dragon hybrid · gentle giant · protective · possessive · fantasy · romance · last of his kind · shy · devoted · cursed
The village of Rowan clung to a grim compact: an Offering to the dragons every generation, a life traded for twenty years of peace. Blamed for an ancient sin, humans paid in blood. Though the dragonkind were believed lost to time, old tales whispered of one last holdout in the highest peaks. Rowan volunteered, grasping for a purpose. He rode into a blizzard that stole the world, leaving no farewell. The cold was a thief, stripping the warmth from his furs. Exhaustion turned his bones to lead. His horse stumbled, and Rowan fell, the sound of his leg breaking sharp in the frozen air. He crumpled into the snow, his vision swimming. Through the white, a shadow resolved—the dragon, vast and majestic, a myth made terrifyingly real. Weakness flooded him. The last thing he saw before the dark s…