“What does that tiny flame represent?”
“My last hope. When the flame goes out it means I no longer exist.”
Ronan remained silent for a few seconds before he again spoke. “How can I trust you? I’ve heard the stories about you nailing every willing and able omega around town.”
“Stories are great, but they’re just that—stories. I have not slept with every omega in town, and just for the record, I’ve not slept with anyone but you since our first time.” And now for the final truth to share. “In hindsight, I should’ve known right then that you were my mate, but I didn’t. Not until you told me you were pregnant.”
“You really haven’t slept with anyone else?”
“Not since you, nor can I get anyone but my true mate pregnant.” Something I’d already shared but felt the importance of reiterating. “Once we find our mate, that’s it. There’s never another, and when our mate dies, so do we.”
“How old are you exactly?”
I chuckled. “In human years, over three thousand years old.”
Silent blinks. More blinks. Mouth opened, yet for the first time nothing came out of it.
“There is no limit on our lives unless our mates die.”
“But I’ll only live a normal human existence, so my death is inevitable. Why would you tie yourself to something, or someone, with an expiration date?”
“Once we’re mated, my life source becomes yours. It will flow through your veins and protect you, heal you when you’re injured, and if what happened with Alex and Emerson proves correct, it will draw your dragon forth.”
“So, everyone here is a dragon?”
“Everyone but Raven and her coven.”
“I-I’m not a dragon,” he defiantly rebuffed, showing his snarky side again.
“Yes, mate, you are.”
Chapter Six
Ronan
“I’d know if I was a dragon!” I snapped. “Stop thinking you know more about me that I do. Just…stop. This is…I’ll accept that you’re a dragon, how can I not when I’ve seen your scales and your eyes. Unless I am completely delusional, those eggs, these tunnels, the giant ass garage with cars in it that should be in a museum, it’s all real. Are you happy now that you’ve plunged me into the dragon version of Alice in Wonderland?”
“It’s nice to meet you Alice, would you care for a tea party?”
Blink.
Blink-blink.
I didn’t want to smile but it wasn’t as if I could stop it.
“A tea party, no, but a cup of tea might not be a bad idea,” I admitted, since the realness was starting to come crashing down on me, complete with the whole bit about dying.
I had not made it all the way to a place where I could finally be myself just to die because what, I didn’t want to fuck, complete the mating ritual with, whatever, a guy I’d already screwed dozens of times. It was starting to feel like a just do it and get it over with situation, so maybe everyone would stop yelling and threatening me.
“A cup of tea it is then,” Odem said, sweeping into a half bow as he ushed me back up the tunnel.
“I don’t like being hurried,” I told him. “Or pushed.”
“You can take your time, I won’t leave you lost in here, you’ll trip the wards and have everyone, including Raven, down here to see what’s going on,” he explained. “She doesn’t like having to reset the wards.”
“Wards?”
“Consider them silent alarms.”
