Leanne let Zinc take her along, overwhelming emotions running through her as they went out a door that led to the back side of the castle into a large courtyard filled with blue-green grass and tress all along the edge of it.

“We have to go farther,” he said as they went down a walkway that was lined with purple and green flowers. It had been an overwhelming day. An overwhelming dinner. An overwhelming moment, ever since Zinc had been carried into her life.

And when he’d pinned her against that wall and asked her about her feelings about him, she’d realized with a growing sense of horror that, despite all her reservations, she was really falling for this man.

Was she really going to see his dragon?

They walked along until they exited through a gate that led to a wide-open field with expansive rolling hills and mountains beyond it.

“Stay here,” Zinc said, putting out a hand and running ahead of her. “You’ll know when I’m ready.”

She watched as he ran about a hundred feet away and then turned to face her. He looked tall even from here.

Then, in a sparkling blur of light, he changed, going from a solitary figure standing before the mountains of Drakkaris to a giant, metallic beast shimmering in the afternoon light.

His dragon was absolutely beautiful.

All thoughts of everything else that mattered to her left her head as she walked toward the magnificent creature that was something out of a dream.

Yet somehow familiar and right.

Or was she just imagining it?

He leaned his head down. “Get on my neck.”

It felt so odd, but then again, she was on another planet. She carefully put one leg over his silky, scaled neck and seated herself slowly.

He raised his head, and she yelped as she slid back to where his neck met his back. “I won’t let you fall,” he said.

Then giant, silvery wings unfurled on either side of her, and she held on tight to his scales as he lifted up into the warm afternoon air, higher and higher into violet-colored clouds.

The pink moon was already in the distance. They kept rising, and Leanne was surprised by the lack of fear she felt even at this height. She knew Zinc wouldn’t let anything happen to her.

Had maybe known that since the first time he was brought to his cell.

“I’ll take you to my mountain,” he said, turning and flying in a different direction.

She felt suddenly dizzy and closed her eyes but then told herself she didn’t want to miss a moment and opened them to see beautiful green and purple hills flying by. The clouds now were gray and white and purple as they zoomed through them, and after some time, an extra-high peak rose out of the clouds, covered with exotic foliage in all colors.

Like a scattered rainbow.

He flew lower and landed gently in a flattened meadow area covered in more of the rainbow flowers, and she saw the air shimmer before the scales beneath her vanished.

She barely had time to yelp before she was caught by Zinc, now in human form. She sighed in relief and leaned against him.

He walked forward into the meadow, keeping her in his arms. He walked until they reached an edge that overlooked the entire area beneath the mountain, and then he sat with her in his lap.

She could see rolling hills, green meadows, and the palace. Beyond that, a blue-and-purple ocean that was unlike anything on Earth.

And meanwhile, she was surrounded by the most astonishing array of flowers in every color.

“It’s so beautiful,” she said, cuddling into his lap as he wrapped both arms around him.

“Doesn’t this feel right?” he asked, keeping her close. “Just being together? When I’m separated from you, I feel so off balance. I know you’re my mate, Leanne. I just know it. Maybe I even knew it before.”

“Maybe?”

“I don’t know. I was half out of my mind. But I care for you, Leanne. I don’t want to reverse our mating.”

She felt an odd sense of peace as his words sank in. It should have been terrifying, how little they’d known each other. Yet it kind of made sense.

“Then what do we do?”

“We keep getting to know each other. I’m already sure that you’re perfect for me. That you’d make me happy. But I need you to feel that way as well.”

“I mean, you’re everything I’d want if you were human. You’re handsome, tall… rich, I’m assuming.”

“Very.” He nodded.

She laughed, placing a hand on his chest and feeling his heartbeat. “And yet… I just, I’ve always been the one to run into things. Like I ran into that building for freaking dogs and then got captured and almost killed. I mean, I would do it again. I loved those dogs, and they didn’t deserve a painful death. But with us… it’s complicated.”

“You regret saving me?”

“No,” she said. “I just… I hope I didn’t rob you of your real mate.”

“How do you know you aren’t my real mate?”

“You just… You’re with me because of gratitude,” she said, avoiding his gaze. Maybe that was the root of her problem. She’d never thought she deserved much of anything. She’d always been the first to help anyone, always put others’ needs first. That’s how she’d signed up to be an apprentice and ended up a glorified dog walker.

She didn’t want to be like that anymore. She wanted to think she deserved more.

But at the same time, it was a little hard to believe that a king, and a handsome one at that, would truly want her for her, not just out of gratitude or as a means of saving his kingdom.

“Leanne,” he said. “Look at me.”

“No, I’m embarrassed.”

She gasped as she felt herself tumble onto her back on the soft ground beneath them, flowers tickling her cheeks.

Zinc climbed over her, straddling her, and pushed the flowers gently away. “Does this look like gratitude to you?”

She shook her head reluctantly.

He leaned down and ran his tongue along the line of her jaw up to the sensitive spot just in front of her ear, and she arched with a gasp. “Just like what you did that night didn’t really seem like pity.”

He sat up, looking down at her triumphantly. “Why can’t you just admit that there’s more between us?”

She bit her lip. “I don’t know. It’s not how things are supposed to go. We’re supposed to date for a few years. Move in together. Try things out. See if we’re compatible.”

He gave her a wicked grin. “Oh, we’re compatible.”

She shoved at his chest. “You know what I mean.”

“Oh, I know what you mean.”

She finally laughed at that, lying back and just enjoying the smell of the flowers around her. When was the last time she’d just gotten to relax and lie back, looking at the sky?

She’d always been either caught in the rat race of trying to make headway at work or visiting her family to help with whatever they needed.

When was the last time she’d actually gotten to sit back and enjoy just being alive?

“I guess I’m not the only one who feels a sense of duty,” Zinc said quietly.

She nodded. “Wait. How did you know?”

“As I said before, we can read minds. I usually try not to, but it’s so quiet and peaceful, and I just kind of heard.”

“Ah.”

“You deserve more than duty,” he said, leaning over her, kissing her lightly on each cheek. His firm, masculine hands brushed her hair away so he could kiss her ear, her neck. “You deserve to have someone take care of you. Look after you, Leanne.”

“I don’t know,” she said. “That would be so foreign.”

“More foreign than the mountains of Drakkaris?”

She thought about it, then let out a little laugh. “Maybe.”

“Foreign doesn’t have to be bad. Sometimes it’s the things that make us uncomfortable that push us the hardest toward something good.”

She took a deep breath and looked up at the peaceful sky. Perhaps he had a point. Certainly, on a beautiful day like this, with a beautiful man, it couldn’t hurt to try a little.

“I can think of something hard and good.”

His gaze snapped to her in surprise, and then a wide smile spread over his face, brightening his expression so his silver eyes sparkled in the sun. His dark-gray hair whipped in response to the wind. His broad shoulders looked like nothing could shake them. “My mate has a dirty mind.”

“Maybe, when it comes to you.”

“Perfect.” He moved his hips against her, and she felt definite firmness. It started a wet heat building in her. “Because you’re all I can think about. You and doing this to you and living with you and being with you. I need you to fall for me, Leanne.”

She closed her eyes, giving in to the pleasure of it, the warm words that seemed so sincere, the feel of his strong body atop hers.

Here amongst these beautiful flowers, beneath this colorful, alien sky, she was ready to finally give in. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down to her, taking his lips in a kiss.