When I open my eyes again, everything is dark. The air is cool and smoky. There’s an incense scent that’s familiar.

We're in the dragon's cave.

He sets me down, and metal clinks beneath my feet. I remember the treasure from my vision.

This is his lair. It’s real.

I catch my breath and wait until the dragon’s settled. “A little light?” I say.

Torches flare to life all around the giant cavern. The space is bigger than the castle courtyard.

“Gabriel.” I run toward the dragon, who settled far away from me, as if still afraid of hurting me. In the flicker of torchlight, I can see his scales have been burned in a criss-cross pattern–the silver net injured him.

I want to weep, but I keep it together. I must keep it together.

“Gabriel, it’s all right.” I run to him, and he lowers his great head. I throw my arms wide and wrap them around his giant snout in an attempted embrace. “I love you. I’m ready for you to claim me. I won’t leave you. Okay? I need you to come back to me. I need Gabriel, the man now, please.”

The dragon snorts with anger, and I’m lifted off the ground when he shakes his head. I let go and drop to my feet. “Whoa. Easy, boy. I need the man back. Can you shift back for me?”

The dragon shakes his glorious head like he’s angry with Gabriel the man. I look around the cave. It’s just like it was in my dream where the dragon was in gold cuffs like the pair I wear. Like the dragon is relegated to this cave, hidden, no!--locked–away–by Gabriel, the man.

Perhaps now he’s locked the man part up, refusing to set him free. The two sides of Gabriel have been at war for hundreds of years over…

Me.

Over the dragon killing me in his past life.

So when he accidentally set fire to the bed last night, Gabriel decided I wasn’t safe and tried to keep his dragon self away from me, which only made the dragon more unstable.

You can’t keep any part of you locked away without eventually facing the consequences. Perhaps the fire was a result of Gabriel’s efforts to keep the dragon in chains rather than a reason he should continue with such foolish actions.

“Give him back,” I say gently, reaching out to stroke his snout. “I won't let him cuff you or control you anymore.”

The dragon lowers his snout to the ground.

“You would never hurt me, would you?”

The dragon shakes its mighty head.

“What happened last night?”

Need you, the dragon says. Firebrand.

“You need to claim me?”

A puff of smoke comes from the dragon, and I take it as a yes.

“Gabriel was holding you back because I wasn’t ready,” I explain. “But I am now. You can have me. Both sides of you can have me. I’m yours.”

The dragon shudders, and then the giant form disappears, replaced by Gabriel’s beautiful bronze-skinned form, naked and glorious. Gabriel’s skin is charred with a miniature version of the criss-cross pattern like it shrunk with him when he changed size. Around him glows an aura–the one that had been missing since the day I met him. It shimmers in shades of pink and green–love and vitality.

“Gabriel!” I run to him and wrap my arms around him, helping him to his feet. “Are you all right? You’re burned! Why did you let them hurt you like that?”

He lets out a shaky exhale but doesn’t speak. He takes my face in both his hands and stamps his lips over mine.

It’s a claiming kiss–the kind I’ve been waiting for since we first made love. Full of passion and determination. He slides his tongue between my lips, stroking mine open, deepening the kiss. Every change of angle, every breath takes us deeper into it until my limbs are loose, and my body’s forgotten all the recent trauma.

The cuffs fall from my wrists.

13

Gabriel

My thoughts were a storm of lightning and flame. And then she appeared. Tabitha, my light in the darkness. My fire in the night. My mate. She sighs and shudders against me, and I hitch her closer. The ancient coins slide under my feet. I could take her right here, right now—

“Sir?” Hess calls from the mouth of the cave.

I ease back from Tabitha’s sweet lips. “Yes.” I don’t take my gaze from hers. There’s love swirling in her eyes, and it nearly drops me to my knees.

“The wolf pack is here, sir. To assure Miss Tabitha’s safety.”

My mouth works. It’s hard to find the words, but I do. “We’re coming out now.”

“Leaving some clothes for you here at the mouth of the cave, sir.”

I lean on Tabitha as we make our way over piles of coins and gemstones. She finds the clothes and helps me dress. The soft shirt and pants chafe my burned skin, but by the time I’m clothed, I’m feeling more steady and able to escort Tabitha out from the cave.

Tags: Lee Savino, Renee Rose Shifter Ops Fantasy
Source: readsnovelonline.net