Chapter 12

CHAPTER TWELVE

Belle could hardly contain her excitement as she stood in the snow at the back of Drake House, waiting for Lachlan to shift into what she knew was going to be his beautiful silver dragon.

Hunter and Ranulf had offered to accompany them outside in case Belle became frightened, but she had assured them there was no need for that. It felt important that for this first shift, she had Lachlan completely to herself.

A calm had come over her the moment she stepped out of the house at his side. An inner unshakable certainty that she had been born for just this purpose.

That everything that had happened to her up to this point really had been leading her to here and now. To Lachlan. To being the one true mate of both the man and his dragon.

She'd always hated being emotionally alone after her parents died. But she now appreciated that if she'd had a family, it would have made it far more difficult for her to just disappear. As she surely must if she was to be the mate of a dragon shifter who had already lived for twelve hundred years.

The same went for having close friends who might question where she was.

Belle had neither.

What she'd always had during her childhood and her years at university was an absolute belief that dragons had once existed in the world.

It was the reason she had chosen to study mythology at university.

She now thought randomly finding—if it had been random—Sister Agnes's journals at the bottom of the box of books had to have been meant to be too.

As had her having come to the Highlands in search of evidence that the dragons Sister Agnes claimed to have seen really had existed.

All those things, Belle now deeply believed, had happened to bring her to this man.

Her mate.

Her one true love.

"Ready?" Lachlan prompted hesitantly.

"Don't you have to remove your clothes before shifting?" Her cheeks heated in what she knew would be a visible blush, her heart pounding at the realization she'd just asked Lachlan to strip in front of her.

In the freezing cold!

Although she had a feeling Lachlan and his brothers didn't feel the cold like she did.

She'd pulled on her own coat and boots before stepping outside, but Lachlan still wore only the T-shirt, jeans, and boots he'd been wearing inside.

"I don't," he dryly answered her question. "My clothes evaporate as I shift into dragon and reappear when I shift back to a man."

"That's…magical."

"It also saves on the clothing bill!"

"Did you just make a joke?"

He winced. "I am sorry that this situation with the dragon hunters has not allowed the opportunity for levity."

"You have nothing to feel sorry for," Belle reassured. "You aren't responsible for the greed and inhumanity of those men."

"Nevertheless, I wish we had met under different circumstances."

Belle doubted there were any other circumstances under which they would ever have met.

"Are you ready to meet my dragon?"

She drew in a long breath before nodding. "I am."

The shift happened in the blink of an eye. One second, Lachlan was standing in front of her as the six-and-a-half-foot-tall man who made her heart pound and her body tremble with arousal, and the next, there was a thirty-foot dragon in front of her, his silver scales shimmering from the reflective snow.

She would be lying if she didn't admit to instinctively taking a step back from the ferocious-looking beast.

Silver eyes seemed to glow in a narrow and scaled face, the nostrils wide, two rows of long, thin teeth gleaming in the dragon's maw. Its body was immense, almost as big as the house itself, and the spreading of wings revealed they stretched to at least sixty feet on either side of that massive body.

Belle didn't doubt that the dragon could easily kill her with a single sweep of one of those powerful wings or the snapping of those razor-sharp teeth.

"I would never hurt you, true mate."

"You can talk as a dragon!" Belle gasped, easily recognizing that deep voice as belonging to Lachlan.

The huge head lifted proudly. "I can. I will," he added mischievously. "You are beautiful, our mate. You will be a fitting queen of dragons."

"Qu-queen?"

"We are the last of the Drake dragons. I am their leader; therefore, you will be my queen."

Belle realized now exactly what Lachlan had meant when he said his dragon was more. Lachlan would never have sounded so arrogant and proud. "Will I be able to shift too, once we're mated?" It had never even occurred to her that might be possible. "Will I be able to fly?"

How wonderful would it be to have the ability to shift into a dragon in the blink of an eye, to take to the air and fly?

"Yes."

Oh God…

Belle felt dizzy at the possibilities that opened up?—

"Once we're mated?" Again, it was Lachlan who stood before her, dressed in the same black T-shirt, jeans, and boots, just as he'd said he would be. "Does that mean you're seriously considering mating with me?" he prompted hopefully.

She nodded eagerly. "I want to mate with you and your dragon." She frowned slightly. "But I also want you to know that I have absolutely no interest in your dragon treasure. I'm not, nor will I ever be, in the least materialistic. As such, gold and jewels hold no interest for me."

"You will be my greatest treasure," Lachlan assured her.

Tears stung her eyes. "That's all I'll ever want to be. I totally believe that the years I spent alone during my childhood, and then again at university, were all bringing me to here and now. To you."

She really is our true mate and beloved queen, Lachlan's dragon announced with pride.

Much as it warmed Lachlan's heart to hear those words, he needed Belle to know how much she would be giving up of her past and how fully her future would belong to the two of them. "As my mate, your long lifespan would mean you will have to leave behind any and all family and friends?—"

"I've already thought about that," she assured. "There isn't anyone I would regret leaving behind. I would like to finish my degree in mythology," she added with a frown. "But I could do that remotely, if necessary." She grinned at him. "I wouldn't need to travel for research anymore either, because I'll be living with real dragons."

"You understand my brothers will always be an integral part of our lives?"

"I can hardly be a queen without any subjects." Belle burst out laughing as Lachlan winced.

She appeared more lighthearted than he'd ever seen her, and her bubbling happiness was wondrous to behold.

"I really do understand, Lachlan." She placed a reassuring hand on his arm, her gaze fiercely intent. "I sincerely believe I was meant for this, born for you."

"You were." Lachlan fully believed that too.

"Perhaps, now that you've found your true mate, Hunter and Ranulf might do the same?"

It was Lachlan's dearest wish that they would.

In the meantime… "When would you like to mate with me?" His voice shook slightly at the enormity of the changes—most certainly for the better!—having Belle as his mate would bring to his life.

The most important one being that their mating would result in a bond between them that was so strong, neither of them would feel unloved or know a moment of loneliness ever again.

"I would love for that to happen right now, but I realize it isn't possible." Belle grimaced. "I need to be ‘rescued' before I can disappear again without the McGregors asking questions. I should stay long enough to attend Ben's funeral too, before seeming to leave. Otherwise, they'll think it odd I didn't stay and pay my respects to the young man who supposedly died trying to rescue me," she added with a frown. "I'll also need to officially give up my room in the house in London. I'm sure the others will understand, perhaps even be relieved, at my doing so."

"They might stay on to attend Ben's funeral too, so that you could tell them, then. Would you like me to accompany you to the funeral?" Lachlan offered.

"I would love it if you could, but won't the villagers think it odd if I turn up to the funeral with one of the Drake brothers?"

Of course they would.

Lachlan and his brothers might keep their interaction with the villagers to a minimum, for the obvious reason it made it easier for them to disappear for decades before returning, but there was only one way to explain his presence at Belle's side.

"Not if I'm the one to rescue you," he decided. "That way, I can also say you're staying at Drake House until you're fully recovered from your ordeal. Then we can spend as much time together getting to know each other as we want."

Lachlan seriously doubted that either he or his dragon would have been able to let Belle out of their sight until their mating had been completed anyway.

His heart soared in the knowledge that, in a very short time, Belle would become both his mate and his queen.

Although he had a feeling the time would pass exceedingly slowly for him until that became possible.