Page 20 of Galadon (Dragon’s Breath #8)
Rayna
It felt like she’d been sleeping for ages when she regained consciousness. After a week of intense pain, she was surprised to find it had dulled to a much more manageable level. Her chest and abdomen still ached a little, and her legs hurt as the bones knitted back together, but she could live with that. What surprised her was finding her limbs free, and she lay on a soft mattress of some sort.
Rayna’s eyes jerked open when it hit her that she was naked, and the blanket covering her only reached up to her waist. She tried to yank it up, but something kept it from moving. Rolling over, shock hit her when she found Galadon next to her. He lay there with his arm propping his head up and an amused grin on his face.
“How long have I been lying in this bed naked?” she asked, giving him credit that his gaze didn’t drop to her breasts—not that he hadn’t had plenty of time to look while she slept. Jerking the camrium blanket again, he relented and let her cover herself.
“Almost two days,” he said, then he reached for her face.
Rayna flinched away from his touch. “Don’t.”
She was angry with him for so many things, and he wasn’t getting off that easily. It didn’t matter how warm his gaze was at that moment. She had craved to see him look at her like that for so long, but he’d lost his chance with everything that had happened since their last conversation in his lair. It shocked her that he’d brought her here to recuperate rather than anywhere else.
He sighed, and a look of regret flashed in his eyes. “You’re angry with me.”
“Of course, I’m mad.” She sat up, pulling more of the blanket from him, only to discover he didn’t have clothes on, either. “Seriously? Why are we both naked? You should at least have spare clothes around here…somewhere.” She gestured around the underground cavern.
Galadon pulled himself to a sitting position, and she got an eyeful of his massive, muscular chest with numerous faint red lines from injuries that hadn’t quite healed yet. Still, it was all she could do not to touch him. The damn man was far too tempting, so she jerked her gaze back to his face.
“I usually sleep as a dragon, but on the rare occasion I do rest in human form, I cannot stand clothing restricting me.” With a flash of light, pants and a tunic appeared on him. “As for you, the garments you wore before were beyond saving, and the Kandoran stole all your other clothing from the tower.”
She balled her fists. “Of course, because nothing in my life has gone right lately.”
“I’ve ordered several sets of new clothes for you, but it will be a couple of days before the first is ready.” He gestured toward a wooden wardrobe next to the far wall. “You are welcome to borrow one of my shirts for now.”
Ordered clothes for her? The same man who never wanted to see her again had brought her into his private lair to recover and planned to provide her with a new wardrobe. She’d entered the Twilight Zone.
Then, something else occurred to her, and Rayna narrowed her eyes. “Why didn’t you put a shirt on me before?”
He reached up as if to try touching her again, but she glared, and he dropped his hand with a sigh. “My mother has been coming in several times a day to do healing treatments on you. Considering your injuries were all over your body, she needed easy access. Also, I didn’t think it would bother you since you had no problem walking nude in front of me at the lake.”
“Fine, you have a point,” she said, drawing her knees together. She had never felt more vulnerable with him that close while she was still very weak from injuries.
He slowly rose from the bed, gaze never leaving her. “I’ll get you something to eat, and I’m certain my mother will want to look at you now that you’re awake. She kept you unconscious for longer because you had more damage, and your body was struggling to heal.”
“I suppose that dagger didn’t help matters.”
His expression darkened. “No, it certainly didn’t. You’re lucky you didn’t fully pierce your heart, or you’d have died.”
“That wasn’t an accident,” she admitted, gazing up at him. “I shifted my aim at the last moment when I saw a streak of light and knew our rescuers had come.”
Horror filled his amber eyes. “So, you would have killed yourself if not for that?”
“I didn’t want to die, but I wanted you to die even less,” she said in a whisper, dropping her head.
Though things had certainly been horrible, and she was in so much pain from all her injuries, it had been difficult to think straight at the time. She’d seen it as a sacrifice. Not suicide. If not for Galadon, she would have endured the torture until the Kandoran killed her because she’d have kept hoping for a miracle. She just didn’t see one at that point. They’d set up the final challenge, and it would have resulted in at least one of them dying. She’d done what felt right under extreme duress.
He kneeled in front of her. “Do not ever take that choice from me again, Rayna. It wasn’t fair when I made it clear I care about you. I couldn’t have lived with myself if you died.”
Sure, he cared, but so did the other people who came to rescue them. It wasn’t earth-shattering news. She was the one to declare her love for him, and because of a tiny percentage of dragon blood in her veins, the vow had worked the same as it would between shifters.
Rayna had tied herself to him for life. It would be impossible for her to have a relationship with anyone else, or even casual sex. All other men’s touch would repulse her. Bailey—who’d been bonded to a shifter for over six years—had explained this to her last summer. Of course, Galadon would never reciprocate by saying the words back to her to complete the bond. She was certain of it. Still, she couldn’t regret telling him because she’d meant it, and she’d already concluded that no one else interested her anymore. If she had died, she’d wanted him to know the truth.
“Fine. I won’t do it again,” she said, lying back down as exhaustion pulled at her.
He stood. “Don’t sleep yet. You need food to speed your recovery. I will be back as soon as I can.”
Rayna rolled onto her side, turning her back to him. “Okay.”
She couldn’t have said how long he was gone, but Ujala hovered over her when she woke. The female shifter had lifted the blanket to check Rayna’s legs first. She was gentle as she probed over her bruised and swollen skin, shifting her body as necessary.
“Do not try walking yet.” Galadon’s mother pursed her lips. “Perhaps tomorrow night after you’ve had a few meals in you and more rest. I can do a lot, but I can’t regrow bone after it has been pulverized. Your body has suffered too much trauma to regenerate itself as fast as it might normally. They brutalized you even more than my son.”
Rayna didn’t like the idea of being trapped in Galadon’s bed for another day—though the irony of that was not lost on her. “Why does he get to walk?”
“Oh, I made him spend a full day sleeping. Then another day with him lying right next to you as he ate, rested, and let me heal him. He just began walking this afternoon, and that was only because his broken bones weren’t as bad as yours. I still won’t let him shift for at least another day until he stops limping.”
Knowing he hadn’t been going about like normal while she was out of it was a comfort. Rayna hadn’t seen him walk yet to know he wasn’t back to full strength, but she noted he sat in a chair across the room now, giving them space. His gaze practically burned into her across the distance.
“Let me have a look at your stomach now,” Ujala commanded.
Rayna adjusted the blanket so it was low at her waist. She really wasn’t the shy type, especially not with doctors/healers, but her nerves were shot with Galadon. His gaze was almost predatory as he stared at her body. Why was he suddenly showing so much unguarded interest, and why did it bother her so much?
“Can you give me some privacy?” she asked, glaring at him.
He laughed. Like, laughed loudly and uproariously in a way she thought was impossible for him. It took a moment for Galadon to catch his breath. “If that makes you feel better.”
Then the grouchiest shifter she’d ever met continued to chuckle all the way out of his lair, gait a little awkward as he tried to hide his limp. Good. He wasn’t totally healed and still had to suffer a little.
“Ugh, he makes me so mad,” she said, staring up at the dirt ceiling as Ujala probed and prodded. She paused occasionally to send some healing energy as she went.
Galadon’s mother gave Rayna a knowing look. “He told me everything—not that he made it easy, mind you—but I pried it out of him. You broke through his defenses by showing you’d harm yourself before hurting him, and you’ve bound yourself to him. He’s going to be cocky because he knows you belong to him completely now.”
“He might have my heart, but not my body,” Rayna replied, scowling.
“And I’ll be disappointed if you give that to him too easily.” She pulled the blanket back up to cover her, finished with her latest healing. “Make him beg and work for it—after you’ve both healed some more.”
Rayna sighed. “I’m still trying to process everything that happened. This week was horrible, and right now, everything seems intimidating and confusing. I don’t feel like myself at all.”
Ujala patted her shoulder as she rose to her feet. “Take all the time you need.” She moved over to Galadon’s small dining table and grabbed a tray with a steaming bowl and bread on the side. “We spooned some broth into you while you slept these last two days, but this is a hearty stew that will strengthen you a lot more.”
The female shifter set it down on the bed in front of Rayna, and the aroma wafted up to her nose. “It smells amazing.”
“Thank you. My cooking skills are almost as good as my healing abilities.”
“Then I’m sure I’ll love it,” she said, giving Ujala a smile.
“Make sure you eat all of that.” She started to walk away, then turned back. “It’s only fair I tell you that we had to give you the potion that keeps slayers from attacking dragons. Otherwise, you would have woken in a rage and made matters worse. Based on the first test subject, it lasts ten days.”
Rayna blanched. She hadn’t even thought about the fact that she felt zero urge to hunt dragons. It was so quiet in her head for the first time in years. Usually, there was this tiny voice in there that urged her to kill them, and it grew louder the longer she went without doing it. She didn’t know whether she was okay with that or not, but she couldn’t blame them for giving it to her under the circumstances. How else would she have healed properly?
“Okay. Thanks for telling me.”
Ujala nodded. “Of course.”
Rayna dug into her stew as soon as the healer left, ravenous after eating next to nothing for too long. She could feel a margin of her strength return with each bite. Galadon came in when she was halfway through the bowl, and he headed straight to his wardrobe. He pulled a black tunic from it and brought it over to her.
“Here,” he said, expression neutral now.
She took it and instinctively sniffed the camrium fabric, finding it smelled just like him. It was clean, but the washing process hadn’t entirely erased his scent. She resisted the urge to bury her face in it as he watched her with a slowly spreading grin.
She pulled the tunic over her head and frowned at him. “What?”
He shook his head. “I didn’t expect you to smell it. That’s something one would expect from a shifter, not a slayer.”
“Humans are known to do it too, under certain circumstances,” she said, adjusting the tunic as best she could since it practically swallowed her. The neck area before the buttons ran so low that some of her cleavage showed. Still, it was better than nothing.
Galadon lowered himself to the corner of the mattress, exhaustion lining his features. He was trying to hide how much his injuries still affected him, but it was there in his slow movements, the lines of strain around his eyes, and how he never stood for long.
“Do you need more stew?” he asked.
Thankfully, she was full because she didn’t want to ask him to get up again.
“No.” Rayna pressed a hand to her tummy. “I think my stomach shrank from not eating for too long.”
He nodded with understanding in his gaze. “I’m still not consuming much, either.”
She set the tray on the floor, which wasn’t far since his mattress wasn’t elevated.
“I’m tired now,” she said, feeling awkward with him close and no hint of hostility like before. She didn’t know how to handle him.
He reached his hand out toward her slowly, and this time, she didn’t flinch as he cupped her cheek. His gaze was intense. “I’m sorry, Rayna.”
She froze. “Why?”
His thumb caressed her skin, and she couldn’t have pulled away for all the gold in the world while he looked at her like that. “I’m sorry for my cruelty, rejecting you, not trusting you, and most importantly, for being unable to save you. It never should have reached the point where you had to make an impossible choice.”
“I…” She was at a loss for words. “You mean that?”
“Yes. All of it.” Then he slowly pulled her down with him so they cuddled face to face on the bed. “The moment you held that knife over your heart, I realized what a fool I’d been. If I hadn’t rejected you the last time you were here, you wouldn’t have been living out there, and none of the past week would have happened.”
She was still too traumatized by everything to refute him because, in her heart, she did blame him for it. So many things could have gone differently. Having said that, his admitting it took away some of her anger. Had Galadon ever apologized for anything before?
“Sleep, slayer,” he said, pulling her closer until she was fully wrapped in his warmth. “I’ll be right here to watch over you.”
It was so hard to stay angry at him when he was being sweet like this. Rayna decided to be a little generous. “If you prefer, you can send your clothes to shiggara.”
“That’s generous of you,” he said, body shaking as he laughed silently.
His chest was bare a moment later, and she rested her cheek against his hot skin. Rayna was too tired and weak to pull away, especially when his embrace felt so right. She could always make things difficult for him again tomorrow. With that thought, she fell fast asleep.