“IChooseyou.” Hele stretched up onto her tiptoes to press a featherlight kiss to the tip of his wide nose. Her dragon nearly went cross-eyed as he tried to follow the movement. “You will be my mate.”
She expected him to pull her close like she had seen other dragons do — Constantin and Valerie were constantly tugging at one another, and the other couples she’d seen usuallyat leasttwined their tails when out and about. She did not have a tail, but her hair was quite long, and when she imagined him twining it around his green fist, something dark and sweet pooled in her belly.
This was what she had longed for, what she’d craved when she watched others. Mates were constantly petting and embracing, leaning down to whisper in each other's ears and kiss lips. So she waited, breath stuck in her throat, for her dragon to bring her closer.
Would he kiss her? She’d done all the research on that. Of course, she had learned thatreadingabout something didn’t always mean she could apply the knowledge well, but—
Vael’s thumb, calloused and warm, skated across her cheek before he dropped his hand. Taking one precisely measured step back, he said,“T?ht…no.”
Hele swayed, left off balance by his sudden movement. Confusion made her normally quick mind slow. “No?”
Though his expression was shadowed in the darkness, she still saw regret and…Gods, that cannot be pity.
“I’m sorry, Hele,” he grated, voice raw. “But you can’t Choose me. You aren’t ready.”
She had the unfortunate experience of emotional pain several times since her fall. Sometimes when she did something wrong in front of others, she felt humiliation. Sometimes a passing comment wounded her. Sometimes she lashed out and felt the ugly slush of guilt in her gut. Once or twice she had even cried and considered disappearing into the sky, where confusion and hurt and anger could not reach her so easily.
Butthis…This was a blow unlike any other.
Emotion came in awful flashes. First there was disbelief, then humiliation, and finally a screaming wall of pure, terriblehurt.
In a small, confused voice, she asked, “You… will not let me Choose you? I do not understand. You won’t Choose me?”
Vael’s expression was pained, almostagonized,when he choked out, “No.”
“You do not want to be my mate.” It wasn’t a question this time, but rather a flat statement of fact like the others she sometimes recited to herself.The ‘Riik is my home. My clan is Aždaja. My name is Hele Aždaja, daughter of Constantin and Valerie. My Chosen does not want me.
“I… Hele, that’s not—” He reached for her again, but this time her body moved on instinct. She bounded backward. In an instant, there were several feet between them. She wished it were more. She wished she had never gone wandering. She wished she’d never said anything to him at all.
“I don’t understand,” she croaked, looking everywhere but him. All the signs were there. He’d embraced her. He gave her gifts —blanketsfor her nest! That is what mates did. She knew this. She’d observed it and she’d read about it. Dragons only gifted nesting material to their Chosen, so that they might make a roost together. She’d done her research, assembled the evidence, and come to the only conclusion that made sense.
But he didn’t want her as his mate. Why? Did she do something wrong? Was it because she wasn’t a dragon like Alex, strong and sensual and confident? Did he find her stilted speech off-putting?
Hele was horrified by a possibility she’d never considered before.Is he not attracted to me? Does he want another?
Jealousy, as brittle and hard as hail, pelted her. On the heels of that came the equally terrible thought,Of course he would have another. What are you? A naive elemental who just learned her letters, who thinks that having her own nest makes her special. He’s part of your Isand’s Wing. Important. Powerful. I am nothing to him. Nothing but a helpless creature following his shadow from below.
Vael stepped toward her, his wings extended to their full width.“T?ht,listen to me. I only want—”
Hele balked. “I willnothear what you want!” She couldn’t bear it. She could not hear a name. She could not know who she would be comparing herself to for all her days. Her heart, tender and new, could not take it.
Thunder clapped overhead, so close it shook the ground. Water whipped up until the spray reached them even as far as they were from the churning waves. Deep in the roiling clouds, lightning streaked in angry slashes.
The light briefly illuminated her dragon’s stricken expression, but Hele was not moved by it. Her mate did not want her. Her mate wanted someone else. She thought the fall had been the most terrifying, painful moment of her life, but his rejection took its place with ease. At least the fall was something she could recover from.
This?She did not think she would ever heal from this.
Despite the lightning and the wind that had begun to claw at their bodies, Vael crossed the distance between them. He was a huge, hulking shape in the dark. Clawed hands grasped her shoulders and the massive shapes of his wings began to close around her, shielding her from the storm she created.
“My Hele,no,”he rasped, barely audible over the howling wind.
No, I will not be your mate. No, I will not Choose you.
Fine then,she thought, jerking her shoulders out from under his hands. She could not bear his touch. It made herfeeland all those feelings for him needed to be carved out with claw and fang.If he will not be my mate, then I will find someone else to Choose me!
Sucking in deep, shuddering breaths, she raggedly informed him, “I do not want you to pity me. I do not want you to take care of me.” She looked at the wings that were halfway encircled around her and cried, “You donotget to embrace me! Only my mate will do that!”
She knew that she would regret being angry with him tomorrow, when the pain began to dull, but she did not care. Perhaps she would apologize. Perhaps not.
