Page 72 of Accidentally a Dragon Daddy

“You’re welcome,” I said with a helpless shrug as we headed to the roof.

I knew I needed to find something to say. The right combination of words to tell Elanya it would be better if she stayed. That I wanted her to stay. I’d said that, however, and it hadn’t had any effect. What else could I tell her to change her mind?

There had to be something.

I just had to hope it would come to me during the flight. Because if it didn’t, I would risk losing Elanya and my child. Forever.

Deep in the recesses of my mind, a part of me couldn’t help but wonder if it would be better for the child if I weren’t around.

At least then, they might have a positive father influence. Because that was what Elanya meant when she said our child might be better off raised among her people. She hadn’t come right out and stated it. She wasn’t that cruel. But we both knew it was what she’d been getting at.

And I couldn’t stop asking myself, what if she was right?

Chapter Thirty-Four

Elanya

“We’re here,” Damon announced, settling in for a gentle landing between two ruined office towers.

A wave of sadness washed over me like a wave cresting onto the beach, spilling its force against the sand in a cascade of water and foam amid the dull background roar. No emotions reached my face. I kept it hard and flat, like concrete underfoot as his dragon opened its claws to release me.

He’d offered for me to ride upon his back, but I’d declined. If someone spotted us, it was best for them to assume I was a prisoner. That would make my escape back across the lines more believable.

“So we are,” I said, walking out from under the shade of his wingtip, shouldering the backpack he’d given me to fill with my meager things.

In a split second, the giant, crimson-scaled dragon was gone, replaced by Damon, who was clad in his usual military-cut black shirt with its flared shoulders and diamond-embroidered pattern, a pair of green circles around the cuffs and one around the neck.

“What are you doing?” I asked, surprised by the change.

I stamped on the flare of hope that managed to sneak through. Hope that that might be it, might be the time he spoke up. Fought to keep me one last time before letting me go. It hadn’t happened during the long flight across the ocean and into the city. Not a word had been spoken.

“You’re carrying my child,” he growled protectively, looking at the sky warily. “I will ensure you get to the border safely. Without interference.”

The blackness surged a little higher in my soul. “Oh.” I frowned. “Well, I’ve been sneaking past your patrols without issue for months now. I think I’ll be fine. I don’t really need your help.”

“Too bad,” he said flatly. “I’m going to keep protecting my child for as long as I can. Until the very moment I can go no farther. Then it will be up to you to raise it properly, to give our baby a good life. Teach them how to be a dragon. How to be a good person.”

My chest tightened in empathetic pain as he uttered the last, whispered sentence, the words reflecting his internal torture.

For a second, I wavered. Was I doing the right thing, denying him the chance to help raise his child? Just because he’d ruined things between us, did that mean he would be a bad father? Clearly, Damon thought so. Not that I could blame him, with the amount of blood he must see on his own hands every time he looked down.

But there was more to him than that. I knew that.

Doubts swirled higher in a helix, circling around one another, filling my brain with a thousand “what-ifs.”

“I’m ready when you are,” Damon said at last, his voice scattering those thoughts, grounding me in the present.

Are you? I almost asked out loud, but at the last second, I took the coward’s way out. I knew what he was truly feeling. What he wanted to think, to say. He’d made that clear from the start.

But now he was giving me what I wanted. Because he believed, truly believed, it would be best for the child. And for me.

At his own expense.

We started walking, sticking to the edges of buildings, our heads always searching the sky. Dragons were slower than planes and helicopters, though not by much with the latter. They took longer to arrive, so you could see them from a distance. However, they could fly much lower and were effectively silent. So, sneaking up on a target was child’s play to them.

Being alert was a necessity.

“I’ll find a way to get you money,” Damon said, breaking the silence.

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