Page 25 of Sanctuary with a Dragon
Alaric closed his eyes in abject relief. “I can hear him again. My dragon is angry with my earlier statement,” he said with a sad quirk of his lips. “He says you’re the most beautiful female he’s ever seen.”
He could hear him again! That was wonderful! He’d been expecting it to take days yet. I clasped my hands together tightly, unsure what to do with them.
I drew in a breath for courage, then met Alaric’s gaze. “Can you explain what you just told me?” I asked huskily. “I’m your mate?”
Chapter 8
Everly
Being back in my rightful body was overshadowed by what Alaric had just told me.
From stories, I knew what a mate was supposed to be. I didn’t really need to ask questions about it—unless it was different from fiction, which was entirely possible. But Ididneed to ask what the heck he meant when he saidIwas his mate.
“How can I be your mate when I’m human?”
He shrugged, slumping back against the cushions of the couch. He still looked stunned by me being in human Everly form, his eyes following my every move. With the added presence of his dragon in the room, I felt like a mouse being hunted by a hawk. His dragon was a strong presence—stronger than anything I’d ever felt before, though, admittedly, I was new to theparanormal and supernatural community. But those guys, err… the supernaturals that had been here just now? Thinking back, they had a presence too. Though theirs was much weaker than Alaric’s.
“Mates of shifters can be humans. They can basically be anything.”
I nodded thoughtfully. That changed things. I’d been under the mistaken impression that shifters’ mates had to be other shifters.
I rubbed my arms, trying to warm them up. I’d been warm as a raven, but the room was frigid against my human skin.
Alaric quickly rose without a word and moved to the fireplace, stoking the dying embers until the fire roared merrily again, the crackles filling the silence. Then he retrieved a blanket from a hall closet and sat next to me once more.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I forgot about your human needs for a moment.”
I felt weak and nauseous—my chronic illnesses had returned with a vengeance—and my head was spinning. Though maybe it was the information I was trying to digest.
“What can I do for you, Ever?” Alaric’s green, pearlescent eyes studied me, as if he could sense the thoughts whirling in my mind.
“What does it mean, for you, that I’m your mate?” I pulled the blanket tighter around me, trapping the fireplace’s warmthinto my cocoon.
Alaric looked at me for several minutes in silence. I could tell he was wrestling with both his inner thoughts and his dragon because his eyes would flare with an inner light and glow, then fade, only for it to happen again a few seconds later. I wondered if the glow of his eyes reflected whenever his dragon spoke to him?
I had a somewhat scientifically geared mind. I loved to learn, and anything science-based fascinated me, so I couldn’t look away from what I was seeing.
I searched within myself, trying to figure out if I had an inner raven—or whatever Shay was hiding from me for his own amusement—but there was nothing. The only thing inside me was… well, me. Did that mean I wasn’t a true shifter? I guess that made sense. I’d been changed by magic, but it wasn’t likely that magic could give me another soul to share my body with. It could only change me into an animal form, not add a second spirit.
Huh.
I wondered what it was like, sharing your body and mind with another mind and soul. Urgh, I was getting off track. Focus, Everly!
We were quiet for so long that I’d forgotten what I’d asked. So when he finally answered, it threw me for a loop, and I had to blink back tears.
“It means you are, and will forever be, my rest, my life, and my home. It means I’ve waited an eternity for you. It means I would give my life for you. It means Iwould fill my days trying to love you, cherish you, and take care of you, if you’d let me. It means everything to me, Everly. Everything.”
He ran a weary, shaking hand down his face. “I realize it won’t mean the same to you. You don’t feel the shifter pull, and you don’t feel the connection between us when we’re close. You can’t smell my body chemistry and have it fill your heart and soul with rightness. You can’t even feel my dragon or hear him rumbling and purring out his happiness.”
He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the couch. “I didn’t want to pressure you or overwhelm you. You’re so new to all of this. But selfishly, I also wanted someone to fall in love with me for me.”
He opened his eyes a tiny bit to look at me. Was he having a migraine? He was squinting like his head was throbbing and the light was bothering him. I only recognized that look because I’d experienced it so many times myself.
I staggered to my feet, waited for the light-headedness to pass, then stumbled to the switch and turned off the light. Darkness filled the room, broken only by the glow of the fire, which I hoped was soft enough not to make his pain worse. I found my seat again and snuggled into the blanket.
“Is that better?”
He exhaled in relief and nodded. “Thank you. Yes. How did you know?”
