Page 21 of Fated to the Grumpy Dragon
What the hell was I going to do now?
As if on cue, Emma started to stir in my arms.
Chapter Ten
Emma
Everything was warm. And bouncing.
Bouncing?
Forcing my eyes open, I found myself looking at the underside of Rhyse’s goateed chin.
Well, this is odd.
The next thing I became aware of was my head resting on his chest. The warmth of his body reaching out and wrapping me in its embrace. Somehow, he’d found the one place not covered in blood to rest my head.
Things came back to me in a flash, and I was abruptlyalltoo aware of being carried in his arms. He held my deadweight with ease. I shivered, fighting back the urge to bite my lip at the demonstration of his strength. There was no tremble in his muscles, and judging by the lack of buildings nearby, we were outside the village.
How long had he been carrying me?
I opened my mouth to tell Rhyse he could put me down. Then closed it. Truthfully, I didn’twanthim to put me down. A firmpromise of safety lay like a blanket over my worries, draping my brain in its touch. Security. Protection.
It took me a moment to realize it wasn’tmethinking these things but rather the essentials of Rhyse’s emotions trickling through whatever connection.
“You’re awake,” he said as I stiffened in alarm, trying hard not to freak out at the implications that he wasin my mind. It had been a challenge before passing out, and it was a challenge again now.
“Yes. You can put me down if you want,” I said.
Rhyse grunted and kept carrying me. It was cute but not what I wanted at the moment. Not with his mind inside my own.
“Please,” I added. “I feel okay.”
It wasn’t much of a lie. Truthfully, I did feel mostly all right. Tired and hungry, but otherwise, I was doing okay. Even my head was no longer bothering me if I looked around too fast.
Except for the lack of memories. I still couldn’t recall most of the past year.
“One more time,” I said, straightening up, unable to stop myself from running fingers over the scale adhered to my flesh.
Even the perimeter of it was looking better, the reddish outline having faded back toward the soft white of my skin.
“About what?” he asked when I didn’t continue, too lost in examining myself.
“How am I alive?”
“The scale will transfer some of my DNA to you. It seals the wound and heals it.”
“But …” I lifted my arm. There was a bit of stiffness, and I could only lift it about three-quarters of the way before it got toomuch. “How can I dothat? Already? I had a gaping hole in my arm, Rhyse. Ahole.”
“Dragons heal faster than humans. Much faster. Now, you do, too.”
The way he said it … “You’re not just talking about this wound, are you?”
He shook his head. “No.”
Something occurred to me as I parsed this information, filing it away with all the other new things I was learning. Likedragons. That would take some getting used to. Again, apparently.
“If it heals me, then why are my memories still gone? Shouldn’t they have come back?”
