Piper screamed as Mikhail grunted and fell back, but Conrad was not through with him, not by a long shot. Mikhail tried to fight back, but it was clear he had been weakened from whatever Conrad had put in the syringe. Blow after blow struck Mikhail, in the ribs, in the head, in the back, until he finally had no energy left to defend himself. Only then did Conrad finally stop. Piper was hoarse from screaming. Conrad pocketed the car keys and stared at Mikhail’s body, his face filled with loathing.

“It’s nothing personal, Barinov. Oh, who am I kidding? It’s become very personal. But it’s more than that. You became too human. Mating for love? Mating with a human? Didn’t you learn anything from Elizabeth? She played us both for fools, but unlike you, I learned my lesson. Humans are not meant to survive, not like us. And dragons who weaken our lines and destroy our race by settling for humans, don’t deserve to survive.”

Piper thrashed in her chair, finally getting the gag around her mouth loosened until it fell around her neck.

“You said you wouldn’t kill him!”

Conrad turned to her, and the chilling stillness in his eyes seemed almost dead. “I’m a politician—what did you expect?”

“Please, untie me,” she begged. “You have what you want—just let me go. Let me see if he’s okay.”

“I suppose it would be amusing to kill him while you watched.” Conrad ran a finger along the edge of his blade and then walked back to her, slicing the ropes on her wrist.

Piper rushed from the chair and fell to her knees by Mikhail, cradling his face and wiping blood from his mouth.

“I’m here,” she whispered, choking back a sob. “I’m here.”

She helped him get to his feet. He was unsteady and weak, leaning on her and a nearby wooden support beam that stretched from floor to ceiling.

She realized Conrad was watching them. There was a hatred building in his eyes as he stared at them. A hatred born of jealousy, perhaps? It replaced the deadness that had been there moments before.

“You truly love him,” Conrad said. His black eyes seemed to flash with fire.

Mikhail’s breathing was labored, and the sound sent violent shivers of fear through her. What if the drug didn’t wear off? What if he never got his dragon back? Would he die?

“I do,” she replied. “Not that you even know what that is, you monster. You got what you came for. Just leave us alone!”

“I’m afraid it’s not that simple. There can be no loose ends.” Conrad lunged and thrust his blade toward Mikhail’s chest. Only it never hit its mark.

Piper almost didn’t feel the blade sink into her stomach. She had hoped to wrestle the blade away, but he had been so fast…so fast. It had cut so smoothly that it left only a deep ache behind as Conrad pulled the blade out.

“No!” The roar she heard was human, but it carried all the force of the dragon Mikhail had once been. Clutching her stomach as she dropped to her knees, Piper watched in horror as Conrad rammed the blade into Mikhail’s side twice, then twisted the blade. Conrad stood, wiping the blade and putting it away as he dusted himself off.

“Now I’ve got what I came for.” Conrad’s words barely registered with Piper. Already the world was beginning to feel distant to her.

“You…bastard!” Mikhail snarled, clutching his side as blood oozed between his fingers.

We’re both…lost…

Piper fell to her side. Sounds started to become slightly muted, as though she had covered her ears. Mikhail dragged himself over, turning her head toward him. She glimpsed Conrad slipping out of the room, a cold smile on his lips and eyes black with evil.

“Mikhail, I can’t…can’t catch my breath,” she whispered. She felt weak, too weak. Her hands, still covering her abdomen, were warm and sticky.

“No, no…” Mikhail whispered as he cradled her in his arms. His face was etched with pain, but he didn’t let her go.

The world began to get hazy around the edges of her vision, but she could see his beautiful face soaked with tears. She used what strength she had left to lift a hand to cup his cheek.

“Don’t cry…please…” she begged. “I just wanted to…save you.”

“You did. More than you know. I was lost before you found me,” he rasped. “We were supposed to be together. You can’t leave me now. I love you.”

She brushed her fingertips over his lips, trying to imprint them upon her memory, how soft they felt. “We are together.” His dark lashes glinted with tears like diamonds. So beautiful, and for a short time he had been hers.

A chill crept along her limbs and a heaviness filled her chest, one that was slowly suffocating her. She wanted to remember him and take that memory with her into the next world.

She tried to catch pieces of memories, shattered shards of a life she could have had with him, but they were moving like leaves in a fall wind. She knew that wind, recognized it deep inside as the thing that would soon carry her away.

“Piper…” He pressed his forehead to hers, and a tear fell from his cheek onto her skin. “I never deserved you. You are a treasure beyond my reach.”

“Keep me warm,” she whispered, her hand dropping from his face. Her strength was fading now, and it took everything she had left just to breathe.

“I will.” His words broke as more tears fell.

“You belong…to me,” she said, mouthing the words.

He nodded. “My heart is yours. Will always be yours,” he promised. He kissed her. It was the last thing she would feel. The gentle burning kiss and the beat of her dragon’s heart. And then she felt herself slip away on the cold wind.

* * *

Mikhail felt the moment her life slipped away. The last bit of breath in her body vanished, and the silence where her heartbeat should have been was deafening.

There was nothing there now. Nothing. Nothing at all.

He threw back his head and roared. The rafters of the small museum quaked around them as his dragon surged to the surface. It forced itself through the thick, deadening weight of whatever Conrad’s drug had done to it, but not even that could stop the dragon now. Mate-grief was too strong—love was too strong. Already his wounds were mending. Flames filled his vision as he vowed to destroy the man who had taken his love from him. It would be the last thing he would do before his broken heart killed him.

His mother’s voice seemed to whisper from all around him. Magic calls to magic.

Magic. He was in a museum full of magical artifacts. But he knew of no spells that could bring back the dead. You can’t be gone. You belong to me.

The memory of Piper’s voice teased his ears. Yes, I gave you my heart.

He stared down at Piper’s still form. A faint hue of red lingered in her cheeks, a hint of the life that had deserted her.

His mother’s voice seemed to fill his head, almost as though she were shouting. The heart of a dragon, which beats ruby red…

An image of the Dragon Heart Stone flashed across his eyes. He reached for his coat and pulled out the fist-size ruby and held it out. The light cast flickering shadows over the stone’s depths. There, in the shadows of the ruby, he saw what he must do.

He laid the stone upon her breast, then lifted Piper’s blood-covered hands and pressed them to the surface of the gemstone. He closed his eyes and spoke words that did not come from his own mind, but somewhere beyond.

“I bind this soul to yours, this dragon to yours. By the gods which gave me breath, I return yours to you.” Then he leaned down and kissed his love’s lifeless lips.

Come back to me, little dove. Let me show you how to fly.

A spark leaped between their lips, and he pulled back in shock. Piper’s body was glowing. The Dragon Heart Stone gleamed, a bright light shining like a flame in the depths of the heart of the gem. Then the stone shattered into a thousand glittering red shards before those shards turned to dust. The stone was gone.

Heat rolled off Piper’s body. Her temperature rose higher than that of a human’s. He reacted instinctively because he knew what that heat meant. He scooped his mate up and ran from the museum out into the deserted streets. Conrad was in the car with the jewels and was already driving away. Mikhail placed Piper on the ground in the small square, and then he stumbled back. Her clothes tore at the seams as her body transformed.

A white dragon, pale as the first snow of winter, now lay hunched on the ground, its tail curled protectively around its body. It was new to this world, new to existing as a dragon within a human body. Its soul had slept for untold millennia inside the stone, waiting for a home.

Mikhail held up a hand and brushed his palm down her nose, smiling as the female dragon huffed softly. Her eyes were like quicksilver as she gazed at him. The wild beast gentled at his touch because she recognized her mate. She nudged his chest with her snout. Fine-boned, yet strong. She was exquisite. His dragon rumbled in pleasure.

“My beauty,” he said, and meant it. She was glorious, and she was his. His heart swelled with an intensity he’d never thought possible. There was no desperation, no fear that this would end because she was human. Piper was one of his kind now.

Piper gave another snort, then lifted her head to stare at something over his shoulder. He turned to follow her gaze. The distant sight of a retreating SUV made him suddenly grin as he looked back at Piper.

“What do you say? Are you ready to fly?” He stepped back and stripped out of his clothes, his dragon rushing to the surface as he transformed.

* * *

Piper stared at the dark green dragon. He was beautiful, and she knew him. He was hers. Her dragon wanted to dance and nuzzle against him. But the sight of the car—Mikhail’s car—driving away grabbed her attention. That car needed to be stopped.

Her mate nudged her shoulder with his snout, urging her to follow. He took a running start and leaped skyward, his wings flapping hard enough to create a small windstorm. Piper ignored the flutter of nerves at thinking this was her first flight; even her dragon was nervous. It had been asleep for so long. But she did exactly what she’d seen Mikhail do. There was a second of gut-wrenching panic when she lifted into the air, and then she was shooting even higher, her wings catching the wind, and she was flying.

Their wings pulled them forward through the night air like twin bolts of lightning, until they were alongside the retreating vehicle. Mikhail angled his wings, making a sharp turn back toward land, and she copied him. They flew toward the car, and Piper flew ahead of her mate, drawing her mouth open. Fire exploded from her jaws as she swooped in front of the SUV. The car skidded to a halt, dust mixing with the flames she released. The pair landed on either side of the vehicle and watched closely as the man in the car stumbled out.

“No!” Conrad shouted, his arms already beginning to bulge. “It’s not possible! I killed you!”

Piper sensed the coming transformation. Fury took over. Her tail lashed out like a whip and slashed him across the chest, sending him crashing into a large rock fifty feet away. He didn’t move. The scent of blood reached her nostrils, and she hissed, satisfied by it.

Piper prowled up to Conrad, nudging his body with one clawed front foot. The wound to his abdomen was deep. He still didn’t stir, and there was no heartbeat. His neck lay at an impossible angle, limp as a ragdoll. She turned to look at her mate and froze.

On the horizon, silhouetted against the setting sun, were more dragons. She tensed and made a low growl. Mikhail also noticed them and put his body in front of hers as they waited for the others to land. There were six of them, all deep red in color.

There was a long moment of silence. The new dragons stared hard at Mikhail and Piper. Then they started to shift. Piper cocked her head, amused at the parade of naked men who now bent over to open small duffel bags of clothes that had been roped to their back legs. She saw no threat from these men, especially not while they were in human form.

Next, Mikhail transformed back to his human form, and she grew nervous. Wanting to protect him should the others try to harm him, she started to push him back with her front foot, but he shushed her and patted her neck. Then he caught something one of the men tossed to him, and he started to dress.

“We were afraid we wouldn’t reach you in time. My father knew Sinclair from the old days and said he was one nasty dragon to battle with. We thought you may need additional assistance,” one of the men said. “But it seems you handled the situation on your own.”

The dragon part of her didn’t recognize the man, but the human certainly did. Randolph Belishaw. Had he brought the others?

“We’re fine. How did you even know we needed help?” Mikhail replied, embracing the other man.

“I was afraid you didn’t get my message. It’s my fault Conrad found you. The bastard drugged me and got it out of me. He had some serum that kept me from—”

“Transforming? He used that on me too,” Mikhail growled.

“But…you were in dragon form just now. How?”

“It’s a long story.”

Belishaw looked at Conrad’s corpse with a scowl. “It seems we missed out on the pleasure of ripping him to pieces.”

“I’m afraid my mate was quite upset with him. The bastard didn’t stand a chance.” Rather than showing horror at her actions, Mikhail sounded proud.

“This is Piper?” Belishaw stared at her, eyes wide. “How is that possible?”

“I promise to explain it all to you over drinks.”

“And I look forward to hearing it. You’ve found quite a mate, Mikhail. I envy you.” Belishaw approached Piper, but she sensed he was teasing her by the way his eyes glinted. He knew who she was, but she couldn’t get her dragon to calm down, not after her first transformation. Not after her first kill. The beast was edgy and still full of energy.

Mikhail chuckled and stroked her frill, which lay flat back against her neck. She shivered in pleasure at the tickling sensation.

“Come now, little dove. It’s safe. Come back to me.” He continued to run his hands down the edges of the sensitive frill. Her nerves and fears evaporated. Before she could stop herself, her body was changing. Suddenly she was being held in Mikhail’s arms.

“Anyone have a spare set of clothes?” he asked.

The men around them chuckled, and Piper flinched. She was completely naked.

“Here.” Belishaw threw a long black peacoat to them, and Mikhail helped her into it. She shivered, but she wasn’t as cold as she expected to be.

“I’m not that cold,” she whispered to him, completely mystified. She should have been freezing.

“It’s your dragon blood,” Mikhail said before he pressed a lingering kiss to her lips. “You’ll run hotter from now on.”

She realized Belishaw was eyeing her with a mix of awe and concern. “I cannot believe she’s a dragoness. There hasn’t been a transformation like that for our kind in centuries.”

Mikhail hugged her close. “She’s nothing short of a miracle.”

Belishaw nodded at the five dragons behind him. “They’ll take care of the body. My family will smooth over the situation with his disappearance. A tragic accident I think, perhaps on a fishing boat near Cornwall.” He shot a dark glance at the cold corpse. “He had dark designs for this country, and being a braggart he couldn’t help but boast about them.”

“Who is he really?” Mikhail asked. “I’ve been this man’s bane for centuries, yet I don’t even know him. Just a vague sense of having seen him before in Elizabeth’s prison.”

“His name was Conrad Sinclair. He was a member of the House of Parliament, very influential. He planned to run for prime minister next. He’d have won, too. Both because of his dragon charms and the alliance he wished to strike up with what is left of the Drakor family.”

“And then?”

Belishaw huffed. “As Prime Minister he planned to treat this country as his personal plaything and ultimately destroy it. It is good he was dealt with now.”

“Agreed.” Mikhail walked over to his car, his arm still around Piper’s shoulders. “Why don’t we meet at my house? Come as soon as you finish here.”

“See you soon.” Belishaw waved at them before Piper climbed into the car and Mikhail began the drive back to Cornwall.

Piper didn’t speak the entire way. When Mikhail parked the car outside his home and came over to her door, she was still staring off into space, her mind stuck on all that had happened.

She had turned into a dragon. A dragon.

“Piper, love, are you all right?” Mikhail reached into the car and helped her out.

“Yes. I’m just… It’s a lot to take in,” she said in a dreamlike state. She’d died in his arms, then came back to life as a dragon. And she’d killed someone. How did one process all this?

Concern shadowed his eyes. “I know you didn’t ask for this. I know I bonded with you without asking permission, and that’s why you didn’t want to stay. I’ve royally screwed things up.” She saw pain deep in his lovely green eyes.

“You’re wrong,” she said.

He raised his brows but remained silent.

“I didn’t know we’d bonded. I wanted to stay, so much that it hurt me to leave. But I didn’t want to shorten your life…to effectively kill you because I had a short human lifespan. I would have given anything to stay with you.”

He was speechless, and before she could react, he lifted her up in the air, holding her tight as he spun her around.

“Mikhail?” She laughed, unsure what he was doing. When he set her back down, she was biting her lip because it hurt too much to keep smiling.

“You’ll stay? I won’t lose you?”

“No. I’m yours,” she vowed.

She didn’t want to think about the details, where they would live, what they’d tell her parents, let alone her job or the police. Right now she had him in her arms, and that was the only thing that mattered.

“Let’s get you inside,” Mikhail said, seeing her shiver. “You’ll freeze. You may be a dragon, but you can still get cold.” He tugged her back to the house and set her on the couch. She giggled as he removed the coat and kissed her naked body before wrapping her up in warm blankets.

“I’ll put some tea on, and then we can talk.” He vanished from view. She watched the snow begin to fall. Snow? She thought the weather forecast had called for rain. She was too busy staring at the landscape along the coast to notice the car coming until it was almost in the driveway.

“Mikhail, there’s a car headed this way,” she called out.

He reappeared with two mugs of hot tea. Mikhail frowned as he stared at the car.

“That’s not Belishaw,” Mikhail said, setting the mugs on the table. “Why don’t you go upstairs and change into some clothes. I’m afraid our talk will have to come later, after we deal with these visitors.”

“Is it trouble?” she asked.

“Hopefully not.”

She slipped upstairs to get dressed, trusting Mikhail had the situation under control. By the time she returned, she heard voices—both male and female.

“Piper, we’re in the kitchen,” Mikhail called when she reached the bottom stair. Once in the kitchen, she found a handsome blond man and a pretty woman with dark brown hair standing close to Mikhail.

“Piper, this is my brother Grigori and his mate, Madelyn.”

Piper stared at Mikhail and the man beside him. The family resemblance was there, the proud features, the beautiful eyes, only Grigori’s were blue rather than green.

“Hi,” Madelyn said, her eyes bright and her smile warm. She was American like Piper, something that made Piper relax instantly. Madelyn held out a hand, and Piper shook it.

“Belishaw mentioned you might come,” was all she could think to say. She’d learned much about Grigori from the sketches with the small notes, and yet she still felt shy around him, afraid to make eye contact.

“Belishaw, eh?” Grigori said with a chuckle and shared a smile with Mikhail. “Good man…for an English dragon.” Grigori spoke in the same soft, slightly rough, and yet irresistible Russian accent as Mikhail.

Madelyn spoke up. “Why don’t you guys go out to the living room? Us girls will have some tea and see what’s in the kitchen to make for dinner.” She shooed the two men out of the kitchen and turned to Piper. “I can’t cook to save my life. I just needed a way to let them have a private talk. It’s been almost two hundred years since they last spoke. Besides, I’m dying to hear all about you.”

“Me?” Piper swallowed. “Well, you probably heard about the jewel heist…”

Madelyn grinned. “Not that. Don’t you realize you are the first human in a thousand years to turn into a dragon? At least, that’s what Grigori says. This is huge.”

Piper sighed. “It really hasn’t sunk in. I just… I mean, my old life is over, isn’t it? I’m still thinking about… I mean, I don’t know how to…” She couldn’t finish, and she suddenly felt like crying. Madelyn was there in an instant, hugging her.

“Hey. It’s going to be okay. I’ve been exactly where you are. I spent my life thinking I was human, but then I met Grigori and learned I was a Thunderbird. My whole life got turned on its head.”

“What’s a Thunderbird?” Piper wiped her eyes, curiosity outweighing her confusion.

“Sort of like a phoenix,” Madelyn explained. “A mythical bird that can kill dragons. It summons storms and can create sonic booms with its wings.”

“Wait, you kill dragons?”

Madelyn bit her lip and nodded. “They’re supposed to be my mortal enemy. It’s a long story, but being with Grigori changed the way I saw things. And being a part of the Barinov family… It’s amazing. You won’t regret being mated to Mikhail. Change this big is always scary, but it’s going to be okay. You’re meant to be one of us. We’ll help you get through this.” Madelyn gave her another warm hug. “Now, let’s find something to cook. Surely between the two of us we can make something edible. Dragons have big appetites. So do Thunderbirds, for that matter.”

Piper chuckled as she touched her stomach. She was definitely hungry.

She followed Madelyn to the fridge and realized she could actually hear Mikhail talking in the other room. Her sense of hearing had improved. How cool was that? She was dying to know just what other abilities she’d picked up now that she was a dragon shifter.

Hopefully she’d have the next several millennia to find out.