Dragon's Second Chance Romance - Riley Storm Page 0,44
her what was bothering him so much. To let her in.
“The last time I broke the rules,” he said quietly. “It didn’t go so well.”
“For who?” she asked instinctively, wondering what he was referring to.
“Anyone.”
The cracks were appearing in his shell. He was tearing down his defenses and opening up to her, albeit very, very slowly. But he was doing it, and Claire’s heart soared as she realized he was trusting her. He was letting her in.
“What happened?” she asked, moving closer, adding her touch to the weight of everything, hoping that it might be the final log that broke the dam and let her in.
Pietro shivered under her as she rested a hand on his crossed forearm.
“We were just kids,” he said at last, his words coming haltingly at first. “We’d just had our first shift. At that age, you go through a sort of double-puberty as a dragon. You grow from a boy into a man, but you also learn how to be a dragon. How to fly. And your dragon awakes.”
“The dragon inside of you,” she said quietly.
A strange look passed behind his blue-green eyes. It was that same alien flavor that she’d seen once before. Claire was positive it was his dragon. She made a mental note to ask Lilly if she saw the same thing.
“Yes, exactly,” he said quietly. “We were up in the mountains, climbing the bluffs. We wanted to get away from the adults, as most teens do. No real surprise there.”
Claire thought back to her own teenage years. Never sneaking out. Always being home well before curfew and obeying every command her parents gave her.
“At that age, shifting and flying is a closely supervised activity, until you can do it safely. More dragons die from learning to fly than anything else. We pick it up quickly, thanks to the dragon inside us, but there’s still learning involved. Winds in the mountains can be treacherous to a young dragon not used to them,” he explained.
“I see.” Claire didn’t know what else to say. So she did the wise thing, kept quiet and let Pietro continue.
“After some time, we spied one of the adults coming after us, climbing the mountain. We weren’t ready to go back yet. I was angry because we wanted to fly, and they wouldn’t let us.”
Oh no.
“So, I encouraged the others to shift and jump with me. To fly away down the far side of a ridge before the adult could reach us.” Pietro bowed his head. “And they did.”
Claire pulled his arms out from around his chest and wormed her way into his grip, hugging him tight.
“Two out of the five of us didn’t make it back. The wind shear caught them and slammed them into the side of the mountain as they jumped.”
“Oh, Pietro,” she whimpered, hugging as tight as she could.
“Dragons are strong, but a five-hundred foot fall when unconscious will kill anyone,” he said grimly. “Two dead, all because I wanted to break the rules. Rules that were put in place for my own good.”
“You see those kids in me,” she said. “Fleeing my bail is fleeing the adults. And I’ll go to jail.”
Pietro hung his head. “I can’t let that happen again,” he said after a moment. “Not to you. My dragon says…you’re my—”
He cut himself off with a vicious shake of his head.
“What? What were you going to say?” she asked.
“I can’t take you up the mountain,” he said quietly, meeting her eyes. “I can’t.”
Claire almost pushed, but she heard the sliver of steel underlining his words. Pietro had let her in. He’d opened up and shared his past with her, but he wasn’t ready to tell her everything. Not yet. She needed to respect that, to know that he’d reached his limit for today.
That was fine. She knew more about him now, understood his reluctance to break the rules.
“Let’s go to Trent’s then,” she said quietly.
“Thank you,” he said. “I promise, you won’t regret it.”
Claire wished she felt as positively about that as he did.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Claire
“You’re going to do great,” Pietro said quietly, tugging nervously at his suit jacket.
Claire’s forehead furrowed. “I’ve already pleaded guilty,” she said. “I did that when they first arrested me. This is just a sentencing. Things move pretty fast here in Five Peaks. Not a ton going on in this place, so no huge wait time here.”
“Well, I think you’re going to do fantastic just the same,” he said, once more pulling at his clothing.
“Why do I feel