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CHAPTER SIX

Zoey felt all the blood drain from her head, leaving her lightheaded as she stared up at the silver dragon that had suddenly appeared in front of her.

She continued to stare at it as she took several hurried steps backward before tripping over her own feet and falling onto the cold sand, having gone into full fight-or-flight mode and erring completely on the side of flight.

She managed to support herself by putting her hands flat on the sand behind her and pushing hard with her feet as she scrambled back until she was several feet away from the rampant thirty-foot-tall silver dragon as it dropped onto all four of its clawed feet mere feet in front of her.

It had large and majestic wings stretched out at its sides, with spikes on its head and along its spine, and a long tail flicked from side to side behind it.

Zoey knew her heart was beating too loudly and too fast.

Her breathing was merely a wheeze as her lungs seemed to have seized up.

The freezing of her body owed absolutely nothing to the coldness of the January air.

Because there’s a thirty-foot-tall silver dragon now standing in front of me!

A dragon!

A dragon !

The same mythical creature Zoey had, seconds ago, scorned as not existing!

“You, of all people, have nothing to fear from me.”

Oh dear God, it wasn’t just a mythical dragon. It was a talking one!

Because Zoey had no doubt that deep and reverberating voice she’d heard had come from way down within the dragon’s huge chest before being growled from between those two rows of razor-sharp teeth lining its cavernous mouth.

Teeth that looked capable of ripping her apart before swallowing down those bloody pieces as if she had never existed.

Except Zoey’s levelheadedness told her there couldn’t be a thirty-foot-tall silver dragon standing in front of her. That they didn’t exist, nor had they ever.

Did that mean she was having some sort of psychotic episode where she was imagining she was seeing a dragon?

Possibly because of what Hunter had told her? Or perhaps as a result of the strain of the last week after Ben had died so suddenly? Or, according to Hunter Drake, after Ben was murdered?

Talking of which…

Hunter was responsible for having somehow pulled her into this delusion, so where the hell was he when she obviously needed him to pull her out of it again?

Hunter realized within seconds that he had made a mistake in allowing his dragon to just appear in front of Zoey.

Her face had instantly gone deathly white, and she’d fallen back onto the sand before using her feet and hands to scramble away from him.

Her eyes were no longer that joyful and clear green, but the color of bruised leaves in spring.

Her mouth was slightly agape. Her chest was barely moving up and down as she obviously had a problem drawing air into her lungs.

Everything about her said she was seconds away from either fainting away completely or jumping to her feet and running to her car before driving away from here, and him, as if the devil himself was snapping at her heels.

Or a dragon.

The dragon he now knew he shouldn’t have so suddenly revealed to her.

“Could you stay calm and just breathe for me, Zoey?” he encouraged gruffly.

“You know my name? Of course you know my name,” she answered herself with obvious disgust. “I’m in the parallel universe where a thirty-foot-tall silver dragon has suddenly appeared in front of me.

No surprise it’s now talking to me and calling me by my name.

” Her voice was rising higher and higher in her distress.

“And now it’s asking me to remain calm. I don’t— Oh. My. God…” she gasped incredulously.

Because Hunter had decided the best way to defuse the situation was to reverse the process that had so alarmed her, and he was now shifted back to his human form.

Zoey’s eyes widened even further, and her chest stopped moving as she completely stopped breathing. Her eyelids fluttered as she gave a low groan before collapsing back onto the sand in a dead faint.

At least, Hunter hoped she had only fainted.

Perhaps less melodrama next time? The voice of his brother, Ranulf, sounded clearly inside his head through their fraternal mental link.

Fuck off , Hunter mentally shot back at him, even as he hurried to kneel beside Zoey.

Her chest was moving rhythmically up and down, so she was at least breathing now. But her face was still deathly pale, even her lips no longer having that natural cherry-red color.

Wait until this happens to you , he warned Ranulf.

I can’t wait , his brother assured wistfully.

Hunter instantly felt guilty. I know you can’t. I apologize.

No need. I’m happy for you. I also look forward to meeting your mate very soon, brother , Ranulf approved before ending the mental link.

Hunter put one of his arms beneath Zoey’s shoulders so that he could drape her across his knees and cradle the warmth of her torso against his chest.

Compared to his solid muscle, Zoey weighed virtually nothing at all, and yet Hunter had absolutely no doubt that he was holding his whole world in his arms.

She felt so soft. So warm.

Ours , his dragon purred in satisfaction.

Yes, that was exactly who Zoey was to them.

Because of that, he could no longer resist the longing he felt to lower his head and place a gentle kiss on her brow. Her skin was smooth and soft as velvet against his lips. Her scent was so deep inside him, it pervaded and claimed every inch of him.

As she would claim every inch of him.

Mate , his dragon purred again.

Hunter’s arms tightened about Zoey when she gave a low groan and began to move, indicating she was coming out of her faint.

Hunter could only hope, once she had, that she would give him enough time to explain before she followed her initial instinct to run to her car screaming and drive away from him.

He could follow her, of course. Easily. But he would rather she accepted his dragon than have her run away from him. Not just for his sake, but because of the danger Wallis represented to anyone who stood in the way of him obtaining the knowledge that dragons were real.

The next few minutes after Zoey came out of her faint were going to be vital to the future of both of them.

Zoey could feel there was something, some thought that was urgent and desperate for acknowledgment as it pressed for her attention as the layers of darkness began to part, then evaporated completely, before she came back to full consciousness.

She had never fainted in her life before.

Which meant there had to be a good reason for her having done so now?—

“Dragon!” She pulled away from the arms holding her to shoot up into a sitting position before scrabbling onto her knees so she could search frantically for the huge silver dragon she now remembered was the reason she’d fainted.

Oh God, just thinking that made her sound unhinged.

The muttering under her breath, ‘There wasn’t a dragon, there couldn’t have been, because dragons don’t exist,” wasn’t helping?—

“They exist, Zoey.”

Her head snapped round so she could stare at Hunter Drake as he knelt on the sand a short distance away. Because he had been the one holding her? Well, of course he had. Who else could it have been when they were the only two people on this deserted beach?

She really did need to calm?—

“Dragons exist,” Hunter repeated softly. “Not in great quantities, I admit, but the dragon you saw just now?—”

“Are you saying you saw it too?” she prompted, feeling cautious but hopeful. Because, dragons .

But if Hunter said he had seen the dragon too, then that meant she wasn’t having a nervous breakdown after all?—

“I am the dragon, Zoey,” Hunter stated softly.

Wrong!

She really was having some sort of psychotic breakdown.

Hunter might be bigger and more muscular than any other man she had ever met.

He might give off that intriguing aroma that was a mixture of the water, earth, a summer’s breeze, despite it being winter, and the smell of burning leaves.

Zoey also found his presence strangely compelling.

The way he looked, and that sense of more , intriguing.

But, unusual as those things were, none of them made him a dragon.

Except…

Where had he been when she had thought she was looking at and hearing a thirty-foot-tall dragon speak to her?

She—

Hunter had asked her to remain calm.

Could she do that when her hold on reality was still so badly shaken?

She could try!

She drew in several long, calming breaths before she dared look at Hunter again. He appeared just as large and intimidating as before, but she accepted that was normal for him. After all, everyone’s normal was different.

Yes, but they didn’t all go around claiming to be dragons!

Zoey licked the dryness of her lips, instantly tasting the salt from the sea and a hint of that delicious combination of scents that was all Hunter.

She shook her head. “I’ve seen the superhero movies, which is why I know your clothes would be ripped if you had changed into a dragon,” she blurted out and then instantly felt stupid for even giving Hunter’s claim that much credence.

“I shifted, not changed.”

She eyed him warily. “What’s the difference?”

He smiled slightly. “My body shifts into a dragon. My clothes remaining intact when I shift back to being a man is part of the magic.”

Magic.

Right.

Maybe if Zoey had consumed some magic mushrooms by mistake—which she never had—she could accept that explanation. But she hadn’t eaten anything since leaving London early this morning.

She licked her lips. “What else?”

Hunter’s expression appeared to be one of relief that so far she hadn’t fainted again. “So, my two brothers and I were born in the ninth century from the same clutch?—”

“You’re going to have to do better than that if you want me to take you seriously,” she interrupted scornfully.

He frowned. “Better than the truth?”