“Avalon. It’s the safest place I know to take you for this. The only place I know we can go and not be disturbed or hunted.” His gaze darkened before he gave her a chaste kiss that left her strangely breathless. “Now let yourself go.”
She waited for him to put a little distance between them before she took a deep breath and…
Dropping her arms to her side, she shook her head. “I can’t do this.”
He arched a brow as he gave her a stern look and crossed his arms over his chest. “Can’t or won’t?”
Won’t, but she wasn’t about to admit that to him. “Why is this so important to you? What does it really matter?”
“Because you fear it and me so much. I want you to understand the beast in your heart. To see for yourself what it means to be a dragon. Just one time in your life, Sera. That’s all I ask. Appease me.”
In all these centuries, he’d seldom asked her for anything. And as she stood there, shame filled her as she remembered those handful of times.
Whenever she was away from home, he’d asked her to let him stay in his cave where he wasn’t ridiculed by her people, and she’d denied him that comfort. He’d asked her to not submit him to her tribe to be inspected like a caged animal.
She’d denied him that, too.
He’d begged her to run away with him, and start their family. To live, just the two of them, in peace. No tribe. No hatred. To start fresh and create, rather than destroy.
And the final thing he’d wanted was for her to spare him Nala’s wrath.
Tears filled her eyes again as she realized how unfair she’d been. How cruel. She choked on a sob.
“Sera,” he breathed, flashing himself to her side so that he could gather her in his arms. “It’s okay. You don’t have to do this.”
And that succeeded in making her cry like a child. She buried her face against his chest and wept as all the pain and regret poured through her. They should have had a life together. Instead, her fears and pride had divided them for centuries. Had trapped her and her children as stone statues and forced him to live in complete celibate solitude.
Worse, they had hurt the one creature in her life who had never sought to harm her. In all her life, Maxis was the only one who had ever put her first. And in spite of everything, he still did.
Burying her hands in his hair, she pulled his lips to hers and kissed him. She let the taste of her dragon fill her senses as she remembered the way he’d once been. How he’d greeted her and held her. No reservations. No guile. Ever her loyal and precious mate.
Nipping his lips, she stepped back to smile up at him. “I am your dragonswan. Show me.” With a ragged breath, she forced herself to leave the shelter of his arms and run toward the open meadow.
Max wasn’t sure what to think. Not until he saw her spread her wings, then transform into a beautiful red dragon. Her laughter filled his ears as she ran, carefree, through the meadow.
For about three seconds, then she stumbled and fell flat on her face.
Concerned for her welfare, he ran after her. “Are you all right?”
She tried to right herself and tumbled again… and again. Finally, she sat down and let out a frustrated breath of fire. “It’s not easy to stand, is it?”
“It is for me.” He changed forms to show her. “You have to balance your weight a bit differently. Use your wings to counterbalance.”
She tried. And failed. “Curse you for making it look so easy.”
With a smile, he helped her to her feet and used his neck and weight to assist her… just as he’d done for his siblings when they’d been young. “Better?”
She nodded and smiled as she finally caught her wobbly balance. Extending her yellow wings, she moved forward, then sat down again to stare at him. “You were right. It’s not so different as a dragon, is it?”
“No.”
“I’m still me.”
“Did you think you’d be someone else?”
“No, but…”
He arched a dragon brow. “Thought you’d lose I.Q. points?”
No, something worse. “I thought I’d be less…”
“Human?”
She nodded.
“As I’ve said, it’s the human and Apollite blood that makes the Katagaria dangerous. Not the dragon. The dragon just makes them bigger.”
And apparently top-heavy. “Can you teach me to fly?”
“Best I teach you to hover for now. I don’t want you to harm yourself.” And so he showed her how to use her wings to lift herself from the ground.
Laughing and smiling, Sera did it after a few minutes of trying. While she still wasn’t as accomplished at it or nearly as graceful as he was, she was quite pleased with her efforts. It wasn’t bad for a first try.
Max shook his head at her giddy excitement. “I can’t believe you’ve never done this before. Were you never curious?”
It wasn’t as simple as that. “I’ve never been shocked. And… I fought the urge to shift anytime it came over me. My aunt, Keria, always said we should never give in to the animal inside us. That we should fear it taking us over and ruling us.”
“And now?”