He’d only just settled on the deck with a cup of coffee in his hand, another one ready for Liana, when she appeared at the other end of the wooden walkway.

She gave him a delighted little wave when she saw him. The sun was shining, her bare arms gleaming a warm, golden brown, the wind playing with her braids which were freed from the bun. Every time she moved, Timothy could see her luscious breasts shift beneath the tight shirt she wore. He had to swallow and force himself not to stare too blatantly.

She was irresistible. Her entire body was calling out to him. Just seeing her hips sway as she came towards him, dressed in simple jeans and a t-shirt with a comics print, made his body throb with hunger.

He wanted to make her his. He needed to make her his. Now that he’d found her, losing her seemed impossible. Even though they’d done nothing more than kiss, she’d felt so right in his arms.

And not only was she stunningly gorgeous, she also wasn’t intimidated by their fire dragon prisoner. Furthermore, she was smart—smarter than Timothy himself when it came to what made computers tick.

How was he supposed to woo her?

She had a job she loved in the city. She had people she cared for. She was sexy and intelligent.

And then he’d come bursting in. First he’d nearly gotten her killed, then he’d swept her away to his little island where there were no nightclubs and just one single bar on the beach.

Everyone who lived on Wing Island knew each other. It might look like an expensive island resort from the outside, but living here was like living in a small town.

Could someone like Liana be happy here?

We could always stay in the city and come out here on the weekends, he told himself.

But even the thought was enough to make his dragon shift restlessly. And while it was true that Timothy liked traveling, and that he sometimes spent weeks at a time in a different city, his heart had always pulled him back here, to the ocean. To his home.

He’d never much thought about what would happen once he found his mate. But now that it had happened at last, he realized that he’d always assumed they’d build a life here, with shared mornings and evenings with the sound of the waves lapping at the shore.

“This is incredible.” Liana’s face was lit by an overwhelmed smile as she joined him. “Look at the sun. Was it supposed to get that warm this week? I barely ever look at the forecast—I know it sounds sad, but I spend most of my days hunched over my keyboard at work.”

“We get a lot of sun out here,” Timothy said, then admitted, “I give rainclouds a little nudge if they appear. After all, it doesn’t hurt anyone if they let go a few miles further inland instead.”

“Sneaky.” Liana grinned at him. “I would have expected nothing else.”

“I do make sure our peninsula gets enough water,” he added. “I promise that no trees are dying because of my selfish desire to let people enjoy our beaches.”

With a sigh, Liana leaned back and stretched, looking out at the ocean spreading beyond their deck.

“This place is gorgeous. If I had a home here, I’d never, ever leave.”

“The city has a few things going for it—” he pointed out.

In return, Liana laughed. “Like my workplace? Yeah, there’s that. But all I need to work is my laptop and an internet connection. I’ve always wanted to just take two weeks off and rent a lonely little house by the beach, log into work during the day and go for swims in the morning, evening and during my lunch break...”

“Why’d you never do it?” he asked curiously.

She shrugged. “I don’t make a lot—not compared to our senior programmers. Still, I would have been able to save up for it. But I like the security of having some money left in my bank account, just in case of an emergency. We grew up poor, and I guess that just leaves you always expecting you’ll end up like that again. It still feels so irresponsible to spend money on myself. It’s bad enough that I spend money on games and comics and movies, you know? It just makes me feel so wasteful. When I grew up, my mom could barely make rent.

My sister’s the smart one in the family. She worked so hard. She put herself through law school—which, even with a scholarship, made her basically work day and night. And when she’d made it and got her first real job as an actual lawyer, she kept working super hard on her career while also supporting me. Without her, I’d never have made it through college. I’m not a wunderkind like her. Not a smart lawyer. Just a geeky girl who likes her games too much. Sometimes I feel like I should have repaid her by becoming a doctor or something—”

“I think your sister loves you very much,” Timothy said earnestly, “and she knows that you love your job. You’re happy. It sounds like you’ve built a good life for yourself. Being a doctor, helping people, is an amazing talent—but you help people too, in your own way. You make them happy. And just by being yourself, you show other girls that their dreams can come true, too.”

“The dream of being an eternally single, geeky programmer,” Liana sighed, but there was a thoughtful look on her face as she watched him. She played with one of her braids. Then she gave him a warm smile. “Thanks for listening to all of that. I didn’t really think you’d be the type to just listen when I first met you.”

“Hey, just because you thought I was a shallow billionaire playboy—”

“Oh, I never thought that,” she murmured teasingly, her voice low. “I’ve met shallow. I could tell you weren’t—from that very first moment.”

He tilted his head at her. “And what’s your current opinion of me?”

She laughed softly, her eyes warm as she looked him up and down. “You’re a mystery. A banker who can turn into a dragon. A man who owns an entire tower in the city, but who loves the small-town island life. I still think that you’re too charming for your own good—but you’re not shallow. I think you use the charm to hide your depths. And now I’m intrigued.”

“Hidden depth?” He dramatically clutched his chest. “No one has ever accused me of that!”

“I bet they haven’t,” she said, her eyes gleaming in amusement. “You’re good at playing charming. But I also think you’re more like me than I thought. You like the part of it that’s like a game. Only I like taking out evil wizards in Dungeons & Dragons, and you like taking out evil bankers and corporations.”

Timothy was silent for a moment, staring at her in bafflement.

Was this what it was like to find your mate? Someone who instinctively saw through all your shields and masks, even though the bond between them was still fragile?

“You know,” he murmured at last, his throat strangely tight, “I think that’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said about me. I guess most people just assume that everything I do is like a game to me, and that it means that I don’t care about those little startups and charities I try to rescue. But I do care. I care about the oceans and the rivers and the lakes, about the animals who live in them and the people who live on the shore. Without water, there’s no life. And I care about life, too.”

“Caring is scary,” Liana said and swallowed. She looked out at the ocean, as if she was too embarrassed to meet his eyes. “I always thought that maybe, if I wasn’t so scared of caring, I’d have better luck with men... It hurts if you care and then get disappointed.”

“It’s easier to care about the ocean than to care about people,” Timothy admitted after a moment. Then he reached out and gently covered her hand with his own. He could feel her fingers trembling beneath his—and he could also feel another rush of warmth. It filled his body with heat, but it also filled his heart with certainty.

“But I think sometimes it’s worth it to care...”

She didn’t pull her hand away. Instead, she turned her hand over beneath his, and then, tentatively, entwined their fingers.

“I think I already do.” Her eyes were wide and warm. “I’ve never had a relationship that got really serious, so I’m warning you—I might mess up. But I want to try.”

“You never had a relationship with a shifter, so it would be new either way,” he said gently. “I know all of this is different and scary. And I promise we can take this as slowly as you like.”

He hesitated for a moment. Then he tightened his fingers around hers. “It’s new for me too. You’re my mate. That’s new—and very scary, because I’m terrified I’ll mess up. I want you to like me—but the real me, not the charming billionaire. And sometimes I worry I’ve forgotten how to be myself...”

“Hey,” she said softly, reaching out with her other hand to rest it on his. “We can learn together. And I’ve seen you beat up a group of fire dragons for me. Believe me, when I think of you, I don’t think billionaire playboy at all. I think worried shifter who hates babysitting his fire dragon.”

Timothy laughed, a wave of relief rushing through him. “That’s a pretty good start. Definitely closer to the real me than most people ever got. And I guess if that hasn’t scared you away yet—”

“I’m sticking around,” she said firmly. “And not just because I don’t want to face those evil dragons again. But you’re talking to someone who’s spent her entire life dreaming of adventures and dragons and people saving the world. Do you think I’m going to run away from all of that now, just because it turns out that dragons are actually real?”

“No fire dragon will ever get to you. I promise,” he said.

He hesitated for a moment, but then he threw all caution to the wind and leaned forward. He’d promised to go slowly... But he’d yearned for the sensation of her lips against his all morning.

And so, it seemed, had she.

Her eyes fluttered closed when he leaned in. And when their lips met, he could feel her sigh.

Her lips were soft, parting for his tongue. Heat rushed through him again, and he drew her against him, her luscious curves pressing against his skin until he felt he was drowning in her taste and her scent. Nothing else had ever felt as right.

Between his legs, his shaft throbbed with sudden need, the dragon within him rearing up once more, so eager to claim her as his that it was almost painful to resist.

Instead, despite the ache of his erection, he drew back a little. He smiled at the way she stared at him, her eyes dark and soft and her body relaxed.

“How about I show you the peninsula?” he said hoarsely. “You can meet the werewolves if they’re in, and we’ll see who else is around.”

“I want to see your chameleon coffee shop,” she murmured, her tongue coming out to swipe over her lips before she drew back. “It’s really all real?”

“It is,” he said, his heart still pounding with desire at the sight of her. “I promise. It’s all real.”

***

Timothy took the scenic path along the beach as he led Liana away from the house.

He’d briefly contemplated locking Braeden inside the house again, but the fire dragon had shown up just when they were getting ready to leave, complaining about being hungry.

Right now, Braeden was in the kitchen—hopefully not setting Timothy’s house on fire.

He didn’t like trusting him. After all, Braeden was still a fire dragon. But on the other hand, he had saved Autumn, the earth dragon’s mate, and he was wearing the obsidian cuffs in addition to the dragonsbane that kept him from using his powers.

He wouldn’t be able to do anything. And if he was really stupid enough to run, Timothy finally had a reason to drag him back to the chimera and get him locked into his cell there.

Also, Timothy really, really wanted to some alone time with Liana.

The sun was shining brightly. Liana had exchanged her jeans for a white skirt and sandals, which she now carried in her hand.

The weather was glorious. A gentle breeze was blowing in from the ocean, and the air smelled of salt. The distant cries of gulls filled the air, together with the constant background noise of waves lapping at the shore.

She giggled when another wave washed over her feet.

“This is incredible.” Her eyes gleamed as she looked at him. “I can’t believe you don’t live on the beach all year.”

Timothy laughed. “I know it looks like paradise. But how would you feel about not getting to head out to a bar with your friends, or getting Chinese take-out when you feel like it, or doing a 1 a.m. donut run—or just popping into the latest movie?”

Liana shrugged uneasily. “I don’t really have any friends that go to bars,” she admitted. “That’s always just been my sister dragging me along. Although I like her friends! They’re just all so... smart and successful, you know? But you have me at missing out on movies and take-out options...”

“Chameleon Coffee has excellent donuts,” he said. “It’s just that they don’t stay open until 1 a.m., so you need to plan ahead for late night cravings.”

“It’s not like we ever had the money for sudden late night cravings as a kid,” she said thoughtfully. “I could deal with that...”

“I like having the best of both worlds,” Timothy admitted. “Obviously, I wouldn’t want to commute in a car all week from here. But for a dragon, it’s a short flight. I can spend all my weekends in the city. Or the other way around—come out here every weekend instead.”

Or rather, we could fly to the city every weekend...

He didn’t dare to say it out loud. Not yet. Asking her to move in with him definitely didn’t come at a point when all they’d done was kiss a few times.

But she’d said she wanted to give this a try. That she wanted something serious, too.

And if he could just be patient and show her that life in a little shifter beach town wasn’t so different to the life she was used to, then maybe that day would come even sooner than he hoped...

“What’s that?” Liana asked suddenly when something rustled in the bushes.

A moment later, a wolf came out, stepping onto the beach. He was large, with gray fur that turned white at his muzzle.

His golden eyes stared at them unflinchingly, and Timothy raised his hand.

“Hey, James. What’s up? Is John out fishing? Thought we’d come and say hello.”

Liana leaned against him. “Werewolf?” she whispered into his ear.

She didn’t sound scared—just fascinated.

The wolf opened his jaws, the large, red tongue lolling out as he seemed to silently laugh at them.

Then he gave them a soft, affirmative yip and turned back to vanish into the bushes and trees that lined the beach here.

“Werewolf,” Timothy said when he was gone. “That’s James. They’re good people—not great talkers, though. They like to keep to themselves. As werewolves usually do, really. They normally aren’t much for company.”

“Why did they settle down here, did they say?” Liana asked curiously as they kept walking.

“Mainly age, I think. They don’t talk much about the past—from what I’ve heard, they came from rival packs. They left their packs to be with each other. And eventually, John wanted to settle down by the sea. Now they’ve lived here for several years. They make good neighbors—very quiet, except for the full moon.”

“Neighbors?” Liana asked, frowning. “But I haven’t seen a house since we left.”

Timothy nodded to where the beach now curved to the right in front of them, the trees growing inland blocking their view.

“It’s not far. Another five minutes.”

John was indeed out fishing. They saw him as soon as they made it past the bend of the beach.

Before them, the white sand curved inward, another bay of sun-warmed sand and blue water greeting them.

And there, among the trees, a small house stood. It was built of gray stone, with a large deck of wooden planks bleached by the wind and the sun. In front of the house, a pier led into the water. A small boat was tied to it.

And in the shade beneath the pier, a man in his sixties was sitting, a baseball cap covering his white hair as he watched a fishing rod.

“Hey John. Hope they’re biting,” Timothy said when they walked closer.

John grunted in response, but then got up and shook Liana’s hand.

“Good to meet you,” he said gruffly. “Name’s John.”

“Liana Robinson,” she said, eying him in fascination. “I’m so sorry if this is terribly rude, but—are you a werewolf, too?”

John laughed hoarsely. “That I am,” he said. “No worries, miss—I prefer striped bass to human flesh. Even on the full moon.”

Behind them, there was the faint sound of a door closing. When they looked up, James came strolling towards them from the house. He must have run back home and shifted there, then dressed. Like John, he was wearing khaki shorts and a worn shirt. He carried another fishing rod in his hand, but unlike John, he wore his gray hair buzzed short.

“James,” Timothy said in greeting, shaking his hand when he joined them by the pier. “Thought we’d come and say hello to our neighbors. This is Liana.”

“Pleased to meet you,” James said as he shook Liana’s hand. He gave Timothy a toothy grin. “So. Finally bringing home your mate, huh? About time.”

“How do you know—” Liana began, frowning at the werewolf.

James shrugged. “Sniffed something weird in the air, so my wolf wanted to go for a run and explore. Knew as soon as I saw you two. There’s something in your eyes when you find your mate. Something in your scent—or maybe it’s just the way two scents mingle just right. Something was up. And of course, what with him being so powerful, some of us can feel a shift in power.”

John rolled his eyes. “And some of us couldn’t care less about gossip and just want to spend a nice day out here by the water.”

James gave them another hoarse laugh. “Bet the folks in town would love my gossip. You visiting them next, boss?”

Timothy nodded. “I want to show Liana the island and introduce her. Oh—and keep an eye on my house for me, will you? I’ve got a visitor in there, and he’s not supposed to start any trouble.”

“Thought I smelled something off.” James inhaled the air. “Who is it?”

“A fire dragon,” Timothy said, not surprised by the way both werewolves started.

“Holy shit,” John said, eyes wide. “For real?”

Timothy nodded. “Keep it quiet. He can’t shift or use his powers, and I don’t think he’s going to run. Still—if he tries to leave, let me know.”

“Sure thing, boss. I’ve got your number.” James patted his pocket, then cursed. “Where the hell is my phone?”

“Here,” John said with a snort, fishing it out of his own pocket. “You forgot it in the kitchen again.”

James took it with a disgruntled sound.

Liana could barely hold back a laugh.

“You’re not at all how I imagined werewolves,” she said, grinning at James. “But then, neither were dragons. I think I like werewolves much better than fire dragons.”

“Ha. Not much of a compliment,” James said with another toothy grin. “But we like humans much better than fire dragons as well, so I’m sure we’ll get along just fine.”

Timothy wrapped his arm around Liana’s waist. “Now—how about those donuts I promised you?”