Free Light His Fire: Paranormal BBW Dragon Shifter Mail-Order Bride Romance by Anya Nowlan

her store again.
    She let go of the necklace and got up, Danni following her lead.
    “Right, time to get back to work!”
    But words could only do so much and as much as she didn’t want to feel that way, she still sort of hoped to see Ares walk through the door any minute… If for no other reason than to whack him over the head with a hard, solid object – like his ego.
     

CHAPTER TEN
    Ares
     
    His phone was burning a hole right through his pocket. Pearl hadn’t left him a message in more than a day and he knew why it was. She was far too proud to keep asking him where the hell he was. And it wasn’t like he could really tell her, either.
    How does a dragon tell a woman he’s been hunting down that he isn’t good enough for her? Especially after spending a fantastic night with her?
    It wasn’t something Ares had ever prepared for. In fact, it sounded so ridiculous when he said it out loud that he had to keep from breaking out in hysterical laughter. But there it was, and in his heart of hearts he knew it to be true. He just wasn’t good enough for her – not yet. And stringing her along while he knew he couldn’t live up to her expectations would be worse than not answering, right?
    Ares wasn’t sure, but what he did know was that either way, he was currently living through a very personal version of hell. He’d been camped out on Sleeping Dragon Hill ever since he took Pearl back home. It was angled away from Shifter Grove, which meant that no one had heard him drilling into the side of the mountain all day and night. Otherwise, Ares was sure that at least Diesel would have been up there already, giving him a citation for disturbing everyone’s sleep.
    He hadn’t been out of his dragon form for more than it took to check his phone every few hours, not expecting to hear from Pearl but powerless against checking anyway. He sat on the wide planes of pure rock he had created, quietly considering his next steps. There weren’t many options other than what direction to continue breaking the mountain in and how fast.
    There was gold there and he was going to get it.
    He had already come across small streams of it, the hint of gold making his dragon work more and more feverishly. Ares knew it wouldn’t be long until he had to take a more methodical approach to what he was doing – instead of just ramming through solid rock – and get crews working on extracting the gold from the boulders he had torn out of the side of the mountain. But for now, all he could do was wrestle his way through Sleeping Dragon Hill until he found the bounty he was looking for.
    His body ached and protested. It was an unfortunate reminder of how little dragons were really cut out for other than looking threatening and pouncing on unsuspecting fools who came too close to their hoard. Ares had no doubt that none of his forefathers had ever sunken to the level of trying to carve out their own riches. It was simply a ridiculous notion – and yet, there he was, doing it.
    As much as it hurt and irked him physically, he hadn’t felt more at peace with himself in a long time. The only thing that could really compare was when he was on the stage with his brothers, creating the music that ran in all of their veins as thickly and surely as gold streaked through Sleeping Dragon Hill.
    Okay, perhaps those weren’t the only times he felt good.
    Ares’s face contorted in a grimace and his heart constricted in his chest. Being away from Pearl was slowly driving him out of his mind, even more so now that he was spending most of his time in his dragon form. His dragon had to physically force himself to work and look away from the direction he knew Pearl to be in, lest he turn around and go to her straight away.
    He was sure that at least part of the physical pain he was experiencing was because of his distance from Pearl. It was maddening being away from his mate. Ares was sure that she was the one he was meant to be with and staying away from