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“Squeak!” I said, reaching out to keep him from leaving.
He took my hand and squeezed. “You're in good company. Rehan’s the best of us.”
I know that! But you literally have my lifeblood tattooed on your skin.Unable to actually say that, I squeezed his hand back. Warmth traveled up my arm, and the fluttering in my heart increased until he released me.
He cocked his head to the side and smiled softly. “We’ll meet again, I’m sure of it.” And with that, he plucked his phone out of my grip and was hauled away from me, vanishing back into the multitude of people.
A trickle of liquid hit my hand, and I realized I’d forgotten about my drink. It leaned precariously to one side, and I righted it.
Shit. I had more information but also more questions. The noise of the crowd swelled. All around me, dragon shifters my height or taller chatted and danced. It felt odd not to be one of the tallest people in the room. Instead of standing and looking at shoulders, I shimmied toward a towering black speaker sittingon the ground off to one side. The Spanish guitar coming out of it wasn’t loud yet, but its presence warned of a much rowdier party to come. Setting down my drink, I boosted myself onto the top and watched the masses mingle.
As far as I could tell, except for a few older dragons, every shifter was in their early twenties to early thirties and decked out in either jeweled blue, red, brown, or white. It was mostly a sea of blue and red, peppered with brown. I only spotted two white shirts in total. Interesting.
About eight human women had white flowers in their hair and were being passed around and fawned over by the men and the other women. Fuck, no wonder all the women were so excited to get selected for The Hunt; dragon shifters treasured them.
Non-flowered women must be mates who stuck, but there were more than I’d seen in The Hunt, so maybe just mated women in general living on the island. I listened carefully, overhearing snippets of conversation and watching for anyone taking more interest in me than they should.
If someone involved in my abduction was here, I hoped they’d give themselves away.
I sipped my cream liquor, eyeing a couple who pointed at me before disappearing back onto the dance floor. I scanned for the dragon I’d just met, but I didn’t see his mop of black hair. My gaze found Rehan dancing with a shorter woman dressed in pink. He winked at me, and my heart fluttered. Even if the kiss was just his way of protecting me, he said he’d listen, and we’d fix my predicament together. It was probably more than he was willing to take on, but it was a better start than pretending to be Betty.
At the thought, my gaze locked on Tyson, still trying to kill me with his scowl. Even wrinkled and downturned, his damn face looked like the Greeks sculpted it out of marble.
No one should be that hot.
I pulled my focus away from him. A woman with long, straight brown hair paused to eye me. A minute later, a pair of dragons in blue pointed at me.
Peachy, everyone’s talking about you and taking an extra special interest in you. Finding someone taking an extra, extra special interest in you will be easy.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
TYSON
It was like she’d memorized a fecking playbook on how to attract a dragon.
She looked incredible, sitting on the speaker and lording over the entire social like a queen. I’d had her in my arms. I’d traced every curve, run my dick along her back, and nestled her between my bare thighs. I groaned, picturing her sitting on top of one of my collections, on top of me.
My dick strained in my pants, and I scrubbed my hand down my face, feeling stubble where I was usually clean-shaven.
This couldn’t be normal. It took two dragons to hold me back when that asshole Rehan kissed her. And she kissed him back like our time together never even happened.
Smoke billowed out of my nose despite my unlit fire.
Even after telling my sire everything, my dragon still turned from me. He wasn’t mad I failed. He was mad about Wiggles. And I was fecking furious. I don’t know why I thought she’d stay loyal to me, but for some reason, it hadn’t occurred to me she wouldn’t.
I tried to use her kissing Rehan to justify Tia, but my dragon turned his back on the thought. I’d pushed our mate away first. Guilt burned into my soul.
Wiggles wasn’t just anyone. She was mine, and I was hers. I let my sire take the lead, and we’d treated her like trash. But she was the opposite of trash, she was treasure.My treasure.I hadn’t even given us a chance.
“Ty-ty.” Tia gripped my shoulder, pulling my gaze away from Wiggles. “You’ve got to stop staring at her. She lied to you, tricked you. She isn’t good for you.”
I grunted. She’d done all those things, and I wanted to punish her for it, with my own hands.
“You have to mingle with at least three women tonight.” Tia continued. “You know the rules. Even if you don’t pick, it’s supposed to make you better at this next time around.”
“I won’t get a next time around.” I spit, hitting some other dragon’s shoes.
Tia pressed her lips together. “We’ll be enough, the two of us.” She gripped my arm and pulled me to face her. My younger, wingless self reflected in her eyes.
