You can fix this. You can. Gotta track her down and make her listen. That’s step one.
His head was still spinning from the news that she was no longer in her family’s dwelling. His concern had been quickly supplanted by her declaration, but as soon as he recalled that he had no idea where she lived now, he felt his wings snap out with barely suppressed agitation.
The scars from the war had long since faded under skillful healing hands, but the intricate nerves in the paper thin membrane between the bones had never quite recovered. That meant he had slightly less control over his wing movement than most dragons, and that tended to manifest most strongly in moments of stress.
It wasalsowhy he struggled to keep from wrapping them around his Hele. It was an automatic response to her nearness, and one he had to consciously keep in check whenever she came within a few feet of him.
He would have done anything to have her in his embrace just then. Anything.
Hele might still be out on her own right now. Or she could be at her new home, upset and hurting and alone while I’m here being fuckinguseless.
But he wasn’t useless. He was a member of the Isand’s Wing, and he was a seasoned soldier. He knew how to solve a problem under pressure.
Forcing his wings to fold against his back, he tried to organize his thoughts into an actionable list.First, find out where her dwelling is. Second, apologize. Third…
His mind went blank. What was there to do after that? He wanted to say they’d go back to normal, but was there a normal after this?Worry about that later.
Vael raised his fingers to his jaw, ready to activate the biomechanical implant that worked as a communication device, but the faint beeping in his ear beat him to it. A small flare of magic and a touch answered the call. He held his breath, irrationally hoping that it would be Hele’s voice on the other end of the line.
It wasn’t.
“You’re going to give me one very good reason why I shouldn’t tear the wings from your back.”
Vael’s heart dropped. “Artem, now is not the fucking time.”
“I bet it isn’t.” Artem, Hele’s adopted older brother and Taevas’s cousin, normally had a charming, almost lackadaisical personality that hid a cunning and decisive mind. All that usual good cheer was completely stripped away. There was nothing but pure menace when he growled, “You know how I know that, Vael? I just got a call from Alex, who has spent the last two hours trying to console our sister.”
Two hours?Two hours.A vice tightened around Vael’s throat. He croaked, “Is she all right?”
Artem was pitiless. “No, she’s not all right. You made my sister cry, you jackass. She won’t say what happened and Alex is worried you did something to her. She’s about five seconds away from hunting you down and skinning you alive. Iknowyou’d never touch my sister, so what the fuck did you say to Hele?”
Vael stared bleakly into the hallway that led to his cold nest. It was his pride and joy, draped in tapestries he’d collected over his long life and absolutely filled to the brim with cushions and blankets. Every scrap of fabric was either pale blue, green, or violet — the colors that looked prettiest against Hele’s opalescent skin. He knew she didn’t sleep, so he’d installed special low watt reading lights and bookshelves in the walls. That way his mate could indulge in her favorite pastime while he held her all night.
He hadn’t slept in there once since he bought the roost. He couldn’t bear to.
“She Chose me,” he answered, hollow. “She just… I was flying in to check on her. She was out by herself, so I landed and we talked and— she justdid it.”
There was a cold, stunned silence for several heartbeats before Artem asked, “And what did you say, Vael?”
“I told her no, of course.” Gods, the words felt like gravel when they came out.
“You told herno.”
Vael scrubbed at his wet face with his palms, suddenly angry. “Yes! I told her no!”
“Why the fuck did youdothat?”
“What do you mean,why?”He let out a short, furious shout to the ceiling. Did no one care about her? Did no one see the danger of her being stifled so soon, when she was just finding her wings? Vael felt like he was losing his damn mind. “She’s notready!”
“...Do you mean to tell me that my little sister, the woman you’ve been pining after since the moment she dropped from the sky, told you she wants to be your mate and you— you saidno?”
The flat incredulity in Artem’s voice was almost as unendurable as his own hideous guilt. Vael propped his hands on his hips and hung his head. After taking several deep breaths, he gritted out, “You know why.”
Artem didn’t miss a beat. “Yeah, you’re a dumb motherfucker.”
A hot flush washed over the back of his neck. He’d known Artem since he was a baby. They’d flown together often, and being a few decades his senior, Vael had enjoyed watching him go from mischievous little boy to proud soldier. What he didnotenjoy was being called out by a dragon both younger than him and below him in rank. Usually it would have rolled off his back, but not at that moment, when he already felt like he was being torn apart.
Voice sharpening, he barked, “Listen, you don’t understand because you haven’t been here. You don’t—”
