Page 5 of An Accident Waiting to Dragon

The blood oath he’d taken meant he couldn’t tell her anything about her brother’s role as a spy or about his death, including the fact that Asher had sworn the oath to Goran at all. He’d spent the last thirteen years trying to think of any way around it. “We need more resources.” Ladon growled at the woman sitting at the head of the table, blue eyes flaring with fire.

Jerked back to the discussion, Asher ruthlessly cut off any thought of Gwen.

In that tone of voice and with the glower on Ladon’s face, most would cower from the man whose nickname was the “Blood King.” But Asher held his relaxed posture, leaning back in his seat and keeping his expression deliberately blank.

To give her credit, Luu Meilin, Queen of the Green Dragons, not only didn’t flinch at Ladon’s glare, but she returned it with one of her own, a small warning growl crawling up her throat.

“We mean no disrespect.” Skylar elbowed Ladon who, after an aggrieved glance at his mate, crossed his arms, his expression mulish.

Skylar rolled her eyes. “The riches of the dragon shifters primarily ended up in the coffers of the Red, White, and Green clans. Stolen from the Black, Gold, and Blue clans.”

“We all agree with this,” Meilin said, still glaring at Ladon.

“Well…” Skylar spread her hands wide in appeal. “What’s been returned to us so far is hardly a drop in the bucket. We need to be able to support our people?—”

Meilin slashed an impatient hand through the air, cutting Skylar off. “I don’t know any other way to tell you that we don’t have it. I’m not hoarding. I’m not hiding the riches. It’s not here.”

“Then where the fuck is it?” Ladon snarled.

This time two of Meilin’s personal guard stepped forward, flanking their new ruler’s chair. A warning.

Meilin waved them off.

“You promised to handle this diplomatically,” Skylar softly reminded her mate under her breath.

Several shifters around the table chuckled—all their hearing was enhanced, so no one close would have missed it. A rare spurt of humor shot through Asher, not that he smiled.

Instead, he studied the newly voted in queen.

The only child of the recently executed King Fraener—a greedy, corrupt horror of a leader just like Thanatos had once been—Meilin was the first dragon queen in history. Ladon and Skylar and their allies were waiting to see if Meilin would turn out to be cut from a different cloth than her father.

So far, Asher was impressed.

The door to the conference room suddenly opened, making all the shifters at the table tense and turn toward the possible threat. Peace may have come to dragons at last, but the war had been recent enough that no one was relaxed yet.

Too soon.

Asher didn’t so much as twitch, even with his back to the door. He’d heard the tread of the person coming down the hall while everyone else was apparently distracted by the ongoing argument. He’d also recognized the patter—one of Meilin’s personal assistants—no need for concern.

“My apologies.” The younger male dragon shifter, probably too young to have had his first shift, a cousin perhaps, bowed at the waist to his queen, then the room in general.

Meilin beckoned him over, but he didn’t bother to whisper in her ear. In a room this small and quiet and full of shifters, there was no point. “Someone named Delilah, with Brimstone Inc., would like an audience, my queen. She says it urgent.”

After a single blink, Meilin straightened in her chair. “Clear the room please.”

Interest piqued, Asher’s dragon lifted its head inside him. But Asher didn’t move to comply, instead waiting for his king and queen to decide what to do first.

Skylar’s eyebrows shot straight up while Ladon’s bunched in a frown. “Seriously?—”

Meilin held up a hand, staying Ladon’s words. “You two should stay, along with your beta.” She flicked a glance in Asher’s direction.

“My queen?” the man to Meilin’s right murmured in a thick Australian accent—Asher couldn’t remember the guy’s name—her Viceroy of the Reserve.

“Stay, Hank,” she said. “You too, Kasem.”

The guard to her right pulled his shoulders back with a sharp nod.

Meilin waited for everyone else to file out, leaving the room feeling empty after being stuffed for hours. Even so, she waited for the sounds of steps to recede before she nodded at her assistant.

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