Page 36 of Sanctuary with a Dragon
That sounded good, actually. Something a little different. “That sounds really good,” I said with a nod.
Her face lit up and she texted that to herself as well. “Let’s exchange numbers so we can plan which evening works best for all of us.”
We exchanged numbers and she gave a little smile and wave as she left. I stood there for a minute reflecting on what had just happened.
I was excited to spend time with her and her mate, and had she mentioned her clan? Did that mean she was a shifter as well? I went through the different animal shifters that might call a group of them a clan, and could only come up with bears. Maybe she was a bear shifter? My eyes went wide as I remembered something. Had she said brothers? As in a whole house full of other male bear shifters?
I swallowed.
Okay, that was... slightly intimidating. But, after talking with her a bit, she’d seemed very normal and friendly. I hoped the rest of them would be as well.
I continued into the library and was stunned at the huge space. Different projects were all over the library in various stages of completion. A skylight had recently been put in, as I could still see the support braces up there. It had a stunning rose design etched on the glass. There were no books yet. They’d probably been packed away to protect them until the space was completed, but it was still gorgeous.
I wandered around the rest of thefirst floor, checking out the back balcony, and then walking around the villa to check out the pool area. I thought about putting on a tee shirt and shorts and making use of it. King Draven had distractedly told me I had the use of the entire villa, and that I could go anywhere, and use anything I wanted, so I knew he wouldn’t mind.
I think he was distracted because he was worried about his wife. According to the king, she’d started to feel poorly a day or so before we’d come, and was sleeping and resting. I hoped she felt better soon. It really sucked being sick.
Speaking of sick...
I felt terrible. My joints and muscles hurt and ached, and I had a raging headache that was slowly getting worse. From past experience I knew it would turn into a migraine soon if I didn’t head it off.
I could ask someone for some pain reliever, because I don’t think we’d brought any, but I didn’t know if I needed to be careful of the shifter half of me.
I needed to ask Alaric, but I knew he was busy.
Hmm, maybe I could reach out to Elandor instead?
Elandor?
I only waited a few moments before he responded,Yes, treasure?
I’m hurting. Is it possible to use pain reliever? Will it affect the raven if I change back? I don’t want to make myself sicker.
Hmmm,his inner voice rumbled.You should be fine. Shifter metabolisms work much faster. Many human medicines don’t work on us because of that, and we have to take things formulated just for us. Otherwise, it would make things like surgeries tricky for our kind.
I winced. Yeah, it would be terrible to not have shifter medicines for things like that.
Okay, thank you.
He was quiet for a moment.
Alaric wants to know if you want company. I’ve told him you probably don’t, but he said that he’ll rub your shoulders and neck if you want him to.
I put my hand to my flaming cheeks. I was very much not used to someone wanting to take care of me, and the dragon’s voice felt a little bit... flirty? But also compassionate. So much so that I felt my eyes tear up. I blinked quickly as I stared up at a late afternoon sky the color of a robin’s egg.
I cleared my throat.Umm, yeah, that sounds nice. Thank you.
He says you’re welcome. I sense you are outside.
Yeah, I’m by the hot tub. I’m going to go put on some shorts and a tee shirt and get in. I’ll meet you guys out here, okay?
We will see you soon.
I quickly went back to our set of rooms to change. Ourwinghad two master bedrooms with bathrooms, a living room, a third bathroom, a kitchen and a small library/office space. It was huge! I had no ideathere were houses so large that there were basically several sets of apartments in the house, plus single rooms, as well as all of the main functional rooms like the main kitchen, living room, library, etc. I’d never seen a house this gigantic before, though. What did I know? Maybe this was common for those that were wealthy.
After changing I made my way back to the main floor, and out to the hot tub. Alaric was already there, and was just descending the stairs to get in. His broad, suntanned back was facing me.
I stumbled, dropping my towel. It always annoyed me how everyone made attraction all about the physical—there was so much more to it. But Alaric was gorgeous. Muscular in all the right places, bulkier than most guys I’d seen. I knew some of that came from being a dragon shifter, but I had the feeling he worked out a lot, too.
