Neither are you.The response comes without thought, pure truth flowing through the connection.
I pull out of her and step back. She stands in the pool, water lapping at her waist, breathing hard as the claiming settles between us.
"I can feel you." Her hand finds my chest even across the distance, pressing over my heart. "Not just emotions—everything. Your heartbeat. The fire coiled under your skin."
"The bond goes both ways." I close the space between us, covering her hand with mine. "What you feel of me, I feel of you."
"Show me."
I let the barriers down. The fierce possessive satisfaction. The pride in how she handled the claiming. The relief that she survived, that I haven't lost another mate to magic I don't fully control. And the certainty that if Mikhail takes her from me, I'll burn the world to ash.
"I won't let him." Her voice is quiet but certain. "We're going to kill him together."
Her mind brushes against mine again. Satisfaction. Possessiveness that mirrors my own. Love that's been building since the moment she walked into my cave asking questions about drowning patterns.
I see you,she sends back.All of you. And I'm still here.
The simple acceptance cracks something in my chest that's been locked tight for centuries.
"Forever," I say aloud, the word a promise and a vow.
"Forever," she echoes.
Then lightning cracks overhead. Silver mist begins to rise around her body, thick and charged with power. The transformation is starting.
"Step back," I tell her, moving to the edge of the pool. "Give yourself room."
The shift begins. The mist thickens, swirling faster, charged with electricity that makes the air crackle. Lightning illuminates the cloud from within, revealing shapes that shift and reform—human bones lengthening, reshaping, becoming something else entirely.
The sound hits next. Not painful, but visceral. The wet crack of cartilage restructuring. The deep groan of muscle expanding. Her gasp becomes a roar that shakes loose pebbles from thecave ceiling, the frequency dropping lower and lower until it resonates in my chest.
Heat pours off the transformation in waves. Dragon fire igniting in her core, burning away the last traces of human fragility. The ocean pool begins to steam where the heat touches water. The scent changes—jasmine and citrus giving way to ozone and burning copper and the deep mineral smell of ancient magic.
Then the mist explodes outward.
Where Lila stood, a dragon fills the cave. The displaced water surges over the pool's edge, flooding the stone floor. Her wings unfurl with a snap of membrane and bone, tips brushing the cave walls. Crimson and gold scales shimmer in the lightning flashes, each one the size of my palm, overlapping in patterns that speak to instincts older than consciousness.
She's magnificent.
Smaller than my dragon form, sleeker in build. Her scales reflect light like burnished copper. Her eyes glow aquamarine like mine, awareness flashing in depths that are still Lila but also primal and timeless.
She moves, testing the body. A step forward that shakes the ground. Wings extending, folding, extending again as muscle memory that never existed suddenly does. Her tail sweeps through the water, sending up spray that catches the lightning.
Her instincts awaken. Dragon awareness settles into place. The urge to fly. Fire coiled in her chest like a second heartbeat. Primal knowledge layers over human reasoning.
She turns her massive head toward me, nostrils flaring. The bond pulses with recognition. Mate. Mine. Hers.
Then she tries to speak.
What comes out isn't words—not yet. It's a rumble that vibrates through stone, layered with harmonics that human vocal cords could never produce. Frustration bleeds across thelink. She knows what she wants to say but the dragon throat won't form the syllables.
Thoughts,I send through the link.Dragons communicate through the bond when shifted. Think what you want to say.
This is—The thought arrives jumbled, overwhelmed.I can feel everything. The air currents. Your heartbeat. The ocean beneath us. It's too much and not enough and?—
Breathe.I step closer, reaching up to touch her scaled chest. Heat radiates through my palm.You're doing perfectly. The first shift is always overwhelming.
She lowers her head, bringing her massive face level with mine. This close, I can see myself reflected in her aquamarine eyes. See the predator and the woman existing in the same space.
