by Jada Cox
“Cora,” I said, “I have something else I need to tell you.”
“Oh no,” she said, lifting her head to look at me. “Please, no more. I nearly couldn’t handle the last thing you told me.”
I chuckled. “Don’t worry. This thing is a good thing.” I propped myself up on my elbow and traced my finger around her belly button. “You know how I said that there are things about shifters that make them different from humans?”
“Yes,” she said, drawing out the word slowly.
“Well, there’s one more thing. We shifters have this thing. I don’t really know how to explain it, actually. But I think it’s because of our closeness to nature, because of our Animal sides. We are pulled toward a person, a designated person in our lives. We don’t get to choose this person. But we call them our mate. When we find them, we mate for life. It’s like this weird bit of preordained destiny. At least, that’s how my parents explained it to me. But we have a mate, and there’s no going back. They are our entire world, our sun and moon and stars and everything in between. When we find them, we know that they are the one and only person for us.”
“Oh,” she said, looking uncomfortable. “So then, one day you’re going to leave me when you find her.”
I laughed. “No! That’s not it at all. I’ve already found her, Cora.” I kissed her and looked into her eyes. “It’s you. You’re my mate. I knew it from the moment I opened the door and saw you for the first time. I am completely and one hundred percent dedicated to you and only you.”
“Me?” she asked, her voice faint.
“You.” I kissed her again. “I would do anything for you and will always do whatever you need me to do until the day I die.”
Tears were forming in her eyes as they moved back and forth between mine, searching them for any indication that I might be deceiving her.
“The day you die,” she whispered. “Which will be long after me.”
I stroked her cheek. “No. When a Dragon meets their mate, their lifespans somehow manage to match up. Meaning that your life will lengthen to match mine. It’s that extra bit of mythical magic we have.”
Cora laughed as tears spilled from her eyes. “You did tell me you were going to show me magic.”
“I didn’t need to,” I said. “You are magic to me.”
I squeezed her, wanting to savor this moment. I knew that I was going to have to take her back to work soon, but I didn’t want this to end. At least, we were on the same page now. She knew what she meant to me, or at least, she was starting to know what she meant to me. And I knew that I would spend every moment of the rest of my life showing her.
Epilogue – Cora
It was amazing how quickly the days rolled by. Julian talked almost daily about living together, but I still wanted to take things slowly. I believed him about the mate thing. It seemed plausible, somehow. I thought I could understand it, at least a little. And it also explained how I was so drawn to him and that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to keep my mind from drifting toward him.
But it was still a lot to take in. I was still getting used to the fact that I was in a committed relationship and that I was in a relationship with someone who wasn’t even strictly human. I loved that aspect about him. There was something about it that kept Julian more instinctive and able to pick up on my subtle cues. He was able to notice when my mood changed my scent, or so he said, and he always responded appropriately. He was almost too good to be true.
We spent nearly every night together, and on the weekends, he would take me camping, telling me it was essential to do if anyone wanted to say they were living. Little by little, he showed me that life could happen outside of work, and that I needn’t be afraid of one messing up the other. In fact, I began to loosen my hold on work altogether, something Jeremy noticed.
“You’re seeing someone, aren’t you?” he asked me one afternoon at the end of a particularly long and grueling day.
“What makes you say that?” I asked.
“You’re less uptight.”
“I have never been uptight,” I laughed.
“Yes, you have, and that right there is proof!” He pointed a finger at me. “You would never have laughed at me saying that before. You would have blushed and looked awkward.”
I didn’t know what else to do or say, so I shrugged.
“You come into work late, you talk to people in the office more, and you are always laughing,” Jeremy went on.
I began to feel a little attacked and thought this wasn’t the friendly conversation I thought it had started out as.
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I’ll focus more—”
“No, no,” Jeremy said. “Don’t go apologizing to me. Your work has been far more creative and fluid, and your ideas are finally breaking out of the box I put them in. You’re becoming your own designer.”
I blinked. “I’m not sure what you’re trying to tell me.”
“Whatever you’re doing, whoever you’re hanging out with, keep it up. Your work has improved by leaps and bounds. And I think it’s because you’re letting your hair down after work.” He winked at me as he left my desk. I leaned back in my chair to watch him as he walked away. To my surprise, he slung his arm around Wilma’s shoulders, and they left the office together.
“About damn time,” I said, smiling.
I didn’t know how much I liked that the office was catching onto my personal life. Usually it would send me into a rush of embarrassment, but after my talk with Jeremy, I realized I didn’t actually care what they knew at all.
I wasn’t the only one who was doing well in the relationship department. The guy Margaret had gone to Florida with ended up being “the one” as she said, and the weekend they went away, they had actually gone on a trip to Las Vegas to elope. I couldn’t believe it when she returned home on Wednesday instead of Monday and showed me the wedding ring.
“What the hell did you do?” I asked, gawking at the clearly plastic piece of jewelry.
“I went on an adventure,” she said. “And now, I have a partner in crime.”
“I thought I was your partner in crime,” I said.
“When you start going out on adventures, then you can be. But for now, it’s Dominic.”
“Well, while you’ve been away,” I said, “I went on my own adventure.”
“What?” Margaret asked, looking at me sideways. “How unlike you.”
“I met a guy last week, and we got together, and now we’re staying together.”
“Wait,” she said, taking my hand in hers in a dramatic gesture or urgency. “What do you mean, you got together?”
All I could do was smile. I couldn’t even bring myself to say the words out loud. But it didn’t matter. She was able to guess it immediately.
“You finally cashed in your v-card? Oh my god, this is amazing.”
“It’s not that amazing,” I said. “I mean, it is for me, but in the context of the world, it’s pretty standard.”
“I have been waiting for this day for so long so we can go and pick up guys together!” she squealed.
I laughed. “But we’re not going to do that because I’m sticking with this guy, and you’re married now.”
“Oh shit. That’s right,” she said. “Damnit, I’m stuck with this guy, aren’t I?”
I laughed, knowing that she didn’t mean it. I opened a bottle of wine and told her everything, except for the part that Julian and his friends were shifters. Julian had expressed the importance of secrecy to me, and I wasn’t about to betray his trust.
As it turned out, Margaret and Dominic’s marriage lasted all of three weeks before they decided they’d do better as divorcees who occasionally had sex. As soon as they left the courthouse where they’d filed the paperwork, they hooked up in the back of her car.
It was the night of our one-month anniversary. Julian had promised a big surprise and had insisted that we go out for dinner together to celebrate. I had never had an anniversary of a
ny sorts, unless you wanted to count my birthday, and was thrilled for the chance to celebrate it.
I had spent ages trying to find the perfect gift for him. But what do you get a guy who’s loaded enough that he could buy himself anything he wanted?
It took some research, but I was able to track down just the right thing. I had the bundle of books carefully wrapped in a kitchen towel that had the lyrics to “Puff the Magic Dragon” on it along with a cartoon dragon printed all over it.
I watched outside the window for the cherry-red truck before hurrying out. I still hadn’t let Margaret meet Julian, but that was because I wanted to make sure her own drama calmed down. I didn’t want her rubbing off on Julian, resulting in Julian deciding that he wanted to date around, too. I didn’t think he would, but then again, I had never been in a relationship before.
I pulled the heavy door to the ancient truck open before Julian could even get out.
“Where are we headed?” I asked.
“I thought that maybe we could go to a nice cocktail bar I know of at the top of a hotel,” he said.
I smiled. “Ah, a throwback.”
“Something like that.” He leaned across the seat and kissed me. I had had thousands of his kisses so far, but each one was better than the last. “What have you got there?”
“Oh, nothing,” I said, patting the present on the seat next to me. “Just a little something for you. I’ll give it to you when we get there.”
I didn’t live that far from downtown, and we could have walked to the hotel if we wanted to. But it was nice being driven around in his truck, and it was neat seeing people point at it as it passed by. Julian didn’t take it out much. He generally preferred his motorcycle. I didn’t know that I would ever get used to riding on the back of that bike, but I couldn’t deny that it was fun on a nice day.
As we rode the elevator to the top of the building, Julian put his hand on my butt. I couldn’t help but giggle. It was childish on my part, I knew that, but I was still new to all of this, and the novelty of this very handsome man putting his hands on privileged areas was a delight that I didn’t know I would get over.
He led the way to a table in the corner; the same table where we’d had coffee.
“Alright, I can’t wait any longer,” I said, passing him his present. “Open it up.”
Julian examined the package, looking at the towel. “Nice touch,” he laughed.
I pinched his cheek. “My magic dragon,” I said in a babying tone, pushing out my lips. I kissed him then let go of his face so he could actually open his gift.
The gift did exactly what I had hoped it would do. As he registered what he was looking at, his eyes widened. “Where did you find these?’
“It took me ages to track them down. And they’re all first editions.”
“Motor Car Anatomy – 1912, The Complete Motorist – 1906, Zip Saunders, King of the Speedway – 1939—Cora, I remember having these books when I was a kid. My dad was obsessed with them, and I learned about cars with these,” he said breathlessly, slowly looking through the books. He got to the last one, The Romance of Motoring, which even I had some interest in reading. “These are incredible. Thank you so much.”
“I thought that maybe we could go on a road trip,” I said. “I had a thumb through that last one, and it made me appreciate the journey of the vehicles.”
“I would love that,” he said. “Actually, I have a gift for you, too, though it won’t be anywhere near as eloquently presented.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, swiping and tapping at it before passing it to me.
I looked at it but wasn’t even sure what I was looking at. “You’re going to have to help me out,” I said.
“I thought we could go on a trip, too,” he said. “I booked us tickets in a month to go to the Alps, like we talked about.”
It was my turn for my eyes to widen. “Really?”
“Absolutely. I know it’s not the penguins in South America, but I figured we could start easy and work our way up to that. But one day, I will take you to see those penguins.”
“Oh my god, Julian,” I said, tears coming to my eyes. “I can’t believe we’re going on a trip. I should probably put in for an expedited passport.”
He laughed. “We can get that started tonight after dinner, if you’d like.”
“Where in the Alps are we going?” I asked.
“I couldn’t decide where to go, so we have a few places booked in the span of a month,” he said casually.
“A month?” I asked, astonished. “I can’t leave work for a month!”
“You can. I talked to Jeremy about it. He said he would allow it so long as we stopped at a few historic and modern buildings for your learning purposes.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. It sounded so absurd. “Jeremy said I could take a month off? You asked my boss?”
“Well, I didn’t want to get you into trouble at work,” Julian shrugged. “We fly into Switzerland, then make our way south to the Mediterranean.”
My hands went to my lips. I couldn’t believe it. He was whisking me away on an adventure.
“I don’t know what to say,” I said.
“Say you’ll go on this trip with me.”
“Of course, I will!” I said. I leaned over the table and kissed him. “Thank you!”
He held my hand and lifted it to kiss it while his eyes remained on mine. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was, that this guy was here for me and was only interested in me. I couldn’t believe that I was going to spend my life together with him, and that even before we had spent our first month together, I knew without a doubt that I was his mate and that he was mine.
THE END
The “Dragon Mansion” Series continues!
Read the steamy and action-packed story of Quin and Amber:
Big Dragon
Dragon Mansion Book 3
(Coming August 19th, 2020)
Hot, rich guy who’s caring, an insanely good lover, and cooks gourmet food?
Yeah, no, this has to be a dream.
Or no, scratch that.
It’s a nightmare.
The task was so simple. Seduce the billionaire and rob him.
Little did I know that the billionaire is really cute.
So cute that I can’t help but let him kiss me.
So cute that I’m thinking things I can’t afford to think.
He makes everything melt inside of me.
His fever consumes me from the inside out, from the outside in.
I’m on fire. Dragon fire. It’s too hot, and it feels too good.
And if he keeps looking at me like that, I’m going to lose control.
And I can’t lose control.
Or his heat will swallow me alive.
Pre-order “Big Dragon” Now!
About Jada Cox
Jada Cox is completely in love with three things: her adorable little son, her handsome bear shifter of a husband, and writing shifter romance stories. For some reason, she's lucky enough to have all three of those in her life! Jada's books are full of strong women, hot-as-hell shifters, and furiously fast action scenes. Check out her books to taste a part of her addictive reality.
Check out my Amazon author page and click “Follow” to get updates on new releases.
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Books by Jada Cox
"Dragon Mansion" Series
Dragon Mansion is filled with six smoking hot, insanely muscled Dragons who make women drool and men jealous. Once you walk through the doors of this testosterone-laden house, you’re a goner. So, here’s one piece of advice: don’t ever go in there. Especially not alone
Billionaire Dragon
Bad Dragon
Big Dragon
“Elemental Dragons” Series
“Elemental Dragons” is a paranormal romance series featuring six very hot, very protective Dragon brothers who will destroy anyt
hing to protect their mates.
The Dragon’s Nanny
The Dragon’s Baby
The Dragon’s Surrogate
The Dragon’s Pretend Girlfriend
The Dragon's Three Mates
