To Love a Dragon - Tiffany Roberts Page 0,68

moon, Arysteon’s hunger would be more pronounced the next day. Whatever relief he was afforded always seemed short-lived.

Despite his ferocity, despite his ravenousness, despite the wild gleam so often in his eyes, Leyloni always felt a deeper connection with him when they mated. Even when that gleam was in his gaze, it was never the comet’s influence she saw there—it was only him. Through all his struggles, Arysteon was always with her. He was always there.

Leyloni knew all the pleasure they shared was real, and she knew he felt it, too—she sensed it through that sizzling bond they shared—but she could not help her distress over his condition.

However calm and stoic a face he presented outwardly, Arysteon could not hide his discomfort from her. Yet she admired him all the same for it. He pressed onward without complaint, often carrying far more than his share of the burden regardless of what form he was in, leading Leyloni and Serek toward their goal.

Toward a village full of humans. Full of strangers.

How would he feel there, in a place where being male would set him apart nearly as much as being a dragon would? Was that what he really wanted?

Could he be happy there?

She couldn’t hold back a pang of guilt for having not considered all that before, for having not asked him what he wanted from all this. But she held that guilt down, refused to let it run rampant. So much had happened since the night her village had been attacked, and it had all happened so fast. The only thing she’d had to focus on—the only thing that had kept her going early on—was reaching the Snow Trees. She hadn’t even considered what she wanted from all this, beyond Serek’s safety.

All she’d had before the attack were dreams she’d never believed would come true. There’d been no need to look ahead; her life had seemed as though it was stable, as though it would remain familiar and relatively comfortable—if a bit unfulfilling—until the end of her days.

Everything had changed—including Leyloni, the girl who had once thought herself content to go unnoticed, to watch everyone around her move on and enter new parts of their lives. That girl would never have imagined someone like Arysteon taking her as his mate, much less his only mate.

Though he could cover much greater distances while carrying Serek, Leyloni, and all their supplies in his dragon shape, Arysteon assumed his natural form less and less as the days passed. At first, Leyloni thought it was due to the pain of those transformations, which she felt through jolts in their connected sparks. The likelihood of more Bone Wraiths tracking them diminished over that time, and she came to again appreciate the extra time their journey would take with him in his man shape—because it would mean more time with him to herself.

Well, herself and Serek.

But he told her the reasons for his reluctance to take on that shape as they ate beside their campfire one night, and she came to understand how wrong her guess had been.

First was the unwanted attention Arysteon’s transformations undoubtedly drew toward him and his clan. Every time he changed, it was like a lightning strike, complete with a thunderous boom that could likely be heard for miles around. That would seem suspicious to any intelligent creature within earshot, especially humans, on most any day. Second—and foremost, according to his tone—was his need.

Arysteon’s shape changing, no matter the energy it must have taken to accomplish, did naught to diminish his desire for Leyloni. Even as a dragon, he yearned for her desperately and was constantly struggling against that yearning.

Obviously, there were some…physical incompatibilities between little Leyloni the human and massive Arysteon the dragon. He felt it was safer for him to remain in his human form as much as possible. And, though she trusted that he would not harm her either way, Leyloni agreed with him.

Five days after the attack at the river, the sky clouded over, gray and dreary, as though to mirror the grief at Leyloni’s core—as though to force her to acknowledge it. But she refused to let the weather drag down her overall mood. She was happy with Serek and Arysteon despite their struggles, and, more often than not, their mere presence was enough to chase the gloom from her heart. Even with the sun hidden, even when the world was stained crimson at night, even through the choruses of wild howls and roars, her happiness beamed.

They