Page 44 of Princess Seeks Dragon

Chapter Thirteen: Angela

Ishower while Grahamremakes my bed—then I fall asleep.

When I wake up, my little burner phone shows it’s almost two in the morning.

I slept through dinner. I slept hard—so hard, I didn’t notice Graham wasn’t beside me anymore.

“Graham?” I whisper, fear racing through me. I clutch the amulet around my neck and instantly feel better. “I need to get a gross of these things,” I mutter, swinging my feet over the edge of the bed, rising, and gasping in pain at once.

Holy fucking sore pussy and ass. Tender from the boobs down. Thigh muscles burn. Legs feel like gelatin.

If I weren’t worried that some hitman had shot my boyfriend, I’d be smiling and singing as I stagger painfully down across the hall to his room.

Nope. Not there, either.

I limp down the stairs, calling his name, and stop when I look out the big sliding door that leads to the backyard.

There’s a dragon outside.

A giant dragon, the kind that you’d see flying high in fantasy movies, the kind wrapped around towers on the covers of fairytale picture books.

“Graham?” I hiss, and wince as the door squeaks open. His head raises at once, eyes wide.

Is he like... an animal now? Can he talk? Can he—

“Awake so soon, my little wren? I thought you’d sleep until sunrise.” The voice crosses the lawn, deep and slow, filled with hisses and warbles.

“Oh, wow. You can talk.”

“In all forms, yes, but only certain humans can understand us. Why do you think so many of us have been slain? Why we stopped appearing in this form?” Graham asks, then rakes the claws of one back foot against his side.

“Oh my goodness. That makes sense, actually,” I cry and try to run towards him. I fail. The best I can manage at the moment is a fast hobble.

“Are you sore?” Graham asks, rising and coming over to me. His steps make the damp grass quiver under my feet.

I once got to stand right next to an elephant at the zoo. Graham is bigger. He’s maybe the size of three elephants standing end-to-end. But even in his giant form, he lowers his purple head and rests it on my cheek. “It’s a good kind of sore,” I explain, stroking his massive jaw that’s easily as long as my entire upper body. “You’re huge.”

“And I make an excellent alternative to commercial planes. No waiting in line. No babies crying on board. No snoring neighbors.”

I laugh and continue to stroke his face. “Still handsome, too.”

“You are a rare one. Most women wouldn’t see past the reptilian nature to the mythical beauty underneath,” he chuckles.

“Well, it’s still you,” I say with a flustered shrug. He is handsome. He’s not human, but I know he has a human form.

My insides are all confused now.

“I can read your expressions very easily, little wren. You can admire all you’d like, but don’t worry. No human would be compatible with me in this form.”

I let go of his cheek, and Graham settles back in the grass. I wander down the length of his body, pressed close. I keep one hand on him, and he rumbles low and soft.

“Are you purring?” I ask.

“I’m contented,” he says, as if that answers everything. “But move, Angela. I need to remove some scales.”

“Why? Spa day?” I ask. “Exfoliation?”

His talons rake over his skin, but only a few glittering amethyst-colored scales fall. “Dragon scales are a strong protective magic. The people of Pine Ridge are mostly human and largely oblivious, but the ones who aren’t have agreed to help keep you safe—especially if I restock their supply of dragon scales.”

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