by Rinelle Grey
The yellow car followed him doggedly for about ten minutes. In that time, his four-wheel drive ability stood him in good stead. The terrain was rough enough that he was actually starting to pull away. If he could get enough distance on her before they hit town…
Rita’s car wavered, then slowed. Before Chase could react, it had swung a U-turn, and was heading back towards the Mesmer chamber.
Wayrian stated the obvious, “The yellow vehicle is turning around.”
Chase swore. Good for them, not so good for Lisa and Verrian.
“Tell Karla,” he ordered, to her, or the old man, whoever would listen. “Ask her what to do now.”
He let the car slow. Maybe he could catch the yellow car’s attention again.
But the yellow car was already growing smaller.
Ostrian opened his eyes. “Taurian said to keep moving, and to find somewhere we are safe. Not the lair, somewhere no one will be looking for a dragon.”
“What about Lisa and Verrian?” Chase demanded.
“The prince and the human are not your problem,” the old dragon said, his voice slightly haughty. “Right now, your job is to keep myself and my granddaughter safe. Even with two of the princes awake, the safety of the dragon elders, including myself, is still paramount. I know exactly where we can go.”
Wayrian spoke up. “Karla said she will take care of Lisa and Verrian.” She looked over at him, her eyes understanding. Too understanding.
Her grandfather scowled at her.
Chase didn’t care about the old man’s ire. He slammed his fist down on the wheel, frustration welling up in him. “Easy for her to say. I suppose she isn’t giving any more information on how she’s going to do that?”
Wayrian shook her head. “She’s talking to several people at once, her replies are understandably brief.” She glanced over at her grandfather, her eyes nervous.
“Which is why you need to keep quiet and let me handle it,” he scolded. “No need to hassle people over trivialities when they have more important things to worry about. Our job is to listen to those in charge, and help them as much as we can.”
Wayrian subsided into her seat, silent.
Chase was not so subdued. “Once we lose sight of that car, they could go anywhere.”
His instinct was telling him to follow the car, to keep an eye on it. If he knew where it was, then he could be sure it was far enough away from the Mesmer chamber that someone could go in and rescue Lisa and Verrian. Once he lost it…
“I lost Karla.” Wayrian’s voice was worried. “We’re too far apart for dragon voices to work.”
Chase glanced over at the old dragon, but he looked similarly shaken. “I have never been out of distance of the dragon voices before.”
So much for his hope of being able to let the others know where the yellow car was. They had no means of communication this far out of town. Mobile phones were useless, and he hadn’t thought to bring a radio. Not that a conversation like this could be had over a radio. Too public.
Besides, it was too risky to be baiting reporters while he had a car full of dragons and couldn’t contact anyone for help.
Chase’s shoulders slumped. He kept driving automatically, but he wasn’t really paying any attention to it. In his mind, he was imagining Lisa walking out of the Mesmer chamber with the prince, only to find everyone was gone. She’d think he deserted her.
Which he had.
He’d never failed her before.
He glanced over at Wayrian, who was biting her lip, her forehead furrowed, and for some reason, he felt guilty for worrying about Lisa when the woman sitting next to him was in just as much trouble. Much as he might be annoyed at her grandfather’s attitude, the old dragon had a point.
He couldn’t do anything to help Lisa, hard as that was to accept.
He could help Wayrian and her grandfather. He could take them somewhere safe, and look after them until it was safe for them to return home. Karla would take care of Lisa, and Lisa would understand. She would probably be so busy staring at the dragon prince she wouldn’t even notice he wasn’t there.
Wayrian needed his help as much as Lisa did. Without warning, his body stirred at the memory of her body pressed up against his earlier. That had been… unexpected. But pleasant. Very pleasant. He could enjoy hanging out with her for a day or two.
These dragons, they seemed to understand a quick fling. Their relationships seemed to be either completely casual, or deadly serious. Well, it was hard to have anything more than a string of quick flings when you would be trapped in a permanent bond if you slept with anyone three times.
Anyway, everyone knew he was going to wake the princess, so she wouldn’t take things too seriously.
A niggling feeling that there was something wrong with that idea intruded into his thoughts. Wayrian didn’t seem quite like the rest of the dragons. She was quieter, more reserved, felt things more deeply. There was something… different… about her.
Something that pulled at him in a way he wasn’t comfortable with, but couldn’t ignore.
A shiver ran down Chase’s spine.
He should stay away from her. Feeling like this about someone he barely knew didn’t bode well. Yet, he somehow couldn’t convince himself to ignore it.
Maybe if he ran with the feeling, he could get whatever it was about her that was affecting him out of his system?
Her grandfather muttered something under his breath, reminding Chase of his presence. He bit back a sigh. Not much chance of spending some time with Wayrian with the dragon elder around. He was going to be difficult.
The old man seemed to think he automatically deserved respect.
Chase figured people only deserved respect after they’d earned it.
Not that it mattered. Chase didn’t need to respect the man to offer him somewhere to stay until the reporter gave up. That was just common courtesy.
He knew just the place, where no one would even think to look for them.
The only problem would be explaining the situation to his dad.
Chapter 4
Wayrian took some deep breaths, trying to calm herself. In just a few short minutes, everything had changed. Their enemy had run and a new danger, a reporter, had entered the picture. Much of Chase’s explanation about papers and worldwide news had gone over her head, but since it had sent both Ultrima and the Rian clan running, it had to be bad.
Now they were speeding away from it.
Chase had changed direction, his face determined, not explaining where they were going. All Wayrian knew was, they were going away from the Mesmer chamber. And the lair.
Chase was the one making the decisions.
Wayrian felt a little guilty for not contributing, but the reality was she was relieved someone else was in charge. She would have been second guessing everything, wondering if she was thinking of the good of the clan, or of her own wishes. But she didn’t have to feel bad about the decisions Chase made. It was out of her hands.
As though this moment, everything that was happening here, was fated. Just as her mating with him was.
According to the goddess, anyway.
She wondered if the goddess knew about Lisa. Had Allendra made a mistake? Would Wayrian and her clan pay for that mistake?
Wayrian shivered.
“Where are we going?” her grandfather asked sharply. “The place I’m thinking of is in the other direction.”
Chase glanced over at them then, his face blank for a few moments, then it cleared.
“I don’t know where you have in mind, but we need somewhere with food and water, and I’m guessing you don’t have anywhere like that. So we’re heading for my dad’s cattle station. No one will be looking for you there,” he said.
Wayrian’s grandfather frowned. “A cattle station?” he asked. “What’s that?”
“We raise cattle, cows,” Chase explained. “How are you with cows?” He turned to Wayrian and grinned, and she couldn’t help feeling warm at his deliberate attempt to in
clude her in the conversation.
That, combined with her confusion over his question, meant she braved her grandfather’s ire to respond.
“Cows?” she asked, bewildered. “I’ve never caught one, personally. I prefer smaller animals, rabbits and stuff. What does that have to do with where we’re going?”
Chase’s smile slipped for a moment, then he gave a laugh. “I always wondered if there was something going on with the odd head of cattle that disappeared. We don’t catch and eat them though, at least not the same way dragons would. We care for them. Think you can manage that?”
“I… I’ve never tried.”
“Why would you care for cattle?” her grandfather demanded. “Surely they can look after themselves?”
Chase stared at him for a moment, then gave a short laugh. “Probably,” he agreed. “But if we weren’t caring for them and making sure they have food and water and are safe from predators, then not many of them would survive. That would mean there wasn’t enough meat for all of us. There are a lot of humans, and we eat a lot of beef.”
“So you raise the cows so you can eat them?” Wayrian asked. Somehow, it hadn’t occurred to her to wonder where the humans got their food up until now. If asked, she would have assumed they hunted, like dragons did.
Instead, they grew their own food.
What a strange idea.
“Pretty much,” Chase agreed.
“Hmm. This could be useful for dragons,” her grandfather mused.
Wayrian could see the ideas turning over in his mind.
She suspected Chase could too. He cleared his throat. “Well, anyway, you should be able to stay until Karla gives the all clear, and then you can all return home.”
A flutter started somewhere in Wayrian’s stomach. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to spend more time with Chase. She did. It was just that a cattle station sounded a long way from the lair, and a lot more human than anywhere she’d ever been before.
And it put a lot of pressure on her with this fated mates thing. It would be far easier to consider the possibility back at the lair, where she felt a little more in control. Easier to hide her disappointment if it turned out to be a mistake too.
“Surely…” She licked her lips. “Surely it isn’t going to take that long for the reporter to go away?”
“Of course it won’t,” her grandfather said sharply. “We will be back helping Prince Verrian soon.” The look he shot her explained exactly what he meant by helping.
Wayrian winced.
Chase just shrugged, as though it didn’t really matter. “I have no idea how long it’s going to take, but I need to check on the cattle anyway. I’ve been away for a couple of days, and Dad really isn’t up to running everything himself for very long.”
“Dad? I thought we were going to care for cattle?” Wayrian was even more confused.
Nodding, Chase explained, “It’s Dad’s cattle station. It’s not big like the ones up north, only a few hundred acres, but it’s bigger than he can handle on his own, especially now he’s getting older, so I live there and help out.”
Cattle had been intimidating enough, but meeting more humans…
Especially her potential fated mate’s father…
“While this cattle station sounds interesting, going somewhere with more humans is not suitable at this point,” her grandfather said. “We don’t know who it is who informed this reporter of our whereabouts, and giving more people information about the dragons is putting all of us at risk. We need to find somewhere else.”
For an instant, Wayrian wondered if he was feeling as intimidated by all the strangeness as she was.
But he couldn’t be. Her grandfather was an elder. He didn’t get intimidated. Not like she did. Whatever reasons he had for insisting on going somewhere different though, didn’t deal with the real problem.
“Chase is right,” she said, without even thinking. “We need to be somewhere with food and water, just in case this takes longer than we expect. We can’t lead this reporter back to the lair. We already have an issue with how many humans know about dragons, we don’t need more.”
Her grandfather stared at her, and it was only then that Wayrian realised she’d disagreed with him.
Disagreeing with an elder was frowned upon. They had been given the job of protecting the clan because their great age gave them great wisdom. No one argued with them.
But Ostrian wasn’t just an elder, he was her grandfather.
And right now, he was wrong.
Not that she was going to get him to admit that. He bristled. “Are you talking back to me, youngling?”
Chase interrupted. “Look, I’m the one driving, and I told Karla I would look after you. The best way to do that is for me to take you somewhere where I know I can protect you. Right now, that’s my dad’s station. We probably won’t even be there that long, and won’t need to see my dad at all. I have my own house, separate from the main one. Both of you can stay there. If you’re right, and this only takes a few hours, then when Karla gives the all clear, I’ll take you straight back to the lair. Okay?”
His words, and the confident tone in which he spoke, calmed Wayrian a little. A few hours didn’t sound too bad. If she didn’t have to see anyone else, she just might be okay.
For some reason, the thought of being around Chase, even for a few hours, sent her pulse racing. She wanted to be closer to him, to explore this feeling more, but a jumble of feelings assailed her whenever she thought of it, getting in the way.
She couldn’t help wondering if she had misinterpreted the goddess’s sign. What if Lisa was Chase’s fated mate, not Wayrian? What if she had convinced herself that the symbol referred to Chase because she wanted it to?
Even as she considered that thought, she didn’t believe it. Wanting Chase to be the one just made it even more likely he really was her fated mate.
That scared her even more.
What if it was true, and she screwed it up? What if she wasn’t strong enough to overcome the barriers the goddess had said she would have to face? How could she ever convince her grandfather to let her marry someone other than a prince, much less a human?
This relationship was doomed before it started, fated mates or not.
Even knowing that, she couldn’t convince herself to walk away. She and Chase had barely said half a sentence to each other. How could she even begin to guess if he might be her fated mate if she didn’t know anything about him?
Maybe, once he got to know her a little, he would realise he wasn’t in love with Lisa? Maybe she could convince him he wasn’t?
Her whole body heated instantly at that thought. She didn’t even know where to begin, or how to go about it. How did one convince someone to mate with them?
She snuck a sideways look at Chase, a little disconcerted to find him looking at her. Shouldn’t he be watching the road or something?
But there was nothing out here but tufts of dried up grass. Nothing to run into if he ran off the dirt track they were following.
So she didn’t have to feel bad at letting herself stare into his eyes for a while.
She had to admit, the promise of a fated mate, someone she was destined to be with, was far more compelling than the promise of saving her clan.
Wayrian swallowed.
Chase raised an eyebrow, obviously waiting for an answer.
Wayrian couldn’t remember what the question was.
“Are you okay to come back to the station with me?” Chase asked again.
“I suppose we have no other options,” her grandfather grumbled. “And it won’t be for long.”
Chase nodded to him, but his eyes didn’t leave Wayrian’s.
He was waiting for her answer.
Her heart flip flopped again. That was getting to be a regular occurrence around him.
“I… I’m okay with that,” she said, her voice weak and faint. She took a deep breath, and tried again, her voice a little stronger now. “It is very kind of y
ou to offer us somewhere to stay until this is dealt with.”
There, that was better. A reply worthy of a granddaughter of an elder. Her grandfather couldn’t object to that, could he?
“I could hardly leave you out here alone.” Chase flashed her a smile then glanced over her head at her grandfather, including him in the statement. Then he turned his eyes back to the road.
He obviously considered the decision made.
Wayrian was pretty sure that leaving them alone in the middle of nowhere would never have occurred to him.
He would make a good mate. Faithful and loyal. Kind too. She could hardly ask for one better.
However, one glance over at her grandfather and the way he scowled at Chase destroyed any idea that it would be easy. He wasn’t impressed that Chase had disagreed with him.
If it turned out Chase was her fated mate, her grandfather’s presence would make everything impossible. If he even got a hint that she was considering anything other than thanking Chase for his help and going back to mate with a prince, he’d have a fit.
He’d probably drag her back to the lair immediately, whether Prince Taurian objected or not.
Her grandfather was so sure he knew best in every situation, he’d even ordered around Prince Taurian when he’d first woken. And for a while, Taurian hadn’t gone against him either. He’d even agreed to mate with Wayrian, despite being clearly in love with Karla. It wasn’t until Ultrima’s truce was dependent on him mating with the human woman that he loved that he had finally disagreed with the elders.
If the prince capitulated to her grandfather, what hope did she have?
She wasn’t strong enough to stand up to the elders, to stand up to her grandfather like Karla had. Karla was brave.
Karla would have done what was right, even if it meant being banished from her people. Karla had even been prepared to give up her fated mate to save the clan from Ultrima.
Wayrian was a coward. When her grandfather had insisted she mate with Taurian, she’d just nodded and agreed. She certainly hadn’t been able to say no to her grandfather when he’d told her to come with the others to help wake Verrian.
If he told her to stay away from Chase, which he certainly would if he realised she thought he was her fated mate, then what choice did she have?