Page 57 of Hungry Like A Dragon
With Sadie’s carrier in one hand, she sidled closer, trailed her finger down the front of his shirt. “We’ve flown together already.”
“You and your mate?”
“You and I.”
He shook his head. “We aren’t mates. Remember, you keep insisting we can’t be because we had Sadie first and—”
“I’m not really a fan of admitting I’m wrong, so this is probably going to be all garbled and stuff, but…I was wrong.”
One side of Noah’s mouth lifted. “That wasn’t garbled at all.”
She twisted her hand into the fabric of his shirt. “I don’t care that we had Sadie first. I don’t care what my family will think. I don’t care that the curse has been lifted. You are the man I want to spend the rest of my life with.”
Somebody was trying to extract the carrier from Petra’s hand. She glanced over at Ginger, who said, “Here, why don’t you let me babysit? I’m already taking care of Ruby.”
“Oh-okay,” Petra said, her heart racing.
Ginger took the carrier and made a shooing motion with her other hand. “Go on. Go fly.”
Petra glanced at Noah. If they flew, they’d know instantly whether they were fated mates. She’d only just made the decision that she wanted to be with him; she didn’t want to find out they weren’t actually meant to be together.
Noah reached out and threaded his fingers with hers. “I think we should do it,” he said.
“Why? Aren’t you afraid?”
“Petrified.”
She laughed and tugged him forward by their clasped hands. “Okay, let’s do it.” This was it. Do or die. Or, rather, mate or not.
She stopped walking and turned to face him. “What if we aren’t?” she asked.
“Stop stalling. Come on.” And then he released her hand and took off at a run, his body shimmering with the shift as he moved. Leathery wings sprouted from his shoulder blades. His hands and feet turned into thick, black, curled claws. Horns grew from his head, which elongated into a silvery snout. And then he was in the air, flying in circles, presumably waiting for her to do the same thing.
So she did. Hell, at some point they’d inadvertently fly together anyway, so might as well figure it out now.
Her body began the transformation, her wings sprouting and lengthening and flapping, pulling her into the air. As familiar as the shift was, there was something altogether different about it, too. Another layer of magic, something she’d never felt before, washed over her when her dragon gaze lifted and met Noah’s.
Oh my.
Yeah. It’s real.
Whoa, were those Noah’s thoughts? Had she just heard what was going through his head?
A chuckled rumbled through her mind.Yeah, you can hear my thoughts. And I can hear yours. That’s because we’re mates, Petra. We’re meant to be together. Doesn’t matter that we screwed up and had Sadie before we figured it out.
If she weren’t in dragon form, she’d surely be crying right now. How in the world had she gotten so lucky to have found this man?
It wasn’t luck. It’s fate.
Okay, mister, get down to the ground so we can go find a secluded place to make this official.
Yes, ma’am.
They landed at nearly the exact same time, and Petra was so eager to wrap her arms around him, she almost forgot to magick her clothing back onto her body.
“C’mon,” she said, leading him toward the tree line on the other side of the lake.
“Seriously? You want to do this in the woods?” he asked.
