In a Dragon’s Dream by Riley Storm Page 0,64

he wanted to do whatever was necessary to make it as easy as possible for her to focus on him.

“Go see your mate,” Pierce said. “I’ll let you know when the team is ready.”

“Don’t take too long,” Rakell grumbled. “I need this.”

I need it, so that I can have her.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Laura

“The cemetery?” she echoed as Rakell told her what they’d learned. “That…how?”

“What do you mean?” Rakell asked.

“Well like, wouldn’t someone notice if they set up a huge tent there? That seems like the sort of thing that would attract a lot of attention, don’t you think? If it just popped up out of nowhere?”

Rakell frowned.

“Did you not think about that?” she asked, shaking her head wryly. “You just heard the word crypt, and decided that, oh hey, they’re at the cemetery, I gotta got here?”

He made a face at her, but didn’t answer. Laura knew that meant she was right.

“Rak, oh Rak,” she said, wrapping him in a hug. “You’ll find them.”

“I need to end this,” he rumbled. “Now.”

“Why is this so urgent to you?” she asked, resting her head on his chest.

“I need to make it safe,” he said, speaking quietly now. “For you.”

The last was nearly inaudible. Only her proximity to him allowed her to hear it. “For me?” she said quizzically.

“Yes. I need to make it safe. Once we deal with the Cado, once and for all, then it will be safe for you to go back about your life. You can return to your house. Then your work, once I have it rebuilt for you,” he added.

Laura squeezed him tighter. “Oh Rak. I’m okay. I needed to take some time off anyway. Besides, spending time with you here isn’t so bad. I’ve seen so much, learned so much about you and your people.”

She was just trying to reassure him that she was okay, but the words rang with a truth. Laura had experienced a lot since coming up to the mountain. Not one bit of it bad either, except perhaps when Rak had come back wounded from the first fight.

A sliver of fear punched through her stomach.

Now he wanted to go get in another fight?

“What is it?” he asked, sensing her change in attitude.

“I don’t want you to get hurt,” she said.

His arms tightened around her, giving her a reassuring squeeze. “I’m going to come back,” he said. “You can count on that. No Cado is going to get the best of me.”

“They had better not,” she said, returning the grip as best she could. His thick chest meant she could barely get her arms around it. Still, she tried.

Laura knew though that, despite his words, Rakell would be just as vulnerable as before. They were going up against the Cado stronghold. All the biggest, most powerful members, she was sure.

From what Rakell had told her, there was a strong team of shifters going in with him. He wasn’t going alone, thank goodness. This burning desire to make it safe for her had worried Laura that he might do something stupid like that. He’d changed, ever since that raid.

“What happened?” she asked.

Rak made a confused noise and tried to pull back from her. She kept her grip, stopping him from getting away.

“On the raid,” she said. “Something happened to you Rak. You’ve become, almost obsessed now, with the Cado. Until then you were focused on protecting me. Now you’re…you wanted to protect me by, well, protecting me. Now you want to protect me, by fighting them. Does that make sense? Your definition of how to protect me has changed, and I don’t know how I feel about it.”

Rak was silent. She listened to his heartbeat, feeling the rise and fall of his chest.

“I found out who sent the Cado agent after you,” he said. “I know who it was, and I very much want to show them how bad of an idea that was.”

“Vengeance is a good way to get yourself hurt,” she said. “Or even killed. You don’t need to become a one-man berserker just for me Rak. I like you the way you are. I liked protector-Rak. Not avenger-Rak.”

He stiffened in her arms, and then relaxed. “I…I thought that by dealing with the Cado, you could go home, you could relax. I thought it would make you happy.”

She laughed. “Rak, you make me happy.”

The instant the words tumbled from her lips, Laura felt a surge of brightness come over her. He made her incredibly happy. Even now, on a serious subject, simply having her