Page 38 of The Dragon of her Dreams

I hadn’t been to the Northern Kingdom in years, and as it came up on the horizon, a wash of dread coursed over me. I shivered, trying to dismiss it. I’d forgotten how thick the snow fell here, and how close the dark woods were.

Lucian and Dymitri had lived in those woods for years, and I just couldn’t imagine ever doing that. It would have been cold, feral, and primitive.

Jaegar began to fly lower, toward the village.

I wanted to go to the castle, where it would be warm and there would be servants around to settle us into my Uncle Damon’s home.

I could seriously use the comfort...

But I wasn’t there to see Aunt Cass and her family. I’d flown all this way for Jaegar and his need to go home. Perhaps this was what he’d meant? To go back to the house he’d grown up in with his mother?

I followed him down into the village, landing in a large field just outside the township where it was safe for two dragons to touch down. I shifted back to human as soon as I could and immediately regretted it as I started to shiver. “Brrr... it’s freezing!”

Jaegar shifted back also, letting his magnificent dragon go. When he saw how cold and naked I was, he immediately ran to me. “Come on then, my place isn’t far.”

He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and hurried me over the field and up a narrow road.

The icy rocks hurt my feet, and I hobbled along like a delicate flower, a thought I hated..

He chuckled and seeing my level of discomfort, he picked me up like I weighed nothing.

I would have complained at his little show of male power if I hadn’t been so cold. Instead, I stubbornly tucked my head under his chin and plastered myself to his warm chest.

“No wonder you had to learn to make more heat,” I managed to say from between chattering teeth, amazed by his ability to be warm no matter what the temperature.

He laughed. “Hang in there, baby. We’re almost there.”

I’d never been so cold in my life, but I closed my eyes and steadied my breathing as best I could, trying not to freak out about the conditions I was enduring. I’d grown up in Bravadok. It snowed there also, but I’d never been outside for more than a few seconds in the snow before. I didn’t like it and never wanted to play in it. As a result, I’d never known the sort of cold that made your fingers go numb quickly.

“Here we are,” Jaegar said, setting me down on a stoop, then opening the wooden door into a little hut.

I rushed inside, and the space was only just marginally warmer than outside. “Jaegar... It’s freezing...” I managed to say as I shuddered violently.

“Oh... yes,” he apologized, grabbing a blanket from the small couch to wrap around my shoulders. “How about you climb into the bed, and I’ll start a fire?”

I looked around and saw there was a bed pressed against the wall. I didn’t have any other choice. I bolted for the bed and climbed beneath the rough, dark sheets. There were several blankets on the bed, but the sheets were icy cold to the touch and even beneath all the layers, I still shivered and shook until I rattled the teeth in my head.

Jaegar started a fire in the grate, and as the flames began to flicker and the wood began to burn, he stood up and sighed as he looked around the sad, humble abode. “It’s so good to be home.” He wasn’t shaking, or even shivering in the slightest. He didn’t look cold at all.

And yet, I was freezing and felt like the cold might be the death of me! “Can you come warm me up?” I managed to ask desperately.

He looked at me like he’d forgotten I was even there. “Oh, yes! Sorry!” Then he walked over, threw back the covers, and climbed in.

I scrambled on top of him, hugging his body and pressing my head into his chest, eager to draw every last scrap of warmth from him that I could.

He chuckled as he arranged the covers over me and brushed my hair back off my face. His hands and fingers weren’t even cold.

How is that possible?

His arms went around my back and the heat of his body eventually seeped into mine.

Slowly but surely, my shaking subsided, and I could breathe more easily again.

He kissed the top of my head. “We’re going to have to get you some warm clothes, aren’t we?”

I nodded but didn’t say much in return, because what could I say? That this was freaking horrible to me? That I hated it already? That the idea of actually trying to live in this tiny house terrified me. It wasoneroom. I couldn’t see a bathroom or running water, though there probably was something somewhere.

An outhouse behind, maybe?

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