MATED TO A DRAGON

Chapter 3: The First Night

I did not sleep that first night, not really.

The bed was too soft. The furs were too warm. And the mountain was too quiet. In Oakhaven, there was always noise. Dogs barking, children crying, my father's cough, the wind through the thin walls of our hut. Here, there was only the low hum of the amber veins in the walls and the distant, slow breathing of the mountain itself.

Or was it Kael breathing?

I had taken the bath. The water had been perfect, hot and scented with some herb I did not know. I found clothes in the chest, just as he said. Not the white sacrificial dress, but soft wool leggings, a thick blue tunic, and boots made for climbing. They fit almost perfectly. The girl who left them must have been my size.

That thought made my chest tight. Who was she? Did she leave because she wanted to, or because she was afraid?

I left my little room and found Kael in the library. He was not in his man-form. He was in his true form, or at least a larger version of it.

He lay coiled around the map table, and I finally understood how big he really was. His body was as long as three houses in Oakhaven. His scales were black but edged with a deep, burning blue that only showed when the amber light hit them. His wings, folded against his back, were vast enough to blot out the sky. His horns were not just ornaments, they were weapons.

And he was asleep.

His massive chest rose and fell. Each breath was hot enough to make the air shimmer. A low puff of smoke curled from his nostrils.

I should have been terrified. Instead, I did what no sensible girl from Oakhaven would ever do.

I walked closer.

His claws, each as long as my forearm, were tucked gently beneath his head. I could see his face, his dragon face, was not as monstrous as the stories said. He looked... peaceful. Younger, somehow.

"Are you going to stare all night, or are you going to ask your questions?"

His voice rumbled through the floor. One golden eye opened, looking right at me.

I jumped back, my face burning. "I thought you were asleep!"

"Dragons do not sleep like humans. I was resting my eyes. And listening to you toss and turn for three hours."

"You were listening to me?"

"This is my mountain. I hear everything inside it. Your heartbeat has been fast since you arrived. You are hungry, but you are too proud to ask for food."

My stomach betrayed me then with a loud growl. I had not eaten since yesterday morning, before the ceremony. They said a sacrifice should go to the dragon pure and empty.

Kael uncoiled, and the movement was fluid and terrifyingly graceful. The air shifted as he shrank, scales flowing like water, until he stood again as the tall man with horns and tail.

"Come," he said.

He led me to a smaller cave off the library, a kitchen. There was no fire, but a slab of black stone glowed red-hot. On it, meat sizzled. There was bread, real white bread, not the dark, gritty loaf we ate in the village. There was cheese and honey and apples that should not grow this high on the mountain.

"Eat," he ordered.

I did. I ate like I had never eaten before, because I had not. He watched me, his arms crossed, his tail swishing slowly.

"Slowly," he said, his voice softer. "You will make yourself sick."

"Why are you being kind to me?" I asked between bites of apple. Juice ran down my chin.

He reached out, and before I could flinch, he wiped the juice with his thumb. His skin was so hot it almost burned, but not quite.

"Because no one was kind to you on the way up that mountain," he said. "Because you walked into my home on your own feet and demanded I kill you quickly. That takes courage. And because..."

He leaned closer, and I could see flecks of red in his gold eyes.

"Your scent is driving me mad, little human. And I need to understand why."

"What does that mean?"

"It means dragons have a mate. One mate for life. We know them by scent. I have not had a mate in four hundred years. I thought I would never have one. And then your village sent you up here smelling of wildflowers and iron and something that is... mine."

My heart stopped. Mate?

"I am not... I am not your..."

"My bride?" He smiled, showing sharp teeth. "Is that not what they called you? The Dragon's Bride? Perhaps your Elders were more right than they knew. But not in the way they thought."

He stood up abruptly, as if he had said too much.

"Finish eating. Then sleep. Tomorrow, I will show you the hoard. If you are to stay here, even for a winter, you should know what you are guarding."

"The hoard? Gold?"

He laughed, and the mountain shook. "Humans always think dragons hoard gold. Gold is boring. Gold does not breathe. I hoard knowledge. And memories. And things that should not be forgotten."

He left me in the kitchen with my apple and my racing heart and a word echoing in my head.

Mate.

I was not sure if I was supposed to be afraid. Or if I wanted to be.