Page 64 of Whisper Woods

Fuck yeah, I want to pat a dragon, but I’m not an idiot. Not entirely anyway. I tamp down the excitement firing through me. “Is that like, safe? I thought you said that I had to stand here?”

Rafe shakes my shoulder, the frills around his face fanning out. “I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. Estella will be fine.”

I look at Brydon for reassurance. He shrugs noncommittally. “You do have Rafe’s smell, like, all over you. And your auras are all blended together. Estella loves Rafe. She should be safe.”

“I’ll call her over here, away from the others. And the pups.” Rafe’s dragon face is so earnest. I kiss the cool scales of his snout and his toothy mouth twists into a smile.

“Let’s do it.”

Rafe whistles an eerie sound that no being should be able to make. It’s a low, warpy sound that makes Brydon’s pointed ears twitch furiously, but it works. Estella’s head perks up. The ground thunders as she runs over to us with surprising speed. She stops suddenly, with a loud, smokey huff.

As a predator shifter I know what fear smells like, I know how prey acts and I tryreallyfucking hard to get my heart under control. Which is really hard to do when adragonis staring you down. Do I look it in the eyes? Or is that a threat? But now that I’velookedin its eyes, is looking away gonna make it attack?

I should have asked more questions.

I rub my sweaty palms on my borrowed pants as subtly as I can.

“Hey baby girl, this is Seff.” Baby-talk in Rafe’s growly beast voice does terrible and inconvenient things to my heart, considering the dragon right in front of me.

The dragon’s head rests on the ground, leaning eagerly into his touch, snuffling and snorting as he pats her lovingly. He nods in my direction, calling me over.

Swallowing with a hard gulp, I go against every instinct I have and with shaking knees I get closer to Estella. Shoulder to shoulder with Rafe, my hand shakes as I reach out to stroke the hard, rough scales on the hinge behind her jaw. It doesn’t feel like what I expected. I kind of thought it would be smooth like Rafe’s scales, but it’s not. It's rough and gritty and dry.

I can’t get past howbigshe is. My brain struggles to comprehend it, even though she’s right there in front of me. Her head is as tall as I am. She’s beautiful, though. Terrifying and beautiful. Her yellow eyes droop closed as she nuzzles into my scratching hand. The spiked frill around her jaw—almost like webbing between the spikes—dances with happiness at the attention she’s getting. Her scales remind me of fire, reds and oranges coming together into stunning patterns on her body I didn’t notice until we got this close.

“This is incredible,” I breathe, not wanting to spook her into roasting me alive. Estella gets comfortable lying on the ground and her massive claws scrape the ground next to me as she repositions herself, her tail scraping the ground where it flicks contentedly behind her. At least the fear has gotten rid of that awkward boner situation. I look at Rafe, who’s absentmindedly patting the creature, but looking at me.

“Thank you.” I mouth and when he smiles back, the spikes around his dragon-head fanning up and then back down—almost like a dance—it pulls deep at my chest.

Brydon joins us to give Estella a scratch, but the experience is interrupted by a horrendous screeching sound.

“What the fuck is that?” I duck at the sound, my eyes darting around to find the source, but I can’t see anything past Estella. The sound upsets her too, and she jumps and grunts, a stream of smoke pouring from her nostrils.

“Brett.” Brydon and Rafe say together, just as there is another horrifying shriek. Estella lumbers to her feet in one magnificent movement that pushes us back to get out of the way.

“We need to go. Now.” Rafe grabs my wrist, his claws piercing the skin as he pulls me along roughly, running at a speed I can’t keep up with properly in this form. Brydon is right along beside us, ahead of my stumbling pace.

“Who’s Brett?” I struggle to get it out past my choking breath as our legs eat up the distance to the edge of the dragon’s land. I almost trip over a rock lodged in the ground, but Brydon snags my other arm, the pair of them hauling me along until I find my feet again.

“Estella’s mate. He’s a dick.” Brydon pants back. My legs are burning, but sounds behind me—earth rattling thuds and terrifying, vicious snarling—keep me going despite the pain. Whatever is going on between Estella and Brett, I don’t want to know.

We make it to the edge of the dragon’s land where our horses are waiting. There is nothing particularly different about the ground we’re on now and the grassy fields we just legged it through—just the invisible boundary that keeps the dragons from roaming free. That boundary, at least, hasn’t been affected by whatever is going on with Tathys.

We collapse next to the horses. I have instant regret from hitting the ground so hard, the shock shooting from my knees up to my back. But then I fall to the ground, giant belly laughs ripping through me.

Brydon and Rafe—who has half changed back into his human skin—stare at me. I laugh until tears fall down my face and my stomach hurts. It’s not even funny. It’s just alot,and the dam has opened.

“Uh, is he broken?” Brydon asks Rafe who shrugs, confused and worried.

It just makes me laugh harder until I’m gasping for breath and I manage to get a hold of myself. I wipe the wetness from my face and scrub at my cheeks. Everything’s a little blurry as I stare up at the pair of them, the brilliant blue sky a vivid backdrop to their faces.

“I just patted a motherfuckingdragon.” I’m still a little breathless and my face hurts but I can’t stop smiling. Brydon laughs, rolling his eyes. Or at least I think he does, with his eyes being round and all black it all looks a little different. Rafe beams at me, his face filled with something that looks a little like lust and a lot like… love. Huh. “So. What’s next?”

Seff

“So, what do youthink of our Tathys, eh?” The heavy arm, rough and gritty, lands around my shoulders, pulling me into the mountain of a being next to me in a rough hug. I’m saying mountain of a man in probably the most accurate sense of the word. Not only is the man huge, he also seems to be made of dirt. Like, not dirty,madeof dirt. His body creaks with his movements, jostling me in his half hug, making both our beers spill all over the floor of the pub.

Around us, the crowd of beings we’ve attracted cheer and clamour for my answer. Okay, maybe it isn’t Rafe that has attracted the crowd. It’s been like this all day. Well, not exactly like this with sloppy drunk beings falling over each other.

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