“Then the tree started to collapse.” I shook my head, reliving the moments. “I tried to get you to wake up. Then I tried to pull you away, but I couldn’t. I was too weak.”
“Then?”
“Then …” I looked away.
“What? What is it?”
I was going to have to tell him. “Then … then I maybe flung myself on top of you to try to shield you. To save you.”
“Why on earth would you dothat?” he gaped. “Ella, look at the size of this tree. It would have flattened me! What difference were you going to make?”
“I don’t know. Okay?” I shouted. “But maybe I didn’t want to lose you. Maybe … maybe it was the first sign of a love I didn’t understand.”
Dirk’s mouth clamped shut.
“What?” I asked as his lips twitched. He wanted to say something. “Out with it.”
“Youdoknow it was stupid. Right?”
“Of course I do, Dirk. But in the moment …”
“In the moment, your dragon wanted to protect its mate.”
I thought about it and then nodded. “You’re right. I think that’s it. She knew from the start.”
“Knew what?”
I stepped closer to him. “That we were meant to be together, Dirk. That we’re mates. She’s known since this moment. The rest of me denied it for longer, but she knew it then. Knew better than I did.”
Something stirred inside me.
Dirk grinned. “See, now we’re—”
One moment he was there, and the next moment he was tossed across the clearing as my dragon burst forth without warning, filling the space he’d just occupied.
“Dirk!” I shouted, the word feeling strange coming from dragon lips, even as I reared up on my hind legs, my wings spreading wide in triumph. My dragon was back! We were finally united as one.
And all I’d had to do was acknowledge I was a stubborn idiot. The animal presence in my head snorted with laughter.
On the ground nearby, Dirk groaned and sat up.
“Ow. That is the second time you’ve done that to me.”
“Well,” I said, padding over to him in dragon form and grinning broadly as he looked over my dragon form admiringly. I didn’t stop myself from preening for him this time. “At least I know your head can take it better than the tree.”
Dirk looked over his shoulder to see that he was, indeed, at the base of the brellwood stump. And ten feet above him was a roundish indent in the bark courtesy of his head.
“Ella,” he growled, staring up at me.
“Yes, mate?”
“While I’m happy to see you in your dragon form, if you don’t get down here right now and let me finish what you started in the shower, we’re going to have a problem.”
I stiffened at the unbridled lust and desire in his voice.
“Coming,” I whimpered, focusing on my dragon to try to shift back.
“No, you aren’t,” he growled as I shrank into my human form and settled on top of him, my legs spread. “But you will be soon enough.”
