Page 22 of Lachlan

“You encouraged me to show her the truth,” he now defended.

Hunter winced. “Yes, but I thought you might reveal a talon or two, not just shift the whole of your face in front of her and almost shock her to death.” He pushed open the door to Lachlan’s suite of rooms before standing back and allowing him to enter first.

Lachlan felt his dragon’s purr of pleasure as he carried Belle into his personal space. A pleasure he echoed.

“Find Ben McGregor,” he instructed Hunter after his brother had pulled back the duvet, allowing Lachlan to place Belle inthe center of the huge four-poster bed. He debated removing her jeans, sure that they must still be slightly damp from being exposed to so much snow. Her jumper and underwear should have remained dry. “Turn around,” he instructed his brother.

Lachlan waited until Hunter had turned away before unfastening Belle’s jeans and pulling them down her legs. He efficiently removed her socks at the same time before tucking the duvet around her shoulders and neck to keep her warm. He did so without allowing his hungry gaze to linger too long on Belle’s bare legs or the pink cotton bikini panties she wore.

Lachlan straightened, but his possessive gaze remained fixed on Belle as she slept. “I want that journal back in our possession before Belle wakes up.”

Hunter still stood on the other side of the bed. “Your mate is beautiful, Lachlan,” he murmured.

“She is,” Lachlan agreed proudly.

“I think,” Hunter continued slowly, “that she’s also open-minded where the existence of dragons is concerned. But maybe go a little slower next time, hm?” he added ruefully.

Lachlan sighed. “My partial shift earlier also proves that her belief in the myth of dragons and then actually finding herself face-to-face with one are two distinctly different things.”

His brother grinned. “Yeah, that was obviously a bit of a shock when Belle only thought we might be related to the dragons in Sister Agnes’s journal.”

Lachlan smiled slightly. “It’s good to know that she became a nun and eventually abbess in charge of the whole convent.”

Too often, the people they helped either to escape becoming a human sacrifice or from some other life-threatening situation went on to live their lives without the Drake brothers ever knowing what had become of them.

It was so long ago, and Sister Agnes had been dead for centuries, but at least they now knew that young woman had chosen to live out her life at the convent they had taken her to, and that she had made a success of it. At that time, becoming an abbess in an English conventwasvery much a success for a young girl from an obscure village in Scotland.

Hunter nodded his satisfaction. “I wonder what Sister Agnes wrote in those journals.”

Lachlan scowled. “You heard what Belle said earlier. She’d translated enough of those other journals to realize they mainly noted day-to-day events in the convent.”

“They could still be of interest to us, though,” Hunter said wistfully. “Especially the one where she wrote about warrior dragons.”

Of course they could, because Lachlan and his brothers had lived through that time. They had also known the author of those journals, if only briefly. Theywerethe warrior dragons.

Lachlan looked down at Belle. She appeared so serene. So calm and warm and happy snuggled beneath the duvet.

Would she still be any of those things when she woke up and remembered what she’d seen?

When she remembered that Lachlan had partially shifted into adragonin front of her?

“She might sleep for some time considering the night she spent terrified and alone, as well as cold and hungry on the mountain,” Hunter murmured. “When she wakes up, I suggest you go easy on the dragon-shifter-and-true-mate thing.”

“Beforeshe wakes up, I want you to find McGregor and bring him and the journal to me,” Lachlan repeated harshly.

If that boy had damaged a single page in Belle’s precious journal, then he would answer to Lachlan for it.

With his life, if necessary.

No one, absolutely no one, would ever hurt Belle and get away with doing so.

Ours, his dragon growled.

Theirs, Lachlan agreed with deep satisfaction.

Belle woke slowly, aware she was still feeling tired, her body so heavy, it took several seconds for her to even be able to lift her eyelids.

She felt totally disoriented when she looked around the unfamiliar room aided by a single dimmed wall light. Enough so that she could make out the heavy, dark furniture and a dark blue carpet.

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