Zara’s eyes went wide. “Liora,” she warned under her breath.
But her sister only smirked, leaning in close enough that Zara could practically feel the teasing radiating off her.
“Zara’s hot for the dragon,” Liora snickered.
Zara whipped around so fast she nearly sprained something, checking to see if Hektor had heard.
Thank the gods, he was hunched over his phone, massive thumbs moving with surprising delicacy as he scrolled. Completely oblivious.
For now.
Elian followed her line of sight and let out a low whistle.
“Ah. Well…yeah, I can see the appeal.”
Zara glared daggers at him. “Don’t you start too.”
But Elian only shrugged. “Come on, Zara. You’ve always been into manly men. Or?—”
His grin widened, wicked. “I guess now it’s manly Drakkons.”
Liora snorted so hard she nearly doubled over.
Zara groaned, burying her face in her hands.
“I hate you both,” she muttered.
Chapter 4
Hektor
The worst thing about work—any work—was meetings.
Hektor had believed this long before he ever left the Drakkon citadel, long before he’d been drafted into the strange, chaotic, ridiculously emotional world of Olympus-adjacent affairs. Meetings were pointless 90 percent of the time. Things that could’ve been a quick message, or a single conversation in a hallway, somehow ballooned into hour-long ordeals with too many voices and not enough actual substance.
Whenever possible, he escaped them, sometimes literally.
But today…well, today he understood the point.
New place. New mission. New team.
Unfortunately.
And today?
Today was the exact kind of meeting he hated most. They’d been locked in this glass-walled conference room all day.
Working through lunch.
Working through what should have been a break.
Working through patience he absolutely did not possess.
He sat stiffly in the glass-walled conference room, arms crossed over his chest, already counting the exits out of habit. The light overhead hummed…why did lights always hum? And the scent of coffee, paper, and something floral clung to the air.
Necessary, he reminded himself.
This meeting wasnecessary.
