She retreated, going back so far her calves bumped against that fallen tree. Then she stopped, still staring as realization hit her. “Dragon,” she whispered. “You’re a dragon.”
And now he wasn’t. It had taken him about a minute to shift into dragon form when he knew Ravyn was waiting to see who he really was, and just a couple seconds for him to go back to human form after he’d heard the call from Magnum.
Coming to a stand from the squatting position he always returned in, Steele was a little surprised to see Ravyn standing directly in front of him. He’d thought for sure he’d spend another ten or fifteen minutes trying to explain to her how he was able to shift and walk upright like any other human after being such a gigantic beast. As Magnum’s call was urgent, he didn’t really have time for that explanation, but for Ravyn he would have made the time.
“I don’t believe... I mean, I didn’t believe,” she was saying as he stood. “I’ve heard people talk about things they’ve seen or something that may have happened to a friend or family member of theirs. But I dismissed it all as, I don’t know, really bad gossip, or worse, some sort of reality TV gimmick. I just never thought it was true.”
“It’s true,” he said. “And I’ll answer all of your new questions on the ride or after I meet with the others. But right now, we’ve got a lead on where Temptra may have taken your friend.”
The light of curiosity that had been just brimming in her eyes disappeared and her shoulders squared. “Where is she?”
“I’ll find out as soon as I get to the meeting location. And, ah, get some clothes on, because in case you haven’t noticed...” he said, and looked down at his naked body.
“Oh, I noticed,” she replied. “Why do you think I hightailed it over here the moment you were back?”
His ego inflated on command, just as his dick gave a jerk of awareness that she was close and staring at him at this moment. She wasn’t repulsed by him, nor was she still angry at him for the mind cleaning, even though he could admit she had every right to be. He still wasn’t sure why it hadn’t worked, but if it meant he got to experience her looking at him with such appreciation again, he didn’t really care.
“Come on, I’ve got clothes in the truck.” He took her hand and they walked through the area in the forest where he spent a lot of his personal time.
Theo had purchased the mountain and all the forested land surrounding it to ensure that they’d have privacy and space to move around in their true form. But Steele had never felt as if that was really his place to be free. This spot was located on land owned by the government but left alone by some type of historical proclamation so it had become the perfect place for him to be alone and to be free whenever he needed to.
“You keep clothes in your truck like some type of secret agent,” Ravyn was saying as they came closer to the edge of the trees.
“Like a man who doesn’t like to walk around with his ass out after he’s shifted.”
“Do you shift often? I mean, I’ve never heard stories of dragons. Just some ramblings about people that could take on the features of wolves or big cats and people who could see the future or hear things that others couldn’t. Cree can do that,” she said quietly.
“He can do what?”
“He can hear and sense things. It started when he was young but his father didn’t like him talking about it so he stopped. I used to listen to his stories but I thought they were just stories.” She sighed heavily. “I was so wrong about everything.”
They were at the back of the SUV when Steele took her by the shoulders. “Don’t beat yourself up about this. You had no reason to believe otherwise.”
“When your best friend tells you he can do something, you should probably believe him.”
“Or you can listen to him when he talks about the things that he can do because others didn’t do that for him in the past.”
She smiled up at him and Steele took a step closer to her, his body reacting a bit more forcefully to his naked state and her proximity.
“Did you say somebody called you? How? I didn’t hear a phone? And if you’re expected somewhere you should definitely get dressed and, ah, soon.” Her gaze dropped down between them to his erection and when she looked back up at him again the haze of lust that clouded her eyes only made him harder.
He opened the back of the truck and reached inside to pull out a duffel bag. Unzipping it he grabbed gray sweatpants and a T-shirt, tennis shoes and socks.
“We have a signal that only the Drakon can hear,” he told her as he pulled the sweatpants and T-shirt on.
He leaned against the truck to pull on the socks.
“Oh, like a Bat Signal,” she said and when he glanced over at her she grinned. “You’ll go commando, but you gotta have socks, huh.”
Steele stood, then he turned so that he was now in front of her and grabbed her face between his hands, lowering his mouth until it met hers. For a second she held her head perfectly still as if she was contemplating whether or not she was going to accept his touch or his kiss. She had
