Dragon's Pride: BBW Paranormal Dragon Romance (8 page)

“That says what?” Cerul demanded.

“I never agreed with your mother. You must understand that much. She’s always done what she pleased, and she’s never had a problem casting aside anyone who didn’t agree with her.”

Cerul clenched and unclenched his fists. His face was tight, and his fingers looked like they were itching to grab his father again. “Tell me what the lore says.”

Cerul

The drive back to my house was as silent as humanly possible. I didn’t say a word, and Kale seemed to be frozen in her seat. She didn’t even know the implications of what we were going to attempt.

My father’s voice echoed in my mind. He had pulled me away so that Kale couldn’t hear what he was saying. “The lore says that with the right person, someone who loves and respects you… a connection between the minds can be forged. Once that person is inside, healing can take place.” Seeing my confusion, he had nodded. “It won’t be easy, and I can’t promise you that it’ll work. But if you’re willing to try, I’ll tell you what you need to do.”

Could it be true? Did Kale have the ability to cure me? I could believe that love had that much power. But was Kale in love with me?

I wondered. I truly wondered. If Kale failed, I’d have no shifting abilities and no woman. If she didn’t love me, I wouldn’t want her to stay. I’d be back where I was after Deedee left. With my heart broken a second time, I’d be even worse than before.

My house looked even smaller and less noteworthy now that we were back. There were many things that could be said about my parents, but they definitely knew how to take care of themselves. The mansion I had grown up in was vastly superior than this house in every way.

Once I could shift, I would have the money to acquire anything I wanted. I’d buy a bigger house, start my own art collection, get Kale whatever clothes or jewelry she could want.

I could probably have any woman in the world, now that I thought about it. But there was only one that I wanted to be at my side. If my father thought Kale’s help would bring me out of my state, I was willing to try.

“What are we going to do?” Kale asked as I pulled into the driveway.

“I was indoors for a long time. Let’s do this outside, in the back yard.”

The starry sky loomed large above us as we sat down on the back porch, our feet in the grass. The yard was part of my property, but I had never enjoyed it before. With Kale at my side, it didn’t seem scary anymore.

“Dragons are psychic,” I explained to Kale. “We can communicate telepathically.”

“You can read my thoughts?”

“No, but if you relax and open your mind, I might be able to make you hear mine.”

She nodded slowly, still clearly unsure about this whole thing. I tried to understand what she was going through. It had been a very long day for her, and now I was asking her for one more favor. If we succeeded, though, it would be worth it.

Her eyes closed, and I directed my thoughts toward her.
Kale, Kale.
My father had told me this was the first step in forming the connection.

After a minute, she looked at me. “Are you doing it?”

“Yes. Do you hear it?”

“Nothing.”

“Keep your mind empty, and just listen.” Projecting my thoughts usually didn’t take any effort. It was as natural as speaking. But then, I only did it in my dragon form. If it would be impossible for me to speak in that form, why would I be able to send my thoughts in this one? Maybe this was all for nothing.

We might not even make it past the first step. If she didn’t feel the way I hoped she felt, never mind entering my mind. Maybe she wouldn’t even be able to hear my thoughts.

In my mind, I pictured myself pulling a word to me, white-hot. I pulled it back like a slingshot and volleyed it straight towards Kale. I watched it go, hoping…

She jumped up. “What is that?”

“It’s working. Did you get it? Sit down.” I kept my head low, my eyes closed. She did love me, at least enough for this step.

Kale.

“You’re saying my name,” she said wonderingly. “I heard it.”

Yes.

“I… I feel it.”

Listen.
I didn’t have the energy to keep speaking out loud. I spoke to her in my thoughts now, grabbing her hands with my last bit of effort.
You have a connection to my mind right now. You need to go in and fix me.

“I don’t know how.”

Go in. The same way that I’m doing to you. Find the part of me that can’t shift, and heal it. But hurry. I don’t know how long a human can keep this up.

Her hands squeezed mine, and her voice was tremulous as she answered. “I’ll try, Cerul. Just tell me what to do.”

The dark fingers of her thoughts probed at the edge of my mind, strange and foreign. Clearing it as much as possible, I forced myself to relax and let her in. Every moment that she was inside was proof that she cared about me. I would have been relieved if I wasn’t completely on edge. We weren’t done yet – not even close.
Go further,
I told her
. You need to find the broken part.

She penetrated further, exploring me deeper. Saw my childhood, my adolescence. Brushed by some painfully buried old memories. I shuddered as she passed the compartment where I kept my mother, and the one with my ex. But her fingers stroked those walls, smoothing their ragged edges. Her love was doing something to me. I breathed more raggedly as she moved past them.

I felt her stopping, looking around as she went deeper. She didn’t seem able to find the place she needed. “Am I doing it right?” she asked.

I don’t know. Keep looking.

How much time did we have? At any moment, I might breathe too deeply and expel her altogether. When neither of us quite knew what we were looking for, it seemed impossible for her to succeed. My mind contracted painfully as I began to despair.

With a gasp, she seized my hands more tightly. Her mind pushed forward into mine. She had found it. My dragon brain. I could feel the separation that wasn’t supposed to be there, the serrated, bleeding flesh where it should have been connected to my human mind. They should have been joined, two halves of one whole.

“Cerul,” Kale murmured, still holding my hands, still deep inside me. “I see where it’s broken.”

Can you fix it?

“I’m going to try, but I don’t know exactly how it’s supposed to work.”

Just try. Please, try.

I felt the air move as she nodded. And then I felt her thought-fingers digging into my mind like needles and thread. She pierced through me, the pain sizzling so hot I could have screamed. But when she pulled the thread tight, bringing the halves together, the feeling was sheer ecstasy. I gasped in a breath, and then she did it again.

No more,
I pleaded.
I can’t take it.

“We’re almost there, honey. Think about your dragon form. Think about all the things you’re going to do.”

It hurt so much. Too much. But for once, she was using the right words for her encouragement. My dragon form was close… Once I had it back, I’d be whole again… A real man. And I was going to do unspeakable things to my woman.

“Almost there.”

With a final push, she finished putting me back together. And with a shudder, I fell onto all four feet. I had been waiting so long to shift that I couldn’t even control it now that I could do it again. My dragon sprang out of me fully formed. My tail lashed at the air, my head tilted back, and I breathed a pillar of fire at the night sky.

I didn’t care who saw. I didn’t even care that Kale cowered and jumped back. Even knowing what was going to happen, even having helped me get my form back, she wasn’t fully prepared for what was going to happen. No human would have been. But she was secondary to my own joy as I spread my wings wide and rejoiced in my regained abilities.

“It’s really you, Cerul?”

It’s really me. Climb onto my back. I want to take you somewhere.

She did as I told her, even though I could feel her heart pounding. Her legs tightened around my back and I lifted off, the wings I had gone so long without finally flapping in the cool night air. I was flying, flying, with a woman who loved me on my back. She was with me now and we would never have to be apart.

We lifted higher.
Hang on tight.
I sped up, dipping to the tree line and zooming back up again. I was getting vertigo and revelling in it. After being locked in a mental prison for six months, I wanted my stomach to turn and my head to spin.

“Cerul!”

You’re okay. Just hang on.
When her hands were tight enough around my neck, I spun into a roll. It made me laugh so hard that I did another, then another. Front flips, back flips. Aerial gymnastics with my woman on my back. I hadn’t played like this since I was a little dragon.

“Are you ever going to put me down?” she panted. “Are we going anywhere, or are you just going to frolic forever?”

We’re going somewhere nice. Just relax for a minute and enjoy it.

One more flip – okay, two more – and we were almost at our destination. The tower stood head and shoulders above any other building in town. We circled it, following its slow rotation from above before making our way down.

“These scales,” Kale said as I touched down on the restaurant’s roof. “They look like the jewels you had in your room. The ones that were worth so much money.”

They’re the same.

“You’re like your parents. You have more money than you know what to do with.”

Unlimited money.

“And you never felt like mentioning this to me?”

I shifted back, shrugging at her. My human form didn’t feel constricting at all when I was still exhilarated by my dragon flight. “It didn’t seem like a big deal.”

She held up one gem that she had broken off – with the amount that I had, I hadn’t even felt it go. It gleamed brightly in the moonlight. I was used to the jewels before, but after so long without seeing mine, its beauty took me by surprise.

“What are we doing up here, anyway?” Kale asked.

From the seductive smile on her lips, I thought she might have an idea. The roof was deserted, nothing there but a few empty chairs and a stack of blankets. While the night air was cool, the view of the entire city spread out around us as we slowly rotated made up for it.

“Take one guess.”

She came towards me and put her arms around me, kissing me with even more passion than she ever had before. Her arms pinned me tightly to her, her chest heaving with her relieved exhalations. “I’m so happy,” she whispered.

“Stop thinking.” I took her arms, immobilizing both wrists in one hand. “Stop trying to be in control.”

I shook a blanket over the ground and brought her down with me, her curves quivering in my arms. She was beautiful and she was perfect. She had put my body back together and now she had cured my mind. I knew now that this girl was the one I wanted to spend my life with.

Pinning her wrists to the floor, I pushed her head to the side. The view of the buildings and lights below her made her eyes widen.

“I’m in control now,” I told her.