Chapter 8

Austin didn’t say a word as Tulia played with the edge of her shirt and nibbled on her pouty bottom lip. He could almost see her gathering her courage, her resolve growing in the depths of her eyes.

She glanced around them and shook her head. “This isn’t going to work. I’m nowhere near as big as you are in my dragon form, but we both won’t fit on this ledge.”

She was right. Damn it. He should have thought of that.

Tulia peered over the cliff and frowned. “If I stay very still and let you shift, I should be okay here. Once you’re in the air, you can close in if it looks like I might be in trouble.”

He didn’t like that idea one bit. If she stumbled before he finished shifting or got into position, she could fall.

We won’t let harm come to our mate, his dragon rumbled into his mind.

Doesn’t mean I have to like it, Austin retorted, annoyed with himself for not having thought the situation through more clearly. He should have picked her up and carried her to a safer location before getting her to shift.

“If you feel unstable at any point, yell out. I’ll catch you.”

“I will.” Tulia opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again without uttering another word.

“If you’re worried, we can wait, or I can carry you. It’s no trouble,” he assured her. In fact, he’d prefer it that way.

She cast her gaze aside and sighed. “It’s not that. I’m not sure how comfortable I am taking my clothes off in front of you, that’s all.”

Who would have thought his perfect mate would be so shy and apprehensive about being naked? In preparation for a shift, no less. He bit the inside of his lip to keep from grinning when she looked at him again. Everything about her was adorable, from the sprinkling of freckles that brushed along her cheekbones and over the bridge of her nose to the way she blushed at the slightest thing.

“I was respectful of your nudity when you were incapacitated before, and I will be again. One thing I can promise you, Tulia, is that I will never take advantage of you. The day I cast my sight upon your gorgeous body, it will be with your full consent.”

Tulia didn’t say a word as he reached between his shoulder blades with one hand and yanked his T-shirt off, folded it slowly, and then stuffed it into his pack. “You, on the other hand, can look all you want.”

When Tulia gasped, he released his smile and winked at her before reaching for his buckle. As much as he enjoyed teasing her, the faster he shifted, the better he could protect his mate. He made quick work of his remaining clothing, packing his bag with his things and stringing it around his neck. “If you don’t feel stable, leave the pack, I’ll grab it before we go,” he told her before turning and facing the cliff, ready to leap off.

“I think I’ll be okay,” she said, her voice strangled.

Austin whipped his head around, ready to make a grab for her if need be, only to catch her with her gaze much lower than where she’d been looking at his face only moments before. Her chest rose and fell in quick breaths, and she wouldn’t look at him.

“It’s okay, Sweetness. You can look. I don’t mind one bit.” Before she could say anything or try to deny what she’d been doing, Austin sprung from the ledge and shifted. He made a quick loop then returned, positioning himself as close as he dared without risking putting her off balance with the gusts of wind from his wings.

***

Jesus. Did he have to have such an effect on her? She wasn’t the kind of woman to drool over someone, but then again, the supposed men she’d been around over the past few years had either been her relation, or worthless bastards who got their jollies by hurting those weaker than them. So really, not men at all.

She shook off the tension in her muscles. As far as she could tell, her body was back to normal, but she’d soon find out. She peered down the cliff again. If things went wrong, it could be disastrous.

Tulia glanced over at Austin, who patiently hovered a short distance away. His wide wing span created little gusts of wind, but her balance was good. Besides, Austin wouldn’t let anything happen to her. Even if she couldn’t shift, she’d be fine. Maybe she shouldn’t put so much faith in someone she didn’t know all that well, but he hadn’t given her any reason to doubt him. If anything, the opposite was true.

True to his word, once he realized she was steady, he averted his gaze, fixating somewhere above her head, rather than staring straight at her. Of course, since a dragon’s eyesight was so much better than a human’s, he’d still be able to see her, but she wouldn’t be his focus. She could live with that. She stripped and packed her bag, making sure to seal the plastic inner layer in case they came across some rain as they flew. As much as she loved the water, she hated soggy clothes.

“Okay, here goes,” she said more to herself than to Austin. The instant she called her beast forward, scorching heat seared each of her muscles, making her gasp. Doubling over, she took deep gulps of air. Before she could cry out or move from where she was, Austin was there, blocking her from the cliff’s edge with his big body. The way his wings beat against the rocks had to hurt, but even as the pain eased a little and she was able to stand upright again, he didn’t back away.

Breathing through it, she urged her she-dragon forward. We can do this, she encouraged the beast.

The dragon burst through in a fast and furious shift. Heat sizzled every nerve ending. Her muscles jerked and contracted, and a bone-deep ache settled into her body, taking Tulia’s breath away, but in an instant, the pain was gone. As always, the beast shielded her from the worst discomforts. Thank you.

A familiar warmth flooded her from within as she stretched and roared. It had been weeks since her last shift, and the dragon wanted to soar across the sky. She flapped her wings, once again amazed at the size difference between her and Austin, but she wasn’t afraid. There was no apprehension in her dragon. Had she felt threatened in any way, she would have alerted her already, but she was at peace. For the first time in way too long, only pleasure and serenity filled her.

With another happy roar, she took off. Her petite frame didn’t hold Austin’s power, but she was agile and quick. In an act of pure bravado, she brushed against his side as she swept past and up into the sky.