A man who, unlike them, had minutes ago been standing up on the castle ramparts dressed only in jeans and a sweater, both of which she could now see looked uncomfortably wet.His uncovered hair was just as wet, implying he had been out in the snow for some time.
Sephie didn’t wait for Ranulf to speak but threw herself into his arms and raised her face in invitation for him to kiss.“They won’t mind,” she assured when he gave her parents a pointed glance.
“Not at all,” her father confirmed.“But, if it’s all the same to you, we would like to come inside out of the snow before you start kissing and forget we’re even here.”
Sephie gave a lighthearted laugh at the expression of surprise followed by discomfort on Ranulf’s face.But not enough of the latter that he didn’t take full advantage of her parted lips.
Sephie had only been away from Ranulf for a few hours, but she had missed himso much.She hadn’t been prepared for feeling that way, as she never had about the half a dozen young men she had dated.But she already knew that her relationship with Ranulf was going to be different from any other.More special.More loving.More binding.Just more of everything that she had always wanted in her life.
He eventually lifted his head but continued to hold her tightly in his arms, their bodies fused together from chest to thigh.“Did you decide to wait until we could be together and…share our news with them?”
She blinked.“What news?”
Ranulf pulled back, his expression turning to one of alarm.“You weren’t dreaming last night and this morning.Everything I told you then, showed you, is real.”
“Yes, I know— Ah, you think, because my parents aren’t yelling for this century’s version of pitchforks that they can’t know about…your alter ego?”she realized.
He winced.“Their calm demeanors would seem to imply that, yes.”
“Mum.Dad.Would you join us, please?”She kept her arm about Ranulf’s waist as she turned to look toward where her parents had just finished hanging their wet coats, hats, and scarves on the long radiator that ran the length of this huge entrance hall.She waited until they had joined them before speaking again.“Would you mind telling Ranulf what I discussed with you both earlier today when we got back to the inn?”
Her mother’s smile was so wide, it seemed to go from ear to ear.“First, I have to tell you, Ranulf, how thrilled I am to know that dragon shifters exist.It is the ultimate gift for all our years of searching for evidence to prove the existence of the yeti, mermaids and mermen, unicorns, selkies, any mythical creatures, really.Latterly, the Loch Ness Monster,” she added happily.
“All to no avail so far, alas.”Her father joined in the conversation.“But none of that matters now that we know we’ve been in the presence of three real live dragons.And they live right here near the village we only moved to last summer.”
Sephie laughed at the stunned look on Ranulf’s face.“I thought about telling you of their adventures earlier, when you seemed skeptical about how they would feel about you being a dragon shifter.But then I decided I really should wait to be sure their reaction was as positive as I thought it would be.”
Her father snorted.“As if it would ever have been in any doubt.Dragons, Sephie!”He did his best to contain his excitement, but it was still there in his glowing eyes and the grin he couldn’t seem to control.
“Adventures?”Ranulf echoed doubtfully.
Sephie nodded.“My parents were both teachers, and every summer, Easter, and Christmas holiday, for all my childhood, my parents took me with them when they set off on one of their expeditions to prove the existence of what other people considered mythical creatures.”
“Like the yeti and unicorns Tim mentioned.”Ranulf still looked doubtful.
“Well, okay, I think we can probably all agree that the latter was a bit of a stretch,” Sephie allowed.“But the yeti was a definite possibility.The mermaid and selkie too.Whatever, it doesn’t change the fact that I spent all my school holidays searching for magical creatures.”
Ranulf’s frown lifted.“This is why you didn’t become hysterical earlier when I told you I’m a dragon shifter?”
“We really aren’t insane, Ranulf,” her mother assured ruefully.“We’ve just always believed that the myths have a basis in reality.”
“And you’ve just proved us right,” her father agreed happily.
Sephie chuckled.“Their fascination with mythology and fantastical creatures is also the reason I’m named after the goddess of the underworld and spring.”
“Sephie isn’t the type of woman to become hysterical over anything you told or showed her,” her mother defended.“Neither of us is.”
“These two are made of much sterner stuff than that, lad,” Sephie’s father joined in.“As am I.And you and your brothers, you are the pinnacle, the raison d’être, for us doing all that research and searching for so many years.Our reward, if you will, for having dedicated so much of our lives, and by extension Sephie’s, seeking the magic that we believe once existed here on earth.”
Tears stung Sephie’s eyes at the reverence she could hear in her father’s voice and see in his gaze as he looked at Ranulf.
“Maybe the fact that you live here and Sephie is your fated mate is the reason we felt drawn to purchase the inn in the village, when we had absolutely no experience in running one until we moved here,” her mother mused.
Sephie wouldn’t be in the least surprised if that wasn’t the case.After the last twenty-four hours, she didn’t think anything would surprise her in future.
“Sephie has explained that you will all have to move away soon, and then again twenty or thirty years after that.Maybe back here, but maybe somewhere else?”her mother prompted.
“I hope she’s going to be able to do her last semester to finish her uni degree before you all leave Scotland.”Her father frowned.“Being a dragon shifter’s mate is all well and good, but we should all have a second string to our bow.”
