Page 53 of An Accident Waiting to Dragon

Ladon pushed a button that rang a bell somewhere, and in seconds Fallon was in the room. The grim set of his features lifted when he saw Asher. “You’re awake! Thank the gods!”

“And pixies…” Ladon muttered.

“Get me unhitched from all this,” Asher tugged on his I.V. line. “I need to go.”

Fallon cast Ladon a questioning glance. “I don’t advise?—”

Asher threw back his covers, grabbing the catheter line. “I will rip this out. I swear to the gods?—”

“Stop! I’ll do it.” Fallon bolted to the bed. “Seven hells, Ash, that’s not a good idea.”

It would’ve probably been some of the worst pain he’d ever experienced, but dragons healed. His dick would’ve been fine.

Find her, his dragon snarled.

Asher was in total agreement. He had a narrow window to find his pixie before she went so far underground, he’d probably have to wait a hundred years for her to pop back up on any radar, let alone his.

The minutes it took for Fallon to release him from all the tubes and beeping felt almost as long as the minutes it had taken him to fly up to where Gwen was being overrun by wraiths in that godforsaken storm.

As soon as he was able, Asher was out of the bed and down the hall on wobbly legs that really did not want to work right. Ladon waved Fallon off but followed himself. All the way to Asher’s rooms, where he dressed quickly in jeans and a t-shirt, then threw a pack on the bed and started stuffing it with clothes and gear.

“You’re as weak as a newborn bird. Where do you think you’re going in this state?” Ladon demanded, arms crossed as he leaned against one wall, watching.

Asher whirled to face him, going military straight, shoulders back, feet at ninety degrees. “Respectfully, my king, I would like to tender my resignation as Beta, Viceroy of Defense, and captain of your king’s guard. Effective immediately.”

Ladon’s eyes widened, flaring with blue fire. It was a rare display of shock from the man. He came sharply off the wall with a growl. “What?”

Asher gave him a single imploring look of apology, then went back to packing.

“Denied,” his king snapped.

His dragon snorted in his head.

“You can’t deny me this.” Asher didn’t bother to stop what he was doing.

The king would calm down eventually. Skylar would make sure of that. Although she might be just as pissed and flabbergasted as her mate to start with.

“I can and I will deny it until you give me a damn good reason why?—”

“She’s my fated mate.”

About time you figured that out.

He didn’t stop his packing, ignoring the dead quiet that settled between them in the room. “I have to find her before she disappears again.”

“Again…” Ladon murmured. “You’ve got to give me more than that, brother.” The words were quiet enough, but the command still lingering in them was unmistakable.

“You remember Goran?”

Ladon didn’t respond for a few seconds, frowning. “The go-between who delivered your intel to me when you were in deep undercover with Thanatos?”

“Yeah.”

“A pixie,” Ladon said this more to himself, his sharp mind already headed down the right turns to the truth.

“He was a friend,” Asher said. “He lived in a flutter of pixies not far from my home mountain.”

“You never told me that,” Ladon said slowly. “I assumed you’d hired him.”

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