Helena was reserved but friendly, and Jackson was an overgrown frat boy, but she liked them both a lot.
He had to drag her away. Once they were in his lab, he showed her the equipment he had used to monitor the aliens before he even knew what they were. She enjoyed the tour, poking at all the equipment and asking questions.
As the tour wound down, Eli became serious again. He sat down in his lab chair and pulled her close. “There’s something I have to tell you.”
“It can’t be any crazier than anything I’ve already seen, right?” She moved closer, sitting down in his lap.
“It depends on your definition of crazy.”
She clapped her hands over her mouth. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to call your clan crazy.”
He put one arm around her. “It’s okay. They are completely crazy. But this is related to being a dragon shifter.”
She leaned her head against his chest.
“Dragon shifters don’t just get married. They form bonds. Lifelong bonds that can’t be broken. We use the term mate because it just makes the most sense.”
“So, dragon shifters mate for life? Is that what you’re telling me?” It didn’t seem possible. But neither did anything else she had learned in the last few months during her life with Eli.
“Yes, we mate for life.” He ran his hand down through her hair.
A shiver passed through her limbs. She tilted her head to look up at him.
He was gazing down at her with an intensity that replaced the shiver and instead sent a shockwave through every part of her.
“Ava, you’re my mate.”
She took a minute to think. The word didn’t frighten her. She didn’t mind the intensity. She felt…loved. And cherished.
“How long have you known?” she asked.
“I knew for sure when we were in Ireland.”
“Is that why you reacted so strongly yesterday when I said I was leaving?”
“Yes. A dragon shifter can live without his mate, but it’s not pleasant. And I knew that I had not done enough to prove to you how I felt.”
She snuggled in closer to him. “Tell me more about how it works.”
He brought both arms up around her and held on. “As a human, you might not feel the bond as intensely, but you may still feel part of it. We don’t know exactly how it works, but there are aspects of hormones and brain chemistry that are involved. The clan in Texas that I’ve told you about has two human members. Both of them formed strong attachments to their mates early on. So, it’s possible that I can influence your feelings through my bond.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad.”
“It’s not bad at all, in my opinion. But it means that I won’t be willing to let you go. At least not easily. I’ll do everything in my power to make you happy, and if you don’t feel the same way, it could become quite suffocating.”
She couldn’t imagine that ever being a problem. She had lived without Eli’s attention for the last few weeks, and she had no desire to do so again.
“It also means I’ll be very protective of you. I will try to use my brain whenever possible, but my dragon is going to react on instinct quite often,” he said.
“I think I like the sound of it. That’s a high level of commitment.”
He kissed her temple. “I like it, too.” He framed her face with his hands. “Do you want to see the ocean here?”
“Yes, I’d love to.” Giddy, she stood up. He was letting her inside his world, and she wanted to soak up every single thing.
They spent the rest of the day on his clan’s land. They walked the cliffs and strolled along the rocky beach next to the rolling ocean. He let her into every aspect of his life.
I’m his mate, she kept thinking to herself.
She liked the way it felt. And she’d have to spend some more time thinking about it, but she wondered how much her own brain chemistry was involved in it. She had a lot of very good reasons to love Eli, and she would happily list them all. But there was no denying that her feelings for him also felt like magic in the best way possible.
“Are you hungry?” he asked. “I have reservations for us in the next town over.”
“I don’t want to leave yet. This has been just the best day.”
He lifted her into his arms and spun her around once. As soon as he put her down, he pressed his mouth to hers. “We don’t have to leave at all.”
“Good. Then I don’t want to.”
He canceled the reservations, and the two of them went back to the house he shared with his parents. She was enchanted by the sense of community she felt everywhere she went on his land. He tried to shoo his mother out of the kitchen, but she wouldn’t budge. While Eli put together a simple dinner for them, his mother showed Ava photos of Eli when he was young.
In every photo, Eli was wearing a little lab coat and tiny goggles.
“You started early,” she said, giggling. “I did, too.”
Once the food was ready, he took her out onto the back porch and built a roaring fire in the outdoor fireplace to ward off the evening chill.
They ate with leisure, trading childhood stories. But toward the end of the meal, Eli began to fidget. Once she was done, he cleaned away their plates.
He scooted close to her, taking her hands. “Ava. You know I love you. I’ve told you that you’re my mate. But there’s one more thing I’d like to do. I’d like to make you an official part of my clan.” He moved over, dropping effortlessly to one knee. “Would you marry me?
Ava’s breath caught. This beautiful man, who was also a mythical creature, was on one knee, asking her to marry him and be his for the rest of her life.
He was also the smartest, most interesting person she’d ever known.
