I’ve never met another person like her. I don’t know that I ever will again.
It’s not even the possibility of no children that bothers me. No matter what I told her during that first week, I’m in no rush to breed. Dragons might not live as long as we used to in generations past, our lifespans much closer to humans and topping out at one hundred and fifty except in rare cases. It’s not an eternity, but we have time and plenty of it.
Except we don’t.
Seven years seemed rather excessive when Azazel first offered the possibility of a human bride. I fully intended to enjoy her and then, eventually, enjoy raising the inevitable children once she’d returned where she’d come from. I dive deep beneath the water, but the icy depths of the lake do nothing to calm the racing of my mind.
Now? I’m not certain I won’t rip out Azazel’s throat if he tries to take Briar from me.
As I swim upward, I catch sight of Briar moving into the water. I pick up speed. I should have warned her that I have more than enough lung capacity to stay below for quite some time. I should have realized she might worry if I went down and didn’t come back up, but sometimes with our differences, it feels like fumbling around in the dark. I don’t know what I might stumble over until I’m on my knees.
I surface some distance away in an effort not to startle her, and the small smile she gives me is just an intoxicating as the sight of her nude body framed by water as she wades deeper. She’s gained weight since arriving here, and it pleases me greatly to see that her bones no longer jut out against her skin. She’s softer, and I hope that means she’s happier as well.
The water hits her ribs, and she shivers. “It’s colder than I thought.”
“It’s barely summer. It won’t get much warmer than this, though.” I swim slowly toward her. “You changed your mind.”
“I think too much.” She reaches out, and I don’t hesitate to take her hand and drag her through the water and into my arms. It’s deep enough here to reach my shoulders, which means it would be well over her head. Briar wraps her legs around me as best she can. “Do you worry about the future with us?”
I’m not often tempted to lie, but I don’t know what she’s been mulling over. There’s a right answer to this question and I want to give it to her. But maybe the right answer is simply being honest. “Yes.”
She traces my jaw with her fingertips. “I didn’t expect it to feel this complicated, especially in such a short time.”
Again, honesty wins out. “Neither did I.”
I want to keep you.
It’s not a fair ask. My feelings might be getting softer and yet more intense at the same time, but after everything she’s gone through, I refuse to be another person in her life who tries to tie her down and shear away parts of her so she can be mine in perpetuity. She only bargained seven years. She hasn’t said anything to suggest she wants longer, and with our current positions, I can’t be the one to broach that subject.
And after a month? She’ll laugh in my face.
Except she’s Briar, so she won’t. She’ll just get quiet and withdrawn, and I’ll lose her years before she walks out of my life. It’s not a problem that will likely have an answer at all, let alone today.
Instead, I can give her some good memories.
“Swim with me.”
She immediately tightens her grip on me. “When I said I wasn’t a strong swimmer, I meant the last time I swam was like twenty years ago.” She peers through the crystal-clear water to where the ground drops out a few feet beyond us. “I think I might be afraid of deep water.”
“I won’t let you go under.” I carefully pluck her off me and bracket her waist with my hands. “And there’s nothing to be afraid of in this lake. My family has been coming here for generations, so even when there’s gaps in our visiting the space, the predators know better than to try to move in.”
“Predators,” she squeaks.
“Do you remember what I said before?”
Briar looks up at me with those big dark eyes. “That you’re the biggest predator around.”
“Yes.” It’s the truth, though the reasoning isn’t quite as simple as I’ve suggested. The reason there aren’t overly dangerous predators in the area surrounding the keep is because we kill any that come too close. Over the years, most of the packs learned to leave a large swathe of territory to us, and in turn, we leave them be. Dragons are predators in their own right, but a pack of kelpie could take down an adult, not to mention a child.