by Amelia Jade
Kathryn’s reaction was not at all what he expected. She sneered at him. “Really? You think taking me to bed will show me that you mean what you say? That’s not going to work.”
Callan didn’t hold back this time, rolling his eyes as derisively as he could, letting exactly what he thought of the low blow show on his face with disdain and contempt. “Listen to me, and listen closely, Kathryn, because you won’t hear me say this often, because it’s not how I think. I’m only saying it because you lashed out unnecessarily here, and you need to have some cold truth given to you so that you can see the reality of the situation.”
His voice was icy and hard as he spoke, and he could tell it was having its intended effect. “If the only thing I was after was sex, I could get it elsewhere and have it. I know by your society today that I’m considered very good-looking. I see the looks women give me as I walk down the street.” He shook his head, having a hard time believing he had to say this. It made him feel dirty to have to acknowledge that fact. “I’m not in it for sex. I’m in it for you. I don’t want a quick lay, I want you. How hard is that to understand? Just let me prove it to you, that’s all I’m asking.”
An old lady chimed in from nearby. “Just give him a chance. Can’t you tell he’s sincere? It’s practically radiating out from him. This man cares for you, girl.”
Kathryn turned around. “You’re not helping, Doris.”
The old lady smiled and winked at him. “Sure I am.”
Callan looked anywhere but at the older woman, at a complete loss for words. What the hell was he supposed to say to that?
“Fine,” Kathryn said, facing him again. “I’ll let you explain. After class.”
He nodded. “Okay, though I think the instructor would prefer if we just left now.”
The young female at the front who guided the class nodded vigorously in agreement.
“We’ll go now then,” Kathryn agreed, bouncing her way toward the chair.
Behind her the instructor sagged in relief, clearly mouthing the words Thank you in their direction. Callan glared at her until she noticed and turned her attention back to the rest of the class. Then he swam off to ensure Kathryn got out okay, though he didn’t offer her any help. She needed to be independent, and he was going to have to let her.
But he had his chance to explain everything. All he had to do now was not screw it up.
No pressure.
Chapter Twenty-One
Kathryn
She wheeled out of the changing room, her hair still wet. In her haste to leave she’d forgotten the swim cap she normally wore, and was now going to pay the price. Her hair was so thick it took forever to dry.
Callan was standing there waiting, leaning against the far wall perhaps twenty feet away, his eyes on his phone. She stopped and watched, but he just tapped a button. A moment later the screen lit up again and she could see he was getting an incoming call, but he tapped the button and put it in his pocket, having noticed her arrival.
“Are you going to answer that?” she asked, heading left toward the exit.
“No. I have more important things to do.” From his pocket it started to buzz again. He grabbed at his jeans and fumbled with the outline of the phone and it fell silent.
“Where are we going?” she asked when he simply fell in step next to her, not offering an explanation of what he’d promised to tell her.
“There’s a forest behind here, right? I seem to recall seeing it.”
“Yes, it’s got a nice big pond at the center, though there are no actual paths to it. We used to go in there as kids to hang out to get away from the grown-ups.”
“Perfect, that will do,” he said, holding the door open for her.
Kathryn followed him out and down the ramp that led around the back of the community center and pool building, wondering when he would realize the problem with his plan. They kept walking, heading right toward the end of the path as it meandered along the edge of the forest, ending at a little playground in the middle of a grass field on one side, trees on the left.
“You better not be luring me into the woods to kill me or something,” she joked, trying to lighten the tension just a bit.
Callan shot her a wounded look that made her feel bad for the joke. He seemed to have been genuinely hurt by the jab. She spent the next few minutes trying to puzzle it out with everything else he’d told her. She was no closer to figuring it out until they came to the end of the path, where he gave her the answer inadvertently.
He looked around first, shaking his head as if it weren’t a good enough place. “Do you trust me?” he asked as her wheelchair came to the end of the paved walkway.
Trust. That’s what this was all about for him, wasn’t it? About the two of them learning to trust each other enough that they could speak about their issues and try to work through them together.
And she’d gone and insinuated that he was abusing that trust by taking her out into the woods to kill her. Joke or not, it was ill-timed, and frankly rather rude. She wanted to offer an apology, but decided otherwise. Instead of that, she was going to show him that she trusted him.
“Yes.”
Callan took a moment to evaluate her answer, then nodded and without warning picked her and her chair up as if it were nothing, holding her once more to his chest. Then he set off into the forest, the open field and any other people quickly lost to their view.
“Where are we going?” she asked as he deftly picked a path through the tangle of brush and trees.
“Somewhere where others can’t see.”
Despite carrying her and the chair, and having to crouch low, duck his head, and lift her over things, he never seemed to appear strained. His arms didn’t start to shake and his breath never grew short. Kathryn knew she was no featherweight, but it didn’t faze Callan in the slightest. Just how strong was he? She decided to just ask him.
“How are you doing this without breathing hard?” she asked. “Or getting tired. I’m not that light, and you have my chair as well.”
He smiled. “You aren’t that heavy either. But coming out here is going to allow me to show you. It’s part of the reason, I guess. I know that’s cryptic, but I’m going to show you, I promise.”
Kathryn sighed in exasperation. “This better be a damn good reason,” she told him. “Dragging me out here like this in a chair is a little weird.”
“Oh, it’ll be pretty magical, you can trust me on that one,” he said slyly, the first hint of a smile crossing his face since he’d shown up.
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
Contemplating everything in silence, wishing she could just know the answer already, it caught her by surprise when they emerged into a rather large clearing. There was no pond nearby, which meant they weren’t at the center, but it was still rather big. She saw Callan eying it, sizing it up.
“It’ll be tight, but it should work. I hope.”
She got the distinct impression he was talking to himself, and decided not to interrupt.
“Yes. Yes this will do,” he said at last. “Can I leave you here?”
The sudden change in tone meant she didn’t fully pay attention to what he’d said. “I’m sorry, pardon?”
“Here. Can I set you down here, will you be okay?”
“At the edge?”
“Yes. You’ll need to stay here.”
“I…guess? Callan, what’s going on?” She was growing uneasy as he set her down so she could see the entire clearing without issue, her chair on as firm, level ground as he could manage.
“I’m about to show you.” He sucked in a big breath, blowing it out slowly.
He’s nervous. What the hell could someone as big as he be nervous about? It made no sense. But he had the jitters and his pupils were dilated. The effect of it was making her nervous as well. What was he planning?
“Callan, I’m getting really uneasy here.”
“I’m sorry,” he said instantly. “It’s just…I haven
’t shared this with anyone in far longer than you can imagine. I’m not sure how you’re going to react either.”
In his pocket his phone started ringing again. Callan slapped a hand against it, fumbling quickly to shut it off. “Look,” he said, eyes going skyward for a moment, his weight shifting from one foot to the other. “What you’re about to see is likely going to freak you out. But I promise that you are in no danger. Absolutely none at all. It’s also not a magic trick. This is…me.”
“You’re starting to really make me worry here.”
He jogged to the center of the clearing. “I know. But you want to know the truth about me, Katy? About why I’m different, and why you can trust me?”
She had to speak up for her voice to carry to him. “Yes.”
“Well here you go, I’m about to trust you with a massive secret.”
Kathryn blinked once, and in the space of those microseconds, her world changed forever. One moment Callan was standing there, arms spread wide, and the next he was gone. The clearing wasn’t empty though. In his place there was a massive black shape so large it occupied almost the entire clearing. Trees groaned and bent backward all around her as the black blob pushed outward.
No, not a blob, she realized, looking up at the head that hung at the end of a long, winding neck.
A dragon.
It was a dragon. A motherfucking dragon.
Reality slammed home and she lunged backward from the creature so fast her chair tipped and she fell backward, going ass-over-shoulders out of the clearing.
He’s a dragon.
Then she passed out.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kathryn
She came to almost immediately.
“Don’t scream!” the gargantuan head pleaded, thick leathery lips moving in a very humanlike manner.
“What?”
“Please don’t scream. It would bring more attention than I’d prefer.”
“Right.” Kathryn looked away from the dragon and very slowly picked herself up from the ground and set herself back in the chair. “Uh, who are you?” she asked at last.
“It’s me. Callan.”
“Nooooo,” she said slowly. “Callan is a human. This…this is a dragon. Great trick though. Can you bring Callan back now?”
The dragon head lowered until it was hovering just off the ground. Great yellow eyes as tall as her swiveled forward, cat-like black pupils fixed solely on her. The top of its head was decorated in horns—two massive midnight-black horns that curled up and backward along the skull, with a multitude of smaller ones surrounding them. It lent the creature a fearsome visage, a monster-like quality that made her uneasy.
“I am both.”
There was no mistake; it was speaking in Callan’s voice.
“Both. Right. So you can change into a dragon magically?” she said sarcastically, reaching down to pick up a branch. “Good trick, but I know it’s just an illusion.”
Without warning she flung the stick at the dragon’s snout. It impacted, the blow causing the mighty head to rear back in surprise.
“What the fuck,” she breathed.
“It’s crazy, I know,” Callan-but-not-Callan-because-it’s-a-dragon said. “But it’s true. And it’s also why I’m obsessed with getting my treasure back.”
Kathryn’s head moved up and down slowly. Right. All the stories told of dragons collecting treasure. That part added up.
“And you expect me to believe this? And what happened to your treasure anyway?”
“Yes, actually, I do. I trusted you enough to show you the other side of me.” The dragon paused. “As for the treasure, the military stole it from me.”
Anger entered the dragon’s voice as it spoke of the military, and she made a note to herself to never get on the dragon’s bad side. It could be really, really bad for her health.
“Why would the military do that?”
A very human-like expression of pained indecision crossed the dragon’s face. “Would you believe alien invaders?”
“That’s more believable than this.” She waved at the dragon in front of her.
Yes, there was a fifty-foot-long dragon sharing the clearing with her. Now there’s a sentence you don’t say every day.
“I know. It all sounds crazy. Unfortunately, it’s all true. And now you have proof of it.”
Kathryn considered that slowly. “I guess. Umm, can you change back now though?”
“Of course.”
And just like that, Callan was back, no sign of the obsidian scale-clad dragon. Her eyes scanned the clearing, but it was gone. Until she looked down. Four huge clawed footprints sat in the soft ground, grass and other plants crushed and turn under their weight.
Eeep.
Callan walked up to her, his expression filled with worry. “Hi.”
“Hey.”
Her simple, easygoing reply seemed to put him at ease, convincing him that she wasn’t about to run off and scream bloody murder to everyone about what had just happened. Kathryn couldn’t figure out why not. This should be completely unbelievable. She should be contacting the authorities, and maybe checking herself into a mental institution.
Instead she was going to stay in the clearing and ask Callan to tell her more about everything that she was getting caught up in. And why? Because somehow, somewhere, she believed him. That he was a dragon changer. Yep, something was absolutely, definitely wrong with her.
Thanks, Mom. You just had to convince me to think about giving him another shot. Now look what I’ve gone and done.
“So, keep talking. You need treasure, okay, I get that. But you still haven’t proven to me why your word about never hurting me, or leaving me, is worth any more than the words every other guy says, trying to get into my pants.
Callan’s blocky face erupted in a wide grin. “That one’s actually easy, especially if you believe that I really am a dragon shifter.”
“It is?”
“Much easier to believe I’d say. Comparatively at least.”
Kathryn rubbed her face. “I’m listening, I guess.”
“As dragons, we only ever find one person to spend our lives with. They’re called our mates. Once we find them, we never want another.” He paused, indigo eyes staring into her intently, blazing with passion and honesty. “Ever.”
She swallowed. Hard. “You make it sound like it’s impossible.”
“It is. Our human halves can fall for another.” He paused again, collecting himself, and she caught the impression that he was speaking from experience there. “But we only ever have one mate that both sides us loves. It’s more than just love. It’s a physical thing, a force, a bond, whatever you want to call it, that joins us together.” He pointed at the two of them. “Connects us. Its call is far more powerful than any seductions another may offer.”
“And I’m to take from this that you think I’m your mate?”
Callan shook his head violently. “No, Kathryn. There is no more thinking about it. I’ve done that, I’ve searched within myself, having to come to some unpleasant conclusions about things I’d thought I knew.”
“You loved someone else,” she said, guessing.
“Yes. For the longest time I thought she was my mate, and I denied the calls of my soul that were leading me to you. But no longer. Not anymore. I am yours, Katy, mind, body, soul. All that I have is for you.” He stopped. “When you’re ready to have me, I’ll be here.”
“And what if I’m not?”
The memories of Doug, the pain and betrayal she’d felt when he’d left her, they all welled up inside her again, telling her never to trust another that thoroughly. The idea of being with Callan forever was terrifying. Was she healed and ready for that? The answer seemed to be no.
Kathryn had come home to Barton City in hopes of healing physically and emotionally. Of finding herself, and making herself an independent person once again. Getting back on her feet, and finding a job, making a career of it. On her own.
; Now she was being asked to tie herself to someone she’d known for a few weeks. It was crazy. Way too fast. She needed more time to think, to understand, to accept what she’d just seen. He’d just told her he was a dragon shifter, and that aliens existed. It was going to be a bit before she was ready to think about anything else, such as shacking up with him for the rest of her life.
“Someone hurt you badly, didn’t they?” Callan asked, not answering her question.
“Yes.” She looked down at her left hand, the empty finger that had once held a ring. But only one ring. She’d never gotten the second. “I was engaged when I got hurt. To a man named Doug.”
Callan didn’t say anything, letting her speak at her own pace as she told her tale at long last.
“Things were good at first. Really good, Callan. He was nice to me, treated me well. Neither of us had much. I mean, you saw where I grew up. We were poor. My parents worked hard, and all their money went to me, ensuring I had clothes that were mostly clean and not ripped. To feeding me and keeping a roof over our house. There was nothing extra for niceties, but we were okay. Because one thing we had was love.”
The giant dragon-man nodded, squatting down until he was at her level. Normally Kathryn hated that, but with him it felt okay. He wasn’t doing it to be condescending, simply helping to put her at ease by not towering over her as she spoke.
“Doug and I had love. It was great. We laughed and had friends, went out, it was really good.” She smiled sadly. “He got laid off in the recession, and decided to start his own business. It went slow at first, and things were even worse. Then I got hit, and was hurt.”
Her vision went blurry, and her voice shaky, but she pushed on, not wanting to take any longer than necessary.
“I got a settlement from the guy who hit me, as well as having all my bills covered. Doug and I talked about what to do with it, and when it became clear I would recover in time, we decided to invest it in his business.” She swallowed, trying to clear the lump in her throat. “It worked. His business started to take off, and in the two months after he went from struggling startup to being worth millions.”
