“Your parents are nice,” Citrine said as they walked out onto the front yard after finishing dinner and cleaning up the dishes.

Robbie’s parents had gone upstairs to watch a movie in their room. Dinner had gone well, and though her parents still seemed a little worried and reserved about the future and the alpha challenge, they were at least happy to know Citrine was a friend, someone who cared about their daughter and had only good things to say about her.

Plus, he was polite, well-mannered, restrained, all of those things Bryson wasn’t.

“They’re stressed,” she said. “But they like you already. I can tell.”

“Even though I’m disrupting everything for their daughter?” he asked.

“They’re in the same place I am. They’re willing to do what they have to in order to support the pack, but I don’t think they’re all that fond of Bryson.” She gave him a smile that she didn’t really feel. “But I’m an alpha wolf, right? I’ll keep him in line.” She flexed her muscles at him jokingly, but he just narrowed his eyes.

“You don’t deserve someone you have to keep in line,” he said. “You deserve someone who treats you like a princess. Someone who worships the ground you walk on. Someone who helps you be your best and wants to be their best for you.”

“And that’s you, Citrine? You barely know me.”

“Please,” Citrine said. “I know you. We worked together, and because we weren’t romantic at the time, I got to know you as a friend. I know the real Robbie. The one who kicks ass, who doesn’t take any crap from dragons. Who doesn’t—”

“Dragons,” she said. “Hm. What are you, some kind of lizard shifter putting on airs? If that’s possible.”

He laughed hoarsely, shoving his hands in his pockets. “No. Not a lizard.”

She glared at him, but didn’t see any sign he was lying. Darn. She’d thought she’d been onto something.

“So where are you staying?” she asked, walking with him down the front path to where his car was parked outside the gate. She still couldn’t believe stoic, dignified Citrine had jumped a fence for her.

He stopped short, frozen, and looked at her with stricken eyes that made her realize up until this moment, he hadn’t even thought about it.

He sighed, looking at his car in the distance. “My car, I suppose. That’s what I get for not planning.” He scratched the back of his head. “I kind of doubt there’s a hotel here.”

“Um, yeah,” she said. “We don’t really encourage outsiders to stay here. Occasionally, some lost person wanders in, but we always give them directions to the nearest human town.”

“Makes sense,” he said. “Well, it’s fine. I’m used to worse. I’ve been driving all over these woods. It’s no problem.”

“All the more reason you deserve a good bed,” she said, taking him by the arm. “Come on. Stay here.”

He turned to face her, handsome face silhouetted in the fading light, and she caught her breath, lightning moving through her at the small touch between them.

She released his arm and sighed. “I promise we have a spare room, and it’s fine.”

“It wouldn’t be proper,” he said stubbornly. Though it did seem he wanted to stay.

“Like any of this is proper,” she said. “You climbed a fence today and challenged my fiancé to an alpha challenge, turning my whole world upside down. The least you can do is stay here so I don’t worry about you.”

He gave her a rakish grin, and she saw some of that delicious, raw masculinity that he kept so closely buttoned up winking through. “I’d be fine. No need to worry.” His expression went serious. “Besides, here I can keep an eye on the gate and make sure creeper doesn’t try anything.”

“You could do that even better inside,” she said. When he raised an eyebrow, she continued. “But he’s not going to show up. He’s confident in winning the alpha challenge. He shouldn’t give us trouble. Other members of his pack, though…”

“What?” Citrine asked, cocking his head.

“Well, they might harass us a bit, trying to make the point that he’s the only one who can stop it.”

Citrine let out a little growl of frustration. “I don’t understand wolves at all.”

“But you’ll stay here?” she asked. “I mean, regardless of what happens the next few days, it’ll be nice to have a friend around.”

He whirled on her, backing her up as he walked forward, glaring down at her. “Robbie. We aren’t merely friends.”

“But you said—”

“We started that way. But I didn’t come all the way out here in the woods, sleep in my car, and throw any kind of planning or rational thinking out the window for a friend. I mean, yes, I’d do anything for my friends, but I’m here because I know I’m your mate.”

She backed up a step, intimidated by his heat, his sheer male beauty. Tall, scented by spicy pheromones he might not even know existed. Whatever he was, he was alpha as hell.

Maybe there was hope for this after all. But then, what would happen to their town?

He stepped forward quickly, catching a curl in his hand, keeping her from retreating back, and stared deeply into her eyes. She was a tall woman, even by wolf standards, and wasn’t used to feeling so cowed by a man. For a moment, his eyes darted to her lips, and she thought he might kiss her.

Then he let out a breath and stepped back, and her heart sank in her chest even as her mind knew she should be relieved. Maybe he was accepting reality.

“I’ll stay here,” he said. “And thank you. I should have thought it through more clearly.”

“Not like you to be impulsive,” she teased.

He gave her a rueful grin, dark hair falling rakishly over one side of his face. “Having a mate brings a lot of new things out of me I guess.”

She was about to turn back and show him to his room in the house, but his words stopped her. He said “mate” so easily, as though it meant something different than what she’d heard ever since she was very little.

She gave him a curious look. “What does mate mean to you, Citrine? Because to me, ‘mate’ is a duty, something I don’t have a say in. A decision to be made with my mind, not my heart. You seem to agree that it wasn’t your choice, that it was something decided for you, but the rest isn’t the same.”

“It’s more that the animal inside me knows when he sees you that you’re his. Mine. That we are meant to be together. That there’s no one else for me in the entire world.”

She felt caught off guard, as if the world were slightly off axis and it was hard to get her footing.

Her whole life, she’d known the bleak facts of what was going to happen, and she’d tried to enjoy her time in the sun, even knowing what was coming. She’d tried to make the best of it, and since she’d never allowed herself to bond with any particular male, she’d hoped she’d be able to adjust.

But now Citrine was standing here, telling her things she’d never heard, that Bryson would never say. And her heart was simultaneously melting and breaking at the same time.

She kept her arms folded and walked back toward the house, motioning for him to follow. “Come on. I’ll help you get set up in the spare room.”

When they were inside, she grabbed bedding and brought it to the room in the back of the house that hadn’t been used in a long time. No one talked about why.

She was about to make the bed when Citrine stopped her, taking the covers.

“I can do this,” he said. “Why don’t you get some rest?”

She nodded. “And I can show you around more of the town tomorrow?”

He smiled. “I’d like that.”

She went to the door and stopped there, hesitating. “Citrine, I—I can’t say this is going to end well. I still have to do my duty.”

“I understand that,” he said. “But you also have to understand that I’m going to fight for you. To protect you and those you care about. If I didn’t think I could do all of that, I wouldn’t be your mate.”

She swallowed, pondering his words as she left his room. Could she really allow her heart to open to the possibility of being with another man and everything working out?

It was scary to even imagine.

* * *

Midway through their tour of town, Robbie had taken Citrine to get sandwiches at the only small cafe, and they were currently seated on a bench by the park, eating them and enjoying the sunshine.

Today, they hadn’t talked about anything too serious, and it just felt like another lunch break back at Date-A-Dragon, just two friends hanging out and enjoying a nice day.

But looking over at her, her beautiful dark curls glinting in the sun, her casual clothing looking so at home in this woodsy environment, he knew his feelings were far more than friendly.

He was realizing this was the real Robbie, too, even if she was far different than the one he’d met in Seattle. She adjusted to fit her surroundings, and she was far more focused on responsibility, but she was still the sharp, logical woman he’d gotten to know.

“I always thought you were from somewhere like Seattle,” Citrine said. “You fit in so well in the big city.”

“Thanks,” she said. “I went to school and worked there. I spent part of my life here and part there, so I feel at home in both places. I know it’s a little weird.”

“No,” Citrine said, shaking his head. “I know what it’s like to relocate, to get used to a new place and feel at home in both places.” And boy, did he as a dragon who had awakened after hundreds of years.

“I see,” she said. “Where are you from again?”

He paused, realizing he’d put himself in an awkward position. “Oh, well… I used to live in New York with some friends. Not the same, I know.”

She cocked her head. “No. But that’s okay. Speaking of friends, how are the others? Ella, Dante, Adrien, Sever, and Kelsey?” She closed her eyes for a second, and when she opened them, Citrine thought he saw pain there. “I really miss them. Wait, are some of them shifters, too?”

Citrine hesitated, setting the remains of his sandwich on a paper in his lap. “I can’t say very much about that. Again, I have to keep things close to the chest.”

Each time she asked, he was more tempted to tell her, but he knew the stakes. There would certain things that could be used against dragons, if one had the right knowledge and knew just the right people. He couldn’t risk it, as much as he was eager for his mate to know everything about him.

“I get it,” she said. “No one wants to give up an advantage in an alpha challenge.” She sighed in disappointment. “Okay, just tell me how they are, then.”

“Ella and Dante are doing great,” Citrine said. “Adrien and his mate as well. Sever, I’m not sure. He went out on a job when I went out to find you. I’m sure I’ll hear from him at some point. Those guys are so helpless without me.”

“You were a good boss,” she said, taking a bite of her sandwich. “I was always impressed by how much you seemed to care about them.”

“After a while, we became sort of like family,” he said. “I guess sometimes caring for someone creeps up on you without you knowing it.”

She grinned at him. “That’s a nice way of putting it.”

There was an awkward silence between them.

“So what’s your real name?” she asked. “I mean, it can’t be Citrine.”

He stared at her. “Why can’t it?”

“I mean, who names their kid after a gemstone?” she asked.

He bit his lip, trying not to be offended, long enough to think of a good answer.

Her eyes widened as she realized she’d made a huge error. “Uh, I mean… not that it’s not a nice name…”

He laughed. “It’s my real name. My full name is Citrine Vanderguard, if you must know. I know it’s an odd one.”

“Why did they name you that?”

“My eyes,” he said with a little hesitation. “And my mother said I was warm like the sun.”

She leaned in and bumped her shoulder against him. She probably only meant it to be a friendly movement to put him at ease, but unexpected warmth went through him at the feel of her soft body against him.

He saw her flush and pull back and could sense the arousal between them. She might not know what to do about the situation, but she wanted him. It was clear in the way she couldn’t meet his eyes, the way her hands fidgeted, the way her eyes devoured him when she thought he wasn’t looking.

He looked into her eyes, feeling at home there, as he always did. He reached up, unsure where to touch her, wanting to say something or make a first move, but paused when he heard the sound of voices.

The voices were accompanied by a large engine, and Citrine looked up to see a large red truck pulling off the road onto the dirt a dozen or so yards away from them. Inside were several men, two in the front and one in the back, heads poking out, gawking at him and Robbie sitting at his side.

“Hey, that’s the guy that challenged Bryson!” the driver said in recognition.

“Ha-ha, looks like a wuss,” another remarked loudly.

“He’s going to get his face kicked in,” the one in the back added.

Citrine felt anger running up his spine, and he stood reflexively, coming in front of Robbie and putting himself between her and the oncoming douchebags.

“Yeah, and then Bryson’s finally going to mate that frigid she-wolf,” the driver barked.

He and the passenger next to him exchanged a high-five, and Citrine felt claws beginning to grow from his fingertips. Quickly, he retracted them, trying to restrain himself before he cut the bastards in two, along with their truck.

Robbie stood and came up next to him, and Citrine could feel her frustration.

It only made him hate these wolves more.

“At least we’ll get to see the dumbass get pounded to a pulp first,” they joked amongst themselves, leering as they did.

Citrine couldn’t take it anymore. Focusing his powers, he made a slight motion with his hand, and the earth beneath the truck began to move, accompanied by the sound of creaking and popping.

The men in the truck exchanged worried glances and began to panic as roots appeared out of the ground, shifting the ground even more, enough that the truck began to shift heavily back and forth, then finally came off the ground and onto two wheels. For a moment, the truck listed to one side, then tipped over completely as Citrine heard shouts of confusion coming from inside the vehicle.

Robbie gasped in shock as the sound of windows breaking and metal bending accompanied the heavy vehicle’s overturn. A moment later, the men, panicked, crawled out from underneath it.

“Holy shit! My new truck!” the driver exclaimed.

“Let’s get the hell out of here!” another said, sounding on the verge of wetting himself. “Something’s not right with these roads!”

Together, the three of them were able to bring the truck back into its upright position, utilizing their shifter strength but barely managing the task. Then Citrine and Robbie watched the truck peel away, and he noted with satisfaction the no-longer-pristine body of the machine as it left. Robbie stood, slightly agape at the scene.

Citrine cracked his knuckles in the hand he’d used a moment ago and tried to suppress a grin.

Even with a collar, a few scumbags were no problem.