“He doesn’t know me well enough to care for me, none of you do,” I counter, dismissing Lorn’s obvious fishing expedition.
“That’s not how it works with our kind, you know that. He doesn’t need to know everything about you to form a bond.”
I laugh and Lorn’s brow furrows. “Bond? That’s not what’s happening here. Ican’tbond, I haven’t revealed.”
Lorn reaches out a hand to stop me and then quickly pulls it back before a butterfly can nick him. “You’re kidding, right?” he asks, his eyes raking over my face. “Who told you that?”
My grin falters. “What do you mean? Everyone knows that.”
“Everyone most certainly does not,” he contends. “You can’t go into estrus unless you’ve revealed, but once you’ve matured, you can absolutely bond. That sort of thing is innate. There have been plenty of cases in our people’s history where a dragon took time to reveal, but they were still able to bond.”
My thoughts stutter, and my mouth drops open and gets stuck as I try to process what he just said. Lorn’s eyes flick back and forth between mine, growing more troubled with each pass.
“Ever, you do understand that’s what’s been happening between you and Aeson since you met, right? It’s very serious. You almost sent him into a frenzy the night you got here. He can feel your dragon calling to him. You most definitely triggered a bond.”
“I did not,” I argue, immediately defensive, confused, and really fucking concerned. I press a palm to my chest as though it will help my racing heart chill the fuck out.
He can feel my dragon?
“Wait, why is it serious?” I demand, bafflement temporarily staving off the rising tide of my alarmed astonishment.
“Because bonds can be tampered with if they’re left unfulfilled,” he explains. “From the second a bond forms, your instincts go into overdrive. You’ll become more possessive, more restless, more volatile, and more vulnerable. The bond will relentlessly push and push until you give in. If you don’t, you’ll reach a point where your instincts no longer carewhoyou bond with, just that you do. Anyone at that point could step in and trap you in a warped bond, and you’d be so crazed with need and driven to the edge of your instincts, you wouldn’t stop it even if you wanted to.”
I stare at Lorn, completely dazed. I wait for him to crack a smile and fire off agot yabefore he starts laughing hysterically at my expense. Instead, he looks just as worried as I feel.
What the fuck? Where was any of this in theGrowing Up Dragonbooks the wyverns told us covered the basics? I mean, I knew my education was lacking, but I didn’t know I could be turned into a sex-crazed maniac who’d settle for absolutely anyone if I didn’t hop on the magic dick my instincts decided wasjust right.
My chest starts to feel tight. Did it get hot in here, because I’m suddenly roasting. I start to fan myself, my eyes darting around with the realization that far too many people are probably listening in on this very private, very messed up conversation.
“Don’t worry, your dress has its tricks, and my suit has a few precautions of its own. No one can hear us.”
Well, thank fuck for that at least.
Lorn looks at me like I’m some kind of enigma. I’m pretty sure he’s horrified by my clear lack of understanding when it comes to my own nature, although why he’d assume I know shit about our kind, I don’t know. To be fair, I haven’t exactly been forthcoming with my ignorance. I was so worried that they might use it against me, I never thought that I might be setting myself up for something like this simply because I didn’t know better.
“Your dragon has claimed him too,” he tells me, like it should be obvious. “Bonds aren’t one-sided. That’s the pull you feel. That’s why you’re territorial of him and your nest.”
“That’s not fucking possible,” I whisper-shout, my eyes flicking around us as I try to school my features.
The drakes around us may not be able to hear what we’re saying, but they can still read body language. I don’t want it to look like I’m fighting with the scion or like I’m on the verge of losing my shit.
“My dragon hasn’t claimed him, Lorn. I don’t have a fucking dragon!”
“Ever, youarea fucking dragon! Just because you can’t reveal or manifest affinities doesn’t change what you are at your core. Aeson is your Bonded Mate and you’re his.”
I shake my head like it will clear it of everything Lorn is lobbing at me and round on him. “Then why in the fae fuck is he so mad about the deal I made with the king? I agreed to be his mate; isn’t that what he wants, what will keep us both from going crazy?”
“Yes, but he wants you to agreewillingly, not be coerced into it,” Lorn argues. “No honorable male would accept that.”
My thoughts dart back to the conversation I heard the night before. King Noctis mentioned they would take more drastic measures if I didn’t accept Aeson’s claim, but it wasn’t about my political influence and using me, it was about what would happen to us if I kept fighting the inevitable.
I press a hand over my mouth as though it will anchor my reeling thoughts. I’m dumbstruck, and yet…the pull, the awakening of my dragon and my instincts, the lust, the way my brain turns to mush the second he gets too close…the signs were there. I just didn’t know what they were pointing at, so I dismissed them.
Lorn sighs and his features soften. “I know you’ve been fighting practically your whole life, Ever, but you don’t have to fight him. Aeson is the best male I know, next to our father. He’d do anything for you, but not if you won’t let him in. I know you think you’re doing what’s right, that your silence and impenetrable walls are protecting you, but at what cost? You’re not alone now. Let your mate help. Let us help, as your new family.”
His offer both touches and terrifies me. It sounds so simple, and yet the opposite is true. My mind is a whirlwind ofwhat the fuck, and I have no idea what to think, feel, or do right now. I close my eyes, desperate to recalibrate, to let my world shift on its axis so I can make sense of all of this.
Aeson Noctis is my Bonded Mate.
