Page 31 of Dark Dragon’s Mate

“Your Highness,” he said. “I’ve been trying to reach you. There’s been a security breach—one of the maids found a large window in the Great Hall completely smashed.”

“Yeah,” Emon said. “That was me. Nothing to be concerned about.”

“Really?” Grange sounded dubious. “I was ‘concerned about’ a possible intruder.”

“I told you, I did it,” Emon said impatiently. “I Changed in the courtyard, and I accidentally hit it with my tail when I took off. But there’s nothing wrong with a little extra security sweep in the middle of the night. Carry on. Just stay out of my sleeping room by the rooftop. Mayah and I are binge watching Game of Thrones on my laptop. It has dragons.”

He disconnected.

Tristan said, “He’s not going to believe that shit.”

“About Game of Thrones? It’s true. Kira gave me the whole series on DVD, on account of I can’t get on the internet without opening a portal.”

Tristan rolled his eyes. “About the window. Most of the glass landed on the outside. If you’d hit it from the courtyard, it would be on the inside.”

“If he’s smart enough to figure that out, then he’s smart enough to realize that nobody from the outside broke the window trying to get in, either,” Emon said. “So there’s no security breach. He’s just going through the motions so he can say he did his job.”

Except there was a security breach, Trish remembered. Somebody had broken the magical locks on Ragnor’s study and searched it. Looking for something.

Emon seemed to be remembering the same thing. Their eyes met, and heat flashed between them. Memories of hot wild kisses tingled on her lips.

She-Wolf growled. Out! Kill him! Trish’s stomach cramped, and a rib cracked.

Emon put his hand on her shoulder. “I said stop it!” His voice was low, but she could feel the authority in it. Stronger than Jace, her alpha.

She-Wolf stopped.

Tristan was staring. “Holy hell,” he said. He looked at Trish. “Maybe we were right all along.”

Emon raised his eyebrows. “Right about what?”

Before she could tell Tristan to shut the hell up, he said, “You can make She-Wolf listen. Any chance you’re looking to form a crew? Or a clan? Or a kingdom? Whatever it is you Draken have?”

Emon’s eyes looked like metal shutters had just slammed down over his soul. “No.” He dropped his hand from her shoulder. “I’m nobody’s alpha, and nobody’s king.”

He walked over and nudged Tristan’s hip with his foot. Tristan immediately dropped into sleep.

Trish stared at him. That was one powerful sleep spell. But… “You can’t just… do that.”

Emon shrugged. “I only put him to sleep.”

“Without his consent. And only because you wanted him to shut up. That’s against the healer code.”

“I’m not a healer. And this is my domain, remember? The only rules here are the ones I make.”

“Don’t let him get away with that shit,” Mayah said. “Especially if you’re playing cards with him. He thinks he gets to change the rules whenever he wants.”

“I’m the Crown Prince.” He smirked at his sister.

“You’re a cheating bully,” she said, but she stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. He wrapped his arm around her neck and hugged her to him.

“Is the Elf Lord going to be okay?” he asked. “I hope you fixed his dick when you were mucking around inside him. It looked kind of small and shriveled to me.”

“You need glasses, brother,” Mayah said. “His dick is just fine.”

“Oh, gross. Don’t admire guys’ dicks in front of me. You’re my little sister. You never even get to touch a dick. Ever.”

“Of course not. I shall remain a virgin, pure and untainted.” She waited a beat. “Whoops. Too late. By like three years.” She winked at Trish. “Are you okay?” Mayah asked her. “Do you need any healing?”