Page 35 of Dragon Me Through Space

“Our date,” he responded.

“Um, well … tomorrow?” I knew what I wanted to do on our date, but I felt a little silly asking for it.

“Tomorrow works for me,” he said with a smirk. “Did you have something in mind?”

“Let’s meet in the training room at two o’clock.” Hopefully, I could wipe that smug smile off his stupidly handsome face. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to finish gathering stuff for my current date with Wayne.”

He waved his hand and stepped out of my way to exit the pantry. “I shall not intrude upon you any further. Will you be joining us for dinner or will you be taking your dessert early together like you did with Zeke?”

It was clear that he had heard what had happened during the date from Zeke, which made my cheeks heat with embarrassment.

“It’s none of your business,” I snapped as I put the bottle into the box of items I’d been gathering.

Preston leaned close, his hands gripping the island on either side of me, caging me in and whispered into my ear, “That’s where you’re wrong, pet. Everything regarding you concerns me.”

Before I could spin around and give him a piece of my mind, he strolled out of the kitchen, a weirdly shaped fruit in his hand.

Grumbling to myself, I carried the box back to the jungle room where Wayne stood at the table, a few large plant leaves in front of him.

“Here,” he said quickly when he saw me enter the room and took the box the rest of the way to the table.

I helped him take out the fruits, nuts, and crackers I’d grabbed as well as the two cups and the bottle of alcohol.

“What’s WB mean?” I asked as I inspected the handwritten label.

“Wayne’s Booze,” he answered with a smile.

“Oh, that makes sense.” I chuckled. “So, what kind of alcohol is it?”

He opened the bottle, poured a glass, and held it out to me. “Try it and let me know what you think.”

I was skeptical, but I never turned down free alcohol. I raised the glass in a salute and gave him a gracious smile. “Cheers.” It smelled good, fruity, and when I took a drink, my eyes widened. It was delicious! “Oh, wow! This is so good. I’ve never had anything like it.” It was a bit bubbly, sort of like the seltzer, but the taste was fruity and tart.

“I’m glad you like it. It took me years to perfect the recipe.”

Looking up from my glass at him, I asked, “You made this?”

He nodded. “It’s called a pear cider. The pears were hard to come by initially, but then I discovered you could can them and freeze them, too.”

“Wow, you guys are really handy,” I whispered.

“Thank you,” he said. “Now, let me show you what we’re going to do. I’m only going to show you the steps because it takes a long time to complete it.”

“How long?” I asked as he picked up one of the large leaves.

“I think I remember my sister spending two or three days making one and she had to make three, so it took her more than a week to finish them all,” he answered.

“So, it’s common for your women to mate with multiple males?” I asked.

He nodded. “We have low female births and now, we’ve been tasked with finding females who are genetically able to have dragons.”

“Wait, aren’t you guys birthed from eggs? How could a different species birth a dragon egg?” That didn’t make any sense to me. There was no way that I could lay an egg.

“Some species who are compatible with Dragonkin are able to have live births. I’m not really sure how it works, but it has something to do with the way the genetics mix. Preston knows more than me. That’s why we … you … never mind.” He dropped his head, his brows furrowed.

Once again, I’d gotten so close to more information, but they stopped. But from what he said, it sounded like they thought I might be a genetic match for them. But how did they know? I hadn’t given them a DNA sample. Had I? Had they taken it from me while I was sleeping or something?

“Why are you upset?” Wayne asked, his brows furrowed as he looked down at me. He set the leaf down and took a step closer to me. “What did I say to upset you?”