He led Brianne up to his apartment. He had pictured himself closing the door and then making love to her on the ground the second it closed, but instead, he found that he just wanted to hold her. To hold her and ask her a very important question. He took her hand in his and led her to the couch where they sat down facing each other. Callin’s knee brushed against hers every time one of them moved a little and he could feel his body responding to the touch.
“Brianne, I love you with all of my heart, and I really want to spend eternity with you. I understand that’s a big ask, but if you can’t do eternity, then please spend the rest of your human life with me. What I mean is, Brianne Ellison, will you be my mate?” Callin said.
“Yes,” Brianne said without hesitation. “I’ll be your mate.”
She leaned forward and kissed him, but she pulled away from the kiss when Callin’s hand started to move down her body and between her legs. She smiled at him.
“I’ll be your mate for eternity,” she said.
“You mean you’re willing to become a shifter?” Callin said, hardly daring to believe he had heard her correctly.
“Yes,” she smiled.
“Now?”
“Now.”
Callin couldn’t believe how this day had turned out. It had gone from being the worst day of his life when he thought he had lost Brianne for good, to being the best day of his life now that she was here and telling him she wanted eternity with him.
There was just one more thing he had to do. Something he should have done a long time ago, but had never felt strong enough for. But now, with Brianne by his side, he felt strong enough to do it. He was going to get his pack back.
14
Brianne turned back to her human form, marveling at how easy it felt to flit between her human form and her newfound dragon form. When she was a dragon, she was huge yet graceful. Her silver-colored scales had felt a little strange at first, but she had soon gotten used to the feeling of them. She had felt so powerful, so strong, and Callin hadn’t exaggerated when he told her that all of her senses would be heightened. She had been able to see and hear things she had never expected to. Like the ants walking through the grass, their tiny feet pitter-pattering on the soil beneath them. She could smell hundreds of different scents in the air, and she had found that she could easily isolate a single one and identify it with very little effort.
Callin smiled at her as she looked up at him, her eyes full of wonder.
“Wow,” she breathed.
She could hardly believe she had been flying. When Callin had asked her if she meant now and she had said yes, he had taken her out to some deserted grassland that he explained his pack owned so no one could develop on or near it. He had turned her once they got to the deserted plain.
It had been painful—first a scratch and then a bite from Callin—but that pain hadn’t even come close to the pain she had felt when her body turned into a dragon for the first time. Her bones had all broken, her tendons stretching and snapping, and scales bursting through her skin. Her wings bursting through her shoulder blades had been so agonizing, she had thought she would lose consciousness. But Callin had warned her it would be painful, and that it only hurt the first time.
And the joy she had felt as she flew around in a tight circle above the wasteland had more than made up for the pain, as had the knowledge that she and Callin could now be together forever. Literally forever.
“It’s indescribable, isn’t it? The freedom. The power. The utter joy,” Callin said.
Brianne nodded, not even trying to find the words to describe how she had felt in her dragon form. Even now, back in her human form, she could still feel the dragon stirring inside of her, lending her its power and its confidence and making her feel better than she had ever felt in her whole life.
“So, I’ll stop aging at twenty-nine?” Brianne asked.
Callin nodded and smiled at her.
“Yup. So you’d better make the most of being younger than me, because you’ll catch up to me in a few years’ time,” he said.
Brianne laughed and kissed him. He kissed her back, but she could feel that there was something missing from the kiss, that Callin was distracted. She pulled back from him slightly and frowned.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I was just thinking,” Callin said with a sigh. “About the pack and about how Valerie is never going to accept us. It’s time, Brianne. It’s time for me to challenge her and take the pack back.”
“Isn’t that kind of dangerous?” Brianne asked.
Callin nodded his head.
“Yes,” he said. “There’s a chance she might kill me, or exile me from the district. But I have to try. I thought I would be happy to walk away from the pack, with it just being you and me, and in some ways, that still sounds like the right way forward. But the pack is my family, and I’ve stood by and let them down for far too long. It’s time for me to man up and take back what is mine and free the pack from Valerie’s clutches.”
Brianne felt adrenaline flood her body. She was scared for Callin, but the dragon inside of her had other ideas. The dragon inside of her was ready to stand by Callin’s side through this and fight.
“Do you really think she’ll kill you?” Brianne asked.
“If she wins, yes. Exiling me won’t be enough of a punishment, because Valerie knows that as long as I have you, I’ll
