Tyrez sat up. “Thank you, Jacques.”
Hethankedthe Satyr? It was such a departure from the norm that Dani ripped her gaze away from Tyrez’s sculpted abs to his face. She flushed when she met his eyes—he’d seen her scoping him out. One corner of his lips twitched upward.
Bloody arrogant Dragon.As Jacques and Sparkle vanished into the tall grasses—the Gryphons’ portal was a bit of a hike from the caves they called their home—she said, “When did you start being nice to Jacques?”
Tyrez exhaled. “When he started risking his skin to bring me info.”
Dani frowned. “I thought he always risked his skin to do that.”
“Back then, it wasn’t my family threatening to kill him.”
His family. Right. “Your father is still on the warpath?”
“With me, yes. Unfortunately, his focus isn’t where it should be. I have had to push forward with other endeavors.” His lips pulled straight, but his eyes glowed as he looked at her. “I agree with Jacques, though. You are looking good.”
His frank and open appraisal distracted her from the “other endeavors” comment. Dani’s skin heated, and she ripped her eyes from his to stare across the waving grasses. “A few days’ sleep will do that to a girl. But right now, I’m dying to go for a run.”
He froze. “You want to try changing?”
She swallowed. “It’s been a week. Is that long enough for the virus to take effect?”
Tyrez shook his head. “I have no idea. You are setting new precedents here.”
“How will I know? What if I start shifting to Dire and it goes wrong because I should be turning into a Dragon instead?”
Tyrez swung his legs over the edge of the stone. “Don’t get ahead of yourself. Just start your shift as usual. I’ll watch, and if things start to look as though they are going south, I can talk you through it. Okay?”
A pulse of panic shot through her. Shifting was still a scary process; the thought of it going wrong terrified her.
“It will be okay, Dani. Just breathe.”
He’d interpreted the panic within her. Despite the impression he often gave of being cold and indifferent, the big Dragon was, in fact, remarkably perceptive. She took a deep breath. “I need to shift. It’s been too long, and it’s time I knew whether the Dragon thing has taken hold.”
Tyrez snorted. “I am not a thing.”
No, he definitely wasn’t. And the price he’d paid for his decision to save her was high.
While having him watch over her was reassuring, there was a major hitch to this plan—she’d have to strip naked to shift. Her heart hammered, the anxiety building.
“Strip in the grass.” He pointed to where it was the tallest. “When you start your shift, step toward me so I can see if things are going awry.”
She sighed, his words flowing through her like water, the tone smoothing away the jagged ripples. “You’d make one hell of an animal trainer,” she said.
He arched a jet-black brow. “Doubtful. They’d be afraid I’d eat them.”
The Dragon had a point. Still, his calm energy did wonders for her nerves. She stepped into the tall grass—the nodding seed heads were higher than her head in most places—and stripped. Her every movement sent little pulses of light radiating from the motion-sensitive grasses. At night, their phosphorescence was spectacular, sending out shimmers of rainbow colors, but during the day it was barely visible.
She crouched and embraced the change.
Her worry and doubt were like a cancer eating away at her, and the change came on her in fits and spurts, the pain so intense it robbed her of breath.
“Come to me.” His deep voice was part plea, part command. And very sexy.
She staggered out of the grass and landed at his feet, her body writhing its way to—what?
“It’s okay, Dani. I only see Dire coming through. Just focus.”
She mentally grabbed on to his calm energy, gritted her teeth, and concentrated through the pain to the end goal.
