Page 52 of Whisper Woods

In a moment that echoes our first meeting, the midnight-blue scaled being stands with his back to us, staring out at the Woods. The moon is only new,casting scary ass shadows over everything. Thick, curved spikes form two rows over the creature’s—being’s? Rafe’s?—dragon-like head. They start kind of small at the thick ridge where his eyebrows should be and grow bigger—more deadly—as they reach the crown of his angular, animalistic skull and then continue down to his neck where they disappear into the ridged scales that cover his body. Even in the dark they have a rich blue sheen.

As Wolf approaches, the being turns to face us, his posture relaxed, easy and non-threatening with our approach. One clawed hand reaches out to scratch delicately behind our ear and Wolf drops our ass to the ground, panting happily but exhausted and weary. He melts under the beast's affection, slumping to the ground with happy little wolf snuffles. If I wasn’t so confused, I’d be embarrassed.

Look up you bastard!Wolf shut our damned eyes in his happy little stupor. I try to force the change again, hating the lack of control over our body with the fire of a thousand suns. Wolf ignores my panic, satisfied in his successful mission in getting us to Rafe, while the logical parts ofmybrain—limited as they are—grapple with my instincts.

I just need to see him.I plead. With Wolfandmyself. A sneezy-snort is his only acknowledgement before he lets go of control.

The beast,Rafe, is still scratching my head when I come to myself on the ground. It feels good. Really good. Especially with everything so sore from our epic run. I let my eyes stay shut for another second, knowing that when I open them everything is going to be different.

Different good, different bad, I don’t know. But everything is about to change and despite all my big talk about needing something new, I want the security for just one more moment.

“Hello Seff.” Oh Gods. The low rumble only makes his voicehotter. How is it possible? My brain finally catches up to what my instincts and Wolf already knew.

I crack my eyes open and roll onto my back. His face is looming over me and, despite those kind of terrifying spikes laying flat against his head now, I can’t stop the quick spike of panic at the toothsome, dragon-y face grinning down atme.

The scales on his face are smoother, with hard ridges over his eyebrows, the scar over his left eye still present and more terrifying in this form. Those eyes are the same, though. One milky white, the other brown, with its long pupil, still fixated on me with that same intensity.

His snout is stubbier than what you usually imagine when you think of dragons but it is still distinctly dragonesque and the same inky blue black as the rest of him. He still has his piercing on his nose. Snout? Whatever. Even his long, pointed ears are still pierced, the gold catching in the minimal light.

Rafe sits back, allowing me to sit up and inspect him. The scales get larger again, becoming raised ridges, pointed but not sharp over his jaw and down his neck before blending into the smooth but thick skin of his chest and abdomen.I wonderwhat that feels like?It doesn’t feel right to touch him, though. Not yet.

My eyes travel down further, over the same thick smooth skin of his pelvis. The way he’s kneeling, sitting back on his heels like he is, exposes the way the skin gives way to the scales once again on his thighs. And his dick… it’s… not there? Only that same thick skin covering his groin. I know I’m staring, but what the fuck? A frown puckers my brow, my brain back to firing a thousand miles an hour trying to do the maths on top of everything else tonight.

And I always sucked at maths.

A throaty chuckle draws my attention away from the not-a-dick to Rafe’s face. Is it strange that I still think he’s hot like this? Can he kiss with that dragon mouth? The teeth might be a bit of a problem but—

“Are you okay, sweetness?” The thick skin of his brows puckers into a frown of worry, nostrils flaring as he huffs a breath that fans over my trembling skin. Between the cold and the shock, I realise I’m shaking and I wrap my arms over my waist.

“Uh, yeah.” My throat is sore. I’d kill for some water, but that’s going to have to wait. I look over his face again, taking in every unreal detail. “I don’t.. I don’t understand.”

With his usual unnatural grace, Rafe stands and I finally see his elongated feet, the claws on his toes. Not unlike the claws on the hand he’s holding outto help me up. I blink at it a couple of times, definitelynotconsidering what it would be like to have him run those deadly talons over me. Because that would beweird.

I take the offer of help, because I need it. My legs are weak and shaking under me. Wolf absolutely wiped us out to get here. Standing toe to claw with beast-Rafe, I try real hard to ignore the way my junk is brushing against the smoothness where his should be.

Instead, I stare into his eyes. It’s comforting in the way that Rafe always is. Safe—even though I can sense his anxiety.He’s scaredI realise. Scared that I’ll reject him? Forthis? My snort isn’t an inside thought, unfortunately, and his face twists from the neutrality he’s attempting to something more curious.

I cave to that curiosity, letting one of my hands come up to cradle the strong jaw of his snout. The skin and scales feel smooth under my touch. It’s not bad, just different. My thumb strokes under his lips and then I let my hand wander, trailing down the bumpy scales of his neck, onto the skin of his chest.

It’s fuckingwild. The hairless skin, the nothingness where nipples usually are. It feels solid, thick, and leathery. My other hand joins the fun, running my hands all over him, learning the feel of him. He relaxes under my eager exploration, a soft purring rumble from his chest shooting straight to my dick.

All this touching is definitely getting to me, because dragon Rafe? Not a turn off apparently. Fuck, it’s probably even hotter? I can feel the power in him, and it sets my blood on fire.

Really need to figure out that dick thing. I think, my hands trailing down the valleys of his hips on to the promised land. But clawed hands, more calloused and rough than his other skin, snatch up my wrists, pulling off my hands with a rough snort. I whine in disappointment, sticking my lower lip out in a pout and looking back up at his face.

He looks amused. Reassured. “We can get to that all in good time, my kushinavya. Right now there is a lot to discuss. A lot I need to show you. Explain.”

Understatement of the century. “Like how you’re a fucking dragon shifter?” I smirk and his head see-saws side to side.

“Not a shifter.” His voice is so growly, it vibrates through me, making myballs tingle and my cock twitch, drawing a smirk from him. Seriously,howis he so hot? “But yes, that, too. But first, I’m sorry I couldn’t explain earlier. Genuinely. I… There were things I could not say. There is… so much you don’t know. I don’t know where to begin. How to begin.” His voice fractures under the weight of everything he is trying to say but can’t.

Logic, reason,common senseall say I should still be angry, that trusting him is stupidity. There are a thousand and ten reasons to run from him, right now. Haul ass back to the Black Stump Tavern, run back to the pack, wrap myself up in the safety of everything I knew and understood, right before this moment. And he’d let me go, even though it would break him.

But I don’t. Because it would breakmeto go.

I don’t understand this pull towards Rafe. He’s orbited my world for the past few years, the magnetic force of our attraction dragging us closer and closer.

Until now. The point of impact.

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