Cammie held herself perfectly still as she peeked over the edge of the hayloft, watching Alex and Seth spar. She was determined to not make a peep or any movement that gave her away this time. She didn’t want to do anything that might distract Alex while he was training, and she wanted to see for herself how he was progressing.

She couldn’t help being pleasantly surprised. It had only been a week since he started seriously training, and the change in him was remarkable. He was a fast learner. No longer awkward, he dodged and spun with effortless grace, moving more like a shifter than a human now. Maybe it came from training with one of her kind, but whatever the reason, he was poetry in motion.

Of course, he couldn’t catch up with Seth enough to hit him, but Seth wasn’t making it easy for him either. When Alex did manage to land a hit, Seth was already mostly gone, and the partial blows tended to throw Alex off balance, making it easier for Seth to land his own, rather than slow him down any.

She still couldn’t believe Alex knew they were shifters from the beginning. In a way, she was glad her first thought of him being able to handle her shifter status was right, but there was something about him hiding his knowledge so easily that bothered her. She knew everything he told her about himself in the past was true, because she would have heard the lie in his voice if it wasn’t. But there was something about how he managed it without any of them picking up on it that made her uneasy. She just couldn’t figure out what it was.

Talking about her parents felt good, too. Although Ian knew the basics of what happened, she never told anyone anything else about it. She rarely even thought about it, or her parents in general, if she could help it. It made her too sad in the early days, and she decided she needed to focus on the present to avoid being captured. So she spent the last seven years avoiding any mention of them, but now she thought she did herself a disservice. She’d definitely done her parents a disservice. They deserved to be remembered.

Coming back to the moment when she heard Seth tell Alex they were done for the day, she waited until Seth was out of the barn before speaking.

“You’re doing amazingly well,” she called down.

Choking a little on the water he was drinking, Alex’s eyes shot to the loft where she was sitting up. “I had no clue you were there this time,” he said with a laugh.

“I held myself frozen the whole time to make sure you didn’t,” she replied while she made her way down from the loft.

Meeting her at the bottom of the ladder in the hay, he murmured, “What happened to thinking I was exceptionally unobservant?”

Not giving her a chance to reply, he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers. She moaned as she wrapped her arms around his neck, uncaring of the sheen of sweat on his body. She pushed herself closer as she parted her lips for his kiss. Lightning was zinging up and down her spine when she pulled herself away, lips lingering against his for a few moments.

“You are unobservant. For example, you didn’t even see me getting ready to do this,” she said breathlessly.

A frown was just beginning to form on his handsome face when she hooked an ankle around his and tugged forward. He lost his balance, falling back into the hay, and Cammie giggled as she followed him down, straddling him. He struggled for a moment, but Cammie knew what she was doing, and even though he was much bigger than she was, she had him pinned thoroughly.

“That was playing dirty,” he said with a laugh.

She leaned in to nip his bottom lip. “No, this is playing dirty,” she replied with a leisurely roll of her hips against his pelvis.

Breath catching, he fused his mouth to hers, returning her hip roll with one of his own. He was already hardening beneath her, and she moaned at the feel of him. Returning his increasingly aggressive kiss with passion, she continued the slow grind of her hips against his. Pulling away from the kiss, she planted her hands on his chest for traction, applying more pressure.

Skimming his hands up her sides, he stopped just underneath her breasts, his fingers tightening around her ribcage like he was trying to force them not to move any higher.

“Shouldn’t we move this somewhere else?” he panted.

“No,” she said breathlessly, gasping when his hardness nudged her clit through their clothes. “We’re out of the way enough. Besides, I warned the others when I came out not to disturb us. I’m sure they passed that along to Seth.”

Apparently deciding that was all he needed to know, Alex finally moved his hands, cupping her breasts. “Planning this, were you?”

“I hoped for it, anyway,” she said, unable to stop her hips from moving faster as he tugged down her tank top and she felt him on her skin.

“The hay is prickly. I don’t want your skin marked up.”

“I wasn’t planning on being the one on the bottom,” she replied, giving him a wink.

He moaned, his abs contracting as he surged upward and sucked one of her nipples in his mouth. She plunged her fingers into his hair as her movements automatically slowed so she could focus on what his mouth was doing, and he grabbed her hips, urging her back on. Breath hissing at the dual sensations, she gave herself over, letting him set the speed for now.

Releasing her nipple with a pop, he trailed sucking kisses across her chest before giving her other nipple a few flicks of his tongue. Closing his mouth around her, he sucked hard, and the combination of his wet mouth and the friction against her core nearly had her coming then and there.

“Let go,” he rasped, pulling his mouth away for a second. “I know you’re close. Come for me.”

She tightened her fingers in his hair as he sucked her nipple back into his mouth, and one harder roll of her hips against his was enough to send her splintering apart. Gasping out his name, she buried her face in his neck as stars danced behind her closed eyelids, every nerve ending lit up like the fourth of July. He eased her hips to a stop, his hands gripping tightly and trembling slightly with his restraint.

Lifting her head from his neck, she gazed at him with heavy-lidded eyes. “Even just dry humping you felt like the eighth wonder of the world.”

Giving a strained laugh, he replied, “This attraction is closed for the rest of the world.”

With a hiss in her throat, she snarled, “Damn right it is.” Slamming her mouth down on his, she kissed him hard before pulling away and nudging him back down. Clambering off him, she stood up and yanked the zipper of her shorts down, quickly shedding them.

Seeing what she was doing, Alex shoved the elastic band of his own shorts down, and his thick length bobbed free. Swallowing hard, she dropped back down over him, positioning her wet center over him. She looked into his eyes, the sunlight making them look silvery, their heated depths almost seeming to glow.

She took his hardness in her hand, unable to resist a few strokes before easing down onto him. Both of them groaned in unison, breath whooshing from their chests. Cammie didn’t breathe again at all until she was seated fully onto him, her head dropping back as she gasped at the white-hot pleasure washing over her. She held herself still for a long moment, just savoring.

“Fuck, Cammie,” he said, voice strained. “Tell me you’re going to move soon. Please, sweetheart.”

Throat too tight to answer him, she rolled her hips, letting that be her reply. She ground against him slowly, gasping as her clit bumped his pelvis. It felt amazing, but soon she couldn’t hold back, and she clutched his pecs for support as she lifted her hips up and slammed them back down. Her eyes rolled back in her head as she set a fast pace, and his hips moved to meet hers.

She was going to come again soon, she knew. Arms trembling and unable to support her any longer, she eased down against his chest and kissed him, undulating her hips. The position caused the angle of him inside her to change, and she didn’t last long as he nudged the special spot inside her. Yanking her mouth from his, she buried her face in his neck, biting at the tendon there as her orgasm overwhelmed her.

Voice guttural as he called her name, Alex’s hands grabbed her hips again, and he held her still as he surged up one more time, his pulsing release causing a new round of aftershocks to course through her body. Her nerve endings were livewires, causing her body to jerk against his for a long moment afterward.

They clung to each other until their breathing evened out. Cammie snuggled tighter into his chest for a moment, bone deep contentment washing over her and her dragon. Her muscles were limp from pleasure, and her mind still felt a little hazy from it. She’d never experienced anything like loving from Alex. Eventually they had to move, and she pushed herself up, looking around for her bottoms. She wasn’t planning on putting her panties back on after they’d been in the hay, because ew, but she needed her shorts, at least.

Pushing himself to his feet easily, Alex turned slightly and leaned down to snatch her shorts up. Her lips quirked at the red scratches on his ass, and she reached a hand out, rubbing his butt softly.

“You’re all marked up. I’ll put some lotion on those scratches later,” she said with a wink.

Laughing, he shook his head as he pulled his shorts up. “I’d settle for my ass to stop itching from the hay, but I think a shower will do the trick. But anytime you want to massage my ass, I’m game.”

She laughed as she pulled her shorts on. “I’m sure you are. I wonder where my panties went to.”

He looked around for a moment before swooping down, snatching up the green satin panties, immediately shoving them in his pocket.

“Hey,” she protested. “Give those back.”

“You snooze, you lose. They’re mine forever now.”

Giggling, she shoved his arm, and he hooked it around her waist and reeled her in, placing a kiss on her lips. They made out like teenagers for a few moments before Cammie pulled back with a breathless laugh.

“We’ll never get out of here if we keep that up. Come on, let’s go to the house and shower.” He waggled his eyebrows at her and she smacked his chest with a laugh. “You’re insatiable. We’re showering separately. I need to get dinner ready. I’m already running behind.”

They held hands as they walked back to the house, and once inside, they parted ways. Almost every bedroom in the house had its own ensuite, including the guestroom. The only one that didn’t was Seth’s room. He’d drawn the short stick when he and Jax drew straws, and had last choice of rooms, going with the room without a bathroom. It was bigger than the guestroom, and Seth wanted size over an ensuite. Ian had the master bedroom, and Shelby had the next biggest, as it should be. It was technically Ian’s home and land, though all the fighters contributed to the pot so they could buy it. Cammie’s was next in size, and Seth’s was the smallest of the fighters. Jax had a large attic room, which was a good thing, because he had quite a few guitars, as well as a set of drums and other musical instruments.

Trying to hurry because she really was late starting dinner, Cammie hopped in the shower before the water finished warming. Her tryst with Alex had her glowing from the inside out, but she still felt a frown forming as she thought back over it. Her fingers had tingled as she was climaxing, and she knew what that meant. Her dragon wanted to claim its mate. Different shifter cultures had different customs. Most marked their mates physically, although there were some who didn’t. Dragons claimed with a claw mark on the skin.

But as much as she longed to, it wasn’t something she could do, no matter how much both sides of her nature longed to. Alex was already in danger just by being with her. Claiming him would be like signing his death warrant. As it stood, if a dragon found her, Alex still had a chance of walking away unscathed, as long as the dragon didn’t know they were mates. If she claimed him, it would make his death a certainty, putting the final nail in his coffin. As much as she longed with every fiber of her being to make it official, she would never be able to.

Hoping to distract herself from her depressing thoughts, she thought about other parts of their roll in the hay. She was hoping to replace the chill that had taken her skin when she thought of the repercussions of what they were doing with the warmth Alex usually inspired in her. Instead, the chill deepened as she thought back to seeing his eyes lighten in color.

At the time, she thought his gray eyes turned silvery because of the sunlight, but as she remembered the moment, she realized the sun hadn’t reached them where they were. Frowning, she rinsed her hair slowly as she thought back, a shiver wracking her spine. But really, it didn’t have to mean anything. She knew a human once whose eyes changed color naturally. Alex’s doing so didn’t mean he was a shifter.

And even if he was a little too good at hiding things for her comfort, he wouldn’t have been able to hide it if he was a shifter. He had no tells, other than his eyes lightening. Only a dragon would be able to get away with something like that, and no way was he her species. He had zero of the male characteristics, and though his eyes had turned a silvery shade, there were no dragon pupils.

She felt a little better, but all the tension left her in a heartbeat soon after, leaving her relaxed. Because while all that pointed to him not being a shifter, there was one big thing that made it all moot. He hadn’t lied. She distinctively remembered him calling himself a human, and there was nothing but honesty in his voice. And yeah, someone could be dead wrong about something, but if they believed it was true, there would be no off notes. But there was no way, even with amnesia, he wouldn’t know he was a shifter. It just wasn’t possible. The animal would have shown itself immediately to its human counterpart. And he knew about shifters, recognized the characteristics all of them had, but obviously didn’t see them in himself.

And following that line of thinking, the fact that he had amnesia to begin with was a huge sign. She’d never heard of a shifter having amnesia, and even if it were possible, it wouldn’t last long. She’d Googled it not long after he arrived. Amnesia was caused by sustaining damage to the head that caused swelling around the brain. Usually when the swelling went down, memory began coming back. Shifters had accelerated healing, so the swelling would have gone down in no time. Alex also showed up a week after his wreck, still sporting a lump on his head. He obviously didn’t have accelerated healing.

Stepping out of the shower, she hurried to dry off and dress. She felt a little silly for feeling suspicious, especially of Alex, but that was how she lived, what kept her from being taken for so long. She trusted no one except the fighters. Here lately, a couple people had slipped passed her armor. Hannah and Kelsey, girls she met who lived at Red Moon Farm, specifically. But even they didn’t know what she truly was, only that she was a shifter. She loved having friends who were girls, having never had that in her life, even before she was on the run. But she still hadn’t been able to bring herself to tell them the truth. She didn’t think they’d tell anyone what she was on purpose, but that still didn’t mean they wouldn’t let something slip. And the less people who knew, the better.

But she trusted Alex fully, and she knew he wouldn’t let anything slip out. Especially with her safety on the line. If there was anyone who would take it even more seriously than her, it was him.