I helped refugees carry loads of supplies through a portal from their world to mine for hours as Thyra slept. A large round thing that appeared to be little more than silver metal surrounded in a haze of green fog with a purple center allowed the passage of people and goods without the worry of trying to transport over a great distance. Some would see it as magic created by the elven engineers; I knew it was purely science. Ancient science, but still science.

I went to check on her just as the families started their evening meals, each one had already expressed their happiness to me about finding somewhere safe to sleep for the night. I’d hated the noise created by all of the activity, I’d cringed at the invasion of my privacy, but most of all, I’d resented the time they’d kept me away from Thyra. Still, I could not turn them away and it was not their fault I’d rejected the world a long time ago.

I prepared my own meal and set a tray for two. I knocked at the door, but heard no response, so I carried the tray in and put it on a low table at the side of the bed. Thyra still slept, no doubt exhaustion, exposure, and shock held her in a powerful grip. She needed to wake, even for a short time, to drink some water, at least.

I stood over her for a moment, watching her sleep in the dim light from the fire. Her eyes were closed, her dark eyelashes rested on cheeks that were pale, even with the tan. When I’d inspected her for injuries earlier I’d found the knot on her head, but the skin had not been broken. She might have a concussion, but otherwise she wasn’t injured. She needed rest, feeding, and hydration more than anything. After all, the shock she’d already had was nothing compared to the one she was about to get.

It wasn’t every day someone from the outside world was brought into the world of magic. What the outside world considered magic, anyway. I knew now that a lot of it was science, and well, the rest was a kind of magic, I suppose. To me, being a dragon wasn’t magical, it just was. It is what I was. Being able to shift into different shapes was also my ability, a twist of my own magical capabilities that not everyone had. Not even Wruin.

I clenched my fist against the name and woke Thyra in the process. She looked up at me, her eyes blinking away the sleep, trusting and calm. There was even a flash of a smile on her lips as she looked up at me.

“You’re the man of my dreams.” She whispered with a dry voice, and I handed her a glass of water to moisten her throat. “Thank you, I needed that.”

I watched her as she became aware of reality once again and sat up. Would she scream, would she run? I waited, my breath held, until she turned her head back to me. “Why are there no windows in this room?”

A simple question, and easily answered, but that answer could send her shrieking.

“The house is designed to keep out the cold, Thyra.” I deflected and tried to put off the inevitable. Eventually she’d find out where she was. I wanted only a moment more to try and find a way to explain without sending her into a panic.

“Oh, that makes sense.” She seemed at ease, but I noticed her hands were plucking at the fur covering her. There was tension there then. “How are you real? What happened to me?”

She finally looked up at me, those doe-like eyes wide and confused. I sat back in the chair I was in and breathed deep. Here we go.

“What do you remember?” I asked, just to get a timeline prepared.

“The mast cracked.” She said after a moment of thought. “I went below. The world tilted. Did she drop the keel?”

“I didn’t see it on the boat when I pulled you free, no.” I shook my head in the negative.

“Wow. Two of my worst fears in one night. How did you get me off the boat?” She seemed calm, calmer than she should have been really. Had she done some damage to her brain.

I had to wonder as she stared at me, her calmness washing over me. I could smell a faint scent of orange blossoms, a smell I knew it was impossible to have here. I’d noticed it only when I was near to Thyra, it must be some manifestation of our connection. She sighed heavily and moved as she waited for an answer I still wasn’t ready to give, even if she was unnaturally calm.

“Well?” She finally asked, and I could see she wanted to nudge me into a n answer.

“I, uh...” This wasn’t going to be easy. How to explain to her that I was a shifter, a dragon, sometimes other things. How to explain that she was my mate, the only one I’d ever truly have of that nature, a true mate, a soul mate?

“If it makes it an easier, I know there’s some oddness going on here. I’ve dreamed about you for years now. I feel like I know you, and that I’m safe. I can’t explain any of it, and maybe I’ll take off screaming for help when you finally do get around to spitting it out, but right now, I know there’s more here than meets the eye.” She gave me a confident smile, a smile that said she was ready for anything.

I don’t believe her.

I inhaled deep, slow, letting my lungs fill. That drew her attention and she looked at my chest, her eyes admired the broad expanse, before coming back up to my face, just a tad wider than they had been before. Interest. Good.

“I suppose this is an odd situation. I’ve never been in quite the same situation. I don’t know where to start.” I held my hands out helplessly.

“Start with how you got me off the boat. How we survived that storm.” Logical and methodical, that I could handle.

“I picked you up and flew you off the boat.” I didn’t say anything more.

I watched as she digested that tidbit.

“Right. Flew. In a helicopter?” She looked bemused, and I knew she was as smart as I thought she must be. A helicopter couldn’t have been out in that weather.

“No. Not a helicopter.” I kept to the short answers as I delayed the inevitable. She might be calm, logical, and intelligent, but my truth would defy her reality.

“Then what?” She began to show signs of impatience, she shifted in the bed, pushed her braided hair out of her face where strands had come loose, and breathed deep.

“Me. I flew you.” Her eyes went impossibly round as I waited for her response.

“You?” She breathed the word as she stared at me, her eyes looking for a lie.

“Me.” I pursed my lips and looked away. I hadn’t mentioned the being a dragon part yet.

“Okay. You flew me.” She looked at her hands and I thought I could see tears in her eyes. Before I could speak again, she interrupted. “And how did we survive that storm, the cold, if it was only you flying us.”

“With magic, of course.” I gave her a non-threatening smile, and almost wished she’d take it as a joke.

“Of course. And you’re name is Endre?” She didn’t seem sure.

I gave my head a positive shake and she sat back against her moss-filled pillows. “Okay. Where are we?”

“In my home.” She gave me a look that said ‘thanks, Captain Obvious’, and I felt my skin flush. “Oh, Antarctica.”

“What?” She sat up again, her face a picture of shock.

“Yes, a bit hard to wrap your head around isn’t it?”

“Mm, yes. It is.” Her eyes were tearing again, and I felt anger at myself rise in my chest. I had caused that feeling she had.

“Look, perhaps it’s best just to start at the beginning. I know most of this is going to seem like a hallucination, or that you’ve perhaps escaped to a lunatic asylum, but, if you’ll listen, I can explain.” I wanted to distract her, to take away that fear or hurt she’d felt. She seemed like a woman that appreciated directness anyway, so I gave it to her.

“That sounds like it would be a good idea, Endre.” Her lips were pursed now and she sought out my eyes with her own. She was so beautiful.

I shook myself and took a deep breath as I settled back in the chair once again.

“Our world, my world, used to be a part of the light, a part of that which we now call the outside world. Our magical world used to rule over all of it, but the Earth decided to warm up, continents shifted, warm lands became deserts of ice, and our power waned. We used to be lands of dragons, shifter, fairies, and a variety of other magical beings. Now, we rule only the dark places, the places where the unmagical humans could not go, unless we brought them into it.

As the waters rose we went underground, hiding from the unmagicals. They had spread all over the world by then, and we had few places to choose from. This led to wars in many places as nations fought for room, in what came to be known as Europe, and even in America. The waters rose everywhere, coastlines disappeared, the world was in turmoil.” I paused, letting my words sink in. I wasn’t just talking about world history, or the history of my people, but my own personal history.

“How old are you?” She finally breathed, staring at me with acceptance. I knew that would last as long it took her to recover, then she’d start picking it all apart, logic would set in. Then she’d look at me much differently.

“I don’t know. I saw the birth of man in its current carnation, thousands of years ago? I don’t really know. We didn’t really measure time, only seasons for planting and harvesting, little more.”

Her eyes were wide again, the warm brown pools unblinking, and I knew she was shocked. “There’s more isn’t there?”

“There is, Thyra, but it can wait. You need to rest.” I moved to tuck her back under the covers, but she pushed them away, unashamed of her nudity.

“I’ve been in that bed for hours now, Endre. I need fresh air, I need to know where I’m at, I need out.” She looked at me with a growing fierceness, and I knew she was a survivor. If I hadn’t known it already, well, I did now.

“Fine. I’ll get you some clothes.” I tried not to stare, but my mate was a beautiful woman. Very beautiful. I couldn’t look away.

“Endre?” She asked, her lips quirking along with her eyebrow as she looked at me. I’d brought a candle into the room so she was perfectly aware of how I was looking at her.

“Hmm?” I murmured, my gaze fastened to her hips, to the round belly button. Why did that fascinate me so much? All I could do was picture kissing her there and I just couldn’t look away.

Her stomach wasn’t totally flat; there was a roundness there that I knew no amount of exercise would ever eliminate. It was just her shape. A shape that would fit in my hand perfectly.

“Endre?” This time, her voice was full of laughter and I looked up.

“Yes?” My eyes immediately drifted back down to her stomach.

“Are we going outside?” Her voice was calm, not surprising. She was a calm woman. So calm, she walked up to me without a single blush.

“Of course we are.” I looked at her, but my eyes kept drifting down, even as her fingers clutched at my biceps.

“Do you want to touch me, Endre?” She asked her voice as bold as her actions. I looked into those dark pools I wanted to drown in, looking for some hint that she was serious.

I was a bit concerned about her. She was way too calm. Yes, we’d been dreaming together for quite a long time now, that’s why I knew her name without her speaking it once, why I knew her so well, but she wasn’t a magical, she should, by all rights, be freaking the fuck out. Instead, she was calm, accepting, almost scary she was so accepting of it all.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” I asked as I ran my fingers into her golden hair. “Maybe you hit your head harder than I thought.”

She gave me a rather sexy smile, one that held far more invitation than I’d ever seen from a woman, and she pulled me close, her hands around my hips.

“I don’t know if you’re a Viking, a ghost, a dragon, or just my imagination, but whatever this hallucination is, I’m going with it. I’ve dreamed about you for far too long, Dream Man, I’m just going to go with it. Besides, the way you’re dressed means I probably don’t want to go outside anyway.”

I forgot the fact that I was wearing thick denim jeans, a black thermal shirt, and a flannel shirt beneath a thick dark blue cable-knit sweater as her hands dove beneath my plethora of shirts to find warm skin. Need burned through me the instant her skin came into such intimate contact with mine. I forgot the people outside and all of the reasons I shouldn’t do it, and kissed her.

I’d wanted to since I’d pulled her from the ocean, and now, I lost myself in the heat of her skin as our lips clung together for the first time. Her rosy lips were silky, full, and soft as we explored each other. She was all that was sensual and beautiful I decided as I inhaled her clean scent and my lips brushed against hers. When her tongue came out to tangle with mine I inhaled sharply, and then I pulled her up into my arms before I put her right back on the bed.

She blinked up at me, her grin contagious, but I didn’t want to make her smile, I wanted to make her moan. That grin reminded me of long nights of longing, of good Irish whisky, of sex that left you breathless and that’s what I wanted to give her. My right hand ran down her body, from the indentation of her collar bone, down between her breasts, to the spot that had so fascinated me only moments before. I gave her soft stomach a kiss, using my lips to scoop up her taste, my hand splayed over the left side. I felt her hips give a slight push, and I looked up at her.

I leaned over her body, between her thighs, as she sprawled on the bed. With a growl, I took both of her hands in one of mine, pushed them over her head, and leaned down to kiss her as I held her hands there. My body pressed into hers and she gave the most deliciously naughty laugh I’ve ever heard. It made me hard, hot, and demented.

I took her lips with mine, my tongue swooping into her mouth to explore, to tease, and to arouse. I pushed my hips into hers, letting her feel my full length, the jeans doing little to hide what I was packing. Thyra gasped and pulled away, her eyes wide with desire.

She was going to say something, but I stopped her by taking a nipple that matched the color of her lips perfectly into my mouth and sucking it to a hard bead. Her hands dove into my hair, her fingers gripping the strands to hold me in place. Her words trailed off into a gasp, my tongue darting at the peak until she moaned my name.

“That’s what I wanted, Thyra,” I murmured before swiping her flesh once more. I felt her hips flinch against mine and moved, feeling the way her skin responded to my touch by heating up. I left a trail of heat across her chest, skimmed fire down her stomach, before I finally came to rest by kneeling between her thighs. I breathed fire over her skin as I breathed her name.

Her scent filled my mind, and I took a shuddering breath while I used my hands to part her thighs completely. She was totally open to me, totally mine, all I had to do was lean forward and lap my tongue up her silky softness. Then I would truly know her taste. Her hips arched as I stared at her, tempting me, begging me, demanding I ease her ache. I didn’t want to just ease her ache though, I wanted to enflame it, I wanted her frenzied and shaking beneath me.

I ran a finger over her wet heat, she was spellbinding and I could not look away. I moved, my lips brushed against her sex, my tongue darted out to capture a taste, only a taste of her. My brain exploded with the liquor of desire she gave me to imbibe. Thyra was honey, whisky, desire, all of the things that are pure indulgences.

She danced beneath my tongue and lips, her hips clasped in my hands to try to hold her still, but she would not stop moving. I blew against her heated depths, an attempt to cool her off, but that only made her insistent movements more pronounced. I parted her folds with my lips, I promised her appeasement with a swipe of my tongue, and sent her into heaven as I sucked the pearl I found within her folds.

I drank in her cries as my breath, I swallowed her quaking spasms as my food, and inhaled her scent as my energy. She gave me all I needed, all I desired, as she found a place where only languid pleasure resided. I wanted to go there with her, but held myself back. She thought this was only a dream. I wanted her fully aware of who and what I was before I gave her all of me.

I listened to what her body told me, I pressed deeper against her most sensitive skin as her stomach undulated before my eyes. When her thighs clamped around my head and she stopped breathing I let my tongue dart over her in tight little stabs that made her breathe in sobbing gasps. When her hips relaxed and her breath turned into erratic gulps for air, I pulled away, her thighs falling open in total abandon.

I knelt there; looking at her in the light of the flickering flames, and drank in my future. Thyra was all that was beautiful in the world. I wanted her more than I wanted my next breath, but I waited, and watched, drinking in the sight of her. Nothing more. There was time for everything, if only I was patient. Nothing could take her from me, not even Wruin.