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She shrugged "I enjoy when the villagers near "

He shook his head, the tip of his snout brushing against her hu"

The low-born leaned back, returning to the carcass She had to admit, at least to herself, it smelled delicious And, dammit, so did he

"I must say, Princess, I’m surprised you haven’t been able to shift back yet"

She shrugged "My skills have always been weaker than ons are known for their powers"

"Well, apparently I’m the exception to the rule" She stared at the potato Odd-looking vegetable "My Magick has always been weaker and I’ons One of the wizards who trainedto say I can kill him for you, if you’d like"

Rhiannon barely bit back her smile of surprise No one had ever offered to kill another for her--at least no one she ever believed But she believed Bercelak "No No That’s not necessary He merely spoke the truth"

"Well, there’s truth and then there’s just being a right bastard"

"You know, you’re not" She stopped herself abruptly, but the dragon’s black eyes were on her in a second

"I’m not what?"

"Wellyou’re not quite what I expected"

"And what did you expect?"

"To use your wordsa right bastard, I guess" Definitely not one ould cook her a meal And he hadn’t yelled at her once She really expected him to be much morebrutal Brutal and deadly and he wouldn’t be happy until she was cryingwhich she would never do

"That I can beduring battle I don’t feel the need to be that hen I’ the potato to see if it was juicy like fruit, she muttered, "There are some who say you’re cruel Heartless And not just to our enes?"

"You want o and hunt theotten that before you were Bercelak the Great you were Bercelak the Vengeful"

"Do you kno I got that name?"

"No" And she shouldn’t care, but she was kind of curious

"Because of Soaic"

Ahh, Soaic She’d taken a turn with hi that she’d write down in a diary Plus, he feared her They all did To be truthful, her reputation wasn’t much better than Bercelak’s, and she had yet to wake up with the dragon she’d gone to sleep with They slipped out like they feared she’d wake and sied "He has had much to say about you"