Tipping The Scales: Knox (Mate Craze)(46)

“Obligated or not, it was mine to choose or not choose.”

“I see that now.” Regret hung heavy in the air.

“I don’t have a choice now.”

“Because I changed you.”

“No, because I love you.” And I did too. We might not have known each other long, or for that matter had a good start, but I loved him. He was mine. And if what my dragon said was true, he was hers, too.

“And I you.” He kissed my head again before standing, lifting me as he did and making his way to the connecting bedroom. It smelled like home. Knox was home.

“Now sleep, love.” He kissed my lips chastely before placing me gently on the bed and covering me with the quilt folded at the foot of the bed. “When you awake, you will feel as good as new. Possibly even better.”

“And then will I feel her?”

“Then, you can meet her.”

My heart started to pound with excitement. If my body weren’t still so beaten and broken, there would’ve been no way I could sleep. As it was, though, my body was begging for it.

“Hold me while I sleep,” I begged, for it was begging. I wanted him here when I woke, as selfish as that was. He was the Alpha and shit-storm was just on the dragon’s doorstep, and I wanted him all to myself. I was oddly okay with that.

“Don’t worry Kallie, I’m never letting you go.” And with that he climbed into the other side of the bed and wrapped his arm around my middle as I let the slumber take over.





19





Knox





Even as I held her in my bed, with my dragon and hers conversing in a way that only our animal souls could, deep down I knew that any second she was going to wake up, angry and loud and hating me with every scale on her dragon body that she had yet to see. I had to admit, I was as curious about Kallie, my mate, in dragon form as she was, maybe more. I’d been waiting for her my whole life.

“How come you have scales? Am I going to keep some scales after I change? What if there’s a big scale on my face!”

She’d woken while I was self-absorbed and was now facing me, stroking the scale that just wouldn’t go away. I assumed that it would after I changed with her, but I wasn’t sure. Maybe it would just fall off like a scab.

“This is because it took a while for you and me to make a decision to be together. I guess I made that decision for you, didn’t I?”

I couldn’t help myself and ran a finger down the length of her arm and let it skip down to her lovely hip. She shuddered beside me. I knew what kind of effect I was having on her—it was probably half of the one she was having on me.

“Do you feel her now? You two getting acquainted?” I teased, now rubbing a lazy circle on her chest.

She linked her finger in mine. “Yes? I’m not sure. It’s like someone is talking to me, but in the background from a distance. She’s keeping her distance on purpose. I’m not sure she likes being my dragon.”

I chuckled a little, but then sobered. It couldn’t be easy for her to know how to deal with this being my mate—our mate—and having another being inside you.

“There’s not a chance in hell that she doesn’t like being yours, just like there’s not a chance in hell that I don’t love being yours. It’s just in our nature. We are perfectly content being yours.”

She raised up to rest her head on her hand. “Oh? Just perfectly content?”

She teased me so well. “No,” I bent down to whisper in her ear after curling her hair over her ear. “Personally, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my life. I’ve waited for you all of my life. And now that you’re here and you’ve accepted the mating, I couldn’t be more complete.”

She smiled and the blush crept form her cheeks to the top of her chest.

“So, what now? What do we do now? What do I do now?”

Before speaking, I took her hand and placed it over my scale, the one that guarded my heart. “There’s a few things. Do you want to know the dragon things or the mating things?” Her blush increased and it was all I could do not to pin her down and teach her rather than tell her.

“Mating things first.” She was almost breathless, and I hadn’t even explained anything to her yet.

“First we would, almost like a human wedding, say some vows. That’s the tamest part of the mating. Then, you would… you would have to bite me and mark me as yours.”

She didn’t seem as shocked as I thought she would. “Okay. Then I’m assuming we…”

“Yes.”

“But… as humans, right? I mean we don’t have to… as dragons?”

I laughed so hard and loud that she crossed her arms over her chest and rolled over—she was pissed off. “Don’t be mad. I’m in love with your candor. Your truth. Your brutal honesty. We mate as humans, but that probably won’t stop me from being frisky when we are dragons. Does that help you?”

She nodded, still pretending to be angry, but she wasn’t. I could feel her now, her feelings and her desires coursed through me like blood through my veins.

“When do we do all that?” She looked back at me.

“Anxious?” I waggled my eyebrows and got another slap on my bicep.