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pitiful little whimper of sound. Scooting around to the front of her, I dropped to my knees and nuzzled her velvety-soft flesh as my tears mended what I could not see.
    In moments, I felt her take a deep breath and heard her smile as she said, “Thank you, boy.”
    I sighed. Standing, I looked deep into her eyes. How could she look at me and only see a boy? Place any Kingdom male beside me, and I’d dwarf him. What mattered a pitiful number, when inside—where it signified—I was already older and wiser than her?
    “Now turn around so that I can put my dress back on.”
    “That is naught but a rag. I should eat them for what they’ve done to you,” I snapped.
    Her smile was soft but sad. “Zerelda has given me a roof over my head and food to fill my belly.”
    I snorted, eyeing her pitifully skinny body. I loved my Lena, because she was mine. But between her stench, her rags, and her thin frame, it was a wonder I’d noticed her at all.
    “I am not done with you yet, woman. Close your eyes.”
    She obeyed without question and I smiled. She was a snarling, fiery little thing, but she trusted me. And that was a prize far greater than all the gold in all the lands.
    I could turn into a dragon and wash her down with a gentle steam, but I had rather liked touching her as a man.
    Grabbing her hand, I brought her fingers to my lips and blew. She trembled beneath me as I bathed her in my scent, taking off the stench of mud and other noxious odors. Once I’d finished with her entire arm, I moved across her chest, blowing out a small jet of steam across her breasts. She covered them with her other hand, but I spied a glimpse of a pink-colored nipple and grinned.
    Knowing how bashful she was about her body, I quickly averted my gaze and thought of anything other than the fact that I currently held onto a nearly naked Lena. I thought of those boorish tutors of mine, my foolish, pig-headed brother who—for the first time in his life—had refused my parents’ decrees. Turning aside a potential betrothal to a neighboring house because he found the princess boorish.
    That bastard meant to saddle me with the throne of Drakon and all the nonsense it entailed. I was second born; I could not be forced into a political alliance for the sake of a throne. I wanted my Lena; I’d marked her years ago. She was mine, and I’d toss any into the fiery pits of Tartarus if they tried to deny me.
    By the time I’d finished with her, she smelled like the dawn and the skies I so cherished.
    Stepping away from her, I inclined my head. “Now you may dress.”
    Turning my back, I waited for her to give me the all clear. There was a quick shuffle of fabric, the scratching of her fingers smoothing down the shameful scrap her captors called a dress, and then a small, “Okay.”
    I turned, and it was like I’d forgotten how to breathe. Her skin gleamed like polished moonstone under the bright light of the moon, and she’d pulled her hair down so that it cascaded like a gentle waterfall around her slim shoulders.
    I couldn’t help but trace the faint pink stain that’d settled in her cheek with my claw. “Why do you blush?”
    She wet her lips, and my heart pounded violently. What would she do if I stole a kiss? Would she receive me or reject me?
    Reaching her hand into her pocket, she yanked something out and thrust it at me. “I found these today. I...I wished you to have them.”
    Tempted to refuse to take it unless she called me by my given name, I happened to catch a peek of deep-red glowing veins and grinned from one ear to the next. Turning her palm over, I gently pried her fingers open and gazed at the dragon stones.
    “Where did you find these?” I marveled at the delicate stones; on Olympus these stones were as precious to my people as ambrosia was to the gods.
    She shrugged, placing them into my hand. “By the river bank.”
    I frowned. They were never just out in the open. Dragon stones liked to hide, as though they were