by Rinelle Grey
Trima clan was just like they were. All they wanted was a chance to live in peace and be with those they loved.
There was just one issue.
They needed to know if Ultrima’s story was true. Was her sister really in love with him? Had she only rejected him because her clan expected her to mate with another? Because she thought that her clan’s needs outweighed her own?
“You knew Sarian better than we did,” Verrian said softly. “Do you think there’s any chance this is true?”
Saying she knew their eldest sister better didn’t mean much. Sarian had always been aloof. Oh, she loved them as much as they loved her, but she was different too. Apart.
Sarian had had the weight of the entire clan on her shoulders. She would be queen. She would rule them all.
She was responsible for every dragon in the clan.
Lyrian and the princes were only responsible for protecting her. And, of course, being ready to step in if anything happened to her.
Or to take the reins when, like now, she was unavailable. Right now, Lyrian, Verrian, and Taurian had the weight of the entire clan on their shoulders. And it was not a light weight. Lyrian was just glad her brothers were here to share the responsibility with her.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But the story does have a ring of truth to it. If Sarian thought her duty lay with mating another, then it is quite likely she would deny her own feelings.”
She felt a sympathy for her older sister that she’d never experienced before. Lyrian had always thought Sarian was a little stuffy. She’d never understood why a dragon would give up what she wanted for the greater good.
Now she did. Her heart’s ache for what couldn’t be with Brad, extended to cover her sister.
She might not be able to have Brad, but she could see no reason her sister couldn’t have Ultrima if she wanted to. That was the question though, what did her sister want?
That was what they needed to know. And that meant that Lyrian needed to be there when they woke her, and talk to her alone, without Ultrima hovering in the background. Preferably without her brothers hovering around either. They wouldn’t understand.
“If only we had known. Why did she not tell us the truth before it came to war? Surely it would have been better to admit the truth than to see so many dragons die?” Taurian’s voice was frustrated.
Lyrian couldn’t even begin to explain it to them. How once you’d started a lie, it became almost impossible to admit the truth, to untangle it from the trappings of the lie. How even once the truth was out, things could be left irreparably broken.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said briskly. “We need to keep moving forward. While I disagree with most of Ostrian’s suggestions, his point about timing is true. If we can wake Sarian while Ultrima is distracted with the humans, then we have a greater chance of finding out the truth. We need to move as soon as possible. Tonight, if we can.”
Taurian hesitated. When he spoke, he took the question in a different direction. “What about Nate and Kyrian?”
Lyrian frowned. “What about them?” She was confused. The young couple had already overcome their differences and found their happily ever after. She wasn’t sure why Taurian was bringing them up now.
“Clan feeling is running against them right now. They don’t feel like either belongs here, and a division in the ranks, especially if Ostrian keeps making a fuss, could come back to bite us at just the wrong moment. I can’t help feeling like we should get them settled first.”
Lyrian hesitated. She could see his point. She wanted to see things established for the young couple as much as anyone, but there was no denying the truth. “Don’t tell Ostrian I said so, but he’s right. We don’t have time for a mating ceremony right now. While I can see that it needs to be dealt with as soon as possible, we can’t put off waking Sarian any longer. It will have to wait.”
It was the logical choice. It had nothing to do with the fact that Brad had said he would stay for the mating ceremony.
She wasn’t sure why she wanted to draw this out for as long as possible, when it was clear it was hurting both of them. All she knew was that she didn’t want him to leave.
She still hoped that somehow, against all odds, they’d find a way to make it work.
It was hard not to, when all around them she could see other dragons doing so. Maybe, if she could find a happily ever after for her sister, she might deserve her own.
“It will be a far better experience for them when we have the time to make a real celebration of it,” Lyrian said, as much to convince herself as her brothers.
“They may not wait for an official ceremony,” Taurian teased. “Like Verrian and Lisa here.” He nudged his brother, who blushed a bright red.
“It wasn’t like that at all,” Verrian protested. “Lisa was helping me heal.”
Taurian raised an eyebrow. “And if it weren’t for that, you would have waited?”
Verrian didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. His lack of an answer, along with his bright red face, told the truth. “Once you know you have found your mate, a ceremony is just a formality,” he said stiffly.
Lyrian couldn’t help feeling a little wistful not to be part of their bantering. Somehow, her life seemed so much more serious than theirs, an occurrence she wasn’t used to.
But she wasn’t just a princess now, she was a mother. That changed everything.
“When can we be ready?” she asked.
Both Taurian and Verrian suddenly looked serious.
“Tonight,” Taurian said. “Given that the area is crawling with human reporters and police, I think making our move in daylight would be a mistake.”
Lyrian nodded. “Tonight it is then. Get everything ready.”
It didn’t buy her much time. Today, perhaps another day to sort out what was happening with Sarian, a few days for the mating ceremony.
Less than a week.
In less than a week, Brad would be gone.
Chapter 28
“She’s so adorable,” Lisa said, staring at Anarian. “Can I hold her?”
Brad hesitated, but out of all the people crowding around him and his daughter, Lisa was the only one he felt like he kind of knew. Only from her picture in the paper, true. But she was also mated to Lyrian’s brother, making her his daughter’s aunt.
“Sure,” he agreed, handing the baby over.
Lisa cooed over her. Several others, Brad wasn’t sure if they were dragons or humans, crowded around similarly entranced by the baby.
All except for Karla, the human mated to Lyrian’s other brother. She eyed him calculatingly. And her scrutiny made Brad more than a little uncomfortable.
“So, how did you find out about dragons?” he asked her, hoping to break the ice.
She stared at him for a moment longer, then shrugged. “I’m an archaeologist. Someone showed me an artifact and told me I should go to the Dragon Scales, an interesting geological formation nearby.” She smiled then, and the expression changed her face completely. “I woke Taurian without having any idea he was a dragon. The rest, as they say, is history.”
So she’d been as deceived by all this as Brad was.
Somehow, that made him feel a little bit better. Better enough to say, “It comes as quite a surprise, doesn’t it?”
Karla nodded. “How long have you known?”
Brad gave a laugh. “Oh, about three days, or is it four?”
That surprised her. Her eyes widened, and she glanced over at Anarian, then back at him. Her question was obvious, even without asking.
“Lyrian didn’t tell me,” Brad said softly. “In fact, after we’d… mated…” that was how dragons said it, wasn’t it? “She refused to speak to me. I went back to America, to my job. I only found out about Anarian when I came back to Australia after my uncle died.”
“That must have been quite a shock,” Karla said softly.
“That’s an understatement. It never occurred to me that I might be
a father.”
“Not to mention the father of a dragon,” Karla added.
“Yeah, even more of a shock.”
Brad remembered how he’d found out, the dragon swooping straight towards the house, spewing lightning, and he couldn’t help an involuntary shiver. Even though he knew her now, even though Kyrian was going to mate with his brother, it didn’t stop any of the fear the memory of that meeting brought up.
“What happened?” Karla asked quietly.
“Is it that obvious?” Brad said jokingly. He told Karla the story briefly, and she listened, her mouth pursed.
At the end of his recital, she put a hand on his shoulder and said, “That must have been terrifying. I know what it’s like to have a dragon coming at you, and it’s not fun.”
Brad stared at her for a moment, then relaxed. This woman wasn’t a threat. In fact, she just might be a friend. “No, it’s not,” he agreed. “Though I think I’m getting kind of used to it now.”
Karla laughed at that. “Probably a good thing, because even though we have a kind of truce with Trima clan, I’m not sure we can count on it staying that way. If you’re mated to a dragon, you can never guarantee you won’t be facing off against another angry dragon.”
He wanted to laugh and agree with her, but he needed to set one thing straight first. “Lyrian and I aren’t mated.”
“Not yet.” Karla winked at him.
Her implication twisted Brad’s stomach and heated his face. He wished he could smile and joke with her. Wished he could believe that he and Lyrian stood a chance. But it wasn’t to be.
And there was no point in pretending.
“We’re not planning on it either.”
Suddenly, there was a silence in the room. The others had been so busy cooing over Anarian, Brad had forgotten he was surrounded by other dragons and humans until they all stopped talking and stared at him.
If it were just him and Karla, Brad might have admitted the truth to her. She’d been through the same thing, she might understand. Might even have some advice for him. But somehow, he didn’t feel like admitting the whole mess in front of all these other people he didn’t know.
So instead he said, “I have a job back in America. I’m a heart surgeon. I can’t… I can’t just walk away from all that.”
The stares continued, one or two might even have looked a little accusing.
Karla glanced over at the others, at Lisa in particular, then back at him. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed.”
As though her words were a signal, the rest of the group went back to cooing over Anarian, but their voices were softer now, as though they didn’t want to miss anything else that might be said.
Brad wished he could escape. He felt bad enough about how things were with Lyrian, he didn’t really need the judgement of all the other dragons and humans.
“I’m sorry,” Karla said again, her voice low. “I just thought…”
“It’s okay,” Brad said quickly, interrupting her before she could say anything more.
“I think Anarian is getting a little overwhelmed,” Lisa announced loudly. “I think we should all give her some peace and quiet to get some sleep.
The baby looked just as cheery as she always did, so Brad could only assume this announcement was for him. And he appreciated it. He tried to signal that, by giving Lisa a smile as she handed Anarian back at him.
Lisa gave him a wink, then carefully herded the reluctant people and dragons out of the room.
All except Karla. Lisa didn’t even try to encourage her to leave, and Karla didn’t make any move towards the doorway. Brad looked down at his daughter, suddenly uncomfortable.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Karla’s voice was quiet.
Brad gave a laugh. Was she really going to give him an out like that? “Not really.”
He looked up to find her expression concerned. “Do you really think it’s that easy just to walk away from them?”
“You’re forgetting, I already did it once.”
Her eyes narrowed. “And how’d that go for you?”
Brad gave a short laugh. Maybe she did get it. Maybe she’d even tried the same thing.
He didn’t want to remember the sleepless nights, going over and over his time with Lyrian, or the erotic dreams that had haunted him once he’d managed to get to sleep. “Not so well,” he agreed. “But what other choice do I have?”
Karla raised an eyebrow. “What do you think?”
Her implication was clear, and staying was obviously the option she had chosen. But that didn’t mean it was right for Brad. To him, that choice was just as impossible as all the rest.
Helplessness welled up in him, along with frustration. “Lyrian lied to me. She only used me to heal. She never felt the way I did, as evidenced by the fact that she pushed me away.” He glanced down at the sleeping baby in his arms. “And she felt she needed to keep Anarian’s existence from me. If my uncle hadn’t left his house to me and brought me back to Australia, I might never have even known I was a father. How can I trust her after any of that?”
Karla’s expression was sympathetic. “Dragons make mistakes, just like humans do. The Mesmer bond is very strong and can overwhelm common sense. It’s obvious though, that you feel something for her, and just as clear that she cares for you. Don’t you think that’s worth exploring further?”
He had. He’d been very tempted to. Right up until…
“You don’t get it,” Brad said softly. “It’s only chance that Lyrian and I even ended up together. She nearly ended up with my brother.”
“Sounds like a fortuitous chance to me,” Karla said pointedly.
Brad just stared at her. How could she be so laid back about it?
“Dragons see sex very differently than us humans,” Karla said softly. “How could they not, when they need it to heal? When they bond for life if they sleep with someone three times? There’s no in between for them. It’s either casual sex, or deadly serious.”
Brad hadn’t quite thought about it like that before, and the implications took his breath away. He had known both those facts, but he hadn’t quite put them together like that before.
Of course dragons took casual sex as a matter of course. In a strange way, it was similar to the way he took having access to a good hospital as a matter of course. He gave a brief laugh.
There was just one problem with that. “She could have told me,” he said softly.
Karla shrugged. “As soon as you touched her, you both would have been consumed by the Mesmer bond, that isn’t the time for talking. And trust me, talking is the last thing on your mind,” she said wryly.
She gave him a conspiratorial wink, as though she expected him to know what she was talking about. The trouble was, Brad didn’t. “I wasn’t the one who woke Lyrian. My uncle was. Apparently he was too old to complete the ritual for her, so he sent for my brother. When he wasn’t available, he called me.”
“Oh.” Karla stared at him for a moment.
She didn’t have an answer for that one. Brad might have felt smug, except he was a little disappointed. He wouldn’t have any objection to someone convincing him to give Lyrian another chance.
Karla wasn’t silent for long. “Good,” she said briskly. “That means your relationship wasn’t overshadowed by the intense emotions of the Mesmer bond. You know what you feel for Lyrian is true.”
Brad frowned. “What do you mean?”
“When Taurian and I met, I woke him without having any idea of the bond, or that it was what made me feel this intense attraction to him. When he explained to me, I thought everything I was feeling was a result of the Mesmer bond. It took me quite a while to accept that it was real.”
Brad could see how that could be a problem. “Sounds like you had a pretty rough start too.”
Karla shrugged. “Loving a dragon isn’t easy. But it is worth it.”
Brad bit back a sigh. He was sure it was. But that didn’t change anything. “It’
s hard enough without the lies.”
Karla raised an eyebrow. “And, of course, you told her all about the fact that you had a job back in America you couldn’t leave?”
“Of course I did,” Brad said flatly. He had no reason to doubt his own honesty in this situation. He never hid his commitment to his work.
“Before you slept together the first time?”
“Well…” Brad stammered. It had all happened too fast. He wasn’t sure what he’d told Lyrian then. Her alluring scent, her bright, vivid personality, her sweet curves, they all blurred together, blotting out any other memories. “Well I told her about my commitments long before she told me she was a dragon.”
That, at least, he was sure of.
“But not straight away,” Karla persisted.
“Maybe not. But I don’t see what that matters. At that stage, I had no idea that things would go so far, or that I’d feel so strongly about her. And I definitely had no idea we’d have a child together.”
“And when did you start to figure out this was more than a casual fling?” Karla asked. Her eyes were fixed on him, as though waiting for him to incriminate himself.
Brad wasn’t sure how. He considered her question for a moment, finding the idea interesting enough that he answered honestly. “At first I wasn’t thinking like that at all. I was…” he gave a rueful laugh… “I was pretty much just infatuated. I couldn’t think of anything but her.”
He hadn’t even been thinking about getting back to the hospital, a first for him. “It wasn’t until it was nearly time for me to leave that I realised how much I didn’t want to leave her. I asked her to come with me, but she shut me out and refused to talk.”
He knew why now, but he hadn’t understood it at all then. Frustration welled up in him. “If she’d told me then, I might have understood.”
“Would it have made any difference?” Karla asked softly.
“Of course it would have. It wouldn’t have hurt nearly as much.”
“But you still would have left.”
“Well…” Brad heaved a sigh. There was no denying the truth. “Yes, I still would have left.”