Her cheeks were flushed and her lashes were tipped with frost. “Thank you,” she said quietly.
He nodded, unable to trust his voice. He shouldn’t have wrapped her against him, but he had.
Her warmth seeped into him with a slow, intoxicating burn. The dragon purred and heat coiled through his veins.
“It’s beautiful,” she whispered again, as though afraid the lights might vanish if she spoke too loudly.
“Yes,” Jakob murmured, his voice rough and dangerous. “It is.”
She shifted like she sensed something and realized he wasn’t looking at the sky.
Her breath stuttered. “Jakob…”
He lifted a hand before he could stop himself and cupped her cheek. Her skin was warm despite the cold, impossibly soft beneath his callused palm.
Too soft. Too human.
Mallory leaned into the touch like she trusted him with something fragile and unspoken.
Heat roared through Jakob’s blood.
She tilted her face toward his. Her lips parted before she rose onto her toes.
The dragon surged.Claim her. Take her. Mine.
