Kathryn
She came to almost immediately.
“Don’t scream!” the gargantuan head pleaded, thick leathery lips moving in a very humanlike manner.
“What?”
“Please don’t scream. It would bring more attention than I’d prefer.”
“Right.” Kathryn looked away from the dragon and very slowly picked herself up from the ground and set herself back in the chair. “Uh, who are you?” she asked at last.
“It’s me. Callan.”
“Nooooo,” she said slowly. “Callan is a human. This…this is a dragon. Great trick though. Can you bring Callan back now?”
The dragon head lowered until it was hovering just off the ground. Great yellow eyes as tall as her swiveled forward, cat-like black pupils fixed solely on her. The top of its head was decorated in horns—two massive midnight-black horns that curled up and backward along the skull, with a multitude of smaller ones surrounding them. It lent the creature a fearsome visage, a monster-like quality that made her uneasy.
“I am both.”
There was no mistake; it was speaking in Callan’s voice.
“Both. Right. So you can change into a dragon magically?” she said sarcastically, reaching down to pick up a branch. “Good trick, but I know it’s just an illusion.”
Without warning she flung the stick at the dragon’s snout. It impacted, the blow causing the mighty head to rear back in surprise.
“What the fuck,” she breathed.
“It’s crazy, I know,” Callan-but-not-Callan-because-it’s-a-dragon said. “But it’s true. And it’s also why I’m obsessed with getting my treasure back.”
Kathryn’s head moved up and down slowly. Right. All the stories told of dragons collecting treasure. That part added up.
“And you expect me to believe this? And what happened to your treasure anyway?”
“Yes, actually, I do. I trusted you enough to show you the other side of me.” The dragon paused. “As for the treasure, the military stole it from me.”
Anger entered the dragon’s voice as it spoke of the military, and she made a note to herself to never get on the dragon’s bad side. It could be really, really bad for her health.
“Why would the military do that?”
A very human-like expression of pained indecision crossed the dragon’s face. “Would you believe alien invaders?”
“That’s more believable than this.” She waved at the dragon in front of her.
Yes, there was a fifty-foot-long dragon sharing the clearing with her. Now there’s a sentence you don’t say every day.
“I know. It all sounds crazy. Unfortunately, it’s all true. And now you have proof of it.”
Kathryn considered that slowly. “I guess. Umm, can you change back now though?”
“Of course.”
And just like that, Callan was back, no sign of the obsidian scale-clad dragon. Her eyes scanned the clearing, but it was gone. Until she looked down. Four huge clawed footprints sat in the soft ground, grass and other plants crushed and turn under their weight.
Eeep.
Callan walked up to her, his expression filled with worry. “Hi.”
“Hey.”
Her simple, easygoing reply seemed to put him at ease, convincing him that she wasn’t about to run off and scream bloody murder to everyone about what had just happened. Kathryn couldn’t figure out why not. This should be completely unbelievable. She should be contacting the authorities, and maybe checking herself into a mental institution.
Instead she was going to stay in the clearing and ask Callan to tell her more about everything that she was getting caught up in. And why? Because somehow, somewhere, she believed him. That he was a dragon changer. Yep, something was absolutely, definitely wrong with her.
Thanks, Mom. You just had to convince me to think about giving him another shot. Now look what I’ve gone and done.
“So, keep talking. You need treasure, okay, I get that. But you still haven’t proven to me why your word about never hurting me, or leaving me, is worth any more than the words every other guy says, trying to get into my pants.
Callan’s blocky face erupted in a wide grin. “That one’s actually easy, especially if you believe that I really am a dragon shifter.”
“It is?”
“Much easier to believe I’d say. Comparatively at least.”
Kathryn rubbed her face. “I’m listening, I guess.”
“As dragons, we only ever find one person to spend our lives with. They’re called our mates. Once we find them, we never want another.” He paused, indigo eyes staring into her intently, blazing with passion and honesty. “Ever.”
She swallowed. Hard. “You make it sound like it’s impossible.”
“It is. Our human halves can fall for another.” He paused again, collecting himself, and she caught the impression that he was speaking from experience there. “But we only ever have one mate that both sides us loves. It’s more than just love. It’s a physical thing, a force, a bond, whatever you want to call it, that joins us together.” He pointed at the two of them. “Connects us. Its call is far more powerful than any seductions another may offer.”
“And I’m to take from this that you think I’m your mate?”
Callan shook his head violently. “No, Kathryn. There is no more thinking about it. I’ve done that, I’ve searched within myself, having to come to some unpleasant conclusions about things I’d thought I knew.”
“You loved someone else,” she said, guessing.
“Yes. For the longest time I thought she was my mate, and I denied the calls of my soul that were leading me to you. But no longer. Not anymore. I am yours, Katy, mind, body, soul. All that I have is for you.” He stopped. “When you’re ready to have me, I’ll be here.”
“And what if I’m not?”
The memories of Doug, the pain and betrayal she’d felt when he’d left her, they all welled up inside her again, telling her never to trust another that thoroughly. The idea of being with Callan forever was terrifying. Was she healed and ready for that? The answer seemed to be no.
Kathryn had come home to Barton City in hopes of healing physically and emotionally. Of finding herself, and making herself an independent person once again. Getting back on her feet, and finding a job, making a career of it. On her own.
Now she was being asked to tie herself to someone she’d known for a few weeks. It was crazy. Way too fast. She needed more time to think, to understand, to accept what she’d just seen. He’d just told her he was a dragon shifter, and that aliens existed. It was going to be a bit before she was ready to think about anything else, such as shacking up with him for the rest of her life.
“Someone hurt you badly, didn’t they?” Callan asked, not answering her question.
“Yes.” She looked down at her left hand, the empty finger that had once held a ring. But only one ring. She’d never gotten the second. “I was engaged when I got hurt. To a man named Doug.”
Callan didn’t say anything, letting her speak at her own pace as she told her tale at long last.
“Things were good at first. Really good, Callan. He was nice to me, treated me well. Neither of us had much. I mean, you saw where I grew up. We were poor. My parents worked hard, and all their money went to me, ensuring I had clothes that were mostly clean and not ripped. To feeding me and keeping a roof over our house. There was nothing extra for niceties, but we were okay. Because one thing we had was love.”
The giant dragon-man nodded, squatting down until he was at her level. Normally Kathryn hated that, but with him it felt okay. He wasn’t doing it to be condescending, simply helping to put her at ease by not towering over her as she spoke.
“Doug and I had love. It was great. We laughed and had friends, went out, it was really good.” She smiled sadly. “He got laid off in the recession, and decided to start his own business. It went slow at first, and things were even worse. Then I got hit, and was hurt.”
Her vision went blurry, and her voice shaky, but she pushed on, not wanting to take any longer than necessary.
“I got a settlement from the guy who hit me, as well as having all my bills covered. Doug and I talked about what to do with it, and when it became clear I would recover in time, we decided to invest it in his business.” She swallowed, trying to clear the lump in her throat. “It worked. His business started to take off, and in the two months after he went from struggling startup to being worth millions.”
She looked away, blinking the liquid from her eyes, tears falling down her cheeks, leaving hot trails behind. A warm hand reached up and brushed them away with a gentleness that didn’t fit his massive frame.
“It changed him. He became obsessed with finding more. With always chasing that next dollar, of getting the most he could out of it. Everything became a cost to him. Including me.”
Callan’s growl was focused fury, and the force of it rocked her back in her seat, a physical thing that washed over her.
She patted his hand, letting him know he didn’t need to go into protective mode. It was all in the past now.
“I worked to come back from injury, but it wasn’t going fast enough for him. Plus, while I was really bad, I couldn’t, um—” she blushed.
“You couldn’t have sex,” Callan provided.
“Exactly. So Doug decided to go find someone who would. And then he got her pregnant.”
Callan’s fist slammed into the ground next to him, leaving a large divot where the grass compacted under the force of his blow.
“He left me, claiming I was nothing but a money-sucking bitch.” She laughed at the memory. “Conveniently he forgot that it was my money that got him to where he was. He called off the wedding, and left me with little more than enough money to get me and my belongings back here to Barton City.”
“And then I came along and started spoiling you rotten, talking about money and everything.” Callan slapped his palm against his forehead. “I should have known.”
“How?” She reached out to rub the red mark where he’d hit himself. “No, this isn’t your fault, Cal. I should have told you that displays of wealth make me uncomfortable.”
The clearing was silent as the two of them digested everything the other had told them, the truths filling in the blanks about the actions of the other. Kathryn wished she’d just told him from the start how she felt. It would have saved a lot of time and worry on both their parts.
The phone in his pocket went off again.
“I think you should answer that,” she said, pointing at the rectangular outline in his pants.
“Maybe.” Callan pulled it out, putting it to his ear. “Hello?”
She sat back, listening though not trying to eavesdrop.
“Hi Colonel Mara, what can I do for you?”
The irritation in his voice was palpable. Right, Colonel. The military. They have his treasure. It makes sense he would dislike them.
“WHAT?” he bellowed angrily, leaping to his feet and looking around. “It escaped? Where is it going?”
Kathryn looked up, their eyes meeting with a connection that should have rocked her to her core. Instead, all she could see was one thing as it grew in the depths of his navy-blue eyes.
Fear. For her.
What could make a mighty dragon like him scared? Ice formed in the pit of her stomach as a fear slipped its inky tendrils through her body. Whatever it was, it scared him. Therefore she should be terrified.
What had she gotten herself into?