Page 79 of Trapped By Claws
Corvin?
His voice was gentle and teasing all at once. His lips brushed my forehead, then pressed against my cheek.
Slowly I opened my eyes and met his gaze. I froze. The man peering down at me… "Corvin?" I whispered.
His skin was no longer striped with yellow and green. He was deeply tanned now, his cheekbones and jaw even more exquisitely sculpted, and his eyebrows strong and proud. No claws protruded from his fingers. He was even morebreathtakingly handsome, and all that intensity and need in his brilliant gaze was focused on me.
He held me in his arms. We sat in a clearing near the stone staircase and the portal. But the portal at the top of the staircase had closed, the runes no longer glowing and the basin upturned.
He touched my cheek with his fingertips. "Yes, it's me." The smile that lit up his face had such joy. It crinkled around his eyes. "Hello, clever girl."
"I'm not dead."
Tagger squeaked and popped up, prodding me with his cold nose. I giggled as his whiskers tickled me.
"No, you're stuck with me," he whispered.
Tagger trilled again.
"Fine." Corvin chuckled. "With both of us." He stroked my cheek, his fingers curling against my skin. "Darling, I have to tell you…I'm rather obsessed with you now. Shocking, I know. But that's how it is." His smile wavered. "I didn't realize how badly you were hurt before."
"They shot me with a poisoned dart," I whispered, staring up at him through half-lidded eyes.
He clasped me against his chest. His heartbeat thrummed in my ear. "It was almost enough to kill you. Almost. But…" He held up his clawless hand. It was so strange to see him with such an ordinary flesh coloration. He fluttered his fingers in front of my face. "Look who isn't diseased or cursed!"
"And you were a dragon," I murmured. "A raven dragon."
He nodded, his throat bobbing. Tears misted his eyes. "It was so easy. Like that's what I was made to be. I think…I wasn't a failure or a disappointment after all. That magic—it kept me in the eel and human forms and whatever I could do in between. But the raven dragon—I've never felt anything like it. I was so angry when I saw them attacking you, and—after the mate bond snapped into place and all of the king's magic fell away—theraven dragon form came to me even easier than the eel form. I flew. At least one of my parents was a raven dragon. And I was named for them. It wasn't a mistake or a mockery."
"Corvin." I smiled, savoring his name.
He grinned, nodding. He traced patterns on my cheek. "I didn't disappoint them because I could only become an eel. The King of the North Sea lied about everything."
"Maybe we'll find your family out there."
"Maybe. But I know I have family, here in my arms," he said softly. "Whatever happens—" He stopped then. His brow furrowed, then his eyes shuttered. "First, all jokes aside…I don't want to trap you in this." He took my hand in his, stroking it. "If you want to go your own way, I will let you. I'll even help you get to a town or a village."
I laughed, looking up at him. My heart was so full it was almost bursting. "You aren't getting rid of me that easily."
"Well then," he said, standing. He prodded Tagger away and helped me to my feet as well.
I swayed for half a breath before steadying myself on a birch. The warm golden sunlight surrounded us, birdsong flitting in the air.
With a smile, he knelt on one knee in front of me, still holding my hand. His hair was still fluffy and black and so soft, even if his black clothing was tattered and rent in too many places. "I've heard this is how humans proclaim their need for a mate."
My eyes widened. "Oh?" My stomach fluttered. "I mean, yes, this is how many propose marriage."
"And marriage is similar to mates, yes?" Corvin asked, still holding on to my hand.
I shrugged a little. "Are you asking me if I want to be with you officially, Corvin?" My face hurt from smiling so much. It wasrather humorous to consider since I would have put a mate bond above any other.
He grinned, then steeled his face in a more somber expression. His eyes sparkled with lively mischief. "I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Mena. Do you want to spend yours with me?"
"I do," I said, tears brimming in my eyes. Part of me wanted to laugh at how serious he was being about this, and yet I loved it as well.
His eyebrow arched. "And what else do you want, Mena? I'll give you anything. I'll give you the world or I'll drown it. I'll do anything so long as it makes you happy."
"You're offering me the whole world?" I smiled down at him, heat burning through my core and up into my face. "Is that what you think I want?"
