Page 24 of Klaus

9

Klaus

Ifinally knew what was different about her.

It had only taken getting her alone while as the lion. So simple, but we’d never had reason to be together while I was the lion, and when I’d caught her scent in the past, she’d normally been in the presence of the others.

And when she identified me out in the woods and relaxed so obviously, it all made sense. She had been afraid. A dragon would have no reason to be afraid.

She isn’t one of them. Not anymore. The lion’s nerves fairly sang with the knowing of it. He wanted to explore her, to inhale her very essence and identify that which made her so unlike the rest. How had it happened?

How had she lost her dragon?

I took one step away from her, then another, being careful to move slowly. I had to speak with her, had to understand what had happened. I couldn’t let her go without knowing.

It was all becoming clear.

Once I reached an old, gnarled tree with a truck twice as thick as my human body, I ducked behind it and let the shift come over me. “Wait there,” I commanded he once I could speak again.

“Where would I go?” The note of defeat was in her sweet voice. How had I never put it together before? She was so alone.

“My clothing isn’t far from here.”

“You wouldn’t be the first man I’ve ever seen without a stitch of clothing,” she snorted. “I’ve lived among men for longer than you’ve been alive. Much longer.”

“All right, then.” If it mattered not to her, it mattered not to me. I stepped out into the open and strode barefoot to the tree in whose hollow I’d left a folded pair of shorts and a t-shirt. She watched me; I felt her eyes examining my every move.

Somehow, this pleased me. My body was certainly nothing to be ashamed of and had attracted more than a few appraising looks from girls and women over the years. We all shared the same general characteristics, all shifters. Extreme fitness was one of them, along with height and in men a broad, wide frame. Powerful.

Once clothed, I turned to face her. She blushed, eyes finally moving to the ground, telling me she’d watched my entire performance with more than a little interest. This, too, pleased me; it was unfortunate, then, that far more important matters stood between us.

“I know now,” I murmured, taking care not to frighten her. She was on edge, and rightfully so. “They did something to you. Those men. So-called doctors.”

Her body didn’t move, her face, on the other hand, was a storm of conflict. Her chin trembled, her jaw clenched and twitched. Nostrils flared, pupils dilated.

She swallowed, opening her mouth to take a deep breath which she let out slowly. “Yes. They did something to me. Now you know.”

“Ah. You could’ve told me.”

“Why?” she whispered, almost laughing. “Why would I tell you? I don’t know you. And I can’t tell any of them.” She motioned in the general direction of the mountain. “They would shun me. They’d never accept me. I don’t know if I would accept someone in my position, I must admit.”

“Nothing about you has changed.”

“Everything about me has changed.” She all but fled, half-running out of the woods and into the open.

I followed, watching carefully in all directions for the presence of others as I caught up to her near the circle of stones.

“Stop this.” I reached her, taking her wrist and pulling her to me.

Even as a woman without her dragon, she was strong. She wrenched her arm away as she spun.

“You know my secret now,” she hissed, eyes wild over deeply flushed cheeks. “Congratulations. You may now tell everyone and see to it that my life is good and truly destroyed.”

“Why would I do that? What do you think of me? I bear you no ill will. I wish to assist you if I can.”

Her eyes narrowed, her smooth brow creasing as she frowned. “How could you assist me?”

“I won’t know until you tell me everything. There could be a way. But the one way to make certain there’s nothing to be done is to keep this a secret, to hold it all within yourself.”

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