He couldn’t stay angry when she was upset. All that really mattered was pleasing his mate, and he’d do all he could. “Okay.”
After all, he had secrets, too. Like being a dragon. So he understood not knowing how someone would react to news and being reluctant to tell them.
How was he going to do that anyway?
“Also, you shouldn’t have to run into him in the house again,” she said. “We all decided it was best if he stayed back at his parents’ home. Given the… circumstances.”
“Your overprotective boyfriend?” he asked proudly.
She laughed. “I suppose. About that, though. Please promise me you’ll be more careful around him. If you see him, just run.”
He frowned, the dragon inside him extremely offended at the implication that he would need to. “Yeah right. I could take him.”
“Just do it for me, then,” she said, sounding genuinely worried. “Please?” She looked up at him, and her usually stern face was open and vulnerable. Her hair in its loose ponytail was swaying in the wind, loose curls lifting around her face, plump cheeks tanned in the sun.
He didn’t like that she didn’t trust him to take on another male, but he decided to let his pride go.
She was opening up to him. Trusting him. Last night she’d let him make love to her. Maybe she’d let him do that again. As long as he was at her side, they would work things out.
“Okay,” he said. “I hear you.”
She sighed in relief and leaned against him, warming his entire body against the cool mountain air. “Thank you, Dante. I appreciate it.” She ran her hand down his arm. “I appreciate you. He’s not half the man you are. You’re amazing. You make me feel great just being around you. Like no one ever has. I liked what we did last night. I don’t know what this is… but I hope we can keep going.”
He took a deep breath of mountain air and looked at his beautiful mate. She was his new reality. Even if things were difficult and complicated, perhaps that was just a part of finally letting himself get close to someone. “I want that, too.”
Then Cliff, the problems with the family, and the fight all faded away to nothing as he sat and bantered with his mate, enjoying the fresh air.
As Dante came up to get ready for bed, he was a little disappointed that after their short chat outside, they hadn’t really had any more alone time together.
Her dad had come out to explain that Cliff was gone, and they’d all gone out to a movie and then dinner and come home quite late.
Ella was still down in the kitchen, enjoying time with her family, and Dante was a little bit tired from the day, so he decided to go up and make sure everything was set up so when she was ready, she could just fall into bed.
As much as he wanted it, he didn’t imagine anything would happen between them tonight. Emotionally, she probably needed time to recover.
He was fluffing the comforter when he heard something weird outside. He walked to the window and looked out, not even sure what he was looking for.
It was newly dark out there, and the moon was full. He looked at the grass beneath the house, surrounded by trees, and squinted as he saw something moving along the trees, slinking in and out of them.
In the moonlight, he saw it was a giant cat. Not a lion because it had no mane. More like a house cat in huge scale, and he’d bet anything it was a shifter.
He opened the window, checked beneath him, and shimmied down, dropping when he was low enough.
By the time he was on the ground, the cat was gone. But the scent in the air was clear. Cliff.
He was sure of it.
“Dante?” That was Ella’s voice coming from above him. His heart skipped a beat as he realized she was alone up there, and there was a cat around, or some kind of shifter. He quickly climbed up the logs, using his strength to scale up quickly and pull himself in through the window.
“Did you just climb the wall?” she asked.
He laughed and put up an arm to flex. “Hidden talents?”
She laughed, too, walking over to him. Then she looked at the window, brow furrowing. “What’s going on? Why’d you go out there?” She folded her arms. “We have a door, you know.”
He shrugged. “I thought I heard something. I was wrong.” He didn’t like lying to her, but he didn’t know how to explain what he’d just figured out.
It’d be hard enough to tell her he was a dragon; he didn’t need to be explaining that other shifters existed. Or that the man she was afraid of held some very real danger she had no idea about.
He scratched the back of his neck. “Sorry about that. If I worried you.”
“No, it’s okay,” she said, sitting on the bed and patting it for him to join her.