“What are you talking about?” Kaiden scoffs, but by Ben’s raised eyebrow, he isn’t intimidated or amused in the slightest.
“I’ve had no one to jack off to in the last decade but your sister. You seriously thought dyeing the human’s fucking hair would be enough?” Ben shouts, but I refuse to flinch away in the face of his rage. My own hackles rise in response as my dragon hisses, snapping mental teeth in his direction and growing restless beneath my skin.
Kaiden drives a fist into Ben’s cheek for the comment that he doesn’t bother blocking, knowing he had it coming. He stumbles back a step, rubbing at his jaw without retaliation, but no less fury in his eyes.
“Gods damn it, Ben, get off your high horse and actuallylook!” Kahl snaps.
Ben’s dark brown eyes lock onto my face before scrutinizing my features, from the bright blue hair that’s replaced the onyx shade he last saw to the eyes that have faded to an icy shade. He looks far from pleased, but I’m not after his approval, never have been. I just want them all to leave me alone, let me live with my mates without constantly walking on eggshells.
Faye uses her iron grip on my arm to finally tug me up, starting to inch away and drag me with her upstairs, but it’s just not going to happen this time. Planting my feet, she drops my arm like it burned her a moment later as sapphire scales start to coat my skin, covering the multitude of cuts that have barely started to heal, and will likely permanently scar. Stepping cautiously away, her stunned face bores holes into my head as the taste of blood fills my mouth. My teeth lengthen, growing sharper and pricking my tongue. All the while my skin itches, scales extending further than before, coating the entirety of my neck.
There’s an angry sort of cautious fear pressing against me that I can attribute to my dragon, nervous that the threat in front of us would tear out our throat if he could. It leaves me looking like something that crawled from the depths of the ocean, but I don’t flee in shame.
He wants to see me? Then fine, let him look. Let them all see the monster I was forced to become, what those people did to me. None of this was ever my fault and I shouldn’t have to live every day embarrassed or ashamed. Letthembe uncomfortable for once, forced to face something unknown, something that they allow their kind to get away with. Let him remember my face as something to haunt him at night, to have to double check the locks on his door before risking closing his eyes.
Let him realize that he isn’t the only thing worth fearing in this world anymore.
“How?” Ben whispers, completely enraptured. He tilts his head to the side analytically, anger draining away in favor of his curiosity now that it’s clear I’m not just a human they slapped some colored contacts and a wig on.
Faye’s fingers tentatively reach out to trace a gentle path down my arm, stopping at my wrist before withdrawing her hand and clutching it against her chest. “I knew it,” she breathes, the spooked air about her shifting to one of relief, that I’m exactly the sort of abomination she hoped I’d be. “They’re beautiful.”
She flicks an anxious look at Ben and away, interest lighting up his face that no sane woman this day and age wants directed her way. Shifting uncomfortably between her feet, she finally gives up when it’s clear I’m not going to run with her, stepping away and putting the couch between herself and us. She doesn’t bolt for the stairs just yet, but she’s close enough that if things continue to escalate, she at least has a head start. No matter how much she needs me, self-preservation is an instinct that’s not easily suppressed.
Kinsley gives me a measured look, and he must find whatever approval he’s looking for on my face because he starts filling in Ben in on the abridged version of my own personal hell, editing out the more graphic details. Things are left open to interpretation, yet still easy enough to ascertain the missing pieces. By the horrified look on Ben’s face, he filled in the gaps without issue.
“You stupid bastards,” he whispers, turning his fury onto the guys. “The hell have you gotten us mixed up in now? That political mess wasn’t enough, now you’re harboring some experiment? They’re going to come looking for her! What the fuck do you think is going to happen when they do? That they’ll just ask nicely and back off when you refuse?”
Running a hand through his dark hair, he turns an earnest look to Faye, pinning her in place across the room with his scrutiny. “And what about you? Are you the same thing?”
“I’m not athing,”I hiss, incensed. “I’m a goddamn person.”
He gives me a once over, yet I won’t give him the satisfaction of shrinking away, trying to be smaller and less noticeable; not this time. “You’re a fake. A decent impersonation, I’ll give you that, but you aren’t one of us.”
“Fuck off, Ben,” Kinsley spits, giving me time to muster a response.
Not going to lie, his words sting, but my skin is thicker than it used to be. I’ll never please everyone, and I’m not about to try. I’m tired of trying to justify my existence when I didn’t do anything wrong in the first place, to convince people that don’t care that I matter.
“You think Iwantto be one of you? After all of the bullshit dragons have put me through? Not like I got a fucking choice in the matter! Knock off version or not, it says more about you than me that you’d be perfectly fine with leaving me and all the women like me in that hellish place since we aren’t ‘people’ to you. Nobody deserves that. Even if you think of us as nothing more than livestock, you’d never leave your dog in those conditions. Pretend I’m their pet if it makes you feel better, because it doesn’t matter to me. I’m not emulating self-serving jackasses. For being the top of the damn food chain, you’d think you’d have evolved into a better class of people by now.”
Ben’s jaw is clenched as he allows me to volley my rant at him without interrupting, and by the time I’m done, angry tears burn the back of my eyes that just succeed in ticking me off worse. I’mpissedand overwhelmed at the magnitude of the impossible situation, not on the verge of crumbling into a sobbing mess. Yet still, I’m fighting them back as a headache develops, clenching my fists.
Without turning away from me, his eyes flit around the room, noting the way he’s boxed in by the triplets. There isn’t even the illusion of humor painted on their faces to diffuse the situation anymore; they look positively livid. No games to fuck with someone’s head and throw them off guard, no spinning the situation with a laugh before it escalates past the point of no return. Just three identical faces, thoroughly pissed off at the words spewing from Ben’s mouth.
Sighing, he lifts his hands in surrender in front of his chest. “You’re right. But you need to appreciate the danger you’re putting us all in by hiding you here.”
Biting my lip I wince, drawing blood with my razor sharp teeth. Dabbing it away with a touch of my finger, I pull my hand back, oddly entranced at the way the droplets settle into the grooves around each individual scale, making a path similar to the wounds all over my body beneath them.
“I know.” The words are hardly more than a whisper, forced to voice what a hypocritical, self-serving jackass I am after just lobbing the insult his way. “But I don’t have anywhere else to go. Nowhere is safe anymore and I thought coming back to my flight might help push me through the rest of the transition and make things better, at least.”
Ben turns to Kahl. “Flight? I knew you three were moping around the last year after setting her loose, but I didn’t realize how deep it ran. You were honestly able to form that connection with...her?” He stumbles over whatever degrading thing he was going to refer to me as, but I’ll take it after the way this was going.
“You don’t get it, Ben,” Kahl replies, looking cold.
He’s reined back his fury, but it’s still there, lurking just beneath the surface. There’s not a modicum of relief as Ben backs down, let alone anything remotely close to the semblance of forgiveness.
“There are other labs, not to mention the breeding program. How many women do you think they’re doing this shit to? We might not be able to convince a group to risk their lives trying to free everyone, but we can at least make this a safe haven. Wecandefend Hadeon if it comes down to it, we’ve proven that before. And if word spreads, not only might more men move here that don’t agree with all the shit going on and help what we’re building here, but women too. Which turns into the potential for more fully fledged dragons.”
Kinsley gravitates closer, wrapping an arm around my waist while staring Ben down. “We aren’t talking about changing the entire world, that’s just unrealistic. But we could make it suck just a little bit less for some people, even if it’s only a few.”
