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“But why?” she questions, genuinely interested but also concerned. “I don’t understand why they would do that. Why keep someone from you?” My treasure looks back at me with confusion but also with need for answers. It’s better than the alternative—her silence, her disobedience, her desire to leave—so I nurture her curiosity.
“I’m not sure. It could be to end our line. We are the most powerful shifters. I don’t know why they’d risk it though... There’s no other reason that she would be there that I can think of.” She stares into my eyes as if she’ll find an answer there. I wish I could give her one. I truly do. “Had I not seen her lineage myself, I would think she didn’t exist, and that Victor was merely toying with us.” Anger fumes inside of me at his name on my lips. Once again, my dragon stirs, eager to protect Kara from ever again being harmed.
“So you’re siding with Victor if this ends in war?” The worry in her voice gives her a broken cadence. I hate that she’s worrying, but I love that she’s concerned for us.
“No.” I nearly whisper as I finally reach the high table. Her wide eyes stay locked with mine. “We will fight against the Authority if they try to take what’s ours. That is not the same.” I squat down next to her chair to be eye level with Kara. “I’ll be killing Victor myself.” Ever so gently, I push the hair out of her face and tuck it behind her ear. My thumb brushes along her cheek. “I will kill him for what he’s done to you.”
She doesn’t pull away from my touch. Progress.
“Thank you.” Her voice is small and melancholy. “I wish you wouldn’t lie to me.”
“I didn’t lie to you.” My heart skips in my chest. “I’ll bring his head to you if that’s what you want.” My solemn words are spoken with every bit of sincerity I have in me.
Her hazel eyes stare back at me. “I’m not pregnant, Drago.” Her jaw is squared and her teeth clenched. She’s putting on a mask. It’s all too obvious she’s holding back tears.
I attempt to gather an excuse but she cuts me off. “The women were talking, Drago. I know you know. Stop lying to me.”
Fuck. Fire burns in the depths of me and urges me to make this right. “It’s all right, we can try again, but the odds—” the look in her eyes keeps me from finishing. A concoction of sadness and rage stares back at me.
She shakes her head. No. No. My heart races. I can’t let her go. “So I can’t give you dragonlings?” she asks with no emotion other than contempt.
“I don’t think you can,” I answer simply and truthfully, knowing I need her to stay. Quietly, I sit in the seat next to her with my hand on the table. Palm up. I wait for her to hold my hand. But she doesn’t. Instead she stares at it.
“Then why do you even want me here?” she asks, not bothering to look at me.
“I told you. I love you, Kara.”
“Until you find someone to carry your young.”
I shake my head in disgust. “There is no one else for me!”
She accuses, “You’ll only keep me as a pet until you find someone else.” She continues to speak without looking at me, staring across the room at nothing.
“Is that what you’ve convinced yourself? What have I ever done to give you that impression?”
“You only wanted to breed me,” she answers with a flat tone, and I can feel her slipping away. I wish she were angry. I don’t like the lack of emotion from her. I need her passion, even if it’s because she’s angry. This is like she’s given up. Given up on us. My dragon rages inside of me to be let out. Even that side of me has lost faith in my abilities to keep her.
She must feel this pull, this fire between us. How can she not? Is it because she’s only human?
“That’s not true, Kara. I was drawn to you before I scented you. I was trying to wait to fuck you.” I swallow the harsh emotions and keep my dragon at bay. “This is exactly why. I knew you would get the wrong idea,” I say as she shakes her head in anger. “Don’t deny my feelings for you. You deny your own all you want. But I love you and I know that you love me as well.”
She rises from the table so quickly the chair nearly topples, brushing away tears from her eyes. I rise with her, and my chair does fall but I ignore it.
“Where are you going?” I ask as she turns her back to me and storms off. My heart races and my blood chills. I’m caught between the desperate need to forcibly keep her here and the reality of what harm that would cause.
“I need to go think.”
“What’s there to think about?” I ask to her back as she stalks toward the doorway, away from me yet again.
“What I want,” she says simply, although her voice is tight with tension.
“You know what you want,” I press.
She turns violently, her face flushed and her eyes wide as she yells, “I have no fucking clue what I want!” With anger in her steps, she closes the distance between us and her voice cracks. “I’ve never wanted anything in my life other than to escape death for as long as I could and have vengeance for those who’ve hurt me and my family.”
I press down the anger rising in my chest at the thought of someone hurting her. “I’ve never had the chance to want for anything. Never had a chance to even consider what I wanted. I wasn’t born into luxury and power!” She practically spits the last line. I can’t help that I was born into wealth and power. Her eyes brim with tears and I hate that this is how we came to be. If only I could have saved her long ago. If only I could go back.
I have compassion and empathy, but I do not have leniency for how she speaks to me.
