Killian laughs, but it’s not a “funny haha” laugh. It’s more of a “I’m going to cut your liver out with my claws and eat it first” laugh. “Bullshit.”
“Believe it or not. You asked for the answer and I gave it to you.”
“Protect her fromwhat?” Killian’s voice deepens slightly. “The coven? Kyle? Some other threat you haven’t bothered to tell us about because you’re a secretive fucking prick?”
Villeneuve’s jaw tightens.
“Answer me.”
“From myself.”
Killian stares at him. “What?”
“Like I told Regina, I did it to protect her from myself.” Villeneuve’s voice is flat. “Is that clear enough for you?”
“No,” Killian snaps. “Try again.”
“The moment I saw her,” Villeneuve answers impatiently, “my dragon claimed her.”
The words hit different, even though I’m not sure what they mean. I know what it means when a wolf claims a mate, obviously, but dragons are a whole different thing.
Killian’s stance shifts slightly. “What?”
“Dragons don’t bond the way wolves do.” Villeneuve’s laugh is bitter. “We see our mate and wewant. Every instinct screams to take, to possess, to hoard. We can’t love. We obsess and we own.” He pauses. “A dragon ultimately destroys everything it possesses. Including its mate.”
“Bro,” I murmur. “That’s hella sad.”
They both glare at me.
“You’re saying—” Killian starts.
“I’m saying Regina was bound to me beforeyouever met her,” Villeneuve interrupts because he’s fucking rude. “Before she ever set foot on this campus. The moment my eyes found her, she was mine.” His voice drops. “And that terrified me more than anything has in eight hundred years.”
Damn, sometimes I forget he’s a super fucking old dude in there. So old he’s almostnotold because my brain can’t fathom it. He could be my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great?—
“The bond I created during the ritual,” Villeneuve continues, “wasn’t to claim her. That part was already settled. It was to bindmyself. To make sure that if anything happened to her—if my dragon’s nature ever got the better of me and I harmed her—Iwould die too.” His green eyes meet Killian’s. “As I said, dragonsdestroy everything they possess eventually. The only way to slow it, possibly even to prevent it, is to have that possession move in both directions.”
Killian looks like a statue. Like he doesn’t trust himself to breathe and not rip Villeneuve’s spine out through his nostrils.
I’ve gone still too, honestly. My brain is trying to process this and coming up with nothing but error messages.
“You’re telling me,” Killian says slowly, “that you tied your life to hers,on purpose, so that if you hurt her?—”
“I die.” Villeneuve’s voice is flat. “Yes. If there is one instinct in a dragon that can be trusted, it is self-preservation.”
Killian stares at him, expressionless. “That’s...”
“Romantic asfuck,” I blurt out.
Killian’s head whips around so fast I hear his neck crack.
“What?” I hold up my hands. “It is! The guy basically put a suicide pact on himself to stop from going full dragon on our mate. I’m not saying it’s right, but that’s some Notebook level shit right there.”
Killian’s left eye twitches. “Romantic is not the word I’d use.”
“It wasnecessary,” Villeneuve corrects.
Killian turns back to Villeneuve. His eyes aren’t quite as yellow as they were a few minutes ago, but he’s still pissed. But everyone’s spines are still in the factory default positions, so I’m taking it as a win.
