The Dragon at Midnight

I swore I’d never fall for a non shifter. Then I saw her under the lantern light… and I knew I was lost.

INGA:
Berlin is rubble. My parents are gone, our home is a ruin, and my six-year-old brother Peter is always hungry.
I work nights at a bar where American pilots drink, laugh, and look for women. My coworkers dream of snagging a husband in uniform. I dream of one thing only—survival. Food on the table. A roof that doesn’t leak.
Then he walks in. Gideon Griffin.
He’s not like the others. Cynical, scarred, with eyes that burn like embers when he watches me. He should hate me—hate all of us—but when the Soviets corner me in the dark, it’s Gideon who steps forward. Gideon who protects me with a fury that feels older than war.
And when he touches me, I swear I feel fire beneath his skin.

GIDEON:
I lost too many brothers in the war. Buried too many friends. Berlin should mean nothing to me but smoke and sorrow.
Until I see her. Inga Weber. A German girl working tables for scraps, raising a little brother with nothing but grit and hope.
I know what women like her want from American pilots. I know better than to look twice. But then I spot her brother racing through the ruins below my wings, waving at the candy bomber as if I were a hero. And I remember my own kid brother back in the States.
For the first time since the war, I feel something break loose in my chest.
When I catch Russians laying hands on her, the dragon inside me—my secret, my curse—rises with a vengeance.
Because Inga is mine now. And I’ll burn the night itself before I let anyone take her from me.

Would you fall for a monster in uniform?