Page 7 of Dragons Of Shadow and Sea

"You laugh?" Thunder echoes above, and my chest is cratering.

I don't want my mate to fear me, but she needs to respect me. I'll earn her regard, if she gives me time, but we're three minutes into our forever, and she's flippant, insulting, delusional and infuriating.

Something inside of me cracks. This hope I felt... This reprieve from the loneliness I'd assumed was my mantle to bear...

It's too much.

My mate's expression softens. For the first time, tentatively, she relaxes her body language. She reaches out, and when I don't pull back, she takes my hand in hers.

Rushes of aquamarine energy surge through me from that one, minuscule point of contact. I can't entirely calm down, but it's such a relief to simply feel her skin.

"I'm sorry." She strokes the back of my palm with her thumb, and it's all I can do not to pull her into my arms. "I shouldn't have laughed. Just." She shrugs, looking down at our hands, and suddenly, I see the flippancy and the bravado for what they are.

A wall.

"Just?" I slip a finger under her chin, gently nudging her to lift her gaze.

She looks up at me with dark, liquid eyes. "Just, you have no idea all the ways I'm 'special'."

Pain darkens her tone, and it doesn't matter that I'm outraged and insulted by half the things that she has said so far. I want to protect her from every suffering.

"Then tell me."

She laughs again, but it's self-deprecating and dark. Releasing my hand, she pulls away, and I don't want to let her, but I won't deny her a bit of space, if that's what she needs.

She bites her lower lip, casting a glance my way before turning to the window. "I guess you're going to have to find out everything eventually."

"You can tell me in your own time."

We have forever.

Right?

I swallow in an attempt to push down my doubt. A dragon mates to one person for life; that's the natural order of the universe. But if a dragon can have more than one mate, does that mean all the other laws of True Mates are wrong, too?

"Believe me." She casts another, sharper glance at me over her shoulder. "Holding stuff back hasn't worked out well for me in the past."

There's that stab of pain again, ripping through our bond, and it makes me want to wring the neck of anyone and everyone who's ever caused her harm.

I force myself not to let my violent instincts show, though, doing everything in my power to show her the side of me that is calm and empathetic and receptive.

I spread my open palms to the sides. "Then I'm all ears."

"Okay." She exhales roughly and turns again to face me. Her eyes are pleading, but her mouth is hard, her position defensive. Like she expects me to reject her already.

Internally, I brace myself.

But there's no amount of bracing I could do to shore myself up against the torrent of confessions that come spilling out of her.

She starts counting them off on her fingers. "First, I'm a dragon shifter, but my dragon hasn't Emerged yet." She holds up her other hand to stop any response I might make. "Yes, I've tried. Repeatedly. Yes, I'm also sure I am in fact a dragon."

I shake my head. I may be doubting everything right now, but I wasn't going to question that. Her dragon calls to mine in a way that's undeniable. "I wasn't going to--"

"Second," she says, cutting me off, and again, the prince in me is not amused. "I have this." She gestures at a big, black bracelet she's wearing, and I frown. "It's a powerful magical artifact, and ever since it chose me, I've developed powers."

I scrunch up my brow. "The bracelet chose you?"

"I don't understand how it works. The powers or the bracer, but they're real. I promise you."

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