He kept talking, as if to convince her. “I can go back to the room and get your panties as well as a new shirt, then meet you downstairs.”
“You cannot escape me,” she reminded him with quiet force. “I trailed you across the cosmos by scent.”
“Kismet?” he asked, his tone teasing.
“Of course.” Drakina touched the tattoo on his forearm.
He smiled at her so that her heart leapt. His eyes twinkled in a way that made them look less small and beady. “What makes you think I want to get away, princess?” His confidence was enticing indeed, and Drakina found herself smiling back at him.
Then she watched avidly as he strode back to the hotel, purpose in his every move.
Yes, her Carrier was a very tasty specimen, even if he was a MindBender. Drakina found herself looking forward to both the fortification of food and the consummation of their fated partnership.
She might even regret leaving him behind.
* * *
It was more than a shirt Troy needed. He had to be sure that no one had noticed Drakina’s spectacular departure from the hotel, or there’d be more questions than either of them could answer.
To his relief, there was only a pair of kids from the kitchen standing in the alley behind the hotel, along with a police officer, amidst the broken glass of the window. He didn’t have time to think of a very good story—he walked in his sleep, broke through the window, stumbled down the fire escape and then ran—but his MindBending abilities came to the rescue. Only one kid had seen Drakina in dragon form and it was pretty easy to convince him that he’d been imagining things. There were no dragons, after all. Troy said he’d pay for the window, which satisfied the cop, then he saw Drakina strolling into view.
All three of his companions turned to stare.
And no wonder. She was gorgeous. Confident. Now he saw the dragon in every move she made. It was more than that long flaming red hair and those glittering green eyes. That sinuous walk. Never mind the way she looked over people, as if assessing how tasty they might be. She looked like she had a passion for pleasure and sensation.
As if she’d be insatiable.
He was glad to see that she’d refastened her dress. Even covered, her figure could stop traffic. And she was mating with him. Troy felt a surge of pride, then hurried up to the room as promised. He took a couple of minutes to shave as well as change his shirt, wanting to look his best.
Such as it was.
Troy knew what he had to do, but the way he figured it, he still had one day to do it.
When was he going to have another chance to be with a dragon shifter princess? He was going make these few hours count.
Even so, he felt a strange uneasiness. What did Drakina mean when she said that she had tracked him across the cosmos by scent? Why would she do that? How would she even know his scent?
His gut clenched. What else hadn’t the gamblers told him?
* * *
Once they were seated in the diner, Drakina avidly surveyed the occupants and the menu. Troy had explained the use of menus to her, when she would have simply given a command to the chef. She perused it with shining eyes and quickly made a decision.
She could probably smell the exact inventory of food in the place.
Troy watched her in awe and wonder. A dragon princess. With him! It was easy to remember all his childhood fantasies, and he certainly wasn’t disappointed in the reality.
Drakina cast him a smile that seemed conspiratorial when the food came and Troy couldn’t help but smile in return. She devoured her two eggs over easy with bacon, toast, and hash browns. He was fascinated by how fastidiously she ate. Her manners were perfect, but she ate very quickly, and there wasn’t a molecule left when she was done.
She looked disappointed when her plate was clean and eyed his bacon with such obvious interest that he almost laughed.
Troy pulled his own plate closer, protective of it because he was starving. She smiled and he saw the dragon in that expression, too.
“So, where are you from?” he asked, for lack of a better opening.
“Why should I tell you more than you know?”
“Because I want to learn more about you.” He realized that it was true. He wasn’t just trying to charm her. He really wanted to know. “I’m curious.”
“A perilous inclination, Carrier.”
Carrier? Carrier of what? “Maybe,” Troy replied with a chuckle, wanting to keep the conversation on an even keel. It was tempting to peek into her mind, but he didn’t think he’d survive to tell the tale the second time. He had to find out about her the old-fashioned way. “But what’s the harm in it? It might feel good to confide in someone.”
“I have attendants at home.”
“Friends?”
“Sisters.”
“Not quite the same.”
“No.” Her eyes narrowed as she considered him and his proposition. “Is this part of slow and thorough?”
“You could say that.”
“The confession must be reciprocal.”
“Three questions each?” he suggested and she thought about it for only for a moment before nodding.
“And you have asked one already. I am from the Kingdom of Incendium.”
“Which is the twin planet of Regalia,” he said before he thought twice.
Her eyes lit with surprise. “You were efficient in your MindBend.”
Troy had to think fast to cover his mistake. “Call it a habit. Get in, get what you need and get out.”
“Like a thief.”
“More like a spy.”
She arched a brow, unconvinced.
“So, you’re from Incendium.” He had to steer a careful course between revealing what he knew and asking her enough to win her confidence. “And you’re here because…?”
“Because of you,” she said immediately and his heart skipped despite her matter-of-fact tone. “You are the Carrier and I will conceive with your Seed. It has been foretold.” She confided this last detail as if that explained everything.
Troy supposed that it did, but he was shocked all the same. “Maybe I don’t want to.” He definitely didn’t want to conceive a child with Drakina then kill her.
She fixed a look on him that could have cut glass and he knew he had to give her some explanation.
“Maybe I’m shy.”
She chuckled at that.
“Maybe I don’t want kids.”
She dismissed this with a gesture. “It will cost you nothing to surrender the Seed. Your role then will be complete.”
She could only think that because she didn’t know what he was supposed to do. “Maybe I’m not certain I’ll survive it.”
Drakina leaned across the table, holding his gaze. “The son I conceive will be the crown prince and the hope of our world. I’m not leaving without the Seed.” Her smile was chilly. “No matter what I have to do to claim it.”
Troy was well aware in that moment that they were both predators. It was a timely reminder.
He was careful to not use a question for his response. He’d used up two already. “Because it’s been foretold. I don’t believe that anyone knows what’s going to happen in the future.”
“Nor do I.” Drakina’s voice dropped to a confidential tone. “I don’t care much about destiny. I’m the oldest of the royal princesses and my father has always had plans for me to perpetuate his dynasty. If bearing this one son means he lets me make my own choices, I’ll do it.”
“The oldest,” Troy mused, feeling a familiar yearning. “I have no brothers or sisters.”
“And kin?”
He liked that she’d asked a question about him. “My mom died when I was a teenager.”
“And your father?”
“Careful, princess, that’s two,” he teased and she flushed. “He died a bit later, after I was eighteen. I was alone then on the farm.” It was easy to recall how confined he’d felt in those days. How lonely.
“Solitude
,” Drakina said, exhaling slowly. “It sounds like paradise. I’m envious of you, Carrier.”
He looked up to find her watching him with that assessing smile, the dragon smile that made his heart leap. The fact was that he didn’t think much of solitude. Being alone was what had allowed the pirates of Manganus Five to capture him. Being alone in the penal colony of Xanto had driven him crazy enough to accept this insane, long-shot of a deal.
At least it had brought him to Drakina. She was unlike anyone he’d ever known.
She reminded him of what it was to be alive, instead of just existing.
He was caught. He couldn’t complete the mission without having her once, yet now that he’d met her, he didn’t want to complete it at all.
Was there another way out?
Troy’s gaze dropped to Drakina’s lips and she ran the tip of her tongue across the top one, tantalizing him with the reminder of her kiss. He swallowed and averted his gaze, knowing he had to delay the seduction as long as possible. She might leave as soon as it was done.
“I want that,” she murmured and his heart jumped. To his surprise, she reached out to indicate his last piece of bacon.
“Forget it,” he retorted. “It’s the best part of breakfast. I always save it to the last.” He didn’t eat it though, because he might be able to negotiate with it.
“You eat this often? Daily?”
“Not always now, but we ate it all the time when I was a kid.”
“What do you call it?” She lifted a finger in warning. “That doesn’t count as my third question, Carrier. It is a linguistic enquiry, not a question about you.”
He smiled. “Bacon.”
“And you ate it often because it is a typical choice of sustenance?”
“My parents’ farm was for raising pigs and boars. There was always a lot of pork.”
Drakina repeated the words several times. “It reminds me of verran.” Her expression turned bleak.
“Is that a problem?” Her gaze flicked to his and he echoed her gesture. “Not my third question.”
She laughed. “Not in itself. The taste just provokes memories.”
“Like what?”
She gave him an intent look, even as she smiled. “You are a curious Terran. Don’t you know that it’s risky to provoke my kind?”
Troy arched a brow. “Maybe I like to live dangerously.”
“It is the mark of a warrior to be bold in the face of peril,” she said softly and her eyes glowed with promise.
Their gazes held for an electric moment and Troy felt the heat rising inside him. If she leaned across the table and touched him, even if her fingers landed on his hand, he’d be lost all over again…
But Drakina shook her head and, to Troy’s surprise, she answered his question. Her tone was dreamy. “When I was a child, we went to Sylvawyld, a heavily forested small moon in our system, during the harvest season. My father hunted verran there, for they are plentiful and sufficiently fierce to challenge him. We dined often on their meat and the servants smoked the remainder to take home afterward.”
“Your father is a good hunter, then?”
“He is a king,” she said with some hauteur. “It is his privilege and his responsibility.” Her gaze dropped to the bacon and Troy wondered whether he could eat it and live to tell about it.
Then she licked her lips slowly. “I would do almost anything to taste verran again.”
There was an enticing proposition. “Anything?” Troy pushed the plate across the table. Her eyes glittered, then she took the bacon and devoured it.
Delicately and quickly.
“It is almost the same,” she said, scanning the empty plates with obvious regret.
“You’ll be able to have some more when you get back to Incendium.”
Drakina shook her head. “The verran were hunted to extinction by the Regalians half a lifetime ago.”
“Who?”
“Regalia is the other planet and kingdom in Incendium’s solar system. The Regalians live there.”
“Are they shifters too?”
“No. Maybe that explains everything.” She winced.
Troy left that alone, since he wasn’t a shifter either. “Why would they hunt the verran to extinction?”
Drakina’s look was pitying. “Because they are too stupid to consider the future.”
“Probably better you didn’t marry one, then.” He meant to tease her, but she snorted.
“Where is it written that I did not?”
“You’re married?” Troy wondered then if there was more behind this bet he had been compelled to participate in.
“Not quite. I was supposed to marry, but there was a complication.” She gave him an intent look. “I am too famished, Carrier, to confide more of this tale.”
“Is that an offer I can’t refuse?”
“Perhaps one you should not.” Her smile was seductive, though.
“Do you want more breakfast?”
“Another of the same,” she admitted, then glanced over the diner. “But these Terrans are temperate in their appetites, and I don’t want to attract attention.”
It was too late for that, but Troy wasn’t going to tell her as much. She was too striking to avoid attention.
“I can fix it,” he offered.
Drakina smiled, understanding immediately. “Your gift can be used for such a feat?”
He nodded.
“Ah, so there is some merit in this rare skill.” She sat back like a queen. “Then, please do, MindBender.”
* * *
The Carrier enchanted the waitress easily.
She was small and pale for a Terran, and Drakina could smell that she hated her job. She couldn’t imagine why the Terran did nothing to change her situation. The waitress was not a slave, but she was as resentful as one. Drakina had noticed the waitress’ interest in the Carrier when they entered the diner, and now the Carrier used her interest against her.
It was a clever tactic.
He turned that smile upon the small Terran when she came back to fill his coffee cup. Drakina hadn’t touched hers, because she didn’t like the beverage.
“Thanks so much,” the Carrier said, his tone as warm as his smile.
The waitress looked at him, parted her lips to say something, then Drakina saw that she was snared. The Carrier held her gaze and she could almost feel the power of his influence. In a way, it was a relief to know that she wasn’t the only one fascinated by his smile.
In another, it disappointed her to have anything in common with this waitress, who disliked her job and did nothing about it. Drakina could not abide such passivity.
Even in a stranger.
“Would you like anything to eat?” the waitress asked, her voice sounding dreamy.
“I’m good with coffee,” the Carrier said. “But the lady wants breakfast.” He listed the same meal she had just consumed and the waitress nodded. “Extra bacon,” he added.
“Absolutely.” The waitress cleared away the dirty plates, apparently without noticing the inconsistency in what she did, then soon returned with a new meal. She served it as if she hadn’t done the exact same thing just moments before.
Drakina inhaled the scent of it with pleasure. This bacon was powerfully nostalgic for her, reminding her of marvelous times at hunt. She ate the first piece with pleasure, knowing that the Carrier watched her with some pride in what he had done.
He deserved praise.
He deserved a reward.
“It is the way of my kind to put more emphasis on deeds than words,” she began. “You have done this for me, so in thanks, I will do what you desire of me.” Drakina was sure he would ask for slow sex, but the Carrier surprised her.
“Three wishes?” he asked, a teasing glint in his eye.
Drakina smiled. “Three wishes,” she agreed.
“First, some more conversation,” he stipulated. “Then make a little trip with me.” Drakina was intrigued. His smile widened. “You can guess th
e third wish.”
“Because it is also mine?” she replied and he laughed. Ah, he looked younger and more carefree when he laughed and the sound was most alluring. “Still we will dispute the speed of the union.”
“Maybe so,” he admitted and stole a piece of her toasted bread. He was welcome to it. “Tell me about Incendium,” he invited. “I’ve heard only statistics. Tell me why you love it.”
“You’re MindBending in a different way,” she accused and he grinned. He was not so foul to look upon as she had first thought. In fact, he grew more appealing with every moment she spent in his company. It was his nature that beguiled her and blinded her to his physical appearance.
The fact was that Drakina was enjoying his company.
“I have to learn about you the way everyone else does,” Troy said. “Come on, tell me.”
“Incendium is one of a pair of planets orbiting the same sun. Regalia is the other. My kind rules Incendium, while a species who cannot shift shape rules Regalia. They look much like Terrans.”
“And Incendium is filled with shifters?”
“No. We intermarry with those who do not shift. On Incendium, both shifters and those who do not shift live in communities together, the tale being that the strengths of each kind balance the weaknesses of the other. Destined mates are usually of the other species.”
“Does everyone have a destined mate, or just the royal family.”
She considered this with a frown. “I expect that everyone does, but may not know of it. The best astrologers labor in my father’s court, and cast horoscopes only for the royal family.”
“And on Regalia?”
Her lips tightened. “They are said to prefer sorcery over science.”
“But the two planets have peaceful relations?”
“Notoriously not, not for a long time. But my grandfather brokered a treaty with the Regalians, and it has been honored all this time.”
“Even after they hunted the verran to extinction.”
“Even then, though matters were precarious for a century or two.” It was easy to guess the reason for his confusion. “It would have been comparable to three hundred years ago in Terran time.” The Carrier blinked and Drakina anticipated his next question. She pulled her interpretor from the pocket in her dress that disguised it and tapped a query. “I was born the Terran equivalent of four hundred and fifteen years ago. We are considered children for eighty-one Terran years.” She smiled. “Ha! It is also a magic number on Terra. Nine times nine. The most potent magical number of all.” She put the computer away and returned to the matter at talon. “And so, we have been more or less at peace with the Regalians these five hundred years.”
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