Shadow Walker by Allyson James

turn around without tripping over them. That was my father’s doing. I was his illegitimate daughter, mother unknown to all but him, but my usually quiet and subdued father had refused to give me up. The family had accepted me—grudgingly, but they’d done it.
    “Among dragons, it’s more common to be alone,” Mick said. “We need so much territory, and when humans overran the world, there wasn’t a lot of room left for us. We’ve been dying out for centuries.”
    Mick didn’t talk much about his dragon background, only occasionally feeding me bits of information. He’d once told me about a lady dragon he’d planned to take as mate, long ago. She’d been stolen from him by another dragon, and she’d later died. He’d been alone since.
    The dragon council, a triumvirate who enforced dragon law, had assigned Mick to watch over me. The original assignment had been to kill me, but Mick had turned things his own way. He was still watching over me.
    “Dying out?” I repeated.
    “Slowly. Nothing to worry about. Dragons live a long time.”
    “Maybe, but do Stormwalkers?”
    Mick’s smile vanished, and I saw a deep and ageless pain in his eyes. “I don’t know. That’s why I want to enjoy every minute I can with you.”
    I knew what he meant. He would watch me age and die before he changed much himself. He knew he’d lose me, and he was already preparing himself for it.
    “You should find a lady dragon,” I said, trying to make my voice light. “Someone who can be with you for another couple of centuries, someone who can live inside a volcano with you.”
    Mick laced his fingers through mine. “A lady dragon hasn’t snared me. You have.” He leaned to me, his eyes darkening. “ Mate isn’t just a word to me, Janet. It never has been. I want you as my mate in all ways, in bed and out of it. I want to give you all I have, all that I am.”
    A breath of freezing air swept over the snow and made me shiver. “Maybe we should talk about this later.”
    “When? There’s always something crazy happening around you, around us. I have to talk about this when I can catch you alone for five minutes.”
    That was true enough. “Mick . . .”
    Mick closed on me again, hands cupping my shoulders. “What are you afraid of?” he asked. “Me?”
    I wasn’t sure. Obligation to be the perfect wife, which I was convinced I never could be? Fear of producing children with the touch of evil I inherited from my mother?
    “Everything,” I said. “I’m afraid of everything.”
    “I know. I want to make sure you’re never afraid again.”
    Gods, he’d break my heart. The fact that Mick wanted to be with me and me alone stunned the hell out of me. But all my life I’d been watched, restricted, controlled. Things had happened to me in the last year that I hadn’t quite come to terms with, one of them being having Mick back in my life.
    “I love you,” I said, choosing my words carefully. “I love being with you, believe me. And I love knowing you have my back. I love that you claimed me as your dragon mate to protect me from the other dragons. We’re partners, lovers, best friends.” I closed my hands on his hard ones. “Right now, that’s enough for me.”
    Mick’s eyes turned blue again, the human eyes that had persuaded me to give him my virginity years ago. He reached out and traced my lips. “But it’s not enough for me,” he said.
    He released me and walked away, his boots grating on the sanded roof. Mick went back inside, and I was left alone in the white, icy world with tears that froze on my cheeks.
     
    No big surprise that by the time I went back downstairs, Mick had gone. Snowed-over roads wouldn’t stop a dragon—he’d probably flown back to his Pacific island to bask on the beach while we froze our butts off here.
    At least Maya had gotten the heat working. Cassandra and I cheered when a blast of hot air came out of the vents, but we kept our coats on until the place warmed up. Fremont