Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 45585 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 228(@200wpm)___ 182(@250wpm)___ 152(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45585 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 228(@200wpm)___ 182(@250wpm)___ 152(@300wpm)
When the dragon didn’t move, she looked up. Even the scaled ferocious face of the dragon couldn’t hide Drake’s emotions. She knew this was tearing him apart just as it hurt her. “Go, Drake. Take me home.”
He shook his head, rebutting her choice of words and those eyes glowed brighter.
“Take me to my grandparents’ home.”
The dragon’s head nodded down once. She felt his powerful muscles bunch underneath her as his wings spread. With a massive thrust of his legs, the dragon burst into the air.
Aurora watched the beautiful castle fade from view. How had he ever concealed this from her? She shook her head and looked forward as the town came into view.
Drake glided low over the town. His presence in the full light caused accidents below as drivers watched the beast above instead of the others on the road. People streamed out of businesses and houses to watch him fly over.
When they reached Angelino’s, she saw a bunch of boys run out to point and wave. Unwilling to loosen her hold on the scales she clung to, Aurora smiled and hoped they could see her expression. Drake let out a small blast of fire, making them shriek with delight and she laughed along with them. The dragon’s head bobbled slightly, and Aurora wondered if he was laughing as well.
Drake landed in the old, narrow street next to her grandparents’ home and somehow squeezed into the small space. Aurora slid from his back and retrieved her things with a soft, “Thank you.”
She did not meet the beast’s gaze again. It was too hard to turn and walk to the entrance where her grandmother waited for her with open arms. Each step was torture.
What would it feel like when he flew away?
A scream ripped itself from her, coming from deep inside. Aurora felt like she was being ripped in two—every muscle of her body was tense and stretched. Seconds passed in slow motion. She heard a huge thump on the other side of the door and the pain diminished.
Collapsing to the floor, she struggled to catch her breath. The only pain that remained was in her hands. She looked down to find she’d dug her fingernails into her palms. Quickly, she forced her fingers to straighten. Blood dripped onto her jeans.
“Go get the first aid kit,” her grandmother ordered her husband. “Breathe, Aurora. Drake came back to help you.”
Chapter 18
“Your mate is creating a traffic snarl. The police are out there now.”
Aurora rubbed her eyes as she sat up in bed to see her grandmother standing in the doorway of the pink bedroom. “Drake is still out there?”
“He is.”
“In dragon form?”
“The newsies are jockeying for position in front of him to do their live reports for the morning news. It’s quite a sensation to have a dragon filling a street in Wyvern. No one’s seen a dragon—much less in person—for many years. Our neighbors woke us up this morning with a phone call to see if we could get him to blast fire.”
“Oh, good gravy. That’s not good. Aren’t dragons supposed to be stealthy? I didn’t even know they really existed until I met Drake,” Aurora fussed as she pushed back the covers.
Her grandmother walked forward to pick up her robe. “You’re going to have to go out and talk to him.”
“I don’t want to,” Aurora retorted as she slid her bandaged hands into the soft garment. After wrapping the material around her, she managed to belt it tightly.
“Yes, you do.”
“Okay, I do. But he’s an ass.”
“A very large dragon ass who currently has helicopters flying over him. You don’t want the city to panic and attack him.”
“They wouldn’t do that.”
The look in her grandmother’s eyes warned her that was a very real possibility. “People are always scared of things they don’t understand. Put your slippers on, Aurora. Go save him.”
After thrusting her toes into the soft shoes, Aurora raced through the house and out the front door. A voice yelled, “Someone came out of that house.”
Immediately, the large gathered group of onlookers, camera men and reporters, and the police turned to look at her. Aurora froze and lifted one hand to try to smooth out her sleep-rumpled hair. Please don’t let my face be all squashed on one side.
Drake did not move. Feeling something was wrong, Aurora raced to his side. She pressed a hand to his scales as she ran toward his head. He did not respond.
“Watch out, miss. I’ve hit him with enough tranquillizers to put the entire city to sleep, but I’ve never dealt with dragons before.”
“What did you do to him? He wasn’t hurting anyone!” Aurora jumped over his foreleg to get to his head. Something skidded away from one of her fuzzy slippers and she looked down.
The ground looked like a junkies’ den. Instead of used syringes, there were darts scattered everywhere. How many times had they shot him? So many had bounced off his scales until a few landed on his snout and between his toes.