Page 84 of The Dragon's Mate Proposal

“I doubt you do,” the other woman said with a disarming smile. “After all, you’ve got to be wondering just how the hell I have a letter for you delivered many years ago.”

“The thought had crossed my mind,” I admitted, finding it hard to keep up my guard around her. She was such a calming, at-ease presence that my own mind was screaming at me to let down my guard.

I didn’t, but only because I’d been around others like her before.

“The letter isn’t for you,” the sovereign said with a touch of sadness. “It’s for Cade.”

Against my own wishes, one of my eyebrows quirked up. The queen’s face twitched, a reminder I couldn’t lift one eyebrow. Not without looking silly. I schooled my face back to neutrality while reaching out to take the extended envelope.

“Why are you giving it to me?” I asked. “It should go to Cade.”

The sovereign looked thoughtful. “Sometimes, knowing isn’t the best answer. You know him best. I leave the decision to give it to him or not in your hands.”

I swallowed my first instinctive reaction, which was to call her a bitch or perhaps a coward. Either would be fitting. Some of my reaction must have shown because a sliver of coldness crept into her features, turning the swirling jade of her eyes into pricks of light.

“You know him better than I do,” she said. “That is why I am giving it to you. To ensure I have indeed picked the right time. If I haven’t, then I trust you, as his mate, will know when the best time is.”

I frowned, looking down at the envelope and the single page it contained.

Grimacing, I pulled it open and began to read. My jaw fell open further with every line I read.

“His family,” I whispered in shocked awe. “This … they killed one another?”

“Over the gold mine, yes,” the sovereign said. “It drove some of them mad with a desire for the riches it contained.”

Immediately, I saw the resemblance between that madness and the one that had driven Cade to live among humans, seeking out a fortune of his own. To my knowledge, he hadn’t killed over it. Especially not family.

“His uncle,” I whispered, shaking my head. “And cousins. Killed most of them? That’s awful!”

“We’re not so perfect a people as it may seem,” the sovereign said heavily, obviously hating to admit the flaws of her people, especially to someone like me, an outsider still. “It happens. The drive for gold, for treasure, it is a part of us in a very literal way. In Cade’s family, it seems it’s stronger than some.”

“Stronger,” I whispered, finishing the letter, my hand shaking. “They murdered their own family.”

The sovereign nodded. “Cade is now focused on building a new family. With you. I can’t help but wonder if he need not know the pain of the past.”

I gaped at the ruler of the dragons. “Not know? Not know?”

The bodyguards behind her stiffened at my outrage. Despite the initial warning from the sovereign, I still held the dragon scale dagger in my hand. Not that I intended to use it in any way.

“Sometimes things are better left buried,” she said.

“How dare you!” I shouted, furious. “Cade has hated himself for years, blaming the disappearance of his family on himself. He’s carried that weight and guilt, and all this time you knew. You knew what happened, and you did nothing!”

The sovereign’s face closed up.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “You don’t get to defend yourself. I don’t care how good of a ruler you are. How well you usually treat your people. This was cruel, and you should feel bad. I am … I’m … I’m disappointed in you, sovereign. You know better than this. Now you come and put the burden on me? I can see now why Cade didn’t come back here.”

The sovereign leaned back at my tirade, flinching slightly at being called a disappointment. But she didn’t stop me, letting me go on until I ran out of steam.

“I was given instructions to wait until the right time,” she said stiffly. “Until recently, Cade was never going to come back to the isles. Why burden him? Now he has.”

“And now you won’t even tell him yourself. It wasn’t sealed. You could have fixed this years ago.”

“I did as I was told by the last member of his family,” she said.

I stared. “Someone is still alive?”

“Not anymore. Now, it’s just him,” she said sadly. “And you.”

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