I think that’s roughly everything I wanted to discuss.” Alan looked around the room, his eyes falling on Tamhas, Owen, Dallas, and myself in turn. “I want all of us to check in every morning and evening. I want three of us on guard duty at all times.”

“I’ll make up the schedule,” I offered, with Ainsley in the back of my mind as always. It would take a little creative shuffling, but I was certain I could manage to keep her off duty.

Alan, however, disagreed. “I’d rather Tamhas make it. I mean no offense, but he’s better acquainted with us than you are, and he’ll know best who to pair up.”

I had no choice but to accept the final word of the clan leader, though I hardly agreed. She would have to ask someone to cover her shift every time it came up, was all. We’d find a way.

“And I would like to have you patrolling whenever possible,” Alan added, nodding my way.

“Of course. Whatever I can do to help.”

It was Ainsley who needed my help. The rest of them would be fine on their own. But not her. I had to look her brother in the eye and deliberately keep this from him. What would he do if he knew how I’d lied?

She’d be waiting for me, down at the loch. I hoped it hadn’t been long. Had I known Alan wanted to hold a meeting with his three closest advisors and myself, I would’ve gotten word to her that I’d be running late.

He was a fine man and a good, conscientious leader, but he did enjoy the sound of his voice.

Once we were finished, I was barely able to keep from running out of the control center in search of her. Surely, someone knew what was happening between us. No one kept secrets in that clan, at least, not for long. Ainsley’s secret was likely the best-kept because it was the most critical. She had no choice but to avoid being found out. Otherwise, whispers abounded.

If there were to be whispers, I reasoned, better they be about us than about her alone.

She wasn’t in her room, nor was she in the kitchen or common area. Several of the females sat around in groups while a few of the men played a video game on the big-screen.

A giggle caught my attention, and I found Isla grinning at me. When I raised my eyebrows in silent question, she replied, “I believe she went down to the loch for a swim. When last I saw her, she was walking toward the valley.”

The wicked little thing. A few of those around us turned their heads when she spoke, suddenly very interested in this new development. It wasn’t their fault.

“Thank you,” I replied, not bothering to engage her in banter or joking.

What would be the purpose of pretending I didn’t know who she meant? I’d only provide fodder for further gossip. As it was, the gentle laughter I heard as I headed for the cave entrance was bad enough.

If we provided them with a bit of entertainment, it meant little to me. I wished for her sake, however, that they’d cease their interest in our… whatever it was we had.

I knew I wanted her, that the lion agreed fully. It might not even mean much to her. She was well beyond grown, able to make up her mind. What did it matter to her if my lion wanted her?

Had a lion and a dragon ever gotten together before? It wasn’t exactly the sort of question I could answer by doing online research.

I burst out into the sunny late morning, imagining her distress when I hadn’t arrived as scheduled. While she was still a strong, willful woman, the loss of her dragon still affected her deeply. She didn’t have the confidence which her dragon had always given her, whether she’d known it at the time or not.

There was no reason she should’ve known, as she’d never been without it. She’d never known another state of being. Take that sort of power, that lifelong surety, away from even the strongest person, and they were bound to doubt themselves.

A smile already tugged at the corners of my mouth as I rounded the bend, passing the boulder, expecting to see her already swimming with long, graceful strokes as her body cut through the dark water.

The water was still.

I paused, my eyes still moving over the valley below. She had to be out there somewhere. Isla said she’d seen her walking to the valley. I hadn’t been detained long enough for her to come back, looking for me, even if she’d done so, we would’ve crossed paths.

Something was wrong.

I cupped my hands around my mouth. “Ainsley!”

My voice echoed, doubling and tripling on itself as I hoped against hope that her head would pop up from behind a bush or around a tree, where she’d been waiting patiently all the while.

There was nothing. No one.

Except for a touch of red on the ground, no more than twenty feet ahead of me. I went to it, sinking to my knees beside it, the scent of blood filling my senses and sending the lion into a fury before I even had the chance to touch it to see whether it was still wet.

It was. Fresh blood.

Her blood.

I leapt to my feet, head on a swivel. Where were they?

I could go back to the cave and get help, but that would waste precious minutes, and we’d already established that my sense of smell was far superior to theirs, even in dragon form.

The seams on my clothing shredded as I shifted. My eyesight was stronger, and the scent of Ainsley’s blood on the ground filled my head with the strongest, purest lust I’d ever experienced in my long life.

Lust for more blood. Their blood, whoever they were. Whoever thought they could put their hands on her and harm her.

A gust of wind carried another scent, not a strong but just as important. Humans. At least two of them.

I followed the scent into the craggy, tree-covered hills at the foot of the mountain, her name repeating in my head with every slap of my paws against the ground.

Ainsley, Ainsley, Ainsley.