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It was surprisingly tough to figure out which memory she wanted to use. Memories of them in bed that overwhelmed her, but they didn’t feel quite right. A vision of his distraught face as she destroyed his scale rolled into her mind. She supposed it was the most vulnerable she’d felt in front of him. Sure, she’d been angry, but the anger had nothing on her heartbreak. She closed her eyes to help empower the vision.

Chapter 27

Three days of knowing little peace. Alessandro was exhausted. His bones shook from the intense inner tug-of-war he’d spent three days engaging in with his dragon.

He was sane enough to know he wouldn’t succumb to the rage lust that had taken his father, but there had been a few dark moments where he felt his will faltering. The first time it happened, he felt the wall he kept between himself and his celestial side crumble.

Panic from both the dragon and himself forced them to join efforts in reinforcing that wall.

With the wall refortified, the tug-of-war resumed.

He initially allowed the dragon to destroy their precious collection as an outlet, but when he turned the last chalice in the cave into a pool of molten gold, the beast had nothing left to distract him.

Three centuries’ worth of treasures disintegrated in a matter of hours. He’d wished there was a way to physically get a hold of his dragon to let out his frustration with a good beat down, but as was always the case, Alessandro had to use words and reasoning. Something he lacked practice in even as the King of the dragons.

His dragon had developed a bad habit of responding with one word.

Rowan.

Then the dragon spent hours pushing images of his ultimate desire on Alessandro, nearly convincing him to leave the cave and just do what they both now agreed they desired.

But no. Rowan deserved more than the paltry benefits of being a mate to Alessandro, who so far had nothing to offer her. Nothing that she didn’t already have or could get herself.

His dragon, enraged that he couldn’t convince his sane side, spent hours trying to figure out how to release them back into the world. But the beast was all brawn, no brain. In physicalcombat, he was invincible, but puzzles were not his strong suit. He tried clawing the magic out of the cavern walls, blasting it with ice, fire, lightning, even tried biting at it with massive teeth, but the walls remained impenetrable.

Alessandro remained in his full dragon form through all of this. It consumed energy he wouldn’t be able to replenish until he ate. Which is something he tried to entice his dragon with, to which the dragon replied with a chorus of ‘Rowan’.

He felt the shift in the air. A sweet, familiar brand of magic caressed his icy scales. Her scent exploded from her, finally full of health, and his body sagged with the relief and peace at last washed through him.

XOXOXOXO

There were sound of soft huffs and hot air brushed through the strands of her hair

Her eye opened. She had appeared on a single claw of the massive beast that was curled before her.

She had known Alessandro was colossal in his dragon form. She’d seen him fly overhead during her years of working in Black Cove, but nothing had prepared her to realize one of his claws was two times larger than her entire body.

It was impossible to tell the details through the darkness, but she could feel he had been sleeping before her appearance. She could hear the displacement of air as he moved his head to examine her.

“Alessandro?” She asked when a throaty growl gonged through the cave, making every hair along her spine stand at attention.

The dragon didn’t speak, but a thin string of fire jetted from his mouth to light the several sconces around the cave.

The once immaculate collection was a mess. Metal treasures were bent or melted into silver and golden puddles. Rubies and other stones were now dust and intermingled with the torn fabrics of tapestries and furs.

He had been out of control. Yet, he seemed perfectly calm as he laid his head back down next to her and his nostrils let out warm air as he stared with large silver eyes.

She took a tentative step forward and returned to her original space when he let out another growl, one threaded with displeasure.

“My growl vocabulary is pretty limited, so if you could use words, I’d appreciate it.”

The dragon huffed, and the ensuing gust pushed Rowan back a step.

“Well, at least now I know you can understand me. May I take a step towards you, or will you bite my head off?”

No answer.

Sucking up her uncertainty, she moved forward, taking slow steps until she could reach up and touch the bottom of his chin.