Lachlan (Snow Dragons Hunting #1)

Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

Lachlan could only stare, transfixed, at the woman sitting on the uneven floor and leaning back against the just-as-uneven wall of the cave.

She wore a pale blue woolen hat that covered her hair, but several tendrils hung loose at the sides of her face, revealing those straight tresses were midnight black, the length probably just below her shoulders.

The rest of her was covered by a long, puffy, dark-blue coat she’d pulled over her knees, no doubt to keep warm, with thick gloves of the same color on her hands.

Lachlan’s gaze was immediately drawn back to that heart-shaped face.

Her eyes were a bright sky-blue. Her cheeks were as white as the snow outside the cave. Her tiny nose turned up slightly at the end. Her lips were full and the color of ripe strawberries.

She was beautiful.

Mine , his dragon roared inside him.

Lachlan’s dragon had begun to clamor with excitement the moment they’d entered the network of caverns and passages into the mountain through the concealed opening directly behind Drake House.

His beast had become more and more agitated once they had discerned and then begun to follow the wafting scent of honeysuckle.

Lachlan had followed the allure of that scent directly to this cave.

To this woman.

The woman Lachlan had known, the moment he looked at her, was destined to be his elusive true mate.

He had no idea how she could be when his heightened senses told him she was completely human, and she looked to only be aged about twenty in human years. Yet he knew, without a single doubt, that this young woman was the destined other half of both him and his dragon.

The same woman who was staring at him as if she’d seen a ghost.

Or a dragon.

Belle had finally managed to turn her head and could now see, in light reflecting in from the snow outside, that the man standing at the back of the cave was huge .

He wasn’t just tall and muscular, but stood at least six and a half feet tall, with shoulders so wide, Belle was sure he must have trouble getting through normal doorways. His hair was silver. Not gray or white but a pure burnished silver. It was also brushed straight back from a face that didn’t look old enough for him to have that color hair.

An arrestingly beautiful face while also being completely masculine.

He had sharp slashes of silver hair for eyebrows. Eerily pale and piercing gray eyes. Cheekbones so sharp, they literally looked as if they had the ability to cut if they were touched.

A neatly shaped beard covered the lower half of his face, but Belle was pretty sure his jaw would be just as inflexible as his cheekbones.

Unlike her own cumbersome clothing, this man wore a black leather jacket over a black T-shirt, with black jeans molded to his long and muscular legs, and heavy black biker boots on his very large feet.

Well, of course he’d need to have big feet, Belle reasoned. He would need them to support and hold up that huge body.

And…she was becoming hysterical again by allowing her thoughts to dwell on things that were totally irrelevant and not at all helpful to her situation.

Whatever that situation was.

She moistened the cold of her lips with the tip of her tongue before speaking huskily. “Where did you come from?”

For a moment, it seemed as if a fire flared in the depths of those pale eyes.

A fire Belle convinced herself she must have imagined after she had blinked and now saw those eyes were still their normal icy gray.

The man bent slightly to step into the middle of the cave. He immediately dwarfed the space when he once again straightened to his natural height. “There’s an opening back there that goes through the caverns and passageways inside the mountain before opening out onto the other side.”

God, that voice!

Belle’d never heard anything as powerful as that deep growl.

A growl that caused her body to tingle, her nipples to harden, and between her thighs to warm.

What the hell…?

Belle had never been aroused by a man’s appearance before, let alone the sound of his voice!

In this man’s case, an appearance that was as imposing as his voice was sexy.

Well, she’d definitely been aroused by both those things now!

She’d been sitting in this cold and barren cave for a very long time, during the long, dark hours of the night and this morning, all the time afraid she must be slowly freezing to death.

Yet after hearing this man’s voice and glancing at his sharply mesmerizing features, every part of her had heated and responded in ways that made her bra chafe uncomfortably against her swollen nipples and her panties feel wet from the release of arousal between her thighs.

Which, considering how dire her circumstances were, was totally illogical.

And Belle had always been very logical in everything she did.

Except for believing in dragons , a voice mocked inside her head.

Okay, yes, that was a little illogical. But so was believing in unicorns, and a lot of so-called normal people believed those magical creatures had once existed too.

Belle frowned, shaking her head as she continued to look at the tall and imposing man. “I checked when I first came in here, and I didn’t find an opening in the back of the cave.”

“But of course there is,” the silver-haired man dismissed. “Otherwise, how would I have been able to come through that way and find you?”

How indeed?

But Belle had searched this cave thoroughly yesterday when she’d first stumbled across it and still had the light on her cell phone to look around. The wall at the back had been uneven, yes, but also unbroken by any sort of opening or entrance, let alone one big enough to allow this huge man to pass through.

“Come and see.” The man bent slightly to hold out one of his large hands, palm upward, for her to take.

An assistance to stand Belle knew she was going to need if she was going to be able to move at all, her extremities feeling as frozen as the rest of her.

The fingers of her right hand, even though they were inside a glove, felt as if they had frozen in place where they gripped her backpack to her chest. The backpack held all her worldly goods, most especially Sister Agnes’s journal.

Belle stared at the large hand this man held out to her, the fact he wasn’t wearing a glove allowing her to see how long his fingers were, his palms slightly calloused.

“Please,” the man encouraged softly.

Belle was filled with a compulsion to do as he asked.

A compulsion ?

Ridiculous.

Obviously, being outside for a day and night, exposed to the severity of the elements, must have given her brain freeze.

She kept her gaze lowered as she reluctantly held out her free hand. She was already sure this man’s overwhelming presence was adding to her mental confusion. Touching him might just blow the top of her head off.

“Take off your glove first.”

Belle blinked as she looked up at him quizzically, only to immediately become lost in the depths of those enigmatic silver eyes.

“Give me your bare hand,” Lachlan encouraged again softly, needing to feel the touch of this young woman’s skin against his own. To know with absolute certainty through that touch that she really was his mate.

True mate . His growling dragon let him know it didn’t have any such doubts.

The moment Lachlan’s bare fingers came into contact with the young lady’s, any lingering doubt he might have had instantly disappeared.

The ecstasy he felt was so intense, he almost fell to his knees.

His fingers tightened about hers, her hand tiny in his much-larger one, her skin velvety soft to the touch.

He pulled her to her feet, his senses instantly assailed by a deeper waft of honeysuckle. The same scent Lachlan had followed through the caverns in his search for her.

“Who are you?” she prompted shakily when a pull of her hand failed to release it from his grip.

Lachlan couldn’t have let her go even if he’d tried. The moment their flesh touched, it had been as if their skin burned, searing them together, so there was no her or him, only the single entity of us .

He knew Belle had felt that fusing heat too, had seen it in the widening of her eyes and the sudden flush of her cheeks.

Her other hand continued to maintain a tight grip on the backpack she’d been holding so fiercely against her when he entered the cave.

“I definitely checked the back of this cave when I stumbled into it yesterday, and there wasn’t an opening then.” Her accusing tone was full of suspicion.

“I assure you there is one.” Lachlan gentled his voice, sensing Belle was on the verge of what might be a full-scale mental meltdown.

Not surprising when she’d become lost up on the mountain, then sat alone in a dark and freezing-cold cave for hours with only her own thoughts for company. She must have been terrified. Had possibly even thought she was going to die alone up here.

“Lachlan Drake,” he introduced belatedly.

“Belle Brown,” she returned as economically.

Belle . His dragon savored the name.

Beautiful Belle.

Delectable Belle.

Delicious—

Enough , Lachlan instructed his dragon harshly. Hunter might have speculated about Belle living up to her name, but Lachlan could now see how beautiful, delectable, and delicious Belle was. Every inch of his body was thrumming in acknowledgment of that fact.

He had never physically reacted to a female as strongly as this before, the blood having rushed so instantly to his cock from the rest of his body that he was feeling slightly lightheaded. Or perhaps that was just from the euphoria of realizing he was in the presence of his true mate.

We have a true mate , his dragon preened.

It seemed they did.

A human true mate.

A human female who had probably never thought of the existence of dragons, let alone ever considered she might be the true mate of one.

Which meant it was going to take some delicate explaining.

And would require a patience Lachlan wasn’t sure he possessed.

Then he would have to make himself possess it!

Now that he had met her, breathed in her scent, Belle was everything to him. The sun, the moon, the stars, the very galaxy itself. Nothing and no one else would ever come close to knowing the love and devotion he would feel for her.

“Let me show you the opening into the mountain, Belle,” he encouraged lightly, continuing to hold her hand prisoner in the warmth of his, binding her to his side as he walked to the back of the cave. “See?” He indicated where the rock of the cave wall slightly overlapped, revealing an opening behind it that was just large enough and high enough for Lachlan to get through.

Deliberately so.

As snow dragons, the brothers could bend the elements of earth, wind, water, and fire to their will.

Which was how, once he’d walked through the passages and caverns through the mountain, to the back of the cave his senses told him Belle had taken shelter in, Lachlan had been able to form that opening with just the sweep of his hand.

An opening that, as Belle had claimed, hadn’t been there before he’d walked through it a few minutes ago.