Page 38 of Lachlan

“Take care, brother,” Lachlan warned. “Whoever they are, they have already murdered one human.”

“Then it’s as well a dragon is far harder to kill,” Hunter dismissed.

“I still want you to take care,” Lachlan repeated.

“I’ll ensure that he does,” Ranulf assured.

To Belle’s surprise, Lachlan walked in the direction of the back of the house rather than up the stairs to their suite of rooms. “Where are we going?” She frowned as Lachlan threw open theback door and pulled her out into the still-falling snow. “Don’t I need to pack a bag if we’re going away?”

Lachlan’s eyes burned like liquid silver as he looked down at her with brooding intensity. “You aren’t going to need clothes for the next week,” he assured her as they entered the mountain through the private entrance at the back of Drake House. “Neither of us are.”

“Won’t we be cold— Ah, dragons who can control the elements of earth, water, air, and fire.” She nodded her understanding as the temperature in the tunnel instantly became warmer.

“Exactly.” Lachlan bared his teeth in a satisfied smile. “There’s only one place I could possibly think of taking you as my mate.”

Her brow cleared. “With your hoard?”

“On top of my hoard,” he stated with satisfaction. “I need to make you completely mine, surrounded by the treasure that has been replaced by the love I feel for you, my darling Belle. Because you are, and will always be, my greatest treasure.”

She blinked. “You love me?”

“With everything that I am or ever will be,” he vowed.

She smiled shakily. “I love you too.”

“You do?”

Belle hated to see that look of uncertainty in the eyes of this fierce rock of a man. “I love you with everything that I am or ever will be,” she repeated the vow.

Lachlan’s closed his eyes briefly before opening them again to hold her gaze and taking one of her hands in his as he sankto one knee in front of her. “In that case… Will you marry me, Belle?”

“Yes, of course I will,” she choked, moved beyond expressing how much she appreciated Lachlan wanting to marry her in the human world as well as mate her in the dragon one.

Lachlan kissed the back of her hand before rising to his feet. “I don’t have a ring on me. I thought you could choose one for yourself from my hoard if you said yes.”

Belle choked on what was a combination of a gasp and a laugh. “Never doubt I want to belong to you in every way possible and for you to belong to me in the same way. Do you have male rings in your hoard?”

“I do,” he confirmed with a smile.

She nodded. “Then we’ll choose our rings together.”

Lachlan took her in his arms. “I love you, Belle, and I swear that you will never regret agreeing to become my wife and my mate.”

“I believe you,” she murmured before the two of them kissed for long and pleasurable minutes. “Now, more doing and less talking,” she demanded the moment those kisses drew to a reluctant end.

Lachlan chuckled, knowing his love for this woman surpassed anyone and everything he had ever loved or cared about before or now.

“My God…” Belle gasped beside him a few minutes later as they entered the main cave to look down and then up at the treasures stored there.

Lachlan’s chest puffed with pride. “A third of all this now belongs to you too, my mate.”

She shook her head. “Beautiful and wondrous as all this is, I only want you, Lachlan.” She placed her hands on his chest. “Nothing else, just you.”

Lachlan knew, by the sincerity in her deep blue eyes, that she meant every word.

Ours.

Ours, Lachlan inwardly echoed his dragon’s possessive claim.

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