Ember could hear her own loud heartbeats, and her palms turned sweaty as she held onto the skirt of her dress.

‘Shall I turn to look at him? What if my expression offends him? Oh no, what is my expression like? Do I look scared?’ She shook her head. ‘It should be fine. He is my mate. I have seen White Tigers and even the feathered races in their beast forms. They simply look like large animals. I shouldn’t be scared of animals. Dragons should be just large lizards with wings, right?’

She repeated those lines in her mind over and over again, but whatever courage she managed to scrunch up evaporated along with the warm blow of air behind her, the loud but relatively shallow breath of a divine beast.

‘No, no, no, I can’t look! Dragons are said to be the most powerful divine beasts in existence. Can I really turn around and pretend that I’m not scared? What if my reaction upsets Draven?’

She heard the grunt of the large creature behind her, as if he was urging her to turn around and look at him.

‘Ugh! Now, I realize I am indeed troublesome. Wah! What do I do? I was the one who told him I wanted to see his beast form. I can’t be like this now.’

Holding her breath, Ember decided to throw caution in the wind and turned around.

‘Whatever, this is my mate! Even if I’m scared now, as long as I get used to his appearance, I will adapt to his looks!’

However, the courage she gathered dissipated the moment she laid eyes on that savage-looking claw.

Yes, the moment Ember turned around, her gaze landed first not on the head of the scaly creature, but on its sharp talons so large it was almost the size of an adult human. If by mistake she happened to come under even that talon, grasped by within those nails, she was sure the slightest force would stab–no, crush her under it.

‘If the claws are already this large…’

With bated breath, her gaze slowly moved upwards, up, up–

For a moment, she was momentarily blinded by the sunlight behind the large creature, and all she could see was a silhouette that seemed larger than even a house. She instinctively took a step back and squinted her eyes as she raised her head.

Ember forgot how to breathe.

‘A Black Dragon.’

Under the glare of the midday sun, a mystical-looking creature so magnificent and elegant, it looked like a sculpture made out of the finest black obsidian stone, stood in the middle of the flowers.

To say the creature was beautiful was an understatement.

Arrogant and domineering, a high-ranking creature that could exert pressure on every living organism simply by standing still.

‘So this is a Dragon…’

His entire body was covered in midnight black scales, glinting mysteriously under the sun like an armor, yet as much as he looked dangerous and ferocious, one could say his form was a sight to behold. He was like an artwork, from the way its barbed tail leisurely curled on top of the plants, to his long graceful neck curving up towards the Dragon’s horned head, and those intelligent red eyes…

“Draven?”

She found him peering down at her, those large red eyes almost the size of her head, and she could see her reflection on them. She could see the image of a bewildered lady with her mouth gaping, and she could not help but cover her mouth in an attempt to calm herself.

Was she scared? No, she was not scared.

Though her heart could not stop beating wildly inside her chest, it was more due to her nervousness. She was even surprised she wasn’t scared of this gigantic beast. She had all the reasons to be scared of this Dragon…but she was not.

‘Maybe because I know that even if the form is different, this is still the same man I love?’

There was movement from his side which made her take a step back, but then she realized he was simply stretching his wings open. Leathery and veined, those two black wings outstretched had the span twice, no, thrice the length of his gigantic body, causing her to realize that the Dragon was even bigger than her initial estimation.

‘How can a creature be as big as this?’

Once he folded his wings back towards his body, she gulped.

‘This is my mate…This is my mate…but he’s like a small hill…’

Though her fear of the creature no longer exists, she was still struggling to accept that this was Draven’s true form.

It didn’t seem real.

“Can I touch you?”

Ember didn’t know what’s gotten into her that she asked for this though inside she was somewhat nervous. It was human instinct that one would feel scared of something that they had never seen or experienced, but for Ember, her excitement and curiosity overpowered her other emotions.

In response to her question, the Black Dragon lowered his head in front of her.

“Oh, that tickles!”

A small laugh escaped her as she felt that hot breath blow against her face. A grunt came from Draven as his face got closer to her. Those large red reptilian eyes were like mirrors; they could contain the reflection of her entire body so easily.

That huge head of Dragon lingered in front of her, as if urging her to reach out. He then stopped moving and patiently closed his eyes, telling her he wouldn’t move so she could touch him all she wanted.

Ember raised her hand slowly.

His head was even larger than her body, its entire skin covered with smooth scales, and there were two curved horns on top of it, with smaller horn-like projections at the edges of its jaws.

At first, she touched a scale with caution, eventually using her fingers to trace the patterns on his scales. She heard him softly grunting in response. It felt like he was saying he liked how she was touching him.