Scary Work??? Aengus mentioned having “work to attend to” once, and when I asked what he did, he said, “We will not risk answering, for fear of displeasing you.” What the devil emoji?
Hypotheses/Guesses:
Do Drakkon = Irish Bear serpent gods???Makes sense, but only one.Hypothesis: Aengus Diarmuid Orpheus = all three of the gods that the Irish Bears worship. If so, how did Sadie know to push me???Aengus = main control personality?Diarmuid = warrior? Security guard? Acts and moves like one.Orpheus = some Freudian stuff about him hating me??? The part of him that maybe doesn’t want a fated mate.
More Questions:
1. WHY ME????
2. What does A.D.O. think he’s protecting me from?
3. How are they speaking perfect (if a little fussy) English when English hasn’t been invented yet???
4. Two moons??? What the devil emoji?
5. Is this really my fated mate?
We Know You Are
Another week wentby before I finally got up the courage to address Question #5.
Training with his Diarmuid side wasn’t getting me any closer to that door, and I had a tentative notion that even though I was deeply unwilling to be his fated mate, this fated mate stuff might be the one way I had to convince Aengus to take me to that door.
Mata Hari angles—using romantic connection to get the information you wanted—was a known trick of the trade. Not my thing at all. I’d hidden behind a baby koala named Kiwi for over a decade, and Mata Hari angles weren’t particularly ethical.
But it was the only tactic I could think of right now, and I had to try if it meant gaining access to the key’s door.
We’d been on a run of boar over the last few days, which reminded me of my dear Da. Boar stew and marmite were pretty much the only things he knew how to make. I fondly remembered him serving bowls of it to me while my mother recovered from her injuries, shortly after we arrived in Scotland.
And that morning, Aengus surprised me with two wild pears as my side and pine nuts for my Pleistocene salad. This was the closest he’d come to a romantic gesture since the journal, so it felt like the right time to bring up the elephant in the room.
“Aengus…” I nervously set my plate and fork back on the tray sitting between us after I finished first meal. “Can I ask you something?”
Come on, Mata Dorie, you can do this!
“You may ask us anything,” Aengus answered without hesitation. “But be aware you will perhaps not?—”
“I know, I know. I probably won’t like the answer.” I waved his caveat away, even as my stomach rolled with nerves. “I was just wondering, um…”
I wrung my hands in my lap. “Do you think I’m your fated mate?”
He stilled. And did that long, long processing thing.
“We know you are.” He winced. As if I’d touched a bruise. “The fertility portal has specifically designated you to be here with us.”
I didn’t know what surprised me more. The conviction in his voice. Or the fact that it matched my gut feeling.
I’d spent two weeks telling myself that being fated to a dragon might only be a possibility. Like, maybe there was some nearby wolf I was supposed to match with. But deep inside, I’d known… known it was him.
However, that knowing did not make my transition into Mata Dorie mode any less awkward.
“The thing is…” I composed my face into a pleasant, conversational smile. “I’ve been here a few weeks, and I understand why I haven’t gone into heat since I’m on the heat control shot, thanks to modern medicine, but…”
Aengus did not pick up the lead I was laying down, only stared back at me expectantly, his emerald eyes burning.
Which forced me to spit it out. “I’m wondering why you haven’t made a move.”
“Made a move?” He cocked his head, repeating the words slowly. “We do not know this phrasing.”
