Free Blackwing Dragon (Harper's Mountains 5) by T. S. Joyce

that I was a dragon and that I didn’t know who I was. He didn’t like that I couldn’t leave Damon’s Mountains. He said he didn’t understand me, and it made me so mad. Just…furious.”
    “You Changed?”
    Rowan ducked her chin once as a tear slid out of the corner of her eye. “Too close to him, and he almost died. And the first thing he did when he woke up in the hospital was file a restraining order. And I was deemed a dangerous shifter. It’s on my registration and everything. A permanent red mark that will follow me around for the rest of my life. I can’t get a shifter grant for land of my own, and it’s hard to find jobs. I barely finagled a plane ticket. So you see, I know what you mean by looking for something to fill you up, but being drained instead.”
    “Is that why you never left Damon’s Mountains?”
    “No. But I guess it’s part of it.”
    Kane was still trailing his fingertip up and down her spine. God, it felt so good to be touched by someone who wouldn’t break. Someone who understood her. Who wrestled with his own inner monster.
    “Kane?”
    “Mm,” he grunted, pressing his palm against her back. His hand felt like fire there. Like he was burning his handprint into her skin, but she liked it.
    “Who was your father?” She already knew, but she wanted Kane to tell her.
    “Marcus.”
    The admission of his lineage broke her heart. Marcus, the alpha of the Blackwings. Marcus, one of the last immortal dragons. Marcus, the murderer of Damon’s first mate, Feyadine. He’d ripped her eggs from her body and left her for Damon to find. And then he’d tried to burn the world. In an effort to save humanity from ashes, Damon had gone to war with Marcus hundreds of years ago. He’d thought him dead, but Marcus had only been badly hurt and gathering power, manipulating Feyadine’s bloodlines to lure Damon into his final death.
    Kane had been right. His father would’ve been the end of the world, but Damon had been the one to kill him. Rowan’s great-grandfather had been the end of Kane’s father, and a union between Bloodrunner and Blackwing would be her damnation. Falling for Kane would be betrayal to her family and her ancient clan. All of their deaths, all of their suffering at the hands of Kane’s father, was too much for her to ignore.
    But…
    Even if Kane was a Blackwing, and there could be nothing between them tomorrow, it was nice to sit in this hotel room and pretend they were two normal people instead of two enemies on opposite sides of an eternal war.
    It was nice to pretend Kane could be hers, if even for a little while.
    Slowly, giving Kane plenty of time to retreat, she leaned her face toward his bad leg. His muscles didn’t even flinch when her lips pressed against a deep scar there, but he relaxed instead and brushed his fingers through her hair.
    He let off a soft sigh and murmured, “You’re a strange one, Bloodrunner.”
    “My friends call me Roe, remember?”
    Kane huffed a breath, but at least this time he didn’t remind her they weren’t friends, and that, to her, was progress.
    Kane laid back on the bed and ran his hands though his hair, let the heels of his palms rest on his forehead as he closed his eyes. He drew his good leg up, the epitome of relaxed, but he wasn’t fooling her. He was strung as tight as a bowstring again.
    “Why are you stressed?” she asked, laying beside him.
    “Because you’re going to be the death of me, and I like living.”
    “I am not. I already told you I won’t hurt you.”
    “Yeah? But you’re on a bed with me, tits out, and they’re fucking perfect, and you just kissed my leg. You kissed my damn ruined leg , Bloodrunner. There are things in my life I couldn’t believe happening to me, and that’s one of them. And my dick is aching to just take you hard, but Damon will bring fire to me if I make bad decisions here.”
    “Gross. Let’s not talk about Damon while I’m trying to seduce you.”
    Kane rolled his head