“No, I’m sorry, I don’t remember how long I remained in any of them at all,” I said, frowning and suddenly recalling the mess I’d cleaned out of my car. “But I guess it had to have been to several, because there were stacks of brochures from a bunch of different states in the passenger’s seat when I got here, a bunch of them, and piles of dirty clothes on the backseat.”
“So, your village was some distance away from here, at least,” Ionus said, rubbing his chin. “Are you sure you had never heard of Dragon City before you drove into it?”
“No,” I replied. “Because I’m not sure of anything right now. Who forgets lava bombing a village? Or being a flipping’ dragon? I barely remember what my brother looks like. I only remembered his name in the doorway. My father’s eyes are burned into the back of my mind because they were the eyes that followed me, but I didn’t put that together until just now. I don’t remember how long ago I left. I don’t remember what pushed me to burn all those homes to the ground before I did. For all I know I committed more acts of carnage along the way and don’t remember that either.”
“Breathe mate,” Odem murmured in my ear. “When did you start remembering the events that lead to you being here?”
It took a moment to sort through the random flashes of memory back to the first one, as I’d driven to the diner in his Jeep. “The morning after our mating. I remembered seeing eyes following me as I fled my village. Something about the drive just triggered the memory.”
“Or your mating unlocked it,” Ionus stated. “It’s entirely possible that your dragon has been protecting you from them and now that it’s reemerging, it’s sharing the memories with you again.”
“They do that?” I asked, looking from Ionus to Odem.
“Aye mate, in times of great stress they do,” Odem said.
“I’m not sure I want to know anymore,” I admitted. “At least not right now.”
“Is your brother here in Dragon City?” Ionus asked. “Perhaps he can shed further light on where you came from and what family you hail from.”
“He left long before I did,” I said. “I don’t know where he is now. I thought he’d come back for me, when he found someplace safe, but I couldn’t wait any longer.”
“But you don’t remember why, do you?” Ionus said with a heavy sigh.
“I…” The wordnowas on the tip of my tongue when the wordweaponrolled through my mind and I blinked, jarred by the unexpected sound of it being spoken in my head. “They wanted to turn me into a weapon. I wasn’t going to let them use me for anything after the way they treated me.”
“What kind of weapon?” Ionus asked. “Your lava bombs are unique but there must be more to it.”
I shook my head, wanting to be done with the questions and the memories, but the voice in my head kept insisting on feeding me words. They tumbled from my lips as I gripped the mug, the tea doing very little to calm my emotions right now.
“Pretty omega,” I said. “Others would welcome me easily. I’m no one’s spy, especially not theirs. They’d better be glad I left, if they’d forced me to go through with it the only thing they’d have received was the wrong information. One way or another, I’d have seen every last one of them imprisoned or wiped out.”
“Bloodthirsty mate,” Odem purred near my ear, chuckling when I came half out of my seat to hiss at him.
That smirk would be the death of me, especially when he pointed down at my hand to show me that it was claws, not fingers that gripped the table.
Smug bastard!
The point had been made and driven home. I was a dragon. An extremely dangerous one, apparently. My mate had better keep that in mind while he stood there looking so damned satisfied with himself.
“Some people deserve to lose a little blood,” I grumbled as I picked up my mug.
I didn’t expect to see Ionus chuckle, or for him to look half-impressed with me. Odem looked at me like he wanted to run his tongue over every inch of me and I swore, the next time he did, there was going to be whipped cream involved.
I bet I could dot it with cherries too and drizzle it with a bit of chocolate, turn myself into a buffet of sundae toppings for him to enjoy at his leisure.
No, fuck that, he’d better not take too long to get from the licking to the fucking.
Snap! Snap!
Blink. Blink.
Ionus snapped his fingers again and I finally tore my gaze from Odem’s to see him sitting there looking amused.
“Excuse the interruption,” Ionus said, “but if you keep looking at each other like that Odem will miss patrol, which is unacceptable.”
“Not even one, teeny, just mated exception?” Odem pressed, shooting his brother a pleading look.
“Not even half of one,” Ionus said. “Now get moving. I’ll walk your mate to your door when he’s ready to leave.”
