In a Dragon’s Dream by Riley Storm Page 0,52

been moments earlier. “They, shockingly, had some good advice when it came to dealing with women.”

“They did, did they?” Laura asked, her attention fully fixated on him at that point.

Please let this work. Please let this work. I don’t want to lose her. Please don’t be too much.

“Yes, actually,” he said wryly. “I know, I was stunned too. But they said, I need to just tell you everything. From the start. Don’t hold back. If you’re what I think you are, then you’ll be strong enough. If it’s too much, then I’m wrong.”

The more he talked, the easier the words came to him. He stopped struggling to find what flowed, and instead spoke from his heart. From the core of who he was. Both sides of him.

“I’m listening,” Laura said, encouraging him on quietly.

“So here I am, putting my faith in fate,” he said quietly. “Which I know may sound silly to you, or it may not even be believable, if that’s your belief system. But I have to trust mine. I have to trust what I know, and what I see, but most importantly, what I feel.”

“And what do you feel Rak?” Laura asked gently, hanging on the edge of her seat.

Could she possibly know what I’m about to say?

“I feel. I believe, that you are my mate,” he said quietly. “The one person that I, as a dragon, will ever truly love. I won’t stand—well, sit,—before you, and pretend like you are the only woman I have been with. We’re both old enough to know better, and hopefully wise enough not to care. But you are the only one that I will truly care for. For the rest of my life.”

Laura’s mouth fell open in a tiny oval shape as she gasped.

“In our world, when we find our mates, our dragon side lays claim to them. It tells us when it finds them.”

“What’s your dragon saying?” Laura croaked, her voice tight.

“It’s saying it’s found her,” he said, fixing his gaze on her eyes, watching for a reaction. “And it’s you. It’s only ever going to be you.”

There, he’d put it out there. Told her what he felt, and what he thought. Now it was all up to Laura.

What was she going to say?

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Laura

She stared at him, speechless, for a long, long time.

What did he mean by all this?

Ask him that you fool!

“Rak, I…I must confess. I don’t really get it. Like, what are you saying here? You can’t just be saying ‘You my mate, uga buga boo’, are you? Like, you can’t just tell me that’s a thing and then expect to throw me over your shoulder and haul me off like a caveman, right?”

Rak snorted. “While that is quite the image, no. That’s not my intention. I just…I needed to tell you this.”

Despite his laughter, she could easily see that he was struggling with this, with everything. It had taken a lot out of him to tell her this, and so Laura wanted to respect it. She just needed to understand it first.

“Is there a response that you’re looking for here? Something that’s standard to say in these circumstances?” she asked.

This wasn’t the same as him saying that he loved her. That was where Laura had thought he was going. Not that she would have known how to respond to that statement any better.

Lust? Sure, absolutely. She had that for him. Desire? Yes. Feelings? Check.

Those were things she could understand, she could accept and discuss. Love? Being one’s mate? Laura hadn’t thought about that yet. There was so much she hadn’t thought about yet. It was all coming too fast.

“I guess not,” he said slowly.

Laura decided to take a different approach. If she couldn’t understand the issue, couldn’t figure it out, then focus on what she could grasp. His reluctance. Figure out why this is such a big thing for him.

“This is very difficult for you,” she said gently. “Can you tell me why? Explain it to me some more.”

The logistics of it were easy. One mate. Forever. That sounded like love. Marriage. Forever after. Those were all things Laura had dreamt about in her past, things she’d hoped would happen to her. She’d just never imagined it would be with a dragon shifter, of all people. Nor that this would be how it would go down.

If Rakell had just given her his people’s version of a marriage proposal…well, she needed to think on it.

And he needed to be crystal clear about it.

“It’s tough because…” he