Helen changed the channel with a sigh. Why did it feel like there were only sci-fi movies on tonight?

Sure, the idea of sexy aliens was hot, but that wasn’t supposed to happen. Not in real life.

She heard a knock on her door and tensed up. Already, her heart was hammering.

She walked out into the living room and saw Chromium’s large shape taking up all the space in front of her door. She hoped he was finally ready to tell her everything, because otherwise, she didn’t know what to say. She wasn’t trying to be cruel to him, but he couldn’t expect her to wait any longer.

When she opened the door, she could see relief on his face, an expression that was more open than any she’d seen thus far.

“Can I come in?”

“Can you tell me who you are?”

He nodded.

“And you aren’t human?”

He looked chagrined and ran a hand through his white-blond hair. “Can I just come in?”

She held the door open for him, then shut and locked it once he was inside. She walked to the couch and motioned for him to take it. Then she took the chair across from him. She was trying not to be guarded. After all, this was a man she’d just enjoyed a really nice date with. Who’d defended them from muggers.

Who’d always been a good friend and, if she were honest, a lot more.

She was going to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“I… I’m not sure how to start,” he said.

“I can guess if you want.” She eyed the TV as she muted the volume so it wasn’t distracting. “Alien?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Sort of.”

“How are you sort of an alien? I mean, you’re either from this planet or you’re not.”

He cocked his head, looking at the TV. “I mean, I’ve seen what humans consider alien, and I’m not that. Yes, I’m from another planet. Drakkaris, to be exact. But my ancestors came from Earth, and there are beings like me on your planet. You would call us shifters.”

Her jaw dropped. She probably had a shifter romance upstairs under her bed right now. She felt like she was going to faint as she stared at him, waiting for him to continue.

“I… am a dragon.”

She slowly recovered, pulling her jaw up so it wasn’t just hanging open awkwardly. “A what?” She was used to wolves or bears, but a dragon?

“On my planet, dragons run things. Here, they are still the most powerful of shifters on the whole, though a little different.” He rubbed the back of his neck, and she felt the urge to soothe him.

She needed to let him finish first, though.

“I’m not sure how much to tell you. There’s so much, and I don’t want to overwhelm you. Me and my friends came here to Earth to find the mates who are fated for us. The rest of my group has succeeded in doing that. When I found you, I knew I had, too.”

“How?”

He put a hand to his chest, over his heart. “I just knew.”

“So that’s why you were coming to my restaurant?”

“At first, I just knew I was drawn to you. Then that night I stopped the robbers, when I felt so angry at anyone who would threaten you, I knew.”

She put her head in her hands for a long moment, trying to process all of this. “I mean, this kind of thing doesn’t happen. Not to me. Not to anyone. I would think it was crazy if I hadn’t seen what you did.”

“Do you want me to show you my powers?”

She whipped her head up. “What?”

“My powers. My name is my element, and I can manipulate metal. It’s one of my powers, anyway. We all have multiple in the Drakkaris Dragon Guard.”

“The what?”

“The Drakkaris Dragon Guard. We’re the elite guard of the royal court. Our leader is the king.”

“So you weren’t lying about the bodyguard thing?”

He shook his head. “I haven’t really lied, except by omission.”

“Really big omission.”

He nodded. “I understand why you’re angry. I can give you the time you need as long as you let me protect you.”

“You keep saying that. From what?”

“From whatever is threatening you,” he said. “You’re my mate. Now that I’ve found you, I can’t let anything happen to you. I can wait as long as you need, but I can’t let you be in danger.”

She sighed deeply. “There’s that word you used before. Mate.”

“It is a very deep concept to my people.”

“I understand,” she said. “Like husband or wife?”

He cocked his head, thinking about it. “More than that, I think. Our lifespans will be linked. We would be able to have young. If that’s possible anyway. No one is sure with our race and Earth’s humans.”

She bit her lip. “Wow. This is a lot. But sure. Show me your power.”

He lifted his hand in the air, blue-green eyes gently focused, and she felt her heart nearly stop as she saw a swirl of bright metal liquid dance and jump in his hand. It lifted and curled and formed itself into a perfect metal rose, and he handed it over to her.

She took it, surprised by its heaviness. Then she looked at him, realizing he had just materialized it out of thin air.

He was an alien from another planet. With magical powers. A…

“Dragon,” he said. “We don’t usually read minds, but we can, and I’m allowing myself to now so I can help you understand better.”

“Get out of my head.” She laughed. “I’ll ask what I need to know. Damn, that’s creepy.”

He scowled at that and realized he was being really open right now, too. She got up and went to sit next to him on the couch, and that seemed to placate him.

“I’ve been happier in the past few days with you than I ever have been in my life. I wasn’t even willing to date again after my divorce. I wasn’t thinking of a future with anyone until I met you, and then I did after only a few days.” She leaned in against him, put her hand in his, and squeezed. “So I do know there’s something between us. I’m glad I didn’t turn out to be crazy about that.”

“You aren’t crazy. You’re the sanest person I know, except when it comes to seeing yourself and how beautiful you are.”

She intertwined her fingers with his. “I’m getting better at that. How can I not be awesome if this huge space dragon has fallen for me?”

He smiled. “Right?”

She rested her head against him to think for a moment. “So when you say dragon, do you mean just internally?”

“No, I can shift into one.”

“Right now?”

“If you don’t want to have a house anymore,” he said. “But I would never risk hurting you or anything you cared about.”

“Thanks,” she said. “So it’s a big dragon.”

He smirked, finally looking like himself again and much less nervous. “Nothing about me is small, sweetheart.”

She laughed and shoved at him with her free hand. “Look at you, sounding just like a human douchebag.”

“Hey, I’m not a douchebag.” He rested his head on top of hers. “But I’ll be human if it means I can stay with you.”

She let out a sigh, releasing the rest of her tension with it. If she thought too hard about it, her brain could explode. But that’s how it was with a lot of things, and she did a good job about not overthinking those since she couldn’t control them.

Chromium was Chromium, and since he’d always been good to her and had come clean to her and given her more than anyone ever had, she would take him as he was.

And try to give him a fraction as good of a love as he was giving her.

“So you’re not mad at me?” He looked down at her tentatively, and she couldn’t resist the urge to run her finger over his plump lower lip. She’d always loved that lip.

“No.”

“So can I stay here tonight?”

She thought about it for a second. “Sure. But no shenanigans. It’s going to take me a while to get used to things.”

“Shenanigans?”

“You know what I mean. We’ll just have a nice, calm night. Watch TV. Give me some time to adjust.”

“Okay,” he said, and he didn’t even seem disappointed. Just relieved that she was trying to understand him.

If anything, she was the disappointed one because she’d been pretty horny after watching the movie together. Even if the stuff that happened after had pushed that arousal to the background.

“I just want what you want, Helen. If you want me to wait even longer, I will. I know it’s a lot, and I want you to be comfortable.”

She sighed, snuggling in against him. “Kind. Accepting of me just how I am. A good cook. Thoughtful. Great in bed. I should have known you were an alien.”

He threw his head back and laughed at that, and that was the moment she knew they were going to be okay.

Now she just had to hope she could watch TV with him without getting so aroused she broke her own rules about shenanigans.

Still, if she did, she didn’t think he’d mind.