Chapter 335: Chapter 335

Zane “You'll hold onto the leather harness by the buckle.

And grip it tight. If you fall off, | can catch you, but you will also probably s hit your pants. Greyson’s dragon voice was low and rumbling, with an almost metallic edge to it.

| flipped him off, which was ridiculous since he was about forty times bigger than me at the moment and could literally open his mouth and cat me alive.

“You don’t have to let me take you up,’ he said lazily.

One huge eye rolled to look down at me. The slitted pupil was brilliant gold, while the rest of his gigantic eye gleamed brilliant, seamless black.

| shook my head. “Nah. | want to.”

Hand over hand, | climbed the series of leather straps and buckles attached to the collar around Greyson’s neck. He needed a whole crew to get him fitted for riding. It wasn’t something he did often, he’d said.

| was a little flattered, to be honest.

Once situated, | could feel the heat coming off his skin. I'd figured a dragon would be cool to the touch, like a lizard, right? But |

could actually see wisps of steam coming out from between a few of the iridescent green and purple scales at the base of Greyson’s long, sinuous neck. He could move it like a snake, and he twisted his head around now to stare right at me.

are.

off.

“You are impressed.” His forked tongue flickered out.

“You should be. Are you ready?”

| was still kind of rocked that he could speak to me in dragon form, but | just nodded. “Yeah. When you Holy f uck. | was not ready. | held back a h oa rse shout as | held onto the leather straps and Greyson took Up, up, and even farther up.

The flying grounds were actually far below the earth.

Safer there, he’d told me. Some carved to connect to the series of natural caverns the enclave had been built over “S hit! Watch it!”

As soon as | shouted, | felt like an as shole, especially because the dragon roared with laughter. He’d flown close to the ceiling, but it was easy to tell that he was in complete control.

The railings here were sn hinh it felt lik so wore milée un Mande we were All | know was that I'd 1/3 expected a jerky flight, but the dragon's wings flapped so smoothly it was like floating.

| wasn’t sure how long we were up there, but when we finally landed, | couldn't stop laughing.

| slid down his vast side, feeling the smooth scales underneath me. When my boots hit the ground, Greyson’s crew was already hustling me away so they could get ready to take off the gear. It came off much faster than it went on-he simply shifted back and let it all fall around him.

“You want to grab a beer?” He pulled on the same sweatpants he’d been wearing earlier.

“Dude, you didn’t even break a sweat. When | change back from my wolf form, I’m usually a sweaty mess.”

Greyson grinned. “Mammals. So sweaty. Dragons steam, my friend. We do not sweat.”

| laughed, feeling a weird little twist in my gut at his words. Friend. For a second | had to fight what felt like a twinge of disloyalty to my Alphas.

Greyson frowned. “Do you need to head out? Get back, or...?”

“They don’t keep me on a leash, if that’s what you mean.” The words came out sound too defensive.

“Not what | meant at all.”

“A beer sounds great,” | told him.

He took me to a pub down on Eighty-Seven, which blew my mind again. Brightsky was never going to stop surprising me.

Greyson kept the conversation going by asking me questions about myself, which felt like another surprise.

“What?” he asked me.

“| can’t really feel you.” When he frowned, | added quickly, “Which is kind of awesome.”

“You share a lot with your mates, huh? Charlotte’s tried to describe it to me. How wolves work.”

“It's kind of a relief to just hang out with someone | don’t have to manage, that’s all.” | wished | hadn’t said it, but it was the truth.

Hanging here in the pub with Greyson, | didn’t have to be anyone’s anything. | could just...be.

“Not that | mind it,” | told him quickly “Of course not. You love them. They love you. But everyone deserves to have interests and friendships and space to themselves. For me, that’s flying.

Charlotte hates going up, so | do it alone. When | get back, I’m always much more ready to put in the work a relationship takes Greyson shrugged.

What he said made total sense And you don’t have to feel bad about at Greyson added “Thanks, man tipped my beer his way “Any time He was right. Taking some time away from my mates had left me refreshed, rejuvenated. Feeling like a better version of myself for the people | loved.

Who, by the way, | couldn't wait to get back to.

I As | was getting up to leave, | spotted Gabriela across the pub. She looked deep in conversation with a woman | didn’t know.

Gabriela looked up for a moment, but she must not have seen me, because she looked away like | wasn’t even there.