Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
“All we can do is try, right?” She hesitates, then reaches up to touch my golden muzzle. I sense a flash of fear in her, and I hold very still, lips closed so she does not worry over the size of my fangs, and let her explore me. “You’re a lot bigger like this, and more intimidating than I remember.” She tells herself that I will not hurt her, but there is still a hint of fear at the edges of her mind, fear that she tries to hide from me.
I touch her mind gently. I would never harm you, my mate. And if you think we can fix my wings, I trust you.
“It won’t be fun,” Emma tells me. “And it’ll probably hurt. I don’t even know if it’ll work, but all we can do is try.”
Tell me what I must do and I will do it.
Her mind fills with images, even as she chuckles. “Actually, I think it’s things that I have to do, not you.” She sends a flurry of mental pictures, of her spreading a thick lotion on my wings, of pushing against the membranes and “stretching” them on the ground while I lie still. “We’ll do what we can.”
You would do this for me? I am humbled at how giving she is.
She looks surprised. “Of course, Zohr. It’s my fault you’re in this situation. How can I not?”
I nudge her with my nose. I want to caress her throat, but she is too small and I am too large, so I settle for pushing against her shoulder and her hair with my snout. Why do you blame yourself? I blame Azar.
“But if it weren’t for the fact that you felt the need to save me—”
I will always save you. You are my mate. There is no other option for me. There is no Zohr without Emma, not any longer. We are bound together in spirit. I will come for you and protect you, always. They will never harm you again.
Instead of being reassured at my promise, she seems worried. “And that’s how they trapped you in the first place.”
I do not regret it. Not when it brought me to you.
She nods, but she seems less convinced.
22
EMMA
With Zohr able to travel—on foot if not by wing—there’s really no reason to stay at the apartments any longer. They’ve served their purpose, but now that I’ve scrounged most of the useful stuff, it’s time to find far more useful—and safer—locations. I prefer to keep moving anyhow. I don’t like that Azar’s men drifted close to our hiding spot. We haven’t seen them again, but it doesn’t mean that they won’t be back.
Since I have a game plan to tackle Zohr’s wings, we decide we’ll head off in search of two things—a pharmacy and a bookstore (or alternately a library). I want lotion for his wings, and a book that will hopefully walk me through how to stretch him out. Zohr’s happy with whatever—he just wants to remain in dragon form.
Which means one of us is going to be walking a lot faster than the other. Which means one of us is going to have to compromise on travel, and I know it won’t be him.
Hell.
I’m still getting used to the fact that he’s a big, toothy, hungry dragon the size of a bus. I still don’t think of him as Zohr-the-dragon-who-turns-human but as Zohr-the-human-with-golden-skin-and-wicked-claws. In his dragon form—his battle-form as he calls it—I can’t get past that hellish night when he lost his mind and dragged me through the city. In my head, when he’s in this form, he’s that slightly insane beast, and I worry it won’t take much for him to turn again.
I should trust him more, but trust is one of those things I’m admittedly not great at.
It’s clear he loves being back in this form, though. He hasn’t switched back even as I puttered around the apartment, stuffing my pack full of things we might need and readying to leave. Instead, he parked himself in front of the place and sunbathed. Well, he probably was guarding, too, but he looked damn happy to be basking in the heat and in his scales. I can’t even be mad. He’s been in human form for so long in the last few days that I’m sure he’s going to have some dragon-form “catching up” to do.
I do, he agrees, butting into my thoughts mildly. We stay in battle-form more than two-legged form. It is safer to protect one’s mate or one’s young. Also, we are far less vulnerable. He gives a jaw-cracking yawn that I can’t quite hear, but I certainly feel through his thoughts. But then again, most drakoni do not have human mates, so I suppose I must get used to two legs.
This just confirms my suspicions that Zohr is more dragon than man. “Do you…you know…in dragon-form?” I’ve gotten into the habit of speaking aloud even when Zohr’s not in the room with me, because he can hear me regardless. It helps me think that at least some of my thoughts are private. This particular thought? I can’t even bring myself to say it aloud. “With a female?”