Jase

Garrett was going to escort Edgar and Arturo back to the airport but before we went our separate ways he took me aside to tell me he intended to schedule a pack meeting to discuss the discoveries that would effect everyone. Namely Krissy's animal. As my mate she was under the pack's protection, but her uniqueness wrought potential future dangers to the territory. The wolves needed to be made aware.

Krissy was understandably quiet after we thanked the dragons and bode them farewell. It remained that way the entire drive home.

I had parked the truck in the garage by the time I decided to break the silence. Krissy didn't even seem to notice we were stopped. Her gaze was aimed at her own lap and unfocused.

"Sweetness." I prodded softly, giving one of her limp hands a gentle squeeze.

Inhaling a gasp, Krissy's neck made the short half twist to meet my eyes.

"I'm sorry, were you saying something?"

With a reassuring smile, I shook my head no.

Krissy looked around, realizing we'd made it home and moved to unhook her seatbelt. I stopped her with another touch to her hand. "Hey Doc, where did you just come back from? Besides Eclipse, I mean."

She held her breath as she seemed to consider her reply. I sensed unease as she met my eyes, setting my wolf on edge, finding myself wishing telepathy was one of a shifter's abilities.

I held my own breath.

"I've been holding something back." Krissy began, unable to keep eye contact with me.

My back went stiff, as though any movement might frighten her out of saying whatever was coming.

"The night you marked me, I told you about the dream I had after those creeps doped me." She shuddered at the memory but I forced myself to keep still and she continued. "The thing is, I can't really remember ever having a dream so vivid before…before meeting you."

Now she finally met my eyes once again…and she was blushing.

"It wasn't the only dream I've had. I had one that very first night we met, a few others since. But I haven't said anything because…well I guess I just thought they would make me seem weird."

I had to smirk. My body relaxed as I regarded my mate. "Weirder than dragons and unicorns?"

Krissy laughed, tension visibly leaving her as well. "Well in hindsight of course it's going to seem silly." She playfully slapped my shoulder when my expression remained chiding, sarcastically adding, "By all means, do continue to make me feel imprudent."

As tempting as it was, I decided to err on the side of caution, instead taking hold of the nape of her neck and pulling us together into a slow-burning kiss.

Krissy broke free first to catch a breath. "I could use a drink." She murmured.

I agreed. Climbing out of the truck, we made our way in and to the kitchen. The bowels of the fridge sadly left me disappointed.

"We're out of beer."

Krissy was already next to me stretching up onto the tips of her toes to reach a top shelf. I unabashedly admired her torso as her movements lifted her shirt to expose the porcelain flesh, including my own handiwork above her hip, the evidence of our bond.

"I was aiming for something stronger anyhow." She mused as she pulled down the bottle of whiskey, caught me ogling and added the faintest hint of dancer flourish to her next movements just to tease me. "Should we do straight or on the rocks?"

"If you're planning on keeping that up? Definitely on the rocks."

A sly grin firmly in place on her lips, Krissy retrieved two tumblers and held them out to me. "Get the ice for us please, Sir Knight?"

I remembered I was still standing in front of the fridge and tore my eyes away long enough to acquiesce to her request.

She seemed to study me as I poured the whiskey for us, on the verge of asking a question.

"Out with it." I prodded firmly.

Krissy

I shuddered inwardly a little at Jase's alpha tone.

Even since we'd left Eclipse, it felt quiet in my head, like after it felt when I woke from the doppelgänger dream. As if the shifter part of myself had stepped away to let me assimilate the new information we'd gathered today.

Steeling myself, I voiced my curiosity. "The way you talk about your wolf, do you see it? If you closed your eyes is it right there?"

Jase's eyebrows knitted together as he found a response. "Not really. It's more impulsive, feeling the emotions."

"So…you don't like, talk to it?"

He chuckled softly. "Wolves don't speak in words, Sweetness. Not even shifter wolves. Think of it more like reading body language, just below the skin. Only it's my own body that's doing all the moving." He tugged me into an embrace with his last few words. After a few soothing heartbeats, Jase held me at arms length to regard me. "Why do you ask?"

"My dreams. After everything we heard today, I'm starting to think they were my unicorn side trying to reach out to me."

Leading Jase over to make ourselves comfortable on the sofa, I dove in, recounting my dreams. Everything from Jase in the black armour to my doppelgänger dressed from another century.

"But you never once saw a literal unicorn?" Jase wondered.

I shook my head, feeling marginally defeated before remembering our day. "Seems more feasible that Arturo may be right about us, though. That maybe we're a second chance at love."

A magnetic smile spanning his tanned features, Jase lifted a gentle hand to the side of my face and I leaned into it as he warmly replied. "First, second, final…it doesn't matter to me how many chances there have been or ever will be. I'll take the odds, every time."

I couldn't hold in my giggle. "That kind of sounds like something a Lancelot would say in one of those movies."

Still smiling, Jase glided his fingers from my face, sloping over my neck, shoulders, down my arm, around to my back, sending sparks through me in their wake. "It seemed to work on Guinevere." He countered.

I turned my head for better access even as Jase was already leaning over to land a line of kisses to my neck, each pucker growing more intense, tongue marking a fine trail of goosebumps as he tasted.

His hands behind my back shifting to slide under the hem of my shirt didn't go unnoticed. His next words, however, were not what I was expecting.

"You should try shifting again."

I pulled away to offer him my baffled expression. "What? Now?"

His eyes were lit like an eager puppy. "Now that you know what you'd change into, visualization really helps. Imagine running together! Sweetness, the freedom of it is like nothing else!"

Jase was so energized… I hated to burst his bubble. "I'm not going to try to turn into a massive horse with a horn inside my house, Jase."

"No, of course not! Let's take my bike up the mountain. You'll feel right at home in the woods!"

I captured his face between my hands to focus his eyes and quell his excitement.

At least for the idea of shifting today.

"I'm not really in the mood to run. I'm sorry Jase, I just don't think it's going to happen just yet. I had thought we were about to get a different kind of rush a few seconds ago…" I let the words linger between us.

Disappointment from my decline washed over Jase, only briefly. "You're not giving up on ever shifting, are you?"

"No." I assured him. "Just give me time to really process everything we learned today."

After a pregnant pause, Jase sighed deeply. "You're right. Sorry I jumped the gun."

He touched his forehead to mine and we breathed in our scents, each smelling like home to the other.

I let out an involuntary shriek when Jase suddenly scooped me up off the sofa.

"You were saying something about a rush, Sweetness?" He crooned, marching us towards the bedroom.

My laughs melted into soft moans as our mouths collided into a searing kiss.

THE END