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wind blasting her nostrils she simply hadn’t been able to pick up on the odor of female. But there wasn’t even a faint whiff of one.
    All she smelled was Phoenix. His dark scent of pine, moss, and that subtle thread of patchouli beneath it all.
    Her tiny ear wings fluttered with confusion and a small grunt spilled off her tongue. He jerked, coming awake not even a second later.
    And though she was by far the more powerful predator between them, she was snared by his dual colored eyes and unable to look away. His call of magick rolled through the cave, transforming him from beast back to man.
    Her heart trembled violently.
    He had several days’ worth of beard growth shading his strong jaw. And those eyes she’d always loved so well looked exhausted, and rimmed in purple. He’d not slept much, if at all since she’d seen him last. But for all that, he was still the most handsome male she’d ever seen in her life.
    If a god had ever deigned to ask her just what she’d want in her male, Phoenix was the physical embodiment of it all. His hawkish nose. His wide, full lips that tempted her even now.
    His strong arms and chest, flat stomach, and thick, powerful legs. It was reputed that there was nothing more exotic and alluring than her kind, but she knew that wasn’t true. Because it was a grizzly who’d stolen her soul.
    Up until today, Phoenix had never seen her Breed form. She’d only made the shift a handful of times in her life. From the moment she’d grounded herself to be with him she’d rarely wanted to leave his side, the only times she had was to build this nest for them.
    She couldn’t help but wonder what he thought. If he was repulsed by their obvious differences, or if—like her—it was those differences that drew him in.
    But then she received the surprise of her life when he reached out his hand and she flinched. She, a powerful dragon who, with one snap of her jaws, could devour him whole, flinched.
    Cringing and unsure what that hand might do. Until he ran it gently down her scaled cheek and a strange, whistling noise flowed like music through the cave’s interior.
    It took her a moment to realize that song was hers.
    Trembling beneath his touch, she felt lost and unsure of what to do next.
    “Shift, Madi, we need to talk,” he said slowly.

Chapter 4
    Phoenix
    H olding onto her cheek felt a lot like hanging onto a grenade with the pin taken out. Madison was a monster of the highest caliber, and yet he felt her tremors roll through his palm.
    And then the lambent glow of her shift rained over her massive body, twisting her from Breed to a woman he’d always seen but had never really “seen” before.
    She was the same in many ways. Long dark hair. Gorgeous molten-colored eyes. Pale, ivory skin. Heart shaped face, with an adorable button nose, and rosebud lips slightly fuller at the top than the bottom. His heart clenched, because though he could have drawn her from memory he was sure he’d never actually paid attention to her the way he was now.
    How her skin glimmered like shades of mother of pearl in sunlight. How her hair wasn’t just dark brown, but had rich veins of amber and inky strands of jet-black sprinkled throughout.
    How when she looked at him, her gaze never wavered or shifted. She saw him. Every inch of him. She wasn’t peering just at his face, or his chest, hands, body...no, she was slipping beneath the mask to the man inside of him.
    He was exposed beneath her gaze, cracked open. How had he never noticed that before? Or the fact that lingering in the air between them was her intoxicating scent of lightning and lush spring flowers.
    A gust of wind blew through the cave entrance, fanning the tips of her hair in her face and he gently slid them aside, marveling at the velvety soft texture of her flesh.
    “I’ve seen you my whole life, Madison Draconian, but I’ve always missed you, haven’t I?”
    A flash of the reptile flared through her gold eyes as her irises slit to