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I shower while Graham remakes my bed—then I fall asleep.

When I wake up, my little burner phone shows it’s almost two in the morning.

I slept through dinner. I slept hard—so hard, I didn’t notice Graham wasn’t beside me anymore.

“Graham?” I whisper, fear racing through me. I clutch the amulet around my neck and instantly feel better. “I need to get a gross of these things,” I mutter, swinging my feet over the edge of the bed, rising, and gasping in pain at once.

Holy fucking sore pussy and ass. Tender from the boobs down. Thigh muscles burn. Legs feel like gelatin.

If I weren’t worried that some hitman had shot my boyfriend, I’d be smiling and singing as I stagger painfully down across the hall to his room.

Nope. Not there, either.

I limp down the stairs, calling his name, and stop when I look out the big sliding door that leads to the backyard.

There’s a dragon outside.

A giant dragon, the kind that you’d see flying high in fantasy movies, the kind wrapped around towers on the covers of fairytale picture books.

“Graham?” I hiss, and wince as the door squeaks open. His head raises at once, eyes wide.

Is he like... an animal now? Can he talk? Can he—

“Awake so soon, my little wren? I thought you’d sleep until sunrise.” The voice crosses the lawn, deep and slow, filled with hisses and warbles.

“Oh, wow. You can talk.”

“In all forms, yes, but only certain humans can understand us. Why do you think so many of us have been slain? Why we stopped appearing in this form?” Graham asks, then rakes the claws of one back foot against his side.

“Oh my goodness. That makes sense, actually,” I cry and try to run towards him. I fail. The best I can manage at the moment is a fast hobble.

“Are you sore?” Graham asks, rising and coming over to me. His steps make the damp grass quiver under my feet.

I once got to stand right next to an elephant at the zoo. Graham is bigger. He’s maybe the size of three elephants standing end-to-end. But even in his giant form, he lowers his purple head and rests it on my cheek. “It’s a good kind of sore,” I explain, stroking his massive jaw that’s easily as long as my entire upper body. “You’re huge.”

“And I make an excellent alternative to commercial planes. No waiting in line. No babies crying on board. No snoring neighbors.”

I laugh and continue to stroke his face. “Still handsome, too.”

“You are a rare one. Most women wouldn’t see past the reptilian nature to the mythical beauty underneath,” he chuckles.

“Well, it’s still you,” I say with a flustered shrug. He is handsome. He’s not human, but I know he has a human form.

My insides are all confused now.

“I can read your expressions very easily, little wren. You can admire all you’d like, but don’t worry. No human would be compatible with me in this form.”

I let go of his cheek, and Graham settles back in the grass. I wander down the length of his body, pressed close. I keep one hand on him, and he rumbles low and soft.

“Are you purring?” I ask.

“I’m contented,” he says, as if that answers everything. “But move, Angela. I need to remove some scales.”

“Why? Spa day?” I ask. “Exfoliation?”

His talons rake over his skin, but only a few glittering amethyst-colored scales fall. “Dragon scales are a strong protective magic. The people of Pine Ridge are mostly human and largely oblivious, but the ones who aren’t have agreed to help keep you safe—especially if I restock their supply of dragon scales.”

“Doesn’t that hurt you?” I demand. It looks like it would.

“It’s not painful so much as it is time-consuming. Scales are like chain mail and, as such, don’t like to be removed. Talons are strong, but not as clever as fingers,” he says. Graham holds up one of his front feet (hands?), and I can see that they have opposable thumbs, one claw pointing out to the side. “I could pull from my face and neck, I suppose.”

“But you don’t. Because...”

He sighs. “Tomorrow, I will have cuts wherever the scales were taken. I don’t need to go into work and attract attention.”

“What if I pull just a few so you don’t hurt yourself so much? How many do you need?”

Graham flicks his tail tip over an empty mason jar. “That should do it. There are some in the grass we can retrieve, of course, but I imagine I’ll still need another thirty.”

“Thirty cuts on your skin? How big?” I ask, horrified.

“Small. Paper cuts. Think of it as nicks from shaving,” he says with a lazy swing of his neck, the dragon equivalent of shrugging, I guess.

“You’d cut yourself for a potion or something that will protect me? Why? I thought I had this thing for that.” I hold up the amulet, guilt running rampant. “I don’t want you to hurt yourself for me! That’s not right.”

A cloud of smoke, stronger and more noticeable than the faint whiffs I caught yesterday, flows from Graham’s fist-sized nostrils. “I didn’t know you’d pick up my amulet yesterday,” he confesses.

“Oh. So... Wait, this wasn’t part of the plan? I mean, I know I picked it up by accident, but if it’s strong protection, I thought... Wouldn’t you have given this to me anyway?” I ask, eyebrows drawing together.

Another wave of smoke. A heavy noise that makes me lean on his haunch for support. “Would you like the truth?”

“Always.” I chew anxiously on my lip, waiting.

“That amulet is very strong protection. I wouldn’t have offered it to you right away, though. You see... You see, a dragon’s amulet is rare. There is usually only one for each member of the family, and they’re not usually shared. They are taken off when someone is dying and handed to another family member. If a clan expands more rapidly than expected or there are none available, a new one can be made if there is still treasure left in the clan’s horde.”

My eyebrows must be hitting my hairline by now. “Whoa. So I grabbed the equivalent of the crown jewels?”

“A bit.”

“Then why won’t you let me give it back? Are you putting yourself at risk?”

Graham is silent for a moment. “You won’t be angry with me?”

“I hope not. Even if I am, you could barbecue me, couldn’t you?” I cross my arms and hope my voice sounds playful enough to conceal my worry.

“Kane amulets are protected from theft. They can be given as a gift from one heart with pure intentions to another. When you took it up, it was because you genuinely believed it was for you—and when I took it off, subconsciously I must have been hoping someone special would take it up.”

“Aww, honey. That’s sweet. You’re an awesome boyfriend, scales and all. Why would I be mad at that?” I blush, realizing that’s the second time I’ve called him boyfriend—once in my head and once out loud.

“It’s a bit more serious than that, Angela. I called my brother once I realized you were wearing the amulet like it was made for you—and he said it very well could be.”

Graham suddenly seems to shrivel under my touch, and in seconds, the sexy human I first saw is standing naked beside me in the dark, hand cupping my cheek, small streaks of crimson like cat scratches all down his side. “My amulet is intended for my mate.”