I CAME TO in snippets. First I awoke in a car, moaning; the man who held me was screaming, “Drive faster!” Then I was back out. When I awoke again I was clothed and fighting the strong bearded guy, the same one who’d been holding the shotgun. He was pinning me down, and I panicked, punching him in the jaw. Then I went unconscious again. The last thing I remembered was fighting the raven-haired girl as she helped the bearded guy force me into a cage.

Finally, I felt full consciousness come to me. I sat upright, startled, heart racing and head pounding with an ache that rivaled the one I’d got recently after my twenty-first birthday. I looked down at my body. I was wearing jeans and a flannel button-down shirt; my shoulder and ribs were wrapped in gauze and smelled of some weird earthy paste. My shoulder blade felt like it was on fire, and tears pricked the edge of my vision as I tried to move. Panic shot through me as I saw that I was locked in a steel cage. Just outside was a nearly-empty blood bag and an IV drip line that led to my arm. Oh God. Oh shit. With one yank, I ripped the IV out and looked around, panicked.

“Don’t be afraid. I’m not going to hurt you,” said a deep voice that made my body involuntarily flush with heat.

I looked up and was met with piercing green eyes that were surrounded by thick dark lashes. My hands went around the bars of the cage and I gripped them tightly.

“Says the guy holding me in a cage.”

He was the same guy who’d been holding the shotgun from the woods. He was at least 6’4, standing with his arms crossed, which made his large biceps bulge. His body was packed with tight, corded muscles, and he had a trimmed dark-black beard and shaggy hair. He looked like the spawn of a fireman, a boxer, and a professional model. Alright … not okay to be checking out my captor. Why did all of the hot ones have to be such psychopaths?

Get it together, Sloane.

“I couldn’t risk you running off, and I couldn’t babysit you twenty-four seven. I’ve been too busy making sure you didn’t carelessly lead them to us,” he said with a trace of annoyance.

Hah! I annoyed him? I was the one in a freaking cage! I noticed that he stood in front of a door that was ajar and looked like it led to set of steps. Looked like I was in a basement. Nothing good ever happened in a basement.

Anger flared inside of me, making the pain my body was feeling ebb a little. “Let me out!” I barked, shaking the cage. Was he a hunter? My brain struggled with recalling what had happened—those hunters … I breathed fire … and they almost killed me, but then the animals … the girl, she had changed from a wolf to a person right before my eyes. I would say it was ludicrous, but not after what I knew my body could do. Fear began to saturate my body as I stared at the blood bag and the cage. I was super freaking claustrophobic and had seen enough horror movies to know this ended with me raped or dead. Scales began to appear on my arms as my dragon started to take over, and the guys eyes bugged out of his head. He flew forward with his hands out.

“Stop that! Calm down or you’ll shift and tip off the hunters!” he growled, his pupils forming thin lizard-like slits. What the…?

His words shocked me, they actually shocked me enough to calm me down and the scales started to retreat. What he said … tipping the hunters off if I shifted. Oh my God! It made so much sense! Every time I had shifted to my dragon form, the hunters came! That must be what alerted them. This was crazy. How did he know about that? I took a deep settling breath, looked down, and was happy to see the scales fully gone.

The guy still looked like I had sprouted two heads; he was standing there, mouth agape.

“How do you know about the hunters? And shifting?” I asked.

He was shaking his head, looking off into the distance. “It isn’t possible. You’re not possible.”

Great, he was crazy to boot.

Any hope I had that this guy might be able to help me was dashed. I didn’t know how to respond, so I kept my mouth shut. The guy moved with the grace and speed of a leopard. One minute he was across the room peering at me like I was the most fascinating thing on earth, and the next he was in front of my cage, pulling keys out of his pocket.

I scrambled to sit up, excited at the thought that he might let me go. As he brought the keys into the lock I noticed his black and white checked flannel shirt was rolled up at the sleeves and he had an intricate sleeve of tattoos on his left forearm. In this closeness I could smell him; he smelled of freshly-fallen snow, and earth, of the woods and a campfire on a cold night. Heat uncoiled deep in my belly, bringing a pressure with it that had my legs throbbing. What the hell was going on with my lady parts? This guy was bad news. I needed to get the heck out of here, not be falling to pieces because I smelled him.

He put the key into the lock and then crouched down to meet my gaze, bringing more of his man scent with him, and I actually had to clear my throat to keep from moaning. “My name is Logan,” he said. “I’m going to let you out now, but don’t run. We need to talk, okay? I can help you.”

Sure thing, buddy. Then he unclicked the lock, swinging the barred cage door wide open, and I gingerly stepped out. My muscles were on fire from being cramped in that cage for so long, but I didn’t think about it. I just slowly measured how far it was from where I was standing to the open door. He backed up several steps, seemingly so he wouldn’t spook me, and I met his gaze straight on.

“No one can help me,” I said as I bolted for the open door, faster than I had ever run before. Despite my injuries, I was halfway up the staircase in seconds before I heard him grunt behind me, then his heavy footsteps pounded after me. I reached the top of the stairs and had a moment of confusion as I stepped out into a hallway. I took off to the left, where I could see sunlight, and fear laced through me as I heard the guy right behind me.

Reaching an open living room, I was halfway across the space before he took me down.

“Umph!” I fell to the ground in a thud as his massive body crashed on top of me. His strong arms grasped my shoulders, and in one swift movement he flipped me over so that we were face to face and he was straddling me. I whimpered at the pain his hand caused to my shoulder and he immediately loosened his grip, his face falling.

“I told you not to run!” he ground out in anger. His jaw was clenched, his face only inches away from mine. Warmth spread throughout my body and I felt my dragon rustle inside of me. Heat was pulsing from my belly to my groin and throughout my legs. Jesus, Sloane take a cold shower. What was going on with my body? I couldn’t control it.

Logan paled, his eyes widening as he climbed off of me. What happened? Did he feel that? Shit. Red colored my cheeks, no doubt rivaling my crimson hair.

“Just relax or you will get us both killed,” he told me as he backed as far away from me as possible. He hadn’t yet tried to kill me, so … I slowly stood, favoring my injured shoulder, and watched as his green eyes raked leisurely over my body, making the heat inside of me feel all-consuming.

What the hell was going on? I felt like I was going to start breathing fire if I didn’t cool down. That, or jump this psychopathic stranger right here on the living room floor. Did he drug me? Oh man. I was really losing it; it was so warm in here I thought I might die.

“I need air,” I managed to say as I started walking to the front door, which was now visible beyond him.

He silently followed me, watching me, his body stiff and alert as if he was ready to pounce if I ran again. I flung the large door open, and as I stepped outside my face was blasted with frigid, wonderful, snowy air. Taking huge lungfuls of air, I felt that heat inside of me cool a tiny bit. Thank the heavens. Taking stock of my surroundings, I saw that I was on a beautiful, heavily-treed lot, with only a few cabins visible nearby. It was secluded and the roads were covered in freshly-fallen snow.

It also looked like a house where you would have to scream really loud for someone to hear you.

I spun around to face Logan and noticed the porch I stood on was mammoth, wrapping all the way around to the back of the large two-story cabin. But I could easily jump over the railing if needed.

“Start talking,” I told him. “Because I’m going to lose my shit. I don’t appreciate being caged and experimented on.” So far, he hadn’t tried to kill me, so I didn’t think he was a hunter, but that didn’t mean he was a good guy.

He looked offended, his eyebrows shooting upwards into his messy dark hair. “Experiment on you?”

I pointed to the bruise on my arm where I had ripped the IV out.

He sighed and shook his head, giving me an eye roll as if I was a child having a tantrum and he needed to talk me down. “That was my blood. I was trying to expedite your healing. Something is wrong with you. I don’t know why you don’t heal.”

He wasn’t the first guy to tell me something was wrong with me and probably wouldn’t be the last, but it still stung. I was starting to put things together, and it sent fear and hope through me. “And why would your blood help me?” This creep better not have STDs or anything strange that he just gave me.

He puffed out air and shook his head. “Where do I begin?”

I frowned. “How about with the girl who was a wolf but then…” I let my words trail off.

“Nadine … a wolf shifter,” he said as if it was no big deal.

My mouth dropped open. “Like a werewolf? But…” Okay. Fair enough. I was a dragon shifter, so I guess wolf shifters could be real. I was going to go with the flow, because anything more threatened to take my sanity completely.

“And that’s what you are?” I questioned him, assuming now that he was some big bad alpha wolf with magic healing blood or something, but he just shook his head.

“No. The other animals … work for me.”

“Work for you? What do you do?” Please don’t say you capture dragons and eat them. I took a step back in case that was his answer.

He stood there for forever, unmoving, unbreathing, those piercing green eyes just boring into me. I was about to ask him again when he finally spoke.

“I am a skyborn. A dragon shifter. The last of my kind … until you.”

Skyborn?

He stepped closer and his words slammed into me; heat flared to life like nothing I had ever experienced before. I tried so badly to push it down but I couldn’t. It consumed me and I fell to my knees, sweating, hair stuck to my forehead, leaving me panting for breath.

“What’s happening to me?” I whimpered as his hand came gently to rest on my shoulder. A throbbing hit my groin with the force of a bullet. I couldn’t help the moan that escaped me.

He cleared his throat and I looked up to meet his eyes. They were nearly glowing and the pupils were slits. Dragon eyes. He tried to hide it but I saw desire flare in his face. “It’s been a while but I think you’re … in heat.” His voice was so gruff it made my toes curl as embarrassment flushed through me.

“What?” I shrieked, as my body inched closer to him. Oh my God. My period was about two weeks ago, right around when I had the fall, so I could be ovulating, but since when did that do this?! Kill me now. My eyes fell on his lips, examining them. They were thick and glistening, just waiting to be kissed. I licked my lips then as the fire exploded inside of me and I felt the familiar tingle along my skin as scales began to tighten on my arms.

Logan’s eyes bugged.

“Your dragon has no control, and being near me in heat will make it worse.” He sounded panicked, like the thought of sleeping with me repulsed him. That should make me move away, back off—clearly, I was unwanted. But my body only tightened. I moved closer to him, my hips pressing against his side. I whimpered, unable to stop whatever was happening. I only wanted to put out this fire and I wanted to do it with him.

Logan brought his left arm up to hover over my face; I could see the tattoos more closely now. Were they different than before? “I can put you in a deep sleep until the heat is over,” he said. “It will keep your dragon from shifting and leading hunters to us. Then I will train you to control your dragon.”

A deep sleep? Where? What if the hunters came? I would have no way of fighting back. He must have read the anxiety in my face. “I won’t let anything happen to you.” His breath brushed across my face and I moaned, desperate to taste him. The thoughts I was having now— and what my body was doing—were epic levels of embarrassment. I had no control over this and it terrified me.

“Okay,” I breathed. Yesterday I had wished the hunters would just kill me, so I didn’t have much to lose now. Besides, if what he said was true, that he too was a dragon, then maybe he really could help me.

A deep green light emanated from his left palm and covered my face.

“Sleep,” he whispered in my ear, his lips brushing against my neck, and then I was out, taken by the darkness as it snuffed out my fire.

* * *

Logan’s magical sleep was not dreamless, it was filled with activity. My mind wouldn’t shut off and I could feel my dragon slithering inside of me, trying to fight the sleep. I dreamed of a man with a bald head who had red tattoos on the right side of his face. He wore clothes that looked like they were from another era, and he scared that crap out of me with his piercing black eyes.

I also dreamed of Logan in all kinds of embarrassing and sexy ways. After this endless dreaming, I finally felt my dragon settling; my sleep lightened until I awakened fully. I came to and opened my eyes to look around. I was in a soft bed with grey flannel sheets that smelled freshly laundered but had a hint of an earthy male scent. Logan. Sitting up, I noticed I was wearing a small thin white camisole and tiny black soccer shorts. Oh my God, did Logan change my clothes? My cheeks burned with embarrassment as my long red hair fell over my right shoulder; that’s when I realized my wounds were healed. Not a bone in my body hurt, and actually I felt amazing. The fire that had been trying to consume me before was next to nothing now.

Swinging my legs over the bed, I stepped out of the sheets and slipped my feet into a pair of grey slippers. I could see a silk robe draped over the chair next to the bed, and on the cushion was a note.

Dude,

Don’t worry. Logan didn’t dress you. The clothes are mine.

-Nadine (Wolf girl who saved you from hunters)

My lips quirked into a smile at the note. Well, at least I knew who had dressed me. I was relieved it was another girl. Not that it brought me too much comfort, seeing I didn’t know the girl. I was about to slip into the adjoining bathroom when a small orange fluffball leapt out from under my bed and meowed.

“Hey there. How long have you been under there?” I reached down and held out my hand. The kitten, an orange tabby, looked at my hand, back raised in an arc, and then pounced, coming down on it hard.

“Oww.” I laughed, shaking my hand to free it from her grasp. Had Logan sent a tiny kitten to keep me safe? I wasn’t sure what to think about that.

I gave the kitty a few more strokes before I slipped into the bathroom and took a quick shower. I brushed my teeth and tied my hair into a big topknot. After searching through the drawers in the room, I was surprised to find brand new underwear, bras, jeans, t-shirts and a new pair of sneakers, just my size. Someone had gone shopping for me.

I hadn’t been in my own clothes since the fall at the canyon. I’d left my car in town before going on my canyon hike, and had taken a tour bus. I didn’t want to risk going back to my car until I had figured this thing with the hunters out. If they got my license plate, my identity, I knew I would never be able to hide from them. But ever since my fall, I had been running for my life one day after another. I tried not to think about it, how quickly my life had changed.

Shaking it off, I dressed swiftly in some skinny jeans and a light sweater and went to find Logan. I needed answers. I grabbed the kitten and tucked her under my arm. “Where’s your owner?” I asked her, and she just mewed, licking my arm.

Exiting the room, I padded across the hardwood floors, kitty in hand, following the rapid beating sound of loud music. It led me across the hallway to a gym room; the doors were open and Logan was lying on his back, bench-pressing a million pounds. He was shirtless, chest glistening with sweat, breathing heavily with each pump of the weights. I felt that fire pulse for the slightest bit before dying down again. Down, girl. This heat business better be over with. I was going to go on some strong-ass dragon birth control to keep it from ever coming back again.

Clearing my throat loudly, I entered the room and he froze, looking up at me from his upside-down angle. His eyes worked their way slowly up my body and I tried not to purr. If I did purr, maybe I could blame it on the kitten. Or maybe he didn’t put me to sleep long enough?

After setting the weights down, he reached over and turned down the music. His left arm was completely covered with black tattoos that worked all the way from his wrist to his neck. When he stood, I got the full glorious view of his toned abs and the v-shaped muscles that led to his—

“How did you sleep?”

I cleared my throat. “Not long enough apparently. I still feel … unsettled.”

His serious face broke into a slight grin. “That’s all you. Your dragon’s not in heat anymore. I can smell it.”

Smell it? Oh. My. God. My eyes widened. I wanted to die. I set the cat down and she pranced over to Logan, rubbing up against his leg.

“You met Mittens?” he asked as he petted the spot between her ears. I was grateful he had quickly changed the subject away from my ovaries. Great, he had a pet kitten that he adored. I had always liked the strong yet secretly sensitive type.

“Yes,” I said, unsure how to ask the things I really wanted to ask.

Logan looked up at me again and the heat flared a little within me. “So, let’s talk about how you know so much about dragons. How are you a dragon? How the hell am I a dragon?”

I was trying to think of anything but the low throb in my gut when I looked at him.

He sighed, switching gears. “Let me shower really quick and I’ll meet you in the kitchen. This is going to be a long story.”

The second he said kitchen, my stomach grumbled loud enough for both of us to hear. I hadn’t eaten in…

“How long have I been asleep?”

“Three days. Your dragon can go a week without food or water, so she sustained your human body while you slept.” He picked up a bottle of water to chug the contents.

Please put your damn shirt on, I wanted to say. The tattoos, the muscles, the freaking beard, it was all distracting me from the fact that we were both dragons and this was a serious situation.

“I’ll meet you in the kitchen in five minutes,” I said, leaving the room. I still couldn’t believe what he’d said about my dragon not being in heat. There was something wrong with me when it came to him. I couldn’t control it and it terrified me.

The moment I got to the kitchen I decided I couldn’t wait five minutes. I was hungry. I opened the fridge, and on a plate was a huge meat sub sandwich with a note that said: For Sleeping Beauty. It was different handwriting than Nadine’s, and I was guessing this was from Logan. I smirked at the nickname and grabbed the sandwich with two hands, quickly unwrapping the cellophane and pounding it down before he even made it back to the room.

I was just chugging my third glass of water when I sensed a stirring within me, and a heat from behind me. My dragon was slithering inside of me, pulling me, forcing me to turn around.

I shifted slowly and saw that Logan was leaning in the entryway, his eyes thin slits as he watched me. He wore dark-wash denim jeans and a vintage tight t-shirt, and I could smell his wood essence from here.

He cleared his throat. “Did you find the sandwich?”

I nodded, motioning to the empty plate in the sink as he crossed the room over to the counter I was leaning on and pulled out a barstool.

“I will answer any questions you have to the best of my abilities, but first you need to answer a few of mine.”

I shrugged. “Fair enough.”

He nodded. “First. What’s your name?”

His question surprised me, it was so normal. I hadn’t realized until now that I had never told him my name.

“Sloane. Sloane Murphy.”

Something crossed his face, an emotion I couldn’t read, and then it was gone. He extended his left tattooed hand. “Logan Sharp.”

I took his hand in mine and immediately the heat coiled in my belly, throbbing. Yanking my hand back, I played with the texture of my jeans to distract myself.

Logan looked tense, muscles tight and features drawn. He looked … like he was in pain.

“Are you okay?” I asked tentatively. Maybe me pulling my hand back so abruptly offended him. I didn’t know what dragon shifter greeting protocol was.

Inhaling, he took a deep breath and looked more relaxed. “Fine,” he grumbled. “Just usually more in control of my dragon.”

I nodded, because I understood. I had zero control over mine.

“Speaking of dragons…” He pinned me with a stare. “How the hell are you one?”

I recoiled. “What? You’re supposed to tell me that!”

He opened his arms as if to say he was as in the dark as I was. Great. I groaned. This guy was supposed to have all of my answers.

“I have no idea,” I told him. “One second I’m a human hiking along the rim of the Grand Canyon, and the next I’m falling—my body rips in two and becomes a dragon freak show.” My dragon stirred at that and I got the sense she didn’t like me calling her a freak show. Were we separate? It felt like we were. Kind of. Wow. Sounded like a multiple personality disorder. Maybe this was all a part of a massive paranoid delusion? I thought I was a dragon and now I was having delusions that I met another hot male dragon. Yikes, I needed to be committed for sure.

Logan stood quickly and began pacing. “Hold on. You were a human for twenty-one years and only recently transformed for the first time?” His voice was coated in shock.

I threw my arms up. “Either that or I’m having paranoid delusions!”

He stopped pacing and gave me a look filled with pity. “You’re not crazy. I saw your dragon with my own two eyes … but it’s not possible. When dragons are born, they transform right after hatching. They flit between human and dragon a dozen times a day in their first year as a youngling. The hunters would have gotten to you then.”

At some point I must have grabbed my head, because I was massaging my temples.

“I was born in a hospital, as a baby. A human baby. I have pictures and all that. Like I told you, I just recently turned, or whatever you call it.”

He was pacing madly around the kitchen, chewing a fingernail and wafting his yummy scent at me as he passed. “Who’s your mother?” he asked suddenly.

A pang of sadness went through me at the random question. “She’s … dead. Died of breast cancer when I was sixteen.”

He stopped pacing and gave me a look that you would find at the pound right before an animal was euthanized. “I’m sorry to hear that. She was … your real mother?”

I snapped my head back, offended. “Yes! Red hair and all!” I tossed a lock of my crimson hair up in the air.

He put up his hands in defense. “Right. Sorry. And your dad?”

I chewed my bottom lip. This guy was getting awfully personal when he had yet to answer any of my questions, but I could see where he was going with this. “He died before I was born. But my mom never mentioned he was a dragon,” I added sarcastically.

Logan chewed on another nail. I wasn’t sure he would have any left by the time this conversation was over.

“Even if your father was a dragon, it wouldn’t explain why you never transformed for over twenty years. And it sure as hell wouldn’t be possible without a female dragon to mate with.”

I shrugged and stood as well. I didn’t like being looked down on. How was I expected to answer all of these questions? I knew nothing about this new and terrifying world.

“Now you answer some questions for me,” I ordered.

He seemed to snap out of whatever thoughts had him captivated, and looked at me with those deep emerald eyes.

“Okay. What do you want to know?” His body turned towards me and I tried not to remember what he looked like with his shirt off. I don’t care what he smelled, my dragon was still in heat, because these thoughts weren’t mine.

“Who are the hunters and why do they want to kill me?” I folded my arms and my red mane fell in a curtain around my face.

Logan seemed to be considering what to tell me. His eyes had narrowed and he wasn’t speaking, he was just … looking at me.

“And don’t lie!” I jabbed a finger in his direction and was rewarded with a devastatingly handsome smile.

“I wasn’t going to lie. I just want to bring you into this slowly. If you think you’re having paranoid delusions now, you won’t want to sleep at night if I tell you everything in one sitting.”

Yikes. I recoiled and sat back down. “Okay … just tell me what they want with me.”

He nodded. “Hunters work for the earthbound, the druids. The druids want dragons dead because we harness magic for humanity—magic the druids need to be powerful.”

“Huh?” My head was reeling. What the hell was a druid? “Humans don’t need magic. That doesn’t even make sense.” There was a throbbing at the base of my skull; I ran a hand over the area, trying to work a knot out of my neck.

Logan stepped closer, eating up the distance between us, so close now that I could reach out and touch him. “Listen to me, Sloane, because this is the greatest lesson I could ever teach you.” His voice was gruff, and the way his eyes pierced into me had me sitting erect, hanging on his every word.

“The humans need our magic to survive. Without it they get sick. Cancer, fibromyalgia, arthritis, plagues, it’s all from the loss of dragon magic.”

“What the…? Fibro what?” I was slack-jawed. This guy was officially loony. “You’re telling me I’m a dragon but my mom still died of cancer? Shouldn’t my magic have saved her?”

Logan clenched his jaw in anger as he sensed my doubt. “I know it’s hard to believe, but yes, the humans need dragon magic to survive. It’s our duty to keep them alive and healthy. We are their protectors. We’re bound to them. I have been holding magic for humanity, alone, for so long. Well, I was … now I have you.”

Those four words, Now I have you, made my dragon purr, and without warning I stepped up closer to him, the heat rising in my belly, my dragon coming forward. I thought it would freak him out but he didn’t move. His eyes went to slits; breathing in and out deeply, he was nearly panting.

I ached to touch him, to see how those rock-hard muscles would feel in my hands. What the hell was I doing? I barely knew this guy … and yet my eyes fell to his lips. What would it be like to kiss him? The throbbing heat in my belly reached critical mass and I knew there was only one thing that would make it ease. Logan was just standing there frozen, waiting for me to do something.

I cleared my throat, trying to stay on topic. If I could just keep talking I would be okay. “Alright, if our brand of magic is so healing and powerful, then why was I injured for so long?” I indicated my shoulder.

He looked at the spot where my shoulder had been hurt and reached out to touch it, but thought better of it, pulling his hand back.

“I don’t know.” He offered a slight grin. “You’re … broken.”

I rolled my eyes. “Gee, thanks.”

He chuckled and I nearly reached out to touch his beard, to see how the scruff would feel under my nails. Damn this guy and his intoxicating smile.

“I’m kidding,” he said. “Sort of. Your dragon magic is different. It took two blood infusions from me to get your shoulder to heal while you were sleeping. It’s like … your magic hasn’t awoken yet or something.”

Neither of us moved. We were still incredibly close to each other to be having a normal social conversation, so I stepped back a foot and sat down on the stool. It took a lot of restraint, and my dragon nearly roared at me for doing it.

He looked at me as if trying to figure me out. “A redheaded female skyborn. I’ll be damned. Marcus would roll over in his grave.”

I fingered my long hair. “Who’s Marcus?”

His voice grew solemn. “Marcus was my mentor. Had a thing for redheads. He and I were the last skyborn alive until…” His face sagged and I knew.

I knew a thing or two about death. People tried to relate and tell their own stories surrounding their experience with death, but nothing could soothe that ache. Nothing came close to your own personal story. “I’m sorry,” was all I offered, and he nodded.

I ticked off all of the supernatural freaks on my fingers, “Okay, so we have skyborn, AKA Dragons. Earthborn…”

He smiled. “Earthbound.”

“Whatever. The earthbound are the druids. And then you have animal shifters? Anything else?” Three supernatural races were enough for me.

He reached out and pulled a fourth finger from my curled fist. “Sorcerers. The most populated of all the races, although most are extremely watered down with human DNA.”

I dropped my hand and exhaled the breath I had been holding. “Sorcerers? Like witches? Damn.”

He nodded. “The animal shifters are the second most rare of the supernatural species. Second to us of course.”

I swallowed hard, trying to absorb this information. “Of course.”

“There used to be over a thousand shapeshifter species, but they were a part of the Fae-line, which has now died out. Now there’s only a couple dozen species and they are all animals from this world.”

This world. And Fae. He said Fae.

“This world?” I cleared my throat because my voice cracked.

He looked me up and down, seemingly sizing up what I could handle. I grit my jaw and was sure to give him my best big girl look before he spoke. “A long time ago, magical creatures only existed in the land of Faery … a world that contained all of the magic you have read about in fairy tales.”

I scratched my neck, trying hard to believe what he was saying. “Okay.” Maybe I was still asleep and dreaming, because this sounded loony.

“Until one day, the queen of Faery found a tear in the fabric between the two worlds. She came to Earth and fell in love with a human.”

I leaned forward, suddenly hanging on every word.

“She slowly began sending Fae to Earth and letting humans into Faery. Fae and humans started falling in love, having families. She wanted a world where we could all coexist.”

I shrugged. “Sounds nice.” Freaky but nice.

Logan’s face grew dark. “Some felt that she loved her precious humans more than her own people. When the earthbound found out, they created a yearlong winter in their anger with their queen. The druids were one of the highest born magical Fae creatures in the land. After learning what their queen had done, they set out to become more powerful … to wipe out the humans and any of the human-Fae mixed creatures that had been born. They were only interested in a pureblooded society.”

Bile crept up my throat. It sounded very similar to some history I had learned about in school. “What happened?”

Logan lowered his voice. “While the druids were off on their quest at becoming all-powerful, the queen’s human lover got sick and he died, while she remained young and lived on.”

My hand covered my mouth. I didn’t even know these people or if this story was even real, but it touched me. I felt for this queen and her human lover. “Then what?” I was entranced. I needed to know this story just as I needed to stay up all night getting to the ending of a good book.

“So, in an effort to protect her beloved humans from disease, she climbed to the highest mountain in Faery and found the commander of dragons. It was long known that the dragons were the healers of the realm. She ordered the commander to create her a protector for humanity, a race of dragons that would be bound to the humans and feed them with their magical healing energy, keeping them healthy and giving them long lives. Back then, humans only lived to be about thirty years old. Her lover had died at twenty-eight.”

I leaned closer, nearly falling off my stool, unable to keep my eyes off of him. If I’d had my sketch pad, I would have been drawing what he said. A Fae queen climbing the highest mountain to reach a dragon commander. Twenty-eight years old was young, far too young. That was like … seven years from now for me. I motioned for him to keep going.

“The commander didn’t want to deny his queen, so he asked for her blood, her magic, to bind with his strongest warriors.”

My mouth popped open and I involuntarily stood.

The corner of Logan’s lips curled. “And that’s how we got the skyborn. Us. The dragon shifters.”

Whoa. I was … part dragon … part Fae? Chills crept up my spine at the thought. But my face quickly fell in confusion. “My mother was human so … I’m half?” I had accepted at this point that my mom slept with my dragon shifter father and never knew what he was. Nothing else explained what I could do.

Logan’s eyes quickly fell to my lips and then back up to hold my gaze. “I’m sorry, Sloane, but the skyborn are a pure race. We cannot procreate with humans. It only results in miscarriage.”

Panic gripped me then. The thought that my own mother wasn’t my real mother, or worse, that she was never human, it chilled me to my core and ripped the rug right out from under me.

“But some of them can procreate with humans—you said so yourself—in your story.” I was grasping at straws trying to think of a way that my mother could be my mother.

Logan nodded. “The other animal shifters, like the ones that saved you, they can procreate with humans, although it’s mostly against the rules now. And sorcerers, their DNA and human DNA seem to have no problem mixing. But earthbound and skyborn cannot have children with humans. Our DNA is too strong.”

My mind was whirling. I couldn’t even fathom the story he had just told me, and I didn’t want to think on it further for fear I might lose my mind.

“You need a drink?” He slipped one hand into his pocket and gave me an appraising look.

“I need all the drinks in this house,” I muttered. I wasn’t even a drinker, but tonight I would drink all the wine. He still hadn’t moved back away from me after I had stood; we were mere inches from each other. His scent wrapped around me like a blanket, sending a pleasurable warmth to my belly. His green eyes mirrored my own and I found myself fantasizing about what his dragon looked like. Was it black like his hair? Or green like his eyes?

The doorbell rang then, snapping me out of my Logan transfixion. I stepped back and shook my head to clear my thoughts, and I saw a slight disappointment cross Logan’s face. But then it was gone.

“That will be Keegan and the pack,” he said, as he spun to exit the kitchen, taking the heat from my core with him. “They’re thrilled there is another charge to protect.”

“Charge to protect?” I called after him.

He glanced over his shoulder, running a hand through his wild hair in an attempt to smooth it. “Hunters protect the earthbound while the shifters protect the skyborn.”

My eyebrows hit my forehead. “Of course they do.” I was a skyborn and came with my own protection detail of various circus animal shifters.

Holy hell, I did need a drink.

Make that two.