She sighed. “Thank you for being honest.”
“Of course.”
“Is it me?” she asked, lifting her head slowly to meet his gaze.
“What? No. God no. You’re…you’re perfect.”
She frowned. “Then what is it? Please make me understand because for the life of me, I don’t get it. I don’t understand why any shifter, anydragon, would reject their mate.”
“I…” He broke off and raked a hand through his thick damp hair. “Fifty years ago, I was banished from the clan. When the elders sent me away, they warned me that if I was ever to return to the homeland, it would be under the punishment of death.”
Amelia gasped, but Wyatt ignored the interruption.
“They told me that no dragon was ever to look upon my face again and if they learned of any dragon who had knowingly spent time in my presence, they would face the same fate as me.”
“Well, if that’s all it is, then you have nothing to worry about,” Amelia said, hope swelling in her chest. “Because Ineverwant to return to the clan.”
“Don’t you get it?” he said, his jaw twitching. “Just being around me puts your life in danger. If the elders were to ever find out…”
“They won’t.”
“But what if they did? I could never live with myself knowing I’d condemned you to death.”
Amelia frowned. “Now you’re just being melodramatic. As the crow flies, Antarctica is a twelve-hour flight from here. No dragon flies this far from the homeland and even if they did, what do you think the chances are of them coming tothiscity?”
“I don’t know,” he said, raising a deliberate eyebrow. “Maybe about the same asyoucoming to this city?”
Amelia scowled. He had her there.
“Why were you banished?”
“I…” Wyatt shook his head. “It’s ancient history.”
She frowned, wondering why he wouldn’t tell her what he’d done to deserve banishment. It had to have been something bad, but, she supposed it didn’t matter. Whatever it was had been a long time ago. People changed. Amelia wasn’t the same person she’d been a year ago when she was still living with the clan, she couldn’t imagine the person she’d be fifty years in the future.
“Look, I left the clan for good reason,” she said. “I don’t want to go back.”
“It doesn’t matter. I won’t put your life at risk for the selfish reason of wanting to be with my mate.”
“But that should bemydecision to make.”
“I’m sorry. I’ve made up my mind.”
Amelia started to feel desperate again and searched her mind for something she could say that might make a difference, but she could see that it didn’t matter what she said, Wyatt was never going to change his mind. She got to her feet.
“Then I guess there’s nothing left to say.”
She took a step toward the door when Wyatt asked, “Are you in some kind of trouble?”
Amelia frowned. “What do you mean? What kind of trouble?”
“Anykind of trouble.”
She shook her head. “No, why do you ask?”
“Because outside in the street earlier, there was a man watching us. I started towards him, and he took off.”
Amelia froze. “I’m not in any kind of trouble—that I know of, but—”
