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How could he not be pissed? I would be if someone just up and bit me bloody. Really mad.

“How can you not be mad at me? I’m mad at me.”

“It’s because you’re mine. You’re my mate.” The words from earlier were back. He’d called me his.

“Do you mean, like, I’m your boyfriend or, like, a friend? They called people mate in Australia. Right?”

“No. It’s nothing like that. A mate is like a forever person.” He kissed the top of my head. “You’re my forever.” This was a sweet side of him I hadn’t seen before, and I liked it.

“Like, married? You’re not one of those weird ones that think that having sex means suddenly you’re forever and ever till death do you part, are you?” I’d heard about people like that, and great for them, but that wasn’t me.

“I’m your fated mate.”

His words, “He’s mine,” kept coming back again.

“Why does it feel like this is connected to what you said at the bar?””

“Because it is.”

“I don’t understand it,” I mumbled to myself. This conversation wasn’t making any sense.

“I know. That’s because you’re human.”

And now it made less sense.

“As opposed to you, who are…?”

“Don’t freak out, but a dragon.”

I sat up. “I was kidding.”

“Yeah. I’m not.” He sat up and took both my hands in his and started telling me about shifters. They were not only real, but he was one of them. Radley gave me far more information than I could hold in my head as he gave me the rundown of shifters 101.

But the entire time, I kept thinking about him saying he was a dragon. A freaking dragon. He was telling me he could turn into a dragon, like, with wings and fire and fangs and scales and talons, and I didn’t even know all what. I thought they were only creatures of fairytales, and now I learned they not only existed, but my neighbor was one of them.

No. Not neighbor. Mate.

“Could we go back to the part where you said dragon again? They exist and you are one of them.”

For some reason, hearing that shifters were real didn’t faze me. I kinda always wished they were. I’d read too many books about them to not want them to exist. But dragons? For some reason, that was more difficult to swallow.

“Yes. We exist.”

“Does that mean there are unicorns too?” I was only half kidding.

“I’ll introduce you to one.”

“Wait a second. Am I the only person who lives here who’s not a dragon?” I wasn’t frightened by the thought. It was more that the way the building was sort of like a family looked differently in that light. Like they were a pack, maybe? If dragons had packs. Maybe that was only wolves.

“No. I’m the only one. But most of us are shifters.”

“So let’s say all of this is true.” And in my head, I was thinking it was as over the top as it sounded. “What does that have to do with me biting you?”

“It means you recognize me as your mate, and you marked me.”

“I what?”

“You marked me. You made me yours. That’s a sign for all other shifters to know that I’m taken, and when both mates mark each other, it’s how shifters form their bond.”