Page 32 of Dragon's Honor

This Nadine woman had come across a wolf shifter, of that he was sure. The rest of her information was all conspiracy theorist nonsense. Ash and his brother had done plenty of their own research. They’d heard a lot of the same stuff.

He hadn’t expected Finley to find anyone legit.

“May I put your picture up on my website?” Nadine asked as they were getting ready to leave.

“No,” Ash barked.

Finley shot him a glare and then turned to Nadine. “I don’t think so. It’s nothing personal, but that picture is pretty important to me. It was hard for me to share it with just you.”

“Not him?” Nadine asked cocked an eyebrow.

Finley looked up at Ash.

He stood there looking back at her. Their connection was there, whether he wanted to admit it or not. She held his gaze.

“Not him.”

They said their good-byes and Ash followed Finley out the door. They had a car waiting for them. She climbed inside the backseat and he followed suit.

“Where are we going now?”

“The beach.”

Ash shifted in his seat. “Another clue?”

Finley shook her head. “I just want to go to the beach. I want to take some pictures maybe.”

Her voice sounded distant and wistful. He wanted to pull her against his body and wait for her to spill all her thoughts out for him to dive into. The world was a lot smaller than it used to be. People had cameras and weren’t so oblivious or fearful, at least not for the right reasons. The secret worlds that moved around them, the shroud was becoming more and more transparent.

They arrived at the beach, walking to the sand together in silence. Ash was glad she wasn’t one of those humans who needed to chatter incessantly, just to fill the quiet, without saying anything of import. But he ached to hear more of what she had to say, what made her who she was, what passions they may have shared, anything to keep her talking, to allow him the chance to know this woman who seemed more and more likely to be destined to be his mate.

Finley kicked off her shoes and socks and then moved onto the beach, letting out a breathy sigh as she closed her eyes and a slight smile tugged up the corners of her mouth.

Gods, she was beautiful.

Ash didn’t take off his shoes, but he followed her out onto the sand. This beach of hers was eerily close to the one he called home, where his house stood just off the water.

Was this the beach she took her photo on? Was this where she became obsessed with his kind?

“Tell me something about you,” Finley said against the roar of the waves. Her footprints left their mark for only a moment as she walked along where the water drenched the sand, swallowing any evidence she’d been there.

Ash decided he wanted to try seeing the world through her eyes. He pulled off his shoes, carrying them as he moved closer to the water, enjoying the way the sand felt beneath his feet. The soft, water-soaked sand was immeasurably more comfortable than dry sand under his bare ass.

They walked in silence a few more steps before Ash admitted quietly, “I saw my parents murdered and it shouldered me with a lot of responsibility. Responsibility I wasn’t ready for.”

“Like what?”

Ash looked across the water. “I’m a king apparent.”

Finley stopped and turned to him. “What do you mean you’re a king apparent?”

He stopped and turned to face her. “I was a prince before my parents were killed. The throne falls to me until me or one of my siblings is mat…married. I’m the oldest, so I’m in charge of the throne as it were. It’s not much of a throne. The night my parents were killed our entire kingdom was torn to shreds.”

Ash knew he’d opened a large basket of questions for her to unpack. He didn’t care. For once, he wanted to share something honest about himself. He’d been feeling himself slip away time and time again. Standing with her on the beach, enjoying the comfortable silence between them two of them, he’d felt more at peace then he’d ever felt anywhere else or any other time.

“You’re a king? Of what? A country?”

“No. Not a country. I have a clan. King is the old-fashioned title.”

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