“They wanted me to mate with a female dragon.”
I blinked. And blinked. And blinked again a whole shitload of times.
“Excuse me, what?” I demanded.
Bram nodded. “Makes sense. They’re interested in Sloane because he’s able to shift forms, but I think Asrael is clearly looking to make more dragons. If he can breed them…” He trailed off, and the mood in the room darkened.
“Well, did you?” Faris spoke for the first time, and the snarl that erupted from Sloane was a serious warning.
“Did I cheat on my beautiful mate with a scaled lizard that weighs a metric fuck ton? Get fucked, Faris,” Sloane barked, flipping him the bird.
Faris didn’t rise to the challenge, simply leaning back against the couch and shrugging. My brow furrowed at the tension between them. I didn’t like it. There wasn’t much I could do about it right now, though. Hopefully with time they might begin to trust each other.
“Knock it off, assholes,” Cam scolded the two men, but neither seemed to care.
Deciding it was time to change the subject, I brought up our encounter with Vaeryn. It took a while to explain, but we were finally all on the same page about what had happened while we were separated.
Silence descended on us as each of us processed the information overload. It was clear that we needed to help the dragons and hold true to our promise of a rendezvous in a week's time, but what about the facility holding an army of them?
“So how did you know about the dragon army again? I don't think I heard that part?”
Bram, Kai, Faris, and Cam all exchanged glances before Bram spoke. “Well, Goldie. That's an interesting story. Maven came back.”
I stood abruptly from the couch. “Where is he? I've missed him so much. Maven?!” I called, ready to cuddle my little ball of white fluff. I hadn’t seen him since that night Laurie had escaped and Bryce tried to kill me. Gods, that felt like a lifetime ago.
“He's uh... different,” Cam added.
I held my hand to my heart. “Oh no. Did he get hurt?”Not my Maven.
“No, I didn't get hurt. I was freed,” a deep voice said, and I shrieked when I saw the strange man standing in the hallway, his appearance mostly hidden by the shadows.
“What is going on?” I looked at Kai; he'd give it to me straight.
Kai shrugged. “That's Maven.”
I sucked in a breath when the man stepped into the light. His blue eyes were the same shade as my fox's, and his gold wings and long white hair were immediately recognizable. This was the demon who’d saved me from falling to my death.
“You.” Sloane was on his feet, placing himself between me and Maven.
Does he still go by Maven?
“Yeah. Me. Can you kindly step aside so I can introduce myself to my granddaughter?”
“Yourwhat?” I squeaked, clearly having misunderstood. A slow smile claimed the older man's mouth, and Gran appeared behind him. “Gran?”
“It's true, child. This man is your grandfather. It's a long story,” she replied, wincing slightly.
“The man who left you when you were so close to giving birth? That's this man?” I demanded, crossing my arms. I vividly recalled the look on Gran’s face when she’d told me about him.
She must’ve seen the anger simmering in my expression, because just as I was going to go smack this dude’s face off, she stepped in front of me and started talking a mile a minute.
“Saige, there's so much more at play here than any of us could've anticipated. It seems we're all pawn pieces on a chess board, and the stars are the ones in charge of our moves.” Gran sighed, and I noticed she looked exhausted too. But she also looked... at peace. She’d gotten closure on something that had been a huge mystery for most of her life.
I strode over and pulled her into my arms. “I missed you, Gran. So fucking much.”
“Oh, sweet child. I missed you more. Of that, I can assure you,” she soothed, rubbing my back.
“Do you need me to kill this man?” I whispered in her ear.
