Liana stretched in the sunshine, staring out at the calm, blue ocean for a moment before she returned her attention to her laptop.

She’d been in meetings all morning. As the new owner of Dragon Heights Games, people kept asking her questions and wanting answers every day.

At first, it had been daunting. She understood nothing about businesses, after all—she was just a simple geek and a coder who loved dragons.

But when her real life ocean dragon had given her the company as a belated wedding gift, she’d had to learn quickly.

And it wasn’t all bad—there was a lot she had to learn. But she already knew the most important thing, which was what their players wanted from their game.

Some of the decisions she’d made had surprised people. And it was true that Dragon Heights had made less of a profit since Liana had taken over.

But they still made a very nice profit.

Enough of a profit that Liana’d been able to give a raise to not only their coders, but also their customer support people, who did one of the hardest jobs, in her opinion. The memory of having to deal with upset people all day still made Liana feel exhausted. She was determined to show that she appreciated the hard work people put in.

And they were still going make a nice profit even after Liana hired another coder. She wanted someone like herself, a young woman fresh out of college who was desperately trying to break into the gaming industry. Because that had been hard, even with her sister’s support.

After all, what good was it to be your own boss if you couldn’t learn from the mistakes you’d seen others make?

Liana was determined to do better. She loved her virtual dragons—and she was going to make sure that her players would keep having fun, without having to spend ridiculous amounts of money.

And to start off her new reign, she’d made some changes in the code for the new event. Now every player who played for at least a few minutes on their commute every day would receive her beautiful, powerful ocean dragon—without having to pay any real money.

She couldn’t make sure that all the lonely people out there would find a real life dragon of their own. But at least she could make sure that everyone had fun in her own game.

And the rave reviews for their latest update had only proved her right. On the forums, there were even delighted comments from players who’d left during the past year, and who’d decided to give the game another chance after Liana’s changes.

Still, as amazing as it was to see that finally, she could undo some of the damage her former corporate overlords had done, she’d been adamant about one thing.

In the afternoon, after the endless meetings and discussions, she stopped being Liana the Boss. For an hour or two, she went back to being Liana the Coder, typing away on her keyboard with only the ocean for company as she came up with new events and game mechanics.

She needed that time. It felt good to realize that nothing had changed—that at her heart, she was still simply Liana, the geeky girl with a fondness for dressing up virtual dragons.

“Are you done for today?” Timothy’s voice called out from the door.

He’d been in a conference call since noon—and now it seemed he’d finally managed to escape.

“All done,” Liana called back, making sure to save her work before she closed her laptop.

“The werewolves invited us over for a drink,” Timothy said when she came closer.

“That sounds great. Do you think I need to change?”

She was wearing her favorite sundress—it was made of white lace and a soft, turquoise cotton printed with cheerful sunflowers.

It was perfect for beach walks with Timothy, but not exactly what she’d call formal.

But then, their werewolf neighbors were the opposite of formal...

“You look stunning,” Timothy murmured as he watched her with obvious appreciation.

Liana felt her cheeks heat a little. Against her skin, the gorgeous pearl they’d found together pulsed with warmth. She wore it on a simple chain of gold around her neck.

She hadn’t taken it off since the day they’d found it. Even when she was deep in a frustrating discussion with her game’s development team, it filled her with the deep, calm confidence of the ocean.

“Then let’s head out.” She smiled at him as she took his hand.

They’d spent the day on the large deck that rested on wooden stakes right above the water of the ocean, at the back of the house. And while that gave them an incredible view of the ocean stretching endlessly before them, it meant that they couldn’t see what was happening on the beach in front of their house.

Of course, as Wing Island was a privately owned peninsula, usually there was nothing going on there.

But today, as soon as they stepped out of the door at the front, they were greeted by loud cheers.

A large crowd had gathered.

Overwhelmed, Liana tried to take it all in. There was the old werewolf couple, James and John—and there the chameleon shifter family who ran the coffee shop, together with coyote shifter Aimee who’d become a good friend.

Everyone was there. The entire community of Wing Island had gathered in front of their house.

Many people were holding flowers—and as Liana stared in amazement, a banner was unrolled, held up by two excited seal shifter kids.

“Congratulations, Liana & Timothy,” it read.

“Did you know about this?” Liana asked, utterly overwhelmed as she turned to Timothy.

Timothy was beaming, but he shook his head.

“I was promising them that we’d have a real celebration—once we’d had time to settle in and I’d found a free weekend in your sister’s busy schedule, but—”

“Liana!” a familiar voice shouted.

When Liana looked up again, she found her sister standing right next to the seal shifter kids.

Clairice didn’t look like she’d escaped her job only for an hour or two, ready to head back as soon as possible—which was usually how holidays with her went.

Which Liana had never begrudged her, because she knew just how hard her sister’d had to work to get to where she was.

She’d never imagined that one day she’d get to see Clairice in a long skirt and a bikini top, with a pink flower in her hair and what looked like a cocktail served in an actual coconut in her hand, complete with a little paper umbrella. And Clairice didn’t look harried. She looked completely relaxed for once.

“You came!” Liana laughed, running towards her to hug her. “I didn’t even know this was happening, but I’m so glad you’re here!”

“I’m staying all weekend,” Clairice said smugly. “You don’t think I’d let my little sister’s wedding pass without telling lots of embarrassing childhood stories at the party? Or wait—mating, not wedding. This’ll take a while to get used to.”

“I’m so happy you’re here,” Liana whispered, tears of joy in her eyes as she hugged her sister tightly.

At first, she hadn’t been sure what her sister would make of all of this—her sister, the sensible lawyer with the perfect career, who didn’t even like fantasy movies?

And at first, Clairice had been extremely skeptical. But it was difficult to keep denying the existence of shifters when there was an entire island community of people who could turn into animals.

Moreover, when Timothy had bought the game company for Liana as a gift, Clairice had spent an entire night going through the contract. She’d scrutinized every clause and footnote. And at last, she’d come to grudgingly accept that—despite his reputation as a suave billionaire CEO—Timothy wasn’t out to hurt her little sister.

“Good to see you,” Clairice now said with real warmth in her voice when she looked at Timothy.

Timothy held out his hand, which she shook—only to keep hold of it and pull him into a sudden hug.

“Congratulations,” Clairice said, her eyes gleaming a little. “I’m so glad you two found each other.”

“Thank you,” Timothy replied softly, his voice hoarse as he drew back at last. “That means a lot.”

A moment later, Aimee was hugging Liana. She’d put on thick black eyeliner and had dyed a strand of her hair a deep purple.

“Congratulations again,” Aimee said, giggling when Liana was too overwhelmed to answer. “I can’t believe we managed to keep this a secret from you all week!”

Clairice smirked again. “We’ve all planned this together. James and John called me last week, and ever since then, it’s been non-stop planning. Fortunately, your neighbors told us that you usually spend the afternoon out on the deck facing the ocean. So we had time to get everything into place.”

“Wow,” Liana breathed when the shifters before her parted.

And there, behind the crowd that had gathered, blankets had been spread on the beach, a few pavilions had been erected, and someone had managed to construct a tiny tiki bar.

Everywhere she looked, there were flowers and billowing ribbons of silk. And for the evening, unlit torches stood ready.

“This is incredible. I don’t know what to say!”

“You don’t have to say anything,” Clairice said, her eyes gleaming again as if she was trying hard to hold back tears of happiness. “This is for you. For both of you. Thank you for making my sister so happy, Timothy. To love, and to eternal happiness.”

She raised her coconut, and someone pushed a drink into Liana’s hand.

Hers was served in an actual glass, although it also came with a little paper umbrella. The cocktail shimmered blue—as blue as the ocean and the sky.

When Liana raised it, she saw that Timothy’s eyes were shining with the same blue light again. The ocean pearl pulsed against her skin, the song of the ocean a gentle melody that wove all around them.

As she looked out at all the people who’d gathered to celebrate with them, she could feel the power of the sea pulse through her. Blue light twined around the golden light of the mate bond connecting them.

“To love and eternal happiness,” Timothy murmured. There was a soft smile on his lip—the same smile that always lit up his face whenever he looked at her.

Liana clinked her glass against his.

“To love and eternal happiness,” she repeated. She remembered the moment when she’d sunk to the bottom of a river with the wounded Timothy in her arms, and the afternoon when they’d explored the bottom of the sea hand in hand.

But that was only the beginning. There were so many more adventures to come.

And in the end, they’d always return here—to their home, and to this close-knit community on the tiny shifter island, where everyone was welcome and everyone lived in peace.

Liana’s smile widened. Then she wound her arms around Timothy’s neck, not caring that she spilled some of her cocktail.

Their lips touched, and as their guests whooped and cheered, Liana felt the joy inside her lift her up. She felt as free and careless as the first time she’d experienced the wonder of dragonflight.

She’d truly come home.

She would never feel lonely or out of place again. She’d found a community where everyone was accepted just the way they were—and, most importantly, she didn’t have to give up her dreams for love.

She’d saved her virtual ocean dragon. She’d made lots of kids happy with the changes to her game.

And most importantly, she’d found her real ocean dragon as well. A man as strong and powerful as the ocean, and as kind as warm summer rain.

Timothy’s arms tightened around her, and she found herself smiling against his lips.

At last, she was exactly where she was meant to be.

***