Sephie was still assimilating theI was born a dragonpart of his statements.
A dragon!
How cool was that?She couldn’t wait to tell— “You said Lachlan and Hunter are dragon shifters too,” she said slowly.
Ranulf nodded.“We were born from the same clutch.”
Her eyes widened.“Birds, reptiles, and insects have clutches of eggs.”
“So do dragons.”
“The three of you emerged from eggs?”
“Yes.”
Sephie searched for any indication in Ranulf’s expression that he was messing with her.Although the seriousness of his nature up till now didn’t indicate that that was at all likely.
Nope, those beautiful green eyes continued to meet hers, unflinchingly honest in their intensity.
But hadn’t she already sensed that there was something feral lurking inside Ranulf and his two brothers beneath that veneer of civility they presented to the world?A surface civility that occasionally grew very thin, most noticeably when Ranulf appeared to growl over something he didn’t like.In her company, that was usually in connection with someone—Wallis—hurting or touching her.
From the moment she first saw Ranulf, he had been unlike any other man Sephie had ever met—probably because she now knew he was actually a dragon!—and last night had been amazing, magical.
It was fast, and incredible, but Sephie knew she had already fallen in love with him.
“Do Belle and Zoey know all this too?”she asked.
Ranulf smiled slightly.“Oh yes, they are well aware of the nature of their mate.”
“Mate,” Sephie echoed, not as a question but more as a way of her trying to assimilate the whole concept of dragon shifters and their mates.“I’m guessing being a dragon’s mate is something even deeper than the commitment of a husband and wife.”
“Yes.”
She nodded, grateful when Ranulf didn’t try to fill the silence that followed.It had already been a fantastical twenty-four hours, including having a deranged man holding her family prisoner at gunpoint before placing bombs in their inn.She wanted time to absorb all that she was hearing right now.Not because she didn’t believe him, because she did.She just needed a little time to come to terms with it all.
She finally managed to speak again.“So, Belle and Zoey are Lachlan’s and Hunter’s mates?”
“Their fated mates, yes.”
“Fated?”Sephie was sure she sounded like a damned parrot, as she kept repeating certain words Ranulf said.But she needed to know all of it, not just some of it.
Ranulf nodded.“Dragons only have one true mate.”
Her eyes widened.“Just one, in the whole world?”
“Yes.”
“But the odds of them meeting that one person who is their mate must be astronomical.”
“They are,” he dismissed.“And yet that’s exactly what’s happened for Lachlan with Belle and Hunter with Zoey.”
“Will that happen to you too?”Knowing she was in love with Ranulf, she couldn’t quite manage to keep the disappointment or jealousy from her voice.The woman who became Ranulf’s mate would be the luckiest one in the world.
“Yes.”
Sephie felt a painful tightening of her chest at the thought of Ranulf with his own mate.“Belle and Zoey are happy with all these changes in their lives?”
Ranulf chuckled.“They now have the same enhanced hearing and sight that we do, and the absolute wonder on Belle’s face the first time she shifted and flew beside Lachlan was priceless.”
