55. Chapter Fifty-Five
~Evalina~
The change in the big werewolf at my side couldn’t have been more pronounced. In a matter of minutes, Felix went from the deathly-serious protective mountain-of-a-man who cut out Tarron’s heart to grinning down at me with childlike excitement, his blue eyes bright with anticipation.
“Have you ever been on a dragon before?” he asked, his voice laced with boyish glee. The spark in his eyes was so bright, I couldn’t help but smile back.
“No, never. This isn’t exactly typical for a day in Etta. Nothing that’s happened since you showed up has been typical.”
Every moment with him felt like an adventure and I had a feeling it had a lot more to do with him and his outlook on life than anything else.
Being around him would never be boring.
“Let me take that for you,” he offered, holding out his big hands for the box with Tarron’s heart in it once we reached the side of one of the dragons. They weren’t as huge as the ones in my childhood stories who lived at the very top of the world, but their backs were big enough to hold four grown werewolves.
I handed it over gladly, relieved to have the weight off my arms. Whatever metal had been used on that box, it wasn’t light.
Keerla appeared at my side, wrapping her arms around me in a fierce hug before I could say a word. “You’re leaving now, aren’t you?”
“I am.” The words were harder to say than I expected, and though I didn’t add ‘forever,’ I knew she understood. “Thank you for everything. And thank you too, Pavla.” I reached out a hand to the man at her side, who took mine and squeezed it in return. “Take care of each other. Be happy.”
“We will,” Keerla promised, but her eyes had already moved to the man at my side, her gaze travelling up and up and up until it reached his handsome face. “I’d tell you to be happy too, but I think you’ve got it covered.”
“This is Felix,” I said, my cheeks burning from the innuendo. “He, uh, usually wears clothes.”
My mate’s deep laugh rumbled through my body. “Nice to meet you both. I’m afraid we need to get going, though.”
After giving me one more hug, Keerla stepped aside, Pavla close behind her. Felix looked up at the massive dragon beside us, its scales shimmering in the sunlight, and frowned.
“Well, shit. I can’t help you up if I’m holding onto this.”
Looking around, he saw that Vaughan and Calista had already climbed back up onto the beast in the middle, apparently as eager to get out of there as we were. Felix got his Alpha’s attention with a shout.
“Vaughan, catch!”
With strength I could barely imagine, he tossed the heavy box high into the air. Calista ducked while Vaughan reached out to snatch the airborne box, its weight making a dull thud against his hands when he caught it. He scowled at Felix as soon as he had it safely in hand.
“You could have hit Callie!”
“Nah, she’s smart enough to get out of the way. If anyone got hit, it would have been you.”
Unperturbed by Vaughan’s muttering, Felix used his now-empty hands to lift me up over his head, high enough that Leo, already seated on the dragon’s back, could help me the rest of the way up. He pulled me behind him, and once I got settled, Felix scrambled up behind me, his arms wrapping around me and his naked body pressed tight against my back.
“What do I hold onto?” I wondered aloud, my fingers sliding across the dragon’s slick, cool scales. The creature’s powerful movements beneath me sent vibrations through my legs.
Felix’s arms tightened around me. “Don’t worry. I’ve got you.”
A few moments later, when the dragon’s wings began to flap and we lifted off the ground, I realized that he did, in fact, have me. Keerla and Pavla waved from below, their figures shrinking as we rose higher, and my chest tightened with one more bittersweet pang as I waved back.
Felix felt solid and strong behind me, providing a stability to go along with his sense of adventure that appealed to every single bone in my body. With his powerful thighs clenched tight around the creature’s back, we stayed rooted firmly in place even when the wind ruffled my hair as the dragon accelerated, heading over the trees back towards the portal to the terrestrial world.
This man had turned my world completely upside down, to the point that leaving everything I ever knew not only felt right, it seemed inevitable. Where he was, I would go.
The trip back took a mere fraction of the time it had taken on foot, and almost too soon, the dragons began their descent over the open plain, towards the shimmering portal that gleamed in the setting sun. I had no idea how much time had passed since we left to find Felix, but with my adrenaline waning, fatigue began to set in.
The dragons dropped us off next to the portal and Vaughan handed over the box to them. We all stood and watched as they took off again and headed to their mountain home, carrying their new treasure.
“What will happen to the prince’s body?” Calista asked.
“I should have ripped it to pieces,” Felix scowled. “If we hadn’t been interrupted, I would have.”
“The royal family has a crypt beneath the residence,” I explained. “It will probably be placed there.”
Calista’s lips pursed. “So, theoretically, someone could retrieve the heart from the dragons and reunite it with the body?”
“I suppose they could, but who would want to? The elves know of his scheming and the soldiers who saw everything today will know of it too. Gossip spreads fast among the fae. Tarron will be the talk of the fae world, just like he wanted.”
“We want to hear all about what you discovered,” Vaughan said, giving me a supportive nod. “But can we go home first?”
That sounded like the best idea I ever heard.
On the other side of the portal, night had fully fallen and my eyes weren’t as sharp in the darkness as the werewolves’ were.
“Let me carry you,” Felix offered, his voice soft as I stumbled over a tree root, the uneven ground blurring beneath my exhausted vision. “You’ve had a hell of a day. Let me look after you.”
Mentally, I retracted my earlier statement. This was the best idea I ever heard.
Strong arms lifted me from the ground with solid strength, and nestled against my mate’s warm body, lulled by the rhythmic pace of his walking, I soon fell into a deep, contented sleep.