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And Ella thought that maybe she wasn’t so alone after all.
16
JHON
Jhon walked the perimeter of the Bergalians’ island, trying to keep his fury in check.
It was bad enough that the convoy of neighbors had arrived and demanded he send down the chute for them right after he’d had the most difficult conversation of his life with Ella.
But the fact that the very same night she was determined to go to a party on one of their islands without giving him time to do a preliminary sweep or a background check on the hosts was maddening.
Charl and Abbra’s lichen farm was obviously mature and thriving. He had to grudgingly concede that they had gone above and beyond the usual tiered lines for cultivation and created a farm that was practically a work of art.
Wicker sculptures in the shapes of people, animals, game pieces, and even starships practically covered the island, with lichen growing over them. Their house, which was a study in exposed tresses and deep roof overhangs, cultivated thick swathes of lichen. There was even a lichen-covered hedge maze.
He had overheard Ella waxing poetic to Abbra about how much she loved the whimsical beauty of their farm.
But all Jhon could see was undue risk.
Anyone or anything could be lurking behind any of those sculptures. The maze could be full of kidnappers, small predators, or both.
And even his dragon senses were not enough to convince him he would be able to adequately identify and ward off danger when there were so many distracting figures on the lawn.
He stalked past a trio of the statues that were clearly supposed to be three muses, and headed around toward a lichen-covered replica of the Wreck of the Hessionette.
Ella’s sparkling laughter caught his attention.
He tried to look over without making it obvious that he was curious.
She stood with a steaming mug of something in her hand, the fur cloak swirling around her, with Bo snuggled inside in his sling. Her head tilted back as she laughed.
Across from her stood the Arborealyte, Rikkers, with his annoyingly Terran-shaped-but-taller form and too-perfect rake’s smile.
Mine, the dragon roared in Jhon’s head.
With an effort, he turned on his heel and continued his patrol around the island, trying not to think about the fact that Rikkers was clearly flirting with Ella.
She’s not my mate, he tried to tell the dragon. And I told her this morning we could not let that happen again. She’s free to do whatever she wants. Including flirt with an Arborealyte with a dumb name.
“Got it bad, eh?” Abbra asked him, as she stepped out from the hedge maze. He couldn’t help but notice that she favored one leg.
“I’m running a patrol,” he said, pretending not to understand.
“I get it, man,” she replied, running a hand through the thick fur on her head. “If you don’t want to talk about it, we don’t have to. But I know you don’t have a lot of people to spill your story to here. And besides, I finished my own patrol five minutes ago.”
“You served?” he asked, forgetting that he was planning to ignore her.
“Sure,” she replied. “That’s how I got the limp. Even saw some action on Arvite-4, back in the day with a crew of Invicta. It’s how I know about the mate bond.”
“That obvious?” he asked her.
“More for me,” she said, shrugging. “Since I know what you are. When will you claim her?”
“I won’t,” he said firmly.
“That seems… unrealistic,” she said after a moment.
“My mission is to watch over the boy,” he said. “Period. Claiming the mother would be a dereliction of duty.”
