****
Their time in the castle passed as slowly, and as quickly, as a dream. She rarely saw any of the staff members and they had no other visitors, and so the hours passed between the two of them unhindered by outside considerations. April had never spent so much time alone with another person, but she never grew tired of him, never longed to be left alone or to find other company. Even when they were doing nothing more but reading together in the same room, she was content to be near him, to hear his breathing and the soft rustle of clothes when he shifted his position.
April knew the real world waited for them and they would have to return to it sooner or later, but she never brought it up, never asked when they might be abandoning their own private slice of heaven—primarily because she didn’t want to leave, but also because she knew Charles and Savannah Maelstrom waited for them. They’d lost a child. That anger was not going to fade just because Mads took them out of sight for a few weeks.
Mads indulged her every request, including her desire to see the dragon. In the privacy of their master suite, he shifted for her, the magic working before her eyes, though she could never track the moment when Mads disappeared and the dragon arrived. In the close proximity of the well-lit room, he was even more massive than she remembered. His head was the size of a car, and he kept low to the ground to avoid scraping his wings across the high ceiling.
The first time he shifted, she couldn’t quite bring herself to touch him, but she was still drawn to the beast. He made her throat tight and her nipples hard.
The second time Mads shifted, she did gather her courage enough to touch his great nose. His scales were hard and hot. She could feel the fire burning just below his scales, smell the hint of sulphur and brimstone every time he exhaled. Mads snuffed air through his nostrils and lowered his head, like a dog submitting to the touch of its master. Fascinated, emboldened and aroused, April continued to explore the ridges and valleys of her dragon’s head, tracing his eyes, his snout, the shape of his mouth and the horns on his brow. She was humbled by his great power and by the way he ceded that power to her.
He didn’t just shift when they were alone in the confines of the castle. He also took her out on great expeditions through the mountains, letting her sit on his broad back as he swooped over cliffs and waterfalls, peaks and trees. The air was thin and fresh, cool and crisp. The sun at her back and the great furnace between her legs kept her warm, no matter how high they climbed above the castle. She shouted into the wind, laughed and sang at the birds as they fluttered beside them, and felt free for the first time in her life.
“What’s it like when you’ve shifted?” she asked after one particularly long flight. They’d landed in the castle courtyard and raced to their suite, barely making it to the bed before Mads took her with a powerful thrust. When they were done, she collapsed into his arms, utterly exhausted and utterly happy.
“What do you mean?”
“Can you still understand me?”
“Of course.”
“Are you still you or are you different?”
“Different how?”
“I don’t know. I’m just trying to understand what it’s like for you.”
“I’m still myself. I still understand you; it’s just my outward appearance that changes.”
“How? Is it magic?”
“Yes, I suppose you could call it that. A very old type of magic.”
“And how does it feel when we’re home and you can’t change? Do you miss it? Does it feel like you’ve lost something?”
“I don’t often think about it, but it does feel good to stretch my wings when I can.”
“Do we have to go back soon?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“But I like it here.”
“Yes, for the first time in a long, long while, I like it here, too.”
April nuzzled in closer to his chest and took a deep breath, filling her head with his scent. She could lay there in his arms for hours and do nothing but listen to the sound of his heartbeat and consider the texture of his skin. She imagined living in this great fortress by herself, wandering from hall to hall, room to room with no companion.
“You must have been incredibly lonely.”
“I was.” She heard no emotion in his answer, just a straight-forward declaration.
“Did you ever think that I might be out there? Or that you were waiting for your mate?”
“I had long ago given up on any hope of that. With so few dragons left, it never seemed likely.”
April frowned. “But I’m not a dragon. I’m just a normal girl.”
“You’re not just anything, mein Schatz.”
“Okay, but how does this work?”
“Are you afraid?”
“I don’t know. Are you?”
“Never.”
April closed her eyes and let her mind relax, focusing all of her senses on the man who held her. She wished she could say the same, telling him that she was never afraid. But there was always a current of anxiety running through her life, tinging each day with its darkness. Nothing was free of its influence, not even her feelings for Mads, which grew like a lush plant, a vine winding taller every day. If she told him, he’d only assure her that she had nothing to fear, and she understood that on an intellectual level. But that understanding wasn’t enough to stop the current anxiety.
“One day, you’ll no longer feel that fear,” he said softly. “You’ll wake and it will simply be gone.”
“How do you know?”
“I know everything.”
She chuckled. “Oh really?”
“Yes. I’ve been around for a very long time.”
“Well, then, I guess I’ll take your word for it.”
When she fell asleep that night, she dreamed of flying.