Jasper nodded, lips slightly parted. Cora realized just how close he was now. All she had to do was lean in, close the gap, and her lips would be on his. She realized in that moment that she wasn’t ready.
She jumped back. His disappointment was obvious, but he schooled it well. Until The demon invaded. His eyes turned molten gold. His hands shook as he raised the bottle of wine to his lips, as he wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand.
Fear returned, cold and biting, but she didn’t run. Jasper’s beast hadn’t hurt her. It’d never made a move to hurt her. So, she stayed and waited to see what it wanted. When it turned its liquid gold gaze on her, the cold melted away to be replaced by an intense heat. The way those eyes washed over her made her feel like she stood too close to a bonfire.
Any closer and she would ignite.
“What do you want?” she whispered.
“You.”
The one word, growled so possessively, danced over her skin like greedy fingers. Cora’s lips parted. She could have sworn steam left her mouth. It was so hot in there. The room was almost unbearable. And yet, she couldn’t leave. She couldn’t bear to part with the hunger of Jasper’s demon. She wanted to give in to it.
The thought startled her enough to bring her back to her senses.
“Well, you’ll have to keep working to get me,” she told the beast.
It grinned with Jasper’s face. She found that the sight wasn’t as alarming as she thought it might be. Jasper and the beast were one creature. Their many faces belonged to both of them. Just like how both of them belonged to her.
The thought of loving his demon seemed impossible, but she knew she was nearing some sort of affection for Jasper. Cora didn’t know if that was enough. Could she love Jasper and not the beast? To separate them seemed difficult, but the demon still left her shaken most of the time.
It was too intense. Too hungry. Too everything.
“Give me Jasper. He is a better man than you.”
The demon growled at the offense. She held her ground. Finally, the beast acquiesced, and the liquid gold of Jasper’s eyes softened to a bright amber. Surprise raised his brows.
***
“You convinced him to give me control,” Jasper realized. He felt like an impossible weight had been taken off his chest.
He stared at the woman beside him. With her long, blond hair braided over her shoulder and her head raised in defiant strength, she looked like a Viking queen. He never would have thought his mate would allow him such a simple relief and yet he was still shaken by it.
“I reasoned with it’s base needs,” she said, toying with the tip of her braid.
Jasper wanted to touch her hair, to feel the soft strands between his fingers before he pulled her onto his lap. He’d always been apart. The only time he ever got to touch someone was during a fight. It was like his knuckles were made to be bruised, not to brush the cheek of a lover.
With Cora, even though she remained at a distance, he ached to know her body, to have his be known by her.
“Your demon wants me to…want you, so I told it you were doing an okay job of courting me.”
Her cheeks turned pink. Jasper wondered how hot they would be if he reached out and touched her again. He kept his fingers to himself instead. He didn’t want to scare her away. If this was how their night was to play out, he would do everything in his power to make it last as long as he could. Though he wanted to take her to bed with him, he didn’t dare ask.
This was good enough for now.
Just the two of them, on the floor like heathens.
She reached for the insulated cup on the coffee table, toying with the top of it while silence folded around them. Jasper could not see into her mind. Not while they were awake. What he did know about her had been stealthily gleaned while they were bound by dreams. He wanted to know the rest of her story, but from her own mouth.
Cora would tell him when she trusted him.
That day felt so far away.
There were pains she hid, scars from the life she’d left, that he needed to understand. Only then could he be the man she deserved. His mate. His future. The woman who could stand face to face with his beast and win.
“So, you know my secret.”
Jasper said nothing, only waiting for Cora to go on.
She rolled her shoulders, eyes flicking to the sliding glass door that showed the dark snow-scape. A longing overcame her features. It drew them tight and turned her bright eyes glassy.
“You want to shift,” he filled in.
“So. Badly.”
He stood and held out his hand. There was a second where she hesitated, only staring at his offered hand, before she took it. He pulled her to his feet and held her elbows while she steadied herself. She looked past him, at the great outdoors.
“If you’re worried about the weather, I can assure you I know the mountains very intimately. We won’t get lost.”
She pressed her lips together and shook her head. There was pain in the gesture, and it killed him. Jasper didn’t know how to smooth it away. He had no balm for the aches she was enduring.
“Talk to me,” he asked her.
When she finally met his gaze, there was a depth of fear in her eyes that sent him tumbling. His beast rose again even if it could not see the threat that haunted her.
“What if Cal finds me?”
“If he takes one step toward you, I will not rest until he has no feet to walk with. If he looks at you, I will make sure he can never see again.”
Cora let out a nervous laugh. He knew he’d taken it too far, but he wasn’t going to lie to her. Cal needed to be stopped. If the determined dragon came close to Cora ever again, Jasper would do everything in his power to stop him.
He’d held back. The clan needed a leader, and it was not Jasper’s place to steal that from the other clan. Yet, Cal refused to give up on the war. He threatened Jasper’s court and Cora at every turn. Jasper would not let this go on any longer.
Cora’s grip on his arms tightened and she held her breath. He wanted to tell her that wasn’t healthy, but before he could say anything, she released it and nodded.
“Let’s go. I haven’t…I need to…”
Shift. Fly.
Jasper led her to the sliding glass door. The air outside was sharp but not too cold. If it had been too cold, it wouldn’t have snowed. As it was, the snow was light. Their vision would not be too obscured. The flakes would not be too bad as they flew overhead.
“If anything, the snow offers us a bit of obscurity, too.” He looked to his mate. “We could fly right over top of them and they wouldn’t notice us.”
She gave him a queasy smile.
“Not that we will go anywhere near them. We can fly over town if you want. Grove is probably half asleep right now. No one will ever know we were there.”
His words were enough to convince her because she stepped further out and raised her arms to the sky. It was the most relaxed he’d ever seen her. He’d shown her that she had freedom and she embraced it. His heart swelled.
Then she pulled her shirt over her head and his breath caught. Her skin was pale in the night. She wore no bra, revealing her taut breasts to him before she put her back to him. His beast rose, along with his cock.
Now was not the time for the second. He gave himself over to his beast, though. He walked past her, where had had enough space to let the creature out, and let his beast surge forward. His beast was pleased and eager to turn back to Cora.
Once again, the sight of her stole his breath. He was not sure he would ever get used to it.
Jasper saw why Cal wanted her back, why the man would start a war over Cora. Even in the dim light emanating from the sliding glass door he could see the way her scales changed color. They were mercurial, shifting from pale pink to sunny yellow to the palest lavender. It was unlike any dragon he’d ever seen before.
Riker and Griffin had beautiful
dragon mates. If Mina was the night sky and Lilah was the moon, then Cora could only be described as heaven.
Her beast shook its shoulders and flexed its wings, tossing its head as it stretched. Jasper knew she’d denied herself for too long. How many months had she fought against the urge? She’d kept herself neatly contained while his beast had broken free time and time again.
While he admired her strength, he knew it came at a cost. Her wings were rumpled. Her first steps were clumsy. The woman and the beast did not remember how to work together. Jasper slid up beside her and offered a body to lean against while she figured herself out again.
A half hour later, Cora leapt ahead of him. She jumped off the small hill in his backyard and took to the air. Her first flight was short, claws grazing the ground every few feet or so. It was more of a glide than a full flight, but he realized she needed the small test run to make sure everything was in working order.
After that, they took to the skies. Jasper never thought he would find so much joy flying beside his mate. Cora no longer looked at him like he would betray her. There was no suspicion in her gaze, only the unadulterated happiness that had overtaken her.
It was a sight he would hold in his mind forever. He filed it away for the darker times to come. This war was not over, but for now he could have this.
They flew over Grove like he’d suggested. The street lights below were tiny stars that created a map. Jasper could see the old theater, the glow of the Aurum bank ATMs, and the lights strung over the short bridge in the center of town.
This was what he ruled over. Not a group of delinquent shifters reveling in war. Not a territory to be controlled. He ruled over lives, over dreams, over people who had fates of their own. He wanted to make sure each got to live to experience what life held for them.
Chapter Eight
Cora couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so thoroughly exhausted and yet so wonderfully pleased. Not even her prom night had been so fulfilling.
She stretched across the bed, rumpling her sheets, testing every muscle. Knots that she’d learned to live with had melted away after shifting. She had more energy than she’d felt in months. And her head…it felt clear. Her anxiety had dwindled to only minor concerns.
She hadn’t realized just how bad staving off shifting was. It’d affected every part of her life, from her body to her mind. Letting her beast out and flying with Jasper, just knowing he was by her side should anything go wrong, had opened doors she’d long closed.
It had introduced her to a new life.
Cora wasn’t sure if she wanted to stay, but the thought was increasingly alluring. The longer she stayed, the more it felt like she’d been born into the wrong world. Here, in these mountains, she’d found the one she’d been meant for.
Though she wasn’t sure if she should believe everything Jasper said. To do so would be foolish, and Cora didn’t want to be anyone’s fool anymore. She had to put herself first. Unfortunately, her self wanted nothing more than to finally taste Jasper’s lips.
She recalled each time they’d come close enough to kiss. First, in the hallway during the court’s family time. Then, last night when they were sitting on the floor in front of the hearth. Cora almost wished she’d gone ahead and kissed him just to get it out of the way. Then she would be able to move on with the memory of him on her lips.
When she glanced out the window, she saw that more snow had fallen to cover their footsteps from the night before. There was hardly evidence of their beasts at all. And they had not landed anywhere else other than Jasper’s lawn. Cal and his shifters wouldn’t be any the wiser. They wouldn’t know that she’d left Jasper’s home and wouldn’t think to lay in wait for her to leave again.
Right as she was about to turn to leave, the door across the courtyard flew open. Jasper rushed out, looking heated. His eyes flashed gold and Cora knew something bad happened. Before she could stop herself, she was outside, running to him.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” She grabbed his arm to stop him.
He hadn’t been like this since she’d arrived at the guest house. His lips were pulled back in a snarl. Something had angered him. Though others might have feared his demon, she knew it wasn’t her that pissed him off. He wouldn’t hurt her.
The small revelation passed through her mind. She trusted him. She didn’t know when that happened, but she knew it was another step closer to staying in Grove. To staying with Jasper.
She shook herself. “Jasper. Speak to me.”
“Get in the truck.” He did not growl at her, did not make a demand. Before she could even think about her choices, he was already in the driver’s seat.
She jogged to catch up, hauling herself into the seat beside him. The truck was careening toward the gate before she’d even closed her door all the way. They just barely missed the gate, open only enough for the truck to squeeze through.
Jasper was hell bent, but she didn’t know what had him so out of shape.
Of course, it had something to do with Cal. The thought twisted her stomach. She chewed her lip nervously, constantly scanning the sky outside the windshield for a glimpse of Cal’s dragons.
They’d been flying the night before, reveling in everything their beasts could do, nary a thought of the war on their minds. At least, Cora hadn’t thought about it. She’d been granted a few hours of bliss.
But those hours had come at a cost. The war that had been going on in the valleys and shaded woods had spilled into Grove. Rage burned along Cora’s throat, rising like bile, sour and sharp. She raised a hand to the window of the truck and let the cold of it push back her anger.
That only led to despair.
And shame.
Buildings had been reduced to rubble. Brick stores that had probably existed since the industrial revolution, warehouses, old mining shanties that had been turned into museums. All were remnants of what they’d once been. Scattered among the debris were scales and splatters of blood.
Jasper’s court had held back Cal’s crusade into town. But, at what cost? The two largest dragon shifters, Ryker and Griffin, sat on stone foundations. Both had their heads bent and leaned with their elbows on their knees. It was an image of resignation.
Cora leapt out of the truck the moment it stopped. She ran for the rubble, thinking of all the faces she’d passed only days ago. Lives that were moving forward despite the terror on the edge of town, lives that were innocent. Jasper caught her wrist and pulled her back into him.
He spun her so that she was against his chest. Cora wanted to beat her fists against the cold stone of his muscles, but he hushed her and rested his cheek on the top of her head. In the circle of his arms, she could hear the thundering beat of his heart and knew her own echoed it. He was just as angry as she was.
Perhaps, more so.
“These weren’t homes,” he told her, softly whispering into her hair. “No one was inside.”
His assurances helped her master the panic that had been clutching her lungs. Though she still wanted to check the debris, the urge was not so pressing. Jasper would only hold her if he knew for himself that there were no lives trapped beneath broken beams and shattered roofs.
“This is…” The words tangled in her mouth. In the end, they all simmered down to one unavoidable truth. “This is my fault.”
Jasper pushed her back, hands firm on her shoulders and his lips set in a grim line. “Don’t you dare say that. You weren’t here. You didn’t tear these buildings down.”
“Yeah, but if I never left Cal…” She gestured weakly to the wreckage.
“I’d rather have a few buildings destroyed than your life ruined.” His voice was firm, leaving no room for argument. “You did the right thing. These are the consequences of Cal’s choices.”
Cal’s choices would not be affecting Grove if she could have just dealt with being his dragon wife. The leader of her clan would not be fighting so hard to tear her away from Jasper
because she would be right where he wanted her. All of this could have been avoided.
Jasper pulled her tight to his chest. This time, she sank into him. She held onto his shirt while her eyes burned. Fighting back the crashing wave of blame took everything she had. How else was she supposed to feel?
“Damage report?” Jasper demanded of his men.
“Well,” Ryker began. “We made sure no one was inside…”
“I’m not talking about the property destruction. You’ve already told me about that. Are the two of you okay?”
There was a moment of silence. Then Ryker hooted.
“Of course, we’re okay!”
Griffin joined in, too, though his laughter was more muted. “I’m in one piece this time.”
Jasper squeezed her tight, once, before loosening his grip. It was like a sigh of relief. He was grateful that his court was alright. Because that was what mattered to Jasper. He was not so concerned about buildings, but about his people. The rage she’d seen in him was for the safety of his brethren.
Where Cal would have been incensed that his territory had been touched at all, Jasper knew what was important.
Her heart stirred, but she did her best to ignore it and tore away from Jasper. Just because he was a good man didn’t mean she had to fall for him. If Cal was willing to do all this over her, then she needed to get far away from Grove. She couldn’t stay and let Cal continue to hurt the people she was growing to like.
She hated that her heart had betrayed her so easily. There were a hundred reasons it had turned on her, from the court’s love for one another to Jasper’s slow and careful behavior around her. They all cared so deeply. And her presence was destroying everything.
She stepped away from the group, but not before she caught Jasper’s golden gaze. They stared at one another, locked in the moment for what felt like forever. The demon had returned, she realized. The sight of the creature held her in place when she’d previously wanted nothing more than to run.
Its molten gold eyes scanned the part of town that had taken the brunt of the fight and snarled. Beyond him, Ryker and Griffin looked at one another. Their faces were drawn, too pale. They weren’t up for another battle, especially not one with their king.
Aurum Court Dragons: Boxset Books 1-5 Page 60
