Alaric’s face went deadpan. “Unbelievable. An alpha dragon senses you as his mate, and you want soda.”
No alpha wanted me. Alaric was drunk and spewing nonsense. There was no way any dragon had said those words.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I insisted. “And I think you’re mistaken.”
Alaric scowled, pointing a finger at me. “I may be intoxicated, but I am not mistaken, thank you very much. I know exactly what I heard. Hell, that’swhyI drank in the first place!”
“Please, everyone, let’s calm down,” Poppy interjected. He sounded nervous, probably due to our argument.
Alaric released a heavy sigh and slumped back on the bed. “You’re right, wolf. There’s no use in causing a fuss now...” Then he bolted back upright, eyes flashing eagerly. “Hang on. Did Saffron say anything about Aurum? Did he sense his mate, too? Or is he still available?”
Alaric’s mood swings gave me whiplash. I blinked, trying to recall our conversation.
“Um, I don’t know,” I admitted. “I only spoke to Aurum for a few moments. He was overwhelmed by the crowd, and he wanted Saffron’s help dealing with it.”
“Ugh. Never mind.” Alaric collapsed into a limp puddle of limbs. “I don’t have time for alphas who need hand-holding... You can have him. Hell, take them both for all I care.”
Something about his comment made me pause. If they were twins, was it possible they’d both fall for the same omega?
I recalled the identical golden dragons on the stage. Only one of them stared at me, not both. And during the meet-and-greet, only one spoke to me—the other was in a hurry to leave. The dragons might’ve been twins, but they weren’t the same person. They each had their own personality, their own quirks, their own wants and needs.
“Now that you mention it,” Poppy began, tilting his head curiously. “Wasn’t there something odd about the twins?”
Alaric opened one blue eye. “How so?”
“Maybe it’s just my imagination, but I thought they looked different,” Poppy said, unsure.
“They’re identical twins. What part of that is unclear?” Alaric argued.
Poppy bit his lip. “I know, but... Remember the first season, during the closing ceremonies? They were both there for aminute. I could’ve sworn they looked a little bit different from each other.”
“You’re delusional,” Alaric mumbled, throwing his forearm over his face.
Since I had no clue what they were talking about, I couldn’t defend Poppy. Yet, deep down, I wanted to agree with him. I had no clue why. It was true that when I met the twins, they looked identical, like mirrored images. But theyfeltdifferent. Was that what Poppy meant?
“I should ask Taylor about it,” Poppy mused. Noticing my confused expression, he added, “Oh, Taylor is my friend. He won the first Dragonfate Games. He’s a tiger shifter mated to one of the dragons. He lives in the castle with his mate, so he’s met the twins in person.”
I gawked. “They live in a castle?”
“Yes, on the other side of the island.”
This was absurd. An alpha dragon who lived in a castle on a private island wasnotmy fated mate, no matter what Alaric said.
Besides, we’d only spoken for what, five minutes? That wasn’t long enough to know somebody.
But if that was the case, why did I feel like I could distinguish one twin from the other?
Seven
Aurum
My heart’sdesire was to stay up late playing video games. Unfortunately, the only games I played were the Dragonfate kind.
I woke up at 8 AM, courtesy of Jade’s gifted alarm clock. He didn’t trust either me or Saffron to get up on time so he’d forced us to put them in our bedrooms. But I couldn’t begrudge him too much. Therewasa precedent of alpha dragons showing up late to our own Drake-damned TV show after sleeping with their omegas...
Not that I had that problem. I was mateless and proud of it. No dating show crap would change that.
I stumbled into the shared living space with a yawn. Saffron’s door was closed, which was weird. We usually kept our bedroom doors open for each other.
