Page 14 of The Dragon's Mate Proposal

Cade spun, blocking my path, his shoulders wide and intensely intimidating. Eyes that were naturally copper glowed with a radiant fire in the dark, giving him a decidedly non-human look. I backed up a step, abruptly aware of how alone and isolated I was.

“What do you know?” he snarled with unexpected intensity.

“Nothing,” I said with a shrug. “We didn’t know a thing. Until you just confirmed it now, of course. We only suspected.”

“We?” Cade asked, cocking his head sideways as the fires faded. “Who are you? Why would you know this?”

I stared. “Didn’t they provide a writeup about me? I swear it was handed over on all of us.”

“I didn’t read it,” he said. “Usually it’s bullshit, made to ensure you look better than you are.”

“I see.” I couldn’t argue with him. Any resume was designed to talk up the owner. He was probably right. “Well, for your information, I used to work for the government of my people in a somewhat high position, I suppose. So, I know all about you and your people.”

To my surprise, Cade through his head back and laughed. “Right. Because it was my people who kidnapped someone of another race. My people who conducted experiments on them like they were a fucking lab rat, poking and prodding at him, even though he could speak to them. Absolutely deplorable. Your people should be ashamed of yourselves. Especially you, in the government, who knew it was happening. You knew the truth, Samantha, and you did nothing. You stayed silent. So, get off your damn high horse, and stop acting like you know everything because you’re so damn superior. Because you aren’t.”

“You first,” I shot back hotly as he opened a door and stormed inside.

I followed him in, looking around, wondering just how much of my dismay was showing. The door closed behind me with a certain finality I hoped wasn’t an omen.

“So, this will be my life, will it?” I asked, taking stock of the tiny kitchen, single sitting room, entryway, and two doors, one of which I supposed was a bedroom, the other a bathroom.

It was … not luxurious. Still, nothing was actively falling apart. The lights all worked.

“Nobody forced you to be here,” Cade growled.

I opened my mouth to refute that point, but a pounding on the door behind me stopped that.

Before I could even turn, Cade was abruptly there, sliding between me and the door, one arm outstretched to prevent me from going to it. I inhaled sharply in surprise at the speed of his movement.

A moment later, my brain picked up on the fact he’d put himself between me and whoever was there. It was an instant change in his demeanor. From arguing to protector without a beat in between. I looked up at the back of his head, my brain trying to process what that all meant and how I felt about that.

“Stay here,” Cade growled in a voice that matched his protective body language.

Then he strode toward the door like an alpha predator stalking its prey.

Chapter Eight

Cade

The door thundered under repeated knocking as I stalked forward, thinking furiously. The sounds did nothing to help my brain focus. There was too much going on.

My dragon was going ballistic, screaming at me with unforeseen wild abandon.

PROTECT. PROTECT.

It was all I could do to think over its bellowing insistence that I had to keep Samantha safe from whatever was on the other side of the door. Meanwhile, my logical brain knew who was at the door. There was no danger to either of us. Not physically at least.

But the beast was not listening. It roared and twitched, ready to destroy anything that even remotely threatened Samantha. A human. An arrogant human, at that, who was judging my people with every breath.

Why that should bother me, I wasn’t sure. It wasn’t like I’d spent much time in the Dragon Isles either. For a lot of the same reasons she put forth. Yet when she insulted us, I felt the need to defend my people, which just made a further mess.

To add to the confusion, I was still burning on the inside from having her astride my neck, her legs spread on either side of me. Touching me. Riding me. Images of many other things had played through my mind during the flight, and my blood was already heated.

It was too much. I needed to shut out the distractions and think.

“Damn it, Cade. I know you’re in there!” a female voice called through the door as the owner pounded on the wood some more. “Open up!”

“And who might that be?” Samantha purred amusedly from behind me.

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