“There is no other way, Sephie.”
“Let’s just wait and see, hm?”she encouraged.“For now, I would like you to kiss me good morning—it’s late, so we don’t have time to do more than that—and then I’m going to need the rest of the day to deal with stuff.But I promise I will come back tonight.”
“Okay,” he accepted.
“And I’m going to want to see all of your beautiful and powerful dragon when I do,” she warned.
“Of course.”
“And please,pleasedon’t do anything about Wallis before I get back.”Her eyes narrowed.“I would like to be here when one of you flies him to the top of the mountain and drops him from that great height!”
So bloodthirsty, Ranulf admired again.“It will probably be Hunter accompanied by Zoey, as it was her parents Wallis killed.”
“Fair enough.”Sephie nodded.“What does a girl have to do around here to get her dragon shifter lover to kiss her?”she challenged.
Ranulf laughed—he couldn’t believe he actuallylaughed—at her teasing words and expression.
Before he kissed the hell out of her.
After all, there was no guarantee that he would ever be able to kiss her again.
CHAPTERTWELVE
In the hours that followed, when Ranulf wasn’t standing on the castle ramparts, impervious to the cold and staring across the distance to where he could see the village inn lit up because the snow that was continuing to fall had dimmed the daylight, he was pacing them instead.
Those lights at least told him Sephie hadn’t decided that she and her parents needed to leave the area and escape from the madman who thought he was a dragon.
But it was the only reassurance he had.Just because Sephie had decided not to run—yet—didn’t mean that she wouldn’t in future.Or, even if she didn’t, that she would agree to become his mate.
Every time he even thought of that happening, he was filled with euphoria.Only for his emotions to crash again when he realized there was always the possibility, despite Sephie having assured him otherwise, that she might refuse to be his mate.He?—
“Ranulf!”
He startled at hearing his name called, but his heart began to beat faster when he recognized it as Sephie’s voice, despite sounding slightly distorted through the falling snow.
“Down here, Ranulf!”
He looked over the rampart to see a grinning Sephie standing in front of the castle, dressed in full winter clothing, a woolen hat pulled over her pink hair.Her parents stood beside her, dressed in similar warm clothing, also grinning.
Ranulf couldn’t believe Sephie was here, and smiling at him so brightly.And that her parents also seemed to be looking at him with approval.
Which, if Sephie had told them anything about what Ranulf had confided to her this morning, and that she had seen with her own eyes, was an odd response on their part.
Unless Stephie hadn’t told them yet?
But if that was the case, why had Stephie brought her parents with her?Her smiling parents.
Maybe she had brought the other couple here so they could tell them the truth together?
That sounded like a plausible explanation?—
“We’re getting cold down here, Ranulf,” Sephie called up to him again.
Of course they were.“I’ll come down now and open the door.”He didn’t wait for her reply but instead used his preternatural speed to get to the door as quickly as possible so that Sephie and her parents didn’t get any more wet and cold than they already were.
* * *
Sephie’s heart soared at the sight of the man she loved.
