Page 68 of Ash

When she didn’t step closer, he frowned. Did she still not trust him? “A moment ago, you were sitting on my neck,” he reminded her.

“You were a Dragon.”

“No. Iama Dragon. Whether I’m in my winged form, or human, I’m still the same creature.”

She glanced at him, and then away. “Not to me.”

“If you don’t take my arm, the gate may transport you to a slightly different time from me. I just want to be sure that doesn’t happen.

She pinched her bottom lip beneath her teeth, a curiously alluring gesture.

When that was all she would do, his heart twisted. Was her lack of trust because he was Dragon, or because he was male? He suspected the latter, and Rindek and his bastard alpha were responsible. The thought of her being forced to mate the Dire—Tyrez had to stifle his growl.

Then she stepped close enough to touch her fingertips to his forearm, and his world lit on fire. Electric tingles shot from the lightest of contacts, zipping through his body, tightening every muscle and some bits he struggled to keep scaly discretion over. The very last thing she needed, was to seethat.He’d be no better than the sharding Satyr.

But his heart had told him the truth of it, in his dreams. And it dovetailed with the conversation he’d had with his mother.

“They may not have been simple dreams, Tyrez.”

As he guided Dani through the gate, Tyrez mind spun with memories of Dragon wings, both black, and gold.

18

The Dragon shifter’s arm was rock hard beneath Dani’s fingertips as they stepped through the portal.

It was the closest she’d been to him as a human. At least, while she was awake. He towered over her like a cat over a mouse.

Or a Dragon over a deer. What did Dragons eat in their natural form, anyway? As humans, apparently they liked fried chicken, eggs, and bacon.

Who knew?

Up close, his physique took her breath away, and every inch of him rippled with muscle. With that long hair and metallic eyes, he was simply breathtaking.

Her resolution to ignore anything with testicles had been sorely tested as he shifted form. She was sure she’d caught a flash of a huge tattoo spanning his back before the scales had danced across it. A Dragon image with its tail trailing down to the cleft of his buttocks.

Looks mean nothing, she reminded herself. She couldn’t afford to lose focus, not when her survival was the prime objective. With her new abilities, she could hold her own against many things. Certainly humans. But Dragons?

Of course, she wasn’t exactly considering fighting him. More like climbing him as though he were a tree.

She bit her lip as they stepped free from the portal. Her life over the last few months had been anything but normal, and it seemed to be getting weirder by the second. Something that became even more evident when a bird appeared in a puff of flame directly in front of them.

“Hey, Sparkle,” Tyrez greeted.

“Wh-what is that?” Dani stared at the hovering bird. “She showed up in your bedroom too.”

“She did?” Tyrez looked surprised. “Sparkle is the pet Phoenix of an acquaintance, and she can teleport. He uses her to carry messages.” Tyrez stamped his foot on an errant ember in the grass and ground it out. “She has a tendency to set fire to things.”

“I bet.” Caught up in her regard of the bird, Dani didn’t see the figure in the shadows until he stepped forward. Sparkle chirped and landed on the man’s shoulder. So this must be the acquaintance?

He looked like a human in a trench coat, but her nose told her he was no such thing. He had a warm, musky odor that penetrated straight through to her core.

As she slipped her fingers off Tyrez’s forearm, he introduced her.

“Dani, this is Jacques. I invited him to this meeting. He is helping us track down Rindek.”

The man had dark hair and features, and olive skin. He raised his bushy brows and bowed low to her.

“Enchanted to meet you,mademoiselle. You are every bit as beautiful as your reputation suggests.”

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