“What? Whatever it is that you want to know, just ask.”
“He kept calling me a human, like there was something else to be. It was so weird.”
“Did he?”
“Yeah, and you said it, too. You said that I was just a human. What did you mean by that? And what else is there?”
Antoine paused for a moment, maybe to run, because she narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously.
“What is it that you're not telling me?”
“Trust me Cassandra, there are some things that you are just better off not knowing.”
“And who gets to make that decision?”
“At the moment, I do. You don't need to know everything.”
“So, you're not going to tell me what it was all about? You're not going to tell me why he kept calling me human and acting like there was something else besides humans?”
“If I said that I wasn't going to tell you, would you still try to find out?”
“Of course, I would. You can’t expect me just to leave it. With everything that is going on, I need to know what is really going on. I have been here for a couple of weeks now and there has been another attack. I don't even want to think about what that guy Gill was going to do to me. If I'm going to be in the middle of all this, I at least should know what is really going on. What is this big secret that you have, that you won't let me know? How much worse can it really be, than what I already know?”
He chuckled and it sounded bitter, even to his own ears. “Trust me, Cassandra, it can get so much worse.”
“I do trust you, Antoine, but the problem is that you don't trust me. You said that we're meant to be together and I am yours, but are you mine? And if you are, how can we be together and me not really know the truth about you?”
“Why do you think that there is a truth that needs to be found?”
“Because I can just feel it. Tell me I'm wrong and I'll stop asking. If you can honestly tell me that I'm barking up the wrong tree and I'm completely off, then I will quit altogether. But I think we both know that you can’t honestly say that.”
Antoine wasn't going to argue with her. He was keeping something from her, several somethings, and he wasn't ready for any of it. It was his dragon that had claimed her, not him. It wasn't like he wasn't too far from doing it himself, obviously, but the dragon pushed things along a little bit faster than he was prepared for. He did not know how he was supposed to do everything in the short amount of time that he had. He hadn't even gotten to know her before he had made her his mate.
Soon, she would have to be told about the babies, or she would just start to realize it when she had morning sickness and her stomach started to grow at an alarming rate. Shifter babies were faster. They were harder on human mothers, and they couldn't be safely delivered in a hospital. There was a lot that was going to be different for Cassandra, more than anything she would have ever expected. They had not even talked about children, and already they had settled down with one of their own, something Cassandra didn’t even know about.
“I'm not saying that I don't have secrets, but I don't think you're ready for them yet.”
“Secrets, as in plural?”
Antoine nodded his head. There was no sense in lying as far as he was concerned. He didn't want everything to be a secret, but he worried that it would be too much, too soon. He was still trying to get her used to copulating with him. Motherhood and being with a dragon were obviously going to be hard to wrap her head around.
Most women would be completely freaked out by it. Antoine didn’t know how Cassandra was going to take it. She might freak out and not want anything to do with him. That’s what worried him. It was scary if she didn’t accept him, because it wasn’t like he could just stop being a dragon. It's just who he was. What if she didn't want him for who he was?
He didn't want to think about it. Antoine had always been the man that didn't feel anything. Women fell in love with him, lots of women had done it in the past, but he had never felt equally what they felt for him. For the longest time, Antoine had genuinely thought that he was broken. He had imagined that he was so messed up that he wasn't even capable of love. How sad was that?
“There are a few, but like I said, I'm worried about it being a bit too much for you.”
“How bad could it be?”
He laughed to himself because it was funny. She was envisioning horrible things, but Antoine was certain that she wasn't thinking about anything close to what the truth was. How could she? In her reality, people like him don't even exist.
“I don't know, I guess it depends on how open you can keep your mind.”
“It depends on how open it's supposed to be. Is it going to be one of those things where I need to be like open to you having a second wife? Because I can honestly tell you that I’m not going to be okay with that, ever.”
“Why is that where your mind goes? Do you really think that I have other women in my life? I’m out here in the middle of nowhere, so I don’t have to deal with them.”
Antoine could see that she wasn’t sure what to think.
