Page 36 of Payne's Envy

Never mind. A huge, flaming tail whackedthrough the entrance until it was no longer small. I cried out as several knee-sized rocks fell, worried one would hit me.

My eyes never left the huge opening. I waited for the dragon. For as sure as it killed the others, it would kill me, too. As long as it destroyed those shackles, I could escape.

When it entered the room, I sucked in a breath. The massive dragon was on fire! Did the demons try burning it, too? It was hard to make out anything else except for itseyes.Black irises and slitted pupils. They were familiar, but much larger in that form.

“Joy.”

I jerked at the sound again, only to realize the dragon never opened its mouth—no,hissnout.The dragon was male. His voice was in my head. The familiarity of his voice and eyes hit me again.

“The dream,” I uttered.

I couldn’t be wrong. For he might not be in the body of a man, but the creature was the man in my dreams.

“I found you, mate.”His inhuman voice tugged at my chest.

I didn’t know why, but tears spilled down my cheeks. The more the creature spoke, the more it sounded like the voice of another—just layered with something new. Hope sparked within my heart. I begged it not to, but it was too late.

The dragon stalked closer, revealing the rest of his body and tail. The flames faded from his body, and it surprised me once more. Could he make the flames come and go?

The dragon was bulky, layered with slabs of muscles. He tucked his huge wings against his back. I doubted the cave was big enough for him to expand them. He had black scales, but there was an orange glow beneath them. The color was so bright it was like tiny veins pulsating—like that of the man from my dreams. His head dwarfed my body when he bent down and inhaled. He exhaled, and my hair flew about my shoulders.

“You’re ready for me,” the dragon said. “But you have weakened. Now that I’m here, I feel you’re replenishing. Take all you need of me and change, mate.”

I had no clue what he spoke of, but I felt myself getting stronger. When I woke, my vision hadn’t been blurry at all, and he had already been there…

They were the same. They were the same.My heart wouldn’t stop. But if so, why speak so strangely?

I screamed as my bones cracked, and pain radiated up my forearm. Glancing down at my arm, I saw the green limb was bent at an odd angle.I had nothing to be envious about, so why the color change? Scales wove within the spreading color. Anothersnapbent my body forward. Something happened. My heart raced as I felt the steady pressure building all over me.

“Change isn’t painful,”the dragon said. “It shouldn’t be like this. Breathe, mate, and shift.”

I couldn’t make sense of anything. I continued screaming as my bones snapped. The ground seemed to push away from me. The cave walls took on a different appearance as well. It was as if I was looking through a thermal scope and everything looked so close,and yet so far, at the same time.

When I glimpsed down, I saw black talons and two front legs. Or would they be arms? Oh, my Hades! The ground didn’t shrink. I grew bigger.

Shaken up, I didn’t notice that the pain was gone until the dragon spoke in my head. “You are much better. I sense your strength returning.”

He was right. I paid no attention to what the dragon was doing, though. I glimpsed down at myself, having to spin around and around to do so.Hades!I was so long—much longer than him. But small. Tiny compared to his form.

I was a dragon.How in the world?

“What did you do to me?”the words were stuck in my head.

The creature must have heard me because he said, “I did nothing. You are my mate. I scented you, sensed your danger, and came.”

“You did something. I’m not a dragon! Well, I wasn’t!”

“You are like me.”He sounded confused. “We are the same.”

Then he nudged my snout with his own. He did it again and his pets seemed rougher each time his fiery scales touched mine. Like he was trying to meld himself with me. Become one.

The idea sent heat spiraling through that odd body of mine. I backed away as he inhaled sharply.

“You are microscopic, Joy, and I am enormous. It seems weird my mate is so little, but I will give you a head start.”The deep boom of his voice still unnerved me, but what he said made it worse.

“Head start?”I asked.

A chuckle flooded my mind before he replied, “I do not understand your question when you’re in heat. You beg to be conquered. Claimed.”

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