Her eyes were wide. “He’s already killed three people?” It made his threats toward her and her parents yesterday all the more terrifying.

  “In horrendous ways,” Ranulf confirmed. “But neither I nor my brothers would ever have allowed him to hurt your parents or you,” he quickly assured her.

  Sephie swallowed past her dry throat. “Did you only save us because you had realized I was your mate…?”

  “Absolutely not,” he assured without hesitation. “We were not aware that anything was amiss until after Ben died. But once we learned of the situation, we were not about to let anyone else die because of Wallis’s greed.”

  Sephie looked at him searchingly. “How did Ben die? Not the official story. I want the truth.”

  Ranulf was so proud of the way his mate had so far listened to and quietly absorbed the information he was giving her, her own questions all relevant and spoken in a calm, reasoned tone.

  She was truly magnificent.

  Our mate, his dragon purred.

  Sephie would make a beautiful and fierce dragon.

  If she agreed to become his mate.

  Admittedly, she didn’t seem hysterical, outwardly or inwardly, at the things Ranulf had told her. But maybe she was just too shocked to react that way?

  “Ranulf?” she prompted abruptly.

  He released a shaky breath. “Wallis threw Ben out of the same helicopter he used to arrive here yesterday. Ben’s injuries were severe enough that it appeared as if he had fallen down the mountain.”

  Sephie’s face lost all color. No doubt at the horror of knowing how Ben had really died, but also, Ranulf believed, at the realization of the danger her own parents had been in yesterday.

  Her jaw tightened. “What will happen to him now? Will you tell the police about him?”

  “What would we tell them?” Ranulf scoffed. “That Wallis believes in the existence of dragons and their treasure and that he’s already killed three people in his search for them?”

  Sephie shook her head. “He would be classed as insane and end up in a mental institution. Three meals a day, free heating, and no responsibilities? That’s far too lenient for the things he’s done.”

  Relief flooded Ranulf’s chest. “What do you think should happen to him?”

  “Truthfully?”

  “Always.”

  Some of the color returned to her cheeks. “Zoey’s parents died in a plane crash, you said?”

  “Arranged by Wallis.”

  “And he threw Ben McGregor out of his helicopter?”

  “Yes.”

  Her lips thinned. “Then I believe he ought to meet the same fate as his three victims and should plunge to his death from a great height. Preferably after being released from the talons of one of the dragons he’s been searching for all these years. He would never be able to tell anyone else about them or even see their treasure, let alone steal any of it.”

  “You truly are magnificent,” Ranulf admired warmly.

  She grimaced. “I probably sound a bit bloodthirsty, but he really does deserve to die a painful death rather than live out the rest of his life being taken care of in a mental hospital.”

  He inclined his head. “I will put your proposal to my brothers and their mates. But I think I can already say that they will heartily agree with your suggestion.”

  “Good.” She nodded abruptly. “What happened in the church earlier? You asked me to close my eyes. I heard Wallis gasp and then a gurgling sound. When I opened my eyes again, he was gone, but I could smell blood.”

  “Ah.” Ranulf winced. “I severed his hand, the one holding the detonator, with my talons. He screamed and then went into shock.”

  “You…cut off his hand…with your talons?” she repeated incredulously.

  He lifted his hand, revealing the six-inch talons that had now taken the place of his fingers.

  “Oh my God!” she gasped, staring at those lethal weapons. “You really are a dragon.”

  “I really am.”

  She took a hesitant step forward. “Can I—can I touch them?”

  “You can touch any part of me whenever you wish.”

  She gave a choked laugh. “I want to touch you all the time, so I’d be careful about giving me carte blanche if I were you.”

  “Whenever you wish, my Sephie,” he stated again, heat burning in his eyes.

  She stepped forward to reach out and tentatively touch the tips of his talons. “Ooh, sharp!” She quickly drew her hand back.

  “I didn’t cut you?” Ranulf frowned as he withdrew his talons to take her hand in his and check for himself that she was unharmed. The last thing he or his dragon ever wished to do was to hurt his mate in any way.

  “I’m fine,” she dismissed.

  Ranulf released her hand to look up at her. “What will happen between us now?”

  “I don’t— Oh. Yes.” She nodded, smiling slightly. “First, let me assure you I’m not shocked or in the least distressed at learning you and your brothers are dragon shifters. Or that I’m your fated mate. The first’s a bit of a surprise, but the second part I’m absolutely thrilled about. If I’m being completely honest, it’s pretty bloody amazing.”

  Ranulf could see by her glowing smile that she really wasn’t freaked out by that knowledge. Which was…slightly worrying.

  Perhaps, inwardly, Sephie was freaking out, and the moment she and her parents left the castle she was going to insist on them calling the local police to report Wallis for having held them all prisoner the previous day, and also to inform them that that man was now locked up in Drake House.

  “Don’t look so worried, Ranulf,” she said with a chuckle. “I’m really okay with what you’ve told me. More than okay at the thought of being your mate.” A blush flooded her cheeks. “Please, don’t worry,” she pleaded again. “I’m just going to need a little time to explain the situation to my parents.”

  “About that… We have homes all over the globe and move every twenty to thirty years or so. Because of not aging. We’re coming up to that stage of things now. Sometimes we just fall asleep with our treasure for those years. Other times, we live in one of our other homes. With the advent of Belle and Zoey into our lives, we will be moving in the next year or so. If you agree to become my mate, you would need to leave with me and necessarily part from your parents.”

  “Maybe,” she returned enigmatically.

  “There is no other way, Sephie.”

  “Let’s just wait and see, hm?” she encouraged. “For now, I would like you to kiss me good morning—it’s late, so we don’t have time to do more than that—and then I’m going to need the rest of the day to deal with stuff. But I promise I will come back tonight.”

  “Okay,” he accepted.

  “And I’m going to want to see all of your beautiful and powerful dragon when I do,” she warned.

  “Of course.”

  “And please, please don’t do anything about Wallis before I get back.” Her eyes narrowed. “I would like to be here when one of you flies him to the top of the mountain and drops him from that great height!”

  So bloodthirsty, Ranulf admired again. “It will probably be Hunter accompanied by Zoey, as it was her parents Wallis killed.”

  “Fair enough.” Sephie nodded. “What does a girl have to do around here to get her dragon shifter lover to kiss her?” she challenged.

  Ranulf laughed—he couldn’t believe he actually laughed—at her teasing words and expression.

  Before he kissed the hell out of her.

  After all, there was no guarantee that he would ever be able to kiss her again.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  In the hours that followed, when Ranulf wasn’t standing on the castle ramparts, impervious to the cold and staring across the distance to where he could see the village inn lit up because the snow that was continuing to fall had dimmed the daylight, he was pacing them instead.

  Those lights at least told him Sephie hadn’t decided that she and her parents needed to leave the area and escape from the madman who thought he was a dragon.

  But it was the only reassurance he had. Just because Sephie had decided not to run—yet—didn’t mean that she wouldn’t in future. Or, even if she didn’t, that she would agree to become his mate.

  Every time he even thought of that happening, he was filled with euphoria. Only for his emotions to crash again when he realized there was always the possibility, despite Sephie having assured him otherwise, that she might refuse to be his mate. He⁠—

  “Ranulf!”

  He startled at hearing his name called, but his heart began to beat faster when he recognized it as Sephie’s voice, despite sounding slightly distorted through the falling snow.

  “Down here, Ranulf!”

  He looked over the rampart to see a grinning Sephie standing in front of the castle, dressed in full winter clothing, a woolen hat pulled over her pink hair. Her parents stood beside her, dressed in similar warm clothing, also grinning.

  Ranulf couldn’t believe Sephie was here, and smiling at him so brightly. And that her parents also seemed to be looking at him with approval.

  Which, if Sephie had told them anything about what Ranulf had confided to her this morning, and that she had seen with her own eyes, was an odd response on their part.

  Unless Stephie hadn’t told them yet?

  But if that was the case, why had Stephie brought her parents with her? Her smiling parents.

  Maybe she had brought the other couple here so they could tell them the truth together?

  That sounded like a plausible explanation⁠—

  “We’re getting cold down here, Ranulf,” Sephie called up to him again.

  Of course they were. “I’ll come down now and open the door.” He didn’t wait for her reply but instead used his preternatural speed to get to the door as quickly as possible so that Sephie and her parents didn’t get any more wet and cold than they already were.

  Sephie’s heart soared at the sight of the man she loved.

  A man who, unlike them, had minutes ago been standing up on the castle ramparts dressed only in jeans and a sweater, both of which she could now see looked uncomfortably wet. His uncovered hair was just as wet, implying he had been out in the snow for some time.

  Sephie didn’t wait for Ranulf to speak but threw herself into his arms and raised her face in invitation for him to kiss. “They won’t mind,” she assured when he gave her parents a pointed glance.

  “Not at all,” her father confirmed. “But, if it’s all the same to you, we would like to come inside out of the snow before you start kissing and forget we’re even here.”

  Sephie gave a lighthearted laugh at the expression of surprise followed by discomfort on Ranulf’s face. But not enough of the latter that he didn’t take full advantage of her parted lips.

  Sephie had only been away from Ranulf for a few hours, but she had missed him so much. She hadn’t been prepared for feeling that way, as she never had about the half a dozen young men she had dated. But she already knew that her relationship with Ranulf was going to be different from any other. More special. More loving. More binding. Just more of everything that she had always wanted in her life.

  He eventually lifted his head but continued to hold her tightly in his arms, their bodies fused together from chest to thigh. “Did you decide to wait until we could be together and…share our news with them?”

  She blinked. “What news?”

  Ranulf pulled back, his expression turning to one of alarm. “You weren’t dreaming last night and this morning. Everything I told you then, showed you, is real.”

  “Yes, I know— Ah, you think, because my parents aren’t yelling for this century’s version of pitchforks that they can’t know about…your alter ego?” she realized.

  He winced. “Their calm demeanors would seem to imply that, yes.”

  “Mum. Dad. Would you join us, please?” She kept her arm about Ranulf’s waist as she turned to look toward where her parents had just finished hanging their wet coats, hats, and scarves on the long radiator that ran the length of this huge entrance hall. She waited until they had joined them before speaking again. “Would you mind telling Ranulf what I discussed with you both earlier today when we got back to the inn?”

  Her mother’s smile was so wide, it seemed to go from ear to ear. “First, I have to tell you, Ranulf, how thrilled I am to know that dragon shifters exist. It is the ultimate gift for all our years of searching for evidence to prove the existence of the yeti, mermaids and mermen, unicorns, selkies, any mythical creatures, really. Latterly, the Loch Ness Monster,” she added happily.

  “All to no avail so far, alas.” Her father joined in the conversation. “But none of that matters now that we know we’ve been in the presence of three real live dragons. And they live right here near the village we only moved to last summer.”

  Sephie laughed at the stunned look on Ranulf’s face. “I thought about telling you of their adventures earlier, when you seemed skeptical about how they would feel about you being a dragon shifter. But then I decided I really should wait to be sure their reaction was as positive as I thought it would be.”

  Her father snorted. “As if it would ever have been in any doubt. Dragons, Sephie!” He did his best to contain his excitement, but it was still there in his glowing eyes and the grin he couldn’t seem to control.

  “Adventures?” Ranulf echoed doubtfully.

  Sephie nodded. “My parents were both teachers, and every summer, Easter, and Christmas holiday, for all my childhood, my parents took me with them when they set off on one of their expeditions to prove the existence of what other people considered mythical creatures.”

  “Like the yeti and unicorns Tim mentioned.” Ranulf still looked doubtful.

  “Well, okay, I think we can probably all agree that the latter was a bit of a stretch,” Sephie allowed. “But the yeti was a definite possibility. The mermaid and selkie too. Whatever, it doesn’t change the fact that I spent all my school holidays searching for magical creatures.”

  Ranulf’s frown lifted. “This is why you didn’t become hysterical earlier when I told you I’m a dragon shifter?”

  “We really aren’t insane, Ranulf,” her mother assured ruefully. “We’ve just always believed that the myths have a basis in reality.”

  “And you’ve just proved us right,” her father agreed happily.

  Sephie chuckled. “Their fascination with mythology and fantastical creatures is also the reason I’m named after the goddess of the underworld and spring.”

  “Sephie isn’t the type of woman to become hysterical over anything you told or showed her,” her mother defended. “Neither of us is.”

  “These two are made of much sterner stuff than that, lad,” Sephie’s father joined in. “As am I. And you and your brothers, you are the pinnacle, the raison d’être, for us doing all that research and searching for so many years. Our reward, if you will, for having dedicated so much of our lives, and by extension Sephie’s, seeking the magic that we believe once existed here on earth.”

  Tears stung Sephie’s eyes at the reverence she could hear in her father’s voice and see in his gaze as he looked at Ranulf.

  “Maybe the fact that you live here and Sephie is your fated mate is the reason we felt drawn to purchase the inn in the village, when we had absolutely no experience in running one until we moved here,” her mother mused.

  Sephie wouldn’t be in the least surprised if that wasn’t the case. After the last twenty-four hours, she didn’t think anything would surprise her in future.

  “Sephie has explained that you will all have to move away soon, and then again twenty or thirty years after that. Maybe back here, but maybe somewhere else?” her mother prompted.

  “I hope she’s going to be able to do her last semester to finish her uni degree before you all leave Scotland.” Her father frowned. “Being a dragon shifter’s mate is all well and good, but we should all have a second string to our bow.”

  Sephie snorted a laugh. “Dad!”

  Ranulf smiled the open and happy smile Sephie had grown to love seeing on him. “Belle and Zoey also have one more semester of university to complete their degrees. They have spoken to their tutors and will be taking those last classes online. Lachlan and Hunter will be accompanying them down to London when they take their final exams.”

  “Then I’m sure Sephie can arrange to do the same, and that you will go with her to Oxford,” her mother approved. “But we would like you to know that we will be very proud if you will allow us to be a part of your family for however many of the three score years and ten of a human’s life we have left.”

  “To know that Sephie will live on and will be the beloved mate of a dragon shifter long after we’re gone gives us great joy,” her father agreed emotionally.

  “I haven’t officially accepted being his fated mate yet,” Sephie reminded them awkwardly.

  “In that case, as you told us Lachlan and Hunter and their mates aren’t here right now, with Ranulf’s permission, your father and I will go into the kitchen and make ourselves a cup of tea,” her mother stated briskly, smiling when Ranulf nodded. “Come on, Tim, let’s leave these youngsters so they can say what they need to say to each other.”

  “He’s well over a thousand years older than me,” Sephie’s father could be heard grumbling to her mother as they went through to the kitchen. “And I’ll still expect to be able to walk her down the aisle,” he shouted loud enough for Ranulf to hear. “But not before we’ve had the pleasure of seeing you shift into your dragon.” He closed the kitchen door quietly behind him.