The night air was cool on my skin, the faint hush of the leaves rustling in the breeze was enough to have my eyes closing for a second. Opening them again to walk over to Argent, I’d never understand why my kind preferred noise, chatter, bright lights instead.
To empty their heads, even if for a moment, my dragon said, bunting my side.
Seems like they’re plenty empty most of the time, I replied.
My fingers gripped one of the spikes close to his head, remembering the way Sam and Jonas had lurched towards Fern. I knew the men on sight, had drunk with them a time or two, but all that familiarity was replaced with pure volcanic rage the minute they walked up to Fern. Conscious effort was required to loosen my grip. Hauling myself up into the saddle, then lying along the length of my dragon’s spine helped relax me.
You wish to tear those unworthy males apart,Argent said. With a snort, I focussed on the clouds passing over the moon.One of them is walking outside now. I could eat him for you.
I rolled upright, watching Sam waver up the path, probablyheading home. I felt like a wolf lurking in the shadows, ready to strike. He wouldn’t hear me slip from the saddle, my footfalls muffled by the pine needles. Wouldn’t even look backwards as I slunk up behind him. Knife in hand, I’d…
Do nothing.
Sam was an idiot, but a harmless one. He saw a woman he liked the look of and figured he’d try his luck, though his thought processes baffled me. Didn’t he see the state he was in, realise how unworthy he was? Obviously not. He dared to look down and trace the line of Fern’s bust… Shit, maybe I would knife the bastard.
You wish to protect your mate, Argent observed.As I do Auren.
The queen dragon was sleeping currently, her head on her claws.
Fern doesn’t need me protecting her, I replied.The others, they’ll keep her safe.
But you won’t be satisfied until you’re sure she is.
With a huff of breath, my fingers fiddled with a loose piece of leather on his saddle.
That’s just you, brother. Your desire for Auren is infecting me. If we were not bonded?—
You’d still have a journal full of your drawings of her,Argent replied.It was there when you found my egg. It’s still there in your breast pocket.
Dragons. People mythologised them, made them seem like they were these noble beasts, but I knew better.
Nosy bastard,I shot back.Keep out of my head.
I will if you stop broadcasting your desire for Fern everywhere but where it belongs.Before I could formulate a response, his head lifted.Here she comes. You can tell her what you feel right now.
No, I could not. If she looked wide eyed and pale at the lieutenant’s declaration, how would mine be received? He’d been pining silently for her for weeks, whereas I… The thought was cut off abruptly as the back door opened and then out came Fern.
The need to draw her rode me hard. It was what I did eachtime I dreamed of her, a response conditioned in me by the years. My pencil would have to move fast now, capturing her movement in swiftly rendered lines.
Theirs would be drawn in far more jagged ones.
Two men pushed themselves away from the back of the tavern and followed Fern towards the latrines, and that wouldn’t do. Argent shifted, ready to rush in, but I bid him to stay put. Dragons mauling humans meant the local magistrates would get involved, whereas I could deal with this situation much more circumspectly. Leaping from the saddle, I stalked forward.
Gods, there was something so completely and utterly maddening about Fern. Not just her smile, nor the scent of flowers that seemed to cling to her. No, her obliviousness was what had my teeth grinding together.
“Pretty girl…” One of them muttered to the other. “Look at that sweet arse.”
“Wouldn’t mind taking a bite,” said the other.
And did Fern round on them, eyes flashing, reprimanding them for their behaviour? No, of course, she didn’t. Just disappeared into the facilities as if she wasn’t in danger.
Which meant I needed to deal with the situation while she was in there.
“Wait for her to come out,” the first man said, “then?—”
“Then nothing.”
My hands snapped out, grabbing each of these idiots by their collars, then hauled them back. Their eyes went wide and their hands gripped my wrists.
