AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“She will. She needs you. You’re the only one who can make her feel better.”
He walked off to the stairs and started climbing up. He was on the way to my apartment—our apartment. That apartment was his home now. It was more his home than any other place on Earth.
I sighed and went all the way downstairs to where the rest of the Clan was gathering around the map table. Karim jutted his chin at the cut on my face. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Let’s get this done. I’m sick and tired of this shit. We got some dragons to hunt.”
18
RILEY
I threwmyself down on the bed in the guest apartment that Kingston first showed me yesterday. This apartment was just as nice and just as comfortable as his apartment…..except that he wasn’t in it. I was alone now.
I covered my face with my hands. I couldn’t be alone—not after five years on my own. I couldn’t go through that again. I didn’t want to admit it, but I needed him.
Connor needed him, too. Kingston might have been hiding this secret all along, but he was still Connor’s father.
If I ever doubted that, their eyes sealed the deal. They were father and son. They couldn’t be more similar if they’d been clones of each other.
Dragons. Kingston was a dragon. Lacey was a dragon. Samira. Barrett. Karim. Willow. They were all dragons.
That explained why they all had those brilliantly colored eyes. That must be why Kingston was so hot all the time.
Samira’s remark about me being Kingston’s mate—it all made sense now. I might be an outsider, but that didn’t stop us from bonding instantly the very first day we met.
All those high platforms all over the complex—they had to be launch decks. The dragons could launch from there to fly off into the sky. Everything made sense. Why didn’t I see it before?
I covered my face and shut my eyes tight, but words and ideas flooded me, now that I sat in silence by myself.
Kingston—he never knew. Layton hid that from Kingston just like everything else. Why?
Would Kingston have told me if he knew? He’d been around me and Connor for less than twenty-four hours before this happened. When would he have been able to tell me? Last night? I didn’t think so.
Sitting alone helped me calm down and my mind cleared. I wouldn’t have told me if I’d been in his position. I would have waited a lot longer. He only revealed himself to save my life.
Cason Dane. That blue dragon was the same person who killed Layton Heller. Cason was the same son of a bitch who’d been trying to kill Connor. Kingston saved Connor’s life. Kingston saved my life.
Now what was I supposed to do? I couldn’t leave this stronghold. I couldn’t go back out on the run, not even to get away from this. I couldn’t do that to Connor and I couldn’t face it myself.
Connor. Connor was one of them. My skin crawled thinking that he would turn into a big, scaly green monster just like…..
Kingston. The man I loved was that big, scaly green monster. Did that make him a bad person? Did that even make him a different person? He was still the same man I fell in love with, just…..different.
I paced around the apartment trying to make sense of all this, but I couldn’t keep still. This guest apartment somehow repelled me. It didn’t want me here because I didn’t belong here.
I only belonged one place in this whole complex and I wasn’t ready to go back there—not yet. I might never be ready, but staying here wasn’t an option. I never could have explained that to Connor—not after he settled into Kingston’s place so naturally.
I strode down the corridor to the stairs. I had no idea where I would go, but I stopped when I spotted the whole Clan gathered around the strategy table down in the main hall.
Kingston had changed his clothes. He looked as clean-cut and powerful as ever. The gash on the side of his face only made him look more dangerous and single-mindedly determined to hunt down his enemies.
He pointed one muscled arm at the map in front of him. “The Danes will withdraw back to their stronghold here. We’ll launch a surprise attack here and draw them out.”
“What if Cason doesn’t show himself?” Karim asked.
“The rest of you will engage the Danes and I’ll go inside the stronghold to find him.”
The others exchanged glances. “No one has ever done that before,” Barrett pointed out. “No one has ever invaded another Clan’s stronghold before.”
