“I don’t need your protection!”

“And I don’t need you!”

She went to walk around him and out of the valley, but his tail caught hold of hers, yanking her back.

“Rhiannon, wait.”

“No!” But with their tails locked together, she couldn’t leave. And Bercelak wouldn’t let her go. “Release me, Low Born!”

“Stop calling me that!”

“Then stop acting like it!”

Both crouching down now, their tails locked, they circled each other. Both ready to attack at a second’s notice.

“You make everything so difficult, Princess.”

“No. I don’t. I don’t need you to baby me, Bercelak. To always protect me. I can’t be queen if you’re constantly stepping in and telling me what to do.”

He stopped moving. “I was only trying to protect you. It’s my job to keep you safe.”

“No. It’s not. If I’m ever queen, I’ll have guards for that. They will protect me from enemies. But I’ll not bed them.”

His black eyes focused on her face. “You better not.”

She finally chuckled. “I hadn’t planned on it.”

“Good,” he grumbled while he took several steps toward her. “I’d hate to kill all those guards for no reason.”

Rhiannon grinned and moved around him, their bodies getting closer and closer. “I will always listen to your counsel, Bercelak. But you must trust me to make the best decisions I deem necessary.”

He stared at her body, but didn’t respond.

“Bercelak?”

“What?”

“I’d actually like an answer on that one.”

He turned back to her face. “An answer on what?”

“Your attention seems to be waning.”

“Not really.” His eyes again roamed over her dragonform. “You’re dragon, Rhiannon.”

“Aye, Bercelak. I am.”

“Then come to me. I plan to take you as dragon.”

She knew how this game was played, although she’d never found anyone worthy. Until now.

With a shake of her head, her white hair falling around her, “You’ll have to catch me first, Low Born.”

Then she took to the darkening skies, her lover hot on her tail.

It was her screaming that woke him the next morning. Bercelak scrambled up and searched the area for more soldiers. But all he saw was a screeching Rhiannon.

A screeching human Rhiannon.

“Look at me! What happened?”

He had no idea. When they’d finally worn themselves out after finding many more uses for their tails, they’d nearly passed out more than fallen asleep, exhaustion of the day and night finally catching up with them.

But when they’d slept, Rhiannon the dragon lay curled against his side, her light sleep-growls making him feel more content then he ever had before.

Yet here she was before him in the harsh light of the two suns. As human. It didn’t matter to him whether Rhiannon was human or dragon. As long as she was his. But he knew it bothered her, which meant he had to fix this.

“Rhiannon—”

“Look at these spindly things!” Her arms flailed wildly over her head. “And all this soft, useless flesh!”

If she were trying to get him hard and lusty, she was succeeding quite nicely.

She turned and pointed at her ass. “And I could be wrong, but I think this thing is even bigger than is normal for a human my size. How is that acceptable?”

Quickly, Bercelak shifted. “Rhiannon, calm—”

“Don’t tell me to calm down! That bitch did this to me, and I’ll make her pay for it!”

She stormed off and Bercelak had a hell of a time keeping up with her. Anyone else, he’d assume they were merely spouting centaur shit about challenging the queen. But he would put nothing past Rhiannon, especially when she was this angry. Yet she could not face her mother now. Forget the guards who never left the queen’s side. Rhiannon was still human—and clearly would remain that way as long as the spell remained unbroken—her powers not nearly as strong as when she was dragon. And since he’d never seen the queen shift to human in all the decades he’d been at her court, he somehow doubted she’d do it now if her daughter issued a challenge. In fact, he felt relatively certain nothing could get the queen to shift to human while Rhiannon still breathed.

“I wish you’d stop for a second so we can talk.”

“Talk? About what?”

“About what we need to do next.”

“Besides kill my mother? I have no idea.”

Grabbing hold of her arm, Bercelak pulled her up short and turned her to face him. “We’re in this together, Rhiannon. You and me. What hurts you, affects me the same way.”

“You don’t understand.”

He gripped her other arm gently and pulled her close. “Then explain it to me.”

Rhiannon took a deep breath and stared at the ground. “She knew how much this would hurt me. How much not being dragon would . . . would eat away at me until there was nothing of me left.” She looked up into his face. “I know you don’t see it. I know you don’t see my mother’s true intent. You’ve always had a blind spot when it came to her. But she won’t be happy until she’s destroyed me, Bercelak. Until she’s taken every last bit of me. Your family . . . they love each other. Your mother protects all of you, and your father . . . he’d die before he let anything happen to one of you. But I don’t have that with my mother or my siblings. I never have and I never will.”