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The woman’s gasp was harsh at his shocking actions, most likely the unprovoked savagery of his kiss and the sudden ending of it.

Liekki scowled at her. Not because the kiss was her fault. Hell, no. He’d been the one to instigate it and take it too far. No, he was pissed at her because the dragon wanted her. He. Wanted. To. Claim. Her.

If Liekki hadn’t been quick, the slick, scaly bastard would have given her the claiming kiss.

The cheeky beast wasn’t apologetic as it stretched out languidly inside him, spitting out one small fireball after another against Liekki’s heart as if in a single man’s tennis game.

“Back off!” Moving quickly, the woman grabbed the rock from the table and held it up high.

There was no doubt in his mind if he attempted to kiss her again, the curvy beauty would try to bash his head in.

No chance of that happening. Not because he was afraid of her striking him, nope. His hearthstone could not injure him. Even if the woman threw ten simultaneously in his direction, they would still end up in his palm.

“No worries, little lure, a slip of judgment on my part. It won’t happen again.” He untangled his hand from her hair and removed the other from her hip. Damn, when did I grip her hip?

He decided to leave the question alone as he stepped back.

“You bet it won’t,” she snarled.

It was in him to tease her, challenge the adamancy in her tone, by reminding her that he hadn’t been the only one lost in the kiss, but reasoned with himself that it was best to let her have her conviction. It wouldn’t happen again, so there was no need to get the woman riled up.

He noticed she was talking with the slightest slur, but her lips looked close to a standard size, even though they still appeared too full. Too beguiling.

Liekki took another step away until his back was against the wall next to the fireplace. A safe distance, he hoped. “Put down your weapon, little lure. Eat.”

Her swollen hand didn’t lower, but her sausage fingers tightened around the rock. Her stomach growled, but she held her position. “I don’t know if I can trust you.”

The firelight flickered gold and red tones on the sheet but turned her puffy skin into a captivating bronze.

He shrugged, solely to torment her. “Makes no difference to me. However, it seems you’ve been without food for a while, and the reaction to the honeybees' attack has you more than a bit lightheaded. I’m sure you’ll pass out soon enough...then I’ll have my wicked way with you.”

“What? No.” Her arm began to tremble, and she wisely chose to lower her hand a fraction. She drew the stone close to her chest as if it were a protection shield to ward him off.

His dragon purred, freakin’ purred, at the sight of the hearthstone resting by her heart.

Liekki crossed his arms over his chest as he shook his head at them both. “Eat,” he demanded.

Tentative, she set the stone in her lap as she eyed him. When he didn’t move, she reached for the spoon and scooped up some of the soup broth. She sipped it, then let out the softest sigh.

Without comment, but the apparent satisfaction at the taste, evidenced in the rapt hunger in her unswollen eye as she dove back in for a heartier scoop, told on her.

Silent, he watched her for a moment and was glad the swelling of her tongue had receded; otherwise, he may have needed to mash and cut up her food for her to get it down her throat.

“If it’s cold, I can heat it.”

“No need. It's perfect.” She darted out her tongue over her bottom lip to clear the bit of thick broth that shined there.

He locked his jaw down tight, and heat danced along his markings at the memory of the feel of her tongue under and over his.

Once she had consumed a handful of bites, slaking her hunger, he figured it was an excellent time to get a few questions answered. “What’s your name, feisty?”

She paused for a second and glanced up at him. Then, she spooned more food and shoved it into her mouth before speaking. “Why ask me something you seem to know already?”

Frowning, he straightened his back from the wall.

The spoon clattered against the side of the bowl before sliding into the food when she dropped it and started for the stone. When he didn’t move any closer, she picked up the utensil again.

“How would I know your name?”

“My government...the scientist?” She shrugged and took another bite but continued talking while chewing. “Aren’t they...the ones that sent that beast...you after me?”

Government? Scientist?

“No.” His brow tightened, and his chest expanded. “My beast nor I follow the commands of the human government or anyone else but the Mckenna.”

“Mc-who?” She reached for her beverage.

“Mckenna.” He waved the question in her gaze away. It was his time to get answers. “Name?”

“Avalore. Ava-lore.” She broke it down as if it should mean something to him.

Avalore. He admitted he liked her name but arched an eyebrow at her tone. “It’s nice.”

She sighed. “Why do you look like it’s the first time you’ve heard it when you keep calling me Little Lore.

..most call me Ava, though. And I haven’t been called little since I was a toddler.

” She mumbled the last part as she raised the glass to her lips.

Avalore drank more than half the water before returning the glass to the tray, then lifted the spoon from the dish.

Her comment clarified her misunderstanding. “I call you Lure. L.U.R.E.” As in to draw in, attract something or...someone. He kept the definition to himself. “Compared to my size, you are small but built healthy in all the right ways, like a Drahkelle.”

Liekki could have bit off his tongue when he heard the words slip, but it didn’t stop him from taking a glance at the full spread of her hips and thighs that the sheet accentuated.

Settling back against the wall, he lifted his gaze and met Avalore’s again. Her eyes appeared more green than brown as she stared at him, taking in his words.

It was her turn to frown, but he cut off the question before she could ask and moved to a more important one of his own. “How did you get into our territory? Did your government transport you in? Want you to spy on my people?”

“No.” Adamant, she shook her head. “They’re the reason I escaped. I’m no spy.”

She ate more.

“Are you sick? Do you have the human virus?” Liekki already knew the answer. The sickness would have tainted the air around her and been present in her sweat when he licked her.

Avalore took two more bites before she spoke.

He was patient. He wouldn’t begrudge the sustenance Avalore clearly needed.

“I’m not ill.” An indistinct shadow crossed her features, then was gone.

Then, it doesn’t make sense for her to have the mark. Was the human government playing games? Marking random humans...for what purpose?

“How many more of you did they release into the territories?”

“Release?” She shoved the bowl away and sat back. “I told you, escaped. Mich and I ran from them.”

“Mich?” The growl came out fast and loud, executed by him and his dragon. Who the fuck is Mich .

With an arched brow, Avalore slowly and cautiously wrapped her hands around the hearthstone in her lap.

Even though she didn’t raise it, Liekki understood the warning. Nonplussed, he held his stance and waited.

“Mich is my friend. We got away from the lab...and your beast chasing us,” she declared with a chin lift.

“My dragon wasn’t chasing you.” Liekki was fully aware of what his beast was doing in the forest. The dragon was introducing itself to its mate. He shook his head at the woman and dragon within.

“Well, dragon-tamer. Then it was something else in the lab after us.” She shivered as her eye drifted to a place over his shoulder far away while her fingers absently continued to caress the stone in her lap.

A groan filled his chest, and heat flared down into his groin, swelling it as he watched the movement of her hands around his hearthstone. If the woman knew how erotic her gesture was, Liekki was pretty sure she would stop.

“You didn’t see what it was?” he asked to draw her attention back to him.

She blinked away the vision and shifted her gaze to his face. Her hands stilled their movements. “No. I think Mich has seen it.” She shrugged. “We decided to split up in hopes we both would get away. But—but I don’t know if Mich got away and is safe.”

The room filled with her tension and trepidation over the person she’d fled with.

Liekki knew if the man came into Drahk territory looking for Avalore, he’d kill him. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t trying to take her as a mate, but he’d be damn if he allowed some human to claim her. Shoving aside his abnormal jealous thoughts, Liekki returned to the heart of the discussion.

“You have the mark.” Even though he hadn’t seen it when he disrobed her, he could smell it and sense the latent Drahk genetics pushed toward the surface.

“What mark?” She looked at her hands and arms and even rolled one shoulder and then the other forward as she tried to look at her back. When she saw nothing, she looked at him for clarification.

He crossed the room but stopped on the other side of the small table, holding remnants of her small meal. “Nowhere easily seen. It’d be at the apex of your thighs.”

She gasped.

Liekki saw how her thighs flexed beneath the sheet. He held his hand out to her. “It would be easier for you to see in the mirror. After you bathe.”

Avalore glanced at his open hand. She hesitated, appearing unsure about trusting him.

“I promise to be on my best behavior...or close to it, little lure.” He couldn’t make promises he wasn’t capable of keeping around such a lush creature.

When she still didn’t readily take his hand, he offered, “You can keep your protection with you if you like.”

Liekki chose to disregard the joyous response of his dragon.

Gripping the larimar in one hand, Avalore slipped her other in his.

Tugging her up to stand before him, Liekki found he couldn’t marginalize his response within the fierce beating of his own heart.