And yet, I wasn’t afraid of them. Instead, my heart did an odd double flip. But I got a grip on that traitorous muscle—er, organ—lifted my chin to meet Zyair’s eyes, and went for it.
“I refuse to be forced into some mating arrangement based on being injected by an aphrodisiac serum designed, it seems, to make me into a Drake whore.”
Silence. Then, Zyair blinked.
It was, however, Xandros who spoke. “What does she talk about?”
Rhodes had gone from pinching the bridge of his nose to rubbing a long-fingered hand over his face. “This is what comes from inadequate information exchange.”
Again, in Drakonian. But I understood it fully, this time. And agreed wholeheartedly with the assessment.
“And from inserting one’s cock where it does not belong,” Xandros growled. “Yet, anyway.”
With a blast of supersonic air, something flashed by overhead. Everyone crouched, including me. But it kept going, and didn’t return.
“We need an external damage assessment,” Zyair stated. “And cover the ship in vegetation, or they will spot us from the air.”
“Right.” Rhodes cursed and vanished down the hall.
“Can you two be trusted if we leave you alone?” Xandros growled.
Zyair stiffened. “Not your concern.”
“Yes,” I interjected.
The big Drake offered his brother one final glare, and then stalked after Rhodes.
Yani sighed as she finished with the regenerator. “I’ve stopped the concussion and sealed the wound, but try not to get any more headknocks.” She shut the device off and stood, regarding Zyair. “I need to see to Xandros’s shoulder.”
“I will check him,” Zyair acknowledged.
Yani’s expression was grim. “TheStardrifter’sinternal damage is extensive. I will get you a report, but we won’t be going anywhere like this. I will need you in the bridge while we do a system’s check.” Her gaze moved to me. “I could use your help in the engine room.”
Zyair exhaled hard. “I have to talk to Princess Jazmin Jaz.”
“It’s just Jaz,” I corrected.
His glowing emerald eyes locked on mine. “Jaz.” He almost growled it, and it sent a traitorous flush of heat straight through me.
Dammit. He didn’t even have to be using his Drake eye powers to mesmerize me.
Thankfully, Yani interrupted. “Your discussion will have to wait. Unless you want the Nirzks to find us lying here like a crippled bird?”
His expression was so filled with emotion that I couldn’t possibly begin to untangle it all. One hand raised, as though he wanted to touch me, but then he read my gaze, and it lowered again.
He’d said I wastheirmate. Plural, as if I belonged not just to him, but to all three of them. And then he’d said that nothing else mattered.
Could I really stay with them? Because I hadn’t exactly chosen them on my own free will.
Had I?
I needed space. Time to think.
My head still ached, but I faced up to the tall Drake with my chin determinedly elevated. “We will talk. But first, we have to survive.”
I saw regret and frustration suffuse his features. “That we must,” he said softly. And then his eyes glowed. “What I said, I meant with my entire heart.”
Suddenly I couldn’t breathe. “I know.” It was the best I could do. For him, it hadn’t been a casual thing.
