“No. No onehasa dragon. She’s a friend. Wait, did you call her Aurelia?”
“Yes, she told me that was her name.”
Rudy’s brows arched high. “She talked to you?”
“Yeah… uh, inside my head. I don’t know, it’s unusual.”
“My name is Aurelia, yes, but I like it when the wolf calls me Ellie. I have not been named in hundreds of years.”
I grabbed Rudy’s hand and gave him a reassuring smile. “She likes the name you gave her.”
“She does?” He grinned widely, looking proud of himself.
Keeping my hand in his, I turned my attention back to Aurelia. “How is it that you can talk to me like this?”
“Tell me, Bowen, have you met another dragon?”
I pursed my lips and shook my head. “No, I don’t think I have.”
“I thought not. Sadly, there aren’t many of my kind left. Something you and I have in common, though I dare say, perhaps less of yours than mine.”
“My kind? Why do you keep saying that? What am I? Do you know?”
Rudy leaned over my shoulder to look down at the dragon. “Does she know what you are? My friends can’t figure it out, but don’t worry, I told them you weren’t poisoning me.”
I coughed out a laugh and angled my head to look at him. “Poisoning you? Is that what they thought?”
His cheeks turned that lovely shade of pink. “Well, notanymore.”
“Come, let’s go outside. I love to feel the morning sun on my back.” Aurelia nudged her head against my knee.
“Uh, kinda naked here.” I waved an arm over my bare skin, to which Rudy responded with a growl and huff in my ear, making my blood heat.
“I noticed.” His gravelly voice thrummed through my back where his chest pressed against me.
Snickering, I patted his leg. “Sorry, she wants me to go somewhere and talk with her.”
Another growl sounded in the back of his throat, and I heard a twinkling laugh sound in my head. “Oh, he is quite smitten with you. I’ll give you a moment.”
Then the dragon disappeared. Like…disappeared-disappeared. “What the hell?”
It was Rudy’s turn to laugh. “Yeah, she does that.”
When I turned my body around to face him fully, he gave me a sad smile. “Ellie usually shows up when I wake after my werewolf retreats inside me. I don’t know how she always seems to know, or how she manages to come into the room when it’s locked tight, but I always appreciate it. It’s often disorienting, and I feel so weak and fatigued when I come out of it. Then she’ll be there, staying by my side until I feel more myself. She’s made me feel less alone when I needed it the most.”
Reaching up, I cupped his scruffy cheek with my hand. “I’m sorry you’ve had to experience that, and I’m really happy she’s been here for you. How did you feelthis morning when you shifted back? Did it help that I was here, even if she wasn’t?”
The sad smile that was there before changed to a genuine one. Rudy’s eyes lit up, and his entire countenance changed. “I feel great! I’ve never felt better, and the most incredible part is that I was fully present the entire time.”
I snorted a laugh. “Even when you hauled me out of my room without clothes on?”
His cheeks pinked, and he rubbed a hand over his head. “If I said no, I would be lying, but your safety was my first thought, I swear.”
I raised myself to my knees, leveling myself to his seated height. “I do appreciate that, truly. I’m not sure how you knew to come, but I… needed you.”
Rudy’s hands gripped my waist on both sides. His eyes lowered, and he took a breath, steadying himself from whatever emotions he was fighting. “I heard you, Bowen. I heard you, and I had to get to you. I was afraid I was too late.”
Tilting his chin back up to meet my gaze, I said, “You weren’t. You were there when I needed you, and now I get to be here for you when you need it. I don’t understand all of this yet, and maybe Aurelia will have some answers for me, but know this… you’re not alone anymore.”
