Page 58 of Prince of Storms
“So, what do you think?”
She paused, glancing at my snout and then my eyes. “I don’t know what to think. Why are you showing me this?”
I hesitated. I longed to tell her the truth. That she was my mate, and we were going to be together forever. That the rest of our lives began that day. And, most importantly, that she was dragon royalty. My Princess. In name and spirit.
But I didn’t tell her. I kept that information to myself. For the time being.
I will tell her, I swore.When she’s ready to hear it. Right now, it would be too much. She’s been through enough today. I’ll let her come to terms with what I am before I tell her whatweare.
“Tor?” she prompted.
“It’s complicated,” I said. “But when you stumbled on Temp coming through the Rift, there was no going back.”
Mia jerked like she’d been stung, looking at the Rift. “No going back? You mean I’m stuck here, forever, in dragon land?”
“What? No! No, that’s not what I meant at all,” I said, rushing to calm her before she got too worked up. “I was just referring to revealing the truth to you, that’s all.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. I wanted you to know you aren’t crazy. That we aren’t men from Mars or anything like that.”
“But you are from a different planet.”
“Realm,” I corrected. “Connected to Earth.”
Mia’s brown eyes watched me with a certain amount of skepticism. “Nobody’s going to believe me,” she said softly.
“Nobody’s going toknow,” I said, beginning the change again and reassuming my human form. “Because you aren’t going to tell them. Any of them. You can’t tell them, Mia.”
“Right,” she whispered, looking me up and down, then at the blank space around me where my dragon form had been as if trying to merge the two bodies in her mind. “It’s a secret.”
“One we’ve worked very, very hard to keep to ourselves and away from humanity.” I tried to keep my voice soft without injecting too much sternness into it.
“I understand,” she said in that same soft voice. “So, what now? Am I your prisoner for life?”
“No,” I said, smiling at her. “Nothing like that. But you will have to stay with us at the house for a bit longer than planned.”
“Why? What did I do? What about my job?” she asked, worry coloring her words and her face.
I found I didn’t like seeing her upset. Not in the slightest.
“It’s not about you,” I said. “It’s about my sister.”
“Your sister.” Mia jerked. “She’s a dragon, too.”
I nodded.
“Ty? That other big guy, what did you call him, Temp? They’re both dragons?”
I nodded again.
“I see.” Her eyelids crinkled as she thought furiously. “Your sister is a dragon. And she hates you.”
“And probably wants to hurt me,” I added. “If not kill me.”
Mia licked her lips. “Does she want to kill me?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, in all honesty. I don’tthinkshe really knows about you yet. She just thinks you’re my house cleaner.”
